Travis County Commissioners Court
Tuesday, May 11, 2010,
Citizens Communication
Citizens communication is first. This item gives residents an opportunity to address the court on any matter not on the agenda. For up to three minutes. And the first -- the first person is gus pena. Who will be followed by kenneth schnieder whoorks , who willbe followed by morris priest.
>> good morning, judge, commissioners, gus pena, proud native east austin night. Zavala, allen junior high and proud graduate of john albertson high school johnston high school. I would like to say i have taken a sabbatical. Back and forth on various issues. Number one is the budget. The budget is going to be very key and critical. The budget does fund several programs, social service programs, youth job programs, senior program, et cetera. My understanding is from the city of austin they are going to have a big hit over there as far as the -- the funding is concerned for the budget. Number one, i would ask you respectfully, i have been doing this for many years, you know that. Specifically my primary issues are the funding for summer job program for the youth. Can't afford to cut that. We need to keep the kids involved. And keep them organized activities. And away from organized crime. Number two, funding for social service agencies. Judge, you know it as well as i do, commissioners, that social service agencies need help, need a lot of money. The hurt is out there. A lot of people lost their job, lost their homes, don't have any funding coming in. Bills to pay, they don't have that to pay, either. Please, fully fund as much as possible the social service agencies, but with this caveat. Monitor -- monitor the social service agencies and make sure they are in compliance in direct services. Let me explain direct services from funding. You know, oftentimes you get funding for social service agencies, they help fund the people's positions and jobs. Directors, et cetera. You can't have that. You have got to have money for direct services. It involves and impacts the people who are most vulnerable, the most poor out there. Gotta have that money for direct services. Monitor for compliance. Property taxes. You know the big story in the paper, property taxes going up, property value going down. A lot of people losing -- there was a good article in -- in 60 minutes, the gentleman says why should i pay for my mortgage? They are going five months without paying for their mortgage because it's not helping them anymore. They said take my home, we'll take the hit, bad credit fine. They are saving the five months of rent or money on their mortgage to buy another home. Dropout rate, judge. I know that you are a member of the -- or the community action network. The dropout rate is the highest that i have seen since i was involved in the schools. I was a member of the aisd dropout prevention task force back in 1997 to 1999 when dr. Forgione came on board. It is atrocious, not acceptable. Please, i'm begging people out there, volunteer to become leaders and mentors. We need your help so our students can master one of the most hardest and toughest subjects to master, mathematics. Mathematics, reading. To be able to read something and write a report is very difficult. Please, volunteer, we need mentors and tutors. Military veterans, i appreciate that item coming up on the agenda, the proclamation, military veterans are having problems coming back from the war zone, please help them out, appreciate them, love them, pray for them. God bless you, thank you very much, have a good day.
>> thank you, mr. Pena. Kenneth schnieder is next followed by morris priest.
>> yeah, i have got pictures they ain't coming up.
>> media, can we have mr. Schnieders pictures.
>> this here i just found the other day, right behind us, the fence right behind us. It's a pretty sight. Buzzards out there eating the birds, like you see in that their picture. The birds out there and everything. Tried to get a picture of the buzzard but i didn't get it. I can't believe they put detention ponds. That's something else there. Mounds with the water running down. Try to throw dirt over the top of something like that, put a mound, think that it's going to work. Let me -- but that's out there in front, that ditch out there. And the 1325 -- the ditch out there on 1325, third world country. But ... That's that mound that i showed you last week. You see more water going down. That picture there yesterday. That water running out of that mound big time. The septic tanks don't have no problems. Of course that's a mound there, they have got grass on that, in the front of that mechanic shop. Two different colors of the land. This is one side that's wet and everything, still wet. The other side is like it's supposed to be. Of course that's what happens when you have problems with sewer stuff like that there, chemicals out there, the cats drink it. This i couldn't understand on 1325 i took that picture yesterday that. Stuff is about 6 inches deep of all green slime and everything. And it's got a pipe there, one big pipe i guess going into round rock and the other piping goes out this way out towards austin. I just saw that yesterday, just took the picture. But these mounds they don't work. I don't know why they get permits. If the ground water can't go away, put a mound, pile of dirt. Think the water is going to go into the ground. Septic tanks is fine. Ground water, we can't get rid of the ground water. These mounds is not fixing the problems. They make the problems, we need urgent need, sewer out there definite limit i'm going to the water development board in a little while to show them the same kind of pictures and stuff. To be on the 20th. The thursday i'm going to the city council showing the same pictures and stuff, maybe better ones if i can get better ones by them. The birds. I tried to get that buzzard up there. Tried to get it, but just a blur, i couldn't make out what it was. I'm going to take a video camera out there, maybe i can get better pictures with the video. I'm getting all of the -- kevin ward told me no problems with any of the septic tanks out there. I'm getting citations, i can't get them from the
>> [indiscernible] because they say it's all closed. But i think the environmental board took it over. But the people out there that i talked to yesterday they got citations because they have to pump their septic tanks out. The day after it rains, same day, go out and pay $400 to have trucks out there. When it rains, usually about four or five trucks out there lined up at $400 a pop.
