Travis County Commissioners Court
June 18, 2008
Item 1
Good afternoon.
let's call to order this special voting session of the Travis County Commissioners court.
one item.
to consider and take appropriate action on joint proposal from the executive managers of administrative operations and planning and budget and the special assistant to the Commissioners court on collaborative roles and strategies to successfully manage the various contractual phases for the Travis County central campus master plan and to coordinate consultant expertise.
>> we're here to share with you a proposal from your key executive staff in terms of a development of a downtown master plan and the hiring of a consultant and the management of that contract.
you know that there has been some controversy over the last couple of months regarding the specific roles of certain staff and staff offices in the development of a master plan, and those controversys have been resolved through the leadership of the county judge, leadership of of executive manager for administrative operations and planning and budget.
just as a little background, sometimes bureaucracys whether private or public, get themselves into circumstances where you have a situation where I do this and you do that.
and I turn this vault, you turn this vault.
we see it in the health system, in the criminal justice system, in a lot of complicated systems. We've seen it here where in essence this is mine, this is yours.
and there is a realization after a series of discussions both with executive managers as well as with the staff -- the key staff of facilities management department and planning and budget, after five hours a realization that there was a considerable amount of expertise, not compartmentalized, not like bureaucracys frequently find themselves, but a tremendous amount of expertise in both offices to apply to the resources that a consultant will bring to bear, which is the most important thing in both facilities management and in planning and budgeted.
so what -- after a five-hour period of time, there was a suggestion and a conclusion that really perhaps what we all should do is say that there are really three parts to this process that we'll follow in terms of managing the expertise of a consultant.
first, strategic planning.
let planning and budget take the lead with considerable amount of involvement and support from facilities management.
that strategic planning would in essence focus on what departments should beware, what are the adjacencys, what are the operational and staffing obligations and requirements over a specific period of time.
then move from that into space and parking projections.
given those needs, how much space, how much parking do you need.
then move -- and at that particular phase would be coordinated and managed by both office.
both office would have a role because you are in essence pass ing this baton through space planning, parking projections to facilities planning, which facilities management department would take the lead on with involvement and support by the planning and budget.
where that part of the process would be how do we get what we need.
what about our existing facilities?
do we need new facilities?
should those be constructed or acquired?
and that's simplisticly the proposal before you.
my own sense is that once we get a consultant on board with a team of individuals that are courts experts, that are facilities experts, that are operational experts, that are strategic planning experts, that are experts in forecasting, that things are going to line up fairly well.
we are suggesting there be one contract with three phases.
that there be a management consultant -- a contract management team composed of the three people before you.
that those individuals take an institutional perspective.
that they represent the client.
the client is the Commissioners court.
that it's your consultant and it is your project and that we would do our best to manage the contract on your behalf and also make sure that your perspective and leadership is involved throughout the process, along with the leadership of some very critical officials in the county who have been weighing in over the last year that have a sense of great ownership on what will happen and have invaluable perspectives on whether it's the courts or the county seat or the utilization of existing facilities.
and that those individuals be substantially involved throughout the process and that we also have a shareholders -- excuse me, stakeholders, that was a typo, a stakeholders advisory group that at the end of each phase this advisory group would hear the prospective of the consultant and before it comes to Commissioners court to move into the next phase, those stakeholders review the material and weigh in and have their opinions heard, and we would go through a process that we would assure ourselves that the court would know what that -- those opinions are.
and that is in a nutshell what we're here before you and ask your approval of that process.
and I refer to my colleagues to my left and my right who are the ones that are on the line.
I'm here as your resident priest.
>> any additional comments?
>> no, sir, other than just this has been kind of an interesting process that we've gone through and I think that this approach is going to move us forward and I think that we'll probably be a year or so down the road once we get the final product.
some things that we still are going to be working out in terms of the overall contract as we move forward, as we hand that baton, as christian has said it.
I think we're going to go through all of those areas and those issues, but I think this is a good plan before you and I think that it's a executable plan.
>> why do we believe this plan would enable us to achieve success?
