Travis County Commissioners Court
Tuesday, January 11, 2011,
Item 10
>> number 10, consider and take appropriate action regarding notice of vacancies and expiring terms of Travis County appointees to the joint city of Austin and Travis County county sustainable food policy board.
>> this item is before you because this is a little bit unusual circumstance in that not only are all of your appointees' terms expiring, but it is a joint board with the city of Austin.
so staff thought it appropriate to have a brief discussion with you today about the fact that these terms are expiring and seek out any -- any action if you choose to take any.
the terms expire effective February 22nd.
just as a reminder for those who might be listening, this board was approved by the Commissioners court in November of 2008, followed by your appointments in February of 2009.
so going forward those terms will expire February 22nd of 2011.
you have six appointees to a 13-member joint advisory board with the city of Austin.
by taking no action today, you would essentially be telling staff you would handle these appointments in your individual offices and get those done for us by February 22nd.
if you would choose to give staff some other direction to assist you with this process, that's why we're here today.
>> well, one of mine is not interested in being reappointed but he enjoyed and he thinks a farmer should be appointed to replace him.
that's the capacity he served on the committee.
so it would help me if I could come up with a list of two or three farmers in Travis County interested in doing this.
>> okay.
>> and for listening, if they could contact our health and human services department, that would be my interest.
I looked at the others and there are a couple of farmers on there.
the total list of we have six, the city has seven.
>> that's correct.
>> out of 13, if we could have two ag producers, I guess by parmer that's what that is, it would be helpful.
>> we can communicate that to the full board so they can assist us in identifying potential appointees.
we have a few that we've received and we'll route them to the appropriate offices once we get newer direction today.
>> I think that our experience with the health care district and running the call through an executive manager worked really, really well, and I would like to see us duplicate the success by rather than running it individually through our office but instead run it through health and human services with all of our offices participating in the recruit in process.
my appointee as well is not able to serve a subsequent term because he's moved into Williamson county, but I wanted to thank david davenport for his tremendous service as the former head executive of capital area food bank.
his input was really invaluable and I have assures from him he will keep working on these issues, but he will -- but I would like the -- the additional assistance of health and human services to do recruitment to fill my position as well.
>> and I think my appointee wants to be reappointed.
>> that's correct.
>> david davenport should have a no rather than a yes?
>> he should have a no because he's moved into Williamson county making him ineligible as a Travis County representative.
>> and mr. Pierce, we have not heard from him?
>> he is not seeking reappointment, we have not heard.
I’m hoping he has community with Commissioner Davis, but staff didn't get copied on his communication if he had.
>> we'll have to look into that.
I’ll get with you in the near future on it.
>> this is an active committee.
>> it is an active committee.
>> then we ought to try to get those appointments filled.
>> yes.
>> by 22nd.
>> the 22nd.
>> so staff would have to draft an appropriate solicitation unless you approve us to put that message out today.
>> from my perspective, you can put it out.
but my goal is to have a farmer to replace the farmer that I appointed.
I don't know there are a world of possibilities.
how often are the meetings?
>> well, there are a couple committee meetings and there's also the monthly meeting, but many of the current board members have access to list serves that we might be able to put information out making it known that there are vacancies available.
>> additionally, I also wanted to point out that sherri and roger jeffries have been working on some kind of boiler plate policy and procedure for our solicitation of board appointments.
and I would suggest that for this -- and perhaps for all that we include a requirement of some -- some ethics training on open meetings and open government because a lost folks go into knees board appointments without ever having to -- without any previous experience of having to operate under those constraints, and I think it would be use actual to add that into the application, that they acquiesce to having some training, whether it's the ag's tape or some other.
>> to incorporate it into all of our appointment processes where it's applicable.
>> message received and we can draft an appropriate notice and include that.
>> let's try to have it back on either late January or early February for action.
>> yes, sir.
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, January, 2011 12:12 PM
