Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission
Finance Committee
Aug. 28, 2002
Commission Hearing RoomTexas Parks & Wildlife Department Headquarters Complex
4200 Smith School Road
Austin, TX 78744
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6 BE IT REMEMBERED, that heretofore on the 28th day of
7 August, 2002, there come to be heard matters under the
8 regulatory authority of the Parks and Wildlife
9 Commission of Texas, in the Commission Hearing Room of
10 the Texas Parks and Wildlife Headquarters Complex,
11 Austin, Texas, beginning at 9:00 a.m. to wit:
12
13 APPEARANCES:
THE TEXAS PARKS AND WILDLIFE COMMISSION:
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FINANCE COMMITTEE:
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CHAIRMAN: Katharine Armstrong, Austin, Texas
16 Ernest Angelo, Jr., Vice Chairman, Midland,
Texas
17 John Avila, Jr., Fort Worth, Texas
Joseph B.C. Fitzsimons, San Antonio, Texas,
18 Committee Chair
Alvin L. Henry, Houston, Texas
19 Philip Montgomery, Dallas, Texas
Donato D. Ramos, Laredo, Texas
20 Kelly W. Rising, M.D., Beaumont, Texas
Mark E. Watson, Jr., San Antonio, Texas
21
THE TEXAS PARKS AND WILDLIFE DEPARTMENT:
22 Robert L. Cook, Executive Director, and other personnel
of the Parks and Wildlife Department
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24
25
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1 CHAIRMAN ARMSTRONG: We will now go on to
2 the Finance Committee. Chairman -- Vice Chairman
3 Angelo, Chairman of the Finance Committee.
4 COMMISSIONER ANGELO: Our first item is
5 approval of committee minutes. And I had one small
6 typographical correction on page three of the -- of our
7 booklet here. It has the Boner report, B-o-n-e-r. We
8 certainly want to change that to be correctly spelled to
9 Bomer, B-o-m-e-r. Just thought that might be
10 appropriate.
11 Are there any other corrections? Or, if
12 not, do we have a motion that they be approved?
13 (Inaudible) Motion to second. (Inaudible) All in favor
14 say, I. Opposed? The minutes are approved.
15 And I guess the next item is the
16 Chairman's Charges.
17 ITEM 1: CHAIRMAN'S CHARGES.
18 MR. COOK: I don't know if I
19 can follow that one. Thank you, sir. As discussed
20 in a regulation committee, our natural -- part of
21 our Natural Leaders program this year was to present
22 a project completion report that addressed part of
23 this Committee's charge. This was a creation of a
24 department business plan for statewide commercial
25 projects. The Administrative Resources Division is
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1 currently implementing this plan, which was developed
2 by our Natural Leaders program. I'll take just a
3 second here to plug this program.
4 We gave these young people, these
5 people in our agency, the opportunity to take
6 assignments from our Sunset charges and address those
7 charges, develop programs, and develop plans for us.
8 They have done an incredible job, and it is much
9 appreciated.
10 In addition, Mr. Chairman, I will ask
11 that Scott Boruff and Suzy Whittenton brief you at
12 this time on the status of our Business Practices
13 Improvement Plan, which is also part of the
14 Chairman's Charges. I want to specifically recognize
15 the direct assistance provided throughout this spring
16 and summer from the State Comptroller's Office. They
17 didn't just -- they didn't just talk to us, they sent
18 people over here and put them to work. And they've
19 been a real asset to us and are very much
20 appreciated.
21 We have had -- and I'm going to
22 preempt Suzy and Scott some. They have made an
23 immense effort to the entire group, very closely
24 coordinating, very -- keeping everybody up-to-date
25 with oversight agencies, oversight committees,
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1 individuals that have been helping us, including LBB,
2 Sunset Commission, State Auditor's Office, and many
3 more.
4 We have had so far two legislative
5 awareness briefings down at the capitol in which
6 we've invited every legislative aid and every
7 legislator who is involved in our business through
8 the -- through the finance committees and the
9 oversight agencies. Those have been very well
10 attended and have gone very well. We addressed any
11 questions they have and provide the information that
12 they request and provide some probably that they
13 don't request. They've done a tremendous job. And
14 I'd appreciate it if -- when they get up here,
15 they'll brief you on that plan.
16 COMMISSIONER MONTGOMERY: While
17 they're coming up, I have a question on the business
18 planning. Will we see results of that analysis on
19 the different business projects?
20 MR. COOK: Absolutely. Absolutely.
21 COMMISSIONER MONTGOMERY: Will those
22 be presented to us at some point?
23 MR. COOK: Absolutely.
24 COMMISSIONER MONTGOMERY: Okay.
25 MR. COOK: I would say --
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1 Commissioner Montgomery, I would say you probably can
2 do 50 percent or more -- well, we can give you a
3 really fairly detailed report in November. And
4 possibly a final report in January might be more
5 appropriate.
6 MR. BORUFF: Commissioners, for the
7 record, my name is Scott Boruff, Deputy Executive
8 Director of Operations, starting next week. We don't
9 really have a formal presentation here. This is kind
10 of off the cuff. But we would like to let you know
11 that the Business Practice Improvement Plan is moving
12 forward rapidly. This is a plan that we put together
13 some five months ago or so, which is addressing all
14 the business practices from top to bottom in the
15 agency.
16 We -- particularly, we're focused on
17 some of the items that we had taken some recent
18 criticism for. For example, our reconciliation, our
19 backlog of revenue and expense reconciliation. We're
20 proud to report to you today that by the time that we
21 close this year, we will be finished with the
22 reconciliation of the backlog. We will then begin to
23 work on the 2002 reconciliation process.
24 And we anticipate being through with
25 that before the end of the year. So that by the time
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1 we roll into the session, our books will be balanced,
2 backlogs will be reconciled, and we'll be headed
3 forward with new policies and procedures that will
4 preclude this from happening to us again.
5 The plan is quite detailed. And
6 certainly not now, but at your leisure, if you'd like
7 to learn more about the plan and the specific work
8 activities that we have involved, I will share it
9 with you. This is a fairly comprehensive effort, and
10 there are several hundred work items that we are
11 working on currently. About a third, 35 or 40
12 percent, of the items that we started out to fix have
13 been completed and are off the table. The remaining
14 two-thirds are well underway.
15 We do anticipate, by the beginning of
16 the session, to be completed with some 75 or 80
17 percent of those work items. The remaining 15 or 20
18 percent will have plans in place that will be
19 credible and defensible, so that as we move into the
20 session, we hope to be looking at a complete
21 re-engineering of the business practices of the
22 agency.
23 MR. COOK: There's another gentleman
24 here that I want to recognize who has been assisting
25 me for several months. T.C. Mallett, if you would --
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1 I want them all to see your smiling face. This
2 gentleman is a veteran of state government, of
3 business, of finance, how we conduct business, and
4 which we're always looking for options to make it go
5 smoother, make it work better for everyone, make it
6 more effective, more efficient.
7 T.C. Mallett is an absolute expert in
8 that area and has helped us throughout this entire
9 process, starting in February, I guess. And the
10 reason I wanted to recognize him -- I'm fixing to --
11 he said he had some real important business to do.
12 We've got it narrowed down to -- it's something
13 between chasing his cows around and fishing. But
14 he's -- he's going to be leaving us soon. And I
15 appreciate your help very much, T.C. Thank you.
16 MS. WHITTENTON: The only other thing
17 I would add to that is that we, in addressing the
18 Business Practices Improvement Plan items, have added
19 some new staff that will help us make sure that all
20 of the recommendations are implemented. Some of them
21 are here today and some I don't think are. We added
22 a new Budget and Planning Director, who started about
23 a month ago. And that's Patsy Henry. Patsy is here
24 and will be in charge of strategic planning,
25 performance measures and budgeting.