>> because -- alicia perez, executive manager for administrative operations.
what you have before you is a collaborative effort that involves the -- and these are the departments that work for you.
and as you so keenly stated, judge, we work for the Commissioners court at your direction.
so this is what we believe is a collaborative process.
it maximizes the in-house talent that you have.
you have engineers -- roger khoury for one, but the thesis, ph.d.
in engineering.
you have architects with master's in architecture.
you have estimators.
you have people with a lot of construction.
and planning, you have in p.b.o.
people with planning experience.
so all that maximizes and utilizes your in-house expertise with your -- the expertise that you are going to contract, the specialties, and it brings you, we believe, the best product, oversight over the contract, good collaboration, and finally a good product.
we will be partnering with the courts, with all elected officials that are in the -- in this campus along with the purchasing agent, the auditor and appointed officials also in working out all the details of this because this is a very broad overview.
all the details will need to be worked out and we will all of us as a team work on a collaborative approach to bringing you the best product possible.
>> let me take a crack at answering that also in a different way, and that is that I think the key to the success, in addition to having the internal county staff organized to do what alicia is saying is to secure a consulting team who will come in and who can say, you know, in denver we did it this way.
over in chicago, it happened here.
in albuquerque, they faced similar circumstances, and here's how it was addressed.
a courthouse was developed in this kind of physical constraint and it didn't work when we did it in miami, but over here in tucson it did.
we don't have that expert here.
we have a tremendous amount of experience, but that specific experience of -- or expertise in the development of a downtown master plan in a constrained arena with things that are called capitol view corridors and financial constraints, it's all doable, but we need help.
and I think the success is going to be driven by the quality of the consulting team that comes in and their experience in successfully not producing a report, but in successfully producing a report that resulted in successful buildings with happy clients.
and that should be the criteria, in my view, of the selection, and hopefully a year from now we will have not just a report but we'll know where we're going.
>> questions or comments from the court?
>> tell me -- give me some schedules, some ideas of some times and time frame here.
r.f.q.
when do we think -- because obviously we've got to get this consultant before we really start any of this phase a, b and c, correct?
>> yes.
>> yes.
>> absolutely.
>> what would your guess be r.f.q.-wise, how much time would they have to respond and how much time would we take in order to determine that person -- or that team?
>> leslie and belinda have done a great job as far as putting together a shell of the r.f.q., and I would anticipate that we could probably, if court approves what's before you today, we will immediately go to work to finalize that, so I would say within a month to six weeks we could probably be back before you with the r.f.q.
to go out and then go through the normal process.
>> so by the end of July, first of August have an r.f.q.
back?
>> no, out.
>> I mean r.f.q.
back to us for us to look at.
so six weeks for y'all to put that together.
>> I would think that's a reasonable time frame, yes, sir.
>> okay.
and do you think that you can do that competently -- I mean obviously you are going to do it competently, but do you really think that gives you enough time -- because I would think what the r.f.q.
is really going to be extremely important in what kind of consultant we're going to get.
>> there are multiple drafts out there already.
>> okay.
>> and the issues inherent in the r.f.q.
are not insurmountable.
they might require a couple of conversations with Commissioners court or, oh, by the way, we've got 25 things in the r.f.q.
and here are two that we want your guidance on because there's two different ways of doing things and it's not right or wrong, it's just which is our way.
that may happen within that six-week period of time.
but my guess is and my prediction is if it happens, it will be very limited to a very simple, straightforward a, b, which do you want.
>> okay.
and then how long would it be on out on the street?
>> I think that that question we really need to work with our purchasing department to time that because it will depend on, I think, several things in terms of the national perspective, the ability of firms on a national level to team up with perhaps local firms to put together teams. Because usually on one of these contracts what you have is national firm and they might look for a local partner or a Texas partner.
so I think we probably need to work with our purchasing agent to determine that.
I think we briefly talked --.
>> okay, well, let me say something about that.
if it's 30 to 45 days on the street, that makes --
>> as we approve it, isn't it?
it will be brought to court and we basically will set the time we think it's reasonable.
if it's typical, 30, 45 days and we think it ought to be longer, we sit it longer.
if circumstances mean it should be shorter.
but I see the court collaborating with staff to make that decision at the appropriate time.
that's how we always do it, isn't it?
