Public Safety Committee Meeting Transcript – 05/26/2015 Title: ATXN 24/7 Recording Channel: 6 - ATXN Recorded On: 5/26/2015 6:00:00 AM Original Air Date: 5/26/2015 Transcript Generated by SnapStream ================================== [3:09:37 PM] >> Zimmerman: Hello, everyone, thank you for coming. I'm Don Zimmerman chair of the public safety committee and we'll call this meeting to order at, I've got 3:13 P.M. And first order of business here, may 26, our first order of business is approval of the minutes. There are some detailed minutes here that we've printed out. Are there any comments or corrections about the meeting minutes? Well, if there's no objection then we'll go ahead and approve the minutes. Any objection to that? Nope. Okay. Thank you for approving the minutes. Our second item here is discussion and possible action. We were going to have another discussion about the municipal judge search that we're doing. I mean, the municipal clerk, I'm sorry. So who do we have here, right? We have someone to kind of give us an update? Thank you. Could you just come forward? >> Chair, while they're coming forward to talk to us, could you just real quick update us on where we are in the process and the timeline that we're looking at for the posting and whether we need to take any [3:11:38 PM] action today to pass along to council on a Thursday meeting agenda? >> Zimmerman: This is a good question. Thank you, council member pool. So we got an update on the job description from hr and several postings. It looked like that all of the comments from the April 27 meeting appeared to have been addressed in the most recent draft of the postings that we had, and I guess we're going to get them right here. So I think -- I think we're doing well in that. We got some feedback from the judges' offices. They seem to be happy with the remarks, but we'll have some more comments on that here shortly. Do you have any other questions about those? >> Pool: No, I was just looking for a timeline. When would we need to have -- does this need to go to a council agenda, and if so, what's our timeline? >> Zimmerman: My understanding is that hr has got this rolling according to a calendar they gave us before. I think they're kind of on autopilot driving the process, and the next time we're going to be involved is after they've gotten some feedback and some applications based on the postings. So I think we're -- let's let you guys take from here. >> Good afternoon members of the public safety committee. My name is joy hays, interim director of human resources. Today I have Sonya Alexander harry, who is the recruiter responsible for this position. What you have before you is the powerpoint presentation that will take you through the timeline and process as has been requested. Also, the updated copy of the profile based on all of the feedback that we received is also in your packet, and an updated copy of the actual job description is here before you now. Sonya? >> Okay. And so -- I'm so glad that you asked that question about where we are in the process, and I wanted to report to you, if you'll turn to the second page of your powerpoint presentation, it looks like this. It has a timeline and it has [3:13:39 PM] some key milestones and tasks identified, and one of the most key right now is that we have just posted the position on the city of Austin employment web site. We posted it as of Friday. We also updated and put the update and finalized the publisher document, which is the brochure, which is the detailed recruitment profile after we gathered input from the stakeholders. That brochure has also been formatted for web format that you can find on the city of Austin web site at Austin, texas.gov/court clerk. So some other key tasks and timelines, if you'll look at the week and the dates, they're detailed, and I won't read through all of them but there are several that are key that I think I must speak to, and mainly in the hiring cycle we would be looking at the recruitment phase at this point, so we're advertising, in the midst of doing that, when I get back to the office I'll finish getting it all posted into the web sites and the social media that we identified -- pre-identified. We also will be sending a targeted recruitment profiles to individuals -- or -- that are similar positions throughout the country, targeted people identified for us. The next phase of the process will be the screening, and that's during the weeks of may 26 -- 25 to June 16, until the position closes on June 16. So we'll be screening applications as they come in. We've identified some key areas that we're looking for, and we'll be screening the applicants or candidates for those items, the things that the stakeholders have identified throughout the meetings that we've had and the discussions and the emails that we've had. We have -- we'll be also working on the logistics simultaneously. There are some key logistics that we have to deal with in terms of scheduling meeting [3:15:41 PM] notices, to get them on your calendar, to be able to meet the other phases of the process, which are selection, interviewing and selection. So we'll be working on calendar dates, meeting notice postings and