Travis County Commissioners Court
November 25, 2008
Item 25
>> 25 -- 25 is to discuss and take appropriate action on Travis County participation in the creation of an Austin Travis County sustainable food policy council in collaboration with the city of Austin. Good morning.
>> thank you, Commissioner.
>> still councilmember martinez and councilmember morrison.
>> councilmember morrison were privileged and honored to co-sponsor a resolution last week at city council with member leffing, well to create a sustainable food policy board. This is not something new, it's happening in cities all around the world. This is a recommendation by the world health organization and what it -- the basic concept is the sustainable food policy board will make recommendations to us as policy makers as to how we maintain locally grown sustainable food products in Travis County and the city of Austin. We know that it creates a better health for our community. It has less impact on the environment. It promotes local jobs. And this is just something that we believe is a little step forward that we can make in terms of keeping things local and keeping things locally grown here in Austin. I'll turn it over to councilmember morrison.
>> it's great to be here and thank you, Commissioner, for coming to the city council meeting last Thursday. I just want to add that since we passed this motion at city council last week, there -- it's stimulated a significant amount of interest from citizens and it's heartening to know how much expertise we have in the community on sustainable food issues, and I think that having a citizen board is really going to help elevate the conversation and our awareness and potential actions that we can take to become a more sustainable community. So I hope we can partner on this.
>> Commissioner Davis and I both sponsored this resolution.
>> thank you.
>> and we're very excited about participating in this. And as councilmember morrison so aptly pointed out, we have a tremendous amount of expertise in the community that this council is designed to tap into. We are tapping into a vein of expertise that otherwise doesn't exist inside government. And as mentioned in the previous item, we are two different governments with two different sources of revenue, two different statutory breadths and reach and so the tools that will come out of this effort, some will will be applicable to the city and some will be applicable to the the k some will have a county-wide reach. Others will be much more geared toward a cities reach. And I really look forward to that collaboration. Staff has been a little bit jumpy about this, particularly in the county attorney's office, in regard to our statutory authority, but to asuage those in the community that the county is stepping up to the plate on this, that we're excited about this and to be mindful of what we are able to do at county government. It's quite amazing what we can do, but it requires a lot more collaboration.
>> along with that -- see we can agree on some things. There are some things we do agree on. And with that, if you can help us in any type of way get through this drought as far as getting water from some of these folks, there are some folks that want to participate but, of course, when you have cattle ponds that are going dry, people are not even able to water their crops to produce the kind of food that we're trying to -- trying to get to as far as sustainable food, produce, that is a major league problem. And so if you have any ideas on how we can acquire water to assist in this initiative, we would really appreciate your input.
>> thank you, Commissioner.
>> do we need to chat with knew executive session to cover legal issues?
>> that might be a good idea.
>> we'll have to do that this afternoon. Our goal is to try to make this happen.
>> great. We thank you all so much for your time and consideration.
>> judge, can I ask a question?
>> yes, sir.
>> you all, the -- you don't have to worry about me after five weeks, bear with me two more minutes. But I just want to make sure that -- that we're not setting ourself up for something to where we don't -- we may not be able to identify right now the unintended consequences because some -- as you all know, I mean as a body, an elected body down there, like we are here, sometimes you get snared in. We didn't really mean for that to happen. And I just want us to be very mindful that something that sounds as global -- I mean when you start talking about sustainability and you start using some of those key words today, who wants to take you on. It's like are you a nut? Why would you be against that, Gerald? But I do -- it makes me a little nervous to give something that's sort of so broad to where what you have is a relatively small group of people that could come and kind of hold your feet to the fire and say, no, you said you back in 2008 you voted for this thing and I -- and I'm holding you to that 11th whereas. I mean for example whereas always makes me a little nervous, review availability and recommend measures to promote preservation of agricultural land in Travis County. If you are the birdalls and you are farming and you like it, but all of a sudden, you know, you hand it over to your kids and your kids are kind of like I'm not really into pecans, I mean as a matter of fact, I might really want to sell that land, and I can remember us talking about things like this when we first started talking about with envision central Texas and everybody sitting around at those 35 tables of 10 and people said, well, that area is an agricultural area and it will remain an agricultural area. When you can argue that may be sound to say, I mean that area produces a lot because of the kind of soil that it is and that's what it needs to be. But what happens if you -- if you are the third generation and you just had the baton handed off to you and said, okay, what do you want to do? If you are like hey, this thing says that agriculture, go good on the tractor because that's your job. And the community says that's what they want to happen. So I want to be mindful that we're not, you know, getting something set up or putting something in place here to where that might be the case. I mean I would like for, you know, obviously a lot of us may not still want to be here in 25 years, but I'd like to have the ability to be flexible for those future folks, and I think they probably would be able to be flexible to say you know what, this does trump that, so I'd just like to be on record saying it makes me a little nervous to be so encompassing and when you do these resolutions, you like to do this so you kind of let everybody know that we're really doing this for the right reason, but sometimes the right reason turns out to be -- gosh, I wish we would have taken that whereas out.
>> any other comments? We'll take this into executive session under the consultation with attorney exception tuned open meetings act. That will be this afternoon. Thank you all.
this morning we indicated our intention to call item no.
25 in executive session.
25.
discuss and take appropriate action on Travis County participation in the creation of an Austin/Travis County sustainable food policy council in collaboration with the city of Austin.
this is under the consultation with attorney exception to the open meetings act.
we have returned from executive session where we discussed several items. Beginning with number 25.
the matter involving the proposed resolution with the city of Austin regarding sustainably food policy council creation.
and we did make some changes to the resolution proposed.
and as far as I know, the -- the current draft is satisfactory.
>> yes, it is.
motion by Commissioner eckhardt, seconded by Commissioner Davis, move approval.
>> yes.
>> discussion?
all in favor that passes by unanimous vote.
we will communicate that to the city of Austin representatives.
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Last Modified:
Tuesday, November 25, 2008 7:18 PM