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KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT
Regular Session
Monday, December 11, 2006
9:00 a.m.
Commissioners' Courtroom
Kerr County Courthouse
Kerrville, Texas
PRESENT: PAT TINLEY, Kerr County Judge
H A. "BUSTER" BALDWIN, Commissioner Pct. 1
WILLIAM "BILL" WILLIAMS, Commissioner Pct. 2
JONATHAN LETZ, Commissioner Pct. 3
DAVE NICHOLSON, Commissioner Pct. 4
O
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~,
I N D E X
December 11, 2006
PAGE
--- Commissioners' Comments 5
1.1 Report from State Senator Troy Fraser and
discussion of matters to be considered in
upcoming Legislative Session g
1.2 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to amend
contract with Kerr County Market Association 32
1.3 Consider/approve resolution recommending that
Texas Department of Transportation fund project
to raise Cade Loop Bridge in lieu of funding
projects to reconstruct various low-water crossings 38
1.4 Consider/approve resolution supporting Texas Tech
University's request for funding for Hill Country
Educational Network and the TTO Center at Junction
by Texas Legislature 50
Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on new
rates at Hill Country Youth Exhibit Center 57
1.8 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to avail
Kerr County requisite engineering services to assess
damage and remedial action required to repair Flat
Rock Lake Dam 66
Consider/discuss, take appropriate actions to
approve the County offices closing from 11 a.m.
to 5 p.m. on December 22, 2006 75
Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to change
the name of privately maintained road in compliance
with 9-1-1 Guidelines 83
Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on request
by Associate Judge Camile Dubose for submission by
Kerr County of application for Relative/Kinship
Placement Coordinator Project under Texas Court
Improvement Project Grant Program, approval of grant
agreement in connection with such grant program 84
1.10 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to have
County Judge write a letter to LCRA requesting
Rim Rock to Goat Creek Transmission Line Project
be put underground, but under no circumstances have
the line visible from State Highway 27 86
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I N D E X (Continued)
December 11, 2006
1.11 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on
Employees Health Benefits Program Plan B
1.12 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action
establishing policy for bond and/or insurance
requirements for county elected officials,
department heads, and employees who handle
or have access to Kerr County funds
1.13 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to ban
aerial fireworks in Kerr County for the December-
January 2006 statutory sales and holiday period
1.14 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on
court order dated 11/28/06 to hire additional
maintenance person
1.16 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action for
request for approval by Joint City/County
Economic Development Strategy Committee to make
application to Economic Improvement Corporation to
fund Comprehensive Economic Development Study
1.17 Reports from the following departments:
Animal Control
Extension Office
Environmental Health
4.1 Pay Bills
4.2 ~ Budget Amendments
9.3 Late Bills
4.4 Approve and Accept Monthly Reports
5.1 Reports from Commissioners/Liaison Committee
Assignments
--- Adjourned
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On Monday, December 11, 2006, at 9:00 a.m., a regular
meeting of the Kerr County 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 TINLEY: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.
Let me call to order this regularly scheduled meeting of the
Kerr County Commissioners Court scheduled and posted for this
time and date, Monday, December the 11th, 2006, at 9 a.m.
It's just a bit past that now. Commissioner Williams?
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Will you please rise and
join me in a word of prayer, and followed by the pledge of
allegiance to our flag.
(Prayer and pledge of allegiance.)
JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you. At this time, if there's
any member of the public or the audience that wishes to be
heard on a matter that is not a listed agenda item, you're
free to come forward at this time. We'd ask that you come
forward, give us your name and address. If you wish to be
heard on a particular agenda item, we would ask that you fill
out a participation form at the back of the room so that you
might be heard on that item. It's not essential, but it helps
me in not missing you when we get to that item. But if
there's any member of the public that wishes to be heard on a
-- on any item that is not a listed agenda item, please feel
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free to come forward at this time. Seeing no one coming
forward or otherwise seeking to be recognized, we will move
on. Commissioner Williams, what do you have for us this
morning?
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Oh, just a word or two
saying what a good time we had last night in the little
community of Center Point, where they opened the Christmas
season by having a little celebration around the tree, singing
Christmas carols, and inviting the community to participate.
We've got a lot of fine people -- folks who live down there,
and they have some good organizations who work hard all
through the year to benefit their community, and in this
particular case, to benefit the people who are perhaps a
little less fortunate than we at this time of year. So, it's
always good to participate, and my hat's off to those folks
for what a good job they do. That's it, Judge.
JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you. Commissioner Letz?
COMMISSIONER LETZ: I have nothing this morning.
JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner Nicholson?
COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Judge, everything that's
going on in west Kerr County's on the agenda, so I'll wait and
talk about it at that time.
JUDGE TINLEY: Very good. Commissioner Baldwin?
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you, sir. I do have a
few things. I wanted to talk about almost perfect government.
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You know, we have the Child Service Board that the taxpayers,
through us, funds part of, and that's -- that's a part of the
C.P.S. program, children that are taken out of their homes for
abuse or other reasons. This Court puts a small amount of
money in the budget to help those children get a pair of
underwear, a pair of socks, and if they go through and
complete high school, we -- we assist them in purchasing a cap
and gown for -- you know, those kinds of things. Well, the
Christmas season is upon us, and I can't remember; it's a
record number of children that we're servicing this year, a by
far record number of abused children that we're servicing this
year. And under the leadership of Kathy here, this Kathy
right here, they've gone out on their own, and instead of
using taxpayers' money, they've gone out on their own and have
collected from the community a little under $3,000 for
Christmas gifts for these children. And that is the way this
thing is	supposed to	work.	And	I just wanted to	say	thank you
to Kathy	and -- and	the rest	of	the board, which	is	my wife,
and just -- just say that that's the way government is
supposed to work, in my opinion.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Commissioner, I think it's 120
kids, if I'm not mistaken.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN
COMMISSIONER LETZ
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Large number.
A large number.
Large number.
We won't be in
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volunteer fire departments, city fire department, and the
county/city ambulance service. Those folks go above and
beyond, and they truly are 24/7. And I was thinking about it
this morning; my family enjoys so much early morning Christmas
and Santa Claus coming during the night and the kids up
pattering around and having that Christmas, and I'm sure a lot
of these emergency service people are the same way. And if a
fire comes in or an emergency of some type comes in, those
guys and gals leave their families and go and protect and
serve the taxpayers of this community, and a special thank you
goes out to them for that, and Merry Christmas. The West
Texas County Judges and Commissioners Association, which I am
the president of, had a board meeting at the end of this last
week here, and I wanted you to know that everything is coming
together. For the public's information, in March '07, for
four days, we will have around 117 commissioners courts in
this community for education purposes. And one of the neat
things about the convention itself is they spend a lot of
money, and we're going to be real happy that they're here, and
there's all kinds of functions all over town. The hotels are
full, and we're real exited about them being here. So, just
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So, thank you for
JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, Commissioner. And what
you didn't mention was that if there's anyone here today, or
folks that you know that might want to assist in that effort
with these children that are under foster care, you have that
opportunity to do so. You can see Ms. Banik after the
meeting, or any other member of the Child Service Board, and
I'm sure Commissioner Baldwin can put you in touch with them
if you want to assist in --
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: If it's cash, I'll handle it.
JUDGE TINLEY: Well, that might be questionable.
(Laughter.) The other thing I'd like to do this morning is
offer some kudos to our District Clerk. The Attorney General
of Texas has -- has notified us that they are very thankful
for the efforts of our District Clerk and the assistance
provided with the child support program that the Attorney
General has in the state of Texas. And sometimes these
numbers scare you a little bit, but within the past year,
child support payments that went through the office of the
Attorney General with the assistance of our District Clerk
Linda Uecker are just under $3 million. So, that's a pretty
good number, and she's to be commended for the fine work that
she does in that area. We've got a lengthy agenda here, and
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let's get on with it, if we could.
First item on the agenda is a report from our State
those to you so that as you have questions from his office,
you'll know who to get in touch with and -- and have your
discussion with. Senator Fraser, happy to have you here
today.
SENATOR FRASER: Thank you. Judge, Commissioners,
to be in Kerrville this morning. We were commenting
as we were driving over this morning, the -- the hill country
was beautiful on the way over. It's going to be a wonderful
day here. And, Commissioner Baldwin, I would comment on your
comment about perfect government. Being from the people's
republic of Austin, we don't know a lot about perfect
government. I hope y'all have captured it over here, because,
-- with that term. Judge and Commissioners, this -- every
year before we start a legislative session, I try to do a tour
of my district I represent. I think all of you know that I
have 21 counties that I represent, which implies 21
commissioners courts that we try to get in front of before
every legislative session.
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But even, I think, more interesting than that is
the area I'm from, there's three incorporated cities in my
county that -- that don't have a school district. So, there's
well in excess of 88 incorporated cities that I represent.
And so before we start the legislative session, i try to make
a tour of the district, and even though this has been -- you
know, you've had it on the docket as a report from me, really
what I'm trying to do is to listen to the constituents that I
represent, trying to figure out what issues we should be
looking at, and kind of get a report on the state of the --
the state of Texas.
My -- I think my opening thoughts for you, just for
your information, is that the state of Texas right now, the
economy has been very, very good. Over the last -- more
especially the last few years, but the last decade, Texas
continues to be the fastest growing state in the nation. Our
economy continues to be very good. While a lot of the other
states in -- you know, states like California, where the real
estate market is starting to go down, we've stayed stable.
Sales tax collection has stayed very good. To kind of
validate that, I think you remember four years ago, when we
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going into session. We had to make some very tough decisions
at that time of cutting funding to avoid raising taxes. We
did that. We passed a balanced budget.
legislative session with, projected right now, maybe as much
as $15 billion that we'll have surplus going into the session.
Now, that's kind of good news and bad news. There -- you
know, the good news is we have the money. The bad news is
that we've got a line as long as, you know, you can see of
people standing with their hands out and wanting funding. But
a lot of the cuts that we have made probably we'll be able
to -- to reimplement, put back in place, and it's a -- it,
from a money standpoint, will be an equalization. From an
issue standpoint, I think you remember the last couple
sessions, we've had a crisis issue almost every session. Last
I
year we dealt with a judge controlling the -- the way we do
property taxes, you know, to finance our public schools. We
solved that issue, and it is going, the implementation of it.
But it appears there are no -- just -- very, very divisive
issues that will come before the Legislature.
Now, having said that, a couple of things that, when
I talk to commissioners courts, that I want input on.
We're -- the commissioners courts that we're talking to, most
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of them continue to be concerned about issues that the
Legislature -- and it's always put to me as mandates without
funding, things like indigent defense. I think that's always
an issue. The indigent health care that -- that, you know,
impacts y'all. Water issues. We were visiting with
Commissioner Williams as we were walking up; 1 know y'all have
an issue that y'all talked about. Was it Flat --
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Flat Rock.
SENATOR FRASER: Flat Rock Dam and creek, that I
know you're trying to decide what -- how to address that. Is
the dam unsafe, and what should you do potentially if -- if it
is a concern? And I made Commissioner Williams aware of the
fact that some -- sometimes the state, through Water
Development Board, has funding in -- in -- once you decide
what it is you plan to do with that and what the expense is, I
think it would be advisable to put that before the Water
Development Board and T.C.E.Q. to ask about available -- if
there are grants or funds available once you decide what you
want to do with that one. I think -- Judge, I think y'all are
probably like everyone else through the -- this part of Texas, i
that this drought that we're having -- I did notice that the
Edwards Aquifer is still at a real healthy level, but a lot of
the other -- the water sources coming through the state of
Texas, more especially the Colorado and the Brazos River -- I
don't know whether y'all have driven by Lake Buchanan and Lake
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Travis lately, but you can almost walk across them.
I think L.C.R.A, is going to make a declaration this
week that the lake is at the lowest level in the last 92
So, we are nearing a 50-year drought level on those
lakes. And it reminds us that over the next 50 years, you
know, all the battles out through here is going to be fought
over water; you know, that we're -- we need to continue every
legislative session to be talking about water. I think this
time they're going to be addressing again trying to look at --
at groundwater, the needs of the state, and trying to make
sure that -- I'm promoting trying to build new reservoirs. I
would like to see us add several new reservoirs where we dam
up water, because once the water goes downstream, dumped into
the gulf, we lose access to that water, and I would -- I would
encourage us to continue to try to keep the water upstream as
much as possible.
From an electrical standpoint, I understand that
y`all have an issue involving a power line that I think
there's probably some controversy about, that, as you know,
the declarations on power transmission come from ERCOT, which
is our reliability provider that distributes the electricity
across the state. They've identified that there's a problem
through this area, transmission -- that there's a need for a
transmission line. And I think, as y'all know, the
controversy is, where is it going to be? Is it going to be
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above ground or below ground? And we've sent our request in
to ERGOT that -- kind of outlining the wishes, we think, of
the local people to look at. But that's -- you know, the
power line issue, interestingly, you've got one here; we've
got one going through Salado along Interstate 35, close to
Temple. And these are -- with the growth of the state, in
order to insure power supply, ERGOT has to make sure that
there are transmission lines to make sure that we have the
ability to move power from one area of the state to the other.
to --
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I have one.
SENATOR FRASER: Yes, sir?
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Troy, thank you for being
here today, and thank you for your service representing us at
our state level of government. A couple of years ago, we --
disabled, and we did that. It didn't go to referendum; no one
pushed us into it. We did it on our very own, because we felt
like that that's what the taxpayers wanted. That -- I still
don't think that we know what kind of ding that is going to
put on our budget yet, but I think it makes good --
hardworking people can figure this thing out and make it work.
But when -- with that in place, and the City doing the same
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thing, and then you all coming along and talking about capping
appraisals, I don't -- I just don't see that that is a fair
thing to us. I think that we're very capable of handling all
issue, and I think these guys will probably get to other
things, but appraisal caps, I think, should be left to -- left
to us. I don't want y'al1 to cap the appraisal prices.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: If I could add one thing to
that, part of the problem on the appraisal side -- and you
know the system, but it's -- we have local, and every county
has local appraisal boards, then you have the Comptroller's
office coming in and, if anything, pushing the appraisals
higher. That's what has happened in this area. I mean, if
there's an appraisal problem, I think that is something that
the Legislature can look at much more than putting a cap -- I
mean, I think that there is a ]ot of push, because, you know,
the school funding and everything gets based on what the
Comptroller's numbers are. we have a two-appraisal system,
and that just doesn't make sense. Let the Comptroller do it
or let it be done locally; preferably locally, but I think
it's -- the Comptroller's office is what's pushing it, not
local -- you know, more than the local appraisal districts
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the response to that is kind of -- you know, I'm -- I'm very
aware of the fact that if we handcuff the locals, where it
removes your ability for flexibility, that, you know, we're --
that's not the thing to do. I'm also very aware of the fact
years, we have an election. If people don't agree with what
concern over this issue, a lot of it is coming from the fact
that we just had an election cycle. We had a governor's race,
and that's one of the things that was talked about. Also, the
fact that this is not a Kerr County or a Kerrville issue; this
is a Dallas-Houston issue. It's being driven by the suburbs
something through, it's likely that they're going to be able
to do it.
So, it's -- even if I commit to you today that
we're -- Harvey and I are absolutely going to fight it and
nothing's going to happen, we're two of 181. And this issue I
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don't think	is	going	to go	away.	I think	it'	s going	to
continue to	be	here.	And	here --	here's	the	things I	would
urge you to at least be aware of, that the thing that's
interesting with this is the -- this is the tenth meeting
we've had on this tour. About half of those were with elected
officials; about half of them were with the general public.
So, depending on the group we're with, it depends on the
response we have. If we're with elected officials, they say
don't handcuff us, don't do any caps. Give us our
flexibility. If I'm with groups that are paying taxes, they
say, you know, put a cap on them. You've got to save us from
the elected officials. And so it's -- I'm -- I guess the
message I would project to you is, we've got to make sure
we're listening to the people that elected us, because we're
-- it's really an unusual issue, and I'll give you a couple of
examples. San Saba, Texas, a very rural community, very
small. I just didn't even anticipate that that issue would be
-- would come up, because I didn't think they were having
appraisal caps -- or appraisal creep. What's happening is,
people are going in and buying small ranchettes, 15, 20 acres,
and they're just paying whatever -- you know, they don't --
almost don't care what they pay. And what's happened is, the
ag values -- even people that have ag --
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Exemptions.
SENATOR FRASER: -- exemption, it's more than
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doubled their local taxes on their ag value because of the
And I think the
concern is not as much on the appraisal value; it's on the
total revenue that's generated by that. And I think what I'm
hearing from the public, there's compromise here somewhere.
They're saying as -- and, realistically, this is not about the
commissioners court. This is about school taxes. School
taxes, because they're	basically --	you know,	even though they
vote the amount, the -	- the rate is	virtually	set by the
state, and as property values go up, if you're paying $1.50
school tax, the -- the amount of taxes for school districts
are three or four times what counties are, so if anything is
done, this is a move to try to -- to adjust that.
So, I guess what I'm telling you is multiple things.
There is a compromise there. There's not going to -- if there
is some type of cap, I don't think it'll be an appraisal cap.
I don't think it'll be a tax cap. It would likely be a
revenue cap. I don't think it will be 3 percent. I think
right now, instead of being 10 or 8, it might be 7 or 6 or
something like that. So, it's likely that this issue will not
go away. But I would urge you, we've got to make sure we're
listening to the constituents that we represent; that they're
looking for some relief to insure that their taxes don't
continue to go up.
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The community
people that -- of the 690,000 people, they're saying, you
know, we need some help. Taxes are going up at a higher rate
than the -- the -- taxes are going up higher than inflation.
And the -- so, I guess, Commissioner, in response to your
question, I'm -- I'm sympathetic to where you are, and I don't
think Kerr County and the Commissioners Court here is what
this is about, but this issue is not likely to go away. I
think it's going to be there, and I -- that's -- just because
it's being driven by Dallas and Houston.
JODGE TINLEY: Before we get off the issue -- that
out?
SENATOR FRASER: Probably would, yes. And that --
that, as you know, is controversial. I mean, you know, that
has been attempted to be addressed numerous times, and yes, it
would impact it. But there's very opinionated people on both
sides of that issue.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: The -- on that issue, sort of,
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you know, you mentioned the obvious ones, indigent defense,
indigent health care, but there's some that are really sneaky
help, I think, as much as anything. And I can't remember what
state representative, but one of them recently had a big press
announcement that they wanted to find out what the cost of
illegal aliens was to the state, you know, through the, you
know, schools, jails, everything, through the whole system.
And it's -- because of legislation to make everyone keep track
of that, that's a good unfunded mandate, in my mind, 'cause
it's going to mean that the Sheriff's Department and Indigent
Health Care department, all -- every other governmental entity
in the county and school districts and the city are going to
have to figure out a mechanism to do that. So, there's a cost
that goes with -- I mean, I think it's a great idea. I think
it's something we should do.
SENATOR FRASER: One of those concepts that probabJ_y
we need to know, but there is a cost associated with it. The
State's not going to furnish you the money. It's a little bit
like the -- the election machines issue, is that the federal
government, in their wisdom, told us that we need to get rid
of paper ballots and come up with electronic, and supposedly
they were going to send us the money for it. But what we're
figuring out is the money is not there, especially in smaller
communities. And we're -- we're hearing horror stories in
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small areas, and I go back to the appraisal cap issue. There
with you that that's one that, if the State wants the counties
and the locals to do this, they've got to figure out a way to
fund it. It's another well-intentioned thought that has a lot
of consequences that are -- that are tough locally.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: I've got one more. I'll switch
for a second. One of the -- the Legislature came up with a
regional water plan process, which seems like a good process
to me. Then they come up with the G.M.A. process, groundwater
management areas. Then you have all the local water
districts. I see everyone -- I see lots of problems
developing there. I mean, you have -- I know in one county in
the region I chair, you had the local people came up with a
water availability; in Kinney County, I'm sure you're aware.
That number came through Region J, yet it came through local
people from Kinney County on our board. Then it goes to the
state, gets approved by the Legislature, gets approved. Now
the same people down in Kinney County are saying that the
Legislature and water Development Board approved that number.
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Well, yeah, but it came -- I mean, there's a problem I see
there in the way some of these numbers are being used by local
entities now. I also see a real problem with the G.M.A.
can't that be left to the water districts locally? I mean, it
seems like there was a big push to get local water districts.
Then, all of a sudden, there was a push to do the G.M.A.'s,
and doing it more regionally. Then you have the regional
water planning process. It seems there's not a lot of thought
given by the Legislature as to get a direction and keep it
going. I mean, if -- and I'm of the opinion that if the
G.M.A. process is going to be the one to decide groundwater,
let them do it, but take it out of the regional water planning
process. It doesn't make sense for different groups to be
spending a lot of time on these.
SENATOR FRASER: And, Commissioner, you've --
actually, you've outlined, you know, the exact problem, is
that even though the groundwater issue -- I think everybody's
preference is to handle it locally. And in most cases, if
your -- if the groundwater district is over an aquifer, and
that aquifer doesn't communicate with other areas, it really
is a local asset. But in the wisdom of the state, the state
is trying to create a -- a statewide look for long-term
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planning. Which is -- I mean, an easy argument could be made
for that, but the reality is, is that it is a local issue on
groundwater. Surface water is a little bit different issue,
for another water plan. The thing that was controversial last
year is they tried to come up with a revenue stream, which
means there's a kind of fee attached to water in order to
develop a revenue stream to help the with some of the -- the
problems we're having statewide. I continue to oppose that,
because I just -- I don't want local -- taxes put on local
water if we can keep from it.
So I think, in response to your question, I would
prefer letting the groundwater districts, as long as they are
independent, solve their problems as much as possible, then
advise the state of what they're doing, but not have to ask
permission, you know, for what they're doing. Now, the
exception to that, though, and the one that concerns us is
when you have a Boone Pickens type issue where he's going into
an area buying up water, trying to move that, put it in the
Brazos River, float it downstream and sell it to someone else.
So, when water from a groundwater district starts leaving the
area, we've got to make sure that the state -- if there's a
problem there, we have the ability to address it to protect
the locals. And that -- that is one, you know, case where the
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rule of capture -- people have a right to do what they want
with their water, but if it starts damaging the local, you
know, area -- and in that case, we were concerned that the
financial strength of the people selling the water was going
to be greater than the groundwater district, and if they start
where you need the same agenda.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Senator, in the past you've
been a leader and in the forefront on legislation regulating
i quarrying and mining activities. I know you've had a lot of
those issues in Burnet County where you reside, all up and
down the 281 corridor, and on the Brazos River corridor. We
have some issues here in Kerr County on the Guadalupe River
corridor, and I'm wondering what, if any, legislation there
might be possible this year coming out of the Legislature that
would tighten up some of the regulations or perhaps give
T.C.E.Q. some additional tools to work with with respect to
mining operations. Now, some of the issues that face people,
and they don't understand, it's not the fact that -- that
mining is legal and somebody that owns a piece of property has
the right to mine, but the fact that -- that a mine can be --
a piece of property can be mined out, and the mine operator
move on and leave a humungous hole in the ground, which
becomes a problem for everybody in the neighborhood. And I'm

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just wondering whether or not you have any plans on this
particular issue, and if so, what might they be?
SENATOR FRASER: Well, as you know, this was a
I would like to say that I
t. They turned out to be a
But the issue has not gone away; it
And you've outlined numerous ones of
the problem, and really, Commissioner, the big problem from
the state perspective is that these mines, before they start,
can present a plan, get a permit to operate, and once that
permit is issued, nobody ever goes out to check and see if
they're staying within the terms of the permit. And it's just
not -- you know, these quarries are not -- quarries and
crushers are not kept up with by the state. And, as you said,
the reclamation process, that's one that we talked a lot
about, and that, you know, at some point we've got to address.
Because, as you say, they can be -- they can leave an area
on -- on land, and it becomes other people's problems. But
the answer is yes, we will continue working on that one, but
it's a -- it is a huge problem trying to solve that and get
more regulatory effort.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: My final comment is, I know that
one of our neighboring counties is pushing to get more
authority for county governments such as ordinance making,
things of that nature. Just for the record, this Commissioner
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is opposed to that. We don't need any more than we have.
SENATOR FRASER: Well, the word -- I keep telling
the county courts, be careful what you ask for.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Exactly.
