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KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT
Budget Workshop
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
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
BRUCE OEHLER, Commissioner Pct. 4
r
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I N D E X
July 23, 2008
Review and discuss FY 2008-09 Budgets and
fiscal, capital expenditure and personnel
matters related thereto, for various county
departments, including, but not limited to
the following departments:
Organizational Development
Step and Grade Schedules
Non-Departmental
Commissioners' Court
Information Technology
District Courts
District Attorneys
County Judge
County Court
Tax Assessor
--- Adjourned
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On Wednesday, July 23, 2008, at 9:00 a.m., a budget
workshop 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: Okay, let's go ahead and commence
our Commissioners Court workshop scheduled for this date and
time, Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008, at 9 a.m. It is a bit past
that right now. The agenda item is to review and discuss
FY '08-'09 budgets and fiscal capital expenditure and
', personnel matters related thereto for various county
departments, including, but not limited to, the following
departments. And the listing, organizational development,
which, of course, is not a department, nor is step and grade
schedule. Then we have Nondepartmental, Commissioners Court,
I.T., District Courts, District Attorneys, County Judge,
County Court, and Tax Assessor. The organizational
development, Ms. Hyde, what, if anything, do you have to
report to us on organizational development?
MS. HYDE: This one's real short. What we want to
try to do is more in-house training, so when we're looking at
the budget on the training, we're trying to do more in-house
with -- with the Auditor and myself. She's the money lady,
so she can do the money. I can focus more with the training
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portion where we can set up actual trainings where people can
come in and be trained. So, we've also got it set up where
John's put it on the computers for, like, Excel and Word, so
that they can be in their office at their desk; if approved,
they can go through some of this training -- computer-based
training, which is a lot cheaper than sending them to San
Antone to take a class or to take classes. It's a lot
cheaper, and we can do it here in-house. But it -- I think
that most of the folks in the courthouse have agreed that we
~', can do this now. We can -- we can set it up. Yes, sir?
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is this set up -- I think I
know the answer, but I'll ask -- that for Commissioners'
training and District Clerk training, all this other
training, that we can -- all these conferences we go to, that
we can do some of that in-house?
MS. HYDE: There's some that you -- from what we've
been able to get back from the state, from TAC and
T.C.D.R.S., some of that you can take in-house, but if you're
doing CEU credits, you have to go somewhere -- or it has to
be an online approved CEU credit course, which would cost you
less than actually going.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Are there very many, if any,
online CEU --
MS. HYDE: There are some. Not as many, because I
think they want the folks to come and exchange ideas and --
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and things in the conferences.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Spend money.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, exchange their money
is what they want.
COMMISSIONER OEHLER: A way to keep saying spend
~ money.
MS. UECKER: We've done a couple online.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: There's a few things. We had
one not long ago.
MS. HYDE: What we can do is, we can set it up
~ where we, like, put it on the H.R. page, where people can hit
it, "Approved courses." We can do that, can't we, John?
MR. TROLINGER: Yes.
JUDGE TINLEY: Okay, that will be good. Anything
else in that particular sub-category?
(Ms. Hyde shook her head negatively.)
JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Where are we on step and
grade?
MS. HYDE: Here's y'all's updates. You asked for
additional counties on the -- so you can throw the old ones
away.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: He controls that screen?
(Discussion off the record.)
MS. HYDE: Here's the current step and grade, and
here's the proposed. And it says it at the top. That way,
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if y'all take my staples out that I know that Commissioner
Letz doesn't like, 'cause it's on the wrong side, you can
still use them. And they -- this is the proposed. One's the
proposed and one's the current.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: One's -- say that again?
MS. HYDE: At the top, one of them is the current.
It says H.R. Transitional Grade and Step Schedule.
i
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yeah.
MS. HYDE: And then the other one is proposed,
moving the four grades down.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Got you. Proposed.
MS. HYDE: Are there spares?
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: We're supposed to have
three different documents here?
MS. HYDE: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Proposed, okay.
MS. HYDE: Do you want one?
MR. TROLINGER: Yes.
MS. UECKER: Yeah.
(Discussion off the record.)
JUDGE TINLEY: Do you want to give us a little
summary of what all this means, Ms. Hyde?
MS. HYDE: The current step and grade is what we
use, and was approved last year. The proposed is moving it
four steps down, which is 10 percent, off of the -- off the
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position and step and grade. So, basically, what we did is,
you look at the -- the current. If you look at a Grade 13, a
13-1, it's 22,171.68, and then the proposed -- all we did was
move them down four -- four grades down. So, that new one
becomes 24,472.08.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: A 13, in effect, became a
17?
MS. HYDE: It changes to a 15, one, two, three,
four. Each of the steps is 2.5, an increase of 2.5.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I see it, okay.
MS. HYDE: And that way, we're not messing up our
step and grade.
JUDGE TINLEY: And the first document that you gave
us, the comparison is for informational purposes, of where we
are relative to --
MS. HYDE: Yes, sir.
JUDGE TINLEY: Or what you believe to be comparable
counties?
MS. HYDE: Yes, sir. Y'all had asked me to update
the one I gave you last week to add Kendall, Gillespie, and
Bandera Counties, and they're on the second page. And I made
it bigger so that we can all read it.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Thank you.
MS. HYDE: Jeannie helped last week by expanding it
out, but us old folks, we still -- it was hard.
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COMMISSIONER LETZ: Interesting that Kendall
County's budget is basically the same as ours.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Which means their tax base has
really grown. The tax rate's higher; budget is the same.
It's --
MS. HYDE: There's been several --
COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- 20 percent less population.
MS. HYDE: Several counties. After you guys asked
me to go back and look, there's been several counties that
have moved a lot. They jumped from the 20 -- you know, the
cutoff is 24,999 in population, and they have jumped to the
50,000-plus.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Interesting how -- I'm kind of
surprised at the size of Bandera County's total budget.
MS. HYDE: Right.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: They've had a lot of growth
down there.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: They've had a huge tax rate to
get there. I mean, they do have a lot of growth; they've had
a lot of problems because of that. But the tax rate --
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: 68 cents a hundred.
MS. HARGIS: I think that's because of the jail.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: The jail?
MS. HARGIS: Mm-hmm, the new jail.
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MS. HYDE: I just put the tax rates on there,
because last year y'all said it would have been nice to have
that so you can kind of compare.
JUDGE TINLEY: Any questions for Ms. Hyde?
COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Good information. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Thank you. And the proposed
numbers are not in any of the budget numbers right now?
MS. HARGIS: Yes, they are.
', MS. HYDE: Oh, you put them in there?
MS. HARGIS: They're in.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: They're in.
MS. HYDE: I'm sorry.
MS. HARGIS: Most of them are, not all of them, but
as many as I could get in.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Step and grade totals in?
MS. HARGIS: Mm-hmm.
JUDGE TINLEY: Those are the ones -- you included
the one on the proposed step and grade, the one that you do
have plugged in?
MS. HARGIS: Yeah, I have most of the departments.
I still have a couple to go. But -- and I'm still checking
to make sure, because I have to go back and check each one of
them, because I have to check each person's step and grade to
go up.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right.
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MS. HARGIS: But they're all there -- pretty much
in there. If you look at the summary today as compared to
Friday, it's increased. I also changed the -- the folks from
13's to 14's that we talked about. There are 25 --
approximately 25 of those people, so they're in there. So,
if you pulled up the recommended budget -- AR recommended
budget, they're in there.
JUDGE TINLEY: Let me see if I understand this.
MS. HARGIS: Okay.
JUDGE TINLEY: Where we the have folks in a Grade
13 --
MS. HARGIS: Mm-hmm.
JUDGE TINLEY: You moved to a 14?
MS. HARGIS: Mm-hmm.
JUDGE TINLEY: And then you added the step and
grade adjustment that we're looking at here, which, in
essence, moved them up four steps?
MS. HARGIS: Yes, sir.
JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. So, those that were 13's --
MS. HARGIS: If they were a 13-2, they're now a
14-2, and then they got the increase that a 14-2 would have
gotten.
JUDGE TINLEY: Okay.
MS. HARGIS: So, the average on those is about 15
percent.
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JUDGE TINLEY: Mm-hmm.
MS. HARGIS: To get those folks up to what they
should be.
JUDGE TINLEY: To get them off of that lowest level
that maybe -- I think someone noted eligibility for -- for
federal assistance.
MS. HARGIS: And food stamps.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Bill?
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: You have to cut your volume
down there, Commissioner.
MS. HYDE: Mute it.
JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Are we ready to go to
Nondepartmental, gentlemen? Okay. Let's bring up
Nondepartmental over there, Ken.
MR. RUARK: I'm in Commissioners Court budget code.
MS. HARGIS: I think you --
i MR. RUARK: Is that the one you want me to be in,
Judge? Or do you want me to be in the --
MS. HARGIS: I think you need to go in the
recommended one, Ken .
I
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j COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I got --
MS. HARGIS: To see what the recommendations are.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: I -- can we -- I don't know
what's going to be easier. Couldn't we -- you've got the
comparison.
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MS. HARGIS: Go into the recommended, 'cause
otherwise they won't see the changes that have been made.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'm curious. There's no way --
MS. HARGIS: Unfortunately, even when I make a
change, like, if it was something -- I have to change all
three budgets.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's -- this is just thinking
out loud. Long-term, this screen is just critical, from my
standpoint, that we're looking at.
i, JUDGE TINLEY: The history.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: The history page. Because if
we don't know what it was last year, we just don't have the
reference as to what we're looking at.
MR. RUARK: Here's what we've done. If you look,
here's the AR recommended budget.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: But I can't read that. I mean,
I can read the Judge's, 'cause I'm sitting next to him, but
Bruce can't --
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I can't read it.
MR. RUARK: Well, you can run the report and bring
it up and down. That's just --
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Can we bring it up on our
screen?
MS. HARGIS: Yes.
MR. RUARK: Sure.
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COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: How?
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Then we lose this, though.
MS. HARGIS: Minimize that. Minimize that screen,
I Bruce.
COMMISSIONER OEHLER: This one?
MS. HARGIS: Yes. If you minimize that, then go to
reports, okay? Go to report generator. Go to budget
reports. Go to AR recommended, right there. Administrative
recommended. Okay. Then go to selected funds. Then click
10, and then change this date to...
(Discussion off the record.)
MS. HARGIS: Has everybody got their screen big
enough so they can see it?
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Got it.
JUDGE TINLEY: Did you change my worker's comp?
I'm showing 145 here, based upon the requested, and this is
showing 157.
MS. HARGIS: I may have changed it because that's
what came in. That's the current premium.
~I COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, right now --
MS. HARGIS: 157.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- we're the same.
JUDGE TINLEY: Looks like a default number.
MS. HARGIS: That's requested.
JUDGE TINLEY: I understand.
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MS. HARGIS: You didn't put that in. Then we
changed it to 157.
JUDGE TINLEY: I put in 145 based on the request.
MS. HARGIS: Are you in the recommended?
JUDGE TINLEY: Mm-hmm.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Recommended shows 145.
MS. HARGIS: This says 157, but it's not coming
forward. I'll have to change that one. I didn't change it
since you changed it, no.
(Discussion off the record.)
MS. HARGIS: You have both the columns, so you
don't really need to go back to this screen, okay? You
really don't need to go back to that screen at all, because
the requested column is the original.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right.
MS. HARGIS: And then recommended should be
whatever the Judge said.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, the one that's -- okay.
So, the requested, that's where the --
MS. HARGIS: Is the original. But --
COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's still matching, and --
MS. HARGIS: This is the changed budget, the one
that's been moving.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. So we don't need this.
JUDGE TINLEY: I'm having a hard time figuring out
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why these -- what's happened. These numbers are being -- I
don't know where these numbers came from.
MS. HARGIS: Judge, I need to see what you pulled
I up
JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Okay. Here's the report
generator. Here's requested.
MS. HARGIS: But I need to go back to see how you
actually pulled up the report. If you put in -- if you put
in current budget, it will pull that up, and I think that's
what you did.
JUDGE TINLEY: On this report you're talking about?
MS. HARGIS: Yes. So, can you go back and pull
that one up for me again?
JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. Want me to just cancel it
out?
MS. HARGIS: Yes.
JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Well --
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Oops.
MS. HARGIS: Excuse me.
I
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay.
', MS. HARGIS: Let me look at it, because I know that
Bruce's is right. So, Bruce, could you go to 109? Let me
see.
JUDGE TINLEY: Okay.
(Discussion off the record.)
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COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Nondepartmental. All
right. Are you there?
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I guess.
MS. HARGIS: Judge, you pulled up the wrong one.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I pulled up the wrong one?
MS. HARGIS: Yours is right. And I think -- I
think you did too.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Pulled up the wrong one?
MS. HARGIS: Yeah. Let me show you what you have
to do. You're going to have to get all the way out of
everything. Okay. Go to administrative recommended reports.
JUDGE TINLEY: That's budget -- no, that's budget.
MS. HARGIS: That's right. That's the report you
want to see.
JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. All right.
MS. HARGIS: Okay? Say okay. You didn't change
this. If you don't change that, you won't get your changes
up. There you go. Administrative recommended?
JUDGE TINLEY: No, that's recommended.
MS. HARGIS: Administrative recommended.
JUDGE TINLEY: Okay.
MS. HARGIS: Just say okay.
JUDGE TINLEY: Okay.
MS. HARGIS: So, Jonathan, yours is wrong too.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, they got me --
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JUDGE TINLEY: I'm the one that got him in there.
I'm the one that got him in there.
MS. HARGIS: If you don't change that little thing
down there, it won't show you your changes.
JUDGE TINLEY: Okay.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: I need AR.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: But you can't make any
changes on this one.
MS. HARGIS: No. No.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I got to go back to the
other screen.
MS. HARGIS: Yeah, but Ken can make the changes.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: How much of all this goes on
the record?
COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Sounds like all of it; I've
been watching her fingers.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: She's going to wear out by
8:30 -- or 9:30.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: We haven't got through the
technical part yet.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Haven't got it turned on
yet.
MS. HARGIS: Let me check to make sure yours is
right.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Absolutely, we're right. My
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gosh, name me one time we've been wrong on this end of the
table.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: What, do you think we have
idiots on this end? (Laughter.)
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is there a --
MR. RUARK: Now, this I can show you. That's per
page.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right.
MR. RUARK: Keep going.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: It's Commissioner Letz
who's having a problem.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Can I just put the page?
~ MR. RUARK: You can go right here, up here where
this slide is. Just slide the slider; that's easier for you.
MS. HARGIS: No, it just does one page at a time.
(Discussion off the record.)
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: At this rate, we'll be
doing next year's budget year after next budget.
MS. HARGIS: Well, this is the only glitch we have.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: But this one right here moves
all the pages, so if I want to get to Page 200, I can use
this thing?
MR. RUARK: Yeah.
(Discussion off the record.)
