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I think of the Travis County Commissioner's Court, it for February 25th, 2025.
It is 913 AM, we're meeting here at 700 Lavaca with Commissioner Gomez, Commissioner
Shay, Commissioner Travillian, Commissioner Howard, and myself, and we'll start with early
public comment is there. I see we've got three folks that signed up. Leo, is there anyone
on the telephone?
We have no college judge.
Okay, so we'll move on from the caller portion and we'll go to the in-person portion
and Dr. Mighty, I see you and we'll see. Do you are you by yourself in your commenting?
Okay, so is that Scott Marsh? No. Okay, why don't y'all come up and then we'll go to Scott
and Larry, after y'all?
Good morning, everyone.
Morning.
I'm Dr. Jim Mighty, HRMD Director.
And what I wanted to do this morning, commissioners, to introduce you to some new staff that
we've just onboarded. And so to my right is David Cannellis, who is going to be
overseeing our HR admin and finance area. He's replacing Stephanie Holder. And so he's
just been here about a month, but he came from juvenile probation. So he's not brand new to
the county, just a new department. And then we also have FIDOT obligate. I'm trying to pronounce
her last name correctly. She is our recruiter. We've been waiting for her to join us for about
a year. We've been trying to recruit for our recruiter one position. She's joining us and we are
excited to have her on board. Are you guys going to check back there?
Yeah.
And then we also have Dr. Eugene Holloway. He is our long-awaited Director of Organizational Culture.
And he just started last week, right? So guys, have any comments that you want to share
with me? Are you excited to be here?
No, I'm excited to be here. I'm originally from Houston. I worked with Mayor Turner in his administration.
So I'm looking forward to bring all my experience.
Welcome. Welcome. I'm just excited to be here. This is my first organization that I'm joining right after college, so I'm really thrilled and I've been enjoying being on a part of the team, so it's been great.
Welcome.
I'm glad here to meet all of you to be able to serve. I'm an industrial organizational psychologist by trade, California, but I've served in the federal government and I'm a Navy veteran.
So I'm very glad to be servicing Travis County.
How'd you got out in town?
Yeah, no.
Really?
I've referred to this position as our own Matthew McConaughey position, but we won't do that anymore.
What'd you do from our turner?
I was as budget analyst for his department.
Okay.
Awesome.
You better watch out, PBS.
I was about to say no Judge Brown, no PBS.
All right. Well, thank you.
All right. Thanks.
Yeah. All right.
All right.
We've got Larry Acres and Scott Marsh.
If you want to come on up.
Are you Larry or something?
Hi. I'm Larry Acres.
Awesome.
Is Scott Marsh here?
Yes.
It's not public comments though.
It's written by Scott.
Oh, right on. Okay. Thanks.
Okay.
As I said, my name's Larry Acres. I represent a newly formed group mobility Austin, which by the way includes some of your alarms.
And we are focused on improving public transit in Austin.
Your agenda item on project connect is what brings me here.
We recognize the need for improved major improvement in Austin's public transit system.
But we do not believe that the project connect rail is the answer.
Rather, we are proposing an extension of CAP Metro's pickup on demand van service for mobility zone service to citywide service that can provide curb to curb shared rides to and from any place in Austin.
So thanks to a recent technological advances in complex dispatching citywide on demand van service is being increasingly offered.
In U.S. cities, including Arlington Texas, which successfully uses on demand as its only public transit system.
In Austin, on demand can be fully integrated with our existing and planned bus rapid transit system, which is more than capable of efficiently handling demand in our high volume high density quarters, including the ones planned for light rail.
At our urging as part of their transit 2035 effort, CAP Metro is beginning to plan formal modeling of how citywide on demand can best function in conjunction with best rapid transit in Austin.
So I've sent you our paper outlining our proposal for integrated citywide on demand and BRT service, and our position paper on the rail project.
I also sent you yesterday a position paper that's being circulated by some neighborhood groups responding to Austin transit partnerships draft environmental impact statement.
Some salient points in the D-E-I-S. A-T-P has projected that the rail project will reduce vehicle miles traveled by a factor of 0.004-4, and emissions to be reduced by virtually the same amount.
So for the expense of $7.1 billion in years of disruption, that amounts to removing one of every 2,276 cars from the road.
Additionally, the D-E-I-S fails the federal alternatives analysis requirement both by incorrectly discounting the speed and capacity of bus rapid transit, and by completely failing to consider a hybrid citywide on demand that bus rapid transit system.
The capital cost of an on-demand fleet that could handle the expected, the optimistically expected ridership of rail would be less than 2% of the cost of the rail project.
So given the legal legislative and federal jeopardy of the rail project, at this time we think it would be unwise for you to take any action in pursuit of the project, connect rail project.
Thank you very much. Thank you.
All right, is anyone else here for a public comment that I didn't call? All right.
So we have no action on a few items and we're not going to take any action on item 4 relating to the Proclamation for senators.
Item set that will take up in a future week. Item 7, outdoor burning and emergency response. There's no burn man, and I don't think that's changing today.
Is that right Gary? Item 17 approval of Wild Horse Ranch, Pid, Escrow Agreement, No Action, Item DCDA1, approval of Wild Horse Ranch, Pid, Escrow Agreement, No Action.
And I'll now read the consent items. Low low low, let me know if this sounds right when I'm reading them. Item 5, Item 6, Item 10, Parts AB, NC, Item 14, Item 5.
Not EF and G also? No. Okay.
Item 14, Item 15, Item 18, Item 19, Item 20, Item 21, Item 22, Item 23, Item 24, Item 25, Item 26, Item 27 and Item 28.
All right. Motion from Commissioner Gomez, second from Commissioner Torrelian. Any discussion, court members?
We have no colors. All those in favor, please raise your hand. Passes unanimously.
Then we've got a public hearing. So we'll start calling up the hearing, which is item 1 and the action item item 8.
Item 1 is receive comments regarding the issuance of a mass gathering permit for the luck reunion event scheduled to take place on March 13 to 14.
2025 at 1100 B Creek Road, Spicewood, Texas 7869.
And do I have a motion to open the hearing? Motion from Commissioner Gomez, second from Commissioner Torrelian. All those in favor, please raise your hand.
Passes unanimously. The hearing is open. The action item is 8.
Consider and take appropriate action regarding the issuance of a mass gathering permit for the luck reunion event scheduled to take place on March 13 to 14.
2025 at 1100 B Creek Road, Spicewood, Texas 7869.
Thank you. Good morning, Judge and Commissioner. It's Gary Howe, Travis County, fine Marshall.
I also have with me deputy Danny Timons and Scott Marshall is the promoter for the luck banquet that's come up here with us.
First off, I'd like to say that my part of this is I would like to just bring forth that the all the letters that we typically get.
Good process this time with the our our stakeholders as far as getting letters back to us with approval from TCSO, the Sheriff's Department, the health.
TNR as far as for the traffic plan and then our office also.
All of those have been approved. The this event and I'm going to Danny Timons is the is the person in our office that pretty much handles all our special events.
And he does all the permitting does all the information as far as reaching out to the stakeholders and all our agency partners and is the liaison for that.
And he has gotten most of the information for this event. I'm going to let him kind of explain and answer any questions.
John may have. Thank you.
Yeah, this is the normal event that happens annually.
So this will be on Thursday March 13th.
It's going to run from 10 a.m. to about 1130 p.m. then on Friday from 2 to 1130 as well.
I believe Scott on Thursday. He requested a 30 minute variance on the sound.
Uh, instead of any 11 and 1130, but that's been common practice throughout the years.
So, and you're expecting attendance wise on Thursday. He said it sold out.
So yeah, 3800 on Thursday.
Um, we should do 2,500 on Friday.
Typically, this event's not a, we don't have sound issues, but we do.
Uh, we have tweaked the traffic plan several times over the years.
And we have a pretty robust traffic plan this time to assist with getting traffic out of the area of a big creek.
Uh, and then back on to 71.
Excellent.
Is playing.
A lot of people for events 40 40.
Yeah.
Wow.
There'll be a lot of moments and willy, of course.
Nice.
How's he doing?
Great.
Yeah.
We might have to inspect this.
Yeah.
Actually, I was just thinking that we may need to do a personal inspection.
All right.
Any other questions?
Is there anyone here for the public hearing?
What's the same thing about this?
All right.
I don't see anybody.
Motion to close the hearing unless you all have anything else on the hearing part.
Okay.
So I'm going to have a public hearing.
Second.
Okay.
Motion from Commissioner Gomez.
Second from Commissioner Shea.
Any discussion?
We have no callers.
All those in favor.
Please raise your hand.
Passes unanimously.
The hearing is closed.
And I guess.
I don't know.
Should we.
To be vote on this.
We need to move approval on the.
On the.
The mask gathering permit.
It's just an action by Judge Brown.
Just.
I think I want other people.
Also.
The person inspection that we do.
Yes, seriously.
That should we vote.
Or is that.
Superfluous.
You need approval of the.
Yes.
We need to.
Gary says they need to.
We need approval.
And I have a document that will be sent to you be a doc.
Doc.
Awesome.
Okay.
I'll make a motion for approval.
Is there second.
Second from Commissioner Shea.
Motion from Judge Brown.
Second from Commissioner Shea.
Any discussion?
We have no callers.
All those in favor.
Please raise your hand.
Passes unanimously.
All right.
Thank you.
Good luck.
We already closed.
We closed it.
Thank you.
All right.
I'm nine received briefing and updates on opioid abatement.
Investment and harm reduction services.
Low.
Right.
Morning.
Good morning.
Good morning, Commissioners.
Laura Pevertow.
Division Director Within.
Travis County Health and Human Services.
And I'm accompanied with my colleague, Courtney.
Courtney Bisnet Lucas, who is the interim strategic advisor within health and services.
We're here today to provide an update to the court, briefing regarding the Travis County
opioid abatement efforts.
So today we're going to provide an overview of the declaration of the public health crisis
in overdose prevention measures.
There were issued by the Commissioner's Court on November 12, 2024.
As part of that declaration, we're responsible for coming back to the court twice a year.
This is that first time that we're coming back to providing update, and then we'll
be covering specific updates that are mentioned in the directive, including some information
regarding data on overdose, information regarding our particular investments in opioid
remediation.
We'll also be focusing on grants that we've obtained to assist with opioid remediation.
We'll talk about our cross-governmental entity collaboration, and then we'll provide
an overview of opioid abatement investment recommendations regarding new investments in
harm reduction services as requested by the court at the November 12 agenda item.
Thank you.
Welcome.
Okay, I'm just going to provide a very brief overview and a reminder of the declaration of public
health crisis in overdose prevention measures that was issued by the court again on November
12.
There's a long list, but we wanted to make you aware we have requirements around public
awareness and education campaign, which are ongoing.
We're responsible for managing the opioid abatement funds and investments.
We'll be providing by annually, as I indicated, we're continuing our efforts regarding the
lock zone, and more information will be later on in the slide deck.
We're exploring continued to explore federal and state grants, and we'll be giving update regarding
that.
Additionally, we'll provide information about new opportunities through the Texas
opioid abatement fund council.
Additionally, we are providing information regarding our collaboration with our cross-governmental
entities.
We are coordinating again with our key community stakeholders to ensure access to data or facilitating
that investment of opioid abatement funds to support harm reduction, which will provide a more
detailed update later in the slide deck.
And then again, we work with IGR to promote laws that would better support harm reduction
efforts in our community.
Next slide.
And turn over to Courtney.
Okay.
So as part of the directive that Laura just covered, we are here to also present on the status of
overdose and deaths in the community, and wanted to briefly highlight two of the available
data sources that we closely monitor.
The first is Austin Public's Health, opioid overdose dashboard.
The link to the dashboard is shown on the slide, along with the screenshot of what the layout
looks like online.
So in calendar year 2024, there were 1,102 EMS calls and dispatches related to overdoses, and there
were 878 emergency department visits for overdoses.
For APH's dashboard, some of the data is updated on a monthly basis, while other data.
All of the data is updated annually. And although the 2025 data isn't online yet, we do closely monitor this data.
And APH also continues to explore ways to enhance their dashboard.
The data source is the Travis County Medical Examiner's Office. And per their 2023 report, there were 478 accidental fatal overdose deaths, and 15 fatal overdose deaths attributed to Suicide.
The link to the 2023 report is on the slide. The Emmys Office anticipates releasing their 2024 report in mid to late April. And this report will include data on fatal overdose deaths updated for 2024.
Moving along, our next set of slides provides an overview of the county's investments in opioid remediation.
So I first want to talk with you about the contracts we have in place. So we have three two year contracts funded for using opioid abatement funds.
These contracts began in FY24, and are currently set to expire at the end of this fiscal year FY25.
Are two methadone services contracts, one with addiction and psychotherapy services, and the other with community medical services, both provide gap funding for individuals who don't qualify for map, or who may be uninsured, or may have insurance, but the insurance doesn't provide adequate coverage or the copays become too expensive.
So our funding is really providing this continuity of care for individuals who otherwise wouldn't be able to access methadone.
And although you can see there's a small number of clients served under each contract, our county funding is allowing us to support a niche group of individuals who aren't going to be served by other funding sources.
Our third contract is a peer recovery support services investment with communities for recovery, and they provide site-based services at the other one's foundation Esperanza community and sunrise resource center.
And they focus on the unhoused population who would be at risk of an overdose.
And these peers go to each location, they provide onsite services, outreach and support, and then for individuals who might be interested in a higher level of peer engagement.
They offer coaching services that are a longer term, and then that some highlights of their performance, and we get performance on quarterly basis and monitor that closely.
And I will turn it over to Laura for the next.
It's important you know we'll be going back and forth throughout this presentation.
So on this slide you'll see a aerial picture of the property that is now a Santa Maria house in Travis County that closed on the contract last week.
I'm excited to say there are 11 buildings on this site.
It was previously a private residential treatment facility, and so they were able to use this as a turn key facility.
There's it has all the furniture.
It has all the buildings that has specialized spaces for care and in time depending on resources and funding could serve closer to 100 individuals in the community.
Santa Maria will be focusing on women, so those serving women who are pregnant women who are trying to reunite with their children in the community and women who are bringing their children into treatment with them at the facility.
It is estimated that the facility will open in the fall of 2025.
