Travis County Commissioners Court
Tuesday, February 15, 2011,
Item 21
>> now, mr. Eckstein, number 21 is to consider and take appropriate action on legislative matters including, a, update on legislative activities and b, additions to the priorities, policy positions and positions on other proposals sections of the Travis County legislative agenda.
>> good morning, judge Biscoe, members of the court.
thank you for giving me the opportunity to visit with you today.
it is week five of the legislative session.
we're one-fifth of the way through, whether you think that's good news or bad news, depends on how much optimism you have.
the biggest news this week that I want to brief the court on quickly is the appointment finally of the house committees, and I would say that in some ways there was some good news in that for both county business in general and Travis County and its legislative delegation specifically.
I want to point out five things.
number one, representative garnett coleman returns as chair of the county affairs committee.
we believe him to be somebody who first of all has a good relationship specifically with Travis County and with counties in general.
and who owe whoa is sympathetic and understands county issues.
we look forward to working with him during the session?
with respect to the Travis County delegation we have a number of very important appointments, four members of the Travis County delegation that I want to highlight.
representative dawnna dukes continues her service on the appreciations committee during this what will probably be the -- either the most challenging budget session of our life times or the second most challenging of our life times fending on what happens next time.
but she is -- she's in a very important position and has repeatedly invited us to give her counsel or advice or feedback on budget proposals, which are going to be very important.
representative elliott naishtat continues to serve as the vice-chair of the human services committee and as a member of the public health committee.
as you know, those are two very important committees and they are going to have some challenging issues in front of them.
we're glad to see him back on the committees.
the newest member of the delegation, representative paul workman was appointed to the corrections committee, which is a very important committee to us because of the -- its oversight of the criminal justice system generally.
and including the county jail system.
probably the most significant delegation, eddie rodriguez was named to the delegations committee.
it will increase in importance as we go on into the session.
he was also named to the criminal jurisprudence committee and to the transportation committee, both will have important Travis County business in front of them.
so we're very happy with the appointments that the members of the delegation we have.
we're going to move forward with trying to get our legislative agenda in front of them and through the committees.
speaking of legislative agenda, the most important agenda facing the county this time is the budget.
the budget hearings are already well underway.
the senate finance committee is actually now about halfway through its budget hearings.
they have already heard testimony on the health and human services agencies.
they are now taking testimony on education and higher education agencies.
and we'll begin tomorrow with general government agencies, including some agencies like the comptroller and the attorney general where there are programs run by those agencies that partially fund activities here at Travis County.
so we'll be monitoring that very, very carefully.
it is the goal of the finance committee to have its business -- have its initial hearings done by the beginning of March.
in the meantime the house appropriations committee also began its hearings.
they were named on Wednesday and began meeting on Thursday morning.
they have divided into different subcommittees that are looking at specific aspects of the budget.
the most important subcommittees from our perspective are the subcommittee in article 2, which is the health and human services agencies.
and the subcommittees on article 1, 4 and 5, which are general government, justice and public safety and the judiciary.
and also articles 6, 7 and 8, which are the regulatory, natural resources and environmental agencies.
so all the subcommittees are meeting simultaneously.
they have published a schedule at least through the end of this week of what agencies' budget requests they're going to consider.
and they are taking public testimony.
the unfortunate news is that this is the only opportunity for public testimony that we are at least guaranteed in the budget process.
so we have already lost a chance to speak on behalf of Travis County with respect to the health and human services on the senate side and with some of the agencies even on the house side.
we are working at the conference of urban counties and Texas association of counties who are -- some of whom are delivering some of our member counties are delivering testimony and delivering talking points.
we are working with them on that, but the process is moving quickly and we're hope to go see if we can have some influence on that process.
there is also a deadline of this Friday for legislative drafting.
that is to say if if there was a bill that Travis County or anybody else wanted drafted in time for that draft to be ready for submission to the legislature, but by the filing deadline of Friday, March 11th, this Friday, February 18th, is the deadline for submitting some draft language, some ideas, something scribbled on a piece of paper to the legislative council.
on all the priorities that the court has identified so far, we either have already got drafting done or are in the drafting process with one of our legislative partners, so we are caught up on that, but if there's anything else out there that we do want to get drafted, we're going to have to move very quickly on that.
speaking of our bills, my other report is that house bill 1174, which was representative paul workman's bill on the authority of a Commissioners' court to delegate the lifting of a burn ban to either a member of the court -- either to the county judge or to the fire marshal, did get filed last week.
so several pieces -- a couple of pieces of our Travis County legislative agenda have already been filed and are in the process now.
so that's my report on legislative activities.
there is one change to the --
>> you mentioned one thing about drafting the deadline.
is this a new bill that's being proposed or any mod in a indication to on -- modification to existing bills that's been filed?
