Travis County Commissioners Court
May 12, 2009,
Citizens Communication
>> good morning, let's call to order this voting session of the Travis County Commissioners court.
turning to the agenda, we have been asked to postpone item no.
9.
postpone 19.
as per the county sheriff.
and the others are ready.
>> judge?
>> yes, sir.
>> before we start, may we have a moment of silence for scott ozmun who passed on.
>> okay, beginning now.
>> thank you.
>> thank you.
>> thank you.
by the way that memorial service is 2:00 today.
>> I believe so.
for him and his family, we will sorely miss him.
>> citizens communication is first.
this item gives residents an opportunity to address the court on any matter not on the agenda for up to three minutes.
citizen number 1 is the real estate council of Austin, Margaret owens.
and chris rasher, okay, if they would come forward.
they will be followed by ronnie -- ronnie what's your real last name?
>> reeferseed.
>> well, you didn't put it on there this time.
you want me to try it?
shoot at it.
>> gjemre.
>> and
>> [indiscernible] will be third, accompanied by noel rodriguez, followed by price.
good morning.
>> good morning.
>> good morning.
>> good morning.
>> hi, my name is chris rasher, the chair of this year's garner-betts art auction.
i'm here to invite each of you and the public to this year's art show and live auction this Wednesday, tomorrow, at 98 san jacinto center between 5:00 and 7:00 p.m.
as you know, the proceeds from this yearly event provide the necessary funds for an art and music enrichment program for high-risk juveniles incarcerated at garner-betts juvenile center.
as you can see from the beautiful art work that we brought with us today, this program provides a constructive outlet for these youth to deal with emotional conflict, foster, self awareness and to express unspoken concerns.
we have been working for the last three months to reach our goal of $45,000 and want to encourage you to come by this fun event.
you can meet some of the program's students and hear what they were trying to convey through their art work.
you can also help us reach our goal by bidding on the over 60 pieces of art work that will be available for purchase.
this is an amazing ram to attend, that is a wonderful experience for the kids as well as those that come to support them.
again, the event is this Wednesday in the lobby of 98 san jacinto center from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m.
i hope to see each of you there.
Margaret, do you have anything to add?
>> this Wednesday like tomorrow.
>> tomorrow.
>> that's correct.
>> the 13th.
of may.
>> tomorrow, the 13th, may 13, from 5:00 to 7:00.
we do want everyone to come and participate and show your support to our youth.
it is so important that the community embraces this concept and our kids and our families as well.
so please come out and enjoy the art.
their art is absolutely awesome.
and most of you have attended these events in the past.
we look forward to having you join us tomorrow evening and I also want to take this opportunity to thank the real estate council because without this particular effort, there would be no art enrichment program.
so again we invite you to come and we look forward to seeing you.
thank you.
>> thank you.
>> thank you so much for doing this.
>> good program.
>> thank you.
>> I've had a piece of that or the on my wall for like five -- five or six years.
>> great.
>> bull, gets a lot of compliments.
for $1 county people can come by and look at it
>> [laughter]
>> thank you very much.
>> thank you.
>> mr.
reeferseed.
>> okay.
>> [indiscernible] more art for sale at this event.
>> yes.
>> that's great.
all right.
thank you.
and of course this is -- ronnie reeferseed.
and saying rejoice, Austin.
we have elected a new mayor, mr.
leffingwell, a relatively conservative long-time Austin politician who blew away his competition with his confidence and grace, hopefully Austin will now begin to shed some of her nonsensical counter productive city sanctioned criminality such as somehow being annointed as a so-called sanctuary city for illegal aliens.
legal citizens of all stripes understand that forever facilitating by accommodating the illegal alien clot of criminals only helps us all, short, medium and long term.
but blacks, for example, and other -- undereducated citizens like myself should now be more able to find work here because as I can testify it is hard to compete against others who use their criminal status to work for greatly reduced tax free wages.
life here for almost everyone will begin to improve when low skilled workers like myself have a better life.
united citizens of Austin, Texas can help demonstrate to the world that peace and freedom here at home can best be achieved and defended by the rule of law and better wages for all.
fighting for and defending the rule of law here will of course be easier when we cancel our ongoing counter product active war on pot smokers and hemp enthusiasts.
suddenly we will realize the folly of sacrificing our brave troops against some drug words.