MR. RUARK: All right. Buster, are you all right?
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Everybody all set?
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yes, sir.
JUDGE TINLEY: Sorry about the technical glitch,
folks. Now maybe we can move on.
(Discussion off the record.)
COMMISSIONER OEHLER: This one, recommended is
approximately $35,000. Looks like that is due to an increase
in professional services. And --
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: How do you get 35,000?
COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Autopsy and inquest. Is that
correct, Judge?
JUDGE TINLEY: Well, you got an increase in
', contingency, you got an increase in professional services,
II, and --
COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Autopsies and inquest.
MS. HARGIS: You went down a little bit on the
autopsies, 'cause you had 25 in there.
JUDGE TINLEY: No, it's up -- it's up by 5,000.
COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Year-to-date actual is 5,500.
MS. HARGIS: Well, we're over this year.
JUDGE TINLEY: That's the reason it went up to 55.
It was 50 for the current year. I went up to 55.
MS. HARGIS: But it's 2,250 per --
JUDGE TINLEY: Audit was increased also.
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MS. HARGIS: The audit is increased, because we
have that actuarial audit. That will go back down once we
get that actuarial audit done.
JUDGE TINLEY: So you're right, Commissioner. You
zeroed in on the areas.
MS. HARGIS: The professional fees, we have a
little bit of play there, but we've also got, as you recall,
the investment contract, and she didn't charge us for the
first nine months, 'cause I did those, so now she's starting
to charge us. So, we -- we need that for that, as well as
any other engineering or anything that we might want to hire.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Now, why, on the -- I'm looking
at the '08 projected. Year-end shows zero.
MS. HARGIS: Zero for what category?
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Independent audit. It shows
the actual is 30, but projected year-end is zero.
MS. HARGIS: We missed it. We have to put those
in.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay.
MS. HARGIS: If we let it project it, it just looks
at whatever's in there and divides it by 12, and it gives you
all kinds of strange things.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's okay.
MS. HARGIS: That's just a glitch. I apologize for
25 I that.
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COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, the -- the autopsy and
inquest was increased by five. The projected year-end is 64,
but that 64 is probably too high?
JUDGE TINLEY: Well, it's too high, because we
actually paid some that we're going to get reimbursement on
as a result of Ms. Lavender's efforts through the Crime
Victims.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay.
MS. HARGIS: But we do have that in here right now.
JUDGE TINLEY: Due to a multiple murder out in
Ingram. I think there were four victims.
MS. HARGIS: Five.
JUDGE TINLEY: Well, we don't get paid for one of
them. One of them was the alleged perpetrator.
'~ MS. HARGIS: Right.
JUDGE TINLEY: But there were four that we're going
to get reimbursed for.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay.
JUDGE TINLEY: So, that's a considerable help to
bring that figure down.
MS. HARGIS: We were right on schedule with that
until we had that.
JUDGE TINLEY: Any other questions on
Nondepartmental? Okay. Are we ready to move to
Commissioners Court? Probably need to go back -- okay,
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that's 401.
(Discussion off the record.)
JUDGE TINLEY: Any questions on that one? We've
got some increase in conferences, because you'll note that
the amount was --
MS. HARGIS: Too low.
JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. We also have -- remember, we
have the 8 percent increase in here for the health insurance
that we learned about at the first workshop. And I've put
the 10.35 percent for retirement, which is up to 2.3 times,
so those are all reflected. Our notices are up because of
what we've shown historically here. You can see we've
already exceeded by what we've paid to-date. The projected
is greater.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Jonathan, I don't think
salaries are in here.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Help me understand the
salary issue. If -- are we going to discuss salaries today?
JUDGE TINLEY: We can.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No, I'm asking you. Are we
going to? Do you want to save it for a separate conversation
like we always do, or are you ready to launch into it?
JUDGE TINLEY: Well, if we're talking about within
a particular budget, for example, a merit increase for a
particular employee in that budget, I think this may be the
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time to talk about that particular issue with particular
departments. But if we're talking about global, in general,
we probably need to have a separate discussion about that.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. All right. I have --
I have questions on both accounts.
JUDGE TINLEY: Okay.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Line Item 10-401-105,
'splain that to me. How does that work? I see a requested
amount, and where did that number come from to start with?
The 36,110, who requested that?
MS. HARGIS: That included her 4,000.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Pardon?
MS. HARGIS: That included the 4,000. It wasn't
split out. See that?
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: No, I don't see that.
'~ MS. HARGIS: Okay. You have -- the first line is
elected officials. The second line is the secretary.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Right.
MS. HARGIS: The third line should have the
supplement in it, and it does not.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I don't see supplement.
MS. HARGIS: The supplement is not there; that's
what I'm saying. So, it's rolled up in the salary.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I see it. I got it.
MS. HARGIS: It's rolled up in the salary.
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JUDGE TINLEY: Well, I plugged the supplement in
the -- in the actual supplement line. For informational
purposes, when -- when I went into these budgets, as in prior
years, I looked at some capital items, maybe made slight
adjustments, depending on what they were, but generally left
capital alone, because the justification for each capital
expenditure from each department needs to come from the
department manager or elected official, as we've done in the
past. The same is true for salaries. The salaries should
only include at this point those that are adjustments that
are mandated by policy; i.e., longevity or education, plus
then what the Auditor has plugged in, as she's indicated
heretofore, the two adjustments with the -- number one, the
raising up the -- the Grade 13's, and the 10 percent that
she's already indicated. But other than that, I did not -- I
did not meddle in either one of those two areas.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, this particular line,
the 105 line, see, I don't see -- I don't see a 10 percent
increase.
COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I see a reduction from last
year.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I see a reduction; I don't
see an increase at all. Help me understand why.
JUDGE TINLEY: Well, the only rationale I can give
you, Commissioner, is that there was no -- the last year's
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budget included the supplement. We've taken the supplement
out and moved it to 106. And then with the other increases,
longevity, and the -- the adjustments that were made, that
moved it up to the amount that's -- that's shown there on
105.
COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That should be -- that should
be the 35 plus the 4.
JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That would reflect what it
should reflect instead of looking like there was a decrease
in that line item.
MS. HARGIS: The original budget did not have the
supplement. You gave her the supplement later in the year.
Then we added the line so we could put the supplement in, so
it shows in the year-to-date actual, because it would,
because we -- that's when we started paying it. Then we
projected the year-end for that, and we projected her
year-end salary, and --
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Makes sense.
MS. HARGIS: Probably when we projected that, we
should -- should have taken that out, but it is correct. It
should be 35,321, plus the four. Should be 39. Her original
was 32,110. So, the projection is wrong.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think that all makes sense to
me. The question I have -- and I don't remember -- Region J,
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what did we end up doing with that? That money goes into the
general fund and is not a supplement, correct?
MS. GRINSTEAD: I don't know how -- you're asking
me if it comes -- it's paid through payroll. I mean, there's
not any separate -- it's on my check.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. But it's part of the
current salary. We just added that as a duty, and the
revenue that comes in is -- just comes into the county.
MS. HARGIS: General fund.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: To the general fund. It's not
a -- doesn't flow through. It's two different -- one's a --
MS. HARGIS: The way the original books were set up
was not to set up revenue against each department unless,
like, you had a special fund. Like, 76 was juvenile
detention; their revenue shows against their department,
because they're separate. But if you're in the general fund,
all the revenue in the general fund is in one area by itself,
and then each department's expenses are shown separately.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Well, that's -- I still
don't understand this, then. If there's Region J money in
that supplement line --
COMMISSIONER LETZ: No, there isn't.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: There is not?
COMMISSIONER LETZ: No. The County -- so, I mean,
essentially, the County -- Region J, I guess how you look at
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it, is paying $3,000 a year into the general fund. It
covers --
MS. HARGIS: Most of it.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- everything.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I understand.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: From utilities to paper to
phones to -- and it's part of her job responsibilities.
Okay, I just wondered.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That's not even in the
supplement?
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Doesn't get shown anywhere;
it's just coming into the general fund. It's not a
supplement.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay.
JUDGE TINLEY: As an income item. But as an
expense item, it's shown here.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Well, that's my question.
JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah.
MS. HARGIS: Only the expenses are shown here.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, I guess, what's in the
supplement here?
JUDGE TINLEY: Ag -- ag booking and Region J.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay.
MS. HARGIS: Right, that's it. That's what the
court order reflected.
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COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay.
COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That was the answer.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That's the answer I was
looking for.
COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Looking for.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Took a while to get there,
~ but I got it.
COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Took a while to get it, I can
tell you that.
JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Any other questions on -- on
Commissioners Court?
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Just one more, and this is --
we have -- I mean, the court order sets all that out, so I
just want to make sure it's all documented, so if we make
changes, we know what we're changing in future years.
MS. HARGIS: Right, yes.
MS. HYDE: We have the court order, and it's
separate.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Is the out-of-county
mileage predicated on the current state standards of .585?
MS. HARGIS: Yes. It's the -- they just changed
the web site, too.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: It was 58 and a half, I
believe.
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JUDGE TINLEY: 58.5, I believe, yeah.
MS. HYDE: And the suggestion is it's going up
again.
MS. HARGIS: Yeah. And we are tied to the Texas
mileage rate, --
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That's what I'm asking.
MS. HARGIS: -- not the I.R.S. rate. And right
now, they're 58.5. If I.R.S. goes up again, if the State
doesn't go up -- like, the State didn't go up when I.R.S.
went up in -- in the middle, so we just have to wait for them
to update theirs. So, they finally updated theirs as of
July 1.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Right, they did.
MS. HARGIS: So we pay that. That's what the court
order says, is to pay --
JUDGE TINLEY: In response, I reduced that
slightly. I recognize the increase in the rate, but also, if
you'll look at the projected year-end --
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yeah, I see that, Judge.
JUDGE TINLEY: And -- and that was my reasoning for
that. That may be a little tight.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: It might be.
JUDGE TINLEY: May be tight.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: It might be.
MS. HARGIS: If we need -- I would rather fix it
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now than -- than -- because you each only went to two
conferences, and -- and that was pretty much all you had in
there, and it barely took care of it. It wasn't your mileage
that necessarily took you over. It was the cost --
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Are the conferences in this
line item?
MS. HARGIS: Yes.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: As opposed to in the
conference line item.
JUDGE TINLEY: No, it's in the conference line
item.
MS. HARGIS: It's in the conference line.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. Yeah, that's going
to be tight, Judge. You've got -- let's see, August. You've
got two more months left.
MS. HARGIS: We're going to have to do an amendment
to the current year.
JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Let's --
COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'd rather -- I'd like to see
that out-of-county go up.
JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah, we'll go ahead and increase
that by 500 now.
MS. HARGIS: All right. So that I have clarity on
this 10-401-475, out-of-county mileage is going to 2,500?
JUDGE TINLEY: That's correct. Anything else?
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Okay. We ready to go to I.T.?
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: What's that number, Judge?
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Do you know what page it's on?
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: 10-408.
COMMISSIONER OEHLER: 10-408.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: 10-408. Chugging right
along here.
(Discussion off the record.)
JUDGE TINLEY: Mr. Trolinger, I -- I decreased the
request for machine repairs based upon the history. Any
enlightenment that you could give us that would indicate that
that may not have been a wise move on my part?
MR. TROLINGER: No, sir, I agree with it.
JUDGE TINLEY: Okay.
MR. TROLINGER: It's less than -- the equipment
that we capital-purchased two years ago is holding up very
well. We've had less than expected in repairs.
JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Then looking at contract
services, you'll note that I significantly reduced that.
Anything you want to tell us about that that may -- I know
you've got Drew on board now, and that's -- I know previous
to Drew coming on board, you were using an outside contractor
in some respects, and you were very, very -- very, very
careful about using that, too. You didn't spend but a small
amount of what you were allocated, as I recall.
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MR. TROLINGER: Sparsely. Utilized it when there
was no other choice.
JUDGE TINLEY: Mm-hmm.
MR. TROLINGER: We run our own network wire and
whatever we can do in-house.
JUDGE TINLEY: Okay.
MR. TROLINGER: Working with Maintenance. But a
lot of the money from the contract services was actually
planned out for them, such as the microwave link to the
various offices, and that's actually in the capital outlay
line item, so that's actually moved. So, that was prudent
that you reduced that.
JUDGE TINLEY: Okay.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: What all is in the capital
outlay, Mr. Trolinger?
MR. TROLINGER: We have a new server for storing
images. It's actually an addition, since we're rapidly
expanding our digital imaging at the jail, the Sheriff's
Office, and a couple of other offices will be going online.
So, we'll be at capacity next year sometime, so we'll need to
add to that. And then the microwave links for several
offices are in that item. But I've minimized it. This is
the fourth year of my five-year guesstimate plan, and it's
the low year in spending, overall county-wide spending,
computers, I.T. budget, everything.
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JUDGE TINLEY: When do you see the broadband for
the -- for the outside offices being complete? I know it's
not something you're in control of, but --
MR. TROLINGER: I was promised starting this week,
Animal Control would go online, and I've seen no movement on
it, so I do not have a good estimate. Now would be my
preference.
JUDGE TINLEY: Do you think we're going to be there
by the beginning of the next budget year?
MR. TROLINGER: Yes.
JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. That's because of the
completion of the tower out there?
MR. TROLINGER: Yes.
JUDGE TINLEY: Okay.
MR. TROLINGER: Exactly.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Judge, I'm sorry, what was
your question to him? What was the topic?
JUDGE TINLEY: Well, we're talking about the
contract services, and he mentioned that some of those things
that he previously had in contract services, he -- are now
included in his capital item, which is the last item on his
budget that he's got there.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Did the -- in that
conversation, the issue of the linking of the -- is that what
you were talking about?
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JUDGE TINLEY: That's part of his capital outlay.
He's indicated in his notes that the linking up of the
offices that are located away from the courthouse, Animal
Control, Road and Bridge, the Extension -- well, Ingram's
already in, isn't it?
MR. TROLINGER: Yes.
JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Ag Barn, those places.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What about -- what about the
law enforcement side of it, or the court side of it, where
we're linking the jail with the judges, et cetera?
MR. TROLINGER: Yes, that's included.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Is that a part of what we're
talking about here?
MR. TROLINGER: Yes, to expand the -- yes.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And today, we're linked
with -- we're linked with the courthouse and the Kerr County
Jail?
MR. TROLINGER: Yes.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What are you going to expand
from that?
MR. TROLINGER: Animal Control, Road and Bridge,
Juvenile Detention. I'd like to see the Adult Probation
office, and the District Attorney's offices are planned for,
so that we'll have the bandwidth available if they implement
Odyssey.
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', COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You're going to include the
Animal Shelter in the video part of this thing?
MR. TROLINGER: No, that's strictly the broadband,
the connection to the county network.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. Okay.
MR. TROLINGER: Just so they can have -- basically,
they need high-speed Internet. They have dial-up right now.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I understand.
