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COMMISSIONERS COURT
Special Session
September 21, 1998
10:00 a.m.
Commissioners Courtroom
Kerr County Courthouse
Kerrville, Texas
PRESENT: ROBERT A. DENSON, County Judge
H. A. "BUSTER" BALDWIN, Commissioner Pct. 1
T. H. "BUTCH" LACKEY, Commissioner Pct. 2
JONATHAN LETZ, Commissioner Pct. 3
BRUCE OEHLER, Commissioner Pct. 9
Filed~DayotSa AD.19~TiME I~•33~`'^
BIWE G. MEEKER
Clerk Courtly Court, Kerr Courtly, Texas
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On Monday, September 21, 1998, at approximately 10:00
a.m., a Special Session of Commissioners Court was held in
the Commissioners Courtroom, Kerr County Courthouse,
Kerrville, Texas, and the following proceedings were had in
open court:
P R O C E E D I N G S
JUDGE DENSON: It's 10 o'clock. It's September the
21st, '98. We have a special Commissioners Court meeting
scheduled for this morning to deal with a number of budget
items. In addition to that, since we were posting, of course
with the Open Meeting Law, we put some other matters on the
agenda that need to be addressed. We'll open up, dealing
with those housekeeping matters. One, paying bills. Do we
have any bills?
MR. TOMLINSON: I don't have any bills, but I have
a budget amendment.
JUDGE DENSON: Okay. Is this for the '97-'98
budget?
MR. TOMLINSON: Yes. It's for --
JUDGE DENSON: This is the one you handed out?
MR. TOMLINSON: Right, the one you have in front of
you. It's in this last overtime budget amendment we did for
the Sheriff's office. There's -- one person was shorted
$320, so I'm adding 5320 to the overtime line item, and
taking it from bonds and insurance in the Sheriff's
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Department.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: So move.
COMMISSIONER LACKEY: Second.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Is this the last one of the
year?
MR. TOMLINSON: I hope so. I don't know of any
others.
JUDGE DENSON: We have another Commissioners Court
meeting next Monday.
MR. TOMLINSON: There could be some more.
JUDGE DENSON: Okay. We have a motion and a
second. Further questions or comments? All in favor?
(The motion was carried by unanimous vote.)
JUDGE DENSON: Okay. Any late bills, Tommy, by
chance?
MR. TOMLINSON: No.
JUDGE DENSON: Okay. Top of the consideration
agenda, we have 2.1, Public Hearing on proposed elected
officials' salary increase. Therefore, we will close our
Commissioners Court meeting as of this time, and it's about
2 minutes after 10:00, and open up a public meeting on that
subject matter. Again, being proposed elected officials'
salary increase.
(The special Commissioners Court meeting was
closed at 10:02 a.m., and a public hearing was
held in open court, as follows:)
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1 P U B L I C H E A R I N G
2 JUDGE DENSON: And I have in my hand the proposed
3 salary increase, which has been published and which we'll
4 talk about, if there's any member of the public that wants to
5 talk about it about that at this time. Anybody have any
6 comments or questions about the proposed salary increase for
7 elected officials? That actually comes about as a result of
8 our blanket two-and-a-half percent raise for everyone in the
9 County.
10 (No response.)
11 JUDGE DENSON: Okay. At this time, at 3 minutes
12 after 10:00, we'll close our public meeting and go back into
13 Commissioners Court.
19 (The public hearing was concluded at 10:03 a.m.,
and the special Commissioners Court meeting was
15 reopened.)
16 JUDGE DENSON: We'll take up 2.2, consider adopting
17 proposed elected officials' salary for budget year 1998-1999.
18 Do I have a motion?
19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So moved.
20 JUDGE DENSON: Do I have a second?
21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'll second it.
22 JUDGE DENSON: Okay. Any questions or comments?
23 All in favor?
29 (The motion was carried by unanimous vote.)
25 JUDGE DENSON: Okay. Also at 10 o'clock, under
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consideration agenda Item No. 2.3, we are to have a public
2 hearing on the proposed 1998-1999 operating budget for Kerr
3 County, and at this time we will close our Commissioners
4 Court meeting and go into public hearing on the proposed
5 budget for '98-'99, that budget having been published in form
6 of copy being available in the County Clerk's office, as well
7 as our offices, for inspection in preparation for today's
8 hearing.
9 (The special Commissioners Court meeting was closed
at 10:04 a.m., and a public hearing was held in
10 open court as follows:
11 P U B L I C H E A R I N G
12 JUDGE DENSON: Okay. Any questions or comments on
13 this? Bill Stacy?
