Travis County Commissioners Court
May 13, 2008
Citizens Communication
>> good morning.
let's call to order this voting session of the Travis County Commissioners court.
citizens communication is first.
this item gives residents an opportunity to address the Commissioners court on any item not on the agenda for up to three minutes.
the first person is resident gus pena.
>> good morning.
I have good news for all our military veterans here in Travis County and surrounding areas.
there will be a job fair this coming Thursday, may 15, 2008 at the frank irwin center, 1701 red river.
and you will enter the red river entrance and it will be located in the loan star room but expanded now this job fair is for military veteran's only, thank god.
and what it will entale is recruiters from local industries, businesses, and national.
veterans that have veteran's plates on their vehicles, veterans that have received the purple heart will be able to park free and just call the number that follows: 471-6060, and you can get more information on parking.
the telephone number, if you have a question about the job fair this coming Thursday is area code 512, locally 682-5020.
veterans, we have been working hard to get a job fair here specifically for veterans that are unemployed that want to increase their employment or improve their employment situation.
this is the time now, we cannot kai and complain that we have not been serviced by people that want to hire us.
veterans have been illegally and erroneously denied health care by clinics and the va has offered fragmented services.
you've heard me say before, nobody is asking for a free hand, nobody is asking for welfare, but we veterans put our lives on.
lines, on the line when our country asked for help, we were there.
some volunteers, some were drafted, but anyway, we are in the process of improving services in the va hospitals and clinics.
a lot of people when they've been turned away goes to the emergency room in the hospital and that puts a strain on the funding there.
the youth, they're working with the youth for over 45 years, funding for youth treatment with bipolar disease, back then it used to be called anger management.
there are a lot of kids that have problems at school with the peer pressure.
I'm asking you and the city council and legislature to increase funding to mhmr entity that provides services to the youth.
we need our kids to be educated to compete in the workforce and succeed in society.
I'm hoping do we a better job of providing service for them and a foundation for the future.
housing, we're going to, in the near future, we have a commitment from hud and the secretary of veteran's affairs to have a housing fair in Austin and I'll leave it at that.
anyway, I want to thank you all very much for your diligence and assistance in providing services.
expand the summer job program for youth positions.
I know it is a bad time for funding but in the long run our youth will benefit from it.
>> thank you, mr. Pena.
andy swanson is next.
is he accompanied by eddie and ann?
all right.
mr. Swanson then and his entourage.
good morning.
>> good morning, judge and Commissioners.
I'm with the Travis County juvenile probation department.
and with me this morning, andy swanson with the real estate council, Margaret owen with the juvenile probation department, and laura with the juvenile probation department.
and I just want to begin briefly by inviting our court in or Travis County community to our art auction scheduled for tomorrow, may 14.
the probation department has had a tremendous opportunity to partner with the real estate council for many years now and through their efforts and through their initiative and their tremendous support, our young people involved in programs have been able to participate with some art work, some of this at we have displayed for you this morning.
it has bn a tremendous opportunity and provide as very positive experience for our young people to be able to demonstrate their wonderful talents.
and with that, I would like to turn it over to mr. Swanson.
>> thank you.
good morning.
again, we invite you and the public to join us tomorrow at 5:00 p.m.
at the lobby level for the 2008 gardner betts art show and auction and it features original works of art created by program participants.
the juvenile justice center, they sponsor our programs as constructive outlet for juveniles to deal with emotional conflicts, express unspoken concerns.
the silent auction will begin tomorrow at 5:00 p.m.
all proceeds of the event benefit garner betts and the arts enrichment program.
tomorrow, bev, the university of Texas track coach, will be our guest speaker, the second year in a row bev has been our guest speaker and we're very excited to have her there.
we hope to see you and anyone from the public who wishes to be there tomorrow.
thank you.
>> thank you.
good program.
>> thank you.
>> thank you.
>> good luck to you.
now, eddie mckenna and ann is with him.
and others are with him.
>> yes, sir.
good morning judge, good morning Commissioners.
my name is ann borman, the manager of the Travis County 4-h program and it is national americore week and I'm joined today but eddie mckenna, cocoordinateer along with four wonderful americore members who have joined us two years in a row.
americore is an opportunity to make a difference in your life and the lives of those around you.
it is a chance to apply your skills and ideals in helping others and meeting critical needs in the community.
each year, national americore programs provide 75,000 opportunities for adults in all ages and backgrounds to serve through a network of partnerships with local and national nonprofit organizations.
americore week is a recruitment and recognition event, it is more recognition that we're trying to tell you about today, but it is designed to bring more americans into service, absolute americore members, as we're doing here, and alums for their powerful impact for making this possible.
so we're thanking you today.
I'll turn it over to eddie.
>> judge, Commissioners, good morning.
>> good morning.
>> I noticed a sign out front, a large banner actually do designed to recognize folks working in this area for their public service efforts over the years and one of the reasons we are here is to include them in that sort of tribute.
we have over 300 americore members actively serving Travis County community now and we're pleased to have several of them with us here this morning to be recognized.
we hope this communication will help serve as tribute to those among us to felt to dedicate a year of their life to public service.
>> do the americore volunteers talk?
>> absolutely.
>> let's get a name and where they're from.
>> shall we start left to right.
>> cheryl from Austin, I'm serving my second term.
>> my name is megan from indiana and this is my second full year as an americore member.
>> I'm from dallas Texas and this is also my second year as an americore member.
>> I am free here in Austin and this is also my second year as a full-time americore member.
>> see, I knew it, I knew they would talk if we gave them an opportunity.
>> we have some hand outs we would like to leave you to read at your convenience.
thank you very much.
>> good luck to you all.
thanks for coming down.
beckles?
you here on a-1 and a-2.
we'll get to that real soon.
jennifer gale.
>> good morning.
>> good morning.
>> on this beautiful rainy morning.
judge Sam bisco, Commissioners sarah eckhardt, Margaret Gomez, Gerald Daugherty and Ron Davis, it's a veteran's job, you can get veteran's jobs at the, um, red river entrance over -- I'm asking the people of Travis County to get ahold of congressman dogit to make sure that he is taking care of veteran's issues.
he's not doing that.
they can reach him, they can call congressman at 916-5921 and say what's going on.
god bless you.
why aren't we getting the housing.
this is a program that would make sure our veterans are getting jobs, and getting a life where they're comfortable and able to live well and not on the streets.
we also have a problem with our bus fares going up.
we have a capital metropolitan transportation authority that has a year they haven't done a contract with their operators, and now they want to raise the rates even though they are overbudgetted with light rail that has nothing to do with downtown, except the convention center, after destroying east Austin.
now they want to raise the taxes again for a new light rail system.
they want to raise the money from the people they're taxing to death but raising the bus fares.
I want to thank the league of women voters for having a voter's guide out there.
I literalcally not communicate with all 750,000 people when I ran for city council this last week.
I have a great platform, I have to admit robin was a pretty tough opponent and would have made a good council member, I did not like running against him, but the league of women voter has a guide where people could compare the candidates and people obviously didn't do that, so I'm asking that Travis County make it possible in mail outs to let people know where the various municipalities, people running for those municipalities, whether school board or still council hear the issues from the actual candidates and not filtered through the greater Austin chamber of commerce question you often get from the league.
and I'm asking asking that jones step down after only graduating 58.2% of our students.
that's not right.
I would also like to thank the 2,000 people that voted for me in the election.
that was very nice.
and it shows that you care.
thank you.
>> thank you.
anybody else for citizen's 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, May 14, 2008 8:51 PM