1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT Budget Workshop Monday, June 26, 2006 3:20 p.m. Commissioners' Courtroom Kerr County Courthouse Kerrville, Texas PRESENT: PAT TINLEY, Kerr County Judge WILLIAM "BILL" WILLIAMS, Commissioner Pct. 2 JONATHAN LETZ, Commissioner Pct. 3 DAVE NICHOLSON, Commissioner Pct. 4 3 v O ~.~~/9 ~0 I ABSENT: H. A. "BUSTER" BALDWIN, Commissioner Pct. 1 25 2 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 I N D E X June 26, 2006 PAGE BUDGET WORKSHOP 1. Preliminary budget discussion 3 2. Budget workshop format and timeline 3 3. Organization chart 14 Adjourned 21 6-26-06wk 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 On Monday, June 26, 2006, at 3:20 p.m., a budget 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 TINLEY: Okay. At this time I'll convene a budget workshop originally scheduled for 2 p.m. this date, to consist of preliminary budget discussion, budget workshop format and timeline, and organizational chart. I've got, with the exception of I think one department, unless it's come in and I was unaware of it, all of the requests in. I have not had the opportunity to squeeze all of those requests yet, but that's next up on my radar screen. And the Tax Assessor might be interested in this -- both of them. MS. BOLIN: This is going to be fun the next few months. JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. I have tentatively plugged into my schedule some judicial juvenile training for the last week in September, so I guess my message is, whatever number of weeks we got left, I'd like to shorten that by one. Okay? COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's good news. JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah, it is good news. The other thing is, I'm really disappointed that -- that we can't get together with the City a whole lot quicker. 6-26-06wk 4 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: So am I. JUDGE TINLEY: Have we excluded Fridays? I don't COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think one of the problems, I think, that has come -- you know, and it's self-imposed by the City, is that they're not going to have any of these budgets for their departments ready until the third or fourth week of the month, which -- I mean, to me, it was fine to meet with them, but -- there was one meeting set up for the 12th at one point, that Wednesday, but I know we don't have the airport budget ready, and we're not going to have it on the 12th. I mean, and that's -- I think I told Kathy, I said I have -- I know the City canceled that meeting, but there was no point to have it if they don't have these budgets -- these joint budgets together and ready for us to look at, on the ones that they manage. I mean, I don't see the point of meeting with them just to meet with them. I'd like to have a budget number on the table, and I am disappointed in the fact that they're -- they seem really slow this year in getting these numbers out. But, you know, that's something, unfortunately, we don't have any control over directly. COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I think a lot of that has to do, Commissioner, with the new City Manager and the new Director of Finance. And they got a new Director of Finance who is a C.P.A., and I think she's making some significant 6-26-06wk 5 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 changes. I think that a lot of that has to do with that. COMMISSIONER LETZ: August 3rd? Is that the date? JUDGE TINLEY: Mm-hmm. And I belatedly discovered that I've got a juvenile conference that entire day. But, you know, if that's the only time we can do it, I'll make -- if push comes to shove, or -- you know, I really -- you know, if they don't have the information, I'm kind of like you. What are we going to talk about? The weather? You know, if we don't have any real numbers to take a look at, it's not going to be of any great benefit for us. I think we recognize our participation and our obligation with each of these functions, but we're really needing some real numbers. The -- the ad valorem tax numbers should be in by the tail end of July? MS. RECTOR: Yes, July 26th or thereabouts. JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. We should plan on probably the very end of July. MS. RECTOR: Probably so. JUDGE TINLEY: Any preliminary prognostications on that, percentage-wise? MS. RECTOR: I got some preliminary totals, but I have not looked to see what the percentage of increase is in 6-26-06wk 6 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 MS. RECTOR: I will get the copy to you. JUDGE TINLEY: You know, I can look at the expense side all day, but I'd sure like to keep one eye -- of course, I don't have but one good one working now; it's kind of hard to keep one eye peeled over there on the income side. I guess I'm going to have to do it in two distinct pieces this year, unless something changes. COMMISSIONER LETZ: And on the -- from working through -- I mean, I think Bill and I can come up with a pretty good guess on the airport, and I'm sure Dave has a pretty good guess on the library. The one that's the big unknown in my mind is EMS. JUDGE TINLEY: EMS, yeah. COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I don't know if the City's going to plan any changes on fire or not. JUDGE TINLEY: I saw an e-mail -- I