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KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT
Special Session
Monday, September 15, 2008
6:00 p.m.
Commissioners' Courtroom
Kerr County Courthouse
Kerrville, Texas
PRESENT: PAT TINLEY, Kerr County Judge
H.A."BUSTER" BALDWIN, Commissioner Pct. 1
JONATHAN LETZ, Commissioner Pct. 3
BRUCE OEHLER, Commissioner Pct. 4
ABSENT: WILLIAM "BILL" WILLIAMS, Commissioner Pct. 2

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I N D E X
September 15, 2008
PAGE
Receive citizen input regarding proposed tax rate,
proposed budget, and proposed salaries of elected
officials
Joseph Benham	4
Irving Andrews	8
Tom C. Price	9
Catherine Fox	14
Sean McGinnis	17, 32
William Beltrone	18
Lowell Hendricksen	20
Ana Keller	23
Harley Belew	24
Sheriff Hierholzer	27
Adjourned 33
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On Monday, September 15, 2008, at 6:00 p.m., a special
P R O C E E D I N G S
JUDGE TINLEY: Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.
It's 6 o'clock, so let's get started. This gathering is
pursuant to a notice that was posted pursuant to the Open
Meetings Act for a meeting to be held at 6 p.m. Monday,
September 15th, 2008, at the Kerr County Courthouse,
Commissioners' Courtroom. So, you're in the right place, and
it's the right time and the right date. The purpose of the
meeting, as stated on the agenda, is to receive citizen input
regarding the proposed tax rate, proposed budget, and the
proposed salaries of the elected officials, with a notation
that no action on any of the above subjects will be taken.
Preliminarily, I would ask that any of you that
wish to speak, there are participation forms at the back of
the room. I would ask that you fill those out and get those
up here so that I'll not fail to recognize you. Also,
Commissioner Williams had a commitment from some folks that
came in from out of town, and that prevents him from being
here. He did ask me to assure everyone that he would, in
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it more appropriate to go to my prior committee meeting," he
will not be here.
That having been said, the purpose of the meeting,
as again stated, is to receive input regarding the
proposed -- citizen input regarding proposed tax rate,
proposed budget, and proposed salaries of elected officials.
The first public participation form that I have is from
Joseph Benham. If you'd come forward, please, sir, and state
~~, your name for the record, and your address. I would ask that
all of the rest of you, as you come forward and speak, that
you state your name and address so that it'll be a matter to
be included in the record. Thank you, Mr. Benham.
MR. BENHAM: Thank you, Your Honor. Joseph Benham,
609 Rim Rock in Commissioner Baldwin's fiefdom. I, with your
indulgence, will preface my comments on this with an
invitation, since I don't know how soon I will have the
pleasure of addressing you again. On November the ll.th, at
the war memorial out here on the courthouse grounds, a group
of veterans and civic and patriotic organizations will have a
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ceremony lasting approximately an hour, paying tribute to our
when it was called Armistice Day, and it commemorated the
fact that what they naively called the "war to end all wars"
ended at 11 o'clock in the morning on the 11th day of the
11th month of 1918. We're going back to the 11th hour of the
11th day of the 11th month, except this will be 2008. We
would be honored if all of you gentlemen and Commissioner
Williams would attend. I want to commend the staff of this
building for the way that they maintain those grounds and
that memorial and see to it that we have what we need, such
as a public address system and access to restrooms and so
forth to have these ceremonies. And, again, I would -- we
would be honored if all of you gentlemen could see yourselves
free to come.
Now, I would like to comment on both the tax rate
and the budget, in that order. My wife and I feel very
strongly that we have an obligation to support the good of
this community and this county with our taxes, with volunteer
work, and with donations of those resources with which the
good Lord has blessed us. I support your tax rate. I've
never opposed the tax rate that you gentlemen or any of the
other governmental agencies here have proposed. However, I
believe strongly that there's a corollary that those funds --
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in this case, the tax money -- those funds need to be spent
as equitably and responsibly as possible, for the benefit of
the residents. Obviously, the primary need for those
funds -- most pressing need is for things like law
lives of people in this community that can only be provided
by governmental entities.
