Travis County Commissioners Court

May 22, 2012 - Citizens Communication
Agenda

View captioned video.

Citizens Communication is next.
and this item gives residents an opportunity to address the court on any matter not on the agenda.
the following individuals have signed in.
the first three, leslie brouder and jessica rio in tandem.
philip dick and morris priest.
yes, sir.
okay, must be -- miss brouder.

>> we have a very happy announcement to make today.
we -- as is customary, we bring hires, promotions of key positions to the court for introduction after they had been approved, and today we're bringing jessica rio before you as our new budget director.
we're all aware that leroy is plan to go retire sometime next year.
I think sometime, but he's moved into a transition role and is working on a number of special projects.
jessica has been with Travis County for 15 years.
she has got a graduate degree in accounting from Texas state university and she's a certified public accountant as well.
she's a very accomplished individual in the short time that I've been here, it's been a pleasure to work with her and I know she's going to do great things going forward in her new position.
so join me in congratulating her and I think leroy would like to say a few words.

>> I would like to say a couple of words.
I tried to recall when christian handed me in 1996 over 100 applications for a budget director position.
and I don't recall why I selected ms. Rio at that time, but it could have been that her resume included a alexander scholarship for study abroad in 1994, a student affairs award in '94, a native speaker of spanish award in '95 phial theta honor society, hispanic pride of excellence in 1996 or perhaps it was the phi beta kappa in 1986.
what I do recall is what she told me whenever christian and I interviewed her, that she wanted to make a difference and that's the arena she applied for this position and I can tell you over the last 15 years she has made a difference and I'm very proud that she will replace me as budge director.

>> we are as well proud, jessica.
congratulations.

>> [applause]

>> you have very big shoes to fill but jessica's shoe collection is much more fashionable than yours.

>> any other comments?

>> thank you very much.

>> thank you.

>> congratulations to you and we look forward to working with you further.

>> we are working.

>> philip a.
dick.

>> good morning.
judge Biscoe and all the other representatives of the court.
I'm here today to make a complaint and it's about my social security disability money that has been stolen by one of the social security representatives.
and I -- I'm trying to see how to go about getting my complaint out here so I can get my money back.
I was at the park and all the Commissioners and everybody, you know, federal and county people, everybody was there Saturday.
and they said that if we had any type of -- of complaint about anything to not keep it within, to let it out.
so I'm here today to let mine out.
now, I -- the social security worker, she has filed a lot of complaints up under my name which are not true and it was like marital status in order to change my regular status, marital status, but she cut my disability money with that false complaint.
and I'm trying to see how do you do that.
and then she turned around and have taken all of my information and denied me all my disability benefits for next month.
she has denied me my food stamps, she has denied me my disability checks, my program, go to health clinics and things to be seen by my doctor.
I don't -- I can't even get my medication and now I'm a diabetic.
she has fixed it where I can't do anything.
so the person down at the food stamp office wanted to know what in the world was going on and she called to find out and all she could find out was the caseworker had changed and made all these different posts up under my name, but the reason was other.
so mr. Lloyd doggett, I know that you are a protector of disabled people with disabilities and speak out for their money and concerns.
I would appreciate it, sir, if you would investigate this because I will not have any benefits for June.
she have already threatened me with that.
so that's one of the main problems I'm here this morning to speak out about this.
okay, my next problem is insurance company where I was injured in an auto or car wreck, she wants to keep my money too.
I don't understand why these people want to keep my money, but --

>> [buzzer sounding] -- anyway, okay.
anyway, it's empowered insurance company, they offered me one settlement and the money changed to a higher amount because the medical information had changed.
and so the money had changed.
so when I signed for that new money, she claims that I can't receive it.
and I had a 30-day window to except it, which was from April the 4th to may the 4th.
I accepted it on April the 11th.

>> thank you, miss dick.

>> you are welcome.

>> you might check Austin elder care?

>> ma'am?

>> you might check with Austin elder care who has a -- financial counseling.

>> thank you.
elder care.

>> mr. Priest is next.

>> thank you, judge.

>> mr. Beal, your sign-in slip was stuck toer to one, followed by john beal and ronnie reeferseed.

