Travis County Commissioners Court
June 10, 2008
Citizens Communication
Citizens communication is next, this item gives were the an opportunity to address the Commissioners court on any matter not on the agenda. Any matter not on the agenda for up to three minutes. Five residents signed in. Number one, gus penament and gus will be followed by james von walskey. Good morning.
>> > good morning, judge, Commissioners, gus pena. I知 going to read to you quickly because there's so much to discuss. A marine corps veteran, mr. Cantu was told by the eligibility office on cesar chavez, location, you need to go to the arch, Austin resource for the homeless to apply for your m.a.p. Card, clinic card. Also told mr. Cantu it won't be until August that we can give you an appointment. Not acceptable. Same individual was told by the v.a. Outpatient clinic at montopolis, you were a marine corps rereservist, not -- those are what I am considering there, clinics, eligibility office at Travis County, also the outpatient clinic at montopolis. Two classic examples denial of services of an individual was qualified and eligible and served their country with pride and honor. I will be speaking to -- this used to be patricia young, c.e.o. Of the hospital district award because this blatant denial of services. I met with ben barnes at brackenridge hospital, visiting veterans at the hospital. He gave two great suggestions that I hope you all take into consideration to support and endorse. That will be helpful and beneficial to returning iraq and afghanistan returning war veterans. Number one is a 24 hour, one-8 hub hotline to receive information and directions to social services and wrap around services. A lot of veterans need jobs, mental health treatment, assistance with mortgage among other issues that have been identified for high priority for veterans returning from afghanistan and iraq. Counseling for housing, job reentry counseling, job readiness programs. Also are issues identified as key and crucial issues that are needed. We have also been in dialogue, this is another issue that I think that I have been here to discuss with you all about -- about redefining the mfi, median family income. It is antiquated needs to be revised and revisited and I hope that our meeting with h.u.d. Also has been also positively received also in washington. Our johnston high school was closed by t.e.a., Texas education agency last wed. A possible federal lawsuit is imminent, there is case law for you attorneys out there, there is case law to hopefully keep it open with the same name and in the community. I attended the school board meeting last night. The board voted on repurposing johnston high school, we didn't like what was said. Still without clarity, clarity needs to be brought about and also educate the community about the ramifications. Commissioner, I知 sorry, judge and Commissioners, this is a summertime, summertime there are other things that happen. We have gang members trying to gain membership and I知 not scared of the hood lumbers, you know, I have been in combat before. But this is a time people are experiencing poverty. Poverty leads to violence. I hope people out there, please, please, do not go to the route of spousal or child abuse. I will wrap up. Melissa miller, I知 not speaking to the issue, but I congratulate her to wanting to serve. Our people, kids, senior citizens and wives. Thank you all very much, have a good day. >> > thank you. >> > gus, thank you, sir. >> > mr. Von valskey. >> > I知 an engineer, retired professional engineer. I would like this group to put together a study group to consider moving the current courthouse out to highland mall. The reason I say that, the city of Austin is considering moving their police station and they have an option on land on i-35 at saint john's. They are getting a hammer job. What they have now is a perfect timing and perfect opportunity to expand the courthouse, certainly the county government is going to be larger and larger. You have a hodgepodge of buildings here trying to work out of. And so the advantage to the highland mall is that you have the sheriff's department out there, the tax there, it's an incredibly large piece of land. D.p.s. Is just a quarter mile away. And there's roads -- it's like the central focal point for the major roads, 290, 2222, et cetera, you have the rail stuff there and you probably have a lot of employees from Cedar Park, Leander way coming in there. Highland is dying. Penny's is already gone. Someone will come in and take that land and do something with it. Here's an opportunity to do it. While we don't want to move the courthouse, virtually every county in the state has moved their courthouse from the downtown obsolete location. Turned that into the museum and gotten with the modern times with a new facility. Nothing is forever. The governor's mansion is probably gone, but they will build a new one. But this building here although it's not as old as some of the courthouses, this is just an obsolete facility. All my life I致e been in the business of designing hvac systems for large institutional buildings, I would be more than happy to act as a free consultant on that. The homer thorn berry, that old post office on 11th, they spent tons of money, terrible design, the hvac system. I