Travis County Commissioners Court

July 3, 2012 - Item 6
Agenda

>> 6 is consider and take appropriate action on the updated fiscal year 2013 budget calendar and schedule including dates for budget hearings and markup.

>> Good morning.
Jessica rio, planning and budget.
We notified the court of the status of the preliminary budget back in June, and at that time we discussed that we had a calendar set up in the budget manual that the Commissioners court had a copy of and it was requested of us to come back to you in early July and go over that calendar with you formally so that's what we're doing today.
We have sent back up that has a memo from leslie and myself -- I'm sorry, I just came over here -- that gives key dates -- there's leroy -- and notified you we were wrapping up our internal departmental meetings.
As you know, once we send out our draft recommendation, we actually meet with any department that would like to meet with us and go over those recommendations and we take that information into account as we finalize our recommendations for the preliminary budget which we will be filing on July 23rd.
After that time the court has trillionly, although in recent years historical a modified schedule, has traditionally opened, had the opportunity for departments to come and meet with Commissioners court directly in budget hearings.
Last year actually we had a modified schedule and we would recommend to you today that we also have a modified schedule for the f.y.
13 budget process and that schedule is located in your backup.
It's Wednesday, August 8th, Thursday August 9th, Friday August 10th, and Monday August 13th.
And what we are recommending is three-hour blocks on each of those days.
Will you see it's a 1:30 to 4:30.
The budget manual says 1:00 to 5:00, but Commissioners court may hold budget hearings, but we wanted to allow for a little bit of time on either end there in the event some of those don't stick quite to schedule so we wanted to allow for.
That this modified schedule does provide 12 hours for the departments to come forward and express their needs.
And we have reached out, dealice and I have looked at which departments we believe will need or will be requesting budget hearings and we believe that the 12 hours is adequate to meet that need.
A couple things I did want to point out.
One is that we will be requesting that the departments actually submit topics and justification of what they would like to discuss with Commissioners court by July 20th to the planning and budget office.
They will actually hear from us by July 13 on what our final recommendations will be for the preliminary budget.
That will allow them that one week prep time to give us the topics so that we can bring that forward to you as a recommended schedule.
The other thing is that as a friendly reminder, I think we included in here we generally like to get the Commissioners court back up one week prior to to each budget hearing which means we would require the departments completed their submitted backup three days before that time.
We'll communicate all this directly to the departments that are interested in talking with you.
The other thing that we have included here is a couple calendars.
The one at the very back is really just a copy and paste job from the budget manual.
A very complete calendar located at the back of the budget manual each year.
It includes every possible thing we can think of that's related to the budget process including even open enrollment period for the employees.
And when we file and when the tax ads go out and when they are published and when the public hearings are.
The other calendar that's kind of sandwiched in between the memo and the completed calendar is one that we made up to show the Commissioners court the dates that we think are particularly key and that we will be requesting that you take some sort of action or listen to, for example, the budget hearings.
So that calendar is located in your packet in a somewhat calendar fashion trying to make it as easy as possible to lay out the dates that we think you needed to know about.
And it has the modified schedule that we've recommended.
And I will open it up to questions.
The only other thing I do want to mention, I know there's another item that was added today and I didn't get to hear the consent or if it was postponed, but I know there was some discussion that will be needed or a briefing from the county attorney's office regarding the move of the Commissioners court from this location to the 700 lavaca location.
We're all anxiously awaiting for you all to come over.
But I know that there is some impact there with regards to regularly scheduled meetings and special sessions, I believe they are called, or terms. And especially those meetings that impact the tax rate and that impact the budget.

>> And steven just indicated to me that media services is currently scheduled to move on August the 8th and 9th.
So the departmental budget meetings would either be I guess delayed if they wanted to do a mobile type televised later or not televised at all.
We've had, I think in the past we've had some cases where the court did not televise the departmental meetings.

>> Well, the other thing was the court -- is the court moving over August 8th?

>> 15th was the date --

>> That's the schedule.
That's the schedule.
But there may be some legal issues.
A 1 will give us an opportunity to get an open court briefing and also an executive session briefing.

>> I mention that only because we are set for budget hearings the 8th and 9th.

>> I think p.b.o.
Is hoping those departments don't request a budget hearing with us.

