1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT 9 Special Session 10 Monday, February 25, 2002 11 6:30 p.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 February 25, 2002 2 PAGE --- Commissioners Comments 4 3 1.1 Pay Bills 12 4 1.2 Budget Amendments 12 1.3 Late Bills 14 5 2.1 Presentation by Gene Allen of Kerrville Funeral 6 Home on Public Safety Officer Memorial Program 16 7 2.2 Presentation by Pastor Bill Blackburn on the Children's Initiative 20 8 2.3 Appointment of John Mullins to Library Advisory 9 Board, submit to City Council for consideration 28 10 2.4 Presentation of 911 status review 30 11 2.5 Request for variance from 25' building setback on Lot 112, Kerrville South II in Precinct 1 69 12 2.6 Request that Commissioners Court sign lease with 13 Caterpillar for motor grader 73 14 2.7 Initiate right-of-way condemnation proceedings for new Hermann Sons Bridge property 74 15 2.8 Approve purchase of two joggers by County Clerk 16 for use during elections 77 17 2.9 Approve contract with Western Union to allow defendants to pay fines/court costs via Western 18 Union at no cost to the County 80 19 2.10 Presentation of update on Sheriff's communication system, possible appointment of Court liaison 82 20 2.11 Revision to Kerr County Subdivision Rules and 21 Regulations 85 22 2.12 Approval of final application for payment from Stoddard Construction Company 86 23 --- Adjourned 96 24 25 3 1 On Monday, February 25, 2002, at 6:30 p.m., a special 2 meeting of the Kerr County Commissioners Court was held in 3 the Commissioners' Courtroom, Kerr County Courthouse, 4 Kerrville, Texas, and the following proceedings were had in 5 open court: 6 P R O C E E D I N G S 7 JUDGE HENNEKE: Good evening. It's 6:30 in 8 the evening on Monday, February 25, Year 2002. We'll call 9 to order this regular special session of the Kerr County 10 Commissioners Court. Commissioner Griffin, I believe you 11 have the honors this evening. 12 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Thank you. Before I 13 offer the prayer -- the chance for prayer and the pledge of 14 allegiance, I'd like to say a couple of words about one of 15 the most fundamental, important freedoms that this country 16 was founded on, and that's religious freedom. I believe 17 it's one of the most sacred that we have. I have, with a 18 long line before and a long line to come after, have fought 19 to defend and uphold that freedom on the battlefield, so I 20 have a very strong feeling about it. I love the way we do 21 this in this court, because we pass to the -- each 22 Commissioner and the Judge the responsibility for conducting 23 this little portion of our meeting, and since we all are of 24 a Christian faith, our prayers are all Christian prayers. 25 And when I usually get my turn, if I don't have a guest here 4 1 or someone else, I call on Matthew 6, verses 1 through 8, 2 and do what Jesus said on the Sermon on the Mount. So, once 3 again, I would like to ask you to join me in silent prayer, 4 followed by the pledge of allegiance. 5 (Prayer and pledge of allegiance.) 6 JUDGE HENNEKE: Thank you all. At this time, 7 any citizen wishing to address the Court on an item not 8 listed on the regular agenda may come forth and do so. Is 9 there any citizen who would like to address the Court on an 10 item not listed on the regular agenda? Going once, going 11 twice. Is there any citizen who'd like to address the Court 12 on an item not listed on the regular agenda? Seeing none, 13 we'll move directly into the Commissioners' comments. We'll 14 start with Commissioner Griffin. 15 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: No comments, Judge. I 16 just wonder when the cold weather's going to get here. Been 17 waiting for it all day. 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: About 10 o'clock. 19 JUDGE HENNEKE: Commissioner Baldwin? 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I have a couple of 21 comments. I wanted to comment on our Tivy Antler basketball 22 team that won the second round game. They will be in a 23 third round tomorrow evening at St. Mary's University 24 against archrival Boerne Greyhounds, guys from our own 25 district. So, this is a big deal, really a big deal. 5 1 JUDGE HENNEKE: That should be a great game. 2 That overtime game they had in Boerne about 10 days ago on a 3 Friday night was just spectacular. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Absolutely. The stage 5 is set for some good basketball, I can say that. Also, this 6 coming Saturday, March the 2nd, we'll have a -- the Antler 7 relays here at Kerrville, the Tivy Antler relays track meet. 8 It's that time of the year. As you can see from my burnt 9 face, I've been to one. And -- but this week is some -- our 10 local track meet, Saturday morning, about 9 o'clock. 11 Anybody that's interested in a good track meet, they will 12 have one. I wanted to comment also, in our last meeting, I 13 had requested that -- that we bring -- start bringing some 14 of the issues that are -- that are before us that the 15 public -- I think that the public needs to be updated on a 16 couple of high-dollar projects that we have kind of cooking, 17 and one of those, the Sheriff has agreed to come tonight and 18 give us a -- a status report on the radio program, a million 19 dollar program, and I just think that it's time for him to 20 come and give a report so the public will know where their 21 money is and where we stand in that program. The other 22 is -- and thank you, Rusty, for agreeing to do that. The 23 other is our Ag Barn complex program. Now, I can't -- I 24 can't tell exactly where we are in that thing, but I want to 25 warn you, if we're going to do something, we have a time 6 1 frame, a window of time here to deal with it. I mean, we 2 have to have our -- we have to choose what plan we're going 3 to go with. We have to have those debates. We have to 4 choose our funding sources and put all that together, and 5 most importantly, though, we have to allow the public to 6 have their debate, whether it's in this room or in the 7 newspaper, and that's kind of -- that's some time 8 consumption there. It's a pretty good chunk of time to put 9 all that together. But, if we're not going to do that, to 10 add -- add on to that complex out there, then we need to say 11 so, so we can find out what is wrong and start looking 12 toward the budget of this year and putting money in the 13 budget and fix what we have today. You know, one way or the 14 other, I think we need to -- I think we need to move off of 15 high center on the thing, so the public will know what's 16 going on with their money. I guess that's it. 17 JUDGE HENNEKE: Commissioner Williams? 