Travis County Commissioners Court
Tuesday, May 3, 2011 (Agenda)
Item 25
>> we have come to executive session, haven't we, ms. Porter?
we have a citizen who has come to give open court testimony on item 25.
25 is to consider and take appropriate action on approval of transaction by central health involving real estate in east Austin.
and the open court part we'll take right now.
sir, if you will give us your name and affiliation if any.
>> my name is bruce bower, I'm a rest dantsdent of Travis County, I leave at 5062 lane in Austin Texas, I'm a taxpayer and I have my appraisal notice last night and I certainly understood it and found it interesting.
I'm here to urge in regard to agenda item 25 that you heed the request that has already been communicated to county judge Biscoe and to Commissioner Gomez to postpone consideration of this item.
the item relates to the purchase of real estate in southeast Austin by central health.
for several years there habit efforts underway to ip prove access to healthcare and those efforts have been led by the wesley centers and you a interfaith and members of the community particularly in dove springs.
my involvement in dove springs goes back to the early 1990s when I began providing legal services in the area.
there's been request to postpone action until input can be received from the community and Austin interface concerning it.
there have been efforts to bring health services to the community in a way that is coordinated with related services similar to what occurs in the st.
johns neighborhood a while back where you have health services coordinated with the related services, youth services and services for the elderly, safety services, education services.
we believe there's a need to make sure that the proposal to purchase real estate and to carry forward with that is coordinated with other steps occurring in the community.
there was a retreat that central health held on Saturday.
I attended that.
and that retreat, that was request made to staff of central health that within 30 days, staff would report to the board of central health on steps to move forward regarding the long-standing request from dove springs to improve access to healthcare in dove springs.
what the board wanted for staff to do is within 30 days, to come back with a time frame to respond to the long-standing request of dove springs for improved health services.
now, I do want to say, central health has a clinic at william canyon which is largely a response to community support for a clinic.
this community of dove springs, as was made clear at the retrait on Saturday of central health, they have stepped forward.
they have offered their commitment to work with central health.
unlike other parts of Travis County that haven't been so focal, dove strings has been vocal and commited.
in part that is why there's clinic there now, a very small clinic.
ice not a medical home at all.
an example of the discoordination that one finds there, which I find interesting, some years ago Commissioner eduardo sanchez of the department of state health services asked me to chair the state wic advisory committee so I became more familiar with than than I had before, the women, infant and children program.
it's interesting to me as taxpayer there's a clinic located within 50 yards of the currents community care clinic under egis of central health, and they are not coordinated.
the wic clinic and the community care clinic do not serve the same populations.
if a wic client, a child needs immunizations, the clinic has to send that child to the wic clinic on montopolis.
right there weese have far last coordination than there should be.
we're asking for a short period postponement on this very important issue that would allow the purchase of the real estate and what that is going to involve to be coordinated with what the staff comes back with, which they are supposed to come back with in 30 days to central net terms of a time frame for improving act stose healthcare in dove springs.
so we do not continue to March down a road looking coordination but rather we March down a road that maximizes coordination.
again, you have in this situation a strong community voice that is asking to be heard and asking for coordinated delivery of health services.
so in the interest of maximizing the cost effectiveness of our tax expenditures, in the interest of responding to the community that has risen up and has spoken time and time again, I ask that you postpone consideration of this so that it can be dealt with in a manner that is coordinated with what the staff of central health comes back with within 30 days in terms of how they are going to respond to the growing need for health services in dove springs in a manner that is coordinated with related services along the lines of what was done in st.
johns.
as I said, my involvement in dove springs goes back to the early 1990s when I began to work with a family there in connection with a guardianship case before the probate court.
dove springs strikes me and southeast Travis County strikes me as an area that can go either way.
we can look back ten years from now and say we addressed the healthcare needs and other needs of that part of our county in a coordinated manner, and the area has thrived, or we can look back and say it's just been deterioration.
and we have more pathology than we had in 2011.
I think if you take the time to postpone consideration of this item to make sure the purchase is done in a manner coordinated with the concerns of dove springs, that you are more likely to look back years from now and say wise decisions were made with conscious deliberation rather than leaping forward in an uncoordinated manner.
