Travis County Commissioners Court
November 3, 2009,
Citizens Communication
Citizens communication is first and this item gives residents an opportunity to address the court on any matter not on the agenda for up to three minutes.
gus pena is number one, followed by ronnie
>> [inhale] reeferseed who will be followed by -- by -- by jonathan --
>> [indiscernible] is that close?
okay.
>> good morning, judge, commissions, gus pena, proud east Austin native.
judge, number one, first and foremost, I have been in contact with the federal officials in washington regarding h1n1 and I would respectfully request, this is coming from a lot of people in the community, if we could have a status report by our -- it's styled health authority or medical director, dr.
wong, and the status of h1n1 vaccine and the status report of statistical data regarding people who are contracted -- contracting the h1n1 flu.
i will leave that at that.
hopefully we will get some sort of status report from dr.
wong and put it on the agenda capital metro search for new c.e.o.
president.
in the community, and I have letter from each person that was requested to -- to be considered for the position of the capital metro board.
we sent it to senator watson.
this individual, the new c.e.o.
and president should communicate professionally and courteously.
one key critical component to become the new leader of capital metro transit agency.
the other issues are knowledge of budgetary cycles, federal, state, county, city governments.
the other key critical component of a good candidate is dialogue and not be adversarial with the union and its members.
a union is needed and is very important to ensure safety, working conditions are not compromised.
one of the things that I want to mention is a good article came out in the newspaper, Commissioner Gomez, you are the still -- still the board chair.
and state we frequently see people, this is quote from senator watson, we frequently see people who have proven themselves excellent managers move into industry that's we don't know much about.
when we talk about people that have the skills, knowledge, of mass transit or metro rail.
a good person can be a good manager, he or she needs to know budgetary issues, all people, all walks of life.
veterans, if anything I have said before is retained by anyone, pleases support your military personnel.
whatever your position or posture is on the war in iraq and afghanistan, send care packages, write to him or her a few lines.
in vietnam when a person wrote to us, a few lines meant a whole lot from the people in the united states of america.
you serve in harm's way, anything is appreciated.
anyway, our veterans that are returning from the war have many needs, need to met ptsd treatment, reentry counseling, jobs, affordable housing.
last item is very, important, too.
i was a teacher at a.c.c., taught in the school district, also, among other things, mentors and tutors, please, if you have an extra hour or two to volunteer, please volunteer as a mentor or tutor to help our students to learn the concepts and strategies of math, reading, other subject matter.
help keep our students from failing, keeping them out of the dropout rate.
when a student becomes a dropout, statistical data, he or she does affect the budgetary cycle.
we need help.
please get them out there, thank you all very much.
i will see you next week.
>> thank you, mr.
pena.
mr.
reeferseed.
>> thank you, judge.
and, hey, I celebrate halloween all week.
but this is of course ronnie
>> [inhale] reeferseed.
saying no drugs for kids.
for growing brains, obviously.
i mean, cherish your childhood kids, we all miss is dearly, I can tell you.
build a burger stooge rick perry is dissolving politically as more horrific truths about death and total debilitation from guardasil for young girls, now they want to force is on young boys, too.
no we're not going to let that happen, we're not going to be fooled about the ever shifting schemology to shove this nightmare down our throats in some other clothing.
no to slick perry, vote deborah medina.
deborah medina for governor.
no to slick perry.
slipping and sliding while shoving sex drugs into our kids while serving build a burger trees with the trans Texas corridor.
our only other choice, according to our criminally controlled media is that other stooge for build a burgers, senator kay bailout hutchinson.
vote deborah medina.
she loves pretending it's somehow okay.
all we need to do is stop the killing on both sides of the border is freedom.
free, absolutely freedom for farmers to grow anything from the dictates of organized crime thugs and oregon criminal government is the answer.
president obama can overnight, single handedly unite u.s., mexico, columbia, burma, et cetera from organized crime with obama signing executive orders declaring absolute freedom for hemp farmers.