>> those citations in travis county or williamson county?
>> both, both. Rv park.
>> i can share with you these few facts without debating the issue.
>> sure.
>> we did send inspectors out as i indicated that we would. The inspectors didn't find any problems. These are travis county inspectors on the travis county side. They will return to that area after the next rain. Because the situation may be different after a rain.
>> definitely.
>> but as of last thursday or friday, they were not able to identify any problems on the travis county side.
>> what do i think i come up here for, for the run of it in.
>> i'm going to share that e-mail with you. That's who we rely on in travis county.
>> they cover stuff up.
>> thank you, mr. Schnieder.
>> it's all a cover up, i don't care come up here because i like it. I come up here because i have to. Human services is all that we're asking for.
>> when there is a complaint, we have normally inspectors, county employees, that we get to investigate for us. They possess a lot more expertise than the county judge on septic systems. So they went out and looked at it and they didn't find the problems that you have been describing on the travis county side. But the travis county inspectors wouldn't have jurisdiction in williamson county.
>> environmental has
>> [indiscernible] both of them, don't they.
>> thank you.
>> do you know what i put in the letter for water --
>> no, sir.
>> do you know about that?
>> no, sir, i don't.
>> village to get that better -- village to get that letter -- i will have to get that letter.
>> mr. Priest.
>> i'm kind of low riding today, judge, i'm not sure what's going on with this chair here.
>> [laughter]
>> the lever underneath will pop it back up.
>> i tried that, i'm not mechanically inclined. But anyway i went to the campo meeting last night and it was a hoot. I tell ya. There was some upset residents there arguing for 45 southwest. But keep hope alive. The -- there was some -- also some -- some texas alliance for life people there. I was glad to meet a couple of them. I'm sure all of y'all know them. Recently the city of austin passed an ordinance against the abortion clinics asking them to post a sign. They have a flier out, i'm greatly disappointed by your votes, require pregnancy centers to display warning signs at their entrances, these centers provide compassion, material assistance to women with unplanned pregnancies, you have mandated that the first impression a woman receives of a pregnancy help center is a warning sign. Please take the action to immediately repeal the pregnancy center ordinance. Of course it's -- it's a useless ordinance, doesn't have any teeth. I don't think anybody is ever going to file a complaint. If they do it's going to be a pretty arduous task. But if you want to contact texas alliance for life, they have a website www.texasallianceforlife.org www.texasallianceforlife.org . You can also tweet them and they are on facebook. The republicans were also at the meeting. And seems like a lot of neighbors, a lot of groups, some toll groups, some political groups, some groups that are wanting change here in travis county, and i think we will probably get it, i know bryan rodgers was going to do a report. I'm hoping that he will post his presentation on the -- on the website at campo. It was a very informative report, as well as some of the other information that was handed out at the meeting that -- that roger baker had from the brookings institute. But i think people are still being active in their community. It was good to see everybody that came out. Also i was impressed by the people that didn't speak. This -- just showing up meant a lot to me and other people there. I wanted to encourage people to stay active in their community. You can make change. I was impressed with the fact that several people that i had spoken to before had told me they had appreciated the work that i have been doing. And so it was a great opportunity to meet people. And get involved in the community. Didn't want to say -- a couple of other things that the -- that the -- the planning of this entire transportation plan, i know that mike is going to give y'all a report from the central texas regional mobility authority. It's really just amazing that our elected leaders think that we can borrow this much money and never pay it back, but i think the overwhelming consensus was that they wanted 45 built, there was far too much emphasis being put on rail. I think that that's -- with the maintenance and all of the -- all of the enormous debt that we have got ours into it's going to be a long time before we see meaningful transportation projects come about. Thank you.
>> thank you, mr. Priest. The next two speakers are ronnie reeferseed and nelson linder.