those types of logistics in the coming weeks. When the position closes we'll be looking at -- >> Zimmerman: I'm sorry, there's a question here. >> Pool: Real quick question. Thank you, Sonya. Will the -- I guess this is for our committee. Will we be doing the interviews as a group, the committee, like we did for the auditor in executive session? >> Zimmerman: Yes, I think that would be the will of our committee. Thanks. >> Okay. I'll note that. You all will interview as a group? >> Yes. >> Okay. So in the interview -- process -- prior to the interview process we'll be meeting with the public safety committee members to present the candidates that meet the minimum requirements -- the preferred requirements and all the things that you've identified to identify those candidates that you want to bring in for an interview. We'll have you endorse those and then we'll put it on your schedule. We'll have those prepre- identified in terms of a schedule, but we'll have those scheduled to interview with you and then following your interviews we would be doing the typical things like background checking, reference checking of the candidates or candidate that you identify to move forward in the process as a finalist. After everything has been vetted in terms of a background check, references, the interviews and you've identified your top candidate, we would be looking at salary negotiation and an offer negotiation, and final approval, and then hopefully within the next month of that decision being made a person relocating or starting their position in September. Any questions? Just to turn your attention to some of the recruitment sources, these are also [3:17:41 PM] recruitment sources that you identified in our stakeholder meetings, and some of the other stakeholders as well, and I'm about halfway through getting those posted with those organizations. I want to mention that all of these organizations do not have a web site or a career web site, so in those cases we're reaching out to the executive director of those organizations and asking them to review the posting and circulate to individuals or -- or identify individuals for us to circulate from their network. And the last -- if you'll turn to the last page of the next steps, and I've mentioned them before, screening the applications, and this is -- this process has now launched, so we're in the process of screening applications. I can tell you since I posted it there were four applicants to apply, and then I know that as we advertise in more places there will be more applicants to apply. We will be responding to applicant increase. My phone number is on the job posting and the recruitment profile and on the web site, so people will be asking questions and I'll be responding to those inquiries and providing weekly updates on the number of applicants and the number of qualified applicants to you weekly. And again, I'll be working on the logistics of scheduling interviews and posting meeting notices for the committee and for the council members. And also we don't wait till the last minute. We'll start working on the interview questions as well. >> Zimmerman: Could you tell me a little bit more about how that -- how that works? How do you develop interview questions and -- >> We look at the things that were identified when we were meeting with the stakeholders, and we also look at the competencies that were identified, or have been identified for executives for the city of Austin as well as what the hiring authorities have identified for us, and we craft questions, mostly behavioral-based questions, but there will be a MIX of questions that get at the technical abilities of that individual to work within a court operation. [3:19:41 PM] >> Zimmerman: When would we maybe see a draft of those? I'm just real curious to see what that would look like. >> Reasonably? Maybe two to three weeks. >> Zimmerman: Two to three weeks. Sounds good. Thanks. >> I want to point out similar to what we did with the auditor's process, we provided you more questions than you would want, just to provide the committee a chance to look through the questions and make decisions as a committee which ones you'd like to use in the interview process. >> Zimmerman: Terrific. Do we have judge coffee, I know you're here, is there somebody here that was going to speak to us for a few minutes on this issue? We have this posted until 3:30. We're going to move to -- at 3:30 we're going to move to the bus cameras, so we've got a few minutes here, if you want to go ahead. >> I'm happy to speak to anything if you have questions. First I wanted to tell you I'm sorry, judge statman sends her regret, she's out travel and sends her regret she won't be here till tonight. We mostly presented what we had last week, we also added in some just last-second things that Mr. Patrones had sent us and sort of some tweaking. But other than that -- I'm very happy -- I should speak for me, I'm very happy with where we are at this point. >> Zimmerman: One of the things that we had requested to put in, and it appears to be here, is we -- we put in language saying that the clerk works under the direction of the municipal judge, is that right? >> I remember