Travis County Commissioners Court
June 10, 2008
Item 21
21. Consider and take appropriate action regarding the creation of a Travis County efficiency committee to reduce fuel, energy and other county operating costs. We'll try to get to the cdbg item next, okay? Good morning.
>> good morning. Rodney roads, planning and budget. Last week during the budget parameters we had a discussion on the creation of a committee to begin looking at some efficiency areas where we can improve efficiencies throughout the organization. In particular with fuel and utilities. The proposed committee that you have before you is made up of the executive managers, the county auditor and the purchasing agent and -- with the idea of bringing others in kind of as a -- as a floating group, if you will. On an as needed basis.
>> I guess that I would add the constables for the floating list. Stacy suit is one that they have indicated they have been doing work, he's interested in continuing to work.
>> okay.
>> these be the major vehicle users we think?
>> yes, sir.
>> also, facilities and some of the court's administration staff we inadvertently left those individuals off the list. And would like to add them as well.
>> okay.
>> judge, when they -- judge, I知 sorry.
>> go ahead.
>> okay. When you look at what's being described here, especially looking at the way of trying to -- trying to hopefully stay within some type of -- of range of fuel cost, borne by not only Travis County individuals and everything else. My concern is what type of outreach are we going to employ or investigate to see if we can maybe purchase fuel as far as the combination of several entities. I知 seeing to the point now where look like the more persons together that are in the interest of looking at fuel costs and hopefully maybe getting more bang for the buck on the fuel expense, is this just restricted to what we're dealing with now or are we looking to expand the possibility of looking at other entities that may want to say hey, you know, we're out here on a solo situation and we like -- maybe drawn up regional approaches to purchase fuel because with the unintended increase for the duration of this particular fiscal year, it's something that needs to really be looked at. I was just wondering how are we going to look at it in the future as far as projected budget use, setting the amount aside. But if it's a combined effort how are we going to do that or are you looking into that?
>> well, the nice thing about the creation of this what I知 coining the phrase of efficiency committee is that I知 -- I知 envisioning that -- that we can utilize this working group both short term and long term.
>> exactly.
>> and I think that overall obviously we have fuel issues immediately facing us, utility costs immediately facing us.
>> exactly.
>> but more than that, long term operational efficiencies. What we have kind of batted around is the idea of the creation of the generic e-mail in box for folks to e-mail suggestions, because the way I kind of look at it is, you know, those that are doing are the ones that kind of can come one a real good idea of some things that can be improved upon. From an efficiency perspective. All of these things that will eventually result in long-term cost saving measures. So I kind of see this committee as being not just a short-term committee, but a long-term committee. A committee that can really begin to dig into some efficiency areas and to come up with some good ideas. I mentioned the e-mail in box, we are also -- it was brought to my attention yesterday some folks don't have access to e-mail and so -- so, you know, obviously some internal hard copy items would have to come to our office. In addition to that, we were thinking of maybe trying to work on setting up a generic voice mailbox so people could call in to provide some recommendations or some suggestions. As it relates to fuel, mr. Gieselman would have to address what we currently are doing in terms of the contract, but I believe that there are some opportunities for some improvements in terms of -- of partnering with other agencies or looking at -- at joint ridership of either to and from work or even while we're in work hours. Those sorts of things.
>> right.
>> so this committee I think will really be rolling up its sleeves and getting into all of those areas and making recommendations accordingly.
>> I知 glad that you brought out the long term because my question is really looking at the long term because I think piecemealing the way, you know, sometimes we say we have to do the piecemeal approach according to what conditions have made us do that. But in the long run really looking at the interest of what the long range remedy is, as far as some of the things that you mentioned, but it goes even farther beyond that. I -- and I guess this is not the right item to go into those particular arena as far as details are concerned but at least I知 just laying the ground work out to make sure that we make sure every stone has been unturned in this particular regard
>> [sic] because this is a very serious expensive matter here, subject matter when it comes to -- to the budget. I just want to lay that out.
>> the one thing I think as we go forward, looking at this from a -- from an efficiency perspective, you know, a lot of people get hung up on the idea that well you're just trying to cut costs et cetera, et cetera and while the end result may be actual cost savings, if we can improve some efficiencies throughout the organization then we are all better off for it. So fuel utilities those type of things, if we can come together, work together to try to come up with a plan to address those immediate needs but then look long term toward operational efficiencies, I think we can go a long way toward ultimate cost savings but not necessarily cost savings that would be detrimental to the employees.
>> you need to include I think, you know, this morning we put item 18 a 2 on consent this morning, but my question to that was I wanted to make sure, even during the work session, I wanted to make sure star flight was included in this particular fuel cost because of course we needed to make adjustments and that is for the increase in fuel costs to them and so that was some of the same things that we need to probably look at. In other words whatever we are doing we need to also include all of the fuel users, even if it's under the star flight setting.
>> yes, sir.
>> so I think they need to also be a part of the -- being looked at as far as how we can be more efficient.
>> yes, sir, absolutely.
