Travis County Commissioners Court
Tuesday, April 19, 2011 (Agenda)
Citizens Communication
Citizens communication is first and this item gives residents an opportunity to address the court on any matter not on the agenda.
only one resident has signed in, gus pena.
>> and now two have signed in.
mr. Priest will be second.
morris priest.
>> judge, Commissioners, gus pena, good morning.
judge, there was a meeting yesterday, a press conference regarding lloyd doggett and proposed changes to the congressional district.
I live in the district.
I've lived there all my life except two years.
I heard a lot of the word gerrymandering.
I'm been a democrat all of my life but the only way we can get things done we can dialogue with opposing parties.
democrats, tea partiers, independents, but I am proud to have spoken to speaker straus, the lieutenant governor, who has friendly toward us democrats and a lot of republicans because we need their support to push for more funding for health and educational services, mental health.
the veterans services, we need for money for education, dropout prevention, truancy, et cetera.
I'm not a turncoat, I'm a democrat.
you can ask katherine henches,she said I need your he, gus.
she said I need help in eastern and southeast district.
we went and got that.
I'm not saying it was because of us lloyd doggett won re-election.
he won by less than 6,000 votes.
I'm saying remember the people who have been in combat.
you mentioned the word gerrymandering, it's everywhere, not just one party.
we need to reunite and work in the best interests of the human beings so they can maintain their quality of life and not die of cancer or health issues because they don't have health insurance.
I just want to mention this.
I was sad to hear a lot of people here yesterday, my fellow democrats talking in the manner they did.
I'm proud of them and my party, but I can work with anybody.
and that's gus pena, proud, proud, my dad was born in mexico, but he brought had the mexican-american politics from crystal city.
that's where they started.
my dad was born in 1898.
his name is in the capitol.
may he rest in peace.
a democrat in heaven.
we need to work together.
I gave you the memorandum, I gave it to the governor, lieutenant governor, all republicans.
I want them to know we can work together and tap into the rainy day fund for the biennium, not just the last that will end in August of this year.
we need to do a lot of help, a lot of work for residents of Travis County.
I don't get money for what I do.
I'm an activist, true blue is what you get, and if we do anything positives, it's because of the lord our savior jesus christ.
thank you.
>> thank you.
>> thank you, mr. Pena.
mr. Priest.
>> judge, Commissioners, morris priest speaking on my own behalf and some of what gus pena is the same thing I'm going to talk to you about this morning.
when
>> [indiscernible] came up here he showed this financial report and I asked him for a copy of it and he said he would mail me one because he didn't have one with him.
the next day after he spoke in Commissioners court, I received this in the mail Wednesday and I thank this office as I have thanked many people's offices.
most of the Commissioners and the judge of this court and other agencies, and I'm known for calling people back and thanking them.
I've been getting quite a bit of abuse at the campo office and I'm not happy with the campo board or the campo office.
I've been having a lot of things said to me that I don't appreciate and one of the things that art told me there was a new sheriff in town.
but I've got a summary, I've got a jury summons from judge greg hamilton who has two full-time jobs.
he is our Travis County sheriff, but no sheriff in the history of Travis County has done so much to help so many other people in this community.
and I corrected art about that and I didn't appreciate it, how he told me we had a new sheriff in town as was being very disrespectful.
at the time he was being very disrespectful, they weren't abiding by their bylaws that campo has.
one of the things they have in their bylaws, you can go up to the office and read what the campo board members are going to get.
I've been getting this information for several years.
it wasn't until I talked to david escamilla, the county attorney, the Friday before the January 10th meeting, and he said that he would like to know if they would even let me look at the material.
so I called maureen and explained to her just as clearly as I'm explaining to y'all, and she says look, what are you talking about, no, morris, you're not getting any copies.
I said I'm not talking about getting copies.
I'm talking about getting the information.
on page 6 of 11 in the bylaws.
and also on page 2 of 11, it talks about how what we can do.
but one of the things we can do, we can do like judge sumner and I read this letter that she wrote to me and other people who didn't get to speak at the campo meeting.
she said she thought it was a horrible display of government when elected officials from the campo board don't let the public speak.
and Commissioner Davis, he had mentioned this.
Commissioner Davis, that letter was dated December 12th.
Commissioner Davis, November the 18th, 2008, sent a letter to the executive director talking about his concerns and his comments on financial plan and 290 east and 181 a.
>> [buzzer sounding] if you are being bullied, remember psalm 27-1.
I'm going to keep continuing to fight this and I have my rights and I'm going to stand up to this soft tyranny.
when we didn't get to speak our minds and things like that, that's tyranny.
thank you.
>> thank you, mr. Priest.
those are the two who signed in to speak under citizens communication.
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