Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission
Public Hearing
Aug. 30, 2001
Commission Hearing RoomTexas Parks & Wildlife Department Headquarters Complex
4200 Smith School Road
Austin, TX 78744
1
6 BE IT REMEMBERED that heretofore on the 30th day
7 of August of 2001, there came on to be heard matters under
8 the regulatory authority of the Parks and Wildlife
9 Commission of Texas, in the Commission Hearing room of
10 Texas Parks and Wildlife Headquarters Complex, Austin,
11 Travis County, Texas, beginning at 9:00 a.m., to wit:
12 APPEARANCES:
THE PARKS AND WILDLIFE COMMISSION
13
14 Katharine Armstrong Idsal, Dallas, Texas, Chairman
John Avila, Jr., Fort Worth, Texas
15 Alvin L. Henry, Houston, Texas
Carol E. Dinkins, Houston, Texas
16 Ernest Angelo, Jr., Midland, Texas, Vice-Chair
Mark E. Watson, Jr., San Antonio, Texas
17 Philip Montgomery, Dallas, Texas
Joseph Fitzsimons, San Antonio, Texas
18 Donato D. Ramos, Laredo, Texas
19
20 THE PARKS AND WILDLIFE DEPARTMENT:
21 Andrew Sansom, Executive Director
Other personnel of the Parks and Wildlife Department
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1 OTHER APPEARANCES:
2 1. Dona Roth Kinney, City of Keller, 541 Keller Pkwy.,
Keller, Texas 76248
3 2. Chris Basham, City of Granbury, 116 West Bridge,
Granbury, TX.
4 3. Arthur A. Jistel, River Place Municipal Utility
District, 9704 Big View Drive, Austin, TX 78730
5 4. Jerry Cummins, City of Childress, Box 1087, Childress,
TX 79201
6 5. Lonnie Flores, Mayor of Donna, 307 S. 12th St., Donna,
TX 72532
7 6. Anne Ochoa, City of Lago Vista, 20905 Ridgeview Road,
Lago Vista, TX 78645
8 7. Lisa Birkman, Brushy Creek MUD, 901 Great Oaks Dr.,
Round Rock, TX 78681
9 8. Bob Duke, DUKE Landscape Architecture & Planning,
Sienna Plantation MUD and City of Texas City, 1815 K,
10 Galveston, TX 77550
9. Bob Duke, DUKE Landscape Architecture & Planning,
11 Sienna Plantation MUD and City of Texas City, 1815 K,
Galveston, TX 77550
12 10. David K. Langford, Texas Wildlife Association
11. Jerry Johnston, Texas Deer Association, POB 791107,
13 San Antonio, TX 78274
12. Ellis Gilleland, Texas Animals, POB 9001, Austin, TX
14 78766
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1 PUBLIC HEARING
2 * * * * * * * * * *
3 AUGUST 30, 2001
4 * * * * * * * * * *
5 9:00 A.M.
6 * * * * * * * * * *
7 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: Good morning. The meeting
8 is called to order. Before proceeding with any business,
9 Mr. Sansom has a statement to make.
10 MR. SANSOM: Mr. Chairman, members of the
11 Commission, ladies and gentlemen, a public notice
12 containing that all items on the proposed agenda have been
13 filed in the Office of the Secretary of the State. This
14 is required by Chapter 551 of the Government Code and
15 referred to as the Open Meetings Law. I would like for
16 this action to be noted in the official record of the
17 meeting.
18 Ladies and gentlemen, we welcome you this
19 morning. We had a wonderful day yesterday at our annual
20 public meeting. As you know, Chairman Idsal, is in charge
21 of the meeting. I will assist her, as always, as kind of
22 a Sergeant at Arms. And I want to remind you that if you
23 would like to speak today, we have sign-up cards out in
24 the hall. And the Chairman will use those cards to call
25 you forward when you wish to speak. Each person -- I ask
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1 you to come forward and speak from this podium, and you
2 will have three minutes to make your remarks. Please
3 state your name and who you represent if anyone other than
4 yourself. Chairman may call the next person in line, so
5 if you would come and stand in the back of the room, then
6 we can move the meeting along efficiently.
7 As I said, everyone will have three minutes to
8 speak, and we definitely want to hear what you have to
9 say. And I'll notify you with this little traffic light
10 here when your three minutes are up. Your time may be
11 extended if a Commissioner has a question for you, or if
12 the Commissioners talk amongst themselves that time will
13 not be counted, either. I would ask, as always, that you
14 keep your remarks on a professional level and not be
15 argumentative or critical of either our staff or our
16 commission or anyone else in the room out of respect for
17 the rest of the people who are here with us today.
18 If have you any materials that you would like to
19 submit to the Commission, my associate, Lori Estrada here,
20 will take them and distribute them, so please give
21 anything that you would like for the Commissioners to see
22 to Ms. Estrada. Thank you, Madame Chairman.
23 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: Thank you, Mr. Sansom.
24 Next, the approval of the minutes, which have already been
25 distributed. Is there a motion for approval?
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1 VICE CHAIR DINKINS: Madame Chair, I did
2 note one correction. It is on Page 46, Line 19, and I
3 believe that the deer may not be trapped from a breeding
4 facility rather than a bleeding facility.
5 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: Thank you, Madame Vice
6 Chairman.
7 VICE CHAIR DINKINS: With that correction,
8 I move approval of the minutes.
9 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: Thank you. A motion for
10 approval by Commissioner Dinkins. Do I have a second?
11 COMMISSIONER MONTGOMERY: I propose to
12 that, because I am in favor of humor in minutes.
13 COMMISSIONER HENRY: Second.
14 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: All in favor, say aye.
15 Any opposed? Hearing none, the motion carries.
16 Next is the acceptance of the gifts, which have
17 also been distributed. Is there a motion for -- thank
18 you. A second?
19 COMMISSIONER HENRY: Motion.
20 COMMISSIONER RAMOS: Second.
21 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: All in favor? Any
22 opposed? Hearing none, it passes.
23 Next are the retirement certificates and service
24 awards. Mr. Sansom, would you please make your
25 presentations?
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1 MR. SANSOM: Madame Chairman, if you could
2 join me at the podium at this time. I know you share with
3 me the belief that this is as important a part of these
4 meetings as any other item on the agenda, and that is when
5 we take the opportunity to recognize the people of our
6 Department who have served this state so well.
7 All of us had the great privilege of
8 participating the other evening in our employee
9 recognition awards, and I was most gratified by the
10 comments that I received from our newest member,
11 Commissioner Ramos, about how strongly he sensed the
12 commitment to professionalism among the employees and a
13 feeling of this Department as being a family. And I know
14 that we all feel that way, and we welcome you, sir, to our
15 family.
16 COMMISSIONER RAMOS: Thank you. Thank you.
17 MR. SANSOM: Retiring today is a person
18 with whom I have worked very closely in all the years that
19 I have been here, a person with whom I have complete
20 trust. When I came to work at Parks and Wildlife, one of
21 the first things that we did was to create an Internal
22 Affairs Division. And I believe that because -- partially
23 because of that Internal Affairs Division, this Department
24 has been completely free of any scandals for 11 years.
25 One of the key people in that Department is a senior
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1 auditor, David Heater. He began to work at Parks and
2 Wildlife in 1973 as an auditor, and today he is a senior
3 auditor and our Chief Forensic Auditor. And he is
4 retiring after 28 years of service to Texas. David Heater
5 from here in Austin.
6 (Applause.)
7 MR. SANSOM: There are also employees who
8 we recognize today who are not retiring but who have
9 worked here for many years and thankfully continue to do
10 so. As I travel throughout South Texas, which I have the
11 opportunity to do several times each year, I probably hear
12 as many favorable comments about Ken Baker as any employee
13 in the Department. You will hear a presentation later
14 today from Texas Tech University that, among other things,
15 will disclose to you that in nationwide surveys, it is --
16 it has been determined that the Texas Game Wardens are
17 thought of more highly than conservation law enforcement
18 officers in any other state in the United States, and
19 that's because of people like Ken Baker. He's worked in
20 Parks and Wildlife for 30 years. He is a Game Warden V
21 and he has -- his only duty station has been in McAllen,
22 where he remains today. Please recognize, with 30 years
23 of service, Game Warden Kenneth Baker from McAllen.
24 (Applause.)
25 MR. SANSOM: Thank you, Ken.
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1 We have been occasionally been called a lot of
2 things here in this Department. I received a letter not
3 too long ago from a friend of mine in Palm Beach, Florida,
4 and he had clipped an article out of the Wall Street
5 Journal that said that Texas Parks and Wildlife had the
6 most aggressive fisheries managers in the United States.
7 And as a result of that, along with the support of
8 anglers, we probably had one of the most wonderful
9 fisheries in the United States.
10 Today we recognize John Moczygemba. John came
11 to work at Parks and Wildlife in 1969, studying flathead
12 catfish on the Medina and Rio Grande Rivers. He went to
13 the Army for a while, but came back and worked at Lake
14 Texoma at a fishery station. He was involved in the first
15 introduction of striped bass into Texas, and he was
16 involved in all aspects of that including brood stock
17 procurement, which, of course, is a nice euphemism, and
18 spawning operations. He was involved in the experimental
19 stocking of walleye and in primary studies of hooking
20 mortalities of striped bass in Lake Texoma.
21 John's work on Lake Ray Roberts along with his
22 colleague, Bruce Hysmith, who is here today, has produced
23 a great new fishery in Texas and one of the most balanced
24 fisheries in the southern United States with not only
25 largemouth bass but channel catfish crappie and white
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1 bass.
2 He served on the Texas Chapter of the American
3 Fishery Society, and he is a colleague who has made a
4 great contribution to fisheries management in Texas. John
5 Moczygemba from Inland Fisheries with 30 years of service.
6 (Applause.)
7 MR. SANSOM: During this legislative
8 session, we heard a lot about radios. And some of the
9 unsung heroes of our Department are the people who make
10 sure that all our communication system is up-to-date and
11 is kept functioning, particularly since so much of the
12 technology is so outdated. Charles Olive began to work at
13 Parks and Wildlife in 1971 as a radio installer. At that
14 time there were only three radio technicians who covered
15 the entire state. The radios, the towers, the
16 dispatchers, the whole system was maintained statewide, so
17 basically Charles was on the road about three weeks out of
18 the month and here about a week.
19 Over the years we were able to add more and more
20 radio technicians and so he was able to share the
21 workload, but now we're back down to Charles and one other
22 operator in the Austin shop. And today they take care of
23 everything in the radio system within a day's drive from
24 Austin, and it's all working thanks to Charles Olive with
25 30 years of service.