try freedom by merely granting absolute freedom for farmers here, we can all once again earn our leadership on the world stage through freedom the real of lieu or instead sick with the status quo, keep marijuana illegal, keep on surrendering our own national property and political will to those organized crime thug who's rule our world to this day.
in at least 13 states and many municipalities nationwide have been demonstrating at least demanding at least access to medicinal marijuana by huge margins.
finally now to best serve our heros overseas and here at home, best conserve our family farms, prioritize police activity and liberate our doctors to treat their patients, absolute freedom for farmers is the answer.
in passing let me just say my own dear mother, both parents, siblings and all of their spouses have already died an early, grizzly, painful and horrific death from sucking those damned tobacco cigarettes.
punishing with imprisonment any and all tobacco farmers is idiotic.
infowars.com online 24/7 or by 90.1 f.m.
here in Austin, our great -- are great sources of news and information in my humble opinion.
check it out.
thanks a lot, y'all.
>> okay.
anne borman, noel rodriguez and charlotte
>> [indiscernible] price.
all from the Texas agrilife extension.
good morning.
>> good morning.
>> good morning.
i am not anne borman.
>> charlotte price.
>> noel rodriguez.
we're here to -- to recognize this week of americorps recognition that's really happening all over the state of Texas.
here in Travis County, americorps has a whole family of great americorps organizations and capital 4 h has been part of that family since 1993.
i was asked to come and give my two cents on this because I helped start initiate the original americorps project for capital 4 h in 2003.
now, this week, tomorrow, at 10:00, they are going to have a resolution at the state capitol recognizing americorps and the work that americorps has done here in Texas.
and all week long we're going to have various celebrations and recognition activities.
culminating in a service project in 78744, the dove springs area, they will probably be more than 200 people, from americorps, doing community service work to help revitalize the dove springs community.
and --
>> thank you, noel.
my name is anne borman, the manager of the Travis County 4 h capital americorps project.
i have been involved since 2005.
and really just wanted to come here and thank you for your support over the years of the americorps program that we're a part of.
and I just have seen people come on board our project and there's just really an evolving spirit of service out there.
it's really very excited.
people -- young people want to come and serve their community and make a difference in the lives of youth.
so we're here to tell you about the wonderful event that we have going on all week.
to recognize not only just the americorps program, but the collective 10 americorps programs here in Austin and over 30 americorps program across the state of Texas that are doing great work out there to benefit the lives of youth and their local communities.
so I have been very fortunate.
i feel very fortunate to have been a part of this program and to -- to work with the people that we bring on board every year and just really see the spirit of service, the spirit of wanting to give back and not only do -- did the americorps members that serve give back to the community, but I just see them getting so much as they launch into a lifetime of service.
that's a really wonderful thing to see and but I just again, we are the Travis County 4 h capital americorps program.
i just wanted to thank you for your support and acknowledge that you have been a big part of a lot of great, wonderful change in the lives of youth and in the lives of young people.
i'm sorry.
>> no problem.
>> for taking your time, charlotte.
thank you very much for your time.
>> charlotte anything else.
>> well, I think it was all pretty well said by both of them, but I'm here today because I serve two years of full-time americorps with this organization and I'm now an americorps coordinator.
i really love this program and I love americorps and I'm really proud to be able to continue service through this program and thank you all for being a part of that.
making that possible.
>> would you all like to run down the events?
these are some wonderful events.
>> sure.
well, let's see.
as -- as you all mentioned, tomorrow morning there is a -- there is a house americorps week house resolution for the community to come and 10:00 a.m.
at the capitol building.
house chamber on the third floor, representative elliott naishtat who has been in americorps way back when and -- and there's some -- some following on Wednesday --
>> this stuff, the precursor.
>> right.
there is a -- americorps week proclamation on Thursday morning or Thursday evening at city hall.
and that's going to be from -- from councilmember and now newly elected mayor lee leffingwell.
that's at city hall 301 west second street.
there's going to be events in the evenings like tonight and the farmers market and alamo drafthouse sing along, for members and alumni, the public is welcome to come as well.
>> if someone is interested in getting involved, they could go to the spider house this evening or to the farmers market tomorrow or to the alamo draft house on Thursday.
>> they could also go to americorps.gov is the official website, they could search Texas programs and then they would find all active programs here in central Texas and all over the state really that are recruiting.
and get to see what -- what, you know, the -- the diversity that we have in the state, it's wonderful.
then the -- the actual day of service is going to be all day Saturday, this Saturday, may 16th, at the river city youth foundation.
and -- and that is going to be a day of service putting up -- let see, they're going to do -- establish a microfarm for youth of the southeast Austin, build a trail and create a peace garden.