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1 We've also, back in January, added a
2 new Finance Director, Brenda Dille, who has done a
3 fabulous job of helping us streamline our operations
4 and make things run more efficiently.
5 And I -- I'll say that on the
6 reconciliation that we're almost finished with, we do
7 owe a big thanks to Commissioner -- I mean,
8 Controller Rylander for loaning us some people. She
9 loaned us a guy by the name of Wilson Day, who we put
10 in charge of the revenue side of the reconciliation.
11 I was skeptical that it couldn't be done by August
12 31st.
13 And I think we owe him a lot of
14 credit for making sure that it got done. And he'll
15 be going back to the Comptroller's Office next week
16 to his regular job. He was here about three and a
17 half months. And they didn't charge us a dime for
18 his time or Tom Zapata, who they also loaned us. And
19 Tom has returned back to the Comptroller's Office
20 back in -- at the end of July, and has since retired
21 from state government. So we really do appreciate
22 their help.
23 COMMISSIONER ANGELO: Any questions
24 or comments?
25 CHAIRMAN ARMSTRONG: I have a
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1 comment. It's been a long six or seven, eight months
2 now since we started in January doing the evaluation
3 and receiving the report in March and implementing
4 our plans. The staff has done a tremendous job
5 responding to the recommendations. I can't imagine
6 that anybody could have done it any more quickly than
7 Parks and Wildlife has done. I've heard comments to
8 that effect from people that have been through these
9 things before.
10 Parks and Wildlife has responded
11 admirably, and I'm very, very pleased and very, very
12 proud of the work that you-all have done. Thank you.
13 COMMISSIONER ANGELO: I certainly
14 echo every one of those words. It's been a great
15 effort. Thank you.
16 ITEM 2: FY03 OPERATING AND CAPITAL
17 BUDGET AND TEXAS PARKS AND WILDLIFE INVESTMENT POLICY
18 Okay. We'll then move on to item
19 number two, which is the operating and capital budget
20 and our investment policy, budget policy, and
21 legislative appropriations request. And Suzy will
22 bring us up-to-date on that.
23 MS. WHITTENTON: Thank you,
24 Mr. Chairman, Commissioners. For the record, I'm
25 Suzy Whittenton, Chief Financial Officer. Today I'm
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1 going to present the recommended internal operating
2 budget for fiscal year 2003. And I'll also present
3 requests for additional funding for the coming
4 biennium, fiscal years 2004 and 2005.
5 Today's discussion will include
6 direction provided by the legislature through the
7 General Appropriations Act. We'll talk about the
8 revenue and cash available to fund the 2003 budget
9 and present the staff's recommended budget. Also, we
10 will include a discussion on FTEs and the allocation
11 of the super combo revenue to the stamp funds. And
12 I'll also need your approval on both the budget
13 policy and the investment policy. And then I'll wrap
14 up with a quick discussion on what the highlights are
15 in the appropriations request.
16 October provides a blueprint for us
17 to look at what we're allowed to spend. And that's
18 provided by strategy. The Legislature uses a
19 performance-based, achievement-based budgeting system
20 that combines -- integrates our Strategic Plan into
21 our budget. We submit our strategic plan every other
22 year. In June, we just submitted our most recent
23 plan. And from that, we're funded by strategy, as
24 well as by a method of finance.
25 The General Appropriations Act limits
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1 capital budget spending and it limits our FTEs and
2 provides some additional guidelines through our
3 riders. So each year, when we look at our internal
4 operating budget, we start here in reviewing what the
5 legislature has directed us to do.
6 And when you look at the authority to
7 spend by strategy, the main difference from 2002 to
8 2003 is the addition of the Proposition 8 bonds.
9 You'll see in the capital programs line there, the
10 number goes way up in the second year. We're
11 expecting $36 million in Proposition 8 funds this
12 year, which we've included in our recommended budget.
13 That's the primary differences -- difference here.
14 There's some minor -- other minor differences between
15 strategies.
16 They also break out the -- the
17 appropriations request by the -- appropriation
18 authority by method of finance, straight general
19 revenue, and then general revenue dedicated, which
20 includes our Accounts 9 and 64 and our Local Parks
21 Account -- most of our funds are in general revenue
22 dedicated. And then it also includes estimates for
23 things like federal funds.
24 Now federal funds are estimated
25 appropriations, which means that we can -- if we
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1 bring in more than what was expected, we can still
2 spend it. So we'll actually be looking at a budget
3 that's more than this $247 million. As the rider
4 appropriations are also -- many of them are
5 estimated.
6 The capital budget rider on the
7 appropriations bill is very restrictive. It allows
8 for these amounts to be spent only for specific
9 purposes -- for these purposes. And it also limits
10 the amount that can be transferred between any of
11 these items. So we do have authority to spend up to
12 $4.2 million in vehicles. We have authority for land
13 -- specific authority for land acquisitions,
14 technology purchases, equipment items, and
15 construction and major repairs.
16 In the past, we have defined -- used
17 a different definition for the capital budget
18 internally than is included in the appropriations
19 bill. And it's caused a lot of confusion, I think.
20 And so what we're going to do -- what we've decided
21 to do is use that term consistently so capital budget
22 will refer to all of these items. In the past,
23 internally our -- when we talked about capital
24 budget, we were really only talking about
25 construction. And we'll include these other items in
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1 our capital budget this year.
2 Because we're funded by general
3 revenue dedicated funds, we can't spend more than
4 what's available in cash balances and projected
5 revenues, regardless of what our appropriation
6 authority is. So we have to look at what our cash
7 flow is going to look like. Total revenue and cash
8 balances available should be right around $315
9 million this year.
10 Those -- sources of funds are broken
11 out in this pie chart. You can see that nearly half
12 of all of our funds are in Account 9, the Game, Fish
13 and Water Safety Account. Account 64 is our State
14 Parks Account. And that is where our biggest
15 shortfall lies. We have been given authority to
16 spend $57 million from that fund, but we don't think
17 we'll have that much cash there from revenue earned
18 there. We think we'll have about $54 million. So
19 there's about a $3 million difference.
20 And that's probably the -- one of the
21 themes of this year's budget, is that there's just
22 not enough state park money available.
23 What we did here is lay out the
24 difference between revenue and cash available and
25 appropriation authority. And what we're doing in
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1 most cases is -- and this is a very simplified
2 version of this. But we're taking the lowest amount
3 and budgeting to that the lower of cash available or
4 appropriation authority. And really, you'll see
5 here, the biggest problem is in that fund 64, again.
6 The budget strategy for the year was
7 that we started by prioritizing base funding with
8 each division, with the requested supplemental
9 projects requested by each division. And we are
10 attempting to fund most operations at approximately
11 the same level as in fiscal year 2002.
12 Our goal is to maximize available
13 cash and appropriation authority so that -- because
14 we have more needs than we have money for. So we
15 need to take advantage of all the possible resources.
16 We are using all general revenue, undedicated general
17 revenue towards parks and park overhead. And we are
18 going to recommend funding the stamp funds at the
19 same level that we did in 2002.
20 COMMISSIONER ANGELO: Suzy, on that,
21 you might say what the reason for doing that is.
22 MS. WHITTENTON: I do have a slide
23 later --
24 COMMISSIONER ANGELO: Oh, you're
25 going to say that later?
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1 MS. WHITTENTON: --in the --
2 COMMISSIONER ANGELO: Okay.
3 MS. WHITTENTON: -- that I'll do.
4 COMMISSIONER ANGELO: Okay. That'll
5 be fine.
