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KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT
Special Session
September 21, 1999
1:30 p.m.
Commissioners Courtroom
Kerr County Courthouse
Kerrville, Texas


PRESENT: FREDERICK L. HENNEKE, Kerr County Judge
H. A. "BUSTER" BALDWIN, Commissioner Pct. 1
WILLIAM "BILL" WILLIAMS, Commissioner Pct. 2
JONATHAN LETZ, Commissioner Pct. 3
LARRY GRIFFIN, Commissioner Pct. 4
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I N D E X
September 21, 1999 A E
PUBLIC HEARIN
1.1 Proposed tax rate, F.Y. 1999/2000 3
1.2 Proposed elected officials' salaries, 1999/2000 4
1.3 Proposed Budget for F.Y. 1999/2000 5
Adjourned 20
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On Tuesday, September 21, 1999, at 1:30 p.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 HENNEKE: It's 1:30 on Monday -- Tuesday,
September 21st. I'll call to order this special session of
the Kerr County Commissioners Court. On the agenda today are
three public hearings. The first public hearing is on the
proposed tax rate for fiscal year 1999/2000. Second public
hearing is on the proposed elected officials' salaries for
fiscal year 1999/2000. Third public hearing is on the
proposed budget for fiscal year 1999/2000. There will be no
action taken today. The only purpose of this -- these
meetings is to provide the public with the opportunity to
provide Commissioners Court with comments upon these three
budgetary items before we actually make a decision regarding
disposition of -- of our budget for the next fiscal year.
With that understanding, I will call to order the public
hearing on the proposed tax rate for fiscal year 1999/2000.
If any member of the public has any comments they'd like to
make, please come forward to the podium, identify yourselves,
and provide us with your comments. Are there any comments on
the proposed tax rate for fiscal year 1999/2000?
(No response.)
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JUDGE HENNEKE: Again, I ask, are there any public
comments on the proposed tax rate for fiscal year 1999/2000?
(No response.)
JUDGE HENNEKE: One final time. Are there any
public comments on the proposed tax rate for fiscal year
1999/2000?
(NO response.)
JUDGE HENNEKE: Hearing no request to speak on the
proposed tax rate for fiscal year 1999/2000, I will declare
the public hearing on the proposed tax rate to be closed. At
this time, we'll go into the public hearing on proposed
elected officials' salaries for fiscal year 1999/2000. Are
there any members of the public who would like to comment on
the proposed elected officials' salaries for fiscal year
1999/2000?
(No response.)
JUDGE HENNEKE: Again, this is the required public
hearing on the proposed elected officials' salaries for
fiscal year 1999 and 2000. I'll call again. Are there any
members of the public who would like to comment on the
proposed elected officials' salaries for fiscal year
1999/2000?
(NO response.)
JUDGE HENNEKE: One more time. Third time's the
charm. Are there any members of the public who would like to
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comment upon the proposed elected officials' salaries for
fiscal year 1999/2000?
(No response.)
JUDGE HENNEKE: Hearing none, I will close the
public hearing on the proposed elected officials' salaries
for fiscal year 1999/2000. The third public hearing
scheduled for today is a public hearing on the proposed
budget for fiscal year 1999/2000. Is there any member of the
public who'd like to comment upon the proposed budget for
fiscal year 1999/2000?
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Judge, you have some
requests.
JUDGE HENNEKE: Oh, I have some requests?
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Right under your Coke can.
JUDGE HENNEKE: Thank you, Buster. We've had a
request from Mr. Paul Long to address us as to the budget.
Mx. Long, if you'd like the come forward at this time?
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Gentlemen, that's in regards
to the horse stalls that I sent y'all a memo this morning.
Sorry if you didn't see it.
JUDGE HENNEKE: Okay. Once again, the purpose of
this hearing is to have your comments on the proposed budget,
so if you'd give us your comments on any aspects of that
budget, Mr. Lonq.
MR. LONG: Okay. I came to address you on the
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stalls which are in the horse barn, which would become a part
of the budget. And, as I understand, the purchase of some of
these stalls is already part of the proposed budget. There
are 70 stalls still remaining unsold at the Ag Barn. We sold
30, establishing a price -- fair market value at 5300 each.
