Travis County Commissioners Court
January 10, 2012 (Agenda)
Item 19
>> 19 is to consider and take appropriate action regarding board and committee assignments and appointments for and by Commissioners' court members.
and we tried to provide a cleaned up list of board and committee assignments.
ms. Fleming also sent on Friday a memo reminding us that the Commissioners' court had asked Commissioner Huber and me to serve as a subcommittee of the court for the organizational planning team, opt.
and that ought to be added to the list, if the court's desire is for us to keep doing that.
and I guess, you know, some of these little committees that I'm on I have been on for years.
and some provide an excellent opportunity to serve and have fun, kind of like the community action network c.a.n., capcog, I think I have the tenure for longest on capcog since we lost judge wright from caldwell county.
and I am more than willing to share this joy with another member of the Commissioners' court.
anybody just eager to serve?
>> can't do it.
I'm already on it.
>> judge, if you would like, I am very interested in capcog.
>> that would be good.
why don't we indicate to them that you are the kind of representative.
the other good news is that their next meeting is tomorrow morning at 10:00.
>> oooh!
>> can that -- can my time on it start next month?
>> [ laughter ]
>> that's fine with me.
I do plan to go.
I'll just indicate to them that thereafter you will be the county's second member.
and you plan to continue serving, right?
by the way, I think I have been on there 20 years.
19 or 20 years.
>> I was on the committee in '95 to something or other.
I can't remember.
>> I saw you look the other way when I suggested that opportunity.
>> [ laughter ]
>> been there, done that.
>> I'd like to address one of my appointments.
>> are they listed alphabetically?
>> it's buried in the text.
fourth one down.
>> okay.
>> I may have a different version than you do.
>> all right.
got it.
okay.
>> I'm currently serving on cartco and I would respectfully not like to continue on that.
and I have a discussion.
and the reason is -- I have a suggestion.
this was looking at regional transportation planning it and really affects the peripheral counties the most.
and as I have been serving on this, I really have observed that most of the activity is over on the eastern side and I think it would be probably from a connectivity standpoint more appropriate for one of our precinct 1 or precinct four to participate on that.
the regional area transportation planning organization.
it's right after campo on mine.
it's under the umbrella --
>> under the umbrella?
>> transportation.
>> I'm on carts and I enjoy it.
I don't mind taking that.
>> there would be some overlap on that as well.
>> a good relationship.
>> okay.
so Commissioner Gomez moves to cartco.
>> should Commissioner Huber and I continue to serve on the opt?
for the Commissioners' court?
>>
>> [ inaudible ].
>> I would like to.
I think we've seen some good good development with opt and a promising high level additional resource for the court to move in.
>> okay.
were you saying you would like to be on there, Commissioner Gomez?
>> no, no.
I think (indiscernible) should continue.
>> I have a question on the smaller court appointments.
from a process and global standpoint, given that we did have some places that have not really been filled in a long, long time, do we have -- could we consider assignment of these two -- categorically to certain county executives or something to help us stay on top of this?
and be sure that appointments are current?
I even find with capcog sometimes -- and I'm sitting there looking through our appointments to the committees that we have something that's fallen off the list that my office didn't catch has gone unfilled for an amount of time?
I think it would be helpful to the court if we could categorically have a county executive whose authority or focus is related to these appointments?
>> I agree.
I think that would be very helpful.
>> to stay on top of that.
>> and fending on what happens with the agenda item number 20 for next week, the default individual could be the igr, if we haven't specified where that appointment oversight should live.
>> it's just more housekeeping, but there's a lot of housekeeping here for Commissioners' court members to stay on top of it.
>> I'll have my staff do that for me.
>> well, we can look at that too.
but nevertheless, we have some that haven't been filled in a long time.
>> those that are continuance and I was wondering from a county code perspective, does that mean it's an appointment for life?
I'm just not sure what continuous means?
do those ever come up for consideration?
or are the appointments for...
>> I guess I'm having a hard time finding that word.
>> there's a number that are listed as term expiration dates as continuous.
>> it has two that are listed as continuous, three, four, five, six that are listed as continuous.
there's three cart posts, the four cart posts are listed as continuous.
I think it -- it might just bear some more looking into.
>> I think those ought to be for the time certain, term certain, but I was looking at continuous and they seem to be county staff.
but to the -- and I guess on those it would be until the court changes it or they leave the employment of the county.
