Travis County Commissioners Court
March 6, 2012 (Agenda)
Citizens Communication
The next item is citizens communication.
this gives the public an opportunity to express their views on any item not on the agenda.
gus pena, dr. John kim.
>> good morning.
leroy nellis, planning and budget office.
I'm pleased to introduce to Travis County your knew executive for planning and budget leslie brouder.
leslie most recently retired from the city of Austin as their chief financial officer.
she has been the chief financial officer for the san diego county employees retirement association, she's been the chief financial officer for capital metro, she's been the senior auditor for inter first bank which currently is the bank of america.
she received her degree from u.t.
Austin and is a cpa in both Texas and california and we're delighted to introduce her to Travis County.
leslie.
>> thanks, leroy.
I just wanted to say a couple of quick words.
I'm really looking forward to working with all of you and working with the Travis County team.
this is my day number 4 so I'm feeling pretty flush with information.
just wanted to take an opportunity to compliment leroy and his staff.
just in the few days I've been here I've been very impressed with their dedication and capability and I expect to have a really great time working here.
again, thanks for making me feel welcome and I'm looking forward to working with you.
just let me know if there is any way I can be of help.
>> welcome.
>> welcome.
>> thank you.
>> welcome.
>> mr. Pena is next followed by dr. Kim followed by mr. Morris priest.
>> good morning, judge, Commissioners, gus pena, proud united states marine corps veteran, proud native east Austinite.
a year ago or two years ago I was approached by a group of people to run for mayor.
I didn't say this publicly because I didn't feel this was the area to voice this, but anyway, I want to thank the police officers, the various deputy sheriffs, various retired agents, f.b.i., i.r.s., all the good people that I made friends with who urged me to run for mayor.
only thing keeping me from there was, number one, lucio is scheduled to graduate from high school.
>> that's great.
>> it's an honor.
it's been a battle.
my wife said no.
I have the votes and you can ridicule me, you can say oh, no you are a liar, I have the votes to beat leffingwell or force it into a runoff.
that's how great it was for the incumbent.
I think you all are doing a great job.
I just want to thank everybody that urged me to run and promised to vote and we have it on lists, 26,560 votes confirmed.
but I can't do it because part of my health also.
but I'll tell you this much, we're going to hold those candidates accountable.
we need a good mayor.
Austin energy three meetings ago approved $800,000 for a mural in front of seaholm.
we couldn't fully fund social services agencies but they can approve funding for $800,000 mural.
they just approved last December $1.5 million for legal assistants.
if we can in front of the puc which probably won't happen, hopefully not.
there's some issues going on with the city department, you need to hold your candidates accountable.
ask them in your forums. I leave it to that because I pray to the good lord every day and I made my peace yesterday.
but I want to tell the good people again thank you very much for your confidence in me.
I let you down but I won't let you down because I'll be there still as an advocate.
I want to let you know also that please call your councilmembers and the mayor.
demand accountability and transparency in this Austin energy fiasco because it's going to cost you.
they want to hire adviser.
why?
waste of taxpayer money.
I've seen too many things at the city council meetings and the county Commissioner meetings, but this is not something I agree on.
anyway, thank you, Austin, for even thinking about me as a mayoral candidate.
Commissioners, please increase the funding and positions for summer job fair for the youth.
need to keep them active.
thank you very much.
have a good day.
>> thank you.
>> thank you.
>> dr. Kim.
>> good morning.
>> good morning.
>> I have the greatest excitement and amazing news today about Travis County Commissioners court and Travis County.
I said Travis County Commissioners court is the best -- the best and the county judge samuel t.
Biscoe is the best ever.
I said so here.
until so far.
I am not the only one.
I found another one.
a lady -- director of mission of job training.
elaine fleming.
she also told me Travis County is the best.
so finally I wrote this letter to president obama.
I get two papers.
the first one is presidential medal for the greatest county judge ever, honorable Travis County judge samuel t.
Biscoe, Travis County Commissioner.
and I ask president obama to invite county judge samuel t.
Biscoe to the white house for luncheon and for presidential medal.
and the other paper, this page, is the certified mail I mailed to the white house last Friday or as a result.
or -- or Saturday, may 5th.
white house receive today or tomorrow they receive it.
until they will invite judge Biscoe and I write every day to the white house.
he is the best judge.
even I complain over him and even I complained over everything and he did not approve my request even today.
I still respect him as the best judge ever.
he allows me to talk whatever I like.
this is the best court.
and across the nation, across the whole world, this is the best court.
he is the best judge ever in our american history.
I complained over him, write the Travis County police and sheriff and the -- all the
>> [indiscernible] but the other court evicted me and the court of appeals did not allow me to talk.
the supreme court did not allow me to talk.
u.s.
court over there and the court of appeals, they did not allow me to talk, but only this is the one place I can complain from everyone here.
this is the best, kingdom of god, that's what I said.