>> in we're talking about a bill filed through the session, there will be opportunities for amendments as we go through the process.
we're talking about the legislative council has told legislators if you want to have a new bill filed, we need to have new --
>> new, new.
>> some information from you by this week.
>> new?
>> yes, sir.
>> there is one addition to the county's legislative agenda that I would like to bring before the court.
and that would be to ask the court to add to its policy position section a proposal that would read like this: support legislation that would restrict the ability after homeowners association to prohibit the installation of solar panels on a home.
there was an article in the american-statesman last week that I'm sure all the members of the court saw regarding a particular homeowner who is being told by his homeowners association that he could not install solar panels on his house.
this turns out to be a problem statewide.
we all know that solar panel do provide benefits in terms of environmental and in terms of providing electricity, in terms of being able to serve distant locations because the -- the solar panel can generate electricity right there without the necessary -- the necessity of a distribution system.
and so the use of solar panels has increased tremendously around the state over the last several years, but in some places homeowners associations for esthetic reasons have said we don't want solar panels on our rooftops.
last session senator royce west filed a bill that would restrict the ability of homeowners associations to just arbitrarily ban solar panels from rooftops.
this session there are actually four bills, including one from our own senator jeff wentworth that would have that same effect.
senator west has refiled his bill as well.
I believe that in your backup the numbers of those bills are available to you, but we would ask that the court would add this to the legislative agenda and I would be prepared to come back as early as next week, maybe with a resolution or a proclamation that the court could adopt that would give music language to that and that we could use as a talking point with members of the legislature.
but we would ask that this be added to the court's agenda this week.
>> I don't have any problem with that.
I'd like to move approval of that particular item.
I see that lucio actually has a part in this with his bill also.
>> yes.
representative lucio in the house has filed an identical version.
>> west and also wentworth.
those four persons.
I think it's pretty important that we support this solar type situation as far as roofs and collecting -- using electricity, using these particular solar signallations.
I think that's a good move.
so I definitely would like to see this go forward.
so I definitely would like to move approval of this particular item, and --
>> I would just ask that in a discussion of the motion that's been seconded, that in our resolution that we do recognize that the homeowners association rules are the very essence of local control, but that this is -- that this is an ta thet kel to public policy, particularly in light of our drives to have a cleaner energy source and have an economic development policy based on green technology.
>> exactly.
and it's kind of ties in -- would tie in as far as what we're looking at on that end too.
I think it's a good move in the right direction as far as energy is concerned.
>> and we do recognize that homeowner associations play a very important role in a lot of our communities, acting almost as a defacto municipal government for those communities.
and so it is important that we not malign them.
at the same time we do think there's a public policy in favor of solar panels and a cleaner environment.
>> we have a motion and a second, judge, to add that bill -- the resolution to our agenda next time and approve it as one of our issues to support.
>> the resolution will be coming back next week.
>> you would adopt the policy platform element today and we would have the resolution for next week's agenda.
>> that's the motion and second.
any more discussion?
all in favor?
that passes by unanimous vote.
anything else?
>> the final item, judge, is as you know, we've asked members of the county staff to review bills.
we are now tracking I think almost 500 bills now, which is quite a work load, but the members of the county staff have been stepping up and taking time to review bills and give us their feedback.
so every week we are giving out a gold star award in order to recognize the people who are -- who have done a good job in that last week of doing that.
I wanted to save this for last because you can imagine the tension building up in county offices.
our gold star winner this week is daniel bradford in the county attorney's office who plowed through a whole bunch of eminent domain and appraisal cap bills for us last week.
>> go, county attorney's office!
>> go.
>> thank you very much to the members of the court.
we appreciate you.
>> eminent domain bills have got to be some of the hardest read that there is.
go daniel.
>> you heard us discuss this morning, deece, I guess you heard it, but anyway, the deliberation we had on the type of situation they're experiencing as far as western Travis County, eastern Travis County as far as utility rates.
there was a bill, house bill 2585 --
>> 2585.
