Travis County Commissioners Court
February 3, 2009, 2009
Item 17
Number 23 is to consider and take appropriate action on the formation of the county clerk elections study group for the purpose of studying and making recommendations for future Travis County voting systems. I have received a request that we postpone action on this until next week, but I thought it would be good for us to lay it out today, have a discussion.
>> thank you, judge. I'm happy to do that, brief the court on what the idea and the mission is and then we can take action next week is fine. All right. First of all, what I'd like to do is I'd like for us to form a citizens group very like the ones that Travis County has done twice before when we had to study whatever kind of election system we wanted to move forward for for the future. So we had some experience with this before. We would like to have a group that studies the laws and procedures that are required right now of us and then take that and the kind of system that we have, take that base knowledge and then apply it to a review of whatever else might be available to us for the future. The system that we have right now was purchased by Travis County approximately seven years ago. We've had six years of really positive experience with our electronic voting dre, e-legislate voting system from hart intercivic. Lots of people really love it, but there's also a group of people in our community who are asking legitimate questions about, well, how does it work in an electronic world when you have a recount? What happens when you have to go to court to demonstrate what you've done or to prove up a particular ballot? We have also had those situations and Travis County has been able to fully say a court in whatever question they would like for us to answer. So the citizens' input approach has been really good for us in the past and I'm anticipating it will be good for the future. The way we would like to structure the group, the study group, is I'd like a broad cross-section of people from Travis County, and we look to people who are serving on the committee for their willingness to commit some time -- this is going to be a time commitment. This is not a particularly easy committee. You will be spending some time studying if you're one of those folks. But I'd like to have democrats, republicans, libertarians, green party. We are also in partnership with the city of Austin and Austin independent school district and many of the other, all of the other jurisdictions in Travis County, we would certainly want them to have input on the study group. We would want to make sure that we absolutely comply with the americans with disabilities act, which is of course federal law and that gets our attention when we have to comply with federal law. Certainly we would like to have other folks have a seat at the table too, including vote rescue, which I'm happy to invite to come and join the group. They have one specific thing that they would like to talk about, and -- but I think it's entirely appropriate for the citizens group to hear that commentary. Then you have the list before you of the broad range. I don't think we have to go through everything right now, but we certainly want to have a group of -- usually it ends up being about 25 people, so it's a manageable size, but it's certainly a large enough group that we can cover lots of different opinions and yet people who are capable of asking questions, thinking very logically and then proposing options for the court to consider for the future. Now, the options that I'm hoping we will bring back to you will be the system that we have right now has a life of about 10 years, so there's no imminent problem that we're dealing with. We're right on schedule to go ahead and talk about what we're going to do for the future. So all is fine in that department. There's no problem for the court to step in and solve at this point. We're just trying to plan for the future. So we're approximately 60 years into the 10-year life of a voting system. We can certainly replace early, we can replace late. We can make changes. I think this group will be able to come back with a variety of options for the court to consider. And then of course we will all have to be cognizant about taxpayer dollars, how to -- the timing of the spending. If we wanted to make any kinds of adjustments. So by getting the citizens group in, you get nice balance between reviewing the whole world of the latest in research and development for various approaches to voting for very large communities. You know, as well as our own local preference for how we want to vote and when and how much money we want to spend on that. Just a couple of quick things for the court to consider. I serve on the federal elections assistance commission. We will certainly want to make sure that the latest that's coming out from the federal level be a consideration for Travis County in its research of where we're going to go for the future because we wouldn't want to jump out and be too far ahead of any federal standards that are coming either from the eac or from laws that congress passes. And there are bills that are being filed that we're watching right now that have to do with election systems. So we don't want to jump out too far ahead of the standards, or if we do decide to go ahead and make a step in -- in a particular direction, we're going to want to make sure that it's at least justifiable in the sense of we believe this is what the federal government is going to ask us for for the future and then we will be in a position that if the federal government offered us reimbursement for going to a different kind of voting system, we could absolutely take advantage of that. So anything we do needs to consider that federal money very well may be available to Travis County and all of its partners to address issues for the future.
