Travis County Commissioners Court
March 9, 2010,
Item 27
Number 27, receive update and take appropriate action on Travis County activities regarding the 2010 census, including a, census summit to be convened by judge Biscoe and mayor leffingwell on March 10, 2010 at 5:30 p.m.
at city hall.
b, proclamation declaring March 19th through 21, 2010 as census sabbath weekend in Travis County and encouraging all communities of faith to educate their members about the importance of the census.
and c,, summary of activities planned by Travis County departments and independent elected officials.
>> hello, judge.
>> how you doing?
>> very well.
dietz eckstein, intergovernmental relations coordinator.
i'm happy to have with me bruce elfant from precinct five, who is the co-chair of the Austin Travis County complete count committee.
we have a very brief report to give you and we have a handout for members of the court, which I'll ask veronica if she can pass out, please.
and in the meantime I'll get the --
>> we want to move through this very quickly, judge, but we basically have four points or five points we want to make with you.
first we just want to reemphasize for the members of the court the importance of the census to Travis County and to all the people in our community.
and secondly give you an update on the county's efforts to participate and to educate people about the census.
third, to look at the timetable over the next two months.
and finally, to advise the court and the citizenry of a couple of important items coming up very quickly here.
as I mentioned, the census is very important in Travis County and I'd like to call upon constable elfant if he can make a couple of points about that.
>> the census is important to Travis County.
the reason I believe that the mayor and the county judge formed this committee is that a study indicated from the 2000 census that Travis County was undercounted.
and as a result we lost out on about $235 million in federal funding over the 10-year period.
and we certainly don't want to let that happen again, so we're trying to be a lot more aggressive in getting out the word to our community that if you're living, breathing in Travis County on April 1st, if your pillow is down in Travis County on April 1st, with you need to be counted here in Travis County on April 1st.
>> and let me just give the court a briefcase study of the kind of difference that census money has made.
a lot of times when you hear a number like $235 million, you think gosh, what are they talking about, where would that money have gone?
i just want to point to you to an example of the community development block grants.
because of census data Travis County became eligible to receive community development block grants in 2006.
midway through this decade we crossed a census population base threshold.
because of that we have received an additional 3,612,007 central texan $17 in the last four years, which we have been able to use to do affordable housing, to help build infrastructure in some of our unincorporated communities and to provide some social services.
that's just a brief example of the kinds of real benefits to our taxpayers that participation in the census and that the money that flows with the census population data can provide.
so we think it's very important that all the people in Travis County know about the census and participate in the census.
as bruce mentioned, some of the populations, it really is where you are on April first.
and for instance, we have a large student population here in Travis County.
many of them may estimate or may misunderstand that the census -- they're supposed to be counted with their parents.
perhaps they think of that as their permanent residence but the census wants them to be counted where they are on April 1st.
so that's a good example of how important it is to get information out about the census to everybody.
with that in mind, Travis County has made its own commitment, as led by the Commissioners court, to publicize and promote the census as well as possible.
i want to just highlight three big strategies that we've been working on.
the first is that our tctv people have done a fabulous job and have now developed about 30 minutes' worth of programming about the census.
everything from 30 second spots to a brief five or 10 minute interviews that they now are working into the rotation.
so people who are watching Travis County television, channel 17, are able to find out about the census just as part of watching the programming.
the second thing I wanted to mention is we have printed 25,000 brochures and we have examples of those brochures here for members of the court.
we've printed those with a grant we received from the census department, non-grant, grant.
i think recall remember that earlier this year.
and we're distributing those through the county offices.
the third strategy we're working on is that there will be a county wide push to reach out to the people we serve, really led by our community centers and our health and human services and veterans services people, and we are hoping to come back to the court in a couple of weeks to ask for a proclamation for a census day, which would probably be on Friday, March 26th.
census day is actually Thursday, April 1st.
that's the real big important day that we're looking at.
i'd like to ask bruce if he could just highlight the timetable of what's going to be happening in the next couple of months with respect to the census for the benefit of the members of the court.
