Travis County Commissioners Court
October 20, 2009,
Citizens Communication
Citizens communication is next.
this item allows residents to address the court on any matter not on the agenda for up to three minutes.
gus pena is first.
followed by mr.
reeferseed, followed by mr.
priest, followed by mr.
mcdonald.
>> good morning.
>> good morning, judge, Commissioners, again, gus pena.
last night I was viewing a local television station and I saw doug allen the interim leader of capital metro, and I will make a quote that he mentioned, he says: we have made many mistakes, to put it mildly.
okay, doug allen, what are we going to do to correct the mistakes and lead a shift with a true leadership that is leader -- lead a ship with true leaderships and rudderless.
last week I think we had comments that we want a person to lead the capital metro agency that has vision for alternative transportation, metro, rail, et cetera.
I'm all for that.
heck, when I was going to -- when we were going to work in the fields in lubbock, loveland, lubbock was constantly improving road infrastructure, highways, overpasses et cetera as was san antonio in the 50s, early 60s.
when I ran for city council in '96 and '97, the reason that I'm saying this, I proposed flyovers and I proposed more building, improving road infrastructure, I was credit sized for compromising the environment.
criticized for compromising the environment.
i remember the headline, I have the newspaper.
look what we have now.
specifically, going north on 183 off of ben white boulevard, you are going through montopolis and you go up north, you go up there by in between 6:45 until about 9:00 it's a quagmire.
it is slow and go, stop 'n stop and go.
that's in part of our precinct, Commissioner Gomez, we need to have a true leader who knows what the heck they are doing, not saying oh, we're going to have a payment plan.
cannot do that.
it sure is not doug allen, I pray to god that it is not.
we are all for alternative transportation.
we see it.
i have lived it.
i have seen it all my life except when I was in the marine corps, when I came back on leave, I saw the monstrosities, hardships of it.
hopefully we will get a new leader that has a vision, the leadership skills, fiduciary skills, to lead us out of this quagmire.
support the veterans despite your posture on the war in iraq and afghanistan.
thank and support our troops, combat veterans coming back with many ailments, ptsd, need mental health treatment, jobs with benefits to take care of their ills and needy health care issues and also affordable housing to house their families.
we have a lot of veterans becoming homeless, a lot of veterans with families that are becoming homeless, losing their homes because of tax increases.
they cannot afford to pay their home mortgages and I understand a little bit about what was said here before prior on the fees, I do agree with that
>> [buzzer sounding] but 12th go back to the homeowner.
i have to go, veterans support them, mentoring, tutoring for the kids, we need them, don't want them to drop out.
thank you, have a good day.
>> thank you, mr.
pena, mr.
reeferseed.
thank you, sir, I'm ronnie
>> [inhale] reeferseed, who says no drugs for growing brains.
not for kids, obviously.
but rejoice for the ongoing ob/gyn dr.
ron paul for topsoil conservation, as president bankster stooge obama shocks the world by listening to the roar from friendly voters and farmers in at least 14 states, many, many municipalities nationwide have overwhelmingly voted to at least decriminalize and/or to legalize medicinal marijuana, now with less federal prosecution, thanks to the president.
and again, thc is a non-toxic, ie it is impossible to od on hemp, marijuana, lord knows that I have been trying to od on marijuana for decades now, it cannot be done.
thc marijuana is safe.
war on drug, front line news, of course afghanistan so-called election of president kharzi has been internationally declared to be a fraud because, you know, at least one third of his votes were found to be fake.
so therefore now afghanistan has got to wait throughout the rest of the winter for their needed runoff, that's against their constitution, they are supposed to do it in two weeks.
we must finally bring all of our troops home now.
a no brainer, however the bbc already announced last week that peace prizer obama has already decided to send at least 40,000 more troops.
additional troops.
to afghanistan.
which is nightmarish.
yesterday, however, this is -- this is soft killing vaccine headline news, yesterday, the first pig with h1n1 in the united states of america was found.
proving that this experimental vaccine is for a man-made pig bird flu virus which again is a soft kill weapon.
the so-called rare, I heard this on fox news, the so-called rare reaction to the seasonal flu vaccine on fox news Monday night, there's a woman desiree jennings a cheerleader for the redskins who got a seasonal flu shot who already she -- no cure dystonia, seizures, difficulty speaking.
the final tag line on the fox news show was flu shots are safe!
huh?!!
this story about desiree will save lives, pay attention, people.
remember, swine flu vaccines in 1976 killed many, many people before being canceled as a program during gerald ford's administration.
they stopped the nationwide swine flu vaccination scheme because of the swine flu was killing people, doing more harm than good.
killing many people.
i'm very sorry, one little other thing that I wanted to say, for more information read american free press online and my hero dr.
paul -- ronpaul.org, campaignforliberty.com.
and of course 699639788699 for american free press.
thanks so much.
>> thank you.
>> mr.
priest.
>> judge, Commissioners, morris priest speaking on my own behalf.
recently when I spoke with some of the people on this court, with their -- with their staff, txdot and campo, txdot as an agency lost track of $1.1 billions, campo is a board that tried to shove a vote down our throats and call an October meeting when they violated their own policy.
this was pulled from the agenda because they've had postings where meetings were canceled because of improper postings.
when I discussed this matter on September the 14th at txdot, they said that the -- that the s.h.