SENATOR FRASER: There are -- and, you know, a --
Menard County has had a real problem with these colonias
coming in; that somebody will set it up, a development fails,
they leave it, and then the County has to take care of it. If
you have ordinance-making authority that we give to the
courts, there is a cost associated with that, and it's -- you
know, there are a lot of times it's good to have that, but
once you get that, it costs you money to do it, and you're
setting up another level of county government. I think I
agree with you, Commissioner, that I -- be real careful what
you ask for.
JUDGE TINLEY: Anything else?
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, I do.
JUDGE TINLEY: All right.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I have -- I have one more
thing. I'm going to go back to the -- to the caps issue just
one time. With all the things that y'all have passed down to
us, the unfunded mandates, we're talking about the district
courts, and -- there's something humming, or am I the only one
hearing that?
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: No.
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COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's kind of scary.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: There you go.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Freezing the taxes, capping,
and unfunded mandates, that just really makes it difficult for
local government to -- to do things. But here's my wish list.
visiting district judges. It just affects the entire system
packed they are and the problems that we're having and that.
And if we had visiting judges -- ability to hire more visiting
judges and bring them in, we can -- it just -- all kinds of
things happen. That relieves pressure from county government.
That's my request.
SENATOR FRASER: Well, and I'll address the first
issue again. There -- I want to be clear with this Court.
I'm not saying that there will be caps. I'm saying there is a
movement to do that, and we've got to be careful listening to
that. Unfunded mandates, I don't think it's ever the
intention that the State should do that. I continue to say
I'm opposed to it, but every session there's something that
happens like this that comes down. And the issue you're
talking about, the visiting judge issue, again, is a
Dallas-Houston issue, is that there was abuses in those areas
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where elected officials were basically sloughing off their
duty behind other people, and that you ended up hearing most
of the cases in front of a nonelected official rather than an
elected official that was responsible to the voters. And it's
one of those issues that we continue to try to -- to address
and make sure that we're addressing the needs. But also, I
don't think it's -- the concern is that if you have too many
visiting judges, it can be abused, and you end up, every --
every case is heard before someone that's not accountable to
the voters, and that's the argument. You know, whether it's a
valid argument or not, that's the argument that is made.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That is a -- that is a bad
argument as far as Kerr County is concerned.
SENATOR FRASER: And again, Buster, I don't -- most
of the things we talk about are not Kerr County issues.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I understand.
SENATOR FRASER: Has nothing to do with this. But
the reality is, Dallas and Houston drive the legislation that
i happens, because they have the votes to pass it. And most of
the time -- my time in the Legislature's been in defense,
trying to make sure they're not going to pass something that
will --
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Sure.
SENATOR FRASER: -- in any way hurt the counties
that I represent. And so I -- you know, there was someone at
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one point called me Dr. No because I voted no more than yes,
trying to vote against things that hurt my district. And
I'm -- my philosophy in government is of limited government.
I wish we would pass a law saying you can't put a new law on
the books until you take one off. (Laughter.) And I would
rather they just leave us alone, let us handle it locally if
we can. But the issue you talked about is something that was
a problem in another area that we got stuck with the
consequences.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I understand. Thank you very
much.
SENATOR FRASER: Any other questions?
JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, sir.
SENATOR FRASER: Judge, thank you. As we -- yes,
sir?
SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I have one question, Senator.
And what my problem -- part of them has alluded to it, but
it's the mental health issues and the jails. Is there
anything that's going to start being done about that? The
reason I say that is 'cause we all know the state hospitals
are filling up with forensics, and there is a law on the book
that says jails are not supposed to house mental people, but
yet jails are forced to. And then last year, M.H.M.R., who
was helping foot the bill for some of these for prescriptions,
the state M.H.M.R. decided that now the jails can all foot
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those bills. And yet we have to take them to the State
And that came up real strong
prescription that we don't have a choice but pay, and it was
four pills for $2,258. That's coming out of our deal, because
they aren't indigent.
SENATOR FRASER: Which is mandate. Now, they --
SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Which is mandate. We don't
have a choice put to pay, and that's -- my prescription, my
medical this year is probably going to go higher than it's
ever been, by over 100,000.
SENATOR FRASER: This is an issue that we're -- we
need to address. And it's actually -- there's three or four
problems here. The state hospitals, the total number of
patients at state hospitals is about a third of what they used
to be. A lot of people that should be residents of state
hospitals are on the street, and a lot of them end up in jails
because there's nowhere else to put them, and then they have
the ability to pass that expense to you. So, I think you --
we're back into the -- first of all, making sure that we're
not	saddling	the	-- you	know,	your	office with	expense	that
you	shouldn't	be.	So,	we're	-- I	think it's a	-- the	first
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thing is looking at the flow of money, but it's a bigger
problem than that, in that the federal government has told us
you can't hold someone against their will, and unless they or
the family are willing to -- you know, to admit themselves,
you can't hold them at a state hospital. And that was a
change in federal law in the early 90's, that --
SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yeah, but what's happening is
then they're ending up in jails, and we are holding them
against their will --
SENATOR FRASER: You are holding them.
SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: -- for things that they really
shouldn't be there.
SENATOR FRASER: So, it goes back to the expense
mechanism. If we're going to basically mandate that you have
to do that, and someone else has the opportunity to pass that
expense, the State has to be willing to -- to pay that, 'cause
it is a state expense.
SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: But they did just the opposite;
they mandated we house them, then they came back and said
they're not paying.
SENATOR FRASER: And this falls a little bit under
the category four years ago, when we had the budget deficit,
the State tried to cut expense, and in order to cut the
expense, they pushed the expense down on the county court.
We're -- we need to reverse a lot of that. So, these issues,
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if we -- my chief of staff, Janice McCoy is back here, Daniel
Womack and Mel, my local guy for this area. If you'll
continue to talk to them, make sure that we're aware of these,
JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, sir.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you
SENATOR FRASER: As things come forward, you know,
the County Judges Association meets regularly in Austin, and
when y'all are having a meeting I need to sit in on a meeting,
because the appraisal cap issue is a huge issue to the -- the
Judges and Commissioners Association. I'm not -- it's not a
deaf ear at all; I'm just telling you that this is one we need
to -- you know, we need to continue to work, cut our losses
and make sure we don't do anything that -- that restricts
y'all's ability, Buster, to do what you're doing.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you, sir.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Thank you.
JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you very much.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Thank you, sir.
JUDGE TINLEY: The next item on the agenda;
consider, discuss, and take appropriate action to amend
contract with Kerr County Market Association. I placed this
on the agenda at the request of the principals with the Kerr
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matters have been staffed with the County Attorney or not.
They're -- they're not -- they're specific factual items. I
don't think the legality of the contract would be affected,
MS. ANDERSON: Good morning. Judge, Commissioners,
for a few minutes of your time. I'll try to be
very,	very brief.	This -	- 2007 will	be the	sixth year for
Kerr	County Market	Days.	We have a	couple	of slight
The first
is that we would like to hold our opening date on the fourth
Saturday of March instead of the fourth Saturday of April, the
reason for that being that April -- late in April just puts us
way behind the curve with everybody else, and it puts us way
too late for people to come and buy their garden plants. We
have a lot of folks that want to come and sell homegrown
plants, and it's -- end of April is just a little past the
planting season for that sort of thing. So, we'd like to get
in there on the fourth Saturday of March. The second item
that we'd like to change for 2007, we've had a number of
requests from our vendors, and we frequently have customers,
when they come to the market on that Memorial Day weekend,
that they say, "You all are going to be here tomorrow, right?"
And we all say, "No, we're only here on Saturday." So, we
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would like to try in 2007 to have a two-day event on Memorial
Day weekend only. The market has grown. This has been a very
good year. We have the ability to fund overnight security,
and -- for our vendors, and we think this could be a very
positive thing for the overall well-being and growth of Kerr
County Market Days. Those are the two things that we're
my letter to Judge Tinley is that we'd like to give something
back to the County. We would like to donate a bench to be
placed on the courthouse grounds. The bench that we have
looked at and would propose to purchase for the County is one
that's very, very much like those that are already out there.
I don't think you'd be able to tell the difference between the
new one and the ones already there, except on this bench we'd
like to have some plaques. The first would say. "Thanks,
Glenn," for all the help that we received from Mr. Holekamp
through all the time that -- well, from the very first day in
2002. Then it would say, "Kerr County Market Days." And then
we'd like to add some very small plaques with the names of
some of the vendors who've been participants with the Market
Days and who have since passed away. We'd like to just have
your approval to do that and place that bench here at the
courthouse. Be happy to answer any questions.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Let me ask you a question
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that sit out here?
MS. ANDERSON: Right.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Where do you envision putting
that bench?
MS. ANDERSON: This is something that I had -- I had
talked to Glenn about, and we hadn't -- had not really come to
a specific site. He and I had sort of thought, well, it might
be good here or there, but we're certainly open to having it
placed wherever.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Is it -- does it -- would it
require -- Tim, would it require a concrete pad?
MR. BOLLIER: It'd be better like that.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Maybe if we took -- removed
the birdhouse. (Laughter.)
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I don't have a problem with
the birdhouse.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'm in favor the bench, but I
think we need a plan as to how -- I'd like to see a plan
before we start putting anything out there.
MS. ANDERSON: Certainly.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I just have a comment about
your -- your proposal to expand on the Memorial Day weekend
from Saturday to Sunday. I think it's an excellent idea.
MS. ANDERSON: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Because, as you know, the
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town is full of people who are here for the Texas Arts and
Crafts Fair, and the more opportunities that we give them to
leave Kerr County a little greener I think is a good deal.
MS. ANDERSON: Well, we also have some vendors who
will be making motel reservations so they can stay for those
two days also. We thought that might be an additional small
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Do you have any information on
what your average weekend sales are when you're open?
MS. ANDERSON: I can tell you -- I don't have a
dollar amount, no, but I can tell you that they've been quite
good this year. Even though we essentially cut our schedule
in half this year, this has possibly been the very best year
we've ever had. In terms of vendor days, as well as just word
of mouth from our vendors in terms of their sales, it's been a
very good year.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, I guess they wouldn't come
JUDGE TINLEY: Mr. Emerson, on the proposed changes,
I be necessary for logistical purposes on the overnight, the
two-day'er, do you see any problems with these amendments?
MR. EMERSON: No, sir.
COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: I'm going to make a motion
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to amend the contract with Kerr County Market Association as
outlined in LuAnn Anderson's letter to the County Judge,
subject to the approval as to form by the County Attorney, and
that we accept the offer of the donation of a bench for the
courthouse grounds.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Commissioner, would you also
add in there that they are to get with the Maintenance
supervisor to -- for placement?
COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Yes.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Proper location?
COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Yes.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'll second that motion.
JUDGE TINLEY: We have a motion and a second as
indicated. Any questions or discussion on the motion? X11 in
favor of that motion, signify by raising your right hand.
(The motion carried by unanimous vote.)
JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign.
(No response.)
JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. Thank you
very much, Ms. Anderson.
MS. ANDERSON: Thank you.
JUDGE TINLEY: Appreciate the work that you're
doing.
MS. ANDERSON:	Thank	you,	sir.
JUDGE TINLEY:	Let's	go to	the next item on the
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agenda, if we might. Consider and approve a resolution
recommending that the Texas Department of Transportation fund
projects to reconstruct various low-water crossings in west
Kerr County. Commissioner Nicholson.
COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: I'll read the resolution
first. "Whereas, the Texas Department of Transportation
(TexDOT) has a mission of providing safe, effective, and
efficient movement of people and goods; and whereas, TexDOT
has goals to reduce congestion, and enhance safety on Texas
roads; and whereas, TexDOT has a strategy to empower local and
regional leaders to solve local and regional transportation
problems; and whereas, TexDOT plans to construct seven
low-water bridges on Highway 39 and F.M. 1340 in Kerr County;
and whereas, the construction of these bridges will not
resolve mobility problems during flood events and will have an
adverse impact on the Guadalupe River environment; and
whereas, the low-water bridge on the river at Cade Loop off
Highway 39 is a major barrier to mobility during a flood
event, threatening the health and safety of thousands of
residents and campers whose sole route of egress is the Cade
Loop Bridge; and whereas, TexDOT's mission and goals to reduce
congestion and enhance safety will be best achieved by
construction of an off-system bridge on Cade Loop to provide
for mobility during a flood event; Now, therefore, be it
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resolved that the Commissioners Court of Kerr County, Texas,
urges the Department -- the Texas Department of Transportation
to abandon its plans for the reconstruction of seven low-water
All that said, it's -- it's simply a resolution that
says the projects to reconstruct or construct seven bridges on
13 -- Highway 39 and 1340 will not have much of an impact on
emergency mobility during a flood event, but will have an
adverse impact on the environment of the river, and that they
can do some good, can achieve their mission and goals by
helping us provide access and egress on the Cade Loop Bridge.
I wanted to ask Mr. Jim Evans to -- to provide his thoughts on
the matter. Mr. Evans, by the way, lives on 1340, and his
route to H.E.B. would be to cross all seven of these -- these
bridges, if they were built.
MR. EVANS: Thank you, Dave. Thank you, Your Honor.
I'm here today to express my concern and opposition. I would
like to read a written statement I have here in opposition to
the proposed bridge reconstruction on 39 and 1340 and in
western Kerr County. That portion of the Guadalupe River,
both the north and the south fork that begins and traverses
our county, is indeed a state jewel and a nonrenewable
treasure. It is greatly different from the large muddy rivers
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east Texas. The Guadalupe is a delicate
It at times can barely get around. Many --
bridges. Low-water bridges, however, are of the most
efficient, safest, inexpensive, and least impacting on the
environment of all bridges built.
In the name of progress, modern engineers have built
larger bridges, but not necessarily better bridges. Yes,
there are limitations, restrictions, and common sense required
in the use of low-water bridges. Like riding a horse, you
need to know a little more than "whoa" and "go." You don't
ride a horse half asleep, DUI, DWI, or 90 miles an hour.
There will be accidents on any horse, and certainly any bridge
ever built. A 28-inch guardrail, called a PGR, is not going
to keep a horse or a 90-mile-an-hour motorcycle from going
into the river when riding carelessly or irresponsibly. At
best, the PGR will only catch logs and debris during a rise in
the river. Low-water bridges allow logs and debris to be
swept across and over and away from the roadway, thus
minimizing upstream flooding.
Your Honor, our Highway Department has proposed
reconstruction of several low-water bridges near Hunt. The
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all, I believe the work is unnecessary. There is little wrong
with the bridges we have, but there may be various impairments
to some of the people using those bridges. Yes, they could
have been better designed in the beginning, but what TexDOT is
proposing now is really not much better. True, our excess
during minimal floods may be improved, but not during major
floods. Ask anyone who lives in the area if minimal floods
are a problem, and they will tell you they have learned to
live with such small inconvenience. The advent of Lifeflight
has even assisted our medical emergency facilities.
The environmental impact of this work would greatly
affect our delicate river and its surroundings. There is not
one crossing in the proposed work that could be done without
cutting trees, beautiful cypress trees, some 15 to 20 feet in
circumference. Accessible recreational areas used for
generations by visitors and guests would be reduced, and in
some cases eliminated. The mean water level in the river
could be changed and devastate many trees which are sensitive
to their proximity to water. Any change in the mean water
level would affect many private, beautiful waterfront
pavilions, piers, picnic facilities. The most difficult to
predict would be the effect of larger bridges restricting
water flow during severe and major rain events. This would,
in turn, definitely affect the size of our floodplain.
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Whether it be the 5-year floodplain, 10-year floodplain, or
100-year floodplain, I don't know. Such a prediction is not
an exact science, and as the people of New Orleans know very
well, engineers sometimes underestimate the vigor and strength
Crossings on 1340 would certainly enlarge to some extent the
floodplain on the upstream side of these structures.
Property, facilities, and even homes could be affected.
Changes in insurance rates, even appraised values could occur.
One good -- excuse me. One good example we're all familiar
with is Mr. Alan Sheppard's house at Stonehenge on 1340, just
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upstream from Mayhew Crossing. I'm sure there are many others
that could be affected. The impact to modern bridges on the
aesthetic beauty -- beautiful rural countryside would be
considerable. Although the Waldemar and Quinn bridges are
crossings in Texas. They simply do not fit western Kerr
County. Maybe Riverhills, maybe some suburb in Dallas, but
beautiful, especially with 3 or 9 inches of water running
across the road.
Your Honor, we have all seen to what unnecessary
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extreme and extravagance TexDOT can go to installing posted
guide rails between Ingram and Hunt. I can only imagine what
they might do with our bridges. Their use of eminent domain
to straighten out curves will definitely be distasteful to the
property owners. We definitely don't want to fo]low the likes
of Highway 46 between New Braunfels and Boerne, and may God
forbid TexDOT ever touching Willow City Loop. Perhaps the
funds could be used elsewhere, like Cade Loop or others. I
thank you for your time, and may God bless our river.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you.
JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, sir.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Good job.
COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Mr. Evans talked about
one-half of the formula that's being proposed. Johnny Hawkins
is here that can talk about the need for access and egress to
the -- on Cade Loop during a flood event. I think y'all know
that Cade Loop crossing is a low-water crossing immediately
downstream from the Ingram Dam. Some of the environmental
issues that we're concerned about with the -- with the other
crossings would not be present here because of the dam and
because of the nature of the river during the 100-year area.
It's mostly -- mostly what would be affected is our trash
trees. Mr. Hawkins?
MR. HAWKINS: First off, I want to say thank y'all
and Merry Christmas. I agree a lot with what the gentleman
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said on the bridges up above. And -- and our thing is, is
there at camp, we do have Camp Rio Vista and Sierra Vista. We
have two areas coming in, and one of them, as you know, water
runs over all the time, and I can talk about that one in a
you know, the trees are dead, and the force of the water and
everything, they're broken over, and it would be a very easy
place to build a bridge. Very little easement, and I think
it's a place that could really make it better. Cade Loop, 20
now there's two huge subdivisions back there. There's
hundreds of people of that live back there, and don't realize
what the river does and how mean it gets down there.
And we have, there at camp, actually been stuck when
channeled down there, and actually the bridge below the dam,
to me, is another dam, and it has an 8-foot opening, so all
the water from the north and south fork are channeled there to
one small opening. If a tree blocks that opening up, we have
been flooded in three days before they could get down there
and get that tree out. Three days, personally, doesn't bother
me a whole lot; I got a commissary full of food, but new
people coming to this area are freaked out to be flooded out.
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They absolutely don't know what to do. And I can stand here
and tell you stories forever about people trying to cross the
river, and we set up a deal at school, and I had people on the
phone and -- and they came out and said, "Johnny, I think you
better take care of this one." And I went in there, and it
was a mother that had been with us for five years and knew all
about camp, and she said, "Johnny, my husband is fixing to
walk across the bridge to get my child." And I said, "Please
don't do that. We are coming in. You don't know how long
you're going to be flooded in." And I finally had to -- and I
could hear her talking to her husband. I said, you know, "I'm
going to call the Sheriff and I'm going to have the Sheriff
come down there and stop you, because number one, I'm not
going to bring your son down there and let him cross the river
with him on his back." Well, I could hear her in the
background telling her husband, "Johnny Hawkins is going to
call the Sheriff on you." And he's saying, "Good, tell him to
get here quick."
Anyway, that -- well, you can tell those forever on
camp, too. We -	- not just	camp,	but	all the	other	people in
the summertime.	We employ	about	170	people	there,	and being a
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counselor at camp is a very time-consuming, tough deal, and
when it's your day off, we encourage you to get away from camp
for -- relax, you know. And when you're flooded in, it's
tough. I'm telling y'all, it's -- and, you know, we didn't
have to worry about that this year. When it's dry years, this
issue kind of goes away. But we had two or three years that
were very, very wet years. Food trucks -- all of us up here
probably buy from the same company, but they have a deal now,
they will not cross a bridge with water. And that's dust
standard procedure for drivers, and it's probably a good one
if they don't know the area. I can tell you numerous times
I've gone across in my truck with my little flatbed trailer
and hauled in food for a truck that was on the other side,
won't come -- won't come across. And the low-water bridge
month or longer, but we've always had Cade Loop to get out.
And what a great place to build a new bridge, help
everybody on that side, and I think we could make that area
much nicer than what it is -- is today. And I also wanted to
just -- just a brief minute on the -- and the gentleman talked
about water running over the bridge. I've had one there at
Rio Vista forever, and that water's gone across there. And 20
years ago, if would you have said, "Johnny, we're going to
raise this bridge," I'd have fought you like hell. It's
different today. It is so, so slick. And I think the Judge
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was 74 years old. And I have never seen a motorcycle make it
across that bridge; they just don't do it. Anyway, he flipped
and spent 45 minutes in the water under the motorcycle, and he
was honking his horn. And we don't hear as good as we used to
and I didn't hear him, but luckily he was able to pull his
foot out of his boot and got out and called the Sheriff's
department.
And, you know, his question to me, he said, this --
"This thing's like ice." And I said "Well, I know." It is.
It's very,	very	-- and the County	does	the	best they	can	on
scraping it	with	a maintainer, and	10	days	later, it'	s --	you
know, you just -- you'd have to leave a maintainer there and
scrape it all the time. And in the summertime, it is really
bad. But, anyway, this gentleman spent that time in there,
and we were able to get down there and -- and get him out, and
he did write a letter about -- and they came in and actually
put in a couple of slippery signs that are about 150 yards on
each side of the bridge. Well, a motorcycler or somebody
pulls up to the bridge and looks at it on that thing. So,
there's been talk for years and years of raising that bridge a
little bit where it was dry. It's -- and it may be time to do
that with the traffic that is in our -- you know, we're
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growing. I don't like it, but there's nothing I can do about
it. And so, anyway, we would love for them to spend their
money on a new bridge at Cade. I think it would be a dynamite
spot, open that area up, clean it up. The debris has built up
on the bridge that's there now. It's 20 feet out. It's just
-- it's a hellhole, so let's let them fix it all up, and y'all
can think about the -- the little low-water bridge coming in.
We appreciate it.
JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, sir.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: I move to approve the
~ motion.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Second.
JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for approval
of the agenda item and approval of the resolution. Any
further question or discussion?
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I want to make a point. You
used -- Mr. Evans, is it? Evans?
MR. EVANS: Yes.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You -- you used a couple of
words that I like. Those little bridges up past Hunt, I do
consider them jewels and treasures. The beauty of that entire
trip, that's the reason all these people came here, is because
of that. Now we want to change it.
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MR. EVANS: Right.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: See, and -- but one point we
haven't made is, we've been trying and working to get -- and
Commissioner 4 has been banging on this for a number of years,
of getting a road on the outside of the river from Kerrville
to as close to Hunt as we can get. And a -- a bridge at Cade
Loop would enhance that some. And for that reason only, I'm
going to vote for it.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Have you visited with TexDOT?
COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: No.
JUDGE TINLEY: The plan is, if this resolution is
approved, you will visit with TexDOT?
COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'd recommend you go with the ',
District Engineer, Mike Coward, first, and the District
Engineer in San Antonio.
COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: That needs to be done. In
fact, at least I was -- I think everybody was surprised at the
proposal. The first time we knew anything about the proposal
was a meeting they called.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: In your absence the other
day, Mr. Evans was in and he visited with me about this, and
it was my suggestion too that after the Court adopts this,
that you set up a meeting with Mike Coward and he, in turn,
with the District Engineer, David Casteel, and meet with him
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in San Antonio and have a talk with him. Very receptive man.
You know, he's very reasonable, and it's a good opportunity to
tell him all the things that we heard this morning.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: We're very fortunate; we have,
locally and in the district, two of the more responsive TexDOT ~
representatives, I think, in the state.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I agree with you.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: And we have had in this area for
a long time. Very, very fortunate.
JUDGE TINLEY: Any other question or comments on the
motion? All in favor of the motion, signify by raising your
right hand.
(The motion carried by unanimous vote.)
JUDGE TINLEY: A11 opposed, same sign.
(No response.)
JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. Let's move to
Item 4; consider and approve a resolution supporting Texas
Tech University's request for funding for the Hill Country
Educational Network and the Texas Tech University Center at
Junction by the Texas Legislature. Commissioner Nicholson.
COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: I'll read the resolution.
