Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission
Ad Hoc Infrastructure Committee
Jan. 24, 2001
Commission Hearing RoomTexas Parks & Wildlife Department Headquarters Complex
4200 Smith School Road
Austin, TX 78744
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7 BE IT REMEMBERED that heretofore on the
8 24th day of January 2001, there came on to be
9 heard matters under the regulatory authority of
10 the Parks and Wildlife Commission of Texas, in the
11 commission hearing room of the Texas Parks and
12 Wildlife Headquarters complex, Austin, Travis
13 County, Texas, beginning at 10:32 a.m., to wit:
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APPEARANCES:
17 THE PARKS AND WILDLIFE COMMISSION:
Chair: John Avila, Jr., Fort Worth, Texas
18 Lee M. Bass, Fort Worth, Texas
Dick W. Heath, Carrollton, Texas
19 Nolan Ryan, Alvin, Texas (Absent)
Ernest Angelo, Jr., Midland, Texas
20 Carol E. Dinkins, Houston, Texas
Alvin L. Henry, Houston, Texas
21 Katharine Armstrong Idsal, Dallas, Texas
Mark E. Watson, Jr., San Antonio, Texas
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THE PARKS AND WILDLIFE DEPARTMENT:
23 Andrew H. Sansom, Executive Director, and
other personnel of the Parks and Wildlife
24 Department.
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1 JANUARY 24, 2001
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3 AD HOC INFRASTRUCTURE COMMITTEE MEETING
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5 CHAIRMAN BASS: We will now, I
6 think, have time to do our Infrastructure
7 Committee prior to heading downtown. Mr. Avila,
8 unfortunately, you weren't earlier to hear us
9 approve the new esteemed license plate.
10 COMMISSIONER AVILA: I saw that.
11 CHAIRMAN BASS: Which is the John
12 Avila -- you get first pick.
13 COMMISSIONER AVILA: I get one that
14 says Parks on it?
15 COMMISSIONER ANGELO: I already
16 tried. It's gone.
17 CHAIRMAN BASS: Andy suggested that
18 could be the official plate of all the Thomas
19 Byrne's vehicles.
20 COMMISSIONER AVILA: You've learned
21 too much.
22 CHAIRMAN BASS: Never pass that for
23 revenue option. The Chair yields to Andrew Avila.
24 End end
25 COMMISSIONER AVILA: I call to
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1 meeting of the Ad Hoc Infrastructure Committee.
2 Today is January 24th, 2001 at 10:30. The first
3 item on our agenda is approval of the committee
4 minutes from the previous meeting. It's not in
5 the book.
6 So pending my review of those, we'll
7 have approval of those meeting notes.
8 AGENDA ITEM NO. 1: BRIEFING - CHAIRMAN'S
9 CHARGES.
10 COMMISSIONER AVILA: Andy, do you
11 have anything on the Chairman's charges?
12 MR. SANSOM: Only to comment that
13 you'll recall that when we began this process, we
14 had about a $75 million critical infrastructure
15 repair backlog. The legislature, with you-all's
16 help, gave you $60 million to get about the
17 business of reducing that backlog. Scott is going
18 to give you a report on that this morning.
19 But the most exciting thing is that
20 Governor Perry has included in his budget message
21 an additional $15 million in the form of bonds
22 that would complete the original infrastructure
23 task force agenda.
24 COMMISSIONER AVILA: Great. We'll
25 have a briefing by Scott on the capital program.
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1 AGENDA ITEM NO. 2: BRIEFING - BOND AND CAPITAL
2 PROGRAM UPDATE.
3 MR. BORUFF: Mr. Chairman,
4 Commissioners, this will be fairly brief. We'll
5 jump right to the '98 bond issue, which I'm
6 pleased to report is complete. Those projects
7 have all been completed, $11.8 million in bond
8 money spent on those projects.
9 The '99 bond issue, which totals 132
10 projects to the tune of $18 million, $10.3 million
11 of that -- those funds have been spent to date.
12 You can see the breakdown there. We
13 currently have 45 projects in construction, 22 in
14 design, 35 percent of the projects have been
15 completed, which is 47 projects. And we have the
16 remaining 14 percent out for bid. Of the 2000
17 bond issue, there again we have about 118 total
18 projects, $20 million was the total issued.
