Travis County Commissioners Court
March 23, 2010,
Citizens Communication
Citizens communication is next.
this item gives residents an opportunity to address the court on any matter not on the agenda.
kenneth snider is first.
sherry flemming is second.
andrea bu sse is third.
mr.
snider.
>> my name is kenneth snider.
third world city ten miles down the road here.
kevin Moore, letty brown talked to him.
i didn't talk to him yet, from the water development board.
looking for paperwork and stuff from the county or whatever.
same thing they did, they asked me is done for the water.
i'm going to fight this until I drop.
i may drop.
we need some more reporters.
they are coming out to do a story on us.
we need it real bad out there.
the water is coming down the hill.
nothing but pure you know what.
we got to get something done out there.
letty says if you have problems, they would be glad to come down and show you where all the programs are and help you with the programs like you did last time if you have a problem since dan left and everything.
but I wish all y'all Commissioners would get together and feg out a way.
if you are shorthanded or don't have somebody know what to do and everything, why don't everybody get together.
you have been here a long time.
we got the water in.
use the same programs and get the sewer in.
this has been going on 40 years, trying to get help out there.
i have been kind of tired of coming up here.
i don't like to come up here and everything.
kind of embarrassing.
it's mostly hispanic out there.
a poor neighborhood.
they could put another three or four 4 houses in--400 houses if the sewer line comes out there.
i know there are programs and you can do something for us.
we have the water in.
no problem.
and mike hall and everything told letty and everything they are ready to do something.
they said the grant is there.
of course I'm going to go to the next meeting up at water board and find out exactly what is going on.
the city and county is going to have to get something going out there.
we can't just live out there.
eventually they are going to take and write us off.
they can't have the sewer running down the streets and all the mounds and houses shutting down.
it's just one thing and another.
i don't know exactly what all dan smith done and everything.
i know he went through a few hoops and hurdles to get that done.
i think you all could put this off and make the county look real good and pull this off.
it would be better for the county than kennedy ridge if they can pull this thing off and fix the problem.
it ain't that big an area.
and it's mostly hispanic out there.
of course that don't make any difference.
we got a lot of new people trying to move out there after everything.
then they find, they take and buy a house and find out the sewer issed ba, they just leave the house.
they won't buy them.
we can't get what we paid for our property on account of the no sewer because you can't live out there.
it cost about $400 to have the septic tank pumped and the minute you have it pumped it's already full of water because all the water is coming up out of the ground into the tanks.
we can't keep paying 400, 400, 400 for having sump tanks pumped out because it won't work.
it's uncalled for, judge, you did promise me you are going to do the sewer like you go the water.
i don't know what would cause you to fall back on that part.
>> mr.
schneider, just throwing out because this is citizens communication, we can't do it back and for the.
>> sure.
>> I just wanted to provide some information.
of course the county, both william son and Travis County went into partnership with the city of Austin and true the another leastation --utilization of cbg funds was able to put water into north ridge acres to provide water services into the unincorporated area.
and we don't currently have funds to do sewer lines in unincorporated areas.
we don't have the authority, first, and second, we don't have the funds am we --funds.
we don't have the authority necessarily to do the water either but we found the funds in your circumstance.
we did have cdbg funds and federal stimulus funds for weatherization and improvements to homes.
and we have made that available.
and I have also discussed with health and human services making some specific inquiries in north ridge acres to get folks signed up for that.
i know it's in the sewer--not sewer but it is funds which would free up resources in the homes to put towards their septic systems.
>> if we get the houses--
>> we are not authorized to deliberate on this issue.
>> I did want to put that information out there.
that is available.
we do have federal money available for that.
we don't current will I for sue knowledge.
>> they have community block grants.
>> you still live in Williamson county?
>> yes.
>> what is their position on this wastewater.
>> I can't get anything out of them.
you know the sal--
>> the water took five years.
>> yes.
>> you are coming down here and every seventh day won't get it done.
it didn't before.
it's a long drawn out process.
i told you three years ago I'd work on wastewater, and I will.
but your coming every Tuesday to remind us doesn't help.
and your being a william son county resident doesn't him.
>> if I with a is in Travis County I would be running.
>> go to william son county some too many.
i will do what I can.
i don't know if we can help william son county residents or not.
>> it worked out.
>> it worked after five years and more than $2 million.
and we benefitted, in my view, probably a handful of residents.
now, have you called the william son county septic system regulators?
there are a lot of questions we have to deal with.
we cannot do it during this tim.
>> yeah.
here is the problem.
we cannot fix the problem of that is our problem.
>> thank you, mr.
snider.
>> there's way the fix the problem.
it has to be replaced.
>> thank you, mr.
snider.
jerry flemming.
>> I will be up here every day.
i'm going get something done.
if you make me a promise to get it done.
>> my recommendation is for you to go to william son county.
we will communicate with them hopefully on your behalf and behalf of Travis County residents.
that is the way we get this done.
ms.
flemming, don't let mr.
snider take your time.
ms.
phlegm--phlegming is a county employee.