The organization I have the honor to represent, the
the library, and we're delighted to be able to do that, but
that's all we can do. Our resources are what we -- what they
are, and we donate the money that we have available to us,
and thousands of hours, literally, of volunteer time to the
library, and I'm proud to state that on behalf of our
organization. But, much as it pains me to say this about
some gentlemen that I know work very hard, and probably don't
get nearly as much credit as you deserve -- I've said many
times there's a lot more grief than gratitude in public
service. Pains me to say this, but I do have to say, I think
you gentlemen and Commissioner Williams have not adopted a
policy -- policies of late, where the library is concerned,
to spend the kind of money that is required to maintain
something that enriches the lives of tremendous numbers of
people.
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You've heard these figures before, but they are so
the state of Texas. More people use this library than live
in Kerr County, more than twice as many people as live in
Kerrville. To use an analogy, assuming the library in
Houston is still there, if the library in downtown Houston
were used as intensively as this library is used, they'd have
over 4 million people a year going in and out of that
facility. This library is important to this county; it's
important to this community. It enriches the lives of a lot
of people, young and old, little kids, senior citizens like
myself. One of the biggest things we do as the Friends is
help pay for the large-print books. Given the demographics
of this area, large-print books are very important. We also
help fund	children's reading	programs and	a number of other
things.	But this library is	important to	many, many people.
It's important to people of all ages.
I've served on enough boards and committees,
including some to which I had to be elected -- stand for
election, I know it isn't easy to apportion the money. But I
honestly believe that if you revisited your policy regarding
the library, you surely would come to the conclusion that you
don't have to hit it as hard as you've hit it; that you could
still provide the necessary services to this community
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without taking a meat axe almost to our library. As always,
I'm grateful to you for your time, for your indulgence. As I
suspect you've noticed, I feel very strongly about this, as
do the 500 and so members of our organization, and many, many
thousands of people who don't happen to belong to the Friends
of the Library, but use the library. So, I thank you for
listening. I do ask you to revisit this. And if, by any
chance, you have any questions, I would be happy to try to
answer those.
JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, Mr. Benham. We
MR. BENHAM: Thank you.
JUDGE TINLEY: Mr. Irving Andrews.
MR. ANDREWS: Thank you, Judge. I'm just a person
who reads the paper -- local paper, and I've been following
the subject of increases to the County employees. And I'm --
I'm a little bit confused, because when it first started, I
understood that the purpose was to bring the employees who
were the lower-paid echelon up so they were a little more
reasonable, as compared to the people who were their bosses,
and -- and that pay scale in other areas. And then I read in
the paper that that increase came through, which is
substantial, and that it was not only passed on to the lower
echelon, but was passed on to everybody else, including the
Commissioners.
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Well, now, I don't really see the wisdom in that,
because if you're trying to bring these -- this one level up
in pay grade, and just because they come up in pay grade,
everybody else has to jump up, I think that needs to be
that he should be on a level commensurate with the job he's
doing. And I think the people below him should be on a pay
level commensurate with what they're doing. I think the same
thing applies to the Commissioners. And I think we need to
get a clarification of what the intent really is, and why did
they -- why did everybody have to be included in that
increase originally? I understand from the paper this
morning that may have been changed, but that's my feeling,
and I think that as a -- as a taxpayer, we're entitled to a
little bit better investigation as to the needs of the -- of
the county. Thank you.
JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, Mr. Andrews. We
be kind enough to fill out a participation form; they're
located at the back of the room. Get those up here to me so
that I won't miss you. The next speaker is Mr. Tom C. Price.
MR. PRICE: Thank you, Judge, Commissioners, other
civil servants who are present, friends and neighbors and
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taxpayers. I would like to ask a few questions regarding the
pay raise. You know, you hear a lot of things, and sometimes
we jump to conclusions prematurely, and I would like to hear
from you some answers. I, too, with Mr. Andrews, have been
reading the paper, and until today's article, it wasn't
nearly as complete as it was written today, and that helped
clear up a lot of things for me. I was here last week at the
hearing, last Monday, and I waited until noon and then I had
to leave, so I don't know what transpired after that, but we
didn't get to this issue. So, these were the questions I was
going to ask then. Did you vote a pay raise for yourselves
last year -- last year's budget? Or I guess it would be this
year's budget now.
JUDGE TINLEY: The -- any response that you desire,
we cannot give you this evening. The agenda is styled to
receive input from citizens.
MR. PRICE: Okay.
JUDGE TINLEY: And you can state the questions, and
they'll be in the record.
MR. PRICE: All right.
JUDGE TINLEY: And -- but we're not allowed, under
the styling of the agenda and what the County Attorney has
stated to us, to respond this evening. We're here to receive
input.
