County and city provide services

County and city provide services

Written by Tiffany Young Friday, 26 September 2008

Unlike city government, which has the power to do whatever is not deemed unlawful by Texas law, county government is exactly opposite in that it can only do what legislation specifies.

“For the most part cities decide what they need to do, how they need to do it and how much they need to do. It is the opposite with counties: Counties are told what to do, they’re told what standard to do it, they’re told how to do it and they’re told at what level to do it, but they do not control those things,” said Donald Lee, executive director for the Texas Conference of Urban Counties.

Major responsibilities

Major responsibilities of the county include building and maintaining roads, constructing and operating jails, operating the judicial system, maintaining public records, collecting property taxes, issuing vehicle registration and transfers and registering voters. The county also is responsible for conducting elections, law enforcement within unincorporated areas and providing health and social services to those who cannot afford it.

Unincorporated areas

More than 1,200 miles of roads in Travis County are in the unincorporated area, or are on land not within any of the 27 municipalities within Travis County. Some people choose to live in unincorporated areas because they want less government regulation. Others enjoy not having to pay city taxes. However, living outside a city often means fewer services. For instance, county government does not provide water, wastewater, trash collection, libraries or many other services residents take for granted in a city. While library districts, municipal districts, health districts and many other taxing entities can be created with a vote, without creating a district for a specific service, many areas lack these services.

“The residents of unincorporated urban areas generally do not share the belief of so many people out in the county, which is ‘I moved out here to be away from the city,’” Lee said. “Folks moving out to large subdivisions being built [right outside the city], they’re not moving to get away from the city even if they say they are. They’re moving to find affordable housing. They’re moving because that’s where the market is providing the housing they want at the price they can afford and they expect the same level of service and security that they would get if they were still in the city.”

Inter-local agreements

Because of the overlap between jurisdictions of counties and cities, Travis County and the city of Austin have created many inter-local agreements, or formal collaboration contracts.

“We have just a huge number of inter-local agreements where we try to collaborate to make sure we reduce duplications as much as possible and promote efficiency,” Travis County Judge Biscoe said.

One inter-local agreement Biscoe believes promotes efficiency is for Central Booking. The sheriff’s office processes and houses detainees for Austin prior to magistration and processes fingerprints to match to existing prints in the Austin Police Department’s database.

Emergency medical services

Another area where the county and city have collaborated is emergency medical services. Austin and Travis County fund and operate a countywide EMS. The county contracts with the city for the operation of the ground-based advanced life support system transport and the program management of the Star Flight air EMS.

Ground transportation units or ambulances throughout Travis County’s unincorporated areas, or areas not within Austin’s city limits, are from Austin.

“We reimburse them the cost of equipment and the personnel to operate [EMS], and so that’s what I mean by eliminating duplications and promoting efficiency. It’s a lot more efficient for them to do it because they’re already staffed up to do it — to hire, to recruit, to train, to supervise. And they have mechanics to work on the ambulances that way we have the same ambulances; countywide. So, it’s not one at the county and another at the city. It’s pretty much the same ambulances, the same operating personnel, same supervisors, so we certainly achieve some efficiencies there.”

Transportation

Another area of collaboration is transportation. Cooperation among governmental entities is important because cities are required to maintain roads within the city, and counties are required to maintain county roads. However, since many wind through cities and counties, it is not always so clearcut. Travis County and Austin work on a variety of road projects together, including current projects on Howard Lane, Wells Branch Parkway and Bratton Lane.

2009 travis county preliminary budget

Funding:

Funding for Travis County comes from property taxes, fines, fees and some other sources, such as grants for specific projects and uses. Nelda Wells Spears, Travis County Tax Assessor/Collector, collects Travis County taxes. The county has a unified tax bill, meaning each taxing entity within the county has an inter-local agreement so residents receive only one bill, issued by the county for all property taxes, including Austin Independent School District, Round Rock Independent School District and Pflugerville Independent School District as well as the city of Austin. Having a unified tax bill also results in lower costs than if each entity collected its own taxes.

Expenses:

This year the county has increased spending in areas affected by higher gas prices.

"Like most homeowners, we have been heavily hit with fuel costs, and when we've got 11,000 vehicles or pieces of equipment, it gets to be real substantial," said Travis County Judge Sam Biscoe. "We budgeted like $2 million in '08 and I think the final cost will be closer to $3 million."