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I'll be happy -- I 19 just want to respond to Commissioner Baldwin, just on the 20 last item. Be happy to invite Commissioner Letz to join 21 with me for an update; we can do that at any time in the 22 forthcoming meeting schedule and bring us up to date. I 23 want to take a moment to express publicly my appreciation to 24 the Kerrville Daily Times and to the Mountain Sun for their 25 willingness -- at their expense, I would add -- of 7 1 publishing this voter precinct map, which was in the Daily 2 Times last week and will be in The Mountain Sun on 3 Wednesday, and additional copies are going to be spread 4 around. It's a map that's printed on both sides, the entire 5 Kerr County, with all the voting precincts noted, with 6 arrows. The map was put together by Kerr Appraisal 7 District, so it is accurate. The voting locations and the 8 directional information was assembled by each Commissioner, 9 and if it is inaccurate, I invite you to call that 10 Commissioner and tell him. 11 (Laughter.) 12 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: And I think it's a 13 great public service both newspapers did, and I am sending 14 out -- I gave the Court copies tonight of two letters I'm 15 sending out to both newspapers, which I express thanks on 16 our collective behalf and on behalf of the voters in Kerr 17 County. As you well know, the need to do this was brought 18 about by the fact that redistricting created some new voting 19 precincts, changed some old ones and created some new ones. 20 And I know every Commissioner on this dais, like I, have had 21 innumerable telephone calls from voters saying, where do I 22 vote? What's my precinct? And so what we aim to do with 23 this is to clarify that to some extent, and if there are 24 errors in it, we apologize. I don't think there are, but -- 25 but I think it's important that if anybody needs one, you 8 1 see that they get a copy. There are plenty of them 2 available in the courthouse, both in the Clerk's office and 3 in the annex out here, and the -- the Tax Assessor voter 4 registration desk there, and we'll see that they get placed 5 out in other places around the county. So, again, thanks, 6 appreciation to both newspapers for their public service in 7 this regard, and doing this at no cost to the County or the 8 voters. 9 JUDGE HENNEKE: Okay. Commissioner Letz? 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Back to athletics for a 11 minute, I will note that in addition to Tivy Antlers in the 12 playoffs, Comfort Bobcats are also in the basketball 13 playoffs, and they had another outstanding record with their 14 Coach Toot down there. They were 28 and 4 during the 15 regular season, which is pretty amazing. The record he's 16 compiled since he's been there is phenomenal, and they're 17 again in the playoffs and at the regional quarterfinal round 18 in 2A, so I wish them good luck. I'm not sure I know who 19 they're playing. Van -- Van Vleck, I think, or Fleck, one. 20 I'm not even sure where it is. 21 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Van Vleck down by Bay 22 City. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Bay City. But I wish 24 them all the best. The other thing is -- and I meant to do 25 this at our last Commissioners Court, but I neglected to. 9 1 The W.E.T. group, which I was appointed -- or something 2 happened; I got on it from -- 3 JUDGE HENNEKE: Volunteered. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Volunteered, that's it. 5 I volunteered to join that group. It's a group that kind 6 of -- it's a water education task force made up of myself, a 7 member from the City. Dave Nicholson, who's in the 8 audience, is a member it. Janet Robinson's kind of the -- 9 she won't accept the title as chair or president, but she is 10 the chair and president. 11 (Laughter.) 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Pretty interesting 13 group. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And Paul Siemers is on 15 it. It's a very interesting group, and it is amazing that 16 with that group, we could come up with anything in 17 agreement, but we did. We came up with a brochure, which is 18 Tips for Water Conservation in Kerr County. It's -- I think 19 it's good information. It shows a little bit how much water 20 we waste in certain areas, such as shaving, brushing teeth, 21 kind of a real brief summary of where our water comes from 22 in Kerr County. They're free, the handout. We have some 23 out here. There are other places around town. And, as we 24 -- the Court authorized earlier, Shaun is currently taking 25 this information and putting it onto the County's web site, 10 1 and there will be other links to weather issues off of that. 2 And I told him that we had a very limited budget, so it's 3 only a two-color brochure. He's going to jazz it up. I 4 said I want -- I said I want to jazz it up; I want pictures 5 of flowing water, all kind of -- lightning bolts, all kind 6 of things, so he's working on that right now. But we have 7 these, and it was very interesting to -- our last meeting 8 was actually the most interesting. Somebody walked out -- I 9 won't say who or why they walked out -- right as I walked 10 in, and that was part of it. Anyway, but I won't go any 11 further. That's all I have. 12 JUDGE HENNEKE: All right, thanks. I'll 13 remind everyone that early voting started today at Zion 14 Lutheran Church at the corner Barnett and Sidney Baker. It 15 will continue through March 8th, Monday through Friday from 16 8:00 to 5:00. Is that right, Jannett? 17 MS. PIEPER: That's right. 18 JUDGE HENNEKE: And I believe Jannett Pieper, 19 our County Clerk, told me that 258 people voted today. 