1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT 9 Regular Session 10 Monday, August 13, 2001 11 9:00 a.m. 12 Commissioners' Courtroom 13 Kerr County Courthouse 14 Kerrville, Texas 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 PRESENT: FREDERICK L. HENNEKE, Kerr County Judge H. A. "BUSTER" BALDWIN, Commissioner Pct. 1 24 WILLIAM "BILL" WILLIAMS, Commissioner Pct. 2 JONATHAN LETZ, Commissioner Pct. 3 25 LARRY GRIFFIN, Commissioner Pct. 4 2 1 I N D E X August 13, 2001 2 PAGE --- Commissioners Comments 3 3 1.1 Pay Bills 9 1.2 Budget Amendments 10 4 1.3 Late Bills 27 1.4 Read and Approve Minutes 29 5 1.5 Approve and Accept Monthly Reports 30 6 2.1 Variance to platting for family member and/or variance to lot size for commercial use 30 7 2.2 Presentation by Voelkel Engineering for scanning county subdivision plat files 41 8 2.3 Preliminary Revision of Plat, Lots 176, 177, 178, and 179, Spicer Ranch III, Precinct 1 46 9 2.4 Approve name changes, privately maintained roads 49 2.5 Set Public Hearing to eliminate duplicate road 10 names for County-maintained roads 50 2.6 Approve cell phone to replace voter telephone line 52 11 2.7 Approve issuance of Certificates of Approval for Radio Project, authorize financial adviser to 12 proceed with necessary documentation & approvals 57 2.8 Discuss order creating new public facilities 13 corporation to hold title to Juvenile Detention Facility, and approve form of Bylaws & Articles 14 of Incorporation 64 2.9 2002 Texas & County Retirement Plan options 68 15 2.10 Authorize Sheriff to commission peace officer- certified jailers as deputies 88 16 2.11 Upgrading equipment to maintain TLETS connection 94 2.8* Approve order creating new public facilities 17 corporation 98 2.12 Bathroom location for Flat Rock Lake Park, 18 submission of sewer tap request 100 2.13 Approving WETS water conservation brochure 104 19 2.14 Authorize signatures for TCDP Colonia Planning Study Grant, Contract No. 720135 109 20 2.15 Approve Indigent Health Care Coordinator contract 112 2.16 Creation of committee or working group to develop 21 county economic development program 115 2.17 Courthouse parking and traffic flow policy 124 22 2.18 Proposed Change Order 9, proposed revisions to scope of work 132 23 2.19 Approval of subcontracts for renovation of Annex/ Juvenile Probation offices 135 24 1.3* Additional Late Bills 137 2.20 Step and grade for new Assistant County Attorney 144 25 --- Adjourned 149 3 1 On Monday, August 13, 2001, at 9:00 a.m., a regular meeting 2 of the Kerr County Commissioners Court was held in the 3 Commissioners' Courtroom, Kerr County Courthouse, Kerrville, 4 Texas, and the following proceedings were had in open court: 5 P R O C E E D I N G S 6 JUDGE HENNEKE: Good morning, everyone. It's 7 9 o'clock in the morning on Monday, August 13, Year 2001, 8 and we will call to order this regular Commissioners Court 9 meeting of the Kerr County Commissioners Court. If y'all 10 will please stand with me, join me a moment of prayer, 11 followed by the pledge of allegiance. 12 (Prayer and pledge of allegiance.) 13 JUDGE HENNEKE: Thank you. At this time, 14 anyone wishing to address the Court on an item not listed on 15 the regular agenda may come forward and do so. Is there 16 anyone who would like to address the Court on an item not 17 listed on the regular agenda? Once again, is there anyone 18 who'd like to address the Court on an item not listed on the 19 regular agenda? Seeing none, we'll move directly into the 20 Commissioners' comments, and we'll start this morning with 21 Commissioner Baldwin. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yes, sir. Okay. The 23 only comment I have is, guess what time of the year this is? 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Football season. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Football season, 4 1 that's exactly right. We completed one week of two-a-days, 2 and of course they couldn't have their practice this morning 3 unless I was there; I ran by this morning. And they're out 4 there in the hot sun knocking heads like a bunch of crazy 5 people. But, it looks like a successful season for the 6 Kerrville Tivy Antlers. 7 JUDGE HENNEKE: Actually, I think it's 8 pre-mock trial season, is what it is. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Oh, okay. No, it's 10 football season. 11 JUDGE HENNEKE: Anything else? 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No, that's all, sir. 13 Thank you. 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I'm going to pass, 15 Judge. 16 JUDGE HENNEKE: Commissioner Letz? 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What it means is that 18 football has started; baseball is finally over, so you'll 19 have to listen to Buster now for the next couple of months 20 instead of me. 21 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Now we have to listen 22 to Buster on football. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Only comment I have is 24 just a little bit of an update on water issues, statewide 25 and Region J. It's a -- part of this is actually the reason 5 1 I missed the meeting last week. The State -- and I bring 2 this up with a little bit of displeasure in my voice, 3 hopefully. The way the Water Development Board's decided to 4 handle the State Water Plan, they -- I don't know if they 5 liked or didn't like what they got from the various regions 6 around the state, but they decided to put together another 7 entity called the stakeholders that is going to be 8 writing -- or working on about one-third of the -- or one 9 volume of the State Water Plan. There'll be three volumes 10 of the State Water Plan; one will be what this new entity is 11 creating, one is what the regions did, and one is a bunch of 12 technical data that no one's probably going to look at. 13 But, the stakeholders -- this is something I 14 found out about, I guess, late last month, and through a 15 number of calls and arguments and everything else with the 16 Water Development Board, I ended up being appointed to this 17 thing, which doesn't make me happy, 'cause I don't have time 18 for another committee. But, they're -- in my opinion, what 19 they've done, they got a bunch of -- I guess there were a 20 lot of complaints in the regional process about some of the, 21 I guess, bureaucratic-type groups and organizations of the 22 state not being involved in that process too much. And by 23 that, I mean everything from the Farm Bureau and Texas 24 Cattle Rancher's Association on down to environmental groups 25 like Sierra Club, National Wildlife Federation, et cetera. 6 1 So, they put together this group of individuals, about 120 2 people, a bunch of bureaucrats, and they're having a big 3 impact now the on the State Water Plan. Probably shouldn't 4 surprise us that Austin is, you know, going to do it this 5 way, but anyway, it's forcing me to spend a lot of time in 6 Austin at the moment. I'll be there the next couple of days 7 again. But, to just kind of update, the regional process 8 may still be the bottoms-up plan, but it's getting a lot of 9 direction from the top at the moment. 10 JUDGE HENNEKE: Do you think the stakeholders 11 group is a result of the river authorities feeling they 12 weren't controlling the process? 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I will say that river 14 authorities are -- they have a strong representation on the 15 stakeholders process. The interesting thing is -- well, and 16 so do underground water districts. I mean, a lot of the -- 17 I guess there's an organization of river authorities, also 18 an organization of underground water districts. It's those 19 types of organizations that have a voice in it now, which to 20 me are nothing more than lobby groups. This other thing 21 that they did -- and this is one of the reasons I got really 22 annoyed with the Water Development Board -- is every region 23 had a representative or someone at least from their region 24 except Region J. And I was assured that they weren't 25 singled out, but when I really got into it -- we were one of 7 1 the more difficult regions; we disagreed a lot with what 2 they were doing. I almost feel were we singled out for this 3 reason. And, the other -- and the other, flip side of that, 4 the region that had the most representation is Region L, 5 which is San Antonio. They had every organization you can 6 imagine related to water and the Edwards Aquifer Authority, 7 the Trinity, everything down there had members. So, it was 8 a little bit, you know, I guess, disheartening to have to go 9 through two to three years of work and then have another 10 group formed at the last minute by the Water Development 11 Board. Which is purely administrative; no legislative basis 12 for this, but it's being done. Maybe it will not be as bad 13 as I think it's going to be. 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Let's hope not. 15 JUDGE HENNEKE: Okay. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's all. 17 JUDGE HENNEKE: Larry? 18 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Just a big well-done 19 to all of the county volunteer fire departments that 20 responded to the fire last week very effectively and very 21 quickly. It was a good example of -- of regional support, 22 and it worked out very well and got the fire out. It was a 23 job well done. Also, that applies, by the way, to -- our 24 Road and Bridge Department was a big part of that same 25 effort in supporting all of the departments out there with 8 1 their trucks and diesel. 2 JUDGE HENNEKE: Good. Couple of 3 administrative things -- 4 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Oh, I should mention, 5 the Sheriff's Department was out there, of course, but 6 they're always there. So -- 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: They're always in the 8 way. 9 JUDGE HENNEKE: Couple of administrative 10 matters. I'll remind everyone that our next meeting on 11 August 27th is an evening meeting. It is our regular 12 scheduled quarterly evening meeting, so keep that in mind as 13 you make preparations for that meeting. Also, I will tell 14 the Court that I intend to call a -- a meeting on Tuesday, 15 August 21st, at -- beginning at 1:30 in the afternoon, to 16 consider and discuss budget issues. It will not be a 17 workshop. So that if we care to, we can make decisions, and 18 it's going to be fairly open-ended so that we can take up 19 the matters we need to in order to resolve any remaining 20 budget issues and -- and move forward through the process of 21 approving and adopting both the budget and the tax rate 22 prior to the end of September. So, those two things are 23 coming up. I'll also remind everyone that TexDOT is having 24 a public hearing. The public hearing actually starts at 25 7:30 tonight, but there's an open house from 6:30 to 7:30 at 9 1 the Hal Peterson Middle School cafetorium. The topic is the 2 High Water Bridge. And, I will be there and I will reaffirm 3 for the n'th time the County's support and need for the High 4 Water Bridge on an expedited basis. So, please keep those 5 three things in mind as we move forward over the next couple 6 of weeks. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Judge, can you believe 8 they would have a public hearing right in the middle of 9 football practice? Obviously, they have their priorities 10 out of line. They can meet at midnight. 11 (Laughter.) 12 JUDGE HENNEKE: Or in the middle of the 13 afternoon. 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Heat of the day. 15 JUDGE HENNEKE: Okay. With no further ado, 16 let's pay some bills. Mr. Auditor? Does anyone have any 17 questions or comments of Tommy regarding the bills as 18 presented? 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I move we pay the 20 bills. 21 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Second. 22 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Third. 23 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion by Commissioner 24 Baldwin, second by Commissioner Williams, that the Court 25 authorize payment of the bills as presented and recommended 10 1 by the Auditor. Any further questions or comments? If not, 2 all in favor, raise your right hand. 3 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 4 JUDGE HENNEKE: All opposed, same sign. 5 (No response.) 6 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion carries. Budget 7 amendments. Number 1, J.P. Number 1. 8 MR. TOMLINSON: This is a request from Judge 9 Elliott to transfer $262.60 into his Part-Time Salary line 10 item. $121.34 is from Books, Publications, and Dues, $41.26 11 from Conferences, and $100 from Miscellaneous. 12 JUDGE HENNEKE: Any questions or comments? 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I move for approval. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 15 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion by Commissioner 16 Baldwin, second by Commissioner Letz, that the Court approve 17 Budget Amendment Request Number 1 for J.P. 1. Any further 18 questions or comments? If not, all in favor, raise your 19 right hand. 20 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 21 JUDGE HENNEKE: All opposed, same sign. 22 (No response.) 23 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion carries. Budget 24 Amendment Request Number 2 comes from County Court at Law. 25 MR. TOMLINSON: This is a request from Judge 11 1 Brown to transfer $200 from Computer Supplies, $162 to 2 Office Supplies and $38 to Postage. 3 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: So moved. 4 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Second. 5 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion by Commissioner 6 Williams, second by Commissioner Griffin, that the Court 7 authorize Budget Amendment Number 2 for the County Court at 8 Law. Any further questions or comments? If not, all in 9 favor, raise your right hand. 10 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 11 JUDGE HENNEKE: All opposed, same sign. 12 (No response.) 13 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion carries. Number 3 14 comes to us from the County Treasurer. 15 MR. TOMLINSON: This is a request from the 16 Treasurer to transfer $467.69 from Lease Copier, $200 to 17 Office Supplies and $267.69 to Postage. I have a -- a late 18 bill that I'd like a hand check for to the Kerrville 19 Postmaster for $272. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So moved. 21 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Second. 22 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion by Commissioner Letz, 23 second by Commissioner Griffin, that the Court approve 24 Budget Amendment Request Number 3 for the County Treasurer 25 and authorize a hand check in the amount of $267.69 payable 12 1 to the Postmaster. Any further questions or comments? 2 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Yes. Was -- is -- was 3 that just an overestimated amount for Lease Copier? And why 4 was the cost so much less at this point than -- 5 MR. TOMLINSON: Apparently was. 6 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Is this -- we got it 7 for less than what we thought it would be? 8 (Mr. Tomlinson nodded.) 9 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Okay. 10 JUDGE HENNEKE: Any other questions or 11 comments? If not, all in favor, raise your right hand. 12 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 13 JUDGE HENNEKE: All opposed, same sign. 14 (No response.) 15 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion carries. Number 4 is 16 from the Sheriff's Department. 17 MR. TOMLINSON: Okay. This is a request from 18 the Sheriff to transfer $7,568.70 from the Sheriff's budget 19 in the Radio Equipment line item, $6,185.42 to Inmate 20 Medical in the jail, $1,050 into Uniforms in the jail, 21 $306.51 into Investigation Expenses in the Sheriff's budget, 22 and $26.77 to Postage in the Sheriff's budget. Also, a 23 transfer of $600 from Employee Medical from the Sheriff's 24 budget to Employee Medical in the jail budget. 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: So moved. 13 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 2 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion by Commissioner 3 Williams, second by Commissioner Baldwin, that the Court 4 authorize Budget Amendment Request Number 4 for the 5 Sheriff's Department. Any further questions or comments? 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I do have one 7 question of the Sheriff. With regard to this, Rusty -- 8 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yes, sir? 9 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Fortunately, we've 10 had that Radio Equipment line item to take care of these, 11 but are these things going to level out in the next budget 12 year? 13 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Inmate Medical, I have 14 no idea. We're in talks right now with Franklin Clinic and 15 Family Practice to see if we can come up with something. 16 This is a problem y'all know that I've, you know, hated all 17 year long, but I don't -- at this time, I don't know what 18 the answer is for inmate medical. I've increased it in this 19 next year's budget request. We are billing all the counties 20 that we house for, you know, but we have to pay it up front 21 and then have to wait for it to get back from those other 22 counties. But -- 23 MR. LUCAS: Tell them what we've come up 24 with, too. 25 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: And we've also -- I've 14 1 worked with Travis Lucas on trying to get it set up and come 2 up with different forms so that the hospital will try 3 everything they can do to collect it from the inmates first, 4 because it is their responsibility, and then if not, we will 5 at that time file lawsuits against the inmates to collect it 6 back from them if we can't. But -- 'cause I just don't 7 think the County should be paying for all this medical 8 stuff, but we can't deny it; we have to give it to them. 9 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Thank you, Sheriff. 10 JUDGE HENNEKE: Any other questions or 11 comments? If not, all in favor, raise your right hand. 12 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 13 JUDGE HENNEKE: All opposed, same sign. 14 (No response.) 15 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion carries. Number 5 is 16 for the District Courts. 17 MR. TOMLINSON: Part of this is to transfer 18 $315.08 from Special Trials out of the 198th court into 19 Special Trials in the 216th court. The other part is to 20 transfer $947.50 from Court-Appointed Attorneys line item in 21 the 198th court into that line item in the 216th court. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So moved. 23 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Second. 24 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion by Commissioner Letz, 25 second by Commissioner Griffin, that the Court approve 15 1 Budget Amendment Request Number 5. Any further questions or 2 comments? 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I have a question. 4 Special Trials, Tommy, is that -- what is a special trial? 5 MR. TOMLINSON: When we try to segregate the 6 capital murder trials from all others. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And, some -- some of the 8 trials that we have here that we pay -- that we pay for up 9 front are the out-of-town -- 10 MR. TOMLINSON: I don't know what this one is 11 for, but that's -- that's the purpose of it. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: When we have an 13 out-of-town trial like that, are we reimbursed by the county 14 that it came from? 15 MR. TOMLINSON: Oh, sure, yeah. If it's not 16 our case, sure. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you. 18 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Most of those this year 19 that I've seen are Kerr County cases where there was a 20 change of venue to Boerne or somewhere and they had to try 21 them over there. Costs a lot more. 22 MR. TOMLINSON: The -- even though we're not 23 eligible, the reason we try to segregate that is -- is in an 24 effort to be reimbursed by the State, if and when we are 25 eligible. So, that -- that's the reason we do that. 16 1 JUDGE HENNEKE: Any further questions or 2 comments? If not, all in favor, raise your right hand. 3 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 4 JUDGE HENNEKE: All opposed, same sign. 5 (No response.) 6 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion carries. Number 6 is 7 for County Court at Law. 8 MR. TOMLINSON: Okay. This transfer is a 9 request from Judge Brown to transfer $1,016.18 from 10 Court-Appointed Attorneys line item out of the 198th court 11 into -- into that line item in the County Court at Law 12 budget. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So moved. 14 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Second. 15 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion by Commissioner Letz, 16 second by Commissioner Griffin, that the Court approve 17 Budget Amendment Request Number 6. Any further questions or 18 comments? 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Dumb question of the 20 day. Of course, this has been approved by the 198th court? 21 MR. TOMLINSON: Yes. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you. 23 MR. TOMLINSON: We try to just make the year. 24 Turns out that the 198th court had less activity than they 25 anticipated for this year, and we were fortunate enough to 17 1 have the money there to do it. 2 JUDGE HENNEKE: Any further questions or 3 comments? If not, all in favor, raise your right hand. 4 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 5 JUDGE HENNEKE: All opposed, same sign. 6 (No response.) 7 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion carries. Number 7 for 8 the county jail. 9 MR. TOMLINSON: Okay. This is a request from 10 the Sheriff to transfer $193.52 from Radio Equipment to 11 Prisoner Medical -- 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So moved. 13 MR. TOMLINSON: -- in the jail. 14 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Second. 15 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion by Commissioner Letz, 16 second by Commissioner Griffin, that the Court approve 17 Budget Amendment Request Number 7. Any questions or 18 comments? If not, all in favor, raise your right hand. 19 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 20 JUDGE HENNEKE: All opposed, same sign. 21 (No response.) 22 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion carries. Number 8 is 23 for the County Clerk's office. 24 MR. TOMLINSON: This request is from the 25 County Clerk to transfer $1,034.49 into the Lease Copier 18 1 line item in the County Clerk's budget, $292.49 from 2 Computer Software in the County Clerk's budget, and $742 3 from Ballot Expense out of the Elections budget. 4 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: So moved. 5 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Second. 6 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion by Commissioner 7 Williams, second by Commissioner Griffin, that the Court 8 approve Budget Amendment Request Number 8 for the County 9 Clerk's department. Any further questions or comments? If 10 not, all in favor, raise your right hand. 11 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 12 JUDGE HENNEKE: All opposed, same sign. 13 (No response.) 14 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion carries. Number 9 is 15 from the Law Library. 16 MR. TOMLINSON: This is a request from the 17 District Clerk to increase the Law Library budget by 18 $702.50. That will necessitate bringing that amount of 19 money from the surplus funds in that budget. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Are we supposed to 21 declare an emergency? 22 MR. TOMLINSON: Yes. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So moved. 24 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Second. 25 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion by Commissioner Letz, 19 1 second by Commissioner Griffin, that the Court approve the 2 -- declare a budget emergency and increase the book line 3 item for the Law Library by the amount of $702.50, with 4 funds to come from the surplus funds in that dedicated 5 account. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge, I have a question, 7 in view of I made the motion. Does that really qualify to 8 be an emergency? I know we have a bill and the books are 9 here, but, I mean, can you -- I mean, I don't know what 10 you'd do under that scenario, whether you -- 11 JUDGE HENNEKE: My -- my belief is that since 12 there are funds in the -- since there are dollars in a 13 dedicated fund for that line item, that you can -- you can 14 declare an emergency for that. 15 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: You have to declare an 16 emergency. 