>> thank you, judge. And yippee, i'm ronnie
>> [inhale] reeferseed.
>> [exhale] saying wake up kids, hold on to what you've got, your precious childhood, you're going to miss it believe me. With the first hit off of a cigarette or joint, first swig of alcohol, it's over, adult world hello with bills, obligations, et cetera. Wake up grownups, stop the killing worldwide, stop the killing. Over 100 dead yesterday. Bring them home, bring the troops home, stop the killing, guard our borders, stop the killing and free the farmers and we can stop the killing so they can preserve the topsoil and cancel the war on pot smokers. Stop the killing in our very own ongoing -- help prevent this ongoing mexican organized crime thug drug war invading the united states. We can stop the killing with freedom for farmers. Save topsoil. Save organic farming. Stop the killing and earn our leadership on the world stage through example. Fair, open trade with all. No special deals with anybody. Israel or anybody else. Look, from -- from march 8th and 15th to 2010, american free press by pat shannon, an article, washington, d.c.'s 10 most core rupt. Number one, chris dodd the democratic from connecticut. Fanny may, freddie mac, shamefully stained for decades. Republican johns anson, from nevada, sexual predators. Speaking of sexual predators, representative barney frank who of course ran a gay brothel from his own apartment, also tied to the freddie mac, fannie mae bankster bailouts. Tim geithner doesn't bother to pay his social security taxes from 2001 to 2004 from his lucrative irs salary, he runs the i.r.s. And hires illegal maids. Of course attorney general eric holder, number five, still alive, unlike ron brown, if you all remember him. Ron brown was another clinton person who didn't quite make it. And by the way, don't forget representative jessie jackson, junior from illinois, blog-o-scheme, selling a seat to boris, eventually republican jessie jackson, junior and number 7 is satero himself, the privacy act doesn't apply to the white house, he says. Not to mention the bailouts, corruption, geithner and bernacke, speaking of corruption, nancy people pelosi number 8, democratic from california for the misuse of air force i. Doesn't see torture, but again the cia says she's seen the evidence. Number nine is in memorial to representative john merther deceased, charlie rangel is number 10. Don't forget about dr. Paul and visit www.ronpaul.org. Thank you so much.
>> thank you, mr. Reeferseed. Nelson linder.
>> good morning, y'all. Judge and commissioners. Huber, eckhardt and davis. These chairs are kind of low. Bear with me here. I paid a visit here in november of 2009 and expressed a concern about a thing called 18 usc 242. It's a federal statute that addresses political brutality on a federal level. My concern is what's happening locally. I will share a few things that i mentioned that are more relevant today. I cited a report by a grand jury number 43 that addressed the case of jessie owens and officer scott glasgo. As you recall that case came back with an indictment of criminal negligent homicide, by da ronnie earle and a judge cite thank the indictment was -- citing that the indictment was incorrect. We've had the death of king, owens, sanders, all within precinct 1. One of my concerns is when we address these issues, with numbers like this it's only city conversation. The county has no role or no interest in this whole process. This grand jury said very clearly this is a community based conversation. It's tied to your court, it's tied to the city council, the police department, numerous news news institutions that must get involved to solve these problems. There's a lot of confusion about the case involving nate sanders. We have a report here that says specifically that things were done bad in that case that should have been addressed. Today i'm here to say to you how can a d.a.'s offices that funded with literally millions of dollars in this county do investigations in cases like that where an officer had a previous history of excessive force, yet return no indictment and basically no information. Then say when the report comes back from a small company, we might be able to look at it again? I think that you have a flawed process in this county. And although you don't have the legal authority, i think human persuasion and money, budget, i think it's more than time that you address these issues and begin to examine why is it when we have a shooting in this town involving a black person, brown person, we only address criminal intent and not criminal negligence. So i'm calling for you to take a look at from your standpoint amending and expanding 18 usc 242, it's very simple, the first thing --
>> repeat that.
>> 18 usc 242. It's a federal statute designed to address police officer who's take the lives of folks who are ordinary citizens. And my question to you is this morning, ask the d.a. Why we can't get indictments and comprehensive investigations of these shootings that involve black people. Why that agency
>> [indiscernible] questions but they can't. Let me tell you why this is important. The only agency in this city that can balance the city power is the county power. If you guys are absent from this incredible and important discussion a lot of folks are going to be victimized. I want to challenge you to join us in and the statute and also the fact that your office, that you fund, with millions of dollars each year i'm sure, is really not doing adequate investigations and i think that it's a violation of the fourth and 14th amendment. I know my time is up. You know we have now gone forward.
