Travis County Commissioners Court
September 1, 2009,
Item 32
32.
>> thank you.
>> consider and take appropriate action on interim charges for is Texas legislature included recommendations for proposing such charges to the appropriate members of the legislature.
>> judge Biscoe and Commissioners, I have with me today greg nap, our legislative consultant and also ver onican on the igr staff.
we have three weeks ago made a presentation to the court and presented at that point an eight-page document that layed out 15 specific interim charges that we wanted to, that staff had recommended to the court that we try to lobby the legislature for.
there was some background explanation for those as well in that document.
what I have for you today is is a briefer version of that that lists, if you will, what the bullet points are.
the as you know the legislature is in the process of developing interim charges for this interim.
we have had numerous conversations with some members of the legislature and with some of the committee staffs.
not advocating so much our agenda as just trying to find out what some of the issues are that they are looking at.
think we can report to you that number wup, the process is moving forward.
today actually is the deadline for the first round of feedback to lt.
governor from the senate side although that process will continue.
but the pro is is is moving forward.
we know from--process is moving forward.
we know from our conversations that water and land use and criminal justice reform will be somewhere in the mix of issues.
and we think we have a good opportunity at this point to begin trying to steer the direction of some of these charges by having conversations with relevant committee members, members of the Travis County legislative delegation and committee staffers.
i would suggest if the court can give us blessing at least to the short list, that woo give you some Marching orders in terms of being able to advocate for some issues and we would expect to be reporting back to the court as the actual charges are refined and hopefully that we will get some of these consents at least included in the interim charges.
greg?
>> yeah, just to add to that.
the timing is critical.
as dee said we're coming up on some deadlines.
think in the house officially this Friday September 4 is when the speaker wants everything in his office from members of the house.
then on the senate side, lt.
governor has set September 14 as his drop dead deadline.
smart of fact, even as late as this morning I received an e-mail from the senator's office asking for ideas on interim studies.
generally the offices reach out to industry interest groups so that they can get feetback on what the interim studies should be.
and I think it's a good time for us to give them Travis County's enput.
>> questions?
basically if we approve the list for the legislative delegation we would provide a copy?
>> yes, sir, probe provide that and if they ask for more backup we would give them whatever information we could about those issues or about the specific concerns that we're trying to ask the legislature to study.
>> move approval of the list.
>> second.
>> which I assume is eight.
discussion?
all in favor.
that passes by unanimous vote.
b, recommendations for proposaling such charges to the appropriate members of the legislature starting with the Travis County delegation.
and from there to whoever is appropriate.
>> yes.
it is our intent to visit with chairs and committee staffs of the relevant committees.
we certainly want to circle around to all the members of the trav igs county delegation.
as you know, judge, yesterday at the envision central Texas lunchen there was a lot of discussion of particularly the land use issue.
so we want to I isel back around the our own slate of delegation members and other committee members.
then we are going to try to set up meeting with speakers, staff, and the lt.
governor staff in order to visit with them about our agenda.
>> questions?
all in favor.
that passes by unanimous vote.
anything else?
>> that is it.
thank you very much.
>> thank you.
thank you for your patience also.
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Last Modified:
Tuesday, September 1, 2009 3:14 PM