Currently there in the process of submitting their application to HHSC for licensing update to the local area as well as submitting an application to be a provider of services in the central Texas area.
So we're very excited to welcome Santa Maria to our community and very excited for the Commissioner's Court Support in funding the initial funding for this project.
Do you know if their capacity is enough to where everyone that needs this service can do it in Austin rather than Houston or Dallas or is it that part kind of up in the air still.
I think it'll I think there's definite possibilities are I think it is it's going to start slower right so we'll start with about 30 to 35 individuals and move to the capacity of 100.
I think with turnover and transition that we're going to be right close to capacity in meeting the needs of the women and children in our community for SD treatment.
I think there are portion of individuals that are women who are pregnant that are in the jails and there is some.
Future interest potentially they have a contract a Santa Maria doesn't Houston where they're able to have women release from jail complete their sentences in facility for treatment.
And so that might be an area for expansion but the property.
I don't remember how many acres but it's big and so there's room for physical expansion new buildings and so forth on the property itself.
So I think there's a lot of potential.
Right forward.
Awesome thanks.
You're welcome sir.
Judge this is just really celebratory in that we had the money from the federal government to invest in this sort of quickly help meet a need that had been.
Best during in our community.
So good work ladies.
Yeah absolutely good.
It's very exciting.
And the individuals in Santa Maria would certainly welcome individual or group tours at the facility if there's anyone has an interest in doing that.
You can just simply reach out and we'll help facilitate that.
Is it open now is it up and running?
No ma'am it won't be open until the fall of 2025 is our expectation so they're finishing some of the licensing requirements there are there's some.
It was designed for adults so there's like an open pool area that's going to have to be converted to a splash pool so it needs licensing standards for children different different ways that we have to make sure that it's safe for children on site.
I think it was going to be possible.
All right well we're going to move on okay so next three slides are just going to provide an overview of in the locks and distribution in our community.
So today we've distributed 20,180 doses and you can see by fiscal year.
The distribution methods include collaboration with our community nonprofit organizations and also providing to our county entities and partners.
I think it's important to note that on the November of 12th agenda item the court authorized have to $100,000 for the purchase in the lock zone.
Today we have not had to expend any of those dollars we've been able to receive all of our supply in the lock zone through the be well program which is initiated through settlement dollars at the state level and so we are continuing to access that program it's working very well.
And so we see having the funding that was previously identified for the lock zone having some additional surplus in that particular area.
So later on in the slide deck we're going to provide you with what our recommendation is and how we're going to proceed with that.
But it's been a good good collaboration and we've been able to even increase our access to the lock zone under the be well process.
And this is just a real quick list of the nonprofit organizations community based organizations who have executed MOUs with the county who we continue to collaborate with on this issue of opioid remediation and specifically for the receipt of the lock zone.
Good work. This is a lot of MOUs to it is. It's a wonderful list and they're they're great partners they work really hard in this space and they all work very differently but to great success.
And then the final information regarding the lock zone distribution is.
So there's a question about that. I noticed they flying it's is on there but the other nonprofits that serve people experiencing homelessness.
Some like Caritas life works family elder care they're not on here. Do you know if they have a lock zone from other places or if they're not a lot if they have.
If they don't distribute it.
So I do know that we've reached out to all the different entities over the last couple of months to ask if they have an interest or need and if they don't respond or they feel like they can receive it then we come back to them every couple of months.
So especially those entities that are providing shelter we want to make sure their staff have it on on hand and then we want them to create low barrier access to the individuals there.
So we'll put that back on our list to double check make sure but you know anyone that's listening if they're a nonprofit organization and want to distribute in a lock zone.
We are happy to work with them help them execute the MOU and then distribute so it's never closed always open.
And then the final is just to highlight that we have a certified staff in overdose life line training and that individual provides training to community employees and community members on the signs of overdose and had to administer in a lock zone.
There's we've trained 424 individuals that includes county law enforcement county departments and other partners have received the training.
We have now been able to with the help of our wonderful Travis County IT department.
We have a job form up that allows people to request the training anybody from the community as well as county departments can simply request the training.
Once they complete the training they're also given a supply of Naloxone to distribute and then our newest adventure is low barrier access to Naloxone being piloted in county buildings in collaboration with facilities and risk management.
So we'll start that pilot in the airport office and then in the CFCF courthouse and there'll be Naloxone with explanation and guidance cards in the bathrooms will be monitoring the utilization of that but this is an idea of creating low barrier access to the community can have access to Naloxone without having to request it which is one of the recommended best practices to make it easily accessible and where people don't have to request.
So we'll be expanding that project if it goes well county entities facilities and risk supported and there are any concerns will be expanding to other buildings who have an interest including LaBaca.
Next slide.
Finally to wrap up this section happy to report that we have four sharps collection kiosks delivered to community based locations.
It takes a time reduction alliance five and health urban alchemy in the sobering center.
The first three locations have been installed and the final one at sobering center is pending installation that's being overseen by facilities.
We are going to be conducting routine monitoring and oversight for these kiosks making quarterly site visits.
There's also the kiosks have an online dashboard so you can monitor utilization and turn over and so I think we'll be able to see how the usage is going.
The pictures are from three of the sites right now and then what we will also be doing through our monitoring is assessing for viability to potentially expand kiosk locations to other to other organizations in the community.
But it's been a long time coming so we are excited to report that they are now here.
Who collects from them?
Who collects the sharps?
Oh, the disposal.
So the staff at each of these locations, there's a whole process to safely collect and then they're packaged up and then the part of what we are paying for is for them to be shipped back and safely disposed of.
So now I'm going to turn it back over to Laura to talk about our grievance.
So currently Travis County is accepted to federal grants to address opioid remediation.
Both of those grants are currently being managed under health and human services with the collaboration of IGR and DASHL.
The first grant is OJP burn grant.
That is the community planning grant supported out of representative dog gets office.
That grant was the 932,000 into two year grant.
And it creates the first project is a civil war to the sobering center to collaborate with L. Seaton to provide harm reduction services through peer recovery coaches at the emergency department to individuals who are presenting with OUD or SUD.
Or related conditions, such as women care.
So we are just, we've executed that contract.
We're working with the sobering center there in the process of hiring those peers and working with L.
We're excited about being able to provide the support in the emergency room and the services can follow the individual into the community.
They are interested in having additional recovery coaching support.
The second project funds appears to assist court involved individuals to take part in and complete court mandated recovery programs.
Both of these are in the civil court focusing in child welfare.
Both of those peers have been hired and are currently working one in our parenting and recovery family drug treatment court.
And the other at large at the child welfare docket providing support to individuals with substance use disorder.
And which is a major issue within the child welfare system. So we're really excited to bring this level of expertise and compassion to the individuals that are in that's working.
And trying to conclude their involvement with that system.
The second grant is the BJA COSAP grant, which is a $1.6 million three year over three year period.
The project implements evidence-based SUD treatment, harm reduction activities and recovery support services.
Engagement for people as they're reintering the community from the local jail.
So the idea is continuity of care for this grant.
So we have embedded an individual case manager within.
CCSO, that will follow the individuals. They'll participate in the substance use disorder treatment that is available in the jail. They'll be multi-disciplinary staffings.
We'll be coordinating their release as best one can coordinate once released from the jail, and then they'll be welcomed into the community with staff from integral care, under the grant, under a contract that will be executed with this grant.
And they'll be providing continuity care with medication-sister treatment, case management services, and peers.
And the peers will be following them through the jail and into the community.
And we're working with them until they are in a stable set, so they're engaged in treatment.
And the community, at their desired level, and they have some stability in the community.
And then they can be safely supported and warm handed off to ongoing services through other programs.
So we're real excited about this. The other piece in this is that we'll be able to, for the first time, introduce injectables.
So one of the big risk factors is individuals who are using come into the jail. They stop using for a period of time. They're released.
They go back to using, but they don't have the same tolerance, but they use it the same level before they went in, which puts them at extreme risk for an overdose or possible death.
Injectables, if they so choose to participate, we'll allow them to have the medication in their system.
And it will be over an extended period of time, allowing us enough time to get them to local community resources for medication assisted treatment.
So we're excited about that opportunity.
We're, it's really piloting us to see if that's something we as a county entity want to support in our jail and have available.
We have a small amount of funding for that, but we're excited to create this opportunity and see and learn from it.
So those are the grants that we have currently available to us to address our remediation efforts.
These sound fabulous. And I am wondering on the second grant.
First of all, I'm just pleased that there's still federal grants available.
And I don't want to jinx it by saying that, but are we coordinating with our reentry services operation at the county?
We are just in the beginning stages of that. So we are doing a lot of the reentry work for this program.
We'll be specifically through integral care.
But that the group under the contract with integral care will be coordinating with all of the community services, including those recovery services that reentry services that you're describing.
So yes, we haven't had any formal discussions yet because we're still working through the details of the contract, but that is next on our list.
Yeah, because my understanding is we've got a pretty robust team that's doing a lot of work with people who are reentering and wanting support and services.
So this sounds like a great additional tool, congrats on these grants.
Well, definitely coordinate with Cynthia Simon's in her work.
Judge, I want to clarify, we've been awarded these grants.
We've been awarded and accepted both of these grants and we are now in the,
we are now able to seek reimbursement for costs that we have already extended in the grant.
So we've just gotten to the place for OJB, the OJP burn grant, and then for co-sip.
So I am anticipated that there should be no hiccups along the way.
We have not received any notification regarding these federal grants.
The grants don't seem to have any of the particularly areas of focus for the federal government at this time.
They seem to be supported.
We've got it.
It's important.
We find the words.
I don't have the words.
When you say we've accepted it, does that mean we actually have the money in hand?
No, it means that you've accepted the grant and now we're able to expend dollars and then seek reimbursement under the grant.
Okay.
So we hope.
So that's a scary time.
But as we talk about acid mapping and whatnot, I like the idea of what we're doing.
We have a really integrated process where we identify every entity that is using every grant where it's being used.
So that ultimately we can demonstrate that it is being used in the way that it was granted.
My concern is that decisions are being made without a process.
Decisions are being made without performance details.
So I would say that we should probably put the performance details in place.
So that when when dollars are inevitably sought to be withheld, we can demonstrate through our asset that that they're being used appropriately.
That is the method that we used if it takes us performance review that worked all the time.
And in the face of chaos, it's going to be important that we document things appropriately, whether they can read or not.
I understand commissioner and we are definitely working closely with IDR and with national.
We are currently working with our partners on performance measures and documenting our efforts and where the work is being provided.
So we will continue to be very diligent in that area.
So we can be responsive if and when we receive notifications.
Okay.
I'm going to move us to our next section.
We wanted to highlight our continued collaboration with our Austin Public Health and Central Health partners.
And so first wanting to do an overview of the city and specifically Austin Public Health's efforts towards opioid remediation.
So the city received an initial allocation of approximately $1.5 million.
And the second allocation of a little over 297 from the opioid abatement fund.
And APH expects to allocate 1.2 million from the opioid abatement funds during FY25 as their federal earmark ends, including $850,000 to continue contracts for expansion of peer support, education and harm reduction services.
They're using these funds to continue a contract with UT Austin, their pharmacy addiction research and medicine program, which is doing in person and online continuing medical education and academic detailing on evidence-based practices and effective treatment planning for opioid use disorder.
As well as they have an ongoing breathe now in the locks and training and distribution through partnership with EMS.
The funds are also going to support a communications campaign focused on harm reduction strategies in critical public health infrastructure through they have a one FTE on overdose prevention coordinator position.
They are also exploring initiating a overdose fatality review board and so more details to come on that.
And for more information about the Austin Public Health's opioid remediation efforts, there is a one-pager in the court backup.
That is from APH.
The opioid abatement fund, this is the money that the manufacturers and distributors of opioids created as a legal settlement to pay for trying to
make up for the harm that they did with the massive and dishonest distribution of opioids throughout the country.
I just want to make that clear.
Yes.
Not a federal grant.
This is payment from a legal settlement to try and try and correct the harm they caused.
Yes.
Austin Public Health had been using a federal earmark and now that's when they're expecting to start tapping into their settlement funds during FH25.
Okay.
And then our next.
There is a slide deck in your backup that provides information around central health's intended investments to address the opioid crisis.
And this slide is highlighting it just kind of direct pull from that slide deck that that goes through their planned investments and their estimated funding amounts.
For a total of over 4.95 million dollars and again more details to come from them and in the backup.
And I'm going to hand it over to Laura.
Good morning.
Additionally, there are collaboration across these entities that we just want to highlight really quickly.
So Travis County, HHS, Austin Public Health, and Central Health staff are meeting monthly to discuss investments and efforts to ensure that we're aligning our strategies.
We're reducing duplication.
We're reporting out on new initiatives and best practices and discussing for future funding opportunities.
So we are working closely together.
We're aware of each of the different areas of focus and overlaying that in a way that creates a weave around our community to support remediation efforts.
Additionally, there is a coalition with Central Health, Central Care, Travis County that's led by Austin Public Health that is about creating awareness in our community around opioid overdose.
Desperventions and resources and that information is available on a website hosted by Travis County and the link is there in the slide.
And then additionally, we want to highlight that Travis County Central Health and the city of Austin are very close to completing the establishment of a substance use disorder consortium for Travis County to serve as a planning body for the community.
Developed the SECD plan and make a recommendation for investments.
The convener contractor for this consortium is expected to be executed in spring of 2025.
That contract will come back before the court and there'll be a more detailed presentation at that time.
Additionally, there is one additional opportunity in our community and that's the opioid abatement fund council grants.
So last year they released statewide grants one around education one around the locks and distribution.
Now they're releasing local regional grants.
We are part of region seven as indicated there with other counties and they're releasing a short term grant in the spring and a longer term multi your grant in the summer both in 2025.
And the grants are going to be around treatment or around recovery support.
We're going to be analyzing these grants as they're released.
We're going to be engaging our community partners and working collaborative on grant submissions.
It is our hope at this time to be able to work with our community known profit organizations for them to submit the grants.
But we're going to stand ready to support them in that effort so that we can make sure we're trying to secure additional dollars for our local community.
And these are opioid abatement settlement fund dollars. They're not federal grant dollars.
Okay, so our final set of slides provides an overview of both current and future opioid abatement investments.