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1 (Applause.)
2 MR. SANSOM: Bill Robinson active in the
3 Texas Game Warden Association, a Game Warden since 1967.
4 His first station was in Burnet County. He moved to
5 Travis County in 1975, and over the years has been an
6 instructor at the Academy, a district supervisor in
7 Kerrville and at one time supervised an area from Johnson
8 City to Sonora. He worked in the Austin office as an
9 Assistant Commander, and he is a long-serving and
10 dedicated Game Warden with 30 years of service. Bill
11 Robinson who now lives in Wimberley, Texas.
12 (Applause.)
13 MR. SANSOM: We call it P Falls, Pedernales
14 Falls State Park right outside of town here. We recognize
15 today Warden Wunderlich, who's worked in the Department
16 for 30 years. He began in the Wildlife Division and
17 returned to the Department in 1980 to P Falls. And he
18 continues to be there today, providing services to one of
19 the most park hungry population numbers Texas in the
20 Austin and Central Texas area. Harden Wunderlich from
21 State Parks with 30 years of service.
22 (Applause.).
23 MR. SANSOM: I introduced each of you to
24 the first class of natural leaders the other night at our
25 employee recognition program. One of the participants in
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1 that program this year, in the pilot program, is one of
2 our most distinguished senior managers. John Yarbrough is
3 the Regional Director of State Parks in Tyler. He's
4 worked at Parks and Wildlife for 25 years, coming here in
5 1976 after completing his Master's program from Steven F.
6 Austin. He started as a Park Ranger at Mustang Island,
7 and he's been through a number of different assignments
8 including Mission Tejas, Martin Dies and Daingerfield. He
9 is truly one of the better managers I believe anywhere in
10 state government and an incredibly valuable colleague at
11 Parks and Wildlife. John Yarbrough, State Parks Regional
12 Director from Tyler, 25 years of service.
13 (Applause.)
14 MR. SANSOM: A jewel in our system is Lake
15 Mineral Wells State Park, for those of you who haven't
16 been there. And today we recognize Alice Gayle
17 Adams-Hooten, who has more than 20 years of service at
18 Parks and Wildlife, all of that at Lake Mineral Wells.
19 She started there before it actually opened, and she
20 worked in a portable building for about 18 months. Today,
21 it's one of the finest sites in our system thanks to the
22 hard work of people like Alice. Please recognize Alice
23 Gail Adams-Hooten, 20 years of service.
24 (Applause.)
25 MR. SANSOM: Now, I'm going to introduce
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1 you to the bird bander. Kelly Bryan's first exposure to
2 Parks and Wildlife was in 1976. He was in school at Sam
3 Houston State University and a summer intern at Huntsville
4 State Park. He stayed in that position until he finished
5 his Master's degree, and then he actually worked in the
6 Inland Fisheries on aquatic vegetation matters in the
7 early '80s. In 1987, Kelly was named the first manager at
8 Kickapoo Cavern State Park, which is one of the most
9 significant natural areas in our system. He managed there
10 some of Texas' most important cave resources and the
11 largest known population of Black-capped Vireos on public
12 land.
13 He's been a superintendent of Davis Mountains,
14 where he devised a bird banding operation, run primarily
15 by volunteers which is not known not only for its
16 educational value but has created a nine-year database for
17 avian resources represented by 148 species and 21,000
18 individual birds. Please recognize the Natural Resources
19 Coordinator for Region 1 from State Parks, Kelly Bryan.
20 (Applause.)
21 MR. SANSOM: Another colleague for whom I
22 have the utmost respect, who I met when she was a
23 superintendent at Monument Hill and Kreische Brewery State
24 Park. She was there for 30 years on a site that's
25 relatively small and in some cases little known, but one
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1 of the most sacred historic sites in Texas. She
2 transferred to Martin Dies State Park in 1994, and she is
3 one of our most outstanding superintendents there today.
4 With 20 years of service to the State Park System, Ellen
5 Buchanan from Martin Dies.
6 (Applause.)
7 MR. SANSOM: From Mexia, Texas, Tom Fisher
8 started as an intern in 1980. He was in the Comprehensive
9 Planning Branch and had received his Master's degree from
10 Texas A&M in Recreation Resources Development. He went to
11 work at Old Fort Parker State Park, which is our flagship
12 partnership park now managed by the City of Groesbeck. He
13 developed education programs for school groups, displays
14 on the site and on the Comanche ways of life particularly
15 and the Parker families.
16 From 1986 to 1990, he was manager of Mission
17 Tejas. And since December of '91, he has been the manager
18 of both Fort Parker State Park and the Confederate Reunion
19 Grounds. Please recognize with 20 years of service, Tom
20 Fisher from Mexia, Texas.
21 (Applause.)
22 MR. SANSOM: Our colleagues are recognized
23 not only here in Austin but throughout the United States.
24 And one of the reasons for that is that we have a
25 tremendous commitment to research and to publication.
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1 Those of you have who have served on our boards and been
2 around the Department have seen the publication that comes
3 out each year on Wildlife research. It was a program
4 begun by the man that I'm about to introduce to you,
5 Ronnie George.
6 Ron worked at the Department since 1981. He was
7 first involved in the dove program and helped devise the
8 three-zone dove hunting system in Texas. He was involved
9 with the acquisition of several units of the Las Palomas
10 Wildlife Management Area for white-wings and he helped
11 establish the first sandhill crane hunting season in South
12 Texas.
13 Today he is a Deputy Director of the Wildlife
14 Division and he coordinates its research. Ronnie George
15 is a co-author of more than 50 papers on wildlife
16 conservation. He chairs the Migratory Shore and Upland
17 Game Bird SubCommittee of the International Association of
18 Fish and Wildlife Agencies, and he's a past president of
19 the Texas Parks and Wildlife Society. He was an Air Force
20 jet tanker pilot and has just completed a successful
21 autobiography of his years in the Air Force, and it is on
22 the stands.
23 Please recognize Ron George, Deputy Director of
24 Wildlife for 20 years of service.
25 (Applause.)
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1 MR. SANSOM: He is truly a gentleman and a
2 scholar.
3 (Applause.)
4 MR. SANSOM: Bill McDonald from
5 Infrastructure, our Senior Landscape Architect; today, the
6 only landscape architect in the Department. He's been
7 here since 1981. He's worked on projects that have ranged
8 from the Buffalo grass in front of the employee fitness
9 center to multimillion dollar park projects. He's worked
10 on Choke Canyon, Cooper Lake. He's helped restore CCC
11 areas at Caddo Lake, Indian Lodge and Palo Duro, and he
12 was a key player in the restoration and monument
13 construction of the Texas State Cemetery.
14 Please recognize William McDonald from the
15 Infrastructure Division with 20 years of service.
16 (Applause.)
17 MR. SANSOM: Well, he took advantage of the
18 rain to water the Buffalo grass.
19 I do think that there are some people who have
20 not gotten here yet because of the rain, and I suspect
21 that Bill is one of them. I note that Commissioner Watson
22 has joined us, and I would like for all of you to join me
23 in wishing him a happy birthday.
24 (Applause.)
25 MR. SANSOM: Falcon Lake State Park.
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1 Calvin Snyder started as a Park Ranger 20 years ago at
2 Lake Texana. He's been an Assistant Manager at Galveston
3 Island, and he's currently, as I said, the manager of
4 Falcon State Park. He's been there for ten years, and he
5 has been a leader in efforts in entrepreneurial behavior
6 and fundraising. In fact, his Legacy Fishing Tournament
7 is one of his landmark programs and now emulated
8 throughout the state.
9 Please recognize, from Falcon State Park, 20
10 years of service, Calvin Snyder.
11 (Applause.)
12 MR. SANSOM: Members, perhaps no event in
13 the time that I've had the privilege of being here at
14 Parks and Wildlife has been as sobering for us as the
15 recent death in the line of duty of Officer Michael
16 Pauling. And one of the wonderful things that
17 unfortunately arose from this circumstance but has
18 inspired us all is the tremendous outpouring of support
19 from all across the United States, particularly including
20 organizations known as 100 Clubs.
21 In 1953, five Houston men had a basic idea, and
22 that was to organize a club to provide financial support
23 to the families of police officers killed in the line of
24 duty. They started with 100 people who contributed $100
25 each, and the 100 Club was born. In Houston, their
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1 membership has grown to more than 15,000 and it has
2 provided over five million dollars to survivors of 103
3 different peace officers. The Mission has expanded to
4 include the donation of life protecting equipment to law
5 enforcement agencies and educational programs for
6 officers. Altogether, the 100 Club of Houston has spent
7 more than 17 million dollars on its programs.
8 Today, former Commissioner George Bolin, no
9 stranger to this Department, a long-time and continued
10 supporter of conservation in Texas, is the 100 Club
11 Secretary/Treasurer. He is here with Mr. Rick Hartley,
12 who is Executive Director, and Mr. Howard Moon, who's
13 President. And they have provided this Department with
14 over $140,000 worth of equipment, including an air boat,
15 which I believe if the rain is not in the way is on
16 display just outside the front entrance for public
17 viewing.
18 So please recognize George Bolin, Mr. Hartley
19 and Mr. Howard Moon.
20 (Applause)
21 MR. MOON: I think it's apropos that we
22 would have the air boat today in this weather like this.
23 We may have to resume that so we can get back to Houston.
24 Mentioning the number of members that we have,
25 Al Henry is one of our finest members of the 100 Club.
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1 And we certainly welcome all of you Commissioners and
2 anyone in the audience that would like to join the 100
3 Club. But certainly we appreciate the job that each of
4 you are doing and we hope that we can continue to support
5 you in every way.
6 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: Thank you so much.
7 (Applause.)
8 MR. SANSOM: Finally, members, we have the
9 opportunity to recognize one of our own, also a
10 participant in the Natural Leaders Program, one of the
11 most promising young managers in Parks and Wildlife, Chris
12 True. Chris was, when I first met him, Assistant Park
13 Manager at Cedar Hill. And while he was there, he was
14 contacted by an organization called the Concerned Citizens
15 of Dallas, who wanted some help to develop projects for
16 innercity children in the Dallas area. What Chris did in
17 the best tradition of team work at Parks and Wildlife was
18 he got together with the Wildlife Division, some folks
19 from our education program and the State Parks Division
20 and developed a project where innercity youth are actually
21 creating at Cedar Hill a nature trail for interpretation
22 that will also serve as an outdoor classroom. Chris
23 raised the money for the project. And today these young
24 people are working to construct the area while basically
25 restoring at the same time a previously disturbed section
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1 of native prairie.