>> as well as money coming from the federal government. Would that be a similar type situation if the federal government in its -- in its legislation determine that Travis County and any other county, any other place that deal with voting in the nation, would have to do certain things. We really don't know exactly what -- how that's going to go at this time. And I guess the question I need to ask is the tracking of it and how this may intertwine into what we're requesting you to do as far as your committee and all these other things, the study group and all that. So it appears like it's going to -- it going to be several moving parts in this, dana.
>> that's a very good point, Commissioner, absolutely. We are trying --
>> yes.
>> we are trying to include flu shot just a best guess, but a really educated guess about what the future is going to require of Travis County for voting systems. And those will come from the federal government and our own state legislature. We've got dietz on staff right now so he can help the court follow our state legislature and then the -- certainly the eac reports I can provide back to you, we'll let you know where we're standing with any federal requirements. So I think we're positioned to watch carefully what's coming down and I think we're in a good position to know what those expectations would be for the future. We could use a little more detail from congress and the legislature before we made a final -- make a time pick. Or I don't mean to suggest that the court might decide that they do -- I want to leave all options open. Using the current system that we have for however long the court wishes is very much an option available to us. What we're trying to do is consider what's best for Travis County voters really is all we're trying to do here.
>> exactly.
>> so yeah and also the research and development, the way this has worked over the last few years, the research and development of a lot of the equipment -- manufacturers of voting systems -- and there are about five of them in the united states, more or less. A lot of their research and development has been stalled they've not come up with any new products over the last couple of years because they've been trying to second-guess what congress and state legislatures are going to do. That has now begun to resolve itself. We're seeing more research and development happen with those companies. And Travis County will be the beneficiary of that latest thinking. Certainly if we wanted to consider paper options for the future for those who would like to -- for cs moving that direction. Those are all options on the table. Okay. I think that gives you kind of an overview of what we're trying to accomplish this here. Once again no action for you to take today, but I certainly am interested in getting ideas for people who are willing to contribute their time and this will be a commitment of time to helping us figure out what we should do for planning for the future. And I'm open to questions, and you may have comments from other members here.
>> any questions for dana debeauvoir?
>> just the simple fact that I know it's hard to put your arms around the whole picture when you've got other moving entities, moving parts such as the federal government which I brought up earlier. And again, trying to get a good cross-section of persons throughout Travis County is a task within itself to serve on this particular committee. So it just appears that it's going to take some time. If there are -- whatever those options are, I guess they need to be depicted and then maybe looked at even further in detail after whatever they're recommending. I don't want to screen out the federal government if they're saying this is what you've got to do. That's important to me when they say they're going to put money on the table. They pay for it.
>> certainly our taxpayers would want us to pay attention to that.
>> I'm quite sure they would.
>> we're watching that one like a hawk, absolutely.
>> thank you.
>> if you would like to address the Commissioners court on this matter, please, sir come forward.
>> I just had a brief question. For one I wanted to applaud dana debeauvoir for giving us these options or at least talking about them. And I could briefly testify of my own experience, but mostly I was wondering how does one as a citizen get involved or get on the citizen group? How does one sign up?
>> do you want me to answer that for you? The structure of this group is this is the Travis County clerk's study group. So I will be appointing the members from the group. And I will take --
>> I would suggest something different. I think that if a citizen wants to participate, they should actually contact their Commissioner for -- and express their desire and willingness to serve and what specific interests and skill sets they would bring. Because that's one question I had.
>> thank you. The idea is that it's open. If you want to contribute your time, talk to us. Call you, call me.