>> and that makes sense.
>> but on the others, though, where individuals outside the county serve, I think there ought to be a specific term.
>> I would agree with that.
and where it lists specific employees, perhaps we should list the position rather than the employee.
>> that would help a lot, solve the problem of some of these whose names have been on there forever.
>> right.
there were many who have retired, who are still listed.
>> yeah.
I see terry pickerring here.
>> he's now the 35 of bastrop.
sheriff of bastrop.
>> move that we make that happen.
discussion?
all in favor?
that passes by unanimous vote.
we'll clean these up to reflect that.
so what about court members on various committees?
>> there's also an additional subcommittee of the court, the i.t.s.
committee, on which Commissioner Huber and I can be added to the list.
>> okay.
any issue with that, any court member?
anything else on this list today?
can we designate next week as a final opportunity?
>>
>> [ inaudible ].
>> if we look at the others here, we want to make some other changes, we would do that.
what we're going to try to do is generate a list that reflects changes made today.
bring back a clean list that shows those.
I am willing to step off of the community action network if somebody else wants to be on there.
Commissioner Eckhardt and I have served -- I've served on there -- since it's been c.a.n.
and I was on it when it had another name, social policy action committee, I think.
some would say too long.
>> no one would say too long.
>> it's amazing how much fun service on the community action network can be.
the opportunity to serve.
>> I know about that too.
>> it is a wonderful -- it is -- it's the hub of all the information that's coming through the community on health and human services and other related items. Its the epicenter.
>> to interject here, it just occurred to me, I've been working with Karen gross of anti-defamation league and the hate crimes taskforce and they have asked for a Commissioners' court designee.
we had tried to have some backup for that today, but weren't able to do it.
but if we had the opportunity we would like to, and it's appropriate, would like to add that to the list for you all for next week.
>> good catch.
>> okay.
is there a couple of -- if there's a couple of paragraphs that summarize exactly what they do...
>> I can get that.
>> okay.
no movement on the community action network?
>> it took me a long time to get off the c.a.n.
>> [ laughter ]
>> all right.
Commissioner Eckhardt and I will stay on it then.
>> [ laughter ]
>> anything else?
our service on the various oversight committees is still good, we think?
there's a long list of them.
>> mr. Hobby?
>> I had sent in the replacements for -- I was just overhearing, the capcog appointment, did you get those, judge, for the 9-11 taskforce and the gis?
>> you sent them to me?
>> I probably sent them to sheryl.
>> they're probably in my capcog file.
thanks.
ms. Fleming?
>> sherri fleming, county executive for health and human services with some apprehension.
>> [ laughter ] but I -- having spent a little bit of time at the end of last year working on the tier one appointments with the county attorney's office, listening to your earlier discussion about how to wrap your arms around this, I can tell you that there are some infrastructure things that you may want to consider regardless of where this land is sort of a pretty big job in terms of, you know, how you want to make these opportunities to serve available to your tits.
you may recall some discussion -- to your constituents.
you may recall some discussion with me about possibly having some application on your website, for example, so people have an opportunity to know about your appointments, you know, in advance of some of them coming available, in addition to just the record keeping involved and keeping the appointments scheduled -- on time and before you at an appropriate time so that they don't expire.
so I just wanted to -- we did spend a little bit of time in my office looking into how these appointments and how the whole process is handled by other counties and we do have that research available.
so I just wanted to remind you that this is a significant responsibility and that we do have some work that has been done on this.
and I'm happy to either pass that on to someone else or participate in sort of helping us try to figure out what we want to do next.
>> you've raised some really, really good work that you had pulled together previously for us.
you and roger jeffreys had worked on it and passed it off to mr. Hille to some degree.
and now that we will be voting that policy into place, based on the code provisions, I would think it would be time to pass it to igr and its to work up, or does it need to come back to the Commissioners' court to take a look at the procedures to see what you had, you and roger jeffreys had identified as best practices as a way to go ahead and implement our recute.
and application -- recruitment and application procedures?