2 For this work, Chris has received the National
3 Association of Interpreters Best Project for the states of
4 Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Missouri and Louisiana. Please
5 help me recognize Chris True from the State Parks
6 Division.
7 (Applause.)
8 MR. SANSOM: Finally, Madame Chairman and
9 members, it gives me a great deal of pleasure, once again,
10 to introduce to you and to the members of our audience, a
11 gentleman who is one of the most distinguished
12 conservation law enforcement officers in America, who has
13 recently retired from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
14 as a Senior Game Warden in the State of Texas and today is
15 the Chief of Law Enforcement for Texas Parks and Wildlife,
16 Mr. Jim Steinbaugh. Welcome, Jim.
17 (Applause.)
18 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: The first order of
19 business is the approval of agenda which we have before
20 us. Is there a motion for approval?
21 COMMISSIONER MONTGOMERY: Move.
22 COMMISSIONER FITZSIMONS: Second.
23 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: All in favor? All
24 opposed? Motion passes.
25 AGENDA ITEM NO. 1: ACTION - ELECTION OF VICE CHAIRMAN
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1 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: This brings us to a agenda
2 Item No. 1, which is the election of a new Vice Chairman.
3 And before we do that, I want to say a few words about our
4 outgoing Vice Chairman, Commissioner Carol Dinkins.
5 I don't have to tell you all a lot about Carol.
6 I think everybody in this room understands the
7 contribution she's made not only to our state but also to
8 our country in all she has done for conservation for her
9 community, for her profession. She is the immediate past
10 president of the Texas Nature Conservancy, she has worked
11 in Washington, she was the chairman of the Governor's
12 Conservation Task Force, which I think will have a lasting
13 influence on decisions we make going forward. It's
14 already -- I notice almost daily now people referring to
15 that document. It was a great accomplishment, terrific
16 contribution. And we -- I think we should all thank Carol
17 for what she has done as Vice Chairman and as a
18 Commissioner, and I would like a round of applause for a
19 great Commissioner, Carol Dinkins.
20 (Applause and standing ovation.)
21 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: Every two years, the
22 Commission elects a new Vice Chairman to serve for two
23 years, and so that is the first item on the agenda. And
24 so I need a motion for nomination. I guess that's right.
25 COMMISSIONER DINKINS: Madame Chair, thank
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1 you for your very kind words and to all of you for the
2 applause. I do appreciate it. It's an honor to serve on
3 the Commission, and it's a particular privilege to serve
4 as Vice Chair. And I am pleased to offer the name of
5 Ernest Angelo of Midland as Vice Chair for the Commission.
6 And I move his nomination.
7 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: Do I have a second?
8 COMMISSIONER HENRY: I second that.
9 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: A second by Commissioner
10 Henry. All in favor? All opposed? Congratulations,
11 Ernest. Thank you.
12 VICE CHAIR ANGELO: Thank you.
13 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: I will rely on my Vice
14 Chairman a lot, and Ernie brings a lot of experience in
15 state government and on the Commission. This is his
16 fourth year, going into his fifth year. And I'll look
17 forward to working with you, Ernie. Thank you very much.
18 VICE CHAIR ANGELO: Thank you. I'll do the
19 same.
20 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: The next order of business
21 is a briefing. Ernie Gammage will brief us on the tenth
22 anniversary of the Texas Wildlife Expo.
23 AGENDA ITEM NO. 2. BRIEFING - TENTH ANNIVERSARY TEXAS
24 WILDLIFE EXPO
25 (Whereupon, a briefing was presented to the
Commission, after which the following
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1 proceedings were had:)
2 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: Thank you, Commissioner
3 Henry. Do we have any further discussion? I think we
4 have some people who have signed up to speak. Donna Roth
5 Kinney. And then --
6 MS. KINNEY: Thank you, Madame Chairman.
7 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: Just a minute. And then
8 Claire Basham, if could you be ready.
9 MS. KINNEY: Thank you, Madame Chairman.
10 My name is Donna Roth Kinney, and I'm here on the behalf
11 of the City of Keller, supporting the Keller nature park.
12 The proposed park is an 30-acre nature park including an
13 open space dedication, nature trails and nature
14 demonstrations among other amenities. This is very
15 important to preserve our open space in a rapidly
16 developing community in the area of North Texas. I would
17 like to thank the staff for the favorable recommendation
18 of the project, and I appreciate your consideration and
19 support of our project. The City of Keller is excited
20 about the opportunities the grant provides to us for the
21 open nature park.
22 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: Donna, you're going to
23 have a rare opportunity today to speak again. I skipped
24 over -- this is the first time I've done this, and the
25 speaker order was a little bit confusing to me. You'll be
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1 speaking about local grants, I believe.
2 MS. KINNEY: Yes.
3 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: So if you don't mind
4 sitting down again, we'll call you back.
5 MS. KINNEY: Thank you for the test run.
6 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: You got a test run. All
7 right? All right. Nobody had signed up, I don't believe,
8 to speak on the issue of Wildlife Expo. So is there
9 further discussion on this item? If not, do I have a
10 motion?
11 COMMISSIONER AVILA: It's not an action
12 item.
13 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: Oh, it's not an action
14 item. My learning curve is kicking in. I'm sorry.
15 We'll move on then to the next agenda item,
16 which is Local Parks Grants, and Mr. Hogsett will make the
17 presentation. Thank you all.
18 AGENDA ITEM NO. 3: ACTION - LOCAL PARK GRANTS
19 MR. HOGSETT: Madame Chairman, good
20 morning, members of the Commission. I'm Tim Hogsett from
21 Recreational Grants Branch in the State Parks Division.
22 First item that I'm bringing to you today is the Outdoor
23 Recreation Grant Program, a part of the Texas Recreation
24 Parks Account. These, of course, are 50 percent matching
25 grants to local governments for acquisition of land or
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1 construction facilities for outdoor recreation.
2 This review consists of 43 applications which
3 were received as of our January 31st, 2001 deadline and a
4 total request of about $16.1 million dollars in matching
5 funds. We have scored and rank-ordered all the
6 applications using the priority system that you have
7 adopted, and you can find the priority ranking list AT
8 Exhibit A. And we are going to be recommending approval
9 of the top 14 applications for a total of $5,585,945 in
10 matching funds. And the staff recommendation is funding
11 for the projects listed in Exhibit A in the amount of
12 $5,585,945 is approved, as described, for individual
13 projects in Exhibit B.
14 I'll be glad to answer any questions you have.
15 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: Do we have any questions
16 from the Commission? Now, Dona Roth Kinney, you can come
17 up and speak now. And you can start from the beginning,
18 if you like.
19 MS. KINNEY: Actually, since I already said
20 it one time, I would just like to thank the staff for
21 working with us and their support of the project and your
22 favorable consideration of the project. Thank you.
23 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: Thank you. Claire Basham?
24 MR. BASHAM: I'm Claire. It's Chris.
25 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: Oh. Oh. I've got a
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1 handout for you. I'm Chris Basham representing the City
2 of Granbury, Texas. Granbury asked me to come down and
3 make another pitch for the project, so I'm doing that for
4 them. If you haven't been to Granbury, you may have seen
5 Granbury if you were watching the millennium celebration
6 for CNN; you probably saw Granbury there along with Paris
7 and Tokyo and a few other small cities around the world.
8 Granbury is a very small city with a very big heart and a
9 big attitude, and they've got some great plans that
10 they're trying to do.
11 This park project that is not on the recommended
12 list at this time is City Beach Park. It's been the No. 1
13 priority for several years. It's been packaged and
14 repackaged several times trying to meet the criteria
15 that's there. One of the things that works against it is
16 it is a small park. The city, recognizing the need for
17 this park and wanting it, bought land, very prime
18 property, right on the lake right at the entrance to the
19 city. The value of the property has been estimated now at
20 over one million dollars. They're not asking the State to
21 buy it. They already bought it, but they're trying to
22 turn it into a park and looking for the program there.
23 The way the points system works -- they don't got the
24 credit for that because of the acquisition of the land.
25 They did do the labor and virtual activity on it.
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1 But is about one million dollars worth of land.
2 The value of the City's contribution to this part is about
3 1.3 million dollars that they've already contributed to
4 the park with the value of the land with the Brazos River
5 Authority donation and with the local and private
6 donations of (inaudible).
7 This is the first phase of a three-phase project
8 that they're looking at. It's about 8 acres that totally
9 wraps around the entrance to the city all in lake
10 property. It is the only water-based recreation in the
11 area. And the city also -- you've got a handwritten thing
12 at the bottom of your note there. The City, as of this
13 morning, threw in another $25,000 that they're willing to
14 contribute to try to make this deal go for the City.
15 With that, we appreciate your consideration.
16 It's a very big project for the City of Granbury. We'll
17 keep plugging trying to get this project. The City's
18 excited about it. I've never been involved with a city as
19 energetic and contributory as Granbury is. So thank you
20 for your time.
21 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: Thank you, Chris. Arthur
22 Jistel. And Jerry Cummings, could you be ready?
23 MR. JISTEL: Thank you, Madame Chairman.
24 I'm Art Jistel, representing River Place Municipal Utility
25 District Directors. And on behalf of River Place
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1 Municipal Utility District Directors and River Place
2 homeowners, I would like to express my appreciation and
3 thank you to all the Commissioners and to the staff for
4 their approval for the funding of the River Place MUD
5 Woodlands Park and Nature Preserve here in Austin, Texas.
6 I would also like to take this time to thank,
7 especially, Barbara Austin from Richardson Verdoorn for
8 her help and assistance on the grant application process.
9 At this time I would certainly like to invite
10 everyone to the River Place Woodlands Park and Nature
11 Preserve upon our completion of this project. Thank you,
12 again.
13 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: Lonnie Flores, could you
14 be ready, please?
15 MR. CUMMINGS: Madame Chairman,
16 Commissioners, I'm Jerry Cummings. I'm the City Manager
17 in Childress, excuse me, representing the City of
18 Childress. We had a local committee that assisted putting
19 our grant application together. I've got two of those
20 committee members with me this morning. I would like to
21 recognize Lowell Wakefield, who is also a member of our
22 City Council, and Larry Johnson, who was on the committee;
23 he's the president of one of our local banks.
24 We would like to express our appreciation for
25 the fact that these monies are available. Communities
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1 such as ours wouldn't have opportunities such as this if
2 those state and federal monies weren't there and programs
3 weren't in place. We really appreciate that.