>> because I'm wondering if in regard to the credibility of the committee overall. And I don't mean this to be at all -- there should be no inference in this statement at all, but I think perhaps it would be better to cast this as a citizens' advisory committee constituted by the Commissioners court rather than by the county clerk. I think that that might be a better casting overall for the mission. I wanted to get your input on that.
>> I don't have any disagreement on that, what you just said, Commissioner, but whatever comes up out of this particular deal, the Commissioners court will have to approve it. So --
>> you will be the recipients of the report.
>> we will be receiving it and whoever is on this committee, my goodness, I'm going to look at it with a fine-tooth comb. If I say hey, this looks good to me, then I don't have no problem with approving it. So it will have to be approved by the court.
>> and I mean no inference whatsoever about that suggestion. I just think that it might be a better way to frame the committee.
>> and I appreciate what you're saying. I want to think about some of these ideas some more too along with y'all, but having the best committee we can get of people who are willing to contribute time is absolutely going to be in our best interest.
>> absolutely.
>> anything further?
>> I want to thank you for the suggestion. I'll be talking to my Commissioner later. My experience with running for office here in Travis County was my experience with the voters on a one to one basis, every voter person expressed support for what I was trying to do, but oddly enough that was not reflected in either, a, the media coverage, which I got zero, zero. I got mention understand the statesman one time. And it was not reflected of course in the vote totals. I came in third. And the guy who defeated me, dr. Moritz, he chose to drop out. Leaving the opponent unopposed. Which was not good for anybody. I think we need -- in November we need at least two choices to choose from.
>> instead of being on this committee, should you spend that time on your next campaign?
>> [ laughter ]
>> I have a question that I'd like input from dana regarding the point at which expert advice would become most advantageous? Because I'm of two mind sets. This is not a rhetorical question. I really don't know where I should be on this. One approach is to make this purely a citizens advisory committee to identify issues for an -- for our consideration to put to an expert. The other is to include experts on the committee in either a voting capacity or an advisory capacity. And I wanted your input on that.
>> yeah. I think it's incredibly important that we have engineers and computer security experts. We've also included folks with those kinds of -- that kind of knowledge in the past. I absolutely have every intention of including security experts for the future. And we've got plenty right here among our Travis County voters. So there are some people who have worked with us before in helping us identify the issues and look at options for the future. I'm going to ask people who have served before if they would like to come back because we get their base knowledge. So it could be that some of the expert that have provided us with their brains in the past will come back and help us again. So part of the structure of that committee is to absolutely include -- is to include engineers and computer signists. And -- scientists. Just as a last note, as the chair of this, here's how I intend to run the meetings. We want it to make sure courtesy and respect towards all the members is maintained at all times. That we have a free discussion and exchange of ideas, and that's any idea, at heeft to start with, and a complete sharing of information among all the committee members. We'll want discussions to stay on topic and are kept on schedule so that all the items can be covered in each of our meeting and that we can keep our meetings within the time commitment that we've asked of our members. We want our discussions to be based on fact-based evidence and analysis. Anecdotal is not that helpful when you're really trying to make a technical decision is what I'm trying to say. So we need experts to help us with that. And I'm talking about experts like people from ieee, people from the university of Texas. We can find people right here in town who have good knowledge of computer systems in other applications and then what we do is we take their advice and apply that to the elections world.
>> speaking of people right here in town, we have two to your left.
>> hi.
>> I have something I'd like to pass out to all the Commissioners. May I do that?
>> okay.
>> we received a copy of the agenda that dana produced for --
>> give one to the clerk.
>> we met with the judge on Thursday, thank you, judge, and received a copy of this document that dana is working from. And since then our vote rescue group has been meeting to review some of the language, and these are our recommendations for a few changes to help clarify a starting place to work from. And we were trying to arrange a meeting with our county clerk this week to review this, and that didn't -- we're here now, so that's what we're doing. I believe this is the first time dana has seen our suggestions.
>> I haven't each seen it yet.
>> you have a copy there?
>> I do. I'm about halfway down the page.
