Travis County Commissioners Court
June 2, 2009,
Item 10
>> item number 10 is to declare certain vehicles as surplus, pursuant to section 263.151 of the Texas local government code and order destroyed, pursuant to section 4-b-1 of the lirap contract.
>> good morning.
staff, thank you for your appearance here this morning.
i had a couple of questions, and they have basically been answered, but I think in the interest of what the public should know about what this great program is all about, I thought that I wanted to maybe have you lay that out, but not only that, the precautionary measures that we are taking to ensure that this particular program, that the county is -- has gotten engaged in is something that we can be proud of and also to highlight the elimination of fraud, of misuse of the parts of these vehicles after they're dismantle and all those other kind of things.
in other words, we're taking vehicles off the street because of their poor emissions, and -- per se, as far as trading out the old stuff that we have and bringing in the new stuff.
so it's a swap in that regard, but my concern more than anything else is to -- if you can maybe highlight and see how we can ensure that vehicles aren't back on the street again.
as we trade -- as we trade up or trade off, using this grant program.
could you maybe explain to the public what is actually going on with that?
>> yes, sir, I can.
>> thank you.
>> what happens is through this program, the lirp, the local initiatives projects grant, which is a spinoff of the lirap program, allows the government to replace older polluting cars with newer flex fuel or hybrid vehicles.
and the county's purchased I believe 22 vehicles through this program getting rid of the older vehicles and replacing them with the hybrids.
and in order to make sure that these polluting cars are not put back on the streets, the emissions equipment and the engines are destroyed.
and the way -- the other parts of the car, a fender, door, I'm just throwing it out for examples, can be reused and salvaged, recycled.
but again the emissions equipment and the engines must be destroyed.
and we tracked this by using manifest process where the salvage facility signs statements stating that the emissions equipment and the engine have been destroyed.
and also at the time wherever we turn this vehicle over to the dismantler, the salvage company, it can be the same company, we sign over the title, which makes that company now responsible for the vehicle.
and then there's never been a reported incident of the vehicle who has gone through this program as winding up on the streets.
what we have found -- not in Travis County, but in other areas the stickers have been popped up, somehow they're scraping them up and putting them on other cars that would not necessarily qualify, would not pass the emissions test, and the license plate buvment this has never happened in Travis County because we have a wonderful employee, corey manchaca, who goes out to the facilities and actually spot checks to make sure that the vehicles, this engine equipment and the emissions have been destroyed.
>> okay.
so there have been instances in other areas, other counties that participate in this, that -- well, the safeguard that we employ will prevent us from hopefully prevent or minimize any situation that you just explained on these cars that have been -- that are being demolished.
is that correct?
>> at this time we do not have a program in place to track the sticker, the inspection sticker, but hopefully we will soon.
but we do have a place in progress to make sure that the requirement of the emissions equipment and the engine is destroyed.
>> okay.
and that's the main thing that we want.
we don't want this polluting engine back on the streets.
>> okay.
>> but that's required by state law.
>> tits required by the -- it's required by the program and state law, senate bill 12.
>> but there have been instances where things have slipped through the cracks in other counties.
that's what -- what's the degree of slippage, I really don't know.
but I'm just trying to make sure that Travis County is in the -- is on a good foot dealing with this.
>> yes.
we've actually been praised by tceq for having an employee who does actually go out and visits these facilities to make sure that this does not happen.
>> correct.
>> okay.
thank you.
>> move approval.
>> second.
>> all in favor?
that passes by unanimous vote.
>> thank you very much.
>> thank you for laying it out, staff.
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Last Modified:
Tuesday, June 2, 2009 2:00 PM