Biscoe also said gas prices increased the cost of feeding inmates in the correction facilities.

Corrections will be another area of increased spending for the county because it is opening a new facility mid-year that will require another 40 to 50 additional correctional officers.

County organization

Texas has 254 counties, each consisting of four elected commissioners and a county judge. Each commissioner represents one of four precincts, divided evenly among the population.

County judge, Samuel T. Biscoe

314 W. 11th St., Ste. 520, Phone: 854-9555, Fax: 854-9535, Sam.Biscoe@co.travis.tx.us

Travis County judge — In rural counties, a judge presides over county court cases, while in urban counties, such as Travis County, the position is mostly administrative. The only judicial role the Travis County judge plays is presiding over Texas Alcohol Beverage Commission hearings.

According to the Texas Association of Counties, the judge is also responsible for calling elections, for posting election notices and for receiving and canvassing the election returns.

Commissioner, Precinct 1, Ron Davis

314 W. 11th St., Ste. 510, Phone: 854-9111, Fax: 854-4897, Ron.Davis@co.travis.tx.us

Commissioner, Precinct 2, Sarah Eckhardt

314 W. 11th St., Ste. 530, Phone: 854-9222, Fax: 854-6446, Sarah.Eckhardt@co.travis.tx.us

Photo by Todd Williams

Commissioner, Precinct 3, Gerald Daugherty

314 W. 11th St., Ste. 500, Phone: 854-9333, Fax: 854-9376, Gerald.Daugherty@co.travis.tx.us

Commissioner, Precinct 4, Margaret Gómez

314 W. 11th St., Ste. 525, Phone: 854-9444, Fax: 854-9535, Commissioner.Gomez@co.travis.tx.us

Travis County commissioners — According to the Texas Association of Counties, the job of the county commissioner calls for hands-on service delivery as well as policy-making budget decisions. Four commissioners, each elected from a quarter of the county’s population, serve along with the county judge on the Commissioners Court. In addition to assuring county roads are maintained, commissioners vote with the county judge to set the budget for county departments and adopt a tax rate.

Commissioners Court — Travis County Commissioners Court is held every Tuesday at 9 a.m. at the Commissioners Courtroom at 314 W. 11th St.

Other responsibilities of the commissioners court:

• Establishes long-range thoroughfare, open space, land use, financial and law enforcement/jail plans
• Acquires property for rights-of-way or other uses determined to be in the public's best interest
• Reviews and approves subdivision platting and wastewater treatment for rural areas
• Provides rural ambulance services and subsidizes rural fire protection
• Oversees the construction, maintenance and improvement of county roads
• Appoints nonelected department heads and standing committees
• Supervises and controls the county courthouse, county buildings and facilities

Urban counties

Counties within an urban setting create unique situations that have made some legislators wonder if cities and counties should merge. According to the city of San Antonio’s Citizens Commission on City/County Service Integration, a county home rule amendment allowing city-county consolidation was added to the state constitution in1933. Efforts to draft county charters in Bexar, El Paso, Tarrant and Travis counties proved it was unworkable, and the amendment was repealed in 1969.

“I do not hear any serious proposals this session, but it’s a sort of proposal or issue that never goes away,” said Donald Lee, executive director for the Texas Conference of Urban Counties. “My impression is that it doesn’t go away because of a lingering misunderstanding at how much overlap there is between cities and counties. There are actually very few services that cities provide that counties provide. Generally, the services cities provide go unprovided in the unincorporated area, or there are special districts providing that service.”

According to Travis County Judge Sam Biscoe, one reason it would be difficult for Travis County to be integrated into a consolidated city/county is there are not just two entities to combine, but also 22 other cities outside the city of Austin within Travis County.

“Outside the city of Austin we probably have 150,000 county residents in unincorporated areas. So it’s a huge undertaking,” Biscoe said. “It can be done, but I think that you need to have just a whole lot of laws, a whole lot of elections and a whole lot of people that want to do that.”

More power

One of the reasons a county might want to join cities is to have more power. Counties have no zoning authority.

In the next legislative session, there are two laws that, if passed, could give counties more opportunity to work with developers and landowners for future planning.

