Travis County Commissioners Court passed a resolution recognizing Travis County Court Services Director David Ferris for his years of service to the county in honor of his retirement at the end of May. The court also passed a resolution recognizing Memorial Day in Travis County. Here are three takeaways from Tuesday’s commissioners court meeting:

• Commissioners delayed the adoption of the county’s vision, mission, guiding principles and goals document to allow a revision that will include verbiage to better capture the county's role as an area leader. The document is expected to be placed on the May 30 agenda. Once adopted, the county will release the document to the public prior to a public hearing. The approval of these goals will allow elected and appointed officials to link their strategic planning initiatives to those of the commissioners court.


• The commissioners court was given an update on the Justice Planning department's Workforce Development Task Force. A number of changes have been made to county-funded programming at the Travis County State Jail, including the Commitment to Change, or CTC, program and the Workforce Development Task Force. Reallocation of staff and resources from CTC to the Workforce Development Task Force will allow the program to further expand reentry and job placement services including those through the Woodman State Jail in Gatesville where Travis County women convicted of a state felony are incarcerated. The commissioners also received information on the increase in the number of job fairs, hiring events and resource fairs for former offenders.


• Travis County will enter into negotiations for the purchase of the integrated courts case management system software and services for Travis County following approval from commissioners on Tuesday afternoon. In July 2015, commissioners court approved the Travis County Integrated Justice System (IJS) project. After a request for proposals was issued in November 2016, the project team scored the proposals and is prepared to negotiate with the highest ranked vendor. Approximately $2.5 million has been allocated to salary and operating costs and $235,000 has been allocated to consulting fees for a total of $2,855,000. Currently, there is a reserve for $3,994,087 for the purposes of this system. Usage of the reserve will be discussed in the fiscal year 2018 preliminary budget if stakeholders are to proceed with vendor selection. The Information Technology Services Office has requested $6.5 million in the fiscal year 2018 budget for the new system.