Travis County Commissioners Court
March 31, 2009,
Item 31
>> 31 is to receive update regarding the membership and agenda for the county clerk's 2009 election study group.
>> good morning, judge, Commissioners.
appreciate being here.
all right.
what you have before you in your backup is a list of the folks who have agreed to serve on the county clerk's elections study group.
when you look at this list I think you will be so impressed with two things.
first of all, the breath of the way we have -- the breadth of the way we have reached into the community to pull what turns out to be about 40 people together so that we can have a conversation about something that is pretty emotional, and then have this group address the questions and come up with an answer to advise us for the future.
that's our goal and that's what these folks have signed on for.
it's going to be a little bit complicated to operate a committee that's that large, about roughly 40 people, a few more.
but we have some rules for respectful treatment and how to conduct a meeting.
i've also gotten moderators to help me with this, people who really know how to run a meeting.
and they're going to be stepping in when we need to have either small group discussions or the larger group discussions.
the way the meetings will work is everybody will be -- each group will have a representative at the table, and they are by simple show of hands, we will figure out what our consensus points are and where we need more study, more information.
there is an audience that's welcome to be there of anybody else.
this is an open meeting.
and it will be taped, audio vaipped and -- and videotaped and minutes prepared.
so if you ever want to know what items we're considering, perhaps considering and then even rejecting, but what I want them to do is come in with an open mind, let's look at everything and then start trying to answer to the question how do we want to treat voting for the future?
what's it going to look like to fit our lives in the future?
Travis County doesn't get the opportunity to do this kind of preplanning, needs assessment kind of work.
we're going to get the chance this kind and I'm very pleased that we will be able to do this.
you also have a copy of the schedule.
i'm trying to be extremely careful about how we use these people's time.
it's a group of extremely busy people.
we're very fortunate to have them.
you can see we've tried to cull this down to about six or seven meetings.
i'm asking this group to donate approximately one afternoon a month to this project.
and we hope to be able to bring you back something solid, a report that says here's our opinion about how we should go in the future.
i'm tickled pink that we've got those folks who are willing to work on this and they seem to be enenthused to consider something like this and try to think about it for the future.
i'm exceedingly grateful to the folks who have volume volunteered their time and I think it will be a wonderful exercise.
>> questions?
yes, sir.
>> well, pardon me, but I signed up for that and I never got any notice.
am I included?
>> no.
however, -- not on the people that are sitting around the table; however, you're welcome to attend in the audience at any time.
>> why was I excluded?
>> I didn't exclude you.
i went through the community and picked out people that represented a broad cross spectrum and I have folks from all walks of life.
so I'm sorry you didn't make the cut.
we do have a more than 40-person committee.
there's a lot of representation there.
i think you're going to be happy with whose on the committee.
>> I'm devoted and I am willing to spend an hour a week or month or whatever you all are talking about.
and I don't know if --
>> and thank you.
i had many more offers than we could accept, which is -- that's the great thing about Travis County.
so it means -- it means thank you to you, but I had a full house.
>> okay.
well, I tried to participate.
thank you very much.
>> you're still welcome to participate.
>> thank you.
any questions?
>> it is a very broad spectrum.
>> thank you for saying that.
we really tried to reach out to everybody we could.
and that's why it's so big.
but I think it's important to bring in all these folk.
>> thank you.
>> thank you very much.
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 24, 2009 1:42 PM