Travis County Commissioners Court
December 20, 2011 (Agenda)
Item 30
30 is consider and take appropriate action regarding renewal of contract with envision central Texas.
mr. Manila.
>> yes, sir.
with me is bill derryberry from planning and budget office.
annually we're requested to help share the cost of envision central Texas.
and annually we come to the court and present our recommendations to you.
in this particular situation the central Texas budget request, we did not recommend this year.
p.b.o., I believe, supported us on that decision.
but what typically happens is we'll come back before the court as it is now and for you to reconsider whether or not you would like to fund this request from them.
it's in the amount of $25,000.
and planning and budget could offer their comments if they like.
>> mr. Derryberry, any comments?
>> if the court wishes to fund this, we need to know where to fund it.
we prefer it out of allocated reserve, but we need some department to take ownership of it.
>> in the last few years we have funded from allocated reserve midyear.
>> right.
>> and we have basically had t.n.r.
as the department to coordinate it.
>> that's my understanding, yes, sir.
>> the -- remind me why staff did not recommend it?
>> it really comes down to deliverables for us.
and envision central Texas, it's great, they put together a great plan and we've actually used some of that plan, for those of you involved with campo and the center, some of that had its genesis from central Texas.
but saying with the cost of doing business, helping with our plan to go the level that we are at, we just didn't see that.
they are still a good organization though.
we actually were commended by them last year or the work before for the work we did on onion creek greenway and many of the principles they have promulgated are some of the same principles we use.
so it really came down to hard deliverables for us.
>> court members, questions, comments?
>> if I may, I've been your proxy on the board, and I -- I would like to say that I do think that it would be important for us to do this another year.
and one of the reasons is while we don't get direct results at Travis County, it penetrates through the community.
and through the efforts that we are actively involved in like you mentioned campo.
and our -- our transportation planning resources from the federal government on down are now looking more and more and more at the center's concept, which was initially started in this area by envision central Texas.
and I believe that there is a lot of strengthening in envision central Texas and partners and dynamic going on between what campo is doing and their their original mission was.
and I've seen a growth in membership at envision central Texas and leadership in the community there, and I think that they bring to that process a good outreach and integrated effort into the community.
that dove tails very strongly with where we're headed in the transportation and planning.
>> second.
>> so I would just move that we do -- well, whenever you are ready for a motion.
>> motion by Commissioner Huber to approve and seconded by Commissioner Gomez.
>> this is an automatic --
>>
>> [inaudible].
>> from allocated reserve through t.n.r.
my office got inquiries and I had them list contact envision central Texas.
they have put together draft deliverables.
so if this passes, then I think staff should look at those deliverable, get with local and we have this contract how many years?
seven or eight years.
use updated deliverables basically to proceed.
okay?
any more discussion?
Commissioner Eckhardt.
>> shawn, are you here for this?
it's good to see you.
>> john, if you would give us your full name.
>> yes, sir, john denisy, share holdings with winsted pc and incoming president of the board of envision central Texas.
>> I just had a couple of questions because I -- as we go into negotiate the deliverables, there are a couple things I would like to see addressed.
I'm an enthusiastic supporter of ect and the vision which promotes tremendous deliverables.
if some respects I feel ect may have lost momentum and I would like to help get its mo-joe back.
>> wonderful.
>> I would like to see in the deliverables some treatment of the legislative component.
I'd like to see a more robust messaging.
I know it's tricky regarding lobbys but to be a voice of information as we move into the next legislative session on land use.
I would also like to see ect treated in the deliverables be more of a source of information and evaluation at campo.
as we discussed the center's concept, ect was noticeably absent from the very concept it helped
>> [inaudible] in our community.
and then -- spur in our community.
and then the third thing I would like us to contemplate in the deliverables, and again, this is me talking and whatever comes of it is what we will ultimately see in the contract, but I have for some time, and we actually -- I actually had some discussions with ect folks about this and now there's actually some real world examples of it.
there is livability ratings that are done in other parts of the country, in other parts of the world, and ect seems to be ideally suited to be the third party to do those kind of livability ratings.
for instance, this is an example of what we were talking about earlier today with the steiner area, it would rate exceedingly high on all of ability indices with the exception of congestion issue, which will never improve.
and I think ect may be a helpmate in being able to provide both the consumer and the policy makers the apples to apples comparison for what -- what our land use tools and decision making wrought for the consumer and for our future.
>> I think those are all excellent suggestions and very thoughtful.
I appreciate you bringing those to my attention.
they are also points that have been discussed among the executive committee and the board.
so we're actively moving in those directions.
you've put a little finer grain out, so thank you.
I'd like to follow up on that.
>> I'm really looking forward to helping.
>> I guess I have a little problem with one of the recommendations, that is campo.
I don't know that we ought to obligate campo to proceed in any direction.
seems to me we ought to take this to the policy board under the new chair in January.
>> the ect participate in the discussion at campo, not that campo have any official portion towards ect.
>> I have a problem with that too, but you have a right to recommend it, I think.
it should not come from the Commissioners court.
and campo should ultimately land on it.
did our requested contribution just go from 25,000 to 250?
>> we're very appreciative of everything you do for us, judge.
>> but the ideas make sense, I'm worried about how you bring them about.
>> I'm thinking of more in terms of, you know, the chamber of commerce comes and participates in the conversation.
the disabled community comes --
>> 20 members of the policy board.
anything else?
>> no, sir.
thank you.
thank you for your -- hopefully for your continued support of envision central Texas.
>> if we have specific things that we would like for the the envision central Texas to do for Travis County I think we ought to get those to the executive directer or policy board and get a response.
heretofore I think the board and director have been good about cooperating with us on things that we want done.
that's my way of saying let's challenge ourselves to help e.c.t.
help us.
because e.c.t.
is not going away, take I it.
>> no, sir.
>> it's probably not the vibrant entity it was a few years back and maybe that's because we don't hear from it that much.
>> I think e.c.t.
evolves.
it evolves from the vision that began with kneel cocurk and it evolves.
as mentioned, a lot of ideas that you are now seeing come to fruition came from e.c.t.
so continuings that dialogue, having the platform of moving it forward, we need to do that.
>> anything else?
all in favor?
that passes by unanimous vote.
>> thank you.
>> thank y'all.
>>
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