guess it was yesterday, that there were some discussions going on between the City Manager and Commissioner Baldwin about -- he inquired about EMS, and I think the response said that the Fire Chief was looking at EMS and Kerrville fire contract. He threw that one in, and that leads me to believe that there may be something in the offing there. Maybe -- maybe I'm paranoid, I but -- 6-26-06wk 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: I think one thing we can count on is that they're going to do some extraordinary salary increases in probably the majority of their job classifications. Their salary surveys have shown that they're behind in their comparison group, and I think you'll see -- I don't know -- I say extraordinary. It will be more than cost-of-living. I think you'll see some, perhaps, significant adjustments in patrolmen, for example, dispatch, things like that. By the way, two weeks ago, we talked about the library budget, and I gave you a bad number about current budget. The -- the worksheet budget is only up 2 or 3 percent from last year. Still a big number. JUDGE TINLEY: Your -- your comments about City salaries, were you referring only to the Police Department, or are you talking about city-wide? COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: I asked Mr. Hofmann if there was -- if he found disparities across the board or in just a few classifications. He said not in all classifications, but most. So, it may be Finance Department, maybe an inspector job; I don't know where it is, but certainly -- certainly patrolmen, he did say that at higher levels, like the detective and stuff like that, there weren't -- weren't. But, anyhow, you know, you could be looking at an extra 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 percent on salaries over there. And, of course, salaries are a big chunk of your budget. This 6-26-06wk 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 would impact EMS, would impact the library. Not sure about airport. If we meet -- when we meet, if we don't have all the numbers we need on a particular budget, we might be able to talk strategically, like what are we going to do about the library? What about user-pay for EMS? Those kinds of issues. JUDGE TINLEY: What are we looking at as far as starting our actual in-detail workshops? COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, as I think I said earlier, I mean, I -- well, are you going to -- what's your direction? Are we going to have workshops and then a budget? Or present a kind of a budget compiled exactly -- kind of what we've done in the past; give us a budget, and have -- then have the workshops? JUDGE TINLEY: Well, it's my hope to give you at least a preliminary before we have the workshops, but I'm probably going to be inclined, as I have in years past, to take the approach that, except as to the longevity and -- and I educational raises, the things that are mandated by existing policy, that any generalized pay increases and major capital expenditure items -- I think those are something the entire Court needs to have input and be able to make whatever inquiries they want before any final decision is made. And I really would like to have all of the -- I'd like to know where that's going to relate us to vis-a-vis the income line too, and that's not going to happen till after the 1st of -- of 6-26-06wk 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 9 August. So, anything we do prior to that time, we're going to be talking about expense only, without regard to -- COMMISSIONER LETZ: My -- I think I've said this before. My preference would be, on salaries, to put in the cost-of-living adjustment first. And I -- then merit and some of that, 'cause, I mean, I think that -- I really think that you have to -- a cost-of-living adjustment is almost not optional. JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean, I just think -- I mean, otherwise, you're asking people to work for less next year than last year. I think we've always been pretty conservative on that, but at least we've done something. I really would like to see the numbers with that in. I agree with you on capital items, and I agree with you on any kind of merit increases and things of that nature. But -- JUDGE TINLEY: Well, is that the Court's sense, that they'd like to see it with a -- with a COLA on the front end? COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I would. And I think you can get that, Judge, by -- through the U.S. Department of Labor's web site; they keep a running index going, updated month-by-month. So, you could get that for whenever you're ready, end of May or end of June, whatever. JUDGE TINLEY: I think you got it last year. COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I did get it last year. 6-26-06wk 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 I'll get it again this year if you want me to. JUDGE TINLEY: Okay, yeah. If you -- probably wait till after the 1st of July, so that we might get an additional month's mobility into it. COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: We can get it through June. JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Yeah, I'd like to see the cost to b egin with. JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: And just -- you've heard me say this before. Our employees aren't paid