talked to occupants and vendors and contractors in that building when they remodeled it. I wouldn't want the county to have a similar bad design. I notice on your agenda, item no. 19 b is a security and anti-terror issue. You know, you are quite vulnerable here. It's not designed to be shielded very well. And also fuel conservation item of 21 and 23 and you are forcing people to come into what used to be sort of a central crossroads of Austin and Travis County activity. But 10th and guadalupe is not really centrally located anymore. I expect that you will have quite a clamor out of the lawyers, but they will still be -- they don't want to move, but they will have a cheaper office space and more of it if they move off in that area. Just urge you to put together a study group while you have the opportunity. >> > >> [beeping] and interest to do so. Thank you. >> > thank you. >> > thank you. Scott hedgel. You will be followed by steve watson.t#tsvc good morning, judge, I知 scott hegel. The reason that I came this morning is to address a still open item of use of metal detectors in Travis County parks. I will do a quick overview of -- of what has transpired in this. Commissioner eckhardt who wasn't hart of the commission at the time. In June of '06 there was a vote to prohibit metal detecting from the parks, the Travis County parks. The next month, the Austin metal detecting club came to present its feeling on that ruling. And over the next six months, members from the historical commission, lcra, state parks, all were allowed to come in and present what they felt was appropriate for metal detecting. At the end of that six months, the court asked for members of the Austin metal detecting club, Travis County archaeological association and roy fully the director of operations to sit down and come up with a use of -- set of guidelines for use of metal detectors. During that time it was determined there had been no damage reported from metal detecting, the only reason it had been prohibited was to prevent any future damage of detecting. After that meeting in February of '07, a draft was -- was come up with for use of metal detectors by permit only in the parks areas that could be detected and policies for returning things or turning in items that were found during that period. So for the next 17 months we have sat here waiting for a resolution to this and the reason we're here is just to try to prompt some sort of action. >> > thank you, steve watson. >> > >> > >> [indiscernible] >> > >> [inaudible - no mic] >> > item 39. >> > okay. >> > subdivision. >> > we will get to you real soon. >> > thank you. >> > marilyn >> > >> [indiscernible] >> > >> > >> [indiscernible] >> > we will get to you real soon. That does it for citizens communication. The -- we apparent there have one more citizens. >> > good morning, good morning. >> > good morning. >> > judge Sam Biscoe, chairman and Commissioner precinct 4, Margaret Gomez, Gerald Daugherty, sarah eckhardt and my Commissioner, Ron Davis, good morning. >> > good morning. >> > today's election day. Almost 92% of the people living in Austin didn't vote. So -- so I guess they don't matter. You really don't matter if you don't vote. Because that's the only power that we have. But the power of this Commissioners court that I知 asking for is to grant a resolution based on Austin's scott mcclelland who worked for the president that said that the president lied. I知 asking for the resolution on the war and I知 also asking for a resolution calling for an impeachment of the 43rd president of the united states. Let's bring our veterans home. Let's stop killing our children. A resolution from this court would go a long way to doing that. Our children need a buddy program. You know, someone they can hold hands with. I知 asking for sisters and brothers to keep their hand on their children. Hold hands, crossing streets, going to swimming pools. So a six-year-old girl doesn't die in their swimming pool. So the children out there, look for someone's hand to hold on to. Mom's and dads make sure that you are holding your children's hands. We need to keep the police department downtown for those making complaints, witnesses, those offering tips on crimes. To have a central location because they are not going to go looking for someplace out near highland mall like the Austin police department hidden there, internal affairs department. People are making complaints against the police. I have asked for a long time for this inan gnat object to sponsor a resolution ordering capital metro to send the contract dispute, which you haven't done. They are taking away more of the medical benefits from the bus operators. Mechanics and island workers, you can go a long way to telling that authority which used to belong to the city of Austin to get their job done and get a contract done. New employees don't enjoy a contract when they come on and it's been nearly 12 months. So since we have an inanimate object here, putting all of our services like the police department somewhere else, I知 demanding that the people of Austin get off their butts and vote today! You are lazy. You are incompetent. And I知 talking to the people of Austin. >> > >> [beeping] >> > thank you.
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:
Tuesday, June 10, 2008 2:31 PM