4 We would also like to express our appreciation
5 to the Parks and Wildlife staff. The assistance that we
6 received from them during the application process has been
7 very well received. We appreciate what they've done. We
8 are especially thankful that they've ranked us No. 4 on
9 their list, recommended full funding. And this morning we
10 simply want to ask the Commission to favorably view our
11 project and the staff recommendations. We would be happy
12 to answer any questions that you might have. Thank you.
13 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: Thank you. Would Ann
14 Ochoa be ready, please.
15 MR. FLORES: Madame Chairman, good morning,
16 members of the Commission. My name is Lonnie Flores, and
17 I'm the major of Donna, Texas, a small community down in
18 the Rio Grande Valley. I'll tell you all what, I'm here
19 with two requests. One of them is I sure would like to
20 take some of this rain back with me. It's awfully dry
21 down there. But since you all don't have control of that,
22 we'll stick to the matter at hand.
23 Our particular project was not recommended for
24 approval, so we're here this morning, myself and City
25 Planner Xavier Cervantes, who worked extremely hard on
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1 this -- on the application and, the parks master plan.
2 I'm actually representing the City of Donna, but I'm also
3 representing the school district, because they contributed
4 or have pledged to contribute $100,000 to this project.
5 Donna, Texas, is the only community in the Rio
6 Grande Valley that has a Five A classification in the
7 school districts in the Rio Grande Valley that does not
8 have a swimming pool. In talking to the City Commission
9 and to one staff, particularly Xavier Cervantes, since our
10 project was not recommended for full funding, which was
11 $325,000 of application, what I'm here before you to do is
12 to ask that you do fund us for $150,000, and that would
13 most certainly help us with a swimming pool project
14 inclusive of the monies that the school district is going
15 to contribute along with our matching part of it. That
16 would help to get our particular park and our children
17 swimming in an adequate swimming pool, allowing the school
18 district to have a swimming pool whereby they could be
19 competitive in that way and keep the children basically
20 swimming out of the canals.
21 We respectfully submit our application and our
22 request, and we thank you for your time.
23 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: Thank you.
24 MS. OCHOA: My name is Ann Ochoa, and I am
25 Major Pro Tem of the City of Lago Vista. With me today
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1 here is two of our young leaders in our city, Lisa Wolfe
2 and Dan Flores. Could you guys stands up, please?
3 They're representatives of the new Lago Vista. We have a
4 lot of young folks moving in and providing great
5 leadership. Also, Fred Harless, who is on the City
6 Council with me, and he's been on for quite a while, and
7 we're very much enjoying the work we're doing there,
8 especially now. We want to say thank you so much.
9 This is the third time I've stood here, and this
10 is the first time I could say thank you not only for
11 considering us but for awarding us the grant. And we
12 certainly appreciate it.
13 What I wanted to do - I won't take too much
14 time - is just show you how this has played out in our
15 headlines of the local newspaper over the last
16 two-and-a-half years that we've been working on this.
17 Back on June 10th of 1999, "Lago Vista Council moves ahead
18 with plans for new swimming pool." That's when it
19 started.
20 In January 20th of 2000, we had a bond election
21 in the city that had a record turnout and ended up as a
22 pool hall approving 700,000 in taxpayer bonds for our part
23 of the grant application, which was a watershed election
24 in our city.
25 And Thursday, August 17th, 2000 -- again, all
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1 these, you'll notice, are big headlines. Unfortunately
2 that's the first time that we were unable to achieve our
3 objective with the application to this group, "Pool deal
4 won't float." Well, so it goes.
5 On the Thursday, September 7th, 2000, right
6 after, "Pool bid to be resubmitted." Thank you very much.
7 On -- our next application was for the deadline that was a
8 achieved in January 25th, 2001, unfortunately, "Strike two
9 on funds for the pool complex." I was hoping it wasn't
10 going to be strike three, you're out. Well, last week's
11 paper came out, headlines - after the deadline, I might
12 admit - "500,000 for the Lago park." This the First City
13 park that we will have in Lago Vista, and we are very,
14 very grateful. Thank you.
15 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: Thank you. Lisa Birkman.
16 MS. BIRKMAN: Good morning. I'm Lisa
17 Birkman. I'm on the Board of Directors of Brushy Creek
18 Municipal Utility District, and I just wanted to thank
19 Mr. Hogsett and his staff for all their help and thank the
20 Commission for their consideration for approval of our
21 grant. Thank you.
22 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: Thank you. Do we have any
23 more comments from the Commission?
24 COMMISSIONER MONTGOMERY: I have a
25 question.
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1 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: Okay. Commissioner
2 Montgomery.
3 COMMISSIONER MONTGOMERY: Tim. Can I hear
4 the staff position on the two cities that came up, Donna
5 and Granbury, on their grants and what our policy on last
6 minute bids, if you will -- is there a deadline set? How
7 do we deal with them when they're considered?
8 MR. HOGSETT: Last minute? I'm sorry.
9 COMMISSIONER MONTGOMERY: Well, as I get
10 it, we're getting two proposals that up the ante, from
11 both Granbury and Donna, who have modified their
12 originally-submitted proposal.
13 MR. HOGSETT: We have never -- the
14 Commission has, at least in the time I've been here, not
15 made a change in terms of partially funding another
16 project.
17 COMMISSIONER MONTGOMERY: No. I wasn't
18 suggesting anything. I was just trying to understand
19 what's our -- how does this relate to our process?
20 MR. HOGSETT: I'm not sure that it does
21 relate.
22 COMMISSIONER MONTGOMERY: These two cities'
23 applications that came in are now being modified or are
24 these new --
25 MR. HOGSETT: No. These were part of the
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1 group that was submitted for the January 31st deadline.
2 And they were not considered any differently than any of
3 the other applications.
4 COMMISSIONER MONTGOMERY: So the changes
5 were new changes for the proposal that are coming in?
6 MR. HOGSETT: In the case of both of them,
7 they were resubmissions, and they had been in a previous
8 review. And they had the opportunity after they were not
9 funded the first time to come in and sit down with us, and
10 in both cases I think they fairly dramatically improved
11 their scores over the previous submission. And they will
12 have the opportunity to do that again, if they desire.
13 COMMISSIONER MONTGOMERY: Right. What's
14 our next approval cycle?
15 MR. HOGSETT: Well, what we do with people
16 that are not recommended for funding, we give them a month
17 from this -- from today to do their resubmission, and they
18 would be considered in the group that we will bring back
19 to you in January, at the January meeting.
20 COMMISSIONER MONTGOMERY: I just wanted to
21 make sure that we have a clear understanding of what our
22 process was.
23 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: Commissioner Angelo?
24 VICE CHAIR ANGELO: I would -- I want to
25 commend Mr. Hogsett and his staff for the manner in which
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1 they review these projects. I hope that all of you that
2 are making applications, both those that have been
3 approved and those that haven't quite made it, would
4 recognize the difficulty that's presented to the staff and
5 the Department and the Commission, considering the fact
6 that the applications for grants exceeded by some
7 300 percent the amount of funds that are available. And
8 the -- the process that's been developed is one of, I
9 think, scrupulous integrity and a method that utilizes a
10 scoring technique that's totally fair to all the
11 applicants. And it's the only way that I think this could
12 be handled and not present impossible situations for the
13 Commission and for those of you that are making the
14 applications. So I commend everybody on the staff and
15 also those of you that made applications, because I know a
16 great deal of work goes into it. It's not an easy
17 process. The staff is always available to assist you in
18 and to offer advise and counsel as you make those
19 applications. And for those of you that are disappointed
20 today, I hope that you will resubmit.
21 I noticed that of the ones that were approved by
22 the staff or recommended by the staff, there's eight out
23 of the 14 are resubmittals. So don't give up just because
24 you didn't make it. It's worth the effort. Again, I
25 thank Mr. Hogsett and his staff for the manner in which
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1 they conduct this process.
2 MR. HOGSETT: Thank you.
3 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: Thank you, Commissioner
4 Angelo. Do we have any further discussion? Commissioner
5 Fitzsimons?
6 COMMISSIONER FITZSIMONS: Thank you, Madame
7 Chairman. I would like to reiterate what Vice Chair
8 Angelo said. I know where Donna, Texas is. It's a long
9 drive from here to Donna. Stay with it. The process that
10 was described, I've got to tell you, is extremely
11 objective. The rules are fair. Stay with it. As
12 commissioner Angelo said, eight out of 14 were
13 resubmissions.
14 We all wish every one of these local park grants
15 could be -- could be funded. I lived for a long time in a
16 very small, poor community down on the border, and those
17 are real needs. But just keep coming, and we'll be here
18 next year. Thank you.
19 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: Thank you, Commissioner
20 Fitzsimons. Do we have any further discussion? Do I have
21 a motion?
22 VICE CHAIR ANGELO: Move for approval.
23 COMMISSIONER RAMOS: Madame Chairman, I
24 would move that we accept recommendation from staff.
25 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: We have a motion. Do we
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1 have a second?
2 VICE CHAIR ANGELO: Second.
3 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: Commissioner Angelo
4 seconds. All in favor? Opposed? Motion passes.
5 "Funding for projects listed in Exhibit A in the
6 amount of $5,585,945,000 is approved, as
7 described for individual projects in
8 Exhibit B."
9 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: Next item to the agenda is
10 National Recreational Trail Grants -- no, no. Sorry.
11 Small Community Grants. Tim Hogsett, you're up again.
12 AGENDA ITEM 4. ACTION - SMALL COMMUNITY GRANTS
13 MR. HOGSETT: Thank you, Madame Chairman,
14 Commissioners. For the record, I'm Tim Hogsett, Director
15 of Recreational Grants in the State Parks Division. This
16 is a first award of a pilot program that you authorized
17 the staff to create in January. It's for small
18 communities and for small grant projects, the criteria
19 being cities or other government entities of a population
20 of 50,000 or less and a maximum grant of 500,000 -- I'm
21 sorry, of $50,000.
22 This grew out of some public hearings that we
23 had last year about the larger grant program. And one of
24 the things that we heard a lot as we did those public
25 hearings was the smaller communities that were just
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1 needing one or two facilities felt that they could not be
2 competitive in the larger program. As a result of that,
3 we designed this pilot to try to meet that -- what seemed
4 to be an unmet need. We tried to make it as simple as
5 possible. We did set aside -- you gave us the permission
6 to set aside the equivalent of one of the large grants; in
7 other words, set aside $500,000 for this program, and to
8 take applications from around the state.
9 It was very popular. We received 64
10 applications for that $500,000. They had a short period
11 of time in which to make the applications, actually, from
12 early February until May the 15th. And during that time,
13 those 64 applications requesting 2.2 million dollars were
14 received. We then used the scoring system that is very
15 similar to the larger scoring system process to -- that we
16 had developed to evaluate and rank order those projects.