So you have seen earlier versions of this table, but I want to review court actions on opioid remediation to date.
So you'll see we had a number of actions taken back in August of 23.
We had the first settlement funds received.
There was a general fund earmark established.
There was approval to reimburse for a prior year opioid expenses from that settlement.
And then we executed those two year contracts that I talked about earlier.
The two contracts with methadone services and the one contract for peer recovery support services.
We set aside money for Naloxone and for the Sharks collection P.S.
That was the whole big first set of investments that were approved by the court in August.
We had a second settlement disbursement in June 2024.
We approved a utilization, I say we the court, the court approved utilization of funds for Santa Maria Health,
which again we gave that update.
And then most recently there was money set aside for the purchase of Naloxone and the making new investments in harm reduction services.
Both of those were court action back in November of this year.
So all of that together would leave a little over $105,000 that is currently available for opioid remediation.
And note that not shown on the slide is we are expecting that Travis County would receive another settlement disbursement in the spring.
And we're going to cover our plan for that funding in an upcoming slide.
I'm going to turn it over to Laura to start talking about the new harm reduction investments.
So as we as court indicated back on November 12th the court directed HHS to invest $400,000 of a opioid abatement funds in harm reduction services and provide a briefing to the court.
This is the said briefing.
Under the public health crisis declaration Travis County can directly negotiate with contracts with vendors.
So we will intend to do the directly negotiation.
HHS intends to increase the investment in harm reduction services to $450,000 using $50,000 of the $100,000 that was allocated for the purchase of Naloxone by the court on November 12th, 2024.
Contracts will be executed in FY25 for one or two years for a total of $150,000 per selected vendor.
We're going to directly negotiate with three entities who have specialized expertise in implementing harm reduction services for one of the populations of focus listed below.
Transition age youth which generally runs 16 to 24, 16 to 26 depending on the program focus.
People who use drugs and are at high risk of an overdose and individuals receiving treatment for co-occurring STI STDs or HIV along with drug use.
We're going to require that the services must follow the SAMHSA guidelines for harm reduction best practices as that allowable in the state of Texas and services must be community based.
We have an outreach component and be delivered through harm reduction principles.
So the county will through HHS will work directly with.
With each of these entities, Courtney and I are currently vetting through the community providers who meet the criteria. Again, they have to have a specialty in and a skill set in the three areas of focus. So already demonstrated. They have to have infrastructure in place because these are small contracts. So they already have to have infrastructure in place and expertise in one of the areas of focus. And then already have embedded harm reduction principles in their work or harm reduction program.
Judge, and so are you telling us you're going to pick three different entities each to pick one of these bullet points?
We're going to transition agencies. We'll be covered assuming you can find a vendor.
So we'll have one contract in each area. So one contract for $150,000 for transition.
Okay. Sorry. Okay.
Well, if I can just interject you, because my expectation is that as we go forward, the dollars that are associated with the opioid settlement.
I'm perfectly comfortable with a more concerned about federal supplemental dollars that we might have relied on at one point.
It's going to be, you know, as it seems to me the current administration is everything that is vaccine or DNA, everything that's remediation strategy.
They're going to have a problem with say it's not necessary and try to recapture the dollars.
Just want to make sure that as we go forward, we build a process that allows us to say if that's working with Samsung or whomever to save the actions that we're taking or best practices.
The actions that we're taking are peer reviewed. All of the things that to the scientific community mean something and can demonstrate a fidelity to the science of it all.
I understand that as we talk about harm reduction and as we talk about working with communities that have lived experience that is really important.
Everybody can talk to everybody else. The question is how we make sure that we are using the right concepts as it relates to peer review and we are incorporating how we work with our communities with lived experience and make sure that we're documenting things in such a way that if there are federal funding opportunities that we are automatically eliminated from it.
Thank you. Yes, Commissioner. I think we can follow the direction and we'll do so as we identify and negotiate the contracts.
We've got a little bit over time. This has also been for and you've got a lot of questions, but just.
I'm going to go through this really fast. So based on available funds like I covered in the table and an expected third settlement disbursement in spring of 2025.
Our investment plan is to, as Laura mentioned before, reduce the loss investment by $50,000 in FY25 so that we can execute three contracts during FY25 for harm reduction services each at $150,000.
And we would be able to continue funding the three current contractual investments in peer supports and method on services for an additional year in FY26.
Unless the disbursements are larger than projected, the county will be unable to sustain the FY26 portfolio that includes those peer supports, method on services in the new harm reduction services into FY27.
But we feel like this investment plan allows for a timely response to the crisis and ensures breadth and depth of services throughout the entirety of the public health crisis declaration, which is set to expire October 1 of 26.
So we will still estimate what the cost of services would be in FY27 just in case we come across additional funding just want to make sure that we don't lose the cost estimate.
We are closely tracking and trying to do projections for all of these, it's just very hard when we don't know when we're going to get funding and how much it's going to be.
But we're definitely trying to do continuity of care but also hearing the court's interest in responding now to a crisis.
But hoping that we can make our money go further if we have the disbursements that we anticipate.
Last slide.
So our last presentation from you guys was in November and I, is that right?
Yes.
November.
And I think that's when we also had data about overdose and death on the street.
So perhaps in three months or so could we get another update as we deal with the budget, you know, projections.
Like we make in progress or do we need to keep the pedal.
Absolutely.
The Emmys report will come out.
I think at the end of April and that may be an opportunity because we'll then be able to see specifically the overdose deaths, the areas of deaths, whether we've had a decrease.
We contacted their office and they're working on that now and so we anticipate that will be one way.
We'll also be able to have updates regarding the EMS responses from the APH dashboard and do some comparison against the quarter of last year and 24.
So I think yes, absolutely.
And maybe we can do that in combination with the Emmys.
Because usually they come and report to the court and do an agenda item so we could maybe add to that.
But additionally, under the directive, we're required to come back to court and do another presentation, which we have set up for August.
But we can come earlier to do this very thorough presentation earlier than August at the request of the court for sure.
And then the other pieces will be back before the court as well to execute the contracts with the three vendors so that will then be another opportunity to provide updates as well.
Yeah, and the news that we got from the medical examiner was for the first six months of this year.
I think they said that the total number of deaths was lower for then the first six months of last year.
And so that was the first time we've seen a decline.
So we're hopeful that that will continue the last six months of last year, but we'll find that out officially.
And you said April or so as when they give us that report.
Yes, yes sir.
And that is the end of our presentation.
Thank you.
Thank you for all your great work.
Yeah, it's great.
Thank you.
All right.
Next item is 10D.
Consider and take appropriate action on the following grant programs, applications, contracts and related special budgets.
Letters of support, memorandum of understanding and permissions to continue.
Which is letter of intent to apply for the community wildfire defense grant.
South solicited by the U.S. Forest Service for 250,000 in the emergency services department.
Which has a county match of 62,000, five million dollars.
Morning, Judging Commissioners.
This is a letter of intent to apply for the community wildfire defense grant.
solicited by the U.S. Forest Service.
The grant funds to different types of projects, either the implementation of a community wildfire protection plan,
which is already underway, or implementing projects on a community wildfire protection plan,
or FEMA approved hazard mitigation plan.
The letter of intent currently is from emergency services to do basically a planning project for brush removal on potentially private land.
And so it's for your consideration.
I believe I've laid out all the issues and I'm going to buy Julie Wheeler and our government's relations officer.
I'm a kind of screen.
Chuck Rotten county executive for emergency services.
And there's a county executive for planning budget.
So one thing that I did want to note before we move forward.
Currently under the legislative priorities, the court has set.
We are pursuing legislation that would allow the county to provide trash services in the unincorporated areas of the county,
where a municipality does not currently provide those services.
So there is some opportunity if that passes.
We would have some additional opportunities for folks to utilize services offered by the county to help with brush removal.
So I wanted to throw that out.
It's a different piece than what this is.
But we're happy to answer any questions.
I know there were some questions about going on to private property and how that might work.
This would be a new service line that we don't currently have.
So with some of this, we do need a little bit of direction from the court and how you would like to proceed with this particular grant.
And as an additional point of information, the letter this grant requires a 25% match.
This letter of intent is has a 62,250 dollar match, which is not currently budgeted in emergency services and would need to be identified by the planning budget office if you direct so.
Do you want to comment on this? This is your item.
I do, but I'm the junior commissioner.
So if you want to go first.
Well, do you want to lay it out?
We talked about this in the other committees and there's some comments that I want to make.
We brought this grant opportunity to staff in.
My team did in order to do more brush removal with landowners on private property.
We learned after storm Yuri that people have different capacity to clean up their property.
And we do a lot of preaching about cleaning up your property, being responsible, hardening your homes to fire, and some people just need help.
In Bastrop County, they're utilizing this grant.
You basically do a permission slip with a property owner.
You get their approval and then you work with them to clean up their property.
We have a lot of HOA's property that own property might be park land behind a community center, churches.
There's just a lot of land out there that is not that is filled with fuel for wildfire.
So that was our intent.
We've learned that this grant can be for planning, can be for activities, can be on public land, on private land.
And talking with staff, there's no one who's told me that we don't need to be doing this type of work.
It's a matter of capacity of exercising new muscles, of who's going to do it.
And so we've got we've had meetings with parks, with wildfire management, with now with Chuck and his team on emergency services.
And so I feel strongly that we should move forward.
And now that we've learned we could do planning and activities, I'd like to sort of edit the effort to not just a planning grant.
But planning and activities make it larger over time so that if this when this grant money is available at the federal government, we can try to get it before it goes away.
And I again, Lana, applaud your efforts.
You've been extremely persistent and creative about trying to find resources to help people.
I've got a couple of concerns. One is I have heard there are legal issues associated with using public dollars for private property.
So I think it would be valuable for us to hear something about that.
But I also have a really serious concern that we have a huge amount of property and fence lines with private property.
We're not able to do the level of clearing of brush and removal of fuels for fire that we need to be doing.
And some of my preference would be that we not get into any potentially sticky legal issues, but instead use the funds for cleaning up our own backyard.
We have direct responsibility if fires start on any of our county property and we know that we know we don't have enough resources to do the kind of clearing that we need to be doing.
There's a lot of property and I would prefer that we use this grant for that and avoid any potential legal entanglement.
So that's my preference and I don't know if you need that kind of direction today, I don't know what you're looking for on this but it would be helpful to get a clear sense from you about what you need from us.
Direction about essentially the who would be doing what and where is the most important direction that y'all can provide us today.
And then if they will also need to understand to what the cost of the program will be so that we can be prepared for whatever match component.
There is for the county.
So we've identified the match amount.
Or that's just for the initial grant not for any actual program that might come out of a planning grant.
Correct that is the amount identified right now is purely for a planning grant.
$250,000.
That's what the planning grant would be.
And our match would be 62,000 or change.
Yeah.
The question I had was just on the the garbage services the county would charge for that I presume.
We would have the ability to do that.
So the bill is pretty broad in what we could do.
So initially it was brought forward by TNR to help with illegal dumping.
But because of the way it's drafted it would give us some more opportunities in crafting some sort of program that might work for different needs across the county.
And that could include brush removal but there would be a fee associated with that.
So I would like to send the McDonald County executive for transportation and after resources.
I just want to clarify with with Winchester and Yuri we did not enter private property.
This was everyone bringing their brush to the curb.
Utilizing the drop-offs locations that we had identified for the public. There were nonprofits that I believe assisted property owners with debris clearing.
With regard to the legislation, I think if that also passes, then we would be able to provide locations for homeowners to drop off their debris as well as doing the waste removal.
It's not actually at least in our design was not to go in full degree off of private property.
So if that is what the intent of the program is going to be, it's going to require a brand new program with all these resources that do not currently exist.
That's for the legislation that would allow us to do the pickup or for this program.
Either actually, depending on how you want to handle the debris removal, we don't have any services that currently do that.
So any kind of going on private property doing debris removal for individual homeowners or properties would require brand new resources.
Or a contract with somebody who does or a contract and the legal, I mean, we can talk about the legal issues, but the grant is for that purpose. You execute an agreement with the landowner. It does not create legal problems.
Would you like to say something?
We're setting our sites on a $250,000 planning grant from where I set.
If emergency services is tasked with overseeing this effort, we need to define the effort and that for me is where we start.
We start by putting together a plan. The grant itself says either if you have a community wildfire protection plan that is less than 10 years old.
We do not have that. We have a CWPP that is more than 10 years old. We're in the process of updating it.
$250,000 would help you update that CWPP or to create a plan based on our hazard mitigation plan. We do have an updated current hazard mitigation plan that was refreshed in 2023.
So that's I believe what we would use as our source for identifying potential partners.
For example, our emergency services district, for example, our smaller municipalities that participated in the hazard mitigation planning process with us.
And go to those folks to help us identify the scope of a project that might qualify for a greater amount of funds that would help us fund a contract to support a program.
So the beauty of this grant is that we can do all of this. We haven't exercised the capacity of applying for a grant like this in the past.
So at this juncture, we could apply for a large amount of money that could give us time for planning as Chuck has just described and that could include activities on public and private land.
And so I think we have a little bit of time isn't it not do now till March 13th or 14th?
It is do March 14th yes.
And so I think we could direct staff to craft a letter of intent that includes planning and activities that might occur on public land or private land.
And we pilot what works and get going.
I think it's important for us to understand the size of the gap.
How many hundreds of miles of just fence line?
Just the juncture of our county lands with private lands.
And we know we, we have, we're kind of barely scratching the surface on all of the clearing that needs to be done on our side of the fence, which we have liability for.
So can we get any information about the size of that gap?
We have x amount of money for clearing those fuels on our land and it doesn't even begin to cover the need.
I just think it's important for us to understand how much liability we have the size of the gap.
And my preference would be to give direction for this to be used on the county's property where we have direct liability.
I don't want to have to explain to people after there's a fire and if it involved county property, why we hadn't done more to clear our side of the fence line.
And I know it's all resources. It all comes down to money and resources, so for going for a grant.
I think it's important for us to understand what's the size of the gap on our side of the fence.
Hi. My name's Gabe Malam, I'm the Parkland Resource Manager for Travis County Parks.
There was a question about the mileage of down to the line.
It would be an estimate of the amount of both Parkland and Preserve land where we have responsibility in terms of fuels that could be involved in a fire.