MR. TROLINGER: This is the least expensive avenue
to get high-speed Internet out there.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Now, we're linked up with
the Kerr County Jail, where there's a prisoner that could sit
down out there at the jail, and a local J.P. can magistrate
him from here.
MR. TROLINGER: Correct.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: All right. Are you going to
expand that part of it?
MR. TROLINGER: To --
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Why'd you look at him?
MR. TROLINGER: Expand to it where?
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I don't know. That's what
I'm asking you.
MR. TROLINGER: Well, there were plans to expand to
other counties for the district to take advantage of it.
I COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You're not expanding
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anything in this budget this year?
MR. TROLINGER: Video teleconference-wise, correct.
We have what we have.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Is there anything in this
budget that expands out into other counties?
MR. TROLINGER: No.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay, thank you.
MR. TROLINGER: You're welcome.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Boy, you're hard-headed
sometimes, I'm telling you.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: He's got his firewall up.
(Laughter.)
JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner, I definitely want to
go there. I think it'll create a lot of efficiency in our
courts if we can expand the use of video teleconferencing to
the extent it's allowed under Code of Criminal Procedure in
criminal cases, and, of course, Rules of Civil Procedure.
But we're -- we've got the first -- first link in place, and
Judge Brown is utilizing that, and by all accounts is tickled
to death, finds it very, very helpful. And we're hoping to
get the District Courts to maybe at least try it, take a look
at it and find out how they like it. And once -- once we get
them on board, then hopefully we'll be able to link up at
some point in the future all of the counties in both judicial
districts so that they can effectively hold court from
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anywhere, to the extent it's authorized by -- by the
applicable law.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, I agree with you, it's
a great tool, and I'm excited about it. But I want us to be
a part of it as we step into it, and I just wanted to make
sure where we were in it.
JUDGE TINLEY: We have one more video
teleconferencing unit that is available to us, one of the
portable units, and I've got the Auditor looking to see if we
have enough money left in that capital account that we
created this fiscal year to see if maybe we can justify
purchasing that out of that, if there's funds available
there, so that an additional unit is available for another
court.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Or maybe the 198th D.A. can
kind of kick in. I understand they're loaded.
JUDGE TINLEY: I've heard that.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: They're not paying attention.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: No reaction.
JUDGE TINLEY: Well, we don't have the 198th D.A.
here; we have the Assistant D.A. from the 198th.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Right.
JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Anything else on I.T.,
gentlemen? Anything else you have for us, Mr. Trolinger?
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MR. TROLINGER: Just -- just to finish up, outside
the I.T. budget, the capital loan from -- from this year's
budget, we've fully utilized those funds to pre-purchase
computers and various equipment against next year's capital
needs, so we've -- we've pretty much purchased all the
capital equipment, computer-wise -- PC-wise for next year
now. Two reasons. The capital outlay loan could only be
used for that purpose, and two, we saved a significant amount
in increased shipping and various cost increases that are
taking place.
JUDGE TINLEY: You had the cost increase in the --
in the computer equipment itself, you had the transportation
and shipping cost, and then you got the right software system
on them, which is being -- a lot of which is no longer being
offered in some of the current equipment, unless it's a
special order, which drives the price up.
MR. TROLINGER: Correct. Three reasons, that's
correct.
JUDGE TINLEY: Okay.
MR. TROLINGER: And the last --
JUDGE TINLEY: So, what you're telling us is that
requests for capital outlay items for basic computers, PC
equipment, for the coming year by various departments
shouldn't be much, if anything, because you've already got
that laid in and stockpiled?
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MR. TROLINGER: Correct.
JUDGE TINLEY: Okay.
MR. TROLINGER: And that includes a couple
miscellaneous requests. Once we get to those budgets, I'll
chime in as needed. The only item that -- that I show that
might be considered is, there's a mileage for -- mileage
reimbursement line item that's not listed here, 10-408-426.
I've made an attempt to estimate the cost of driving to the
various offices, and at the rate that fuel prices and
maintenance, et cetera, are increasing, I'd estimate about
$720 a year, just -- just driving around between the offices
might be needed.
JUDGE TINLEY: For your department?
MR. TROLINGER: Yes. Might need to be plugged in.
Right now, that line item's not there.
MR. RUARK: Hasn't been created.
MR. TROLINGER: Has not been created. On the
Administration Recommended.
JUDGE TINLEY: I can tell you --
MR. TROLINGER: I want your feedback on that, what
you thought, if we're going to compensate with salary and
pay, or if we're going to try to do this via mileage
reimbursement.
JUDGE TINLEY: In that regard, there has been some
discussion about how we're going to handle those departments
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that have a lot of local-type travel going on. And, of
course, there's two ways to do it, one of which is the
mileage, as you've indicated. Personally, I think that's a
slippery slope when we use local, in-county mileage. As most
of you know, I've had a little difficulty with that with the
Extension Service, and may continue to have that difficulty.
But I think the other way that we're looking at it is maybe
some sort of a -- a stipend to -- to provide to offset that.
That may be the simpler way to go. The Auditor's got some
thoughts about this.
MS. HARGIS: Well, in order to comply with the
I.R.S. rules, it's really going to have to be -- it's got to
go through salary, okay? Whether it's $100 a month or $50 a
month, it's still going to have to go through salary.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And, Judge, I was thinking
that was one of those areas that maybe that we would like to
talk about separately, like a salary. Because there are --
there are -- I'm not real clear who all does that. I know
that, like, the Treasurer goes to the bank. And now that
Jody has taken on the Ag Barn and -- so she -- I'm seeing her
traveling some now, and it's not fair to her to use her own
gas to represent the County. So, I'm thinking -- and then,
you know, the I.T. is talking about it. Maybe we can -- if
we can gather up all those people that -- that do that kind
of traveling, and let's figure it out as a separate item,
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instead of trying to piecemeal it here.
JUDGE TINLEY: Let me -- let me offer this as a
suggestion, Commissioner; that we get the H.R. Director to
come up with a schedule, as it were, on a -- say, either an
annual or a monthly travel allowance. You know, your J.P.'s
do it some, unless they've got that vehicle. We talked about
the vehicle, and I think we -- that's where our eyes went
spinning like a slot machine after we got through with that
discussion. And we've got some others that do a minimal
amount of travel. We got some that do more travel. I.T.
does more travel running back and forth to -- to the external
locations. But I think probably the best way to do it would
be to let H.R. come up with -- kind of in cooperation with
the Auditor, because they're --
MS. HYDE: Absolutely.
JUDGE TINLEY: -- numbers that have got to be
plugged in, but just a schedule of a monthly or an annual
stipend for all of these folks, and it's going to have to be
by individual and not by department.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Correct.
JUDGE TINLEY: If it's going to go on a salary
item.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Judge, there may be another
way to do it, too. After taking an assessment of who all has
in-county travel for county business, create an estimated
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pool of dollars, and let each individual voucher at the end
of the month and draw off that pool, as opposed to putting it
out regularly in 12 increments.
MS. HYDE: I think -- no, she's talking, I think,
that same thing. Under I.R.S. regs, it has to be part of the
salary, right? Any sort of mileage reimbursement?
MS. HARGIS: Any mileage reimbursement.
JUDGE TINLEY: What Commissioner Williams has
suggested is that maybe we create a -- I guess, under
Nondepartmental, a pool of money, and monthly, that -- that
individuals doing that make a request against that.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Voucher for their mileage
at the end of each month, as opposed to everything being a
stipend of some kind.
MS. HARGIS: I'm going to check the regulations
again, but as I recall from reading the current one that we
have, regardless of whether you get reimbursed or if you have
your exact mileage, you have to include it in -- in their
reimbursement, because it's considered a benefit.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Sure.
MS. HARGIS: And so, when it's a benefit, then it
has to go through their salary line item, whether it's
separate or not. And so the way that -- on my ListServ, all
the other auditors have been struggling with this as well,
and the best solution they came up with was to go ahead and
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do an allowance, because you've got to include it anyway.
Then you're just putting extra steps and then putting it in
their salary anyway. So, it's -- I mean, you need -- they
still have to keep up with it. They still have to keep up
with their mileage, and they have to -- if we gave them, for
instance, $50 a month, they would have to meet that $50
deadline for I.R.S., or they would have to refund it back.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: No, I think you're missing
my point. The system is very similar to what we use for
out-of-county mileage. Out-of-county mileage is vouchered by
the individual based on the trip, et cetera, and it's a
separate draw-down.
MS. HARGIS: I.R.S. does not consider
out-of-county, or out-of -- when you travel as a -- as a
benefit. It goes on along with the travel. But when you're
at home and you get mileage for driving your car, that is a
benefit, period. There's no -- there's no --
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Even if you issue a 1099 at
the end of the year?
MS. HARGIS: Yes, because I.R.S. says it's not 1099
income any more. It is -- it's W-2 income. It's a benefit.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: The only way you can -- I'm
kind of asking, but my understanding is that -- and I'm
not -- if we just reimburse for the gasoline, 'cause they
turn in the gasoline receipt.
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MS. HARGIS: Same thing.
JUDGE TINLEY: I.R.S. -- the I.R.S. is after the
Social Security and Medicare portion of that, and they want
it reported as salary so that it's includable for the 7.65 --
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Kerr County -- and maybe my
accountant's wrong, but if it's a business reimbursement, if
it's just -- if it's no depreciation, not for any -- they've
given a -- they had a fill-up, filled up the car, had a good
receipt for the exact time they used it, you're reimbursing
off that receipt. That's an actual -- that's no different
than any other exact reimbursement.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: The problem with that,
Commissioner
COMMISSIONER LETZ: But it's hard to do. It's
almost impossible to do it.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: The problem with that is,
on an employee group, they're turning in a gas voucher for
$40 to fill up their tank. The reality is, they didn't use
$40 worth --
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right, that's what I'm saying.
You have to do the incremental use while you were gone. But
it's -- it doesn't work. Going back to the -- I think it was
Commissioner Baldwin brought it up, or was going down the
road, in terms of bunny trail, to get a vehicle for use.
That's where you were going, it seemed. I really like that.
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And the reason I like it is -- is insurance, and liability to
people running around in their own vehicles. I think it's a
liability that we've known has been out there, and we've
handled it through some insurance things, and people -- you
know, they get, you know, riders on their own personal
policies and things like that. But if they don't get those
riders, you know, I think we still hold the bag.
MS. HARGIS: I agree. But, unfortunately, one car
won't do it, because John's gone most of the time, and if
John was in the car, it would be gone. So, the problem is --
MR. TROLINGER: Well, let me -- let me chime in.
Not to completely disagree with you, but to make the runs,
say -- say there's a problem and we're here in the courthouse
and we need to run to Probation, you know, half an hour trip.
I think those kind of trips would work out fine. So, for
I.T., I could see it working out, a shared vehicle.
MS. HARGIS: But -- you're one department, but we
have 50 departments and 50 people -- we probably have 50
people that may want a car to run back and forth, and -- and
you've got a problem with, when is the car going to be
available?
COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think what you can do,
though, I think we kind of do like we did with cell phones.
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I think you have to get more than one car. I think you have
to have a small pool of cars, and a pool being two or three,
to me. And then if Commissioner Williams wants to use it to
go to San Antonio, he can. If he chooses to use his own car,
he gets no reimbursement. You know, we force people to use
it. If they want to use their own car, fine, but they're not
getting reimbursement, not getting any credit for it.
MS. HYDE: I think there's another -- like, I know
that you can also -- the only other, like, caveat with the
'', I.R.S., I'm sure you'll agree, is if you rent. For example,
you can rent and reimburse the rental, and it doesn't go
against your salary. So, for example, if you guys were going
to a conference, or one of you was going to a conference, if
we could rent, then it would be a straight reimbursement.
You can pay for the fuel out of the rental, because it's a
separate fill-up.
MS. HARGIS: But that's still out of town.
MS. HYDE: Yes.
MR. TROLINGER: Out of town, you still get
reimbursed.
MS. HYDE: Out of town. It's within that 60-mile
radius from where you work that kicks it --
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: We went that route with
Road and Bridge, you may recall, and purchased them a
I'~, vehicle, which, with a very few exceptions, has been an
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exclusive vehicle for Road and Bridge.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, it was intended to be
exclusive. Not exclusive for one person at Road and Bridge,
but anyway --
MS. HARGIS: I mean, would you like --
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: To take home.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yes.
MS. HARGIS: Would you like for me to work up the
cost of purchasing -- I mean, and I would suggest that if we
did something like that, we purchase used vehicles.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: A couple used Yugo's would be
fine for the County. (Laughter.) I mean, I'm saying -- I
think that I'm more concerned really about the liability
issue of people using personal cars running errands, and not
as much the elected officials as the employees, and I think
that is a problem. And I think we -- we've kind of dodged it
every year, and I think if it requires buying a couple of
used, you know, very moderate-priced cars, and having them in
a fleet, and people have to use them. Some of the employees
just may have to schedule. I mean, people may not be able to
just pick up and go to the bank when they want to. They have
to -- maybe a little bit of scheduling there, and just take
care of it that way. I think it's --
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I agree. I think the
scheduling issue, you could do it with two cars. I mean, she
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said -- when she said we have 50 departments and 50 -- well,
that's not true. You're talking about five or six
departments and five or six different people that -- so I
think it can be done.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Some of them do it, like
Maintenance. They are -- they're taken out of the mix,
'cause they've got their own vehicles. I mean, Road and
Bridge is taken out of the mix.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Of course, our department
gets it first, right?
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Always.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So the Commissioners Court
and Jody get first -- first shot at it.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, I'd like to see the cost
of two low-priced cars to be used --
COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Low price, high mileage.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Low price, high mileage.
COMMISSIONER OEHLER: How about a scooter -- couple
of Vespa scooters?
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Oh, yeah.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Then we'll have to worry about
people getting sick from the wind.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I want one so bad.
JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Well, obviously, we're not
going to resolve that issue right here and now. Anything
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else on I.T.? Okay, let's move to District Courts, the 216th
District Court.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That number is?
MR. RUARK: 435.
MS. HENDERSON: We accept everything you have in
I here.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you. Bye.
MS. HENDERSON: Do what?
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you. Bye.
JUDGE PROHL: Same for 198th. Your recommendation
is fine. We don't have any, unless you have issues.
JUDGE TINLEY: Well, I have -- I'd have to
acknowledge, I was pretty kind to you folks this year.
JUDGE PROHL: You're always kind.
JUDGE TINLEY: But --
JUDGE PROHL: You're trying to force me to look
into that camera and talk to people at the jail. (Laughter.)
JUDGE TINLEY: I'm going to get you there. You can
come voluntarily or kicking and screaming with your heels
dragging the ground, whichever way you want.
JUDGE PROHL: Next we'll have to have a makeup
artist.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: We can do that, Judge.