17 We are recommending, then, approval for the top
18 12 projects. And the staff recommendation is funding for
19 the projects listed in Exhibit A in the amount of $541,660
20 is approved as described for individual projects in
21 Exhibit B. I would be glad to answer any questions that
22 you have.
23 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: I believe we have someone
24 that is going to speak here, but before we call that
25 person up, I want to recognize someone who's in the
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1 audience, former Commissioner Bob Armstrong.
2 (Applause.)
3 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: I hear Edmund Kuempel is
4 around here somewhere, but I don't see him in here. If
5 he's here, we say hi.
6 Do we any questions of Mr. Hogsett? We have
7 someone here. Bob Duke would like to speak.
8 MR. DUKE: Madame Chairman, members of the
9 Commission, I'm here representing the City of Texas City,
10 which was one of the communities that put in a grant for
11 the Small Communities Application and are being
12 recommended by the staff. And they ask that I come and
13 speak on their behalf and just thank you for this -- this
14 type of grant program. And they're very excited about
15 what they're going to be able to do in an existing park
16 that already was a part of your -- your earlier -- your
17 other grant programs, but it's in need of some -- some
18 improvement. So they're saying thank you.
19 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: Do we have any discussion?
20 VICE CHAIR ANGELO: Move approval.
21 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: Do we have a second?
22 COMMISSIONER MONTGOMERY: Second.
23 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: We have a motion and a
24 second. All in favor? All opposed? Hearing none, the
25 motion carries.
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1 "Funding for projects listed in Exhibit A in the
2 amount of $541,550 is approved, as described
3 for individual projects in Exhibit B."
4 AGENDA ITEM NO. 5: ACTION - NATIONAL RECREATIONAL TRAIL
5 GRANTS
6 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: Next order is an action
7 item National Recreational Trail Grants,
8 Andy Goldbloom.
9 MR. GOLDBLOOM: Madame Chairman,
10 Commissioners, my name is Andy Goldbloom, and I manage the
11 National Recreational Trails program in the State Parks
12 Division.
13 The National Recreational Trails fund is a past
14 and federally-funded grant program generated by the
15 federal gasoline tax generated by offroad recreational
16 motorized vehicles like ATVs and Jeeps and, up north, snow
17 mobiles.
18 The fund is funded at 50 million dollars
19 nationwide. Texas' share of that fund is 2.4 million
20 dollars. It's an 80 percent funding assistance program
21 for the new construction or renovation of existing trails.
22 This year we received 66 project proposals
23 requesting 6.2 million dollars in funds. As a requirement
24 of the Act, we have a State Trails Advisory Board that
25 helps guide the program, and they also review the
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1 applications and make the recommendation for funding.
2 The primary things that they look at are the
3 quality of projects, the cost effectiveness of the
4 project, opportunity impact, and I'll have to add it to
5 the slides for next year based on your comments from
6 yesterday, they also take into account geographic
7 distribution of the funds and past funding.
8 Staff's recommendation in the motion before you
9 is funding for 35 projects recommended in Exhibit A in the
10 amount of $2,670,556.
11 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: Do we have any questions?
12 We have one person, Bob Duke, signed up to speak. Is this
13 you, again?
14 MR. DUKE: Yes, ma'am.
15 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: OKAY.
16 MR. DUKE: I'm a consultant, and so I end
17 up working for various folks.
18 But this is a project that Sienna Plantation
19 Municipal Utility District submitted twice, so we're a
20 second-time applicant. And this will provide about a mile
21 of trail along the levee in Sienna Plantation. And we're
22 just here to thank you for the grant and encourage you to
23 continue to support this program. Thank you.
24 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: Thank you.
25 Do we have any. Questions? Comments? Do I
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1 have a motion?
2 COMMISSIONER AVILA: Move approval.
3 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: Second?
4 COMMISSIONER RAMOS: Second.
5 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: We have a motion from
6 Mr. Avila and a second from -- was it -- okay, Mr. Ramos.
7 All in favor? Any opposed? Hearing none, motion carries.
8 "Funding for 35 projects recommended in
9 Exhibit A in the amount of $2,670,556 is
10 approved."
11 AGENDA ITEM NO. 6: ACTION - TARGET RANGE PROGRAM
12 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: Next is Agenda Item No. 6,
13 Steve Hall.
14 MR. HALL: Madame Chairman, members of the
15 Commission, my name is Steve Hall, Education and Outreach
16 Director responsible for the Hunter Education and Target
17 Range Programs.
18 This morning we have three new rank projects.
19 The criteria for those projects, we used the target range
20 plans, the plan which takes into account population,
21 hunter education, geographic distribution and hunter
22 opportunity. Target range grant applicants provide
23 25 percent of the total project costs. 75 percent are
24 federal funds from the Federal Aid and Wildlife
25 Restoration Account. These are also budgeted and passed
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1 through upon receipt of eligible billing statements.
2 The projects are located in Dallas, Harris and
3 Erath Counties. The combined total cost of the project
4 is -- approximates $150,000. The first project in Dallas
5 County is the Grand Prairie Sportmans Club. They'll be
6 constructing the New Hunters Education Building. The
7 total cost of this is $70,000.
8 The second is American Shooting Centers at the
9 George Bush Park, and they'll be constructing a hunter
10 education shooting area. The cost of that project is
11 $15,000.
12 And final project is at TAC PRO shooting range.
13 This is north of Stephenville. They'll be asking for
14 funds to upgrade the road, the parking, the drainage and
15 the rain facilities. Total cost of that project is
16 $65,000.
17 And the staff recommends that funding for the
18 projects listed in Exhibits B, C and D in the amount of
19 $150,000 is approved.
20 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: Are there any questions or
21 comments from the Commission? No one has signed up to
22 speak on this, so if there is no further discussion, could
23 I have a motion.
24 COMMISSIONER WATSON: So moved.
25 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: Second?
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1 COMMISSIONER AVILA: Second.
2 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: Motion and a second. All
3 in favor? All opposed? Hearing none, motion carries.
4 Thank you, Steve.
5 "The Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission
6 authorizes the Executive Director to execute
7 contracts funding the projects at Exhibit B and
8 C pending availability of federal funds."
9 AGENDA ITEM NO. 7: BRIEFING - TEXAS TECH STUDY.
10 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: This brings us to Agenda
11 Item No. 7.
12 MR. SANSOM: Madame Chairman, if I might, I
13 have just been informed that Dr. Schmidly, who is the
14 president of Texas Tech, has just landed and will be here
15 in a few minutes. So if we could defer this item, I would
16 appreciate it.
17 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: So should we move on,
18 then, to No. 8?
19 MR. SANSOM: Yes, ma'am.
20 AGENDA ITEM NO. 8: ACTION - FY02 OPERATING AND CAPITAL
21 BUDGET AND TEXAS PARKS AND WILDLIFE INVESTMENT POLICY
22 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: That brings us to No. 8,
23 Suzy Whittenton, Operating Capital Budget and Texas Parks
24 and Wildlife Investment Policy.
25 MS. WHITTENTON: Thanks, Madame Chairman,
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1 Commissioners, I'm Suzy Whittenton, Chief Financial
2 Officer. Today I'm going to real quickly go through the
3 recommended FY02 budget, since we spent a lot of time on
4 it yesterday.
5 We expect to have approximately 263 million
6 dollars available in cash in FY02. In most cases, our
7 appropriation authority exceeds our cash available, so
8 we'll be focusing or more concerned with cash this year
9 than -- in FY02 than we were this current year.
10 Now, some of these funds have restricted uses,
11 and the budget allocation fully takes that into account.
12 The highlights of the recommended budget are that we
13 started with a 97 percent base level of the operating
14 budget that we had in '01 which translates into a
15 3 percent cut across the board. We additionally factored
16 in a 2 percent salary lapse. This is a forced salary
17 savings achieved through delayed hiring and leaving
18 positions vacant. We are recommending the continuation of
19 a three million dollar small maintenance and repair budget
20 for parks. There are no major capital projects included,
21 and there are no new bonds funds included.
22 These fixed cost increases have contributed to
23 the budget challenges that we've had this year. The much
24 needed employee pay raises were approved by the
25 legislature with no new funding. There are also other
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1 increased employee benefit costs and increased health
2 insurance costs as well as new cost recovery fees for
3 statewide services. This is a nine million dollar impact
4 on the budget. Also, over the last year or so, we've
5 experienced some, as everybody has, increased electric
6 costs, gas and fuel costs. We also have new travel
7 reimbursement rates in place for the coming fiscal year.
8 The total requested budget from all divisions
9 total 212 million, and the total operating budget
10 recommended is just under 198 million, which is about a 15
11 million dollar difference. New items included in the
12 operating budget that were placed -- other base level
13 expenses include increased software and hardware
14 maintenance costs of just under 200,000. Parks and
15 Wildlife Magazine, increases in their postage and
16 printing, paper costs; computer equipment for Game Wardens
17 in the field and then the Sunset requirement that we do an
18 inventory of State lands, set aside some budget for that.
19 As you know, this budget has been very
20 difficult, and in order to squeeze the numbers, we're
21 recommending that we will be delaying hiring, delaying
22 vehicle and boating equipment. We have some -- we've cut
23 some vacant positions. We're recommending postponing the
24 wide area network expansion and, most importantly, we're
25 going to be deferring some capital projects.
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1 The capital budget's very slim this year. Out
2 of the requested 19 million dollars, we're only able to
3 recommend the five million dollar budget, most of which
4 will go toward the small maintenance and repairs for state
5 parks. There are nearly 42 million of available grant
6 funds. These are federal funds and local park funds that
7 can't be used for other purposes. Total recommended
8 budget is just under 245 million. This slide shows the
9 differences between available cash and recommended budget
10 by a major funding source. You can see that the cash
11 balances that we once had are not there anymore. We're
12 not leaving a lot on the table by the end of the year.
13 Total FTEs included for fiscal '02 include the
14 81 new positions that the legislature approved for state
15 parks and for the World Birding Center. We have a new cap
16 of 3,035 and we're overbudgeting by two-and-a-half percent
17 roughly to 3,117. With the delayed hiring tactics, we're
18 quite certain we won't exceed the cap.
19 Also, on the stamp allocation, the allocation of
20 Super Combo revenue to the dedicated stamp funds, we're
21 proposing to conduct surveys of Super Combo holders over
22 two years in order to have and develop a fair methodology.