that discussion -- presiding judge. >> The presiding judge? >> Yes. >> Zimmerman: Was there any -- did we have any detailed information about the downtown criminal court and how that played into -- >> I don't think we talked about the downtown Austin [3:21:43 PM] community court, you're talking about? >> Zimmerman: Yes, downtown Austin community court. >> We didn't really address that, I guess, when we were talking about the hiring of the municipal clerk. It's a slightly different circumstance because the court administrator is hired by the executive branch as opposed to being appointed by the legislative branch. Again, in Normal court circumstances that's still the way the hierarchy is generally set up, and it's not exactly in our court, but -- but the court administrator and I do work together, and so we do some of that. In terms of a long-term fix, that's probably something that would be a good thing for whoever is going to be the court administrators and the judges to have that as well. >> Zimmerman: I have one final question for you. Downtown have to answer it now -- you don't have to answer it now. Get back to me later. How is it going in terms of the budget planning and budget discussions? Because this is our first council, right? It's the if irs time to go through the budget -- it's the first time to go through the budget cycle. Part of the discussion we had before is who had what role, so is judge statman having a bigger role in the budget this year? Or what's going on? Is there anything different about that? >> I guess I'd rather let judge statman answer that, get back to you on that. >> Zimmerman: I guess that's a pass-through question. All right. I appreciate you -- is there anything else? >> Yeah, I'm Mitch Solomon -- >> Zimmerman: Hello, Mitch. >> I'm one of the municipal judges. I did have one comment or question I guess concerning your interview process. If you all would like at least to try to plan things, if you would like to have judge statman available while you all are interviewing people to be with you or available one way or another so she can plan for that. Have you thought about that? >> Pool: And we'll try to keep the -- [3:23:46 PM] >> Are -- generally you'll interview people yourself, but if you'd like to have her there, since she'll be supervising that person. >> Zimmerman: So the question here is judge statman wouldn't have a vote on the committee. She could observe and ask questions. We think that would be very helpful, yeah. >> Thank you. >> I'll coordinate scheduling logistics to include judge statman to be available. >> Thank you so much. >> Zimmerman: Good job. We really appreciate it. I think everybody has been pretty happy and we have a pretty good job description here. So job well done. It's exciting. Well, that brings us to our next agenda item, item 3, discussion and possible action on the ordinance creating a camera-enforced civil offense for illegally passing a school bus. I know we have some people to talk on that. >> Pool: Do we have -- yeah, we do. This is the ordinance here. Is this the new one? This is the one we'd be contemplating? I thought it was attached to -- okay. >> Since this was posted for 3:30, you probably should wait four minutes before you take it up. >> Zimmerman: Well, my clock says 3:28, so if you want to wait two minutes, okay. >> The satellite says 3:26 [chuckle]. [3:26:52 PM] >> Zimmerman: All right. I've got 3:30. Why don't you go ahead. >> Okay. John steiner, law department. As you may recall, the council passed a resolution which is in your backup, directed the staff to prepare an ordinance that would create a civil offense for illegally passing a school bus when the school bus has its stop arm down. Currently there is a criminal offense for doing that, but of course that requires a police officer to witness the event. What this does is it creates a civil offense, which is based on camera enforcement. That can't be a criminal offense because it isn't personal to the person driving; it's attached to the car, because the image that's created identifies the car but not necessarily the driver. Same way that red light cameras work. What the school district can't do for itself, which is why the city is involved at all, is that the school district can't create an ordinance, and so therefore they can't create a civil or criminal offense. So what the draft ordinance that you have, and there's only been one draft that you've been presented with, does, is that it is written generically so that any of the half a dozen or so school districts that overlap the territory of Austin could avail themselves of it. What it does, it essentially says that if they have installed a device on a school bus that would record a car illegally passing a school bus, and if they have adopted through their board of trustees a system of [3:28:55 PM] enforcement that satisfies due process requirements, then if a car illegally passes one of their school buses, they can enforce the civil offense. And the way this is set up is that it's entirely up to the school district how they do that, and the city doesn't really play a role. The school district could contract for the necessary hearings, either with another