200 americorps members will work together to complete this project.
>> every citizen that wants to join in, the door is open.
>> river city youth foundation.
>> if you are not doing anything Saturday, there's no lawn work, nothing, come on out and help us.
>> yeah.
thank you very much for your time in letting us extend our time.
>> keep up the good work.
>> have a good morning.
>> alpha
>> [indiscernible], bryan bodicka.
gavino fernandez, junior, in that order.
good morning.
>> good morning.
good morning, Commissioners.
my name is alpha
>> [indiscernible], I'm the director of the community tax centers.
i'm sitting here with melanie with outreach and education coordinator for the community tax center.
we just wanted to sort of talk a little bit about our program and acknowledge the support that Travis County has provided.
we are a -- pretty much a free income tax assistance program designed to provide education and support in preparing tax returns for low income residents of Austin and Travis County and beyond.
this season, we finished up our program by providing assistance in the form of over 17,000 tax returns prepared both current and prior years, delivering over $26 million in tax refunds to individuals and families, working families with no fees.
Travis County supported us by providing -- covering a bit of our printing costs, you provided assistance through the department printing over 120,000 of our administrative training and outreach supplies, so we thank you for that.
we thank you for providing or covering the costs for providing a.s.l.
interpreters at our main office location two disa week, deaf, hard of hearing clients in need of tax services were able to benefit through having an interpreter available to provide assistance, to help us provide assistance to them, to help them get their tax return.
we thank you for that.
we thank you for allowing us to extends our services into the dell valley area through the south rural community center.
we operated two to three days a week at the south rural community center.
also just providing overall outreach support by posting our program information through various media channels, including your website, through the other community centers, so on, so forth.
i just want to summarize briefly what our impact was in Travis County.
we prepared over 15,000 tax returns, about 89% of our total output for Travis County residents.
in the amount of $23 million, we were able to deliver in federal tax refund to Travis County residents about 40% of that was in the form of earned income tax credit, which is pretty much our main focus is to reach those families who qualify for these tax credits that oftentimes get offset because they go -- when they go to commercial providers and pay fees to get their refunds delivered in the form of instant refund checks or advances on their refunds.
so we wanted to sort of present this check to you just to commemorate that -- that service that we will be able to provide for Travis County and to acknowledge your support at this time.
this day marks the beginning of our rear-round tax center program.
>> [buzzer sounding] we don't stop at the end of the tax season, we take a little break, but we continue to provide assistance to those who have extenuating circumstances that cannot be addressed during the tax filing season, so we're going to continue to offer that program, I'm starting today at our main office on south first street, 3036 south first street three days a week, clients can come in, walk in or schedule special appointments with one of our volunteers to do that.
we have pretty much a strong program.
we would like to thank our -- our -- we have over 600 volunteers to participate in this program recruited over 1,000 and trained over 1,000.
so this is a very strong community effort.
we would like to thank again you, judge Biscoe and all of the Commissioners, Commissioner Huber for sponsoring this.
and -- and that's pretty much it.
>> thank you.
>> thank you.
>> keep up the good work.
>> really appreciate it.
>> bryan bodicka, followed by gavino fernandez, jr.
do we get to keep the check?
>> [laughter]
>> if you want to borrow this later, let us know.
>> [laughter]
>> good morning.
>> hello, judge Biscoe, my name is bryan bodicka, I would like to address with you a very serious issue here.
it's essentially an injustice.
but I want to couch it first in a human story.
the chart you see in front of you is
>> [indiscernible] best cancer detection.
it was basically a crime syndicate out of the cayman islands, of course the federal government didn't do anything.
dr.