>> This schedule could be modified.
The reason we started it on the 8th is that I knew that there was a conflict with Commissioner Gomez, I believe the 17th.

>> Right.

>> And also we just thought it would be easier to modify the schedule and have it on the back end but we're more than open to discussion what we should do next.

>> Speaking of modification of the schedule, if we look at the September dates, what if we move the two public hearings scheduled on the tax rate from the 18th to the 11th and from the 21st to the 14th.
Two members of the court may be out of town the 15th through the 22nd.
Of September.

>> I believe that can be accommodated.
I will talk to barbara wilson and rework the schedule.
I think all it will require is -- well, the only thing is the tax rate change.
I'll need to get guidance from the county attorney's office.
Right now the court is scheduled to vote on any change in the tax rate by noon on Thursday, the 6th.
And that is to meet an Austin american-statesman deadline.
So I will need to work-that might impact the budget markup.

>> We'll just have to verify it with barbara.

>> It would right to have the public hearing with just three of us, three members of the court present.

>> No.

>> It's not a problem with p.b.o.
I mean, we can move the public hearings up.
We just want to make sure that statutorily we're in compliance in the advertising.

>> And court members, if you would check your schedules and make sure that's convenient.
I say we need at least four if not five court members present.
I'm one of the two who may be out between the 15th and the 22nd.

>> I'm the other.
Full disclosure.

>> Any other questions, comments regarding the schedule?
What language do we give the departments who are eager to have a hearing before the Commissioners court regarding their budgets?

>> What language?

>> Instruction, guidance, advice.

>> I think there are some that we've actually-and I'll use one as an example.
Cscd and -- we've encouraged them to come forward and brief the court on the efforts they are making and what they would like to see in the future.
So that's actually one that we've -- we've recommended to the department.
As far as criteria, we can come up with criteria if you would like to review that.
Generally in the past we've had the departments come forward and provide us what they would like to discuss and then, well, it's been varied, actually.
I should say.

>> For those who want to provide us a programmatic overview or just a presentation, I don't know that I would encourage that during the budget process.

>> Right.

>> Because we can always take that later.

>> Right.

>> And I think that one requirement ought to be that it be a budget in issue in the 2013 budget.

>> And we've communicated during the budget meetings as well.

>> That way if they want to make a presentation, we can easily schedule the work session and we won't be pressed for time and we won't be sitting there agonizing over making a decision.
And in my view, we can get more fully informed about different programs and services, and there will be those.
And each year there are a couple of departments that take advantage of the opportunity to make presentations.
I just think we ought to urge them to do that after the budget process.
So I would consider that to be a post-october 1 matter.

>> Okay.

>> Any objection to that?
And I think they would find a more receptive Commissioners court.
Because when we're sitting there looking at budget issues, it really requires a different frame of mind than if we're sitting there trying to get informed as to different programs and services.
Okay?

>> Okay.

>> I can communicate that.

>> That was may way of saying gently discourage requesting an opportunity to make a presentation to the court during the budget process.

>> The ones that we have in our radar screen right now are f.y.
13 budget issues, like a fourth helicopter.
Those that have major programmatic impact that we believe the court ought to hear.

>> Okay.
Any other questions, comments, recommendations?

>> Is there any recommendation on the media issue?
Would you like for steven to attempt to do a mobile taping and then a delayed telecast or just go without media on the 8th and 9th?

>> Can we make that decision later today?

>> I think we can.

>> Steven is part of a 1.
You have a presentation on that.
There's other issues and maybe we'll get all of them laid out before us.
It's not fatal if we continue to meet here through the end of the fiscal year which would require another six or seven weeks, but we kind of have been looking forward to October 8th.

>> October 8th?

>> August.

>> I think it's calendar year.
I think we're talking about January 1, 13.

>> I didn't know we were looking at that.

>> However, most issues are over by October, budget issues.

>> We know that our lawyers and managers are busily working to make sure we can stick to the August 8th.
Deadline if possible.
Right?

>> We'll have advice for you.

>> Would we expect more than advice?
Any other questions or comments?
We may reach a 1 this morning too, the way we're moving.
Does that help?

>> Uh-huh.

>> Thank you all very much.

>> Thank you.

>> And the other budget related items were postponed, right?

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