Travis County Commissioners Court
May 26, 2009,
Item 25
25.
consider and take appropriate action on use of county funds for food and refreshments at all-day visioning session on June 24, 2009 at the capitol legislative conference -- that's the day of the community expo.
that we just discussed, right?
at the capitol legislative conference center for county officials as part of the downtown master plan study.
>> the first step in that study is to try to develop a vision of the downtown from -- from a wide variety of county officials.
over 100 county officials in various leadership positions, both elect and appointed have been invited to this all day session at the legislative conference center.
it is intended to establish goals, objectives, priorities, critical issues that will frame the downtown master plan.
providing refreshments is a typical gracious and professional approach towards meetings of this type.
it also increases the likelihood of attendance all day.
the -- the county Commissioners court has -- has typically discouraged the use of taxpayer resources for refreshments.
we need to provide some water, coffee, and a sack lunch.
we either pay for it institutionally or we ask individuals to contribute.
>> [one moment please for change in captioners] institutional retreats all day do this.
and if you do not do this, we will ask each individual to contribute.
before they arrive we will have someone at the door asking for cash or checks.
we will then have to find people after they attend without money to ask them to contribute.
>> move approval of a box lunch and refreshments.
>> [ laughter ]
>> but I do know that -- I'm asking for something that is out of the ordinary.
and -- but I also think that it's the right thing to do and some of you may feel that it's not the right thing to do, and I respect that as well obviously.
and so there is not a way to do this within the existing contractual relationship with broaddus because when the bill comes in and it says something like food, the auditor's office will not approve it.
and then we are stuck.
so I wanted to either get stuck at the front end or get unstuck.
and that's the issue.
>> christian, we're expecting about 100 people?
>> well, we're inviting -- we have invited 100 county officials.
there's likely another 20 consultants.
i'm guessing that we will probably will have 70%, 75% attendance.
there's a couple of conflicts.
one conflict is with the job fair, although we've already started conversations with the sheriff's office to see if they can fold people in and out on an ad hoc basis as opposed to the entire brass.
i'm guessing 75 county officials and probably about 100 in attendance.
that's an estimate.
>> so if you have like 120 people, that's $1,700 total.
and you mentioned that you've got some unencumbered funds as a result of money dedicated to this project.
>> yes.
>> so that makes it pretty specific in the way of thinking, that I'm thinking about.
so is that a possibility?
that would not open the door to having other requests for refreshments and water and food for other groups because I know when we've had the bond election committees and I think some of us have pitched in to have the water and drinks for the bond committee members, as they looked at all the issues that we were considering -- and that's usually after 5 I think in this room sometimes.
so that's what we've done, but I guess it was -- because it was water and drinks, soft drinks.
so I don't know.
i'm trying to think this through and see -- this comes from unencumbered funds that have already been set aside for this project.
>> that's correct.
but the funds were not set aside.
they are unencumbered for contingency purposes.
and I submit that if I were in a position to help breathe life into a bond program and we were asking citizens and county officials and community leaders to help provide their leadership all day for a bond election to determine out of the $500 million of need, which 150 or 200 million will get chosen.
and we were having an all-day session.
i would come to you if I were in such a position and say let us use county resources to help foster a gracious, professional and typical approach towards meetings of this kind.
>> so the request is for up to $15 per participant.
>> that's correct.
>> and we're expecting to be there all day.
>> 9:00 to 4:00.
>> and I guess if this were held in san antonio or Round Rock, the per diem would kick in.
>> that's correct.
>> and the per diem now is -- is $34?
>> $39.
that's how I justify it basically.
typically your lunchtime is your own time.
you pay for your own lunch, but you go wherever you want to and that hour is really yours.
so what we're saying is basically we'd like for you to stay and have lunch, but we want you to have lunch at this session.
>> that's correct.
>> some will chat about the mission and purpose for being there, others won't, but I guess the beauty of it is that at a time certain you break for lunch and one hour later I guess we start back up.
so you don't have to worry about people being late or some leaving early, some trying to beat the traffic to get to a restaurant.
so that's how I buy into it.
>> and if it helps the court to get over anything, we could limit it to 30 minutes because it's a captive audience.
and once we lose them for --
>> we don't want to pay overtime, now, christian.
>> [ laughter ] they're now trying to figure out what the overtime legal standard s.
>> but once we lose 100 people to the cafeteria or to restaurants, it's going to be real tough to get them back.
>> I'd just like to say it seems like this is an extremely important visioning session, and this would be a small price to pay to encourage people to take their busy time for a whole day event to come and stay.
it's very much worth our investment in doing so.
>> let's not spend $100' worth of time working on it.
i move that we authorize up to $15 per participant for water, snacks and lunch at the visioning session.
>> second.
>> any more discussion?
is this the kind of deal where if we got 125, we just multiple that times 15?
if you've 99, you multiple that by 15?
>> yes, sir.
>> how many invitations have been sent out,.
>> we've sent out 100 save the date announcements to 100 county officials.
and that is the core invite list.
no reference was made to this issue until your guidance and wisdom was established.
>> by the way, for those watching too, you know, instead of trying to find a conference room somewhere, this is at the state capitol.
>> that's correct.
>> which we are getting free of charge.
>> yes, we are, thanks to our sponsor, senator watson.
>> okay.
>> and the leadership of dietz eckstein who fostered getting that sponsorship.
>> thanks to all of those folks.
>> all in favor?
show Commissioners Eckhardt, Gomez, Huber and yours truly voting in favor.
Commissioner Davis voting no.
thank you, mr.
smith.
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Last Modified:
Tuesday, May 26, 2009 2:00 PM