6 MS. WHITTENTON: What's new in 2003?
7 We set aside some funding for replacement for boating
8 equipment for the Law Enforcement Division. We've
9 set aside a small amount of money for computers for
10 game wardens. I think we've heard for a few years
11 that the game wardens in the field don't have
12 computers. Most of them. So we're going to start
13 trying to get them some -- some resources, as funding
14 permits.
15 We've also set aside money to fund a
16 game warden cadet class that will start in January.
17 Those selections are being made right now. So that
18 class will be funded from January through August.
19 We're also looking at the possibility
20 or feasibility of developing an in-house license
21 system for contingency purposes, or possibly for
22 those years beyond the WorldCom contract. What we
23 really wanted to do is just set aside enough
24 resources to evaluate alternatives there.
25 We also set aside some money to
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1 administer the motor pool at the headquarters. We're
2 funding the student intern program up front, rather
3 than -- in previous years, where we've had to fund it
4 from lapsed salaries or saved budget throughout the
5 year, we're going to fund it up front.
6 We have allocated some money for a
7 Microsoft site-licensing agreement, which will allow
8 our computer users to standardize on Microsoft
9 products. The users can then upgrade to the newest
10 releases of the software -- the operating system or
11 the software. And it'll also help us ensure that we
12 don't get into an audit problem where we've got
13 unauthorized versions of software on people's
14 computers. One of the other state agencies had
15 problems with that earlier this year.
16 There's also some money included for
17 a safe boating campaign. And one of the new federal
18 funds is called the State Wildlife Grant Program.
19 Internally, we call it the SWIG Program. There's
20 about $3.8 million in the budget. These are
21 replacing CARA funds. And we've been able to fund
22 some World Birding Center operations out of these
23 funds and -- as well as adding some people in
24 fisheries and wildlife, such as a coastal wetlands
25 eco supervisor position, borderlands biologist, and a
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1 wildlife planner out of these funds, and also doing
2 some coastal monitoring through coastal fisheries
3 through those funds.
4 And then finally, we've added some
5 funding to deal with Business Practices Improvement
6 Plan costs. Now, what that includes -- that will
7 enable us to basically beef up our resources in -- in
8 the finance area and to address areas that have been
9 identified as weaknesses. So we are adding
10 accountants for an ongoing monthly reconciliation, so
11 we won't ever get in the position that we've been in,
12 where we've had a backlog. They'll be able to keep
13 those reconciliations up timely and complete them
14 accurately.
15 We've also added a point-of-sale
16 system auditor to ensure that revenues are collected
17 timely and in the right amounts, so we don't have to
18 do that after the fact, as well.
19 We're also implementing a
20 reorganization of the revenue branch, effective
21 September 1st. That will allow completion of process
22 improvement and improve some of the controls in the
23 revenue area. If you'll remember the -- in the audit
24 report that we got last year, there was mention of
25 some nonvalue added activities. Those were --
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1 pertained mostly to the boat registration and titling
2 area and the cashier's office. We are redesigning
3 systems and procedures in those areas.
4 We've -- on the boat system, we've
5 implemented an interim work flow change that has
6 helped streamline operations there while we're
7 waiting for development of our new boat system.
8 We're rewriting the whole boat system. Once that's
9 implemented, then we'll really be able to register
10 and title boats more efficiently.
11 We've added some property auditors so
12 that we can correctly identify and account for
13 property assets. These positions used to be here on
14 staff. And over time, as we ran short of money, they
15 were deleted. We'd like to get those back so that we
16 can keep our construction in progress and numbers
17 up-to-date and current in the accounting system.
18 We have added some staff to code
19 credit card purchases. The Comptroller's Office is
20 now requiring that those purchases be coded at a more
21 detailed level than they were required to be coded
22 before. So we're needing to add someone to help us
23 keep that current.
24 And finally, what we're trying to do
25 is document the internal accounting system, the
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1 system administration, and the structure of that
2 system so that we -- as staff leave and we have
3 turnover, we can hand that over to someone where
4 there's -- documentation is written up on how to
5 administer that system. It's a very complex Oracle
6 financial system.
7 And then we are adding an accountant
8 for financial reporting to improve responsiveness of
9 the financial reporting area and to provide some
10 additional management reports, financial reports, and
11 change some of the reporting formats.
12 So those are the main changes to the
13 budget. And the total recommended operating budget
14 is about $203 million, which includes salaries,
15 fringe benefits, and operating costs, which includes
16 travel, supplies, and that sort of thing. And then
17 the minor repair program in parks is part of the
18 operating budget.
19 Recommended capital budget by type.
20 Again, the capital definition is a little different
21 this year. It includes vehicles, equipment,
22 computers, and construction. The bulk of this is in
23 construction. And that is mostly made up of the
24 Proposition 8 funds. It also includes a little bit
25 of money for projects such as River Center, Goose
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1 Island, Mustang Island, and the railroad projects.
2 There's a number of repairs going on at the state
3 railroad. Those are federally funded repairs.
4 Proposition 8 bonds, the $36.68
5 million, that we're expecting consists mostly of
6 repair money. If you remember, we had $15 million
7 that we'd identified as backlog of repairs. We'll be
8 getting that money to start addressing those repair
9 items, and then also to set up an ongoing scheduled
10 repair program. We had asked for $8 million per year
11 to set up a scheduled repair program. But as -- as
12 it worked out in legislation, we didn't get any of
13 that money in fiscal year 2002, but got both years in
14 2003. So that repair program will be set up.
15 There is also park specific funding
16 set aside that was included in Proposition 8. The
17 San Jacinto location has $2 million dedicated to it.
18 The Admiral Nimitz Museum, Sheldon Lake, and Levi
19 Jordan are projects that will begin in 2003.
20 Grant budget totals $29.5 million.
21 This is pretty similar to what you've seen in
22 previous years. Last year, the main difference was
23 that we didn't have -- last year, we had Balcones
24 Canyonlands funds. We don't have those this year.
25 Other than that, it's -- I guess the land and water
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1 money is a little bit higher this year, but these are
2 our ongoing grants that we fund each year.
3 So the total staff recommended budget
4 is $292 million. That includes operating, capital,
5 grants, and the debt service on our revenue bonds.
6 Also, in full-time equivalents, we are recommending a
7 budget -- to budget 3,148 positions. The legislature
8 caps the number that we can have at 3,035. We are
9 over-budgeting by 3.7 percent.
10 We don't think we're at risk of
11 reaching that cap with our -- the amount of turnover
12 that we have and the lapsed salary, time it takes to
13 fill a vacant position. The law just requires that
14 we don't exceed the average of any four quarters --
15 that average of the four quarters all together don't
16 exceed that cap.
17 And that cap was increased last
18 biennium -- from last biennium by 81 positions. Just
19 to show what happened last -- in the current year, in
20 2002, we budgeted -- we also over-budgeted. We
21 budgeted 3,118 positions. And we don't think we'll
22 even hit 3,000 for the whole year.
23 This year, we're also formalizing the
24 methodology for allocating overhead between our
25 funding sources. And this was included in the budget
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1 packet that we sent out last month. Basically, what
2 it does is lays out exactly how we're going to fund
3 the administrative costs. We start by pulling out
4 components of administrative costs that can be
5 specifically attributed to one or the other funding
6 sources.
7 For example, the people that sell
8 hunting and fishing licenses are in Administrative
9 Resources, and the people who register and title
10 boats are in Administrative Resources. Those are
11 fund 9 activities. So we can directly charge those
12 people to that fund.
13 Once we've pulled out those
14 components, we apply a general allocation which
15 parallels the funding for administrative divisions to
16 the funding mix of the program divisions that they
17 support. And there are some exceptions to that
18 general allocation.
