Remarks by Walt Smith
279 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 8 of 12
- Play at 6:26:42
“All right. The next one is the associate judge position for the county courts at law. and the associated mental health attorney three for the DA's office, those two items I think would have to run together because of the statement of the district attorney. And I would be supportive of both of those. Again, any facilities needs or conversion needs, I've had a conversation with Scott that he believes that there's funding already allocated for that that could cover that. I would be supportive of that court.”
Commissioners Court · Aug 18, 2026
- Play at 6:28:01
“I would be supportive of that as well. The next one is in grand total. ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR, FIVE, SIX DIFFERENT POSITION UPGRADES OR, PARDON ME, REGRADES FOR THE D.A. 'S OFFICE THAT TOTAL $50,800. TOTALLY SUPPORTED.”
Commissioners Court · Aug 18, 2026
- Play at 6:28:35
“It's like a moot point. Right. And I'm fine with waiting and talking about those next week, but I would appreciate if you could have a conversation with the DA's office before then to clarify if those regrades would be included. That's a good point.”
Commissioners Court · Aug 18, 2026
- Play at 6:29:36
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
Commissioners Court · Aug 18, 2026
- Play at 6:30:21
“Absolutely right. What else? And then the last item is voting equipment, year one funding for three physical years. The only way that we could break down that cost over an elongated time period is with a three-year estimate, and the It's the big-ticket item that we're going to talk about, and it's $959,283.53.”
Commissioners Court · Aug 18, 2026
- Play at 6:30:49
“You all have heard my conversations. Yes, very thorough. And I don't want to put our administrator – we all complimented her on her job today, and I don't want to put her in an unattainable position in three years.”
Commissioners Court · Aug 18, 2026
- Play at 6:31:22
“It's so hard, and I say that given the fact that we have so many... We've got, what, 100 and something entities that we hold elections for now? All the muds and suds and everything else. I know that every time there's a city election in Dripping Springs and nobody files, it saves them somewhere in the neighborhood of $35,000. I was speaking to our groundwater district the other day, and I think that they're estimating to hold their election this year because they have three seats that are going to be contested. It's going to cost them, I think they budgeted $15,000 to $20,000 for that…”
Commissioners Court · Aug 18, 2026
- Play at 6:32:44
“That's actually everything that was in this amendment, and everything was accepted with the exception of the election equipment.”
Commissioners Court · Aug 18, 2026
- Play at 6:38:14
“So moved. Tell us real quick. Sure. Aaron, do you want to walk? Aaron or Michael, you all want to walk through specifically. But the original agreement, we went back through and looked at it. We had questions from the original agreement as to, with the right-of-way, putting... The roadway is going, just one of the examples is the roadway is going to be built out to its ultimate configuration. It's curb and gutter, right? We own to the end of it. The city of Dripping Springs, West Travis County PUA, others want to put those utilities underneath the sidewalks. Technically, they're in our right…”
Commissioners Court · Aug 18, 2026
- Play at 6:40:56
“One thing I would like to add to this, and we've been talking to Tammy about this for a little while, Our rates have gone up exponentially on some of our items. And so in doing so, I've had numerous conversations with residents who are like, wow, y'all charge too much for this or that. And I've asked her to display this rate sheet at each one of our locations, but also in there put what our actual display to the public, what our actual cost is, because we supplement every one of these. In other words, if we're charging $30 for a mattress and it's costing us $32, we're supplementing that. And…”
Commissioners Court · Aug 18, 2026
- Play at 6:54:06
“It's just a final motion to establish the final budget at 1 p.m. on the 25th, and I move to do so.”
Commissioners Court · Aug 18, 2026
- Play at 38:04
“Just one question on, I know we're having the budget workshop later, but do we have a presentation prior to that, a presentation?”
Commissioners Court · Aug 4, 2026
- Play at 38:21
“I was just wondering since it was on the agenda. Yeah. We had a separate item, so it's fine.”
Commissioners Court · Aug 4, 2026
- Play at 39:10
“Sure. This is actually being done in response to a request from the Belterra subdivision itself and the Water Supply Improvement District there, or the Water Control Improvement District.”
