Travis County Commissioners Court
Tuesday, March 1, 2011,
Item 1
Number 1, receive recommendations for the naming of the new Travis County building at 4717 heflin lane in Austin, Texas.
>> I move that the public hearing be open.
>> second.
>> all in favor?
that passes by unanimous vote with Commissioner Gomez absent.
good morning.
>> good morning.
on January 18th, Commissioners court approved a recommendation naming the new Travis County building at 4717 heflin lane.
the management department sent out a press release and posted the call on Travis County web page.
the due date for elimination was set as close of business day Monday --
>> speak up into the mic.
>> okay.
>> thank you.
>> the department received only one official recommendation to name the new precinct office building after judge richard eastcott.
recommend the building to be named in honor of judge richard scott and you have the backup copy as stated in the Travis County code for naming the buildings.
>> okay, and in addition to that recommendation, we did receive a communication from the -- looks like the justices of the peace and other judges basically recommending that the building be named after judge richard e.
scott.
this is a public hearing so you do not need to have signed the citizens communication forms, and at this time if roger would move to the end here, we will start the public hearing and we have five seats available.
so if the five most eager speakers will come forth at this time, we would be happy to get your comments.
>> I'm always eager, judge.
good friend.
ladies, I'll defer to you all.
let's.
>> and if you would give usyoury to get your comments.
>> good morning, Commissioners, parties.
I am yvonne curry sitting justice of the peace.
judge scott, for which I am here to speak, I am one of those people who signed the judge's letter willingly, openly and we were very, very, very proud to do so.
of course, you've heard time and time again that judge scott has been on that bench probably longer than anyone in the history of that court at this point, for 35 years, and he served precinct 1 citizens proudly.
and still has enough life in him to continue to serve.
I hope that he will visit the court, as a matter of fact, while I'm there and let me take a break or two from time to time.
>> [laughter] but I would hope that when this new building come up and it's a gorgeous building, by the way, and so I'm sure others will speak to the actual ground breaking that we're having coming up.
it's going to be on heflin, which is exactly directly behind the current springdale address.
it's a gorgeous facility and, to be very honest with you, everywhere I talked, everywhere I've been, anybody I've talked to, it is the most obvious conclusion was but it must be named for judge scott.
and so here we are saying this building must be named for judge richard e.
scott, and we would appreciate you all doing so.
thank you.
>> thank you, judge.
>> thank you very much, judge.
>> thank you, good morning.
eleanor Davis thompson and I'm going to speak for the community this morning.
I've known judge scott for approximately 25 years or so when I became involved in politics and other things in this community.
and he's very fond in my memory because one of the first thing I remember about him was him inviting me to a community meeting because there was legislation proposed that would do just what we're grab he willing with now and that is bring children into the court system and he was saying we need to pay attention to this, we need to have input into this and be very careful about it.
lots of foresight.
nobody else was doing that, but we appreciated it so much.
even though we didn't do anything about it.
I had no children in school at that time so it didn't really occur to me that I might have to deal with.
here I am some 20 years later and I have this grandchild who is now in school and so I have a real interest in what happens there and especially as it relates to our young people and particularly the part of it that can actually criminalize them before it's over.
I'm real concerned about that and we've been at the legislature talking to people who made those rules to say maybe you all need to go back in and look at some of this and tweak it.
what they say is we don't get enough input from the people who are applying it and the issues they have in that application process.
so they want us to please come and share some of that information with them.
there's some things that could be improved, could be real cost effective.
I think at this point we're doing some things that are probably costing us more money than it should if we knew more about it so I'm looking forward to helping the judge look at that process.
I think precinct 1 probably has almost if not more than any other precinct.
I know we have 5,000 and we're still counting.
that's a lot.
so I appreciate judge scott for personal reasons, this community appreciates him, and so I ask on their behalf this morning that you give serious consideration to naming that building.
he is definitely deserving.
thank you.
>> thank you, ms. Thompson.
>> my name is gus pena, a native of precinct 4, east Austin.
native Austinite.
I'll go one better than eleanor.
I've known judge scott since he first ran and us veterans from the mexican community and I will tell us this much, I have admired and respected judge scott throughout his career.
as a matter of fact, you don't have to mention it, judge, but I have not represented families and their children in truancy cases, but I have gone up there as an advocate.
and judge, among other judges also, have been very, very helpful in keeping the kids out of the juvenile justice system and keeping the educational mode and mainstream.