stop the killing.
to instead share the profits with the citizen farmers, all farmers will become richer overnight no matter what they grow because of the inevitable market forces of supply and demand.
for example, if you and your neighbor farmer both grow carrots, but now he chooses to grow hemp instead, that means profits for other farmers like you and carrots goes up.
the results overnight explosion in organic farming nation-wide will help save us all from true evil foods which cause cancer and sterilization of animals that feed on it.
thankfully the ob/gyn dr.
ron paul for love continues to inform more citizens each and every day.
anyone can learn more by meager dialing (888)322-1414 for a weekly update.
also available for free on radio right here in Austin, 90.1 f.m.
and 99.7 f.m.
is the alex jones show from 11:00 a.m.
to 3:00 p.m.
weekdays and 4:00 p.m.
to 6:00 p.m.
on Sundays and of course online everything is available, www.infowars.com and american free press, ronpaul.org.
thank you much,.
>> thank you, mr.
reeferseed.
if you are holding slip number 3 --
>> that would be me.
>> it's your time.
>> good morning, judge, Commissioners.
my name is jennifer
>> [indiscernible], a technology executive here in the community.
i live and work in Travis County.
i'm here at the request of being able to support beverly monroe and the Travis County expo center.
i am someone who as a young girl was an equestrian, a few weeks ago I reconnected with one of my first loves of riding horses.
i really think there's an opportunity to create something great in our county of putting together a long-term plan to grow the Travis County expo center to make it more horse friendly so that all of us can enjoy that as a great community.
i hope to make my first debut as an equestrian at the end of the year show this year.
i hope that you will consider this as looking at an opportunity not for just the individuals but certainly the county itself, thank you.
>> thank you.
>> the holder of slip number 3 again.
>> she was --
>> she was four.
>> jennifer stenovic?
and she'll be followed by chris nielsen, followed by richard beason.
good morning.
>> good morning.
my name is jennifer sandvic, I would like to be here at 11 being to support bev vary monroe and the shows at the expo center but I have to head to san antonio for work.
i would like to just make a couple of comments about my desire really for the court help create an environment at the expo center that's really very supportive and conducive to the horse shows that we have had out there competing at the expo center for 15 years, a huge part of my life and what I really love about living and working in Austin in large part is the ability to go to the shows at the expo center.
the other show that's I have gone to as a child, for example, would be out of town and required time off from work and significant additional expense.
so for me as a working professional in Austin, I can have my job here and also pursue my love of riding and not have the big sacrifice that really I probably couldn't make to be able to compete and have the experience of showing that would be required to be outside of the city.
i know that same is true for -- there's about 150 horses at the stables where I ride that's in Travis County and a large portion of those folks also compete at the expo center and many of them are young professionals like me, in addition to, of course, many children that compete.
but the other young professionals have that same attitude, that this facility here in Austin really allows us to be able to compete and still have our jobs and live here.
so I hope that you'll work to create that environment out there where we can continue to have the shows for the future.
thank you.
>> thank you.
>> ms.
nielsen.
good morning.
>> good morning.
>> good morning, judge Biscoe.
Commissioner Eckhardt, Commissioner Huber, Commissioner Gomez, I'm chris nielsen, with hrmd.
i'm here to brief the court on some training that we have done over the past four years.
primarily in the area of conflict resolution management.
atkins with atkins associate has been training management and non-management staff over the course of the last four years.
lots of benefits have been seen, employees have mentioned their interactions with other employees have been better, a common understanding of the nature and effects of conflicts, people have the skills to resolve conflicts on their own, willingness of managers to seek assistance in early intervention and employee conflict, also an increase in requests for this training.
over the course of the past year we've seen over 100 employees go through this class, every class that we offer that's sponsored by hrmd is full and we are taking this a step further because we are seeing departments requesting entire staff members to come through the training.
recently hrmd went through the training.