17 JUDGE HENNEKE: Yeah, which makes it 18 different -- 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Than a normal. 20 JUDGE HENNEKE: -- than, say, for -- because 21 the money is sitting in a fund that's dedicated for that 22 purpose. Mr. Lucas? Do you think that's a fair -- 23 MR. LUCAS: Well, unfortunately, I was 24 reading when y'all were going through all this stuff, so -- 25 JUDGE HENNEKE: Hearing no dissent from the 20 1 Assistant County Attorney -- 2 MR. LUCAS: I'm sorry, guys. I'm getting 3 ready for another thing I'm going to talk about, actually. 4 JUDGE HENNEKE: It seems to me like we have 5 one of these on the Law Library every month. You know, the 6 thought -- when we went computerized, we were going to get 7 out of some of these books, but -- 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I guess these are the 9 pocket parts. Is it? Wouldn't it be pockets parts? I 10 mean, we're not actually buying books. 11 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Disks and stuff, 12 probably. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Disks and stuff. 14 MR. TOMLINSON: I have -- I have a bill; it's 15 actually -- it's for -- it's for -- from West Law, and it's 16 for the charges associated with -- with the -- 17 JUDGE HENNEKE: Computerized. 18 MR. TOMLINSON: -- the computerization. 19 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Just happens to be in 20 a line item called Books. 21 JUDGE HENNEKE: Any further questions or 22 comments? If not, all in favor, raise your right hand. 23 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 24 JUDGE HENNEKE: All opposed, same sign. 25 (No response.) 21 1 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion carries. Number 10 2 relates to the County Auditor. 3 MR. TOMLINSON: This is my request to 4 transfer $49.78 from our Telephone line item to Conferences. 5 I have a -- I have a bill I need a hand check for, and it's 6 for $170, and it's to the Texas Association of County 7 Auditor's Conference Fund. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So moved. 9 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Second. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Where is it, Tommy? 11 MR. TOMLINSON: El Paso. 12 JUDGE HENNEKE: Oh, boy, you got lucky. 13 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: That's as good as 14 Beaumont. 15 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion by Commissioner Letz, 16 second by Commissioner Griffin, that the Court approve 17 Budget Amendment Request Number 10 and authorize a hand 18 check in the amount of $170 payable to the Texas Association 19 of County Auditors. Any further questions or comments? If 20 not, all in favor, raise your right hand. 21 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 22 JUDGE HENNEKE: All opposed, same sign. 23 (No response.) 24 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion carried. Are you sure 25 you want us to approve that, Tommy? 22 1 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Sure you want to go to 2 El Paso in August? 3 MR. TOMLINSON: Well, actually, it's in 4 October, but I have to get my money in before October. 5 JUDGE HENNEKE: Budget Amendment Request 6 Number 11 is from Juvenile Probation. 7 MR. TOMLINSON: This is -- we've had this 8 amendment last meeting for alternate housing. I left it 9 open, as last time, to -- for the Court to decide if they 10 wanted to use -- continue to use moneys from that Radio 11 Equipment line item for this purpose, or if we want to 12 increase the budget by this much. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: My preference is Radio 14 Equipment still. So moved. 15 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Second. 16 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion by Commissioner Letz, 17 second by Commissioner Griffin, that the Court approve 18 Budget Amendment Request Number 11 from the Juvenile 19 Probation Department, with the funds to come from the Radio 20 Equipment line item in the Sheriff's Department. Any 21 further questions or comments? 22 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Question. Have we 23 significantly increased this budget for next year? 24 JUDGE HENNEKE: Yes. 25 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Okay. 23 1 JUDGE HENNEKE: Any other questions or 2 comments? If not, all in favor, raise your right hand. 3 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 4 JUDGE HENNEKE: All opposed, same sign. 5 (No response.) 6 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion carries. Number 12 is 7 from the Maintenance Department. 8 MR. TOMLINSON: This request is from Glenn 9 Holekamp to transfer $860 from Major Repairs in the -- the 10 Maintenance Department budget to Trash Service, and to 11 transfer $275 from Major Repairs at the Ag Barn facility to 12 the Telephone line item in that facility. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I have a question. I see 14 Brian back here -- I mean, not Brian. Mike. Why do we have 15 so many little dumpsters there instead of one big dumpster? 16 MR. SMART: That's the way it's always been. 17 We've looked into -- occasionally, we get bigger dumpsters 18 for the larger events. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is it -- cost-wise, it 20 doesn't cost us more to have all these little ones? I 21 just -- it seems to me that it may be cheaper to get bigger 22 dumpsters than having six little dumpsters. 23 MR. SMART: I'm not sure, but I will check 24 into it. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't know how B.F.I. 24 1 charges all that stuff, but just a thought. 2 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Is that a motion? 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's a motion to 4 approve the amendment. 5 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Second. 6 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion by Commissioner Letz, 7 second by Commissioner Griffin, that the Court approve 8 Budget Amendment Request Number 12 for the Maintenance 9 Department and the Ag Barn. Any further questions or 10 comments? If not, all in favor, raise your right hand. 11 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 12 JUDGE HENNEKE: All opposed, same sign. 13 (No response.) 14 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion carries. Item Number 15 13 is for the Sheriff's Department and the jail. 16 MR. TOMLINSON: Okay. This is a request from 17 -- from the Sheriff to transfer $2,517.33 from Radio 18 Equipment, $350.85 to Lease Copier in the Sheriff's Office, 19 $1,760.69 to Vehicle Maintenance in the Sheriff's Office, 20 $15.90 into Jail Uniforms, and $389.89 to Prisoner Medical 21 in the jail budget. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So moved. 23 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Second. 24 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion by Commissioner Letz, 25 second by Commissioner Williams, that the Court approve 25 1 budget Amendment Request Number 13. Any questions or 2 comments? 3 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: I've got a question, 4 just to refresh my memory. On Vehicle Maintenance, is this 5 one of our leased vehicles or one of our older vehicles? 6 Or -- 7 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: What a lot of this -- of 8 this maintenance is, is tires, things like that. The first 9 set of -- of vehicles -- new vehicles we put on the road now 10 have about 23,000, 24,000 miles on them, and we're replacing 11 tires off of those, and that's where a lot of this comes in. 12 Most of those cars are still covered under warranty as far 13 as any major work. 14 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: But not this sort of 15 stuff? 16 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: But not for this type of 17 stuff. And I had cut that budget line in half last year 18 because of these, but I really didn't take it -- take into 19 consideration those type of deals are deductible on 20 insurance when we get year-end things. 21 JUDGE HENNEKE: Any other questions or 22 comments? If not, all in favor raise your right hand. 23 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 24 JUDGE HENNEKE: All opposed, same sign. 25 (No response.) 26 1 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion carries. Item Number 2 14 is Nondepartmental. 3 MR. TOMLINSON: This -- this amendment was -- 4 was a result of -- of the court order concerning the -- the 5 portable toilets at Ingram Lake Park. We -- the Court had 6 voted to pay that out of Contingency. Subsequent to that, 7 we used all of the Contingency money, and so we're 8 transferring $600 from Pauper Burial line item in 9 Nondepartmental and $200 from Machine Repairs from 10 Nondepartmental into Contingency to pay this bill. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And that will leave a 12 balance? 13 MR. TOMLINSON: Well, we still have more 14 bills coming. We have two more for sure for July and 15 August. 16 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: So moved. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 18 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion by Commissioner 19 Griffin, second by Commissioner Baldwin, that the Court 20 approve Budget Amendment Request Number 14. Any additional 21 questions or comments? If not, all in favor, raise your 22 right hand. 23 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 24 JUDGE HENNEKE: All opposed, same sign. 25 (No response.) 27 1 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion carries. Do we have 2 any more late bills? 3 MR. TOMLINSON: Yes, I have two. I have one 4 for $1,400 from Al Bishop, and it's for construction of 5 concrete pads for picnic tables, I believe at the Center 6 Point park. 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Right. 8 JUDGE HENNEKE: That from was from whom? Al 9 Bishop? 10 MR. TOMLINSON: Al Bishop. 11 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: So moved. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 13 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion by Commissioner 14 Williams, second by Commissioner Letz, that the Court 15 authorize a hand check in the amount of $1,400 payable to Al 16 Bishop for concrete pads at Lions Park in Center Point. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: These were -- these were 18 out of that budget you had for Center Point Park? 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: The tables will be 20 coming in next week. 21 JUDGE HENNEKE: Any other questions or 22 comments? If not, all in favor, raise your right hand. 23 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 24 JUDGE HENNEKE: All opposed, same sign. 25 (No response.) 28 1 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion carries. Number 2? 2 MR. TOMLINSON: Okay. The last one came to 3 us from the -- via Keith Longnecker. This is a request from 4 State Aire. They're a subcontractor to Stoddard 5 Construction. And, we have -- they have presented us a bill 6 for $9,572.95, and this is a request to pay them directly in 7 lieu of paying Stoddard the -- the balance owed to them. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Say that last part 9 again. 10 MR. TOMLINSON: This is a request to pay -- 11 to pay State Aire directly, rather than pay Stoddard 12 Construction in the last draw. 13 JUDGE HENNEKE: I -- I don't want to 14 entertain this one at this time. We need to work -- that's 15 a legal issue with Stoddard. The problem is our general 16 contractor has not paid his sub. 17 MR. TOMLINSON: That's correct. 18 JUDGE HENNEKE: And the sub has come to us 19 and asked us to pay them directly and take that out of funds 20 which we would otherwise pay Stoddard. And, unless we have 21 the County Attorney more involved in this, I'm not -- I 22 would prefer not to address that at this time. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I agree, Fred. We 24 have several businesses here in town that have not been 25 paid. 29 1 JUDGE HENNEKE: And that's something we're 2 going to have to take up with the general contractor. 3 Anything else, sir? 4 MR. TOMLINSON: That's all. 5 JUDGE HENNEKE: Thank you. At this time, I 6 would entertain a motion to waive reading and approve the 7 minutes of the July 6th, July 23rd, July 23rd, July 31st, 8 and July 31st meetings of the Kerr County Commissioners 9 Court. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Oh, no, let's read 11 them. 12 (Laughter.) 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So moved. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 15 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion by Commissioner Letz, 16 second by Commissioner Baldwin, that the Court waive reading 17 and approve the minutes of the July 6th regular session, the 18 July 23rd special session, the July -- the special 19 redistricting hearing on July 23rd, the meeting on July 31st 20 to open bids for the Sheriff's Department radio 21 communications, and the July 31st meeting to -- for the 22 joint City/County workshop. Any further questions or 23 comments? If not, all in favor, raise your right hand. 24 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 25 JUDGE HENNEKE: All opposed, same sign. 30 1 (No response.) 2 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion carried. I'd also 3 entertain a motion to approve and accept the monthly reports 4 as presented. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So moved. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 7 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion by Commissioner 8 Baldwin, second by Commissioner Letz, that the Court approve 9 and accept the monthly reports as presented. Any questions 10 or comments? If not, all in favor, raise your right hand. 11 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 12 JUDGE HENNEKE: All opposed same sign. 13 (No response.) 14 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion carries. All right. 15 Let's move into the consideration agenda. The first item is 16 to consider a variance to platting for family member and/or 17 a variance to lot size for commercial use from property 18 located at the corner of Willow Bend and Tallwood, Center 19 Point, Precinct 2. Commissioner Williams. 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Thank you, Judge. 21 Julie Smith and her husband are proposing to build a child 22 care center on a piece of property owned by her parents, and 23 what it requires is a couple variances. It's in the -- in 24 the old unincorporated part of the city of Center Point, and 25 Julie and her husband acquired a piece of the land that's 31 1 owned by her parents, and her mother's here with her today 2 for this purpose. The property is on a public water supply 3 system, and Mr. Johnston can tell you all the other things. 4 The variance request is for a commercial use of the 5 property, and we would be asking for a variance for platting 6 because it's a family member, to transfer property from one 7 member of the family to another and so forth. Frank? 8 MR. JOHNSTON: Yeah. I've talked to Travis 9 in the meantime. I think it doesn't really need a variance 10 for platting. It's covered under the variance statute. 11 It's in the statute. I think their question was -- they can 12 correct me if I'm wrong -- that while they don't need a 13 variance for platting, if they divide off a 1-acre lot and 14 build the property on it, and then they -- you know, 15 sometime in the future, if they ever transferred that 16 property or sold it or -- at that time, would they have to 17 plat and would -- you know, without a variance out there, 18 you know, it may not meet the requirements in the future. I 19 think that's what they're worried about. 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Everybody looks at 21 you. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'm thinking. 23 JUDGE HENNEKE: Well, while you're thinking, 24 I'll talk. I'll cover you. I think this is a variance 25 situation, because it's an exception to the platting 32 1 requirements for a family member, so I think this is a -- 2 this would be a court action which would take note of that, 3 which would cover any subsequent owners because it would be 4 a lawful use of the property. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean, I think -- as I 6 understand the statute and our rules, which are modeled 7 after the statute, I don't think they need a variance now, 8 but they would have to -- they would need a variance to -- 9 for any future -- potential future transfer. And, I think 10 probably it's cleaner to do it, as the Judge is saying, 11 right now, which is basically the same thing. I mean, 12 it's -- it cleans it up for the future. 13 MR. LUCAS: That's the right analysis, I 14 think. 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That was our original 16 thought, that we needed it, you know, for future potential, 17 and also for the variance in terms of the lot size for 18 commercial use, transfer from the property -- from the 19 family member. The lot size is less than our current 20 Subdivision Rules require. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But it's on a water 22 system, so -- 23 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yeah. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- they can go down to 25 whatever size they want, as long as they can meet any other 33 1 septic requirements, which is -- that has nothing to do with 2 this, really. 3 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Or setbacks. 4 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Setbacks and so 5 forth, and that's covered in the letter that's -- that's 6 attached in our packet with regard to the septic issue. 7 MR. JOHNSTON: Well, they're on a water 8 system, but I think the exception is that they have to be on 9 surface water to get a -- any size that they want. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's true. That's 11 right. I think it's -- also, it brings out a problem in our 12 Subdivision Rules, in that we don't really allow for 13 commercial developments. 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That's right. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And it does not make 16 sense, and I think it's one of the reasons we can look at 17 them case-by-case. I think this is probably an appropriate 18 time to give a variance for that issue. But, I mean, 19 we've -- we've never really addressed this in our rules, 20 and it's not reasonable in most instances, in my opinion, 21 to require a commercial endeavor to have 5 acres in an urban 22 area. I mean, it doesn't make sense. So, you know, I 23 think -- 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Julie, would you like 25 to tell the Court a little bit about your plans with respect 34 1 to the child care center? And you may have read -- all of 2 the members of the Court may have read recently, Julie and 3 her husband, who operate this child care center in First 4 Baptist Church facility of Center Point, and they're busting 5 out of the seams, I believe, and so they need a bigger 6 facility. They've also begun their planning for, I think, a 7 new -- through the P & Z in the city of Kerrville, to do one 8 over in the Singing Winds area, as well. There's a crying 9 need for the type of care that they offer. So, tell us 10 about it, Julie. 11 MS. SMITH: Well, what we're planning to do 12 is actually have a larger facility than we have now, just to 13 accommodate our waiting list that we currently have, and 14 also to give the church back some of their space that 15 they -- we have been taking up the last couple of years. 16 We'll be going into our third year, and we now have 51; 17 we're at our license capacity, and we're looking to have 80 18 to 85 kids in -- in care. So, in order to do that, we have 19 to have a larger facility. And, the property is there 20 already, but it would, I think, be in our best interests to 21 have that property titled in our name so that, I think, as 22 you addressed before, in the future there wouldn't be any 23 boundaries as far as selling the property or transferring 24 the property, anything like that. 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: It provides services 35 1 for low-income families, too, which is a benefit. And, what 2 percentage of your -- of your clientele is CCMS-managed? 3 MS. SMITH: About 30 percent right now; 30, 4 35 percent right now. Currently, we're CCMS, which is a 5 state organization I'm sure that y'all are familiar with. 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: We're familiar with 7 it. I would move that the Court grant the variance to 8 platting for family member, and a variance -- subsequent 9 variance to lot size for commercial use of property for -- 10 for the Smiths for the corner of Willow Brook and Tallwood 11 in Center Point, Precinct 2. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll second, but let me 13 make a friendly -- I mean, be more specific as to exactly -- 14 on that first point, the variance is for future -- for 15 future transfers. 16 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: To allow future transfer 18 of the property without platting requirements. 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I accept that part of 20 the motion. 21 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion by Commissioner 22 Williams, second by Commissioner Letz, that the Court grant 23 a variance to future platting uses for a 1-acre tract of 24 land for commercial use at the corner of Willow Brook and 25 Tallwood. 36 1 MS. SMITH: If I could make one correction, 2 it's Willow Bend. 3 JUDGE HENNEKE: It says it right here. 4 MS. SMITH: Okay, just making sure. 5 JUDGE HENNEKE: At Center Point, Precinct 2. 6 MR. SMITH: And also that it has been -- 7 talking to Stuart Barron, we're looking at more; probably 8 closer to an acre and a half. So that we can keep, because 9 there is a well on the adjacent corner, from Aqua Source, 10 and to keep our 150 feet, we were going to move the septic 11 back some and -- 12 JUDGE HENNEKE: Time out here, now. We need 13 to know what you're going to do before we do this. So, you 14 know, if y'all are going to take more, what we need to do 15 is -- you've heard the discussion. I think you know where 16 we're going, but you're going to have to bring it back 17 again, 'cause we have to give a variance to the specific 18 property for future use. We can't -- for whatever transfer, 19 we can't do that. So, you know, what's been presented to us 20 is an acre. If y'all are going to go back and get an acre 21 and a half or an acre and a quarter, which I think, you 22 know, looking at your drawing, is -- is probably 23 justified -- 24 MR. SMITH: I'm sorry I didn't bring the 25 drawing. 37 1 JUDGE HENNEKE: -- then what you need to do 2 is, when you have your plans set in stone -- 3 MS. SMITH: Okay. 4 JUDGE HENNEKE: -- then bring them back to us 5 for purposes of variance for future transfer. 6 MR. SMITH: Well, the -- I guess my problem 7 is, I guess, on what's -- the designer, Tom Phillips, he 8 wrote a letter. He doesn't see a problem. And -- and 9 Stuart Barron doesn't have a problem with it, either. We 10 were just thinking if -- if -- and there's nothing saying 11 it -- that because we didn't know for sure whether we were 12 going to be able to get the variance, we haven't set in 13 stone, "Well, we have to have this much," or -- or does that 14 make sense? And so it's -- it was hard for to us figure out 15 exactly what we were going to need without knowing if we 16 were going to be able to get a variance. He thinks -- the 17 designer thinks that we can get it on an acre. 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Judge, why couldn't 19 we amend it to just an approximate one and a half acres and 20 cover it that way? 21 JUDGE HENNEKE: Because it affects the future 22 use of the property. What if they only take one and a 23 quarter? Then you've got a court order that says -- we 24 don't want to deal in approximates. We can't deal in 25 approximates. 38 1 MS. SMITH: So we can say one, and if it's 2 not enough, we can bring it back. 3 JUDGE HENNEKE: If that's your desire to do. 4 I think, from your point of view, you'd be better off to -- 5 when you know what you do want for sure, then you can come 6 back. I know that's putting it off a little bit, but come 7 back through the agenda process. But, we can't deal in this 8 type of thing with anything less than pretty concrete plans. 9 And we really don't want to -- you know, if we give you one 10 now and you decide you want one and a quarter, you're going 11 to have to come back for the other quarter, or you can wait 12 and decide what it is you really need and want, and then 13 come back at one time. One way or another, unless you want 14 to -- unless 1 acre is going to be all you want, you're 15 going to have to come back at some point. 