Travis County Commissioners Court
March 25, 2008
Housing Finance Corporation
Now let's call to order the Travis County housing finance corporation, first item 1. Consider and take appropriate action on request to provide $15,000 to oak hill fire foundation to be used to sponsor five cadets in the next academy class which begins April,ni 2008.
>> good afternoon, I知 harvey Davis, manager for the corporation. To my left is the chief, to my right is chief gary warren of the oak hill fire department. And bob taylor who is president of the board of the fire department.
>> oak hill.
>> and danny hobby, who I think you all are familiar with. They have submitted a -- a letter, a request for $15,000 grant and the purpose of the grant is to offer five $3,000 scholarships to deserving cadets who are attempting to enroll in their academy that begins on -- on April the 5th. And -- and I think chief warren would like to give like a five minute presentation about their academy.
>> okay. Thank you.
>> I gave you a handout that -- to give you a little bit of familiarization about our academy. The most important thing that I would want you to know is that we've had this academy for five years running, last year was our fifth one. We are about to start our sixth one this year. One thing that has always come up, every one of those five years is, we would always have people that wanted to pay the money. Then we would have two or three volunteers with the department that because of their unselfish and dedicated service to the fire department, the fire department sponsor to be able to get that certification to be a certified firefighter. But then there were always a group of people that didn't have the money to pay the $3,000 tuition that wanted to -- to have a career in firefighting but didn't have the time to volunteer and they have always been turned away. So we would like to be able to serve that population as well with this academy. Now, one of the features of our academy, I think that you will be interested in, we are the only fire certification academy in the area that is -- that meets in the evenings and every other Saturday. To allow people to keep their jobs when they have jobs that they use to pay their bills and so we feel like that's an advantage for a lot of people that do want to have a career change. And so that -- the population we are really addressing, though, is those that just don't have the money for the tuition. And we feel like $3,000 for a -- for a paying career for someone that has the -- has the civic minded attitude is probably a very -- a very good investment. So we are asking for five scholarships from the -- from the Commissioners court, if you see that it's worthwhile. So -- so -- where do you get your participants now?
>> from -- well, we get them from all over, but the scholarships would be just for Travis County residents.
>> okay. But these are individuals who just finished high school or --
>> for the most part they are young people, around 20 years old, looking for a career change. They could have a job -- they do have a job, but not the job they want to end up with. Their heart tells them that they want to get into public service so they are trying really hard to be able to get in.
>> similar to what chief smith does with his cadets.
>> yes, sir, very similar. Except this one year allows them to keep their job that they have now.
>> how many -- how many scholarships does the esd provide for those who have been volunteered?
>> well, between the two departments, oak hill and westlake, there are five seats made available for them. So it's split evenly between the two departments. Depending on how many volunteers are available because obviously it's an odd number. Five is be doesn't split by two very well.
>> right.
>> judge, when -- when bob came to my office to ask for this, I just would like for everyone to know that he was a little squeamish about it because he didn't want to make it seem like -- that he was going for something that -- that might -- get in the way of chief smith's program. They are very aware of that. I think this small asking, which is the reason that we felt like that we could go to harvey and say is there a lays that we could find, you know, $15,000 for scholarship out of this, we were delighted to hear harvey say, well, you know, this would qualify, you could do it out of here. I said well let's take it to the court and see what we can get. I would anticipate this could be and most likely will be an every year asking. In the perfect world, I mean, might as well tell that up front. But, you know, with the program that they have built up, you know, out southwest, you know, it is -- you know, I have nothing but, you know, rave reviews about -- you know what the guys have done out there. Let me also say that -- that the other thing that -- that oak hill and westlake has done has taken a huge step, much like what they did north of the lake, where they have basically worked with two different esd's. I mean, I think that most of us understand that 14 esk's in -- esd's in Travis County, we are going to have to start looking at consolidation. We are going to have to start looking at how do you really -- the best way to deliver this kind of service. I知 real proud of what, you know, we've done with oak hill and westlake and kind of merging the boards, if you will. And that's always a tough deal because -- because as we all know, I mean, turf -- turf war is something that's usually -- usually very evident and is out there. But I think that -- that the things that these guys have been doing out there have really led by example and I think that it would be a small -- a small, you know, amount to show, you know, our appreciation for what we're -- what we would do by getting behind a scholarship like this. So if there are no other questions, I mean, or whatever -- whenever there's time, I mean, I would like to make a motion to approve this unless you all have an issue with it.
