Travis County Commissioners Court
March 18, 2008
Item 23
23, is a request to ratify what county staff and the county judge have already done. But we think we did it for good reason. If you would look at the schedule, that we receive from the city of Austin, this is a grant application opportunity. That -- that the feds and the state are fast tracking. What I shared with you with all of the backup given me, that schedule says basically that on April 4th all of the proposals in this area should be submitted to a coordinating committee and between the 4th and the 18th, I guess we'll work with the state because the final documents need to be submitted by April 18th.
>> yes, sir, correct.
>> the city of Austin is driving this. We are a trooer 2 area. This program apparently has been in place for years and we have not been eligible. For tier 2 entities there is a substantial amount of money available. For which we can compete. That amount of money is $351 million, that would be 53 cities I guess city and other entities applying.
>> yes.
>> and this is primarily based upon the statistical metropolitan area because -- because our particular area encompasses Williamson, travis and hays. And the purpose of the uic grant, the urban area security initiative grant is to go beyond what you would normally do, this is not to beef up your normal day to day operational expenses, but this gives communities the ability to do extraordinary things with good projects that benefit the region in our quest for security. Tree things that we did last week are set forth on page one of the backup, headed --
>> [indiscernible]
>> [indiscernible] that pretty much includes all of the entities in this area. We were told by city representatives that the state and federal representatives pointed the city to el paso as having the appropriate model in place. We were also told that this is the model that the city basically is urging. So although the city is heavily represented they in fact have done all of the work up to this point. When you look at homeland security in this area, most of this stuff is the city of Austin anyway, but I think a require that 8 of the 10 support any application will pretty much promote fairness for the rest of us when you look at those 10, the mayor, city of Austin, mayor, city of Austin, mayor city of Round Rock, Travis County elected officials, that was me at that meeting, hays county elected official, Williamson county elected official.
>> [indiscernible] Travis County -- director Austin Travis County, e.m.s., those are the 10 voters, then non-voting members, san marcos, kyle, georgetown, Cedar Park, Leander, Pflugerville, others. The other thing that I would like to point out, before I shut up, is that there is a special opportunity for non-profit agencies that have homeland security security issues, there's a separate pot of $15 million available. However, you have to -- you have to put up a -- put up a 25% match and the match -- the maximum you can get is $72,750. So -- so I don't know what -- what non-profit agencies in our community may have homeland security security issues. But -- but probably we ought to try to notify them if we can.
>> we have placed some notifications on those areas like red cross, because they are heavily involved in our planning and are active in areas like that, we have gotten the word out to a number of those.
>> okay. I think the members at the committee meeting said they would do what they could. The obvious one I assume --
>> yes.
>> when did it start?
>> the process actually -- they were notified right around the first -- well, the end of February that we became eligible, the area became eligible for this grant. The time line was already in place and set, but I think it's also very important to note that -- that anyone can be a member of the subcommittees. Because the way this works is the proposals are generated out of the subcommittees up to the coordinating committee, which we reviews them, makes sure they meet grant requirements and then they are all forwarded up to the -- up to the working group who then votes on submitting which ones we submit to constituent and federal for fund being. -- to the state and federal for the funding. The state is actually where all of the working bees are, actually down there generating. I know we have several of our fire chiefs on a couple of committees. Others that are involved in those. So if there's -- so there's an opportunity there. We look at this as an opportunity to get some of our proposals in, also use it as sort of a gap analysis for coming years as we develop things. On out.
>> this region is supposed to prove -- approve applications sent to four
>> [indiscernible] although there's a huge amount of money, I assume there would be no effort to -- to divide it fairly. It really is based on the merit of the application.
>> and that's -- the thing about the -- this grant is that it is not -- it is not to go out and buy specific -- I will give you an example that I used yesterday in the chief's meeting. I said this grant is not to go out and buy a brush truck that you would normally use in your day to day that you have in your capital replacement items. This grant is to go above and beyond that. It's to establish that strike team capability or something of that magnitude. Our radio system would have been a prime opportunity to fund a -- a good portion of that had we not done that. So individually through the department. So it's -- it's not a divide the money up and everybody gets it and goes back and does something. It is for the benefit of the region, what can we do as a whole. And -- and we've gotten very good participation. We have a very good reputation in central Texas of working and playing together well. And so that's -- that's where we're headed. Some of the subcommittees that have been formed or citizens preparedness, law enforcement, medical and public health, technical response, planning. There have been numerous of those, what we try to do is meld all of those and get the proposals put together so they may be moved forward.
>> you have been serving on one of the subcommittees?
>> yes, sir. I am on the coordinating committee and -- and my -- the two staff people that work for me are both serving on subcommittees. So, yes.
>> judge, I think -- Commissioners, I think what is beneficial is that even on though we've had a very short time frame here in which to operate, is that due to the fact that we have
>> [indiscernible] with all of our partners, we have been able to come together as best we can to put people on the subcommittees and even though you look at the large dollar amount, look at all of the cities, when you spread it out it's not that much. When you spread it out, we choose to go ahead and look forward to what we think is a good proposal and March towards that. So we are looking forward to what we think are good regional proposals. We are going to certainly learn from this process to be better prepared next year. But again I commend the city of Austin, I commend all of our stakeholders in the county for when we call them, they come and we assemble and most of them are spread out among those subcommittees. And so I look forward to the proposal.
>> should we interpret the -- the tier 2 designation as being the federal government's determination that in fact there is high risk here, not tier 1, but certainly tier 2 and we have some homeland security issues whether we deal with them or not?
>> yes, sir. Basically tier 2 has to do with population, has to do with critical infrastructure that is located within the community, it's basically a designation that it has the possibility of being -- being high on the -- on the list. There are only 7 tier 1 cities in the entire united states. Houston is the only one in the state of Texas. Your other tier 2 cities in the state include, I?ll forget all of them I?m sure, san antonio, dallas/fort worth, el paso and now Austin.
>> questions?
>> I have a question.
>> in regard to what you are saying, this isn't about going out and buying another brush truck. But in recognition that the goal is to build an enhanced -- build and enhance and -- build an enhanced and sustainable capacity to protect, respond to and recover from acts of terrorism. These are the sorts of projects that I know we don't have a project list yet. But is it the idea that we would be looking to develop the sorts of projects that would have utility in a terrorist circumstance but also would have utility in other emergency circumstances so they are much more probable in our region?
>> it covers both natural disasters and terrorist acts. A good example is we may want to enhance our grid in some form or fashion to protect it from cyber attack. That benefits all sides all the time, we may have something to do with the water utilities. It really looks at the large project, something that you would normally -- is above and beyond what you would normally try to accomplish.
>> but I guess we can look at some of the tier 1 examples because they have been funded in the past, right?
>> that's correct. We have already been September their packages and so we are reviewing those.
>> I just thought the money was available and the message to send is if you have got homeland security need, get your application in. I find out -- I found out about it, I think maybe a couple of days before the meeting. But everybody sort of -- sort of is on the fast track here.
>> if there are no other questions, I move that we ratify the decision that judge and staff have made to -- for the county to participate. That we designate danny as the coordinating committee member to represent the Commissioners court as a voting member of the tan, and
>> [indiscernible] with his staff to continue working on the various subcommittees to put together appropriate grant applications for this area. Although we represent Travis County, I guess our goal is to try to coordinate, cooperate with other entities in this region to submit applications for us.
>> that's correct.
>> seconded by Commissioner Gomez. Any more discussion? All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote.
>> thank you.
>> thank you all very much.
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, March 19, 2008 10:54 AM