>> okay. Just a few clarifications. The document really doesn't make much sense unless pairing it with the backup material that was submitted as part of the agenda request. And I'm assuming that all Commissioners have a copy of that request in front of them? Okay. And like jenny said -- first of all, my name is Karen renik and I'm with jenny clark. We're representing vote rescue, for the people who may be seeing this from home or seeing it later. I want to say that vote rescue is a citizen-based organization that has been working for the last four to five years educating voters about voting and stressing that transparency is paramount in our voting procedures. We maintained that secret vote counting done by machines is not transparent and therefore we promote hand counted paper ballots with enhanced security measures. We also have a coalition called texans for real elections, which is growing everyday. Our organization is on the web. It's vote rescue.org for anyone interested in getting in touch with us. So as jenny said, we didn't find out until very late yesterday that this would be the venue in which to offer our comments and recommendations to the backup material that was provided. And to our knowledge the backup document, I assume, will be accepted, voted on or whatever. So we just wanted to be sure that there were appropriate -- that we felt comfortable with how things were being present understand that document. So we do have a do things that we would like to bring up. I don't know if this is the right venue or not, so I guess I'll leave it to the court. We can go through each one of these now and discuss them or how would you like to proceed?
>> if I were you, I'd hit the highlights. If that can be done.
>> well, each one is pretty important.
>> we can hit the highlights, but we would like to know how these things will be incorporated or if not, what discussion can happen on the different items.
>> I think it's fine to hit the highlights. We'll start with line 1. When we met with the judge, I said gee, I really like the fact that we agree on number 1 for the mission that Travis County voters have an accurate, fair and accessible voting system. And we recommend adding the language secure and transparent to the public to that. That's one suggestion. And on number three of the mission, we recommend any time we're listing a list of concerns, we want to be clear that, yes, those are some of the concerns, but they are not limited to all, every single concern about security and voter intent and so forth. The section that we recommend deleting is titled Travis County's in a strong position to work from, although that may be true, I think that problems that we had with this language was that it assumes that there's been an apparent history of success. And so you can either change the language there. I don't know. That may be --
>> we felt that it really wasn't based on actual fact, but that it was really more anecdotal. Because there are a great number of people who would disagree that the county has had a sixth year of success with the voting systems that they've been using. And that also goes for the fact that no system failures have occurred. We disagree. I mean, our coalition disagrees that there are no imminent problems or that any emergency action needs to be taken. We believe wholeheartedly that emergency action must be taken. So we do take exception to that. We're not going to quibble over the fact that Travis County is regarded as a national leader, but we can certainly accept that because we know dana has -- and her county work here has been reviewed and presented at the federal level. And then I guess the fourth one is that to say that the study group, the use of the study groups have a history of success. I guess we also beg to differ because hart intercivic machines were selected and we don't consider that to be a successful selection.
>> and along the lines of the study group, a lot has been -- it was discussed briefly towards the end of dana's presentation that this is somehow a citizens group. And I kind of beg to differ. There are so many experts and people from the secretary of state's office and I'll just go down the let's that things like sit ens are definitely a part of it, but I just sort of beg to differ that it's not truly a citizens' group. So I'd rather maybe just maintain the title election study group or whatever. Okay. Some more highlights. Let's see.
>> on the background issues.
>> we'll just go down. I don't see any problem with that. Let's see.
>> again, any time we list a concern, we want to mention that those concerns are included, but not limited to the concerns that are listed. On point number 4 --
>> that's correct.
>> on item 1 in background issues, questions of -- we talk about some of the concerns include, but not limited to, questions of interpretation of voter intent, and we're recommending deleting the language on optical scanner paper ballots because questions of interpretation of voter intent can occur on basically any voting system. And to limit that discussion to just those two voting systems, we thought was -- might be simpler just to leave it open questions of interpretation of voter intent. So that's why we recommended that -- deleting that portion of that sentence. Let's see. Where are we now?