130 didn't even make the list of 100% gas tax ramp.
we find this out at the campo meeting that they -- that txdot did pull this project and we have these cash toll booths that are generating over $120,000 a month per booth, comes out over a million dollars of revenue a year per cash toll booth a million and a half, this goes up in thin air that goes to nothing towards our transportation.
i do believe take on traffic is the chamber of commerce, that's what their literature says.
the road lobby and doesn't matter which element or fast self our government, we're constantly being bombarded by these lobbyists.
public/private partnerships.
we have a fire chief here in the city of Austin that wanted to cut firefighters from four to three on their trucks, stop at red lights and not exceed the speed limit.
discriminatory and unwise promotion.
you saw in the station today a lawsuit has happened lowering standards, changing policies, just for change sake.
retiring a patch.
we have these situations where the public and the people that even work for the government entities don't even have the ears of our elected officials.
this funding for transportation is -- it's been enormous debt that was voted in on this last t.i.f.
with txdot and campo.
this overwhelmingly enormous debt.
we have an overbuilding of road, 290, we want to use the toll funds to cross of funds to bill a toll road, we want to use tax dollars, we want to have millions of millions upon dollars wasted through funding schemes such as the driver responsibility program, cash toll booths, endless revenue streams being -- being generated through red light cameras, any other number of just one wasted effort after another one when it comes to our license and registration of our vehicles, our driver's license fees.
every fee in the world.
it's all as a result of the public/private partnership, public/private partnerships, you make, find an example that works.
it's never going to work when people are out making billions of dollars, such as the road lobby or other entity that's work hand in hand.
the appointment with the capital metro board.
this court couldn't make a decision on this and -- at the last county meeting, it appeared that the court didn't even understand who they could chooses, what pool they could choose from, but I don't see anybody on the city council being bent to serve on that board, even though I know they have positions.
i would hope that you wouldn't choose, I would hope that Ron Davis could go over to campo and Sarah Eckhardt or somebody from this court go over to the capital metro board, but I think there's a lot of conflict of interest,
>> [buzzer sounding], I would like to see some things changed in how we do government with these private/public partnerships.
>> thank you, mr.
priest.
mr.
mcdonald.
>> good morning.
>> good morning.
>> I'm getting to be one of the regulars down here I guess, too.
but I only speak about the txi proposed gravel pit mine that's going into the hunters bend neighborhood or proposed to be going into the hunters bend neighborhood.
thank you, judge Biscoe, for trying to get my questions answered that I gave to you about the law that I've been asking about for nine months and about whether or not this permit will go to this Commissioners court for a public hearing.
it's really hard to come down here and speak for three minutes because there's so many issues involved in this thing.
and this is our only public forum at this point.
you know, there was a variance, the city of Austin said there probably would be a variance needed to put this conveyor in that they had planned to move this gravel.
and basically, txi dropped the -- the conveyor from their project completely and I think the main reason was because they didn't have to face a variance hearing where there would be any public input.
i've heard from the city publicity officials, their plan is to go back, resubmit their thing after the mine is approved, they want to get the conveyor, that's the best thing, but they just don't want to go before the public and have this thing discussed.
they want to get it completely administratively and it looks like that's what's happening at the county, too.
from the very beginning we have been encouraged by all of you to be engaged and work with you on this thing.
that's why I've been coming down.
you know, when I first got this -- found out about this thing, I came down, looked at the law and it said very clearly in the law permits can be disapproved if the proposed use is incompatible with the existing use.
i have been asking about that law.
what is incompatible, what is the existing use, how do you define a residential neighborhood, is it not compatibility with a mining project.
i asked this question, I asked it to you judge Biscoe you had to go to the executive session to talk to the attorneys to get my answer.
and -- and you didn't tell me, by the way, that you needed to go to get the answer.
you said you needed to go there to find out what you could tell me.
i'm not sure if this is a difference or not.
but anyway, so my answer was this law was a mistake.
it's in there by mistake.
it really doesn't count.
i just want everybody to make sure that you've -- not everybody got copied on mr.
gieselman's response to me.
but that was his response that the law that I've been asking about for six months is in there by mistake, it's supposed to be taken out next time you review the law.
so I don't know how to do this.
i keep thinking of the wizard of oz, pay no attention to is that man behind the curtain there.
>> or the woman with the beeper.
>> yeah.
>> but anyway that still is a question I don't know how to answer that.
i don't know if all of these attorneys looking at this law have been working for me or working for the county or staff, but that's a question that I want to answer.
>> as a point of clarification, you are saying that the provision with regard to compatible use is supposed to be taken out of the law?
>> well, it says it will be brought up to be taken out because it's in there by accident and it just doesn't count I guess.
that's what I was told by joe gieselman.
thanks.
>> thank you, mr.
mcdonald.
anybody else for citizens communication whether you signed in or not?
>> thank you.
consent
>> the consent items are next.
c 1 is the posted consent item.
let's consider adding the following items to the consent motion, if you would like for us to discuss any of these separately, please say so as I call out the number of item.
i've got a long list of ones that I recommend.
beginning with number 7.
8, 9, 10 a and b, 13, anybody here from voratex llc on item 14?
14 a and b, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21.
>> just a quick comment on that.
that's just $692,000 for child care in this region.
what a great thing.
>> uh-huh.
>> but consent is fine.
>> all right.
21 is part of the consent motion.
22, 26, jennifer brown, county staff, jennifer brown being the appointee, by the way.
27, and 27 is the last one.
>> move approval of the consent items.
>> second.
>> would anyone like for us to pull any of these for separate discussion?
all in favor?
that passes by unanimous vote, number 2 we have been asked to call up this afternoon at 1:30 ace mentioned earlier.
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, October 20, 2009 1:40 PM