"Whereas, the Hill Country of Texas, one of the fastest
growing rural areas in the nation, is underserved by
institutions of higher education; and
"Whereas, the continued economic viability of rural
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critical to meeting the needs of this student population at an
affordable cost; and
"Whereas, the educational network and the center are
services to a wide rural area; and
"Whereas, this educational endeavor promotes
admiration, not competition, among colleges and universities;
and
"Whereas, local communities in the Hill Country
continue to invest in this endeavor, with significant
contributions by local governments and private donors; and
"Whereas, continuing State support of the TTU Hill
Country Educational Network and the TTU Center at Junction is
critical;
"Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Kerr County
Commissioners Court fully supports the TTU -- the Texas Tech
University request for appropriations for each of fiscal years
2008 and 2009, as submitted to the Texas Legislature, for the
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TTU Hill Country Educational Network (Fredericksburg, Highland
Lakes, and Junction) and the TTU center at Junction."
I want to introduce and ask my neighbor, Fred
Moseley, to talk about this -- this educational institution.
And Fred's pretty typical of most west Kerr people; he's
pretty active in the community. He's a member of the Board of
Directors of the Texas Tech Hill Country Educational
Institution. He's a volunteer firefighter in Hunt, treasurer
of the Volunteer Fire Department. His beautiful wife Janet is
the founder of Silver Shoppers, and both of them are on the
board at the Hunt Methodist Church, and I think in their spare
time they do a few other things, but they're just sort of
typical of west Kerr County retirees.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You're bringing out the big
guns today.
MR. MOSELEY: Hardly so.
COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Oh, and if you want to find
Fred's house, just drive out 1340 until you see a red mailbox.
If you look over at the right, you'll see a red roof house
with a red barbecue pit. That would be Fred Moseley.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I see.
MR. MOSELEY: And I was told that the -- that the
Court was possibly going to ban red mailboxes on 1340, so I'm
going to speak against that, too. Thank you, Dave.
COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Thanks for being here,
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As a member of the Board of Advisers
doing. Certainly, we're asking your support for our total
budget of approximately a million, five for this next year.
And last three years, we've -- we've graduated 135 students.
We offer three undergraduate degrees, general sciences and --
and two undergraduate degrees in nursing -- excuse me,
administrative, school administration, and then an
undergraduate degree in -- in nursing. We offer about four
graduate degrees in the same areas, primarily nursing and
school administration, and one doctorate. And this past May,
we -- I think we graduated about 50 students, so there -- and
there's a large increase every year. We've been in operation
now a little -- little less than five years, and as I say,
we've had three graduating classes so far. So, we're simply
asking from the -- for the County, the cities and the school
systems to support ourselves and our recommendation to the
Legislature for this appropriation in the next session. It's
unfortunate that Senator Fraser wasn't able to stay with us,
because I'm reasonably sure that he -- that he does support
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that. We have an outstanding new building in Marble Falls.
We have land allocated and a capital campaign going on right
now for a new facility in Fredericksburg, and the Junction
campus is -- we're asking for about a 3 million -- 360,000 for
next year for them. And it's almost self-sufficient, being
primarily summer -- summer classes being taught there; art,
geology, entomology, things like that that are popular in the
summertime with students. Any questions?
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Mr. Moseley, can you give us
a little enrollment -- historical perspective, how the
enrollment has grown over the last few years?
MR. MOSELEY: Yes. Five years ago, we started with
four students from all three campuses, total. And I think at
this time, we're at -- we measure it in student hours, and
that's how we get our funding, is the number of hours being
taken by students. But at this time, it seems to me we have
about 65.
MR. SHRADER: I just happen to have those numbers.
MR. MOSELEY: Please, yeah. Thank you.
MR. SHRADER: We had 83 unduplicated students that
took 374 classroom hours last year. And that's up, as Fred
said, from 4 five years ago.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That's great.
MR. SHRADER: The campus in Marble Falls and the
campus coming on line in Gillespie County will be big
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additions to the program. And -- and, really, the reason that
Fred and I are here is because we support public higher
education in the Hill Country, and this certainly makes it
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Very good.
MR. MOSELEY: Yes. Any questions?
them to continue funding or increase, or whatever it might --
MR. MOSELEY: Correct. And we're going to the
school systems -- Greg and I both have gone to the various
school systems and the City requesting the same type of
resolution, simply support for the need for this. We're
working very closely -- in each campus, we're working with the
local community colleges, so actually, a student straight out
of Tivy High School can go to Austin Community College or
attend classes in Austin Community College in Fredericksburg
the first two years, and go ahead and complete a general
sciences degree or a -- you know, complete a degree right
there in Fredericksburg, and still work in Kerr County.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's fantastic.
COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Yeah. I don't think we
Fredericksburg campus to us. Whether it's a young person just
starting out in college or an adult who wants to continue
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their education, the ability to drive only 22 miles and access
this kind of education system is important. It -- it's good
-- it's good economics for Kerr County.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I agree.
COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: So I make a motion to
approve the resolution.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Second.
JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for approval
of the resolution. Any question or discussion? Mr. Shrader,
you had forwarded me a -- I think it was crossed over during
the time that the agenda was being prepared and the resolution
that's before us now -- a resolution that's very, very similar
to the one that's been read into the record, I think the only
difference being that in -- in the one which you forwarded to
me, the specific numbers that are requested for the
appropriations are included, but otherwise seem to be --
MR. SHRADER: Exactly.
JUDGE TINLEY: -- virtually identical.
MR. SHRADER: Yes.
JUDGE TINLEY: The -- I assume just the general
request for approval of appropriation as requested is
satisfactory?
MR. SHRADER: Absolutely.
JUDGE TINLEY: Okay, thank you.
MR. SHRADER: Thank you.
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JUDGE TINLEY: Any other questions or comments? All
in favor of that motion, signify by raising your right hand.
(The motion carried by unanimous vote.)
JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign.
(No response.)
JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry.
COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Thank you.
MR. MOSELEY: Thank you, gentlemen.
COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Thank you for your work,
both of you.
JUDGE TINLEY: Next item, consider, discuss, and
take appropriate action on new rates at the Hill Country Youth
Exhibit Center. Commissioner Letz, I think Ms. Davidson is
ill today. That's the word I got earlier this morning. I'll
leave it to your discretion at this point.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think we can discuss it a
little bit, but probably we'll give some food for thought and
then we can put it back on the agenda. One of the things that
has happened, I think, since we split up the Maintenance
Department, custodial and all that that we did, as liaison at
the Ag Barn, I've started to take a real, hard look as to what
that facility is costing the County and how we're managing it
and things of that nature. And I've been talking both to Tim
Bollier, who's been given the charge of -- of putting the
manpower along with community service people at the Ag Barn,
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I think, by looking at Tim's -- I asked him to look
at how much manpower's been going into some events, and it
appears to me, not counting community service and not counting
the -- necessarily always having someone on-site when we're
leasing that facility, that it's costing us frequently six to
eight hours of setup time for an event. And then if you add
on top of that -- a lot of times we don't have anybody
on-site; people are on call, as I understand it, during a lot
of the events. Sometimes they do have people on call or out
there physically, but I think -- I'm real concerned about us
not having a Kerr County employee there whenever that facility
is open. So, I think we have a problem on that side of it.
I The reality is that probably, with three people in
Maintenance, as was -- as has happened, about one of those
people is dedicated full-time, or man-hours wise, to
baby-sitting and setting up that facility, plus the -- again,
the community service time, and plus not looking at all the
work Alyce has done on her scheduling side.
I think we really need to look at this real hard as
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to how this is done and how we budget. I think we're getting
closer and closer by charging more and more out there, but it
there when this show's open -- I mean, whenever we're open.
That's not a good use of those people, in my opinion. So, I'm
just bringing all that up; I think we really need to look at
this. I don't see that it makes a whole lot of sense for any
reason, other than maybe it was done convenience-wise in the
past, that it was put under Maintenance. It's not a
maintenance function out there. We've kind of -- it's been
a -- a little bit of a stepchild. We have, you know,
different people doing different things out there, and we just
need to look at that whole system, I think. I think that
we're -- what is happening right now is we're using a lot of
maintenance manpower that are going out there at the Ag Barn,
and really not getting the maintenance work done that needs to
be done.
And the -- and the big -- the real big kicker in all
this is, if community service ever -- we don't -- if they're
not available, if we have to basically put our entire
maintenance department, and some of the custodial department
as well, out there just to get these events ready, that's not
the intent of those two departments. Custodial is supposed to
do custodial work. Maintenance is doing maintenance work, and
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that facility needs to be manned with people that are
more importantly, or of equal importance, we need to address
the setup cost and the take-down cost. And I think we have
been lulled to sleep about the use of community service
workers, but we have never taken into consideration what
happens when they're not available. I think that was all
brought dramatically, at least to me, when Mr. Miller of the
Texas Arts and Crafts Fair, did a spreadsheet on that earlier
this year and showed us the amount of money that it costs to
set that facility up and take it down, and the use of
equipment, for which we don't charge. So, I agree with you.
And what I'm seeing here in the proposed rates is just rates
for the use of the facility; doesn't deal with the setup and
take-down cost. And the take-down cost becomes an impact
have to hustle to get it taken down and get it set up for
something that's coming in right behind another event. So, I
agree with you, we need to take a look at the whole picture.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I think the other thing -- I
think we can wait until probably our second meeting. I'll
let -- see if Tim has any comments as well, but I think the
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Court needs to give our Maintenance Supervisor direction.
going on? We don't have -- you know, and we're getting ready
to get into stock show period. Well, under our current setup,
we might as well shut down maintenance for the month of
January, 'cause all the maintenance crew is going to be
sitting at the stock show. And I'm not saying they won't be
working hard, but it's -- I mean, I don't expect Tim to have
all his people work a whole bunch of extra hours. I mean,
they're supposed to be working 40-hour weeks. Now,
occasionally, people need to work a little bit more and fill
in here and fill in there, and vacations happening and some
people get sick, and I understand that, but consistently, that
shouldn't be the case. And, I mean, I've told him, in my
opinion, a 40-hour week, that's what all those people are
supposed to be working, period. And that's not what's
happening right now. And I think we just need to give him
some direction as to where does he cut? Does he not have
people at the facility, or is he not doing maintenance? And I
feel maintenance is more important than keeping that facility
open.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What is the solution,
Commissioner? Are you talking about hiring a new staff, or
are you talking about closing the door? Are you talking about
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giving the facility to somebody else, or what -- what's the
answer?
COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't have an answer, per se.
I don't know that -- the only way I would hire additional
staff, which I think probably makes the most sense to have a
person that's there and does the work, is if there are fees
generated that pay 100 percent of that salary. That is what
I -- that seems to -- I'm really not in favor of -- I have not
heard a proposal from anybody other than the County that will
operate it the way that I think the facility needs to be
operated, and we do -- and that's because we subsidize a lot
of uses out there, mainly 9-H and things of that nature. I
think we should subsidize those uses.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. Whoever manages the
facility's going to have this exact same problem.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So --
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Sure.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think we need to look at,
really, almost a workshop setting, probably is the best, and
maybe do that at our next meeting, together when Alyce is here
about the booking side of it. Tim knows -- I mean, he's taken
up -- is keeping very accurate records as to how many hours
his people are there, not counting community service workers,
and figure out what the best mechanism. I think the -- I just
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don't think this is a maintenance responsibility to be sitting
out there doing stuff during the fair. Now, if the
building -- if that building needs work, yes, that is a
maintenance issue, but sitting there during antique shows and
being on call is not a maintenance facility -- or
maintenance --
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Let me ask you one more
question.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- function.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We have an Option 2, and
proposed rates for 2007, two different sheets of paper. I
can't tell if any of these numbers here are present-day
numbers.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I don't know either.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Are these all proposed to go
to?
COMMISSIONER LETZ: I believe these are proposed,
but we need to have the current ones.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Would you mind asking her to
do that? 'Cause --
COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: And it'd also be helpful to
have an estimation of -- if you adopt one of these two
proposals, either one of them or both, what would be the net
impact on annual revenues? So we can see if our revenues are
going to go up enough that we can afford some of the kinds of
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COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think the other thing is
that -- and I really probably need to sit down with Alyce and
Tim -- Tim's given me a pretty good breakdown as to the amount
of hours, basically starting in October, November, and
December, as to how many hours are going into various events.
I think we can then take that, look at the booking projected
for the next year, and figure out how much man-hours are going
into that facility. You know, the hard part comes is, yes, I
think we can probably build into the fee structure enough to
have one person out there, but there's times you need more
than one person, so there's still going to have to be some
give and take between probably the Maintenance Department.
But I think there needs to be somebody -- I think maintenance
is getting the short end right now. I mean maintenance of our
facilities is getting the short end of it, not the Maintenance
Department. Tim, do you have any additional comments other
than that? Or --
MR. BOLLIER:	Not	right	now.	
COMMISSIONER	LETZ:	Not	right now.	So, at the
workshop -- we'll probably put on it the agenda as a workshop.
I think that's probably the best thing to kind of work through
most of these. I'll get with Alyce when she gets better.
MR. BOLLIER: I --
COMMISSIONER LETZ: She does --
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MR. BOLLIER: I think that there's a lot of time
two separate ones out there. So, where -- that could end up
only going to -- it's going to take every one of us. There's
me -- there's four of us total, counting the new person that I
hired last week. And it's going to take from 7 o'clock in the
morning till 10:00, 11 o'clock every night for that stock show
function, and it's just going to take a lot of time. And when
you do that, I don't have anybody to do my maintenance, and
I've got to have somebody here during that -- I mean, during
the stock show time, because of the jail and maintenance here.
I mean, there's nobody here. If I have a toilet go out or
out there working. So, it's -- you know, it's -- I just do
have enough man hours. That's just it.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's why I think we need to
figure out a priority as to, you know, what -- what gets done.
And I think that this is -- this is probably the root problem.
This problem I don't think is new. I've been complaining
about maintenance, especially preventive maintenance, for a
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I think that
Glenn had the same problem when he was here. He had to put
his maintenance people out there at the stock show, the Ag
Barn, and it just -- I never really investigated it to the
level I have the last couple months. So, I don't have a great
solution, but I know the fee structure is the way -- is a way
to help fix it. But that's it.
JUDGE TINLEY: Anything else on that particular
agenda item by any member of the Court? We have a timed item
at 10:30; I'd like to go ahead and get it taken care of, if we
might, before we take our break. So, we'll go to Item 8;
consider, discuss, and take appropriate action to avail Kerr
County requisite engineering services to assess damage and
remedial action required to repair Flat Rock Lake Dam.
Commissioner Williams.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Thank you, Judge. I've had
some discussions with several people about this, but
fortunately, a gentleman called me and was interested in
coming and talking to the Court with respect to the problem
and how we might begin the process of remediation. I've not
had the opportunity to meet this gentleman, although I think
Commissioner Letz has, and knows him, so we're going to meet
him together. I'd like to introduce Mr. Stefan Schuster of
Freese-Nichols who is here today with -- I'm not sure if he's
by himself or with somebody else.
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MR. SCHUSTER: No, I brought Mr. Boyd with me.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: And we're going to talk
about Flat Rock Lake Dam. Thank you for coming.
MR. SCHUSTER: You bet. Thank you, Commissioner.
Good morning, Judge, Commissioners. My name is Stefan
Schuster of Freese and Nichols from Austin, Texas. I've
brought with me Les Boyd, and we'll try to get the joke out of
the way; Les is a dam engineer. So, we -- we came out this
morning based on the response that the T.C.E.Q. published a
report on November 8th on an inspection on Flat Rock Dam and
the assessment that there may be some probable -- possible
problems with the dam. And so Les and I actually visited the
site this morning and took a cursory review, beyond the report
that was -- that I'm sure you read from T.C.E.Q. And I'll let
Les talk a little bit about some of the things that we
observed, and then we can talk about some of the possible
remedies and possible courses of action from that.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Did you get the copy of the
report I sent?
MR. SCHUSTER: Yes, I sure did. And based on that,
we actually went out to the site this morning and walked
around, and so if you got any reports about folks walking
around the dam this morning, that was us. So, basically --
Les, do you want to go ahead and talk about some of the
observations that you had?
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COMMISSIONER LETZ: Before Les comes up, we may --
Stefan is a -- or, his firm is the consulting engineer with
Region J, so I knew Stefan and have worked with him, and when
Stefan saw this, he called me and asked if he could help. I
steered him to Commissioner Williams. I gave him some
criteria; I said, "We have no money to pay you for any kind of
inspection or work. Other than that, you're welcome to ccma
and talk to us."
MR. SCHUSTER: Right.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Lo and behold.
MR. BOYD: Okay. Stefan and I did walk the dam this
morning for -- for the first time, and I see some things that
are consistent with what the report that T.C.E.Q. put out.
There's some what appear to be possibly some settlements in
some of the concrete slabs. You can see a little bit of
dishing in them. You can see old joints that have seeped in
the past, have vegetation growth and signs of leaching through
the joints. I couldn't discern an expansion joint anywhere in
the dam, so that could account for a lot of the cracking that
you see. They may be present. We'd need access to a set of
plans to determine whether that exists. Some of the problems
associated with this is, if you continue to get soil movement
underneath the slabs, it will erode the support that's there
for the slab, and they're not -- most likely not designed to
span any distance of any significance, so then you'll --
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you'll have settlement in the slabs, and then that will open
up joints. And the problem with open joints is that
high-velocity flow coming across a joint can actually
introduce itself into a crack and lift the slab up and
displace it, so it will just peel it off.
And some of the things that we'd like to do would
probably be get access to any existing plans that there are
and take a look at how it's constructed. Does it have any
underdrains? Does it have a cutoff wall? A clay core? What
are some of the links to the leakage that have been seen over
the years? Overall, T.C.E.Q. classified it in overall good
shape, and it appears to be. The cracking is not inconsistent
with what I would expect on a -- on a dam of that length. The
holes -- we weren't able to see that there in the report; I
suppose they're on the downstream slab, and we need to get
waders on and go take a look.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yeah, there on the slope
side of the spillway, in the spillway itself. I'd be happy to
give you the color photographs. I know what you saw was --
was what I transmitted digitally to you, and there's a lot
lost in that.
MR. BOYD: Sure.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I'll be happy to share with
you the color photographs which show the water going in and in
some holes on the downside slope.
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MR. BOYD: That would be a big help.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Spillway. I can do that
after the meeting or when we take a break.
i MR. BOYD: But --
COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't -- and maybe we have
plans for it, but I would be a bit surprised if we have plans
for this dam.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Well, we don't have, and
that's a good point. There is all sorts of speculation as to
when the dam was built and by whom. And, you know, I've
talked to our Road and Bridge people, and they say, "Well, we
believe L.C.R.A. built the dam." If you talk to L.C.R.A.,
they say, "well, we don't recall -- remember doing that. I
think it was built in the '40's," and somebody else says, "No,
I think it was built in the 'S0's." So, I had somebody who
was local, a native; goes way back. He said it was built at
the tail end of the drought of the '50's, which is pretty good
information. 'Cause he said, "I used to cross over there as a
kid, and I know when that thing was built." I said, "Okay,
that's good news. You know who built it?" "Oh, no, I don't
know who built it. I think the County built it." I said,
"Well, I don't think so." But the County owns it, so if we
can locate those plans, that would be wonderful. I don't know
if we start with L.C.R.A. T.C.E.Q. doesn't seem to think they
have them in their possession.
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MR. BOYD: Okay.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: But, you know, maybe through
of resources and connections, we can do that. I'll
MR. BOYD: And it may be that you don't find any,
how thick it is and see how it's reinforced, so they can get
some value for -- for what its structural strength is. Is it
connected to where it -- one panel can't just come out? Or
will it take several panels, and would they buckle up and
then, you know, go as a unit? You know, you need more
information on really assessing how far it goes together. I
see in the reports that they did some soundings with some
sledgehammers, which is basically just testing for the
drumminess to see if they lost -- have lost their support.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Oh, hollowness?
MR. BOYD: Yeah. You'll get a hollow sound when you
hit something where the soil's not supporting the slab any
longer. I think probably one of the things that I would think
about doing would be to get some nondestructive testing set up
to run a line parallel to the dam at maybe every 5 or 10 feet
and do a -- kind of like a sonar along there, and see how
extensive the undermining is underneath that slab. It may --
may be isolated, one or two layers, or it might be along the
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entire length. Most likely it's isolated along the joint
areas where they're leaking. But then in the report, they
also mention about they had -- in 1989, they did a grout
program, which generally that consists of going along and
drilling a series of holes, and you pump in grout. You chase
it to the next hole, and then you move to that hole and keep
pumping it. What that does, basically, is it fills those
voids for you. The thing it doesn't do is -- is keep anything
else from washing away beneath the grout. It's kind of a
continual problem, so you have to -- I wouldn't think that you
would do it one time and say, "I've got it completely fixed."
They did it in '89 and it's back again, so it has a limited
success rate to doing that. You -- we really need to say,
well, do you have any kind of a cutoff wall in the dam, like a
clay core? I suspect it does, but without that kind of
knowledge, you don't know what the underdrain system is and
what's in place. So it's really a -- it's hard to make a -- a
real in-depth evaluation of it on a, you know, 15-minute
walk-through.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Sure.
MR. BOYD: But what -- what we'd be pleased to do is
in need of.
MR. SCHUSTER: That's -- I think Les hit that nail
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on the head. I think that's what -- really what we would
propose to do, is put together a scope and make some
recommendations, the type of work we would do if we were hired
to do any sort of repairs, and give you an opportunity to
evaluate that and talk through that with us a little further.
resources to be able to do that, and then come back to the
County and give you an assessment of what we think it would
cost to actually do the repairs.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. I think that's a
reasonable approach.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is there -- do y'all just want
to do this, or do you want some sort of assurance that we're
going to use Freese-Nichols? I mean --
MR. SCHUSTER: Well, I think the primary objective
here is safety of the citizens of Kerr County. We certainly
are considered one of the premier dam safety firms in the
state. We've done this kind of work for more than 100 years,
would be much more qualified to do the work. But, certainly,
the most important thing is that we do what's right for the
county. So, we'd be happy to submit the proposal, and you
guys can develop a request for proposals from that. I -- I
don't think that's an issue for us.
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JUDGE TINLEY: The initial thing would be what you
think it's going to take in the way of doing appropriate
evaluation.
MR. SCHUSTER: That's correct.
JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. We have a two-step process,
and then it will -- beyond that, based upon the evaluation,
what the remedial action would be.
MR. SCHUSTER: That is correct.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: The T.C.E.Q. people -- I
just want to get this on the record. T.C.E.Q. people said
that there is no imminent danger, it being a recreational dam,
but these are things we need to address. The things that they
identified need to be addressed. Your cursory inspection this
morning would sort of confirm that, perhaps?
MR. SCHUSTER: I'm -- I will defer to Les, since
he's certainly the expert. I would say --
MR. BOYD: Yeah.
MR. SCHUSTER: -- I concur with the report.
MR. BOYD: They've declared it to be basically in
overall good condition, so they're just basically saying to
you, take care of some maintenance issues so they don't become
a big problem and cause you to have --
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay.
MR. BOYD: -- a loss.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Good thing to have on the
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record. Thank you.
MR. SCHUSTER: Thank you.
JUDGE TINLEY: Anything further for these gentlemen
by any member of the Court?
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: If we take a break, I'll go
get those pictures for them, Judge.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you.
MR. SCHUSTER: Thank you.
JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. Why
don't we take about a 15-minute break here, and we'll come
back and tackle the rest of the agenda.
(Recess taken from 10:44 a.m, to 11:02 a.m.)
JUDGE TINLEY: Okay, let's come back to order, if we
might. We were in recess. If we might, let's move to Item 6;
consider, discuss, and take appropriate actions to approve the
county offices closing from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on December 22,
2006. Ms. Pieper?
MS. PIEPER: Well, Judge, this is something that we
normally do after our Christmas party each year, is everybody
scatters and goes -- goes home or goes shopping. So, I'm
being asked by my staff and other staff throughout the
courthouse if we're going to do this again, and I said I don't
know; I'll pose it to the Commissioners, and whatever y'all
decide is what we'll do.
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COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Key words, "after the
Christmas party."
MS. PIEPER: Correct.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Key words.
MS. PIEPER: Well, from 11:05, I figure we'll go eat
and clean up, and then whatever your wishes are, if you'd
rather we come back to work, or if we go finish our shopping
or --
COMMISSIONER LETZ: I guess --
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: What time do your folks
break for lunch normally?
