Travis County Commissioners Court
March 17, 2009,
Citizens Communication
>> > good morning.
let's call on order the voting session of the Travis County Commissioners court.
Commissioner Eckhardt is out today.
she will miss the entire we have no postponements, which is either good news or bad.
citizens communication is first.
and this item gives residents an opportunity to address the Commissioners court.
on any matter not on the agenda for up to three minutes.
and we have five residents who signed in.
gus pena is number one.
ronnie reeferseed is number two.
morris priest is number three.
>> good morning, judge, Commissioners.
gus pena.
i'm not representing anybody, but if anybody in the community asks for me to relate something, definitely with great honor and pride I will.
first of all, capital metro battles death load.
capital metro I believe out of $91 million that was supposed to have gone to the city -- I'm sorry, of $91 million in the fund, 47 million according to the paper was supposed to have gone to stint over the next 12 years.
what happened here?
if a bus driver would have committed some sort of offense, he or she would have been reprimanded or fired.
in this case, Commissioner Gomez, you are the chair of the capital metro board of board of directors.
last time I called in to the federal officials to investigate improprieties at capital metro, I don't know if we have to do it again, but I'll be more than happy to call the local f.b.i.
office to --
>> I think they're already looking into it.
>> please let me finish without interrupting.
be professional about it.
the issue is this is that stlr a lot of things that are going on.
fred gilliam claims that y'all knew about the situation.
that's not acceptable to us taxpayers.
a lot of us are experiencing tough economic times as well as everybody else.
this is not acceptable when our bus drivers are being disrespected, disciplined for things that they should not be disciplined.
i feel strongly and a lot of people do too because I was asked not only by employees, and I won't mention names, and the community that something needs to be done.
if mr.
gilliam failed on his watch to do oversight, then he needs to leave and be fired or reprimanded.
this is not acceptable to the community or the taxpayers.
i get angry when this type of issue occurs and we have people out there dying of hunger, homelessness and other things, but because a man who is supposed to be professional does not do his job in an appropriate manner.
so that's where I'm coming from on that, Commissioner.
i'm hoping not just looking into it, but taking some strong action because people want accountability.
let me get off my tangent.
veterans need our support.
suicide rates are high, unemployment is high.
disconnection and ptp is a high level with returning veterans from afghanistan and iraq.
i have a lot of family members having problems.
health care, jobs, mental health care are need bid our veterans.
whatever your position is on the war, I served during the vietnam war, whatever your position is on the war, please have support for our veterans because when they come back they have a lot of problems and not getting help from our government that our veterans deserve.
the stimulus package, I have met with the chair of the oversight committee that's handling the stimulus package dialogue.
one of the things I guess we're going to meet with jay kimbro of the governor's staff and one of the things holding up is the perceived high compensation money coming in for businesses and that's what's holding back the stimulus package.
i told the governor this and the lieutenant governor, don't play political games with the lives of people.
>> [ buzzer sounds ] I'll cut it, judge.
the stimulus package will help the economy, help people on homeless issues and help the children and youth programs.
thank you very much.
i'd like to speak when the nixon family comes up here, but please, oversight, please, because this is a federal statute.
this is federal money.
thank you very much.
>> thank you.
mr.
reeferseed is next followed by mr.
priest and third now is linda Moore smith.
>> okay.
thank you, judge.
i want to ditto everything my friend gus pena said.
i'm ronnie arriverseed.
and happy st.
patrick's day.
rejoice as the state of mexico leads the way.
yes, it's true.
the u.s.
of mexico this morning announced new tariffs against the u.s.
in retaliation to the congress of the u.s.
because earlier the congress had for once listened to the u.s.
public and thus allowed that previous temporary agreement of partial invasion of the u.s.
highway system by unsafe, unregulated mexican trucks to expire.
thus it is no longer okay or legal for those unsafe, unregulated mexican trucks to invade our nation anywhere.
mexico said today that we cannot did he fi those unsafe -- defy these unsafe trucks to our highway system because that denial of access violates nafta.