16 MR. SMITH: Right. Well, like I said, the 17 designer seems to think that 1 acre is plenty, so that -- 18 that works for me. 19 JUDGE HENNEKE: It's up to you all. We're 20 accommodating, but you have to understand that we have to 21 accommodate in the specific and not in the generalities. 22 MR. SMITH: Oh, exactly. I understand that. 23 And -- and I just -- that's why I brought it up, is that I 24 didn't -- right. So, that's fine. 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: The letter, Judge, 39 1 from Thomas Phillips, the registered sanitarian, proposes -- 2 or covers in terms of being 1 acre. And he's giving his 3 qualified opinion on the basis of 1 acre. 4 MR. SMITH: Exactly. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, I mean, Tom 6 Phillips doesn't enforce our rules. But, I think that the 7 Judge is right. Especially for the variance, we need to 8 have a plat that's attached to the order that shows exactly 9 what the property is. So -- 10 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Yes, a drawing. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The drawing needs to 12 be -- 13 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Attached to the plat. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But the drawing should be 15 accurate as to what the conveyance is going to be. 16 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: It would amount to a 17 two-week delay, so why don't you do it that way? Do the 18 drawing and -- and put it back on the agenda for the 27th, 19 evening of the 27th. 20 MS. SMITH: Okay. 21 MR. SMITH: So, our best bet -- so, do we 22 need to get it surveyed and have -- I mean, tell me what I 23 need to get for you so that we don't have to do this again. 24 JUDGE HENNEKE: Probably how we can handle 25 that is, how were you going to -- what are you going to use 40 1 for the property transfer? 2 MS. SMITH: We were actually going to 3 purchase the property, roll it into our loan so that -- 4 JUDGE HENNEKE: And when you purchase the 5 property, how was it going to be transferred? Were you 6 going to have it surveyed off from your parents? 7 MS. SMITH: Yes. Yes, it would have to be 8 surveyed so that it was -- in order for us to get the loan 9 for the facility, the land would actually have to be in our 10 name, to keep it separate from my parents. 11 JUDGE HENNEKE: That's what we need. 12 MS. SMITH: Okay. 13 JUDGE HENNEKE: Is that -- that survey. 14 MS. SMITH: Okay. 15 JUDGE HENNEKE: So, you know, when -- 16 Commissioner Williams is suggesting when you have that, you 17 know, from the discussion, I think it's fairly safe to say 18 you're not going to have a problem with the variance. 19 MS. SMITH: Right. 20 JUDGE HENNEKE: All we need is the legal 21 description of what we're providing a variance for so that 22 10 years down the road, when you desire to do something 23 else, there's no question as to what's covered by the 24 exception. 25 MS. SMITH: Okay. 41 1 MR. SMITH: Great. 2 MS. SMITH: Thank you. 3 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I'll withdraw the 4 motion, Judge, and we'll come back at a later date. 5 MR. SMITH: Thank you very much. 6 JUDGE HENNEKE: Thank you. 7 (Discussion off the record.) 8 JUDGE HENNEKE: Item Number 2 is a 9 presentation by Voelkel Engineering for scanning county 10 subdivision plat files. Don, are you and Lee going to do 11 this? 12 MR. VOELKEL: I'm Don Voelkel. We just 13 recently bought a different copy machine that has the 14 capability of scanning the files. The reason we bought this 15 machine is because a lot of our plat files -- we've been 16 doing business for 30 years, and some of our old plats that 17 aren't on AutoCAD and aren't -- they are getting kind of 18 brittle and hard to copy, and we're going to scan our plats 19 to -- the older plats to file to have them on disk. It 20 makes a raster image that is capable of plotting through 21 a -- like AutoCAD, digital format. We're also -- now that 22 we're doing it for us, we're making it available to -- I've 23 talked to KCAD and some of the other utilities, like 24 Kerrville Telephone Company, anything they have in their 25 file, old drawings that they want to put in a -- in a 42 1 digital format, like on a C.D., and store. 2 The C.D.'s we have now -- not "we" have, but 3 they're available -- have, like, 700 megabytes. Each 4 drawing is probably less than a megabyte, so you can 5 probably put up to 700 of them on a disk. Which would 6 enable the County, if they chose to, to put each volume -- I 7 think they have about 300 or more plats in each volume. 8 Some of the older ones, Volume 1, 2, 3, 4, they are not 9 digital, and this would enable the County to put them on 10 a -- a disk to be able to e-mail or sell -- you can sell the 11 disks to people, if you wanted to. It's just a way to 12 archive files that -- that aren't digital, that are -- some 13 of them are 50 years old. That's what we're doing. That's 14 what we're doing for other people. 15 I've talked to Rob at KCAD, and they're 16 interested in doing some of theirs. It's not something -- 17 we already own the machine; it's not like if we don't get 18 people to use it, we're not going to buy it. We already own 19 the machine, and it's something that -- and if y'all wanted 20 to see it, y'all could come by the office. We could show 21 you how it works, what it does. I've talked to the Clerk 22 and told her kind of what is going on, and she's -- she said 23 she'd like to see it sometime. You know, depending on if 24 y'all were interested in doing something like that. And 25 it's -- it's just an option that we have, you know, 43 1 available for us. 2 We've also done checking, just so we can 3 price out for other people how people are charging. We're 4 going to charge, hopefully, about half of what other people 5 in the big cities charge. For y'all, not for everybody on 6 the street. But, if it's something y'all would be 7 interested in, I could get with one of y'all and/or the 8 Clerk or whoever y'all would be interested in -- Franklin, 9 and we could come up with a proposal and how many of them 10 you want to do, if you'd want to do it. But, it's just 11 something that we have available now; we wanted to make it 12 available to y'all and some of the other entities. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think it's, in my 14 opinion, for Jannett, or Road and Bridge would be the other 15 department, if they want to use it. I mean, it needs to go 16 into their budget for this for future years. I mean, it's 17 something that I don't see that we would make that much of a 18 decision. I think it's a -- it's Jannett's decision. She's 19 keeping the plats. If she wants it, certainly I'd go along 20 with it. I mean, it sounds like it's reasonable; I think 21 it's probably a good idea, but I don't know much about her 22 plat files. That's why we have Jannett. 23 MR. VOELKEL: We just wanted to make it, you 24 know, available to y'all, and if y'all were interested -- 25 and however y'all channel it. I mean, it doesn't matter to 44 1 us. We've made it available to other entities in town and 2 are going to make it available to whoever. 3 JUDGE HENNEKE: Okay. 4 MR. VOELKEL: So, it's -- you know, if -- 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Don, you said that 6 you're going to charge about half of what the big city folks 7 charge. At what point are we going to get down to a real 8 number? 9 MR. VOELKEL: Well, I have a real number. I 10 mean, we've checked in San Antonio and Dallas and Austin 11 with different reproductions from -- I even have some faxes 12 from them. Some of them charge a flat fee of 20 bucks a 13 page. Some of them charge so much a square foot, like one 14 in San Antonio charges anywhere from $6 to $9 a page, 15 depending on if you make one or make 100. So, the lowest 16 price I've found, if you made 100, were, like, $6 a page per 17 plat, and we're talking probably in the neighborhood of $4 18 to $5 a plat to get them on a disk. And that's something 19 that -- if Jannett wanted to talk, we could kind of look in 20 there and see how many plats she had and how many she 21 wanted. It's something we could probably, you know, get to 22 a certain total cost, depending on how many there were and 23 how many she needed or wanted to put on file. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'd think the County 25 Surveyor would provide this free to the County. 45 1 MR. VOELKEL: Well, that's why Lee's here. 2 We're providing the use of the machine free. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: As a matter of fact, 4 here you have an elected official fixing to rake off some 5 taxpayers' money. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No, his brother's doing 7 it. 8 MR. VOELKEL: I'm not doing it. 9 (Discussion off the record.) 10 MR. VOELKEL: We had a real unfortunate thing 11 happen. We started talking with these people about buying 12 this machine, and they had some demo units, kind of like 13 buying a demo car. You get a -- a greatly reduced price. 14 Well, when they delivered it, it was all brand new. 15 Unfortunately, they had sold all their demos, so they had to 16 sell us a brand new unit, so we were real -- 17 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: We just got a big 18 price cut there. 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: What a bummer, yeah. 20 MR. VOELKEL: But, that -- if y'all have any 21 questions or if y'all -- I mean, and I guess it may be up 22 to, you know, the Clerk if she wants to or not. 23 JUDGE HENNEKE: Talk to Jannett. It's her 24 records management or her preservation budget. Y'all need 25 to visit with her and let her bring forth -- 46 1 MR. VOELKEL: Okay. 2 JUDGE HENNEKE: -- a proposal. 3 MR. VOELKEL: Thank you for your time. 4 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Thanks, Don. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Thanks, Don. 6 JUDGE HENNEKE: Okay. Item Number 3, 7 consider for preliminary approval Revision of Plat for Lots 8 176, 177, 178, and 179 of Spicer Ranch III in Precinct 1. 9 Commissioner Baldwin. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yes, sir. 11 Mr. Johnston. 12 MR. JOHNSTON: This plat is a combining of 13 lots in a platted subdivision. The way he has it drawn on 14 the revised portion, he has Lot Number 1, Lot Number 2. I 15 think it might be better to tie that back into the existing 16 nomenclature and call it, like, 176-A -- just refer to that 17 lot being divided. Then, on the other portion, one of the 18 other numbers, like 177-A, that show that that's a lot in 19 that subdivision, not a new lot. You also notice that Bruce 20 Drive is an easement that's shown on the existing plat. The 21 road was never built; there's nothing there. This -- this 22 owner owns all the land around that right -- that easement, 23 or actually owns some land under it, I guess, and he wants 24 to abandon that easement. So, I guess by him owning 25 everything that's contiguous to it, and the fact that this 47 1 is combining lots, I think he's exempt from public hearing 2 on the abandonment and -- and the replatting. The only 3 other comments I had were -- were feedback from U.G.R.A., 4 that they need to locate existing wells and O.S.S.F. systems 5 on -- on the plat, and locate any improvements. I think 176 6 has a house and some -- some buildings on it. So -- 7 JUDGE HENNEKE: Bruce Drive was never 8 dedicated to the County? 9 MR. JOHNSTON: I think it was one of those 10 that was dedicated by plat, but it was never built. I know 11 when we abandon something that's been dedicated, it has to 12 have 100 percent of the contiguous owners to agree to it. 13 This is the person essentially doing the replat. I may be 14 wrong; it may take a -- I just thought it probably wouldn't 15 in that case. 16 JUDGE HENNEKE: I think the abandonment may 17 take -- no, that's not a public hearing, if everybody 18 agrees. It takes unanimous vote. 19 MR. LUCAS: For a road? 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Abandonment of an 21 easement. 22 MR. LUCAS: No, there's no public hearing 23 upon -- 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: A hundred percent of 25 the -- 48 1 MR. LUCAS: You just have to have -- y'all 2 have to vote on it unanimous for abandonment. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 4 JUDGE HENNEKE: Okay. Any questions or 5 comments? 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Is Mr. Green not here? 7 MR. JOHNSTON: Those are the only comments I 8 have. I'd recommend approval. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I move that we approve 10 the preliminary Revision of Plat for Lots 176, 177, 178, 179 11 -- do we want to put in the -- in the order your 12 recommendations of 176-A and 176-B? Is that what -- 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: This is a preliminary, so 14 I think -- I mean, I think Franklin can just do that. 15 MR. JOHNSTON: I'll notify the surveyor that 16 we think that's -- 17 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: You may want to 18 include in your motion, though, that -- the O.S.S.F. -- 19 MR. JOHNSTON: Recommendations. 20 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: -- recommendations 21 also, because that's outside of the Court, because they had 22 said they needed to locate the structures and all that sort 23 of thing on the -- 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you. That would 25 be my motion. 49 1 JUDGE HENNEKE: Is that a second? 2 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: That's a second. 3 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion by Commissioner 4 Baldwin, second by Commissioner Griffin, that the Court 5 grant preliminary approval for Revision of Plat for Lots 6 176, 177, 178, 179 of Spicer Ranch III in Precinct 1, with a 7 requirement that the applicant identify on the plat all the 8 existing wells and O.S.S.F. systems in the affected 9 property. Any further questions or comments? If not, all 10 in favor, raise your right hand. 11 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 12 JUDGE HENNEKE: All opposed, same sign. 13 (No response.) 14 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion carries. Okay. 15 Number 4, consider and approve name changes for privately 16 maintained roads in various locations in accordance with the 17 911 guidelines. Truby. 18 MS. HARDIN: We have a total of six privately 19 maintained roads that need to be changed because of 20 duplicate names for 911. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So moved. 22 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Second. 23 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion by Commissioner Letz, 24 second by Commissioner Griffin, that the Court approve name 25 changes for privately maintained roads in Precinct 3 and 50 1 Precinct 4 in accordance with the 911 guidelines and in the 2 list provided to the Court. Any other questions or 3 comments? If not, all in favor, raise your right hand. 4 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 5 JUDGE HENNEKE: All opposed, same sign. 6 (No response.) 7 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion carries. Item Number 8 5 is consider advertisement for Notice of Public Hearing to 9 eliminate duplicated names for County-maintained roads in 10 Precinct 1, 2, and 4, in accordance with the 911 guidelines, 11 and set public hearing date for the same. 12 MS. HARDIN: This one will require notice and 13 public hearing. There's one for Precinct 1, one for 14 Precinct 2, and 16 for Precinct 4. These are all 15 County-maintained roads. 16 JUDGE HENNEKE: When are you proposing the 17 public hearing on those? 18 MS. HARDIN: September the 24th. And the 19 45-day deadline would be November the 8th. 20 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Do we have a -- that's 21 a regular court meeting? 22 JUDGE HENNEKE: That's a special court 23 meeting. 24 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: So we can do it at 25 10 o'clock? 51 1 MS. HARDIN: September the 24th? 2 JUDGE HENNEKE: That's a special meeting. 3 MS. HARDIN: Okay, sorry. 4 JUDGE HENNEKE: Regular meetings are the 5 first one of the month. So, if it has to be a regular 6 meeting, it would have to be the second Monday in October. 7 MS. HARDIN: Second? 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: First Monday. 9 JUDGE HENNEKE: Second Monday. 10 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Second Monday. 11 MS. HARDIN: The 8th. October the 8th. That 12 changes that. 13 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: And is that not a -- 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It's a holiday. 15 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: So, is it October the 16 9th? Better get -- so we don't have to do this twice -- 17 this in the notice. And, is it an evening meeting? 18 JUDGE HENNEKE: Will not be an evening 19 meeting. 20 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: It would not be an 21 evening meeting, 'cause it's the first one. 22 MS. HARDIN: If we're not going to have it 23 till October, then can we maybe add some more names to it? 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Why don't we bring it 25 back at the next meeting? 52 1 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: We'll have enough time 2 to bring it back the next meeting; that would be an idea, if 3 we wait that long, in case she's got some more ready to go. 4 MS. HARDIN: Okay, Jonathan. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Probably got a 45-day 6 deadline to get these done. I'm getting geared up. 7 MS. HARDIN: So, we'll come back on -- 8 JUDGE HENNEKE: We'll bring it back on the 9 27th, and with the idea of having a public hearing on 10 October the 9th. 11 MS. HARDIN: Thank you. 12 JUDGE HENNEKE: Okay, good. Item Number 6, 13 consider and discuss approval of acquiring cell phone 14 service with Sprint to replace the voter telephone line. 15 Jannett Pieper. 16 MS. PIEPER: Gentlemen, I talked to a 17 representative from the I.B.S. Cellular Sprint, and I can 18 get a free cell phone to replace my voter line that I 19 normally have. Considering the Municipal Auditorium will be 20 under construction, we have no more phone service there. 21 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Franklin, one minute. 22 I just need to catch you for one quick second. 23 (Discussion off the record.) 24 MS. PIEPER: During our last election, I 25 ended up having to borrow a cell phone. This is used mainly 53 1 for the elections, but it would be much easier if I had a 2 cell phone that I wouldn't feel guilty about using someone's 3 minutes when I borrow their cell phone. 4 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: This would just be for 5 the -- just during the election? 6 MS. PIEPER: No, I would have it 7 continuously, so I would have a monthly bill. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Why don't we just add 9 another phone to our regular cell phone -- don't we have a 10 contract with Five Star that we get "X" number of thousands 11 of minutes, and we can add phones, like, $5 apiece? We 12 never -- 13 JUDGE HENNEKE: We don't -- we have that 14 through the Sheriff's Department, but we don't have it -- 15 MS. PIEPER: Right, but that would eat up his 16 minutes. 17 JUDGE HENNEKE: Well, it's something that's 18 been talked about, but never brought to fruition. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean, that's my 20 opinion. I don't know how many cell -- excluding the 21 Sheriff's Department, I mean, I thought there was a way that 22 we could designate departments and add phones and have one 23 very -- 24 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: One thing we do have out 25 there, and I don't know if they -- if the County wants to 54 1 consider another one of those contracts with the phone 2 company where you can have so many phones with "X" number of 3 minutes. Now, we pretty well use all ours, because we use 4 cell phones a lot out in the car, but I do have a number of 5 extra cell phones out there that are not hooked up that the 6 County owns -- the Sheriff's Office owns. You know, it may 7 be cheaper just to enter the contract, 'cause I know Tommy 8 had needed one at one time, and Jannett needs one, you know, 9 a lot of times. And sometimes we try and get ahold of them 10 at different times and can't do it. If the County would 11 just entertain them getting a separate contract with the 12 add-a-phones on it for the County, itself, for the -- 13 whether the Commissioners need it or not, we can provide 14 several of those phones, where you won't have the phone 15 expenses. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Tommy, do you know how 17 many cell phones, outside of the Sheriff's Department, we 18 have? How many departments are using them? 19 MR. TOMLINSON: I'm not sure. 20 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Only thing with 21 Sprint -- not knocking them, but I looked into it when we 22 went with Kerrville. The west end of the county, unless 23 they've upgraded their towers yet, really was not covered 24 once you get past about Goat Creek Road. There wasn't 25 service with Sprint at that time. Now, they were expanding; 55 1 I don't know if they have yet or not. 2 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: They're beyond that 3 now, but it's still not all the way west. 4 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yeah. It was causing 5 some problems using Sprint for that purpose with us. That's 6 why we didn't go with them. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: When do you need this by? 8 November? 9 MS. PIEPER: Yes. It would be better by 10 November, 'cause I have the one general election coming up 11 in November. The end of October starts my early voting. 12 That's when it would be used most. 13 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Input. I think this 14 probably falls into the area of information technology, and 15 it would be a good thing to have our information technology 16 specialist review and come up with some alternatives, how we 17 might do this. We can look at the whole thing at once. 18 What the Sheriff has is working great; we don't have a 19 problem with that, but if there's a way that we can rewicker 20 this county-wide -- you know, we had talked about at it one 21 time some months ago. I think it would be something good 22 for Shaun to take a look at. 23 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Our cell phone bill, 24 when we went to this with the add-a-phone and the minutes 25 and that, it cut our cell phone bill in half from what the 56 1 County had been paying prior to that. I think it's very 2 wise to look at more than one phone. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think -- 4 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Is there a reason that 5 you think that we shouldn't have the county-wide approach? 6 Is that -- 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: They bill each number. 8 Number comes out, you have as many numbers as you want. 9 They're each itemized on the bill. 10 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Right. 11 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: What they're using it 12 for -- 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: If we go that route, 14 which I -- I like, I think we need to take a close look at 15 it, but does that answer the question of a November phone 16 for the County Clerk? 17 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: I think we can do it 18 in a matter of -- certainly, before November. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Or October. 20 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Or October. We can 21 probably have it done by September, I would think. 22 JUDGE HENNEKE: Well, we'll take care of 23 Jannett's problem. If we can't do it globally, we'll take 24 care of it specifically, because she has to have a phone. 25 We're changing early voting locations; it makes more sense 57 1 to have a cell phone rather than a land line. 2 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: I'm just saying, it 3 looks like this issue's been raised again. We've discussed 4 it before. Maybe this is a good time to look at it and 5 maybe solve Jannett's problem, and take a county-wide look 6 at the same time. 7 JUDGE HENNEKE: I'll get with Shaun and have 8 him talk to the people at -- the cell phone people, and 9 also, Tommy, do you have an inventory of the cell phones 10 that the County has? 11 MR. TOMLINSON: Yeah, I have one. I just 12 don't -- 13 JUDGE HENNEKE: Could you get that -- could 14 you get that to me in the next day or two? 15 MR. TOMLINSON: Sure. 16 JUDGE HENNEKE: Okay, Jannett? 17 MS. PIEPER: Okay, that will be fine. Thank 18 you. 19 JUDGE HENNEKE: Thank you. