Travis County Commissioners Court
Tuesday, March 1, 2011,
Item 29
>> 29 is to consider and take appropriate action on reappointment of nikelles.mead section to the central Texas regional mobility authority board.
>> I had some questions.
I don't know if transportation and natural resources is available.
my questions really go to more to process.
this is sort of like the bond council item.
I have absolutely no complaints with miss meade as our representative to the t.m.a.
she's been very responsive to us.
she's always available to answer questions.
she has also shown up to answer questions that we didn't even know we had.
but I do have concerns.
I don't know whether the fact of this appointment was ever posted on our web site or whether we asked -- we ever solicited for other individual who were interested.
I know we've had issues in the past with being able to recruit for this board, but I would like us to sort of similarly to our service contracts that on our courtwide appointments that we have a process where we routinely say, this appointment is coming up.
is anybody interested?
has our previous appointment been responsive, attenned meetings?
has the appointment worked well with the other board members?
and I don't believe that we have done that in any formalized way for the r.m.a.
>> and we have not done that for any other entity when it comes to reappointment.
we always do that when it comes to the initial appointment.
but on the reappointment, particularly if the attendance and participation have been good and the current person is interested in reappointment, we have been fairly routine about making the reappointment.
so that would require a policy change, I think.
however I'm not against it.
it's just that we have not done that historically.
>> judge, I guess we have never actually prohibited a person from voting -- well, I guess the way they feel about the performance of a person that is on a board.
I know I've gone on record opposing the reappointment of folks because I didn't feel agreeable as far as their performance.
and I guess this is one way that you can echo your concerns of their performance during the tenure of that particular timeline of their appointment.
so in this particular regard, I would like to -- and I have no criticisms at all with mikhds in ikelle meade.
I have no problem.
I understand your question about practice.
I have no problem with what you're saying, though.
but in this particular regard I'd like to go ahead and since I haven't had a problem with her I'd like to go ahead and reappoint her.
otherwise I would oppose her reappointment if I felt she wasn't doing an excellent job.
>> I second your motion with a stated desire to -- I would like us to treat our appointments as we have to stand for re-e election at the end of the term, I think that we should also put out to the world that our appointment has a finite time frame and if anybody else is willing to serve and interested, how can we know who else is available if we don't ask?
>> I understand.
I understand.
>> let me know when you want us to put that policy on the agenda.
>> thank you, sir.
>> I would agree with that as well.
I think we have a stellar appointee in the county to this.
I'm totally supportive to that.
but I do agree we probably ought to revisit our policy and review of our appointees.
>> if we have a policy in place we have to apply it across the board.
we have almost reappointed different folk for the last six, seven weeks.
sometimes the one, sometimes I remember us doing as many as six or seven.
so that's a whole lot of interviews and a whole lot of postings.
>> I think if we have a regular policy in place and have a regular place on the web site, that people in the community become accustomed to paying attention to our appointments and it may be indeed easier when we do have a need to come up with candidates.
>> I would make the distinction between courtwide appointments and precinct appointments, individual precinct appointments.
>> but if they're on the agenda, they're courtwide because the whole court votes on them.
I raised this concern before.
I think that there are fairly routine things, there are others that are real meaningful.
now, let's recall that last time we kind of beat the bushes and extended the deadline several times to fill the vacancy.
and we have done that more than we have worried about reappointing somebody.
however, whatever you want to do as a policy, I think that we need to bring it back as a policy for us to consider.
and I understand it need to be that we have to apply it across the board.
otherwise I'm fine with it, too.
dr. Kim on this item?
>> yes, honor.
I have a question about the policy.
you're talking about right now.
>> actually we are not posted for a policy.
we are posted to make the reappointment of miss meade.
but let's hear what you have to say.
>> thank you, your honor.
you talk about the policy and also a couple of minutes ago you talk about -- mention the private effect and also constitutional law and the civil courts oppose it.
civil courts oppose it.
it's very wonderful.
and I just came from jean sylvester, chief of the office.
and I talked about how this court of Travis County wronged discrimination of me for four years.
I explained to his office.
the lady sent me to the district administration office of the same court.
they wronged my case.
they killed all of my cases.
and then they closed the policy issue.
>> dr. Kim, that has nothing to do with this item.
legally we cannot discuss that with you.
I'm sorry.
>> thank you.
>> anything else on item 29?
>> I want to thank miss meade for being here for it.
all in favor?
that passes by unanimous vote.
thank you, miss meade, for stimulating such a lively conversation.
>> and thank you for your service.
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, February, 2011 2:19 PM
