Travis County Commissioners Court
Tuesday, August 24, 2010,
Consent
The consent items are next. And posted for consent are c 1 through c 4. C 1 through c 4. Any issues with any of them? Let's consider adding the following items to the consent motion. If anyone would like for us to discuss any of these items i'm about to call out, please say so and we'll call it up separately. Number 2.
>> judge, i had one question on 2.
>> we will call 2 up. Number 4 in its entirety. 4 a through 4 h. 7. 8 a, b -- b was a little unusual in that the amount has been increased substantial. And c. So all of 8. 9. 10. 11. And that's free of charge or at zero cost to that agency for about two months. Zero revenue to the county. Number 12. 13.
>> i have a question. A general question about 8.
>> number 8.
>> okay.
>> i notice that we have talked in the past on our budget challenges about not filling open positions that were nonessential. Is that something that we're continuing to consider?
>> well, we didn't put it in place for a specific time. We put it in place -- have not acted on it since so generally it is. When p.b.o. Asked me about it, i told them i thought they should surface that in january when they start planning for the next budget. As for this budget process, my answer would be yes and no. Because preliminary budget is in place. If you significantly alter it, p.b.o. Should raise that for us. If not, then my guess is they would approve it. But if we need to revisit that before january, then i suggest we put an item on. The problem is whatever we do now, i think we would be looking to the 2012 budget process, and, you know, waiting until january would give us a better opportunity to see what happens with the economy over the next three, four months.
>> i just couldn't remember if we had a policy in place for this year or not.
>> we kind of put it in place and left it there. The understanding was that department heads would honor it. I think the way the expenditures are looking, those who generally cooperate have been cooperating. Nothing dramatic has happened in terms of expenditures, right, mr. Nellis?
>> right. Our expenditures are holding and i did have staff run an analysis of the vacant positions when we put it in effect back in '09 when the court approved it, there were 200 and i believe 225 vacant positions at that time. When we ran it again in may, there was 205. So i think that the departments are more or less continuing with the policy. As the judge said, there was not an ending date on it and i would assume until the court rescinds it it's still in place.
>> the planning group is better to answer this question, but i seem to recall looking in our planning documents that our ratio of travis county employees to population has not changed in years so our overall trend is about four per thousand and it's stayed at per per a thousand i think more than a decade.
>> that's correct, and the tax actually going down. We had traditionally -- when we're outside of a recessionary period, we have been adding just to keep up with maintenance current effort and some new programs about 100 f.t.e.s a year, and that is substantially been reduced over the last two to three years during this recessionary period.
>> which would be the first time in probably 15 or 20 years, i would think.
>> we had a period back in the late '80s, the other recession, that was fairly significant in the real estate market when we -- we were restricted in f.t.e.s.
>> thanks.
>> thank you, leroy.
>> any other objection for 8 to be on consent?
>> pardon me, judge, i want to applaud the great thing, i don't think it's anything to worry about, i think it's a step forward in several government. We don't -- self-government. We don't need more bureaucracy just because the world gets more screwed up all the time, but thanks nay.
>> move approval of the consent motion.
>> second.
>> discussion? Would anyone like for us to pull any of the items we just listed? All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote with commissioner gomez absent.
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, August 24, 2010, 2010 2:30 PM