It is the desire of myself and Mr. Langley, the Secretary of
the Hill Country Cutting Horse Association, that these stalls
remain in Kerr County so that they can be used for equine
events at the Ag Barn. We have -- we have viable customers
who want to purchase, if not all, nearly all of the stalls.
They're literally standing in line right now at the 5300
price range. That notwithstanding, it's still our desire to
see these stalls be put to use in Kerr County for the benefit
of Kerr County and the Junior Livestock Association, City of
Kerrville, and everyone who would benefit from equine events
at the Ag Barn.
We propose that, in addition to the stalls which are
already committed in the budget, that you consider the
purchase of the remaining stalls at a figure of $200 each.
Once again, we feel we've established fair market value by
sale of $300 each. It would be our desire to allow the
County to -- to purchase these in annual installments with
consideration in subsequent budgets. The 519,000 would be
the price of the remaining 70 stalls, based at 5200 each.
With $5,000 already budgeted for this year, that would leave
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a $9,000 deficit for the remaining stalls, which we would
propose that you consider at $3,000 per year in years 2, 3,
and 4 of a 9-year payout, interest-free.
With regard to these funds, it is our wish and desire
that -- as a matter of fact, we have set it up with the ones
we've already sold -- that 100 percent of the funding go to
the benefit of the Junior Livestock Association. We use
these funds to purchase animals at their sale each year to
benefit the children of Kerr County. And, I guess I've
covered everything that is pertinent. I had discussed this
with Commissioner Baldwin earlier today.
So, having said what I've said, I guess I will take one
opportunity off the subject to commend Commissioners Court on
your selection of a Sheriff and the way you selected the
Sheriff. It made me, as a citizen of Kerr County, feel
really good to see that kind of action come from the
Commissioners Court. Thank you very much.
JUDGE HENNEKE: Thank you, Mr. Long.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Any comment?
COMMISSIONER LETZ: I guess a comment, I think, and
to let everyone else know, Commissioner Williams and I met
with Ralph Langley, I guess, a couple weeks ago and pretty
much, you know, outlined a lot of what Mr. Long stated. But
-- and I think we stated at that time, at our meeting with
Mr. Langley, that we can't commit to buying the future
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stalls. I mean, we have to encumber the money if we commit
to buy them. I think there is a -- as I recall, our meeting
was that we hoped that they would be -- remain available, and
the County would try to lease them, you know, and we're going
to enter into an agreement with the Cutting Horse
Association, you know, a written agreement as to the proceeds
from leasing them and how that would actually work. And
then, next budget year, we would look at buying the balance
of the stalls at that point. But, for us to be able to, you
know, commit at this point to purchasing them, that's
something that, you know, I don't think we're willing to do.
We discussed it. We really would rather put that off until
next year.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Just a follow-up on what
Commissioner Letz said. We appreciate both you gentlemen's
desire to keep the stalls here and to concentrate on having
more horse events so that the stalls can be utilized. We
appreciate the need to clean them up and to make the facility
more user-friendly, if you will, the very least of which is
getting the red ants out, or the fire ants out of them. And,
we also believe -- I think we talked to Ralph about the need
to reduce to some sort of a letter of understanding how the
rental of the stalls would take place and who would be the
beneficiary of that rental. The County obviously would
benefit from the rental of the stalls it owns, and there
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should be some split of the revenues for stalls that the
County doesn't own when utilized. So, I think we -- we're
pretty much in accord on how that -- based on the meeting
that Jonathan and I had with Ralph, how that should proceed.
Appreciate your thoughts about the -- the amount and the way
to amortize out the other stalls. As Jonathan said, we can't
say to you today we will buy "X" number of stalls in the next
budget year, but we -- we certainly understand it, and --
MR. LONG: Judge, may I make an addendum to my
comments, please? I -- I appreciate your position with
regard to encumbering future Commissioners -- and maybe I
didn't make myself clear. We would be totally satisfied with
-- assuming that you can do this -- making an agreement to
consider the purchase of additional stalls in future budgets.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think we can do that in the
letter agreement, that we will consider purchasing the
balance next budget year. I don't see any problem with that.