>> absolutely.
>> sometimes we have a whole lot of time so it's longer.
sometimes we are kind of constrained so we're shorter.
>> yeah, the point I'm really trying to get to is -- and Gerald, get to it, all right?
>> I didn't say that, but I thought it.
>> yeah.
>> [laughter] simply put, I want there to be enough time for people that are going to want to respond to this thing to really have the ample time to really give us good response.
now, I would think that if we put the r.f.q.
together and it goes out, usually what happens is within a couple of weeks you have all of these people that are -- that have picked up the packet come and say, uh, guess what, I mean we can't competently give you what you really need, and by the way, we've got some opinions that you may not have asked something in r.f.q.
that you needed because I would think that we're going to get a number of people that have done this before.
and we always find out from those people that you're not asking this and you better get this in here.
so we kind of huddle back up and say, okay, let's stick that in too and that goes out to the 14 people that picked it up.
so I really think that this is such a huge deal for us that I want there to be enough time for this thing, for y'all, for the three of y'all especially because y'all are going to be the ones looking us in the eye and say we've got a good -- we've got a good deal here.
but so I'm not -- when I ask you these, don't feel like, okay, we have to give him the shortest time period.
I really want there to be ample time to get the right folks.
>> one other thing, if it goes out on August 1st, the you have 45 days, that brings you to middle of September and there are some people who are trying to put the budge total bed including yourselves in the middle of September.
if you do 60 days, that would take you to October 1, and October tends to be a time when there is a little more breathing room for everyone involved around the county.
there may be a very nice schedule to be able to just be a little bit more liberal on it.
>> just give yourselves enough time to make sure that when we have -- when we really start looking at these folks, that everybody that really wants to participate in this can honestly say I had enough time to really get you a good, competent proposal back.
because I hear more often that it's, well, we really didn't have enough time to do that.
because I do think that some of these people are going to come back to us and say I really do think that you need this and you don't have this in here.
>> I agree.
>> I probably could have said that a lot faster, judge.
>> plus, you are going to have sticker shock.
this is not going to be inexpensive.
>> well, excuse me, and we can't afford to take shortcuts either.
we need to take our time trying to do everything just right.
because it is going to cost money, and we need to do it right the first time.
>> I think once you get the consultant contract back or the consultant work back and we move into the various phases beyond day, I think what you are going to find is the end result will provide a good -- a good road map, if you will, to begin that facilities planning piece that really starts to identify logistically some things that everyone has been wanting to see for quite some time.
and so, you know, I think the time line for the consultant, obviously there's going to be some consultant interview process that's going to have to be done.
and then -- and then we've talked about even bringing some members of the court in, whether you want to do that or not do that, those are decisions that will have to come back to the court on at a later date.
>> that will add some time to it.
>> [laughter]
>> so we've looked at all of these other areas that involve getting under a contract and getting moving, but obviously consultant interviews and things of that nature, it's going to be very important in making this decision because we want to feel comfortable with the company that we go with.
>> and that's a good point because indeed you will have your four to six weeks for us to bring the item to you.
you may approve it the first time or deliberate on it a couple of weeks.
you'll have it out another 45 to 60 days, and then you have an evaluation process.
and so you're looking at that, and then the contracting, the contract negotiations.
so there's different phases even to getting the consultant on board.
>> any comments from anybody in the audience?
staff?
>> I just hope we view this similarly to the way we're viewing the new financial system and the reason we get the facilities is for the people to get the work done and that's a significant part of -- I mean there's the process of buildings and planning and all that, but ultimately they have to work for the people that are in those.
so I am hoping that the people in them have significant input as to timing, interim plans, you know, the entire project because it will impact everything that's done in the county in the downtown area.
and so they were saying they were going to have a stakeholder committee.
I absolutely agree with that.
I think when we look at projects that went well, the people that were using it will intimately involved in projects that did not go well.
they were not as involved or didn't take the responsibility.
so I'm hoping that we will do that this time because it is critical that the facilities work.
it's an expensive investment, it's long term and we have to give it a lot of thought and it needs to work.