political subdivision or with a vendor, and it would be entirely up to the individual school district how they did that. The one school district that has expressed interest in doing this and is probably the impetus for why we're here today is aid, and aid has got representatives here to answer any questions that you may have. >> Zimmerman: I think council member pool -- council member pool had a question to start with, but before that, could you tell me briefly, I looked at page 1 of 3 of the ordinance here 12-1-72, and I think you touched on this, but under a, section 2, I guess that's what you were talking about, it looks like -- so these civil fines and adjudication of these disputes would not come through the city's municipal court system, it goes through something that the school board sets up? >> Yes, sir. Presumably the school board could contract with the city for that service, but that would be a matter of negotiation, and it may not be something the city wants to do. That would be another question. They could -- a number of political subdivisions have adopted these things, and they could contract with one of those political subdivisions. They could contract with a vendor to handle it, or they could do it themselves in-house, so that would be any school district availing themselves of the ordinance could set up a system for adjudication of these penalties, and as long as it satisfied the constitutional [3:30:55 PM] requirements of due process, it would be fine with us. >> Pool: So it sounds like these cases would not automatically or necessarily come to our municipal courts; is that right? >> That's true, that's right. >> Pool: Interesting. Because that was the one issue that I was really interested in in talking about and measuring to see if they did come to our dockets, what the impact was going to be and whether we would want to consider a revenue-sharing option. >> I specifically wrote the ordinance so we wouldn't have to do that. >> Pool: Okay. >> And so the city could be entirely out of it if the city chooses to be entirely out of it. >> Pool: So our action is purely ministerial, to allow a change to the ordinance, to allow the civil prosecution option? >> What this ordinance does -- the one thing the school district can't do for itself this ordinance does, which is create the civil offense. >> Pool: Okay. >> Everything else the school district can do for itself and it can do it however it -- it chooses to do it. The only thing it can't do is create a civil offense, so that's what I did. >> Houston: I appreciate that wide breadth, because in my district I have four school districts, and so if any of the four would like to use cameras, then they would be responsible for adjudicating any fines. And so I'm perfectly willing to allow them to do that. >> Zimmerman: I have another question. What is the precedence for the ordinance here? We have some other Texas school districts in cities that are doing something like this already or -- >> There are some school districts in Texas that are already doing it. I believe that San marcos [3:32:56 PM] school district has done it and -- >> Pool: I think Dallas. >> -- Georgetown. >> Dallas eanes, I think. >> This is Mel Wechsler, attorney for the aid. You can introduce yourself. >> Mayor, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman and members of the city council. Thank you very much for allowing us to come before you this afternoon. We really appreciate it, and we're really here to answer your questions. I just wanted to introduce kurush (indiscernible), I'm sure I got close to that, we call him Chris, and he's good with that. Chris is our director of transportation. Jim sessions is our director of procurement at the district, and you see our chief of police, Eric Mendez. All of these various departments have had a role in trying to make certain that the I's are dotted and the T's are crossed. Needless to say we want to thank John for all of his help and support. This started for us a couple years ago under the former superintendent, and vendors had come to the district to ask whether or not we'd be interested in this, and the former superintendent made it very clear that without a pilot study, we would have no idea whether there was even a need for this. So we did indeed conduct a pilot. The need was proven through the pilot, and when push comes to shove it really is about student safety. It's about our concern for the incidents that have already happened and the incidents we want to prevent from happening in any way we can associated with drivers of vehicles who take a lot of liberty in getting around school buses and of course putting our students and their families in danger. So again, we just want to thank you for your [3:34:56 PM] consideration of this measure and hope you'll be able to see your way clear. >> Zimmerman: So if I'm not mistaken, I think this is coming back to the city council, isn't it? I mean, irrespective of what this committee does, isn't it going to be back on full council agenda? >> Council member, John steiner, law department. This was an item from council that was sponsored primarily by council member tovo. The council sent it to committee for