19 An example of that would be the Human
20 Resources Division. Because the Human Resources
21 Division serves people, we are allocating that
22 division based on the number of -- the ratio of FTEs
23 in parks versus FTEs in the fund 9 program divisions.
24 So the allocation is a little bit different than
25 applying this general allocation formula.
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1 Also, as you'll recall, we are
2 attempting to study the species that the super-combo
3 holders are hunting and fishing. We are doing a
4 two-year survey of super-combo holders so that we can
5 evaluate whether the allocation of those super-combo
6 revenues needs to be changed.
7 The stamp funds are dedicated, can
8 only be used for certain activities, certain
9 purchases. And we -- the agreement was that for the
10 two years that we were studying this and surveying
11 these super-combo holders, that we would hold those
12 allocations level with the fiscal year 2001
13 allocations. And then by this time next year, we
14 will have completed our analysis of the surveys and
15 will be able to recommend changes to the allocation.
16 Budget policies are approved by you
17 each year. The only change we're recommending this
18 year is to allow for expenditures related to bond
19 projects to be incurred prior to the time that we
20 actually get the bond proceeds because of the way
21 that Proposition 8 -- the general obligation bonds
22 were packaged.
23 The bonds have to be sold one agency
24 at a time, for each agency at a time. So we may not
25 actually get our bonds until as late as November, but
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1 we want to go ahead and incur expenditures right --
2 starting the first of September. So we may actually
3 have to reimburse construction project costs later
4 with the proceeds of the bonds. And just to be real
5 clear with Texas Public Finance Authority that this
6 was approved by the board, we included it in the
7 budget policy.
8 Also, each year, the investment
9 policy is required by statute for all agencies and
10 must be renewed annually by the governing board.
11 Investment policy basically just says that all funds
12 must be deposited in the state treasury and that the
13 bank accounts must be authorized and approved by the
14 investment officers that are on staff, and that
15 adequate collateral exists on the bank accounts.
16 One item here worthy of mentioning is
17 that the policy states that existing stock may be
18 sold. Last summer, we talked to you about possibly
19 selling the stock that we have. We have a small
20 amount of stock in our Varner Hogg endowment. It
21 totals about $36,000 worth. It's Tenaco and El Paso
22 Natural Gas stock that was given to us back in the
23 1950s by the Hogg family, Ima Hogg.
24 The legal opinion that we got when we
25 looked into selling this was that the deed that
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1 transferred the title of the stock to Parks and
2 Wildlife may prevent us from selling the stock unless
3 we get some sort of a waiver from the Hogg family.
4 So with all the other priorities that we had going on
5 this year, this one kind of took a back seat. And
6 we'll look at it again this year and see if we can
7 possibly get a waiver from the family to sell the
8 stock, just for simplicity, to not have to deal with
9 it.
10 The investment policy also requires
11 that we report to you regularly on what's in our
12 funds and what kind of stock we have. That's all I
13 have on the budget. And if you don't have any
14 questions on that, I'll --
15 COMMISSIONER HENRY: Before you do, I
16 have a question, but want to make a statement first.
17 At the last legislative session, we were taken to
18 task fairly severely on several points. One, for
19 example, I remember very clearly was vehicles. This
20 is a general question. And in developing this
21 budget, have we adequately addressed the concerns --
22 for example, the Senate Finance Committee, I'm
23 thinking, particularly raised, because they were
24 probably more critical than the House.
25 Are we on safe ground going forward,
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1 given the concerns that were raised? Take vehicles
2 as an example.
3 MS. WHITTENTON: Okay. Well, what
4 they ended up approving was, they gave us the
5 authority to spend $4.2 million per year in vehicles.
6 And actually, our operating budget for vehicles --
7 recommended budget is only $3.4 million. And I think
8 some of the concerns about vehicles were that they
9 didn't want us buying vehicles necessarily for
10 headquarters.
11 I think it's been a pretty long time
12 since we have replaced many of our headquarters
13 vehicles. The majority of the vehicles in the budget
14 are for law enforcement officers and field staff in
15 the field divisions, such as wildlife and in some of
16 the fisheries areas.
17 MR. COOK: As I recall, Commissioner,
18 the primary concern during the legislative session
19 and following the legislative session was in regards
20 to number of vehicles assigned to the Austin
21 headquarters area. As a matter of fact, we started
22 addressing that prior to the session, have cut the
23 number substantially, and are on a -- on a fleet
24 management plan to further reduce that number. And
25 we will do so.
.
27
1 COMMISSIONER HENRY: I'm -- I've been
2 extremely pleased reading about it. There's not much
3 you can do except read and watch the stupid
4 television. But I've been very pleased, Madam
5 Chairman, with the kind of progress that's been made
6 in implementing the Bomer report.
7 I raise this question because I would
8 hate to see you get beat up in the next session, and
9 the rest of us, over -- since we've made some fine
10 progress in that area, over issues that were
11 specifically raised with regard to the Department.
12 Knowing -- given the conditions that are going to
13 exist next session, what's likely to come back, if we
14 could assure them that not only have we -- the report
15 corrected these deficiencies, but through their
16 concerns, stepped up to the plate, as well. I think
17 we would be in much better shape going forward. And
18 that's the only reason I raise that.
19 CHAIRMAN ARMSTRONG: I think that's a
20 good point. I'm happy to report that I'm confident
21 in the implementation plan, that not only -- well, so
22 much of the Bomer report did deal with issues that
23 were raised by others, as well, not only Mr. Bomer
24 and his team.
25 Scott Boruff and Suzy Whittenton have
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28
1 put together a comprehensive implementation plan that
2 addresses the issues, specifically vehicles. And I'm
3 pleased with the progress we've made.
4 COMMISSIONER WATSON: Suzy, I think
5 that, you know, the process you've gone through seems
6 to be, you know, very comprehensive. And it looks
7 like it's pretty tight. What do you do, and what was
8 the extent of the damages that, you know, we had on
9 July the 4th weekend? I mean, that was very
10 significant numbers, as I understand. And how do you
11 provide and what did you do about that?
12 MS. WHITTENTON: It's interesting.
13 We've been tracking very closely the difference
14 between what the estimated revenue was and the actual
15 revenue. And for the entire fiscal year, we were --
16 or most of the fiscal year, we were ahead on park
17 revenue. We were up.
18 COMMISSIONER FITZSIMONS: For July?
19 MS. WHITTENTON: Before July. And so
20 when the floods hit, we did take a hit in revenue.
21 And I believe it was about -- I think that we lost
22 about $700,000 in revenue. Was it more -- I can't
23 recall the number. But as it -- it all seemed to
24 even out. And it looks like we're going to be pretty
25 close to actually hitting the original revenue
.
29
1 estimate in parks.
2 Now, on the expenditure end, we did
3 -- we are having to spend some money to fix those
4 locations. And since we have bond money, we've been
5 able to shift the projects that the bond money was --
6 some of the bond money was set aside for to deal with
7 those locations. And we also are -- I think this
8 week the FEMA inspectors were coming out to look at
9 what they could reimburse us for. But I think we're
10 looking at -- expecting about $350,000 from FEMA.
11 But overall, it looks like we weren't hurt as badly
12 as we could have been, because our revenue was up.
13 COMMISSIONER FITZSIMONS: How much
14 damage did we have?
15 MR. BORUFF: $2.5 million.
16 MS. WHITTENTON: Most of that was at
17 Garner.
18 COMMISSIONER WATSON: But $300,000 is
19 not much recovery.