23 And in the meantime, we would propose holding the stamp
24 funds harmless as we have in the past at the same levels
25 that we currently have those funds at.
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1 I'm also asking your approval on the budget
2 policy, which will require that budget adjustments in
3 excess of $100,000 excluding federal grants, would require
4 the notification of the Chair of the Commission and the
5 Chair of the Finance Committee and budget adjustments
6 excluding federal grants which exceed 150,000 would
7 require signatures and prior approval of both the Chairman
8 of the Commission and the Chairman of the Finance
9 Committee.
10 COMMISSIONER MONTGOMERY: What was our
11 policy before?
12 MS. WHITTENTON: It was exactly the same,
13 except that even federal grants required the notification
14 or the prior approval.
15 COMMISSIONER MONTGOMERY: So what are we
16 changing?
17 MS. WHITTENTON: What we're changing is
18 that if a federal grant comes in -- all federal grants are
19 specific in purpose, that the staff could go ahead and
20 allocate those funds, go ahead and budget those funds
21 without asking approval from the Commission or from two
22 the Chairmen.
23 VICE CHAIR ANGELO: Suzy, would you
24 elaborate on the rationale for that again? Explain what
25 you mean by the fact that they're allocated.
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1 MS. WHITTENTON: Well, federal grants come
2 in very specific in nature in what they can be used for.
3 And in the past, it's just kind of been a formality in
4 getting the signatures. And we won't -- in most cases,
5 don't have any discretion as to what those funds could be
6 used for. If we agree to accept the federal funds, they
7 have to be used on the -- whatever the program states that
8 they are to be used on. So they wouldn't add to general
9 operating budget items or any new capital projects unless
10 they were -- that's what the formal grant had specifically
11 asked for.
12 COMMISSIONER AVILA: Have we ever had
13 occasion where we would not be interested in accepting
14 federal funds?
15 MS. WHITTENTON: Not that I'm aware of.
16 COMMISSIONER RAMOS: Excuse me. Has it
17 been your experience that all of these grants are
18 specific? I mean, you don't generally just get a broad
19 discretionary type grant?
20 MS. WHITTENTON: Right.
21 MR. SANSOM: No.
22 COMMISSIONER RAMOS: That's great.
23 COMMISSIONER MONTGOMERY: I've got a
24 question on the budget policy, because it's the first time
25 I've read it. Is this a pre-existing budget policy or is
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1 this a new submission?
2 MS. WHITTENTON: It's a pre-existing policy
3 with the only change being the insertion of the words
4 excluding federal grants on those approval pieces.
5 COMMISSIONER MONTGOMERY: Who has the
6 authority to settle a lawsuit here?
7 MS. WHITTENTON: To settle a lawsuit?
8 COMMISSIONER MONTGOMERY: Right.
9 MS. WHITTENTON: I believe the staff has
10 authority to do that.
11 COMMISSIONER MONTGOMERY: And that's the
12 way it's always been?
13 MR. SANSOM: But it would -- that would be
14 limited by the budget authority for expenditures, you
15 know, over a certain amount.
16 COMMISSIONER MONTGOMERY: Well, that's what
17 I was trying to understand this policy. When it says,
18 "Adjust the budget to cover the costs," does that apply to
19 the director --
20 MS. WHITTENTON: Well, if we had a -- had
21 to make a budget adjustment to move funds around to cover
22 a large loss --
23 MR. SANSOM: Then the policy would kick in.
24 But we settle lawsuits every -- every week.
25 COMMISSIONER MONTGOMERY: Yeah.
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1 MR. SANSOM: But, generally, you do not
2 hear about them unless they're above that trigger
3 mechanism to require budget changes.
4 COMMISSIONER MONTGOMERY: What's that
5 dollar amount?
6 MS. WHITTENTON: There are some settlements
7 that require legislative notification. I believe if
8 they're over $250,000, they require --
9 COMMISSIONER MONTGOMERY: And then, No. 9 -
10 sorry to slow you down, but I want to make sure I
11 understand it - "Authorized classification changes any
12 time during a budgetary year providing changes that are
13 thoroughly justified and funds available," does that --
14 I'm trying to understand where policy stops and management
15 starts in that definition. It seems a little vague.
16 Classification of what?
17 MS. WHITTENTON: Yes. Moving funds between
18 operating and capital or between equipment and salary
19 classifications of budget type. We actually budget down
20 to that level.
21 COMMISSIONER MONTGOMERY: And No. 5,
22 "Adjust the budget for appropriated revenues," I know
23 we've not budgeted fully what we've been appropriated.
24 Are there any circumstances where the gaps are such that
25 it might be a policy issue that ought to come before the
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1 Commission that you all can think of in the coming year?
2 MS. WHITTENTON: Well, certainly if it
3 exceeded 100 or 150,000.
4 COMMISSIONER MONTGOMERY: So that's going
5 to catch everything either way?
6 MS. WHITTENTON: Uh-huh.
7 COMMISSIONER MONTGOMERY: Fine. Okay.
8 Thanks.
9 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: Are there any more
10 questions? No one is signed up to speak on this.
11 MR. SANSOM: Madame Chairman, if I might at
12 this point in time, I would just like to add to
13 Ms. Whittenton's presentation by saying that if there was
14 ever a time that demonstrated the maturity and the
15 seasoned and skillful nature of the Division Directors of
16 this Department, it is in the compilation of this budget.
17 This has not been an easy process. You all have
18 admonished us to make sure that we were able to make --
19 meet the bottom line while not, you know, curtailing
20 current services. And these men and women have done that.
21 And I want you to know that, you know, I believe they're
22 as good a management team as there is in state government.
23 And this particular exercise shows that.
24 VICE CHAIR ANGELO: Madame Chairman, as I
25 mentioned yesterday as Finance Committee Chairman and
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1 someone who's been involved in depth with Suzy and Andy
2 and the staff in working on this, I think they certainly
3 do deserve the compliments that Andy has expressed, as
4 does he.
5 But, also, I want to say that the Commission has
6 been involved to a great extent this year, especially.
7 And, again, the Vice Chairman of the Finance Committee,
8 Phil Montgomery, has put in endless amount of hours in
9 working on this. So I, too, appreciate the work of the
10 staff and all the department heads from top to bottom and
11 the work that's been done on this. And thank you.
12 MS. WHITTENTON: Thank you.
13 COMMISSIONER RAMOS: Madame Chairman?
14 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: Go ahead, Donato Ramos.
15 COMMISSIONER RAMOS: Yes, ma'am. Briefly,
16 I want to echo what Andy said. I'm the newest member of
17 the Commission. I continue to be impressed with the
18 professionalism and the extreme competency of our staff.
19 And, again, I congratulate you all, straight across.
20 Thank you.
21 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: I was going to wait until
22 after we moved to approve, but I also want to add here my
23 observations. I think in the two years that I've been on
24 the Commission, this exercise has been as fine an example
25 of Commission and staff working together to meet a
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1 challenge successfully. And I know how hard everybody has
2 worked, and my hat is off to my fellow Commissioners that
3 devoted so much time to this effort and to the staff for
4 the countless hours that you all put into this. And I say
5 this with tremendous appreciation.
6 MS. WHITTENTON: Thank you.
7 COMMISSIONER MONTGOMERY: May I add just a
8 couple of comments? I won't repeat what everyone's said
9 or complete what I said yesterday other than to say thanks
10 again to the management team, Andy and Suzy and department
11 heads for multiple iterations and, I think, a very mature
12 and objective approach to dealing with scrutiny of
13 priorities and a whole different set of exercises.
14 I said it yesterday and I think it's important
15 for those of you in the audience that are paying attention
16 to this: What we are doing in this budget is deferring
17 capital spending, a number of discretionary initiatives
18 and living with a little less at the operating level than
19 we had last year. And it does really mean that we're
20 going to have to take a variety of fee increases very
21 seriously if we intend to keep our service package
22 together and avoid the kind of a ratcheting down of the
23 service offerings department due to continued cost
24 increases that will occur in the future.
25 So that no one misses that point, we will want
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1 your involvement in the public hearing process, and we
2 will want your support in explaining the offerings to the
3 Department and the cost benefits trade-offs of how we
4 treat our revenue.
5 The other element that's not there that I think
6 we all need to be prepared to explain to the legislature
7 is that we are not engaging in the historic practice of
8 underbudgeting and ending up with surpluses. We have a
9 budget that really needs to land right where it's
10 positioned unless we prime the pump through the fee
11 increases early next year.
12 And I will repeat again my offering to volunteer
13 to be at the legislative committees. I think the practice
14 we want to defend is conservative budgeting and surpluses
15 time to meet seasonal fluctuations of revenue that we're
16 going to have year-in, year-out. I don't want to have to
17 defend shutting down operations because we budgeted too
18 tightly. So, management team, you know, I think the right
19 practice is to do that. We're going to have to catch up
20 with ourselves, do some increases early in the year. And
21 we're all going to be able to explain that to the public
22 and the legislature that we're in a business that has
23 seasonal ailments in its revenue stream and a fixed cost
24 element to its expenses, and we've got to budget
25 intelligently, frugally and responsibly with that. So I
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1 think that's -- those are a couple important principles
2 going forward to next year.
3 MR. SANSOM: And we appreciate your help,
4 sir.
5 MS. WHITTENTON: Also, before you take a
6 motion, we also need to get approval on the investment
7 policy, which you're required to review annually. It just
8 requires that all funds be deposited in the Treasury and
9 allows for any existing stock to be sold and then the
10 proceeds be deposited to the Treasury, if deemed
11 appropriate.
12 And that's all I have. The staff's
13 recommendation is for approval of the recommended budget,
14 the budget policy and the investment policy.
15 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: Are there --
16 VICE CHAIR ANGELO: Move approval.
17 COMMISSIONER MONTGOMERY: Second.
18 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: Second by Commissioner
19 Montgomery. All in favor, please say aye. Any opposed?
20 Hearing none, motion carries.
21 "The Executive Director is authorized to expend
22 funds to operate the Parks and Wildlife
23 Department in accordance with the Proposed FY
24 2002 Operating Budget (Exhibit A), the Proposed
25 FY 2002 Capital Program (Exhibit B), and the
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1 Proposed FY 2002 Grant Budget (Exhibit C)."
2 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: Is -- are we ready for
3 No. 7?
4 MR. SANSOM: He's here, but I think I would
5 recommend moving one more item.
6 AGENDA ITEM NO. 9: BRIEFING - NUECES RIVERBED USE
7 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: No. 9, then, is a briefing
8 by Dr. Larry McKinney.