I am here to state categorically for the record and not only as a friend, I love him as a judge and community leader, to name the building after judge scott because he deserves it.
nobody else deserves to be named on that building other than judge scott.
he is one of a kind and if he could be duplicated, we would have a better Travis County.
that's all I'm going to say and god bless you all, judge scott, and thank you for putting up with me in your courtroom.
it can be animated at times as judge Biscoe knows, but let the record he reflect a lot of veterans could not attend this meeting but they are in support of naming the building after judge richard e.
scott.
>> good morning.
I am senior pastor of metropolitan african-american methodist church one if not the oldest black church here in -- I'm as clear as I can get.
>>
>> [inaudible].
>> too close.
>> oh, I'm too close.
I'm a preacher.
preacher loves --
>> [inaudible].
>> [laughter] I am proud to be the pastor of metropolitan ame church.
judge richard scott is a member in good and regular standing.
has been a member for many, many years.
not only has he served as a judge, but judge scott serves as an outstanding trustee at metropolitan a&e church.
he has recently become the vice chair of our trustee board.
so I'm speaking on behalf on behalf of the metropolitan and ecumenical community in Austin.
I'm going to make a biblical reference if you don't mind n the book of joshua, god gives instructions to joshua in the fourth chapter.
>> [indiscernible] make a monument of them so that when the children who come up to them ask what does this mean, that they will say to them this simply means god was good to us, that god gave us what we needed.
so I'm asking the county commission to make this building a spiritual monument, make a stone out of it so that when children will come in after us, generation after generation can look and ask the question who was that man for whom the building is named and we declare richard scott, who served this community with excellence
>> [indiscernible].
would you consider, would you consider naming building after him.
thank you so much.
>> thank you.
>> thank you.
>> judge?
>> thank you, judge Biscoe.
I'm herb evans, justice of the peace for precinct 5, the central part of the county.
judge scott is an outstanding judge, a great community leader.
but he's what people outside the closed world of the jps may not understand judge scott has been quiet and steady leadership for the jps.
after 36 years, he figured out what the job was and was able to help us as we got in and got our feet on the ground.
he advised me over the course of years many times, always with good and sage advice.
we will miss his steady leadership.
one other thing I would like to say is that judge scott has not only been a good judge and a good leader, he has set an example for all of the jps for serving with honor and integrity.
there has never been a hint of impropriety at his office or about him and the conduct of his office.
he has -- he has set the bar high and I think that some of that is reflected in the rest of us.
judge scott is a leader among judges.
I appreciate his service very much and I hope that you will name the precinct 1 building after the man who has done the most to establish respect for justice in that part of our community.
thank you.
>> thank you.
>> thank you.
others who would like to give comments today?
if so, please come forward.
judge scott is here.
he may want to speak against this recommendation.
>> [laughter] anybody else?
>> it would be good to show those who are here in support of the building being named after judge scott.
could you raise your hands so we could just see who you actually are even though you don't want to speak?
that's good.
that's tremendous.
of course, we thank you.
>> and his lovely wife reverend scott is there also.
>> there you go.
okay.
>> by the way, many of you may not know judge scott and I were law schoolmates and we're both from east Texas.
to be honest, I never thought he would make it out of kilgore.
he made it out of kilgore to Austin and finished law school and has been a great contributor to our community.
>> and judge, you know, just recalling some of the hurdles that we had to overcome to where we are now as far as naming this building, first of all, we had to have a building to name.
and, of course, I can still recall going to judge scott's office and also to the constable's office and judge scott showed me some eye-opening experiences.
looking at the office, they was all on top of each other stacked up.
they didn't have room enough to even move about in that office which really suggested we're going to have to do something about the continued rapid growth to provide adequate services for precinct 1.
and, of course, this particular building is something that is the state of the art, it's a leed, l-e-e-d, filled with certificates -- it would be the first in Travis County that we actually have a silver certificate that will probably be later rewarded because of its unique design.
but judge scott scribbled on a piece of paper how and what he thought things should be and how the building should be erected and the concerns of the space that he needed, and from that point, of course, the Commissioners court, which I think very much in supporting -- thank very much in supporting the funding of this particular effort has now come to pass.
and as I stated before, without the building, of course he we can't really attach a name to it so I'm really happy about all of this and I know there's an action item with this judge and I don't know if anybody else would like to say, but I would definitely like to move that with the action item being the waiver --
>> it's not quite appropriate yet.
>> let me know when it's appropriate.
>> any other speakers?
move the public hearing being closed.
>> second.
>> all in favor?
that passes by unanimous vote.
18 is the action item.
this ought to take us just a minute.
of.
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Last Modified:
Tuesday, February, 2011 2:19 PM