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Break time? 21 JUDGE HENNEKE: Not quite. Okay. The next 22 item is Item Number 7, consider and discuss the approval of 23 issuance of Certificates of Approval for financing radio 24 project, and authorize Kerr County financial adviser to 25 proceed with the necessary documentation and approval. OUr 58 1 financial adviser, Mr. Bob Henderson, is here with us. Bob? 2 While Bob's coming up, I want to say that no decision has 3 been made as to how we're going to finance the radio 4 project. There are some financing options that were 5 included in the bid proposal; however, if we're going to 6 have the option of doing Certificates of Obligation, because 7 of the timetable which I believe I've passed out to each of 8 you, we have to start now. So, Bob has agreed to come and 9 talk to us about what we need to do so that if we need to do 10 it that way, we can. Morning, Bob. 11 MR. HENDERSON: Good morning. It's a 12 pleasure to be with y'all again. How are you, Mr. Griffin? 13 Everything going okay out at the Lake Ingram Estates? 14 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: I'll pass some good 15 words on to you. 16 MR. HENDERSON: Good. Actually, I think the 17 Judge pretty well just summarized where we're at right then. 18 You know, you've got bids in on this radio equipment. There 19 are a multitude of financing options available for that, 20 including some that were included in your bid package. We 21 had talked -- "we" being the Judge and I -- about a couple 22 of other alternatives, one having to do with a potential 23 election, and the other one having to do with an issuance of 24 Certificates of Obligation. We discussed at length the 25 timing that's required in order to levy a tax for October 1 59 1 of this year. One of the things that you're all cognizant 2 of is the useful life of these radio towers are going to be 3 substantially less than the sort of thing that's normally 4 financed with long-term voter bonds, and therefore, you 5 know, we want to go ahead and -- and utilize a structure 6 that has us paying this debt off sooner rather than later, 7 and facilitate that we need to be able to effect a 8 transaction that would allow us to close or at least sell 9 the bonds prior to September 30th of this year so that you 10 can levy a tax on -- on October 1, if that's the option that 11 the Commissioners Court elects to proceed with. 12 The tax rate impact of that is going to be 13 entirely driven by the ultimate amount of money that the 14 Commissioners Court elects to spend and whatever budget 15 considerations you may have out of the Sheriff's Department, 16 that sort of thing. That might be able to be reallocated. 17 So, we're not in a position this morning, not having those 18 two pieces of information, to talk about a tax rate impact, 19 but just really wanted to make ourselves available to answer 20 any questions you might have concerning the timetable of 21 events and what the relative costs of this might be in terms 22 of interest rates relative to financing options that might 23 be available through the vendors who are selling the radio 24 equipment. Happy to answer any questions that you might 25 have. 60 1 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Question. 2 MR. HENDERSON: Yes, sir? 3 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: As opposed to other 4 financing scenarios, what is the relative cost of the 5 Certificate of Obligation? 6 MR. HENDERSON: As a matter of fact, just 7 last Friday I ran some fresh numbers for Victoria County, 8 who's doing a $5 million project over 15 years. The 9 interest rates that we got estimated that were projected for 10 Victoria County for 15 years was 4.45 percent. That's based 11 on a triple-A insured transaction. If we look at Kerr 12 County, and assuming we've got enough volume, as I discussed 13 with the Judge, to make municipal bond insurance 14 cost-effective, we could do a 10-year financing, I'm sure, 15 for under 4 and a quarter percent. 16 JUDGE HENNEKE: What about seven? 17 MR. HENDERSON: Four percent, I think. 18 JUDGE HENNEKE: I mean, I think I can speak 19 for the Court, that we are concerned about the financing 20 beyond the useful life of the -- 21 MR. HENDERSON: Right. 22 JUDGE HENNEKE: -- the equipment, and I 23 think -- Sheriff, jump in here if I'm wrong, but seven years 24 is probably getting pretty close, don't you think? Or -- 25 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: As far as useful life, 61 1 depending on what-all it is right now, we're probably going 2 on 20 to 30 years with what we got. 3 JUDGE HENNEKE: We're not talking about spit 4 and baling wire; we're talking about things that work. 5 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: What I'm saying, I 6 really have -- and until Trott does their total evaluation 7 on the equipment, itself, that these vendors are proposing, 8 I really don't know. It's -- a lot of that's going to have 9 to come through our conference call with Trott and see what 10 their engineers have come up with. 11 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: When do we expect 12 something out of Trott on the recommendation for the RFP? 13 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: They're supposed to give 14 us a recommendation for y'all's court meeting on the 20th. 15 JUDGE HENNEKE: Supposed to have a 16 recommendation on the 20th, which is one of the reasons 17 we've scheduled the next budget hearing on the 21st. 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Judge, given the 19 nature of the equipment, would leasing the equipment not be 20 a viable option? 21 MR. HENDERSON: Would leasing it? 22 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: As opposed to 23 purchase. 24 MR. HENDERSON: It depends entirely on the 25 structure of the lease. If you're talking about a capital 62 1 acquisition lease, which basically means that -- that you're 2 paying the full capital value of the product and you're 3 exercising the purchase option at the end of the lease 4 for -- for one dollar, or whatever that typical number is, I 5 would suspect the answer would be no, because you're going 6 to pay a higher interest rate than -- than you would pay by 7 using taxes and Certificates of Obligation. Although the 8 lease could be structured as a tax-exempt lease, as well. 9 If you're talking about a pure operating lease, where 10 someone is going to lease you the equipment and agree at the 11 end of the term of the lease to -- to take that equipment 12 back for some residual value, such as you're financing just 13 the value that you utilized, you -- you may be, in fact, 14 able to do something. I would find it unusual that someone 15 would be willing to give you a pure operating lease on that 16 type of equipment, but then that's where the Judge indicates 17 we need to look and see what financing options the vendors 18 are offering, and -- and evaluate those. But, a pure 19 capital acquisition lease is not going to be more 20 cost-effective than a C.O., I wouldn't believe. Tommy, 21 would you disagree with that? 22 MR. TOMLINSON: All depends on the rate -- 23 the interest rate. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I guess, Judge, my 25 question is, what are we supposed to vote on now? I mean, I 63 1 agree that we need to, I mean, ask Mr. Henderson to proceed 2 with getting ready in case we take this route, but looking 3 at the agenda item, the first part of it sort of, to me, 4 doesn't figure. We don't want to approve any certificates 5 at this point. 6 JUDGE HENNEKE: No, we're not. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But the second part, the 8 motion to authorize the financial adviser to proceed with -- 9 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Planning. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Planning. 11 JUDGE HENNEKE: Any discussions with 12 Mr. Henderson? He -- I believe he's told me -- correct me 13 if I'm wrong -- that he really doesn't need any action by 14 the Court today. 15 MR. HENDERSON: Not today. We are -- you 16 know, if we elect to do the Certificate of Obligation 17 transaction, we would have to move pretty quickly. What I 18 would want to do is go ahead and start preparing now the 19 offering documents. The attorneys would -- not at this 20 meeting, obviously, but in the next couple of weeks, need to 21 come back to the Commissioners Court with a Notice of Intent 22 to Issue, because we've got certain state laws that require 23 publication of this Notice of Intent, and we would need a 24 number then. So, no, we don't -- we're not taking any 25 official action today, other than just saying yes, this is a 64 1 viable option. We do plan to go forward with the 2 acquisition of the radio equipment and we need to be geared 3 up to either execute this option or another financing option 4 as may be available. 5 JUDGE HENNEKE: Any other questions or 6 comments? Bob, I'll share with you the financing options 7 from the vendors when we take a break. 8 MR. HENDERSON: Yes, sir. 9 JUDGE HENNEKE: Okay, thank you. Appreciate 10 it. Next item is Item Number 8, which is consider and 11 discuss the approval of the order creating the new public 12 facilities corporation to hold title to the Juvenile 13 Detention Facility, and approving the form of the Bylaws and 14 Articles of Incorporation of such public facility. Tom 15 Spurgeon is here from McCall, Horton, and Parkhurst. 16 Actually, I believe the draft that's in the packet is not 17 the most recent draft, and I apologize for that, gentlemen. 18 We're having some trouble in e-mails between my machine and 19 the Court Assistant's machine. As a matter of fact, she 20 told me this morning she got the e-mail over the weekend 21 that was sent on -- 22 MS. SOVIL: 24th of July. 23 JUDGE HENNEKE: -- July 24th. So, I -- I 24 e-mailed Ms. Sovil the corrected documents Thursday, and 25 apparently they haven't -- 65 1 MS. SOVIL: They've got them in their 2 packets. 3 JUDGE HENNEKE: They're in the packet? 4 MS. SOVIL: I gave them -- 5 JUDGE HENNEKE: Separate? 6 MS. SOVIL: -- a separate one. 7 JUDGE HENNEKE: Okay. All right. So, does 8 anyone have any questions or comments? Again, this relates 9 to the refinancing and the expansion of the Juvenile 10 Detention Facility. We're creating a new vehicle to own the 11 title to the facility. It'll be exactly identical -- not 12 exactly identical, but basically the same structure and 13 configuration as the current financing and current title. 14 This is just a way for us to refinance the existing 15 high-interest debt and obtain some money to expand the 16 facility and end up with the same bottom line as we had 17 before, as far as the amortization schedule. So -- 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: This will be a new 19 corporation we're creating? 20 JUDGE HENNEKE: Correct. 21 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: And we would be 22 abandoning the old corporation? 23 JUDGE HENNEKE: We will dissolve the old 24 corporation at such time as the title is transferred to this 25 new corporation, which will not happen until later. 66 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: My only question is, 2 is our attorney signed off on it? 3 JUDGE HENNEKE: David Jackson is representing 4 the Kerr -- the Kerr County Juvenile Board, and he has 5 talked with Mr. Spurgeon, I know, and I've talked with him, 6 and he is comfortable with the documentation as presented. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, he doesn't 8 represent me, though. This guy right here represents me. 9 And I'm going to vote here, and I want my representative to 10 sign off on it. I mean, I like Mr. Jackson, don't get me 11 wrong, but he's not our attorney. 12 JUDGE HENNEKE: Well, what we can do is we 13 can put this off, and Tom and Travis can go sit down, have a 14 sit-down -- 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I just think it would 16 be good business to do it that way. Just my opinion. 17 JUDGE HENNEKE: I don't disagree at all, and 18 that's a loop that I didn't cover. The Juvenile Board hired 19 David Jackson to represent the Juvenile Board in the 20 contracting, and he has talked with Mr. Spurgeon about the 21 documents, but I failed to get Travis in the loop, and I 22 apologize for that. So -- 23 MR. SPURGEON: Judge, I don't mean to 24 interrupt, but secondly, we do represent the Commissioners 25 Court in this limited capacity as your -- as your bond 67 1 counsel. So, I mean, we are lawyers for you, but I 2 understand that you also want, on a day-to-day basis, 3 another attorney, so I'm not trying to push it one way or 4 another, but I do want to let you know that our 5 representation is as your -- as your counsel, but in a 6 limited capacity as bond counsel. 7 JUDGE HENNEKE: That's what we'll do. Let's 8 take any questions for Mr. Spurgeon you might have right 9 now, and then we'll let him go talk -- visit with Travis, 10 and then we'll bring this back at such time as we're 11 prepared to move forward. Anyone have any questions or 12 comments of the documents for Mr. Spurgeon at this time? 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I don't. 14 JUDGE HENNEKE: Okay. Anybody? All right, 15 Tom. So, if you'll go meet with Travis briefly, and then -- 16 MR. SPURGEON: Okay. 17 JUDGE HENNEKE: -- when y'all are ready, just 18 bring it back and we'll -- 19 MR. SPURGEON: Very good. 20 JUDGE HENNEKE: -- recall this item. Okay. 21 At this time, I'm going to propose -- 22 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: A break? 23 JUDGE HENNEKE: Well, we have -- Tommy? 24 MR. TOMLINSON: My assistant has brought me 25 two late bills that we need to approve. 68 1 JUDGE HENNEKE: Why don't we take those up at 2 the end of the court session? Let's go ahead and take a 3 break and be back at promptly at 10:30. The first item 4 we'll take up at 10:30 are the options for the retirement 5 plan. 6 (Recess taken from 10:18 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.) 7 - - - - - - - - - - 8 JUDGE HENNEKE: All right. Let's reconvene 9 this regular session of Kerr County Commissioners Court. 10 The next item for consideration is Item Number 9, consider 11 and discuss Year 2002 plan options for the retirement 12 program. 13 MR. WATERS: Good morning, Judge, 14 Commissioners. My name is Chuck Waters. I'm the 15 Communications Director for the County and District 16 Retirement System. I have a bit of information to provide 17 you here. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What is your title, 19 Mr. Waters? 20 MR. WATERS: Director of Communications, sir. 21 If you wouldn't mind handing them back to her? 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you. 23 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Is this the same that 24 we have in our packages, or has it been changed? 25 MR. WATERS: No, sir, it's the same exhibit. 69 1 The other material you should not have, however. It's a 2 pleasure to report to you that your plan is in good 3 condition, and that your employer contribution rate, should 4 you choose to make no changes for 2002, will decline 5 slightly for next year, from the current 7.62 percent down 6 to 7.52 percent. The growth of the payroll was greater than 7 what was assumed by our actuaries in costing your plan for 8 last year. The extra growth of the payroll provides extra 9 dollars that help to pay off the unfunded liability in your 10 plan, so it sort of accelerates to pay off that liability. 11 Your plan funding continues to improve. 12 If you don't mind going over your exhibit, 13 we'll just quickly look through this sheet right here. 14 Under the column entitled "Present Plan," it describes your 15 plan parameters for the current year, 2001. Your employees, 16 of course, are contributing 7 percent of their salary each 17 month to finance their benefits. That's on a pre-taxed 18 basis. At the time of retirement and at that time only, 19 their accumulated deposits and interest are matched by the 20 County at the rate of 190 percent, meaning $1.90 in County 21 money for each $1 the employee deposits in interest. 22 And, your prior service credit is listed on 23 Line 3, but I'm not so sure that that's really too much of a 24 factor anymore. Prior service credit is a method of 25 awarding more monetary credit to employees for the period of 70 1 service that they had with the County prior to the time Kerr 2 County elected to become part of our system, and since you 3 came in in 1970, we would really be talking only about 4 employees who had service -- who are still on the payroll 5 who have -- who have service with the County that predate 6 1970, and I don't really know whether you have any of those 7 left or not. 8 Line 4 shows your retirement eligibility 9 standards. Employees can receive a lifetime pension if they 10 have eight years or more of service at age 60 or older, or 11 if they satisfy the alternate rule of 75, which means that 12 their age and service added together in whole numbers must 13 equal 75 or more; i.e., an employee who's 52 who has 23 14 years of service would be eligible to retire. Also, all 15 plans in our system have the 30 years and out rule, meaning 16 that at 30 years of service, regardless of age, you're 17 eligible to retire. 18 Lines 5 through 7 break down your employer 19 contribution rate into its two components. Line 5 refers to 20 the normal cost rate. Normal cost refers to the cost of 21 benefits that are accruing respectively from now into the 22 future. As an employee makes a deposit and earns credit for 23 a month of service with the retirement system, then the 24 County is funding the value of that benefit as it accrues 25 with its contributions. So, that is 5.77 percent of payroll 71 1 starting January 1st, 2002. Now, the second component of 2 your rate is your unfunded actuarial liability rate, and 3 that's 1.75 percent. That's the percentage of the 4 employee's salary that the County contributes to pay the 5 cost of benefits that have already accrued to employees, but 6 have not been funded at this point in time. Unfunded 7 liabilities can arise from several things. Unfavorable 8 planning experience is one of them, but usually they result 9 from benefit increases that have been granted in the past. 10 Most benefit increases that can be granted to 11 your members are retroactive in their effects. For example, 12 if you raise the percentage at which the County matches 13 employee deposits at retirement, that applies to all of the 14 dollars that an employee has contributed over his or her 15 years of service; therefore, it makes the funding of the 16 benefit in the past for those employees to be absolutely 17 inadequate, so the difference has to be made up with a 18 future contribution. So, your unfunded liability rate's 19 1.75 percent. You can see it relates to your normal cost 20 rate. It's a very low ratio to that. Generally speaking, 21 in plans that are very healthily funded, the percentage of 22 payroll that goes to fund benefits accumulated in the -- to 23 the future should be far greater than what you're paying to 24 finance benefits that have already been accrued, but not 25 paid for. So, you do have a very healthy relationship 72 1 between those two numbers. 2 And then you have a total rate of 3 7.52 percent starting in January 2002. The value of the 4 retiree benefit to these employees represented as a percent 5 of their payroll is 20.30 percent. That's the total cost. 6 The cost to them and the cost to the County in terms of the 7 rate at which it matches at retirement represents 8 20.30 percent. Yes, sir? 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Let me ask you a 10 question here. On Line 7, the 7.52 percent, what number is 11 in there today? 12 MR. WATERS: 7.62. That's what you're 13 contributing this year. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you. 15 MR. WATERS: Yes, sir. If you skip down to 16 Lines 11 through 14, you see the full fund balances for the 17 plan at the end of this year. Your projected retirement 18 liabilities are expected to be a little bit above 19 $10.8 million. The actuarial value of the employer deposits 20 available to -- to pay those liabilities is a little bit 21 over $9.2 million, leaving an unfunded amount of slightly 22 more than $1.5 million. That unfunded liability represents 23 14.6 percent of your total pension obligations. The system 24 average -- in other words, if you take all 496 plans that we 25 have in the system, other county and district plans, lump 73 1 them all together, they are funded at the rate of 2 80 percent, meaning the average unfunded liability is 20 3 percent for the system. Yours is 14.6 percent, so your 4 position is certainly better than what the system is as a 5 whole. That dollar amount on Line 13 is paid with the rate 6 that you see on Line 6 over a period of 20 years, and that's 7 indicated on Line 14. 8 Lines 15 through 17 show optional benefits 9 that can be granted. You've already approved the eight 10 years vesting and retirement at age 60, as well as the rule 11 of 75. The partial lump sum option shown on Line 17, that's 12 an option that would allow, if you elected -- if your 13 retirees, at the time of their retirement, elected to 14 receive a part of their pension benefits as a cash 15 distribution, and then to receive a reduced pension payment 16 in return for that distribution. The amount of the cash 17 distribution would be their choice, any amount up to, but 18 not to exceed, what they had in their personal account at 19 retirement. So, essentially, they could refund all of their 20 personal dollars, should they wish, and take a reduced 21 pension payment that would be funded with the County's 22 contributions only. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And that is available 24 to them today? 25 MR. WATERS: No, sir. That's an option that 74 1 has to be adopted by the Commissioners Court. It's not in 2 effect at this time. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Lines 15 and 16 have 4 been adopted? 5 MR. WATERS: Yes, sir, they have. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you. 7 MR. WATERS: The contribution rate of 8 .32 percent shown on Line 17 is what you would have to add 9 to your employer contribution rate for 2002 if you wish to 10 adopt the partial lump sum option. There is, as well, an 11 additional option that was added by the Legislature to our 12 plan very late in the session this year, and that happened 13 after these exhibits had already been prepared and sent out; 14 therefore, it's not on here, and that is a new 20 year and 15 out retirement option allowing people to retire with 20 16 years of service, regardless of their age. That cost is .20 17 percent. Should you wish to add that to your plan for 2002, 18 that would be an additional .20. And, I can tell you that 19 opening the door that wide does definitely have a cost 20 attached to it. If you allow 20 and out, people could 21 literally retire in their 30's. If they came to work here, 22 you know, at 18 years old, at 38 they'd be eligible to walk 23 with full pension. 24 So -- and that wasn't our -- our idea, by the 25 way. That was added to the plan; it was not proposed by 75 1 T.C.D.R.S. We chose not to fight it and jeopardize our 2 whole bill, since the sponsor of this amendment agreed to 3 make it optional for each county or district to elect this; 4 therefore, you don't have to take that, of course, if you're 5 not interested in it. 6 Lines 18 through 21 show the cost and 7 provisions of the two different methods that are available 8 to fund a cost-of-living adjustment for your retirees. 9 Lines 18 and 19 show how you can do that as a percentage of 10 the measured change in inflation over the course of each 11 retiree's retirement. What we actually do is measure how 12 much the Consumer Price Index has changed for each 13 individual retiree, and then the County would choose what 14 portion of that measured change they would wish to pass 15 along in terms of a benefit increase, ranging from 30 up to 16 80 percent. The additional employer cost rates are shown on 17 Line 19 for each of those options. That is what would be 18 added to your rate for 2002, should you choose to adopt that 19 particular COLA. 20 Now, keep in mind when you adopt a 21 cost-of-living adjustment, it's a one-time increase only. 22 You're not entering into a situation where you have an 23 automatic adjustment in pensions that takes effect. The 24 amount of the increase becomes a permanent part of the 25 retiree's benefit; however, there would be no future 76 1 increases in the pension benefits unless the Court or a 2 future Court voted on a separate occasion to authorize 3 another cost-of-living adjustment. So, it's not an 4 automatic annual thing; it's a one-time increase only. 5 The second way that you can do that is simply an 6 across-the-board increase in which every retiree and 7 beneficiary gets exactly the same percentage increase, and 8 you can choose from 1 percent to 6 percent on those options. 9 The cost for those are shown on Line 21. 