JUDGE TINLEY: We got that in Nondepartmental for
contingency for the makeup artist.
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COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Operating equipment.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: You want a wardrobe
allowance also?
JUDGE PROHL: Absolutely, as long as it's not
considered a benefit that have I to ... (Laughter.)
MS. HENDERSON: Y'all have any questions?
JUDGE TINLEY: Do you want to tell me now whether
it's going to be voluntary or kicking and screaming?
JUDGE PROHL: Well, we got to figure out how it'd
work with felonies.
JUDGE TINLEY: Got to what?
JUDGE PROHL: How it would work on felonies. We
just -- our position has been -- my position has been I'll go
out to the jail courtroom 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
It does not bother me. And so, as far as the other counties
are concerned, you know, I think you're certainly -- should
certainly go talk to them. I've talked to them. I don't
know what Randy -- Randy may be on board, 'cause he's doing
some high-tech stuff in the new courthouse up there, but my
other three county judges will be pretty -- pretty adamant
that they're not interested in doing that right now. That
doesn't mean they won't do it in the future. Right now,
they're not -- and the realistic thing is, we -- you know,
with five counties, you know, I'm an elected official of five
counties, and I have to go to those counties. Doesn't matter
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if I got teleconferencing or not; I have to go to those
counties, because they become concerned when we're only up
You know, if you got an emergency T.R.O. or
all the way up there to do an uncontested divorce, it's sort
of crazy, but I have to do it. You know, it's 80 -- well, I
think about Brady being further; that's 186 miles round --
one way, and -- or round trip, rather. And even -- even my
little car that's getting 24 miles to the gallon, it's still
expensive. So, I think there will be some uses for it. I
do. I'm not sure -- and Amos and I talked about it on the
criminal end for felonies. And other counties could be a
little bit of an issue, but we're willing to look at it, and
I'm willing to try it here. But I'm -- I'm always willing to
go out there to the courtroom. And I know that -- there he
is; hi -- it saves the County a lot of money not to have to
transport people from the jail here, so we've started to try
to address that it way. But to answer your question, we're
willing to look at it, consider it, you know. But --
JUDGE TINLEY: I understand the need that you have
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to be physically present from time to time in those counties,
because you are one of their elected officials, and that's
absolutely essential. But there are times when, you know,
even -- you're an hour and a half or a little bit better from
Brady, so that's three hours lost on the road up and back.
And sometimes, if you only have an hour's worth of business
up there, a few arraignments, maybe a pretrial, announcements
and maybe a plea or a couple of uncontested divorces, that's
three -- three hours that can be saved that you can be
working on other matters. You lose a lot on the road, and
you recognize that.
JUDGE PROHL: Yeah. I spend a lot of time on the
road, and I agree with that. I agree with that. I think it
just has to be measured and used where it can be conducive,
but I'm willing to give it a shot.
JUDGE TINLEY: Well, I -- I have talked with some
of the county judges in those counties, and they understand
there's -- there's fiscal implications. They believe they're
greater than what they really are. The -- the initial cost
is not as great as they think it is, and generally in those
rural counties that you've got up in the north end, because
so many of the defense lawyers come from Kerrville, they're
-- they're spending a lot of money for time and travel for
defense lawyers to go up to their counties.
JUDGE PROHL: Absolutely.
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JUDGE TINLEY: That they might be able to very
easily offset that cost. And we've talked about that, and
I've gotten generally favorable responses from a couple of
them that I've talked to. So, we'll see how that develops,
but I think -- I think it's coming.
JUDGE PROHL: Well, we'll try it.
JUDGE TINLEY: All right.
JUDGE PROHL: Y'all need anything else from us?
JUDGE TINLEY: Well, let's see if you're safe.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Operating equipment?
JUDGE PROHL: I'm looking at your administration
recommendations. And that's --
JUDGE TINLEY: I understand.
JUDGE PROHL: Yeah.
JUDGE TINLEY: Your question?
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'm still on 216th here.
MS. HENDERSON: You're on 216th?
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: The operating equipment, I
just want to know what the decrease was there.
MS. HENDERSON: New judge -- new judge coming in on
that, and he wants a desktop computer. Is that the one
you're talking about?
JUDGE TINLEY: No, that's capital outlay.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You requested 2,500.
MS. HENDERSON: Right.
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COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And he lowered to it 1,000.
MS. HENDERSON: Right. Because --
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I want to know from him why
I, he lowered it from your request.
MS. HENDERSON: And he talked to me, so --
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, but he hasn't talked
to me, but we're going to get to it.
MS. HENDERSON: He's right. I boo-booed on that.
He's right.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay.
MS. HENDERSON: I will tell you that.
JUDGE PROHL: We think the I.T. Department can
build one for 1,000.
JUDGE TINLEY: Did you expect any answer other than
I'm right, Commissioner? (Laughter.)
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Absolutely not.
MS. HENDERSON: Mark it; he's right. He's right.
I made a mistake when I was figuring it.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Judge --
JUDGE TINLEY: Any other questions, Commissioner?
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Judge Prohl, I worked with a
county judge one time that sat here and told a guy -- he
says, "I know what you need, but I" -- "I know what you want,
but I know also know what you need." See? And that's kind
of what he's doing with your travel thing. You don't need to
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go up there and face those people and get reelected. My god,
you can do -- you can do all that from the bathroom here.
JUDGE PROHL: Big screen TV.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: The big screen TV. So, I
should have never questioned him. Ever, ever, at all.
JUDGE PROHL: I understand that he --
MS. HENDERSON: He's right.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: He's right. You're right,
Judge.
COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Put a mark down.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's the only question I
had. I'm sorry I asked that.
JUDGE TINLEY: We need to mark that place in the
record, madam reporter. We'll come back to that. Anything
else on 216th? Okay. Let's go to 198th, if I can find out
which one I'm working on here.
JUDGE PROHL: We hope we don't have a big
transcript issue. You remember, we had an organized crime
case, and we fought that all the way through the Court of
Appeals, because I found that the man was not indigent
because he had sources from family and friends. Fourth Court
disagreed with me, came back and said you got to provide it,
and we got clipped $12,000, $13,000. It was significant.
So, we don't have any cases like that that we know of right
now, and we don't have any big cases, unless somebody shoots
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somebody today, that we -- that would be criminal cases that
we're dealing with right now that will be cost prohibitive.
Sometimes those just pop up, and you can't do anything about
it.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Special court --
COMMISSIONER LETZ: In the 216th, going back to
that one -- I know we're jumping back and forth.
JUDGE TINLEY: Oops. Okay.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: What about the Seard case? Is
~' that going to trial this year?
MR. CURRY: We'll know a lot more tomorrow.
There's a hearing tomorrow on a new motion for competency,
and I think it will be dependent somewhat on that ruling.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is that -- is that trial in the
~ budget?
MR. CURRY: I don't think so.
MS. HENDERSON: No, because -- what are you talking
about, like, for special trials?
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, I just -- I mean, it will
be a capital murder.
MS. HENDERSON: No.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: It will be a high-profile big
I trial.
~ MS. HENDERSON: And we discussed this a couple
years ago on the special trials, where we just never know, so
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COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. And so it's -- I know
that was our policy, but it's kind of creeping closer to
trial, it appears today, or maybe tomorrow it won't be.
', MS. HARGIS: I've been keeping up with it, and
between Rusty and Bruce, like he said, tomorrow we'll find
out. But if it is, I think we need to look at that.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Do we have a projected amount
for that trial if it takes place? A projected cost?
MR. CURRY: I'm not good at that. I -- the problem
with this trial, it's got substantial -- already had
substantial psychiatric, that kind of medical, and that makes
this higher than normal, and I don't know if I can give you a
valid number or not. $60,000, $70,000, maybe more.
MS. HENDERSON: That's what I'd say.
MR. CURRY: It's that mental stuff.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: I know. Going to be a lot of
extra witnesses on both sides. Okay.
JUDGE PROHL: Let me touch on one thing, too. I
think Judge Tinley got a letter from the San Antonio
appellate indigent defense people. You know, before, they
came to all the rural -- came to everybody, particularly
rural counties, and said, you know, "We'll do your appeals
for free; y'all just have to pay the transcript." So, this
year they sent us a letter saying, "We're no longer going to
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do it for free. We'll do it on a fee basis, and if you don't
join in with us, you may lose any of your grant funding from
O.C.A. on this indigent defense." I called -- I called the
guy who heads the indigent defense and I said, "They can't do
this. They just can't do it," and he agreed. He said the
letter was absolutely wrong, that they cannot affect funding
for O.C.A. And so I called that service today and said,
"Judge Roberts called me; said he talked to you, and said
that, you know, we'll -- we'll just hire our own." We're
going to have to pay them anyway. Hire those appellate
attorneys that we have confidence in and can do this, because
we can do it just as inexpensive as we can hiring this San
Antonio firm who, all of a sudden, went from free to fee
basis. But I --
JUDGE TINLEY: Did their grant funding for the
appellate indigent project run out?
JUDGE PROHL: Yeah. It's a one-year grant. I
thought about that. It's typical of these sort of unfunded
mandates. We'll set you up for a year, then you got to go to
the counties and start charging them.
JUDGE TINLEY: Okay.
COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Okay, Buster, now I get to
test him. It's my turn.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Go get him.
COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Are you ready?
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COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER OEHLER: On the court coordinator's
salary, it went from last year's 67,612 to a recommended
100,623. That's a 50 percent increase in that line item.
MS. HENDERSON: I didn't put that in there. I --
COMMISSIONER OEHLER: It was also --
MS. HENDERSON: I've seen that. I am not
responsible for that, but thank you.
COMMISSIONER OEHLER: It was also asked on ours;
there was a request as well as the recommended.
MS. HENDERSON: I mean, we didn't put anything in
there.
MS. HARGIS: Yeah, they weren't allowed to.
MS. HENDERSON: But thanks.
COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Okay, Judge. Answer.
JUDGE TINLEY: The only -- number one, I'm going to
give you the same -- the same disclaimer that I mentioned to
Buster a little bit ago. On the salary items and the capital
outlay items, that comes here to the full court, as it has in
prior years. So, my effort on these budgets was started
below the salary items, including the roll-ups and so forth,
with some few exceptions, and down to the capital outlay.
What I can tell you is that there may have been some change
in the allocation formula, either based on population or case
load. I'm not sure which one is used in the 216th.
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MS. HARGIS: I'll go back and check, 'cause it's a
pretty complicated formula. It's based on allocation, and
it's also based on their supplements as well. And --
JUDGE TINLEY: For the Sixth Administrative
District? Is that included there also?
MS. HARGIS: Yes, I'm sorry.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Increase is the same for both
198th and the 216th?
COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Mm-hmm. It's still a
50 percent increase.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Dollars are the same for both
those courts, so allocation may be part of it, but it would
be odd for an allocation to change the same for both.
MS. HARGIS: I used the spreadsheet that I had that
was passed down to me, so let me check to make sure.
MS. HENDERSON: Yeah. The Sixth region wouldn't
be...
(Low-voice discussion off the record.)
COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Next question is the same
thing on the court reporter line item. It went from 51,000,
current budget, to 69,468. That's a hefty increase.
MS. HENDERSON: We didn't.
COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Good increase for a salary.
JUDGE TINLEY: You're in the 198th now?
COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I'm in the 198th.
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MS. HENDERSON: Now that I look at them, it's
great, but we didn't do that.
COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I'm just looking at what's on
the screen.
MS. HENDERSON: That's the first I've seen them,
too.
MS. HARGIS: I plugged those in, so it's very
possible there's an error, 'cause it's the first time I've
done those.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: We need to look at for both
courts, the coordinator and the court reporter, 'cause the
percentage on the court reporter in both courts is pretty
high.
JUDGE TINLEY: Mm-hmm.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: 25 percent, 50 percent.
COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That affects the bottom line
tremendously.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Oh, yeah. Was it the same
number on the 216th as well?
COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's different, but a big
increase. The court reporter is from 31 to 41.
JUDGE PROHL: We didn't request those figures.
COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That's a 33 percent increase.
But when they put together those -- when -- because they have
to do that computated formula, if you'll think back, last
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year we had a little bit of an issue, 'cause when I plugged
them in the position schedule, y'all ripped me the same way.
I didn't get them quite 50 percent, yeah, but I gave them,
like, a 25 percent increase. So, I can -- I can kind of
relate on that one. It's a convoluted -- convoluted thing.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Formula.
MS. HYDE: Thank you. So...
JUDGE TINLEY: You and Ms. Hargis take a look and
give us a -- a detailed explanation of that, if you would.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Or an adjustment.
MS. HENDERSON: On the -- not to get off the
subject, but on the $1,000 for operating equipment, John just
told me that he has a computer -- new desktop computer that
he can give Judge Williams when he comes in, so if -- if
that's so, we can take out that $1,000. That's what that was
for. We already have the laptop for him, so I don't know.
Is it -- is it, like, a brand new computer? Or is it --
MR. TROLINGER: Yes.
MS. HENDERSON: Okay. I mean, if he's got one,
that's all we need is a desktop. He'll have a laptop. He'll
have Judge Ables' laptop, so -- and that's what he wanted.
JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. So, we can delete that one.
MR. TROLINGER: It's pretty easy to delete things
out of the budget.
MS. HYDE: Yeah.
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JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah, that always comes a bit
easier.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Judge, I have one more
question.
JUDGE TINLEY: All right, sir.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Y'all through with all that?
Judge Prohl? This is maybe a philosophical question. I'm
not sure, but I just want to ask it anyway. Special District
Judges. That's -- I think that's what we used to call
visiting judges.
JUDGE PROHL: Yeah. Yeah.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: If I remember right, a long
time ago, the State participated in that salary when -- when
a judge would come and visit, and I don't know if they paid
all of it or not, but I know that Kerr County hardly ever
paid anybody.
JUDGE PROHL: Yeah. This -- I'm going to let Becky
answer that, because that is sort of a regional question, and
she can answer it, 'cause she deals specifically -- if you
don't mind, she deals specifically with that.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And, so -- (speaking to his
computer) If you go to sleep, I'm throwing you out the damn
window.
JUDGE TINLEY: Just punch your --
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So, we put some -- we put
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2,500 in the budget, and we're obviously not going to use any
of it, so we cranked it down to 2,000. But I'm thinking, to
me, that would be one of those ways -- and I -- again, I
think we're getting into philosophical ways of running your
office. To me, that would be a way, if you had a visiting
judge, like a Charlie Sherrill type guy, come in here that we
paid -- I don't think we've ever paid Charlie a penny, 30
years of service here. But if we paid somebody to hear those
things and get those guys out of jail to help clear -- clean
our jail out some. And we're in the process of talking right
now about building a new jail, millions of dollars. And
we're talking about different ways -- I mean, I'm just
asking. Wouldn't that be a way, if you had a visiting judge
to come in here and sit and -- to hear more cases?