I'll help in any way I can, that's for sure.
>> if that doesn't happen, then your colleagues to the left of you should have their necks choked and my neck first.
>> sure.
>> that's our responsibility to make sure that people are comfortable, or if they are not comfortable, then their voices are heard.
and the decision-makers are the ones that will then hear that voice and say yes or no.
and that's what we're supposed to do.
and if we're not, then somebody needs to --
>> a lot of emphasis over the years, we've had persons to come here at the last minute, they may
>> [indiscernible] but maybe something that we needed to consider.
but ever so often, and regardless what subject matter, we come in with things, there are folks that sometimes come in at the last plant.
and we want to be up front with all of this, we want to make sure everybody is involved up front.
but sure as we're sitting in these chairs today, there has been instances in the past that persons have come in with some concerns and that's what I fear more than anything else is that type situation.
>> and our job is going to be to try to predict that.
for example, the downtown Austin alliance, the chamber, the city, our neighbors, people who are very active or concerned about what happens downtown have their voices heard.
and not have, you know, hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of consulting time be expended and have a nice report and internal staff has said yes and all of a sudden it's delivered to you and things happen and you get blindsighted.
our job is to make sure you don't get blindsighted.
and if that happens, you should be holding us responsible or understanding why it happened and accepting it.
but that's what we're supposed to do.
one of the things is to make sure you're not put in that kind of experience.
>> okie-doke.
>> move approval of the joint proposal.
>> second.
>> discussion?
all in favor?
that passes by unanimous vote.
unfortunately we did not recess yesterday's meeting, we adjourned it.
so we are not able to discuss the legislative coordinator.
I realized that early this morning.
we will only have three members next week.
we can talk scheduling without posting, I'm told.
but so we may be looking at July 1, but I asked hrmd to go ahead and get the work done that they were working on, try to get that to us this week or as soon as possible.
we can get this specific information we need to make the decision and we're looking at it being on the court's agenda July 1 when we'll have four members, or July 8th.
at some point it becomes critical to move to the next step, if we can.
>> and judge, mr. Hilgers will be out of town from the 8th through the 15th of July.
>> that's the one that can wait.
>> and it might be good to wait until he gets back.
>> that's fine.
but on the legislative coordinator position, you know, you won't be here July 1st, right?
>> right.
>> you will be here next week, but we'll only have three.
week after that we'll have four.
what I've been saying to staff is if we got four, you know, fine.
three we probably ought to wait if it's significant.
>> I'll see if I can rearrange for next week and be here.
if that would be a help.
>> I won't be here next week.
>> do you want us to go on without you on the coordinator if Commissioner eckhardt can be here?
>> I'm not sure.
if you can wait, I'd rather y'all wait.
>> all right.
go along with your plan, then.
>> okay.
>> move adjournment.
>> second.
>> all in favor?
that passes by unanimous vote.
and growing gap between the pay of constable sergeants and law enforcement sergeants for tcso.
a few years ago we pride a comparative analysis of the constable sergeants with tcso sergeants and lieutenants.
this information is still relevant today.
we are called on to provide supervisory and management functions on a daily basis, same as sergeants with the sheriff's office.
we work with and supervise the deputies in the field as well as in the offers.
we are responsible for training, equipment inventory, and maintenance, internal investigations, accident investigations, employee evaluations, promotions and disciplinary actions.
we deal directly with the public on issues involving contact that they may have had with dentist during the course of their--deputies during the course of their duties.
we deal with lit gants involved in volatile civil matters concerning child custody issues.
we have daily contact with any number of state and local agencies that depend on us to provide answers to questions about anything from landlord tenant relation to kidnapping and family violence issues.
we work diligently to make sure we get the job done with the resources provided by our budget.
always with an eye toward the next fiscal year, trying to forecast a realistic budget for our department that we can all live with.
when the constable and chief deputy are out of toup or otherwise engaged, we sergeants are responsible for representing our office and making decisions in situations that would normally be delegated to a lt.
or captain.
in shorst, the pressures, frustrations and responsibilities of our positions are no less than those of a sergeant at the sheriff's office and therefore we feel the compensation should be the same.
thank you very much.
