Travis County Commissioners Court
Tuesday, July 27, 2010,
Citizens Communication
Citizens communication is first and this item gives residents an opportunity to address the court on any matter not on the agenda. And four residents have signed in. Le reside nellis, number -- leroy nellis, number 1, with debbie -- these are two individuals, one signed in.
>> [laughter] just for the record, mr. Nellis.
>> very pleased to introduce to the court this morning, debbie lautermilk, our new cash investment manager. She's been our senior financial analyst in the cash investment department for the last 16 months. Learning everything that mary mays knows, she available person. She has held positions as investor relations managers, as we know in travis county that comes in very handy to have that type of skill. She also was a portfolio manager for the teacher retirement system of texas. Where she successfully managed a portfolio that ended up being about $1.8 billion. And so we are very happy to introduce debbie to you.
>> good morning, thank you.
>> well, if you last 16 months, i know that you can last forever. Congratulations on your big promotion.
>> thank you.
>> congratulations, congratulations.
>> look forward to working with you further.
>> thank you very much.
>> number 2, paul avina.
>> good morning, commissioners.
>> good morning.
>> good morning, paul.
>> on june 29, our apartment homes got flooded with gray water from east riverside due to a quick storm. We were able to get all of these books out. The management was frustrated because we got all caught by surprise. It showed a lack of capacity to solve problems, very similar to what i have encountered with every public servant. We have lived with slushy floors for a couple of nights until a professional arrived. On the third day, i decided to call the health department to see if they had some technicians to look for bacteria because of the gray water. I explained what happened and they said no, we deal with food. I said, but you are the health department. No. And i was sent to watershed protection. Then to watershed management. I try 311. Nothing. I was getting mad when i found a helpful hand in
>> [indiscernible] she, too, had trouble navigating around to find help. But she gave me mr. Guy brown's phone number, but he never answered my messages. I still had to call code enforcement and code compliance division. The property management finally started a good cleanup job after our protests. Then on the 13th of july, mr. John birch called to say that they don't do health inspections like that and gave yet another number. Mr. Jonathan josephson with code compliance construction something. He looked -- it looked to me that these people jumped from either cleaning up the creek above us or getting the apartment property under compliance, skipping altogether the residents' health risk and despite being a serious situation, none of these guys ever called back. If this is your jurisdiction, take a week off of what you do here, step back and look at inefficient apartments, inept employees, duplicate offices, abusive behavior and approve your services and save some tax money in the process. Because you as public servants are a major obstacle in government. As far as emergencies, i don't think that you are prepared for an epidemic, big or small. Because every rejection, every deception, every lie, every ticket, has kept us from reaching our potentials and we feel that your job is what's important and we are just a pesky annoyance. So --
>> all of the people that you mentioned that i know work for the city of austin. In those departments that you mentioned -- and those departments that you mentioned are city of austin departments.
>> the health department is labeled as travis county health department. And so that's my first call. That was my first call. From there, i was sent to different numbers by different people. I had no idea where to go.
>> okay. Thank you.
>> glen nestle is next.