20 Everyone get out and vote, exercise your franchise. Make 21 sure neighbors vote, friends vote. Let's remember what 22 makes democracy strong is participation by the citizens in 23 the selection and the work of their elected officials. 24 Also, I wanted to update the Court on one of my favorite 25 high school activities, the Tivy Mock Trial Team, which is 11 1 the most successful competition team fielded by the Tivy 2 Antlers. Two weeks ago they won the regional competition in 3 San Antonio for, I believe, the 15th time out of 16 years, 4 and will be leaving for the state competition a week from 5 Friday. It's interesting how that competition has changed. 6 When my oldest son first participated, there were about 7 eight teams involved, Tivy and then seven teams from San 8 Antonio. In the competition two weeks ago, there were four 9 teams involved; there was Tivy, Fox Tech from San Antonio, 10 Boerne, and Bandera. All of the major San Antonio teams 11 have given up, because they are -- got tired of getting 12 their nose bloodied against the mighty Tivy Antlers. So, we 13 wish those kids and Judge Ables and Judge Prohl and the 14 adult attorneys who give their time and coaching and helping 15 them all the best up at the state competition a week from 16 Friday. Anyone else? 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: To just piggyback on 18 that, I've been watching them on TV. 19 JUDGE HENNEKE: Yeah. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: They are great. 21 JUDGE HENNEKE: They're interesting. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: They are really 23 interesting, a lot of fun to watch. 24 JUDGE HENNEKE: We'll see how they do. Okay. 25 Without any further ado, let's go to the approval agenda and 12 1 pay some bills. Tommy? Does anyone have any questions or 2 comments about the bills as presented? 3 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Move we pay the bills. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'll second that 5 motion. 6 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion by Commissioner 7 Griffin, second by Commissioner Baldwin, that the Court 8 approve payment of the bills as presented and recommended by 9 the Auditor. Any questions or comments? If not, all in 10 favor, raise your right hand. 11 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 12 JUDGE HENNEKE: Opposed, same sign. 13 (No response.) 14 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion carries. Budget 15 amendments. Budget Amendment Number 1 relates to 16 Nondepartmental. Tommy? 17 MR. TOMLINSON: Okay. This -- this amendment 18 is between Nondepartmental and the Commissioners Court 19 budget. I have three -- three bills that I need to pay. 20 One is to Columbia Casualty for $6,000, Continental Casualty 21 for $5,000, and to Tom Pollard for $1,190.60. The -- the 22 $6,000 bill is -- is the deductible on our law enforcement 23 liability coverage, and it's for -- for a suit from claimant 24 Graham Culliford. The other one is the $5,000 deductible on 25 that coverage for claimant Harold Shields. 13 1 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Say that again? 2 MR. TOMLINSON: Harold Shields. 3 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Oh, okay. 4 MR. TOMLINSON: The -- the $1,190.60 is for 5 the lease agreement on the -- for the radio system, by Tom 6 Pollard. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Tommy, are the 8 lawsuits -- are those prisoner-type lawsuits, both of them? 9 MR. TOMLINSON: I'm not sure of that, but I 10 think that's correct. Rusty may can tell. 11 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Graham Culliford was a 12 prisoner lawsuit about three years ago. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Three years ago? 14 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Something like that. It 15 was -- went all the way to a federal jury trial, and there 16 was an instructed verdict from the federal judge throwing it 17 out. That's our deductible on the insurance. The next one 18 is Harold Shields. That is an investigation lawsuit from 19 1999, and that one is still pending. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So moved. 21 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Second. 22 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion by Commissioner 23 Baldwin, second by Commissioner Williams, that the Court 24 approve Budget Amendment Request Number 1 for Commissioners 25 Court. Any other questions or comments? If not, all in 14 1 favor, raise your right hand. 2 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 3 JUDGE HENNEKE: All opposed, same sign. 4 (No response.) 5 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion carries. Tommy, 6 should we take up Number 2 and Number 3 with our agenda item 7 on approval of that payment? 8 MR. TOMLINSON: I think so. 9 JUDGE HENNEKE: Okay, we'll put those off 10 until we get to that agenda item. 11 MR. TOMLINSON: Okay. 12 JUDGE HENNEKE: Okay. All right. Do we have 13 any late bills? 14 MR. TOMLINSON: I have two. 15 JUDGE HENNEKE: Okay. 16 MR. TOMLINSON: One is to -- it's payable to 17 Cart'egraph Systems, Inc., for $237, and it's for three 18 registrations to Asset Management workshop for Road and 19 Bridge. 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 a 24 late bill and hand check in the amount of $230 payable to 25 Cart'egraph Services, Inc., for registration fees. Did I 15 1 get the amount right? $230 or $237? 2 MR. TOMLINSON: $237. 3 JUDGE HENNEKE: $237. Any questions or 4 comments? If not, all in favor, raise your right hand. 5 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 6 JUDGE HENNEKE: All opposed, same sign. 7 (No response.) 8 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion carries. 9 MR. TOMLINSON: Okay. The last one is to 10 Dawn Goldthorn for $320 from the -- to come from the 11 Election Department. It's for part-time labor, 40 hours. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So moved. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So moved. 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Second. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'm sorry, did you 16 want to -- 17 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion by Commissioner 18 Baldwin, second by Commissioner Letz, that the Court 19 authorize a late bill and hand check in the amount of $320 20 payable to Dawn Goldthorn for part-time service for 21 Collections Department -- County Clerk's office. Any 22 questions or comments? If not, all in favor, raise your 23 right hand. 24 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 25 JUDGE HENNEKE: Opposed, same sign. 16 1 (No response.) 2 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion carries. Thanks, 3 Tommy. Moving on to the consideration agenda, first item is 4 consider and discuss a presentation by Gene Allen of 5 Kerrville Funeral Home. Mr. Allen, welcome. 6 MR. ALLEN: Thank you. With your permission, 7 I'd like to approach the Court with some handouts. 8 JUDGE HENNEKE: You may. 9 MR. ALLEN: Thank you, Judge Henneke, for 10 allowing me to come before the Court this evening. I -- I'm 11 sure that most of you are aware that Kerrville Funeral Home 12 has sold. It was formerly owned by a corporation, S.C.I., 13 Service Corporation International out of Houston, and I 14 purchased the funeral home from them effective December the 15 18th. To give you a little bit of background about 16 myself -- and I won't take up a lot of your time, because I 17 know you're busy and have a lot to do, but to kind of give 18 you a little bit of background about myself, to where you'll 19 understand why I'm willing to make this offer, I grew up in 20 west Texas, rural west Texas, where community service was a 21 great -- of great importance. Everybody had to get involved 22 or things didn't get done. I am personally a licensed peace 23 officer. I visited with the Sheriff, and he's aware of what 24 I'm here to present to you. I was a certified volunteer 25 firefighter at one time. I was director of a volunteer EMS 17 1 group in west Texas, so I've spent a number of years in 2 community service in those areas. I was elected to City 3 Council in Levelland, Texas, three terms. The great pay 4 that I got out of City Council is what afforded me to buy 5 this funeral home. That $25 a month was -- that's what did 6 it. 7 I'd like to go over the Public Safety Officer 8 Memorial Program that I'm offering not only the 9 Commissioners Court, but I'm also going to the City Council 10 meeting tomorrow night to present it to them. The 11 guidelines in this include any Texas licensed public safety 12 officer who resides in Kerrville, Texas, or Kerr County; 13 they'll be eligible for this program. Public safety officer 14 is defined as a certified peace officer, firefighter, 15 including volunteers, and licensed EMS personnel, including 16 volunteers. What Kerrville Funeral Home is -- is offering 17 to this group of individuals is all professional service 18 charges from the funeral home, the transportation charges, 19 which will be the vehicles used in the funeral services, and 20 merchandise charges, including below-defined casket, which 21 is on the handout there, the minimal concrete grave liner, 22 which some cemeteries require, some don't, register book, 23 and acknowledgment cards. Those services will be offered at 24 no charge from the funeral home if the loss of life occurs 25 in the line of duty. I think we all agree that, you know, 18 1 we hope that we're never faced with that, but the reality is 2 that at some point in time, different occasions happen that 3 that does occur. 4 The caskets that will be offered, as listed 5 on there, any 18-gauge steel casket, protective, solid oak, 6 solid pecan, solid maple, solid poplar. These caskets that 7 are listed will be -- the selection will be limited to 8 availability from Kerrville Funeral Home selection room 9 display, or a casket of equal value from a manufacturer that 10 we order from. If, for any reason, the family so chooses 11 not to -- to utilize one of these caskets listed, they want 12 to do something different, they want to upgrade, whatever, 13 they will only be charged for the difference between what 14 we're offering and what they choose to upgrade to. The only 15 items that the funeral home will not cover in this program 16 will be cash advance items, which are such things as 17 cemetery property, the opening and closing of the grave, 18 certified copies of the death certificate, obituaries, 19 flowers, and so forth. Of course, in that event, by law, 20 the funeral home is only allowed to charge the actual cost 21 of those items. Again, we hope that -- that we are never 22 faced with this problem of having to offer this to a family, 23 but in the event that they are faced with it, we're willing 24 to step up to the plate and help that family and show that 25 we're there to take care of their needs. 19 1 Realizing that this is not an action item 2 from the Court, this is only an offering, again, I visited 3 with the Sheriff, and he was aware that I was coming here. 4 I visited with the Chief of Police; he was aware that I'm 5 going to City Council. So, that's pretty much my 6 presentation. And I want you to know that I'm more than 7 happy to be here in the community. Although I'm not a 8 native of Kerrville, I got here as quick as I could. 9 (Laughter.) 10 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Thank you very much. 11 I mean, that's all we can say. 12 JUDGE HENNEKE: It's an extraordinarily 13 generous offer, and we -- Commissioners Court and myself 14 thoroughly enjoy it. Sheriff, did you want to say anything? 15 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Well, I definitely want 16 to say my thanks to him. I think it's one of the best 17 offers we could have for law enforcement and firefighters 18 and EMS personnel. I just pray we never need it. 19 JUDGE HENNEKE: Absolutely. 20 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: That's the bottom line. 21 It gives me goosebumps even thinking about something like 22 this with an officer in Kerr County. But when it does 23 happen, I'm sure thankful people like this will step up and 24 help out and make sure that's done. I appreciate it. Thank 25 you. 20 1 MR. ALLEN: Sure. I appreciate it very much. 2 JUDGE HENNEKE: Thank you very much. 3 (Applause.) 