MR. PRICE: Okay.
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JUDGE TINLEY: We'd appreciate any input you have.
I would like, for the record, to know if you voted a
record -- voted a raise for yourselves last year. I would
like to know -- and I don't know; do y'all come in at the
same pay rate? And then -- in other words, are your
paychecks similar, pretty nearly the same? Or if one's been
in longer, do you get step raises and things like that? I
don't know the mechanics of this. I would like to know the
I've read and heard percentages, but I would
I know that I
could probably go to some official here, the Treasurer or
someone, and ask these questions, but I would like to get it
~ from someone who knows. I certainly support the raise for
the lower echelon. I think they needed it. I think it's
justified. If, in fact, you voted a raise for yourself last
year, that very well may have been justified. I don't know.
And this one may be justified also, if it passes, but it's
hard for me to determine what it is with the sketchy
information that I've gotten through the paper.
I am a retired United Methodist minister, and
Wesleys, were very concerned about the lower levels of the
socioeconomic educational group of their community, and that
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carried over here to the United States and came west with the
circuit riders, and we haven't totally lost that. And so I
certainly support this, because I don't know what they're
getting either. I would like to know what the starting pay
is, if there are step raises, et cetera, et cetera. I'd like
to really see a -- it'd be really good for y'all to have an
interview with the paper and lay this out so that when we
come to these votes, we could either support them with
clarity or oppose them with clarity. It's hard to do it the
way it's been parceled out. If you are voting another raise
for yourself, and if the two come to about just under
20 percent, I think this is the wrong time to do it,
considering the economy of our country, and now this is
exacerbated by the rise in oil prices. Those are going to go
up, I'm reading now, that possibly to $5 for a while.
And I am concerned about the people who work for
minimum wage and a level entry; these are the younger people
who are trying to make a living and sometimes educate
themselves, get better jobs and such, and some people travel
quite a good distance to get a job, and that's getting more
and more difficult to afford this. And as a person who comes
out of the background who is concerned about this, I think it
would be remiss not to say that I am concerned. And I don't
know what you make, and I agree with our -- our learned
correspondent and commentator here that y'all take a lot of
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(Laughter.)
So, if you are voting for a second time to raise
you wouldn't. I think it is going to put a burden
taxes. I'm one of these people who, at 71 years of age,
don't have to pay a lot of taxes right now, and I really
appreciate that, and it's helpful. I stepped in the doughnut
hole. Do you know what the doughnut hole is? That's when
you're paying your -- your insurance for your medications,
and you go along -- and I don't call it the doughnut hole; I
call it the bottomless pit now. I have suffered three heart
attacks in the last 18 years, and I'm pretty healthy now, but
I have to work at it. And I -- I rattle when I walk now. I
take 12 different medications, and I take a total of 18 a
day. And, incidentally, Sheriff, that's why I haven't been
volunteering for you in the last few weeks; I've been trying
to get that under control and make sure that I'm healthy
before I go back in and face your prisoners. But --
SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I understand.
MR. PRICE: -- I appreciate what you and your men
are doing, and you have the lion's share of the budget. I'm
not complaining about your budget at all. If you want any
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suggestions on how to develop your new building, if you get
one, I'd sure be able to put -- give you some ideas, but I
doubt if you'll ask me. But, I guess that about says it. I
appreciate what you do. I appreciate the time, the
integrity. I see some stuff floating around that is
inflammatory. I wish that that wasn't brought here. But,
you know, I'm just a -- a soft old Methodist preacher, so we
don't like controversy or anything like that. So, blessings
on you and the Court and this county and the state of Texas,
and God bless America.
JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, Mr. Price.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Hear, hear.
JUDGE TINLEY: We really appreciate that. Is there
anyone else? Do we have any more participation forms that
haven't made their way up here yet? Anybody else that wishes
to provide input to the Commissioners Court regarding the
proposed tax rate, proposed budget, and proposed salaries of
elected officials?
MS. FOX: Sorry about that.
MR. PRICE: There are more forms here, if anyone
needs them.
JUDGE TINLEY: Ms. Fox, come on up. Give us your
name and address for the record.
MS. FOX: Catherine Fox. Let's see here. I am on
the fence with part of this, after reading the last article.