20 MS. WHITTENTON: No.
21 MR. COOK: We are getting great help
22 from TxDOT. You know, we really are. They always
23 come through. And they have again here. The guys
24 there at the park, I got to tell you, and surrounding
25 parks, they all kind of combined resources and people
.
30
1 and -- from different areas of the -- within the
2 agency -- had the park back in operation and
3 virtually full again within about 17 days. So it was
4 just like the flood record. It was just incredible.
5 COMMISSIONER ANGELO: Commissioner
6 Avila --
7 COMMISSIONER AVILA: Suzy and Scott,
8 this might be for you. The park specific funding
9 that you briefed on, San Jacinto, $2 million, and
10 Admiral -- San Jacinto, Admiral Nimitz, $600,000, is
11 that -- is that design or is that construction?
12 SPEAKER: Short of -- in a way of
13 asking, where are we on the development of those
14 things?
15 MR. BORUFF: Those park specific are,
16 in most cases, Commissioner, both. Primarily design,
17 I will say. I mean, most of those funds that were
18 allocated for, those funds were not significant to go
19 to full-fledge construction.
20 So, for example, at Levi Jordan,
21 we're going to use the money that was allocated there
22 to stabilize the structure so that they won't fall
23 into any worse disrepair. And we're going to use
24 some of that money to do a master plan to kind of
25 give us direction. So those are typically what we're
.
31
1 going to use most of those funds for.
2 Some -- the construction that will
3 occur out of those funds are going to be fairly
4 minor. There may be some restroom facilities, for
5 example. There may be some vertical construction.
6 But most of that money is going to be in planning and
7 restoring what's there and doing infrastructure
8 that's not going to be very visible, under the ground
9 infrastructure, water, wastewater systems, and those
10 kinds of things.
11 COMMISSIONER AVILA: Are they going
12 to represent moving ahead full fledge with any of
13 them because we just don't have the money yet.
14 Right?
15 MR. BORUFF: Yes, sir. That is going
16 to be our strategy in the future. We will only do
17 what we have money to do.
18 COMMISSIONER AVILA: Okay. Thanks.
19 COMMISSIONER ANGELO: Commissioner
20 Montgomery.
21 COMMISSIONER MONTGOMERY: Quick
22 question. How are we funding the projects that we're
23 commencing prior to the issuance of the bonds?
24 MR. BORUFF: If you're talking about
25 the major legacy project, Commissioner, we continue
.
32
1 to work with the Parks and Wildlife Foundation and
2 other resources to try to secure funding to complete
3 those projects.
4 COMMISSIONER MONTGOMERY:
5 Specifically, but we're going to start projects
6 before the bonds are sold. I just didn't know --
7 MR. BORUFF: That was a phenomena
8 that fell out of some information that we had early
9 on, that the TPFA might not be able to make the funds
10 available until sometime after the 1st of September.
11 At first flush, we were hearing maybe in October. We
12 now are hearing that probably the money will be
13 forthcoming late in September. However, we do want
14 to go ahead and start the design process September
15 1st.
16 We -- you know, we're trying to get
17 ahead of the curve. And we want to go ahead and
18 start the design for most of those major projects
19 September 1st, knowing that later in September the
20 money will be forthcoming.
21 COMMISSIONER MONTGOMERY: Just a
22 month window, then.
23 MR. BORUFF: It's just a timing
24 issue.
25 MR. COOK: These guys have been
.
33
1 Working really, really well with TPFA. And they have
2 cleared this thing. I mean, it's a go. It's just
3 when they get to the point in the stack.
4 MR. BORUFF: There are eight other
5 agencies that are having money issues. And so we
6 don't know exactly where we're going to fall in that
7 priority during the month of September.
8 MS. WHITTENTON: I think your
9 question was, if we had to pay a bill prior to the
10 time we got the funds in, where would we pay it from.
11 And we would probably have to look and see what funds
12 we had available at the time probably.
13 MR. BORUFF: I don't see that
14 happening. We're not that fast at design.
15 COMMISSIONER ANGELO: Any other
16 questions or comments?
17 MR. BORUFF: I might just give you a
18 little piece of information relative to your question
19 earlier, Commissioner Henry. The report that went
20 downtown last session that started us down the road
21 relative to vehicles and the response we got showed
22 us 247 vehicles here at headquarters. Within a few
23 months after that, we had reduced that number to 114,
24 less than half. The Fleet Management Plan is in its
25 draft and will be presented to Mr. Cook and the
.
34
1 Commission in a briefing form at the next Commission
2 meeting. But we will have a fully endorsed Fleet
3 Management Plan in place before the session.
4 COMMISSIONER ANGELO: Let's move on
5 to the appropriations request, Suzy. Thank you,
6 Scott.
7 MS. WHITTENTON: Our appropriations
8 request for the next biennium, 2004-2005, is actually
9 due this Friday. We are putting the finishing
10 touches on it. And if you'll recall, what we're
11 limited and asking for is the amount that we -- an
12 amount equal to the amount we spent in 2002, plus the
13 amount we've budgeted in 2003. And that anything
14 over and above that, they call them exceptional
15 items. And so we have to ask for those specifically.
16 And what we're looking at asking for
17 is -- our first priority is to fund the salary and
18 benefit cost increases that were passed last session.
19 Although we did get additional appropriation
20 authority for those costs, we didn't have the revenue
21 in our funds to cover it. So the cost increases had
22 to be absorbed within our base level funding out of
23 our operating costs. So we're going to ask them to
24 make that right and give us the money.
25 Our second request is for additional
.
35
1 general revenue for park operations. Since the parks
2 contribute to the local economies and since the
3 potential revenue increases are not -- are not really
4 there, we are asking for $4 million per year to
5 operate state parks, along with 43 new positions.
6 The third request addresses the need
7 to fund a game warden class of 35 cadets in fiscal
8 year 2004 from general revenue, and to continue those
9 -- to fund those positions in 2005. Our game wardens
10 are all funded currently out of Account 9, the Game,
11 Fish and Water Safety Account. And we believe
12 general revenue funding is needed to cover some law
13 enforcement activities that are not related to
14 hunting and fishing, due to the statutory limits on
15 the use of hunting and fishing license fee revenue.
16 And also to increase the number of the game wardens
17 we have in the field. So that's -- what we're
18 looking at there is $5 million in the first year,
19 $1.3 million in the second year, plus the 35
20 full-time equivalents.
21 The last item on the slide is to deal
22 with land acquisitions. In order to take advantage
23 of gifts, grants, or federal funds that are given to
24 us to acquire new land, we've requested a rider that
25 would exempt land purchases that are financed
.
36
1 entirely from outside sources, exempt them from the
2 restrictions on the capital budget rider, because the
3 capital budget rider doesn't allow any more to be
4 spent than what's in that rider. And we don't know
5 two years out whether we're going to have any of
6 these gifts.
7 If you'll remember the Government
8 Canyon purchase, the Kallison piece that was
9 purchased, we didn't have the authority to do that,
10 even though we were given the money from the City of
11 San Antonio and also from the Land and Water
12 Conservation funds. We couldn't actually do it
13 without asking for extra approval.
14 So what we're asking for here is an
15 exemption from that rider in those cases where it
16 doesn't cost the State anything. And included in
17 that request is that it would be subject -- any of
18 these purchases would be subject to Commission
19 approval and subject to the Agency's ability to
20 certify that additions -- additions of land wouldn't
21 increase our ongoing operating costs. So we have
22 asked for that.
23 And we've also got a few more here.
24 We -- last session, the legislature directed us to
25 start funding some of our project-related salary
.
37
1 costs in infrastructure to bond funds. So basically,
2 what they did was they cut $350,000 of general
3 revenue in each year and asked us to replace that
4 funding with bond funds.