19 MR. STACY: Commissioners, I'm here as a resident
15 of the Kerr County Taxpayers Property Owners' Organization,
16 and I have looked through your budget, and I have a number of
17 questions that I want to ask for clarification. One item
18 that I found was $2,300,000 on a tax anticipation note.
19 That's a whole new phrase to me; I have no idea what that's
20 about. And there's a question -- I think that has something
21 probably to do with the Recor facility; I'm lust guessing
22 there. But then there's a payment under that of $388,530. I
23 presume that's the -- the Recor facility. Secondly --
24 JUDGE DENSON: Let's, if we may --
25 MR. STACY: Yeah?
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JUDGE DENSON: Let's handle these one at a time.
MR. STACY: Right.
JUDGE DENSON: And your presumptions on each one of
those were inaccurate. But I'll ask the Auditor to make
5 explanation, if you don't mind, Tommy, on the note.
6 MR. TOMLINSON: Okay. The note is -- is for the
7 construction of the last phase of the -- of the courthouse
8 for courtrooms in the old jail. It's a tax anticipation
9 note. The $388,530 is -- is one annual installment on a
10 7-year maturity for that »ote. Under permanent improvements,
11 it shows an expenditure of that same amount, of 52,307,000.
12 And that's for the anticipated project construction.
13 MR. STACY: That is another one of my notes. That
19 clears that up, 'cause I have on down here in your budget,
15 building construction question of 52,300,000. That does
16 jive.
17 JUDGE DENSON: Yes.
18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's also, if I can comment, on
19 renovation of second floor of this building as well. Second
20 floor of this building and the second floor of the --
21 MR. STACY: How much money has been spent on top of
22 this, about 5600,000? Is that right? Three hundred and
23 three hundred; does that figure -- that rings to me for some
29 reason or another, past budgets.
25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Past budgets?
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1 MR. TOMLINSON: Whatever was spent last year is
2 around two-fifty, I think.
3 COMMISSIONER LET2: Fox the demolition.
9 MR. TOMLINSON: On this part, and then for the
5 demolition and architectural engineering work on the last
6 phase is around two-forty.
7 MR. STAGY: That would not be added? Or is it in
8 this two million-three?
9 MR. TOMLINSON: No it's not in --
10 MR. STAGY: So, it's on top of two million-three?
11 MR. TOMLINSON: We've already paid fox that.
12 MR. STAGY: Then my next question, then, if that is
13 true, I couldn't find any reference to the debt of the
14 assumption of the Recox facility in the budget.
15 MR. TOMLINSON: That's -- it's in the budget. It
16 shows the note payment in the budget.
17 MR. STAGY: Was that the $388,000?
18 MR. TOMLINSON: No. It's -- that is not a debt --
19 that's not a County debt, anyway. The County does not have
20 any liability on that debt whatsoever.
21 MR. STAGY: But they have to pay it?
22 MR. TOMLINSON: No, they don't.
23 MR. STAGY: Are they paying it?
24 MR. TOMLINSON: The Juvenile Board is paying that
25 debt. And the Juvenile Board alone has the liability or
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1 responsibility for that debt. The debt was assumed by --
2 from Recor by a Chapter 717-5 corporation, which is a public
3 corporation form, for the sole purpose of assuming that debt.
9 And there's a statute that limits that -- not -- it doesn't
5 limit, but it puts the liability of the debt on the
6 corporation, and not the Commissioners Court or the -- or
7 Kerr County.
8 MR. STACY: What I'm hearing, then, that the
9 Juvenile Board owns the property? Or they owe it? Own and
10 owe?
11 MR. TOMLINSON: They -- the corporation owns the
12 property.
13 MR. STACY: And who owns the corporation?
14 MR. TOMLINSON: It's -- it's the Board of Directors
15 of the corporation is the Juvenile Board.
16 MR. STACY: So there is another corporation that
17 owns the Recor facility?
18 MR. TOMLINSON: That's correct.
19 MR. STACY: And that is -- the stockholders of that
20 are the Juvenile Board?
21 MR. TOMLINSON: Board of Directors is the Juvenile
22 Board. There are no stockholders; it's not a stock
23 corporation.
29 MR. STACY: Well, that's pretty murky. Seems to me
25 that, generaly, a department -- like I say, this is that area
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there that it concerns me, because I was involved in part of
that, and it -- it just seems to me if the County's going to
have to pay for these expenses -- now, I understand that it's
making us money over the expenses.
JUDGE DENSON: The County paid for what expenses?