Commissioner Eckhardt's office, Commissioner Gomez's office, justice and public safety, we have plans for the county clerk's office to go through conflict management training, also to develop an internal process for their department to resolve conflict.
i would like to turn it over to ben so he can mention a couple of things.
one thing is that we are introducing a brand new class this Friday, mediation for leaders.
teaches them hands-on skills in mediation and ben is going to be heading that class, he is a master trainer in conflict resolution specialist, thank you.
>> one of the primary sources that many studies show for low productivity in organizations is unmanaged workplace conflict and the -- it costs the county, it costs organizations in wasted time and resources.
dealing with unresolved conflict management time.
it's been shown up to 42% of the manager's time spent dealing with conflict and also at -- there's -- leads to gossip and -- it can escalate to violence, unmanaged conflict managing conflict prevents violence in the workplace, of course lawsuits, grievances, formal complaints, things like that add to the cost and expense of unmanaged conflict.
so the solution is to strategically manage conflict in the organization.
the way to strategically manage conflict in the organization is to create a culture that is conducive to openness and trust and to put the tools of professional mediators into the hands of the managers, so that they know how to mediate and resolve conflicts and then to have all employees trained in how to have conflict resolution conversations.
and then to resolve conflicts at the lowest level before they hit h.r.
or the court and to have a -- implement a conflict management process that all employees can use and access.
that's what our goal is.
>> it's a great class.
i encourage everyone to get the training.
>> thank you very much.
>> thank you.
>> thank you.
>> would the following three individuals please come forth.
richard be ason, first name looks like richard.
christie may and denise bell.
>> thank you, judge.
>> good morning.
>> Commissioners.
>> we have an opportunity to continue to support an activity that truly -- that truly gives young people basic direction in their formative years.
it gives them a sense of belonging and responsibility.
please support this wholesome activity now as you have in the past.
thank you.
>> thank you.
>> ms.
may.
>> hi, I'm going to start by saying that I won be here at the 11:00 meeting, so I wanted to offer just a general -- general comments about the expo center.
my name is christie may, I came to show my support for our local horse shows held in the Travis County expo center.
these shows are important part of our community as well as an important part of my business.
i own lone star stables and lone star stables opened in November of 2007.
we've already grown to over 50 clients.
let's see.
many of our riders are new to the sport and the local horse shows provide the best opportunity for them to compete and grow as riders.
myself and my daughters, we all compete at these horse shows and we enjoy it.
not only is it important to our business, it's important to us as riders.
thank you.
>> thank you.
>> hello.
my name is denise bell.
my daughter and I have both -- are clients of lone star stables.
we are business owners in Austin.
my husband and I both work.
and I cannot tell you how important riding has been to our family and particularly my daughter.
the shows that we are able to attend just made her grow and blossom as a person.
i have watched all of the girls there that ride and some boys.
it's a very, very big part of the Austin community.
if we were -- if we did not have that facility, it would be like having football practice with no stadium.
so it's -- it's a big part of our lives and we -- we want to just come here to show support for beverly monroe and the show that's she has -- that she has put on at the expo center.
thank you.
>> thank you very much.
christine lashere.
hi, my name is christine
>> [indiscernible] I'm a graduate student at the university of Texas at Austin.
i'm just here in support of the use of the Travis County exposition center for the local horse shows for the centex and tssa associations.
this is a wonderful -- excuse me, there is a wonderful facility that we have been able to use for local shows for people that couldn't necessarily afford to go to houston or to waco or to other places, myself included.
there's no way that I could show horses if I had to pay for three night hotel bills.
as a graduate student that's not going to happen.
it would be really wonderful if we could continue to use this facility in an affordable manner for these shows.
i'm a native Travis County resident and up until I started showing five or six years ago, I have only been to the expo center for the rodeo.
maybe four times.
since I started showing, I've been out there
>> [indiscernible] that's the only forum in which I use the Travis County facility.
i hope that we can work it out to continue to use it for the local associations, thanks.
>> thank you very much.
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, November 3, 2009 1:40 PM
