Travis County Commissioners Court
July 28, 2009,
Citizens Communication
Now, first on the agenda this morning is citizens communication.
this item gives residents an opportunity to address the court on any matter not on the agenda for up to three minutes.
and four residents have signed in.
gus pena is first, followinged by ronnie reeferseed, followed by morris priest and number 4 is larry tucker.
>> good morning, judge, Commissioners, gus pena, h 1 n 1 swine flu, we need more education, prevention measures, continue awareness now and before the flu season hits, it's going to be pretty bad.
let's not discounts the fact that it is hitting people as we speak.
city council, lunch and dinner.
i have had to request an open records act for data information regarding policies and procedures and amount of money spent to feed city council members and the mayor and others lunch and supper.
we have poor, hungry, homeless, we are paying for city council.
not acceptable in this recession, tough economic times.
how many people could we feed with all of this money spent inappropriately at city council to feed many people.
i have asked that the city stop this inappropriate expenditure for their food.
and newspapers also nobody says that we could pay for your newspapers.
i buy my own.
i'm pretty well not rich.
so you -- so the city council and others can buy their own newspapers.
also, please remember we have a lot of poor out there.
capital metro, we need a change in leadership or improved leadership.
at capital metro the president-camp mabry fred gillian needs to be replaced or retired.
we still feel that inappropriate expenditures were made, not right and not acceptable to the taxpayers.
capital metro board needs to do a better job of holding people accountable.
also recommend an outside independent review, be the feds or whoever, somebody from outside capital metro and expanding measures and metro rail is not working properly.
the traffic guardrails stay up when the train passes instead of going down when the train approaches the intersections.
so a lot of problems are occurring with the metro train rail system.
it's not good, it's not a good expenditure.
it all goes back to management, lack of accountability, lack of leadership.
veterans still need a lot of assistance when they return or are separated from the military.
ptsd, post-traumatic stress disorder, treatment, affordable housing, affordable housing that is real that people can afford.
not $100,000 for an apartment or a house.
and good counseling to help veterans transition back into civilian life to military life.
it's very difficult, especially when you come back from a combat status.
it is hard to cope with today's societal ills and problems when returning from combat status.
i want to thank the haves here in city of Austin and Travis County for helping the have-nots.
a lot of people go unnoticed but I want to thank you for donating money to the poor and social service agencies.
the agencies need a lot of funding.
dried up people.
when I say people I say it with respect.
a lot of hungry people, homeless people out there lose respect.
they can't afford to pay the rent or electricity.
mr.
rollly, a friend of lucio who has adopted him and counseling and mentored him suffered a severe heart attack Sunday.
he's in icu right now.
critical condition.
these people --
>> [beeping] I will wrap up, people are going to lose their home.
i'm asking anybody to please contact and give you a phone number later on.
lastly society's worth is measured by its treatment of the less fortunate.
please continue to help people.
you all have a good heart, have done a good job with social service jobs for kids, job well done, keep up the good work.
capital metro get rid of your president and camp and ceo.not good.
>> ronnie reeferseed.
here saying especially to cat woman singing yippee, we're all yippees now and can't stop us now people.
not socialists, because they can't stop us now people thanks obama, no matter what, no matter how hard we try they can't stop us now.
that's right, thank you mr.
obama for your timely focus on health care.
now you must just listen to the people.
since 1996 voters from at least 13 u.s.
states and many municipalities have overwhelming demanded at least access to medicinal marijuana.
that's the fact.
thc, is a medicine and thc is non-toxic, meaning that one cannot suffer from a deadly overdose from marijuana, lord knows that I've been trying to decades to od on marijuana.
but truly this all points to a happier future with better food and clean water security.
yes.
there's absolutely freedom, more absolute freedom for farmers means more healthy food and water for more babies and people across the board and here's why.
absolute freedom for u.s.
farmers to cultivate hemp, marijuana, because of inevitable market force including supply and demand, all farmers will have more money no matter what they grow.
organic farmer, ie without poisonous pesticides will become the norm all over.
less poisonous pesticides means less death and sickness for everyone.
also, this means less death and suicides for poisonous pesticide pushers as well.
just like ob/gyn dr.
ron paul's hb 1207, that demands to audit these bankster criminals from the so-called federal reserve even those criminals will benefit from a better world as a result.
mr.
obama campaigned for more transparency and here's his chance.
thanks to ob/gyn dr.
ron paul's 831207 real transparency will erupt across the board with facts and truth for us all.
more truth and liberty means more peace and freedom through better governance.
once again mr.
obama can hear and now help lead our nation away from the military industrial bankster media criminal complex and instead lead our nation back to the -- to the undeniable position of leadership by example on the world stage.
imagine, the u.s.
once again leading the world by example.
not with intimidation and bullying with bullets and bombs.
but instead we can once again lead the world by example with adherence to our sacred constitution.
our founding fathers shook up the world by example with freedom and liberty inherent to our sacred constitution.
all that we have to do is stick to it, in its entirety.
of course, especially, including the second amendment, the necessary right for all of us to own guns.
if we want to.