>> thank you.
susan sullivan.
I think that is the last name, county attorney's office.
ken husha.
precinct 3.
>> ken rush.
>> ken rush.
your time.
and greg pabst will be after you, and dietrich knot will be after greg.
good evening.
>> we're all on the same page here, good evening everyone.
I've been a constable since nine and I must state that I enjoy what I do and the different facets of the job, which as you previously heard, processing, eviction and patrol.
ation the deputy stated some citizens are unaware of particularly our function as well as some law enenforcement agencies, thanks to my experiences over the last few years I have seen some of those unfamiliar starting to become all more aware of our capability as peace officers.
we conduct pa trolce of neighborhoods during various shifts including weekends and holidays and during a lot of these patrols we assist other agencies, the sheriff and apd, sometimes with calls involving pursuit or everything.
a lot of times we're at the location wherever a call is put out or broadcast over the air.
from that, being able to interact well with other agencies creates a hidden confidence to know that we are peace officers in the state of Texas.
when the issue of pay parity arises, I or the other ones here can give you story after story of the some of the dangerous situations we have been involved in.
you have heard a lot of them like I mentioned, pursuit, arresting dangerous felons, everything.
last year you saw a video production.
I must state that the main deal is the growth in population of the city, things are changing and we're getting a different flux of people in the city.
you're probably seeing on the news more incidents.
maybe we're not responding to those but the city of Austin is seeing a lot more homicides and things and sometimes we are first responders to things like that.
things are changing.
whether we go to a door involving a civil paper or eviction, those people don't know what had a constable is just see a badge and gun, and there's no telling how they are going to react.
the only thing we can hope for is a peaceful interaction with those people thank you.
>> thank you.
>> thank you for hearing us out tonight.
my name is greg pabst.
I've been a bless officer since 1998.
when I had black hair.
so I've been here a while.
I don't know that I can say to you guys what these other ladies and gentleman have not said here tonight.
as a supervisor, the at precinct 3, I'm responsible for up to 18 deputies not including support staff, every day.
make decisions on where it of excuses, warrants--writ of executions, warrants, civil, and day-to-day paperwork coming from the court.
we deal with safe streets, we go out and do child i.d, kids, which we are doing tomorrow during the parades, and just every day scheduling.
I get phone calls up to ten, 12, one o'clock in the morning just like a lot of other supervisors in other departments do.
am I compensated for that compared to other ones?
absolutely not.
it shows.
you all have the paperwork.
I don't know if anybody here can convince you of what we really do and how important this is and how professional these people are here tonight.
we have people from apd, one that is from out of state.
unbelievable experience.
they do this job because they want to.
and they do it at a lower pay because they really do care about their job and about Travis County.
they could go outside, could go to Round Rock, could go to other department to get paid more.
they do it because they love it here in Travis County.
I will put any of these guys I don't care if it's one, two, three, four, five, I'll put them up against anybody.
they are here because they want to be.
for you guys to recognize, and you have the control to listen to these people and give them some sort of pay increase and make them feel and make them valuable in Travis County.
I want to give me time to the rest of these guys.
thank you very much for hearing me out, what little I could say.
I appreciate it.
(changing captioners.)
>> I've been working with Travis County for 14 years.
when I started with Travis County, we were making nine dollar and something cents an hour.
I thought that we were going to another level of professionalism within this county.
I love the job that I do, as many of the men and women you see standing at this wall.
so many times we are compared to the other law enforcement agency in this county.
I don't know about anybody else, but I particularly don't like being compared to other law enforcement agencies in the county.
and the reason being is that I know I'm a law enforcement officer and a peace officer and I know that you know that.
but I think that what needs to be distinguished here today is that our job, what our jobs are and how important they are.
I don't think that you need to be told that we're peace officers.