Commissioners Court · Aug 4, 2026
- Play at 42:27
“I believe we have public comment on this, but so many.”
Commissioners Court · Aug 4, 2026
- Play at 1:00:08
“Commissioner Smith. Thank you, Judge. Before we get started, I just want to give a little bit of background on this project. Within the last, I guess, probably six years, seven years, we've considered this project a number of times, at least in part and parcel. different portions. But by way of background, as far back as the 2013 transportation plan, it was recommended that there be at minimum a center turn lane added to Darden Hill Road. Right now it's a two-lane roadway at places I'm not even sure how we're able to do a center turn, or pardon me, a center strike because we don't have…”
Commissioners Court · Aug 4, 2026
- Play at 1:03:51
“Okay. One of the concerns that she listed was the fact that the address for Doucette is on Highway 71. I know Doucette's parent company, Klinefelter, is located in another state, and I think that they probably carry the insurance. My biggest concern with her comment is an accusation that I have some type of business relationship. I haven't had any business relationships in Hayes County with anyone in over eight years. And if there's any accusation similar to that, or if there's anything I want, I would love to have it brought out in court publicly. We can discuss it. I'll address any of it,…”
Commissioners Court · Aug 4, 2026
- Play at 1:12:57
“The schools are very supportive of this. And what I would say is that, and forgive me, I just want to clarify here. If you look at the corridor, the Sawyer Ranch, Darden Hill corridor, in our bond, we actually have a number of projects that all culminate at that point, specifically because of the school. I think some of the concerns that the public have seen or have raised I think is very interesting because it shows a Whenever we do a really good job of educating them as to why certain improvements are needed, then they understand it, but they still may not like it. And I say that, for…”
Commissioners Court · Aug 4, 2026
- Play at 1:18:15
“No. What I will tell you is that whenever we did our public outreach for the bond, it was anticipated that we would have one hundred and fifty million dollars and CEOs for right away. If you remember, that was part of our public outreach. This was one of those named projects that would have had right-of-way on it. This is not included in the bond, no right-of-way. But go ahead. Commissioner.”
Commissioners Court · Aug 4, 2026
- Play at 1:20:07
“The school district has reached out. The city adopted their master transportation plan with this as a part of it in 2021. school district has reached out since that time and added two schools to this roadway and they are eminently concerned and i think aaron can speak to this but they are eminently concerned we're working directly with them to ensure that the east portion of this is completed at least functionally before the start of the school year in 2028 and the road bond lawsuit has put all of the projects that we have that were half two projects on a certain timeline in jeopardy and this…”
Commissioners Court · Aug 4, 2026
- Play at 1:22:51
“The project delivery, the timing is in jeopardy, not the project.”
Commissioners Court · Aug 4, 2026
- Play at 1:24:26
“I will tell you this. There are seven elected members of the school board. There are five, forgive me for my ignorance in knowing exactly how many members are on the school board. There are a similar number on a city council. There are that both those organizations have identified this as a need in the area. There are 65,000 residents of our community that has identified this project as a need. They could have, if they didn't like one of those projects, they could have voted against the bond that this was included in. As members of the court, there's no less than eight votes that have…”
Commissioners Court · Aug 4, 2026
- Play at 1:28:51
“I'll remind you you lied about that too.”
Commissioners Court · Aug 4, 2026
- Play at 1:29:16
“Well, let me clarify exactly what I said in court, since you just lied about it again. And we can go back and forth all you want. I never said anything, not once, about the city of Austin. I never said the court supported it. You asked in this courtroom, have you spoken to anybody on the Travis County Commissioner's Court? I had a lunch the week before with two commissioners, both of which said, yeah, we think it's probably a good idea. We think it's a good project. Whenever you asked me to characterize it, I said I thought it was a positive conversation. Then you put out a press release…”
Commissioners Court · Aug 4, 2026
- Play at 1:35:32
“I'm more than happy to answer your question if you'll let me.”
Commissioners Court · Aug 4, 2026