“There are two big-ticket items that are near and dear to my heart,” Travis County Commissioner Sarah Eckhardt said. “One is land-use planning, a piece of legislation that would give us the authority to establish a land-use plan and then from that to establish some form of performance base of buffering to help us achieve that plan.”

According to Eckhardt, the land-use planning would not give counties the authority to tell people what they can build on their land, but would allow the county to ask them to have a buffer between, say an industrial plant and nearby homes.

“We can’t regulate landowners. We can’t tell you what to do with your property. But what we should be able to do, which we can’t do, is have an orderly process of growth that preserves the desirable nest of the region,” Eckhardt said.

The other ticket item is impact fees, a charge on new development to pay for the construction or expansion of off-site capital improvements that are necessitated by and benefit the new development. For instance, if a retail store wanted to move into an area with a two-lane road inadequate for a high traffic area, the county could collect an impact fee that it could only spend on transportation in that area of the county.

“What I’d like to be able to do is to say, ‘You can put 2,000 homes on this two-lane rural road if you contribute toward the improvement of that road to a point where it’s adequate to carry the impact of those 2,000 homes,’” Eckhardt said. “In many cases developers who are ready to develop right now will say, ‘Heck yeah, because I want to be able to sell these houses and I won’t be able to sell them when people see that it’s on an inadequate road.’”

Inter-local collaborations between Travis County and the City of Austin

Source: Travis County

Formal collaborations with the city of Austin, including inter-local agreements, grants and established committees or task forces:

Inter-local agreements:

• Emergency Medical Services unified system — The city of Austin and Travis County fund and operate a county-wide EMS. Travis County contracts with the city for the operation of the ground based advanced life support system transport and the program management of the Start Flight air EMS.
  
• Starflight Operations — The county owns and manages the two Star Flight emergency helicopters and hires the mechanics and pilots.
  
• Central Booking (includes the Automatic Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) and Judicial Magistration — The sheriff’s office processes and houses city detainees prior to magistration. The county processes fingerprints into the AFIS system to match to existing prints in APD’s database.
  
• Combined Transportation Emergency and Communications Center (CTECC) including regional radios, computer-aided dispatch, mobile data communications and Emergency and Communications Center (EOC). — The city of Austin and Travis County are the managing partners in the regional 800 MHz digital trunked radio system, which allows interoperability between the city and county along with other public safety agencies throughout the county. the city and the county share a computer-aided dispatch system. The CTECC houses city the 911 and dispatch centers for many local public safety agencies, along with the TCDOT intelligent traffic system. The Austin/Travis County Emergency Operations Center is located at the CTECC and close operational collaboration occurs during emergency events.
  
• Public Health and Human Services Agreements with the city of Austin — An agreement between the county and city provides a broad range of services including health and safety code compliance, disease and injury prevention, immunization, HIV outreach and prevention, animal control and investigation of public nuisances.
  
• Medical Services — In May 2004, the Healthcare District was established. The district assumed responsibility for funding and providing medical and hospital care for indigent and needy persons within Travis County (http://more.impactnews.com/1403). The Healthcare District contracts with the city and county for some of these services.
• Election Services (includes use of city facilities for polling and voter support) — The county has an election services agreement with the city regarding the county’s conduct of city of Austin elections. The county works closely with the city on issues such as the use of city facilities for polling locations and addressing voter concerns. The city is also a close collaborator on the purchase of voting equipment and on various elections task forces.
  
• Telecommunications and Computer Infrastructure – GAATN (UT) — The county and city have collaborated extensively on the technical and operational aspects of the infrastructure that services telecommunications and computer data transfers throughout the local region.
  
• Housing Weatherization — Weatherization services are provided by County Direct Staff. Clients are deemed eligible by Austin Energy and referred to the Housing Division for receipt of services.
  
• Indigent Assistance — Through donations received by Austin Energy, the county can grant assistance for eligible clients whose utility bills are in arrears and reside within Travis County. These services are part of a broader indigent assistance provided by the county.
  
• Radio repairs with the city radio shop for patrol cars and radios — The city radio shop installs radios in county patrol cars and programs all handheld and vehicle radios. They also install some light bars and equipment in patrol vehicles.
  