5 But because bond covenants and IRS
6 code restrictions regulate the percentage of bond
7 proceeds that can be used for indirect costs, we're
8 asking that the -- we get the general revenue funds
9 back for these sources. Making this a little
10 uncomfortable having to fund that out of bond funds.
11 And we are asking for authority to
12 enter into an interagency contract with the
13 Comptroller's Office on boat and motor boat sales and
14 use tax collections. And what that is about is that
15 our game wardens frequently encounter situations
16 where there's boat dealer fraud or other violations
17 that -- where they're failing to remit sales and use
18 taxes on boat sales. And because the Comptroller's
19 Office has the authority for collecting these sales
20 taxes, we only get five percent of those collections.
21 We want to enter into an agreement where, if our game
22 wardens are able to increase the sales tax collected
23 by the State, that we should at least have our costs
24 reimbursed to us by the Comptroller's Office from
25 those collections.
.
38
1 We have talked to the Comptroller's
2 Office about this idea, and they are in favor of
3 proceeding with that. But we would have to ask for
4 appropriation authority to get those reimbursements.
5 That's a zero -- net zero cost to the bill, so I
6 think that would have a good chance of flying.
7 And lastly here, we want to ask to
8 clarify the floating cabins program. Last session,
9 Senate Bill 1573 authorized a floating cabins program
10 which created two new dedicated general revenue
11 accounts. And one of those was for permit fees that
12 could be used to clean up illegal or abandoned
13 floating cabins and the debris in the coastal waters.
14 And what happened -- or to refund the money back to
15 the permit holder, if the permit holder gave back
16 their permit.
17 But what happened was the fund didn't
18 survive the funds consolidation bill. And so we
19 actually -- the money ended up going to straight
20 general revenue. And if it's not used by the end of
21 the year, it lapses. So we basically lost the money
22 that we collected back to general revenue. So what
23 we're asking for is the authority to get the money
24 back and be able to spend it to do the clean-up. And
25 that -- that's about $112,000 a year. That probably
.
39
1 was confusing.
2 It's confusing, because the way
3 general revenue dedicated accounts work is they have
4 to have specific authority to be dedicated. And if
5 -- there's a funds consolidation bill that
6 consolidates most funds into just straight general
7 revenue. And if you're not exempted -- if your fund
8 is not exempted from that bill, then it can't be
9 treated like we treat Account 9 and Account 64, as
10 dedicated sources where we don't lose the cash in
11 there.
12 But because of an oversight during
13 the session, that account ended up being treated just
14 as straight general revenue. So we want to recoup
15 those revenues.
16 COMMISSIONER ANGELO: So
17 theoretically, that's just a technicality?
18 MS. WHITTENTON: It is a
19 technicality. We have talked at length with the
20 Comptroller's Office, the Senate Finance Committee,
21 and the House Appropriations Committee about this
22 problem, and had asked to get that -- get an
23 exemption. They weren't willing to do that. And so
24 we'll deal with it next session. So this is our
25 request, to deal with it next session. It's not a
.
40
1 lot of money, but we do want to have the authority to
2 do the clean-up.
3 COMMISSIONER ANGELO: Any other
4 questions for Suzy on this item? Commissioner
5 Montgomery.
6 COMMISSIONER MONTGOMERY: At the
7 budget briefing, we talked about requesting authority
8 to set up specific dedicated repair replacement
9 reserves. And I couldn't remember if we decided that
10 was definitely going on the legislative agenda or
11 not. Did you-all...
12 MS. WHITTENTON: Construction repair.
13 COMMISSIONER MONTGOMERY: Yeah. So
14 that we weren't put in the box of having, every ten
15 or 15 years, the issue that rather than reserve in
16 advance. I know it's not budgeted.
17 MS. WHITTENTON: Right. We do
18 have --
19 COMMISSIONER MONTGOMERY: We're
20 trying to get the authority to do that, I thought.
21 MS. WHITTENTON: We do have it in
22 Proposition 8. That was one of our requests that
23 went in last session. We asked for $8 million a year
24 to set up a scheduled maintenance program. And they
25 -- it was granted to us through Proposition 8,
.
41
1 through the general obligation bonds. And we do have
2 $8 million a year set aside through those bonds up
3 through the year 2006, assuming we get authority for
4 the bonds. And, of course, we have asked for the
5 proposition -- the appropriation of those bonds for
6 the next biennium, as well.
7 COMMISSIONER MONTGOMERY: Why do we
8 get that? There's no additional need that we need to
9 address.
10 MR. BORUFF: In the half.
11 COMMISSIONER ANGELO: The request
12 that we're making in the legislative session, these
13 exceptional item requests, are really very modest.
14 And probably that's -- hopefully, that will be
15 appreciated, considering the financial situation that
16 this state is predicted to be in. And, of course,
17 it's also -- the salary issue is the number one
18 priority and may be the most difficult to get. But
19 by making an overall modest request, I would hope
20 that we would be able to convince the legislature
21 that that's appropriate. Commissioner.
22 COMMISSIONER FITZSIMONS: From a -- I
23 attended the briefing at the Appropriations Committee
24 where Scott and Bob did an excellent job of
25 presenting this to the Appropriations Committee
.
42
1 members. And I wanted to ask Scott if I could get a
2 copy of that. You were complimented on the charge
3 you gave on the capital expenditures and how those
4 come through time over the bond issues. And if I
5 could get another copy of that.
6 It was very well received by the
7 committee, and they did an excellent job of laying
8 out support in those issues. And it hasn't always
9 been a happy time at the Appropriations Committee.
10 And I just want to tell you they did a great job.
11 Bob, you're to be commended.
12 COMMISSIONER ANGELO: Any other
13 comments or questions? If there's no objections,
14 we'll place this item on the agenda tomorrow for
15 public comment and action by the Commission. We'll
16 move on to item number three, which is an update on
17 our point-of-sale license system.
18 ITEM 3: WorldCom Update.
19 MS. WHITTENTON: Thank you,
20 Mr. Chairman. The good news is the system seems to
21 be stable and the Hypercom units are working very
22 well. We began selling licenses for the new license
23 year on August 15th, which is now almost two weeks
24 ago. The first day, we experienced some problems
25 with the PC version of the application, which is used
.
43
1 primarily for law enforcement offices, and also at a
2 few of the low volume agent locations.
3 Problems were pretty troublesome in
4 that the system would go down for periods of time, an
5 hour or two hours at a time. And so our law
6 enforcement offices handled it very well, but it was
7 a problem that existed only on that first day. The
8 problems were cleared up by the second day.
9 We also had experienced a high call
10 volume at the WorldCom help desk that first day, a
11 lot more than they expected. So there were some
12 calls not getting answered. That problem has
13 reoccurred recently. And it seems to be due to a
14 problem in New York. New York state just rolled out
15 a new WorldCom system, as well. However, they didn't
16 run it through a pilot phase like we did ours. They
17 just turned it on when they were ready to sell
18 licenses. And they are experiencing huge call
19 volumes.
20 And so the same help desk is
21 answering the calls for New York as they are for
22 Texas. So we are having -- we were having problems
23 yesterday with this, as well. We also had some sales
24 being made off-line on that first day. But all in
25 all, it went -- it went pretty well.
.
44
1 We sold over 21,000 licenses that
2 day. And what's interesting is this chart -- we
3 charted out the number of licenses sold by day last
4 year compared to this year. The blue line is this
5 year. The red line is last year. You remember we
6 ran that promotion last year to try to shift sales to
7 before Labor Day, which worked. We got a lot of
8 people to buy early. We didn't run that promotion
9 this year because we were uncertain as to what was
10 going to happen with WorldCom's bankruptcy. And we
11 were a little gun shy, so we didn't run the
12 promotion.