I know we haven't been able to keep up. I know we haven't been able to do even begin to do our complete area.
So I think it's important for the court to at least get some kind of an estimate about.
Here we are. Tell you on the Park System within Travis County, there's 174 miles of boundary line throughout the county here.
So that's just Travis County Parkland properties. That's not the whole collective of Travis County properties.
So 174 miles of boundary essentially.
Any idea where we are in terms of clearing fuels along that boundary line.
I've just heard from our folks with the Preserve and when we've talked about.
For instance, we were trying to go after and this was something I think you were involved in.
Trying to go after grants for the civilian conservation corps to have funding for young people to learn this kind of thing and to help us clear the fuels.
And we couldn't make that work and one of the problems was it was such an enormous territory to cover.
So any further information, any insight on our preserves because that's a whole lot more land than 174 miles.
We're also out of time for this item and I think actors volunteered to operate a bulldozer ever needed.
I'll join him on this effort.
I need pictures of that. I think there's questions about what the grant does are done. We should do that in executive session.
But I appreciate you coming to those.
And if in the meantime, someone can get this information about the Preserve.
Edge amount that we're not able to cover that would be useful for us to have when we have that discussion.
Thank you.
We'll probably see all in executive session clearly.
All right. Item time to receive quarterly update from community legal services department.
Good morning, Judge and commissioners. My name is Jeff Burkhardt.
I'm the county executive for community legal services and I'm here for your quarterly update for community legal services.
Right after this presentation, I also have with me Bradley Hargis, who has an agenda item to give you the annual update for the capital area private defender service.
First page, if you can flip to the next slide.
So quick reminder of what our department looks like.
On the left hand side, you see civil legal services.
So this includes office of parental representation, child representation, law library and the dispute resolution center.
I'm happy to say that office of child representation now for the first time in several years is fully staffed.
Office of parental representation just has one vacancy.
So we're making a lot of progress there.
And law library I believe has just one vacancy that they're looking to fill.
So make a lot of progress there as well.
On the criminal side, the right hand side, you see three different entities.
Capital air private defender service.
Of course, you hear from today.
The office of first defense, which I'll talk about in more detail in just a moment.
And then the public defender office, which of course is the consolidated general, adult division, juvenile division and mental health division.
Before I talk about what we've been doing, I wanted to just include a word about how we've been doing it.
We have weekly check-ins with almost every leader of every division, non-profit and department, out of the seven entities that are attached to our department.
We also have a weekly administrative staff meeting that they're four of us in the administrative office.
And then we have started quarterly meetings for all of the leaders of the seven entities so that the left hand knows what the right hand is doing,
that the criminal side seen from the civil side and vice versa.
A few notes on Kafka, of course, Council of First Appearance has been one of our biggest efforts, so some good news here.
As a quick reminder, we have the office of first defense representing about 50% of all persons arrested and administrative in Travis County.
Public defender office is representing about 25% of all persons arrested and administrative and capital area private defender service is representing the other 25%
The B-Shift, this is approximately 2 p.m. to 10 p.m.
There are attorneys really are there from about 1 p.m. to 11 p.m. usually.
That's happening seven days a week.
So if you have not seen Council of First Appearance yet and you want to see it, you could really go over any day of the week at this point in starting at 2 o'clock and be able to observe that.
And that's in that courtroom that we have kind of taken over in the lobby area.
Exactly, first floor, the criminal courthouse, the auxiliary courtroom. Yeah, exactly.
So that's happening seven days a week and right now we're trying to phase in that A-Shift as well.
Between now and July, we hope to get to seven days a week.
It looks like we're on track to do that.
Once we get there in July, we should be in a position where 100% or nearly 100% of all persons arrested and administrative have an attorney by their side under Council of First Appearance.
We're very excited about that.
Office of First Defense, as I mentioned, the representing 50% of people arrested and magistrated in the county.
So great news here. We've got 14 of 22 staff hired so far.
So we're making good progress there. We're interviewing all the time for this. We're getting pretty close.
All of the senior attorneys have been hired. So the 26 is the more senior attorneys in the office are all on board.
And all of them, safe for the chief, all of them are Spanish speakers.
So the good news there is we will have a Spanish speaking attorney at every single cough a shift.
So we're very proud of that. Approximately 14 to 17% of all persons arrested and magistrated in the county are primarily Spanish speakers.
So having this Spanish speaker between 14 and 17% of all persons arrested and magistrated in the county are primarily Spanish speakers.
So having a Spanish speaking attorney there at every single shift is we're very excited about that.
That's impressive because they're hard to come by and they can make a lot more money not being on staff, right?
So they're hard to come by and these are the senior attorneys too. So it's yeah, so lead lead attorneys who speak Spanish that are hard to come by.
We've got four of them.
Switching to a different note. So evaluations you might remember that under the Texas Indigenous Defense Commission's grant to the county.
That four year grant one of the requirements was that we do in a valuation to see the impact of that investment.
That's well underway. We are engaged with the Public Policy Research Institute.
We've been working very closely with them. They've developed survey instruments. They've developed questionnaires.
Right now they're just awaiting approval from the institutional review board the IRB.
As soon as we get that we're off to the races.
We're hopeful that we can do kind of a parallel study on the child welfare side.
And we've submitted a letter of intent with y'all's approval. I think it's the a V foundation that we've applied to.
And we've got funding for that. We do a similar study on the child welfare side to see how things are going to see what we can improve as far as child welfare representation.
Dispute Resolution Center. So this is something in progress.
And this is one of our civil legal services entities. This is actually a nonprofit.
Right now they've got a number of, I think it's about seven staff right now, maybe eight.
And they have 60 volunteers and basically they're doing two things. They are training mediators and they're doing actual mediation.
The reason that this is so important is this lightens the load considerably for the civil courts in our county.
So the more cases we can send to mediation. It's cheaper. It's faster. It's more efficient.
So it's great that we have them around. They've been around for, I guess, about four decades now actually since 1980. So they're around for a long time.
We're making a push to try to move them into the CFCF, which would be great.
I think we can utilize them a lot better once they're located there. So working on that will keep you posted on that on their progress.
But they have gone just as another note on dispute resolution center. They've gone to about from about 30 volunteer mediators, about two years ago, up to about 60 today.
So Aaron Patterson, their director has been doing phenomenal work.
And I've heard the judges say that would love to be able to say, just go right over there, you know.
That's their hope. You know, if they kid, you know, we've talked a lot to Judge Meachum and Judge Mozi and others. And if they could just divert a lot of litigants,
especially simpler litigation, gosh, they would help them quite a bit if we can get them into that courthouse.
We don't want community legal services just to be a name. We really want community to be something meaningful.
So we've started to hold quarterly community work kind of group meetings with community members, different community groups.
The most recent one was just a couple weeks ago. We had about 25 members of the community.
Happy to have more folks and happy to engage in any other ways that you'll all want to recommend to us.
We've talked about going out into...
The community and going to churches are going to community events, tabling at different fares and things like that, so we really want to be engaged with the community and let them know that we are here, whether it's criminal legal services, civil legal services, we have a lot to offer, so we want to make sure we're engaging on our regular basis.
Yeah, that's fabulous.
I want to come to you with one problem, and today I'm not proposing a solution, but I think this is a problem that everyone on the diocese aware of, but one to put some numbers to this.
We have lost a significant number of private criminal defense lawyers in Travis County. This is not unique to Travis County, this is not, in fact, unique to Texas, this is a problem that we've seen across the country.
What rural Texas alone, we've lost 500 rural defense attorneys in Texas, that's about a fourth of the criminal defense bar in rural Texas, we in Travis County in the urban areas have not been immune to that.
So this puts some numbers to that, what you're looking at, we, you know, one of the things that, and this was thanks to Bradley that we thought of this.
Just looking at the number of attorneys on the list doesn't give you the whole picture, because you could have an attorney on the list, but they're not taking that many cases.
So we slice and dice it a few different ways. If you look at that first line, the blue line, these are, is that blue on your screen?
Okay, good. These are the number of attorneys taking one or more appointments in any given year over the course of the past decade.
And you can see that's gone from over 250 attorneys to fewer than 200 attorneys, a little over 150 in the course of a decade.
The orange line, these are attorneys taking 10 or more appointments and then they believe that green line.
Okay, so make sure green line are attorneys, so these are the attorneys who are taking the bulk of the appointments. These are attorneys taking 50 or more appointments in any given year.
And as you can see, we've gone from bless you from about 150 to fewer than 100 attorneys on the list.
Again, not unique to Travis County, but it is a problem, and I'm certainly, I'm sure Bradley can talk about it in more detail.
Wanted to make sure we were putting some numbers behind that problem, so you see what that trend is.
It does seem to be evening and out slightly, but we are struggling, especially when it comes to higher level felonies and struggling when it comes to Spanish speaking attorneys.
So those are two of our biggest issues.
And finally, I thought at end on a good note, getting in day. So this is the anniversary of the United States Supreme Court's decision in getting in versus Wayne Wright in 1963.
The 60 second anniversary of the decision that helped create public defense as we know it today.
We're asking the court for a proclamation of March 18th.
And we're doing a small celebration of March 25th over in the multipurpose room, hope you all can stop by.
We'll have cake, we'll have some trivia, we're looking forward to a, we're working on it out a guest speaker.
And we'll have a small gallery of some kind of artifacts related to getting in versus Wayne Wright in the right to counsel.
Yeah, that's, that is Clarence Earl Gideon right after his arrest in the decision was 1963, but this is his arrest in 1959 and Florida.
Yeah, for he was arrested for taking $50 and 12 pack of beer from a pool hall in Florida in 1959.
It was sentenced to five years, actually, might have that wrong, might be seven years imprisonment.
It's an amazing story.
Hand wrote a petition for rid of socioride in the United States Supreme Court.
What is rid of whatever you said?
Basically, it's a, it's a asking the Supreme Court to take the case.
So as he was sitting in a Florida prison, he actually wrote out by hand his petition.
United States Supreme Court took the case.
They appointed Abe for us.
One of the greatest litigators in future Supreme Court justice is his attorney.
Anyway, I'm given away trivia questions at this point.
I didn't, I didn't, I didn't, I didn't.
It's an amazing story.
And I'll say to when the difference of a lawyer in this case, when he, when he, when he won the United States Supreme Court,
his case was sent back for re-trial and with an attorney by his side, he was acquitted.
So it made a huge difference in his case.
So very excited to celebrate that next month.
Reading that story.
That was, yeah.
It was very, very interesting.
Getty in versus Wayne Wright.
I'm just in 1959 in Florida.
I'm just glad he was not a black man.
Yeah.
That's the truth.
Yeah. That's all.
Have you all in, unless you have any questions?
I just want to say, for the record, it's remarkable.
We've stood up a whole new division within the county,
done it in record time.
And we are now better representing the legal rights of four people who come before the justice system.
So congratulations again. Good work.
Thank you.
Certainly have not done it alone.
I mean, I appreciate y'all's help.
And PBO.
I mean, Travis Gatton has been amazing and worked with Bradley and Travis.
So we're grateful.
Thank y'all.
Thank you.
Thank you everyone.
Bradley Hargis Executive Director of the Capital Area Private Defender Service.
I think you have a busy agenda.
So I was going to offer some brief comments and then make myself available for questions.
Of course.
I did want to start where Jeff sort of left off.
And congratulating Travis County and acknowledging the work of Travis County
to be an indigent defense leader.
As Commissioner Shea was mentioning, you know, cap started about 10 years ago in January of 2014,
which was a major innovation for Texas.
It was a largest managing council program at the time in Texas.
Since then, you've opened the office of first defense,
which we were pleased to work for many years of brain coffee into reality in Travis County.
And you've added to the indigent defense system in Travis County through the improvement grant for both
caps resources and for creating and consolidating a larger, more robust public defender office.
We are pleased to be part of all of those innovations over the last 10 years,
and look forward to doing many more.
Just to remind you, at this time, caps is your primary indigent defense service.
We represent about 80% of those clients needing indigent representation.
We do so with a panel of about 160 attorneys.
That panel has shrunk as Jeff and I talked,
we'll Jeff talked about, and I'm going to pick up from.
We constantly work to add new attorneys to that panel.
Really a shift happened about four years ago.
If you looked at that chart, Jeff had or Aaron,
if you want to put it back up since it's the same chart.
About four years ago, during COVID,
you saw a sharp decline in the number of panel attorneys.
That was a combination of factors, really.
Many of those were the portability of law.
Many attorneys discovered during COVID.
They were free to practice in more communities.
Move more places.
And so many of them no longer centered themselves around Austin.
And in Travis County, we were also pleased to,
well, I guess, please, is maybe the wrong word.
I guess honored to have many of our panel attorneys taken
by four positions in the new Garza's administration,
both the DA and the CA took a dozen plus attorneys
from our panel, some of our most active ones.
Office of First Defense and the Public Defenders Office
have not been immune from borrowing from our panel.
We are glad to have spread that experience around
several of those Spanish speaking experience,
senior defense attorneys Jeff was referencing came from our panel.
We are glad to have played our part
and developing their practice here and look forward to working with them
with OFD as we do our former attorneys in the DA, CA,
and even in the PDO.
Caps centers are efforts to recruit new attorneys
in our mentorship and training program.
So we just completed a new panel.
This past about two weeks ago with an orientation
of weak long orientation for new attorneys.
We added 14 attorneys to our panel for those
that will be entering through a mentorship program.
So those are attorneys who would not normally have been qualified,
but are now participating or receive training support
over the six months to a year to be able to be
into defenders in Travis County and help us represent our clients.
I did want to mention that as Jeff has pointed out
the shortages of attorneys are real,
and while there is a numerical shortage of attorneys on our panel
and in really all the communities around Texas,
which we've talked to commissioners about before,
we're going to competitive arms race
so to speak with us around in counties.
And our public defender is in an arms race
with other public defenders, right?
Over compensation.
And I'm sure you'll hear more about that from time to time.
We are not immune in the private bar as well.
But I did want to mention this national shortage
does have real implications in Travis County,
where we see that the most is caseloads.
As I mentioned, Caps is taking about 80%
of all-indigent assignments that trends much higher
when you look at serious felonies.
As Jeff was mentioning the shortage of serious felony,
representation, mental health, and Spanish speakers
are some of our biggest challenges.