JUDGE PROHL: Are you talking about counties
setting up a separate little fund that says we'll pay for a
retired judge; i.e., Judge Ables will be here.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah.
JUDGE PROHL: And --
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Exactly.
JUDGE PROHL: -- pick up -- now, prosecutors have
to be involved in that response. But --
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I think we have -- I think
we have that right line.
JUDGE PROHL: Well, the $2,000, as I understand it,
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when the State -- when we bring a visiting judge in, the
State pays their salary, but the County has to pay --
MS. HENDERSON: We have to pay their hotel, if
there's expenses, their food, their travel, their mileage.
And the reason we haven't used that is because Judge Sherrill
has been doing it for us.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah.
MS. HENDERSON: And he lives within Kerr County, so
we don't have -- and we've been able to use him as much as we
can, and that's one reason that we do use Judge Sherrill, is
because he doesn't -- we don't have to pay him anything. But
if we bring somebody in that -- Judge Sherrill's not
available, we have to bring somebody in, say, from Brady,
Judge Jordan, then he gets to claim his mileage. If he
spends the night, he gets to claim the hotel, and then he
gets to claim his food. He's been real good about not -- not
charging us either, and that's why the last couple of years
we haven't used that. Only problem is, if we take it out
completely and we do have to have a visiting judge come in,
that they're recused for some reason, then we don't have the
money there. That's why we've kept it.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Actually, I'm promoting
visiting judges.
JUDGE PROHL: And we understand. But -- but to
answer your question -- I think that's good, but I think what
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would have to happen, we'd have to create -- we'd have to
i create days when you'd have a prosecutor available.
Prosecutor's office would have to be there for whatever
happened. And that -- you know, at one time we talked about
going out in the evenings even, doing something. But a
couple things happen. One, if you've got people -- a lot of
people in jail sometimes are on motions to revoke. They're
not entitled to a bond. We have a fistful of them. And so
you get -- they have to have an attorney. You get them an
attorney; you want to have a hearing as quickly as possible.
Attorneys are going to say, "Golly, the guy just got arrested
last night; you appointed me the next day. I need to get a
copy of everything. It's going be a week or two before I can
get prepared and interview witnesses and get ready to go."
So, a lot of those we can't just open the door and let out.
And then lots of people, their bonds are set, and
we frequently lower bonds to get people out. We do that for
lots of reasons. Maybe it was a hot check thing, and -- and
maybe a PR bond; we go back and look at it. Or if it's -- if
it's a pregnant person or a person that's got other -- other
physical problems, usually the Sheriff's Department lets us
know right quick. We don't have many of them, but we're
going to have to pay for the medical, and if they're not a
threat to society, we let them out. We're willing to -- to
consider anything y'all want to do to help expedite the
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process, absolutely, and I appreciate that.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think -- I mean, I want to
say it in a little bit different way. It's a whole lot
cheaper for the taxpayers for us to bring in visiting
District Judges and hire another District Attorney than build
another jail. If we need to beef up the D.A.'s office and
get a visiting judge in here to clean out people, that's a
whole lot better than having to spend who knows how many
millions on a jail. And if that's an option, we need to -- I
think we'll probably -- once Judge Williams is on board,
and -- and the changes that are coming up, and Amos and all
that are on board, I'd rather really try to ask y'all to look
at that for us and see if that is a viable solution to help
clean out the jail population by bringing in visiting judges
or D.A.'s, trying to look at where -- is there any
bottlenecks that we can resolve? Because it's a whole lot
better for us to get people out of that jail as fast as we
can.
JUDGE PROHL: If you go to -- if you, in fact, go
to a four-day work week -- I don't know what you're going to
do, and we just support whatever you do. I had some
attorneys grimace a little bit, but I said, you know, we can
start hearings at 7 o'clock in the morning. And, I mean, I
have hearings in Brady at 7:30 in the morning, so I get up
and drive up there and do it, so it wouldn't be a big step
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~ for me to do that. And you can -- you could -- and Amos has
been doing the same thing, so we're used to those early
hours. We could go out to the jail; you know, we could have
a morning docket, 7:00 to -- 7:00 to 9:00, and then pick up
the regular docket back in the courthouse later. I mean,
just there's lots of things that we could do, and we're
willing to do. So -- so, yes. Maybe the first of the year,
we can sit down, put our heads together and come up with an
approach to it.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay, thank you.
JUDGE PROHL: We're willing to do that.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you.
JUDGE TINLEY: I think the members of the Court
will recall that when we created -- actually funded that
account last year, we were looking forward at the jail
problem, because that was starting to build up on us, and
that was our concern at the time. And it's probably gotten
worse instead of better, so anything you can do to help would
be greatly appreciated.
JUDGE PROHL: Yeah. Boy, y'a11 -- 216th had a
stack of indictments like that. The number of indictments in
both courts are just escalating at an incredible pace, and,
you know, we can just go so fast. You have a lot more
flexibility with misdemeanors -- I think Mr. Emerson will
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tell you that -- than we do with the felonies. But we'll
certainly look at any way we can to expedite those things.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And then, on the flip side,
a couple of years ago we had a visiting judge from College
Station that -- I don't know who that jerk was, but he -- I
mean, he came in here wanting to change our budget system.
Who was that guy? Don't bring him back.
JUDGE PROHL: Judge Delaney.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay, I'm glad you remember.
MS. HENDERSON: We would like to say one thing. We
did not assign him or get him in. The Supreme Court sent him
to us. We had nothing to do with him.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'm glad y'all remember
that.
JUDGE TINLEY: Given the opportunity to scream,
Ms. Henderson, you do better than that, right?
MS. HENDERSON: We did not -- yes, sir.
JUDGE TINLEY: Okay.
MS. HENDERSON: The Supreme Court did that.
JUDGE TINLEY: Anything else on 216th or 198th
Court? Okay. I tell you what; it's 10:30, so let's go ahead
and take about a 15-minute recess, and we'll come back and
get with the D.A.'s.
JUDGE PROHL: Thank y'all.
(Recess taken from 10:32 a.m. to 10:52 a.m.)
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JUDGE TINLEY: Okay, let's get back to business, if
we might. The next items we have up are the District
Attorneys. The first one is 216th D.A. What we've got is
a -- is a lump --
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: What number is that, Judge?
MR. RUARK: 440.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: 440.
JUDGE TINLEY: Just about a $2,000 increase
overall.
COMMISSIONER OEHLER: In this one?
JUDGE TINLEY: Mm-hmm.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'm obviously on the wrong
page. I'm on Page 23.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That's right. That's where
I am.
COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That's right.
JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah, but where do we go for the
detail, Ken?
COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Is there one?
JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah.
MR. RUARK: No, the only detail we have -- I mean,
what it looks like here is just that one amount, so whoever
entered 164,069, that's all we have at this point. And
Jeannie's not in the room, so...
MS. HYDE: I'll go get Jeannie.
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COMMISSIONER LETZ: We've always had the detail on
that.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Sure.
MR. CURRY: Detail of the budget request?
JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah.
MR. CURRY: She printed one out for me yesterday.
JUDGE TINLEY: Why don't you let Jody make some
copies and we can take a look at that.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. I want to see how
much the D.A.'s gone up on his rent over there.
MR. RUARK: All right. We're in -- okay, here's
the deal. You need to go to Fund 83, and that's -- I'll
bring that up in a second. That's where his budget's at, not
in Fund 107. That's where I'm at. That's where that report
is.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: What page is that?
MR. RUARK: You have to keep going. You go to Fund
83 and look at Department 440. That's where his detail's at.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: 83?
MR. RUARK: 83. Now I'll bring it up here, too.
JUDGE TINLEY: 83-440.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I am there.
MR. RUARK: Okay. And here's -- on the screen
you'll see his.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Page 183.
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COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay.
MR. RUARK: We found it.
MS. HARGIS: Okay.
MS. GRINSTEAD: Did you guys find it?
COMMISSIONER LETZ: We got it.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Office rent stayed the same.
(Discussion off the record.)
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Bruce, while they're doing
that, can I ask you a question?
MR. CURRY: Yes, sir. Stand here or go up there?
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You can sit down there.
MR. CURRY: Okay.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Would you -- would you have
this same conversation with us after the first of the year
about visiting judges and those kinds of things, and how to
-- how can we empty that jail?
MR. CURRY: Sure.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Just sit down, have a visit
about it, whether we come to any kind of conclusion or not.
MR. CURRY: Oh, absolutely. Sure. I think the
only way -- frankly, I was listening to Karl talking. I can
give you arguments pro and con on it, and I'm talking from a
felony standpoint. A lot of that's misdemeanor stuff. But I
think you just have to try it and see, because a lot of what
he says is exactly right. It sounds like it, and then you
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walk in there, and when the dust clears, you've taken care of
three people out of 50, you know, something like that.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah.
MR. CURRY: You can certainly try it and see.
That's about the only --
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I just want to have a
conversation, 'cause we have the Sheriff in here four or five
times a year that says these things, and you're the -- where
the rubber meets the road, and I kind of want to know.
MR. CURRY: He and I talk about it frequently.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, I imagine.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: And it may be that more
increased staff in the D.A.'s office may be more important
than bringing in visiting judges, 'cause most of these things
never go to trial anyway. So, I mean, consider --
MR. CURRY: Yeah, clearing out the...
COMMISSIONER LETZ: That may -~ I mean, we just
need to figure out if there's anything that we can do short
of building a new jail to get things moving quicker, wherever
that is.
MR. CURRY: I know that when we added our staff
person y'all were kind enough to give us last time, that has
really helped a lot. And I'm not going to say the numbers
have come down, because they've gone up in volume, but as far
as moving cases out, he's done a great job. We've moved lots
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of cases. And if y'all will recall, all of a sudden in
Kendall County, there was this idea of having a County Court
at Law Judge hearing -- and that's the less problematic
county. It really wasn't going to solve a lot of the
problems, but that was the problem they left out of the
equation, the prosecutor, and that would just cause us a
problem. We'd be sending somebody off to another judge in
another county, and just kind of eliminating the advantage we
got from this individual if we do that, just to try one case.
I mean, that's all you're knocking off the docket. So, I --
that, unfortunately, is one of the byproducts when you do --
start doing that. You need to have warm bodies to do it, or
you start taking away from the ability to clear these --
these cases.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean, I -- yeah. I mean, the
D.A.'s as important -- if you're going to increase judges,
you got to increase the D.A.'s. Otherwise, you're not
helping anyway.
MR. CURRY: Or lean on the County Attorney
somewhere. There's got to be a warm body somewhere.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Got to have a prosecutor come
from somewhere. Okay.
JUDGE TINLEY: What I'm hearing from you is that,
while the additional prosecutors have helped your disposition
rate or numbers, the new case -- new cases coming online is
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outrunning that.
MR. CURRY: I think so. Bandera and Kerr,
particularly. We had 40-something indictments, as an
example, this month in Kerr County, and Amos probably had
similar. I don't know. But, you know, we're not dumping out
that many cases. We may -- we might have been getting rid of
five or.six. Now we're getting rid of 20 or 25, but the math
isn't there, and as that goes up, it's just slowly, that
docket continues to increase.
JUDGE TINLEY: Your disposition rate has increased
from 5 to 10 to 25, but you got another 40 coming online each
I month.
MR. CURRY: Each month, that's right. And we're
not having many breaks; that's the problem. Every once in a
while, we used to have a 10-day. That doesn't happen very
much, and so -- and then Bandera's is the other problem,
'cause they're nearly -- you know, my position, that makes
sense, but their case load is nearly like Kerr's. Of course,
we're half of Kerr, but their case load is nearly our half of
Kerr, so we're getting always in excess of 20, frequently in
excess of 30 indictments over there. That's the problem.
JUDGE TINLEY: Any other questions for Mr. Curry?
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. Go ahead.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: No, go ahead.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: The -- I just -- I just
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noticed this, Bruce, this car allowance thing. Is this
something new?
MR. CURRY: I'm sorry, the what?
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Car allowance.
MR. CURRY: Yes, it is.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: On the assistants and the
investigator.
MR. CURRY: Yes. I think that that -- and Jeannie
was telling me about that. I think she was telling me -- we
had talked about fact that the cost of gasoline has gone up,
and I had asked about that, and she said, you know, it's
included, I think, as salary. You call it an allowance, and
that's -- that's sort of built in, I think, in the salary
increase request, because these particular employees all
drive around the counties.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Sure.
MR. CURRY: And that's where --
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Sure. What did we do before
this?
MR. CURRY: We didn't have anything.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It just came out of their
pocket, huh?
MR. CURRY: That's right.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Part of the job.
MR. CURRY: That's the way we handle it. I hired
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them with that in mind, 'cause two of my employees live out
of county, and so that's just getting to the office.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And so this is basically
what we're talking about for everyone, is just put it in the
salary, and --
MS. HARGIS: Show it as --
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: -- beat the federal
government. Is that what we're doing?
MS. HARGIS: Well, no. You obey the federal
government.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Not exactly.
MS. HARGIS: You_show it as a car allowance in
their salary line item, but it takes the FICA and the
Medicare out, and that's what they're looking for.
Unfortunately, a lot of folks have misused car allowances
throughout all industries, you know, whether it be government
or whatever, and so they're closing the gap, and it's
basically what happens.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is it --
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And the $3,000, both
assistants, or that's $3,000 each?
MS. HARGIS: Mm-hmm.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And investigator's another
$3,000, so that's $9,000 total for the travel thing. And
you -- did you just pull that number out of the air?
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MS. HARGIS: Yeah, we did, considering --
MR. CURRY: It is, I'm sure, calculated higher,
MS. HARGIS: We came up to 500, 550, and so that's
really only paying for half of what they drive.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'm not complaining. I'm
trying to think, you know, how we're going to do it for our
people when we get to that point.
MS. HARGIS: He estimated what he thought that one
of them would travel based on a current month, and we came up
with -- it would end up being about 550 or 600 a month, and
he felt that he couldn't justify that, so that's -- we kind
of cut it in half, and that's what we have.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: I know it gets rolled into the
salary.	My --	I don't	care about	that part	of	it	right	now,
but just	more	a Court	discussion	up here.	Is	it	better	to
keep track of it as a separate line item, or just put it as
part of salary? Because I know when I first became a
Commissioner, going on, what, over 10 years ago now, a lot of
the individuals had that. There was a --
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Hundred dollars a month.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- hundred dollars a month
travel allowance. That $100 a month, and we got rid of that
and put it in the salary, and now we're going back to talking
about a travel allowance again. And -- you know, and I'm --
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and that travel allowance has been increased with every
cost-of-living adjustment over the years, and all of a sudden
we're saying no one's getting car allowance. We11, everyone
isn't, but a lot are, because it was in their salary rolled
in, I know, ten years ago. And I don't know if it was in
this case, but I think that -- and I was an advocate of
rolling it into salary, 'cause that's what it is, but,
really, I've switched by my position 180 degrees. I think
it's better to keep them separate, because that prevents us
from going in there, saying, "We need to give travel
allowances" ten years down the road.
