Travis County Commissioners Court
January 8, 2008
Citizens Communication
Citizens communication is next. This item gives residents an opportunity to address the Commissioners court on any matter not on the agenda for up to three minutes. Gus pena is our first speaker. And he will be followed by laura peveto.
>> good morning, judge, Commissioners, gus pena, happy new year again to you. I mentioned that last week, great to be here again. City council Commissioner does meet Thursdays. I will be there to give them what for. Thank you very much for your efforts on the part of your precinct. Judge, economics commissions, a -- Commissioners, a lot of things have happened we have had veterans, I know it's under the hospital district, but we have veterans not receiving the health care they deserve to receive at the montopolis v.a. Clinic or other v.a. Installations. We need help at the clinics, used to be at the city side and county side they met road blocks in eligibility. I think that is not acceptable. Military veterans have proven our worth in fighting for our country. The vietnam war in the marine corps, I think it's unacceptable they be turned away. Something needs to be done to improve the eligibility process. I知 going to address, I知 going to speak to the city council this Thursday on that, also. Veterans deserve a better deal than what we are getting. Mental health again is another problem. Mental health is on the increase, not only have we seen it on the people that are homeless on the streets. I知 referring more people to mhmr also, but the Wednesday are not there, judge. Guy herman had a very, very good article that he wrote in the newspaper regarding the lack of beds, funding is there, we need more funding. But we need more beds for the people that are -- that need to be treated for mental health issues. They are being turned away. What happens? They go to brackenridge hospital, that's not acceptable. We need to improve the system. Not just military veterans, I don't care, just the population out there. In the marine corps, I was a counselor believe it or not as a young marine puppy out there. Returning marines from vietnam regarding alcohol issues, substance abuse issues, also the marriage counseling, also, provided that, also the need back there that it was not being met. I知 seeing that it's not being met nowadays. We have a new secretary, department of veterans affairs, this gentleman is a vietnam veteran. He knows the issues, thank god we have somebody hopefully that will go to bat for the veterans and improve the veteran health care. Another thing is the gang violence on the rise. I have spoken to you all about this many times. We had a drive by, the first drive by of the year. It's escalating. These hoodlums are on the increase to gather membership for the gangs. Back in 1994 I brought in the f.b.i., united states marshal's office, attorney's office to give the criminals federal time, but state time was not a deterrent. We are going to meet with the feds again. We have former federal investigators and peace officers monitoring the gangs out there. We are not scared of you guys. I know you are listening to me, kids them at the city council listening to me. I tell you what you are not going to capture the hearts, mind, consciences of our kids. Thank you all, have a good day, thanks again for your outreach to everybody in Travis County. Thank you.
>> thank you, mr. Pena.
>> thank you.
>> laura peveto.
>> judge, Commissioners, we want to take this opportunity to inform of an ats county received o behalf of the Travis County crcg unity partneo provide supports and services and individualid ans for complex children and their fee. This group has been meeting togetherince the late 1980's and has developed and strengthened over the last 20 years to be a very strong body of people that put their minds, their efforts, their finances and their creativity together to support the most vulnerable children and families of our communities. And in doing so, through that work, we have strengthened our relationships, we are able to work together as a community to serve our families and our children. We were recognized at the last community resource coordination group conference for being the crcg of the year for an urban area. And we have several of our partners here from the community. The a collaboration. It is something supported by the Commissioners court. It's supported by juvenile probation, Austin child guidance, we have live works, we have child protective services. We have all of those main bodies together working hand in hand. We hear a lot about government and people and agencies not working together to be able to meet the needs of families. That's not true for our crcg. I think we all should take some pride in the award that we were honored with this year and congratulate the work of or partners, thank you.
>> congratulations. Mh any other words? No. Okay. Thank you.
>> thank you all.
>> keep up the good work. Thanks for coming down.
>> thank you. Richard ward?
>> thank you all very much.
>> thank you, judge, I wanted to speak specifically to an item on the agenda. Number 14.
>> we'll have that coming up real soon.
>> thank you, sir.
>> okay.
>> john kelly?
>> over here.
>> either one of those six seats would be fine.
>> okay. Well, I知 here to talk about item 14 myself.
>> it will be coming up real soon.
>> mccracken: go ahead?
>> no, sir. If you would, let us call that item up.
>> all right.
>> your statement will be more impactful if we take it into the context of the item.
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, January 9, 2008 8:00 AM