Travis County Commissioners Court
March 25, 2008
Citizens Communication
>> citizens communication is next. This item gives residents an opportunity to address the court on any matter not on the agenda. Three citizens have signed in. Gus pena is first and tom
>> [indiscernible] is that tom? Okay. Scott johnson is second.
>> thank you.
>> good morning, gus pena. I wanted to let you know a couple of issues, then I will take off. First and foremost, we are continuing to have meetings with the federal law enforcement community. Also with the Texas ranger regarding crime and gangs here in Austin, Travis County, every else that we can address it because we know now for a fact, I致e been saying this for many years, that the gangs have infiltrated the high school and also the middle schools. Not just the high schools. The reason being that they know that they will get a pat on the hand rather, a slap on the hand if it's a juvenile crime that is being committed. I知 hoping to change that real quickly because I don't think that's appropriate. Anyway, we met already with the atf, f.b.i., organized crime unit, similar to what we did in 1994 when the gangs were really more worse than they are now. They are getting up to the level we don't accept. We want to stem the gang involvement, gangs, our kids deserve to be safe in school. The morning paper regarding government's office, have the school officials, school police, a.p.d., sheriff's office interact and exchange information that's very well needed. Second and foremost, we have met with the chief of staff and some of the members, employees of the secretary of veteran's affairs, now we are going to meet with the head honcho, the secretary himself, regarding homes for homeless veterans, job training, increased medical benefits at the v.a. Medical centers which is atrocious, not acceptable, even here at the clinic on montopolis there is discriminatory practices that we have end counts terred already. Encountered already. We are here to tell the feds we need these programs revamped, re-evaluated for our veterans. Please, please, pray, I don't care what posture you have regarding the wore in iraq and afghanistan pray for the military veterans and their families because they suffered enough already. Third, the dropout rate. We are going to meet with the t.e.a. Commissioner, robert scott, unfortunately he had to cancel, reschedule. This is one of the reports about the dropout rate, it affects the city of Austin and Travis County's budgetary process. I think major balagia is out there waiting to be recognized, but I want to say this. David is a good friend of mine. I was offered a corrections officer position by sheriff raymond frank in the 70s. Otherwise I would have been retired already from Travis County as a -- as a -- as a soldier, deputy, whatever. But anyway wanted to commend david on his service to Travis County. That guy had a good heart. He's a good man, tough, fair. But I tell you what I am proud to call him a friend of mine. I wish him the best of luck, I heard he was going to retire. I don't know if it's true or not, but it's a big loss to Travis County. David balagia you know that you are loved by a lot of people. Even a lot of enemies. You have been fair to them. But you are in there for a reason. Anyway, that's all that I have to say, pray for your kids and senior citizens, pray for the veterans and they deserve better than what they are getting now. God bless you all, keep up the good work.
>> thank you so much.
>> scott johnson is next, followed by chris
>> [indiscernible]
>> mr. Johnson?
>> good morning, judge, commissions. My name is scott johnson, I知 here today to talk about a project that's coming up Saturday April 5th, at 8:30 in the morning at the home depot in south Austin. We have the annual central Texas electric lawn mower program. This program helps folks upgrade their lawn mowers from gas to electro help reduce air pollution, ground level ozone, carbon monoxide emissions which we now are changing our climate, as well as reduce in potential spillage of gas and oil which happens when you fill up reaccept kels of gas powered models. A cordless model, cuts about a third of an acre on a single charge or accorded model. Whether they live in Travis County or surrounding counties. They would need to contact me to make a reservation, I can be reached at 389-2250. Again that number 389-2250. The cost if they trade in will be only $255 plus tax, which is a 20% discount. The program happens to fall on the same day as another program that's very similar, with -- with a different group, my program is when -- within the city limits of Austin. Their program is in Sunset Valley. Not to put it down. When you shop in Sunset Valley the sales tax revenue goes to Sunset Valley. It doesn't go to the city of Austin to help fund fire, police, e.m.s., parks and libraries. I would also like to talk briefly about item no. 24, I didn't notice this on the agenda, I did talk to sheriff hamilton out in the hall. I made him aware I had written him a letter regarding heavy duty idling. Law enforcement from Travis County the city of Austin can ticket trucks that are seven tons or greater if they are idling more than five minutes during ozone season, April 1 to October 31st. This is very substantial, potential program, potential way to reduce ozone forming emissions, not being well enforced. The last two reporting cycles in '06 and '07 only one violation between Travis County and a.p.d. We need to do much better. I hope he and the deputies will take upon this to look at this issue, not simply as one that is abstract, as a health issue. We need to reduce diesel soot, exhaustion that comes from these trucks. For health reasons. It disproportionately affects young, elderly, people with existing heart and lung conditions. Finally, I would like to encourage y'all to move beyond just this current program that we have in place, realize now that e.p.a. Set a new ozone standard, what we're doing now is not enough. We need to do better with what we're doing now. Enforce the current rules that we have, as I致e mentioned to you in the past. We need to come up with more strategies beyond what the regional planners have done. Please work with me as I bring these issues forward to you. I would be happy to answer any questions, thank you for your time.