9 (Whereupon, a briefing was presented to the
Commission, after which the following
10 proceedings were had:)
11 AGENDA ITEM NO. 7: BRIEFING - TEXAS TECH STUDY.
12 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: We are going, then, back
13 to Item No. 7, Dr. David Schmidly will brief us on the
14 Texas Tech study.
15 (Whereupon, a briefing was presented to the
Commission, after which the following
16 proceedings were had:)
17 AGENDA ITEM NO. 10: ACTION - DEER MANAGEMENT PROCLAMATION
18 VICE CHAIR ANGELO: The next item on the
19 agenda is Item No. 10, the Deer Management Permit Project.
20 Jerry Cooke.
21 MR. COOKE: Madame Chairman and members, my
22 name is Jerry Cooke. I'm Game Branch Chief for the
23 Wildlife Division. I'll be presenting you the proposed
24 changes to the Deer Management Permit Project. We
25 discussed this in relative detail yesterday, and I'll be a
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1 little more brief today, unless you have more questions on
2 the issues.
3 Basically, we have three items that we propose
4 to change. One is to place the deer management permit on
5 an annual cycle. The permit would be valid from September
6 the 1st or the date of purchase, whichever is latest in
7 the year, through the following August 31st. It would
8 prohibit the release of deer from a brood facility on a
9 deer management permit before April the 1st. This would
10 take the deer completely out of any possibility of being
11 included in a Triple T permit operation. And also,
12 finally, to allow all of our biologists and technicians
13 who are assigned to write and approve wildlife management
14 plans to be in a position to approve this permit. And
15 this was primarily so that all of these permits could be
16 included in a single permit application process.
17 The recommendation would be that Texas Parks and
18 Wildlife Commission adopts amendments to 31 TAC 65.132 and
19 65.136 concerning the deer management project with charges
20 to the proposed text as published in the July 27, 2001,
21 issue of the Texas Register. If you have any questions, I
22 would be happy to entertain them.
23 VICE CHAIR ANGELO: Are there any questions
24 or comments? Do we have anyone -- I don't have the slips
25 in front of me. Do we have anyone in the audience who
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1 wants to speak on this? There being none -- being --
2 Mr. Gilleland, did you sign up to speak on this issue?
3 MR. GILLELAND: Yes, sir, I did.
4 VICE CHAIR ANGELO: If you would please
5 come to the microphone. I don't have the slips in front
6 of me, so I wasn't aware of that.
7 MR. GILLELAND: My name is Ellis Gilleland.
8 I'm a private citizen. I'm speaking for Texas Animals,
9 which is an animal rights organization on the Internet.
10 My -- my comments here today on the proposed changes on
11 what you have are based on what appeared in the Texas
12 Register, and what appears in the Texas Register is that
13 you want to push the decision-making process down to a
14 lower level to allow more Department employees to approve
15 deer management plans. I've marked that in yellow. And
16 then on the other side, I've marked with -- "The plan's
17 management plan be approved by Wildlife Division
18 technician or biologist."
19 My recommendation is to leave it with the
20 biologists. In fact, they even should be even higher.
21 And the thing I'm concerned about is that you're
22 converting -- the gist of this whole 31 TAC 65.132 is
23 converting public property into private property. And so
24 this decision, in my opinion, should be a management
25 decision above the biologist level. But the biologist
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1 level, to me, would be the bottom mark of a person that
2 has some type of managerial training or skill.
3 A technician, to me, does not seem to be the
4 appropriate level to push decisions for converting public
5 property into private property.
6 The second comment I have is "will and may".
7 The dear -- the management plan will be issued following
8 the approval. I recommend that you keep the "may," "may
9 be issued." The way you have it written now is they do
10 not have to pay the fee. If you look above -- if you go
11 by that wording, you lawyers will appreciate the fact that
12 "will be issued" -- the man will be issued the plan even
13 if he hasn't paid the fee.
14 The last comment I have to make has to do with
15 the release of the deer. I think this is just pure bull,
16 hogwash, baloney, whatever you want to call it, because
17 this 100 yards breach in the fence containment area in 60
18 consecutive days open, all of this is being done behind
19 the high fence anyway. This whole thing is being done
20 behind high fence. It's like -- it's like taking a
21 Diamond K 5 or 10,000 acres and putting a high fence and
22 doing all the mechanical things.
23 MR. SANSOM: Thank you very much,
24 Mr. Gilleland. Thank you very much.
25 MR. GILLELAND: So it's just superfluous to
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1 have this.
2 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: Do we have any comment
3 from staff? Are there any comments from the Commission?
4 If there are no more comments, is there a motion on this
5 item moving for approval?
6 COMMISSIONER WATSON: So moved.
7 COMMISSIONER RAMOS: Second.
8 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: Are the any additional
9 comments? Any further comments? All in favor, say aye.
10 All opposed, say no. Hearing none, motion carries.
11 "The Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission adopts
12 amendment to 31 TAC 65.132 and 65.136 (located
13 at Exhibit A) concerning the Deer Management
14 Proclamation, with changes to the proposed text
15 as published in the July 27, 2001, issue of the
16 "Texas Register" (26 TexReg 5608)."
17 AGENDA ITEM NO. 11: ACTION - 2001-2002 MIGRATORY GAME
18 BIRD PROCLAMATION - LATE SEASON PROVISIONS
19 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: The next agenda item is
20 Action No. 11, Vernon Bevill, Migratory Game Bird Project,
21 late season.
22 MR. BEVILL: Madame Chairman, members of
23 the Commission, I am Vernon Bevill, Game Bird Program
24 Director. Today we're here to talk about the -- what we
25 call late season regulations for migratory game bird
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1 seasons for the 2001-2002, and I want to primarily focus
2 on the changes that we would be proposing.
3 For the western goose zone, we've had our
4 operational season there very successful and we're not
5 proposing any changes other than the shift of days with
6 regard to the calendar.
7 The same is true for the eastern goose zone. No
8 limit changes, no number of day changes, but just shift
9 with regard to the calendar.
10 We do deal with the conservation orders for
11 light geese and the conservation order for light geese in
12 the western goose zone would be implemented on
13 February 11th and run through the 31st of March. In the
14 eastern goose zone we are closing down some of the goose
15 seasons a little early to accommodate the need to
16 implement those regulations for the light goose special
17 opportunity there. And that season would open the day
18 after the water fowl season closes on the 21st of January
19 with a close at the 31st of March.
20 For sandhill crane, we are proposing an
21 expansion of the Zone C boundary and a reduction in the
22 bag limit in Zone C from three to two. We're also
23 proposing an early closure of a small segment in the
24 northeast corner of Zone B to accommodate the need -- the
25 needs associated with the light goose conservation orders
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1 requiring that sandhill crane not be available to hunt
2 during that period.
3 The rest of Zone B is in the western goose zone,
4 which doesn't open until after the sandhill crane season
5 closes.
6 VICE CHAIR ANGELO: Are we still getting
7 a -- I forget what the process is anymore to have a permit
8 anymore?
9 MR. BEVILL: Yes, we do have to have a
10 permit.
11 VICE CHAIR ANGELO: What kind of records do
12 we have, numbers up and down or what feeling about how
13 people actually hunt?
14 MR. BEVILL: Commissioner, I don't know the
15 most recent information. I know when we first went to POS
16 it sort of blew our database out of proportion, and that's
17 sort of coming back down a little ever since. But it's
18 still considerably higher than when we were issuing those
19 permits under the paper system. We've been trying to
20 manage around that for survey purposes, because that's
21 conducted by Fish and Wildlife Service. But to give you a
22 flat number, I just don't have it off the top of my head.
23 For ducks, geese and mergansers, we're basically
24 proposing the same season we had a year ago. We're still
25 in that liberal option -- that includes a two-day youth
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1 hunt and 74-day season in the north and south duck zones
2 and an expansion of that in the High Plain Mallard
3 Management Unit.
4 I would point out that we did consider, if you
5 will recall, back in April the possibility of a slight
6 modification of the north/south zone boundary. We got
7 very little public comment and most of that was negative
8 to that change, and so we're not proposing that change.
9 Also, in the north and south duck zones, we are
10 using a combination of the TOCs season youth hunt and
11 regular duck season, 92 of the regular 107 hunting days.
12 Those 15 days that remain will be part of the extended
13 falconry season that continues on for 15 days after duck
14 season closes. Falconry is not implicated in this light
15 goose management conservation order, so that's not a
16 problem.
17 The other consideration is to have a 25-day
18 canvasback season at the last 25 days of the regular duck
19 season. As I said, public comment was light on these
20 issues, and as I briefed you yesterday there was a comment
21 from the Game Bird Advisory Board that we take very
22 seriously, and we'll look into, if you so wish. And this
23 is your recommended adoption motion before you here.
24 "TEXAS PARKS AND WILDLIFE COMMISSION adopts amendments to
25 31 TAC 65.314, 65.317, 65.318, 65.320 and 65.321
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1 concerning the migratory game bird proclamation with
2 changes to the proposed text (located in that Exhibit A)
3 as published in the April 27, 2001 issue of the Texas
4 Register."
5 To any comment, I would be glad to answer
6 questions.
7 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: We have somebody that
8 would like to speak to this, David Langford. David, I
9 think you were up to speak on the last issue, and I
10 stepped out of the room.
11 MR. LANGFORD: Thank you very much, Madame
12 Chairman and members of the Commission. I would like to
13 thank you now former Vice Chairman Dinkins for her service
14 and also for your service on chairing the Governor's Task
15 Force. I keep waiting -- since now that's a President's
16 Task Force, I keep waiting for that to appear on a
17 national agenda, and I guess whenever we get the Arabs and
18 Israelis to stop blowing up the world, maybe we'll get
19 that on the national issue.
20 I also congratulate the new Vice Chairman and
21 look forward to working you with you on your position.
22 I'll make it quick on both issues.
23 We support the staff recommendation on both
24 issues, and particularly on Item 10 and not quite so much
25 on Item 11, but it's a perfect example of how the
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1 Department works with the constituent groups. They are
2 sometimes very, very disparate groups, particularly on
3 Item 10. And, yet, it all comes together over a process
4 that involves everybody that's fair and open and that we
5 are proud to be a part of. And I say that because of the
6 riverbed issue stuff. I tried to pay careful attention
7 and maybe I missed it but I did get a -- a -- a -- an
8 indication that there was a direction from the Commission.
9 I know Commissioner Henry suggested that something come
10 forward in January on that riverbed issue. I just want to
11 make sure that that issue gets put, like the migratory
12 seasons and Item No. 10, that we would get some direction
13 to keep going on that so that it doesn't get dropped.