MR. LONG: Because we -- we are -- we're adamant to
the point of being rabid about wanting to leave them in Kerr
County at the facility.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: We understand.
JUDGE HENNEKE: Like Commissioner Letz says, we
have no problem with putting that in an agreement to consider
as part of the letter. But, you want to keep in mind that
that agreement to consider is worth the paper it's written
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MR. LONG: Well, assuming that we're dealing
gentleman-to-gentleman. The fact that you would consider it
does not necessarily mean you would approve it.
JUDGE HENNEKE: Right.
MR. LONG: But, it still would give -- make Ralph
and I sleep better at night to know that at least it was
going to be considered by agreement, nonbinding agreement,
for future budgets.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I want Ralph to sleep
better at at night, 'cause I don't want him awake and calling
me.
(Laughter.)
MR. LONG: Now, with regards to rental -- and the
next thing I'll feel is probably Ralph's boot in my rear end,
but we also don't have any tremendous axe to grind with
regard to rental on the -- on the stalls. If we can get a
gentlemen's agreement that you will consider, seriously, the
purchase of stalls in subsequent budgets, we're willing to
forego any rental on the -- on the -- I tried to make this a
-- really, a win-win-win situation.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: You're making it
user-friendly.
JUDGE HENNEKE: We appreciate that, Mr. Long.
MR. LONG: All right. Thank you kindly.
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COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Thank you very much.
JUDGE HENNEKE: We had a request from Joseph Benham
to address us. Joseph? Welcome, sir.
MR. BENHAM: Thank you, Judge, gentlemen. When I
was in training to be a Methodist preacher, they told us that
a good message should have three points, and I have three
points I'd like to share with you today, but I promise not
take half an hour to do it, as preachers sometimes do.
The first one is to commend you gentlemen for the work
you do for residents of this county. I've held enough
appointive and elective jobs, and as a newsman, I've reported
on enough board meetings and legislative debates and so forth
to know that there's a lot more grief than gratitude that
goes with serving the public. And, I wanted to, on behalf of
my wife and myself, to thank you for the work you folks do
and the time you put in.
The second thing is to urge you to stick to your guns on
your support of the urgent repairs that are to be made at the
library. The roof, the leaky windows, some of the other
problems over there, with which Commissioner Williams is very
well-acquainted and which I'm sure he's briefed you on, are
things that have been put off for far too long. We are in
serious danger, assuming it ever rains again, of having -- of
having that building flooded. That would be a tragedy, not
only where the books are concerned, but the new electronic
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,.-.
equipment, notably the Internet terminals which have been
installed, to have all that stuff damaged and, in all
probability, ruined. As I say, the only word for that would
be a tragedy. So, I urge you to stick with the plans. I've
worked on enough budgets over the years; I know that you
never have enough, but I would urge you to find the money to
make the urgent repairs that need to be made.
And, the third point, also in connection with the
library, is I would urge you to loin with the City Council in
a comprehensive approach to the problems of access to that
building for our physically-challenged and older citizens.
If there's anybody in this county who thinks we don't have a
problem there, I would urge that they borrow a walker or a
wheelchair and go over there and try to get into that
building. That ramp is far too steep. When you get to the
top of the ramp, we do not have the kind of automatic doors
that the County has had the foresight to put on this
building, and for which I commend you. We don't have those
automatic doors, and it is a terrible problem for people who
are not as agile as they used to be to make use of that
building.
I beg your indulgence to clarify one thing that has come
up. It was raised again at City Council meeting the other
night. Using the loading dock downstairs at the basement
level for access -- as an alternate form of access to that
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building is simply not a viable option. The loading dock
which opens onto -- into the lobby where the elevator comes
is a good 9 feet above the level of the driveway and the
parking lot. You would have to go in there with a front end
loader and be raised about 4 feet to be able to qo from the
parking lot level, the driveway level, up to the loading dock
and get in the building that way. It also has the drawback
that the security system for that building is not as adequate
-- is not adequate for that -- for that entrance. It isn't
really adequate fox the front entrance either, but it comes
closer. So, given the demographics of this county, which you
gentlemen certainly are well-acquainted with, I would urge
that -- again, that you and the City develop and carry out a
comprehensive plan to improve the access to that building.