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newspaper article, which, like someone else previously
stated, clarified some things for me. I would like to say
that I definitely agree with the previous comments that
salaried employees need a pay raise. They are barely able to
live with what they make right now, I'm sure. I don't know
how I would live if I were in their shoes. So, that said, I
know that it's been three years, I believe, as the newspaper
said, and now we're trying to play catch-up. And that's the
part that really concerns me. I don't like that we, as a
county, got ourselves into the catch-up mode. And I am not
71, but I will be someday. And I am --
MR. PRICE: God willing.
MS. FOX: Yeah. And I'm adamantly opposed to that
tax freeze, because now people like me have to pick up the
slack. And we have a lot of upper middle class people in
this county that could be helping pick up that slack if they
were not with their taxes frozen, so that's how I feel about
that. But I would -- and if there were some way that we
could overturn that in the future, I'd be out there getting
that 10 percent on a ballot or whatever it took, go to
Austin; I would do whatever it took. I've already spoken to
my Commissioner about looking into that for me. I want to
know what it takes to try to get that undone. I think it was
an injustice to our county. My opinion. Okay.
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Now, as far as you gentlemen getting a raise, my
husband and I run our own business, and occasionally we have
people in our community that don't get -- they don't have a
pension, say, for example, from the Air Force, like my
father-in-law, where they get a tax increase every time it
needs to be -- I mean a pay increase every time they need a
cost-of-living adjustment.
And, so, I would like you to do two things. I
would like you to go back to the budget, and I would like you
to cut any employees that could be cut, if there was some way
that computer technology could pick up the slack for them.
And I would like you to consider not giving yourselves a pay
raise right now, but put the emphasis on the people that need
to be brought up closer to your level, and wait until next
year or the year after, just like we do sometimes at our
house when we feel like we really need to cut back and bite
the bullet. And when I go back over the budget, because
even when I think I couldn't find anything else. There -- I
just believe that when there's a will, there's a way, and I'm
hoping that you will really re-examine it one more time.
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JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, ma'am. Appreciate you
being here this evening. Sean McGinnis?
II MR. McGINNIS: Your Honor, I represent my wife and
I --
JUDGE TINLEY: Give your name and address for the
record, please.
MR. McGINNIS: Sean McGinnis.
JUDGE TINLEY: And address?
MR. McGINNIS: 1111 Donna Kay.
JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you.
MR. McGINNIS: My wife and I, we own a -- we build
homes; we're a homebuilder here, and also have an investment
company. And we -- we have six investment properties here.
We do about two, two and a half spec homes a year, and with
the market down, we're holding onto our inventory. And, you
know, it's going to be the investors that keep -- especially
in this small community, that keep this market -- us from
getting in this bad market that everybody else is in, and
it's going to be the investors that keep us from -- get us
out of this. And we've been responsible with our money. You
know, we've put -- our goal was to buy a whole bunch when we
had bought them, but I just can't hold onto that much. And
we -- we employ a lot of people.
And, you know, it's -- it's -- I think this comes
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at a bad time, because you have to look at it from the other
side; if things get too bad -- I don't know if anyone is
paying attention, but Wall Street lost almost a trillion
dollars today. That's more than the war has cost since it's
a -- at a very bad time, and I'm concerned about it. I'm
concerned what -- what I will have to do with our employees
and how long we stay down. It's not fair for us and our
employees, when everyone else can just say, hey, let's vote
more money. We're all in this together. We're going to have
to see where it goes. I just -- I feel this is in bad taste.
JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, sir. William Beltrone?
MR. BELTRONE: Good evening, gentlemen. I didn't
plan on speaking tonight. I wanted to come to hear what
everybody else had to say. I do want to point out a couple
of things that -- I did the math on pay raises, and I'd just
like to say that 13.15 percent was the number I came up with
if someone made $1,000 with the increases that I've read
about in the paper. Now, if I gave a 13 percent raise to my
employees, I'd be bankrupt in about three months. I have
looked at other companies and other organizations that wanted
to do the exact same thing. "We've got to help our
employees," and they came to me with this budget, and I said,
"You realize you're going to increase your payroll $394,000,
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do a pay raise to such extent, because it's set. If you have
to take this back, what are you going to do? You're going to
have to lay off employees. You're going to have to say to an
employee, "I'm sorry, you were worth it last year, but this
year we've got to cut back on the budget, and we don't think
you're worth that this year. Or we do, but I'm sorry, we
just can't afford it."
I don't think there are a lot of us here who
appreciate the tax freeze, but that's what we're stuck with.