• Hazardous Waste Collection — The city and county routinely share training opportunities and joint operational coordination with regards to hazardous materials.
  

Contracts or grants:

• Tax collections — The county provides centralized tax collections services to a variety of governmental entities, including the city of Austin, which results in lower costs than if each entity collected its own taxes directly.
  
• Various road projects (includes Howard lane, Perkins/Mozell Road, Kennedy Ridge Drainage and Bratton Lane)
  
• Balcones Canyon Preservation/Conservation Program (http://more.impactnews.com/952) — The city and the county are managing partners in this innovative program to maintain open space and protect endangered species.
  
• Mental Health Services (includes Crisis Intervention Unit with Austin Police Department) — The sheriff’s Crisis Intervention Unity is co-located with APD at the Austin State hospital and back each other up in response to mentally Disturbed Persons calls.
  
• Community Development Block Grant — Travis County staff received training from the city in the development of the county’s proposal.
  
• Justice Assistance Grant (JAG), formerly the Local Law Enforcement block Grant (LLEBG) — This collaboration between APD and the county sheriff’s office involves the sharing of federal funding to address law enforcement needs in the community. The funding is typically for equipment enhancement and/or technology.
  
• Building Bridges Campaign through a National Crime Prevention Council Grant — This collaboration brings together local public safety officials and community leaders/advocates to address causal factors of crime in our community.
  
• Solid Waste Enforcement Grant — A grant administered through TNR, provides funds to purchase equipment, services and training for solid waste enforcement efforts. ATCHHSD Environmental Unit receives funds along with several county departments. Provides services related to Public Health Interlocal between the city and county.
  

Established Committees, Task Forces or Teams:

• Community Action Network — The county works in conjunction with the city and other agencies to achieve sustainable social, health, educational and economic outcomes through engaging the community in a planning and implementation process that coordinates and optimizes public, private and individual actions and resources.
  
• Auto Theft Task Force — The Sheriff’s Office Combined Auto Theft Task Force work joint operations with APD’s Auto Theft Unity working together to shut down theft rings and chop shop operations in the area, as well as provide public education on ways to prevent auto theft.
  
• Downtown Austin Alliance — A collaborative group that involves the city and the county and other critical stakeholders to ensure a vibrant and safe downtown region.
  
• Child Fatality Review Team — Coalition of justice and law enforcement entities as well as health care providers and the Center of Child Protection who review deaths of children uner the age of 18. includes APD.
  
• Child Protection Team — A team of representatives from justice, law enforcement, social service and community entities that provides a coordinated response to child abuse referrals. County Sheriff’s Office and APD co-locate and work daily with members of the team to investigate child abuse cases.
  
• Family Violence Task Force — Community-wide coalition of justice and law enforcement entities that includes Travis County and the city of Austin as well as service providers focused on domestic violence response issues and ways to reduce family violence in the area.
  
• Family Violence Protection Team — A team of law enforcement, prosecution and victim services personnel that provides direct response to domestic violence referrals. City obtained federal grant that pays for salaries of many of the team members (including ADA and ACA). Sheriff’s Office Detectives and Supervisors co-locate and work daily with members of the tema to investigate family violence cases.
  
• Substance Abuse Planning Partnership — A collaboration of substance abuse providers as well as justice system entities that provide planning around substance abuse issues in our community (City HHS).
  
• Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) — The District Attorney’s Office and APD are both members of the Sexual Assault Response Team and are included in the MOU with the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners.
  
• Gang Task Force — A coalition of law enforcement and justice system entities as well as school officials and service providers focused on developing strategies to impact gang activity in our community (APD). The goals are to investigate and apprehend criminal gang members as well as providing education for our youth on alternatives to joining a gang.
  
• Neighborhood Conference Committees — A program that directs first-time juvenile offenders to appear before panels of their neighbors who review cases and recommend sanctions. (APD)
  
• Justice System Coordination Committee (formerly the Jail Overcrowding Task Force) — This is a collaborative effort involving a wide variety of governmental and private entities involved in the criminal justice system that focuses on ways to better coordinate the various parts of the system itself and reduce the unnecessary incarceration of individuals in the county jail.
  
