Travis County Commissioners Court
March 31, 2009,
Citizens Communication
Citizens communication is first and this -- this gives residents an opportunity to address the court on any matter not on the agenda.for up to three minutes.
ronnie reeferseed has signed in.
as has gus pena, and dale noel, those three in that order.
>> okay.
>> [indiscernible] I'm a little disorganized, I'm sorry.
okay.
well, good morning, citizens, this is ronnie reeferseed, and that's right, fellow warriors, now is the time for all of us to just say no to violence, yes to peaceful demonstration of political beliefs.
by golly last week missouri law enforcement decided to demonize Ron paul enthusiasts and protectors of our sacred constitution as terrorists.
the backlash only helps our nation because many, many people now understand that not voting for ob/gyn dr.
ron paul last year was a huge mistake.
yes, our very own ob/gyn Ron paul just keeps on keeping on and pay attention, people, campaign for liberty.com, www.ronpaullibrary.com, online sources for truth.
here's a weekly toll free call for freedom to dr.
paul that will blow your mind, yes, it's true that calling dr.
paul at (888)322-1414 weekly is a -- he's a walking, talking founding father among us now, obviously, your job, check out dr.
paul's ideas.
and again the campaign for liberty.com, Ron paul library.com, dr.
paul for decades has been delivering babies, over 4,000 so far, saving our constitutional republic from bush, clinton, obama, et cetera.
rejoice, people, because with news from this mexican drug war of violence, sooner rather than later, we the u.s.
public will demand that we cancel the continually counter productive war on pot smokers and hemp enthusiasts, imagine being able to help from an illegal crack down and helping our nation grab ahold of freedom.
here's a teachable moment for everyone simultaneously here at home, we can help save family farms, conserve good honest, police officers while preserving topsoil to help feed our entire hungry planet and for your information, within each and every hemp marijuana seed is each and every aminoacid digestible by mankind.
vegetarians of the world unite behind absolute freedom for farmer to help feed our hungry future and help liberate our organized crime thugs from a huge cash cow called marijuana while helping doctors obey their hippocratic oath to help their patients.
thc is a non-toxic that it is impossible to od on marijuana and hey I've been trying for for decades, but it cannot be done.
kids, your childhood is a gift that all adults spend the rest of our lives trying to recapture.
in fact that's why so many of us take drugs.
don't waste your childhood trying to imitate us foolish adults, thank you very much.
>> good morning, judge, gus pena, judge, my appear position to you because last week I omitted your name from recognition of having spoken to mr.
overton regardless the morris williams golf course.
my apologies to you, judge Biscoe who was in conversation with mr.
overton I appreciate that very much.
capital metro fred gilliam president and all of the individuals that were involved in inappropriate decisions of the 110, $111 million that was used inappropriately, we are siege the resignation, whether it happens or not, that remains to be seen.
we have asked the Texas sunset advisory committee staff to do a review of the agency immediately.
i think it is incumbent upon mr.
gilliam and others to resign.
some of us -- they do these appropriate type of transactions we would have been asked to resign and been investigated or maybe incarcerated.
capital metro still publish rides over there, I hope that this review from the sunset review committee will bring up awareness and bring up some corrective behavior by these individuals.
dropout rate will be higher.
kids failing taks, algebra, geometry, if we don't do something real quick we're going to lose a lot to the system and the gangs are ready to enroll these kids, I use these facetiously.
we still have the ability to improve voter confidence.
last count 556 homeless veterans in Austin, Travis County of which 76 homeless veterans have families who are homeless that I personally know about.
social service agencies don't have funding available to help homeless or other poor, needy or havenots.
if possible again I ask respectfully please increase the allocation of funding for social service agencies but evaluate the agencies for effectiveness and let's ensure the majority of funding does -- the funding -- the majority of funding goes for direct services and not administration.
we have a lot of top heavy administration officials at all of these agencies, can't allow that to happen, direct service funding.
we need to prepare our youth for employment and to be able to succeed in today's tough, vicious society.
let's ensure that the youth have life skills and support to succeed in life as productive members of society.
it is incumbents upon us to provide mentors and tutors for them, please if you can volunteer, donate some time for these kids, we need to keep them in school so they can become productive members of society.
we have a -- we have urged the new superintendent of aisd to review, revise and improve our methods of instructions so that all students achieve scholastic excellence and strive for higher education.
ladies and gentlemen, I will make this statement right now we have crime on the increase.
i have told the city council this and chief of police and if we have to, we will bring the f.b.i., atf and dea like we did back in 1984 to ensure this is a city that is safe for everybody.
thank you for your leadershipship, god bless you keep up the good work.