10 And that, essentially -- the provisions that 11 you have in effect and the options available to you, the 12 Plan 1 and Plan 2, as shown on this exhibit, simply 13 represent all alternate levels of benefits from where you 14 are now, to show you how the cost compares for that. These 15 are not by any means all the benefit options available to 16 you. There are many combinations of employee deposit levels 17 and matching at retirement that are available. It's just a 18 matter -- an automatic matter that we provide cost 19 information for the next highest level and the next lowest 20 level so that you have something to look at and see how cost 21 figures compare for different levels of benefits. And, the 22 only difference between the Plan 1, Plan 2, and the present 23 plan is that, under Plan 1, you see the matching level at 24 retirement is 200 percent instead of 190 in the current 25 plan, and then under Plan 2, it's a reduced percentage of 77 1 175 percent instead of the current 190. And, that 2 represents pretty much the availability of retirement 3 pension-related options for 2002. 4 The next two pages on here I'm just going to 5 gloss over very quickly; it's simply information provided to 6 you for your review. The first page are important plan 7 factors that the actuaries look at on an annual basis to 8 determine the cost of your benefits for you. The first 9 column shows the percentage of the employee deposits that 10 are withdrawn on an annual basis. That's probably the most 11 critical factor, because an employee who terminates and 12 decides to withdraw his or her deposits by law forfeits the 13 dollars that Kerr County has contributed for him, and those 14 forfeited dollars remain in your plan and are used then to 15 fund benefits for the remaining participants, so a large 16 amount of forfeitures can cause your contribution rate to go 17 down. The second column is the amount of the payroll of the 18 participating members in the plan. That did, as I mentioned 19 earlier, rise more than expected, which was the primary 20 impetus for the contribution rate dropping by .10 for 2002. 21 And, the next couple numbers just show the 22 number of contributing members in your plan as of 23 12/31/2000, which is now 266. The number of annuitants, 24 which is not only retirees, but the beneficiary of a 25 deceased retiree who might be receiving a benefit, as well, 78 1 that's 55 at the end of 2000. The average age and length of 2 service, 42.86 is the average age of your participants, and 3 on average they have a little over six and a half years of 4 credit in the retirement plan. 5 The final sheet is simply a historical record 6 dating back to your first year of participation in the 7 system, showing what your benefit elections have been for 8 each year of your participation, your employee deposit rate, 9 employer contribution rate, and the retirement eligibility 10 standards and so on. So, you can see an idea of how those 11 have evolved over time since 1970. Gentlemen, do any of you 12 have any questions about what we've gone over so far? 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yes. There has been a 14 decrease in the calculated employer contribution rate, and 15 it's caused by the annual covered payroll, did you say? 16 MR. WATERS: Yes, sir. The actuaries every 17 year, based on the size of the group of participants that 18 you have and whether or not you are in an urban county or a 19 rural county and some other factors, will assign an assumed 20 rate of increase in the payroll for your plan. That -- that 21 is an inherent part of calculating the rate. The degree to 22 which the actual change in the payroll differs from the 23 assumed change will determine, as will other factors, 24 whether your overall plan experience is positive or 25 negative. Assuming that the payroll grows a certain 79 1 percentage, it produces, therefore, an assumed level of 2 dollars to provide funding for benefits that are 3 accumulating now into the future, but also an assumed level 4 of dollars to pay off that unfunded liability. Therefore, 5 when the payroll increases more than expected, the amount of 6 dollars available to pay off the unfunded liability are 7 greater than what was anticipated, so your unfunded 8 liability gets paid down faster. That has a depressing 9 effect on your rate. 10 However, there are many factors that affect 11 your contribution rate, and really, it's how they all add 12 up. I mean, they're -- it's the percentage of deposits 13 withdrawn, it's the characteristics of the people that you 14 hire, the new people coming in, their age and whether or not 15 they have previous service in the retirement system, so it's 16 a variety of things. Some of them may have negatives 17 attached to them, some of them may have positives attached 18 to them, and after the actuaries have costed each one of 19 those factors, they simply sum those things together, and 20 then the overall total's going to represent a positive or 21 negative number, meaning that your rate will either rise or 22 fall for the following year. 23 And you, of course, always have control over 24 your rate through the benefit elections that you make. 25 Should your rate rise to a point that, at some point in the 80 1 future, you're not comfortable with it, you have the ability 2 to elect to reduce the levels of benefits or the level at 3 which the employees deposit to the plan, which would 4 therefore bring about a decrease in your rate. So, your 5 benefit elections are a major factor in determining your 6 cost. But the other thing, of course, is the experience 7 within the plan from year to year, just the way that health 8 insurance companies cost your plan on the basis of claims 9 experience and payments for the previous year. We 10 essentially do the same kind of thing, but it's based on how 11 many people retire, the life expectancy experience among 12 your retirees, how many people have withdrawn their money, 13 what your payroll's going by, and other factors. So, we're 14 essentially doing the same thing that your health insurance 15 company would do. 16 The Treasurer had also asked me to address 17 the subject of the Supplemental Death Benefit Fund. That is 18 an optional term life insurance program that T.C.D.R.S. 19 makes available to counties and districts across the state. 20 It has nothing to do with employee pension contributions, 21 and therefore is not a factor or function of the retirement 22 plan. It is simply term life insurance. The death benefit 23 to the beneficiary of an employee who's covered by this 24 receives a -- a lump sum payment that is tax-free under 25 federal law, equal to their last 12 months of salary. It's 81 1 not quite the same thing as one times annual salary, but 2 represents the actual 12 months of compensation that they 3 received. The premium for covering the employees only under 4 that plan is .24 percent of payroll. That's in addition to 5 your employer contribution rate, although it has to be 6 reported separately, on a separate form each month. 7 Again, this is an optional plan. T.C.D.R.S. 8 started providing this as a response to a request from many 9 small counties and districts in our system. We found that 10 we were able to provide term life insurance on a group basis 11 that sometimes was less expensive than what was available to 12 them to fund through their health insurance plan, so I had 13 been asked to just mention that to you and how it works. 14 That -- it's something that can be elected at any time. 15 Unlike these retirement changes, which can be adopted in the 16 previous year and have to take effect on the following 17 January 1st, participation in the Supplemental Death Benefit 18 Fund can be done during any month of the year. If 19 Commissioners Court would elect to participate, if we 20 receive the completed paperwork, the participation of the 21 employees starts on the first day of the following calendar 22 month once we've received the completed order form. So, 23 that's something that you can choose to opt into at any time 24 during the year, next year or whenever in the future, if 25 you're interested. 82 1 JUDGE HENNEKE: So, the supplemental death 2 benefit is not something the employee pays, but the employer 3 pays, and it applies across-the-board to everyone? 4 MR. WATERS: That's correct, Judge. To 5 anyone who's an actual employee. It does not apply to 6 members of the plan who are no longer employees; i.e., 7 former employees who left their retirement money in the 8 system and have credit with Kerr County, but are no longer 9 employees of this county. Those people are not covered by 10 this. It's only actual, contributing members on the payroll 11 right now. Likewise, it doesn't cover every County 12 employee. If you've got part-time people or contract 13 workers or whoever who are not participating in the 14 retirement system, this would not cover them, as well. Only 15 the participating members of the plan. 16 JUDGE HENNEKE: Does anyone have any 17 questions or comments for Mr. Waters? 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Good report. 19 JUDGE HENNEKE: Sheriff? 20 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Just a question I have. 21 What about employees that left, took their retirement out, 22 and then came back to work? Is there a way that that 23 employee can pay back and buy back that retirement? 24 MR. WATERS: Yes, sir, that's an option 25 that's available to the County. We have to conduct a 83 1 special study for you, because we have to not only identify 2 all the employees back on your payroll who may have been 3 previously refunded employees, but we also have to determine 4 potential cost impact on the County for allowing them to 5 repurchase that. Now, that is an option that takes a vote 6 by the Commissioners Court to adopt what we call a buy-back 7 order. A buy-back does allow people to put their money back 8 in. The amount that they have to redeposit is -- is equal 9 to the amount that they withdraw, plus 5 percent simple 10 interest per year dating from the date of the withdrawal to 11 the date of the redeposit. 12 This, of course, does eventually result in an 13 increased cost to the County. As we mentioned earlier, when 14 employees terminate and withdraw their money, those funds 15 stay in -- the employer funds stay in your County's account. 16 However, they are -- on an accounting basis, are reassigned 17 to cover costs for the remaining people. Therefore, if you 18 let people reestablish their accounts that they refunded, 19 you are obligated a second time to fund the value of 20 matching those deposits, should they eventually retire 21 again. So, essentially, from your point of view, you get to 22 pay for their benefit twice by letting them redeposit. So, 23 the actual cost to the County of adopting a buy-back is not 24 charged to you up front. Unlike these other options that we 25 talked about, we're not going to add anything to your 84 1 contribution rate. What we're going to do is adjust your 2 cost on an annual basis, based on what people actually do 3 exercise their buy-back option. So, if someone does choose 4 to buy back, then we'll simply add that into the application 5 of liabilities for the following plan year, and your 6 contribution rate will be adjusted accordingly. 7 Traditionally, what we've seen across the 8 system, with our experience with buy-backs, is that 9 typically a low percentage of employees actually exercise 10 this option, for a variety of reasons. Many of the people 11 who withdraw in the first place are likely to be lower-paid 12 employees, and they're people who are less likely to be able 13 to afford to put the money back in. That's probably the 14 single biggest reason. But, the percentage of people who 15 really do this varies, of course, from plan to plan, but in 16 most cases it doesn't exceed 10 or 20 percent of the people 17 who are eligible to do it. Now, the potential cost impact 18 to the County will be outlined to you in a special report 19 that our actuaries will prepare. What it will do is provide 20 different scenarios to you, what your costs might be in the 21 future under the assumptions of different percentages of 22 these people choosing to exercise this option. 23 We have no way, of course, of predicting 24 human behavior in the future, but what we can try to do is 25 say how much your cost could go up in the future if 85 1 30 percent or 50 percent or 70 percent of these people did 2 exercise their buy-back option. There's no obligation to 3 the County to adopt this if we conduct a study for you. In 4 order to conduct a buy-back study, we simply need a short, 5 signed letter, either from yourself, Judge, or from Barbara 6 Nemec, who I believe is your official correspondent. Either 7 one of you can request the study. 8 JUDGE HENNEKE: We asked for a study last 9 spring. 10 MR. WATERS: You already have? 11 JUDGE HENNEKE: Yes. At the request of one 12 of the elected officials, we asked for a study. I have not 13 gotten the results. 14 MR. WATERS: How long ago was that? 15 JUDGE HENNEKE: May, I believe it was. 16 MR. WATERS: I haven't received it yet. 17 That's interesting. Okay. Once you have the results of 18 that, if you'd like me to come back and discuss it with you, 19 I'd be happy to. Y'all just give me a call; I'll be happy 20 to drive back down here. I apologize that you haven't 21 received it yet. I promise you, when I get back I will 22 check with the actuaries and see what the progress of that 23 study is. 24 JUDGE HENNEKE: Thank you. Any other 25 questions from for Mr. Waters? 86 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: The only question I 2 have, Mr. Waters, would you be kind enough to visit with one 3 of our judges that asked me some questions in the hall? 4 MR. WATERS: Absolutely, be happy to. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thea, would you take 6 him to Judge Brown, please? 7 JUDGE HENNEKE: Before we let him go, does 8 anyone else have any questions? If not -- 9 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: The only thing -- and 10 this may be something you know, Judge. If -- if a person 11 hits that 75 threshold, you know, they've had their years 12 and that and they hit that, when they retire -- say they're 13 not 55 yet -- do they still start collecting that retirement 14 at 45 or whatever age? 15 MR. WATERS: Absolutely. There's no 16 limitation on how low a person's actual age may be to 17 qualify for benefits. We have some retirees in our system 18 actually start drawing benefits at age 46 under the 19 30-and-out rule. We have a few people that actually come 20 directly from high school, maybe who don't graduate, start 21 working when they're 16, and at 46 they retire. So -- and, 22 of course, your benefit is a function of how much you have 23 in your account and how much is matched by the County, and 24 that formula is not affected in any way by your age at 25 retirement, so we don't -- we don't do any kind of 87 1 discounting of the benefit based on retirement at any age. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Getting ready to retire, 3 Rusty? 4 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: No, not yet. 5 JUDGE HENNEKE: You've got to understand the 6 holdover rule, Rusty. 7 (Laughter.) 8 JUDGE HENNEKE: Ada, do you have anything you 9 want to contribute on behalf of Barbara? She's had some 10 medical tests this morning. 11 MS. MARTELON: No, I do not. I think it was 12 explicit. 13 JUDGE HENNEKE: It's my understanding that 14 Barbara is not recommending at this time that we change the 15 basic plan. 16 MS. MARTELON: That is correct. 17 JUDGE HENNEKE: However, she has suggested we 18 may want to take a look at the Supplemental Death Benefit. 19 So -- 20 MS. MARTELON: This was mainly for 21 information. 22 JUDGE HENNEKE: Mr. Waters has explained we 23 can address the supplemental death benefit at any time. 24 MR. WATERS: At any time, absolutely. 25 JUDGE HENNEKE: But at this time, it's not 88 1 her recommendation that we change the basic plan. 2 MR. WATERS: And, of course, it's your 3 pleasure; it's when you choose to vote on your plan changes. 4 You actually have until December to officially communicate 5 to us any changes you -- or lack of changes you desire to 6 make for 2002. So, in terms of retirement system, it's not 7 necessary that you take action at this time. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Thank you. 9 JUDGE HENNEKE: Anyone have any questions? 10 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Good rundown. 11 MR. WATERS: Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. 12 JUDGE HENNEKE: We appreciate you coming 13 over. 14 MR. WATERS: Give me a call if you'd like me 15 to -- 16 JUDGE HENNEKE: If you'd go down and visit 17 with Judge Brown, we'd appreciate it. 18 MR. WATERS: I would be happy to. 19 (Discussion off the record.) 20 JUDGE HENNEKE: Next item is Item Number 10, 21 which is consider and discuss authorizing Sheriff to 22 commission peace officer-certified jailers as deputies 23 without pay changes. Sheriff? 24 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: We currently have -- and 25 it's not quite 10, but it's going to be pretty close to it, 89 1 especially after this next academy graduates -- certified 2 peace officers that have passed the state exam and 3 everything else, that are currently working as jailers. 4 And, what I would like to do is be able to have the 5 authority to go ahead and swear these people in as deputies, 6 Deputy Sheriffs/Jailers. Their job duties with the County 7 is -- pay-wise, is based on jailer, 'cause that's their 8 primary function, but they are sworn officers. Okay? 9 We can use them serving warrants in the 10 courtrooms when they're -- when they're up here with inmates 11 and somebody's walked in and had a court hearing and that, 12 that's actually got one, for them approving all the bail 13 bonds. 'Cause, right now, a bond gets made in the jail, 14 whether it's a P.R. bond or not; there's beaucoups of those 15 every day. We have to call in or have an investigator go 16 over there into the jail part to approve those bonds. This 17 would allow those jailers that are on duty at that time that 18 are also officers to be able to approve those bonds and do 19 that, and also help us on escorting inmates to doctor visits 20 and -- and doctor appointments, things like that. 21 Now, the drawback -- or not drawback, in my 22 opinion. The point where I would be going with this 23 gradually -- I just to be very up-front -- is that a lot of 24 times when these jailers are off duty, you know, they like 25 to ride out; they like to be able to do it. We could still 90 1 have them as -- as backup officers, 'cause they are actually 2 commissioned deputy sheriffs with Kerr County. It would 3 change their job title to Deputy-slash-Jailer, and then 4 eventually I'd like to come back to the Court, at the end of 5 next budget year or something, and start looking at trying 6 to get those salaries up to a starting deputy's salary. 7 That would be the drawback for y'all. It -- it's 8 recommended, even in the jail standards, that deputies and 9 jailers be paid equal. 10 At this point, you're also getting to the 11 deal that you've got a certified jailer and a certified 12 deputy that are working in the jail, which training -- even 13 just right now, the academy we're running for those guys 14 that just want to stay a jailer, but want to have that 15 deputy -- or want to be a certified deputy, that's 900 hours 16 of training they're getting on top of everything else. And 17 I just think it would be very advantageous to swap out -- if 18 I have a deputy opening, I can pull one from the jail. 19 'Cause my gradual plan would be to start all new deputy 20 hires, when we have to, in the jail, as a jailer-assigned- 21 deputy type deal, where we need to see the work experience 22 and the work ethics and that. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't have any problem 24 with what you want to do, but there's no commitment on my 25 part on the salary portion. 91 1 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: And I'm not asking for a 2 commitment. It's just something that we're working at, and 3 at that point in next years budget -- not this coming one, 4 but the one after -- and if I can justify it to the Court, 5 then I'd like to at least be listened to on it, but no 6 commitments. Because their duties are different, and we 7 would have to explain all those duties and their 8 dangerousness. But, you know, jailers get into probably 9 more fights inside the jail and involve more -- a lot of 10 safety issues inside the jail than the deputies do out on 11 the street. Just the unexpected. 12 JUDGE HENNEKE: Tommy, is there any impact on 13 insurance, as far as you know? 14 MR. TOMLINSON: Not that I know. 15 JUDGE HENNEKE: Just an umbrella peace 16 officer's policy, basically, anyway. 17 MR. TOMLINSON: They -- I think the liability 18 people look at the basic function to determine what the 19 premium is. So, when we apply for that, we'd -- we have to 20 count those as jailers for them to be able to determine what 21 the premium would be. 22 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: We would add a few of 23 those onto the vehicle insurance part of it, and I don't 24 know if that causes any change. 25 MR. TOMLINSON: No. 92 1 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: So that they can operate 2 the vehicles, taking them -- 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Would -- what about a 4 change in job description? When you add that slash in 5 there, do you -- would you just bring two parts together? 6 Or do you have to redraw the whole -- 7 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Well, what I would have 8 to do is -- is add the slash in there, the Deputy/Jailer, 9 okay, with all the same jail duties as we have in the job 10 descriptions now, and then I would be adding the other 11 duties of bond approval, walk-in warrant service, things 12 like that, that we would expect them to do. And, that would 13 be the changes in the job descriptions. 14 JUDGE HENNEKE: You'll have to get with 15 Barbara, then, to actually formally change the description 16 and bring to it Court, and it will have to be tied to 17 certain positions. 18 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Right. 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: If you know, Sheriff, 20 what is the difference in the annual salary that you might 21 be coming back to ask for if this happens? 22 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: The current annual 23 salary, before any of the COLA or anything like that -- 24 right now, what we're operating under, the current salary 25 for a starting jailer is $19,335. The current salary for a 93 1 starting deputy is $24,750. And, in my estimation and in 2 trying to work through that, you know -- true, I'd love to 3 see it the same as a starting deputy's, 'cause I do feel 4 that they're in just as much danger inside that jail in a 5 lot of ways, and have a lot more important responsibilities 6 in that jail than deputies do on their part. In seeing how 7 it works and seeing where we end up, maybe with something in 8 between, but at least get those in next year's budget that 9 are not just a certified jailer. If they're also carrying a 10 deputy certification, have gone through the training, get 11 them up kind of in between that starting jailer's salary and 12 that starting patrol deputy's salary. But, you know, a 13 little bit above the regular jailer. Maybe a little bit 14 below the starting deputy, but pretty close in there. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Shoot, they're going 16 to want more than the deputy, because they wear two hats. 17 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: A lot of deputies have 18 the jailer certification, too, and they wear two hats when 19 they're called on. 20 JUDGE HENNEKE: Any other questions or 21 comments? If not, do we have a motion to approve the 22 Sheriff's request? 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So moved. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 25 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion by Commissioner 94 1 Baldwin, second by Commissioner Letz, to authorize the 2 Sheriff to commission 10 jailers as deputies without any 3 increase in pay for the certified jailers. 4 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Thank you. 5 JUDGE HENNEKE: Questions or comments? If 6 not, all in favor, raise your right hand. 7 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 8 JUDGE HENNEKE: All opposed, same sign. 9 (No response.) 10 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion carries. Item Number 11 11, consider and discuss upgrading equipment necessary to 12 maintain the TLETS connection. Sheriff? 