Travis County Commissioners Court
January 29, 2008
Item 1
Citizens communication is first and three citizens have signed in. This gives citizens an opportunity to address the Commissioners court on any matter not on the agenda for up to three minutes. Alberto garcia is first and he will be followed by gus pena.
>> good morning, judge, members of the Commissioners court. I come to you today to talk to you about the policy that the sheriff has implemented about opening the jail house doors to immigration and to have his deputies asnift this endeavor. I hope you realize as a body the consequences of this action. First of all, be prepared for tremendous overcrowding in our jails. 15, 20, 25,000 people annually that were being released from bond will now be housed and will be required to be held for some -- some for short periods of time, some for long periods of time. Secondly those people that were being released previously in bond will go out and retain counsel, go to court and take care of business. Now this body will be prepared to pay for court appointed counsel for
>> [inaudible - no mic]. Third, your budget is going to take a hit. Those people that are released from bond that were found guilty will come back to court. Co we have now become a community that is actively deporting individuals in our community. And then we get to the issue of -- it a moral issue. Is it right to be doing this. This is Austin. This is Travis County. We have prided our selfs in the diversity of our community in which we have embraced different peoples coming in and making our society what it is. That has now been destroyed, that trust. I’m here as a product of an immigrant. I am an immigrant. I came to this country with my mother, pennyless, homeless.
>> [ buzzer sounds ] that means my time's up? When the community as a whole will be coming to you, not me as an individual, the community as a whole to try to solve this issue that you would be amenable suggest as we can do that. I thank you for your attention.
>> thank you. I recommend that you reduce those comment to writing and send them to our sheriff.
>> we plan to hopefully get with him next week.
>>
>> [inaudible - no mic]. I think we need to fine out is this a federal law that is being imposed on local communities or is it still up to the local community to come up with some kind of agreement on how to address this issue?
>> there are federal mandates that say that there must be --
>> [ inaudible ].
>> do you want to take the mic so we have it on record?
>> Saturday I got a call from a family, a young man, a 17 was on his way to work. Not committing a crime. He committed a traffic violation, gets taken down to the police -- to the jail. Immigration hold has been place odd him. He has no family where they're sending him to because they're all here. And his dad says this is the kind of community they want and not what the sheriff needs to be spending his time and money on. There are certain things that I feel have to do --
>> thank you very much. Thank you.
>> we have legal experience here. Right, john? Gus pena?
>> good morning, judge. Commissioners. He's been very humble in not mentioning that he's an outstanding attorney and also a former judge in Travis County and also a good friend of mine. Number one, city departments. Commissioner Gomez, I asked your executive assistant about the sunny meade apartments that are locate odd east oltorf and adjacent to mcdonald's is scheduled to be torn down. Two bedroom units for $750. People will be displaced. You have people with disabilities in that apartment. Austin is not going in the right direction. I already went to the city council for many years. I told them they claim to have been built affordable housing and to my knowledge I have not seen it. My at the same time statement to that is affordable housing for whom. So I urge the city council to have more dialogue with Travis County, the judge and Commissioners because it affects everybody in Travis County and the city of Austin. We're going to have a lot of people in motels, families and kids. If you flif a motel it's very -- if you flif a motel it's difficult to have a kid or a student learn their hockey work. We have former federal investigators, former peace officers and now former gang leaders, one of the most vicious gang leaders that led the gangs in the late 70's, early 80's and early 90's that have turned their lives around and gave their lives to the lord. I thank the lord for that. They are hoping us monitor the gangs. A lot of gangs have infiltrated the school districts. The sro officers failed to identify these kids. They need to monitor them because they're causing havoc. Anyway, we're doing a good job of monitoring. A.p.d. Is aware of it. The feds are aware. We're going to meet with them again. We met over twice at f.b.i., dea, united states attorney's office.
>> tax preparation assistance available starting February at the following libraries. Hason, university hills, north village. You can call the library system to get information. (speaking spanish). I went around the community -- I’ll wrap up. Urged the people that if you have kids, take the earned income credit. Wanda, I meet you before when I was a bailiff in the courts. I wish you the best in your retirement. Thank you for what you've done for the county. Thank you very much, judge, and continue the good work.
>> next we have minister, doctor carla cheatham.
>>
>> [inaudible - no mic].
>> okay.
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 30, 2008 8:09 PM