MR. STACY: Well, somebody's got to be in charge,
in effect.
JUDGE DENSON: The County does not pay for any of
the expenses out there.
1~ MR. STACY: Does the money go into the County
11~ budget?
1	MR. TOMLINSON: No. I put	it	in the	budget. It
13	doesn't have to be in the budget, but	I	put it	in the budget,
19	just for information purposes only.	And	it's	-- there's a
15I sheet in the budget that shows what the revenues and
16 expenditures of that facility is, and shows what the annual
170 payment of it is.
18		MR.	STACY: Well, I picked up a little	bit of that,
19	and like	I say, it was a little confusing to me.	Another --
20	two more	observations or questions, really. I see where the
21	out-of-c	ounty	presence has fallen from the prisoners, from
22	5230,000	down	to 5190,000 -- 5140,000, excuse me.	One of the
23	reasons	that -	- and some of the older members of	the
29 Commissioners Court will remember, we had two bond elections.
25 The first bond election on the jail failed, and which I was
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opposed to because it wasn't -- didn't have enough cells.
And the second one, when we raised it up to, I think,
$198,000, was there because we could have more prisoners and
probably make more money from adjacent counties to take their
prisoners and help -- help pay for the cost. And it bothers
me to see that now it's down to $140,000, and it was my
understanding that it's down there because of staffing
restraints. So that bothers me. It never dawned on us since
we were involved in this thing that there would ever be
restraints on -- on trying to get extra income.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Let me comment on that.
MR. STACY: Surely.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: There's no restraints. The
jail is staffed to 199 prisoners. We're keeping about 90 to
95, maybe 100 occasionally. It's the Sheriff's
responsibility totally. The staff is there. We have
authorized the staff to meet the revenue projections we had
last year. So, the reason we're not meeting it is an
internal situation in the Sheriff's Department.
MR. STACY: All right. So it's the Sheriff's --
Sheriffs problem and not the Commissioners Court's problem.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: We have staffed, you know, the
levels.
MR. STAGY: All right.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And, Bill, I think that
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every contract that has been brought in here from other
counties, the contracts we do with other counties, we have
approved and signed every one of them. And it looks -- you
know, just looking at the monthly report the Sheriff sends
over here, it looks like -- I mean, we have a contract with,
like, five or six different counties, and looks like we're
down to dealing with one or two occasionally. So I -- what
reason for that, I don't have any idea. I think that we've
done our job, though, of approving.
MR. STACY: Well, I'm happy to know that, 'cause it
was bothering me if it happened to be back on the
Commissioners Court that there wasn't staffing, and that
wasn't the reason.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No, it's not the staffing.
COMMISSIONER LET2: We also have contracts with
several federal agencies, including the INS and the Federal
Marshals. And the INS is where we're getting the bulk of our
inmates at this time.
MR. STACY: Okay. Two more questions. One, I
picked up -- there is an interest-earning income of $225,000,
and I made an inquiry on it, and nobody could seem to tell me
what that was from.
MR. TOMLINSON: It's from the proceeds of the tax
anticipation note that we talked about first.
MR. STACY: So, those -- was that what you -- what
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I'm hearing, the tax anticipation notes have been farmed out
for income?
MR. TOMLINSON: No. No. No, when -- when the
Court approves the note and we sell it, we get all the
proceeds at one time. And, so -- but the interest on those
dollars will be what that is, between the time we get the
money and the time it's all spent.
MR. STACY: Like we did on the -- on the --
MR. TOMLINSON: Jail?
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MR. STACY: On the jail bonds?
MR. TOMLINSON: Exactly.
MR. STACY: Like I say, that tax anticipation note
was a new word to me. And, lastly, I could not find -- and,
Commissioner Baldwin, I've had many questions on this before
-- what the surplus is, per se. Do the commissioners have
some idea of what the surplus now is for the County?
MR. TOMLINSON: I do know what -- I know what it
is. It's -- I projected for 9/30/98 a total of $9,272,000.
The projected surplus for 9/30/99 will be $4,682,000.
MR. STACY: And then do you subtract what's going
to be paid out from that on these anticipation notes?
MR. TOMLINSON: No. No, that includes all of that.
MR. STAGY: But there's -- none of that forty-two
twenty-seven is going to be paid out?
MR. TOMLINSON: We're budgeting an increase in
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surplus of $900,000.
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MR. STACY: A surplus of $900,000?
MR. TOMLINSON: Yes.
MR. STACY: All right, gentlemen. Thank you. I
appreciate your time and your patience, somebody coming in
and looking at the budget.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you, Bill.