19 Seventy-eight of those projects are in design, 22
20 in construction, eight in bid, 10 are scheduled to
21 start in the near future.
22 The 2001 bond issue, which is the
23 issue coming up next month is going to be $13.5
24 million, which as we mentioned earlier, is the
25 remaining $10 million plus three and a half
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1 million dollars in earned interest over that time.
2 We will be launching 87 projects
3 next month, and you can see the way they break
4 down there. 66 percent of those are
5 water/wastewater projects. 21 percent are
6 facility repairs. The remaining 11 percent are
7 ADA.
8 This is probably the one I'm most
9 pleased about. This is our proposed expenditure
10 model for the year which shows us spending $22
11 million on these projects this year, and as you
12 can see, we're exactly on target, having expended
13 $6.9 million to date. Any questions? I'd be
14 glad to answer them.
15 COMMISSIONER AVILA: Scott, the only
16 question I have is the wastewater projects that
17 focused with the last of the money, we've done
18 emergency type repairs in the area of program, but
19 tell me why we're fixating on that right now. Is
20 this preventive?
21 MR. BORUFF: No. These are still
22 addressing those critical repair needs identified
23 in the Infrastructure Task Force Report back from
24 1997. So these continue to be critical repairs in
25 mostly the parks that were existing problems then,
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1 and they continue to be existing problems.
2 COMMISSIONER AVILA: But it's not
3 many new, necessarily?
4 MR. BORUFF: I wouldn't say that
5 there's many new. Certainly, we have a couple or
6 three projects here, and they have fallen off the
7 list since we first identified it back in '97, and
8 two or three more may have come on. But the bulk
9 of the projects were the projects that were
10 identified in that report.
11 COMMISSIONER AVILA: But what I'm
12 asking is, there's no new wastewater treatment
13 plants.
14 MR. SANSOM: No plants?
15 MR. BORUFF: No, no. There is no
16 development. This is all replacing existing
17 plants.
18 COMMISSIONER AVILA: Any other
19 questions?
20 CHAIRMAN BASS: I have a question.
21 And I'm not sure who is in the best position to
22 answer this, but I'll throw it out.
23 When we first did that report and
24 came up with the roughly $75 million number of
25 critical repairs, which was primarily
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1 water/wastewater, team and safety issues, ADA
2 issues, at that time that was obviously an
3 estimate, and we didn't have firm numbers on every
4 project.
5 I know, over the course of getting
6 to where we are today, we have found in some
7 instances situations that were far worse than we
8 anticipated, ones that we didn't even realize at
9 the time, probably, a few instances -- places
10 where things were much more expensive to get done
11 than we might have thought.
12 And similarly, I've been aware of
13 instances where, with some very creative thinking
14 by people in the Department and out in the field,
15 we're able to solve problems for a fraction of we
16 thought the initial estimate might have been and
17 have been able to extend life to some facilities
18 some ten or 20 years without having to replace
19 them.
20 That said, if -- knowing what we
21 know now, how good was our $75 million estimate
22 and how far has the bond issue taken us towards
23 getting there versus what's left now that we're a
24 lot smarter than we were just making guesstimates
25 four years ago? As I say, I don't know who the
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1 best person to answer that question might be.
2 MR. SANSOM: Let me take a start and
3 then have Scott follow up. We believe that if we
4 are able successfully to get this -- we have two
5 strategies now before the legislature. One is an
6 additional $15 million in critical repair bonds
7 that is in the Governor's budget request. And the
8 second is an $8 million annual addition of
9 maintenance or repair money to our base.
10 I think we feel pretty confident
11 that if we can do that, if we can get that
12 additional 15 million and continue the critical
13 repairs and put the 8 -- an additional $8 million
14 a year into our ongoing repair budget, then we're
15 not going to have -- you know, we're done with the
16 large, overwhelming backlog business.
17 MR. BORUFF: I certainly agree. I
18 think it's an -- I think the original guesstimate
19 was pretty good, Mr.Bass. The reality is we're
20 four or five years down the road now. So the
21 reality also is that that's been a changing number
22 over time.