MS. PIEPER: They start at 11:00. We stagger
I lunches.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: I guess in recent years, it
seems that the attendance is kind of -- and even this year, I
know there's some issues as to continuing, not continuing the
Christmas party, and I think we are continuing, from
everything I know. But, I mean, I think the intent on this is
to get the courthouse family together at a Christmas party,
not to give people half a day off. So I think -- I mean, I
don't mind doing this, but I think there's a -- I mean, people
need to understand, the reason is to have fellowship among the
courthouse family, not to give everyone a half day vacation,
and -- and able to do that. So, you know, that's -- that's
kind of my comment. I just think that's an important part of
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this. And, obviously, you can't require people to attend a
Christmas party, but you certainly -- I hope department heads
and elected officials understand the reason behind it, and --
kind of my thoughts.
COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: We grant more holidays than
private industry and business does. I don't know how many
more; two or three, probably. We're really generous on
holidays.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I guess that's kind of where
I'm raising the issue of the hours. Aren't we really talking
about 1:00 to 5:00, the afternoon work session, as opposed to
11 a.m.?
COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean --
MS. PIEPER: I haven't heard what time dinner was
going to be served. I'm assuming around noon, but I don't
know.
JUDGE TINLEY: Essentially, what you're asking us to
do is to amend the holiday schedule that we provided and
established during the budget process to add an additional
half day to it, which is two days prior to Christmas Eve.
Isn't that essentially what you're asking?
MS. PIEPER: Yes.
JUDGE TINLEY: Well, I think we've already plowed
that ground, haven't we? Didn't we discuss the holidays that
we were going to have?
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MS. PIEPER: If -- if you did, sir, I wasn't
present. I don't know.
JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. I -- I guess what you're doing
is you're acknowledging that -- that except for instances
involving health or safety issues, that this Court controls
what hours county offices should be open; is that correct?
MS. PIEPER: That is correct. If y'all do not
approve this, then I can close my office from 12:00 to 1:00
completely, and we can run over eat and come back. It's just
whatever y'all desire.
JUDGE TINLEY: If I hadn't raised a concern about it
here a couple of weeks ago, would you even have this agenda
item before us?
MS. PIEPER: No, sir, we would have done as every
office has done ever since I've worked here.
JUDGE TINLEY: Which was?
MS. PIEPER: Which was, after our Christmas party,
the deputies would go finish their shopping or leave to go out
of town to do their family holidays together and whatever it
is they do.
JUDGE TINLEY: And you would have declared an
additional half-day holiday for your employees in your office?
MS. PIEPER: Yes, sir. But since I'm not supposed
to do that now, I'm coming to get permission.
COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Bah, humbug. (Laughter.)
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COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's funny.
DODGE TINLEY: I don't recall hearing a reaction
about my thoughts about what one possible remedy for those
early closings were. I had the discussion with one elected
official. I don't recall hearing from you about it, though.
Do you have any thoughts about it that?
MS. PIEPER: No, sir, I wasn't here that day. I was
not aware that that took place until after the fact.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: What was that possible
remedy, Judge?
JUDGE TINLEY: Possible remedy was that whatever the
accumulated man-hours were that were lost as a result of early
closings be charged against the elected official.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Oh. I bet that one went
over like a lead balloon.
JUDGE TINLEY: Maybe so.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Was your conversation with
the one elected official, was that a pleasant time for you?
Full of Christmas cheer? (Laughter.)
JUDGE TINLEY: I don't recall that we shared eggnog.
But I still think the two principles that I mentioned, you
know, the loss to the taxpayers and the expectation that we're
here to serve the public, and people show up to do business
here at the courthouse, and they -- they come in from outlying
areas, maybe out of town, maybe across the street, and they
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can't do business with -- with county offices because they've
been prematurely closed.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: It seems we could, in future
years, solve this problem by doing the Christmas party a
couple of days before the holidays, like the 20th.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, that's exactly what my
proposal is goinq to be. I'm going to move that we approve
this for this year, and then beginning next year, we need to
plan a little bit better.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Put the party on a different
I date.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Put the party on a different
date, don't have a party, whatever. May give it away, like
with the Ag Barn.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Hmm, interesting proposal.
JUDGE TINLEY: Well, for whatever it's worth, we've
set the holidays.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Oh, I understand, and I'm not
going to sit here and fight with you about it, but I just
think it's a -- the thing is, you know, you have to -- you
have to -- and I agree; I understand that, but what you have
to factor in as well is that, historically, they've done it
every year, and everybody kind of expects it. And I don't --
Linda Uecker has not done it, but the majority of the
courthouse or county government has done that and just kind of
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expect it, and they're not -- I don't think there's anybody
going to break any rules.
j MS. PIEPER: Well, that's not the intention. That's
why I'm here.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Sure, and I appreciate that.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: You can't -- I mean, I truly
want everyone to attend the party, but I don't know why we
couldn't close for, you know, two hours, give a break there.
And then if some of the staff wants to go on a little bit
reduced staff that afternoon, but I think we should be open.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay, that settles it.
MS. PIEPER: So, are we saying two hours?
COMMISSIONER LETZ: 11:00 to 1:00. I mean, we're
going to have a Christmas party, and I -- you know, the public
will handle that. I think the public will understand that.
Then staff as you deem appropriate for the afternoon, after
1 o'clock.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I think each elected
official can decide how they want to staff their office,
and -- for the remainder of the afternoon.
JODGE TINLEY: In that respect, though, there's
going to have to be some coding as to what those hours that --
for those that are not there, whether they're taking -- if
they've got comp time accrued, if they got -- taking vacation
time. I think if regular hours are -- office hours are
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maintained, why, unless there's some appropriate other coding,
such as comp time or vacation time, that --
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You mean from 11:00 to 1:00?
JUDGE TINLEY: Not just be let off. No, I'm not
talking about 11:00 to 1:00; I'm talking about the balance of
the afternoon, 1:00 to 5:00.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's why they're elected
officials. I mean, I don't know how to handle that. They
need to handle it.
JUDGE TINLEY: Still don't have a motion.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No, you're not going to get
one.
JUDGE TINLEY: Okay.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll make -- I'll make a motion
that we close -- direct elected officials they can close their
offices from 11:00 to 1:00 for the Christmas party.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Can we get 1:30 out of you?
COMMISSIONER LETZ: 1:00.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Second.
JUDGE TINLEY: We have a motion and a second to --
AUDIENCE: Need a public notice.
JODGE TINLEY: -- direct elected officials that
courthouse offices be closed from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on
December 22nd, 2006, for the annual employee Christmas
party-slash-luncheon.
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COMMISSIONER LETZ: And we'll ask the maintenance
department to -- or custodial department, whichever one wants
to put some signs up, so the public's aware.
JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. Any further question or
discussion on the motion? All in favor of the motion, signify
by raising your right hand.
(The motion carried by unanimous vote.)
JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign.
(No response.)
JUDGE TINLEY: Motion does carry. Let's move to
Item 7; consider, discuss, and take appropriate action to
change the name of the privately maintained road in compliance
with 911 guidelines, located in Precinct 1. Commissioner
Baldwin?
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you. Ms. Hardin riad
called me this morning and could not be here, so she asked me
to introduce this. This is off of Highway 16, actually in
Precinct 2. But don't sweat the small stuff. On the
application, it says at owner's discretion, and it meets 911
guidelines. With -- with that information before us, I move
that we approve it.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Well, I'll second that,
since it's in Precinct 2.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Got to be quick around here,
boy.
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JUDGE TINLEY: We have a motion for approval of the
agenda item. Any question or discussion? All in favor of the
motion, signify by raising your right hand.
(The motion carried by unanimous vote.)
JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign.
(No response.)
JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'd like to have that area,
actually.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I'll check. I'll see if we
can work it out.
JUDGE TINLEY: Let's move to Item 9; consider,
discuss, and take appropriate action on request by Associate
Judge Camile G. Dubose for submission by Kerr County of an
application for Relative/Kinship Placement Coordinator Project
under Texas Court Improvement Project Grant Program, and
approval of grant agreement in connection with such project
and grant program. I put this on the agenda at the request of
Judge Dubose because of her request that this item be -- that
the County be the applicant for this grant project. What I
would point out is that, as indicated in her forwarding
letter, that the matching fund requirement will be supplied
through the Auditor's time, as well as the Judge's time and
Court supervision. It is a three-year period. The maximum
amount shown for reimbursement is just under 93,000. The
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calculation that is made about the match share, they show
match share as being 22,000 -- or $23,240. I think that's in
error. I think it's actually 30,987, because if the maximum
reimbursement is just under 93, that's only three-fourths of
it, and when you add the other fourth, you get up to 123,950,
roughly, and take a fourth of that. So, I'm not sure we've
got the right numbers before us to begin with. I don't know
about a time limitation for this; it was not mentioned in
Judge Dubose's letter to me. But I put it before the Court
for the Court's consideration.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Judge, do you have any
idea -- it's a three-year period. Does -- after that
three-year period, is there a -- do you renew it for another
three years? And if so, do you have any idea that this
matching issue would still be in play? That's one question.
JUDGE TINLEY: Best -- go ahead, I'm sorry.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Go ahead.
JUDGE TINLEY: Best information I have on that is, I
don't know whether there's a renewal feature to it or not.
The -- it appears from the information that I have that that
25 percent is an annual match requirement, that it remains
constant, and unlike some others where the first year the
match is one percentage, the second year it's a little bit
higher, the third year it's again a little bit higher, I don't
have anything indicating that it's that way.
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COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. My second question is,
matching funds will be supplied through the Kerr County
Auditor's time. Has the Kerr County Auditor been talked to
about this? Has he agreed to this? I mean, we have an
Associate Judge from Uvalde making decisions about our
Auditor's time here.
JUDGE TINLEY: Honest answer is, I don't know.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, I can't vote for
something like this, sorry.
JUDGE TINLEY: Any other questions? Comments?
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Are you going to check into
those and put it back on the agenda, possibly?
JUDGE TINLEY: Possibly. I think the best course of
action would be for Judge Dubose to come see us. But --
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, that might be the
recommendation.
JUDGE TINLEY: Her initial option was to drop it in
my lap, so I may suggest she -- she come with Option 2.
Anything further on that item? Let's move to Item 10, if we
might; consider, discuss, and take appropriate action to have
County Judge write a letter to L.C.R.A. requesting the Rim
Rock to Goat Creek Transmission Line project be put
underground, but under no circumstances have that line visible
from State Highway 27. Commissioner Baldwin?
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you very much, Judge.
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JUDGE TINLEY: I remember you saying that.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Several times.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN
just in case? The -- the majority of the constituents that
has contacted me has addressed the underground issue, and so
that -- that is the single reason that I brought it to you
today, the underground issue, is because the majority of the
constituents that have contacted me, and I think they've
contacted y'all as well, have requested that the power line be
put underground. Now, I personally don't know that I -- if I
were out in the audience on this side, I don't think that I
would agree to that, because of the -- two reasons. The cost
factor. I mean, we live on basically solid rock in this area,
hence the word hill country. And sawing through that rock and
laying the line, and then after it's there, digging it up to
maintain it or however you maintain this thing, it just seems
like an astronomical cost to me. And that cost of putting
that line underground then would be spread out amongst all the
users. In other words, folks that will probably not even
benefit from this particular line is going to pay -- probably
pay for the underground. But it's what the constituency
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I'd really rather not see power
my little road to come to the courthouse, and I see those big
power lines. And I've just seen them so much, it just doesn't
bother me any more. You know, I've gotten used to it. But I
don't know about getting used to seeing those power lines as
you're driving out 27 over there across the -- the new bridge.
I don't know if we'll ever get used to seeing something like
that. So, the verbiage here of not letting the lines be
visible from Highway 27, you know, I got one e-mail that
says -- well, you know, kind of called me stupid about that.
Well, there are other solutions. I mean, they can take it
through Medina County. They can take it through E1 Paso. So,
there are other solutions. But bottom line is -- is that the
constituency, the taxpayers, particularly of my precinct,
desire that we take a firm stand -- a specific, firm stand in
saying we'd prefer that the lines be underground and
definitely not visible from Highway 27.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll make -- I'm almost with
you, but I want to make kind of an editorial comment first,
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action, or -- period. So, I find that interesting. I think
that some of the -- I mean, I still am getting the ones that
say we shouldn't be against A-C-P, and I saw a picture in the
paper that said I should vote against it and all that, but I'm
getting quite a few now that are well thought out from people
that say, you know, hey, the Court has been right, they really
shouldn't be in the middle of this fight. It's not their
issue. So, I find that interesting. I don't mind, you know,
requesting or asking the County Judge to write a letter. I
would temper it a little bit. I think that we need to ask
L.C.R.A. to evaluate underground.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I think they've done that.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, but I -- you know, but
shot. And then I would put -- I know they have --
environmental and aesthetics are part of their list. I would
just like to see the aesthetics of the Guadalupe Valley one of
the highest points on their list. I think that is a critical
thing to this community, and I think that that is a -- that's
where I am on it.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN:	That's a	good	choice of	words
tter, and that's fine	with me.	That'	s saying	the
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COMMISSIONER LETZ: What did I say?
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: The aesthetics of the
Or among the highest
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's what I heard you say.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: That sounds good.
COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: I have some thoughts on it.
First hurdle I have to overcome is asking all the ratepayers
to pay for special treatment for one particular place. And
then the second hurdle is, if underground is good where these
towers can be seen by people that reside in the upscale
neighborhood, isn't underground good for the rest of the line
that runs through middle-class neighborhoods? Probably if we
say, "Okay, we're going to ask ratepayers to pay more for a
little bit of the line, but not for all of it," that seems a
little bit like special treatment. Also, I take exception
with the claim that's been made that these towers will devalue
property values and erode the tax base. A line a whole lot
like this runs across the Guadalupe Valley at Hunt just beyond
Shoemaker Crossing. I don't know how long it is, because it
disappears over the ridge out there to the -- to the east, but
j it runs through Canyon Springs Subdivision. There have not
been any property values devalued out there. And if you don't
believe me, check with your local real estate agent. So, some

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of the -- some of the claims made by a small but vocal group
logic at best. So, the only way I would support a
communication from this Court to the Public Utility Board is
if it said if there, indeed, is no significant difference in
cost, put them underground, and put it underground for
everybody, not just one neighborhood.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I have a point that I want
sensitive about the potential for seeing electric towers as
they go from Kerrville west. But I would remind those that we
have electric towers going from Kerrville east as well. They
were put in by the L.C.R.A., and I don't recall anybody in my
precinct calling me and raising --
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Easy.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: -- Cain about the L.C.R.A.'s
requisite towers to do that for the eastern part of the
county. So, I'm a little conflicted here about the
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aesthetical value of the eastern part of the Guadalupe Valley
versus the aesthetical value of the western part of the
Guadalupe Valley.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think I'm where you are --
L.C.R.A, just upgraded all the lines in eastern Kerr County.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Exactly.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: With a lot of towers.
JUDGE TINLEY: I've -- have been asked by an
individual who has some health problems to have a matter
placed into the record with regard to this particular issue,
and I will do that now. And we also have a participation form
that's been provided, and I'll recognize that individual
shortly -- looks like we've got two now. "I would like to
encourage all customers of L.C.R.A. to write the Texas Public
Service Utilities Commission at P.O. Box 13326, Austin, Texas,
78711-3326; fax number, 1-512-936-7003; online,
www.puc.state.us/ocp, concerning P.U.C. Docket Number 32825.
This is the number assigned by P.U.C. to the Rim Rock-Goat
Creek L.C.R.A. transmission line project. We should all
request P.U.C. to advise L.C.R.A, to use the most
cost-effective method for the installation and maintenance for
this project in order to hold down the costs that will be
passed on to all ratepayers. We should all encourage the Kerr
County Commissioners Court to take no action on the
superficial request of a few people. The Court has no
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authority in this matter. It's unconscionable to keep putting
pressure on the Court with newspaper ads, the Court is elected
to represent what's best for the majority, not pander to the
desires of a few. Stop wasting the Court's time and let them
get on with running the County's business," Signed, Benny M.
Hyde, Phone Number 895-8516. Mr. Hyde asked that I put that
in the record, since he was unable to be here. But we also
have some participation forms. Debi Nielsen. Ms. Nielsen, if
you'd come forward? I show an address of 1528 Knapp Road.
MS. NIELSEN: How are you, Judge?
JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you.
MS. NIELSEN: Commissioners, thank you guys for
taking your time to listen, and thanks for caring about our
community. I do live right there on Thompson. I moved to
Kerrville -- sorry, I wasn't real prepared for this, so I'm
going back and forth. I moved to Kerrville June of last year.
For the past 10 years, I've worked for the city of Kerrville
on different construction projects. The last project we did
river out 25 feet, put the beautiful white rock on our
beautiful river up here. I always felt Kerrville is part of
~ me because from the first job I had here, I started looking
for my dream place, my dream home, and in May of last year I
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It had the river; it
And even now, daily, you see
wing. You go over onto 27
landowners on Thompson or Saddlewood. Everyone I've talked to
that realized, my gosh, you're going to be able to see that
over there on Junction Highway? Oh, yeah.
Maybe the best thing, and I've tried to find
somebody to do it, is take a picture there of how beautiful it
is right now, and plant those towers so that everybody can see
what it's going to do to our community. And I do think it's a
Commissioners' obligation, because you're here to protect this
beautiful town. The senator came in this morning, and his
first words were he drove into Kerrville into this beautiful
hill country. Now, it didn't look like an industrial -- and
maybe L.C.R.A. didn't realize when they did those lines that
that bridge was going to be there. And as far as paying extra
money and all the ratepayers adding to it, you know, when they
built that bridge, they added sidewalks to it. They added
Stampcrete concrete. They added grass and watering. They
added retaining walls, beautiful retaining walls. They added
walkways, standing areas so you could stand and admire the
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And if you go there every day -- I drive across it
four or five times a day -- you will see joggers, runners,
drivers just standing there, looking at the beauty. That
costs the taxpayers extra money, because TexDOT didn't want to
I'm
paying for a project in Midland where they're beautifying a
side of a road. Did I want to pay for that? Well, I want to
keep our community -- and I'm sure they want to keep their
community nice. So, it's not just the few people that live
I
right there. Anybody that drives down Junction Highway,
anybody that drives down Thompson, it's going to affect
everybody. And, like I said, if I could get a picture and
show you what it looks like right now, and then impose those
towers -- and maybe it hasn't happened on the east side of
town, because driving down the busiest street, Junction
Highway, or now Thompson is so busy, you don`t see those off
to that side. Unless you drive out -- I'm assuming you're
talking about going out to -- I can't even think of the road,
I apologize. But I grew up in Colorado, and it was a
beautiful place. But I loved how everyone took care of this
community. I mean, I look at the airport. They're putting
that beautiful white rock on there. Would have been cheaper
to put a steel building, right? But would you have had the
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same effect? No, you wouldn't have. So, whether it goes
underground or it's hidden from 27 and Thompson, I just hope
that you all -- I know you work diligently, and I know you
work hard for the community, but I hope that you stop to say
it may be worth spending some extra money, just like TexDOT
did in putting these retaining walls. They didn't have to put
all of that up, but they did it to make it look nice. And I
hope that you don't allow anything to ruin this beautiful
scenery. And I know there's a lot of pressure from both ways,
but maybe people don't realize that when their tax dollars are
spent, whether it be a TexDOT project, a state project, it's
paid for by everyone. I appreciate your time. Thank you very
much.
JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, Ms. Nielsen. Bill
MR. PEARSON: Well, we've got that picture the lady
asked for.
MS. NIELSEN: Oh, good.
MR. PEARSON: And I'll draw your attention,
gentlemen, to the right-hand part of the picture. You see a
very unobtrusive -- one pole, stanchion pole, which is what
L.C.R.A. is using. They have their own fabricating plant,
their own galvanizing plant. But we have a little swift boat
advertising going on here. If you look at the area that the
little lady's talking about, the bridge and so forth, you'll
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see that the people that put this ad in the paper used what
looked like oil field derricks for -- for power towers, and
that's not what L.C.R.A. is going to use. I was involved in
the Rim Rock project, and I went through all of the hearings
and so forth that were associated with that. I've appeared
five times before the Public Utility Commission on various
projects, and I can tell you gentlemen, they're not going to
bury the lines, unless the people out there that are putting
these ads in the paper want to pay for it. And, again, I
think it's sad that they keep coming back to this Court,
putting the pressure on Precinct 1 Commissioner Baldwin, when
they know darn well that this Court has absolutely no
jurisdiction in this matter. Thank you.
JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, sir.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Did he just say something
nice about me?
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: He did.
COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Commissioner, I agree with
that. I admire and appreciate you keeping this matter in
front of the Court. It's the right thing to do.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, we're trying. My -- my
last statement I want to make is in regards to some of these
newspaper ads. The latest one I saw the other day -- I can't
even believe what I saw -- is the picture of all of us with
our e-mails and phone numbers and -- pretty good photographs,
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COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Let me see that.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And this Court doesn't have
But I have yet to see Harvey Hilderbran or Senator Fraser's
name or picture in any newspaper, and they do -- and they do
have authority. You know, where is that coming from? That
bothers me a little bit. Senator Fraser was in here this
morning; we had every opportunity to tackle him and let him --
that's the reason he was here, is to find out what was on our
minds, and we had -- and the general public and everybody else
had every opportunity to tackle him and give him a piece of
his mind. But no, we get the Commissioners Court picture, as
if -- it's kinds of a threat type -- that's a veiled threat.
If you don't -- if you don't do what we want you to do, buddy,
you're -- you've been had. Well, I quit being threatened a
long, long time ago, and that's just ridiculous, and I just
wanted to bring that up.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: There's another real-life
analogy taking place right underneath our nose right now, and
although it's not L.C.R.A., it has to do with the
rehabilitation of Highway 16 from 27 to Interstate 10. And to
and behold, the power transmission lines are going to stay up
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just like they are right now all the way out to I-10. And the
reason why? Too expensive to put them underground.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: We don't want to get on that
project.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Just thought I'd remind
people.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I thought that was a
defensive driving course. So, Judge, I move that we authorize
the County Judge to write a letter and use whatever verbiage
you choose to ask L.C.R.A. to please put it underground, and
not visible to Highway 27.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Can we -- I'll second, but I may
vote against it.
JUDGE TINLEY: We have a motion. Any question or
comments on the motion?
COMMISSIONER LETZ: On the -- I think it needs to --
I'd rather have it say evaluate looking at putting it
underground, and if it's not cost-prohibitive doing so.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, that --
COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's fine.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's up to y'all. You
know, whatever verbiage he wants to put in it.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: And the Highway 27 issue, to me,
just say we want to protect, you know, the highest priority --
one of the highest priorities is to protect aesthetic --
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COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Do you want me to authorize
Number 3 to write the letter?
COMMISSIONER LETZ: No. No.
JUDGE TINLEY: I think that's a good idea.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: No. (Laughter.)
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: He can become the new
resident wordsmith.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Let him tackle that.
COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: He's a wordsmith.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: He may write that letter.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Would you work with the Judge
in getting all that verbiage down?
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Be happy to.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you so much.
JUDGE TINLEY: Any other questions or comments on
the motion? All in favor of the motion, signify by raising
your right hand.
(Commissioners Baldwin, Williams, and Letz voted in
favor of the motion.)
JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed?
(Commissioner Nicholson voted against the motion.)
JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Did it really? Are you
telling me that we got by this thing?
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: You haven't seen the letter
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yet.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah.
JUDGE TINLEY: Let's go to Item 11; consider,
discuss, and take appropriate action on employees' health
benefits program Plan B. Commissioner Baldwin.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yes, sir, thank you very
much. And I recently finally woke up and realized that we're
phasing out Plan B, and going back and reading through some of
my notes and -- and information that Mr. Looney had provided
us in past years, I realize that that Plan B was -- all along,
the plan was to phase it out. But I couldn't -- I had a
couple of employees come to me about it, and I couldn't
remember why we wanted to actually phase out Plan B out of the
program, so I have asked that question. And I know you all
clearly understand it; I'm the only one that doesn't, so I've
asked -- asked Ms. Hyde to explain to me why we are phasing
out Plan B. And then once you start your -- whoever's going
to explain it, once you start the explanation, then I've got
some other questions in the middle of it. So, one of y'all?
MR. LOONEY: Not my name.
MS. HYDE: But I am going to -- I am going to ask
that Mr. Looney help remind why and what is going on with
regards to Plan B, so you might as well just come on up here.
MR. LOONEY: Judge, Commissioners, excuse me. The
-- the hill country hay fever has attacked me on the way up
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this morning. So --
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It's power lines.