JUDGE DENSON: Let me make one final comment on
that question or remark about the jail and the staffing. We
opened that jail, I think, around May of '96, and it was at
that time, at a budget hearing conference with the Sheriff,
that we established a 144 staffing, or staffing that would
accommodate 194 prisoners out there, with the agreement that
that staffing would be increased in the future as needed,
based on the population of the jail. As Commissioner Letz
has pointed out, that historically, since May of '96, that
jail has had something along the lines of the same prisoner
count that it's had for -- for the last five or six, seven
years, as far as local prisoners go. There has not been one
increase in the number of local prisoners in that jail.
There has been a fluctuation on out-of-county prisoners
through interlocal agreements with -- with other counties or
other entities; that's pushed it up. I think we've had 120,
125 prisoners at one time. But still we're maintaining, with
those out-of-county prisoners, 100, 105; it varies. But the
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Court has always been receptive to increasing that, because
that would mean that our revenues are increasing. All the
hopes and expectations that were present at the time that the
public of Kerr County were sold that bond issue have never
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come about.
Okay. We'll close our public hearing on this matter,
and go back into Commissioners' Court.
(The public hearing was concluded at 10:15 a.m.,
and the special Commissioners Court meeting was
reopened.)
JUDGE DENSON And we need to consider adopting the
proposed 1998 -- excuse me, before we do that, there are a
couple of items, little notes that I have, Tommy, that we
need to talk about. One is that the court reporter's salary
should be $28,188.
MR. TOMLINSON: That's correct, yes. That's with
this --
JUDGE DENSON: With the raise that was --
MR. TOMLINSON: Right. We -- in the original
budget, it was -- it didn't include the two and a half
percent. That's what it is.
JUDGE DENSON: And then the park money. Based on
our meeting last week when we talked about it, it appears
that we have use of the L.C.R.A. grant for this upcoming
budget year to make -- make expenditures for purposes of
improving the park out there at the Youth Exhibition Center.
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1		Should	we	move that money	into the budget, so we'll have
2		access	to	it?	
3 MR. TOMLINSON: Sure.
9 JUDGE DENSON: And there's hundred and --
5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: A hundred eighty, I believe.
6 JUDGE DENSON: $180,000.
7 MR. TOMLINSON: Okay.
8 JUDGE DENSON: Okay. With those changes -- any
9 comment on those two matters? With those changes, we need to
10 consider adoption of the proposed 1998-1999 operating budget,
11 which I will need a motion for.
12 COMMISSIONER LACKEY: So moved.
13 JUDGE DENSON: I've got a motion.
19 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Second.
15 JUDGE DENSON: I've got a second. Any further
16 questions or comments on this from anyone? Okay. All in
17 favor?
18 (The motion was carried by unanimous vote.)
19 JUDGE DENSON: All right, 2.5. The last item on
20 the agenda is consider and adopt a tax rate for Kerr County.
21 This has been published; we've already had a public meeting
22 on it, and the tax rate being the same as it has been last
23 year, as well as, I think, for several years, 0.3413?
24 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Thirty-five, I think.
25 MR. TOMLINSON: 0.3513.
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adopt.
JUDGE DENSON: 0.3513. And I need a motion to
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So move.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second.
JUDGE DENSON: I've got a motion from Commissioner
Letz a second from Commissioners Baldwin. Any questions or
comments on this matter? Okay. All in favor?
(The motion was carried by unanimous vote.)
JUDGE DENSON: All right. I think that will
conclude our business this morning. Paula, do you have any
comments? Anything you'd like to say?
MS. RECTOR: No.
JUDGE DENSON: I always like to address the lady
that will be in charge of collecting all this money.
MS. RECTOR: I appreciate that.
JUDGE DENSON: And what about our Treasurer? Any
comments? She's going to take care of it for us.
MS. NEMEC: I'll just invest it when I get it.
JUDGE DENSON: Okay.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Judge, what about the
State-champion District Clerk? See if she has anything to
say.
JUDGE DENSON: She can spend some of it. Okay.
All right, that's it, then. We thank you all very much for
coming, and we`re adjourned.
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(Commissioners Court was adjourned at 10 23 a.m.)
C E R T I F I C A T E
The above and foregoing is a true and complete
transcription of my stenotype notes taken in my capacity as
Official reporter of the Commissioners Court of Kerr County,
Texas, at the time and place heretofore set forth.
DATED at Kerrville, Texas, this 25th day of September,
1998.
Kathy B k
Certifi ShorthandReporter
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