Travis County Commissioners Court
Tuesday, July 26, 2011 (Agenda)
Item 33
33.
discuss request that the capital area metropolitan planning authority distribute hard copies of back-up materials/documentation for the items listed on campo agenda before and during campo board meetings and upon request.
Commissioner Davis?
>> yes, judge.
thank you.
I had a request from morris priest to have this item placed on the agenda.
looking at this particular item, I guess looking at the -- at the not having the ability of having a computer and we have senior citizens out there that don't have access to backup and things like that and also low income persons that don't have access and I guess he wanted to discuss that type of hardship before him.
so I guess it's basically the request from morris priest and I guess he will discuss what he wants to say before the court.
>> mr. Priest?
>> thank you, judge, Commissioners for putting it on the dag.
>> [indiscernible] on the agenda.
I appreciate Commissioner Davis for bringing this up.
basically the long and short of it is, it's my opinion that campo is in non-compliance with the bylaws, the bylaws serve as the public notice on how campo is going to conduct its business.
they has a lot of government codes and -- by the federal, state, local laws, one of them being the open meetings act.
also the freedom of information act.
but clearly it's stated in their bylaws and there are dual instructions in the bylaws regarding the -- if the public doesn't know what I'm talking about, capital metropolitan planning organization, offices at 505 barton springs road here in the city of Austin.
and monthly meetings, these meetings are conducted and it's clearly stated in the bylaws of the campo board what the duties of the executive director are as well as what the duties of the chairman are and it talks about the governing part of the bylaws, it refers to section 3 e.
the first two words in there says the chairman, which would be our county judge.
and also says
>> [indiscernible] under the advice and consent of the executive committee, the chairperson of the last sentence of this section, section e, 3 e, the last sentence of that section says the chairperson will enforce the quorum.
and so what I'm basically bringing to the county Commissioners court is a long history from 2004 until present time that can be documented by looking at the campo minutes of harassment and abuse and people's complaints about not getting information and there's also been a lot of mischaracterization and misstatements of the facts, even from in Commissioners court and other sources.
but the bottom line is that -- that our executive director has made a new rule that she has changed three times.
initially she said that she wasn't going to provide anybody anything, there was a posting on the website, as you will recall, judge, there was some signs they put on the table and they had these books, desk copies they called them, a little cardboard sign and the first sign read something different and then they came out with an additional sign later.
so they ended up with two different signs saying two different things.
but the facts are that she's changed this rule.
now, the most bizarre thing about this whole thing is that since 2004 I've been receiving not only all of the backup information that the entire board has been receiving all of this time, I've also been receiving all of the information which is -- which is, if you look at the campo agenda, it's separated from action items and reports and presentations, and I've been receiving this information for years free of charge.
one of the reasons this arrangement was made was when senator barrientos was the chair, there was a discussion had that they wanted citizens communication to be the first thing on the agenda item.
he came to a meeting one day after making that announcement, asked michael
>> [indiscernible] why wasn't citizens communication the first item on the agenda, he thought that he had made that real clear from the previous meeting and he asked him if he was sure that it would be on there first next time.
and of course the executive director at that time, michael
>> [indiscernible] said yes, sir, it will be first.
well, he took it out of order, much like you can do here judge, even though it was listed way down on the agenda, he made it the first thing on the agenda because the public had requested that.
what I'm saying is when someone has a charge and lieu at the dual instructions -- you look at dual instructions, some of these instructions in the bylaws are directed to the executive director on how she runs l office.
some of these instructions allow the chairman to instruct the -- the meetings and it has to do basically the bottom line is this has to do about information.
I'm not going to get into the long lengthy discussion, I just kind of wanted to wrap it up in saying that you probably recall the -- judge, that -- that planning issue came up one time and joe had asked the board for some -- some authority that he didn't have.
and mayor barber and others said they didn't want to give him that authority.
it was on a planning issue like if he could make some changes, the board said they didn't want to give him that authority.
but I think pretty much a factual based thing as far as I can see, I'm not making the argument or talking about the spirit of the law or title vi or other things that are in the bylaws such as how people receive the information.
but I -- basically I just wanted the court to be on record, even though I do think that you could -- ask or tell or whatever would be the -- the word that you would prefer to choose, judge, I just think that it's in your scope and authority to tell ms. Mccoy to mail this information to me and basically that's the long and short of what Commissioner Davis had mentioned and, you know, these comments about people can go to the library.