too much. They need and deserve cost-of-living increases at least. COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I agree. II COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: I think the only problem is, we've got too many employees. I'd rather have fewer employees and pay them better than have too many employees. COMMISSIONER LETZ: I agree with that philosophy. JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. All right. If -- if that's the sense of the Court, that's what I'll plug in up front, then. COMMISSIONER LETZ: On the -- from a timing standpoint, seems like in previous years, we've had our workshops prior to getting the revenue side as well. II JUDGE TINLEY: We have started the workshops prior to getting the revenue side, I think. I -- I think there's 6-26-06wk 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 11 been a lot of listening, but not a lot of decision making that's gone on, until we see how the revenue side was going to affect us. COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I'd like to get some of that listening out of the way. JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Some of our smaller departments. Paula, if you know -- we talked about the preliminary numbers by the end of July. What's the volume of -- of protests that KCAD is entertaining right now? Is it heavy, immediate, or -- MS. RECTOR: It's not heavy at all. I think most of the protests are being cleared by staff review. There's not going to be a whole lot going to A.R.D. That's my understanding. COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. MS. RECTOR: I haven't gotten any numbers lately from them. COMMISSIONER LETZ: Didn't the statements come out late? I mean, it just seems -- MS. RECTOR: The appraisal notices? They were about where they normally are. COMMISSIONER LETZ: It just seems when we got it -- I got one late, and I was just -- MS. RECTOR: A lot of it overlaps. And I think 6-26-06wk 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 you're an overlap, aren't you? And so am I, so I have not received my appraisal notice from Comfort School District or Kendall yet either, but I got mine from Kerr just last week. COMMISSIONER LETZ: 'Cause last week I got Kerr. I MS. RECTOR: On the overlaps, they were coming out later than the other appraisal notices, about two weeks later. COMMISSIONER LETZ: All right, that explains it. So, then, Judge, the week of the -- is it 10th or 17th you want to start doing some workshops? COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Yeah. COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: The sooner, the better. 22 month -- 23 24 25 good. JUDGE TINLEY: The third one is not good. COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Third and fourth are not JUDGE TINLEY: I hope I could have a lot of my one-on-ones out of the way by then. Got one or two other things that I got to be working on, but I'll sure do my dangdest to have it -- for scheduling purposes, Wednesday is always my best day. Tuesday afternoons and Wednesdays. COMMISSIONER LETZ: Likewise for me. So, good. Two days. Wednesday's probably the best day of the week. COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Wednesdays are typically good -- well, some of them, anyway. A couple of them in the 6-26-06wk 13 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Well, the 12th would be a good day for you. COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That's fine, yes. 12th's ~ good. JUDGE TINLEY: Budget workshop. What time do you wish to start? 9:00? 10:00? COMMISSIONER LETZ: 9:00. COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Do you want to schedule one the following Wednesday also? COMMISSIONER LETZ: He's got AACOG. JUDGE TINLEY: No, that's right. COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I'll be out. But -- COMMISSIONER LETZ: 18th -- the afternoon of the 18th? COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: 18th would work better for i me . JUDGE TINLEY: Let me see. 1:30? COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. Okay, that's two. That'll get us rolling. COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: For what it's worth, probably I'll be out of the county August 20 through 27. COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. JUDGE TINLEY: We got us a couple to work on now. 6-26-06wk 14 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The other item to put on, or kind of -- item's kind of a collaborative effort, but ask Kathy to rework the organization chart a little bit. Dave put it together a couple weeks ago, and I put it on here again 'cause it seemed like related to budget is organization of departments. And I think at some point in the next couple weeks, we need to decide if we're going to try to do any reorganization, or say no, it's a nice thing to talk about, but no, we're not going to do anything. I mean, it's -- the ', latter is certainly the easier course, not necessarily the '~ better. Problem is, the way I look at it, I have a real hard time seeing how you restructure a lot of this, put different departments together, that is going to be more cost-effective, because they're so -- such different -- I mean, for example, Environmental Health. I see Miguel is out there; I'll use Environmental Health. It's a small department. It's a