13 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I believe in the pack 14 you have a copy of the letter the Department of Public 15 Safety sent us back on July 17th, stating that they're going 16 to a satellite-type system with TLETS, which is our running 17 criminal history checks, running license plates, 18 registration, anything we do, entering wanted people in the 19 whole, you know, statewide system. That's what this 20 equipment is for. It's the Texas Law Enforcement 21 Telecommunications System. In doing that upgrade, what 22 they're requiring everybody to do is make sure that they 23 have the equipment that will handle the upgrade. 24 Unfortunately, Kerr County's equipment is -- as they state, 25 a few agencies are using very old devices. Well, we're one 95 1 of those agencies that use very old devices. And -- 2 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: What is ours? Telex? 3 Or -- 4 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Telex. Okay. Which we 5 will not be able to have TLETS if we don't upgrade. We're 6 trying to -- instead of just doing it and coming to the 7 Commissioners with a large bill, we got estimates on it. 8 We've got the people that are qualified by and authorized by 9 D.P.S. to do it, 'cause there are certain vendors you have 10 to use. By our calculations, the best estimated costs I can 11 give overall is what they have in this letter that we got 12 from T.S.M. Consulting, $7,000 for these two stand-alone 13 computers. We have one TLETS terminal in our dispatch 14 office which runs everything that the patrol officers need 15 on the street, and that -- and we also have one inside the 16 jail which runs wanted checks on anybody before we ever 17 release them, runs wanted checks on anybody coming in and 18 things like that. 19 So, there's two -- two systems that we have 20 there, and replacing both of those systems, they're saying 21 $7,000 for the computer equipment and that, $95 per hour for 22 installation, and then the line that has to be run is about 23 $35, which I come up with an estimate of $8,185. These are 24 not your normal computers. As you can tell, these are a 25 special type of computers that have to be used with this 96 1 system. 2 JUDGE HENNEKE: What is the source of your 3 funding? 4 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Where do you think, 5 Judge? Where we've been having to get it, before we get 6 into the radio system. This deals more with radios and our 7 communication with our guys than anything else. But, I 8 don't know of where else to -- to come up with that type of 9 funding at this time of year. And, they're really wanting 10 every agency switched over to this by January. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: By January? 12 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yes. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So it could be a 14 budgeted item, actually. 15 JUDGE HENNEKE: We have the funds this year, 16 though, so I think that's the reason the Sheriff has hustled 17 up and got it here this year. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It has to be done. 19 JUDGE HENNEKE: I would recommend that we -- 20 if the Court is so disposed, that we authorize a 21 not-to-exceed number, since we don't have firm numbers. 22 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yeah. The only firm 23 numbers we don't have is the actual, go out -- well, it's 24 $95 an hour for installation, and then their travel, and 25 what they gave us was an estimated 10 hours and $200 in 97 1 travel. That's where it's not firm. Okay. But, the other 2 price they've given us. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Does -- is there 4 anyplace that D.P.S. could participate? Like, hooking 5 things up and pulling wire? I mean, seems like they could 6 do something. 7 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Shaun's going to help us 8 with that. In fact, the cable we're getting -- 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So, the State creates 10 this problem and we fix it? 11 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yeah. They come in and 12 hook up the satellite receiver-type stuff that you have to 13 have and everything. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: They do? 15 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: They do that. We don't 16 install that. We have to have everything operating that is 17 County-owned, which is what they -- you know, it has always 18 been that way, but they hook up the lines to it. 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Judge, I would offer 20 a motion that the Court approve the Sheriff's request to 21 upgrade the equipment necessary to maintain the TLETS 22 connection, for an amount up to $8,500 -- give him a little 23 slack there -- and to take it from the radio line item -- 24 Radio Communications line item. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I second the motion. 98 1 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion by Commissioner 2 Williams, second by Commissioner Baldwin, that the Court 3 authorize the Sheriff to upgrade the equipment necessary to 4 maintain TLETS connection, with the cost not to exceed 5 $8,500, with the funds to come from the Radio Communications 6 line item in the Sheriff's Department. Any other questions 7 or comments? If not, all in favor, raise your right hand. 8 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 9 JUDGE HENNEKE: All opposed, same sign. 10 (No response.) 11 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion carries. 12 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Thank you, sir. 13 JUDGE HENNEKE: Thank you, Sheriff. Travis, 14 are you ready on the -- 15 MR. LUCAS: Right. Y'all have any questions? 16 I've reviewed the contract. I've reviewed the contract, and 17 it's textbook. It's quite fine. 18 JUDGE HENNEKE: Item Number 8. So, you have 19 no legal objections to us adopting the order? 20 MR. LUCAS: None whatsoever. 21 JUDGE HENNEKE: The Bylaws and the Articles 22 of Incorporation. 23 MR. LUCAS: It tracks -- as I told Buster, it 24 tracks the language out of Local Government Code 303 in 25 terms of the Articles of Incorporation, the Bylaws, any -- 99 1 any other thing that might come up, open meetings. It's all 2 in there. 3 JUDGE HENNEKE: I'd entertain a motion to 4 approve the order creating the new public facilities 5 corporation and approving the form of the Bylaws and 6 Articles of Incorporation. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So moved. 8 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Second. 9 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion by Commissioner 10 Baldwin, second by Commissioner Griffin, that the Court 11 approve the order creating the new public facilities 12 corporation to hold title to the Juvenile Detention 13 Facility, and approving the form of the Bylaws and Articles 14 of Incorporation of such public facility. Any further 15 questions or comments? 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you, Travis. 17 JUDGE HENNEKE: If not, all in favor, raise 18 your right hand. 19 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 20 JUDGE HENNEKE: All opposed, same sign. 21 (No response.) 22 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion carries. And we'll 23 get those signed when we get done with the meeting today. 24 Okay, Tom? 25 MR. SPURGEON: Pardon? 100 1 JUDGE HENNEKE: We'll get the signatures on 2 the order after the meeting. 3 MR. SPURGEON: That's fine. 4 JUDGE HENNEKE: Okay. The next item for 5 consideration is Item Number 12, consider and discuss the 6 location of the restrooms for Flat Rock Lake Park and the 7 submission of a sewer tap request to the City of Kerrville. 8 Jonathan? 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Glenn Holekamp and myself 10 and the City of Kerrville, we met out there, I guess, a week 11 or so ago, two weeks ago, and tried to pick a location for 12 these restrooms. And the spot we picked is -- if you can 13 visualize, if you're coming down Riverside Drive from Loop 14 534, the first little parking area you get to along 534, 15 there's a spot there where the access from the park itself 16 is very gradual. It'll easily make a trail of some sort. 17 And then you also would have access by parking up off 18 Riverside Drive, the idea being that that would be -- the 19 handicapped access would be up there. We'll put a 20 handicapped parking spot next to the restrooms. The sewer 21 line and water line both run 10 feet from the location, and 22 right on the -- on this same side of Riverside Drive. 23 The only, I guess -- not really holdup; the 24 point can certainly be resolved, but the location may be in 25 the floodway. Certainly in the floodplain. Stuart 101 1 recommended that we have an engineer -- County Engineer go 2 out there and actually locate the exact spot, 'cause the 3 flood maps are not that specific. But, even if it is, 4 the -- some sort of a certification the structure would be 5 floodproof, from the standpoint that water could get into 6 and out and wouldn't hurt it; the design would accommodate 7 that. And, we may have to build it up, you know, a couple 8 of feet to get it at least up to the same height level as 9 Riverside Drive, but we would plan to do that anyway. All 10 these funds are coming out of the -- of course, the L.C.R.A. 11 grant, and there's ample funds, based on the price proposal 12 from Freed and Barker, to make a precast building. And the 13 price for the building is about, plus or minus, $13,000. 14 Then there will be some plumbing and hookup fees for the 15 plumbing. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Jon, the location, is 17 it right there near the new boat ramp area? 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's near. It's about 19 halfway between the boat ramp and where that -- that 20 circular drive that goes through the old park -- it kind of 21 dead-ends, so you can't drive all the way through the old 22 part of the park. About halfway from the boat ramp to where 23 the dead-end area is. It's the first area that there's 24 really land available near the river where it's relatively 25 flat, near the sewer line and near Riverside Drive. We 102 1 wanted to get it as high as possible; didn't want to put 2 something down -- plus we also wanted to get a location that 3 you could gravity-feed into the city sewer line. If you go 4 down here, you could do it from the floodplain variance 5 standpoint; we could do a forced main and pump it -- or 6 rather a lift station to pump it up to the sewer line where 7 you're treating it. But, this way it just gravity-feeds 8 into the city's line, and it's -- like I say, it's 9 accessible from the main part of the park pretty easily, and 10 actually would be accessible from the Ag Barn as well. 11 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Handicapped access? 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. And that just the 13 location of it -- and I think this was probably under the 14 prior court order, which granted pretty broad -- granted us 15 pretty broad authority as to how to arrange these things. I 16 don't know that we need really a motion for that specific 17 part. We do need a specific motion, though, to request the 18 City to waive the tap fee. I thought we had covered that. 19 When we did the restrooms over at Little League, similar 20 situation, and we tried to do it both at one time, but at 21 that time Little League agreed to pay the tap fee. All we 22 requested and got a waiver on was the capital recovery fee 23 for this -- for the Little League location and their 24 location. So, the capital recovery fee has already been 25 waived by the City, but they haven't waived specific request 103 1 to waive the tap fee, which is about $500 or $600. There's 2 -- Ron Patterson said they didn't have any problem proposing 3 it to City Council, so -- if we get a letter over to them 4 requesting that. 5 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Second. 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Jon, don't sewer fees 7 to the City -- is that here in the water bill? I believe -- 8 how would that work out? 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'm not sure. I haven't 10 asked that question; didn't even think to ask that, on the 11 billing portion of it. The water usage would be pretty 12 minimal. I mean, the only water usage is going to be for 13 the toilets themselves. I mean -- 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Would it be in the 15 Parks budget, ultimately? 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. But it's a good 17 point that we probably need to add a utilities portion to 18 the Parks budget, if we remember to do that during our final 19 budget analysis. 20 JUDGE HENNEKE: Okay. I believe we had a 21 motion by Commissioner Letz, second by Commissioner Griffin, 22 to authorize submission of a request to the City of 23 Kerrville to waive the sewer tap fee for the restrooms to be 24 located at Flat Rock Lake Park. Any further questions or 25 comments? If not, all in favor raise your right hand. 104 1 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 2 JUDGE HENNEKE: All opposed, same sign. 3 (No response.) 4 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion carries. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Just a comment that goes 6 along with that. I would presume that there's a -- it's 7 proper for me to go ahead and submit the application with 8 FEMA or with Stuart at U.G.R.A. to get the location set out 9 and work out those details, as well? 10 JUDGE HENNEKE: Absolutely. Okay. Next item 11 is Item Number 13, consider and discuss approval of the WETS 12 water conservation brochure. Again, Commissioner Letz. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: This is a committee that 14 was -- I think I was put on just because I asked someone to 15 come give a presentation to the Court. But, anyway, it's a 16 committee regarding water conservation in Kerr County. 17 Janet Robinson heads it up and got it going. Quite a few 18 different organizations are participants. And the main 19 purpose, initially, anyway -- hopefully the main purpose, 20 period -- is to really develop some literature to hand out 21 to educate the public and do some more work on education. I 22 put in the -- as backup, a draft of the document that they 23 are proposing. I have received in my box late last week a 24 slight revision to that. When I read through the revision 25 versus the original, it's very, very little. The comment -- 105 1 or the changes that I saw were under surface water. They 2 added a statement that Upper Guadalupe River Authority is 3 charged with protecting the water quality of the rivers and 4 creeks of Kerr County. And then -- 5 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Here's another copy of 6 the revised one. You might pass that around. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The other -- and then I 8 believe the other one that was under -- they spelled out 9 Aquifer Storage Recovery, or ASR, and they also added some 10 language there regarding the usage for the City of 11 Kerrville, and -- 12 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: They also -- they also 13 corrected the Commissioners Court phone number, 'cause I 14 caught that one. I told them the original had the wrong 15 Commissioners Court number. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And the main reason for 17 us to bring it to the Court is that all of the organizations 18 that are participating in this, their name is on the 19 document, and I wasn't going to take the liberty of saying 20 that the Commissioners Court name should be on there; I 21 should bring it back to the Court for specific authority for 22 that. It's pretty much a somewhat -- a benign document from 23 the standpoint that it's not trying to gear one thing or 24 another. It just brings out basically some -- where the 25 water comes from in Kerr County, and educates a little bit 106 1 about that, and then the other part of it is number of 2 usages; how much water is used if you take a shower and 3 flush a toilet and things of that nature. And, just trying 4 to get people thinking a little bit when they are doing 5 things in the county. 6 The idea is that this will be available at, 7 you know, U.G.R.A. and Headwaters, hospital, locations like 8 the courthouse, City of Kerrville, anyplace where the public 9 visits frequently. Let them pick it up and hopefully learn 10 a little bit more about the water in this county. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I've got a question 12 for you, Jon. I noticed all the organizations that are 13 involved, like the County, et cetera. I was wondering why 14 the soil conservation people weren't involved in it. And it 15 goes -- the document talks about conserving water and things 16 like turning the shower off while you soak your body up, or 17 bathe in 4 inches of water or whatever it was, which is 18 difficult for some of us. But what about -- what about the 19 serious things, the real things like cedar eradication? Why 20 is it we don't talk about that, when that, to me, is one of 21 the keys of saving water? 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think that this is 23 talked about, certainly through the agricultural community. 24 I don't know why Soil Conservation Service was not 25 specifically asked to be a part of this group. Or maybe 107 1 they were. I do know that I made a comment that there was a 2 lot of literature available through the Extension office and 3 Soil Conservation Service about water savings, and I don't 4 think they've been excluded for any reason. I think a lot 5 it may have been the fact that Eddie was gone. I think he 6 was probably asked, as I recall, and just didn't show up. 7 But, this is really more of a -- a municipal-type usage as 8 opposed to, you know, more rural-type things as 9 agricultural, but I think it's a good point, and if any 10 additional educational brochures are put together, it would 11 be really good to put one out there or include that type of 12 information as well. 13 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: One of the reasons 14 why they may not be too involved, Buster, is that George 15 Holekamp, for example, who is representative of Soil 16 Conservation, is also involved in R.C.& D., and R.C.& D. is 17 trying to put out a major publication that deals with this 18 and a lot of other corollary information. So, that may be 19 one of the reasons. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But this is intended to 22 be something that -- an inexpensive, quick thing to put 23 together, to make available to the hotels and just around 24 town. One of the big goals is that we found out a pretty 25 large savings can be made in the city if the hotels would 108 1 start implementing some water-saving strategies and get the 2 guests to start, you know, using less water. So, that's the 3 -- that's the reason, I think. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Put 5-inch bathtubs. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Five-inch bathtubs. But 6 there's things in the nature of towel usage, things of that 7 nature, but I think it's a good step. I can't -- you know, 8 I didn't have a great deal -- all I did was attended several 9 of the meetings and gave some input. And my main, I think, 10 voice was that it needs to be -- you know, not be 11 politically slanted one way or the other as to whether we 12 have water, don't have water. Just put it out there, "It's 13 good to save water," and I think this brochure did 14 accomplish that. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I agree with you. 16 JUDGE HENNEKE: Do I have a motion? 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's a motion to 18 approve the revised draft as submitted. 19 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Second. 20 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion by Commissioner Letz, 21 second by Commissioner Griffin, that the Court approve the 22 WETS Water Conservation brochure as revised and as 23 submitted. Any further questions or comments? 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Let's see. Does it 25 show on here anywhere, Jon, that -- your committee 109 1 membership? Did I see that anywhere? 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's got a list of the 3 organizations. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: But not the group? 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No, sir. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'd like to see that 7 at some point, see who all of y'all are. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 9 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Who's funding the 10 publication? 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Hasn't been asked yet. 12 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: We don't know. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Guess what question 14 two is going to be. 15 JUDGE HENNEKE: Any further questions or 16 comments? If not, all in favor, raise your right hand. 17 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 18 JUDGE HENNEKE: All opposed, same sign. 19 (No response.) 20 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion carries. Item Number 21 14, consider and discuss authorizing signatures for the 22 T.C.D.P. Colonia Planning Study Grant, Contract Number 23 720135. The very last page is a resolution which authorizes 24 the County Treasurer, County Auditor, and County Judge to be 25 authorized signatories for this grant program. Again, this 110 1 is the grant we received to map those areas of the county 2 which have substandard infrastructure such as waterways, 3 water, streets. 4 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I would move the 5 approval of the grant application and authorize signature -- 6 authorize the County Judge to sign same. 7 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Is that the 8 resolution? 9 JUDGE HENNEKE: Yeah, the resolution. 10 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: The resolution. 11 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: The resolution, not 12 the application. 13 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: The resolution, as 14 proposed. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 16 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion by Commissioner 17 Williams, second by Commissioner Baldwin, that the Court 18 adopt the resolution designating the County Judge, County 19 Treasurer, and County Auditor as authorized signatories for 20 the Texas Community Development Program Contract Number 21 720135, and authorizing County Judge to sign the resolution. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I have a question. 23 JUDGE HENNEKE: Sure. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The -- is this grant -- I 25 got confused thinking about grants on this. Is this the 111 1 same grant that we started this whole thing with the City of 2 Center Point? 3 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: No. No, no, no. 4 This is the first one that we started with Grantworks early 5 on, and it was about the 90,000 -- looks like it's 98,000. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And then this one led to 7 that second one with Grantworks? 8 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Led to the 250, which 9 led to the 500,000. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. And then, is -- 11 the other one just disappeared? 12 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Gone. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Never funded or anything? 14 JUDGE HENNEKE: That was actually -- 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Never even formally 16 applied for. 17 JUDGE HENNEKE: That was actually a grant 18 that the City of Center Point was going to apply for. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right, that's what I 20 remembered. I couldn't remember what happened when I 21 started looking at that. I remember there was a colonia 22 regarding that original one way back when. Okay, that's 23 what got me confused. 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: This is the first of 25 three that we've gotten from Grantworks. 112 1 JUDGE HENNEKE: Any further questions or 2 comments? If not, all in favor, raise your right hand. 3 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 4 JUDGE HENNEKE: All opposed, same sign. 5 (No response.) 6 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion carries. Next item, 7 Item Number 15, consider and discuss the approval of the 8 contract for the Indigent Health Care Coordinator. It was 9 brought to my attention by the supervisor of the -- of our 10 Coordinator at Sid Peterson that there's never actually been 11 a contract for services that the Coordinator provides. They 12 drafted a contract. They've been in touch with Mr. Lucas, 13 and I believe the result is what we have before us. Is that 14 correct? 