MR. LOONEY: It's the power lines. I drove under
MR. LOONEY: Got me. The phasing out of Plan B is
-- is not necessarily the correct assumption. Phasing out the
funding methods for Plan B is more correct. What was
happening was that a -- a premium was being generated for Plan
B, and there was a credit being generated for employees.
Three years ago we had a credit of well over $100, and then it
reduced, I believe, to 90, and then has gone down from there.
The concept is to phase it out. The reason is because that
money that is being credited to those employees under Plan B
is being used for purposes sometimes other than for the
purpose -- purchase of the County's health insurance plan.
It's being used for other voluntary plans and other forms of
reduction to premium.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So it was designed -- it was
designed -- the credit -- the $100 -- plus-$100 was designed
for them, for employees to purchase into the same program?
MR. LOONEY: Initially, it -- initially it was not.
Initially, when -- before I came, it was used for optional
purchases of voluntary insurance products, and may or may not
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have been applied toward premium. I'm not sure. I don't know
moving toward and going to be under, all of the funds that you
allocate per employee per month to be used for the county
medical plans, A and B, those funds are to be used toward that
plan. If you don't -- if you generate a credit and you give a
credit to an employee, that credit actually is additional
income to that employee. When that credit is generated, you
have additional income. Now, you may, under a salary
redirection agreement or a salary reduction agreement, use
those funds then for -- currently they're used for the
purchase of additional insurance, and in some cases used to
reduce the premium by an employee for dependent health
insurance.
But, you know, the redirection should be back toward
and they're redirecting premium that we had set up under
budget to be used for the payment of premium claims and fixed
costs for the medical plan. So, that's the direction. And as
Ms. Hyde and I have talked about, you know, projected for next
year, we will be into a -- a plan design that will be very,
very standard in the insurance industry as far as cafeteria
plans are concerned, where you'll have base coverage paid for
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by the County, a credit given to all employees; to every
employee, on a nondiscriminating basis, to be used for the
purchase of the vol -- of all of these other products that are
available.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Can you give me an example of
what product that was -- folks were using to purchase with
that credit?
MR. LOONEY: They were purchasing cancer care plans,
gap plans with -- I'm not sure whether there were disability
products. Now, Ms. Hyde probably knows more about all the
voluntary plans, because if you'll -- again, if you'll recall,
back when I became your consultant, I was not involved with
the identification of the voluntary plans. The voluntary
plans were all set, so I did not evaluate any of those plans,
and have not since. All I've done is worked on the medical
piece of it. So -- but Ms. Hyde can give you more.
MS. HYDE: It's any of the supplements that have
come in, the Met Life for the dental and the vision. There
was the cancer plan, disability plan, catastrophic illness
plan. Also, vision and dental was presented during all of
the --
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: All of those things are
outside the county program?
MS. HYDE: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And what you're saying is
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that we were giving a credit of -- to how many employees?
MR. LOONEY: About 45.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: 45 employees of $100 or more,
and they were taking that money and going outside the county
program and purchasing other products?
MR. LOONEY: As I understand it, that's correct.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And that is a no-no to do?
MR. LOONEY: It's -- it's not appropriate to pay
that additional funds to purchase outside, because when we
calculate our costs for the medical plan, the intent is for
all of those premium dollars to stay within the plan to be
used to offset costs from fixed costs and medical claims.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay.
COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Commissioner, I'd
characterize it as the County got itself in the business of
selling insurance plans, and that -- the fact that we were
doing that harmed the funding of our own plan.
JUDGE TINLEY: But what you're telling me is that
you are evolving, based on your discussions with Ms. Hyde,
into a comprehensive county plan where the -- the base
coverage -- medical coverage is provided, and then there's
certain allowances that can be utilized for the purpose of
taking supplemental -- supplemental coverages within the Kerr
County plan.
MR. LOONEY: That's correct.
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JUDGE TINLEY: That's where you're going, is to
create a comprehensive plan design?
MR. LOONEY: So that it's equal for all employees to
be able to participate in the same places.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Mr. Looney, what might be
helpful, just to clear up the picture, if you just refresh our
memory of why it's necessary to offer a Plan A and a Plan B.
MR. LOONEY: It was just the manner in which we were
going to try to -- again, we had -- if you'll remember the old
plans, there were, I think, four plans originally that had a
wide variety of deductibles and methods, so we created the
two. Now, when we move to the next plan design, the base plan
will be the only plan that's in that product, and the other
supplemental plans will be helping or aiding into that plan
cost.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: So, we are evolving to a
single plan?
MR. LOONEY: We're evolving to one plan.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Which means that anybody --
as was the case in my particular instance this time, anybody
who wants any of these little supplements can acquire them,
but they do so on their own?
MR. LOONEY: Correct.
COMMISSIONER WILLiAM5: Right.
MS. HYDE: However, comma.

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COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: However.
MS. HYDE: However, comma --
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Here comes the other shoe.
MS. HYDE: When we talk about the -- the vision that
we're heading for, we're talking about --
MR. LOONEY: Not vision plan.
MS. HYDE: No, not vision plan. What we're looking
towards for the future, I mean, for this year, what we want to
work on is to add to the basic medical coverage and allow our
employees to take responsibility for their health care and
what they want. Do they want to pay for dental, or do they
want to pay for vision, or do they want to pay for short-term
disability? Allow them those opportunities, which is pretty
common out in the insurance field, which we have not done.
What might be good for you, Commissioner Baldwin, might not be
good for Commissioner Nicholson.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Oh, no. The age difference
there is... (Laughter Blow that out of the water.
MS. HYDE: That's not what I meant.
MR. LOONEY: Looks like everybody needs a vision
plan, though.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I assure you, that's
correct.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So, these handful of
employees that came to me and felt like that we're phasing
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Plan B out, and their $100 they were getting that they were
using that to provide some services for their children, will
no longer do it that way, but in our -- in our new plan that
we're headed toward, there are some options for those people
to go to.
MR. LOONEY: Correct.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: They're not going to get
their hundred bucks. It's going to actually cost them some,
but there are programs there that meet their needs.
MS. HYDE: Right.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Now, if I was to walk out of
here and go talk to one of those employees that said that to
me, she would probably look at me like I was an idiot of some
sort. I don't know that she would -- and I'm not saying that
she wouldn't understand -- not able to understand.
MR. LOONEY: Just concerning the health insurance?
COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: That's why we hired
Ms. Hyde, so they can yell at her.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's where I'm going with
it.
MS. HYDE: I figured that finger was coming.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Ms. Hyde, would you be kind
enough --
MS. HYDE: Absolutely.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: -- to make sure --
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MS. HYDE: Yes.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: -- that these people clearly
understand.
MS. HYDE: Yes. They can come down -- they can come
down and talk to us, or if you y'all want to tell me later who
some of them are that have talked to you, then we can make
plans to sit down with the employees. We have sat down with
others and we showed them the benefits, plus and minus.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I've got a clear picture.
I Carry on, men.
MR. LOONEY: Thank you, sir.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Smoke 'em if you got 'em.
MS. HYDE: I guess I get to stand here again, don't
I?
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Sure.
JUDGE TINLEY: That's -- that's the end of it for
you on this one?
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN; Heck, yeah.
JUDGE TINLEY: Anybody else have anything to offer
on that particular agenda item?
COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll just make a general
comment, that I think that the employees need to understand,
and I think the public and everyone else, that, you know, our
health insurance plan is pretty darn good for employees. We
probably have one of the -- if you talk to the people at
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K.I.S.D. or City of Kerrville or other entities around here,
other counties, I think -- I don't think anywhere they're
going to have a better plan than we offer.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: You're right.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You're right. My doctor, it
blew his hair back, what hair he has. Got excited about it.
He couldn't believe it was happening here in Kerr County.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: So I just think people need to
acknowledge, I mean, that overall, we have an extremely
good -- and I think that we've done a lot of work to try to
get there, and are continuing to improve it step by step.
JUDGE TINLEY: How many employees do we have under
the plan now?
MS. HYDE: Under the plan currently?
JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah.
MS. HYDE: The number fluctuates between 297 and
1309.
JUDGE TINLEY: Well, say 300. We're talking about
over $2 million that we budget for that, so it's a significant
matter.
MS. HYDE: The health benefits of the county is
almost -- it was almost 65 percent of cost.
JUDGE TINLEY: Just talking about the health -- what
we budget for our -- our health plan alone is over $2 million
right now, based on 300 employees.
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MR. LOONEY: 2.118.
JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, sir. Let's go to Item 12;
policy for bond and/or insurance requirements for county
elected officials, department heads, and employees who handle
or have access to Kerr County funds. I put this on the agenda
as a result of some items discussed previously concerning
bonding requirements of -- of elected officials, and it
broadened out to include anyone who is required to post a bond
or otherwise handle or have access to county funds. Ms. Hyde?
individually to try to make sure that I was putting together
what you were looking for. So, I tried to make it real
simple. I took this book, the oath and bond requirements that
Ms. Pieper was very gracious to let me borrow, and just went
straight down the list and put in the current position, your
name, the amount of the bond, and if I had the costing for it,
I put that in there. And then I put down what the oath and
bond requirements 2006 state that we should need, and there's
a couple that -- that look a little bit different. For
example, if you go to the second page, on the J.P.'s, there is
nothing for J.P. clerks in the book. There's nothing in there
for them, but what the J.P.'s have done is, for themselves
it's a $5,000 bond, and for their assistants or their clerks,
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it's $10,000. Except for J.P. 4, who made it $5,000 for both
himself and his clerk. So, that's how I put this together. I
mean, if there was any sort of difference, it should -- it
should stand out. I put down exactly what it says. As far as
Ms. Decker's bond, we were talking about increasing yours,
correct?
MS. UECKER: Yeah, mine's going to 100.
MS. HYDE: It needs to go to 100,000.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Now, why -- why does yours
need to go to 100,000?
MS. UECKER: Because 20 percent of my last year's
intake is -- well, less last year's income was --
MS. HYDE: 1.2 million.
MS. UECKER: $1.2 million. 20 percent of that is
239. The statute maxes it at 100.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So that's the same law that
we looked at for the -- in the Treasurer's issue?
MS. HYDE: No.
JUDGE TINLEY: No.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's not the same numbers
and same --
MS. HYDE: No.
MS. UECKER: Each elected official has a separate
statute.
MS. HYDE: It's convoluted. It doesn't match up.
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COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It was close to that.
MS. HYDE: But on Ms. Uecker's, it's supposed to be
20 percent; it's 240,000 on 1.2 million. So, right now she
has 50,000, so it does need to go up to be 20 percent.
MS. UECKER: I talked to them this morning,
LUMM1SSlUNEH LETZ: Are any others not correct?
MS. HYDE: Well, it's not that they're -- I don't
y that they're not correct. This book -- although
Judge. The Judge can be from here to here, at your
discretion. But on some of them, there's just nothing.
There's nothing for the J.P. clerks, there's nothing for the
Deputy Treasurer; there's nothing really in writing for that.
On the Treasurer, it was -- you know, I had been asked to look
at that one as well, and it says it's not to exceed a half of
1 percent of the largest amount budgeted for general county
maintenance and operations, and it's not to be less than five
grand or more than 500,000. So, if you take that math, based
off of the County Auditor's budget lines, for us, for the
general maintenance, it should be about $80,000 to $90,000, if
you -- if you base it solely off of that. But there's nothing
in there for, you know a lot of folks' deputies. Or if you
just cover the deputy, then you don't cover the rest of your
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employees, so they give you an option in some places for the
County Clerk, for the Tax Assessor, for the County Auditor,
for your assistants or your deputies, to be included in a
bond. Or you can even go farther and do all your employees.
So, I mean, they're very specific, but it's -- then some of
them, there's just nothing.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Even though it says nothing,
we do it anyway?
MS. HYDE: Yes. That's why --
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We bond these people anyway?
MS. HYDE: This is everyone that has a bond.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay.
MS. HYDE: And on bonds, if there's nothing in the
book, I put I could find nothing in the book.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is there -- as I understand it
from talking with you, there -- in addition to the bonds, we
have various types of insurance --
MS. HYDE: That's right.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- in offices?
MS. HYDE: For example, for Ms. Uecker again, she
has to have insurance, and she has to have additional
insurance. So, if you go to that third page, it's pretty much
the District Clerk. She has to have the first bond, which
we're going to raise to 100,000 paid to the governor. She has
to have an insurance requirement. It must equal the maximum
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amount of fees collected in any year during the term, must be
at least 20,000, but is not more than 700. She has it at
500,000. If the policy or coverage provides coverage for
other county officials, it's got to be a million bucks. She
also has additional insurance requirements that each District
Clerk will have an insurance policy or similar coverage to
cover losses due to burglary, theft, robbery, counterfeit
currency, or destruction. Must be 20,000, but not more than
700. So, it's pretty -- hers is pretty large.
JUDGE TINLEY: You have any additional comments or
observations you want to make about that, Ms. Uecker?
MS. UECKER: Well, I think I know why there's no
statutory requirements on J.P.'s deputies. And I don't know
if it's still that way, but at one time there was no
requirement -- and I know this from working with the
Legislature for years and years -- that a J.P.'s assistant
even be deputized. Now, I don't know if that's still the case
or not, but at one time there was no requirement to deputize a
J.P.'s assistant.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: From your research, Ms. Hyde, is
there a mechanism where -- anyone that is, I mean, required to
have these bonds, you got to have them, and anything that's by
statute, obviously, we have to comply with that. But we --
but I -- like, in the J.P.'s and, you know, several other
offices, there are individuals that are handling dollars,
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cash. Is there a way that we can put all of those individuals
under one insurance policy? 'Cause -- does that make sense to
do something like that?
MS. HYDE: I don't know if you can put it under one
insurance policy, based on what this says. But the good news
is that the County Clerk's office, the Tax Assessor's office,
and the District Clerk's Office all currently have those
insurance policies in place.
MR. EMERSON: Me too.
MS. HYDE: I'm sorry, I forgot our County Attorney.
I'm sorry. Sorry, Rex.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: What other -- and so the ones
that are not that handle money are the Treasurer's office
doesn't have it, and the J.P.'s?
MS. HYDE: I don't know -- I don't know if Barbara's
office has an insurance policy, 'cause it wasn't given to me
in any of this. The only thing that I got from the Clerk's
office was just the bonds on the Treasurer and the Deputy
Treasurer.
MS. NEMEC: Debbie's bonded.
MS. HYDE: I got the bond on the Deputy Treasurer
and the Treasurer, but I don't have any insurance.
COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: J.P.'s handle money. Also,
Animal Control handles money.
MS. HYDE: There's nothing for Animal Control.
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COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Well, so does the
Maintenance Department for booking at the Ag Barn, those
facilities. They handle money too.
COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: I think -- yeah. I think
Environmental Health collects quite a bit of money.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think anyone that handles
money needs to either be -- have some sort of bond or
insurance.
MS. HYDE: The only person from Environmental Health
that has it is Mr. North, and he's a deputy constable. He's
got $1,500.
COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Probably a holdover to our
old organization where he was the only one in it.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I have a question, Ms. Hyde.
MS. HYDE: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Deputy County Clerk, an
appointed position, is bonded in the amount of $60,000.
Deputy -- or Chief Deputy Tax Assessor/Collector is unbonded.
MS. HYDE: She's covered underneath the criminal --
commercial crime bond.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I see. And that -- that
insurance policy in the Tax Office would cover --
MS. HYDE: Any theft in the Tax Office.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: All of those other folk who
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handle money --
MS. HYDE: Right.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: -- from licensing and --
MS. HYDE: Right.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: -- taxes and so forth, it's
a blanket coverage for that department?
MS. HYDE: Right.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay.
MS. HYDE: And the County Clerk has got 300,000.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay.
MS. HYDE: As a crime policy.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, based on this, the two
offices that need -- by statute, need to be increased are the
District Clerk and the Treasurer?
(Ms. Hyde nodded.)
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Correct?
MS. HYDE: Unless I'm reading it wrong.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: And we still have some --
MS. HYDE: That are not.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- that are not.
MS. HYDE: Right.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: And we need to --
MS. HYDE: You got Animal Control, everyone in
health -- Environmental Health; that hasn't -- and Juvenile
Probation. I believe that they're under different rules, but
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Olga Ozuna does have a bond, because she collects money in
that office. So -- but Animal Control does not.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: What's the most -- well,
cost-effective and practicality -- or practical way to do it,
to get bonds on all these other offices, anyone that handles
money? Make it a county policy? Or can there be an insurance
that picks up --
MS. HYDE: Well, for $10,000, it's $177.50 to bond.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: But most of them probably
~ wouldn't --
MS. HYDE: Most of them are less than that. You can
get -- for example, if Animal Control or Environmental Health
does their -- turns in their money daily or weekly, I think if
we put something to that effect, and also we can decrease the
amount of money that they would have to have, and that way
it's kind of set up so that they're not set up to fail, or
that there could be a --
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. So it's kind of the
two-pronged effect.
MS. HYDE: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: One's a policy to get funds into
our depository --
MS. HYDE: Right.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- fast, and then the other one
is to get a bond on those people.
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MS. HYDE: Right.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I notice another disparity
here in terms of the J.P.'s. Three of the J.P.'s has elected
officials bonded at 10,000, and then Number 9 is only bonded
at five.
MS. HYDE: Right.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Perhaps we should correct
I that.
MS. HYDE: The J.P. clerk for Number 4, she -- hers
is $5,000; the J.P.'s are $5,000. Their clerks -- there's
nothing in there, with the exception of, you know, the J.P.'s,
so everyone else, J.P. 1, 2, and 3, all have their clerks at
10,000 except Mr. Ragsdale -- Judge Ragsdale has -- has his
clerk at five, just like his.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay, I read it wrong.
MS. HYDE: It kind of falls in line with what this
book says for the most part. If you have -- you know, the
elected official versus their deputy or their assistant should
be at least to what the elected official is. The only other
one that -- that was different was constable of Precinct 3.
He's at 5,000, but the statute says 1,500. But the -- I also
heard that it had something to do with I-10, but I haven't
been able to find out anything more than that.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I just don't think that
that's true, because Precinct 1 has a large part of I-10 too.
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MS. HYDE: Well, that was the argument that --
COMMISSIONER LETZ: His ought to be the same.
MS. HYDE: So I don't know if there's something
different on -- on Constable Garza.
JUDGE TINLEY: If the statutory language is set by
the Court, amount not less than 500 or more than 1,500, I
think we're capped at 1,500.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Mm-hmm.
JUDGE TINLEY: Why is it 5,000?
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Reduce that one?
JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Going to reduce that one?
MS. HYDE: Okay.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I think that's what they
I said.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes.
JUDGE TINLEY: Mm-hmm.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I tell you, here's one. The
County Attorney, Melvin Rex Emerson.
MR. EMERSON: That's my alias.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: At 2,500. And, of course,
his assistant is zero, and the County Surveyor, 2,500. County
surveyor's just as important as you are, Melvin.
MR. EMERSON: Probably more so.
COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: And both of them are more
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important than we are.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Oh, absolutely. Why on the
County Surveyor? I mean, he does nothing.
MS. HYDE: It's in the book, Commissioner.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: The man's the top
vote-getter in Kerr County.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, I guess that's worth
something, huh? I guess. He handles not a penny. He
doesn't -- when he does work, we hire him and pay him. It's
not -- maybe he needs to do county work free. That's kind of
where my mind was going.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: There you go.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Or if we do it, we lower it to
500. Which is what it says, not less than 500. Isn't that
the right one?
MS. HYDE: Yeah. The county --
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So you think it's required
that the County Surveyor, even ours, be bonded?
MS. HYDE: I'm going by the book, and the book says
not less than 500 nor more than 10,000.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I think it needs to be
lowered to 500. I mean --
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, why not? I mean --
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah.
JUDGE TINLEY: You're going to find as you get down
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below 10,000 that the cost for a bond -- there's not going to
be a direct-proportion reduction.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I see.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Ms. Hyde, one more time,
which departments have an insurance policy? Besides the
County Attorney and the Tax Office.
MS. HYDE: The County Clerk's office, the District
Clerk's Office, and the Tax Assessor's office. Of course, and
the County Attorney's office that I left off.
MR. EMERSON: Just for my two cent's worth, you're
talking about cost. The insurance policy to cover all
employees in my office for dishonesty for up to $100,000 is
less than $300 a year.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is it? So, I mean, insurance is
likely less than the bond?
MR. EMERSON: It is in my office. I can't attest to
the other offices.
MS. HYDE: For 500,000, it's $1,983 for the District
Clerk. And Judge Brown also has a $500,000 policy.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, it seems we ought to go
ahead and make the four changes -- or three changes, anyway,
against the -- reduce the Constable 3, and the Treasurer's and
District Clerk's get raised to what the law prescribes. Then
I think we need to look at the -- anyone else that handles
money under a policy that you're working on, correct?
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MS. HYDE: Okay. Do you want -- what about -- okay,
so decrease Constable, Precinct 3 --
COMMISSIONER LETZ: To what the law says.
MS. HYDE: Decrease the County Surveyor?
COMMISSIONER LETZ: That one -- I mean, if it
costs -- I'd -- if the cost doesn't vary that much, it
probably doesn't make any difference.
MS. PIEPER: I think he pays for his own bond as
well, if I'm not mistaken.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Make it much bigger, then.
(Laughter.) Okay. If he pays for it.
MS. PIEPER: I believe he does. I could be wrong,
but --
	COMMISSIONER	LETZ: All	right.
	COMMISSIONER	WILLIAMS:	What other ones are you
talking	about here?		
	COMMISSIONER	LETZ: The	Treasurer to 80,000, then
the Dis	trict Clerk from	50 to 100.	
	COMMISSIONER	WILLIAMS:	I'm wondering about the
Deputy	Treasurer, wheth	er that als	o should be increased.
	COMMISSIONER	LETZ: But	that's not a statutory one.
That's	a -- the Deputy	Treasurer,	is that statutory? Or is
that --			
MS. HYDE: No, there's nothing in the book for the
deputy.
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COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay.
MS. NEMEC: I've just always done it.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: All right. And I think we need
to -- do you know what that costs, Barbara, for the deputy?
MS. NEMEC: $75. I think it's $75 or $50 for 5,000.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Probably -- well, I'd like to
find out what the -- we clearly have to add some bonds to the
Environmental Health, Animal Control, some of these others.
Granted, not real large. If we can get an insurance policy to
cover, seems to me, certainly those that report straight to
the Court, then see whether insurance or bond is the best way
to do the Treasurer's deputy. It would seem to me everyone
that reports to the Court, they ought to be able to get under
one insurance, 'cause it's not that much we're talking,
dollars-wise.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Just one blanket policy
I total?
COMMISSIONER LETZ: For Animal Control,
Environmental Health. I don't know if Road and Bridge -- they
don't ever collect any fees.
MS. HYDE: Road and Bridge have theirs. They have a
$12,000 bond.
MS. NEMEC: Is Ms. Hyde going to be responsible for
getting them now? We always used to be responsible. Is
she --
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MS. HYDE: For getting what?
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Bonds.
MS. HYDE: Would it not be based on what this says
I in here?
COMMISSIONER LETZ: No, no, be responsible for the
actual acquisition of them, what Ms. Nemec is asking, as
opposed to in the past, I think each elected official was
responsible for making sure they got their bond. Are you
going to take that on now?
MS. HYDE: I think we ought to keep it with who has
it right now.
JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay.
JUDGE TINLEY: Well, the elected official.
MS. HYDE: We can look at the others for the
insurance and see if we can consolidate the insurance portion.
I can help with that.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Elected official's responsible.
MS. NEMEC: So just get it? Okay.
MS. HYDE: So, are we looking to increase the
Treasurer's?
COMMISSIONER LETZ: To -- the statute says 80,000 or
whatever, yes, and then District Clerk, 100.
MS. HYDE: Okay.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: And Constable 3 to 1,500.
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MS. HYDE: Bring him down.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: It could be that the cost
wouldn't cost any more to get additional, but I think it still
ought to do what the law says. It says not to exceed.
JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Those are the bonds that
you're talking about?
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right.
JUDGE TINLEY: Is that a motion?
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes.
JUDGE TINLEY: Okay.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Second.
JUDGE TINLEY: I have a motion and a second as
indicated. Any further --
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Got them all?
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I think so, unless you got
some others.
JUDGE TINLEY: The others, I think, are insurance
items that we're going to be looking at.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'm just surprised that you
actually did it. I thought we'd come back later.