MS. HARGIS: We want it as a separate line item,
okay? It'll be in their salary, but it will show as a car
allowance on their stubs, so when they get their pay stub at
the end of the year, it will say car allowance "X", and
then -- but the FICA and Social Security will be taken out of
it.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: I want a separate line item --
separate line item under the budgets.
MS. HARGIS: In the budget? Okay, no problem.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think it's easier to keep
track of it and make sure we're being consistent.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: He is right.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I like that. Separate it.
JUDGE TINLEY: Mr. Curry, the -- the -- some of
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your clerical people do travel also? My -- my understanding
is that last year, you created a methodology to see that they
were compensated for their use of their personal vehicles?
MR. CURRY: Yes, sir.
JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. That's worked out okay?
MR. CURRY: I think so. It comes out -- I think it
comes out of the reimbursed travel item in the middle.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: What is the method,
Mr. D.A.? What is the method you use for --
MR. CURRY: We use --
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: -- reimbursement?
MR. CURRY: -- the mileage rate. Whatever those
charts are, at the going rate.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: At the state rate?
MR. CURRY: Fifty-eight cents a mile. And the
clerical people don't go out as much as the lawyers and the
investigators, so it's usually just the --
JUDGE TINLEY: Out of county?
MR. CURRY: -- pretrials. For example, they don't
go to grand juries and trials and things, so it's usually
once a week for the primary thing. And then if a special
deal comes up, they just calculate it on a per-trip basis.
MS. HARGIS: This is by county, by the way.
JUDGE TINLEY: Out of county?
MS. HARGIS: Out of county.
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JUDGE TINLEY: Mm-hmm. Any other questions for
Mr. Curry? Okay. Are we all through there? Okay, let's go
to County Judge.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: No, 198th. What about his?
JUDGE TINLEY: Oh, okay.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: He's been sitting here all
morning, and to not get the chance to participate --
JUDGE TINLEY: My apologies. My apologies.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't know where it is. What
is that? Fund 10 or fund -- fund something else, the 198th?
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Next page.
COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Next page.
MS. HARGIS: It's shown in Fund 10, and then
it's --
COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Just got a summary of that,
too.
MS. HARGIS: It's in the 80's. It's in both
places. It's detailed in a different spot than the --
COMMISSIONER OEHLER: This is Kerr County's
portion. It says here, "Portion based on case load,
56.24 percent." And this budget, too, has gone up by
580,000, 50 percent.
MS. HARGIS: Yes, sir, that one is right, because
we put the full salary for -- for Amos in there. Amos, do
you want to talk about that?
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COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yeah, Amos, you need to
explain that one.
MR. BARYON: Help me again.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Wait. Wait. I want to find
the detail before we go.
MS. HARGIS: Okay, go down.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't see it.
MR. RUARK: That's what I'm looking for, Jeannie.
What is it?
MS. HARGIS: Down by -- 81, 83 -- slow down a
minute. No, I don't think -- I think I just have his on a
spreadsheet, 'cause we don't keep their books, so I just have
a spreadsheet on it, on the 198th.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: What page is that on, Ken?
MS. HARGIS: It's in 10-445-330. And that's the
reason why I put that little note in there. That's the only
place we show theirs.
JUDGE TINLEY: Well, that doesn't have the detail.
MS. HARGIS: He has a copy of his detail.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: He has a copy of it.
MR. BARYON: That's the copy of the doodad I gave
you that is on the old bookkeeping system, because --
JUDGE TINLEY: Well, we don't keep your books on
that. Why don't you let Jody make a copy of that right quick
so that we can all be looking at the same thing? We'll -- we
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get confused enough when we're looking at the same thing.
When we're not, we really get confused.
MR. BARYON: Hopefully, that'll change.
JUDGE TINLEY: Well, and one of the problems you've
got is that you've got one-fourth of your -- of the year that
you're not in control of the budget, and three-fourths of the
year you are in control of the budget, essentially.
MR. BARYON: And I'm kind of coming in blind.
JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. You're in the hiatus.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Do you want some glasses?
MR. BARYON: Yeah, right.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: What's the page number on
that, Judge? 198th -- oh, up at the top.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: 24.
JUDGE TINLEY: There, 216th --
COMMISSIONER LETZ: 198th is on Page 24.
COMMISSIONER OEHLER: We're going to have paper.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: But it doesn't have -- here's
the detail coming out.
JUDGE TINLEY: There you go.
MR. BARYON: Judge, would you like me to just walk
you through the format here? 'Cause I think it's a
substantial deviation from what y'all are used to looking at.
JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. We've had that problem
previously, so it would probably be helpful if you'd kind of
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lead us by the hand.
MR. BARYON: Sure. Looking at the -- the column
names, annualized expenditure, for the previous budget year,
what you're seeing there are -- that's just salary items for
the individual positions that we've got. Then you move over
one column, and you're going to see subtotals right there, so
you see 244,000, right there under the subtotal. That 244 is
the sum of all the annualized previous year expenditure,
okay? And then you can just follow that down for each of the
line items under the annualized, so that kind of gives you
what we've been doing in the past year. Then move over one
more column, and you see the same -- same thing replicated.
I broke it down by the individual positions that we've got,
so you can see how much each position is -- we're proposing
that the budget contribute to. And then move over to the
final column over there to see the subtotals and then the
line items for the amount that's being requested. So, the
best way, I think, to look at it is to look at Column 2 and
Column 4 to see -- here's our actual numbers from the
previous year, and then 4, what we're asking for from the
budget.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So --
JUDGE TINLEY: Actually, your personnel costs to
the County has gone to -- the County's has gone down.
MR. BARYON: For example, if you look under the
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support staff, where you see accounting, office manager,
paralegal, legal assistant, our actual costs are 120,581 for
that, annualized for this past year. We're requesting 90,000
for our -- and that's our total budget district-wide. And
then we go -- we take our total budget and we apportion it
out, and we do it on a different -- a different way to the
benefit of Kerr County than -- than the 216th. If we do it
by population, you know, we're -- yeah, it goes from Kerr
County being at 56 and a quarter percent to about, I think --
didn't we calculate 70-something -- 72 or 73 percent. So,
what -- what we do is, we take the Office of Court
Administration numbers for the number of cases that are
handled, and we do a pro rata apportionment based on the
actual case load, what is -- what are we doing for each
county, and apportioning it that way. And that comes out
better for Kerr County by about 20-something percent -- well,
almost 20 percent.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: The number we're looking at
is for Kerr County only? Or is this district-wide?
MR. BARYON: Yeah. Let me show you where the Kerr
County number comes from. Down here at the bottom, where you
see proposed apportionment by county, --
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yeah.
MR. BARYON: -- Kerr County's percent contribution
to the budget is 56 and a quarter. So, you take that 344 of
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the total budget request that you see in bold over there on
the --
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay, I see it.
'I MR. BARYON: Then you take 56 and a quarter --
', 56.24 percent, to come up with the 193 that's reflected on
your -- on your lump sum.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Got you.
I' MR. BARYON: What I've done is, I kind of have
limited ability to assess some of the costs. For example, I
do know that library expenses for our office, that you can
see under books and publications, was 13,400, and then
there's another Westlaw expense for 8,300. We're like a lot
of the other offices, moving more digital and away from the
paper library and stuff like that, so I have all but zeroed
out the -- the library expenses. I think I've got $500 in
there, and -- and those are to cover the cost of some books
that the County and District Attorneys Association comes out
with that they don't have in a digital format. So --
JUDGE TINLEY: Speaking of digital and technology,
where are we on your thinking with regard to video
teleconferencing?
MR. BARYON: I think it's great, number one. I
think that it's inevitable. I think we're going there. I
don't think we're ready to do it. I don't think our
constituency in the outlying counties, my western counties,
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are ready for it. We go out there once a month, basically,
and we conduct our Grand Jury sessions contemporaneously with
the pretrial sessions that we have. So, figuring out -- the
whole purpose being increased efficiency and decreased
duplication. If I've got to go out there to conduct my Grand
Jury anyway, I don't think that can really be done remotely,
in all fairness to the voters, and --
JUDGE TINLEY: I would agree on the grand -- if
you've got a Grand Jury that's going to be reporting.
MR. BARYON: Which we do.
JUDGE TINLEY: Absolutely.
MR. BARYON: Monthly, and so it actually works
pretty well. We go out there; we pull -- actually get to see
our officers. The great majority of our coaching that I
think is imperative to the relationship between the D.A.'s
office and law enforcement is done when we're out there. And
we have Todd, who runs back and forth as our investigator,
and they get a lot of coaching that way. But when it comes
to the legal issues, that's when we're really getting the
touch on them; it's at our Grand Jury sessions. We tell them
the problems with their cases and things like that. I think
Bruce is able to have his officers actually come into
Kerrville for their case review and coaching sessions, which
I would like to see if we can kind of mirror -- mirror that.
But it's got to be done one way or another.
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JUDGE TINLEY: Well, you know, I acknowledge that,
you know, there -- you've got to have some presence out in
the counties where you're an elected official, and --
MR. BARYON: And we've got it limited to one day a
I month.
JUDGE TINLEY: For Grand Jury, you -- it's
imperative that you have face time with those grand jurors
and -- and that process. But, certainly, there are other
times when you've got possibly pretrial proceedings or pleas
that can be disposed of, that might be beneficial to go ahead
and get those rolled out that you could do remotely. That's
where I see the benefit, is out of the ordinary once-a-month
face time with your Grand Juries and so forth.
MR. BARYON: I think if we do have the need for
hearings outside the one -- one time a month, then we can
pretty quickly get to that break-even point. The truth is,
over in Mason and Menard, we're just -- one day a month is --
JUDGE TINLEY: Oh.
MR. BARYON: -- is meeting our needs out there.
JUDGE TINLEY: Okay.
MR. BARYON: And meeting their needs. Now, they --
they do have some complaints about not seeing their elected
officials as much as they like to, but that's nothing that,
really, video conferencing is going to rectify. It's -- I
think the use that I see in the near future is at the local
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level. You know, if it saves manpower and money not
transporting inmates, and we're able to do something here
within Kerr County, that's an immediate benefit to your
constituency, and it seems like what we're talking about
would really inure to the benefit of western counties. But I
think that the video conferencing would most directly benefit
Kerr County with its use here in Kerr County.
JUDGE TINLEY: Before I -- before he gets loose, I
want to see what Bruce's thoughts are on the video
teleconferencing.
MR. CURRY: Oh, I -- to tell you the truth, I think
kind of like what I was telling Mr. Baldwin. Try it and see.
I've got some doubts about it as a practical matter in a lot
of sessions, because you're going to have to go out there
for -- even if it's just a few things, you've got to be out
there anyway.
JUDGE TINLEY: You're talking about the other
counties?
MR. CURRY: The other counties, I'm talking about.
JUDGE TINLEY: Okay.
MR. CURRY: If you're going to be out there anyway,
we can do them then, and that takes care of it. We also go
to each county one time a month. We're a little bit
different than 198th, of course, a little different
situation, because luckily we're centrally located. We're 30
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miles from everybody, and I think they're -- how many miles
you got?
MR. BARYON: It's an hour and a half for me to get
to Brady.
MR. CURRY: Some of those, it's a little different
j situation. But it's a tryable thing. I may just be -- maybe
I'm not thinking about it right. I've never done it, so I
don't know, but we can try it.
JUDGE TINLEY: What about locally?
MR. CURRY: Oh, I think you would have a big
function here. It's just not going to save mileage. I
thought that's -- yeah -- but, oh, yeah, I think you can do
it locally and save some time, because you can run
multi-dockets in Kerr County a lot easier. We'd have that,
plus we'd have a face-to-face thing. But if we do it in
another county, that's -- you know, that's kind of
duplication. We can do it all at one time over there.
MR. BARYON: And, Judge, you may be familiar with
the practicality of case resolution. A lot of things are
done outside the formal hearing, and so me being there with
the defense attorney instead of over a computer screen,
there's a lot of, "Hey, can we work this out?" deal going on
outside the formal hearing. And I would hate to kill that by
having a -- a video conference. Just -- and just watching
what the County Court at Law has been doing, it seems like
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there has to be another meeting between the prosecutor and
the defense attorney, 'cause the actual exchange that happens
over the video conference is -- is pretty cold. It's a
formal hearing, is what it is, and there's not much of this,
"Come on, work it out. My guy's a nice guy," and -- and, you
know, the banter between the attorneys that actually gets
cases resolved and gets the jail emptied out.
JUDGE TINLEY: I agree. It's something that --
that the Bar would have to get into also, and there would be
adjustment for them, because a lot of it is a professional
exchange as between the prosecutor and the defense lawyers,
and -- and you've got to create the environment for that
incentive, and dragging them into the courthouse seems to do
that. I understand. I've been there. I'm sorry, continue.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Let me ask you a couple -- a
couple questions so that I'll understand what you're doing
here. Let's go back up to the salaries deal. Assistant
D.A.'s salaries.
MR. BARYON: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You're reducing --
MR. BARYON: No, sir. I see what you're saying.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah.
MR. BARYON: Okay. Annualized expenditures is
89,658; that's the actual money paid out to the assistant,
and then the other assistant is getting 85,000. So, what
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we're doing is, we're apprising the Commissioners Court of
that actual expenditure. However, we're only asking the
respective counties in total to contribute $65,000 toward
that actual expenditure, and the reason for that is, those
current District Attorney has been doing for a while.
Frankly, it scares me a little bit that I've got assistants
that -- I would -- you know, talking in the future, if
everything goes well, I would have assistants that are being
paid out of those asset forfeiture funds by about a full
third of their salary is paid by money that can -- it can
absolutely vaporize.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What happens if that
disappears? Then you come back to us and say, "God, we've
got to pick this thing up"?
MR. BARYON: Well, I don't think I'll do that. I
have -- I talked to Mr. Sutton about that. And there --
there are some things that are beyond Mr. Sutton's control
with the Legislature. And -- and maybe that money does
vaporize, and we've got to address it then. But, you know,
that -- it's going to take a legislative change for us to get
in a bind, and then in the immediate upcoming year, what
would happen -- I've talked with Mr. Sutton, and I have every
confidence that there would be sufficient assets in the
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forfeiture fund to meet the operational requirements for the
D.A.'s office in the upcoming budget year. And I don't think
the Legislature would be able to enact some dramatic changes
in the Chapter 59 asset forfeiture fund usage that would
change us in the next budget year. But if that happens,
Commissioner, we -- we're going to have to really talk about,
"How do we feed this machine?"
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah.