>> the next three weeks is going to be fairly intense.
some of our viewing audience received letters in the mail yesterday indicating that the census form is coming next week.
and it gave them an opportunity to select a census forms in any one of 59 languages.
plus braille.
and so that went out yesterday.
the census forms themselves, just 10 questions, will be mailed within the next week to every address in Travis County.
and April 1st is census day in america and we're hoping that everybody will take that census form, fill it out and turn it in on April first.
the more people who turn it in on April 1st, the fewer people have to be sought out by the census enumerators to go find them.
what we found in 2000 is that about two-thirds of residents filled out their form and mailed it in.
and the census bureau had to go find the other third.
we're hoping to increase the initial response of people filling it out and sending it in to 75%.
so the cleanup operation won't be as challenging.
but again, it's so important that we find every individual person because each person in Travis County is worth $1,500 a year in federal funding.
and that adds up pretty quickly.
we want to make sure that everybody gets counted.
after April 1st the census enumerators will go knock on every door in Travis County where a form hasn't been returned.
they will have an 1-800-number up where people who haven't received a form in the mail can call and give their nfers over the phone if they choose to do that or they can request a form and be able to mail that in.
so that will be going on for a couple of months, through I believe July, they'll be going door to door trying to find the people who didn't mail it in.
then after that it all gets bundled up and sent to washington.
they end of the year that information will be sent to the president, to congress and then we'll all be embroiled in redistricting issues next year this time.
but it's safe.
this information cannot be used for any other purpose other than counting every american, which is what the u.s.
constitution says that we're supposed to do.
it's important, this information is used to allocate federal dollars to every community in the country.
and as we indicated, we lost out on $235 million because of the undercount 10 years ago.
and also congressional apportionment and congressional districts are based on the census count.
and Texas is poised to gain as many as four additional congressional districts this year, which would make us the largest state in the country in terms of congressional gain.
but that only happens if we get everybody counted.
and that would give Texas and Travis County certainly more clout with congress.
so it's safe, it's important, and it's easy.
it's only 10 questions.
it should take 10 minutes and you only have to do it once every 10 years.
so safe, easy, important.
and by the way, it's the law.
every american is required to do this.
>> and I might also add that the census is -- when he was talking about it being easy.
it asks for information about you, but it doesn't really ask for any what I would call delicate or sensitive information.
it doesn't ask for your social security number, doesn't ask for your bank account number.
none of those pieces of information that we would hold as very private or privileged are asked for by the census.
so it's really just an attempt to figure out who lives where and how do they contribute to our society.
and that's why it's so important for everybody, for everybody residing in america to participate.
judge Biscoe and mayor leffingwell have really made a commitment to making sure everybody in the community is involved in this.
that's why they have convened a census summit, which will be held tomorrow evening at 5:30 p.m.
at city hall.
they are going to in a sense emcee the event, but bruce and judge eric shepherd, who are the co-chairs of the event, will also be very involved in it.
the real purpose is to bring together community leaders to educate and inform them so that they can go out to their networks and advise them and spread the word about the census and about the importance of participating.
we're about three weeks and a couple of days out from census day today.
so the next three weeks are going to be very critical for doing that, and that is why the judge and the mayor have convened this summit.
i might also mention that on Friday there's going to be a census road tour as part of its public information efforts, the u.s.
census bureau will have an event held on the south steps of the capitol on Friday running from 10:00 to 12.
there will be guest speakers, entertainment, lots of information available for people about the census, an opportunity to ask questions.
and an opportunity to get some little census geegaws and swag for you to take home.
that will be on Friday.
this is all really the kickoff for three weeks of pretty intense community outreach in order to make sure people know about the census and about how important it is to our community.
if people do want more information, I can commend them to the tctv, our own Travis County television network here, channel 17, which does have a lot of census information up on it.
i can also mention that we have a facebook page.
the Austin-Travis County complete count committee.
so if you go to your facebook and type that in, you will get the facebook page which has more information and links to what events are going on.
so we're trying to use the social media to get that.
really what's important is for people listen to go this broadcast and for the people that interact with the county on a daily or weekly basis to know about this and for us to get the word out.
and I'm very proud of the effort that all our county departments and many of the independent elected officials are making in that regard.
that's all we have for you, but we're happy to answer any questions.
>> any action required today?
>> no.
and by the way, judge, I apologize.
we had intended to ask the court to adopt a resolution, but we've not got that prepared.
maybe back to the court next westbound or the week after about that.
next week or the week after about that.
>> thank you for the update.
>> thank you, judge.
>> thank y'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, March 9, 2010 2:53 PM
