Travis County Commissioners Court
January 26, 2010,
Item 12
We do have other special guests here on item number 12.
receive brief and take appropriate actions to assist in relieve of the people haiti.
i had given those folks time, estimated time estimates when I thought we could reach them.
we appreciate you all visiting with us.
>> thank you.
>> good, judge, Commissioners, executive manager for health and human services.
at the request of Commissioner Davis and the full support of the court, the staff was directed to bring forward information regards how our community and specifically the Commissioner's court might facility assistance to the residents of haiti.
as you know, there was a devastating earthquake in that country on January 12 of this year, and there continues to be a tremendous need for resources and support to the people of that country.
and so with that said, we have some guests here from the american red cross who can give you some brief comments about what the american red cross is doing and how Travis County might be able to help.
>> thank you for the opportunity to be here today.
i'm the chief executive officer of the american red cross of central Texas and I'm here today with our chief marketing officer.
we've been working on this for the last two weeks, pretty much nonstop, and I can give you a little bit of background.
the american red cross is one of about 30 of the red cross and red crescent societies on the ground working there in haiti.
we know there are about 400 volunteers responding respondin0 different countries so we're just a part of a much, much larger response.
what we're seeing here locally is a tremendous outpouring of support and interest in helping the haitian people, and hopefully we can give you a little guidance today on how to best help our community do that.
we have what often is termed the disaster after the disaster that happens in terms of people that want to donate goods rather than cash.
i completely understand the urge to donate water or medical supplies, however, it's much more time and labor intensive for us to be able to take those donations of goods than it is to take the cash and turn it into exactly what people need at a motion's notice.
marty has been on the calls every day and has the latest information on what the needs are on the ground there so I will let you speak to that a little bit.
>> I think it is somewhat obvious the things that people there are food --
>> what is your name again?
>> hardy and I'm the chief operating officer of the red cross.
the needs are clean water, food, shelter, clothing that'sed adequate and those are the things the red cross specializes in so one of the things we've done is rather than think of the cost of shipping bottled water over there, instead we have taken water purification systems that can purify the water that is in so we can now pure five up to 400,000 liters of water a day for those people and that gets us out of the business of trying to should be in water in -- ship in water in that one little runway they have open right now.
the red cross good at this sort of thing right now because we've been on the ground since before the earthquake occurred.
we've been doing disaster relief work in haiti long before this particular disaster.
we know the people, the population, the routes, the players.
and because the american military is in the lead, the red cross is in good position to communicate with them.
i want to make sure you understand we are not a government agency.
we do not receive taxpayer money to do this, although we've had tremendous support in all levels of government in getting our message out about what we're doing what we we need.
we warrant want to thank the cif Austin and Travis County because they've been very supportive in this effort.
i also want to inform you that 98 million people in the world are members of the red cross movement, and virtually every country has a red cross/red crescent society so we're able to call upon that network in times of great calamity to take care of these situations.
but right here in the middle of Texas, your central Texas chapter responds to a disaster about every 48 hours.
a lot of people don't know that.
but if you want some guidance on how we do that, I suggest you talk to any local firefighter because we respond to any house or apartment fire in the region and provide these same sort assistance.
that is how we know how to do this on a grander scale it starts with our local volunteers.
we raise all this money locally and now we're raising money inside our community to send it out to our neighbors in haiti.
>> what is the easiest and simplest way for us to get county employees and Travis County residents to contribute cash to the red cross for haiti?
>> we can set up a micro site if you want to know specifically what county folks have contributed and be able to track that so you know exactly what came from your employees.
we can set up a micro site that allows you to do that.
>> my concern is that when you start phoning and using computers and stuff like that, a lot of our employees can do it but not all of them.
>> we understand.
>> a lot of them are kind of like me, we would remember go somewhere and -- we are rather go somewhere and hand over cash to somebody we know will put to good use so I can go and feel real good it later.
>> absolutely.
anybody is welcome to come by or send a check to our office, 2218 persian drive.
it is right across the street from the old airport in east Austin there.
you can mail a check, you can bring a check, mail cash -- well, I wouldn't encourage mailing cash but you can bring cash to us and we do have some plans here to set up right here outside the Commissioner's court a little table with volunteers where people can come by and bring donations if they happen to be walking through.
>> you got it out there now?
>> it was suggested to tus to td happen on -- to us it would happen on payday.
>> the whole point, there are some scams out there.
of course, we want to make sure that none of us fall into the pits of those persons that are portraying themselves, organizations that are portraying themselves to provide relief to haiti and of course scamming off and running off with it.
but what we intend to do here is make sure that that doesn't happen.
and of course, this is a legitimate organization that you represent and if there are those that are interested in participating financially, you will have a table out there on I guess if the court directs it, on payday.
>> correct.
>> and you need to -- if there is a website where by those would like to do something on the computer end of this what is that website address where they may want to do that also.
>> it's www.centex.redcross.org.
that gives you the opportunity to direct your funds to the international disaster relief fund for haiti or even for central Texas red cross.
you have a lot of choices how to direct your funds and we honor that donor intent.
>> what is the zip code for persian.
>> 23.
>> that's correct.
and on your point about a lot of scam operations, there are two ways that can happen.
you can have an organization or people that don't have the capacity to get whatever it is you're donating to haiti.
that is one thing.
and they don't ever intend to do that.
other times, people attempt to use the name of the american red cross and they're not affiliated with us.
if anyone has suspicions of that please call us and let us talk to you because we don't want anybody using our name.
512-928-4271.
>> to that point, the american red cross and the red crescent, I just want to put it out there, that is a valid organization affiliated with the american red cross, and the wonderful thing about the red cross and red crescent is it is an international effort.
it is wonderful we can designate our dollars towards central Texas disaster relief.
my understanding is we donate it unfettered, you can utilize it anywhere in the world where there is need.
of course, disaster knows no international bounds, no religious boundaries, no socioeconomic downries.
>> thank you to that point.
the american red cross responds to 70,000 disasters every year in the united states.
>> we ask first we be allowed to have a red cross representative here in the grainger building on Friday of this week potentially between about 10:00 and 2:00 in the day where staff could come and, of course, the public could come and make donations directly to the red cross here at our
>> would like to donate through an electronic portal and receive the work of the red cross and some of the safeguards they should be aware of before making donations to an effort such as this.
>> on Friday, check or cash for those that want to come to the table and make contribution.
>> any and all.
>> approval of all recommendations.
>> second.
>> discussion?
>> between the hours of what time on this Friday?
>> we were recommending between about 10:00 and 2:00.
we think that should be sufficient.
>> can we judge also within this motion, maybe include maybe an internet deal all the departments to alet the county when this particular effort is on Friday.
>> discussion?
>> all in favor?
that passes by a unanimous vote.
thank you for your patience and assistance.
we will help as much as we can.
>> thank you all.
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, January 26, 2010 2:15 PM