I'll share one quick anecdote with you, if I may. After
I wrote something about this a while back, I got a call from
a gentleman who said, "I'm 82 years old; my wife is 81." He
said, "We would love to make extensive use of that library,
but it is -- we're both on walkers, and it is such an ordeal
fox us to get into that building that we lust don't go there
nearly as often as we would like." And, he said, "I am very
representative of a lot of people in this community," and I
dare say that he is. So, once again, I've worked on enough
budgets. I know there's never enough money, but I would urge
to you find the money to do the things that need doing on
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this project, and I'm grateful to you for your time.
JUDGE HENNEKE: Thank you, sir.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you.
JUDGE HENNEKE: Bi117
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Judge, let me comment back
to Joe. Joe, thank you for your comments, very much.
Appreciate that. I don't guess it's -- it's not important to
try to figure out how the library got in the state of
disrepair it is. Suffice it to say, it's there.
MR. BENHAM: Amen.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: And we have to do something
about it. But, part of the budget process -- I have to share
with you that the budget process, as I understand it, with
the Library Board is that the Director works out his basic
budget, at least his first run at the budget, with City
Council, a representative on the staff of the City.
MR. BENHAM: Right.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: And, so, in making that
point, I -- I lust have to say this. The Director has to be,
I would suggest, a bit more forceful in his first phase with
the City in terms of prioritizing the things that he wishes
to see done. By the time we get it over here, it's in its
first or second phase and we have a pretty good sense of what
we're going to be required to do in terms of the fifty-fifty
split.
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MR. BENHAM: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: But, in the past, as you
well know, some things have been left to drift to the point
of emergency, and then both the City and the Court has to
deal with the emergency, because this is a point of public
pride and it is something that every resident in this county
takes pleasure in using from time to time; and some people
use it more than others, and that's great. So, what I'm
saying is -- I think you're a member of the Friends of the
Library?
MR. BENHAM: Yes, that's correct.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Alonq with my good buddy,
John Mullins, and other friends -- and I see Ollie out there,
as well. The Director has to be a tad more forceful in his
first phase with the City in terms of putting real strong
emphasis on the things that he really believes we must cure.
And then, secondly, and I think of equal importance, there
has to be in that budget, going forward, dollars for ongoing
maintenance --
MR. BENHAM: Yes.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: -- in the budget. Not
everything on an emergency basis. If we left our County
facilities go to an emergency basis, oh, would this room be
full at budget time, because we'd have a lot of dollar bills
floating out there to take care of that. So, I think in the
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future, we have an opportunity now, really, to grasp the
opportunity and move forward, and a systematic way to get
things done. And, I appreciate your thoughts.
MR. BENHAM: I couldn't agree more, and thank you
again for your time, gentlemen.
JUDGE HENNEKE: A comment I'd like to make --
MR. BENHAM: Sure.
JUDGE HENNEKE: -- in keeping with that, is that
this is a joint project --
MR. BENHAM: Right.
JUDGE HENNEKE: -- with the City. And, in the
past, most of the time, all the County has been asked to do
is to write a check. That game is over.
MR. BENHAM: Good.
JUDGE HENNEKE: If the Director of the library
doesn't choose to come to the Court first, I think it's at
least courteous for him to involve us at the same time that
he involves the discussions with the City Council or the City
Council staff. There was a lot of resistance to this year's
budget -- library budget because we didn't know what had gone
into it. We were presented with a bottom line.
MR. BENHAM: Mm-hmm.
JUDGE HENNEKE: Bill went back, as you know, and
did a lot of work on ferreting out what was going on and the
basis for it, but that's not his job. And, the Director of
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the library has to understand that the County is and will be
an equal player, particularly as we get further and further
into the dollars that are going to be necessary to keep that
a source of pride in the county. And, I have three library
books at my home right now, so I use it a lot. But, if you
would carry that message back to the library as well, that
don't forget the County, because the County is not just a
banker.