• Mayor’s Mental Health Force Monitoring Committee — This committee includes stakeholders from the city and county to effectuate recommendations from the original Mayor’s Mental Health Task Force. The monitoring committee meets monthly to share information and look for ways to accomplish the recommendations.
  
• Austin/Travis County Mental Health Hail Diversion Committee — A coalition of justice system entities and mental health providers focused on development of strategies to enhance services and processes for mentally ill defendants (APD).
  
• Envision Central Texas — A regional planning group that focuses on collaborative efforts among governmental and private interests to help shape the long term growth of the metropolitan region. http://more.impactnews.com/1584
  
• Joint City-County Coordinating Committee — A committee of elected city and county leaders that meet periodically to discuss issues of common interest and to enhance coordination and collaboration between city and county entities.
  
• Community Justice Council — A statutorily created structure responsible for approving probation department Community Justice Plan, is the public safety planning body for CAN and includes city council and APD.
  
• Joint Terrorism Task Force — This unit, headed by the local FBI provides intelligence and investigative resources in the targeting of terrorist activity in the Central Texas area.
  
• Travis County Illegal Dumping Committee — This committee meets monthly and includes multiple city and county departments along with representatives of other Travis County Area jurisdictions to combine efforts to combat illegal dumping and other environmental related offenses.
  
• Regional Enforcement Task Force — Both the city and county are signatories to a formal inter-local agreement along with jurisdictions throughout the 10-county CAPCOG region, to combat illegal dumping and other environmental-related offenses. Meets quarterly.
  
• Mayor’s Committee on Disabilities — County and city representatives interact and collaborate on ways to increase public awareness of the special needs of people with disabilities and to increase compliance with handicap parking laws.
  

Ongoing collaborations involving programmatic coordination among offices

• Courts, Prosecution and Law Enforcement:
  • Drug Court
  • Truancy Court
  • Helping to establish the Downtown Austin Community Court
  • Warrant arrest fees and service
  • Handicapped Parking
  • Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) teams with APD
  • Traffic Control and DWI
  • Narcotics investigations and control
  • Center for Child Protection
  • Organized crime collaboration
  • Counter-terrorism Planning Group
  • Jury empanelling for city courts
  • Downtown Austin Reentry Initiative
  • Technology improvements in all patrol cars through sharing of technology grant
  • Support for community policing program, assigning deputies to specific neighborhood districts
  • Participation in National Night Out
  • School Safety Consortium
  • Computer Forensics Unit
  • Environmental Enforcement Collaboration
    
• Emergency Services:
  • Pandemic Flu Planning Group
  • Mass Casualty Planning Group
  • Incident Management Systems Oversight Group
  • Fire Departments
    
• Social Services:
  • Various Children Youth Programs
  • Adult Workforce Training
  • After-school programs
  • Homeless programs, including ECHO Committee (10-year plan to end chronic homelessness)
  • Childcare, including Child Care Council
  • Summer Youth Employment Program
  • Direction of joint funding into Austin/Travis County MHMR
  • Congregate Meals
  • Rural Transportation Services
    
• Regional and Economic Planning:
  • Joint coordination with city and TxDOT to develop a Regional intelligent Transportation System Deployment Plan
  • Creating economic incentives for private instrument in the Desired Development Zone (The Domain, Home Depot Data Center and Samsung http://more.impactnews.com/1141)
    
  • Right-of-way planning and execution for Toll 130, Toll 45 and Toll 1 north extension
  • Testifying jointly before state lawmakers on local gas tax option election
  • Support to create the Austin/San Antonio Commuter Rail District (http://more.impactnews.com/1299)
  • Joint efforts to steer infrastructure into desired development zone near Toll 130
  • United effort to oppose TxDOT’s plans to expand MoPac into Central Texas Austin neighborhoods
  • Clean Air Pact
  • Adoption of joint subdivision rules with Austin providing for one-stop office
  • Adopting new water quality rules with tougher new standards impacting new development in western Travis County
  • Mapping and GIS support from city GIS department
    
• Ad hoc collaborations on specific topics:
  • Hurricane displaced evacuees
  • Joint funding to reduce coyote population
  • Exploration of central management of all birth/death records
  • Development of the Hospital District
  • Coordination on Historically Underutilized Businesses
  • Affordable housing
  • Downtown Austin Parking Study
  • Rural Address Mapping Coordination