13 And I thought this was real
14 interesting, the way the numbers tracked, that we
15 must be creatures of habbit, because on each of the
16 days you're seeing the exact same pattern. And what
17 my theory is - and I think the license staff agrees -
18 is that we think that we're going to catch up. The
19 blue line is going to catch up with the red line
20 Labor Day weekend. Actually, it will be starting
21 Thursday, starting tomorrow. Our biggest days are
22 Thursday, Friday, and Saturday of Labor Day weekend.
23 And it looks like, since people didn't buy -- as many
24 people didn't buy early, we're going to be
25 experiencing some big volumes on those days.
.
45
1 And we also have fewer agents this
2 year. I don't think that that's having a big effect,
3 but it could. We also put this in -- I'm sorry. No.
4 We also put this in bar graph form, looking at the
5 numbers sold, and also by the amount of revenue.
6 Numbers sold is the orange column. And the revenue
7 is in the blue column. Revenue is down as of the end
8 of day yesterday, down 21 percent. But, again, we'll
9 know by the end -- by Tuesday whether the theory
10 holds true, that people just didn't buy early this
11 year.
12 And when I compared this year to two
13 years ago, when we also didn't run the promotion,
14 we're actually up this year over two years ago, by
15 about 5 percent. So I think that -- there's some
16 reason to believe that that's the case, that we'll
17 catch up over Labor Day weekend.
18 As I mentioned, the historic peek
19 sales are -- in the next few days, we expect to sell
20 over 300,000 licenses in the next five days. So far,
21 the most sold in any one day was yesterday. We sold
22 28,000 licenses yesterday. And we should average
23 about 70,000 a day over that next five-day period.
24 And there will be some days we'll probably go over
25 90,000, maybe even over 100,000 each day. So
.
46
1 hopefully our system will continue to be able to
2 handle these volumes.
3 We're also trying to assist with a
4 recommendation to help with the problems at the call
5 center, at the help desk, so that we might be able to
6 take some of those calls at our office here, divert
7 some of them, just so we don't have any of our agents
8 out there not getting their calls answered, or not
9 getting them answered promptly. So far, things are
10 going pretty well, though.
11 We did have -- held training sessions
12 throughout the summer at nine different locations.
13 We had a really good turnout. This was to train
14 agents on any questions they had on the Hypercom
15 device. We had about 300 people attend. And we plan
16 to send a follow-up survey to see what they thought
17 about it, if they want to continue these future
18 training programs.
19 We also met with our license agent
20 advisory committee on the 6th of this month. We had
21 nine members attending. It was a pretty good
22 meeting. We had a representative from WorldCom, Bob
23 Parker, come and explain to the agents what the
24 bankruptcy meant to WorldCom, to the system, to the
25 agents, and that there would be basically no
.
47
1 disruption of services just because WorldCom is in
2 bankruptcy.
3 We also showed them our paper license
4 contingency, and didn't get too many of them -- get
5 too alarmed with that. They just asked that they be
6 given some clear instructions if we ever had to go
7 that route.
8 And then some of the license agents
9 asked for some changes to our web site. So we have
10 changed some of our web site information. We've --
11 currently, we've already got available a section on
12 frequently asked questions and places they can go to
13 look up what the rules are. There's even a place
14 where you can go look up how to load your paper into
15 the printer. And it shows pictures, step-by-step,
16 how to get that done. It's a pretty good web site.
17 There's a -- one section for the
18 public to go to and another section for the agents to
19 go to. One of the enhancements that the agents asked
20 for was a searchable database that would search by
21 agent within city and county. So we are planning an
22 enhancement there.
23 That's all I have on the update on
24 that system. I'd be happy to take any questions.
25 COMMISSIONER ANGELO: Any questions
.
48
1 from the Commission?
2 CHAIRMAN ARMSTRONG: I'd like to make
3 a comment on this. It's, here I go again. The last
4 year has been an experience for the staff dealing
5 with this WorldCom issue and whatnot. And my
6 compliments, again, to Bob and the staff for the
7 perseverance they showed in tackling each obstacle as
8 it came up and doing so successfully. And my
9 compliments to WorldCom, also, and the folks that
10 worked almost on a daily basis.
11 I know that from Bob on down, this
12 was a day-to-day deal. And nobody seemed to be
13 totally sure that when the switches were turned on,
14 whether the lights were going to go on. And they
15 did. And things are going smoothly. And it's not by
16 accident. There was a lot of very hard work that
17 went into this. Thank you all very much.
18 MR. COOK: I second that, also. I
19 saw John Wilson come in a while ago. I know that
20 John was confident it would go on just like that and
21 work like a charm. And he never showed a bit of
22 anxiety at all. And -- but we made it. And I
23 appreciate the group very, very much.
24 COMMISSIONER ANGELO: Any other
25 comments? If not, we'll move on to item number 4,
.
49
1 which is the license legibility rules. A very
2 exciting item.
3 ITEM 4: LICENSE LEGIBILITY RULES:
4 MS. WHITTENTON: At least we can make
5 this one really quick. Section 30 of the Sunset
6 Bill, Senate Bill 305, required Parks and Wildlife's
7 rules to specify the standards for licenses,
8 including legibility. So we talked about this at the
9 May Commission meeting, adding to the rules for
10 legibility.
11 The proposed rules were posted in the
12 Texas Register on July 12th. And they include --
13 they say that licenses must be printed on durable
14 paper, must be waterproof, tear resistant, and the
15 print must be indelible. The print must be of a
16 reasonable size, given the constraints of the overall
17 size of the license, and in no case less than 6 point
18 font. Also, the print must be a color that contrasts
19 with the background.
20 These provisions do not apply to
21 licenses sold over the internet and printed directly
22 by customers. In case we ever go to that, we
23 considered that with our contingency, as well. And
24 there's also a provision in the rules that says that
25 the executive director may waive the provisions in
.
50
1 case of unforeseeable events or emergencies. We did
2 post this on July 12th and have received no public
3 comment, surprisingly.
4 COMMISSIONER ANGELO: Do we have any
5 comment or questions from the Commission? If there's
6 no objection, I place this item on the agenda for
7 tomorrow's meeting for public comment and action by
8 the Commission. And we'll move on to item number 5.
9 And thank you, Suzy, for all your good work.
10 Tim Hogsett will present the
11 information on different grants. Mr. Hogsett.
12 ITEM 5: GRANTS.
13 MR. HOGSETT: Good morning. I'm Tim
14 Hogsett, Director of Recreation Grants Program in the
15 State Parks Division. Item 5 is a preview of
16 proposed funding that we'll be bringing to you
17 tomorrow for 5 grant programs, the first being the
18 Outdoor Recreation Grant Program. This is our
19 typical $500,000 maximum grants to local governments.
20 It's the largest program -- grant program that we
21 have.
22 We have approximately $6 million
23 available each six months for your consideration. We
24 have received 38 applications for the January 31st
25 deadline, requesting $15.7 million. We have reviewed
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51
1 and scored all of those projects using the scoring
2 system that you have adopted. And you can find on
3 page 87 of the full item the list of projects, rank
4 ordered. And we're going to be asking you tomorrow
5 to consider approving the first 15 applications for
6 $6,607,022.
7 A couple of things I might note. We
8 had record high scores this time. That seems to be a
9 continuing trend, that projects are scoring higher
10 and higher. And also, the lowest project that we're
11 recommending for funding, its score is also a record
12 high, if that makes any sense. The bottom line is
13 competition is getting more and more keen, and we're,
14 unfortunately, not able to fund a lot of folks.
