Travis County Commissioners Court
September 29, 2009,
Citizens Communication
Citizens communication is next, this gives citizens an opportunity to address the court on any matter not on the agenda.
gus pena signed in, followed by jimmy castro, followed by charles williams.
>> good morning, judge, Commissioners, gus pena, appearing before you all again.
maybe you all don't want to hear this one, but here it goes.
poverty is increasing, need jobs, more funding for basic service and basic needs issues, social service agencies as I showed you before have been inundated with requests for assistance, wherever there is assistance that I need, electrical, rent, et cetera.
let me start off with the one I'm going to really gripe about capital metro.
capital metro, again, the lack of leadershipship has surfaced at capital metro.
doug allen agency, executive vice-president, chief development officer states up to one million more dollars, maybe more, will be needed for commuter rail.
originally budgeted at $90 million so far, it has cost taxpayers $105 million so far.
might be more.
i know the -- the criticism we are receiving said fred gilliam, this is the reason that a change of leadership should take place.
Commissioner Gomez, you are board chair.
i think that it's going to change by December or January.
change of leadership ship should take place immediately.
randy hume, and doug allen executive vice-president.
all of these titles, way over $150,000 salaries per year.
not prudent.
not wise.
we should hire more effective leadership that produces positive results for our community forthwith if not quicker.
i think the public is demanding accountability and transparency, excuse me english, it ain't happening.
i grew up on east fifth street, it used to be a slaughterhouse, capital metro.
hasn't changed too much.
we need to show more respect for our drivers.
95 percent of the bus drivers are positive, productive, professional.
5% are not.
just like in the public we have our 10%, 15% whatever they are not respectful, whatever.
but anyway, it just behooves us to have a change of leadership.
we need more blood, new blood in there that will be more productive and use our taxpayer dollars more effective and wisely, more prudent.
it is not happening.
last item, the map cart application for a budget with hospital district, that's why I was opposed to the hospital district being a stand alone department, the county and the city, auspices, and the reason that I say this is because map eligibility I went yesterday to the map card just to see what kind of road blocks there are.
people sign in, they say we're going to see you, but we're going to give you an appointment, you have to either wait for the afternoon or come back the following day.
what kind of nonsense is that when people need effective health care issues to be addressed.
you can go to an emergency room at brackenridge hospital if you want t.o.
this is not -- if you want to.
this is not prudent or wise.
we need to streamline the process where people can go and get their map card quickly to be seen at any clinic.
i will leave it at that.
thank you for the budgetary process.
we need to work on capital metro change, leadership, thank you very much.
>> thank you.
mr.
castro.
>> judge.
good morning, judge Biscoe.
my name is jimmy castro.
i'm here to speak on my own behalf.
i do have slides to show you this morning.
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a.c.c.
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for more information you can contact the business industry institute continuing education non-credit computer applications.
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finally, Austin community college not only wants to help you apply for that job, they want to help you get that job.
thank you, judge, Commissioners.
>> thank you, mr.
castro.
mr.
williams?
>> good morning, judge Biscoe, Commissioners, I'm charles williams from t.n.r.
i have with me bryan block from keep Austin beautiful.
we're here to talk about the 15th annual under water shoreline cleanup which happened Sunday -- two Sundays ago.
this -- this was our biggest event that we've ever had.
this was a 15th annual event and it was by far the biggest one that we've ever had.
our other partners, lcra, and colorado river foundation, could not be here.
but will -- we'll cover their part.
i want to talk about the amount of tons we got this year.
this year we had 34.75-tons.
now, normally we have about 3 to 7-tons.
so -- so the reason for this significant deliver is we have done one thing that we've always been trying to do, get other communities involved when we do this cleanup, this year Lakeway involved did 12-tons, we had volente, all shoreline cleanup, they did 18-tons, this is one of the most significant times, cleanups that we have ever done because of the partnership and other people playing in with us on this.
one thing is to be self supportive.
we rate $10,750 sponsorship to make this event work.
it was successful, tremendous, before I turn it over to bryan, I want to thank Commissioner Huber, there passing out garbage bag goes and helping make it a good event.
>> good morning, judge Biscoe and Commissioners.
as charlesed mentioned I'm bryan lock, the executive director at keep Austin beautiful.
we work throughout the year to support community groups with cleanup, beautification, restoration and environmental stewardship of public spaces and the greater Austin area.
we do that throughout the year.
we also work with -- with youth, both during the school day and after school.
to promote environmental stewardship and youth leadership.
and of course we partner every year on the Lake Travis underwater and shoreline cleanup.
this year -- this year we had -- we had about 1100 volunteers participate.
that's about 500 on the shoreline and another 500 scuba diving, another 100 just to help with the administration and organizing and the event day.
those volunteers together can -- commit -- or provided over $80,000 worth of value to Travis County.
with their volunteer service.
one thing that we want to mention is that there are two key reasons to do this cleanup.
one is to get a lake green every year.
the other is to raise awareness in the community about keeping it clean throughout the year.
we were helped by a lot of great media coverage to bring exposure to that.
we had coverage in the statesman on kvue and fox 7 as well as in the local newspapers.
thanks so much.