>> [buzzer sounding] the constitutional guarantee of liberty for citizens is needed not only for all of us to help police save us all from criminals but the constitutional guarantee of liberty for citizens to own guns also helps prevent the death and violence inherent to all armed conflict.
nobody in their right mind will attack an armed citizenry, not even our worst enemy such as totally corrupt government.
that's why we must have guns.
listen to 91.5 f.m., www.infowars.com and www.americafreepress.com.
yahoo.com or gmail.com.
>>
>> [indiscernible]
>> mr.
priest.
>> thank you, I really appreciate that.
yes.
>> cat woman, yea.
>> mr.
priest?
>> your honor, Commissioners.
morris priest for the record.
i -- I wanted to bring to your attention, I went to the campo technical advisory committee meeting on Wednesday, July 22nd, it was 2:00 p.m.
room 325.
and they discussed some items that will be up -- coming up on the campo agenda.
i would hope that the county would put this campo meeting in their -- in their agenda.
i have seen where they put it on that week's agenda, but campo meets on Monday and sometimes I think it would be good to have it in there a week or two before the campo meeting.
but I did want to also reiterate the community meeting to hear concerns and answer questions on the proposed tx gravel pits mining project.
it's going to be at the east service center community meeting room, 6011 blue bluff road, Austin, Texas, Wednesday, July 29th.
6:30 p.m.
to 8:30 p.m., a quorum of the Commissioners court may be present.
i do think that it's important, I hope many people get a chance to go to that meeting.
the next item that I want to speak to, I hope that I can have everyone's attention on this dais, a concern we all have in our community.
an article some time ago in the statesman, gentlemen in our community, one worked for our county building our roads and one was our sheriff.
and we know that our judge has made great strive
>> [sic] to give fair and equitable treatment to people and has been a leader in our community as well as our sheriff and other people in this entire Commissioners court, I believe, in protecting the human rights of our Travis County citizens.
and there's been a situation that's been ongoing for 18 years and has -- has increased to a greater degree in this last year, should be a concern to all of us, I would like to -- to have each of you get an unedited copy of the channel 6 tape of July 27th, 2009.
it was item 2, with the human rights commission.
our city charter has -- is very clear on how we are to make policies and how we are to conduct our -- our business in this community and those policies are to be adopted and voted on by our city council.
but there are people being terminated in this community unfairly.
due to meeting one of three categories.
either a cash handler, which is a very, very broad definition being used by our city manager.
or someone that looks suspicious like perhaps mr.
reeferseed or our county Commissioner today.
or -- or someone that takes a leave of absence.
>> [buzzer sounding] I think that we need to really, I would encourage you to check that item on the tape and view that tape, the 27th of this month, item 2 on the human rights commission and see if that's what you think is how we should conduct ourselves in regard to employment, whether it be at the city or county.
if you have any questions, feel free to contact me.
thank you.
>> thank you.
>> thank you, mr.
priest.
larry tucker.
i'm larry tucker, your appear point tee to the animal -- your appointee to the animal advisory commission.
i would ask that you reappointment me.
i wanted to give you a quick update.
the first year and a half or so were pretty unproductive to say the least, because we were instructed by city staff to focus on chapter 823 of the health and safety code.
without council, city council direction or recommendation we were limited to that scope.
on January 15th a motion or a resolution was passed sponsored by councilmembers morrison, shade and martinez that directed the animal advisory commission to take a look at policies and procedures that have been proven to be successful across other communities in the united states and make recommendations and -- on what has worked for possible implementation in Austin.
that's where we're at now.
january 15th to now has been very rewarding.
we are making a lot of head way.
unlike years in the past where we were limited and restricted by chapter 23 of the health and safety code, now we really feel like we are making some significant head way to reducing animal intake and increase live outcomes.
i really want to be reappointed because I think now after this recommendations have been made, it's very important now to follow-up on those recommendations and make sure that they are implemented, reducing animal intake, increasing live outcomes, reducing taxpayer expense.
we have the cost of taking in an animal, treating it medically, working it up, spaying and neutering that animal.
if that animal isn't adopting, then we have the expense of killing the animal and disposing of the body.
we have done a pretty good job of reducing intake pretty drastically in the last six months or so.
mow it's time to focus on the increasing outcomes, foster programs, which are easy to implement.
we have a lot of programs that are not currently being done that we are recommending.
so I'm really excited about -- about implementing those recommendations and making a significant difference.
so -- so please reappoint me.
i would like to finish my work and make sure that it's -- that it's followed through on.
thank you.
>> thank you.
>> thank you, mr.
tucker.
>> frankly, when I looked up and saw you, I thought that you had come to withdraw your request to be reappointed
>> [laughter]
>>
>> [indiscernible]
>> just wait until then.
we will call it up early.
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, July 28, 2009 2:31 PM