Travis County Commissioners Court
July 1, 2008
Citizens Communication
>> citizens communication is next, this item gives residents an opportunity to address the Commissioners court on any matter not on the agenda. Charles williams. Followed by gus pena. And followed by joe, I think it was joe that just spoke, right. Just in case joe wants to speak further, joe will --
>> good morning.
>> good morning, judge Biscoe, Commissioners, I'm charles williams, t.n.r. Environmental. We would like to talk to you today about the 23rd annual Lake Travis parks cleanup that happened last Saturday June the 28th. Takes a fantastic success for the last 23 years. I have to say it would not be successful. We have a tremendous partnership with lcra, they could make it today. But jim woford, keep Austin beautiful, Travis County, I was representing Travis County. Quick test to present -- this is a t-shirt. They are bright, they are vocal, that's what we want, we want everybody to see what we are doing. I have also given you another t-shirt with clean sweep. I want to let ilana pick up the rest.
>> good morning.
>> good morning. I just want to thank you judge and Commissioners for supporting this events. Again it's in its 23rd year, totally self sustaining. Through sponsorship with eagle construction. This year we had over 350 volunteers that cleaned up nine of the parks that surround Lake Travis. It was a very successful year. The volunteers we love to hear their comments about what they find in the katrina. Bottles and cans, but our goal is to get the parts pristine clean, also to get the public out there to enjoy them. Had year we had several scout troops, our oldest volunteer was 80, which -- our youngest just turned two. Fun facts from the event.
>> and that's really all that we have but --
>> how much -- by weight how much was collected this year.
>> about 1.7 tons. Every year we keep coming down and down in tons that's a good thing because these parks are getting cleaned. They are looking great. We have the underwater cleanup coming up September the 7th. That's our huge event, about 1100 people participating. So -- so we keep doing this, we are going to keep on getting the tonnage down that's what we want, we want our parks clean, we want people to come out, take ownership. That's what we really preach hard. When you come out, come into these parks take ownership, we do, they say these are our parks folks, we say yes they are, help keep them clean.
>> not just a once a year opportunity. Leave it better than you found it.
>> exactly right. That's what we try to preach, right to present to them.
>> keep up the good work.
>> thank you very much.
>> thank you.
>> gus pena, again, number one, good news, the president signed the g.i. Bill of rights, thank god for that, because what it specifically stated before, before the -- before the new amendments to the bill the proposed bill was that -- that we veterans if -- if something happened to us, passed away, then our spouse and/or children, our children would receive the benefits, also, thank god that passed by, thank the legislators, senator jim webb, a good friend, vietnam veteran. Please, this is not the time to have a rate increase. This is the -- this is a pretty bad time as far as the economy, I told the city council we are in a slight recession last November. We are getting ready to get into a -- into a worse situation. Now, one of the things that I commend you all here at Travis County is that you all don't freeze jobs. What does that do? It opens up jobs for people that need jobs. City council I'm not going to slam dunk them. The issue is if you have a job freeze people are not able to be hired and get themselves out of the financial situation that they are in. Having jobs available to apply for them and be viablely employed is very important in this stuff economy. We are going to be in a bad situation next year. Please, don't raise the hikes, I mean, you are talking about a 30 day pass from $10 to $18, who are the need do, have nots, senior citizens, youth, cannot afford this, they cannot. They are barely not able to buy vegetables or fruit to sustain a healthy lifestyle. Please spurt our troops, we have a lot of troops coming back with ptsd, mental health issues are not being treated. Being investigated by goa, also the secretary of veterans affairs. A lot of people that are not seen at the -- at the veterans clinic on montopolis driving to brackenridge hospital e.r., put a further burden on our budget. Hurting the community, hurting them. Some of us were drafted, some of us volunteers for -- for military duty. I just want to say this, old ram mad did a hotel was converted into a sro, single room occupancy, outstanding, beautiful, but they forgot about the families. Not enough units for families. Whenever we approve this type of funding for srro's to upgrade, remember the homeless families. Not enough units for homeless families, plenty of sro, not enough, need more, but sro is the mandate, we need housing for homeless families. Judge and Commissioners I'm going to say this, I said it before. Thank you very much for your adequacy, your support for all of the issue that's we come here before you. I ask god to give you the strengths, courage, can I see, we need the help, god bless you all, thank you very much.
>> good morning, again, as you know Travis County has been conducting a survey, a public opinion survey about -- about county land use authority. We've had it on our website now for almost two weeks. This morning I would like to basically announce a last call. We're going to close down the site Wednesday at 5:00 p.m., we will have it open today, open tomorrow then close it to allow the consultant to tally the results, all of this will be put into a summary report and delivered to the Commissioners court at your work session on July 10th much. So again I just want to give public notice that they have two more days to -- to lodge your opinion on this issue. Thank you.
>> thank you. Thank you, joe, thank you all.
>> anybody else for citizens communication?
>> judge, I'm somebody else. Hi travis, happy 2 --
>> state your name for the record, please.
>> I have never done that before. Okay. Good morning. I'm jennifer gale, candidate for the united states house of representatives for the 21st congressional district, one which you are now holding this Commissioners court meeting. Hi travis, happy 232nd birthday to the people of the united states of america. County judge Sam Biscoe, Commissioner Margaret Gomez, Gerald Daugherty is not here, Commissioner eckhardt, my Commissioner Ron Davis. I served in the united states marine corps to maintain our sovereignty which we are giving up to other countries. To not take away the sovereignty from countries like iraq and iran. The v.a. Clinic I think we should take the -- take the -- the license from the doctors that are serving there. They are not in the emergency clinic, they only separate a few hours a day. So -- so our -- our personnel are not getting served here in Travis County. Capital metro, there's -- there's a two tier system that's -- we have already lost half of our drivers from before according to one of the people that works there. We need a five year contract. Something that's temporary. The last three years, we've had a year contract, this makes one year without a contract. Johnston high school, how did we lose johnston high school? 25% graduation rate. Where was poder and lulac. I have been asked them for help to help johnston high school. Where were they? Fairness doctrine. This is a democratic county, where is democratic radio. You don't hear it unless you go to kzi. You simply don't hear. All that you hear is hatred and vitrol on the radio. This Commissioners court was 19 minutes late but at least you are in session. The Austin city council doesn't meet for several weeks, at least you are here doing the hard work. That city council meeting held an inauguration for the people of Austin and yet they only allowed 250 people into the council chambers. Then had he had a little party over at antone's. So we have a city in Travis County that's not being represented. Let's get people into the big sister, big brother program. Let's let our children know there's boys and girls clubs out there, to get them into boy scouting, girl scouting to learn all sorts of things that they are not going to learn in the high schools. It be go good to discuss the cdbg make sure that they are properly used. Again happy birthday united states of america, thank you.
>> thank you.
>> thank you.
>> anybody else for citizens communication?
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, July 1, 2008 1:51 PM