Travis County Commissioners Court
Tuesday, April 5, 2011 (Agenda)
Item 16
16, issue a call for recommendations on naming a 227-acre county-owned tract that is part of of the balcones canyonlands preserve located in the bull creek watershed north of rm 2222, eat of rm 620 in precinct 3.
>> good morning, judge and Commissioners.
>> good morning.
>> rose farmer, program manager for natural resources for the county.
I'm here today to request that we put in a issuance to call for the naming of bull creek watershed that we are interested in following the policies of the county, the facility naming policies and the park naming policies which indicate that we need to put a call for the public to propose names for this preserve tract.
county staff also have a proposal for naming the preserved tract.
I had come to you back in the fall for recognition of Sam hamilton, who was the chief of the u.s.
fish & wildlife service until his untimely death in 2010, and so we are proposing since he was very beneficial in the Austin area in the creation of the balcones canyonlands and preserve that we name this tract after him.
in July 2010 the city of Austin named the adjacent tract the city owns this same name and it was the intention of city and county staff to have the two tracts side by side, one city tract and one county tract, named after Sam hamilton to honor him for his service to this area.
so I'm coming to you today to ask that we begin this process to call for the naming of the tract.
>> does will mean shall or may?
>> that has been the new understanding people are using the name will instead of shall.
>> what's the difference between will and shall.
>> I think shall is becoming more of an arrest cake use.
although you -- archaic use.
in most legislation they will use the word shall, but in all drafting of contracts they are encouraging us to use the word will.
and they are supposed to halloween the same thing.
>> same thing.
>> correct.
>> no different.
all right.
>> now, saying that, you have drafted two policies, one for naming various facilities and one for naming parks and they were drafted by the Commissioners court which means you can set aside your own policy any time younc2 desire.
you are bound by a statute that was drafted by legislature, but your own policies -- we try to draft these policies so that they address every situation, but this is kind of a unique situation that has come up.
and so you can set aside your own policy.
in essence, amend your own policy if you desire.
>> well, I guess I have a little issue with issuing an invitation to solicit names when we've already decided.
I mean, in September when we approved the resolution, it was clear to me that Sam hamilton had gone above and beyond the call of duty in assisting us and the city of Austin with a preserve, and that we should honor him in some way.
and if this is the way, it's fine with me.
but, you know, I hate to see people out there gathering support for individuals that we will sort of passively consider.
I mean, I would rather for those people to wait until next time when we genuinely are seeking names.
and so my own belief is that if, in fact, we want this preserve to be named after Sam hamilton, for the reasons that have been stated and the city of Austin adjacent preserve has the same name and we sort of agreed with them that we would do ours, right?
then I would rather us go ahead and waive the policy this time and I think the reasons are clear.
we think we owe him a debt of gratitude.
and this would be post-homus because he died a little more than a year ago.
but he honored him as best we could then and this is another step.
so I mean, I feel a little uneasy inviting people to do a whole lot of work when actually we're going to name this preserve Sam hamilton preserve.
>> I think that makes sense, judge.
>> I second your motion to waive the policy in this instance.
>> reserve it.
>> there you go.
>> that makes sense to staff?
>> we appreciate that very much.
>> and just from a -- I hate to slow the deal down any, but all you have posted today was just issue a call.
if you are actually going to name the name, I would go ahead and give yourself some different language, some posting language for next week.
>> we'll do that, right.
so today we indicate our intention really to waive the policy as to this preserve and name it Sam hamilton preserve or whatever name was in the backup.
okay.
so the motion is for that direction.
we'll have appropriate language next week.
that's seconded by Commissioner Eckhardt.
is that clear, miss porter?
>> it's in precinct 3 so I can withdraw my second.
>> you have all of this, miss porter?
any more discussion?
all in favor?
that passes by unanimous vote.
we'll have an appropriately worded item next week.
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