Travis County Commissioners Court

May 8, 2012 - Item 23
Agenda

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23, consider and take appropriate action on recommendation to appoint members of the Travis County Compensation Committee.

>> jim collins.
chair of the compensation committee.
the compensation committee met last Wednesday.
and one of the charges that you gave them was to recommend a list of folks who ought to be on the committee now.
you've asked us to move forward and take a look at career ladders and also develop a pay for performance plan and that's the work of the committee at this point, but our first thing that we did was formulate a current list.
you appointed this committee about three years ago and you appointed them by name.
, individuals.
some of those individuals have since left county service.
some of those who left gave proxies to other individuals, some you replaced some didn't.
what we have come up with is a complete new list and you have that in your backup of folks we recommend you appoint to the k some of those are existing members, but to simplify things we wanted to give you a complete list and let you simply reappoint.
and it is our recommendation that you appoint the folks on that list to the committee.

>> how did we come up with this list is this.

>> the committee actually wrote names on the board and made a decision about who ought to be on.
they tried to equalize the representation between departments that reported to Commissioners court and elected officials.
and it was simply a consensus and it was a unanimous vote of the committee that these are the folks whose departments ought to be represented and these are the premium from those departments that we thought would make sense on that committee.

>> did we appoint about 18 before?

>> you appointed 15 before.
actually you appointed 15 votes, but you had two or three folks who had half a vote each and they shared it with someone else who had half a vote, so there were a total of 15 votes, but there were about 18 people.
our recommendation is not appoint any half votes.
we went now and looked at those have votes and decided whether or not they needed to be represented by full vote or removed and everybody on the committee, the 18 that we're recommending now, were recommending have a full vote.

>> Commissioner Huber.

>> I don't have a strong preference one way or the other, but I'm just looking at the list and realizing we have a retirement coming up shortly with at least one person on the list and is there a reason why we shouldn't consider so we don't have to keep bringing this back to court that we might not put county execute of x, y and z on there so that the individuals would rotate?

>> I think you are referring to joe harlow, and because everyone was being appointed as a person and we thought that i.t.
ought to be represented, we put joe harlow's name.
there our recommendation would be to appoint him by name and as soon as he retires and you know who his replacement is, appoint them to the committee.

>> the point I'm making is -- and it's -- whether it's joe harlow or anybody else is that it seemed like it would streamline the process with at least the ones we are here that are county executives, just list by county executives so when we make changes we don't have to come back.

>> the court is free to do that, of course.
the reason is committee recommended names is because the court had previously appointed by name.
not everyone at that time was an executive manager.
some people were at a level below executive manager, but they were representing that executive manager's area.
so we simply listed names to be consist it.
if you prefer to be consistent with what you did before and also to be consistent with the rest of the folks, but if you would prefer to change than appoint positions, of course the court is free to do that.

>> I think that would be my preference for ones we know we would want from a county executive to have them there.
but I think it would also be helpful when we develop this list just to have a note -- a notation of what area these individuals are representing.
I mean, I know most of them, but other people looking at backup may not.
I think that would be helpful.

>> Commissioner Eckhardt.

>> this is kind of a middle path on that at least for now with regard to this list, would it satisfy just to put a parenthetical beside each with regard to what group they are representing and as we move further down the line we can consider making it an appointment of executive manager themselves.
one thing I'm a little concerned about is -- and this is something we've been struggling with is the stretching of executive management capacity.
so I could see the benefit of just saying this is the department that they represent rather than naming the executive manager so it leaves them to have somebody besides them and bring up that nezzanine level.

>> I'm fine with this list.
I'm just saying that when I look at it and think about everything you are saying and what we know, I was looking for a way to make it easier for the future so we don't keep having to have an agenda item and 10-minute discussion on it.

>> Commissioner Eckhardt, the committee discussed the idea of appointing a representative from an area as opposed to a person.
and it was the sense of the committee, I think I'm express ing this correctly, but it was the sense of the committee that we needed to have the same person there.
and so we didn't want the idea to be conveyed that, well, your department is represented so send someone from your department and it might be a different person from your department each time.

>> well that is correct convinces me the other direction.
thank you for letting me know that because I do see that value particularly on something as complicated and something as complicated that also requires some historical understanding.
so I'm pervaded.

>> that was exactly the sense of the committee, we needed to focus on particular people for an extended period of time.

>> yes, sir.

>> yes, during the budget cycle and beyond that, we had different persons that came up when we moved on during the compensation process, and I'm just wondering how -- the question is how would you treat some of the concerns of some of the persons that came in during the session and say, well, we have no representation.
and I'm speaking basically to the -- to the different unions, per se.
and I know they may rotate as far as representation, but that was brought to our attention that they felt they needed to have a voice.
I'm just wondering how is that going to be treated?

>> Commissioner, honestly, we tried to make this as representative as possible.
we have greg powell who is the business manager of a.f.c.
kme.
we didn't try to get any our unions but I'm not aware of any other unions who represent the --

>> it was brought to our attention.
it was brought to mine and I believe it was said publicly.
I do know there were discussions of the other union not having representation.
and then I guess again how would that work basically speaking to the sheriff's office association.

>> if the court wants to appoint members, but we are specifically not dealing with anyone on the pop scale.
your commission to us has specifically not included any look at the pop scale.
so we are not looking at that.
so the unions that represent people that are on the pop scale aren't going to be affected by anything we do.
if you want to appoint people from those unions, the court can do that if that's your desire, but I don't think the committee saw a need for that.

>> I just know it was brought up and so I'm just laying it out on the table.
and if we wanted to do that, the how to is the part what I'm trying to get to.
okay.
thank you.

>> you're welcome.

>> for my information, what department is terry brown with?

>> I was afraid you were going to ask me to name all the departments.

>> if I could get that --

>> I can't name every department that's associated with each of these people.

>> terry brown and brit cannerry I need to know also sue brit is with probation.

>> was that brown or canary?

>> canary is with juvenile probation.

>> move we approve the list.

>> second.

>> discussion on the motion?
that passes by unanimous vote.

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