JUDGE TINLEY: Any other question or discussion on
the motion that was made?
COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Just an observation. This
is good work.
MS. HYDE: Thank you.
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COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: And isn't it good to have
professional staff to help us get our work done?
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Hear, hear.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Hear, hear.
JUDGE TINLEY: I'm -- I'm pretty well blown away by
what she was able to put together on a fairly short notice
when she wasn't here when we dropped this in her lap. Had you
been here, it may not have gotten dropped in your lap. So --
MS. HYDE: I'll be here next time.
JUDGE TINLEY: It's kind of like --
MS. HYDE: You taught me my lesson.
JUDGE TINLEY: By default, when you're not there...
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Lessons learned, huh?
MS. HYDE: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Of course, she whined about
it all the way.
MS. HYDE: I sure have. I have come to each one of
y'all just to make sure that I met or exceeded those
expectations. If y'all need any copies, they're here.
JUDGE TINLEY: Any other questions or comments on
the motion? All in favor of the motion, signify by raising
your right hand.
(The motion carried by unanimous vote.)
JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign.
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(No response.)
JUDGE TINLEY: Motion does carry. You're going to
look at insurance requirements on --
MS. HYDE: Right.
JUDGE TINLEY: -- non-elected officials to try and
cover these gaps?
MS. HYDE: Right.
JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. What's the Court's pleasure?
We've still got some more to do. Do you want to break for
lunch or blow through?
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I think we better break for
I lunch.
JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. We'll be in recess until about
1:30, maybe a hair after.
(Recess taken from 12:15 p.m. to 1:41 p.m.)
JUDGE TINLEY: Okay, let's come back to order, if we
might. We were in recess for lunch. Let's go to Item 13;
consider, discuss, and take appropriate action to ban aerial
fireworks in Kerr County for the December and January '06 --
should that be '06-dash-'07?
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes, I believe so.
JUDGE TINLEY: Statutory sales and holiday period.
Commissioner Letz?
COMMISSIONER LETZ: I put this on the agenda based
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on a letter we received from the Texas Association of
Counties, that if we need to -- if we are going to put on a
ban on aerial fireworks, it has to be done by the 15th of this
month.
COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Same order as last year? I
think it is.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: I believe it's --
COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Just banning --
COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- banning aerial fireworks.
COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Two classifications.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: And, personally, with the
drought conditions we're in, I'm in favor of it, and make a
motion to approve the order prohibiting fireworks as outlined
in the attached order.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Skyrockets with sticks and
missiles with fins.
COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Second.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I love that.
JUDGE TINLEY: We have a motion and a second. Any
question or discussion on the motion? All in favor of the
motion, signify by raising your right hand.
(The motion carried by unanimous vote.)
JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign.
(No response.)
JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. Let's move to
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Item 14; consider, discuss, and take appropriate action on
court order dated 11/28/06, to hire additional maintenance
person. Commissioner Letz, I think you indicated that's a
pass?
COMMISSIONER LETZ: That is a pass. That has been '
taken care of; that person has been handled.
JUDGE TINLEY: All right. i
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Or a person was hired.
JUDGE TINLEY: Item 15, consider, discuss, and take
appropriate action on organization of Maintenance and
Custodial departments. Commissioner Letz again, indication of
possible executive session.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: This is a pass also. This is
actually a -- a backup to the earlier one related to the Ag
Barn, just in case we want to look at personnel issues related
to the booking and things of that nature. But that is -- was
not done today, so this will not be done or needed either.
JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Let's move to Item 16;
consider, discuss, and take appropriate action for request for
approval by joint City/County economic development strategy
committee to make application to Economic Improvement
Corporation to fund comprehensive economic development study.
I put this on the agenda. The -- as you recall, the City and
the County both passed an economic development strategy
resolution with the appointment of a -- a committee to handle
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that matter. Commissioner Williams and I are the county reps
on it. There are two council -- City Council people on it,
and the rest of the nine-member committee was put in place,
and the clear consensus of the committee was that in order to
fund that study. I -- in discussing going to the E.I.C., why,
the consensus was also that it was thought appropriate to have
the approval of the two governing agencies to -- for the
committee to go to E.I.C. for that. It would be at no cost to
the County or the City, either one. We'd be asking for that
funding to come from the -- from the E.I.C. So, that's why
it's before you, is for approval to -- at least Commissioner
Williams and I, as members of that committee, to be able to
represent to the committee that the Court is in favor or -- or
is willing to authorize us to go ahead on the County's behalf
in asking for that.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Judge, you recall our
discussion upstairs about it -- and I know why it's on here
and I would support it, but you recall during that discussion,
I brought to our group's attention that we were -- the Airport
Board was working with the Airport Manager with respect to his
desire to do a business plan for the airport. I raised the
question, is it possible to consolidate these efforts and do
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everything at one time; do you recall that?
JUDGE TINLEY: Oh, yeah. Yeah.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Well, I just wanted to bring
it to your attention, 'cause I think it's important to this
whole discussion. In -- in the -- there's $160,000 that
he's -- that he's planning to spend for an airport board --
for an airport master plan.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Business plan.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Business plan. Business
plan, I'm sorry. Which is twice the amount of money we're
talking about spending here for county-wide, and -- you know.
JUDGE TINLEY: Overall economic improvement.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yeah. And it just blows my
mind, 160,000, and not putting that together with what you and
I are trying to accomplish with the -- other folks upstairs.
COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Who's paying that 160?
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Believe it or not, TexDOT is
putting up 90 percent of that money.
COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: See, there -- Kerrville is
spending 50,000 of their money to do a study of the library
campus. We don't know what kind of library we're going to
have in ten years. First you decide what you want or think
you're going to have, and then you -- then you do a study.
JUDGE TINLEY: The -- there have been some
developments since this was run through the committee, and
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what I was hoping to do was have the committee itself be the
applicant for the E.I.C. There is some thought now or
being -- being given to -- having the E.I.C. actually be the
one to obtain this -- this study, have ownership. They'll put
up the funds. Wouldn't even be necessary to make an
talked to, as long as we have access to the information.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: What do you mean by access?
JUDGE TINLEY: Well, the right to use the
included.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Right.
JUDGE TINLEY: That -- that is real important,
because in developing economic development strategy, there's
some other things that need to be rolled into it, as opposed
to just a generic type study.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: I would -- I would be a little
reluctant to turn over a county-wide economic package to
E.I.C. I see E.I.C. as having an awful close relationship
just with the City.
JUDGE TINLEY: Well, I understand.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: In Eact, they have to get
special permission to do anything outside of city limits.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Well, on the special
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committee, of course, there are two City Councilmen serving
with the Judge and myself. And so, you know, they know what's
taken place, and both of those -- or one of them's Chuck,
right?
JUDGE TINLEY: Chuck's on E.I.C.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Chuck sits on E.I.C. now.
JUDGE TINLEY: Well, there's a second one, too.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Todd?
JUDGE TINLEY: Chair of E.I.C., Priour.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Oh, yeah. So, the only
thought there is to get them to fund it. And, you know, I
don't have any problem with that. They can fund it.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. I -- I have no problem
with doing this and going to them to fund it, but I think it's
going to have a little -- I think it needs to have an arm's
length from E.I.C. in -- in doing the study.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Well, that was the original
intent, but this group the Judge is chairing, we're going to
be the ones who commission the study. And E.I.C.'s also going
to provide the funding for it.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. I have no problem with
that, but we can have it all done in -- you know, as a --
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I raised the other point,
though, because here we go off down the street another
direction, with twice as much money to do an airport business
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plan than our committee's asking to do a county-wide plan.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, I agree. And that -- I
February to go through it. Because the clear intent was to
get a -- a plan about this thick for the airport that's
usable, and experience shows me that if you have 160,000,
you're going to get a plan this thick that's not usable. So,
the airport plan, and I look at that as it's up to 160,000 we
can spend. But I just cannot imagine we'll approve that much.
JUDGE TINLEY: When -- when we were originally
talking about getting the study done, Commissioner Williams
mentioned the fact that it appeared -- I don't think at that
time it had been determined, but there was at least something
underway to get a business plan for the airport done, and
possibly we could figure out a way to roll these two together
with the business plan for the airport to use the basic
underlying data. And then, as a -- as a separate information
relative to that, in addition to what we needed, and I think
it was a great idea, but we got to be able to glue the two
pieces together. And if TexDOT's doing the funding over
there, or the majority of the funding, I would assume they're
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going to maintain pretty tight control over what it is and who
does it and what else it includes.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: We're going to recommend
consultants; am I correct? Then we can choose from their
list. Whatever. I think we should move forward with this;
there's no question about that. I just --
COMMISSIONER LETZ: We need to remember the other
ones going on, too. They need to at least mesh. You don't
want two completely different documents.
JUDGE TINLEY: Oh, no.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'm afraid that you try to
put them together here today, and you -- one is going to queer
the other.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That may be.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: There'll be enough opposition
in there that just -- it's not going to get over the hurdle
and get going.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yeah, I don't want to create
that hurdle. I really don't.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Your thought, though, is
absolutely excellent. My question is, when is the last time I
we've done a comprehensive economic development study?
JUDGE TINLEY: Approximately five years ago.
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COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Five?
JUDGE TINLEY: Five -- a little more than five now,
I'm given to understand.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Those things don't last very
long.
JUDGE TINLEY: No, they really don't.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Have we ever done an airport
business study?
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: We've done an airport master
plan.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I understand that.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Not a business plan.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Never have done a business
plan?
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Business development plan.
We have a master plan for the airport itself.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And that business plan, that
includes, like, what type of businesses you should put on the
property?
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: And categories and how you
can go after them and that stuff.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Where you should put them and
all that?
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Well, we've already decided
where -- where businesses are going to be placed on the
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airport property, but this would identify aviation and
non-aviation type businesses, and perhaps go after --
COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think it's more of a blueprint
as to how to do it, as to -- I mean, kind of a user's guide to
give the Airport Manager as to, "This is what we can offer."
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, I firmly believe that
if you're going to do the study and it costs money, let
somebody else pay for it.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Move approval of the agenda
I item.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second.
JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for approval
of the agenda item. Any question or discussion on the motion?
All in favor of the motion, signify by raising your right
hand.
(The motion carried by unanimous vote.)
JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign.
(No response.)
JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. We're now to
~ our 11:30 timed item. Should have left it at 2 o'clock where
it was originally, but optimism always is good. Animal
Control.
MS. ROMAN: Let's see, where do I start?
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You can get a stool or
something to stand on so we can see you.
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MS. ROMAN
park area with benches and stuff where people -- adoptees can
bring the dogs out, you know, and let them run around and see
if that's what they really want, play ball with them,
whatever. You know, kind of play with them a little bit
before they actually adopt them. We also have Danny Feller --
and you can see this is the area where the -- the new little
park is going to be. Danny Feller is there today putting in
the sides. When they originally built the -- the addition,
they didn't put sides on the building. They wanted it -- he
wanted it that way. With the weather the way it's been, it's
just not working, so we had to put tarps all the way around
it, and with the wind, it's just not -- it's just not working
at all. So he came back in, called Danny Feller, bought some
material, and we have them closing it up today. You're going
to love this.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Janie, would you be able to
take it back off in the spring?
MS. ROMAN: With -- well, what it's going to do is,
it's going to be on hinges. It's going to be sheet metal on
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hinges where you can lift them up.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Oh, fantastic.
MS. ROMAN: And drop them back down, so you can open
e it as you like. As far as my adoptions, they have
really, really gone up. In the last five years, we have never
adopted out more than 232 animals per -- for that year, per
year. We've adopted out between 205 and 232 animals in the
last five years. In the last two months, October and
November, we've already adopted out 111 animals. My
euthanasia rate has been cut in half.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Super.
MS. ROMAN: And my reclaims have gone up. So,
They're coming in, reclaiming; they're coming in and adopting.
It's going really well. We had an idea -- I spoke with
Mr. Ginsbach, the gentleman that donated the new expansion,
and we decided that we thought it would be a good idea to
start opening on weekends, 8:00 to -- 8:00 to noon, four hours
on Saturdays. There's a lot of -- a lot of people that want
I to come in on weekends, and we're closed. They can't make it
during the week, We've had a lot of people calling from San
Antonio wanting to come in during the week. I think you got a
couple of complaints about us not staying till 6:00, 7 o'clock
in the evening waiting on people. So, we decided that we
wanted to open on -- on weekends. And what we're going to do
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is, whoever works that weekend, -- more than likely, it's
going to be me -- I'll take half a day off, or if it's one of
-- you know, one of the other employees, they'll work four
hours on Saturday and take half a day off during the week.
But we thought that would raise our adoptions even more.
JUDGE TINLEY: The -- I've noticed some ads in the
newspaper. Is Pat paying for those, too?
MS. ROMAN: Yes, sir.
JUDGE TINLEY: I kind of thought he was.
MS. ROMAN: He's paying for the ads. I don't know
if y'all noticed in the newspaper, when we reached our 100th
adoption, he gave a $100 prize to the person that adopted the
100th dog. Well, he's going to do the same thing for the
500th; he's going to give a $500 prize. So --
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Would you give us the inside
info on that? I'll run out and adopt one.
MS. ROMAN: I had one guy call and said, "I'm going
to come adopt 20 of them if that gets me the $500." So,
we are --
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You could also dump them
somewhere.
MS. ROMAN: -- going to start using volunteers.
I've talked to Rex about the liability issue. We're going to
draw up a -- a waiver of some sort and start using volunteers.
I think one of the reasons that we didn't use volunteers in
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the past was because we had such a high euthanasia rate, and
it just -- you know, most of the people that -- that come in
and want to volunteer love animals, as do we. But they just
couldn't understand why it was that we had to euthanize so
many animals. And now that our euthanasia rate has been cut
and our adoptions have gone up, I think this would be a great
time to start using volunteers. So --
JUDGE TINLEY: And they would be -- they would be
available to assist on weekends also?
MS. ROMAN: Yes. Yes. And Pat is lining that up as
well. So, he has been amazing. He has just been great.
Great. I mean, if we need anything -- also, he ordered some
backpacks and had them embroidered, and caps and had those
embroidered, so anytime someone comes in and adopts an animal,
they get to pick either a cap or a backpack, and it says
"K.C.A,C., Spay/Neuter" -- I don't remember what all it says.
I I think -- didn't you get a cap?
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I don't know anything about
it.
MS. ROMAN: I think I gave you a cap.
COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Yeah, he did.
MS. ROMAN: They're really neat. He's really helped
us out a whole lot.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I found it.
MS, ROMAN: So, things are going good. Last night,
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I was there pretty late; we had a flood. The toilet --
something happened to the toilet and it ran all day, and so I
had to go to the Ag Barn and get a shop vac and clean up water
and all of that stuff. So, we've had -- we had a bunch of
boxes of paperwork that were -- that got wet, so we're trying
to sort all of that out and dry everything out, but other than
that, everything's going good.
JUDGE TINLEY: On your adoption rate, are any of
those coming back to you?
MS. ROMAN: No.
JUDGE TINLEY: Okay.
MS. ROMAN: No. I've had a couple come back, you
know, but -- I don't know, maybe two or three in the last six
months, if that many. So --
JUDGE TINLEY: So your return rate on adoptions is
minimal?
MS. ROMAN: Very.
JUDGE TINLEY: Okay.
MS. ROMAN: Very. And that's about it.
COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: It's been very helpful to
have an angel.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yes.
COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: And the money was a big
part of it, but it's his interest. We already have
volunteers. He's out there --
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MS. ROMAN: Oh, yeah. Yeah.
COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: -- daily. But even with
all that, without good leadership and the teamwork, these --
these goals wouldn't have been achieved. So --
MS. ROMAN: Well, I have to say, I have to give
credit to the two new girls that I've got. Those girls are
absolutely amazing. They really go above and beyond to get
things done, to make sure that, you know, everything's done.
And I give them all the credit in the world for -- for oar
adoption rates going up. They really, really work hard.
So --
JUDGE TINLEY: And, of course, mat's consistent
with Pat's efforts.
MS. ROMAN: Oh, absolutely.
JUDGE TINLEY: Everything's he's doing --
MS. ROMAN: Absolutely.
JUDGE TINLEY: -- is focused on adoption and getting
to a no-kill situation.
MS. ROMAN: Right. Right. He also had a big
sign -- I don't know if any of y'all have -- have drove by
there, but there's also a great big sign out front that says,
"Save a life, adopt a pet." So, we put that up. And the day
we put that up, we had people driving by and honking, and I am
not kidding you, we were swamped the rest of that day with
people stopping in. And we also -- I also started letting
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people foster the animals again. We stopped doing that years
ago because people weren't returning the animal -- you know,
the animals, or they weren't coming back in and paying for
them and such. But I don't think it was being done properly.
Now we're taking -- we're getting copies of their driver's
license and, you know, things like that, and it's going real
well. I'd prefer that people come in and foster an animal for
a few days before they actually pay for it. I don't want
people coming in and just saying, "Oh, I want that dog," and
then bringing it back or letting it run loose or whatever.
And so it's going -- it's going real well,
COMMISSIONER BALDWZN: Janie, why foster them? I
mean, are they trying them out to see if they want to own one?
MS. ROMAN: Well, a lot of times I --
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Or is it -- is it a -- you
have a dog here so they'll know I'm a dog man"? What is it?
MS, ROMAN: No, they want to make Sure that they --
either the dog gets along with their kids or with their other
pets.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN; I see.
MS. ROMAN: You know, and things like that, whereas
if they come in and just -- they like a dog and they take it
and it doesn't work out, well, they lose their $45, And we get
a dog back. That -- you know, so I'd prefer that they -- they
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do that anyway.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's pretty cool.
MS. ROMAN: And it's -- it's going well.
JUDGE TINLEY: And fostering also, more often than
not, evolves into permanent adoption.
MS. ROMAN: Right. Right, And that also clears up
a little bit more space at the shelter so that we bring in
more animals and we're not having to euthanize as many.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: What are we doing on feral cats?
MS. ROMAN: Well, we've got Pam Warner that is doing
the trap, spay and neuter and release program. I've -- I've
had a lot of people that really don't like that idea, but if
you really look at it long-term, I think it's really going to
work. I know -- I mean, we did a little bit of research, and
in other cities it's really worked. We have got such a bad
feral cat problem in this county. Tt's a really, really bad
problem, so -- and we've already started to see a change, an
improvement. If you have all of these animals -- for
instance, a colony of -- of cats over at Luby's. I think she
started three years ago.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Luby's Cafeteria?
i MS. ROMAN: Mm-hmm. She started three years ago, II
and we had a bad problem out there. We were just trapping ~
them. And because we were just trapping them and euthanizing
them, and you still had all of these females out there
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breeding. Well, Pam has gone in -- they trap these cats; they
have them spayed, and then they release them so they're not
reproducing. Now, we have an agreement that if we trap one,
or if someone traps a cat, that one doesn't go back out.
We -- we euthanize it. If it's a feral cat, we euthanize it.
So, it -- it's helping, because in the long -- in the long
run, what's going to happen is that colony is eventually going
to die down and they're not reproducing, whereas if we just
trap and euthanize, we still have all of those out there that
are -- that are reproducing. So, that seems to be working.
We're not getting near as many feral cats in as we used to.
What we have had a problem with this year is skunks, and I've
only had one positive case this year, and that was in a fox.
But other than that, that's -- that's pretty much it. We've
been dealing a lot with loose livestock as well, and we're
keeping them out at the Ag Barn. So --
COMMISSIONER LETZ: You don't have any of mine, do
I You?
MS. ROMAN: No.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Good job.
MS. ROMAN: Pardon?
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Good job.
MS. ROMAN: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you very much.
MS. ROMAN: You're welcome. Bye.
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COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: I wonder if any
achievements can be attributed to the new sidewalk out there.
JUDGE TINLEY: I'm sure they all can.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Can be what?
COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Attributed to our new
sidewalk.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Absolutely.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Sure.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: What a great difference was made
by the donor.
COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Oh, yeah. And that,
combined with this kind of leadership commitment to -- those
adoptions aren't just happening accidentally. They're --
everybody out there is on the telephone calling people up and
saying, "We've got a good dog here, need your help."
JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Anything more on Animal
Control? Let's give Mr. Walston a chance from the Extension
Office.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Stock show's coming up; we won't
see him for six months.
MR. WALSTON: Yeah, be out-of-pocket here before
long. All right. I've got y'all some information, probably
more than I'm going to spend going over, but I want to be able
to give it to you and to where y'all can have it to look over.
First of all, this is -- 2006 is our 100th year of the County
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Extension Agents.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Would you --
I don't know what
that little momentum -- memento, something like that, to show
you our appreciation for y'all's support for the Extension
Service and what y'all help us -- enable us to do. And let me
see. This is a little milestone update on our 4-H program.
This last Friday, as y'all saw in the paper, we had the Any
Baby Can Christmas party. This is the second year our Junior
and Senior Council has helped to sponsor the Any Baby Can
Christmas party, and it was really a nice success. We had
well over 100 people there with gifts, and our 4-H Council
basically helps to coordinate the gift giving, and they
decorate the hall and -- and provide food for these kids to
come out with Any Baby Can, and then they'll work with Santa
Claus in getting those gifts and to serve as elves and helping
the people. And the kids really enjoyed the opportunity to
get to work with those kids.
We'll just start up at the top. This past year, we
program, and this is something that, statewide, we've
gradually seen a decline in -- in numbers in our 4-H and youth
as far as our traditional 4-H clubs, for whatever reason. It
may have been due to how we counted those numbers, at whatever
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that may have been. But for a long time, we had a lot of
emphasis put from our administration to really work on our
curriculum enrichment through the schools and in hopes of
getting those kids into our traditional 4-H program. Some of
that works, but probably not to the extent that we'd really
like it to. So, a lot of it is just word of mouth, getting
these kids out and getting them involved in our program and
getting them involved in and enrolled in our clubs. We're
glad to see 379; that's an increase over the past couple of
years. I think we were at about 350 last year, and we're at
370. This next year, we expect to be well over 400. So --
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I thought you were just
saying there's been a decline.
MR. WALSTON: There has been in the state. We've
increased.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: But not --
MR. WALSTON: Not here.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Oh.
MR. WALSTON: This year we've gone from 350 to 379.
Next year I anticipate being over 400.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's fantastic.
MR. WALSTON: We have ten charter clubs that we have
to charter each year. And our top five projects, as you can
see, we have -- leadership is a big project, including foods
and nutrition, shooting sports, meat goats, swine, livestock
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projects are all a big emphasis on and have a lot of
participation.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Meat goats is still a growing
program?
MR. WALSTON: The meat goat project -- the meat goat
and the beef project and the livestock are probably the only
two that are still increasing.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Have we caught Gillespie
County yet in the meat goat?
MR. WALSTON: Oh, I would imagine.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Good deal.
MR. WALSTON: I would imagine. I don't know what
theirs are, but --
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: They brag about it.
MR. WALSTON: Well, I'm not going to say anything,
but I'd venture to say that we've probably got more meat
goats. But, you know, swine, I'm not going to say we do. But
our -- our swine numbers have dropped off, our beef numbers
have increased, and our lamb numbers have dropped off. And
that's -- it's kind of cyclical. I mean, you drop off a
little bit, and then the next couple years you'll come back
up. So, our shooting sports program, we're anticipating --
we're trying to get an archery program and an air pistol
program started this year in addition to our rifle and trap
and skeet. So, we're going to have probably one of the best
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MR. WALSTON: There's just an interest there. The
complex helps because we got a facility to work in. If we
didn't have a facility, we wouldn't be able to do it. But now
that we've got the facility and there's enough parents out
there that are interested, it's easy to be able to pull them
in, get them going, get them trained and go from there. It's
amazing what kind of talent we've got when we need it. In the
archery department, come to find out one of our trap and skeet
parents is a national archery shooter, so we've got ability in
-- you know, you never know what you're going to have till you
need it, and then if you need it, you go find it. So, our
curriculum enrichment numbers in the past year, we're 973.
That was pretty level to what it's been being, and that's
programs that are going through the school system and working
with the school on providing curriculum for kids in those
areas.
JUDGE TINLEY: What grades does that impact?
MR. WALSTON: Primarily fourth and fifth is -- and
then you'll get into a few of them that'll be up in sixth and
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seventh grade. But junior high and elementary; fourth and
fifth, elementary.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: What's the -- how does the
curriculum enrichment program come under the 4-H work with the
schools, what the schools do through their program, the FFA
and other stuff? How do they mesh?