>> I will yield my three minutes to ms.
buss e.
go ahead.
>> good morning, judge, Commissioners.
family support services I'm pleased to be here and share in the recognition of March being professional social workers month and wanted to acknowledge all the wonderful hard washing of the social workers throughout Travis County, not just hss but every system that we have.
also wanted to take the time to share with y'all some wonderful news.
n that one of our very own, ms.
jane mcclain, has been recognized by her peers on March 10 at the annual capital area branch national association of social workers banquet as social worker of the year for the capital area.
i wanted to recognize her and share that great news with you all.
>> (applause)
>> ms.
mcclain is our case management coordinator with health and human services and therefore supervises the social work practice within health and human services.
probably a hundred other things that we don't have time to mention.
but we do want to congratulate her and recognize the wonderful work that social workers do for Travis County.
>> absolutely.
and express our appreciation to y'all for your continued support of social work services.
>> I want to say social work brings with it such unique challenges on a daily basis and I personally really appreciate the efforts that the social workers make and the fabulous job they do for the county.
>> we also have the unique opportunity that we actually have two social workers of the year.
ms.
busse was two years ago.
a lot of high quality social work going on in hs s.
so thank you ank congratulations.
>> keep up the great work.
>> great work.
>> maurmorris priest next to be followed by leslie strickland..
>> judge, Commissioners, morris priest speaking on my own behalf.
did want to bring up some leadership and management issues to the county and other people, city as well.
we have mark otter, city manager who has made some horrible decisions in regards to hiring, promotions and firing and pay raises.
he has had this employee draft policy in place for quite some time.
of course there's been complaints with various unions, former mayor.
many issues even at the county level and employment.
we have had our issues here.
i think we are suffering from poor leadership, poor management in areas we have seen a recent pay raise given to chief arsavedo, the fire chief's appointment of two lt.
s or please chief, not promoting people who erped, only to have those decisions reversed later, firings reversed later.
just one issue after another when it comes to leadership.
i did want to comment and complement Karen Huber a while back when she mentioned even the appointments of this court concerning the crma appointment that was basically just another txi issue.
we have people appointed to boards and commissions that are having issues when it comes the leadership.
i think that we see this all the way from the federal government to our state, our county, our city levels.
even with this healthcare situation the problem with this sooner or later we run out of other people's money.
there seems to be a lot of waste and issues that are brought up recently by our mayor that he wanted to take a serious look when we give incentives to companies that come to cities just as this county I think made a poor decision in supporting the foreign trade zone.
but as soon as the mayor made the statement he wanted to get a count of low paying jobs and he comes up with this idea of another hotel.
i don't think there is another better test subject for low paying jobs.
it's an industry known, I think the incentive for hotel might be if one of the full-time employees become homeless that you become room and board until that person finds adequate housing and then pay a livable wage.
but many times people in the community just feel that many of these issues are just a form of corruption.
it does seem to be that there is a disconnect with citizens and the county.
we see these funding issues with tex dot which many people have been calling to be sun set.
this one stretch of road on 71 has ten sources of financing on just this one stretch of road.
so I would hope that y'all would listen to your citizens when they make comments about things and find out that sometimes we are actually more enformed than the people that you have working for you.
thank you.
>> thank you, mr.
priest.
mr.
strickland.
and roger baker is next.
>> good morning, judge, Commissioners.
>> good morning.
>> leslie strict land, facilities management, here to remind Travis County employees that we have ongoing the downtown Austin employee travel survey.
downtown Austin alliance in partnership with the Texas transportation insurance opportunity is surveying downtown Austin employees to determine their attitudes and preferences on commuting alternatives to driving alone.
Travis County is encouraging all of our employees who office in the downtown to participate in the survey and receive rewards for doing so.
all employees who are interested in can look in their group wise e-mail for the public events e-mail broadcast sent out on March 16 which has a link to the survey.
there are two more prize drawings for this survey.
one on March 25 and one on March 29.
so if you complete your survey before then, you will be eligible for the drawing.
the survey does close on March 29, which is coming up.
so also people should know that the results of the survey will be used to help identify methods to improve commuter trips into downtown.
all the answers to the survey are.
it's very easy take.
i took it.
only took about ten minutes.
it was fun.
so please take the survey on line now and help downtown Austin address our transportation needs.
and you also might win somethin.
>> thank you.
>> it really doesn't take much time at all.
it's very, very quick.
and the information will be very very useful to us, not only us but the downtown Austin alliance as well.
>> roger baker.
>> wanted to talk about item 14.
is this the proper time?
>> no, sir.
if you want to talk about item 14, you need to wait until we call that item up.
>> okay.
>> and mr.
baker, my guess is that we get to that item in about 30 minutes.
that does it for citizens communication the consent items are next.
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 23, 2010 2:53 PM