I think that you know that already.
but I think that there needs to be an understanding on how volatile our job is or how dangerous our jobs are with the minimum equipment, the minimum operating budgets that we have to do our jobs.
we go into homes that we know nothing about, pursuant to court orders.
court orders that are issued by Travis County and other various counties that surround Travis County.
we go in there to seize money, we go in there to seize personal things that belong to other people.
we also go in and seize people's homes and we sell them.
in the socioeconomic structure that we're in today, that can be a volatile situation.
and we're placed in those situations often times by ourselves, alone, with no help from anybody else.
a lot of us don't even have communications.
we rely on clerical staff and our office to answer the radios.
so we don't even have that a lot of the times.
so a lot of the times we're by ourselves and we're placing ourselves in harm's way.
everybody be in here luchz on -- everybody in here loves what they're doing, but I think when a problem comes in is when you start appreciating one peace officer more and then another one.
and I would humbly ask the court this evening to really look at the law enforcement community and just look at what we do for Travis County as a whole.
everybody plays a part in county government.
the sheriff's office has their part that they're playing and we have our part that we play.
and it's not any less important.
so this evening I come to ask that you consider that.
thank you.
>> thank you.
jessica huerta.
and she's the last person that I have who signed in.
if anyone else would like to speak, please come forward.
we'd be be happy to get your comments.
>> after hearing everyone, you certainly have your plate's full.
I'll make this belief.
everyone has stated what I'm about to stay now, everyone in uniform, everyone here, thank you for coming and representing your department.
once again, thank you Commissioners court.
we come not as uniformed men and women of precinct 2 and others, but as fellow citizens and friends.
we simply ask that you listen to our voices to share the same hope and pride of working in an equal opportunity establishment.
not just as employees of law enforcement, but as mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers.
our area has grown, yes, it's true.
policies and procedures are changing.
this is 2007.
many things have come about that are improving the necessity of the lives of our fellow citizens as well as our own.
however, the Commissioners court does need to ask themselves, are we assisting our law enforcement, all law enforcement?
should they be commissioned equally as they have for many years prior.
deputy constables have never hesitated to work a o.
a police need, whether it's criminal or photographic.
I know I myself have been there.
there are people that come up and say what do you do because the name is different.
but the badge and the belt is the same.
we are here to protect and serve.
I stated I was going to make this brief.
your attention has been most gracious.
your actions will be the voice for all is, all deputy constables that are here today.
your actions will make the difference today.
thank you and have a happy further of July.
>> I'd like to thank the Commissioners cowrlt for listen to go owe Commissioners court for listening to all the deputies.
I'm not prepared for all the deputies -- without all them I am nothing?
I'd like to thank all these guys for coming out here.
you hear their outcries.
people need compensation.
I get emotional because these people work hard for the people of Travis County, and you hear the outcry of the people and it touches me.
you see them workday to day, their lives and their iv heart.
it's time for Travis County to show respect and take care of the deputies of Travis County.
these people, like I say, without them, I am nothing.
I am only one man official of Travis County, be and without the support staff and without the deputies, I am nothing.
I would like to thank all these deputies for coming out, and you see a unity here and it's hard to explain from time to time but to see what they go through and the heart they put behind it all.
I am very passionate about this because these people do need to respect from you guys at the Commissioners court to show us some love because these guys work hard.
and I go day-to-day out here and work myself, but there's no way.
one man can't handle this.
without the support of Travis County, these deputies need our help.
they need to show that they're compensated, they're equal, fair and equity throughout Travis County.
like we've said in the past, I've lost two deputies to Williamson county.
it was all over a pay issue.
I'd like to ask you guys to really listen to these deputies, take the time out, each one of you, to come out to our precincts and listen to us.
and come out and ride with us.
it's all about money, but it's not all about money.
it's about the heart people put behind it.
and these people put their lives on the line everyday.
I commend call for the compensation packages for the insurance be and everything else, and I thank y'all for listening to us today.
>> [ applause ]
>> last call for anybody else, whether you signed in or not.
I move that the public hearing are closed?
that passes by unanimous vote.
move adjournment.
that passes by unanimous vote.
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Last Modified:
Tuesday, June 17, 2008 2:31 PM