>> I'll take the next one. The next one has to do with there's a paragraph in here that talked about a careful review of different voting systems will be required. Which we totally agree with. We on line two of this, they're talking about the -- that the committee needs to have a working knowledge of the different systems that have been certified by the state and federal -- at the state and federal levels. But we also wanted to add that we believe this committee needs to actually look at the certification processes that have brought these certifications. You know, what have these certification bodies, who have they been, how have they been regulated, etcetera? There's a lot of important information in that regard, so we would like to include that in the scope of the study.
>> I think on the whole these are very reasonable suggestions for changes to the document, and in regard to that specific change, I'm wondering from a time perspective and from an authority perspective, and we fond that the certification process was just a complete scandal and utterly useless. We don't have the authority to change that. I wonder if you would be amenable -- instead of adding reviewing the certification process itself, to simply recognizing that that's our floor. Do you see what I'm saying?
>> does that mean no information about the certification process can be brought into study?
>> well, no. My concern with making that one of the tasks of this subcommittee is that even -- no matter what we find in that task, we as a governmental body have absolutely no ability to not do what they require, but we as citizens of course can continue to advocate at the state level or the federal level for change, but I am concerned about scope and confining this to what's doable for Travis County governments.
>> well, maybe it falls under the category of meeting topics because there are quite a few meeting topics that are presentations in order to bring information to the attention of the committee. So it's something that could be talked about in probably 10 minutes to get the impact of how scandalous the certification processes have been.
>> although don't you believe that what is doable northward to secure -- in regard to securing our voigting system is covered in other bullets without charging the committee with an investigation of state and federal certifications?
>> well, it's not meant to be an investigation. Let's see.
>> > as well as reviewing the certification process itself.
>> could you let me offer something here? On number 13 in your list, we do intend to -- presenting basic information about what both the federal and state certification processes are. So this will be discussed by the committee. You have to know at least a little bit about the background of how certification works, so we have every intention of -- that has to be part of our floor, as you say, our basic information. So everybody has to be up to speed on that. I completely agree with you, Commissioner, that even -- Texas actually has a reputation for actual having a good certification system. I think either way it doesn't matter to Travis County. It is what it is. We must comply with whatever their certification is. And the committee will be looking at how that process works. So it is already included, but we will not be specifically making recommendations to the state about their business. We're going to be talking to Travis County about the voters' business.
>> I totally agree. We're not here to make recommendations to change the process. It's simply to bring to the attention of the people on -- that are part of the study group about the certification processes both at the county -- I mean at the state and the federal level.
>> and I don't at all intend to minimize y'all's concerns in regard to the efficacy of that process. I'm just wondering if -- I think that those concerns can be raised under number 13 and I'm reticent to make it a -- I'm ret sant about even implying that that's a charge of this committee because I want it to be useful, actionable stuff for us.
>> we're fine with that.
>> we just didn't want that point to be overlook is the reason we ut putt that in there.
>> that's fine.
>> we felt in line 5 where they're talking about that the key negative aspects of each system may also be required, we would like to suggest is that may be changed to must, also be required.
>> in the second to last line in that paragraph, the main categories of systems that will be reviewed are hand counted paper ballots, optical scan systems, with and without precinct counters and electronic voting in parenthesis with and without a voter verified receipt. The proper language for electronic voting machines that spit out a piece of paper is a voter verified paper trail. A receipt I am please that there's a -- implies that there's a piece of paper that the voter takes home and put in your pocket like a grocery receipt. So I think that the language needs to be clarified so that we all understand what we're talking about from the beginning. It just -- it's a semantic point, but it's something we've been talking about for a long time. It was frustrating for us that that was -- that language was still being used. So that's another recommendation that we have. On meeting topics, number 6, 7 and 8, our concerns -- our question was who makes these presentations of real life practicalities, which we're supportive of. We are recommending that no vendors make these presentations. So that's one concern we have is that we don't want this to turn into a vending sales presentation.