So one of the challenges that we're continuing to work on
in Travis County is caseloads.
Commissioners have talked about caseloads before.
We have caseload control plans in place.
We have abilities for attorneys to opt out
of new assignments granular to the level of the case,
which is unique among Travis County.
And unique among most intelligent defense systems
to allow them to manage their caseloads more precisely.
All of that combined, we still have caseloads that are too high.
And we continue to need to work on that.
So in the room for growth section,
towards the end of this talk,
really increasing number of attorneys and increasing
in just region of cases is a very important concern.
It's a concern because of a capacity question,
but it's also a concern because of quality,
because quality does intersect with capacity.
You know, an attorney's time is finite.
Most of our attorneys, especially the active ones,
work 50 and 60 hours a week already.
Many of them are asking not to take more cases,
and because of shortages,
we are often coming to them, asking them to take more cases.
So it is a combination of trying to control caseloads,
but also ensuring that everybody is receiving a defender.
So that continues to be a challenge in Travis County,
as it is this surrounding communities in across the state and country,
as we continue to grow,
and it depends.
The success of many programs,
like Public Defender, Manager of Science Council,
is continuing to compete for a similar size pool.
And so we need to work collaboratively with
our all institutional defenders to grow that pipeline.
So with that, I want to just stay to time
and open myself up for questions if you have any
and move you along.
It would be nice.
And we got to stick with time, but go ahead.
We'd be great to get recommendations,
maybe not right now,
but for what kinds of things we might consider that could be helpful.
And I do just want to note for the record.
I'm really glad that last year you guys got a cost of living
increase on your staff,
and I hope we can build that into future budget.
So that's a regular.
Thank you, Commissioner. I appreciate your engagement
on our cost of living adjustment.
I'm glad to have worked with Jeff and the criminal courts
to make that happen.
We had not received one in two years,
so thank you for that.
And we will be bringing some budget items this year
about a potential incubator program
that we have some ideas about.
Thank you, Commissioner.
I'm curious about if the law school still has
events clinic,
and if there's any room for growing that program.
Yes.
I've got that.
Yeah.
We work with several,
not just our law school,
but other law schools.
There are many law students who would like to move
to Austin,
and so we do work with law schools across the country.
That is part of our idea of building an incubator.
One of the challenges in man is to sign council
is making that transition
because when you're moving in as a private attorney,
it takes time to get that training and experience you need
in the real world.
Even if you're coming from a great clinic,
it also takes time to build out that case load.
So that's part of the challenge
at transitioning,
but there are solutions that we can provide
to bring people onto our panel,
and that'll be part of the work that we're going to be doing.
But yes, we engage actively with those programs,
and I'm sure.
What about just students under guidance
of professors handling cases?
Yeah.
So I just had lunch.
This month,
with professors,
Kerney,
and Roberts,
the clinic,
and brought Kristen,
during again with us,
and Kristen was talking to the professors about
having some of those attorneys actually work on coffee.
It's kind of a pipeline.
One of the things we've had great fortune
recruiting for coffee,
but what we're concerned about is
younger attorneys may come in,
do that for a year or two,
and then we want to,
you know,
the captain,
Mr. Pedio,
and get kind of trial experience.
So we are working with them pretty closely.
When I was at TIDC,
I visited all 10 Texas law schools on a regular basis.
So at some point,
we may be talking about a little bit of a road
to do some recruiting.
Thank you.
Awesome.
Any questions?
Come on.
Okay. Thank you all very much.
Thank you all.
Thank you.
Bradley,
that was item 13, right?
Yes.
I think we can blow it straight from 12 to 13.
Okay.
Let me just call it up real quick,
just so that we've done it.
Receive update from capital area,
private defender service item 13.
Thank you, Bradley.
Update received.
All right.
Thanks.
Let's see.
Item 16,
consider and take appropriate action on Travis County's
fiscal year 2026 budget guidelines.
Good morning.
Jessica Reo County executive.
Good morning and budget.
And I am joined with.
At the table by Travis Gatlin,
our budget director,
as well as Alex Brayton,
our assistant budget director,
and Michelle Circa,
your last name still is Circa, right?
Yes.
Our capital analyst.
Today,
we're going to go through a short presentation.
I think there's more time
allotted than we'll need.
So we might be able to catch it up on time.
Every year,
we come forward and present the guidelines for the upcoming year.
And so that is what we're doing here today.
As I like to say,
it's already budget season again.
Wasn't it just budget season two days ago?
So what we'd like to do is lay out a short presentation.
Please.
I think feel free to ask questions as we go along.
But I think a lot of this information will be at a very high level.
And we'll get below the surface as we move along in the budget process.
As shown on the screen.
Our presentation overview will include as it always does, an economic outlook, a legislative update, discussions around our strategic planning efforts and our performance management, as well as this year's budget considerations that are informed by our five-year financial forecast, and then we'll get into budget preparation guidance for offices and departments, and finally we'll round it out with our budget calendar.
Just note that in June, we'd like to come forward and present another update, and at that time we'll have a more formalized calendar that we will likely ask you to approve.
I think this year, you know, with the budget calendar, excuse me, with the calendars that the Commissioner of Court approves in December, some of these dates are already loaded in there, and so we appreciate that, and look forward to August and September dates already.
So with that, I will turn it over to Michelle, and we can go over some highlights of economic outlook that's included in the document that you should have in the back up that is, I think, 30-ish pages long.
Thanks Jessica. So the HR's County area continues to enjoy a relatively favorable economic condition with one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country at just 3% compared to the national average of 4.1%.
The metro area does continue to have higher housing costs than the historical averages, which we believe may impact residents.
Obviously there's economic uncertainty on the national and international stage and will continue to monitor any impacts that might have, you know, budgetary implications throughout the budget process.
The 89th Lead Texas Legislative session began in January. As during every session, PBO is working with IGR, to monitor and provide feedback on bills that are introduced and that are working their way through the legislature.
That may have an impact on the county with a particular focus on bills that may limit the county's ability to issue debt, pass tax rate elections, or otherwise restrict county flexibility to respond to local needs.
And we're continuing to monitor any legislation related to school choice, property tax policy, and how our great improvements and housing affordability, which have been indicated to be the priorities for the legislative leadership this session.
I'm going to work through the two slides related to performance management and obviously, while adopted new strategic plan goals back in 2023, we're continue to refine the process by linking investments and programs to those strategic plan goals and evaluating department performance indicators to assess our progress on those various things.
Next slide. There's really not much change in our approach for performance management as part of this upcoming budget process. I'll just remind the commissioners that the preliminary budget, including the staff recommendations and performance analysis that we do will be published on the PBO website in July when we publish the entire document.
The adopted budget, again, will include volume four, which is our new section that started the most recent budget year that includes documentation and performance data from all departments and much more detail than we typically have space for in our recommendation area.
And then, obviously, we're going to continue to develop and refine our measures that departments have and we serve as a resource to them if they need assistance in crafting those measures and refining them.
And we work on that collaboratively through the entire budget process. So, not much change there, we can move on to budget drivers, I guess.
Thank you, Travis Gatlin, playing in a budget office. First of all, I want to recognize our budget team, which is behind us. I think we may be missing a couple of people there, but they're the ones that reached out to all offices and departments to gather information that we're presenting with you today.
So, the budget drivers total 40.1 million and I would say these are the basic building blocks that are mostly contractual obligations that we have along with compensation of benefits and the just reminder that the court has previously directed us to include.
Those resources and in the in the budget drivers as early in the process as possible, we reached out again, and less to departments and they reached out to their counterparts with the city regarding certain interlocal agreements.
Worked with our ITS department will see a lot of additional cost investments that are tech related, including moving SAP to the cloud that's been and works for many years, but it's finally going to be occurring and we have those expenses.
But just as the high level, we've got 27.2 million for compensation of benefits. We reached out to our county actuary about about two weeks ago, and it looks like health insurance increases continue to be fairly modest under 4%
National trends have been six to seven and we've been well below that and so that is good news. I was concerned that we've had such low increases over the past few years that I thought things may catch up to us, but for now they're still looking like just more of a modest.
Increase, we've got some money set aside for TCDR's contributions for their retirement system. We'll know what those amounts are.
Sometime in late April or May, but for now we're using averages and then the compensation part of it is roughly the same planning that we'd use in the past that includes resources for classified employees, pop employees.
That include continuation of a step increase for pops. Moving on, we talked about dinner local agreements. I won't go into specifics because we're still in the early stages of that discussion, but those represent certain percentage increases to each of our agreements.
We have the Waller Creek tip and I would remind the court that that is a 20-year agreement that's ending in 2028.
Typically, the increases have been somewhere around 500,000 or so a year. We won't know what this year's payment is until sometime in late April, and that's per the agreement when we calculate that.
We'll talk a little bit more about how the tax base is changing in a moment, but that could impact the remaining years of the agreement as well.
And then moving on, we talked about the tech related things. We've got just some general maintenance of current efforts and those are things such as pharmaceutical food increases in the share of softness, contractual obligation increases related to some contracts we have for custodial services and various other
just more things that are driven more by inflation.
And last but not least, we have Justice Investments in the majority of that is we're seeing a continued increase in electronic monitoring and pre-trial services.
We'll be working with pre-trial services, along with criminal judges to better understand if those are like they continue or not, but at least for this year it looks like they're going to be requiring some additional resources this year,
which likely means they'll be requiring additional resources next year as well.
But those are the preliminary budget drivers, and then again they total $40.1 million.
If there's all questions, I'll keep moving on to the financial forecast. I'll kind of be brief here.
We do, we're very grateful for our relationship with the central praisled district.
We reached out to our chief of praisled and December in January, and they're always kind enough to give us an early look.
I also want to recognize our friends and the county orders off this revenue estimation unit.
They're key to this presentation, so thank you to both of them.
I think I'm just kind of kind of move on here quickly and just reminder that the court did increase the over 65 exemption and disable exemption to 136,400.
And that's for this year, and we'll be making recommendations on potential adjustments to that to the court sometime likely in early May.
The primary budget is going to be balanced that the voter approval rate, and again that rate for us is 3.5% above what's called the no new revenue.
Maintenance and operations rate plus whatever our required debt services.
The assumptions used in our forecast assume continued use of the voter approval rate and that it's remaining at 3.5%.
We need to be mindful with the legislature in town that it could likely could be changes if not this session in future sessions.
And so that would significantly change our assumptions, but for now we're using that.
Next is just a kind of a highlight of what the over 65 and disabled exemptions are.
We've seen this before and again, we'll be coming back in May to discuss that with you.
Moving on quickly is just you've seen this chart before this represents for a typical house within the city of Austin within Travis County that has Austin ISD taxes.
And also Austin Queenie College along with Central Health, Travis County makes up about 17% that overall tax bill.
School district ASD is by far the biggest piece of that which is about 49% in the city of Austin is a little bit over 23%.
Moving on in front of you is our past five or past six years of our property tax base.
And how we projected it grow over the next five years.
And so from 2020 to 2025 we went from 206 billion to 325 billion.
That's 119 billion increase or 58% in six years.
And so we have been anticipating likely that the tax base could see a decrease.
Historically we've gone down four times and we'll see one, two, three, four, five, six.
About seven times in the last 35 years, most recently in 2011.
And so just can I have whenever we've given this presentation and we mentioned it last year at this time and likely every year we thought we were due for a decrease.
And based on initial discussions with the appraisal district, they believe that the tax base could decrease somewhere between six and 10%.
The model before you was showing a 6% decrease, it could be more than that.
Just a reminder though how the tax rate is calculated as the tax base goes down.
The no new revenue maintenance operation rate goes up and so the county does not lose or other jurisdictions don't lose money when the tax base goes down.
However, I think it is significant to see that at least for the foreseeable future, the growth that we've had in the last six years will likely not be occurring for the foreseeable future.
Historically for the last 35 years we've grown a little bit under 8% per year and within that we've had some double digit growth that we've also had some negative growth in that time.
And so again, if you look at the chart in front of you, you'll see that it's that we were at 325 billion for 2025 and based on our assumptions of a 6% decrease followed by a 4% increase.
We likely won't get back to get above 2025 until we get to 2028 and to the degree that decrease for this coming year is even greater than 6% it may take us a little bit longer.
I think the most important thing to note here and we're going to talk about it when we move over to the next slide but up just briefly why we remain on this slide is that if you look at the chart, you'll see that there's a slight blue line at the top of the green line and that represents new construction.
And so our new construction, this this current year for 2025, you see it's a little bit thicker than it normally is and it was 9.9 billion.
The previous year was 4.8 billion then it went 6.16.5 by 5 and then lower than 5.
And so and we're thinking based on those discussions with the appraisal district that new construction will not be anywhere near the 9.9 billion that we had this year.
Now, while the tax base going down does not impact does not have a significant impact on revenue, having less new construction does have a negative impact to revenue.
And so we are thinking at least in the near term that the amount of money we get from new construction will be less moving forward.
There's lots of reasons for that.
I think there's been a lot of overdevelopment and certain segments of our tax base.
I think higher interest rates are slowing some things down and I think there's less people moving here.
I think there's probably more complicated reasons behind that but I think the important thing to note is that we're not going to have 9.9 billion in a new construction this past year.
And we're thinking that based on those early discussions somewhere likely between you know below 3 maybe to 4.4.5.
So at least at least half or more than half of what we received this past year moving on to the next slide.
Again, you'll see that we had 9.9 billion and we grew 3.8% for 20.25 and again those are values for the FY2025 tax rate and budget which were currently in the values are based on January 1st, 2024.
And for the 2026 budget that we're planning for and discussing today that's going to be based on values as of January 1st, 2025.
But we won't receive those values until we get the certified estimates sometime in late July.
But based on those initial discussions we'll see that slowly we're going to be returning to normal right now we're at negative 6% and we think by 2020 or 5 years from now we'll likely be somewhere around that 8% growth that we've seen.
And how it actually works out is going to be dependent on how we're going to be growing in the near term.
And you'll see that we've stepped up new construction.
But even as we step it up, we don't believe that we're going to be reaching the 9.9 billion again in new construction at any time in the near future.
And so that's important for us to be mindful of because that means less additional new resources coming in.
