Travis County Commissioners Court
Tuesday, June 21, 2011 (Agenda)
Item 28
28 is to consider and take appropriate action on pilot initiative to operate a shoe shine stand a county property.
as indicated in the backup, in between we basically approved on a pilot basis the operation of two shoe shine stands on county property.
in the sweatt and blackwell thermen courthouses.
there were specific terms and conditions we set out in a draft contract that was never executed.
.
but mr. Benjamin makes the person with whom we basically entered into that agreement, set up the stand, started operating and to my knowledge, there are no problems until recently.
about three years ago mr. Migs stopped operating that stand and dwight bellinger, who sits before us, and cora gatewood started operating it.
it was brought to my attention, the party that we had negotiated the contract with basically left the premises and no longer operates the stand.
I did chat with him in person last week.
he knows about this action and is agreeable to terminating basically that agreement.
mr. Bellinger, since he has been there with ms. Gatewide, and she is here also, are interested in continuing to operate the stand that they really have been operating the last couple of years.
I don't know of any problems called to me attention.
what we agreed to was that each shine would cost about $5 and the county would get $1 per shine.
we have not gotten that.
this doesn't generate a lot of money.
it's a matter of principle than anything else.
the one thing in my view was the liability insurance that was supposed to be obtained.
that was not obtained.
so the appropriate action that is before us really is, one, terminating the agreement that is in place.
seems to me that is almost automatic because de facto it's kind of been terminated anyway.
the second issue is whether we give mr. Bellinger and ms. Gatewood an opportunity to operate that stand themselves.
this is one of these activities that now is isolated sort of in the cjc and not the sweatt building, just one courthouse.
if you are not down here, it's not on your radar.
that has been the situation with it pretty much.
what is the court's response?
mr. Bell ker is here as well as ms. Gatewood.
yes, sir.
>> thank you, judge.
in our time when the situation came up, the court then moved forward with allowing this to take place.
I guess my concern is what safeguards will be in place this time to ensure it doesn't repeat itself as far as where we are now.
in other words these folks have been operating, but my question to legal is also what safeguards can we put in place to make sure and how will it be policed to make sure.
because really who is watching, who is minding the store?.
so it's kind of a concern contractualally, but also the liability and all these other kinds of things.
kind of depends on the contract and if the contract is rye --violated, this is kind of what happened.
a lot of loose questions.
judge, I'm kind of going forward with what we need to do.
I think some loose ends, I's have to be dotted and t's crossed.
I want to pose this to legal to make sure the safe guard is in place so we don't have a repeat performance of what we see here today.
>> may I ask a question along yours lines also?
>> okay.
>> as I look at the terms, seems like it requires a level of accounting that would be out of scale with a shoe shine operating.
so I don't want to set someone up who is a participant in the licensing agreement to failure.
>> right.
>> for having to do a level of accounting that probably is out of scale with the type of operation that they have.
so perhaps we could revision the license agreement so that it's a one-time fee or a fee paid quarterly that is not based on the accounting.
and also from a philosophical standpoint, I have a hard time with setting the cost of the shoe shine.
if they find that they are hugely popular and that their service can demand a higher price, or that this e need to go to a lower price, I think the would behoove the license ee to have the flexibility in their pricing and that the license fee to us be a much more simply fide circumstance.
I know this is a small issue and a small license, it's not a revenue producer for us.
but it is as we talked about before, there is additional capacity in our facility to accommodate this request.
I think that we should be correct in the small things so that we're correct in the larger things.
I think that we need to do a bit more work on this to see what the demand for shoe shines is, you know, what an appropriate structure for the licensing is.
I know other places have shoe shine stands.
I'm going to go on a hypothesis that they don't to a per-shine fee.
it would be good to find out how they do structure their license agreement.
at the airport, for instance.
>> they charge more than five bucks.
>> they do.
>> five bucks probably made sense in 2003.
>> yes, sir.
>> a lot of people, unlike marvin and me, who wear just regular shoes, a lot of folks these days, especially lawyers, are wearing boots.
so the going rate is more like seven or eight bucks, I take it, and that is what the charge has been.