specialized department. Someone needs to be kind of coordinating that department, so even if you had -- say we were, you know, to move Environmental Health and Solid Waste under -- over with subdivisions, something like that, in Road and Bridge. Then you still need to have someone in charge who's a knowledgeable "go-to" person in Solid Waste. I don't see that you're gaining a spot there, because there's really -- I mean, 'cause Miguel is not an office manager, as far as someone, you know, 6-26-06wk 15 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 who sits in the office. He's out there doing the inspections and working, and probably not 100 percent, but I would say a small percentage of his time is actually done on the management side. Most of it's doing the actual work. I don't know if that's true or not, but that's my perception. So, I just don't see how you gain a whole lot by adding more management. And -- but I'm certainly willing to, you know, listen and try to figure out if there's some organization changes that can be made. Just whenever I look at it, it looks pretty hard to do. I think the area that there is more area to really look at is the whole list of things that -- kind of under the administration up under Commissioners Court. COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I think we're going to have ', our hands full, seriously, by bringing human resources functions u here, in terms of reorganization. That's going p to be a -- COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think, yeah, bringing that up here, and some -- probably, you know, changes possibly in maintenance and things going around like that, I mean, I just see a lot of -- COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Well, coupled with the human resources aspect of it is -- is the Court Coordinator's position. Dave talked about that as well. And if and how that's restructured, if and how we -- or whether we create a working role adjacent -- in conjunction with that, that whole 6-26-06wk 16 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 thing adds up to a pretty good pot. COMMISSIONER LETZ: If the Judge -- COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: I think we'll probably make good progress on Wednesday, trying to define what the possibilities are there, getting some idea of the scope of it. And the other thing -- and Tommy's going to be there. Tommy's recommending that we consider employing his replacement in advance so that he can -- whoever he or she is can be trained up and ready to assume those duties, 'cause he's pretty much served notice that he's not going to be here forever. COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: He did that one other time,. too. COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Yeah. A couple other thoughts on it is, perhaps we should be moving -- or trying to assess the opportunities for outsourcing payroll. COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Mm-hmm. COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Perhaps we shouldn't delay much longer to -- let's not do it, but assess it and find out who can do it and how much it would cost, and is that a better alternative than doing it in-house? COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I agree, and I've got some contacts and suggestions that Mr. Beltrone gave me which I've delayed following up on, but now is the time. COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: We'll talk about that on 25 ~ Wednesday also. 6-26-06wk 17 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: And the other idea is that when you -- when you have turnover in a management or supervisory slot, that's a good time to think about making changes. So, should we have any retirements or resignations coming up, maybe we can think about how we could do things --~ how we could organize around that to do things differently. This -- the concept of teams, as opposed to hierarchal organizations with supervisors is -- is a really interesting one, something I've seen going on out at Animal Control. They've been short-handed by two people, and then one. It was five to three, and then back up to four, and now they're still at four. And, of course, Janie's the boss out there, but they're operating more like a team than a hierarchal organization, and I think it gets better results. It's I!, certainly -- I've seen in industry where teams get a whole lot better results than "I'm the boss and you're the boss" kind of organizations. JUDGE TINLEY: Toyota, among others -- Dell used it. Toyota uses it. COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: We started a factory in Bryan, Texas a few years ago with no supervisors. Everybody was equal, and their purchasing and manufacturing, their shipping, they did all the things as a team, but it was probably the most productive organization we had in the whole 6-26-06wk 18 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 ~ company. COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I think that latter -- that latter role of purchasing that you mentioned is of equal importance -- COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Yes. COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: -- in our scheme of things. Not only for what we know that we're going try to bring up here, but what we know