15 MR. LUCAS: That's right. Just one comment. 16 If you look at Page 3 -- and this is really a matter of 17 form. When I was discussing this contract with them, I 18 requested that they add some language, and in the Page 3, 19 Letter D, second sentence, I don't know why they put that in 20 there, but -- that "Counties can only dedicate funds 21 annually." I mean, it really shouldn't be in there. 22 Doesn't affect the contract, but it's a matter of form. 23 They must have quoted me directly on my comments and 24 actually put that in there, so -- but it really doesn't 25 change the contract or anything. I don't know why they did 113 1 that. 2 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Strike or initial the 3 last sentence of that paragraph? 4 MR. LUCAS: That's just -- it's Sentence 2. 5 JUDGE HENNEKE: Counties -- 6 MR. LUCAS: Page 3, D, Sentence 2, "Counties 7 can only dedicate funds annually." I was just educating her 8 why we needed this -- the third sentence in there. 9 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Oh. 10 MR. LUCAS: Which is now going to be our 11 second sentence. You follow? 12 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Yes. 13 JUDGE HENNEKE: So, we're going to strike the 14 second sentence? 15 MR. LUCAS: Exactly. 16 JUDGE HENNEKE: With that amendment, do you 17 -- are you -- 18 MR. LUCAS: It's fine. Yeah, it's good. 19 JUDGE HENNEKE: Do I have a motion to approve 20 the contract as amended? 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So moved. 22 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Second. 23 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion by Commissioner Letz, 24 second by Commissioner Griffin, that the Court approve the 25 contract for hospital-based Kerr County Indigent Health Care 114 1 Coordinator, as amended. Any further questions or comments? 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I have a question. 3 The way I read it is that we're going to pay 50 percent of 4 the salary? 5 JUDGE HENNEKE: That's correct. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And that's what we've 7 been doing all along? 8 JUDGE HENNEKE: Yes. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I was just a little 10 bit concerned about this one sentence on Page 2, number -- 11 or Letter H, to bill the County for hours worked. Are we 12 paying that person by the hour, or are we paying a monthly 13 salary? 14 JUDGE HENNEKE: The person gets paid by the 15 hour. She is an hourly employee of the hospital, and we pay 16 for half of her salary. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So, do we know, 18 month-to-month, how much we pay that person? Does it 19 differ? 20 JUDGE HENNEKE: We have a -- it doesn't 21 differ. We have a number which is plugged into the 22 budget -- the proposed budget for next year, just over 23 $8,000 for the year. 24 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: I think the real 25 thrust of that is that they bill us monthly for it. 115 1 JUDGE HENNEKE: Right. 2 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: I think that's the 3 real thrust of it. It's -- the person is a full-time 4 employee, right? 5 JUDGE HENNEKE: Yes. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Full-time employee of 7 the hospital. 8 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Right. And we're 9 paying half of it, and they just bill us. And what that 10 really is saying is that they -- they bill us monthly for 11 it. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Half her salary's 13 $16,000 -- I mean $8,000? 14 JUDGE HENNEKE: Just over. 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Plus benefits, it 16 says. 17 JUDGE HENNEKE: Any further questions or 18 comments? If not, all in favor, raise your right hand. 19 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 20 JUDGE HENNEKE: All opposed, same sign. 21 (No response.) 22 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion carries. Next item is 23 Item Number 16, consider and discuss creation of a committee 24 or working group to develop a Kerr County Economic 25 Development Program for adoption by the Commissioners Court. 116 1 This arises out of the legal issue, as presented by the 2 County Attorney, that the way in which we currently provide 3 funds to the Kerrville Economic Development Foundation is 4 not -- probably not legitimate. And, Mr. Lucas has provided 5 us with a -- a memorandum which shows that if we were to 6 create an economic development program, that we would then 7 be able to fund that endeavor and that entity, or through 8 that mechanism we could, if we so desired, continue to 9 provide funds to KEDF as our agent for implementing the 10 County's economic development program. I think the key 11 here, from my discussions with Travis, is that the program 12 has to be a County-designed program. And, once we have a 13 program, then we have the ability to go out and contract for 14 services to implement that program, but we cannot just 15 contract with another economic development entity to -- as 16 part of their program. Travis, am I -- 17 MR. LUCAS: That's right. 18 JUDGE HENNEKE: -- walking down the right 19 path here? 20 MR. LUCAS: Essentially, what has to happen 21 is, we have to -- the County has to initiate an economic 22 development program. That's the buzzword. Initiate, 23 design, et cetera. Then, under the law, we can contract 24 with -- what the law says is another entity, which is 25 defined -- I think I put that in y'all's packet. Another 117 1 entity could be a municipality, federal government even, but 2 more importantly for us, a charitable or nonprofit 3 organization, foundation, board, council, commission, or any 4 other person. So, we could actually have them do, you know, 5 the day-to-day affairs of the program, but the idea needs to 6 be birthed from this body here, essentially. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: How -- I mean, it seems 8 like it's a -- I don't know, not just -- splitting hairs 9 isn't right, but something that's very -- how detailed does 10 the program have to be? Let me just ask you that. Can our 11 program just say we're going to have a program for economic 12 development, and then the KEDF implement it for us? Or 13 contract -- 14 MR. LUCAS: Well, there's really nothing 15 specific that specifically talks about how detailed it has 16 to be. I guess detailed enough to give notice and a purpose 17 for an outside entity to manage it. So -- 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean, seems to me that 19 you almost -- rather than, I mean, just have a court order 20 and make a motion -- but I'm not making a motion, but if we 21 were to make a motion, just saying that our -- you know, 22 Commissioners Court feels economic development is important 23 for Kerr County, and have -- like that, leave it as simple 24 as possible. 25 MR. LUCAS: I actually had a conversation 118 1 with TAC when I discovered this particular statute, 381.004. 2 I said, you know, this is really interesting, because the 3 Local Government Code talks about the fact that we can 4 create an industrial development outfit, a board of 5 directors or a board of development and this type of thing. 6 But I said, you know, what's interesting is that this 7 section here actually suggests that we can come up with 8 anything else that's not specifically stated in the statute. 9 Y'all follow me? And he said, "Well, yeah, you know, that's 10 right." And I said, "Well, how do we go about doing that?" 11 And they said, "Well, we really don't know." They're not 12 aware of -- TAC was not aware -- the general counsel, Rex 13 Hall, in fact, wasn't even really aware of how we could 14 implement this. But I started talking with, like, Bexar 15 County, Travis County, and come to find out they've got all 16 sort of different, you know, corporations and what-have-you 17 specific for -- for specific purposes of economic 18 development. And, so, it's really, I think, quite broad, 19 whatever we can do, but it needs to be, obviously, specific 20 enough that we could have some document -- 21 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: You have to have a 22 document this Court approved, that you say -- 23 JUDGE HENNEKE: I put this on the agenda this 24 way for a specific purpose, but I can sit down and write an 25 economic development program that would be a one-pager. It 119 1 would be constituting broad goals and objectives, if that's 2 what we want to do. Or, if we want to make it more of a 3 public exercise, where we get other people involved to 4 actually try to do an economic development program, that 5 might have some specifics to it. And, I really don't care. 6 I mean, quite frankly, it would be easier for me just to sit 7 down and write something out, present it to the Court, and 8 we can all tailor it and adopt it, than it is to try to get 9 other people involved. But, I wanted us to discuss, since 10 we have to take this step in order to -- to provide any 11 funding, how do we want to do this? What kind of exercise 12 do we want this to be? 13 MR. LUCAS: If I may, look in y'all's packets 14 at the third page. That's where I cite the statute. I'll 15 wait till y'all get there. Let's read it together; I've got 16 it circled, Letter (b). Y'all there? "To stimulate 17 business and commercial activity in a county, a 18 Commissioners Court of a county may develop and administer a 19 program," and then it lists, you know, for what purposes. 20 That's it. That's really all we have. It's pretty broad. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: You could almost cite 22 that paragraph, to me -- or purpose. I mean, to me, where 23 we are right now, I mean, if we have to set it up like a 24 program, to me, just a one-page or less document is the way 25 to go right now. And if we ever want to -- I mean, 'cause I 120 1 don't see us wanting to expand that right now. We can 2 always go back if we're going to expand something out at the 3 Ag Barn or expand it through other -- some other activity, 4 you know. That would be one thing, but I don't -- I haven't 5 heard any talk -- on the Court, anyway -- us doing anything 6 other than KEDF. And if we're not going to do anything 7 other than KEDF, to me, it should be as simple as possible. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Simple as possible. 9 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: The -- I received an 10 unsolicited fax from Sherry Cunningham. She did a little 11 research on this matter after she saw this on the agenda, 12 and what she's pointing out in this fax are those other 13 governmental entities who probably face the same discussion 14 we're having today as to how -- you may recall, not too many 15 years ago, the City of Kerrville faced the same discussion. 16 I think it created kind of a brouhaha, but the necessary 17 result of it was they entered into a contract with KEDF for 18 services, and then continued to fund it. Just briefly -- I 19 won't read all this. Just briefly, she cites McLennan 20 County and its involvement in a partnership by contract, and 21 the County participates in that one with a foundation that 22 includes the Chamber, Baylor University, City of Waco, the 23 County. San Angelo does it in a public/private partnership, 24 and again, through contract. Midland does the same thing -- 25 no, Midland doesn't do it, but Seguin does. They work 121 1 closely with it and they fund it through contract. And so 2 forth and so on. So, we're not inventing the wheel. The 3 wheel's already been invented. 4 MR. LUCAS: Right. 5 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: I can give you a whole 6 bunch more examples. The question is, though, are we doing 7 it legally? And we're -- and the answer is, until we have a 8 program that this Court has approved, we're not doing it 9 right, so that's all we're fixing. I had the same input. 10 But that's not the question. 11 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: No, I know it's not, 12 but it's part of the question. 13 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: The question is -- is 14 what does it take, and it takes a minimum document just -- 15 that says this is a program that the Commissioners Court has 16 approved, and then we can go contract with other people. 17 MR. LUCAS: Right. 18 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: That's very 19 straightforward. 20 JUDGE HENNEKE: It appears to be the 21 consensus of the Court -- the consensus of the Court that we 22 do this the simple way, so what I will do, I'll draft a Kerr 23 County Economic Development Program which will be based on 24 the statute, run it by Travis, put it back on the agenda 25 sometime between now and -- 122 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Next budget. 2 JUDGE HENNEKE: We'll talk it over. Thanks, 3 Travis. 4 MR. LUCAS: You bet. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I want to make a 6 comment about this. It seems like that we have put 7 considerable amount of effort into doing this particular 8 program of the Economic Development Foundation, which -- and 9 I've been here a long time, guys, and I'm still not real 10 clear what they do. And, to me -- to me, we should put an 11 equal amount of effort in these other programs that are 12 dealing with people's lives. And, I just -- I'm not 13 disturbed by it, and I'm certainly in support of what we're 14 doing here, but I -- I just think that we're just putting -- 15 seems like to me that we're putting forth a lot of effort in 16 some kind of economic program, whereas those other 17 organizations that are floundering around out there that 18 deal with people's lives should be high priority to us. 19 I'll just say it; this is not a high priority to me, this 20 economic development foundation or firm, or whoever they 21 are. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: If I can, just a comment 23 to kind of answer part of what Commissioner Baldwin said, is 24 that I would agree that it's very difficult to put the 25 finger on what KEDF does. But, I served on that board for a 123 1 couple of years, and a couple of things that they do do 2 that -- exactly what Commissioner Baldwin says, is the V.A. 3 system. They completely took on -- when we were having some 4 problems out there, they spent a lot of time and energy 5 working on the V.A. situation. They've worked a lot with 6 the State Hospital, and kind of behind-the-scenes things on 7 keeping those things going, and they kind of are almost at 8 a -- from what I would see, is damage control, when programs 9 get -- or organizations getting ready to get cut in the 10 area, they go and mobilize and try to get things done. So, 11 I think in that area, they do a lot to help citizens and -- 12 of this community. It's kind of a -- it's a very broad 13 economic development foundation. I don't see that they -- I 14 mean, they, to my knowledge, haven't gone out and found any 15 big ticket industry to come here. I don't know whether we 16 really want them to do that. I mean, but they -- they are a 17 kind of a good clearinghouse, in my mind, and do a lot of 18 good, even though it's difficult to put your finger on 19 exactly what it is they're accomplishing. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, I certainly 21 wasn't speaking negative toward the organization, itself. I 22 was just -- to me, these -- these groups that are dealing 23 with people's lives are just more important to me. That's 24 my feeling. 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Just following up on 124 1 what you're saying, Jon, I think the community's probably 2 better served by having one than by not having one, you 3 know, the business and economic community. And they're also 4 working right now on trying to develop a -- an industrial 5 park, which would -- which would have some good benefit that 6 comes about. And, certainly, they've spent countless number 7 of hours on the Mooney situation down through the years, as 8 well. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: For better or worse. 10 JUDGE HENNEKE: All right. Moving along, 11 next item is Item Number 17, consider and discuss adoption 12 of courthouse parking and traffic flow policy. I bring this 13 to the Court since we now have our new parking lot on the 14 west side of the courthouse, which I'm glad to see has been 15 discovered by many of the employees. I did a survey last 16 week, and with this new parking lot, we now have -- would 17 have 50 employee's -- 50 parking spaces that would be 18 dedicated to employees. That's counting what we have on the 19 surface as well as what is down below by the Annex, and I 20 think that's adequate -- certainly adequate for all the 21 employees. And, I would suggest that we adopt this policy 22 which is designed to have the employees park in one of the 23 dedicated employees' parking spots, and also to set up 24 formally that traffic flows from Jefferson Street around the 25 courthouse and out Earl Garrett. That would seem obvious, 125 1 but I was walking across the driveway early one morning, and 2 someone zipped in Earl Garrett and went this way, so I 3 stopped them and said, you know, "Traffic goes this way; you 4 need to turn around and go the other way." Then, as I was 5 walking back to go across the street, someone else zipped in 6 the exit, and that person happened to be an employee, and I 7 stopped that employee and said, you know, "You need to come 8 around the other way; you're not supposed to go that way." 9 And that employee said, "Well, there's no court order saying 10 it's one-way, so you can't enforce that." I said, "Well, 11 maybe not, but I can get a court order." So, I bring this 12 to the Court's attention. Any questions or comments? 13 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Just one comment, and 14 that is that we probably do need some enforcement of 15 whatever we do. And we've -- I've never noted much of that, 16 so we might ask for some help on occasion and, you know, 17 just spot-check it every now and then to see if we're doing 18 what we -- 19 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Y'all pass an ordinance, 20 or how does that enforcement work, Judge? 21 JUDGE HENNEKE: This is a policy, so it would 22 be like any other policy of the County, personnel policy. 23 Any employee violating the policy would be subject to 24 disciplinary action, which could include termination. 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Might we need a 126 1 little signage, Judge? 2 JUDGE HENNEKE: Might need a little. Not 3 much, I don't think. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, even after you 5 pass a policy today, I'm going to continue coming in that 6 way. You know, what are you going to do to me? 7 JUDGE HENNEKE: You're an elected official. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I can park anywhere I 9 want, drive any where I want. 10 JUDGE HENNEKE: If you want to take that 11 point of view, you're welcome to. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, I'm going to, 13 but what -- what is it that -- what is it you can do to me? 14 Sheriff? 15 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I can't do anything. 16 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: If we pass the thing 17 and say no parking or something, and somebody parks in a 18 no-parking zone, can they be cited? 19 JUDGE HENNEKE: We would have to -- in order 20 for us to have a tow-away policy, which is what you're 21 talking about, we'd have to go a step further and adopt a 22 court order authorizing tow-aways, and contract with someone 23 to come and do the towing away, and put signs up that says 24 if the car is towed, you can find it at this phone number. 25 And I have not proposed that -- make sure of that; I have 127 1 not proposed that. You know, and if Commissioner Baldwin 2 wants to come in the exits and park in the -- in my spot, 3 well, he and I will have a go-around, but -- 4 (Laughter.) 5 JUDGE HENNEKE: But I -- you would think that 6 people would use -- 7 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Common sense. 8 JUDGE HENNEKE: -- common sense. 9 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Was there at one time 10 a -- and I don't know; I just remember what deputies used to 11 have to do years ago on marking tires out there and whether 12 they were legally or illegally parked, you know. Has anyone 13 done any research to make sure some prior Court didn't 14 already adopt an ordinance-type deal on parking out there? 15 MS. PIEPER: There was a 12-hour parking on 16 the side, outside of the square. 17 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: That was the City. 18 Those -- ours were -- they were having deputies do it inside 19 the square. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I just don't think the 21 Commissioners Court has authority to do those kind of 22 things. 23 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I hope not. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And I'm not -- I'm 25 not -- Fred, I'm not fighting with you. I just think that 128 1 we -- you know, like Larry said, I mean, you can draw up 2 rules and regulations all day long. If you can't enforce 3 them, what the hell -- it makes it an exercise in futility. 4 JUDGE HENNEKE: We can't enforce them against 5 elected officials; that's the difference. You got to accept 6 the difference between an employee and an elected official. 7 I can't -- a department head can't fire an elected official. 8 Only the voters. 9 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: But if you have a 10 department head -- 11 JUDGE HENNEKE: Just like any personnel 12 policy. If the elected -- if the people don't turn in their 13 timesheets, if they don't come to work on time, you know, if 14 they're operating a personal business on County -- you know, 15 out of County equipment, that's covered by the personnel 16 policy, and there are provisions in the personnel policy for 17 enforcement. This is just adding to the personnel policy. 18 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: But is it, in essence, 19 trying to force, in some ways, the department heads to do 20 certain things with their employees? With that department 21 head's employees? Because that's -- you know, the Court 22 doesn't have the authority to enforce that -- that County 23 policy. It's the department head that -- 24 JUDGE HENNEKE: The Court has the authority 25 to adopt personnel policies. That's pretty clear. Correct, 129 1 Travis? 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: My question is -- and you 3 alluded to it, Judge. I mean, how many employees, A, do we 4 have working in this -- you know, in the courthouse and the 5 courthouse annex, and then how many other County employees 6 come here sometime during the day? I mean, if we don't have 7 -- what we're saying is -- is that we have to have enough 8 spots designated for every employee to always have a parking 9 spot when they come here; otherwise, they're subject to 10 being in violation of this policy, which, to me, is not 11 real -- doesn't make a lot of sense. I mean, personally, 12 I'd just as soon have the signs up that we have right now, 13 for courtesy, try to get close to the number of spots 14 allocated to employees, and let people do what they want. I 15 mean, I don't ever -- only time I'll ever come in the wrong 16 way is on weekends or at night when I come into the office 17 real quick, but do I that too. And -- 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Rusty, get your 19 handcuffs out. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: If we're saying employees 21 can only park in, you know, reserved parking spaces, but 22 elected officials can park anywhere they want, that kind 23 of -- I really don't think that we're on a -- should be -- 24 you know, have a policy that puts us on a different level. 25 JUDGE HENNEKE: Well, the policy doesn't put 130 1 us on a different level. Commissioner Baldwin asked about 2 the practicality of it. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, I know, but we 4 currently have two Commissioner's spots designated. 5 JUDGE HENNEKE: And we have two reserve spots 6 designated over there, and we have two reserve spots 7 designated down below. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. I can't put my 9 truck in those, can't fit my truck down below, so I can only 10 get into these -- two of those reserved. So, I -- 11 JUDGE HENNEKE: Well, you -- 12 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I'm curious. If one 13 department head says, "Well, I don't care if my employee 14 drives in that exit," the only thing I'm curious about at 15 that time is that, is the Court then going to take action -- 16 personnel action against that employee? 17 JUDGE HENNEKE: Right. 