>> eight bucks is the going rate.
basically.
maybe at the airport they might get it for $7.
I'm not sure because I'm not familiar with the prices there.
lara is pretty much there, my fiancee.
she has been there by my side because I have other businesses that I accommodate as well.
you know, basically just to make a long story short, $8 is about the going rate nowadays.
>> this is one of those deals where it sort of promotes employment for one or two persons.
I guess if there's enough business to justify being there to the extent that we can accommodate it, we ought to.
>> yeah.
>> some folk do like to have their shoes shined.
>> yes, sir.
>> I guess when the demand goes away, the people will too.
I mean,we can tweak this contract, mr. Bellinger is there I guess you would like the stay there until we resolve this one way or another, right?
>> yes.
and me and mara are both on disability.
actually, it accommodates our needs as far as meeting needs.
actually, this is something that I learned and I taught her on the side to where we make, you know, a little extra change.
you know, there's days that you don't do anything.
days that you might do two or three.
days you might get ten.
then the rainy days where nothing happens, you know, like car washing.
but anyway, judge, Commissioners given the opportunity, I would love to continue, sign up with Travis County and meet whatever expectations that are probably imposed upon me and lara.
>> well, my first motion is to terminate whatever relationship we had with mr. Meeks.
>> second.
>> any discussion on that motion?
as I indicated, I did talk with him in person last week.
so he understands this is about to happen today.
all in favor.
that passes by unanimous vote.
I guess it would be to look at this and figure out if there is a better way.
we can direct that be done.
mr. Bellinger wants to know probably what takes place between now and then.
my guess we ought to try to get this done in about three weeks.
>> okay.
>> I would ask we authorize the two of them to keep doing what they have been doing in the cjc, with the understanding when it comes back, you know, we are free to take whatever action we deem appropriate.
but if we can simplify this and at the same time make it enforceable, our goal would be to try to do that.
>> second.
>> yes, sir.
>> when I ask mr. Bellinger, he did indicate that there is enough work there for them to be interested in continuing.
>> yes, sir.
and come date the lawyers, whoever needs us.
>> I second that judge.
>> my motion would be that we try to put together a simpler agreement.
and to work with mr. Bellinger and get one or both of you.
>> both.
>> both of us.
just one of us will be there.
>> okay.
>> so this is the attorney to my left that will be working with you.
>> thank you.
>> okay.
>> Commissioner Huber.
>> I have a question of clarification.
what county staff is responsible for overseeing these license agreements and enforcing them or alerting us if they are not enforced.
>> depends on where the license is granted.
for example, the consented item this morning was a license agreement for the fire fire house.
I'm not sure, parks.
>> facilities.
>> this would be facilities management, yes.
>> we should have had notice of this early if there was noncompliance.
how long has this been going on?
>> several years .
my understanding is the question has raised.
I explained there was no enforceable agreement.
>> there was never and liability insurance in compliance with this agreement.
>> correct.
>> are we dropping the ball somewhere internally in monitoring these?
I just raise that question.
>> yes.
>> yes.
>> a legal question.
>> let's try to take three weeks to get that done.
this time we'll make sure we get the contract signed and whatever the provisions are, we'll figure out a way to enforce it and put mr. Bellinger and ms. Gatewood in touch with the right county folk to get it done.
is that okay?
I think we can work this out, I think it would be good to do it.
and if not, so be it is that okay?
>> thank you, judge and Commissioners.
>> so continue that and we'll see you roughly about three weeks.
I know how to get in touch with you.
either it will be ms. Ald rich or my office.
thank you for your patience in coming down today.
>> judge, this is not specific to y'all, but I do think it goes to the idea that we need to take a look at the is ty inside of our facilities because we have people who are trying to, who are asking for signage rights, asking for shoe shine stands, asking for mobile vending opportunities and parking lots.
we need to do this kind of analysis both on the policy level and on the revenue generating level.
for y'all this is really more of a policy issue, an opportunity for an entrepreneur employment.
>> thank you.
>> thank you.
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