>> noel is next, dan mansewer is after ms.
noel and after mr.
mansour is craig
>> [indiscernible]
>> good morning, I'm here to invite everyone, the court as well as the county employees to a solution seminar that will be held on Thursday, this very room starting at 2:30.
at this seminar you will learn how to save money and cut back on your commute and help the ozone -- prevent ground level ozone by commuting through bicycling, ride sharing, car pool, riding the bus, all options will be discussed at this seminar and I hope that we have a big turnout for that event.
secondly, tomorrow starts the ozone season.
it runs from --
>>
>> [indiscernible] start.
>> > at 2:30 p.m.
on Thursday.
>> 2:30, thank you.
>> and tomorrow ozone season keeps off, runs from April 1st through October 31st, just want everyone to be aware that it does begin tomorrow.
lastly, the survey is still open for Travis County employees for one more week about commuting to work, how you commute and what options we can do for you.
that's all that I have to say, thank you.
>> thank you.
>> thank you.
>> mr.
mansour.
>> judge, Commissioners, it's my pleasure to introduce two of our new clinic staff to you, to my right is dr.
stephanie roth, filling in for dr.
brown while she's on maternity leave.
to my left is rosy valdez who is our new medical and assistant, working in the downtown clinic but will be rotating.
if you call the clinic and have a new voice on the other end you'll know it's rosy.
>> welcome.
>> welcome to both of you.
>> all right.
>> thank you.
>> we look forward to working with you.
>> we look forward to serving you.
>> thank you,.
>> thank y'all.
>> great place to work.
>> yeah.
>> you're welcome.
>> good morning,.
>> good morning, judge.
my name is craig nearly, I don't know if you -- craig
>> [indiscernible], I don't know if you remember me.
i was before you about three years ago, president of the shady hollows homeowners association, community in Travis County, bordered by brodie lane and freight barker road, also a board member of the oak hill association of neighborhoods.
some three years ago we came before you as community leaders fighting the effort to close brodie lane.
the court back then understood and hopefully still understands that the key to evening traffic congestion in -- easing traffic congestion in what the community calls shady hollow is to build southwest 45 connecting f.m.
>> [indiscernible] to mopac.
i'm here to address the issue of southwest 45.
no, I'm not here to advocate closing brodie lane but to remind this court that the community has been waiting since 1997 to see southwest 45 built.
while the project continues to languish on the t.i.f., the txdot staff has sought to take funding away saying it has no funds.
while at the same time recommending new projects be funded that weren't on the t.i.f.
previously.
campo has taken the task not to delay decision on this road and form the task force to look into the matter.
the following people to the best of my knowledge are on that task force.
yourself, judge Biscoe, Commissioner Huber, Commissioner barton from hays county, major -- mayor wynn, kirk holland from -- from the barton springs conservation district, bob day, the -- the save barton springs, mr.
dick kellerman, kirk holland from the barton springs conservation district, and ms.
janet marsh and jim man.
i want this court to know for the record that only one community out of 10 communities along the brodie slaughter lane corridor to mopac is being represented on this task force, what we call old shady hollow.
some three weeks ago, the
>> [indiscernible] president asked me to reach out to all of the h.o.a.
presidents in the area, seek their buy-in and cooperation to work with the task force on this issue.
i reached all of those communities, compiled a list of hoa presidents, their contact information and sent it forwards.
the response to date has been nothing but silence.
i learned this last Saturday and confirmed last night with Sam harper, the president of shady hollow that they were contacted independently, nominated two individuals to work with the task force while all of the other committees -- communities along the corridor have been left out and to my knowledge never contacted.
after working through various emotions from shock to disbelief to anger, I have tried to understand what's going on.
>> [buzzer sounding] this is really devisive in our view and we are really skeptical about the work of the task force because it does not represent the community, thank you for your time.
>> thank you very much.
by the way, if you would give me your phone number or an e-mail address.
>> I put all contact on --
>> okay.
as a -- what I will commit to do is keep these individuals up to date on -- on the work -- the working group.
by the way, who did you send that list to?
>> I gave it to the president of the
>> [indiscernible] -- I'm not sure who she was working for.
>> okay.
all right.
thank you very much.
>> thank you.
>> anybody else for citizens communication, whether you signed in or not?
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