And obviously with the constraints of SB 2 those are important things moving on to this slide and so we've we've shown you this slide and we as we prepared for SB 2 and we've showed it to each year since we started SB 2 which was first year in FY 2021.
You'll see that this year's budget for 2025 is shown is 99 99 million so roughly a billion that has been restated because it doesn't include the 75.8 million for the tax rate election that voters approved in November.
Those resources for for this year were in the general fund but have since been moved over to a special revenue fund.
Or specifically for the TRE to better track those resources. So in order to do get some more fair comparison purposes we restated 2025.
And when we move to 2026, you'll see that we're going from 999 million to 1 billion, 40 million. And that's 40, that's the 40, roughly 41 million dollars that we discussed whenever we looked at the cost drivers.
And moving on, you're going to see that we're going to grow roughly about 3.9% and those are the numbers in green. And again, that's based on the 3.5% voter approval rate.
But if you look at what we grew before SB2, which was the 10 year period 2020, 10 to 2020, we grew 5.5% per year. And so the area in red is not doesn't represent a deficit because we're always going to be in balance.
And we have to do that substantially. It does represent less resources that the commissioners court will have access to to respond to community needs that you had before SB2.
We just need to be mindful of that and we talked about we just have to grow at a slower rate.
And that means a lot of the important things that you'd like to do, we have to figure out a different way to do it, or unfortunately, we won't be able to do it.
But that's, I'll pause here because this is an important slide and see if there's any questions.
And then we're anticipating a shoot drop on the cuts and who knows when those are going to actually happen and what that's going to do to us locally.
And I don't think that we're going to turn our back on people who we need if they get cut off.
This doesn't reflect the kind of issues that are going to be facing.
We have lots of challenges likely from the federal level that we'll be dealing with for the foreseeable future and for the state based on discussions we're hearing from the legislature.
This again assumes that the 3.5% photo approval rate will still be available to us, just for example purposes.
I misspoke I said 41 is actually 40.1 million, but if we were at the no new revenue maintenance operations rate, if we didn't have access to be at the 3.5% rather than having 40.1 million dollars, we would have about six billion dollars.
That would need, and just in the interlocal agreements, which include EMS services, and I'm control public health, that's 2.2.
We have a contractual obligation for the Waller Creek tip payment that was for flood control purposes that would take us close to 3.
And then, you know, we have mandated justice investment, so that $6 million wouldn't go very, very far.
We reiterate what I think Commissioner Gomez has said that we don't know what's happening with the federal government, and we could have people here in our community in a world of hurt that that we might just have to pivot on some of this stuff to make sure people have shelter, food and water, you know, the basics.
And so I think what I want to ask our whole Travis County family is to be a little bit flexible and mindful of the uncertainty in which we're operating, and we have the very best.
I'm looking at a really strong team working on this and we just are in some unknown territory that we might have to do things differently between now and October.
Yes, we have less money than we normally do is as my there's our best assessment in a lot more challenges and a lot more unknowns, but I was driving in this morning.
There was a discussion about all the all the changes happening with.
Layoffs at the federal government and supposedly the the unemployment rate for veterans has gone up one or two percent just in the last month.
And so what is that's just one example of what does that mean for our community and that those are people that live here work here pay taxes.
Need services and then people may need more services as a result of this. So yeah, very very mindful of that and thank you.
When the legislature reduced the ability of local governments to raise revenue to provide services from it was 8% previously right.
That was the gap and they dropped it to three and a half percent.
I think we understood from your briefings that over time this would have a more and more serious impact on the county and we can see it in this in this graph.
But the I think the wild cardinal of this is.
Frankly, the crazy stuff that's happening at the federal level and I am hearing from people in different ways that it's it's really beginning to impact.
The services and and basic the provision of basic needs in our community entire entire organizations are shutting down.
And so one of the things that we had a conference of urban counties meeting here recently.
And there was discussion among representatives from other urban counties about having an interest in essentially convening hearings.
Or inviting the public to come and just let us know how these federal cuts are impacting people locally and organizations and businesses.
I don't know how we would do that, but I think it's important for us to make clear to people we want to know what's happening.
And to the extent that we can provide a focus on the the personal local impacts of these actions at the federal level, I think that would be really valuable for us.
And for the larger communities, I don't think people realize yet how this is affecting them.
And obviously it's going to take more time for the the ripple effects from the federal cuts, but there will be very severe impacts.
So I think that's something we should consider and on the right forum or exactly how we do it, but I think it would it would provide a focus that would at least help us prepare.
Another thing I would just touch on that we talked about new construction typically we've been very conservative right now with new construction and we've waited for the appraisal district to work through all the properties that may be a part of that also work through the protest process before we kind of started thinking that money was going to be available to us.
Sure again we're starting out if you could go back maybe just to that slide with the new construction table on it.
And so again we're using yeah yeah right there we're using 2.8 now oftentimes right now we we are conservative and then at the end of the process there is more and more new construction that shows that that's freed up that provides some additional flexibility for the court to do.
Those things that you feel the community needs I don't think we're going to the difference going from 3 to not to 10 billion is a big difference the difference going from 2.8 to 3 or 3.5 or 4 is not going to have a lot of extra money beyond what you're seeing here during the budget process now we may get surprised from the appraisal district.
But again based on that I don't think we need to be not only mindful as commissioner Howard and commissioner shade talked about just all the uncertainty out there.
But also there's not going to be a lot of extra money that's going to that's going to get freed up during this year's budget process at least for the foreseeable future because again those new construction numbers from all the growth we happen from maybe over development higher interest rates economy all those things we don't know if that's going to happen.
But again, Austin is a great place to be Travis County we're very thankful I always say that everybody would trade their problems for our problems but we certainly got some challenges ahead of us.
I just want to make sure that we are tracking the changes and I know that we are tracking the bills that are being filed over at the legislature.
But I think what we have to remember as a community is that we can't allow these things to to pit us against other parts of our community.
You know when we talk about diversion or when we talk about councilor first appearance and when we talk about the various things that we do we have to make sure that we understand and convey what is happening at the capital.
We understand and convey what is happening at the federal government and that we don't beat each other up because of the legislative realities that are happening around us.
We want to make sure that we're not beating up staff particularly PBO because the revenue stream is lowering and that this is going to be a difficult time.
We're going to have to think about what our priorities are.
We're going to have to understand where resources are and where resources have gone away and try to go to places where we can get some of them restored but we can't allow our community to destroy it.
So because unfortunately that seems to be a part of the plan.
So when we went to the Council of Urban Governments and they were telling us what was coming, what was being filed, we have to make sure that we are clear on what our priorities are that we protect our investments where we can.
But also that we assign the responsibility to the places that are responsible.
So just want to make sure that we think about that as we go on that that that we don't blame PBO because of actions that are taking on tax policy,
if it takes a sledgeous lecture.
And whatever is being done with whatever is being done with the, what is it?
Well, though, but what is the use in the chainsaw that they're taking a chainsaw approach rather than taking a scalpel approach.
That when we hear about fraud and misinvestment, there's been no definition of that.
There's been no process for documenting things.
And no matter what you call what they're doing, it is not a scientific understanding of what government is, what government provides and who it impacts.
Easy to talk in slogans, much more difficult to go and manage resources and make sure that people are served.
And our focus has always been serving our community, not looking good in front of the camera, although I don't think they look very good in front of the camera.
Well, I think the important thing for us, because we can't certainly solve every, every problem that's out there.
We can, we can just make sure we're as resilient and in a, in a, in a, in a strong position as possible.
Two things I want to highlight, one is that you have a good reserve policy.
And as your budget staff, we recommend reserves to you each year that we think are appropriate and that are, are healthy enough to.
Allow the commissioner's courts and flexibility during the year. So that's one. And the other is we have target budgets for every office and department and the department heads and county executives and appointed elected officials who are charged with those budgets have the flexibility to tell us their priorities for the coming year.
And so just a reminder that when those budgets are submitted to us, you know, they, they should reflect those, that prioritization.
And so hopefully, between those two things, we will have a conversation on how best react in these, you know, uncertain times.
Well, and we've always said that the reserves were for those times when we have disasters.
And certainly this is a disaster that we're facing at the federal level.
And so, um, yeah, I think we're going to have to, you know, work those out and balance them all out. And we've done a good job of that throughout the years, our checks and balances.
And so, um, it's just that, you know, I think some of us can handle some of this stuff.
I'm concerned about children, about families, about the elderly who will probably be hurt the most.
And, and they're very vulnerable. And, and so, um, we've got to, you know, we've got to work together.
But I think it would be good to hear from, from the public when they get their cuts.
So, they can tell us what their situation is.
So, but I don't know, we need to work that out as to how we would make that work.
Thank you. And I'd also add that the touch on what we talked about, that the urban, that the urban Texas County budget folks are getting together.
Sometimes this week or next week to talk about potential challenges from the state and federal government and just maybe even other kind of revenue challenges.
So, we'll be meeting with them and we do a good job of kind of coordinating that and discuss that.
So that we can certainly learn from one another and see what they're seeing at their communities as well.
Maybe the urban budget staff? Yes.
That would be great to, you're about maybe in a PBO stuff.
Yeah, we'll have to give an update and we can, we can give an update to you to the full court.
And we have two more slides.
Just a couple of highlights related to the budget preparation guidance that we are giving to departments.
None of these have really changed over the past year, but again, new ongoing revenues we've discussed.
They're going to be focused on those identified budget drivers.
We continue to encourage departments to look internally within their budget to try and maintain their current service levels or reprioritize programs based on higher needs.
Should go without saying, but funding for new programs or FTs will probably be pretty limited in the preliminary budget.
We'll continue to do our review of vacant positions that are older than that have been vacant for more than 120 days and discuss those with departments.
If they're needed, if they could be repurposed, if we're having issues filling them for whatever reason.
We'll continue to review the fees that the commissioner's court sets and see if any of those need adjustment along with the revenue generating contracts.
That we have continuing to refine our outcome measures and performance data.
We talked about that earlier.
And then finally, we always encourage departments to submit their budget requests, not just thinking about this year, but thinking.
And three to five years ahead. And what those kinds of issues are that are going to keep popping up. The last, would you mind, Alex, just talking a little bit more about full
cost recovery in the 15% cap and this is all the kind of the importance of that. Right. So, a number of years ago, the commissioners court adopted what we like to call a full cost recovery policy, which essentially means that if we are providing a service on behalf of
another entity that they pay us for the full cost to provide that service. And so we spent significant time
going back through these agreements and re-evaluating what we were charging, and whether that
that made sense based on a full cost perspective. So, for an example, we could say we have some contracts with the
constable offices to provide law enforcement services to a few small areas. That full cost includes more than just the
deputy being out there. Right. He has a vehicle. He has a computer. He's using fuel. He has a supervisor.
There are training costs. There are dispatching costs. All of those things are part of the cost that have a deputy stationed
out there. And so to reflect those costs, we've updated the agreements to include those kinds of things. Now, given that we started this around the same time as
COVID and being mindful that some agreements were significantly behind the full cost recovery
amount, the commissioners court approved recommendation to limit the rate of increased to 15%
year over year to allow those agencies to adapt to these higher costs to do these services. We've had some that were
at least 50% under what they needed to be. And so asking it, you know, an entity to pay several hundred thousand
dollars more to get caught up in one year we thought would be unfair. So, we're slowly catching up on on the
agreements. We're getting closer on many of them. And we're recommending that 15% cap on the growth again this year,
consistent with the the past couple of years. We're going to continue to evaluate new agreements that are coming forward.
I think there's going to be one coming very soon from another consult office for a law enforcement contract.
We've been looking at those numbers and making sure that all ties out and if there are others that we need to look at.
We'll continue to do that. The bigger ones like dispatch, you know, the share's office dispatches for
number of the smaller PDs in the area, making sure that that cost reflects both the staffing component as well as
the C tech component, where they sit and equipment that they're using and things like that. So we're going to keep it
keep evaluating that. And if there's, you know, change in direction, we can certainly, you know,
work on that. But again, our position is if you're asking us to do a service, then you need to pay the whole
cost and recognizing that even paying the full cost doesn't necessarily reflect the added risk that the
county is taking. And, you know, making sure you all are mindful of those types of things when you enter
into these agreements. And that came about after SB2 went into effect. These were one of
this was one of the ways for us to ensure that we were able to meet what we needed to do on mandates.
Yeah, I mean, could Mr. Travellum was the one that made my mindful that you were the one that made the motion.
Miniers goes, we are still trying to make sure we follow that. Given all the other challenges, we need to
make sure that if we're doing something for someone else's Alex mentioned that others and thieves are paying their
fair share.
Great. So now we'll just end the presentation with our reminder of our budget calendar and key dates.
The first one on here is I think the most important one for right now, at least, because it's
coming up pretty soon, March 7th. That's a Friday. We'd like to invite all offices and departments,
financial staff, administrative staff, and anyone that's interested in in the budget process to join us here
for in-person event only. It's not available online. So we hope to see you there.
Seven hundred levoca multi-purpose room nine o'clock will be general government and HHS focused.
Then we'll have another session at 1040 for public safety, emergency services and TNR,
and we'll round it out with a 130 to approximately three o'clock justice and corrections functional areas.
And so we go through not only some of this information, but also trying to have a conversation across the functional area to
make sure that connections are made, that are budgetary and nature of if one department's requesting something
it might bring something up for another department. Oh, well we, we need, we haven't thought about that,
but Koffa, for example, goes across many different departments. And so having those types of discussions have been fruitful
the last couple of years, I think we've done it.
And so we invite folks down for that.
The only other couple of items that I want to highlight on this list. Again, we'll come forward with a June update
prior to that June update, though, June third, in the employee public hearing.
We'll be hearing the courtroom at 430.
That's usually a virtual and in person event for employees to speak directly to the Commissioner of Court.
And so we're looking forward to that.
I inadvertently stepped over what is the most important date for us, which is April 23rd.
We would like everybody's budgets to be termed in by April 23rd.
That's actually a win.
Usually budgets are doing Mondays, however, this falls on the week after Easter.
And so Easter Sunday, we thought it would best to push that date out a couple days and make it do on Wednesday this year,
so that folks weren't having to worry about that on Easter Sunday.
Obviously, it'll be time for prayer.
Well, I am hoping that they'll have everything tied up by Friday before or Thursday before and then they will be able to have a nice weekend.