Travis County Commissioners court is the best ever.
thanks to all of you.
thank you very much.
>> thank you.
>> by the way, tell the white house we will need five tickets.
all members of the court have to go along with me.
>> [laughter] mr. Priest.
>> thank you, judge, Commissioners, morris priest speaking on my own behalf.
I did want to let people know that the fight for life is still on and perry and the legislature denied planned parenthood the $17 million and, of course, our attorney general along with with our governor, obama cares more been planned parenthood than women's house is the -- on
>> [indiscernible] dot-com.
people are still prevailing in this matter and, of course, it's with legal solid ground they are on.
speaking of the law and our ground water, the court rules as I've told this court many people that these are land rights issues.
we see such issues such as the
>> [inaudible] laws and dodging city fines and we work hard to make that a volumeer to program.
many times when we look at things, can't do anything against, you can only do something for it.
there was an article in the paper about the
>> [inaudible] at the u.t.
area and sometimes when we look at these issues I've criticized the leadership you've had on campo on this court before but I've always respected you and thought you were a lot better judge than the previous county judge but there is room for improvement and one of those rooms for improvement as I brought up during new years was our elected officials to listen better.
many times there are people more informed in the public than the people you have on your staffs.
I don't know why when elected officials become elected they are all of a sudden honorable and smarter than everybody else in the room.
sometimes that's what we get.
we get stubborn and obtuse, very candidly very ignorant individuals.
that's why I haven't participated in the elections.
when we have these issues time and time again whether it's campo not providing backup information or when we have issues, and, you know, one of the things I did want to say working with access stations, steve mason, producer of front line Texas, and individuals like robert mauro and alex jones, there's faction that we see even the crazy lady texans against
>> [inaudible], I never really was bothered by ronnie's sign.
I did want to throw that in.
I've had more disturbances with the court and other individuals that I've dealt with in the past but I guess I just became immune to it because there were some pretty ignorant individuals during the toll movement and the different groups that we saw down at access station.
and people I guess I just haven't been experienced being around people like that.
it wasn't as much a distraction for me as I saw it being for other people.
>> [buzzer sounding] but I did want to say that nothing is going to stop us from continuing this conservative fight that's going in this nation and this state and I'm looking forward to seeing janet beaty replace john bradley and other races here in this court and other areas and we're going to continue to fight for conservative issues in this state.
thank you.
>> thank you.
>> thank you, mr. Priest.
those are the persons who signed in to speak under citizens communication.
>> let's back up for mr. Reeferseed.
he intended to get here in a timely manner and speak under citizens communication.
>> thank you, sir.
thank you, sir.
yes, well, it's a crazy situation with the traffic and the rest of it.
I can just say to everybody rejoice.
it's happening, people.
richard clay dafoe is on his way to help save our proud city every day from every slimy scheme to gouge our citizens for more precious tax dollars to waste.
the same old tired old political hacks keep pushing hog wash down our collective throats like new limits on political speech.
hello.
like new petroleum pollution spewing water table poisoning race tracks, not to mention countless wasteful one big contracts and schemes, scams and whims like wind farms. Imagine decades of financial obligations from our taxpayers to surrender to foreign companies on yesterday's technology.
that's right.
these short-sighted criminals like laughing stock lee leffingwell, soon to be defeated by clay dafoe made sure to shove through costly schemes for some foreign company to build and operate wind farms somewhere with yesterday's technology.
who thought this up?
I mean, it's so idiotic.
no, we don't need costly trains because they don't -- they don't work here.
buses are the answer.
buses are flexible.
they are adjustible to changing circumstances like -- unlike costly train tracks.
one time we -- over time we do inherently get safer, less polluting buses that can easily adjust to new schools, factories, neighborhoods, road construction, et cetera.
population density like new york city is not an achiefable goal for most people here.
agenda 21 people, this u.n.
based scheme to return our nation to third world feudalism through international obligations to fulfill high faluting schemes and that's against our nation and we're being rushed into these foolish tax wasting scams. And clay dafoe is the answer.
he's the level headed young man who has been analyzing these budgets and these agendas and he shakes them up.
he raises his hand and he points out their faults and they make up new rules to keep him out of the building.
sounds familiar.
but I'm a big fan of obviously clay dafoe and he's on the ballot and it's just him and former -- or soon to be former mayor and, of course, ms. -- I forget her name.
bridget.
thanks so much.
clay dafoe for mayor, yes!
thank you.
>> this is citizens communication, dr. Kim.
>> just one minute.
>> okay.
>> okay.
thank you.
March 1 I suggested the question to two people, two officers in Travis County.
judge Biscoe responded to me immediately on the same day on March 1.
he is the first person in the united states responded to me on the same day with a written letter.
I questioned one, two, three, four, five, five questions, he responded to me on the same day to my email and other people did not respond even today.
thank you very much.
>> thank you.
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