>> would it be appropriate simply to identify them as such so that the members of the committee could weigh the credibility of the information for themselves? Much like you do in a court, you understand someone's -- what side they're on and then the tryer of fact can weigh for themselves how on owe how much weight to put toward that evidence.
>> well, dana, maybe you can answer what vision you had for those presentations.
>> Travis County always has it had vendor independent. We're unlike a lot of counties in that we program our own ballot, we do our own testing, our own auditing. We've never revied lied on a vendor. So for the past two sit sin panels we've had, we have had presentations from the vendors on products that Travis County might find useful. I think to cut the vendors out of it is why would you want to cut yourself off from the fact, but on the other hand I'm not interested in a bunch of sales presentations either. That's not what this is about. This is about trying to establish a base knowledge of exactly what a particular system will offer to our voters, and so we may need presentations from every single vendor, I anticipate. That's what we have done in the past is we learn from them what the products are and what the product is. And then we talk to other counties that are actually using it. That's -- so it's a basic information we'll need from the vendors. Cutting out the information isn't a realistic approach, I don't think, but I do recognize that I'm not interested in a sales pitch either.
>> we're not suggesting that vendors aren't brought in at certain points. In fact, under number 11, which we have no problems with, that sample vendors -- the intention is to sample vendors's presentations of systems that are of interest to the committee. That's fine. We did offer an adjustment in that language just to allow that if there are other entities other than vendors that have something to present, then perhaps they would be able to present that to the committee. We have no problem with vendors appearing before the committee.
>> and briefly again, as a citizen, I would echo the same thing that it's not limited -- we don't want to exclude anybody, but that includes both sides. And not limited to vendors only. There are certainly things that -- what the vote rescue has been talking about, that's not -- it doesn't even require a vendor just to have necessarily -- maybe it does, but to use ancient voting technology that is still used all over the planet for paper ballots and visible voting boxes. In fact, that's how it supposed to be as far as I understand. We're supposed to be able to not only watch the people vote, but watch the votes sit there in the box and nobody is messing with that box and then -- we should be able to watch that box all the way to where it's being counted and all that kind of stuff, which is not available with these various vendors that I know about, these electronic voting machines. I don't know if vendor is the right word, but another advocate for maybe ancient technology on just basic voter fairness.
>> the last piece on a possible meeting topic, we thought it said we would suggest adding that a presentation be given to the committee that recognizes that very extensive, comprehensive investigations have been done by both the state of california and ohio that have looked at the very same voting systems that we use here in Texas, including hart intercivic. And we that I it it would be extremely valuable to bring in -- to at least present what those findings were and those two studies. So we're recommending that that be added to the presentation topics.
>> there will be a lot of studies that this group will have to read through. There are quite -- there's quite a bit of research that's come out of the universities that's relevant to the committee members establishing a base knowledge. So absolutely. There's a lot more than just this one. But I don't have any problem including that one. I tend to include several of the big studies.
>> okay.
>> and on the committee structure, time line and rules of conduct, I think overall it looks very good. Thank you, dana, for including vote rescue as one of the member groups. There may be other member groups and I appreciate Commissioner Eckhardt's suggestion for citizens who are interested in participating to contact their Commissioner, so that would be my next question is how exactly does a person -- do you get invited, do you get appointed? How do you get -- if you're interested to participate in the study group, how does that process work? So that's a step forward is for interested people to contact their Commissioners of. I wonder if there's a way that we could also make recommendations to the county clerk for some names of suggestions of specific individuals that we would recommend? From our group? Group.
>> I think you would have the authority to make recommendations. At the same time, I don't know that we guarantee that they would be taken. But if the goal is to get 20 or 25 committee members, my guess is there would be a lot more than that indicating an interest in serving.