>> all right.
>> I think short-term needs to be short-term. We need to hear something I would say in two or three weeks if possible. But any other questions about the composition of this committee?
>> judge, let me make a couple of comments here. What did I don't want to see in this thing is, you know, meeting for meeting's sake. I mean the last thing that we need here is for people to have a spot at the table to justify why they need all that they have right now and perhaps more. Now, I don't know whether the way to get around that is to have a fuel czar, I mean I知 looking at the head of p.b.o., I mean, but somebody is going to have to drive this thing to a point where what we need and what we're going to demand are real efficiencies because, I mean, what I see happening in this thing is everybody getting together and having a meeting and quite frankly going well I知 not real sure I mean I can't imagine that -- that you take tcso for example. I mean not that they are not going to be budget minded. Whenever it comes to -- to, you know, really trying to identify how can they do their job and yet, you know, have an eye towards well how do I use less, you know, fuel. Well, I mean that's -- they are going to have a pretty good argument to take to the public to say okay what do you all want us to do. Not respond to calls? Not do all of the things that we are doing? And -- and, you know, not to pick on tcso but I mean, you know, when you really start talking about fuel in Travis County, 55% of it goes to tcso. So, you know, we're going to have to make sure that if we're really going to get something out of this thing, other than something gratitous, well, we find a way to cut 2% out that almost rounds off to 0. I want us to be mindful of what we're really trying to get accomplished with this thing. I don't know, judge, if that means that somebody is ultimately going to have the direction from the court or the Marching orders to say bottom line, rodney, guess what? I mean we're looking at p.b.o. To come up and to push and say here's what we're looking for. So I don't -- I mean I don't know what I知 exactly trying to get here other than let's not just put all of these people in a room and expect in two weeks to come back and people going guess what? I mean, I couldn't really get something to happen or make something happen. I知 not so sure one more time, I will shut up that, that we don't need direction from this court for one person to be in charge of -- of no, that's not -- that's not an acceptable response from you that -- that you can't find a way to get that done. I知 afraid if we don't put serb in charge of that being their Marching order, that we may not get what we want out of this. What -- sarah had her finger up.
>> I think Margaret did first.
>> Commissioner Gomez.
>> one of the things that I wanted us to also look at, maybe long term, I want us -- to see us work smarter and I think, you know, that there's a certain amount of planning goes into it. I think that I do remember my constable days when I went out and served warrants and you plan your trips so that you are not going zigzag zigzag so it calls for some amount of planning and to do the smartest thing. Same thing with the way we do our errands now so we don't waste too much gas and try to save it. I want us to work smarter. The other thing is I guess that I have been around here long enough to remember that technological changes have really helped us make leaps into being efficient. The one that comes to mind is direct deposit. I do remember the old days when everybody dashed out on pay day to the bank or to the credit union and that doesn't happen anymore. So -- so susan, I don't know whether you and the county treasurer, you know, work on those kinds of technological changes that need to continue to be addressed. And so -- so dare we say that some telecommuting can be done? I think there are a lot of companies that are already telecommuting maybe two or three days a week. We certainly have all of the technology in place to be able to communicate either through e-mail or telephone or cells or whatever there is available to us. So I would like to see us work osmolarity and different than the -- work smarter and different than the old days. Anyway that's my two cents.
>> you agree to chair this committee mr. Roads?
>> if that's the directs of the court absolutely.
>> put that in my motion.
>> Commissioner Daugherty?
>> second.
>> I would suggest this follows on what Commissioner Daugherty's statement was, I would suggest that direction from the court on a goal would really inform the whole activity of the committee. If we were to say every department had to cut fuel consumption by 5% say within a certain time frame, that would inform the activity in a way that simply saying y'all discuss among yourselves will not. So I would appreciate at least -- I would appreciate a report from the core working group, the proposed core team rather quickly about what is a doable goal against which we can measure our efforts.
>> and that's -- that's my hope that we can bring that core group together, we can begin to brainstorm on some ideas. Mr. Gieselman's item no. 23 today that's coming before you, I was going through the packet last night and I was very impressed with some of the things that they had put out there.
>> very?
>> in terms of recommendation.
>> the first meeting has been has for the backup for 23.
>> there are good ideas out there, there's no doubt about it. What I would like to do with the court's permission, I would like to get this working group together, try to come up with a short list of immediate ideas that we can come back to you with recommendations for implementation and then to -- to get the court's direction on that implementation. And I think certainly the items mentioned in item no. 23 are areas that we can begin to look at right away.
>> most of them are ways in which we could achieve a goal of a department, across department cut of 5%.
>> sure.
>> but I would like to see some measurement against which we can gauge our efforts, the success of our efforts.
>> I would tell you --
>> motion to approve with mr. Rhoades as chair, all in favor?
>> [laughter] that passes by unanimous vote.
>> appreciate those --
>> tcso definitely moved up because it's a possibility but moved up into the core group, right?
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Last Modified:
Tuesday, June 10, 2008 2:31 PM