Travis County Commissioners Court

July 31, 2012 - Item 2
Agenda

Item number 1 on the agenda is a public hearing to receive comments on a proposed elected officials salary for fiscal year 2013.

>> Move the public hearing be open.

>> Second.

>> All in favor?
That passes by unanimous vote.
Good morning.

>> Good morning.
Just to introduce this item, the -- and I have todd osborne joining me at the table from the human resources department.
Hrmd did a market analysis of elected officials earlier this year and they are recommending a 3.5% increase in base salary for those officials whose salary is not restricted by a state mandated salary cap, and this is in line with the market analysis that they did and todd can kind of quickly share those results with you.
As required by state law, the county placed an advertisement in the Austin chronicle.
It was published on July the 19th so that effect, and that has been attached to this agenda item for public review and your review.
Today we would like to receive comments on that at the public hearing and then there is a related item on the agenda, number 9, that would revise the calendar for elected officials' salary setting so that the court could consider the comments that you'll receive today in the public hearing and then take action next week at the August 7th meeting.
So with that, todd, do you have any remarks you would like to make?

>> Just a quick reminder that the salary survey that was done was done of bexar, harris, tarrant county along with Williamson county and I think there were approximately 23 slots.
The average market difference was about 7.5%.
We had a couple of titles that were above market, the rest were below and consistent with what the court has done in the last seven or eight years where we have increased the elect officials' salaries by typically what we do by the classified employees which in this case cast different because we didn't do across the board we did market study which translated to 3.5% on average per employee.
One employee in four didn't receive any increase at all while about 75% did.
But the average increase was around 3.5%, which is what Commissioners court set aside for future budgeting in March, and I guess with that unless there are any questions, open to the public.

>> So the one in four who did not receive an increase did not receive one for what reason?

>> Because their salaries were already consistent with the market.

>> Therefore --

>> Therefore they are properly paid.

>> Okay.
Any questions for ms. Brouder or mr. Todd?
If we could get you all to move over a few chairs, we'll give residents an opportunity to come and provide input.
This is a public hearing on item number 1, and we've already indicated that we will not take up the action item today.
We will give our other court members an opportunity to come and vote on this item.
We know they are eager to do.
That but it's a must be hearing, number 1, if you would like to give comments, please come forth.
One resident and always ready participant.
Anybody else?
Elected officials' salaries.
Mr. Reeferseed.

>> Thank you, sir.
I'm ronnie reeferseed, and I am proposing a prerequisite before any possible raise for you so-called public servants.
All of you, all of you must agree to sign a pledge, sign a pledge promising no more kickbacks, no more free trips, no more bribery, no more special deals, no more home installed reverse osmosis machines to somehow counteract the toxic nudge so-called floor indicated chemical weapon called water we get in the city.
Stop the killing.
Wherever and wherever we can and the voters demand it.
If you can sign the pledge you will get your raise and we can all continue to be proud that you will shine above the shameful f-1 boondoggle to london for mr. Leffingwell, mr. Acevedo, they got a free trip to london just for pushing this f-1 thing.
It's going to ruin our way of life, the noise, the pollution, and they are getting their payoff.
Happily you deserve a wage.
We should pay people like you more so they don't have to take bribes so I think a pledge would be happy and we would all be happy and proud of you.
Thanks.

>> Thank you, mr. Reeferseed.
Anybody else?
Mr. Reeferseed, half of that pledge is in what we call the oath of office.
The other half, not formula one, I'm not sure we can find that there.
But why don't we send you a copy of that and let you look at it.

>> Thank you, sir, and I know the mayor

>> [inaudible] he doesn't have authority to deny anybody their constitutional right, he's done that, accountable.
I'm so glad to hear it.

>> One thing I like about this county is city leaders don't lead it.
Anybody else?
Public hearing, item number 1.

>> Move the public hearing be closed.

>> Second.

>> All in favor?
That passes by unanimous vote.
We'll have it back on for action next week.

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.

July 3, 2012: Travis County Launches New Video Playback System

Our new streaming video system uses a single video clip for each session and items are linked to specific locations on that clip. Some browsers and mobile devices do not recognize the location information and display the entire clip. If this happens the "start time" will help you find your item's video within the larger clip.

If you encounter playback issues check out our video playback help page. If you still encounter problems let us know.

On July 3rd, 2012, Travis County began leveraging free resources by posting Commissioners Court meetings on Youtube. Previously every video clip was edited separately and hosted on the county's video server. The old system also required RealPlayer to view the video clips.

The new systems save time and resources -- and that saves taxpayer dollars!