4 MR. ALLEN: With your permission, I'm going 5 to exit the Commissioners Courtroom and go back to the 6 funeral home. 7 JUDGE HENNEKE: Permission granted, sir. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Mr. Allen, would you 9 consider including the Commissioners in that? It gets a 10 little rough up here sometimes. 11 (Laughter.) 12 MR. ALLEN: One of the reasons I'm having to 13 go back to the funeral home is I'm still trying to figure 14 out how I'm going to pay for this in case it happens. 15 JUDGE HENNEKE: Thank you very much. It's an 16 extraordinarily generous offer. Next item is Number 2, 17 consider and discuss a presentation by Pastor Bill Blackburn 18 on the Children's Initiative sponsored by Partners in 19 Ministry. Bill? 20 MR. BLACKBURN: Thank you very much. And I 21 appreciate very much the opportunity to present this to the 22 Commissioners Court. Let me tell you a little bit about the 23 idea of the Children's Initiative. When Partners in 24 Ministry got started in 1999, one of the prayers that we 25 pray -- it's not original with us -- is, "Let my heart be 21 1 broken with the things that break the heart of God." And we 2 began talking to school teachers, judges, law enforcement 3 personnel, a whole variety of people across the county about 4 what are the needs in the county, and over and over again we 5 heard about the needs of young children. And that takes a 6 variety of forms, but it was -- it was very, very clear. In 7 fact, I well remember being out at the Law Enforcement 8 Center, and a big old deputy just about crying, talking 9 about some of the children that they see and that they deal 10 with through law enforcement. And so we began to take a 11 look at that, and we were able to get a grant to do research 12 from an institute, U.T.S.A., on the needs of young children 13 in Kerr County. 14 And I want to show you -- I think you have 15 some form of this, but this is an update on some highlights 16 out of that research and other research that has been done. 17 One of the things we recognized was that Kerr County is 18 growing older. We have almost three times the state average 19 of persons over the age of 65. You'll notice the last 20 sentence there, 24.9 percent of Kerr County residents are 65 21 years or -- 65 years old or over, while the state percentage 22 is 9.9 percent. We also saw that -- that many children in 23 Kerr County live in or near poverty. 47.2 percent of the 24 students at K.I.S.D. come from economically disadvantaged 25 households, 50.5 in Ingram, and 54.4 in Center Point. And, 22 1 you know, if you say okay, well, what does that mean? If 2 it's -- if you have a family of four with a total family 3 income of $22,945 or less -- $22,945 or less for a family of 4 four, then you qualify for free lunch. It's reduced lunch 5 if it's a family of four making up to $32,653. 6 The percentage of children in Kerr County 7 below the poverty line -- and the census data on this is 8 still not out for 2000. It will be in the next couple 9 months. The last info we have is '97; it was 26.5 percent, 10 while in the state the number is 23.6 percent. Sid Peterson 11 Hospital, the percent of patients on Medicaid has risen from 12 4 percent to 7 percent in recent years. The percentage of 13 newborns on Medicaid at Sid Peterson Hospital is 60 percent. 14 A growing number of children in Kerr County are minorities; 15 37.3 percent of all births in the county are Hispanic now. 16 By the way, folks ask what about the African American 17 population now? 1.8 percent of the -- of the county, so 18 it's very small. There are fewer young children, and that 19 needs to be modified. 20 In fact, I was just looking back at 21 something. There are two numbers there -- or two words that 22 need to be changed. It is the "percentage" of children from 23 birth to four declined 12.2 percent from 1990 to 2000. 24 Percentage. And the percentage of children from five to 25 nine declined 7.4 percent. If you look at the state figures 23 1 for those two age groups, this is significant. We have 2 folks moving out of the county, young families. I'm -- I 3 would conjecture that's for a variety of reasons. A very 4 significant reason is lack of good jobs. I mean, we heard 5 that over and over again. Part of the survey was 377 6 telephone interviews and 40 face-to-face interviews, in 7 addition to the demographic research that was done. There's 8 an increase in the number of single mothers. There's, in 9 the last decade, a 26 percent increase of households headed 10 by women with their own children present in the home. You 11 and I know many single parents that are doing a great job, 12 but the fact of the business is, if you're a single mother 13 in Kerr County, it almost spells poverty, or near poverty. 14 That's just -- that's just the reality. 15 The second page that I want to give you is, 16 so what is the proposal? I will be very brief here. 17 Partners in Ministry is -- is really stepping out on faith 18 and because of faith to try to address the needs of young 19 children in Kerr County. Our focus -- we have an advisory 20 committee made up of law enforcement, health care, 21 education, churches. Our focus over the three-year period 22 of 2002 through 2004 is quality, affordable child care, 23 which is a big need; two, parenting education and 24 information; and, three, early diagnosis and intervention 25 with special needs children. Let me just highlight some 24 1 things. This is a broad coalition of churches, agencies, 2 schools, businesses, health care, law enforcement in this -- 3 in this three-year emphasis. This will be done by 4 strengthening existing entities and programs and by building 5 partnerships where gaps in services or underserved 6 populations exist. 7 What we mean by that is, we are not out to 8 create more agencies and more entities. Let's strengthen 9 what we have and build some partnerships to meet needs. And 10 then the last is special attention to be given to 11 publicizing resources for young children and their families. 