We'll meet with departments in June and then publish the preliminary budget.
Like we always do at the end of July, if the Commissioner of Court so wishes there could be budget hearings in mid-August.
And then, of course, we will have Mark up in early September.
And we're forcing that for seeing that the tax rate would be adopted in mid-September, which would require four members of the Commissioner of Court to be present.
And then adopting the tax rate on excuse me, the budget on September 30th.
As I said before, though, we'll come back in June and have a calendar that will ask you to approve and remind you of those dates so that everyone is here for all the all the fun this budget process.
We appreciate your time today.
Happy to answer any additional questions.
Or happy to be done.
I know in the past we have, we've had really serious vacancies in corrections and we've spent a lot of money on overtime because we had to pay people over time to stretch out the shifts to cover when we didn't have enough people.
I think that'll be a really important thing to get an update on.
We've invested a lot in increasing the pay for corrections officers to try and hire more to reduce the amount that we're spending on overtime.
So just a little note when you do do the budget updates, I'd be really interested to hear how well that's worked.
We'll do something even sooner than that because I think the court approved a one year extension to the.
To the overtime incentive pay and I think we're coming likely in April or what is that.
The current overtime incentive program expires and March 29th.
So I think our plan would be to return here within the next month to give you enough date on that program.
That would include overtime costing.
Yes, so probably the 25th.
Give an update on it.
Give an update in the cost of the program the overtime amounts the vacancy rates.
We've made some progress, but I don't think we're right where we need to be and it's likely we'll need to continue the program.
We're the foreseeable future, but yeah, we'll give we'll give you some good information along with along with HRM Dean in the in the in the sheriff's office.
Thank you.
Well, we need any.
We need a motion.
We need a motion in approval.
I said update in June, so many times.
We have public comment.
No.
A lot of young people.
We have a motion from Commissioner Shea for approval second from Commissioner Gomez.
Is there one here to comment on the budget guidelines item?
I don't see anyone on my list, but any of the fourth graders in the office?
No, don't.
I don't think we have any public commenters.
There's none of my list.
Any further discussion?
All those in favor?
Please raise your hand.
Cases unanimously.
Thank you.
I'd like to vote like you.
I'll agree, Judge.
No.
We just worried about that.
All right.
So yeah, we've got some fourth graders here.
Thank y'all for being here.
I know it's very exciting time here.
The commissioner's court.
We've also got some folks from Starflight and from one of the ESDs from our fire department.
Our sheriff, Sally Hernandez is here.
Some other folks, we're going to have lunch after this.
As they learned about public service and local government.
But first, Commissioner Shea really, let's take up item three, which is consider and take a
appropriate action to approve proclamation recognizing the month of February 25 as
Black History Month in Travis County.
Okay.
I think this is really important.
Black History is really important to talk about this year.
In a year when what we hear from the White House does not respect the sacrifice that all
people have made to build this country.
And Black History is an important part of that.
Black History should not only be recognized one month.
It is American history.
I'm so happy that our fourth graders are here with us because it is this generation that will
make sure that we are all heard.
So thank you for coming out.
I look forward to working with you all.
And I'll begin reading the proclamation.
Whereas each February, Travis County has proudly and continues the tradition started by Dr.
Carter G. Woodson's Negro History Week, which began in 1925.
And recognizes now Black History Month by reaffirming that African American history
is an essential and inseparable thread woven into every fabric of our nation.
And we proudly celebrate the history and achievements of African Americans who have shaped
and enriched our culture, not just in Travis County, not just in Texas, but across the entire
landscape of America.
And whereas we proudly celebrate the history and achievements of African Americans who have shaped
and enriched our culture, let's see.
Looks like we got a couple of things twice.
But this is going to be all right.
We'll work through it.
All right.
Where the history of African American settlements in Travis County began in the post civil war
era when formerly enslaved individuals established sufficient communities despite widespread
and brutal, brutally enforced racial discrimination.
There were at least 23 encampments that were purchased by the African American community
right after the Civil War.
Many of them, because of the freed men's bureau.
So it's good to read about the freed men's bureau if you haven't heard that word before.
But the settlements also included Travis County's 42 African American rural schools.
Some of the places that had schools built schools for African Americans after slavery were
in Clark's film, Kenchenville, Montopolis, Mason Town.
A lot of people don't know where Mason Town is.
It's right there on 7th Street, very close to Houston, Tilliston.
Lidic and many others.
These were settlements started by freed slaves after the Civil War and emancipation.
Showing us that the history of African Americans within Travis County is rich and extensive
and often unknown.
While the passage of time, gentrification, an urban expansion,
have led to the loss of many historical, black community heirlooms.
The legacy of these settlements remains through their historical preservation efforts
and the continued cultural presence of African Americans in Travis County.
Whereas at a time when African American history and the fight for equity and inclusion,
face relentless challenges in Texas, a very similar to what we saw pre-civil war.
And if you ever have an opportunity to read Texas's articles of succession that were passed by the Texas Legislature
on February 2nd, 1861.
When we face relentless challenges in Texas and across the nation, which is unfortunate,
the government of Travis County stands firm and honoring, preserving and celebrating the rich history,
the enduring heritage and the profound cultural contributions of our African American communities.
Recognize the struggles and triumphs that have shaped this legacy and remain committed to fostering a future
where these stories are not only remembered but uplifted and that we work together to ensure that justice,
representation and opportunity continue to flourish for generations to come.
And whereas to celebrate this black history month, Travis County's health and human services department,
held its 25th annual black history month program on February 6th, with the name of celebrating resilience, joy,
and unity for a quarter century.
And we invite everyone to join the Austin Independent School District as they have their 42nd African American heritage celebration,
which will be held on Wednesday, 9 February 26th at 7 p.m. at the AISD.
Performing Arts Center on 1,500 Barbara Jordan Boulevard, who is also Barbara Jordan, somebody you should
also read about, she's pretty bad. And the theme of unity and diversity celebrating trailblazers
and the community. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed that we, the Travis County Commissioners
Court, do hereby declare February 2025 as Black History Month in Travis County, Texas, and we call
upon all officials, community leaders, and residents to honor, uplift, and celebrate the profound
contributions of African Americans, past, present, and future. Let us not only recognize the resilience,
achievement, and cultural legacy of Black History but also commit to fostering a more just,
inclusive and equitable society. As we reflect on those who paved the way for progress,
we also celebrate those who continue to shape our future with courage, innovation, and determination
that will be signed and entered today, the 25th day of February 2025, and that is my resolution.
All right, motion from commissioner to really, and second from commissioner Gomez,
any of the question court members? We have no commenters here today. We do have a commenter, Mr. Lily,
if you want to come on up.
Good morning. Good morning, Judge.
Good morning, commissioners. Greetings. My name is Robert Lily. I work with grassroots
leadership as a anti-racist criminal justice, participatory defense organizer, and I just have one
quick comment that I would like to make in reference to this proclamation, which I'm so very proud to be
of a county that recognizes the legacy and history of all of its citizens. In August of 2015, Texas
advocates for justice officially adopted the following mission statement, Taj, which we're known for
short, is on a mission to end the criminalization of our communities to break down barriers to reentry
from prison and jail in Texas and demolished the legacy of racism in the justice system that language
was later modified to change policies and practices of mass incarceration and transform the narrative
of criminalization, which we affirm is rooted in the legacy of racism in the society, which is a
contradiction to our principles of democracy, one that we must continue to remind our communities
we face as we realize now. The great philosopher, Cardi G. Wilson, wrote in his book,
the misjudication to the Negro, philosophers have long conceded, however, that every man and woman
has two educators, that which is given to him and the other that which he gives himself. Of the two
kinds, the latter is by far more desirable. Indeed, all that is most worthy in man, he must work out
and conquer for himself. A city of today as a person who has redeemed himself from addiction and the
scars of criminal past and that is rooted in my efforts while incarcerated to find my identity,
my identity and my history. It was a result of adopting a new self related to my legacy of my community,
that gave me a proportion to come home and not only just sit on the sidelines and watch the
world go by but to participate in this process. Again, I just want to say, I'm proud to be a part of
a county that recognizes the legacy and the history of all of its members of this community and at our
meetings, we make space for base members to learn the history and evolution of policing, criminalization
and how the carceral machine has developed and this is important as we talk about this
proclamation because as soon as we were freed, the machinations of the state and government went to work
and creating policies to criminalize our mere existence in society, vagrancy laws, for example.
So we have to continue to tell this story because this, I think, is our legacy to the future.
Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you Mr. Lowe. Thanks, Mr. Lowe.
All right, I believe as there are all the commentators for this item. Any further discussion,
court members? Just as really important to mark this month, there really is an attempt to erase
the history of the contribution of black people, of slaves of all of it in this country and it's
important to remind people of that factual history, whether or not it makes people uncomfortable, it's
important for it not to be erased. I'll say this very quickly. It is important that we recognize
that we only get the community that we deserve when we build it together and when we see a lot of
what is happening at the White House, when we see, there are some people that all they have to live on every month
is their social security checks and their people that are shaking in their boots today, wondering
whether they're going to get there, social security checks on March 1. It is important that we recognize
that when we see things that are wrong, we work together to make them right and to make them better,
because they might not get us today, but once they get one by one a number of people,
then there won't be anybody left to protect us all. We have to stand together and work together
in black history. You find a story of a people that was locked out, but it decided that it wasn't going
to be a second-class community and it was going to work hard and we were going to build together and
wonderful things have been built. Oftentimes our state legislature and our federal legislature does
not acknowledge what has happened honestly to people who have sacrificed everything, including
defending the country and war. It's just important that we recognize that we need each other
and we have to work together because if not, if we don't learn to hang together, they're weighing us all
separately. Let's continue to work together. I'm so happy to see young people here that are
learning about government because there's a lot about government that's really important to us all
and the more you know the better it operates. Thank you. All right, we have a motion in a second,
any further discussion? All those in favor please raise their hand. Pass us unanimously. Thank you
very much. Mr. Say, I'm going to hand it over to you. All right. And fourth graders, we're going to go that way.
Thank you all for being here. We're going to take up a agenda item number two.
Yeah, item two. Consider and take appropriate action to approve a proclamation recognizing the
alpha-capitated chapter of Zeta-5 beta- sorority, incorporated for 85 years of service in Austin,
Texas, and the Travis County community. So, any of the representatives, please come down and join us.
I think commissioner, you're going to boil blue. Yeah, and boil blue. Absolutely. You're going to do that. Yes,
yes, that's the solution. Great. That's when we need a bud, as return. One need one need a,
I got it wrong. What's your last name? We need Jackson. We need a one need. All right, just just want to
talk about the importance of Zeta-5 beta, but also the fact that it fits within what we refer to
as the divine nine, which is a group of folks, many of which went to historically black colleges,
many of which went to historically white colleges, but had to rely on each other to do the things that
oftentimes universities, even Northern universities, would not do for us all. So, I will read the
proclamation and then I will ask you all to make any comments that you might have. I'm very honored to do this
as, you know, almost through the high sub, but I'm doing that in December. All right. Proclamation reads,
whereas the alpha-capitated chapter of Zeta-5 beta, sorority, incorporated, was born in, was born in,
was born in, or born on February 8, 1940, on the, and this is our local chapter that was born on the
hallowed grounds of black sure elementary school in Austin, Texas. It's not by chance, but by the guiding
hand of a transcendent purpose that this chapter came to life. The Charter members were,
Aljrine, a Craig, a Murdoch Cook, Virgy Carrington, D. Whitty, who was the Minister of Music
at Ebeneezer, and who wrote the theme song for St. John, look where the Lord has brought us. And was
Mary to Arthur B. D. Whitty, who was a leader in the NAACP movement. She was, she was all of that
and a bag of chips. Jessie Ford Grant, Rosville King, Della J. Phillips,
Bessie L. Jones, my grandmother was named Bessie. And a Velmer slider, who had daughters of Austin and
Travis County, and they answer the clarion called to unite, intellect, vision, and faith in the
cause of liberation, justice, and service. Also, they're not, they're not pearls of yours,
but I have to always mention Lillian Curley, who we shared the same birthday, but she was one of the
people who opened up and organized Booker T. Washington and taught so many people how to so, how to cook
and and just how to be leaders in their community. She used to say that. And then my aunt,
Rosals, who was the Minister of Music at David Chaftle. And very proud, as a leader, from Houston,
Tillerton. So now I didn't remember Ms. D. Whitty, but now I'm not surprised at all.
All right. Whereas Alpha Capasated Chapter in the groundbreaking act of self-determination acquired
the Thompson House on August 24th, 1967. This historic achievement marked the establishment of the
first Blacks Aurora D. House in Austin and Texas located of I-35 in precinct one. I might add,
and which is designated a historical landmark in East Austin. This house serving as an
archival center for Zeta, for Zeta chapters in the mighty Southern region stands as a powerful emblem
of both the physical and intellectual spaces that Black women have carved out. Ensuring their stories,
contributions and aspirations will endure for generations. So important, not just what we do
today, but how we prepare our daughters and granddaughters to continue to lead as you have. Whereas over eight
decades, eight difficult decades, the Alpha Capasated Chapter has exemplified the dual commitment to
service and scholarship that defined the African-American experience in Austin and Travis County.
The root programs like Christmas and Easter celebrations for disadvantaged youth,
volunteer services for nursing homes, the Ronald McDonald House, school supplied donations,
literacy, initiatives like reading buddies through adoptive school. This chapter addresses the immediate
needs of the community while advancing long-term strategies for social equity. There's scholarships
to students in the Austin Independent School District and high schools in the unincorporated areas of
Travis County, and I'm going to say flu-givilized the in-mainair ISD. Appreciate you as well.
Houston, Tilletson University, the University of Texas at Austin, as well as charitable contributions
to organizations such as the United Negro College Fund, March of Dimes, American Cancer Society,
all these things underscore their dedication to education and health as pillars of empowerment.
And whereas the Alpha Capa Zayda chapters commitment to their guiding vein, Z-Hope,
Zayda's helping other people excel through the extraordinary power of she initiatives,
reflecting the tradition of strategic responsiveness to the community's needs.
This ethos aligns with the broader historical trajectory of African-American
civic organizations that have emerged as critical institutions in the struggle for civil rights,
social justice, health justice, economic justice, and communal empowerment.
