Travis County Commissioners Court
Tuesday, August 2, 2011 (Agenda)
Item 7
>> did you have 7?
>> did I skip 7.
let's go back and pick it up.
maybe I didn't like 7 for some reason.
>> it was just a modification to -- for legal services.
to finish out that case.
>> yeah.
on 7 I had one question.
seven is to approve modification number 2 to contract number ps 110119 ml, graves-dougherty, herron and moody pc for legal services.
the backup memo is dated July 12th.
the case was in a different posture at that point.
when I read this my first thought was shouldn't we go ahead and get the final bill and just satisfy that once and for all?
>> we'll still need a little bit of money in order to close out the contract.
it won't be anywhere near $50,000.
but that was -- the process was already going on.
>> I think now they're down to -- I have signed that agreement and it was after the other side had placed the required signatures on it.
I guess I'm sort of wondering what else is there to do.
>> well, we don't have the final bills.3 and we know that it will exceed that amount.
it's in the previous cost not to exceed.
so though you would increase the cost not to exceed by $50,000, we're not going to use anywhere near that amount.
>> which takes me back to my question.
when I looked at them, my only thinking was since they have to do a final bill anyway -- so rather than pay that from a larger amount, we just pay whatever the final bill is if we owe it.
do you see what I'm saying?
>> right.
but in any event, we're going to exceed the existing cost not to exceed.
>> right.
>> but we could make this for a lesser amount.
I'm not sure what the lesser amount would be.
>> this is $50,000.
it won't be that much more.
>> it won't be anywhere close to that.
>> let's say it's 25, which is half of it.
why wouldn't we just get the invoice for 25,000 and pay it rather than approving 50,000 that the invoice would be paid against?
>> it just means that she prepares some different kind of paperwork.
>> you would have to do it at that point.
we would still have to amend the --
>> you will have to amend the contract anyway for some amount.
>> you will do that anyway.
>> we started on the 50, whenever the case was settled.
so you won't use that amount.
but you need some kind of amount to be raised on that cost not to exceed.
and so we could start again.
she can prepare you some different paperwork.
whenever we have a clearer idea of what that's going to be.
it doesn't matter to us.
>> do you want to bring it back?
>> I'm ready to get it over.
I think if we were to call and say hey, we're looking for your final invoice, the court is going to pay it, we'll have an invoice in a day or two.
and whatever it is, it normally goes through channels here.
somebody approves it before the court, then we basically pay the amount.
if it were my own money, I certainly wouldn't want to put 50,000 aside when I know it will be less than that.
>> yeah.
if you do set aside $50,000, then you are going to have to requisition in the system and then it will -- a good chunk of it will be released.
>> for the record this is not the let's make the county attorney's rich item.
>> no.
>> this is how we normally do it.
>> it would be released right after you get that final bill.
>> [ laughter ]
>> think about it.
we come to executive session -- let us know whether you have the legal hat on, your good government hat or your efficiency hat on.
We have returned from executive session where we discussed the following items, we did not discuss 7, that's the matter involving the bill for legal services, we will bring it back next week.
we'll have modified language unless there's a disagreement with it.
okay.
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