12 We have an opportunity in Kerr County, and we've got needs, 13 obviously. But, given the resources of ministries, 14 churches, agencies, the staffs that are out there doing a 15 great job, volunteers, and financial resources, I want to 16 tell you, we have an opportunity to become a national model 17 for caring for young children. I really believe that that 18 is possible, and I think the opportunity is there. Our 19 slogan is "Kerr County, where kids count," and that's what 20 we're about. 21 I don't have -- there's no action items that 22 I bring before you tonight, except to say along the way, 23 obviously, there will be different partnerships, coalitions 24 or whatever working on particular issues. They may be 25 coming before you to inform you, to ask you to participate 25 1 as a County in a variety of ways or whatever, but I just 2 wanted to take this opportunity to -- to present this to 3 you. 4 JUDGE HENNEKE: Any questions or comments? 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'd like to make a 6 comment, Bill. It's really refreshing to see a program run 7 the way things are supposed to run, and coming out of the 8 churches and the community as opposed to government, 9 government, government, government. I appreciate what y'all 10 are doing. 11 MR. BLACKBURN: Well, thank you. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'd like to echo that, 13 and thank Bill for all the work that he's done in the 14 community for many, many years; been a tremendous asset for 15 us. 16 MR. BLACKBURN: Well, thank you, Jonathan. 17 And I want to say to the Commissioners Court, Jonathan is 18 serving well on the Comprehensive Plan Advisory Committee 19 for the city. I have an opportunity to serve as vice 20 chairman of that, and that is -- that is coming along very 21 well. Jonathan, I did have -- I do have one point of 22 confusion from your earlier report. Were you saying, in 23 regard to wasting water, that in Kerr County we should stop 24 shaving and stop brushing our teeth? 25 (Laughter.) 26 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No, but just turn off the 2 faucet while we're doing those actions. 3 MR. BLACKBURN: All right. 4 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: I have a question for 5 you. Are there -- will there be some specifics coming out 6 of -- like, number one on the focus items, there will be 7 some specifics -- 8 MR. BLACKBURN: Definitely. 9 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: -- for those folks 10 that are going to be on child care and that kind of thing? 11 MR. BLACKBURN: We are in the process right 12 now of continuing to interview lots of folks. In March -- 13 March 18th, our advisory committee will be back together, 14 and out of that will come the initial, beginning steps of 15 what we're going to be doing. There will also be some radio 16 spots, some television spots that will -- that will begin, 17 you'll begin to see within a month or so. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And what I'm hearing 19 you say -- or I happen to know that there are state agencies 20 that really are already doing most of these functions, and 21 you're going to partner up with them, just to enhance -- 22 MR. BLACKBURN: Right. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Do a better job? 24 MR. BLACKBURN: Exactly. That's part of why 25 I say we have an opportunity to be a national model for 27 1 caring for young children, because when you look at what the 2 church is doing, the ministries are doing, the agencies -- 3 different state agencies are doing, the other nonprofits are 4 doing, and the commitment of this county that I've seen 5 to -- to wanting to do more, particularly for the young 6 children who are poor or vulnerable in other ways, I -- 7 that's why I think we've got a great opportunity. 8 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Bill, several years 9 ago my wife and I, when we got in the Mountain Sun, we did a 10 study that indicated some very strong support of -- of the 11 numbers you give and the number of single-parent households 12 who may be -- whose earnings are at these poverty levels or 13 less. 14 MR. BLACKBURN: Mm-hmm. 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: And I'm proud to say 16 that since Commissioners Court has had an opportunity to 17 address some of these issues, in terms of salary evaluations 18 and compensation evaluations for its employees, I think it's 19 pretty safe to say that we've elevated some of our own 20 people above this level. Because when we did that survey, 21 we were surprised to learn how many people who were employed 22 in government, whether it was county or city, fell in that 23 level. 24 MR. BLACKBURN: Mm-hmm. 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: And that is something 28 1 that obviously has to be addressed and looked at constantly. 2 So, these numbers are quite interesting. 3 MR. BLACKBURN: Well, there's a whole set of 4 things on the economic development side which we chose not 5 to deal with, and to focus just on the needs of young 6 children, but that is certainly another issue, because we 7 basically have an hourglass economy in Kerr County. A lot 8 at the top, and not much of that made here; shrinking middle 9 class -- I've seen it shrink since we came here 18 years 10 ago -- and growing numbers in or near poverty. So, there 11 are some economic development/job-creation issues that are 12 critically important. Okay. 13 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Appreciate your 14 efforts. 15 JUDGE HENNEKE: Thank you, Bill. 16 MR. BLACKBURN: Thank you. 17 JUDGE HENNEKE: The next item is Item Number 18 3, consider and discuss appointment of John Mullins of 19 Kerrville to Butt-Holdsworth Library Advisory Board, and 20 submit the name to Kerrville City Council for confirmation. 21 Commissioner Williams? 22 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: From time to time, 23 opportunities on some of the boards that we have created -- 24 advisory boards, opportunities for service come about. 