is taking place in the Maintenance Department as well, 'cause a good bit of purchasing happens through them. It's an important item. COMMISSIONER LETZ: One of the issues I've always had with purchasing is -- I don't know if I want to say this -- is who that person reports to. As I understand it, it's not this Court. It's the same situation as with the Auditor, and they go to the District Judges. And I think that there's -- not that I think the -- I have any problem with the -- COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I think you're wrong. If you take -- if you take a look at the Ector County model, which is probably one of the premier purchasing models in the• state of Texas, that department reports to Commissioners Court. COMMISSIONER LETZ: That needs to be clarified. It changes my view a lot, because if it reports to Commissioners Court, I have a lot more -- we have more control over costs. 6-26-06wk 19 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: We got something from the County Attorney addressing that issue, and I think it concluded we can appoint auditors, which is different than district -- I mean appoint purchasing agents. COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. JUDGE TINLEY: Surely. Well, we can, yes. COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: That confused me, though. It's something that they can't buy anything, or buy the County, but you can appoint them if you want to. So -- ', COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Dave, that's the same belief -- that's the same case in Bexar County. Purchasing reports to Commissioners Court. COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. Well, for one of our workshops, maybe an afternoon session, see if you can get down the lady from Ector County, 'cause she is very knowledgeable and very good. COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: She really is. We'll see if we can get her, yeah. JUDGE TINLEY: You've taken on that responsibility, then? COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Oh, why not? JUDGE TINLEY: Sounds like volunteering to me. COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Are there any -- any 6-26-06wk 20 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 obvious functions that would be candidates for joint ventures with the City or any other political entity? JUDGE TINLEY: There -- they did a survey on health care administration, health benefits administration. They're looking at that. I don't know where they are on that. COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think the area of floodplain would be one that, to me, would -- should -- I think it's the same rules. I'm not positive about that, but that's one that's a possibility. Another one is parks, 'cause they do have a Parks Department, and we really don't. That may be one, but the issue I see on the parks one is that they spend a lot more on their parks than we spend on our parks. COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Who are you talking about? COMMISSIONER LETZ: Parks. COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Who? COMMISSIONER LETZ: The City. COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Oh, the City. Well, they have a total department, 'cause they have recreation involved, Parks and Recreation. COMMISSIONER LETZ: But just from -- it might be interesting to see what they -- just the basic maintenance part of it, you know. I mean, I don't -- I don't know. COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yeah, they got swimming pools and that kind of stuff. COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Golf courses. 6-26-06wk 21 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 parks are pretty much just public spaces. But right now, we've pushed that under Maintenance, and it doesn't fit very well with Maintenance. I mean, mowing those parks, I don't think, fits. COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I think it fits better under Road and Bridge, if you talk about equipment and manpower-type fit. COMMISSIONER LETZ: Possible. But I think they're -- the issue of using that personnel and equipment for non-Road and Bridge purposes, there's some -- COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Ask the County Attorney. Where'd he go? JUDGE TINLEY: If you can find him, you can ask him. COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. JUDGE TINLEY: He's getting ready to do juvie hearings that we had scheduled at 3:00. COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. All right. COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, that's kind of -- I just want to get this on the table today, discuss it a little bit. JUDGE TINLEY: Is that all we got for right now on the budget workshop? Good enough. We'll stand adjourned. (Budget workshop adjourned at 3:41 p.m.) 6-26-06wk 22 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 STATE OF TEXAS COUNTY OF KERR The above and foregoing is a true and complete transcription of my stenotype notes taken in my capacity as County Clerk of the Commissioners Court of Kerr County, Texas, at the time and place heretofore set forth. DATED at Kerrville, Texas, this 14th day of July, 2006. JANNETT PIEPER, Kerr County Clerk B Y : ___ __ ~~- Kathy nik, Deputy County Clerk Certified Shorthand Reporter 6-26-06wk