>> I have a question about the fact that under the listing of the committee members that under bullet number 5 in which we're listed, it lists vote rescue, people for the american way, naacp, lulac and/or common cause. We were concerned that this would lock in just those groups. We know of other groups who are extremely interested in this issue here in Travis County that it would be a shame to have them left out. And so we were hoping that there could be some discussion about other groups that --
>> I'd make the recommendation. It does say among the member the county clerk will seek to include representatives from the following areas.
>> we just didn't know how definitive. Once hs voted on as backup material, we don't know whether this locks in things or not or whether they're still --
>> I don't know that I approve would limit it. It would seem to me that once the committee starts functioning, then you would take the steps necessary to produce a good product.
>> okay.
>> well, judge, a suggestion is maybe just to include -- including others as well or leaving it kind of --
>> my response of make the recommendation, whether it be accepted or not is another question. Even I don't know that.
>> so who does a person make that recommendation to is the question?
>> I'd send it to the county clerk.
>> all right.
>> and who makes the final decision about who is on the committee?
>> well, you've got categories of -- professional categories represented here, not specific individuals. And the way I see this, the language implies that what dana will try to do is contact these associations, agencies, entities, try to get them to send a representative. Now, it wouldn't surprise me if some of them said basically I don't have anybody with the time to spend on this. Thanks for the opportunity. So in that case -- if there are associations or groups that you think should be represented that are not, I'd just make a recommendation to the county clerk. Unfortunately, I have absolutely zero experience doing this, so don't send it to me.
>> okay.
>> and dana has been through at least one of these. The last one I know, two. So I think that part of this is kind of trusting us to try to do the right thing. Now, we know y'all have been a little crosswise with dana on some of this election stuff and maybe with the Commissioners court also, so I do think that y'all should be represented on this committee so we can get your input. At the same time, though, if you've got 25 or 30 people trying to do the right thing, I don't know where they will end up, but I do know there will be various resources available that the committee ought to access, consider and basically rely on to make recommendations to the Commissioners court. But ultimate for us is generating the funding to implement the recommendation assuming it's another system of some sort.
>> would it be fair to say that during the course of this next week -- because I'm assuming that the voting will occur on this next week. Could we make our list -- it not going to be a long list, but at least present this list to dana and then that list is nen brought up for discussion next week before the voting so that at least the Commissioners can hear the groups that we're suggesting and we can discuss in an open setting as to the pros and cons of each of the groups.
>> your concern is completely understandable. I hear where you're coming from. And I think that over the course of the next week through discussions with the county clerk and also keeping us in the loop on that, we can refine this -- these bullets here to come up with the categories in advance that everyone feels are comprehensive and provide this committee with the greatest credibility moving forward because certainly we all share that goal. So I think that we can land on bullets in the next week that are specific enough while not so restrictive as to tie the hands of the chair of the board.
>> great. Thank you very much. And then the last one, which is the list does not include representative from the Travis County Commissioners court. We think that is a very good idea. We just throw it in there.
>>
>> [inaudible - no mic].
>> send any ideas to dana, copy the court.
>> okay.
>> if we need to discuss them next week, we will. Okay?
>> thank you very much.
>> no problem. I will need to take this into executive session. I have one or two legal questions. That will take place this afternoon.
>> also could I ask procedurally if we -- I think Commissioners court passed this in word -- has this in word so we can do a red line version. Do you all have it in word so you can do it --
>> no, we do not.
>> that might be useful.
>> yeah, not a problem at all.
>> great.
>> now, if I could get court members to check their calendars over lunch, see if Wednesday morning is available. Commissioner Gomez has to chair the capital metro board meeting Wednesday afternoon. So in fact that is not a good one. Thank all. So in fact that is not a good one for her, but let's check on Wednesday morning, okay?
>> 2-25, in the morning.
>> I move that we recess until 1:30. All in favor? Nrs that passes by unanimous vote.
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Last Modified:
Tuesday, February 3, 2009 2:36 PM