15 That's all I have on that one.
16 COMMISSIONER ANGELO: Any questions?
17 Move on to the next one.
18 MR. HOGSETT: Okay. The next program
19 that we're going to bring you recommendations for
20 tomorrow is our brand new Small Communities Grant
21 Program, the one which you've just approved recently
22 as a permanent program. It's for small communities
23 of 20,000 or less. They are 50 percent matching
24 grants. Very similar to the larger grant program.
25 We hope that we have a simple application process.
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52
1 It's been an extremely popular program.
2 As we did in the pilot - we got about
3 60 applications that time - we've received 62
4 applications for our April 30th deadline, requesting
5 $2.7 million in match. And again, we used the
6 scoring system that you've adopted for rank ordering
7 these projects. And that list can be found on page 1
8 -- page 87.
9 And those -- tomorrow we're going to
10 be recommending to you funding for the first 22
11 projects in the amount of $980,293. That's about
12 double what we did in the pilot. We -- you set aside
13 $500,000 for that pilot. And the program was so
14 popular and so successful that we're recommending now
15 that we take some of our federal land and water
16 conservation fund money and supplement that and about
17 double the amount that we're going to recommend.
18 COMMISSIONER ANGELO: Any questions
19 on this one? If not, we'll move on to the Regional
20 Park Grants.
21 MR. HOGSETT: Regional Park Grants.
22 This is also a new program which you just adopted
23 final rules for. It is now a permanent part of our
24 arsenal for helping local governments. It is
25 designed to support multijurisdictional projects,
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53
1 cooperation between local governments and public and
2 private sector, and projects of regional significance
3 in metropolitan areas. And the kinds of projects
4 that we accept applications for can be either
5 intensive use recreation or projects that have a
6 strong conservation element to them.
7 We received -- and I was a little
8 surprised at this. We received only five
9 applications for the June 1 deadline, requesting 17
10 -- I'm sorry -- $7.27 million. We used the scoring
11 system that you adopted to rank order those. And
12 that list is on page 153. As you can tell, there's a
13 dramatic difference between the highest scoring
14 project and the second one and the other -- the four.
15 And so, based on that, we're
16 recommending that we only fund one project, that
17 being the LCRA project. And that's what we're going
18 to be bringing to you tomorrow, is a recommendation
19 for funding that project in the amount of $2 million,
20 $1 million of which will come from the Texas
21 Recreation's Parks account and $1 million from the
22 Land and Water Conservation funds.
23 COMMISSIONER ANGELO: I think that,
24 based on some comments that I've heard from some of
25 the folks that made application, not only
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54
1 coincidentally, because one of them is from Midland,
2 but from others, through the people in Midland,
3 there's going to be some -- there may be some people
4 present who are going to be concerned about our
5 scoring system.
6 And I thought maybe tomorrow it might
7 be good if you would, again, brief the Commission --
8 or very quickly run through what the scoring system
9 is. And if you have -- maybe after they make their
10 comments, if there's someone there --
11 MR. HOGSETT: Okay. Be glad to.
12 COMMISSIONER ANGELO: -- address what
13 changes might or might not be appropriate to make it
14 more fair. It seems that some of them feel that
15 there's some -- they have some concern about whether
16 or not the system, as we've got it set up, gives
17 everyone an equal opportunity to compete. So if you
18 might be prepared to do that tomorrow, I think that
19 would be helpful.
20 MR. HOGSETT: Sure. Be glad to.
21 COMMISSIONER ANGELO: Are there any
22 other questions or comments on this one? Move on to
23 the Recreational Trail Grants, Tim.
24 MR. HOGSETT: Recreational Trails
25 Grant. These are passed through federal funds. It's
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55
1 an 80/20 matching program. They're funds from
2 gasoline tax on off-road recreational vehicles. We
3 can fund both motorized and non-motorized trails. We
4 received a record number of applications, 83,
5 requesting $6.6 million. The projects were reviewed,
6 and, again, were prioritized, and prioritized by the
7 Trails Advisory Board.
8 And the recommendation tomorrow is
9 for funding 32 projects in the amount of $2,072,937.
10 COMMISSIONER ANGELO: Any questions
11 or comments?
12 COMMISSIONER HENRY: I noticed you
13 said Trails Advisory Board.
14 MR. HOGSETT: Uh-huh.
15 COMMISSIONER HENRY: Is that a
16 condition from the prior?
17 MR. HOGSETT: No. That -- and that's
18 a requirement of the federal law.
19 COMMISSIONER HENRY: Okay. But
20 that's the only one where we use an advisory
21 committee?
22 MR. HOGSETT: At this time, yes.
23 The final program this morning is the
24 National Hunter Education Target Range Program.
25 These are grants to either public entities or private
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56
1 sector, like shooting associations, et cetera.
2 They're federal pass-through funds. They're 75
3 percent matching funds. The third bullet is an
4 error. There are only two projects being recommended
5 instead of three, each of them being $60,000. Just
6 noticed this a few minutes ago.
7 And the two projects that will be
8 recommended to you for funding tomorrow are for
9 Archer County, the Archer County Shooting
10 Association, and the Eastland, Eastland Rifle and
11 Pistol Association.
12 COMMISSIONER ANGELO: Any questions
13 or comments? Hearing none, this item will be -- or
14 these items will be placed on the agenda for
15 tomorrow.
16 COMMISSIONER MONTGOMERY: On the
17 trails program, Tim, just looking at the percentage,
18 we get $2.2 million out of $50 million. Are we being
19 allocated fairly on the federal level?
20 MR. HOGSETT: It's based on a formula
21 based on the consumption of off-road fuels. It's
22 really -- it's like similar to the Land and Water
23 Conservation fund. It's an apportionment based on a
24 percentage that we really don't have any -- any say
25 over. And...
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57
1 COMMISSIONER MONTGOMERY: I just
2 wondered if we're seven or eight percent of the
3 population of the country and getting four percent of
4 funds of that program. I just want to -- ought to
5 ask our representatives to look at the funding
6 formula.
7 MR. HOGSETT: I agree.
8 COMMISSIONER ANGELO: Is there any
9 way to look into it and make sure that it's being
10 handled fairly?
11 MR. HOGSETT: Absolutely. Sure.
12 We'll do that. (Inaudiable).
13 COMMISSIONER ANGELO: Any comments or
14 questions? If not, this item will be placed on the
15 agenda for tomorrow's meeting for public comment and
16 action by the Commission. Thank you, Mr. Hogsett.
17 MR. HOGSETT: Thank you, sir.
18 COMMISSIONER ANGELO: Okay. Unless
19 there is some other business to be brought before the
20 committee, that concludes the work of the Finance
21 Committee for this morning. Madam Chairman?
22 (HEARING ADJOURNED)
23
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1 REPORTER'S CERTIFICATE
2 STATE OF TEXAS )
3 COUNTY OF TRAVIS )
4
5 I, SHANA R. WISE, a Certified Court Reporter in and
6 for the State of Texas, do hereby certify that the
7 foregoing pages constitute a full, true, and correct
8 transcript of the minutes of the Texas Parks and
9 Wildlife Commission on August 28, 2002 in the Commission
10 Hearing Room of the Texas Parks and Wildlife
11 Headquarters Complex, Austin, Travis County, Texas.
12 I FURTHER CERTIFY that the proceedings of said
13 public meeting were reported by me and accurately
14 reduced to typewriting under my supervision and control.
15 WITNESS MY HAND this the 1st day of November, 2002.
16
17
18 SHANA R. WISE, CSR NO. 6642
Expiration Date: 12-31-02
19 7800 IH 10 West
Suite 100
20 San Antonio, Texas 78230
(210) 377-3027
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22 EBS NO. 133345
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