the most important provision of nafta allows for the u.s., mexico or canada to at any time unilaterally withdraw from the treaty.
here it is, people.
now I believe the u.s.
has the ways, means and motivation to unilaterally withdraw from nafta.
the u.s.
public demands it as reflected by the u.s.
congress, no longer extending temporary allowance of unsafe, unregulated mexican trucks access to the u.s.
highway system.
the teamsters demand it.
now protecting their own jobs as truckers, thus organized labor is now helping to save our nation.
therefore those huge multinational corporations who have been shipping the u.s.a.
manufacturing capacity to china, mexico and elsewhere are going to have to reverse course.
and imagine the economic benefits that will come with the return of our manufacturing capacity here to the united states of america.
we will actually begin to silence that giant sucking sound that our very own texan super patriot ross perot ever so wisely warned us all about.
it is true perot was right back then as he still is today, we cannot survive as a nation with absolutely no manufacturing capacity here.
that's a fact.
god bless those teamsters for standing up in protection of their own jobs.
protection is not a bad word, despite whatever our controlled media has been saying now for decades.
in reality, today tariffs still exist as they will always exist to somewhat compensate for the different cost of manufacturing in different parts of the world.
that will always exist.
the same way mexican trucks are unsafe and unregulated, so are factories all over the world unsafe and unregulated by u.s.a.
rules, regulations and environmental standards, there by we shall no longer punish our workers for our own environmental regulations that reflect our own more thoughtful stewardship of life on our garden planet.
let us all rejoice in our own protectionism of joy in life on earth through tariffs so we can all be proud that --
>> [ buzzer sounds ] I'll stop there.
thanks again.
>> thank you, mr.
reeferseed.
mr.
priest and then linda Moore smith and company.
and adele noel.
morning.
>> morning, judge, Commissioners.
my name is morris priest for the record.
you remember when I came before you before when they had the October campo meeting, I and others called campo and told them that they could not have this meeting to put this toll road in because they hadn't had four public hearings.
so when we got to the October meeting, senator watson pulled the meeting and he said we had to have two meetings prior to this toll road vote.
and then of course it sounded like everybody was playing golf because myself and everybody he was stles saying four and he said we'll let campo staff decide.
so sure enough the campo staff and the ctrma drafted a statement of purpose and they had a public comment period that lasted from November the fifth to November the 19th.
we had the December the 1st meeting, no public comment period, violating the rules and federal and state laws.
december the 1st jeff mills stood up and said let's not do this vote on this toll road.
we got this money coming from the obama administration.
let see if we can use that.
he was all but told to sit down and shut up.
mike hyle again stein from the ctrma said, they're already spending the dollars before this vote was taking place to use the funds from 183-a to fund the toll road on 290.
ms.
lawn came to the meeting, the vice-chair with a mouse in her pocket and said we've already had four public meetings.
then in January senator watson comes out with this letter and says by June 13th, 2007 rules we're required to have a 28-day minimum comment period, another violation.
they did not adjourn the meeting, no comments were taken.
at the January meeting the vice-chair and the chair were voted back in along with two lame duck members, mike krusee and gerald dawr try formerly of this court.
january the ninth we have this meeting and kickoff and the senator tells us we want to reach out to you, where you live.
and so we didn't get to have that meeting because campo had another posting error.
and the meeting was canceled.
then March the 2nd we go down and they had this stimulus conversation about the minutes.
then they approved the minute to show that all these documentations, which I brought before the court, here is the posting errors, here is the campo documents, here is the resolution letter.
remember when I got the letter from judge sutner from hays county, and then when I go to the txdot meeting and tell them and testify in front of their meeting the gentleman that sits next to me, he gets called a big got in the meeting.
i showed all these things on record.
i did talk to the department departmentof public safety and e talked to ms.
wright.
she said that -- I asked her to have the director, the colonel to listen to this meeting.
you never know who is going to listen to these meetings.
then we go down and talk to txdot.
i lay all this information out.
they vote this money in knowing that they violated all these rules.
and then sure enough --
>> [ buzzer sounds ] -- March the nine the we hear from cap metro at the meeting, thanks to invitations that they received to discuss the problems that they're having, and so the revolution will be continued to be told by us.
thank you very much.