MR. BENHAM: Right. Well, I certainly will relay
that message. That's why Ollie and I are here today, because
we do recognize that the County is an equal player in this,
equal participant in this process. And, we are -- we're very
grateful for the support that you're giving us now. We just
want to keep -- be sure we continue to get it. Thank you
again.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: We'd like to have some
input into the redesign for taking care of disabled access to
that building. So, when those meetings convene, I hope that
somebody tells me when and where they're going to be.
MR. BENHAM: I'll relay that, as well. Thank you.
JUDGE HENNEKE: Yes, sir. Mr. Odom?
MR. ODOM: Yes, sir. Sorry I didn't fill one out.
I didn't know quite what the procedure is. Is it appropriate
to address my budget, as I saw some errors when it was
posted? Can we do that? Or at least --
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COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Sure.
JUDGE HENNEKE: Tommy, do we do that now, or do we
do that as part of budget amendment process?
MR. TOMLINSON: I think we can do that as part of
the amendment process.
JUDGE HENNEKE: Okay.
MR. ODOM: It's not -- it's for your --
COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: So, these were some of --
MR. ODOM: Some of the things, what we found when
it was posted. Some of it was typos, some of it was -- were
just some things that we wanted to address.
JUDGE HENNEKE: What we're going to do with this is
give this to Tommy. There are other items similar to this
that have to be addressed, and what we're going to do is one
budget amendment, which we will adopt on the 27th when we
actually adopt the budget, which will bring everything into
line with what was actually --
MR. ODOM: Actually presented to the Court.
JUDGE HENNEKE: So --
MR. ODOM: Good. Thank you.
JUDGE HENNEKE: -- you need to talk to Tommy about
this.
MR. ODOM: Well, we have.
JUDGE HENNEKE: Okay.
MR. ODOM: Basically --
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MR. TOMLINSON: I've made two corrections that I
know of.
JUDGE HENNEKE: Okay. Just --
MR. TOMLINSON: There may be another one.
MR. ODOM: We just wanted to make sure we had this
-- the Court was aware of this before you finalized
everything. Thank you.
JUDGE HENNEKE: Okay. Is there any other member of
the public who'd like to address us with regard to the
proposed budget? We've had two excellent comments so far.
Is there any other member of the public who'd like to address
the Court with regard to the proposed budget?
(No response.)
JUDGE HENNEKE: Going once. Going twice. I'll ask
again. Is there any member of the public who'd like to
address the Court with regard to the proposed budget? If
not, I'll declare the hearing on the proposed budget for
fiscal year 1999/2000 closed. Before we adjourn, I failed to
notice that Mx. Gene Richey had failed to make a comment on
the public officials' salaries. Gene, do you still wish to
make a comment?
MR. RICHEY: No, my question mark was there, only
if Bill Stacy showed up.
(Laughter.)
JUDGE HENNEKE: I'm going to let that one go. If
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there's no other comments, I want to thank y'all for coming.
We appreciate your interest. We need the help of you all in
serving you and in keeping the County strong and vibrant.
This concludes the business of the Commissioners Court for
today.
COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Could I just make one quick
comment? I want to publicly thank all of the elected
officials and department heads for working under a somewhat
new system. We had a lot of bugs in it. I hope next year we
can manage it easier. There's some obvious ways that we can
simplify the process further, and still accomplish what we
did this year, which I think was a very good exercise of --
in zero-based budgeting, and then -- and then go from there.
And, I thought it worked very well, but it was due to the
department heads and elected officials who are responsible
for that and did a great job.
JUDGE HENNEKE: Hear, hear. Anything else? We
stand adjourned. Thank you all.
(Commissioners Court was adjourned at 2:00 p.m.)
21
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1 STATE OF TEXAS I
2 COUNTY OF KERR I
3 The above and foregoing is a true and complete
9 transcription of my stenotype notes taken in my capacity as
5 County Clerk of the Commissioners Court of Kerr County,
6 Texas, at the time and place heretofore set forth.
7 DATED at Kerrville, Texas, this 24th day of September,
8 1999.
9
10
11 JANNET~T/ PIEPER, Kerr County Clerk
12 BY : ~7 K'y ~~i~u~
Kathy nik, Deputy County Clerk
13 Certified Shorthand Reporter
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