, the kpmg professor of accounting at the university of Texas kept encouraging me to call the district attorney's office.
so I did.
i got in touch with a lady named patty robertson head of the white collar crime.
she said, you know, I'm going to tell you you have got to go elsewhere.
and she said call the attorney general, call this, call that.
and it was a huge crime.
and so I -- so I at first impression, this is a -- this is a great story about don't judge a book by its cover.
this is a human book.
so I said how in the world county head of white collar crime enforcement, you know, just tell people to go elsewhere.
right off the bat.
so then dr.
deitrick kept pushing me, pushing me, pushing me, because he teaches a class about this, and so we got to the point -- an appointment with rosemary lindbergh, in walks patty robertson.
in dealing with patty robertson the last six months, guess what I have found out?
i have found out that there are only 10 employees at the white collar crime unit in the Travis County district attorney's office.
i also have found out that she has told me they get two cases in per day, you know, every day of the week.
i also found out she's trying five cases at the same time.
you don't have the big litigators at the law firm here of minton collins or graves daugherty, or vinson-elkins, you don't have these six and $700 hotshot trial attorneys trying five cases at one time.
do you know how many cases they try at one time?
one.
she's having try try five cases at one time.
i see the huge injustice there is not with patty robertson.
it's the fact of the total non-funding of the white collar crime section in the district attorney's office.
the ratio of law enforcement in combination of the city and the county to -- to other crimes and white collar crime is 99.51% to 1.
let me say that again.
99
>> [buzzer sounding] point 51% to 1.
but how do you get that number.
10 people divided by 2400 people.
simple math.
and so you wonder why the people in east Austin now are so furious about the situation going on.
part of that has to do with the injustice they have seen for a century that all of the law enforce the efforts are steered towards getting the $20 guy who is selling marijuana off the street in east Austin, while the guys who are stealing thousands, millions, billions of dollars go free.
i would also content to you that -- that you could make some money here.
because in the white collar crime thing, one of the -- one of the issues that goes on is the -- is the --
>> [indiscernible] off of your excise taxes.
every time you and I go to the gas pump, you know, gas at $2 a gallon or $1.50 of gas, there's a state tax and a federal tax, you know, there's -- there's different taxes on every gallon of gas that you pump, well there's a whole underworld out there of operators that siphon off the excise tax.
>> you are out of time.
you are about a minute over actually.
>> oh, I'm sorry.
>> sorry.
>> three minutes can go fast.
i let the others go over about a minute, too.
but there was two in one, three in the others, they have done multiple forms and had much longer.
we get your point.
i told mr.
bodicka there to chat with ms.
lindbergh the district attorney because we sound to the budget submission from her department.
so they have been in communication I think you should try to spend more time with them between now and when they submit their budget of what we discuss our budget.
>> I have, judge.
>> thank you,.
>> it's a complicated situation.
>> it is.
>> mr.
fernandez.
>> good morning, judge, Commissioners, my name is gavino fernandez, I come here before you representing lulac and deputy director lulac for district 12.
i'm also coordinator with el concilio, a coalition of mexican american neighborhood association.
i have been meaning to come down here to speak to you regard the homestead preservation district that -- that thanks to you because of the vetting process that was not complete, we were -- we will not be impacted by that for this year.
also you may well know I served as assistants in the church hierarchy, they call them secretaries to the late reverend jessie
>> [indiscernible] murdered in nuevo laredo.
so because of that experience and the transition, I have come before you to speak to you on those issues.
the homestead preservation issue I think needs to be looked at very, very clearly.
we are looking at tools to better preserve, protect, maintain, many of those born and raised in east Austin to keep our land, keep our homesteads.
this particular legislation does not do that.
i understand that it's supposedly voluntary.
the issue that I have is -- is that there is nothing being done by any government body in this community to assist those much us that are barely hanging on.
i may lose my property not to the bank but to y'all, to the governments, because of tremendous increase in property taxes.
i brought my property taxes.
i lived at 208 in front of pan am for all of my life.
today I am paying almost $4,000 of taxes on that property.
i haven't even added a nail to the house.
any time new development comes in, there is that side effect of increasing property values, that's what the homestead preservation district does and does not protect those of us that are there.
the economics at this current time is not appropriate to implement this type of tool.
it sounds good.
but when you look at the -- at the realistic financial impact, it's basically going to hurry the exodus of me and other homeowners association in east Austin.
especially our senior citizens who are on fixed income of 500 and $600 a month.
so I ask you when it comes back before you, to ensure there are protections and a safety net for those of us that want to live and die on our land.
so --
>> [buzzer sounding] so I just caution you.
to ensure that there is that safety net if you choose to join the city in doing that, but I strongly encourage you not to.
>> thank you.
>> thank you.
>> those are the ones for whom I had communication slips.
anybody else on citizens communication whether you signed in or not?
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Last Modified:
Tuesday, May 12, 2009 2:30 PM