>> thank you, judge, Commissioners, morris priest speaking on my own behalf.
many of us are coming out and supporting michael mccall, my u.s.
representative and many of your representatives.
he's doing a great job and we appreciate his giving us notice about advancing high tech policy agendas and increasing innovation and creating jobs as well as knowing that cyber terrorism is the next thing that we need to look out for.
many spirited debates on immigration, helping with bastrop citizens and fema and all the other things he's don't another elected official that many much us are coming out and supporting, even the supreme court of Texas placed to don

>> [inaudible].
to the north of us we have a situation where many of us are coming out and supporting janet diddy and we are hoping Williamson county residents will get a district attorney that is janet doody.
many of us have gone to txdot and, of course, it was to no avail with campo, but txdot pulled a u-turn on 360.
many of us have been fighting for years for 71 improvements and it's is citizens who have been active as I have been and others that make these accomplishments happen.
txdot pulls a u-turn on 360 and is going and, of course, they send out information unlike campo.
and they have a much better working group situation.
I went through the airport boulevard initiative special session combined commission public meeting and dealt with the city on this airport boulevard situation and I've given each one of you Commissioners that information on that and that went real well.
I know that with working with the v.a.
and I've been contacted by many organizations, government officials, some generals and other people in the government concerning some of the things that I've been working on.
it's been a national news story release recently.
many of the veterans working with the v.a.
with their need program are having injuries such as the one that I have that we're wanting to use ultrasound versus an mri or in addition to mri which will speed up the process of treatment of veterans.
it will give you better diagnostic tool to find out where drainage if certain injuries require drainage on injection sites.
some of you may have seen the national story on the news.
but many people in the community are working and we're having accomplishments and we're not resting on our laurels and we're going to be very active this next legislative session.
but I think that's something that's going to help a lot of veterans get better health care.
they will get faster health care, less exposure to radiation and have a choice treating these injuries.

>> [buzzer sounding] many things we've seen where we have successes is due to the citizens, our greatest resource.
and I did want to just say that I was looking at the people running in the place 1 race and have I to say that I have to endorse Ron Davis because I tell you, I've been pretty hard on some of you at times and I think there's room for an improvement, but I think that the challengers in that race are just blow ago lot of smoke.
see you all later.

>> thank you, mr. Priest.
john beal and followed by ronnie reeferseed.

>> my name is john beal.
I'm with the wilbarger creek conservation alliance.
I'm here today to ask to you continue to support the -- the areas targeted in the recent bond election.
Travis County has already invest understand almost 600 acres in partnership with the nrcs in conservation easements in east Travis County.
last week we got three more projects approved through the nrcs.
and those applications are ready to come into Travis County for your matching funds that was approved in the bond election.
so eastern Travis County is targeted not only by developers with roads and houses and retail but also by the nrcs for their prime farmland by the wilbarger creek conservation alliance and by Travis County for the open space value of -- we've made lots of investments in that area, but we have taken a significant step forward with that bond money, that $8 million set aside for conservation easements.
so we can protect a lot more land with this money than fee simple purchases.
one of those three projects that's been accepted has been the farm that my brother and I have owned for over 30 years.
so we have many of these opportunities now.
wilbarger creek conservation alliance and other land trusts are working as hard as we can to put these projects together to bring to you.
we have a lot of 80-year-old farmers out there and if this money is used for something else, then how many years will it be before the next bond election.
so thank you for your time.
please preserve that money for conservation easements.

>> thank you, mr. Beal.

>> thank you.

>> mr. Reeferseed.

>> [buzzer sounding]

>> don't start it yet.
I'm not there.
okay.
I don't know if this is working.
I don't think that one is working, but anyway, hot dig itty howdy.
I'm ronnie reeferseed.
a certain mr. Gray says we can never be friends.
why?
well, I guess that means our mr. Grady doesn't even want to try to be like jesus.
as we all should know, would you know key concept at the root of christianity is forgiveness.
ironically it is at church where I most often see this particular mr. Grady.
some of us do not want to practice what we preach and I do at least show forgive fornessto others.
and let's demonstrate how jesus christ is alive.
try to be more like jesus.
what a concept.
that reminds me of one of my favorite bumper stickers, who would jesus bomb.
as a nation who prides herself on the being the best example of bringing goodness to our world, why do we keep bombing men, women, children, babies, dogs, cats, cows, goats, churches, mosques, synagogues, temples, museums, farms, rampes, schools, hospitals?
aren't we as a nice trying to be more like jesus?
no, our nation is demonstrating to the rest of the world we are truly satanic.
look, it's wrong for you and me to keep killing somalis, iraqis and innocent babies.
black america, that includes you, judge Biscoe, Ron Davis, et cetera, black americans today will choose to kill well over 50% of all black babies in-vitro.
if you have a black mother today, you are more likely to be murdered in the womb.
ie, aborted, than being allowed to draw your first breath.
something is wrong here.
don't you get it?
killing innocent babies for whatever reason is always bad.
it's wrong, it's satanic.
let's get together here and now to at least stop killing ourselves.

>> [one moment, please, for change in captioners]

The Closed Caption log for this Commissioners Court agenda item is provided by Travis County Internet Services. Since this file is derived from the Closed Captions created during live cablecasts, there are occasional spelling and grammatical errors. This Closed Caption log is not an official record the Commissioners Court Meeting and cannot be relied on for official purposes. For official records please contact the County Clerk at (512) 854-4722.