>> thank you.
>> thank you.
>> thank you.
keep up the good work.
>> [ applause ] morris priest is next followed by ronnie reeferseed.
>> morris priest for the record, speaking on my own behalf as always.
remember when the state brought the $2 million and told us after 35 years that the debt that would be paid out would be $8 billion and that we would still owe probably about a billion dollars?
well, that was when I first started getting back involved in this toll fight.
then I saw the legislation, it was really a nightmare.
they mentioned in the toll legislation they were going to start leveraging pensions, that txdot was going to have the authority after 90 days if they wanted to build a road to your farmhouse or home whatever, if you didn't take their offer within 90 days it would be a quick take, it was in the legislation.
then the driver responsibility program early on, about a billion dollar in fines and fees, they only collected 300 million-dollar.
1.1 million drivers on the road without license insurance or inspections.
then the court was approached to increase our inspections.
when did fog but raise our costs.
they came up with the horny toad license plates.
if you want to have your money go to the cause.
they later admitted that was a break even proposition, no money went.
they broke even.
we learned here even on Travis County Commissioners court from the chairman of the ctrma that yes, all of these cash toll booths are basically a break even proposition.
we don't make a dime on them after we pay the people that work in the toll booths and the administrative costs, it's about $120,000 on average.
senator watson quickly shut down the -- the mobility task force, just prior to the October meeting.
the oversight that campo had.
i told him that they were broke.
txdot announced that we have lost track of $1.1 billion, the toll ramps are being built are all funded by gas tax dollars.
the 130 ramp off of -- going to come down on cameron road is 100% funded by gas tax dollars.
the opening rate on that toll ramp will be a buck 50.
we just got that information Thursday, September the 24th.
the toll stimulus money that we're told that's going to -- we were told that -- that stimulus hearing that I went to on March the -- March the 19th, I told don that was a toll road.
he said that it's not a toll road.
ctrma said they needed these routes for hurricane routes.
we later find out that the stimulus money that we're told we're going to get, we're not even on the list.
so -- so the terms and conditions that the -- at the October meetings, when they were going to try to push this toll road down our throat, we told them they needed to have four meetings.
the staff rescheduled that meeting to December the 1st.
and -- and it's just been one wasted -- wasted revenue stream after another going to -- going to absolutely nothing.
i would hope that -- that the Commissioners and the judge that's on this court not vote for the -- for the t.i.f.
program that's coming up in this next campo meeting.
i just cannot support anybody that would vote for the tip this up coming active amendment.
thank you.
>> thank you, mr.
priest.
mr.
reeferseed.
is that this is ronnie
>> [inhale] reeferseed, drugs are not for kids.
drugs are not for kids.
i'm asking how is this afghani quagmire of idiocy now obama's war of necessity.
to do what?
punish some group of people.
by golly that's a war crime.
to punish more civilians because they were ruled by a tyrant, out of favor in washington right now.
who wins?
the u.s.?
no.
not -- not the civilians, no.
not our civilians.
not their civilians, of course, and of course the military -- who wins?
the military industrial bankster media complex of criminals?
bingo.
how do we stop this continual insanity, we need to speak our mind and get active.
don't wait for some election day to express yourself.
don't wait for permission to revolt from our corporately controlled media.
why?
because the organized crime corporate prostitutes can't think beyond their next trick.
why not all of us instead think about our future.
think about how our continual conservation of precious topsoil is absolutely vital to preserving our own lives as we know them and to our hungry future.
why?
because topsoil is crucial to virtually all food production and as we all know, everybody has got to eat.
freedom is the answer.
absolute unegivable freedom for thugs, less money for criminals means less money for corruption, killing people, for crimes across the board, everybody wins, therefore absolutely inevitable freedom for farmers is crucial to our continual survival of life as we know it to help ensure a more happy outcome for all of us again, let us all take a moment to decide to start to do something while we still can, because time is now, now is the time to contact our schemers, I mean leaders about the continued -- contagious enthusiasm sweeping our entire world for ob/gyn dr.
ron paul hb 12007 calling for an audit of the supposedly end approachable fed with almost 300 cosponsors in the house.
last time I checked ob/gyn's dr.
ron paul's delivery bodes well for our future as a constitutional republic.
to learn more call (888)322-1414, 888699-news.
subscribe to american free press at weekly populous newspaper that is not controlled by the corporate criminals.
online ronpaul.org.
campaign for liberty.com.
www.americanfreepress.net info wars.com.
alex jones 6 days a week at 11:00 a.m.
to 3:00 p.m.
to weekdays on 95.1, 4:00 to 6 on Sunday afternoons, good project on 95.1.
check it out.
>> thank you, mr.
reeferseed.
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, September 22, 2009 1:30 PM