Their legacy is reminder that progress is not an abstract idea, but a series of deliberate,
organized, and sustained efforts. Now, therefore, be a proclaimed that we, the members of the
Travis County Commissioners Court, recognize the Alpha Capa Zayda chapter of Zayda Fibetis
Rory Incorporated for 85 years of transformational service. Their work exemplifies the intellectual
ingenuity, cultural resilience, and unyielding spirit that have been all marks of the African-American
experience in central Texas. In their continued commitment to the community of Travis County,
they preserve their enduring legacy of excellence, communal care, and finer womanhood.
Signed in and entered this day, the 18th day of February 2025, that is my problem.
Second. And please you're welcome to comments and then move out on and take a picture.
Okay. If I could and then I'll like each of my sisters here to have a brief word to say also.
I'll put them on the spot now. But I'm the president of Finsaicinau. Mrs. Cassandra Walker and on behalf of the
Africa Paseyta chapter of Zadifidh Beides-Soror, to incorporate it. We are deeply honored by you taking the
time to honor us in this way recognizing 85 years of existence of dedication, service, and impact
to the Austin Travis County community.
This landmark, this milestone, is a testament to the resilience, commitment, and impact
that those who contribute to our legacy path and present, as you mentioned, those who started
our chapter, is a commitment to them.
And it's up on us, our present members, to continue this legacy of making Theta Phi Beta,
the best sorority it is, and to know that we are a community action-oriented organization,
and we continue to exemplify our principles of scholarship, service, sisterhood, and
honor womanhood.
Now, I would give a thank you deeply for this honor that you bestowed upon us on today.
If I have each of my sisters, give their names, and just a brief comment or a comment.
I'm going to say the misjacks of the land.
Okay.
This is why we had to be land again.
Okay.
This is why we had to be land again.
My name is Mrs. Yvonne Swain, and I am the Elpacapa Zeta Chaplain, and I want to say to all
of you, thank you for this opportunity, and I also want to say to you that our ministry is
our community.
So we say, community is our ministry.
It is a pleasure to serve this community, and we look forward to continuing to serve you all.
Thank you.
Good morning.
I am Jessica Arbison.
I will give them some familiar with Commissioner Trevellian Walsha from the same hometown,
Natural Services City.
So I am happy to be a part of the organization of Zeta Phi Beta Incorporated.
I've been a member of five years.
The organization itself has been super beneficial to me as a parent, as a scholar, as a professional
and helping support my personal and professional initiatives in my passion for community.
And I am super excited to know that we are under precinct one, because Commissioner Trevellian
actually took care of my mother in a situation, and I know that he cares about community,
the elders, maintainer, Travis County, and so forth, so I wouldn't want to be under any other
precinct.
I am not right, but it's personal and so I am super happy to be, you know, to be
for our organization, to be recognized under precinct one, and I know the work that he has
put in, personally, and that it's impacted me personally, and so I'm just excited about
this opportunity to continue to collaborate as well with Travis County.
Thank you so much for all you do.
We met, serving, and it means something really important to know that sometimes there are people
that point out problems, and then sometimes there are people that are not only identified
the problem, they help make a way in solutions as well, and this organization has been making
solutions here for 85 years, so in the absence of Judge Brown, and Commissioner, as I
want to thank you all, I am Juanita Jackson.
My current role in the chapter is the Secretary and Treasurer, so it's important to definitely
recognize this moment as one of the biggest milestones we've been diligently working to ensure
that our relevant state is important to our community.
We see the changes that are happening around us, and so we just want to make sure that people
know that the Alpha Capital Zeta Chapter of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority is still present and relevant
and working in our communities, and so thank you all for taking this time to recognize us,
and we appreciate all the work that you do and definitely end the main or fluke-veal areas as
well, and our unincorporated area.
We do look to serve those areas, we're out there serving when we can, but our home-based
is central Austin, and so we definitely want to make sure that the people of the central
Austin area know that we're here to serve and to provide whatever services, so continue to
look out for conferences or many conferences that we have recognizing the power of she, which
is our initiative to social, health, and economic justice, which touches everybody, so it's
not just one race-based event, it's just all of the needs that we have in our community.
So again, we thank you for this opportunity and look forward to continue to serve the Austin
Travis County area.
Thank you all so much for your service.
You've got any other comments from the guys?
If not, I just got that she was an acronym.
Yes.
Economic.
And I missed that.
What?
It stands for social health and economic justice.
Very good.
I'm trying to do a way with that act.
Well, now, seriously, that's what we do.
You don't want to, you know, on just the description of the finer womanhood.
Yes, yes.
Really cool.
We are the only organizations that exemplifies that principle.
So it is our standard.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
How are you?
I'm not going to touch that.
We can have a whole conversation on just finer womanhood.
But I can say that many times, a fraternity and sorority experience, could be just what
we do when we're on a college camp.
But there's some people who decide that for not only their own children, others in the
neighborhood that they're not going to accept a characterization as a second-class citizen.
They work together and they work across chapter lines, they work across sorority lines,
they work across a panel in a council to make sure that every child who aspires has access.
It is about bringing, not only meaningful access but speaking, speaking life in the children
that might not have had access to that before.
Right?
It's seen what they could become because they become what they see and I'm always so impressed.
Last time we had an event, there might have been an 11th grader who said and talked about national
politics like we do and it's because of exposure.
But somebody has to take the time to go into the school to go into wherever they are and bring
them forward.
And you all have brought so many forward, just thankful for the work that you do and
commit it to continue to work with you until we leave no child by.
So thank you so much.
Thank you.
That is a second.
Well, no, you read it.
So yours was the motion.
I think I seconded it.
Any other comments?
If not all those in favor, raise your hand please.
Passes unanimously.
We've got a couple other quick corporations items to take up and then we can come down and take
a picture with you all if you can stick around for a few minutes.
All right.
Thank you.
I love that color.
Thank you.
We're going to adjourn the, yeah, congratulations.
We're going to recess, we're going to recess the commissioner's court and convene the meeting
of the Travis County Housing Finance Corporation voting session and take up item number
one.
Consider and take a per predaction on a loan agreement for a million dollars with the central
Texas Housing Accelerator Fund LLC for the development of affordable housing if you can
give a very brief.
Yes.
Thank you.
I will.
Kristi Moffitt Assistant Secretary for the Travis County Corporations after quite a while.
We are here.
So in December of 2023, we spoke to y'all about some revenue availability for the corporations
at that time you asked us to have the Austin Community Foundation to come and talk about
the Housing Accelerator Fund.
They did that in April of 2024 and at that time after that presentation, you asked us to negotiate
and complete some due diligence on loaning them a million dollars towards the fund.
And I am happy to tell you today that what you have are the documents connected to that
loan agreement and that million dollars will leverage millions of other dollars to help
loan dollars to affordable housing projects.
It will be focused that people at 80% of the median family income are less with a preference
at units at 60% or below.
They are also being asked to focus these dollars in that leverage with those dollars connected
to projects outside the city of Austin but within Travis County because there is a lot of development
and a lot of gap financing need with those projects as well.
They will be providing us as some of my annual report and then also they have an advisory board
who looks at every deal and makes determinations about what to recommend.
And so as they update those requirements they will be sharing those with us and accepting some
of our feedback if we have any.
If not all of us in favour?
I'd like to have some comments.
Thank you, Kristi, for digging into this.
It's new.
We're partnering with the city with the St. David's Foundation with private sector folks
and this is an opportunity like we've been talking about for years not only help with rental
housing but home ownership and to keep the money flowing through the community when it might
be standing still.
So thank you.
But these are all rental units just to clarify, correct?
No, not necessarily.
It is.
We don't know exactly yet.
We have an idea of what they're going to use.
So this is for affordable housing and 80% are below.
So they have done projects with Austin Habitat for Humanity.
They have done projects with multifamily developers and so what we know is that as they continue
to document for us all of the work that they do, we will have a picture twice a year that helps
us understand exactly what that affordability is.
What that money we're just saying.
Great.
Excellent.
And all of my colleagues for the work that has been done and for the tireless work
about commission Howard, she has dragged me to so many meetings.
But this is important that we that we focus on the whole continuum of housing.
Absolutely.
Agreed.
Great work.
Every vote.
And we haven't yet any further discussion?
Not always in favor.
As is unanimous.
Thank you so much, Christy.
Thank you.
Housing Finance Corporation and convene meeting of the Travis County B.K.
Road District No. 1 voting session.
The first item is to approve county treasure repayments.
Is there motion?
Some move.
Second.
Any discussion?
All those in favor?
I seconded it.
All those in favor.
Passage unanimously.
The second item is to authorize the county treasure to invest county funds.
No problem.
Second.
All those in favor?
Any discussion?
All those in favor?
Passage unanimously.
And we adjourn that.
And I think that's it for the corporations.
We've got one more.
Well, oh.
Oh.
Oh, actually.
So I adjourn the B.K.
Road District and convene the Travis County development authority voting session.
First item, consider and take appropriate action regarding resolution for that.
That.
I'm sorry.
It's not the development authority.
It's the health country.
It's listed as the development authority on the backup here.
And there's no language on my agenda for the Hill Country development corporation is the
language.
Oh, so we're not taking up the, uh, the Travis County development authority we're scratching
that.
Okay.
So we're taking up the Hill County, the Hill Country Development Corporation voting session.
Item number one, consider and take appropriate action to approve resolutions, authorizing
participation in various capacities in the financing development and operation of
self-sized dwell apartments and other related matters.
So second.
Any discussion?
Questions?
All those in favor?
Passes.
Thank you very much.
I think that's it for the corporations.
We're adjourning that corporation and we'll be resizing for lunch.
And our schedule has this back here, uh, one 30 that worked for everybody.
All right.
Okay.
Thank you.
Thank you all.
We'll be back one 30-ish.
Okay.
Ah, come on.
He's hanging out with those orchestrators.
Local government meeting.
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Local government meeting.
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So we're back from executive session, we in there discussed item 10D and I'll call that up now it's the item relating to letter of intent to apply for
the community wildfire defense grant and Commissioner Howard I'll pass it to you.
Thank you and thank you to the staff who's worked together. I think most of this language comes from staff and that we would go for the grant to increase our wild land mitigation and fire prevention efforts, especially in high risk wildfire areas and on county owned land.
We'd apply for grant with both public and private lands being eligible.
The proposed project areas would include the BCP, Travis County Parks, private land of budding Travis County Park land or we probably should say or BCP.
Additional details of the program could emerge from a planning process and then be presented to the court.
You see written on the paper I handed out that sort of basing some dollars on our past experience where we've increased the budget for wild land management crew and equipment.
We've done we spent three to four million on privately and brush removal during the storm.
So the dollars in front of you add up to depending on how we can handle the match six to eight million dollars.
Over a five year period, which would be between 300,000 and 400,000 annually as the match.
And I would just make that as a motion that we would direct staff to put a program together that sort of mirrors this outline and submit a letter of intent for the grant.
That'd be my motion.
Commissioner Howard second from Commissioner Gomez and he's discussion.
Commissioner Howard I'm wondering if you would accept a friendly modification under the language for the purpose, where it says especially in high risk wildfire areas and county owned land.
If we can say especially high risk wildfire areas prioritizing county owned land then private land.
I didn't want to put the word prioritizing in it because you know we need to let the program develop but I'm not going to stand in the way a progress here if that's how you need it to be.
I think the way it's written is a nice and broad.
I think if we add the language prioritizing county owned land then private land we make clear that we're identifying high risk areas but we're prioritizing action on county owned land then private land.
Okay.
I don't know how you handle prioritizing it but I guess that's fine.
Okay.
Some of that may get covered throughout the narrative and so this is really just to help set parameters for what the court would like to accomplish but narrative I think can make those points more fully.
Yeah, so under the purpose.
And we're not.
We're not binding ourselves to this today like we would see a grant and obviously if we decide later that we really want to.
We'll be planning something else.
Okay.
All right.
Great.
But we are applying for the grant with this as the general guidance on the scope.
This so we're clear that's what we're directing you to do apply for grant with this is the guidance on the scope.
Yes.
And with that direction I will bring back a letter of intent on March 11 with this detail provided for y'all to approve once again and then.
With that authorization I can submit the grant for.
To the US for service.
Okay.
We have a motion a second with a friendly amendment any further discussion court members.
Just thanks appreciate the all the energy and effort that you're making in this commissioner.
All right.
All those in favor.
We have no college.
All those in favor.
Please raise your hand.
That's as unanimously.
All right.
Forget.
Okay.
Item 31 received briefing take a perfect action regarding public comment on the draft environmental impact statement for the Austin might rail.
For the Austin might rail phase one.
Judge.
I'm over approval of the proposed letter.
Commenting on the draft environmental impact statement for the Austin might rail phase one project as discussed in executive session.
That includes direction for any language modifications.
Yes.
As discussed in executive decision.
Second.
Motion from commissioner to brilliant second from commissioner.
Any discussion?
We have no callers.
All those in favor.
Please raise your hand.
That passes unanimously.
Let's see.
We also in there.
We discussed item 11 relating to county appointments to the central health board of managers.
Do you have the.
I do list.
Judge.
I move that we invite.
Sedora Jefferson.
Brittany Justice.
Veronica Rodriguez.
And Dr. Zamora.
To be interviewed.
Second.
All right.
Motion from commissioner.
Howard.
Second from commissioner.
She any discussion?
We have no callers.
All those in favor.
Please raise your hand.
That passes unanimously.
Let's see.
We also.
We also discussed item 30 relating to the housing initiative.
We're not taking any action on that today.
Item.
Thirty two.
We did not discuss in there.
We're going to discuss that in the future.
Meeting.
Item.
Thirty.
Three.
Yeah.
Did we discuss 33 in there?
Is that.
I was a letter.
It just made through.
Oh.
Well.
Did.
We got another.
Thirty.
Was the grant.
Federal actions affecting grant programs.
And I had no action.
Okay.
Yeah.
I don't think we'd.
Yeah.
Discuss.
We.
Okay.
So no.
Post.
Okay.
Post.
Okay.
So that concludes.
All the business for today.
Thank you all for entertaining.
These fourth graders earlier.
And we'll.
adjourn here at five forty two.
Thank you.
Great.
Thank you all.
Thank you.