MR. WALSTON: What we do, Laurinda will go into the
schools and provide training to those teachers and offer the
curriculum to them, and they pick up the curriculum and take
it and use it, and then in turn give us the numbers for what
they've used our curriculum for. And then we try to go in
and -- and visit with those kids about the 4-H program.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, you work with the -- with
the teachers?
MR. WALSTON: With the teachers.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay.
MR. WALSTON: During -- either during -- at the
beginning of school, when they're doing their teacher
in-service, we'll try and provide -- and we try to narrow it
down to a few curriculum programs, rather than having a big --
I mean, we've got a lot more than this, but this is some of
the ones that we found that are the most -- that they're most
interested in, along with the junior master gardener program.
This is another one that they really like. And so, basically,
we provide them with a curriculum and material, and Laurinda
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a screening process.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is that screening by just
No, it's background check, yeah.
Texas 4-H runs a background check for us, and then, basically,
they just send us the information, "Yes, this one's approved,"
or "He's not approved," for whatever reason, not in detail.
You know, for whatever -- he may not be able to drive kids,
you know. He can do everything else, but he can't transport
kids. And we don't know why or anything; we just know what he
can or can't do. So, like I say, that's something that we'll
continue to work on and continue to do on a yearly basis as we
get new volunteers. This last year, in our -- we were able to
partner with the Sunrise Lions Club and got $8,000 --
generated $8,000 from our Grand Slam Wild Game Dinner. We
hope to continue that. And we use -- that money will go in
towards helping to offset some of the cost on these leadership
programs and Roundup, and helping furnish some travel funds
for these kids to go to state and national contest.
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Roundup, as y'all have heard -- and I've gone over
We also had
County's had an educational presentation that placed at state.
We also -- Chance Muehlstein is our State Council member. He
is currently serving as our District 10 president, and he is
on State Council, and I think our last one was in 1998 that we
had a representative on State Council. We also had two 4-H
members that received foundation -- 4-H Foundation
scholarships, and generated about a little over $20,000 in
scholarships for their college education. I anticipate having
some more of those here in the near future. Chance Muehlstein
also participated in national 4-H conference in Atlanta,
Georgia just a couple of weeks ago, and we're working on --
he, as well as a couple other seniors and I, to go on another
national trip this year -- this next year.
Our BCI program, the Building Community Inclusion
program that we're -- Laurinda has worked with, with the
Salvation Army and the Any Baby Can was recognized on a state
level by winning the diversity award, as being a part of a
state team in -- in diversity area. And we'd like to
recognize them for all the efforts that that Junior and Senior
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This gives
numbers and number of contributors that we work with that we
validated in 2006, just to go over that just a little bit.
I'd like to visit with you a little bit on -- on Jody. She
the computer. Now, we've -- they've gotten us using the
computer doing a lot of training, so they -- it's Internet
training, center training, and so she was tied up at 1:30 on
that and didn't think she was going to get out.
Her 4-H -- the 4-H Food and Nutrition project, the
council food show was held at Center Point Elementary School.
They had 26 youth that participated and 26 adults. They had
11 youth participate and qualify to go to the district food
show at Fredericksburg. And Cody Martin placed first in the
district food show with his -- with his junior nutritious
snacks category. She felt like this was a real learning
experience as much for her as it was for the kids to see kind
of where -- where these kids were and what she needed to do to
help prepare them next year even better. Some of the tnings
she's doing in adult programming, I think, is she's getting
out in the community and meeting a lot of people and doing a
lot of -- a lot of good as far as her programming on every
Monday at the Alamo Workforce Center, her Work Source Career
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Center. Right now she's working with -- in the area of the
Better Living for Texas nutrition classes, and starting in
January she'll be doing a Money Smart financial education for
those -- for that audience. Also, she is working with Mooney
Disease Awareness, and this is done on a once-a-month basis.
And she's also providing this to the River Hills Apartment
residents as well, and we'll be -- in January, we'll be
training. The Kerr County Diabetes Coalition has been formed
and is working on planning and organizing and implementing the
diabetes education classes, and those are scheduled to begin
in the spring. She's offering a Master of Memory series
starting in February through the Club Ed program, and I
believe that's going to be offered at the County Extension
Office. And I know that's one of the ones that I need to be
in, but it's a Master of Memory. I think that's a pretty
interesting topic. One of the things that they're going to be
i working on is how your memory works, what affects our memory,
and strategies to improve it. Presented -- she's also
presented programs to our Bluebonnet Extension education
groups and the Cypress Creek Extension, education on pandemics
and hidden amounts of sugars in foods. She also took two
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also programming monthly for residents at the Meadows housing
complex and Heritage Oaks housing comp Le x, and topics -- the
topics there include nutrition, money management, and consumer
scams. So, I think you can tell that she's off and running
and doing us an excellent job.
The other thing -- this is something I'm not going
to go into a lot of detail. This is some of the Ag Barn
programs, the outcome summary that I've presented this last
year here in Kerr County. I'll leave you that with some time
to look it over. It's basically just an overall view of the
prescribed burn workshops, our Hill Country Living 101 series,
wildlife management seminars, and rangeland monitoring field
day that we held this last year, and kind of a cumulative
evaluation of those participants at those workshops and what
they actually learned and gained through those workshops. I
think it was something that was well received, and -- and I
will -- I will leave that with you and let you look over that
as -- as you find time to.
We've just recently finished our pecan show here
over 100 entries at our regional show and about 60 entries at
our district show for this year. That was -- that was a nice
show. Okay. This is something that Sudie Burditt with the
Convention and Visitors Bureau has put together. Alyce has
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asked that -- back in, I guess, October, she had asked me to
help Sudie put together a little bit of an impact report on
the Hill Country Youth Exhibit Center, and I thought I would
give y'all this information so that y'all would have it, you
know, if you needed resource material or something to look
Exhibit Center has been. Basically, to get to the point, the
direct impact totally on the past year from October through
September for the year was a little over a half million
dollars, $537,504, that was generated either through dollars
spent going to and from in the community for programs,
whatever was there, as well as overnight stays. They were in
the -- in the community. The back page -- or back several
pages, actually, show what -- what the program was, the number
of attendants that was there, whether it was an ag or non-ag,
and also whether it was youth -- youth-oriented. But I know
there -- you know, there's always a question as to what that's
actually worth to you, and I thought that might be something
that would be beneficial to you. Any questions?
JUDGE TINLEY: Any questions for Mr. Walston?
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Pretty interesting
information.
JUDGE TINLEY: The activities of the Family and
Consumer Affairs, Ms. Osteen --
MR. WALSTON: Mm-hmm.
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JUDGE TINLEY: Is she starting to put some emphasis
on adult education in areas of diabetes and things of that
MR. WALSTON: Yeah. Yeah. I think now that she's
kind of through the food show portion of it, getting --
getting past that part of it, I think working with some of
these senior groups that she's able to work in the area of
nutrition, where she's gone -- she's gone through training on
the Kerr County -- on the Diabetes Coalition. It appears to
me that that's -- and I'm not absolutely positive, but I think
that's one of our outcome areas next year. I know it's an
area that she's going to be working in. It's just what -- you
know, but I think it's a -- an outcome area that she's going
to be getting a lot of information on.
JUDGE TINLEY: Well, I think whatever she can do
from an educational standpoint to -- of course, most of these
people are elderly, and they're more prone to be diabetic, but
a lot of them don't realize it, and we end up with them over
here in the hospital emergency room, and some of them come
through and we end up picking up the tab on some of those.
And with a little bit of education, those kind of things can
be averted. So -- and I think it would be a material benefit
to our health care programs.
MR. WALSTON: I know she has listed on here that
those are -- the diabetes classes are to begin this spring.
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So --
JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Anything else?
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Thank you. Good report.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Very good. Thank you, Roy.
MR. WALSTON: You bet.
(Discussion off the record.)
JUDGE TINLEY: Environmental Health.
MR. ARREOLA: Good afternoon.
JUDGE TINLEY: Good morning -- afternoon.
MR. ARREOLA: Somebody left their pen over here.
Okay, I got y'all's reports. That's the monthly report, plus
the two first months of the fiscal year.
COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Okay. Any different way of
copying these reports where we could read --
MR. ARREOLA: Some of those numbers are actually
blank; there's not supposed to be anything in them.
COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Oh, okay.
MR. ARREOLA: The ones -- the little gray copies
don't help; I was just looking at that, too. But, yeah, we'll
try to make it a little better next time. The only numbers
that you need to look into the gray areas is on the -- at the
end of the report at the left-hand side. I can give you those
numbers if you want to know.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Tell me -- compare this
year's activities to this time last year's activities.
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MR. ARREOLA: Okay. If we go money-wise, we're a
little lower. Last year at this time of the year we were at
$14,000 revenue, and we are at $11,967 this year, so we're,
like, $1,500, $2,000 lower than last year.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And why is that?
MR. ARREOLA: The month of October was unusually
slow. And if you go back a little bit on the charts, we can
show it was a slow month. I don't know why. The weather was
good, but still it was kind of a slow month.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Are you still seeing new
residences, new systems?
MR. ARREOLA: There's a lot of new construction.
There's a lot of new --
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: New construction?
MR. ARREOLA: -- development. Actually, the month
of November was pretty -- pretty big, was a good month. But
since we calculate both months together, then we're overall
lower. We're doing -- also seeing in this month, in December,
an increase. We're going a little above what we did last
~ year.
JUDGE TINLEY: Looks like your number of new systems
was down as compared to last year, by -- well, let me see.
About 20 percent.
MR. ARREOLA: From -- yes, sir, from 17 to 22.
JUDGE TINLEY: Well, looks like new systems, last
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graphic, that's the aerobic maintenance program. That's
mandated by state law. We're doing real good on that part.
We're about to start going to the city of Ingram program,
which is a little -- little behind on all these items. So,
I'm going to be giving you a report in the next -- next time
with the City of Ingram separate from this one. We're doing
real good; we got about 1,400 on aerobic units in the county,
and only 42 of those don't have a maintenance contract, and
all of them we are working on. We notified the people that
they're out of enforcement and they have to be. Everybody is
working on it.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: There is a mechanism for the
can do their own system now if they want to. We haven't had a
big demand from homeowners trying to do it. There's a few
that are trying to get that, but there's some certifications
they need to get also, so it's not really cost-effective, but
it is there. The next graphic is our response time. State
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law mandates certain -- certain time for us to respond to
plans and inspections. We're doing pretty good on that one,
too. About .0 -- 0.6 percent is just about what we're
supposed to -- the rest is being done on time. The next
authorization to construct. You can see every month how we've
been doing. Like I said, in October we're a little lower.
November came back up. December normally -- it was a lot -- a
big month last year, and we're seeing that also this year.
The next one up is inspection -- number of inspections we did
during the month, and again, information for the last three
years. This does not include the Kerrville South wastewater
project that we are injecting also. Abandoning septic systems
is not included in here, either the inspections or paperwork
that we need to do on it. Any questions on there? Okay.
The last graphic is the Solid Waste report, and what
I did there, it's compared to the last three years also,
fiscal years. This is 'O5, the first bar. This is the number
of inspections, the number of cases that were inspected or
investigated. And then '06, we went down a little bit, total
numbers we did. And our goal for '07, it's 200 cases. So far
we got about 20, and we're working on that, so we should be
able to do at least those 200 cases.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Miguel, what's the latest on
the cleanup program over there in that area of Center Point,
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Bowlin Drive and all of that?
MR. ARREOLA: We finished that area. I don't have
the numbers here with me, but four -- I think four or five
locations did get a citation, and then the latest drive-by
that I did, they cleaned up. After they got a citation and
paid for it.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: They did clean it up after
you cited them?
MR. ARREOLA: Yes.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Good.
MR. ARREOLA: Probably one still in the process, not
completely done, but they're cleaning up.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: You might -- I know we've talked
about it before; I know Commissioner Williams has, but the end
of River Road.
MR. ARREOLA: Yes. River Road -- Riverside Road.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is it Riverside?
MR. ARREOLA: By Highway 27 and --
JUDGE TINLEY: Behind the Ag Barn. No, that's
~ Riverside.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's Riverside. River Road in
Center Point.
MR. ARREOLA: Oh, Center Point, okay.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: About the end of River Road
where that mobile home park is.
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COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Oh, that's out Skyline.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Skyline, I'm sorry.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Hill River Estates.
MR. ARREOLA: That is a serious problem. That has
been on the -- on the goals for a while.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That's on the watch list,
~ isn't it?
COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think it needs -- I think it
needs to go past the goals and the watch list to the action.
MR. ARREOLA: Yeah. It's -- the problem with that
area is that it changes so much. We go back one time, and
some areas we come back and they're all new owners. People
are moving in and out so quick, and they all do about the
same. We've been doing real good on septic -- on the septic
side. When we started this program, it was basically septics
around there, and now I'd say 80 percent of the problems were
solved. Solid waste is -- is a major item in there, too.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: You go out there frequently?
MR. ARREOLA: Yes, sir. Solid Waste goes every two
weeks at least, and O.S.S.F., every time we have a complaint.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: One of our -- one of our
constituents -- or my constituents who was recently cited in
County Court for burying all sorts of stuff he shouldn't bury,
and Miguel followed through with T.C.E.Q., sells those pieces
of property on contracts of sale out there. So, folks move
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in; they can bring a trailer in, and I expect --
MR. ARREOLA: Correct.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: -- they live there a couple
months, then they don't make their payment, and away the
trailer goes, and another one comes in behind them. You got
that issue all over again.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Tough area, but it's also --
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: It's a catch-22 situation.
MR. ARREOLA: And it needs attention. It just --
and we need more resources to just that area.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Obviously, one of your -- when
you focus on that area in Center Point, one of those focused
efforts on solid waste may help a little bit over there.
MR. ARREOLA: Sure.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: See, there's some that -- I
mean, there's some that don't care about it. There's also a
group out there that really wants that area cleaned up.
MR. ARREOLA: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Basically, the ones I hear from
are not any of my constituents.
MR. ARREOLA: Also, I'd like to share with you about
what you were mentioning a little bit. We had a property on
Riverside Drive that was a great example of teamwork. Really
helpful from, I think, the attorney's office; Mr. Emerson
helped us a lot to get these into a conviction. T.C.E.Q. got
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involved -- T.C.E.Q., San Antonio regional office. Road and
Bridge helped us out, the Sheriff's Department, everybody
i working together, and we got this real good conviction in it.
T.C.E.Q, is now in charge of the probation conditions of this
]ocation.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Meaning the cleanup?
MR. ARREOLA: The cleanup, yeah. He has probation
time to clean it up, so that's going to be a good impact on
the area.
JUDGE TINLEY: Is that going all the way to the
south to the fence that is a common fence between our park
area and this individual's property that's owned?
MR. ARREOLA: Yes, sir, the entire 20-some acres is
going to get cleaned up.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Unfortunately, it bumps up
right against the county property.
JUDGE TINLEY: Yep.
MR. EMERSON: He's actually on probation through
216th Adult Probation Department, but he has three pages of
attached probation conditions that are -- that were set by
T.C.E.Q. to stay on probation related to cleanup of that
property in the wording.
MR. ARREOLA: So, it was a very good -- very good
i case.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: You sent me a memo about one
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property owner on Loyal Valley who wanted to have the best of
both worlds, so free septic hookup, and then --
MR. ARREOLA: Refuses to --
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: -- free sewer hookup, and
retain his septic. The answer is no.
MR. ARREOLA: Okay.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That's a condition of
accepting the free hookups; those septic tanks have to be
pumped and mitigated.
MR. ARREOLA: Okay, I just wanted to keep you in the
loop. He mentioned that to us, and what we did, we sent him a
letter requesting him to put it in writing. That way we can
start and --
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Just instruct --
MR. ARREOLA: -- tell him officially no.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: The answer is clearly no.
MR. ARREOLA: Okay.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Can't have it both ways.
MR. ARREOLA: The attorney has been informed of that
too. Any questions?
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I've got one. I remember in
the budget, we put in some dollars for education purposes.
MR. ARREOLA: Uh-huh.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What -- first of all, remind
me of what that meant, and number two, tell me where you are
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in doing that.
MR. ARREOLA: We did -- what we do -- what we have
been doing is participating a lot in public forums, most of
them free, so we haven't used a lot of that money. Sometimes
we use publications or bring in something to that forum that
we're advertising, anywhere we get invited to. This year,
we're going to plan something to give them -- give the public
videos, DVD's of how to protect your environment better and
septics and solid waste. That's basically the -- the usage.
We went down from -- I think it was $2,000 in the beginning to
$500 or something easier.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I see.
MR. ARREOLA: 'Cause we -- most of what we do comes
free, so we don't really use the funds, but whatever we have
there is going to be used for that.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: 10-4.
JUDGE TINLEY: Anything else? Thank you, Miguel.
MR. ARREOLA: Thank you.
JUDGE TINLEY: Appreciate it. Okay, do we have
anything that we need to go into executive session about?
Okay.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: That was quick. Just a
reminder, that I believe when -- before we took O.S.S.F. back
over, there was several members of U.G.R.A. Board that said we
would never be able to run it as good as they did.
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COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: And just recently, I heard
from the former president of U.G.R.A. to say that he was
amazed what we'd done with it and, you know, what a good move
it was and how they were happy to be with them. So, all in
all, it's --
COMMISSIONER LETZ: A win-win.
COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: -- worked good.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Little more expensive than we
~ want it.
(Discussion off the record.)
JUDGE TINLEY: Okay, looks like we're down to paying
the bills, so it would appear.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I forgot to bring my packet
in. I'll look on yours.
COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Move we pay the bills.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second.
JUDGE TINLEY: I have a motion and second. Any
question or discussion? Okay, Page 16. First entry there,
reimbursement of phone expense. I assume that that's going to
be a cell phone? Is that for two months?
MR. TOMLINSON: I don't know.
JUDGE TINLEY: Because I turn the page and look at
the next one and see that it's about half that. And on other
occasions, I've looked at other J.P.'s, and --
MR. TOMLINSON: It's probably for one month.
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COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Is what?
COMMISSIONER LETZ: One month.
MR. TOMLINSON: Yeah. We -- we pay it monthly, so
unless -- unless they hold a bill and we don't -- we don't get
it in time to get -- to get it in for payment.
JUDGE TINLEY: Well, I -- I think we need to see
exactly where our cell phone money's going to and put a curb
on it, 'cause we got too many cell phones floating around that
we're paying for that I'm not sure are being used totally for
county business.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: I've been an advocate of doing
them all under a county plan. Can't get there from here.
JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah, we can.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: We haven't been able to yet.
JUDGE TINLEY: We'll get there. Maybe the simplest
thing to do would be come up with just an allowance for those.
First we identify those who are required to have it for county
business, and then just a blank allowance.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Based on the minimal plan
I that's --
JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Which is about a $35, $39
plan, something like that.
MR. TOMLINSON: There are a lot of counties that do
I that.
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COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think I'd be in favor of that.
JUDGE TINLEY: Can you get us some information from
other auditors on how they handle that financially?
MR. TOMLINSON: I don't know -- I don't -- I think
the hardest part would be to determine what the allowance
would be per -- per office. I mean, that -- that would be an
up-front situation. I guess you would have to determine
what -- what the official -- what the average monthly was.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: I can't see any county person
using their cell phone for county business being more than a
minimum subscriber.
JUDGE TINLEY: That's kind of my thinking.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I can't either, really.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We don't have access to
I their --
MR. TOMLINSON: Oh, yeah.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: -- phone calls?
MR. TOMLINSON: We have access, sure.
DODGE TINLEY: You know, I don't want to get in the
game of going through a bill and spending the time that -- you
know, you guys would be the ones that would have it dropped in
your lap. We used to have a nightmare with that doggone land
line phone bill here. That took somebody, like, three days to
sort all that out, and that was a nightmare. But I think we
need to make a determination of, number one, who is authorized
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to have a county -- to have a cell phone for county business,
and then just come up with a blanket dollar amount, and that's
it.
MR. TOMLINSON: I think -- I think what some
counties do is -- is allow the -- allow the individual to have
their own plan, and they -- County reimburses that person for
the minimum, so they could use the phone -- if it's their
plan, they can use it.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's a good idea.
JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yeah, that's the way it
should be.
JUDGE TINLEY: But rather than wrestle with a whole
bunch of plans, just come up with one dollar amount of an
allowance for everybody and be done with it.
MR. TOMLINSON: But the County wouldn't be involved
with the phone company at all.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: No.
JUDGE TINLEY: That's right. No, you don't want
them involved.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: If you get a bad plan, you just
get less paid for by the County.
JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah, $25, $40, whatever. Just a
blanket figure, and that's -- that's what you get.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: $10, $15.
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COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Y'all want to start paying
for mine? Not Letz', but mine.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I knew you were going to ask
that. I was hoping you would ask that.
JUDGE TINLEY: Okay, let's see what else I got here.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Tommy, if we did the allowance,
is that not taxable? Doesn't that go in as income?
MR. TOMLINSON: Yes, it would be.
JUDGE TINLEY: Uh-huh. But then they can turn
around and write off that portion of it that is, quote,
business.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Oh, sure.
JUDGE TINLEY: Off of their individual return, but
it's shown as -- shown as other income to them out of the
County.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right.
JUDGE TINLEY: Page 48, what project is that? Is
that the tower? The radios?
MR. TOMLINSON: This is the --
JUDGE TINLEY: Hope that's not the courthouse
renovations, because I thought we were through with that.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Mm-hmm.
MR. TOMLINSON: Yeah, that is the radio equipment.
JUDGE TINLEY: Okay, that's the radio? Okay. I
just wanted to make sure we weren't paying the wonderful Bank
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of New York for a project that we were already through with.
MR. TOMLINSON: No. No, that's -- that's the
administrative fee.
JUDGE TINLEY: Oh, I understand. I understand, but
it's in connection with an obligation that we've already
liquidated, no longer exists, if it was with --
MR. TOMLINSON: Right.
JUDGE TINLEY: -- the courthouse.
MR. TOMLINSON: No.
JUDGE TINLEY: Any other questions or comments? All
in favor of the motion, signify by raising your right hand.
(The motion carried by unanimous vote.)
JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign.
(No response.)
JUDGE TINLEY: Motion carries. Budget amendments.
Budget Amendment Request 1.
MR. TOMLINSON: Okay. 1 is for the Sheriff's
Department to recognize $4,237.69 from Allstate Insurance
Agency for damage to one of our vehicles.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So moved.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second.
JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for
approval. Any question or discussion? All in favor of the
motion, signify by raising your right hand.
(The motion carried by unanimous vote.)
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JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign.
(No response.)
JUDGE TINLEY: Motion carries. Budget Amendment
Request 2.
MR. TOMLINSON: Two is for the County Extension
Office and Nondepartmental. We -- during the budget process,
we -- we made an error in budgeting the salaries for the
Extension Agents. I think it had something to do with the
fact that we didn't have the -- Roy's counterpart was not on
staff part of the year, and then also we did not add the
4.2 percent to their -- to their salary. So, we discovered
this just -- just recently, and the amount -- the amount that
we need to change the agents' salaries is $5,138 for salary,
and $393 for FICA expense.
COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: This will take care of the
whole year?
MR. TOMLINSON: Yes.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: So moved.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Second.
JUDGE TINLEY: We have a motion for approval. Any
question or discussion? All in favor of the motion, signify
by raising your right hand.
(The motion carried by unanimous vote.)
JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign.
(No response.)
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JUDGE TINLEY: The motion carries. Budget Amendment
Request 3.
MR. TOMLINSON: Three is for Road and Bridge to
transfer $411 from their Contingency line item to Vehicle
i Insurance.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So moved.
COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Second.
JUDGE TINLEY: I have a motion for approval. Any
question or discussion? All in favor of the motion, signify
by raising your right hand.
(The motion carried by unanimous vote.)
JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign.
(NO response.)
JUDGE TINLEY: Motion carries. Budget Amendment
Request 4.
MR. TOMLINSON: Okay, 4 is for J.P. 4, to transfer
$177.50 from Conference line item to Bonds.
COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Move to approve.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Second.
JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded. Any
question or discussion? All in favor of the motion, signify
by raising your right hand.
(The motion carried by unanimous vote.)
JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign.
(No response.)
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JUDGE TINLEY: Motion carries. Budget Amendment
Request 5.