>> I heard earlier -- well, I don't know if he's willing to deal with it, but our i.t.
person stated earlier as far as looking at the ctrma, which was an appointment process that wastel have to go through, he may just be something -- a person that may be appropriate for it.
now, I don't really know exactly, but I do know that there is a process that we need to go through as far as some of the appointees, as far as who we appoint to some of the board committees, things of that nature.
and of course, maybe -- maybe deece would be appropriate for it as far as that's concerned, but I'm still kind of a little concerned about when we're looking for applicants for certain positions to be filled by us, my concern is if it's put out on the computer on the internet or something like that for folks to review things, my concern is how will it reach those folks that may not have the computer capability of addressing the concerns of -- as far as what we're trying to meet here at the county level.
so I'm still kind of concerned about that.
how will the outreach work to make sure it's all encompassing?
I would hate to leave anybody out that's willing to serve on some of these committees, and so I'm kind of concerned about that.
I don't know how it would really work.
I hear what you're saying, sherri, I think it's really great, but I'm still at that but level as far as how do we make the outreach effective to all that -- Travis County residents that are willing to serve?
>> and Commissioner, thank you for that.
my intent would not be to suggest that we circumvent any process that you have internally.
this would just be an additional avenue that folks could put their name in the hat.
it might even be during a time when you may not even be seeking applicants, but it would allow people, if they had an interest to let you know about that.
and I would just say to you that the tier 1 appointments that you've sort of debt -- you've sort of set a direction for are by and large the easiest ones because you send out a call for nominations I guess is what we call it, but as the old saying goes, the devil is in the details.
and it is the detail of those smaller appointments that often times I think people don't know as much about and have as much access.
so -- but certainly the processes that you all have within your individual offices would certainly be in place and the emphasis that you would place on any applications that maybe came electronically would totally be up to you, sir?
I am just suggesting just another avenue, another tool.
>> does the court approve that last process, the one you just described?
>> legal is shaking their head no.
so I guess the answer is no.
>> I think it ought to be brought back.
we can do it next week.
>> it was included in 20.
>> part of that.
but I think what y'all are explaining is perhaps more tools, more specificity than what I have in there now.
>> right.
this was an item that was a unified application that could be tweaked to tailor it to a specific, but it would have a constant portions of it.
and then there was also a recommendation for having it web available as well as having all of our appointees listed.
there was -- in the unified application, it included some -- it included some information that would then be common to all our applicants.
>> I think we're sort of at a key-up captured here versus report direction to staff.
I know you discussed the tier 1 and again I think that one is pretty clean because of the processes you have already utilized in the past.
I think the next piece of direction we would need is that you would want us to move forward in trying to work out more structure around the appointments, be it having an application process online or -- whatever that direction might be, the direction might be go develop a process and bring it back to us, but I think we're sort of at that juncture now where staff needs to know how much more work you want done on this.
>> judge?
I just want to emphasize that I like the term infrastructure that sherri mentioned earlier.
we still make the appointments, but the better resourcing we can get in getting the word out, getting the multiple applicants that are better qualified.
I know that for several of the appointments that I have made on some of the more obscure boards it has taken a lot of time.
and I want to make good appointments.
so if we can get some recommendations of how staff can help us with infrastructure on this, I think it would be very, very helpful to us in our appointments and our time.
>> and I often get individuals who are interested in specific areas, saying I would very much like to be appointed, but they don't live in my precinct.
so their inquiry stops with me.
it would be nice to have an infrastructure to report them on to.
>> bring that to the court.
>> judge, I want to just make a comment or response to Commissioner Davis' concern.
I think the concern with respect to people who are not as web friendly as a lot of us are and who don't use the internet email for day-to-day communications is a very legitimate one.
the court has already address that had because as you remember with the ctrma and with any of the tier one appointments we usually start by doing a newspaper advertisement and some kind of outreach to media outlets about letting them know that the appointments are out there.
but you're right, and that's something we always have to keep our eye on to make sure that we're user friendly for people, however they want to access information from us and provide information to us.
>> as well as your utilization in citizen communication this morning.
that was a nice component of that.
>> anything further on item 19?
today?
we'll have it back on next week for further consideration and hopefully final action.
with that we have come to executive session, haven't we, miss porter?
I move that we recess until 1:30 this afternoon.
and for those who have business with the court in executive session, my guess is that it will be at the earliest probably 3:15.
that will give us an hour and a half, right?
with the two interviews and the corporations?
so if you let your lawyers know 3:00 to 3:15 would be a good time would be helpful.
I move that we recess until 1:30.
all in favor?
it passes on a vote of seven to zero.
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