23 New projects have come on line.
24 We've had other systems that experience trouble.
25 Because of other issues, we may have taken some of
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1 the projects off the list that were originally
2 identified. So it certainly is a kind of hard to
3 grab number.
4 But the reality is I think we've
5 pretty clearly identified our current needs, and I
6 think Andy has expressed exactly the reality that
7 if we can get the money we hope to get this
8 session and can get some ongoing funding to
9 prevent us from having this backlog build up in
10 the future, I think we're in pretty good shape,
11 then.
12 COMMISSIONER AVILA: Another way to
13 ask that question is, how many items were on the
14 original list for $175 million went -- I know they
15 are the whole -- but how many are at the top for
16 repair?
17 MR. BORUFF: 442 (sic).
18 COMMISSIONER AVILA: And an
19 additional 15 continue against that list?
20 MR. BORUFF: Yes.
21 COMMISSIONER AVILA: Against the
22 700? Or the 700 has changed?
23 MR. BORUFF: It's changed. That's
24 why it's hard to describe it.
25 MR. SANSOM: The other thing you
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1 have to factor in is at Bob's direction and
2 leadership, we also initiated at the same time
3 about $3 million in ongoing small repairs which
4 are done, basically, in the field. So it's been a
5 pretty massive effort.
6 I think the thing that everyone has
7 recognized that I'm immensely proud of the staff
8 for, first Dan and now Scott, and all the people
9 that work in infrastructure is this is probably
10 the best project management in system in state
11 government.
12 I think what we've got out of this
13 is not only an extraordinary record of repair, but
14 we also have a system in place now which is second
15 to none.
16 COMMISSIONER AVILA: And I would
17 say -- this is just from previous statements. And
18 it might be interesting for you and I to look at
19 this. But the group that did the repair isn't the
20 group that did the budget of -- or the estimating
21 of 75 million. And I think that was very flawed.
22 So you've brought it a long way in what we've done
23 for the dollar because of Scott.
24 MR. SANSOM: Inmates.
25 MR. BORUFF: The reality is, if you
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1 go back and look early in this process, which I
2 have done retrospectively, we weren't very good
3 early on at identifying a budget that was
4 realistic, but each year, as we've gone on, and
5 this year and last year in particular, the
6 original scoping has been much more accurate and
7 has allowed us to manage the budget much more
8 effectively given our plans.
9 COMMISSIONER AVILA: And the
10 infrastructure has worked as a construction
11 manager and as a contractor. There's no work as
12 an entrepreneurial entity, so that's another
13 thing?
14 MR. BORUFF: Right. Any other
15 questions?
16 COMMISSIONER AVILA: Any other
17 questions? Thank you, Scott.
18 CHAIRMAN BASS: Thank you. At this
19 time, in accordance with our earlier plan, we will
20 take a recess and go hear our Governor's state of
21 the State address.
22 And when we come back here, I'll
23 announce that pursuant to the requirements of
24 Chapter 55.51 of the Open Meetings Law the
25 executive session will be held for the purpose of
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1 considering land transactions. After that we will
2 rejoin in public session this afternoon. We stand
3 in recess.
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5 (MEETING ADJOURNED.)
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1 REPORTER'S CERTIFICATE
2 STATE OF TEXAS )
3 COUNTY OF TRAVIS )
4 I, MELODY RENEE DeYOUNG, a Certified
5 Court Reporter in and for the State of Texas, do
6 hereby certify that the above and foregoing 12
7 pages constitute a full, true and correct
8 transcript of the minutes of the Texas Parks &
9 Wildlife Commission on JANUARY 24, 2001, in the
10 commission hearing room of the Texas Parks &
11 Wildlife Headquarters Complex, Austin, Travis
12 County, Texas.
13 I FURTHER CERTIFY that a stenographic
14 record was made by me at the time of the public
15 meeting and said stenographic notes were
16 thereafter reduced to computerized transcription
17 under my supervision and control.
18 WITNESS MY HAND this the 24th day of
19 February, 2001.
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21
MELODY RENEE DeYOUNG, RPR, CSR NO. 3226
22 Expiration Date: 12-31-02
3101 Bee Caves Road
23 Centre II, Suite 220
Austin, Texas 78746
24 (512) 328-5557
25 EBS NO.