MR. TOMLINSON: Five is for County Court at Law,
from Judge Brown, to transfer $170 from his Court-Appointed
Attorney line item to his Liability Insurance line item.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I rise to move for approval.
COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Second.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Second. Not goinq to qet
up, though.
JUDGE TINLEY: Motion for approval. Any question or
discussion? All in favor, signify by raising your right hand.
(The motion carried by unanimous vote.)
JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign.
(No response.)
JUDGE TINLEY: Motion carries. Budget Amendment
Request 6.
MR. TOMLINSON: Okay, 6 is for the 216th District
Court, to transfer $8,420 from Court-Appointed Attorney line
item to Court-Appointed Services. It's for --
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Shrinks.
MR. TOMLINSON: Yes, exactly right. I'm trying tc
find out what case it is.
JUDGE TINLEY: We got enough upcoming, it's not
going to make any difference.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, really.
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JUDGE TINLEY: Let me tell you something, we got
some booger-bears coming on that one.
MR. TOMLINSON: It's another Seard case.
JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. Yeah.
MR. TOMLINSON: And I need a hand check for $3,000
dollars for that physician.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: So moved.
JUDGE TINLEY: $3,000 to whom?
MR. TOMLINSON: Don't make me pronounce this name.
It's Dr. Sridhar -- Natarajan is the way I would pronounce it.
S-r-i-d-h-a-r, N-a-t --
JUDGE TINLEY: Don't spell it; I'll pronounce it the
way you did.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Must be German. (Laughter.)
MR. TOMLINSON: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Yeah, right.
JUDGE TINLEY: No second?
COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Second.
JUDGE TINLEY: I have a motion and second for
approval. Any question or discussion? As I said, we -- this
is early in the game, and we've got two that are lined up that
are going to be insanity types. The one that was due to start
this week, that's going to get delayed for a month or two, and
then you got another one. And then, of course, if Seard comes
back, which they routinely send him back about every six
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months, we're going to have a third one there. So, we're not
even close to being done with that one.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Are we going to -- is there any
prospect of any of them -- Seard, I don't think there is, but
the other ones going to trial? Or is this going to be back
and forth between the --
JUDGE TINLEY: Well, the indication is that Ligon
was going to go to trial, but they had to ascertain what law
he fell under, because the offense occurred back in the late
'80's, early 90's, something like that, and they had -- they
had to go back into the Legislative archives to find out what
was in existence at the time and know what they -- what law
was in effect at the time. So -- but he's been found
competent to stand trial, so they're going to try him, and
he's going to serve an insanity defense, so there are going to
be state experts and defense experts, both of which we get to
pay for.
MR. TOMLINSON: The reason I -- I requested this
transfer from Court-Appointed Attorney line item to
Court-Appointed Services is to separate the -- the
psychological exams from -- from the attorneys' bills, for the
purpose of reporting to the state for --
JUDGE TINLEY: Indigent defense.
MR. TOMLINSON: -- indigent defense, because that's
a requirement. We did get a letter this week that we -- we're
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going to receive about an extra $6,000 --
JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah.
MR. TOMLINSON: -- this year from that program.
That's nothing compared to --
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Better than nothing, though.
MR. TOMLINSON: Better than nothing.
JUDGE TINLEY: As they say, better than a poke in
the eye with a sharp stick. Any other question or comment?
All in favor of the motion to approve Budget Amendment Request
6 and hand check in the amount of $3,000 to Dr. Sridhar
Natarajan, signify by raising your right hand.
(The motion carried by unanimous vote.)
JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign.
(No response.)
THE WITNESS: Motion does carry.
MR. TOMLINSON: Good Irish name, isn't it?
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Sridhar.
JUDGE TINLEY: Budget Amendment Request 7.
MR. TOMLINSON: Okay, 7 is for the Tax Assessor.
She has two bonds; one's 1,197. I think we only budgeted for
one, so she has a request in to transfer $1,197 into her Bonds
and Insurance line item from Nondepartmental.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Move approval.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second.
JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded. Any
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question or discussion? All in favor of the motion, signify
by raising your right hand.
(The motion carried by unanimous vote.)
JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign.
(No response.)
JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. Do we have
any late bills?
MR. TOMLINSON: I have another one.
JUDGE TINLEY: You got another budget amendment?
COMMISSIONER LETZ: We sure have a lot of bonds and
insurance ones --
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: All of a sudden.
MR. TOMLINSON: All of a sudden.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- all of a sudden.
MR. TOMLINSON: I guess these people want to be
sworn in on -- on January lst.
JUDGE TINLEY: Budget Amendment Request 8.
MR. TOMLINSON: Okay, 8 is for Justice of the Peace,
Precinct 1. This is also for a bond, for $77.50 to be
transferred from Machine Repairs line item to Bonds and
Insurance.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So moved.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second.
JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded. Any
question or discussion? All in favor of the motion, signify
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by raising your right hand.
(The motion carried by unanimous vote.)
JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign.
(No response.)
JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. Is that the
end of budget amendments?
MR. TOMLINSON: That's it.
JUDGE TINLEY: Do we have any late bills?
MR. TOMLINSON: No.
JUDGE TINLEY: I've been presented with monthly
reports from County Clerk, General and Trust Fund for October
'06, activity -- and activity reports for Justice Court,
Precinct 2, November '06, and Kerr County Emergency Services
District Number 2. Do I hear a motion that these reports be
approved as presented?
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You do, Judge, but I'd like
to ask a couple questions about one of them. But I move that
they be approved.
JUDGE TINLEY: Okay.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second.
JUDGE TINLEY: I have a motion and second. Any
question or discussion?
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yes, sir. Number 4, on
this -- on this --
COMMISSIONER LETZ: ESD.

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COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: -- Emergency Service District
Number 2, help me understand what this Page 2 is doing. I'm
seeing at the top, 206, property taxes at 3.5 cents per 100,
and I'm assuming that's $69 million value, so that figures out
to $29,498. That's their total income, so they're going to
take their total income and spend every penny? Is that -- is
that what I'm seeing?
JUDGE TINLEY: Hmm-mm.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No?
COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Here's a reserve down here,
10 percent, 2,503 reserve. They're going to spend all but
2,500 of it.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay.
JUDGE TINLEY: It shows as an expenditure, but it's
actually -- it's an expenditure into a reserve account,
apparently.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I see it.
JUDGE TINLEY: That 10 percent there.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'd be really uncomfortable
if they were taking every penny, throwing it in there, and not
having a little money for a rainy day. Okay, thank you.
JUDGE TINLEY: Any other questions or comments?
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Does their report need to be
added in with our reports? Aren't they required by --
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That was in there. That was
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one of the list. He called it.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: He called it?
JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: They're required to make a
report to us.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Annually, right?
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right.
JUDGE TINLEY: Any other questions? Comments? All
in favor of the motion, signify by raising your right hand.
(The motion carried by unanimous vote.)
JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign.
(No response.)
JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. Any reports
from Commissioners in connection with their liaison or
committee assignments?
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I can't even remember what
they are.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I have a couple.
JUDGE TINLEY: He can.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: He can't remember his; I can
barely remember mine. The Judge and I signed off on the
Kerrville South Phases 2 and 3 construction and the final
draws and so forth, and I'm pleased to report to you that I
managed to get reimbursed to Kerr County Road and Bridge
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Department -- reimbursed 14,900 and whatever dollars.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Super.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: For materials that they
utilized in rehabilitating those roads. That's in the final
draws which the Judge and I signed off on.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Where does that money
actually go?
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Well, I guess they'll credit
it back to Road and Bridge in their Materials line item.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Tommy's already gone.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That would be the intention
Second thing is that the --
Committee of AACOG went through and interviewed, all day long,
candidates from all over the country, basically, to replace Al
Notzon as director of some 38 years standing, who's retiring
at the end of January, and they brought in and scheduled six
candidates to come in, from 17 that we reviewed, from 43 that
applied. So, there was a wide array of folks from all over
the country who applied for that job. In terms of COG jobs,
that's probably one of the premier jobs in the nation. It
certainly is one of the premier jobs in the state of Texas.
So, when we got that down to six, on the day of interviews,
which were to begin at 9 o'clock, we finally wound up at
5 o'clock in the afternoon. One candidate withdrew because he
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had a family situation, so we actually interviewed five, and
spent a good bit of the time talking about them. The
named the new director.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Golly.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Gloria has the credentials,
knowledge of the agency that Gloria possesses. One of the
things -- one of the key things about it was we asked all
these candidates, you know, "What would you do for the first
three to six months if you are the person selected?" And to a
person, they all said, Well, we got to get familiar with the
agency and meet the people and go out and meet the mayors and
the councils and the commissioners courts and so forth. Which
is a good answer, but when you think about that, you got six
months that you're going to be doing that when you got
somebody right now who possesses a lifetime of experience and
knowledge, and so that was one of the key factors. So, the
board will be -- will be hearing a recommendation from the
Management Committee to extend the offer to Gloria on
Wednesday.
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COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: She's been in this courtroom
as much as anybody.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Exactly. Wealth of
knowledge, and respected both statewide and nationally. So,
I'm comfortable in proceeding that way. That's it, Judge.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: I have one. It's a -- if I'd
have thought about it, I probably would have put it under
executive session items. It may qualify, but we're not in
executive session, so I'll go over it briefly here. Myself
and Commissioner Williams, to -- as well, along with
representatives from Upper Guadalupe River Authority, City of
Kerrville, Harvey Hilderbran's office, and G.B.R.A. have all
been working on an issue to help get water to Kerr County, and
the -- it appears we're going to be able to announce something
this week. And the announcement definitely doesn't involve
the Commissioners Court; that's why I'm bringing it up.
The --
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Don't want the announcement
to precede the Court's --
COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't want you to say, "What
the heck is he talking about?" In 2000, we negotiated a
memorandum of understanding with G.B.R.A, for 6,000 acre-feet
into the future.
COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: 6,000?
COMMISSIONER LETZ: 6,000 acre-feet of water.
iz ii-oe
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COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: That's from Kerr County?
COMMISSIONER LETZ: But the problem with it was,
there was no way we would ever get the water. I mean, there
was a problem --
COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: That's not a part of the
2,000 acres that U.G.R.A. --
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: No, this is Kerr County.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Kerr County.
COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: I didn't know that.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: 6,000 beginning in year
2021.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. What we're -- I come up
with, and Bill's been in on part of this; we have held out
trading that MOU to the benefit of U.G.R.A. and the City of
Kerrville to improve their ability to take water under their
main permit, which is 57194, I believe. The net effect of
that -- and what we're doing, basically, we're trading --
we're trading the MOU for a take-or-pay clause in a contract
from G.B.R.A. The net effect is that over a long period of
time, it appears that it'll increase the amount of water that
can be diverted under that permit by about 1,000 acre-feet a
year, that the cost of that is about 100,000 a year right now.
So, it is a -- we're trading the MOU that's very nebulous,
giving -- and then basically giving roughly 50,000 a year
value to the City and 50,000 a year to G.B.R.A. It's been
12-11 06
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very hard -- and it's very complicated when you get into all
kind of things I don't even understand when it comes to
permits and T.C.E.Q. and subordination agreements and all this
one knows the committee assignments. Harvey has a certain
amount of leverage at the moment. Depending on which
committee he gets on, he may not have as much leverage after
January. He's pushing it over at G.B.R.A. a little bit right
now. Bill and I came up with the trade, using the MOU to swap
in and out. Bill West isn't happy, but he doesn't know how to
get out of this, I think, at this point. City seems happy;
U.G.R.A. seems happy. So, anyway, if we get everyone signed
off, it's probably going to get announced this week or early
next week.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: The key in this all is that
the 6,000 MOU that the County holds -- right? And it's signed
by G.B.R.A. -- doesn't really have anything -- any meat on the
bones. There's no mechanism for delivery of that water, and
that's the thing that Commissioner Letz and I really wanted to
talk about. You know, it's on your books as a liability going
out of 2021. Why don't we go forward, even if we reduce the
liability and figure out how we get it to a take-or-pay
status.
iz-ii-ob
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COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'm not sure they agree --
ree it was a liability. We convinced them it was a
COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: You said something about
tomorrow and let them take water out of Canyon and divert it
up here, but it's under a take-or-pay clause, at I think about
$90 an acre-foot. But there's no mechanism or way to take the
water now. As time goes on, that amount's going to increase
this right now. What we've said is you already owe Kerr
County 6,000 acre-feet; we can prove it with this MOU that you
signed, so we're going to trade that for the take-or-pay
portion -- or a portion of take-or-pay, with the idea being
really that maybe in 20 years, let them invoke that
take-or-pay provision, because at that point the City or
U.G.R.A. will be using the water. But they're kind of --
they're going to have to pay for it whether they use it or
not, for quite a few years. Why this is important, both the
City and U.G.R.A. are looking at additional ASR wells as their
main, you know, midterm solution for their water problems, but
they don't have the water to put in the ASR wells. This
enables them to get the water to put in the ASR wells. So,
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anyway --
COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: And making this deal will
not have any immediate impact on Kerrville costs?
COMMISSIONER LETZ: It will have immediate impact
that the City and U.G.R.A. will not have to pay for the water
that they're not using. I mean, so it's a -- you know, it's a
savings real quick. And it's a -- and the other -- the
benefit -- the reason to really push this through now, you
know, is as time goes on, the further that MOU gets from when
it was actually signed by G.B.R.A., I think the less meat is
on that skeleton, and it's better to try to trade it for
something now than try to do something down the road when Bill
West is gone, and he's the one that negotiated it, he and
myself and Fred at the time. So, anyway, it's a way to -- and
we may not let them off the whole MOU; may just be 3,000
acre-feet. Some of the details are still being worked out,
but anyway, just wanted to let everyone know this is kind of
in the works. If anyone thinks this is a stupid idea, they
need to speak in a hurry, because -- anyway, the announcement
probably will come out of Harvey's office; he's the one that,
you know, wants to announce this.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Really.
COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: I think it's smart.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. It's a win-win for Kerr
County residents. It doesn't have any monetary impact on our
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government, but it certainly helps the citizens of the county.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Tell the Judge about our
deal on the trolleys when you talk about --
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I've already told him.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay.
JUDGE TINLEY: Hard part's now up to me to get the
waiver.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Just need it in writing,
I Yes.
JUDGE TINLEY: Anything else? Elected officials
have any reports to render?
MR. EMERSON: No, sir.
JUDGE TINLEY: You sent us one in writing here a
week or so ago; I saw it.
MR. EMERSON: Yes, sir.
JUDGE TINLEY: Anything else?
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN~: Judge, we have a guest in the
I courtroom.
(Discussion off the record.)
JUDGE TINLEY: We stand adjourned.
(Commissioners Court adjourned at 3:10 p.m.)
12-11-06
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196
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 18th day of
December, 2006.
JANNETT PIEPER, Kerr County Clerk
BY : ____ _ ~___7_t._L~_P_____ _____
Kathy Ba Deputy County Clerk
Certified Shorthand Reporter
12-11-06
ORDER NO. 30052
CONTRACT WITH KERB COUNTY MARKET ASSOCIATION
Came to be heard this the 11th day of December, 2006, with a motion made
by Commissioner Nicholson, seconded by Commissioner Baldwin. The
Court unanimously approved by vote of 4-0-0 to:
Amend the Contract with the Kerr County Market Association as outlined in
LuAnn Anderson's letter to the County Judge, subject to approval as to form
by the County Attorney, and that we accept the offer of the donation of a
bench for the Courthouse grounds, and to meet with the Maintenance
Supervisor as to the placement of the bench.
ORDER NO. 30053
RESOLUTION TO TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
REGARDING CADE LOOP BRIDGE
Came to be heard this the 11th day of December, 2006, with a motion made
by Commissioner Nicholson, seconded by Commissioner Letz. The Court
unanimously approved by vote of 4-0-0 to:
Approve the Resolution that the Texas Department of Transportation fund a
project to raise the Cade Loop Bridge in lieu of funding the projects to
reconstruct various low-water crossings in West Kerr County.
ORDER NO. 30054
RESOLUTION SUPPORTING TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY
Came to be heard this the 11th day of December, 2006, with a motion made
by Commissioner Nicholson, seconded by Commissioners Williams. The
Court unanimously approved by vote of 4-0-0 to:
Approve the Resolution supporting Texas Tech University's request for
funding for the Hill Country Educational Network and the Texas Tech
University Center at Junction by the Texas Legislature.
ORDER NO. 30055
CLOSURE OF COUNTY OFFICES ON DECEMBER 22, 2006
Came to be heard this the 11th day of December, 2006, with a motion made
by Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Williams. The Court
unanimously approved by vote of 4-0-0 to:
Direct the Elected Officials that Courthouse Offices be closed from 11:00
a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on December 22, 2006, for the annual Employee Christmas
Luncheon, and ask the Maintenance/Custodial Department to put signs up to
notify the public.
ORDER NO. 30056
CHANGE NAME OF PRIVATELY MAINTAINED ROAD
Came to be heard this the 11th day of December, 2006, with a motion made
by Commissioner Baldwin, seconded by Commissioner Williams. The
Court unanimously approved by vote of 4-0-0 to:
Approve the change of name of a privately maintained road in compliance
with 9-1-1 Guidelines, Precinct 1:
Shirley Ln S to Fudge Ln S
ORDER NO.30057
REQUEST TO LCRA TO RUN TRANSMISSION LINE
UNDERGROUND
Came to be heard this the 11th day of December, 2006, with a motion made
by Commissioner Baldwin, seconded by Commissioner Letz. The Court
unanimously approved by vote of 3-1-0 to:
Authorize the County Judge to write a letter and use whatever verbage
needed to ask the LCRA to put the Rim Rock to Goat Creek Transmission
Line Project underground, and not be visible to Highway 27.
ORDER NO. 30058
POLICY FOR BOND AND/OR INSURANCE REQUIREMENTS FOR
ELECTED OFFICIALS AND DEPARTMENT HEADS
Came to be heard this the 1 lth day of December, 2006, with a motion made
by Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Williams. The Court
unanimously approved by vote of 4-0-0 to:
Reduce the Bond for Constable Precinct 3 to $1,500, increase the Treasurer's
Bond to $80,000, increase the District Clerk's Bond from $50,000 to
$100,000, and look at obtaining a blanket insurance policy for Animal
Control and Environmental Health, and for anyone else who handles money.
ORDER NO. 30059
BAN OF AERIAL FIREWORKS
Came to be heard this the 11th day of December, 2006, with a motion made
by Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Nicholson. The Court
unanimously approved by vote of 4-0-0 to:
Approve the Order prohibiting fireworks, as outlined in the attached Order,
in Kerr County for the December and January, 2006/07 Statutory Sales and
Holiday period.
ORDER NO. 30060
REQUEST FOR JOINT CITY/COUNTY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
STRATEGY COMMITTEE TO MAKE APPLICATION TO ECONOMIC
IMPROVEMENT CORPORATION
Came to be heard this the 11th day of December, 2006, with a motion made
by Commissioner Williams, seconded by Commissioner Baldwin. The
Court unanimously approved by vote of 4-0-0 to:
Approve the Joint City/County Economic Development Strategy Committee
to make application to Economic Improvement Corporation to fund
Comprehensive Economic Development Study.
ORDER NO. 30061
CLAIMS AND ACCOUNTS
Came to be heard this the 11th day of December, 2006, came to be
considered by the Court various Commissioners Precincts, which said
Claims and Accounts are:
Accounts Expense
10-General	$	133,974.24
14-Fire Protection	$	10,416 66
15-Road & Bridge	$	14,213.42
18-County Law Library	$	2,719.65
19-Public Library	$	36,972.25
50-Indigent Health Care	$	27,773.83
59-General Contractual Oblig.	$	1,000.00
76-Juv Detention Facility	$	2,341 81
TOTAL
$ 229,411.86
Upon motion made by Commissioner Nicholson, seconded by
Commissioner Baldwin, the Court unanimously approved by vote of 4-0-0
to pay the claims and accounts.
ORDER NO. 30062
BUDGET AMENDMENT # 1
GENERAL REVENUES
SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT
Came to be heard this the 11th day of December, 2006, with a motion made
by Commissioner Baldwin, seconded by Commissioner Letz, the Court
unanimously approved by vote of 4-0-0 to transfer the following expense
codes:
Expense Code Description
10-370-300 Various Refunds
Amendment
Increase/()Decrease
+ $4,237.69'
10-560-570 Sheriffs Department + $4,237.69*
*-To recognize funds received from the following:
Allstate Insurance Agency - DOL: 10/03/06 - $4,237.69
ORDER NO. 30063
BUDGET AMENDMENT #2
COUNTY EXTENSION OFFICE
NON-DEPARTMENTAL
Came to be heard this the 11th day of December, 2006, with a motion made
by Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioners Williams, the Court
unanimously approved by vote of 4-0-0 to transfer the following expense
codes:
Expense Code Description
10-665-102 Ext Agents Salaries
10-665-201 FICA Expense
Amendment
Increase/()Decrease
+ $5,138.00
+ $393.00
10-409-205 Liability Insurance - ($5,531 00}
ORDER NO. 30064
BUDGET AMENDMENT #3
ROAD & BRIDGE
Came to be heard this the 11th day of December, 2006, with a motion made
by Commissioner Baldwin, seconded by Commissioners Nicholson, the
Court unanimously approved by vote of 4-0-0 to transfer the following
expense codes:
Expense Code Description
15-611-480 Insurance Vehicles
Amendment
Increase/()Decrease
+ $411 00
15-611-599 Contingencies - ($411.00)
ORDER NO. 30065
BUDGET AMENDMENT #4
JUSTICE OF THE PEACE #4
Came to be heard this the 11th day of December, 2006, with a motion made
by Commissioner Nicholson, seconded by Commissioner Williams, the
Court unanimously approved by vote of 4-0-0 to transfer the following
expense codes:
Expense Code Description
10-458-206
Bonds
Amendment
Increase/QDecrease
+ $177 50
10-458-485 Conferences - ($177.50)
ORDER NO. 30066
BUDGET AMENDMENT #5
COUNTY COURT @ LAW
Came to be heard this the 11th day of December, 2006, with a motion made
by Commissioner Baldwin, seconded by Commissioner Nicholson, the
Court unanimously approved by vote of 4-0-0 to transfer the following
expense codes:
Expense Code Description
10-427-206 Insurance Liability
Amendment
Increase/()Decrease
+ $170.00
10-427-402 Court Appointed Attorney - ($170 00)
ORDER NO. 30067
BUDGET AMENDMENT #6
LATE BILL
216TH DISTRICT COURT
Came to be heard this the 11th day of December, 2006, with a motion made
by Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Nicholson, the Court
unanimously approved by vote of 4-0-0 to transfer the following expense
codes and issue a hand check in the amount of $3,000.00 to Dr. Sridhar
Natarajan for A06-232 Court Appointed Service and transfer the following
expense codes:
Expense Code Description
10-435-401 Court Appointed Services
Amendment
Increase/()Decrease
+ $8,420.00
10-435-402 Court Appointed Attorney - ($8,420 00)
ORDER NO. 30068
BUDGET AMENDMENT #7
TAX ASSESSOR
NON-DEPARTMENTAL
Came to be heard this the 1 lth day of December, 2006, with a motion made
by Commissioner Williams, seconded by Commissioner Letz, the Court
unanimously approved by vote of 4-0-0 to transfer the following expense
codes:
Expense Code Description
10-499-206 Bonds & Insurance
Amendment
Increase/Q Decrease
+ $1,197.00
10-409-205 Liability Insurance - ($1,197.00)
ORDER NO. 30069
BUDGET AMENDMENT #8
JUSTICE OF THE PEACE #1
Came to be heard this the 1 lth day of December, 2006, with a motion made
by Commissioner Baldwin, seconded by Commissioner Letz, the Court
unanimously approved by vote of 4-0-0 to transfer the following expense
codes:
Expense Code Description
10-455-206 Bonds & Insurance
Amendment
Increase/()Decrease
+ $77.50
10-455-456 Machine Repairs - ($77.50)
ORDER NO. 30070
MONTHLY REPORTS
Came to be heard this the 11th day of December, 2006, with a motion made
by Commissioner Baldwin, seconded by Commissioner Letz, the Court
unanimously approved by vote of 4-0-0 the following monthly reports:
County Clerk -General & Trust Fund for October, 2006
Activity Report for Justice Courts-Precinct 2 -November, 2006
Kerr County Emergency Services District #2