review. If this committee recommends it go back to council, then it will go back on the agenda as an item from the committee. If you don't, then presumably the same council members that brought it forth the first time could bring it forth again as an item from council. But only the city council can create an -- can pass an ordinance. Council committees cannot do that. So it can't become an ordinance unless it goes back to council. >> Pool: I might take this opportunity to make a motion that we approve this item as presented as with a recommendation for passage, so that it goes back to -- on to a council agenda for full council action at the next appropriate meeting date. >> Zimmerman: Okay, so council member pool makes a motion to recommend this ordinance to the full council, right? >> Second. >> Can the other side speak too? >> Zimmerman: Yes. You guys are on here. If there's no objection, can we go ahead and ask them to come up? It's five minutes until -- so we have brad parsons. Do you want to go first, brad? >> I'd like to give my time -- >> And Andrew, you're here and you're donating time, so you'll have six minutes. >> For Gus. [3:36:56 PM] >> Yes, Gus is for general communication. >> I want to -- he's going to start a video that will go for about five minutes. I'll take an additional one minute to sum up inconsistencies I heard spoken just a moment ago. This is a more complex situation than you've been led to believe so far, mainly in that the technology has had problems in the Dallas county schools area. So we're actually starting from the beginning of it. >> Zimmerman: Okay. >> This was an investigative report done in the Dallas area about this. It's the same system that would be sold to aisd. [Playing video] >> School bus stop sign, but it is not your car in the picture. >> That is just one of the complaints from drivers busted by those new school bus cameras in Dallas county, and that is not all. An NBC 5 investigation reveals the cameras cost tens of millions of dollars more than official first told. >> (Indiscernible) Uncovering new records, Scott? >> Brian, this is a story about a broken promise and millions of dollars of your money, complaints from drivers and questions about why a school district is using your money to run a side business. It started with a noble cause, protecting kids. Dallas county schools, special district that buses Dallas area students, installed cameras to catch drivers who don't stop. The plan sounded even better when we read this in the "Dallas morning news" in 2012. Dallas county school board member Larry Duncan estimated in the first year the program would bring in almost 11 million in fines, covering the cost to install cameras on Dallas county [3:38:58 PM] schools fleet. Is that misleading to say that? >> No, that was the best projection we had at the time. >> Records we obtained show the district collected only about 5 million the first year, not 11 million. Meanwhile the program has grown and cost skyrocketed. Last year Dallas county schools told us they spent about $17 million, but we've learned the number is much higher. In a minute we'll show you how much. But first hear what some drivers -- >> And this is the part to pay attention to. >> A split second matters. >> Gigi got a ticket but it was later dismissed. A hearing officer ruled there was no way Gigi could stop in time. The camera caught her right as the stop arm moved and she was already alongside the bus. >> My reasoning was valid. >> It turns out thousands of tickets have been dismissed, many other complaints about how the cameras work. More than 8,000 drivers appealed. More than 5,000 were dismissed, meaning the judge was convinced 68% of drivers who fought the tickets should not be fined. >> So how many people are paying these tickets that are invalid? >> George's ticket was dismissed because the vehicle in the picture was not even his. It was the city recycling truck. This impacts -- >> This impacts people's rights, and especially if you're guilty until you come down here and prove us innocent. >> Did they ever set -- if they set it up properly, great, protect the kids, run it fairly and we'll understand it. We're not there yet. The watchdog spent a day in the hearing watching drivers get ticked thrown tickets thrown out. Some because of wrong addresses,. >> We're in the 3000 block of harry Heinz here instead of 2000. >> The picture on ed's ticket shows the violation happened here but the address the system reported on ticket is actually way up [3:40:59 PM] there. Ed didn't have time to fight so he paid it. >> I had it (indiscernible). >> Fought it. But it's bad news for the school district. They don't get the money. So far they've lost out on about $1.7 million in dismissed tickets. On top of that they're still trying to collect about 9 million in fines from drivers who haven't paid. Meanwhile the cost of the program continues to climb. We added up checks the district has written, 25 million on video equipment that includes security cameras inside and out, adding another layer of safety. 