MR. BARYON: You know, we're able to -- to have a
pretty good -- I'm happy with the level of staff that we've
got. And I'm real excited about moving the main office over
here to Kerr County, because what it essentially does is,
instead of us asking for another assistant, I think we can
achieve some of the things that you're talking about,
Commissioner, where you say, "If we could get another
prosecutor here..." In effect, by moving the main office
over here, we're going to get another prosecutor here. So,
if I'm in Brady handling Grand Jury, then I'll have a chief
assistant who will be located here who can manage -- if we
have a visiting judge, manage and operate a full docket here
on his or her own.
JUDGE TINLEY: When you speak of the legislative
the Legislature next year would probably be September 1,
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which would leave us with maybe one month that we'd have to
deal with.
MR. BARYON: That's correct. That's --
JUDGE TINLEY: Is that kind of how you analyze it?
MR. BARYON: That's why I said that.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Amos?
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: If they change it.
JUDGE TINLEY: Mm-hmm, yeah.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't understand -- if I look
under the second column, I come up with a subtotal of 562.
MR. BARYON: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: And you go to the next --
Column 4, it's 378.
MR. BARYON: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Which is a big decrease.
MR. BARYON: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yet the budget increases by
50 percent.
MR. BARYON: Okay, I'll explain that. The 562 is
the actual cost of running the office for the whole district.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, the actual -- and that
includes the forfeiture funds?
MR. BARYON: That is right. That includes money
paid out of forfeiture funds.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay.
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MR. BARYON: 378 is all that the D.A. is asking
MR. BARYON: Then you see the apportionments. Now,
the percentage increases, and the actual dollars, the change
in money -- actual dollars from the previous budget that the
D.A.'s office gave to the Commissioners Court. And you see a
contemporaneous decrease in case load in two of our counties
in Brady and -- I want to say Mason. So, you see their
numbers actually going down in McCullough and Mason Counties,
so you're seeing an actual dollar increase in Kerr County at
$65,000. As -- as the contribution -- as the case load
changes, the apportionment changes, and the -- as the budget
is going up and the apportionment changes, it's kind of like
Kerr County got a -- got a $65,000 increase.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: That makes sense.
MR. BARYON: And also, the -- what you're seeing is
a shift. What I'm trying to do is -- is get the budget
that's contributed -- the portion of the budget that's
contributed by taxpayer funds, not asset forfeiture funds,
I'm trying to get that at a level where we can operate a
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funds. So, what -- in a practical emergency escape plan,
what we've got is, we'd have to fire an assistant, and we'd
have to fire one or two support staff in order to be able to
operate the D.A.'s office with the money that's being
contributed by the taxpayers solely. That's --
COMMISSIONER LETZ: My question then goes to Bruce.
What do you do with your asset forfeiture funds? Or do you
have a sizable one?
MR. CURRY: Well, we -- it's a mixture of things.
Never know, really. We use it for law enforcement if they
have a request for, you know, just an individual thing.
Conferences for those people, conferences for our staff. It
can be used to supplement on occasion. I haven't done that
lately, but you can supplement a salary from time to time.
You can use it for any law enforcement thing for the office,
is what it amounts to.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is your fund -- or yours is
larger?
MR. BARYON: Ours is.
MR. CURRY: Yeah, ours is not -- we haven't been
blessed with the -- the --
JUDGE TINLEY: What's the approximate balance in
your asset forfeiture funds or discretionary funds?
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Just talk about all of them.
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How many discretionary funds do you have?
MR. CURRY: I would say about maybe 50,000.
JUDGE TINLEY: Total?
MR. CURRY: Forty, 50. I'm not certain, to be
honest with you.
MS. HARGIS: He has two, but they're not
substantial. They're not substantial funds.
JUDGE TINLEY: Define "substantial."
MS. HARGIS: I think in the old one, you may have
125, and then in the new one you have, like, 35. I think
it's maybe a total of 150,000.
JUDGE TINLEY: 150,000?
MS. HARGIS: Yeah, but I haven't looked at it in a
while, Judge, so --
JUDGE TINLEY: And that's not substantial?
MR. CURRY: I thought that the 125 was the one
I we --
MS. HARGIS: Cut down?
MR. CURRY: I thought. I may be mistaken. I
haven't looked at those.
MS. HARGIS: They don't bring them over but about
once every six months, so I haven't looked at them in a
~~ while. I'd have to look at them.
JUDGE TINLEY: Best estimate you have now is about
175, then?
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MS. HARGIS: No, I wouldn't say it's that much. I
would say a maximum of 150, and it may be closer to 100.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Amos, what do you have?
MR. BARYON: I was looking to see if I brought a
printout. The -- the slippery slope that we get into is the
A.G.'s have said we don't get to consider the availability of
asset forfeiture funds in our budget talks. But --
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. I'm just curious.
MR. BARYON: I don't have a number. I've got the
expenses out of the forfeiture fund that Janet printed out
for me before her retirement. And I -- my understanding from
hearing talk around the office is that it's about a million
dollars. I don't know -- I just don't know.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: In whose county do these
funds reside?
MR. BARYON: That's in Kimble County, which is
where the main D.A.'s office is located.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Is that going to get
transferred?
MR. BARYON: I don't know yet. It might be
premature for me to --
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is most of it generated out of
Kimble County? Or --
MR. BARYON: I would say to the tune of 100
~ percent.
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COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Are you kidding me? They
have a deputy sheriff every 50 yards on the interstate, in
all them new cars.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: And due to the -- it's due to
the Sheriff's Department in Kimble County.
MR. BARYON: That's correct, the drug interdiction
program in Kimble County.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, I tell you what I'm
seeing. I'm going to try to get off that topic, if I can.
What I'm seeing is an honest budget. I mean, numbers -- I
appreciate the numbers put in there with the forfeiture
numbers added in.
MR. BARYON: And I'll tell you why.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You're not trying to hide
anything, and I appreciate that.
MR. BARYON: Thank you. Why I did that is 'cause
we're actually required by law to do that. And I'm -- I'm
trying to --
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That's a good reason.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You know, this is something
new for us. You understand that?
MR. BARYON: Yes, sir. I think that you're
probably going to see a lot more dialogue between the D.A.'s
office and -- and you guys, and your counterparts in the
other counties. Watching the Senate judiciary hearings and
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the Senate criminal justice hearings, that -- that they're
talking about forfeiture funds right now, and so this is a
hot topic. And oversight is something that -- that is
There's some
things that you have to be apprised of, and so I err on the
side of overkill, and let the sun shine in on it, and you're
going to -- you're going to probably get more than you want.
One of the things that you're seeing in the line items that
we have under accounting -- accounting was you're seeing it
go down from 31,000 to 10,000. We're actually replacing a
staff person with an outside C.P.A.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Contract.
guys understand that that's -- I think it could very well be
contract services, a line item for contract services. But
since we're phasing one position into a contract service,
that's the way I listed it on the line item. I've talked to
a couple of accounting firms here, local businesses that will
keep the books and help comply with all the reporting
requirements and the apprisement to you guys.
JUDGE TINLEY: I appreciate your philosophy of
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openness and shining the light of day on what you're doing.
Like you, I agree that when in doubt, just let it out there
for the whole world to look at, and let the chips fall where
they may.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Because we are required to
provide you with enough money to run your office, basically.
So --
MR. BARYON: As long as --
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: -- you're safe there.
MR. BARYON: As long as the money's there, and the
Court is aware of what it takes to feed the machine, I -- I
think that the taxpayers should get the benefit out there in
whole district of that fund. And so, if we're able to pay
more than a third of the budget out of the asset forfeiture
fund, I think it's great. We just have to know where our
line is on that A.G.'s opinion that says we're really not to
consider the availability of the asset forfeiture fund. So,
that's --
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Thank you.
JUDGE TINLEY: Any more questions for Mr. Barton?
Okay. Now, let's move on to County Judge.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Page 5.
JUDGE TINLEY: Okay.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Is this salary increase --
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is that the 10 percent?
MS. HARGIS: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You can take that out.
JUDGE TINLEY: There we go.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: What's the part-time salary.
longevity item?
JUDGE TINLEY: That needs to be deleted. I don't
know how that got in there. And, in fact, it's been deleted
on mine.
COMMISSIONER OEHLER: It's been zeroed out on the
next --
JUDGE TINLEY: I never did know how that got in --
you remember we talked about something last year in this
process about some sort of longevity, and how that got put in
', there, I don't know.
'i COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yeah, that was last year's
I discussion.
COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Left over from Bill Stacy.
JUDGE TINLEY: Could be.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: No, we talked about it last
year. I'm like the Judge. How'd it get in here? I don't
know. We didn't do it.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Basically the same as last
year. Let's move on.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Let me ask you a question.
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Conference dues.
JUDGE TINLEY: Mm-hmm?
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It looks like you're
projected to spend 1,275, and you're only putting I2 in?
JUDGE TINLEY: Actually, what happened, a portion
of that -- and there was a budget amendment to handle that,
that we corrected that. A portion of some of that should
have come from another line item, and it got charged there
and I got overdrawn. So, 1,200 is adequate, I think.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay, fine.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay.
JUDGE TINLEY: I've got other conference in the
County Court budget that you're going to see here in a little
bit, so I've got two of them available. But I've got, of
course, mental health; I've got -- I've got juvenile, and
then just generally, the -- the County Judge.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. This one here, you
kind of hang out with us sometimes.
JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah, that's right.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah.
JUDGE TINLEY: And I think the allowance in your
budget is 1,500 per, if I'm not mistaken. Total of 6,000, I
believe, for conferences in Commissioners' budget.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, that's about right.
That's knocking on the door, but --
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JUDGE TINLEY: Of course, it's a race to who gets
there first, I guess.
COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Somebody else has been
dipping a lot more than I have.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I don't know about that,
I Bruce.
JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Anything else on that one?
COMMISSIONER LETZ: I haven't spent any yet.
Getting ready to turn in two bills.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Better hurry up; there
won't be any left.
COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Better get there before Bill
does.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: No. No, don't go there.
JUDGE TINLEY: Ms. Hargis, I don't know what -- how
you want to handle the -- the group insurance. That's
showing zero, but on the opt out, there's certain other
coverage that comes into play, at considerably less cost.
MS. HARGIS: I'll have to check. I'll check
with --
JUDGE TINLEY: You see where I'm coming from?
'II MS. HARGIS: Yes, I do. It's a rebate back, I
think, based on what your percentage is.
MS. HYDE: It's just --
JUDGE TINLEY: Under the plan, there's a portion of
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the other coverage that I -- that I have, a very small
portion of it that's covered.
MS. HARGIS: I'll plug that in. I'll look that up.
I don't know if there's any increase on that, but I'll put an
8 percent on that one as well, just in case. 'Cause we had
8 percent on the group insurance, so the other coverages
could go up as well.
MS. HYDE: It's the same as the retirees.
MS. HARGIS: Is it?
MS. HYDE: Yeah. So, whatever the decision is on
the retirees, that -- that would be what it would go to.
Right now it's 135.
MS. HARGIS: A month?
MS. HYDE: Yeah, but I'm asking for a $20 or $25
increase on the retirees -- current retirees, and then --
that was what we talked about last time. And then anyone
that retires from here on would pay more.
JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. We done with that one?
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yep.
JUDGE TINLEY: Okay, let's move to County Court.
Page 13.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: 13. Now, the conference
line under this one, does that cover, like, probate and
things like that, schools?
JUDGE TINLEY: There's a separate one for probate
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you'll see, but that covers juvenile and mental health.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Juvenile and mental health,
okay.
JUDGE TINLEY: Mm-hmm.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I see probate seminar.
JUDGE TINLEY: Mm-hmm.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Why do you have that broken
I out?
JUDGE TINLEY: Because there's a -- there's a
separate account that's created by the County Clerk out of --
there's a separate fund that's charged on probate cases that
creates a probate education fund, or it's a probate education
fee, and by statute, that can only be used for probate
education, as it were. Her -- her staff, Becky Bolin that
works in her office, and myself, we're the ones that
primarily use that now for probate education, but that's
funded out of that portion of it.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. Is that a fee that
some judge assesses somewhere?
JUDGE TINLEY: Every time a probate case is filed,
there's a probate education fee that's charged as part of
that.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I see.
JUDGE TINLEY: And that fund builds up.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Sure. Super.
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JUDGE TINLEY: It's kind of like some of these
other records management fees that can only be used for
specific purposes, and that's what we use it for. I came
down a little bit on my court appointed attorneys.
COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Mm-hmm, sure did.
JUDGE TINLEY: Reduced the supplement a little bit
because of the number of cases coming down a little.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's good.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Not much of a change.
JUDGE TINLEY: Well, in the non -- non-personnel
items, why, it's actually down some. Okay. Anything else on
that one?
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No, sir.
JUDGE TINLEY: Okay, what do we got next?
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: The Tax Assessor.
JUDGE TINLEY: Tax Assessor? Okay.
MR. BOLLIER: Which one do you want to do first?
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What number are you on?
MS. BOLIN: 499 and 402.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: 499, Page 37.
COMMISSIONER OEHLER: 37?
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Is this salary increase --
is that the 10 percent? "Yes, Buster, it is."
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yes, Buster, it is.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you.
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JUDGE TINLEY: Okay.
MS. BOLIN: First thing, the mail budget --
postage, I need to drop that.
COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Need to drop what?
MS. BOLIN: The postage budget, Line Item 309.
COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Mm-hmm.
MS. BOLIN: To 15,000. Most of that is because
part of it went to elections, the election services. And we
have a substantial amount still in our postage budget this
year and in our postage machine.
JUDGE TINLEY: And you're coming to what on there,
13?
MS. BOLIN: Fifteen.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Fifteen.
MS. BOLIN: It's going to cost me about 8,000 to
mail those statements this year. So --
JUDGE TINLEY: I knew a lot of your postage was on
your voter registration mail-outs.
MS. BOLIN: Right.
JUDGE TINLEY: But now we're moving to voter
registration?
MS. BOLIN: We're moving all of that to the
election --
JUDGE TINLEY: To the election services.
MS. BOLIN: Yes.
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JUDGE TINLEY: We've created a whole new monster
over there, as it were.
MS. BOLIN: More or less. We've been keeping track
of the differences and everything for a couple years now, so
it gave me a basis of what we have spent in voter
registration. So that --
JUDGE TINLEY: Well, but the reason that your --
that your budget request is down for the Tax Office --
MS. BOLIN: Overall.
JUDGE TINLEY: -- is because a lot of this is, no
doubt, personnel-wise and so forth over to the --
MS. BOLIN: Over to the --
JUDGE TINLEY: -- election services?
MS. BOLIN: Over to elections, yes. That's why one
I, increased and one decreased.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Let me ask the computer
folks something. I see that you changed -- you changed it up
there and made a note. Should we be changing --
JUDGE TINLEY: You can't.
MR. RUARK: You can't get into this budget. You
can't get into the AR budget code. You can get into
Commissioners Court budget code. As this goes along, I'm
changing it on this.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. When does it change
here?