>> I知 going to need another week on it.
>> okay.
>> I haven't had a chance to think about it a whole lot. I need to compare -- it would help to know a little bit more about the background by participants. I have seen the others because they have been paraded through at the beginning and end. Then I would like to just make the comparison. I apologize that I have not been able to do that because of other matters, including one on the agenda this afternoon. But I promise to do that between now and next week. In the meantime, mr. Davis, you looked and the money is in the housing finance corporation?
>> yes, sir. There is -- there is sufficient money to fund this.
>> okay.
>> and the tuition of $2,900 basically is used for what? I know what tuition means, but the moneys, how is the money used?
>> it's used to pay for instructors to provide quality education for the seven months that it takes to put the class on. And -- mostly it covers that. We also have other expenses like live fire burps that we have to do -- live fire burns that we do to have to pay for fuel and facilities to give them that experience.
>> you are looking at basically corporation involvement this year and then annually here after.
>> we would like the opportunity to ask for it annual, yes, sir.
>> and in your efforts similar to what chief smith is doing, they come here and they announce how many folks maybe interested the program -- maybe entered the program, how many folks have finished the program. Do you have that available information as far as when you initiate it and started your program? How many have actually gone through the program, how many have finished? Even -- even -- even with the scholarship money not being available at that point but probably will be made available, it will be good to know a history of the success of the program as it exists and you said it's been there for five years.
>> yes.
>> it would be good to know what success that you've had and really is encouraging, service I think to get young persons involved in serving -- in serving, you know, the fire needs that we need here in this community as far as the employment in that area. So I guess my point is, though, it would be good to have some kind of track history of the program as it exists now.
>> we can put the results of all of the classes together for you.
>> that would be good to have, I think. To -- if you can provide that information. Again here and next -- between here and next week, that would be good to see exactly what you have done in the past. Apparently from what I知 hearing sounds like you have done a real good job.
>> this class that you see in the picture, those individuals in the paragraph, every single one of them passed their state certification and class average grade was an 82.
>> good.
>> we feel good about that.
>> right.
>> did they all stay in Travis County or were they hired by other areas in the state?
>> well, we have more qualified to be hired because there's also an emt component. Half of the class hasn't gotten the emt training yet. That half stayed and took our emt class, they are all qualified to be hired as of right now. I would imagine in the next few hiring processes for esd's around Travis County, you will see oak hill graduates.
>> that would be good to see. And -- and anyway I知 looking forward to -- thank you.
>> all right. So the two years of service was a volunteer -- with a volunteer fire department commences when?
>> it commences on the time that they finish the -- the class. And what that would involve is them volunteering with an esd because they have the skills, they have the knowledge, they can contribute, we would like to see them contribute back to the county. In the way of service and if they are hired by that department, in my mind that's -- that's the same thing. They are still contributing those skills back to the county. So I feel like if they are hired by the department, it's still meeting that qualification. If they are not hired, though, we would expect them to be volunteering with someone, some esd in the county.
>> bob, why don't you share with the court some of the things that you all have done -- have done I mean infrastructure-wise there with -- with the oak hill organization.