9 million on contracted services, 2 million in processing services. The total bill, more than $49 million. Remember that pledge that the fines would quickly pay for the cameras? >> How could you be so off on these projections? >> One, you're focusing on the money. We have provided the students safety increase that we were after, and that's the most important. >> The district now says the program will be paid for in three years. But to cover all the costs -- >> This is important coming up. >> -- They need to collect even more than that $49 million. Why? Because the district spent even more money to launch its own camera business. They're now giving free cameras to other school districts across the state in exchange for splitting the money collected in fines. To do that documents we've obtained show Dallas county schools signed an expensive agreement with a camera supplier called force multiplier solutions. Deal makes Dallas county schools the only vendor of force multiplier cameras in Texas. >> And so what's that going to cost? >> The total cost is 25 million. >> 25 million on top of 49 million already spent, bringing the total to almost $75 million. The school district has actually gone into debt to launch its camera business, using bond money to finance the deal. [3:43:01 PM] [End of video] >> A long explanation of what's happening here. It's actually the Dallas county schools paid for this district and they're trying to contract other school school districts throughout the state to become a part of this and revenue share on these pictures. But what I wanted -- on these tickets. What I wanted to comment on section 12-1-72, you were told that this is the -- has been written to be the responsibility of the aid to adjudicate, and you were also told that maybe at some later point in time that aid could maybe contract to have some other entity adjudicate this. But in section C of 12-1-72(c) They cannot assign that adjudication responsibility as it's currently written to the city of Austin, to, say, the city municipal courts. You were told that but that's not what the language of this says. But what I want to say, though, is this: There are problems with the technology. That's why there were so many complaints -- by the way, that was the Dallas municipal courts that are adjudicating that with real professional judges. If I could have about a minute? >> Zimmerman: Yeah, finish your thought. >> Real professional judges adjudicate this in Dallas county. Here they're talking about giving that adjudication responsibility to aisd, who doesn't have a judicial system. They don't have professional judges there, and this is a system, same system it is, it's the force multiplier system that would be sold here. We're expected to think that aid is going to create a new judiciary that's going to be independent and responsible in the face of quite a few challenges they're going to get, and why are they getting the challenges? Because technology basically issues citations when a car hasn't actually truly passed with an indicator before they had an opportunity to do anything different. Like they're right next to the bus -- >> Zimmerman: So you're saying there's some technical problem where like [3:45:01 PM] if a sign just initially starts to move, maybe -- they're already on the side, the camera is already recording. >> Yes. The point is we need a professional judiciary the people can appeal to. That's a problem, there's no appeal in this. Section 11 doesn't even allow this to be a assigned to the municipal courts of Austin. The example in Dallas where it was a problem, these are handled by the Dallas municipal courts, not by the Dallas county of schools judicial system that doesn't exist, and we don't have one at aid either. Those are my points. Thank you for listening. We have a couple questions here. Thank you for listening. >> I don't have any questions -- >> Do you have questions for Mr. Parsons -- >> I have mold allergies anyway. [Laughter] >> The question is for the Austin independent school district. You all had a pilot program that lasted -- started last year, I believe? Can you give me some idea about how many -- you didn't charge anybody anything. You were just doing a pilot. Can you give me some of the statistics that you found through the use of the pilot? >> Yes, ma'am. I'm going to ask our director of transportation, Mr. Huffazi to do that for you, please. >> Thank you all very much. We piloted on 30 buses. We have three bus terminals, so we chose ten buses at each terminal throughout town. Starting last April, and it ended December of 2014. So on average we had violation of two per bus per day. So on average we recorded about 60 violations per day on 30 buses. In our pilot program we gave -- it was from three different vendors. We gave each one of them one -- and ten buses. And that's what they did. At this time we have not chosen a vendor to continue the program. [3:47:02 PM] We still have not, you know, approved our final vendor yet. >> Pool: Sir, in your pilot, it was a visual? There wasn't a camera, you were just checking -- what was the methodology on your -- >> Exactly what the vendors provided. They installed cameras on our school buses, and they sent me weekly reports, and they also sent me a final summary report of the whole pilot program. >> Houston: Oh, I was going