some people can't go to the library because they had their air conditioners stolen and the library is not open.
that's about 1,001 reasons why people can't go online, but the spirit of what Commissioner Davis and I appreciate him looking out for that, but this is kind of the situation that I hear from people at the city
>> [indiscernible] I've even heard from your office, why don't you just give, you know -- as far as I know, as far as they have admitted I'm the only one that's requested and so I'm just saying that I think that the abuse that people have gotten at the office and again you can check the minutes of -- and the abuse of -- have -- that I have been subjected to, it's -- it's come to a place where I have to make a decision if I want to make a claim to injurery because they've been that over the top.
I don't really need anybody to tell me that we have a new sheriff in town.
I don't need to have an executive director of campo tell me that it doesn't matter what my county judge says or my county attorney, whether it's dave or steve capella or anybody else of the city of Austin, city manager, the mayor, anyone else that she makes the rules and that's simply not the case.
the bylaws are pretty clear on it.
I just think, you know -- that's -- that's about as clear as I can put it.
>> okay.
so you want me to review the bylaws and let you know what I think, mr. Priest?
>> actually, I would just like the court to vote so we have it on the record, I think.
>> court can't vote on this item.
>> huh-uh.
>> the court cannot legally vote on this item.
>> okay.
well, the only thing that I'm asking is if maybe you get back with me, but I would like to hear -- since there has been some pretty vocal, one being my county Commissioner who is not here, but I would like to -- for the county to state on record for people being able to call and get the information.
>> I think we ought to run the county government here and we ought to let cap -- campo run the meetings there.
I won't be chair forever.
in fact my intention is to step down at the end of this year.
>> the two previous -- previous chairs and two previous executive directors -- but that can be an answer --
>> if you want me to review the bylaws and let you know what I think, I would be happy to do it.
it doesn't matter until December 31st of 2011.
>> you wouldn't really -- really consider just having this worded legally so that the -- that the public would know how this Commissioners court stands on this issue.
>> if the public looks at channel 17, they will see what we think about running county overnment.
>> this is not campo, this is Travis County Commissioners court.
the campo is an entirely different matter.
we have three people on there out of about 20 or 21.
>> you have four, you are a large part of it, you are the chair.
>> we have three members of the Commissioners court on there.
>> if you want my opinion I would be happy to give it to you in writing.
>> you can do that.
I just would like the -- to mainly have the other Commissioners and executives chime in, if not on 17, somewhere else about their position on citizens being able to get information just that should be given to them.
>> I have no problem with that.
>> mr. Priest, I have a question.
so you are basically wanting the backup mailed to you, is that what you are requesting?
>> well, they have been telling me that I could come pick it up at the office.
this has changed, she's made a policy and there's even signs on the table, as I stated before, this policy has been changed, irrefutable of the signs changing and the information that's been put out to the public.
whether it's on the internet or at the meetings.
so even one of the documents they had, I gave y'all earlier this morning, that document just mysteriously showed up.
people were looking at it and it wasn't even acknowledged by campo that it was their document.
but there's a lot -- if you want to talk to me personally about all of the information issues, there's a lot of information issues.
>> I'm just asking you if you are requesting that it be mailed to you.
>> yes.
>> because we have to -- we have to take into consideration the precedent that sets for making that, when it's available online, at the office in advance per request for pick up, it's available at campo, before the meeting, and to be utilized during the meeting and can be taken home afterwards, and it's available on public access computers, I -- I don't know how much more available this needs to be made.
seems like there's plenty of access to the.
if.
>> when they were here last they said their information was online, but they didn't provide all of the information.
and they have -- unless they've changed their policy, this is the only governing body that I know of that's been allowed this, perhaps you may have missed one thing that I was talking about.
I don't know.
but talking about the harassment and abuse issues and other things, too, the bottom line is that that -- that is my -- that's going to be my ultimate request.
I mean, eventually, if I can't -- if I can't get it through other means, but it is -- what I was talking about with you Commissioner Davis earlier this morning, there's a correct answer and a right answer, but decorum to a lot of people, senator barrientos, kirk watson and other people that have been in this position, they said the decorum meant a whole lot more than how someone was dressed, decorum meant to them how we're going to treat people and propriety.
>> thank you, mr. Priest.
>> seems like quite a bit of struggle to this county to participate and people not getting information.
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