18 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: And go over the -- the 19 department head's -- 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No, is the answer. 21 JUDGE HENNEKE: The whole purpose of creating 22 the extra parking places was to free up the front of the 23 courthouse for people who are here for jury duty or going to 24 the Clerk's office, to the Tax Assessor's office. 25 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Well -- 131 1 JUDGE HENNEKE: Most of the employees who 2 were parking in the front have now discovered this lot over 3 here and are using this lot. Not all of them are. 4 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I'm parked out front 5 right now, Judge, 'cause its real hard to get into my little 6 spot downstairs. 7 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: The reason -- we're 8 running the conversation a lot longer than it probably needs 9 to go. You know, the -- I don't think we really have, you 10 know, a parking problem near as much as we -- 11 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: No. 12 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: -- potentially have 13 a -- a safety problem. The traffic flow, that's what -- you 14 know, if -- and on the weekends there's not a problem, and, 15 of course, everybody can steer clear of Commissioner 16 Baldwin. But -- but I think the real question is on the 17 traffic flow, and that's a health, safety, and welfare -- 18 that's a safety issue. And, if we adequately mark that, I 19 think we could reasonably expect that 99 percent of the 20 people will probably abide by the traffic flow, and we'll 21 just add -- 22 JUDGE HENNEKE: But you can't enforce it 23 without an order. 24 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: That's right. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We could enforce it by 132 1 putting those little spikes that shoot up over there. 2 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yeah, but are you going 3 to be able to enforce it with an order? 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: My preference is -- 5 MR. LONGNECKER: Judge Henneke, there's ten 6 more people coming over in Juvenile. I notice Maintenance 7 have signs made up already. 8 JUDGE HENNEKE: There's not ten coming over, 9 there's six coming over. 10 MR. LONGNECKER: Six? I thought -- 11 JUDGE HENNEKE: One of which has a designated 12 spot. 13 MR. LONGNECKER: Okay. So those have been 14 taken into consideration? 15 JUDGE HENNEKE: Yes, those have been taken 16 into consideration. Okay, we'll just move on. I've got my 17 spot. If I get run over crossing the driveway, I'll just 18 sue the County. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We could dynamite a 20 couple of cars. 21 (Discussion off the record.) 22 JUDGE HENNEKE: Okay. Number 18, consider 23 and discuss revisions to the scope of work as reflected in 24 proposed Change Order Number 9 relating to the renovation of 25 the courthouse and the annex. Mr. Longnecker. 133 1 MR. LONGNECKER: It says Mike Walker here, 2 but I'll introduce him for you. To date, we've been 3 considering and discussing the change order and the other 4 things that are needed to complete the Phase III 5 construction work by Stoddard Construction Company. We have 6 a change order, which I believe you folks have copies of, 7 Change Order Number 9. And, in addition to that, we have 8 completed as-built drawings, and that's from the architect, 9 and then we need the O & M manual, which is Operations and 10 Maintenance manual from the contractor, and then all of the 11 remaining punch list items that are in the, I believe, 12 remaining substantial completion report still are -- some of 13 those need to be finished. And this, then, will conclude 14 the final part of the contract with Stoddard Construction 15 Company. 16 JUDGE HENNEKE: Any questions? 17 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: I'll move that we 18 approve it. 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Second. 20 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion by Commissioner 21 Griffin, second by Commissioner Williams, that the Court 22 approve the Change Order Number 9 relating to the Phase III 23 renovations to Kerr County Courthouse and Annex. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is there still a -- when 25 this is final or everything is done, is there, like, a 134 1 retainage that he gets that portion? 2 MR. LONGNECKER: Yes, there is. What this is 3 for is to finalize the total contract and release 4 everything. However -- 5 JUDGE HENNEKE: Wait a minute, we're not 6 releasing everything by this action. 7 MR. LONGNECKER: No, not releasing 8 everything, but once these other -- 9 JUDGE HENNEKE: Anything by this action. 10 MR. LONGNECKER: The other items that I have 11 on this list are totally complete. For instance, the O & M 12 manual and the other punch list items. Those are still the 13 responsibility of the contractor, which needs to be 14 finished. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But this is just -- this 16 is a change order, only it doesn't affect the retainage, 17 doesn't affect anything else. 18 MR. LONGNECKER: That's right. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 20 JUDGE HENNEKE: Any further questions or 21 comments? 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is there a second on 23 that? 24 JUDGE HENNEKE: Yes, there was. If not, all 25 in favor, raise your right hand. 135 1 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 2 JUDGE HENNEKE: All opposed, same sign. 3 (No response.) 4 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion carries. Next item is 5 Item Number 19, consider and discuss the approval of 6 subcontracts for renovation of the Courthouse Annex, 7 specifically the Juvenile Probation Department offices. We 8 have a request from Mr. Longnecker, in his capacity as 9 construction manager, to approve the subcontracts outlined 10 in his memo. Keith, anything else you want to tell us? 11 MR. LONGNECKER: I gave the Commissioners 12 copies of the memorandum on August the 8th that asked for 13 approval for three subcontracts; one to Guadalupe Electric, 14 the other to State Aire, and the other one to The Home 15 Center for electrical work, HVAC work, and carpentry and 16 tile work for finishing out the offices of the Juvenile 17 Probation Department, which came to $9,008.43. According to 18 Mr. Lucas, that -- my contract with you doesn't authorize me 19 to go out and approve those contracts directly, so I'm 20 offering this for approval. These contracts, some of the 21 work has started, but nothing's been paid on them yet. So, 22 at this point, I'd like to get approval for these three 23 contracts. I have the backup work here showing each one of 24 the actual prices that the contractors turned in to me, 25 which I have approved as being the best prices the County 136 1 can get to do this work. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: My only comment is 3 that -- it's pretty much directed probably more at Travis, 4 is that -- that this expenditure, along the with other 5 expenditures, are not going to put us at the point we need 6 to do bidding on this project? 7 MR. LUCAS: Well, I wish Motley was here 8 today. He was to address this particular issue. All I can 9 tell you is I've been told by him that he needs to address 10 it, the issue. I apologize for that, but we've got some 11 disagreements downstairs. So, he's -- he's the County 12 Attorney. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's true. I -- 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Can you see if he's in 15 his office, please? 16 MS. SOVIL: He needs to be here for the next 17 agenda item anyway. 18 MR. LONGNECKER: There's also the matter of 19 authorizing purchase of materials from the suppliers; that I 20 have shopped the three different -- four different 21 lumberyards and the glass companies that I needed to get the 22 best possible prices for. And, the only thing I can do now 23 is offer you where we're at financially is well below the 24 budget as far as what was first offered to the -- to the 25 Court originally. 137 1 MS. SOVIL: He'll be just a moment. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Back on this agenda 3 item, though, these -- didn't this pop up in the bills this 4 morning? 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's the same company, 6 but it's a different project. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Different project, 8 okay. 9 JUDGE HENNEKE: That's for the Stoddard 10 contract. 11 MR. LUCAS: Right. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So, what are we doing? 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We're waiting on the 14 County Attorney, I guess. 15 JUDGE HENNEKE: Tommy has a couple late 16 bills. Let's -- 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 18 JUDGE HENNEKE: -- take up his late bills 19 while we're at it. Good idea, Tommy. 20 MR. TOMLINSON: Okay. This -- this arrived 21 this morning from Animal Control. They're -- our department 22 head's sending one of his people to a conference. We need 23 to have the money available by the -- we have -- we need to 24 mail it today, and it's $125 to the Texas Animal Control 25 Association, and the other one is for $107.56 for two nights 138 1 lodging for this person. 2 JUDGE HENNEKE: Do we know who the person -- 3 MR. TOMLINSON: Janie Roman. 4 JUDGE HENNEKE: Who? 5 MR. TOMLINSON: Janie Roman. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So moved. 7 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Second. 8 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion by Commissioner Letz, 9 second by Commissioner Griffin, that the Court authorize a 10 hand check in the amount of 125,000 -- $125, to be paid to 11 the order of the Texas Animal Control Association for annual 12 conference, and also to authorize a hand check in the amount 13 of $107.56 for lodging for Janie Roman to attend the 14 conference. Any questions or comments? 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Where is this 16 conference? 17 MR. TOMLINSON: I think it's in Lufkin. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Lufkin, Texas. And so 19 she'll come back and ask for reimbursement for travel later 20 on? Or is that included? 21 MR. TOMLINSON: That will be right, yes. 22 JUDGE HENNEKE: Any other questions or 23 comments? If not, all in favor, raise your right hand. 24 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 25 JUDGE HENNEKE: All opposed, same sign. 139 1 (No response.) 2 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion carries. 3 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: While you have a minute, 4 Judge, I want to give y'all an update, 'cause I had a couple 5 questions posed to me by one or two Commissioners about how 6 much overtime we've spent in the murder case investigation, 7 just to give an idea. In that investigation, we had -- and 8 this is just for information -- we had 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 9 14, 16 officers involved, and out of that, just on overtime 10 alone was 259 hours. So, really, it came out pretty good, I 11 think. That's not their regular work hours; that's just 12 overtime. But I've been posed that question, are we going 13 to have enough in our overtime budget this year and that to 14 cover it. We do have enough in there, but it was a lengthy 15 investigation to this point. I just wanted y'all to know 16 that. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Any update on 18 extradition? 19 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: That's -- no. That's 20 still going to be interesting, 'cause we have to get the 21 entire case file that pertains to this, and that's where 22 there will be a cost later, to translate it into Spanish 23 that will be accepted by those authorities at 23 cents per 24 word. 25 JUDGE HENNEKE: All right. David, talk to us 140 1 about the subcontract issue. 2 MR. MOTLEY: Well, I didn't actually bring 3 the memo that I had written to Commissioner Letz, but you 4 want to know about this contract itself. And, I don't 5 really have the bidding statute in front of me, but my 6 recollection and what I wrote to Jonathan was that if a 7 contract provides for expenditures to an individual 8 exceeding $25,000, then that job should be bid. This 9 contract, as I recall it, really doesn't -- just a moment 10 here. Contract really doesn't -- it says, under Part A, 11 Services to be performed by construction manager are as 12 follows: Receiving all necessary bids from subcontractors 13 and materials suppliers. 14 I don't believe "bids," as used in that 15 context, is the same context as it's used in the Local 16 Government Code under the Competitive Bidding statute, 17 because there was no bidding, per se, that was completed by 18 Longnecker. No advertising, receiving sealed bids, opening 19 them at the same time and such. It was a bid in the sense 20 that he, as I understand it, went out to various providers 21 of materials and labor and asked them, you know, to give him 22 an estimate of what it would cost for the specific things 23 that he wanted. In some cases, I believe he didn't get 24 responses, but -- from one of those persons. But, in any 25 event, looking at what was the most reasonable bid for what 141 1 he needed, the work commenced -- and this is just the way I 2 understand it. 3 There is a provision -- and, again, I came up 4 here thinking what you wanted to talk about was these 5 contracts. There's a provision that says the Commissioners 6 Court can hire an agent to do things it could do itself, 7 except where the statute says it's not allowable. There was 8 no -- I would say competitive bidding in general is 9 something that Commissioners Court itself should do. I 10 don't believe there was any competitive bidding. There was 11 searching out of best price. And the fact that the 12 contracts have not -- in my understanding, have not until 13 today been presented for approval, ratification, or payment, 14 may take this contractual arrangement out of the danger zone 15 relating to bidding. I think that that's going to be -- can 16 you point out this one section? Is that the one? Okay. 17 There is another provision in the competitive 18 bidding statute that says the -- in applying the competitive 19 bidding and competitive proposal requirements established in 20 this subchapter, all separate sequential or component 21 purchases of items ordered or purchased with the intent of 22 avoiding the competitive bidding and competitive proposal 23 requirements from the same supplier are treated as if they 24 are part of a single purchase and of a single contract. I 25 don't think there was ever any intent expressed in the 142 1 manner in which this improvement was to be -- any intent to 2 avoid the bidding laws expressed. I think the overall 3 intent, from what I can discern, was an effort to save 4 money, have the job managed by Mr. Longnecker, who is 5 certainly familiar with the prior phase; to also, where 6 advisable, use inmate labor. And, all-in-all, I think that 7 this one would -- would pass scrutiny. 8 The only possible concern I would have would 9 be that the work, itself, was part of -- I would say work, 10 sounding as if it's one job, but the component work, some of 11 those jobs were commenced before the Commissioners Court 12 authorized expenditure of the money. But, seeing as how I 13 don't think the intent was to get around the bidding law, I 14 think this is one of those sort of authorizations that could 15 probably be given to Mr. Longnecker, and the Court could 16 ratify that, which is essentially what I think the Court is 17 going to do today. I was concerned initially when I got 18 your request for a memo, because -- well, first of all, as I 19 wrote you back, it's pretty fact specific, and I didn't know 20 much about what had actually happened. But, the key 21 language out of the competitive bidding -- competitive 22 proposal requirements are in 262.023(a) of the Local 23 Government Code, and it says before a county may purchase 24 one or more items under a contract that will require an 25 expenditure exceeding $25,000, the Court must comply with 143 1 the bidding procedures. And, it seems to me that this -- 2 these -- this job is not truly under one contract. The -- 3 the arrangement between the County and Mr. Longnecker is a 4 single contract, but this contract does not authorize Mr. 5 Longnecker to, for example, pay for these expenditures. And 6 I think by him bringing the component expenses into court 7 today and the Court looking at these as separate and 8 individual agreements or contracts with the County, and 9 also, as I stated before, with there being no evidence of 10 any intent to get around the competitive bidding law, I 11 would say that this would probably pass muster. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's all I wanted to 13 hear. 14 JUDGE HENNEKE: Any other questions regarding 15 these three specific -- 16 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: No. 17 JUDGE HENNEKE: -- subcontracts? Do I have a 18 motion to approve -- ratify the subcontracts as presented by 19 Mr. Longnecker? 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So moved. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 22 JUDGE HENNEKE: Moved by Commissioner 23 Baldwin, seconded by Commissioner Letz, that the Court 24 approve the three subcontracts for the Juvenile Probation 25 space and authorize Mr. Longnecker to proceed with acquiring 144 1 those services. 2 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: One quick -- one quick 3 point, and that is, are they really subcontracts? I think 4 they are expenditures being authorized directly by the 5 Court. 6 JUDGE HENNEKE: You're right, they're really 7 not subcontracts; they're contracts. 8 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: They're contracts, and 9 we are authorizing payment. 10 JUDGE HENNEKE: Right. We're authorizing the 11 contract and payment. 12 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Right, contract and 13 the payment. 14 JUDGE HENNEKE: Okay. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's exactly what my 16 motion said. 17 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: In three separate 18 cases. 19 JUDGE HENNEKE: Any other questions or 20 comments? If not, all in favor, raise your right hand. 21 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 22 JUDGE HENNEKE: All opposed, same sign. 23 (No response.) 24 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion carries. Next item is 25 Item Number 20, consider and discuss step and grade for the 145 1 new Assistant County Attorney. 2 (Discussion off the record.) 3 JUDGE HENNEKE: We'll stand in recess. 4 (Recess taken from 12:14 p.m. to 12:18 a.m.) 5 - - - - - - - - - - 6 MR. MOTLEY: I'm seeking the Court's approval 7 for the appointment of -- I guess you could call it a senior 8 Assistant Kerr County Attorney, at the annual salary of 9 $38,250. And let me just say, by way of backup, the Nash 10 study of Kerr County salary plan completed August of 2000 11 using '99/2000 salary figures had a suggested or a median 12 salary for entry level in our office at $39,499. That was a 13 year ago. That's more than what I'm asking for the senior 14 attorney at this time. 15 JUDGE HENNEKE: How much are you asking for 16 the senior attorney? Thirty-five -- $38,607? 17 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Thirty-eight -- 18 MR. MOTLEY: $38,250, I think. Let me be 19 sure that's right. Thirty-eight -- no, it's $38,607. 20 You're right, Judge. 21 JUDGE HENNEKE: Okay. 22 MR. MOTLEY: Even at that, it's still two and 23 a half percent behind the entry level salary recommended by 24 Nash. I'm trying to, you know, hold the salaries down, but 25 let me say that last July 14th, at a budget workshop, I 146 1 appeared before the Court and asked for these two positions 2 respectively, the junior and senior positions, to be funded 3 at $40,000 and $50,000. I'm talking about -- 4 JUDGE HENNEKE: Okay, David. We're not here 5 to talk about -- you're here to ask for the step and grade 6 for Mr. Phillips. 7 MR. MOTLEY: Well, yes. 8 JUDGE HENNEKE: And the proper step and grade 9 is a 25-8, which is what Ms. Collier got. Is that what 10 you're asking for? 11 MR. MOTLEY: That is essentially what I'm 12 asking for. I'm trying to give some historical background 13 to the -- my request or my attempts in the past to raise -- 14 I'm not talking about salaries, but raise the salary for the 15 position, not the salary for the person, up to a higher 16 level. By not knowing what the salary's going to be in 17 advance, it puts me at a disadvantage in trying to compete 18 and hire persons for this position. 19 JUDGE HENNEKE: That -- that's a different 20 topic than we're here for today. What we're here for today 21 is your request to start Mr. Phillips at something other 22 than Step 1 of the grade that he's been placed into by the 23 court order last year. 24 MR. MOTLEY: What court order are you 25 referring to? 147 1 JUDGE HENNEKE: When we adopted the budget, 2 we adopted the personnel schedule. The personnel schedule 3 included an Assistant Attorney at a 25-8 and an Assistant 4 Attorney -- 5 MR. MOTLEY: Yes, sir. 6 JUDGE HENNEKE: -- at a 25-5. So, you're 7 here to ask that the Court approve hiring Mr. Phillips at 8 the 25-8 level; is that correct? 9 MR. MOTLEY: That -- that is correct. The -- 10 the agenda request originally had an item in there about 11 correction of this, changing from an exempt position, which 12 these positions have always been, to the step and grade that 13 was done last year. I -- this may not be the place or the 14 time to do that; however, that is what essentially I am 15 asking, is to put him in at the same salary that Ms. Collier 16 was making. 17 JUDGE HENNEKE: And Mr. Phillips is an 18 experienced attorney. He comes to us with experience in the 19 Lubbock County D.A.'s' office; is that correct? 20 MR. MOTLEY: Yes. And it's very comparable 21 experience, given the job duties that he's going to be 22 taking. Ms. Collier had about three years experience, but 23 very little of it in the criminal area, whereas Jerry has 24 something between 18 months and two years experience, and a 25 good portion of that has been as a lead prosecutor in one of 148 1 the county courts, the criminal County Court at Law in 2 Lubbock. Additionally, as an intern in that same office, he 3 worked on some appeals, and as first-chair attorney in that 4 court, he has tried probably in the neighborhood of 12 cases 5 first chair, and then prior to assuming first chair, he had 6 assisted in numerous -- or second chair numerous other 7 trials of the type we try here, such as D.W.I. and assault 8 and such. So, he is very qualified for the position, and 9 although he has less total years experience than did Angela, 10 the character of his experience is more in line with the job 11 that we are seeking to place him in, and the job duties. 12 JUDGE HENNEKE: Do I have a motion to approve 13 the hiring of Mr. Phillips at a Grade 25, Step 8? 14 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: So moved. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 16 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion by Commissioner 17 Griffin, second by Commissioner Letz, that we authorize the 18 hiring of -- that we authorize Mr. Phillips to be paid at 19 the 25-8 level. We'll make it clear that the Court is not 20 authorizing hiring, because the Court has nothing to do with 21 hiring of people who work for the various departments. All 22 we're doing is setting the appropriate step and grade for 23 the position -- for the individual. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And the money's in the 25 budget line right now? 149 1 JUDGE HENNEKE: Yes, the same level Ms. 2 Collier was being paid at. Any further questions or 3 comments? If not, all in favor, raise your right hand. 4 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 5 JUDGE HENNEKE: All opposed same sign. 6 (No response.) 7 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion carries. Okay. Do we 8 have anything else? 9 MR. MOTLEY: Not from me. 10 JUDGE HENNEKE: If not, we are adjourned. 11 (Commissioners Court adjourned at 12:25 p.m.) 12 - - - - - - - - - - 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 150 1 STATE OF TEXAS | 2 COUNTY OF KERR | 3 The above and foregoing is a true and complete 4 transcription of my stenotype notes taken in my capacity as 5 County Clerk of the Commissioners Court of Kerr County, 6 Texas, at the time and place heretofore set forth. 7 DATED at Kerrville, Texas, this 17th day of August, 8 2001. 9 10 11 JANNETT PIEPER, Kerr County Clerk 12 BY: _________________________________ Kathy Banik, Deputy County Clerk 13 Certified Shorthand Reporter 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25