>> [indiscernible] in the country to different offices around the nation about expanding this conversation to ensure that the d.a.'s office address criminal negligent homicide.
>> thank you, mr. Linder.
>> thank you.
>> nelson, if you will, that information that you have, please, if you will, if you got a copy of it, drop it by my office. And i want to make sure that i get the county attorney to look into that --
>> [multiple voices]
>> thank you very much.
>> thank you, drop it by my office, please and see what role that we as county officials may end up playing in this, especially with the city of austin.
>> thank you.
>> all right, thank you.
>> thank you.
>> charlotte
>> [indiscernible] price and anne
>> [indiscernible] are next.
>> good morning, judge.
>> good morning, commissioners, how are you this morning? We're here representing your americorps program, the travis county capital americorps project, which began in 2003. So we're in our seventh year as an americorps program that's over 100 americorps volunteers that have served in travis county since its inception. We're also commonly known out in the community and in the after-school world as 4 h. So i know that commissioner eckhardt you have been involved in our after-school recognition and awareness event, breakfast of champions in the past years. So thank you very much for your support. It's interesting that last week was travis county public employees' recognition week because we're here today to talk to you about the americorps awareness event happening this very week. Without further ado, this is my co-worker and colleague, charlotte, also the chairperson of this year's planning and engagement committee to engage over 300 americorps volunteers city-wide, charlotte, please.
>> thank you, anne, good morning to all of you. This is americorps week. Yesterday mayor leffingwell issued an official proclamation declaring may 8th through the 15th as americorps week here in austin. There are events happening every day to promote awareness about all of the programs in austin that have americorps members. As well as what americorps has been doing for this austin community for 45 years. I would like to personally invite all of you to our main events on the day of service, this coming saturday, may 15th. We'll be having a brunch on the capitol lawn from 12:00 to 1:30. 1:00 to 1:30 there will be some public speakers. Then from 2:00 to 4:00, there will be some service projects all over austin, engaging about 250, 300 americorps members, and this event is also open to the public. If anybody would like to come and participate in a service project, we will have registration booths starting at 11:00 a.m. That day. Anybody may come up and volunteer with a project to help serve their community. We have these lovely post cards here. That was done by our marketing and promotions subcommittee. And they spotlight some austin programs on the front and on the back is a schedule of all of the events that are happening this week.
>> thank you.
>> and i invite all of you to come to them or to use this postcard to send someone else if you want to invite someone that you think would be interested in attending one of these events. Thank you very much.
>> thank you very much. Good luck to you.
>> you all do great work, thank you so much.
>> and our final speaker today is alison schwarf.
>> good morning, judge, commissioners. My name is alison scharf, with the real estate council of austin. I'm here today to invite the court, staff, all of the citizens of travis county to the annual gardner-betts art show and silent auction, from 5:00 to 7:00 at the san jacinto center, between brazos and san jacinto on cesar chavez, this year we have 53 framed pieces of art, all done by youth incarcerated at the leadership academy, as you know is a sentencing alternative to the texas texas youth commission. The enrichment component of their curriculum, the art and music program, is 100% funded by the real estate council of austin's efforts. The majority of these fund are raised by sponsorship and through the sale of art work. And we have a piece of art over here that was produced by zachary. And he was slated to be released this spring and his family can come out to the event with him, again on may the 19th, we're very excited to be able to display his piece as the featured art. We are going to hang the art on may the 12th and the public is welcome to preview it and place the bids, so again it's open to the public, anyone can come out. And art work, we have again 53 pieces on display in our lobby, we would really like to see everyone come out and bid on the art. I have invitations that i will put out on the table for anyone who is interested. I'm happy to answer any question that's you may have about the event.
>> the sales proceeds -- goes where?
>> the sales proceeds go towards the art and music classes for the next year. So it's fully funded, the art and music program that the austin lyric opera, they provide the art and music classes. So the sponsorships and the art sales, all of those proceeds go to pay for next year's classes for the kids.
>> there are other arts and music classes at gardner-betts as well, i think it goes for all of them, i believe the mobile film school also does work there, rude mechanicals, really important and very, very helpful work to the juveniles while they're detained. Beautiful stuff.
>> thank you so much.
>> thank you for the notification and invitation. Good luck.
>> thank you.
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, May 11, 2010 12:35 PM