I feel that if we're going to lose $770,000 because of this
tax freeze, then if there is a tax increase, why should it be
more than $770,000? Our economy right now pretty much
stinks. I think we're very lucky here in Kerr County, but
we're not going to be that way for long. And if we are,
great. Lehman Brothers just went bankrupt or declared
bankruptcy, so on and so forth. All of our financial
institutions are having a really tough time. One of the
other gentlemen mentioned them; they're going down. To take
money out of the taxpayers' pockets right now to give
employees here a raise, I have no objection with merit
raises. Everybody deserves a raise if they deserve it. But
to say, blanket, across-the-board 10 percent, personally, I
think is a very bad move, and fiscally irresponsible. That's
about it.
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Now, I am not suggesting that these people don't
I know several people who work here. Y'all put
up with a lot, and y'all do a lot of good work. There's
nothing saying you don't deserve it. But I deserve to pay my
employees well also. Other businesses in this community
working with. And if you're going to give them a raise out
of my back pocket so that they can continue to work here and
spend their money at H.E.B. or wherever else, where's that
money coming from? That's just less money that I have to
spend at H.E.B. and elsewhere, and to pay my employees to do
good work for me. So, anyway, again, I didn't plan on
speaking. I'll be more than happy to discuss with anyone
individually if anybody has any questions, but thank you very
much for your time. And, again, I do appreciate everything
that y'all do.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you.
JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, Mr. Beltrone. We
appreciate you being here this evening. Is there anyone else
here in the audience that wishes to be heard to give input
with regard to the three issues enumerated on the agenda; the
proposed tax rate, the proposed budget, and the proposed
salaries of the elected officials?
MR. HENDRICKSEN: I didn't plan on speaking either.
My name is Lowell Hendricksen, and I live at 108 Four Bears
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done to reduce expenses, or the County. And that, to me, is
the place to start. You don't start with pay increases; you
start with cutting. And I can tell you, from being a member
of this community for the last 23 years, that I've seen a lot
of excess over those years from the standpoint of various
projects around town, those kind of things where you see six
guys on a project, two working and four watching, those kind
of things. And I'm not coming against those people only. I
think that every department in the city should be required to
take a close look, and at some point in time, the decision
has to be made, as it was in -- in businesses that I had,
that you have to cut a certain percentage.
Now, I know that every employee that works for the
City or the County is not worth what the guy next to him is.
He may be worth more; he may be worth less. They should be
paid on a merit program, and never a blanket. It should
always be on how good they are. And when you have somebody
that's not as good as they should be, they're gone, and you
try to replace them with a better employee. And you
sometimes can, sometimes can't. But the first thing to do
is, the City has to show us that you're serious about this
thing, but you're serious in the right way, and that way is
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the fact that you are going to analyze every department and
say, "Hey, where can we cut some corners?" I know there are
in each department and tell you where they are. But that, to
me, is the starting point. And the situation as far as you
guys are concerned, I don't know what you make, and I don't
care what you make, because whatever it is is very minor
compared to what else we've got out here. And I know you're
probably not -- you're underpaid, I'm sure, in most cases.
MR. PRICE: How do you know? (Laughter.)
MR. HENDRICKSEN: Well, I've been in this community
because I think it's something that really has to be looked
at first. You don't just go ahead and arbitrarily say, "Hey,
we're going to give a 10 percent increase across the board,"
or we're going to do this. We -- the answer is, oh, we go
back and we take a look at every department. Now, some
departments will be understaffed. You'll find out the same
thing. But you've got to do it systematically, and it isn't
something that can happen overnight. But I appreciate the
opportunity to have my say, and I wish you guys luck, because
you got a tough job.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thanks, Lowell.
JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, sir.
MR. HENDRICKSEN: You bet.
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JUDGE TINLEY: We appreciate you being here with
us. Anyone else?
MS. KELLER: I wasn't going to speak either, but I
think I will. My name is Ana Keller, and I live at 1468
Harper Road. And I'm not an elected official; I'm just a
regular old county employee. And I want to thank those that
feel that the County employees deserve this raise. I want to
thank those tonight for thinking of us. We do have a heavy
workload. Me, personally, I enjoy working for the County
Clerk. And we -- I'd just like to stand up here and say that
I feel that we deserve it, and that I hope that others that
feel that we do not would take that into consideration. The
whole point that I understood was to help us to come up to a
level that was economically affordable; you know, we could be
like everyone else at a level. And I just -- it takes a lot
of courage to come up here as a county employee and say thank
you, and I appreciate it.
JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, Ms. Keller.
MR. PRICE: Good for you.
JUDGE TINLEY: Anyone else wishing to be heard?
Anyone else?
MR. BELEW: I --
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You know, we can respond to
some of them. (Laughter.)
MR. BELEW: Okay, thanks.
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JUDGE TINLEY: That's why we have the deputy
~ present.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. The last guy with the
microphone wins.
MR. BELEW: I wasn't going to say anything; I was
just going to listen.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Get the handcuffs out,
Rusty.
MR. BELEW: I'm Harley Belew at 1465 Upper Turtle
Creek Road. Fellows, I've talked to all of y'all before,
including Bill about this, and other topics that have come up
from time to time. I'm not shy about telling you what I
~ think or asking you what you think. I've talked to the
Sheriff about his need to try to hire good employees, keep
good employees. That's important. That would be -- that and
EMS would, I think, be our primary concern with pay
increases. I would like to think that all of us that are
self-employed could just wave a magic wand when gas goes up
and have some money there. It doesn't work that way for a
lot of us. This country -- you guys are kind of caught
between the dog and the fireplug, I know, because you've
tried to protect us from increases. Now the economy is bad,
and this is just bad timing. And I think everybody -- it's
just -- you know, I'm piling on is all, because it is bad
timing right now. It's the worst possible timing.
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My gas bill is now twice what it was this time last
nearly three times what it has ever been with Bandera Power.
And the grocery bill is going up, 'cause they're using all
that corn that I used to get in my tortillas and they're
putting it in the gas tank someplace. So, everything's going
up, and now my taxes go up again. And what's happening, it's
killing us by the drop. It's just nickel-and-dime and
nickel-and-dime, and that's what's happening to us. And I
know when you go and you have to buy equipment, Rusty,
everything goes up. And, you know, you got to say, "Okay, do
I buy the equipment or do I hire the guy that I need to
hire?" Every time the nut job you got in over there tears
something up, you've got to replace it, and so everything
goes up. You say, "What do you mean, it's going to cost me
this much this year? Cost me half that last year."
And I don't deny that anybody working here should
get a raise if they're doing a good job. In the real world
out there, you don't just get a raise because it's that time
of year. You get a raise 'cause you did a good job, or you
get a raise because your boss doesn't want to lose you, so
you don't necessarily have to have a performance review. I
don't know how it's done here at the county; you may always
have to have a performance review. It's not the "attaboy"
system, I'm sure, here. Whatever system it is, it should be
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strictly merit, and not just based on, "Hey, we got some
extra money here," or it's that time of year again, or gas
prices went up. And I feel for the County employees; I
really do. And after my column comes out Wednesday, I'm
going to be hiding from every Sheriff's deputy in town,
'cause they're not going to like me, but I -- I feel for
y'all.
And I talked to Bruce about it the other night. I
mean, it's just -- the best way I can describe it is, you're
between the dog and the fireplug. But you've got -- you
better get out your sword, and like with the baby, fella's,
you're going to have to really do some of Solomon's wisdom on
this. You're damned if you do and you're damned if you
don't. And next year the economy could be better, could be
worse, so it's a crap shoot too. I hope that you will be a
little more selective with how you place the raises. As I
understand it, you guys got a 7 percent raise last year. The
-- the numbers that I'm looking at show -- everybody keeps
talking about 10 percent; it's more like an 11 percent
increase that we're talking about now. It doesn't have to be
straight across the board, everybody gets a raise.
You know, I had a boy that played on the soccer
team over here; he wasn't worth a flip. He gets a trophy
too. I didn't want him to have it, you know? Everybody
shouldn't get the trophy, and everybody shouldn't get the
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raise. And if you can't pick through that, that's what --
that's what you guys are paid for. That's what all the
people in the courthouse here are paid for, is to pick
through and do that hard work, sit there and crunch the
numbers and all the stuff. And I agree with these -- with
Mr. Hendricksen; you can go back through, I'm sure, and find
other things that could be cut, and you should do that. It's
better for public relations, anyway, in the county, if
nothing else, that they don't think that you guys are sitting
up here voting yourselves raises when they're paying twice as
much as they did for gas last year. So, there's a
self-preservation component in it, too. That's all I have to
say. Thank you very much.
JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, Mr. Belew. Any more
participation forms?
SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: No form, just a speaker.
JUDGE TINLEY: Pardon?
SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I'll address this to you,
Judge. You don't have a form, and I don't think I need to
fill one out. But it's mainly --
JUDGE TINLEY: Why shouldn't you have to fill one
out?
SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I think you know who I am and
where I live. For those in here, my name is Rusty
Hierholzer; I'm the Kerr County Sheriff. I've been a county
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employee for a little over 28 years. This year -- and just
to let people know, and I'm more or less speaking to y'all,
but I'd like the audience to hear some of this. The County
probably messed up the last number of years by trying not to
raise taxes, and not raising them hardly anything, and --
and, you know, I think even our financial adviser said they
should have done some last year, and we didn't. As the
elected official that has the majority of the employees, I
have right at 100 of the 275 or so total county employees,
and I by far have the largest budget, between running a jail
and -- and the Sheriff's Office, and then courthouse
security. We do a lot with grants to try and save the
taxpayers. We just installed a little over $130,000 in
security stuff around the courthouse that didn't cost the
taxpayers a dime.
But this year, all the department heads and elected
officials came together, and we decided it was time to cut
our budgets as much as we could so that the employees could
get a raise. Because what we're facing -- and I'll use my
department to give an example to the public. My starting
deputy makes 5,000 less than a Kerrville police officer
starting just out of school. He makes 8,000 less than a
Gillespie County deputy. He makes 7,000 less than a Kendall
County deputy. I had a deputy opening this year that I've
had for an entire year, because I can't fill it. I've lost
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deputies to Kendall County. I've lost jailers to Kendall
County. I can't keep them. We -- this county has not paid
the salary that we can keep our employees, and it is a shame.
We should have done more in the past, but it is at a serious
situation now.
And I'm not going to talk about their elected
salaries. I will give you one quick example, mine. From
what I understand, my elected salary, running a jail, running
the biggest department, and being the chief law enforcement
officer in the county, is 40,000 a year less than the
Kerrville Police Chief, okay? I think it's time the County
stands up for their employees and their elected officials and
does something. It does -- our cost -- and I agree,
everybody -- I'm a homeowner inside the city. I'll
probably -- regardless of what raise they give me, I may see
a deduction by the time I.R.S. gets through with it and by
the time my taxes go up. But I am a very strong believer,
and after seeing all the department heads and elected
officials come together and cut their budgets, cut what they
were asking for -- we cut a lot. I cut from two cars -- or
from five cars down to two, and we're going to be driving
cars with 180,000 miles on them next year to 190,000, and one
or two of them with 200,000, because it was that important
for our employees to get a raise and for us, as leaders, to
start taking care of, as the Human Resource Department puts
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it, and I don't like it, our "worker bees." But it is.
Crime doesn't go down. Hard times just makes it go
enforcement. It's the County Clerk's office, it's the
District Clerk's office, it's the court, because it just
overloads our entire criminal justice system. City of
Kerrville does not pay for our courts. They don't pay for
the district court to run it, county court to run it, J.P.
courts, jail or anything else. They don't pay for that,
because citizens pay city taxes also, but they pay county
taxes. So, the City of Kerrville doesn't fund us. But I,
for one, appreciate what the Commissioners did and what
they're trying to do. In 28 years, it's the first time I've
seen every elected official and department head come
together. And in 28 years, yes, it's a big increase, but
it's the first time I've seen an increase that may keep our
employees. You're not going to get good employees if you
have to scrape the bottom of the barrel because you're not
paying the ones you have enough. When they can drive to
Fredericksburg or Boerne and make 8,000, 9,000 a year
difference, the gas price doesn't make up for that.
Kerrville's the best place in the world to live and
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But
I, for one, am willing to bite that bullet and pay those
increase in taxes so that we can have decent employees and a
good county government. And as far as cutting too many
employees, let me give the gentleman one point of view. I
can't tell you how many city officers there are in the street
at a time. If you're like me, you see an awful lot of cars,
okay? But in the county, as far as patrol, if everybody's on
duty and I don't have anybody off, nobody's sick and nobody's
in school or anything else, I have a total of five officers
patrolling 1,100 square miles. Normally --
MR. HENDRICKSEN: I'm a big supporter of you.
SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Well, I appreciate that, but
it's all the county employees, okay? Normally, I have four
officers for 1,100 square miles. I'll stand here in front of
anybody and tell them I think we got the best law enforcement
agency in this part of the state, especially with what little
we have to work with. So, gentlemen, thank you for doing
what you're trying to do.
JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, Sheriff.
COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What was his name again?
(Laughter.)
MR. McGINNIS: Can I speak again. Is that
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JUDGE TINLEY: I don't want this to turn into a
rebuttal of a surrebuttal of a surrebuttal.
MR. McGINNIS: I want to clarify something.
JUDGE TINLEY: Okay.
MR. McGINNIS: What I said before is, Rusty, you --
Rusty's my neighbor. We actually live right across the
street.
JUDGE TINLEY: My condolences.
SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I was going to say --
(Laughter.) I was going to chunk rocks this evening.
MR. McGINNIS: I know how he struggles, and you
know what? It -- with what Mr. Hendricksen said, and Harley,
we can't -- why I'm here tonight is -- is, my wife and I
started with nothing. And I believe, you know, I've grinded
my way to the top, and I -- we just can't go give everyone a
raise. We just -- it's ridiculous. I mean, instead of --
why don't you give Rusty 20 -- all his guys 20 percent? I'm
friends with a lot of police officers in town. I know what
they make. I know the Sheriff makes less. And we just can't
just give money away. It's just -- you just can't. If we're
going to do this, it has to go where it needs to go. But I'm
still -- I still feel the same, that it's in bad taste. But
-- but I just wanted to say that I -- it's -- okay.
JUDGE TINLEY: We appreciate all of you being here
tonight and participating. And we have no more participation
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forms, so that'll conclude the meeting. Thank you for being
here.
(The meeting was adjourned at 6:50 p.m.)
STATE OF TEXAS ~
COUNTY OF KERR ~
The above and foregoing is a true and complete
transcription of my stenotype notes taken in my capacity as
County Clerk of the Commissioners Court of Kerr County,
Texas, at the time and place heretofore set forth.
DATED at Kerrville, Texas, this 17th day of September,
2008.
JANNETT PIEPER, Kerr County Clerk
Kathy Ba k, Deputy County Clerk
Certified Shorthand Reporter
9-15-08 cc
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KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS' COURT
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KERR COUNTY COMMISSION ~
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PU~t~C PARTICIPATION FOR~~'~ ~-, ~~ % ~.
FOR ~ ~S `~
KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS' COURT ~~~"
INSTRUCTIONS: Fill out all appropriate blanks. Please print or write legibly. Present
to the COUNTY CLERK riot to the time that the Agenda Item (or Items) you wish to
address are discussed.
If you are handing out any material or documents to the Court, please make sure
you have one extra copy for the Clerk to ensure that one is put into the record.
Name:. ~~! ~~ ~~-~' ~ ~{' ~
Address: ~ `1 ~ ~ ~Gt ~ ~ r
Telephone: ~~0~ ,7~~ ~~~~/
Place of Employment: ~~ ~ / ~~-~
Employment Telephone:
Do you represent any particular group or organization? Yes No
If you represent a group or organization, please state the name, address and
telephone number of such group or organization:
Which Agenda Item (or Items) do you wish to address:
In general, are you for or against such Agenda Item (or Items)? For Against
Signature
NOTE: This Public Participation Forrn must be presented to the County Clerk prior to
the time the agenda item(s) are discussed.
Once you reach the podium please state your name and who/what you represent
clearly for the court reporter to accurately record who you are
PU~~IC PARTICIPATION FORI~~
FOR
KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS' COURT
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INSTRUCTIONS: Fill out all appropriate blanks. Please print or write legibly. Present
to the COUNTY CLERK rior to the time that the Agenda Item (or Items) you wish to
address are discussed.
If you are handing out any material or documents to the Court, please make sure
you have one extra copy for the Clerk to ensure that one is put into the record.
:~
Name:
Address: `:~'
Telephone:
Place of Employment: _
Employment Telephone:
Do you represent any particular group or organization? Yes No
If you represent a group or organization, please state the name, address and
telephone number of such group or organization:
Which Agenda Item (or Items) do you wish to address:
In general, are you for or against such Agenda Item (or Items)? For Against
Signature
NOTE: This Public Participation Form must be presented to the County Clerk prior to
the time the agenda item(s) are discussed.
Once you reach the podium, please state your name and who/what you represent
clearly for the court reporter to accurately record who you are