Travis County Commissioners Court
February 12, 2008
Citizens Communication
Citizens communication is first and four citizens have signed in. This item gives residents an opportunity to address the Commissioners court on any matter not on the agenda. Gus pena is first. He will be followed by estella medina. Good morning.
>> good morning, judge. Gus pena. First of all I would like to thank you for the words and comments you made on kezi this morning, you are right on target regarding ex-offender, self sufficiency, jobs, health care, mental health treatment, also. I think your quote, maybe I might not have gotten this correct, I apologize, you said if people elected will help the little people who are disend franchised. Anyway, I respect you, judge, you know that I have said that many times. I thank for you the comments that you made at kezi, they were right on target it takes guts to say something on open air people don't want to hear. Thank you for saying that. Mental health treatment. We have noticed a lot of veterans coming back from iraq and afghanistan with bipolar conditions, also ptsd, similar to vietnam veterans. They are not getting treated. I sent two people to the hospital district eligibility office to get -- get health or clinic cards because they were not able to be helped by the v.a., which is supposed to be helping them out, they were turned away, they were denied. Now we are asking congressman lloyd doggett's office to investigate as to why they were denied treatment. Folks, I’m going to tell you something, I just met with about six youth. I went to get a cup of decaff coffee at mcdonald's, 42 cents. I met some of the best kids that had been in trouble, they are turning their life around and have found the lord. I won't mention what else was said, but different types of -- of offenses, but I’m going to thank chief probation officer medina and juvenile probation because you have a lot of good workers out there helping out with youth. You know me, since 1968 I have been working in the best interest of the youth. I’m on record of having been at the school board meeting in 1967. Anyway leave it at that. A lot of youth have been diagnosed with anger problems, bipolar conditions. Misdiagnosed. They need counseling. Be advised professionals out there, that the youth need your help. There are a lot of reasons why the youth are angry. I can see why. We had to reschedule our meeting with the f.b.i., atf, d.e.a., united states attorney's office to try to find solutions because of a problem of getting everybody together. We did this since 1994, prior to busting gangs in 1994 with the help of special agent john mospero and gauge. Sheriff's department, doing that again. Stem the tide. The city of Austin implemented a new f.t.e., full time employee to combat gang activity, provide gang awareness and education in the 11 areas in east Austin.
>> [beeping] let me wrap this up. Very important. One last item, please, I never go beyond -- I just want to thank dan smith. I don't see him here. But thank him for the -- for his hard work in the community. He's helped out -- I see kenneth back there. I know it's been a battle. I want to thank him for the hard work he's done for Travis County and other areas. So we will miss you, dan. You have been tough, but you have been a professional with me. I just appreciate everything that you have done, sir, god bless you whatever you do. Thank you, judge, Commissioners, have a good day.
>> thank you.
>> estella medina.
>> good morning, judge, Commissioners, estella medina with the Travis County juvenile probation department. I’m joined this morning with members from our team, our staff. We would like to first of all thank you for the opportunity to present to you this morning. We have some good news that we would like to share with you. Our department has just recently undergone its national accreditation process. Many of our problems are accredited by the american correctional association. It's a national organization that creates standards and sets benchmarks and pretty high requirements with regard to the operations of facilities. Programs and many of the things that we strive in Travis County to accomplish. We have completed an accreditation process just recently. We've had our accreditation hearings. We are extremely proud of the findings. I would like to present jessie part of our team. We have staff here from residential services, detention services and probation services as well. Jessie?
>> good morning, judge.
>> good morning.
>> I have the pleasure of speaking on behalf of three of our programs in our juvenile probation department that are aca credited. The first program that I would like to speak to is our detention services, prejudy indication facilities. This is our recertification that we just received at the 2008 conference. Our detention services we have approximately 350 plus performance standards that we have to satisfy. In this program they achieved a 99% in their audit. The second program that I would like to speak to is our residential services leadership academy. They also received their recertification with their three year period, they approximately have 288 standards that they have to achieve, they score a 100% in their audit. The third program is our probation services and they have approximately 225 standards that they have to achieve and they also scored a 100% in their audit.
>> I would like to take thef aso worked diligently, who were so much a part of the opportunity to have a successful audit and accreditation process. And certainly to our Travis County community for their continued support in all that we do. Thank you.
>> congratulations to you.
>> thank you.
>> thank you. Jennifer gale. Jennifer gale? Anybody else for citizens communication whether you signed in or not?
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, February 13, 2008 8:09 PM