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MR. RUARK: It will change on that report when
we -- well, you're looking at the Commissioners Court budget,
or --
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Right.
MR. RUARK: Well, which one -- you have the AR?
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'm looking at anything.
Where is it going to change?
MR. RUARK: The report you have is -- when we rerun
it, we have to go out, come back in and rerun that report.
Then it will change.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: But some morning I'm going
to get up -- and probably not at home, 'cause they can't seem
to get me plugged in at home, but I'm going to get up some
morning and on that, the numbers are changed?
MR. RUARK: You --
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And the notes are going to
be available there for me to see?
MR. RUARK: When we back out of this report and
rerun this report again, the change is there.
MS. HARGIS: The report will change, Buster, but
the Commissioners Court will have to be manually changed.
So, unless y'all want that one changed -- we opened that up
just for you to be able to put notes in, your own amount and
things in. Probably I won't go back, because I'd have to go
and literally input all of that separately.
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111
COMMISSIONER LETZ: I would -- I mean, I think it
would be -- why don't we just delete the Commissioners Court
one and let us have a read-only on the one she's looking at?
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, read-only is fine. I
mean, I just think it -- I just want to see at some point
what happened -- what we did and what happened.
MR. RUARK: The read-only is the report that you
have.
MS. HARGIS: You can look at that report at any
time.
MR. RUARK: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's fine.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, I can make changes on
mine -- if we keep Commissioners Court, I can change my
little Commissioners Court, then I can look at the real one?
MR. RUARK: Yeah.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: I can just act like I'm
important.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, you could.
MS. HARGIS: The problem with it --
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We could do it together.
MS. HARGIS: Unfortunately, we talked to y'all
about this. You can't change the numbers. If all four of
you change the numbers, they're going to change every time
one of you changes. What I suggested was each of you find a
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box under the notes, as you recall, and choose one of	those
boxes. Now, the notes carry through to all of the --	so if
you made a note in Commissioners Court, it would show	up on
every budget. It flows through automatically, but the	
numbers have to be manually changed or copied over.	
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: All I'm interested in	is,
next Wednesday we have another one of these budget --	
MR. RUARK: You will have it.	
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Tuesday night, when I	start
going in here and kind of reviewing, seeing where we'r	e at
and what we did, all that kind of thing, kind of just	getting
in tune here, then I'm going to see these changes?	
MS. HARGIS: Yes, they're being made now.	
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: In my computer?	
MS. HARGIS: Yes. We'll open it up for y'al	l this
afternoon for read-only.	
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's groovy. Is that --
MS. HARGIS: Is that all right?
MR. TROLINGER: Jeannie, that's a good point. This
has come up -- I've had a couple requests from the other
elected officials, can they see -- can they also have
II read-only on this?
MR. RUARK: Well, wait a minute, guys.
MS. HARGIS: They pull the report up. They don't
need -- they can pull their own report up, just like we're
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pulling this one up now.
MR. TROLINGER: But not the other budgets.
MS. HARGIS: They don't need to pull the other
budgets up, because the report reflects the changes.
MR. RUARK: Before you commit to that, Jeannie,
that we have read-only, I don't think they're going to get a
read-only. We have to look at that AR recommended budget.
You're either in the budget or you're not, so we have to look
at --
COMMISSIONER LETZ: That will look at all the
budget.
MS. BOLIN: Are you talking about us opening other
offices' budgets?
MS. HARGIS: Unfortunately, if they open them up,
they can change it, and then we wouldn't know that they
changed them.
MR. RUARK: Let me figure out what you guys are
asking for, 'cause that wasn't part of the plan that we do
that. But I don't think we have the choice of change it or
read-only or something else. You can get that on the
department or in the report, but I have to look. So, we
can't commit to that at this point.
MS. HARGIS: The report itself shows the requested,
and it'll show the changes.
MR. RUARK: Yeah.
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MS. HARGIS: Every -- every time we make a change,
if you pull up that report, it will reflect that. Which is
what you're looking at right now.
JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. What else do we have with
regard to the Tax Assessor?
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Bottom line is your
budgets's up, what, 6,000 bucks? Bottom line?
MS. BOLIN: It's up?
COMMISSIONER OEHLER: No, it's down.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Down 30.
MS. BOLIN: It should be down substantially, since
I split it.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Actually 30 -- 40 because of
that other change.
COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yeah. You made the other
change to 15. That would be --
MS. BOLIN: The increase -- the major increase that
I have is my software maintenance, and that's thanks to Tyler
increasing their maintenance fees. And my education, the
employee training, because I'm the first Tax Collector who
wants my people to go to school. It helps them overall
understand what they're doing and why they're doing it. It
has helped them tremendously, the two classes or three
classes they've gone to so far, to explain to the customer
what's happening, what the exemptions with the tax rates, the
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whole nine yards. It would be like you trying to make my
budget without knowing what I'm doing. They had just one
little area; what we taught them is what they knew, where
when they go to school, they see everything that they don't
see but maybe a couple of times a year, yeah, but then
they're familiar with it. They know how to use the Tax Code
now, which they've never done before. They explain things.
They know how to write letters better so that people
understand what our point is and what we're trying to do.
They understand about penalties and interest, why we can't
waive them. They have done nothing but praise being able to
go to school. So, that's why mines's up.
COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That's up quite a bit.
MS. BOLIN: I have four people going, and that will
only last for probably the next three years, because then
they will be done with their courses and have their
certification.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That explanation is in your
next-year notes?
MS. BOLIN: Yes, sir.
JUDGE TINLEY: Sure is.
MS. BOLIN: I tried to explain everything that I
could. So --
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That's good.
JUDGE TINLEY: Any other questions for --
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COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I don't think so.
JUDGE TINLEY: -- Ms. Bolin? Okay. Do we need to
jump to Election Services now?
MS. BOLIN: Yes, sir.
(Low-voice discussion off the record.)
MS. HARGIS: Close to the front.
MS. BOLIN: 402.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: 40 -- which?
MS. HARGIS: 402.
COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Page 7, Buster.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Page 7 Buster.
COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Just in case you didn't get
there, I'll point it out to you.
(Discussion off the record.)
MS. BOLIN: Because we moved the voter registration
stuff and made it its own little budget. That way, it gives
a complete picture of what our elections are costing. The
postage, when I talked to Nadene and Michelle this morning,
they said they thought about 8,000 would work. Next year it
will have to go up, because our voter registration cards go
out, but this year they don't. So, if y'all want to change
the 13 to 8, that would be fine by me.
JUDGE TINLEY: It's changed.
MR. RUARK: In postage?
JUDGE TINLEY: In postage, at 8,000.
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COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Down to 8?
MS. BOLIN: Yes. Judge, you lowered my -- the
election supplies from 3,300 to 3,000. The 3,300 is based on
actual cost. I had Nadene run it up, and it's within $26 of
the actual cost of 330 -- the 3,300.
JUDGE TINLEY: That's based on your actual cost?
MS. BOLIN: Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Line 330.
JUDGE TINLEY: Okay.
MS. BOLIN: So, if I can have the 3,300 back.
JUDGE TINLEY: You got it.
MS. BOLIN: Okay. The 9,850 for software
maintenance is actual. Nadene got the quote on that for me.
JUDGE TINLEY: I don't think I messed with that,
did I?
MS. BOLIN: No, huh-uh.
MR. TROLINGER: I've got a question. Software
maintenance of what?
MS. BOLIN: For working with the election machines.
MR. TROLINGER: Ah, thank you.
MS. BOLIN: The only other thing that I added that
wasn't in there before was the mileage, and that's because
the girls have to go out and check A.D.A. compliance for the
polling places.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: There's another one.
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MS. BOLIN: So, Nadene combined all the miles that
they would have to travel, and that's what that is total,
would be $153.
JUDGE TINLEY: We might want to treat that
differently, as you may --
MS. BOLIN: Understood.
JUDGE TINLEY: -- have gathered from --
MS. BOLIN: Right.
JUDGE TINLEY: -- from prior discussions.
MS. BOLIN: Yes, I did, but I wanted you to see
that I did have it there, so that --
JUDGE TINLEY: This is in-county?
MS. BOLIN: In-county, yes, sir. All in-county.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Jon, a Prius with a C.D.
player in it. Boom, boom --
MS. BOLIN: Right now we have Nadene's pickup doing
the running, so does that tell you anything?
JUDGE TINLEY: I tell you what I'm going to do
right now. I'm going to zero that one out.
MS. BOLIN: Okay.
JUDGE TINLEY: I say I'm going to.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You're zeroing what out?
MS. BOLIN: The mileage.
JUDGE TINLEY: Mileage.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: They're going with a Prius;
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they're not going with a pickup.
JUDGE TINLEY: For some reason, I -- you got me
where I can't get in here.
MR. RUARK: Which account are you going to?
MS. HARGIS: Mileage, on the bottom.
JUDGE TINLEY: 426.
MS. HARGIS: At the bottom.
JUDGE TINLEY: Mine's not registering.
MS. HYDE: It's up a little bit higher -- there it
is, 426.
MS. HARGIS: You have to go -- you have to go
through the distribution, because she did it by --
MR. RUARK: That's what she did? There you go.
MS. HARGIS: You have to go through there.
MR. RUARK: I'll take care of it, Judge.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So, you're zeroing that out?
JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. If we have to add something
to salary to get there, why, you know, that may be the way we
go. But on an in-county --
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And you're going to make
some kind of note?
COMMISSIONER LETZ: He's making a note.
MR. RUARK: I'm doing it now.
JUDGE TINLEY: For some reason, I can't change it
here, Ken. You got me locked out.
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COMMISSIONER LETZ: Now you know what that feels
like, don't you?
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. Welcome to the real
world, cowboy. We want to change them.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Who's in the top line, the
salary line?
MR. RUARK: Okay, the reason you can't is because
I You --
MS. BOLIN: It would be Nadene, Michelle, and Eva,
the three clerks that work all the time in voter and
elections.
(Discussion off the record.)
JUDGE TINLEY: Okay, they went to the detail to
plug it in.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Under your --
JUDGE TINLEY: Okay.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Under your year-end or your
employee training, next to your notes, you talk about going
from one clerk to four clerks for training. Who are they?
JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah.
MS. BOLIN: From four to three?
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: What it says.
MS. BOLIN: I have no idea.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Pardon?
MS. BOLIN: I don't have that part of my notes
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here, so I don't know. That was for --
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Under employee training,
next year notes, going from one clerk to four clerks for
training.
MS. HARGIS: That probably includes you.
MS. BOLIN: Right, it does include me.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay.
MR. RUARK: You can look up on the screen here.
MS. BOLIN: Oh, good, 'cause mine's cut off here.
Okay.		
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS:	There are three in the	line
item up on top.		
MS. BOLIN: Right, but	I've got --	
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS:	Excluding you?	
MS. BOLIN: Excluding	me. Pam works with it	
continually, but with her being	chief deputy, she works	in
all the departments, so I left t	hat in the tax budget.	And
then Lanelle, my clerk -- the motor vehicle supervisor,	is
learning about elections and voter registration also to	be
able to help during that time.		
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS:	Okay.	
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN:	This is my boy-dummy	
question of the year.		
MS. BOLIN: I'll gave	you a girl-dummy answer.	
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN:	Well, it's really not even
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to you, but your election staff folks came down yesterday and
looked at my laptop. Are we -- do we have all the computer
type things off in a separate budget?
MS. BOLIN: Let me answer this one. We have --
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Why don't you answer it?
MS. BOLIN: Okay. We have HAVA funds still
available until December 31st, which is federal funds, and we
have voter registration funds from the state that are
available until the end of August. So, there are --
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What are those funds for?
MS. BOLIN: Those funds, we get reimbursed for our
voter registration. The state gives us, like, a quarter on
one type of a change and 40 cents on another type or
whatever, for us to keep the voter records at a local level.
But that is not something that can be considered by the
Court. It's not a part of our budget; it's a state thing,
and that's all we can use it for, is voter registration
purposes.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We spend the money and they
reimburse us, and it's none of our business?
MS. BOLIN: You don't pay for the -- you don't get
to pay for the election seminar that we have to go to in
August. You only pay for one of the two.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Whoop-de-do.
MS. BOLIN: Does that help?
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COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, that's great stuff.
MS. BOLIN: But, no, it's in the code that it
cannot be --
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You're buying the laptops
out of that fund? Is that what you're telling me?
MS. BOLIN: Yes.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: You can't know it.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It's none of my business.
MS. BOLIN: Well, no, y'all can know about it,
because then it becomes county property, but the County's not
having to pay for it.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay.
MS. BOLIN: That's how we got most of our computers
in our office.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay, groovy. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Under your salaries and
clerk, you talk about your -- you'd like to give a step
increase to a 13-3 position.
MS. BOLIN: That's --
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Is that already accounted
for --
MS. HARGIS: Yes.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: -- in the work that Ms.
Hyde did? Or is it accounted for now in --
MS. BOLIN: In the 10 percent now, right?
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MS. HYDE: The step increase is in here, and the
10 percent.
MS. HARGIS: Oh, okay. That was before I knew
about the 10 percent.
MS. HYDE: What?
JUDGE TINLEY: The Auditor mentioned that she
upgraded the 13's effectively to 14's.
MS. BOLIN: Right.
JUDGE TINLEY: At the beginning of our discussion
here, and then applied the across-the-board 10 percent.
MS. BOLIN: And that would be fine.
JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. Well, that effectively has
occurred.
MS. BOLIN: Right.
JUDGE TINLEY: Okay.
MS. BOLIN: Okay.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: So that would need to come
out of yours, whatever it is.
MS. BOLIN: However.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's already in.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That's already in.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's in the numbers.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay.
MS. HARGIS: It's in the numbers. She just wanted
you to know.
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COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay.
JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Any more questions for
Ms. Bolin?
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Thank you.
MS. BOLIN: Ready to go to lunch?
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yeah.
MS. BOLIN: Okay. Thank you, gentlemen, very much.
JUDGE TINLEY: Okay, Commissioners. The agenda
item is styled where you can wander wherever you want.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: Let's talk about cattle guards.
JUDGE TINLEY: No, dealing with budgets.
COMMISSIONER LETZ: You didn't say that; you said
talk about anything.
JUDGE TINLEY: Anything dealing with budgets;
fiscal, capital expenditures, and personnel matters related
thereto.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Buzzie's, Buzzie's.
JUDGE TINLEY: Okay, I'm hearing nothing more.
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I'm closing her down.
JUDGE TINLEY: We'll be adjourned.
(Budget workshop was adjourned at 12:01 p.m.)
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STATE OF TEXAS I
COUNTY OF KERR I
', 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 5th day of August, 2008.
JANNETT PIEPER, Kerr County Clerk
B Y : _ __ ____ ____
Kathy anik, Deputy County Clerk
Certified Shorthand Reporter
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