>> thank you.
>> thank you, mr. Johnson.
>> thank you.
>> chris daniel?
>> judge members of the court. On last week I -- I neglected to read this into the minutes and I need to get that in there. It is a letter from one of our constituents. Ms. Marilyn samuelson. She states I will not be able to attend the Commissioners meeting tomorrow, I do wish to tell you my opinion on landfills in Travis County. Siting facilities. I don't know how many years this has been going on, many I know, my late husband served on the landfill siting ordinance committee for several years prior to his death. Five and a half years ago. It was going on before then. It is pastime for Travis County to bite the bullet. And pass no landfills in Travis County. The city of Austin's webberville site has many no-nos. The city of minor as well as manville water corporation have numerous wells in the area. No matter how well the landfill would be operated there's always the danger of contamination of these wells. Also the quality of the colorado river is threatened. Please no landfill in Travis County. Item 24 a. Don't let the city of Austin convince you how good they will be and are. Thanks. That's all.
>> thank you.
>> thank you. Anybody else for citizens communication, whether you signed in or not?
>> good morning, Commissioners court, county judge, Sam Biscoe, Commissioners Gomez, Daugherty, Ron Davis, good morning.
>> good morning.
>> we do have a problem with our landfills leeching into the water system. People further down water are getting contaminated water and of course now we have even more reasons to worry with the pharmaceuticals coming in from our mentally ill, which tends to come here to Travis County for looking for help. And so -- so we need to take what -- take what trash we have and reuse it. We're not recycling styrofoam or some of the other plastics and single use, if we -- if we use single use, it would create contaminated recyclables. That's the problem with single use. But more people get involved in recycling if we have single use and right now we don't, we don't have single use recycling. Where you throw everything into one container that's been rinsed or washed out, so that it can go for recycling, the problem is when the -- when the glass is crushed, the -- the colors of glass mix and the manufacturer can't use these products. So we need a way of making sure when we do single use recycling that that doesn't happen. We should have had single use recycling up to 10 years ago. In Travis County. We should use organic matter. Organic matter can be recycled. We're not doing that, either. I知 asking you to help out and do that. I知 also asking you to help out with our bus operators. They still don't have a contract since July. They fought for a contract with the strike to get the one year that they had. I知 asking for a resolution from Travis County saying that to the -- to the board of capital metro, telling them to tell the administration to get this done without interference from gill yam working with star trans and the union. That should have been done a long time ago. A five year contract, not just a year, they need one where they are getting medical benefits and cost of living raises. The university of Texas medical branch, which was my idea, I知 asking that we put away property so that we can build the university of Texas medical branch with the v.a. Hospital right next door. A v.a. Hospital means those veterans could get state of the art medical care because we would be using the utmb for training our doctors in state-of-the-art health care. The university of Texas plays the university of connecticut tonight. Of course the men play the cardinals. We should have a good time in basketball. Thank you.
>> thank you.
>> thank you. Why don't we skip to item no. 3.
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 26, 2008 8:51 PM