I ask that you postpone consideration.
again, I'm not the only one.
you have heard from the community earlier today, I understand, at least judge Biscoe and Commissioner Gomez did.
just asking for a brief hearing postponement so this can be coordinated with the plan that the staff is to come back with in 30 days to the board of central health.
and that is to be a time frame along which central health and community care will respond to the long-standing call from dove springs for improved access to healthcare in a coordinated manner.
>> mr. Bower, are there specific service providers that central health should be coordinating with that we know of that have capital improvements that could, you're speaking to the choir with regard to double dipping on physical infrastructure in order to simplify service delivery.
do you have specific service providers in mind?
>> yes, we do.
I'm not able to say that we have capital that is being brought to the table.
in fact, central health, the great role they could play is to be a catalyst.
and they could actually coordinate that conversation.
we are doing research with regard to capital metro.
we will be doing research with regard to city of Austin in terms of real estate that they own in the area of the dop springs recreation centers and the library.
in terms of service providers, we're in conversation with the boys and girls club, with the area agency on aging of the capital area, with mendez, the Austin community school district.
there are efforts underway to put in a legal clinic in that area.
that area is a desert in many regards.
so the leaders ship in dove springs, judge Biscoe and Commissioner Gomez have heard from, the leadership has coordinated several meetings and has brought to the table a diverse array of people.
there was a study that was done by the ut school of architecture in that area, and that is largely a result of requests from the community.
so the community is obviously a community where there are many many people of moddest means.
there's not an andrew carnegie who lives that who can bring hundreds of millions of dollars to the table.
>> when I said capital, I meant improvements, the actual physical structures that can be collaboratively used.
>> the community of dove springs is looking at.
I might say, the community has been flexible.
at one time they were looking at the vacant target building.
the main use of which right now is gun shows every third weekend.
we thought the community didn't need guns, they needed more social services.
so they migrated from the target because it's not a feasible location for a multipurpose center.
over to the more centrally located recreation center area, the public library, in that area and se schools in that area, widen and mendez.
that could be thenu cleus that could help it thrive.
we have done planning with cap metro and would like to bring them in.
they could bring about some capital improvements and transportation.
one of the problems in dove springs, if people want to go to a health home like the clinic on south first street, for some people that solves transferring three times on the bus.
and if you are a mother with a child on a very very hot summer afternoon, that can be a hervy burden.
so I think if you can poe pony action on this item--postpone action on this tommy, it will allow central health to have more conversations with dove springs and Austin interface.
again, they already have a request to their own staff to report within po days on how their own staff is going to come up with a time frame.
that is what the request is from central health to their own staff, to come up with a time frame within 30 days so that down the road, there will be a comprehensive response to the call from dove springs for improved access to healthcare.
we think it would be wise for you all to postpone consideration.
>> thank you.
>> of this itemful we have seen--
>> thank you, this morning at 8:34 my office did receive a phone call from ophelia sipata from Austin interfaith and her request was to postpone.
let's try to go into executive session.
we do have representatives from healthcare district.
on 25, consider and take appropriate action on approval of transaction by central health involving real estate in east Austin.
this is under consultation with attorney and we'll property.
to be honest, I'm not sure of the specifics of this request.
but I do know that, I did hear the request for postponement.
and while we're there, 26 is to receive briefing from retained outside counsel and take appropriate action.
we have outside counsel coming down on 26?.
let's not announce that one.
let's just take up 25 in executive session, if we can.
under those two exceptions we mentioned.
we will return to open course before taking any action..
>> we have returned from executive session where we discussed item number 25.
I move we postpone action until next Tuesday to give court members a community to chat with the interfaith representatives, oners and two, to get answers to some legal questions that we had regarding item number 25.
but that we now indicate our intention to take action on 25 next week.
>> second.
>> any problem with that?
discussion?
all in favor.
that passes by unanimous vote.
we will call up items 26 and 27 this afternoon.
in my view, we'll get to those items at the earlist 2:30 because we have employee recognition at 1:30.
with that I move we recess until 1:30.
all in favor.
that passes by unanimous vote..
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