>> if you give me just a second, i have a dry mouth because of medications. So ... The reason that i'm here today is some of my complaints do involve the city and do involve the state. But because of interlocal agreements with the city, the sheriff's department and the county attorney's department, criminal division are involved. I was arrested for a dwi. But i'm going to go directly into what happened to me in the central booking department that i feel was wholly inappropriate. The sheriff asked me to make sure that i took my medication. I have aids, i was trying to find my medication list as i was having my pockets emptied. Before i went into the main area. The female sheriff grabbed my wallet, tore it apart and insisted there was no list of medication even though on the austin of a folded piece of paper it clearly said humana. She demeaned me, yelled at me, refused to recognize it. I obviously did not have my list with me when i went in. When i did see the nurse, he said i didn't have aids. I had to explain to him what aids was and try to remember the list of medications, 20 medications -- excuse me, 10 medications that i'm on now. Their dosage and everything else. I asked him if we could simply access the pharmacy where i have an account on the internet. And print out what i have. Currently, travis county doesn't have internet access or access -- or my insurance company where i have the list apparently travis county doesn't have that, either. But that -- that female officer was abusive and nasty. Secondly, the people in central booking were very, very professional. When i got in there. They wanted to make sure that i had my free phone call made and everything else. It was 3:00 in the morning. Most of my friends are married and have children. I wasn't about to bother them, if i had done something wrong. And they said that i had access to a call that would be -- that i could make phone calls. Anyway. This wouldn't be free. So i said okay. I'll just wait until later. It wasn't until we were marched out of that room that i was told we indeed did not have access to any phone calls until we saw the judge. For a bond hearing. I thought that was pretty absurd that we weren't even notified of that until we lost that right. But i will say that the sheriffs that were in charge of --
>> [buzzer sounding] -- transporting us in between rooms were extraordinarily professional, decent men and did their jobs very well. The judge in charge of the bond hearing was a judge vasquez. Extraordinary man, a judge's judge, it took me a long time to remember who he reminded me of. His demeanor and the way he handled himself. I only met cesar chavez a couple of times when i worked for jerry brown, but he really reminded me of him. Just the way he acted and the way he handled himself. I was so impressed by him.
>> i'm afraid that you are out of time.
>> okay, i'm sorry.
>> but my point is when i went back to lockup, the judge had told me i needed to contact as many attorneys and bonds people as possible.
>> thank you very much.
>> the sheriff told me that it didn't matter what the judge said.
>> you have already exceeded your three minutes by about a minutes, sorry.
>> i have to show you one more thing.
>> no, sir, you are out of time. If you have a complaint against one of the deputies, you should reduce that to writing and send that to the sheriff greg hamilton. Thank you.
>> well --
>> ronnie
>> [inhale] ronnie reeferseed isnext.
>> thank you so much. Very important, ronnie reeferseed singing hey kids, stop trying to be like us so-called grownups, we have a -- you have it real good right now. Don't waste it. We all know with that first hit off of a cigarette or joints, first swig of poisoned alcohol, the trouble begins. Suddenly you have retarded babies, right girls? Here now in the u.s.a. The number one cause of mental retardation is fetal alcohol syndrome. Ask yourselves girls, what kind of thoughtless, shallow useless guys want to risk having a retarded baby just to score?!! Guess what kiddos? That's when we all lose. Now, ask yourselves grownups, what's so darn important that you can't bother to look into the toxic sludge shoved down our throats by the criminals of city government. Call the mayor. Ask him why he makes us pay for for toxic sludge that none of them drink. Who among y'all drink tap water? Not a single handled was raised. Not mayor leffingwell, not city manager mr. Ott, not one of the city council criminals admitted to were drinking toxic sludge. They make us taxpayers pay for over a million year after year after year, these toxic so-called fluoridated water, has over 160 toxic waste elements from pesticides, fertilizer, aluminum industries, et cetera. Tell the mayor, 974-2250, to stop charging us all over a million dollars every year to poison ourselves with toxic sludge added to our water, (512)174-2250. We need the money, we don't need or wants the poison, we hate the poison, please, mr. Mayor stop poisoning us with toxic sludge that you put in our water. Check out infowars.com. Online it's a great source for many articles about many topics with links to other publications that also include their own discussion board so that one can share their ideas worldwide while learning even more. Starts each week day at 11:00 a.m., now only goes to 2:00 p.m., with still 4:00 to 6:00, alex jones has ob/gyn dr. Ron paul as a guest. You want more try calling 18882321414 for weekly updates. Online try ronpaul.org, lew.rockwell.com. Campaign to liberty.com. Also american free press.net online for more articles by or about dr. Ron paul or articles from other grates like dr. Paul craig roberts, jim, michael collins piper, terrorist number one chuck baldwin
>> [indiscernible], victor thorn, et cetera. To subscribe colorado toll call, 88 -- save our world with more info like alex jones, ron paul, doctor roberts, et cetera, simon great brought to us by
>> [indiscernible]
>> thank you, mr. Reeferseed. Those are the four residents who have signed in under citizens communication.
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, July 27, 2010 2:25 PM
