Travis County Commissioners Court
Tuesday, January 25, 2011,
Item 16
>> number 16 is to consider and take appropriate action on application for Travis County to be selected an is a justice reinvestment initiative phase two site by the bureau of justice assistance, to become eligible for funding and technical support for a sobriety center.
>> good morning, roger jeffreys, executive manager of public safety.
what you are getting is what we sent to you all yesterday.
we came to you last week and described the grant opportunity that Travis County had with the bureau of justice assistance to apply to apply, if you will, for up to half a million dollars for sobriety center.
short time line on the application.
over the last week we have been working with our partners.
one of the things required in the grant application is that you document costs and potential savings, very specifically by agency.
I want to give a shout out and thank you to everybody so responsive, pbo, criminal courts community justice council, everybody terrific in working together to try to come to consensus on what that might look like for Travis County.
really I don't think we got to that consensus in time.
I think we can, but in time for this February 1 deadline.
so we relay that had to the urban institute I believe on Friday, said thank you for the opportunity, but looks like we are not going to be able to meet your deadline.
they said you know, why don't you step back.
they appreciates the fact that we were honest with them.
they said what you are doing is the right thing, what we are looking for.
why don't you apply for technical assistance.
they are funded to provide technical assistance, two very outstanding organizations, the centers for effective policy and the other the criminal justice institute, both terrific organizations over the weekend, I want to thank kathy in particular for working so hard over the weekend in working with the urban institute to repurpose our application to ask for technical assistance.
what that will do is set us up for an opportunity down the road to then ask for that money.
I think it goes to, what they are asking us to do or what we are asking them to do is provide technical assistance.
this goes to page 8, 9, 10, particularly page 10 of the application, is to provide technical assistance to help us document the costs and potential real savings from the implementation of sobriety center.
technical assistance to help us with the siting.
in the application we talked about strong opinions about where a sobriety center should be and shouldn't be.
we have asked for facilitation to determine an appropriate location.
then to develop a strategy that would, we talked about the tool kit last week, the sobriety center would be a tool, a tool kit that would include permanent supportive housing, initiatives for mental health and other things.
again, we feel like we have strong interest in the community both criminal justice, medical and city.
we are not at a point where we are ready to ask for money.
I think that is great opportunity to provide us technical assistance, very professional technical assistance, to help us get at some of the questions even you all asked last week, like what are the real savings and what are the support services that we have available that would make a center like this successful.
what I’m recommending is that, again, I know this is throwing at you fast yesterday, we actually don't have to turn this in until February 1.
we could give you a week to digest the recommendations on pages 8, 9, 10, come back and ask for your approval on the 1st and kathy would be on the stand by to press the send button to the urban institute for this grant application.
we actually go through them to get to the bureau of justice assistance.
it will give me an opportunity to again go knock on those doors this week to see if there would be interest.
again, there was not quite interest to sign on the dotted line for savings last week, but I think there would be interest from our different partners to sign on in support of this technical assistance.
so that is why we are with this.
>> what amount are we requesting?
>> actually it would be, in this particular thing, there would be no money involved.
>> essentially in kind.
>> right.
>> excuse me, I have a frog.
they would provide technical assistance at no cost to the county.
they are already funded through the feds to to that.
they would prepare us to submit a application down the road, perhaps this summer.
for a grant up to half a million dollars.
think we would be better prepared to determine if that is the right thing for Travis County.
>> I think that is wonderful dropment--development.
very honest and open approach to find out if there is cost savings and what kind of success we work looking for.
>> in fact, years ago when we were receiving grants for different purposes in the county pbo, it was a factor that was not included, which is now included in our application for grants, which is the in kind portion of what we put on the table through in kind tives situations.
of so this is--incide types of situations.
this is something we viewed in the past is the in kind portion of what we do here.
as we are applying for grants, which was a factor, I think, as far as receiving grants now and then.
I think it's a great move and it is something I think certainly a lot of factors.
I still look at, have to keep going back to this about the mentally challenged person that we have in this community, for example, how we have to house them in the jail because of the fact that there is not enough bed space in our mental facilities, not enough bed space that the state provides.
so it is something that I think that we have to look at all across the board.
and if it can provide relief, for example, what the sheriff is doing, and the staffing of that and all the other, the medical and all those other attributes that go along with that.
I think it's something that we can look forward to as far as looking at the cost of a lot of things.
>> yes, sir.
>> it's all across the board, really.
I think the dollars that we are able to acquire as far as assessment and doing things, I think it's quite a tribute as far as the direction I think we need to go.
>> thank you, sir so this would be a step towards sobriety center, not quite as big a step as we talked about last week, but still I think important.
>> we still need the same partners?
>> yes, sir.
that is what I will be doing this week, knocking on those doors again to see if we can get support.
and I can report back to you next Tuesday on the support that we have gotten for the technical assistance as opposed to the actual money.
>> in exchange for technical assistance, what would we be expected to do?
>> just participate.
I think a lot of kathy's time will go towards this, a lot of my time.
and time that the partners will have contribute to meeting and discussing and calculating, number crunching aboutsort of impact, financial and otherwise, this would have on Travis County.
>> try to do this as early as next Tuesday, give you a chance to send the same day?
>> thank it's not the normal federal procedure, we have to worry about service crashing, it's an extremely limited number of people even eligible to apply right now.
so at whatever point we can do it, we would probably be able to get this submitted very quickly and easily.
I don't space any problems with this am it's a different process than the normal federal grant.
>> we would need to have it in by four o'clock our time next Tuesday.
>> we can hardly wait.
any other questions or conths?
--comments?
see you bright and early on February 1.
>> thank you, sir.
>> thank you.
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Last Modified:
Tuesday, January, 2011 2:19 PM