>> yes, I will. So the -- the oak hill organization, first, I would like to comment on Commissioner Daugherty's point he made earlier about integrating the two oak hill and westlake fire departments. We still have separate boards and organizations, what we have effectively done is integrated a management team. It's relatively unique whereas in north Lake Travis the esd's actually merged because of our particular tax situations it was not possible. So we put together a management organization and achieve warren heads that up. Where we are actually operating the two esd's as if they were one from a management structure standpoint, it's really paid off from a critical mass standpoint as far as being able to manage and assemble, for example, a training decision. We have invested over the last year, we will finish this summer, a $1.2 million investment for a new training field. We will actually have a live fire tower, training facilities, seeming very similar to what the city of Austin has out at shaw lane. There currently exists nothing like that in the southwest part of the county. This will be available to other fire departments and emergency service districts in the region as well. That was made possible by a donation by the volunteer organizations of about $400,000 of land and buildings that they had on their books when they dissolve their organization and contributed to us. We took that $400,000, borrowed about 500,000 and took the remainder out of our general fund. We are building a state of the art training facility. The academy operates out of that training facility and -- and each year as we've defined we've had five training academies. Going forward we will have our own training site, training facility, we won't have to go off-site to do live fire training and real tower training and evacuation training, if you will. So we made the investment as the esd in this infrastructure for the training needs of our own -- of our own emergency service district. We also made that investment for the training academy to use such that it can do the training and provide the resources for trained candidates and cadets throughout the county. Also making it available to other emergency service diswrikts throughout the county who -- especially in the southwest region. One of the problems in training is being able to take resources, units, outs of a district to train with. By having regional training facility, one in Cedar Park used by some people in northeast, shaw lane used by departments in the southeast in the city of Austin, Pflugerville has one. We've made the investment as esd in southwest Travis County. To provide that facility. We got no contribution from any of the other esd's, I want to make that clear. It was on our own ticket. We felt it was the right thing to do for our own training, we believe to be able to if you will to assist our esd's as well and the andmy is parts of that.
>> judge, if you have questions do you want to try to direct them either to chief warren or to bob and would you anticipate that you would like to have them voted back down next week?
>> actually, I anticipate getting information and being ready to act next week. My goal would be to try to help, but I知 sure that I asked the same questions when the other esd came.
>> we will be glad to provide substantial detail on the previous classes, the breakdown -- the demographics and break down of those particular candidates, the success rate. Not a problem providing that. Unfortunately I will be out of state next week, I won be here, but chief warren will be glad to bring that.
>> in my office, contact my office.
>> thanks.
>> good information that I requested. I would like to see it.
>> thank you.
>> thank you.
>> thank you all very much. Appreciate it. 2. Consider and take appropriate action on Travis County visitation center. So far the -- the news has been good. The commitments have been reinforced and confirmed by the check has not been delivered. I talked with our contributor a few moments ago, he will let me know for sure tomorrow. My question to him was really when can we expect delivery. And -- and I understand our contractor has told us that -- that at the end of this month, is the -- is the longest free extension that he can give or will give. And effective April 1, which is Monday, he would expect additional compensation. I知 supposed to have a conversation with the contributor tomorrow. My recommendation is that we post this item in a voting session again on Friday. When we will be meeting anyway. And if my office is listening, if we post this -- if we post this -- our interview started at 9:00, right? If we post this item on Friday, at 3:00 p.m., Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, that ought to enable us to meet our 72 hour notice requirement and do that, that way we'll be able to make an informed decision. My question basically was when would we -- could we expect delivery. And I -- I advised that we have a contractor who was saying that he can no longer hold that bid -- open for us without additional compensation. And he has worked with us, it will be I guess close to a month this weekend, right? Normally I guess if they have commitment and labor commitments they will be moving on the project or not. But -- but this check is all that we need to go ahead and issue the notice to proceed. Okay, is that all right?
>> that's fine.
>> the -- all the information has been good, at some point either the money is in hand or not.
>> okay.
>> and staff I think, I guess the same wording will work. But -- the housing finance corporation, I would use the same wording for the voting session of the Travis County Commissioners court. And I think that we can do the same posting for Friday that we have already. With revised language to add this. This item.
>> move adjourn.
>> second.
>> all in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. We do have the voting session for -- on Friday?
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Last Modified:
Wednesday, March 26, 2008 8:51 PM