to ask, did you have anybody complain -- well, you didn't give any citations, did you? >> We did not issue any citations, no, ma'am. We just wanted to see -- well, first of all, to collect the actual data to see if we have a problem. Unfortunately the problem exists. Number two, we did many events with the media and the community, actually (indiscernible) And myself did a media event one day to share the program. I have not heard the negative aspect of this from either the community or our media about this program. >> Houston: So if you chose to adjudicate this yourself, see, the cost is going to be borne by the school district, right? Is that correct? >> Yes. >> Houston: So any of the costs that are associated with the vendors or the adjudication, however you decide that, that's going to be borne by you? >> Yes, ma'am. >> Houston: So could you explain how you're going to adjudicate if people come up with a complaint? >> So this is all about the due process that's required, and everybody is going to get due process. There's no question about that. The one thing we're doing to minimize the amounts of complaints is we are -- at the -- at the recommendation of the APD chief, we'll make certain that it is a police officer who reviews all the video, that there will be [3:49:03 PM] nobody other than a certified law enforcement officer who's going to be reviewing the video and making determinations about whether or not there is something on the video that is actionable. I am a former hearings examiner, so I understand the hearings process very well, and so we will be creating this within the Austin independent school district, and I think the way it's going to work in conversations with Mr. Steiner and others, the complaints are going to come in to us. Once an individual gets a ticket it's going to say on the ticket who they need to contact in order to -- excuse me -- to appeal. We will have specific deadlines set up within which the appeals must take place and decisions rendered, and the appeals from the appeals, if necessary. We will hire qualified hearings examiners within the city of Austin. They don't have to -- they don't have to come -- and I don't mean the governmental body. I mean the city of Austin, and there are many instances in which we have individuals within the Austin independent school district hearing hearings. By the same token there are many instances in which we go out and hire qualified hearings examiners in order to review matters that have been appealed to the district. So while we don't have all of the I's dotted and all the T's crossed on this yet, we really don't have any doubts that we can ensure a fair process that has all the due process that the law requires. >> Pool: I actually saw the video that the gentleman brought to us to look at, and I saw it a year ago when it first aired, so when the item came to the full [3:51:04 PM] council I had reservations about the program based on my understanding of the video. So we hear from -- well, let me try this. Were you aware of the concerns that were raised in the Dallas area when you were talking with force multiplier? >> Yes, the district has been aware of the problems in Dallas county, and I might ask Jim sessions, our director of procurement, to talk about our own selection process, because again, we have three vendors who have submitted proposals. We have not made a decision about what vendor will get the award from the district. So, Jim, do you want to share whatever you can with members of the city council, please? >> Thank you for having us here this afternoon. So we're certainly not in a position to at this time select one vendor. We have three vendors that submitted a proposal at the beginning of the pilot. That was done under an advertised rfp process so it's very compliant with our education code and good practice for procurement. Each of the vendors was provided the same opportunity during the pilot to install their equipment on ten buses, run the pilot, produce the data and give us their conclusions. If we proceed with this project, you know, one of our next steps is to go back and revet each of the three vendors and really determine which of the three, if any, is the best to work with the district on such a program. >> Jim, I'm so sorry, may I ask him to share with you the vendors? [3:53:07 PM] >> Jim, do you want to identify who the three vendors are, please? >> Okay. I'm going on memory here, so there's American traffic solutions, and then there's the force multiplier, and then help me with the -- >> Steven -- >> Student guardian? >> Yes. >> Pool: I think the biggest concern that I have is to ensure that, in fact, this is a min tearial action by the -- ministerial action by the city of Austin, that we have no responsibility other than to create the ability for the school district to adjudicate at a civil level of prosecution, that there is no requirement by the city to provide municipal court time. It won't be on our dockets. I would be interested maybe to follow up after a period of time, if the school district proceeds with this, and I think it was important for you to mention that you have not chosen a vendor yet, and I know that the video was relating