Travis County Commissioners Court
Tuesday, May 24, 2011 (Agenda)
Item 19
19. CONSIDER AND TAKE APPROPRIATE ACTION ON THE FOLLOWING:
LICENSE AGREEMENT TO USE THE GRANGER PARKING GARAGE AT 313 WEST 12TH STREET AS OVERFLOW PARKING FOR A WEDDING CEREMONY ON SATURDAY, JUNE 11, 2011; AND
AUTHORIZE COUNTY EXECUTIVE OVER FACILITIES TO APPROVE SIMILAR ONE-TIME PARKING GARAGE AGREEMENTS.
>> danny hobby, executive Manager for emergency services and I have with me Roger El Kouhry, Department head for Facilities. A is a request that we've had on other occassions where a person is simply asking to use the granger parking garage, as overflow parking for a wedding wiht the church across the street for Saturday June the 11th, 2011. And what you have attached is, of course, is that request from the individual as well as the requirements that we have with the county through our county attorney's office to provide insurance.
and it is again our practice to do these type of things, movie shoots, etcetera.
I think what's been raised is the policy.
and whether or not we should develop a more clear and precise policy and are we taking all of the benefits of having a vacant garage after hours and on the weekends, but this particular request is before you today.
the second request, if you want to stick with a, judge, we can do that.
>> questions about a?
it seemed kind of straightforward when I saw it.
I guess $10 is very nominal.
>> it is.
I think that one of the things that based upon some questions that I've received, I think it might be good for us as we are doing with the expo center to re-examine and to review what our practices are.
and we are now seeing the value of this particular area as well as in downtown area further south of where we may want to examine all of our parking lots and all of our uses, even our facilities.
so what I've asked is that I work with tinnily who actually works with those contracts and works with roger, and examine all of those particular facilities and aspects of those facilities to see whether we're really taking advantage of what we should goth both from the public's point of view as well as the county's point of view.
so even though I'm requesting this, I can't come up with a policy or plan right now, but I would like to continue working on that.
and that's going to be an offshoot off the expo.
>> Commissioner Eckhardt?
>> I was concerned about 19-a and you hit on it exactly, danny, and thank you for your response by email, roger.
my concern was as with the expo signage issue and the licensing issue that came up a couple of weeks ago with our surface parking down at the fourth and guadalupe site.
I would very much like to see to the extent we have incremental capacity not used by Travis County Travis County governmental functions, I would very much like to see us open our facilities to non-Travis County users with the priority being identifying users that measurably promote a policy preference of ours.
and an additional preference that is lower than that one of users that significantly contribute to offsetting the cost of government and thereby offset the burden to the taxpayer.
and I would like us to do a rather comprehensive review of our facilities to see to what extent we have increment to offer and how we can use it to move policy needle forward or move costs down.
>> okay.
what does that mean as to number 19-a?
>> what it means to number 19-a is that we don't have a policy with regard to it.
I'm fine with agreeing on this for right now, but I don't want this to be the be all, end all.
although I'm very gratified that we have a very good relationship with the church across the street and we would certainly want to maintain that, and it could arguably fit into the idea of pushing policy agendas that are a preference of ours.
we haven't done any analysis in that direction.
we're just -- we just wait until somebody asks and then we do it on a case-by-case basis.
>> okay.
move approval of a.
>> second.
>> discussion?
>> I would just like to add I'm in total agreement with Commissioner Eckhardt.
in fact, I had already sent a follow-up email with the kinds of additional questions on the website marketing thing.
and it just coincidental to early this morning I had received an email from the county attorney's office saying that this is a good idea to move this forward and there's already some movement in pulling together and working with them.
>> I have no problem with what's been said, but rather than act on b today if we're going to do a policy, let's just move on that.
I thought b would just save us a little court time from time to time.
and you know, clearly $10 is about as low as we can get.
but on a, any more discussion of a?
that's really to approve this particular request.
>> yes, sir.
>> all in favor?
that passes by unanimous vote.
what I'm hearing is that on b, rather than doing this, that we go ahead and concentrate more on policy, right?
which is fine.
>> and planning for our -- the usage of our incremental capacity that is not being used -- and it's not just we're wasteful in our facilities, it's that government occurs between 7:00 in the morning and 6:00 in the evening.
so there is -- there will always be some unused capacity in our facilityies.
and we should plan for its use.
>> I think it's good that this has come up because we may be missing opportunities too.
and I think looking -- addressing this policy will allow us to assess opportunities out there and decide how best to use them for the taxpayers.
>> can I claire if that, Commissioner, when you say facilities, parking garage facility, am I correct, and the surface parking?
>> with regard to this agenda item it's a parking facility, but I'm really broadening it out to a larger sort of a paradigm shift in how we plan for the utilization of our facilities, generally whether its web space or surface parking space or the hallway outside this room.
we actually don't have -- we utilize the users use this room a lot for instance after hours.
but to my knowledge we don't have any kind of plan for maximally utilizing this space, for instance.
so from a policy direction I'm not limiting it to parking garage.
>> then that issue has grown a whole lot.
I'm still not getting it.
who is going to do that work?
>> I think it's appropriately placed in facilities and our planning resources, which are not entirely within facilities.
there's some planning resources in facilities and there's additional planning resources in pbo.
>> and the county attorney's office.
>> and of course the county attorney's office with regard to what's legal and what isn't.
certainly under the Texas constitution we can't give things away to private industry, for instance.
>> judge, and Commissioner, once you start opening up this door of opportunity, you begin to see a lot of different things that can actually take place.
and that is the joint use of facilities, for instance.
I mean, there are a lot of other things that are around us that could also maybe shared if we were to open -- it's just a lot of opportunities that can exist.
>> a whole lot of people use this building after hours.
a whole lot of people use the conference room on the third floor.
because on the way to my car I see them all the time.
and counseling sessions.
and I had from day one of my service at the county I just assumed that a public building should be open to the public where it's practical.
and you got unfortunately endorsement sessions in this building during campaign session and what we try to do is open it up to all.
so we don't try to single out a particular affiliation, and I don't know whether -- I don't know whether we ought to charge for that or not.
but I do agree that it ought to be looked at.
>> that's why I would say that -- I don't think I'm going out on a limb here, but we can certainly bring an agenda item back that I think that is probably our first priority should be -- our first preference should be given to pollen teats that are measurably contributing towards something that we already have as our goal.
and that wouldn't be a for-charge circumstance, very similar to the policy on the books for utilization of the expo center.
>> I know when I was precinct 1 Commissioner, I encouraged neighborhood residents to use county facilities out in unincorporated areas.
most of them did not have accessible meeting space, especially during the summer when schools were closed, but I haven't really revisited that in years.
maybe it's time to do it again.
do not accept an invitation to a wedding as value, reverend albie.
we're talking about cold hard cash here, right?
>> let me suggest that parks or tnr should be included in this because I already know there's some use of facilities of parks facilities that are quite recreating the wheel here if there's a knowledge base to work with.
>> very good suggestion.
>> okay.
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