>> thank you, mr.
priest.
linda Moore smith.
>> good morning, linda Moore smith director of human resources.
with me today is chris norson, I think most of you have met him.
to my right is dana hass, a new employee with hr.
dana has been on staff one day and a couple of hour now.
she's coming to hr from seattle, washington, coming to Travis County from seattle, washington.
she actually had worked with the seattle state human right commission there as an eeo employment investigator.
her role with Travis County will be in the area of, of course, employee relations and working not only with managers, staff on complaints, investigations primarily, but working with us to basically take a look at our overall grievance, disciplinary process and to work with us on strengthening continuous employment opportunities, policies related to that and really expect that dana with her experiences and dealing with managers and employees, training, mediation, unions and all of that with the state human rights commission will serve us well.
dana in her first career, I would say, is actually an educator.
she graduated from Texas a&m university and actually served as a teacher coach in high schools around the houston, bryan, college station area.
so in many ways dana is coming back home.
and I would certainly say that her skills as a coach, team building, coaching, leadership and all of that, as well as her legal expertise will serve us extremely well.
we actually recognize that this position is very, very critical to Travis County.
as a result of that, we in terms of moving through the interviewing and selection process and chris nielson to my left here as I mentioned and pretty much spearheaded this on the part of hv.
we engaged a broad cross-section of individuals across the county to participate in that process.
it's very important to me that I take advantage of this opportunity to express my appreciation for their involvement.
there were over 170 applicants for the position, nationally recruited and posted positions.
we had an interview team that dris led that -- that chris led that consisted of donna holt in tnr.
john carr in facilities management.
mark spak with counseling and education services.
nancy gill with health and human services, naomi bailey with the county clerk's office and of course as I said led by chris nielson.
that group after the 170 or so apps were screened, that group actually pulled in a group to do an interview, to complete that process and then referred to the second interview team, which consisted of executive managers donnie hobby as well as alicia perez, the county attorney's office, barbara swift with the juvenile probation department and of course myself.
so from that process we were able to come up --
>> [ buzzer sounds ] -- with the most qualified applicant for the position, and that is dana hest to my right.
so we present dana to you, the court, as well as the Travis County family.
>> welcome.
>> thank you.
>> welcome.
>> would you like to make any comments.
miss smith did use her full three minutes.
since you're new we'll give you additional time.
>> I'm happy to be here, I am.
>> looking forward to working with you.
i think I was here six months before I met as many people as you.
>> [ laughter ] you've met them in a day and a half.
we're appreciating that.
we look forward to working with you.
>> I look forward to working with you.
>> welcome home.
>> thank you.
>> ms.
noel?
>> did morning.
i'm here to -- good mortgage.
i'm here to talk about a commute solution survey available to all Travis County employees and to ask for your support in completing it as well as Travis County employees.
this is very important commute solution survey that's available online and will be going out again this week.
it went out last week.
and fortunately so far we've had 25% of the Travis County employees complete it, but we need more participation.
the importance of this survey is to devise strategy for commute solutions options for the future for Travis County employees.
i've heard that Travis County employees, they want to car pool more.
they want to know more about bus routes.
they would like free bus tickets, but I need the data to support this.
so that's why I'm here to ask for your support and the county employees to complete the survey.
>> and actually the bus passes will not be free.
Travis County will put up the money to purchase those tickets.
>> to see the interest if we should provide this service.
what is the best use of our funds.
and putting together seminars.
thank you.
>> we encourage all employees to complete the survey.
and the Commissioners court should complete the survey also.
we'll take the lead.
we haven't done it yet, have we?
>> no.
>> we'll take the lead after today.
thank you very much, ms.
noel.
>> thank you.
>> that does it for citizens communication.
we need to take the next three or four items in the order that they appear.
then we will go to number 20.
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, March 17, 2009 1:35 PM