to a specific vendor, and I had seen that video as well and had similar concerns as have been raised here today. So -- so I would just like to have it restated what the responsibility of the city is in this, and -- and if we were to continue and send this ordinance for consideration to the full council, what, if any, liability would be in place for the city of Austin, or is it strictly entirely with whatever school district should choose to contract with them. >> Zimmerman: If I could add to that question, I think I heard you say something about you were planning to have a policeman review videos, and it would be an APD policeman or -- >> No, sir, no, it's aid pd. >> Zimmerman: Aisd pd. >> Aisd pd. [3:55:09 PM] >> Yes, council members, to answer your question, all this ordinance does is allow a school district to set up a camera enforcement program. All the city is doing in this ordinance is creating a civil offense if the school district sets up a camera enforcement program. The city does not undertake any liability or (indiscernible). But it was mentioned that in section 12-1-72 (C) Of the draft, it says that a procedure created by a school district to adjudicate these offenses cannot create a duty for a city employee or department. And so what that is saying is they can't unilaterally create any duties for the municipal court or for the APD under this. >> Pool: In the same way that we can't create one for them. >> Yes. Now, that does not prohibit 12-1-72 C does not prohibit interlocal agreement between the city and school district to take on some of those duties if that should be found to be desirable in the future. It just prohibits them from unilaterally creating a duty for us. In fact, of course they couldn't, but this makes it very clear that they can't. It does not prohibit interlocal agreement. If the city were to enter an interlocal agreement and that is not at all anticipated at this time, at least not by me, then that would have to come before council, because state law requires that all interlocal agreements be approved by the governing bodies of the participating governments. So that can't happen without -- that could not [3:57:09 PM] happen without more council action. And all this ordinance does is create the ability for school districts that overlap our territory to do this in the part of their territory that overlaps us. >> Pool: Thank you very much. >> Zimmerman: I have a quick question, if I could, and I don't know who this should go to, but there's been a lot of controversy about the red light cameras in the city of Houston, Texas, and elsewhere, and I think there was some legislation. Are some of you familiar with the Texas state legislation? What's happened to that? They were trying to ban cameras statewide. >> There was a -- I'm sorry, go ahead. >> Well, I'll go ahead. There was a bill -- >> Houston: (Indiscernible) At the same time. >> There were a couple of bills introduced, one of which would have aimed at red light cameras, one of which also would have prevented school bus stop arm cameras. That one sailed rather easily through the senate, I believe it was 73-3, but stalled in house committee, and it is, everyone says now, effectively dead, though my experience with the Texas legislature is that until signed in dye -- signee dye I would not bet on anything. Signy dye is a week from yesterday. Is this time next week the regular session will be over, but at this point it looks at though the bill that would have banned stop arm cameras on school buses is most likely not >> Even though it did pass the senate. >> Zimmerman: We're going to have to take a vote in a second. >> Houston: I have a question. I want to be here to the people here in opposition to this -- this ordinance is that the [3:59:10 PM] issues to me sound like you have with the school district. Not with the city of Austin. Because it's about cost, it's about adjudication and the due process and they're responsible for all of that. So I suspect that you'll show up at their next school board meeting when this is discussed. >> Zimmerman: Okay, sorry, councilmember pool is going to have to leave and we'll loose our quorum. So I'll call the question if there's no objection. There's a motion on the floor. You have a motion and you seconded this to advance it to the recommendation to the whom council. All in favor, pool and Houston. I'm going to be voting against. So the vote is 2-1. With vice chair today czar is absent. Thank you for coming. >> Thank you very much. >> Houston: And thank you, lady for coming. >> Zimmerman: We have guspenia. Can you -- Gus Pena, could you come quickly. Thank you, sir, thank you for coming. >> Commission members. Gus Pena. Quickly, we've got the criminalization of truancy at the capital. That's going to be decriminalization of truancy. Number two, one is going to bring controversy and hiring more officers, I ran for city council we need to keep the status quo, crime will increase. We have more cartels in obvious Austin and I wanted to support sources for criminal court. I used to be a bailiff. Keep these in mind. Thank you, Mr. Na. We can go ahead and adjourn. I've got 4:04 P.M., with no objection, our meeting is adjourned.