>> exactly.
I would like to have maybe look at that and see.
because you're saying new.
that's -- that was exa existing legislation thren then.
would that be considered a new bill since it didn't pass back in 2005?
>> a bill like that were refiled, then that would be considered a new bill for purposes of getting legislative sell to help us draft it.
>> because I don't know -- I think we need some safeguards in our opinion.
maybe need to look at that because this is getting out of control as far as some of the utility rates.
the utility rates here in Travis County with some of the homeowners really can't afford to live in the homes because of the significant increase in their utility bill.
I'm hearing a lot of exaints.
I've heard several.
-- a lot of complaints.
I've heard several.
I'm trying to determine now could we maybe look at that and if it -- if it's in a timely manner, I guess -- I guess the court would have to suggest to -- I guess I would need the court's input, though, if the -- if the deadline on that is -- you said Friday, didn't you?
there would be a new bill.
>> I would think that under the general rubric of legislative activities, if the court wanted to give me some direction about seeing if we could draft something up like that, that would be enough to get me to allow me to approach an office and ask their assistance in doing that.
and then maybe once the bill is drafted then the court could take a more thorough look at the issue and decide whether it wants to proceed with asking that or another legislator to file the bill and put it on our priority agenda items.
>> I guess at this time I would just ask the court, what's the court's pleasure, judge, on something like that?
>> I'm not sure I understand.
so you're asking about legislature that does what?
-- about legislation that does what?
>> it was house bill 2585 that was addressing some of the out of control utility rates that went before the tceq as far as the significant increase as far as utility bills.
>> the bill, judge, expanded the authority of tceq to regulate rates of water utilities in unincorporated areas and would offer some -- was hoped to offer some consumer protections in that area.
it got through the substantive committee and the house and died in the calendars committee at the end of the 2005 session.
it was offered by representative hildebrand from kerrville.
>> does that effect the ratepayers with tceq to challenge the legal rates?
>> I don't know.
sorry, I didn't look at it carefully enough.
>> is that the key component.
>> we need to look at that.
I think it's worthwhile investigating and looking into.
>> so Friday is the deadline for --
>> for asking the legislative counsel to draft a bill with some assurance that by March 11th, which is the deadline for filing a bill, slawf council could get the -- legislative council could get the draft language back to the sponsor.
there's not a ban on filing bills.
the constitutional provision says that within the first 60 days bills can only be filed unless an emergency is declared.
so we traditionally think of that day of the 60th day as the last day you can call to file a bill.
but in fact with the permission of either the house or the senate, a member of those bodies that can continue to file bills and that in fact happens.
>> so if the legislative council doesn't have them file the bill, the legislators themselves do?
>> it is possible for a bill to be filed without having legislative council drafting at some point the legislative council has to take over the process, review that.
that could take the form of a committee substitute or a committee amendment during the -- as the process goes forward.
but not having the bill reviewed by the legislative council creates possible points of order problems for the bill.
and so therefore we want to run everything through lege council and most legislators do.
>> I think on that utility bill -- mow moment
>> we can provide further information to the court and leave it to the crate of whiles of your intergovernmental relations team to try to figure out how to move the bill forward notwithstanding whatever deadlines may have passed.
I don't want to overpromise about that but.
>> [laughter] we certainly can move forward if this is something the court is interested in.
but the court doesn't have to make a final decision today.
>> judge, I'd like to make a motion that we at least move forward in this direction and at least get something to us and hopefully we'll be able to look at it, evaluate it and see -- I guess you made some specifics.
of course, we're all looking for specifics, but I think it couldn't help but aid us as we're going through what we've gone through, what we went through this morning.
so that motion would be to direct
>> [inaudible] to get what -- h b-25 85, I guess, and look at that and see if we can get it and make the deadline and things like that as far as that billing is concerned.
so I would like to put that in the form of a motion if he can get that back to us in time.
>> does the agenda language cover that?
>> he's just looking for something that would get into the policy decisions/priorities for the future.
starting on the drafting process.
>> second.
>> all right.
thank you.
>> second by ms. Huber.
discussion, all in favor of the motion, show Commissioners Gomez, Huber, Eckhardt, Davis voting in favor, yours truly abstaining.
move that we recess until 1:30.
>> second.
>> all this favor.
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Last Modified:
Tuesday, February, 2011 2:19 PM