14 Let's -- let's use these two as a model and move forward
15 with all the constituent groups. Thank you very much.
16 Once again, Andy, thank you. I enjoyed serving
17 the last 11 years. And I'm sorry you didn't have a party
18 I could go to yesterday.
19 MR. SANSOM: Thank you, David.
20 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: Are there any -- is there
21 any further discussion? Is there a motion?
22 VICE CHAIR ANGELO: Approval.
23 COMMISSIONER RAMOS: Second.
24 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: Any further discussion?
25 All in favor, say aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, motion
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1 carries.
2 "TEXAS PARKS AND WILDLIFE COMMISSION adopts
3 amendments to 31 TAC 65.314, 65.317, 65.318,
4 65.320 and 65.321 concerning the migratory game
5 bird project with changes to the proposed text
6 (located in Exhibit A) as published in the April
7 27, 2001 issue of the Texas Register." (26
8 TexReg 3141)
9 AGENDA ITEM NO. 12: ACTION - NOMINATION FOR OIL AND GAS
10 LEASE - GUS ENGELING WMA.
11 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: This brings us to agenda
12 Item No. 12, Kathy Boydston, Nomination of Oil and Gas
13 Lease.
14 MS. BOYDSTON: Madame Chairman, members of
15 the Commission, my name is Kathy Boydston. I'm program
16 leader for the Wildlife Habitat Assessment Program.
17 What I'm offering you today is an oil and gas
18 nomination. The Department received a request for oil and
19 gas in the Gus Engeling WMA in Anderson County. It's a
20 111-acre tract within the 10,000 acres of the management
21 area. The Department owns 50 percent of the minerals in
22 this tract. Staff recommends the Commission follow the
23 standard policy, requiring a minimum bonus bid of 150 per
24 acre, a 25 percent royalty and ten-dollar per acre delay
25 rental for a term of three years. We also recommend that
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1 the lease be subject to the Exhibit A restrictions. The
2 first restriction would require the operator to locate on
3 an existing drill pad using existing access roads and
4 pipeline easements. This would minimize disturbance to
5 the surface and also minimize the daily actions of the
6 wildlife management area. The second restriction would
7 cover anything that the Department has concerns is not
8 included in a normal oil and gas lease. The staff
9 recommends the following motion. "The Executive Director
10 is authorized to nominate for oil and gas lease to the
11 Board for Lease for Parks and Wildlife lands the
12 Department's mineral interest in the Gus Engeling
13 Wildlife Management Area at 150 per acre with a 25 percent
14 royalty, ten-dollar per acre rental and a three-year term,
15 incorporating the restrictions set out in Exhibit A."
16 And I'll be glad to answer any questions.
17 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: Do we have any questions?
18 VICE CHAIR ANGELO: That doesn't make it
19 clear that that $150 is a minimum, does it?
20 MS. BOYDSTON: Would you like to amended
21 that motion? We can do that.
22 VICE CHAIR ANGELO: It looks like it should
23 say "at a minimum".
24 MS. BOYDSTON: I apologize for that. I can
25 do that.
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1 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: Are there any other
2 questions? Comments? Do I have a motion on this item
3 with the amendment?
4 COMMISSIONER AVILA: Move.
5 COMMISSIONER FITZSIMONS: Second.
6 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: Any further comment?
7 All in favor? All opposed? Hearing none, motion carries.
8 "The Executive Director is authorized to
9 nominate for oil and gas lease to the Board for
10 Lease for Parks and Wildlife Lands, the
11 Department's mineral interest in the Gus
12 Engeling Wildlife Management Area, a minimum bid
13 of $150 per acre with a 25 percent royalty,
14 $10 per acre rental, and a three-year term,
15 incorporating the restrictions set out in
16 Exhibit A."
17 AGENDA ITEM NO. 13: ACTION - LAND SALE - RICHLAND CREEK
18 WMA.
19 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: We now are on Agenda
20 Item No. 13, Land Sale. Ronnie Ray.
21 MR. RAY: Madame Chairman and
22 Commissioners, my name is Ronnie Ray, and I'm a project
23 manager with the Land Conservation Program. The sale fo
24 13.15 acres in highway right-of-way to the Texas
25 Department of Transportation is proposed at Richland Creek
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1 WMA in Freestone County. As compensation, TXDOT has
2 proposed to construct several facility and habitat
3 improvements at Richland Creek. Staff recommends that the
4 Commission authorize Executive Director to take all
5 necessary steps to consummate the transfer of
6 approximately 13.15 acres at the Richland Creek Wildlife
7 Management Area to the Texas Department of Transportation
8 for road improvements along U.S. highway 287 in Freestone
9 County.
10 Do I have any questions?
11 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: Any questions or comments?
12 Do I have a motion?
13 COMMISSIONER DINKINS: So moved.
14 COMMISSIONER RAMOS: Second.
15 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: Any further comments? All
16 in favor? All opposed? Hearing none, motion carries.
17 MR. RAY: Thank you.
18 "The Executive Director is authorized to take
19 all necessary steps to consummate the transfer
20 of approximately 13.15 acres at the Richland
21 Creek Wildlife Management Area to the Texas
22 Department of Transportation for road
23 improvements along U.S. Highway 287 in Freestone
24 County."
25 AGENDA ITEM NO. 14 - ACTION -0 LAND ACQUISITION - BASTROP
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1 STATE PARK
2 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: Agenda Item No. 14, Land
3 Acquisition, Bastrop State Park. Jeff Francell.
4 MR. FRANCELL: Madame Chairman, members of
5 the Commission, I'm Jeff Francell, Director of Land
6 Acquisition. The item we're talking about today is in
7 Bastrop State Park.
8 Bastrop State Park is about 30 miles east from
9 here. It may be under water right now with the rain we're
10 having. It's one of our ten most popular state parks.
11 Bastrop State Park is home to federally endangered Houston
12 toads.
13 Last year, Parks and Wildlife added a 1,000-acre
14 track to Bastrop State Park. After doing that, the
15 federal government awarded Parks and Wildlife 1.5 million
16 dollars for additional land at Bastrop State Park. In
17 April of this year, the owners of the largest tract
18 adjacent to the state park offered the property to Parks
19 and Wildlife. This is the tract here on the map. It's
20 1300 acres with an access to State Highway 21 and has
21 several miles of frontage along Allan Creek. And this is
22 the recommendation.
23 Any questions?
24 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: Any questions? Comments?
25 Do we have a motion?
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1 COMMISSIONER DINKINS: So moved.
2 COMMISSIONER HENRY: Second.
3 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: All in favor? Opposed?
4 Motion carries.
5 "The Executive Director is authorized to take
6 all steps necessary to purchase approximately
7 1275 acres in Bastrop County as an addition to
8 Bastrop State Park."
9 AGENDA ITEM NO. 15: ACTION - LAND ACQUISITION - PRESIDIO
10 COUNTY - BIG BEND RANCH.
11 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: Agenda Item 15, Land
12 Acquisition Presidio County, Karen Leslie.
13 MS. LESLIE: Commissioners, I'm Karen
14 Leslie in Land Conservation, Project Manager. This item
15 reflects a summary of the Conservation Committee Executive
16 Session item presented yesterday. This item is for land
17 acquisition of two tracts totalling approximately 1,695
18 acres as an addition to Big Bend Ranch State Park. The
19 property provides river access and will protect an
20 important archeological site in the park. Staff
21 recommends the Commission consider the motion to purchase
22 the property.
23 Any questions?
24 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: No questions, discussion?
25 COMMISSIONER MONTGOMERY: Approval.
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1 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: Do I have a second?
2 COMMISSIONER RAMOS: Second.
3 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: Oh. All in favor?
4 Opposed? Motion carries.
5 "The Executive Director is authorized to take
6 all steps necessary to purchase approximately
7 320 acres described as Section No. 28, Jose
8 Maria Borillo, Presidio County, and
9 approximately 1,375 acres described as Section
10 No. 39 and Section No. 41, Block 349, GC&SF
11 Ry. Co., Presidio County, to be part of Big Bend
12 Ranch State Park."
13 AGENDA ITEM NO. 16: ACTION - LAND ACQUISITION - HARDIN
14 COUNTY
15 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: Item 16, Land Acquisition,
16 Hardin County. Karen.
17 MS. LESLIE: Madame Chairman and
18 Commissioners, this item also reflects a summary of our
19 discussion yesterday in Executive Session. This item is
20 for land acquisition of approximately 45 acres adjacent to
21 Village Creek State Park. The property is recommended for
22 buffer and to protect a long-leaf pine Savannah, a very
23 rare and localized community type.
24 Staff recommends the Commission consider the
25 motion before you to acquire the property.
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1 Any questions?
2 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: Any questions or
3 discussion? Do I have a motion?
4 COMMISSIONER MONTGOMERY: Move approval.
5 COMMISSIONER RAMOS: Second.
6 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: Any other discussion? All
7 in favor? Opposed? Hearing none, motion carries.
8 MS. LESLIE: Thank you.
9 "The Executive Director is authorized to take
10 all steps necessary to purchase approximately
11 45.78 acres in Hardin County as an addition to
12 Village Creek State Park."
13 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: Mr. Sansom, is there any
14 other business before us this morning?
15 MR. SANSOM: No, ma'am.
16 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: We will recess now and
17 break for Executive Session, and we'll be back here this
18 afternoon.
19 (Whereupon an Executive Session was
20 held, after which the following
21 proceedings were had:)
22 CHAIRMAN IDSAL: First, I want to end the
23 Executive Session and I want to formally close the public
24 meeting -- adjourn the public meeting.
25 (Adjourned.)
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1 STATE OF TEXAS )
2 COUNTY OF TRAVIS)
3 REPORTER'S CERTIFICATION
4 I, Rhonda Howard, Certified Shorthand Reporter in
5 and for the State of Texas, hereby certify that on August
6 30, 2001, I was present at the Texas Parks and Wildlife
7 Commission for committee meetings and that this is a true
8 and complete transcript of the proceedings.
9 I further certify that the proceedings were put
10 into writing by myself with the help of Lori Estrada of
11 the TEXAS PARKS AND WILDLIFE COMMISSION.
12 I further certify that I am neither counsel for,
13 related to, nor employed by any of the parties or
14 attorneys in the action in which this proceeding was
15 taken, and further that I am not financially or otherwise
16 interested in the outcome of the action.
17 Certified to by me, this 28th day of September,
18 2001.
19 _____________________________________
20 ____________________________
RHONDA HOWARD, Texas CSR No. 4136
21 Expiration Date 12/31/02
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