25 Sometimes we Commissioners lament that we don't know about 29 1 these things until after they've been filled. Well, I'm 2 presenting an opportunity for us to do something tonight. I 3 do know for a fact that there currently exists a vacancy on 4 the Butt-Holdsworth Library Advisory Board, and it is our 5 turn to select an appointment and forward same to the City 6 for confirmation. That's what's in that stupid agreement we 7 have, Commissioner; I didn't make that one up. And so I'd 8 like to offer to the Court for its consideration John 9 Mullins, who is a -- probably one of the best friends that 10 the Butt-Holdsworth Library has in this town. He has been 11 involved in it for years and years. He's been a Friend of 12 the Library, member and president of that board, and as you 13 know, raised tremendous amounts of money in support of the 14 activities and the media that that library offers up for the 15 citizens of Kerr County. And so it is with that that I put 16 his name in the nomination for Commissioners to nominate 17 John Mullins of Kerrville to serve a term on the 18 Butt-Holdsworth Library Advisory Board, and if we adopt that 19 -- approve that, send it to the City Council with the 20 Judge's signature for confirmation. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: If that's a motion, 22 I'll second it. 23 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That is a motion. 24 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion by Commissioner 25 Williams, second by Commissioner Baldwin, that the Court 30 1 nominate John Mullins to serve on the Butt-Holdsworth 2 Library Board, and forward that nomination to the Kerrville 3 City Council for confirmation. Are there any other 4 questions or comments? 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Comment. I heard -- is 6 he not present tonight? 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Pardon me? 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: He is not present 9 tonight? 10 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: No, but if we do 11 this, I will invite him next time. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That was my comment. If 13 you'll invite him -- 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yes, by all means. 15 JUDGE HENNEKE: Any other questions or 16 comments? If not, all in favor, raise your right hand. 17 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 18 JUDGE HENNEKE: Opposed, same sign. 19 (No response.) 20 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion carries. 21 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Thank you. 22 JUDGE HENNEKE: Next item is Item Number 4, 23 consider and discuss presentation of the status review for 24 911. Commissioner Letz. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: This is something that I 31 1 think I first brought up recently, anyway, and -- in 2 December, and I've talked with Dave Ballard, our 3 representative on 911. He thought we should -- asked if I 4 would defer this agenda item until after the first of the 5 year, and then one thing happened and it slipped a little 6 bit and slipped a little bit. Anyway, it's on the agenda to 7 do tonight. I think Dave and T. are both here. T., I'm -- 8 I don't know if I'm glad to see you here or not glad to see 9 you here. I know he's been very sick recently, and I've 10 been working -- talking with him by phone several times in 11 the past few days, and I don't know -- I'm surprised he's 12 here, to be honest. But, the -- what I hope to hear tonight 13 is kind of where 911 is on the addressing issue. That's 14 something that's been, I guess, in all of our minds a lot 15 recently, and other issues as well. Kind of an overall 16 status review of 911 and where we have -- just overall 17 status and where we may have problems going on, and go from 18 there. T.? Or Dave, whichever one wants to kick it off. 19 T.? 20 MR. SANDLIN: And I promised I would keep 21 this to 10 minutes or less, and I will do so. 22 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: T., did you get ill 23 in anticipation of this court meeting, or -- 24 MR. SANDLIN: No, sir, did not. 25 MR. BALLARD: He'll be glad to share it with 32 1 you. 2 MR. SANDLIN: I'll try not to. 3 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Just recovering, 4 thank you. 5 MR. SANDLIN: As far as the numbers on 6 addressing, where we've assigned addresses, y'all can see 7 the curve continues to go up. I had updated this as of 8 February 10th, and it's not updated to the minute, and that 9 was 7,400 addresses issued. So, what's good for us is that 10 the number keeps going up on -- on the current report with 11 what we've been doing. 12 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: May we see that? 13 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Yeah. Just hand to it 14 me; I'll pass it around. 15 MR. SANDLIN: Sure. I don't know what's on 16 the -- oh, disregard that stuff on the back. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What is the other line 18 on there, the lower line? 19 MR. SANDLIN: We were keeping a note on how 20 many we had notified, but we just -- that line won't go 21 there any more. To give you somewhat of a graphic 22 representation, the yellow being the areas that we have 23 addressed; in other words, we've done everything we can do 24 to the parcel as far as assigning an address, owner 25 notifications and all that stuff. The black areas are areas 33 1 where we don't have any parcel information, with the 2 exception of this one area up here in Precinct 3; last week 3 we did acquire the data to fill in that black hole, which 4 was a big hole here. This area here is essentially, just by 5 process of elimination, the Y.O. Ranch, and there are a 6 couple other ranch areas that probably don't have any parcel 7 data associated with them. But, as you can see, we've 8 accounted for about 566 square miles, if you want a graphic 9 coverage of Kerr County's 1,106 square miles, and if we take 10 out the City of Kerrville and take out, say, the Y.O. Ranch 11 and a couple of these other areas that I know we're not 12 going to have any parcel data for, that leaves us with about 13 384 square miles to go. Now, please bear in mind that just 14 because there's a parcel there -- sometimes one parcel may 15 represent many addresses; sometimes four or five, six, 16 seven, eight parcels may represent one address, so it's not 17 a tit-for-tat, one-for-one. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: T., I have a question. 19 MR. SANDLIN: Yes, sir? 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I know that one of these 21 holes that -- in addition to the one up north in my 22 precinct, you filled out another one. Why is there no 23 parcel data on those? 24 MR. SANDLIN: I don't know. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean, 'cause one of 34 1 these has some of the property on our family ranch, and I 2 know I pay taxes on it. I pay taxes on it; there's a 3 parcel -- 4 MR. SANDLIN: Some of these are reported in 5 abstract, and our abstract layer doesn't give us much as far 6 as location. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Maybe it's a different 8 kind of parcel. 9 MR. SANDLIN: And some of it, you got to 10 remember, KCAD started doing this in '98, '99, somewhere in 11 there. There never have been any defined parcel layers for 12 Kerr County, so it's quite a project, and they've done a 13 real good job on that. Other than that, as y'all know, we 14 got the -- 15 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: One quick question on 16 that. So, KCAD is still working to get those parcels -- 17 MR. SANDLIN: Oh, yes, sir. 18 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: -- identified, and 19 they will eventually fill those holes? That way -- 20 MR. SANDLIN: As far as we can. 21 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: All right. 22 MR. SANDLIN: And, like I say -- in fact, 23 that one that I got filled in last week in your precinct is 24 one of the big holes. As y'all know, there's two big 25 projects, as far as this last year, or since we gave you a 35 1 general update. The voter precinct map books were done; 2 they're posted on your web site, and we also completed 3 our -- what we call our first run or virgin run of the First 4 Responder map books that we distribute to the public -- to 5 the fire departments, which have been particularly helpful 6 in keeping track of the unnamed roads and stuff like that. 7 We've put out, I think, 70 of the -- of the 8-by-10 books, 8 and about 40 or maybe 42 of the larger size books, so those 9 have been very helpful. We've gotten a lot of good feedback 10 from those. 11 Other than that, continuing projects which we 12 hope to finish this quarter of this year will be the fire 13 district maps. I think we have -- you have enough -- have 14 acquired enough parcel data that we can actually define the 15 lines for some of those that were just kind of a guess on 16 those lines. That will be a big help. And also, within the 17 next, I hope -- I don't know if we'll get it done this week; 18 it may be next week, but we'll be providing to the County, 19 the City of Kerrville, and the City of Ingram some -- it 20 will be on two C.D.'s, a GIS data layer with software to 21 view it. What I'll do, my first thing will be to get it 22 delivered to those three entities. Y'all will be able to 23 load that data on your server and go to your computer and 24 look at the same stuff we look at. I've got complete county 25 coverage for -- aerial photos for the county, color, 36 1 infrared, topo maps covering the entire county, our road 2 layers, parcel data layers, as much as we have, and some 3 other stuff, and that will be available to y'all. I'll 4 probably get those ready to go probably next week, if not 5 the end of this week, so that will be another big project. 6 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: We load it directly on 7 the server? In other words, does the software -- the user 8 download the software to view it? 9 MR. SANDLIN: I'll -- 10 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Or not view it, 11 convert it. 12 MR. SANDLIN: No, the data will stay -- 13 however y'all do it is up to y'all. My suggestion would be 14 that you put the data on the server and identify it as 15 whatever folder/directory you want to, and then install the 16 software on the individual P.C.'s. 17 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Okay. 18 MR. SANDLIN: And it's simple. It's simple 19 stuff; it's viewing. You'll be able to look at stuff just 20 like we look at it. And, of course, we'll have to arrange 21 some kind of training with someone to get everybody up to 22 speed. It's really not that hard. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: For you. 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: A couple questions, 25 T. 37 1 MR. SANDLIN: Yes, sir? 2 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Did you say that the 3 areas in black here -- it says on the board that no ad 4 valorem information is available. Why? 5 MR. SANDLIN: We get that information with 6 KCAD. I'm -- they just haven't -- 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Would it be fair to 8 assume they're not on the tax roll? It wouldn't be, would 9 it? 10 MR. SANDLIN: No. I think it -- when we -- 11 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Well, if they're on 12 the tax roll, why don't you get the information? 13 MR. SANDLIN: It's just that they haven't 14 finished drawing in the proper boundary lines on some of 15 those areas yet. 16 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: The second question 17 deals with this board. If the top line notes your progress 18 from June to today, you are to be commended. The bottom 19 line says that's the numbers notified, so the -- the total 20 of the two lines is 11,278 parcels or properties. Out of 21 how many? That's the question. Out of how many? 22 MR. SANDLIN: Out of how many parcels? 23 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yeah. So we can note 24 what our progress is on the big chart. 25 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: That -- 38 1 MR. BALLARD: That's addresses, not parcels. 2 MR. SANDLIN: The other thing is, on the line 3 there -- I don't want to come up there. The bottom line was 4 when we were doing the notification. That was how many we 5 notified compared to how many we actually got addressed, so 6 that line will stay flat. If shouldn't have even appeared 7 on that chart, probably. I just had been keeping track of 8 it. 9 MR. BALLARD: Let's clarify what Bill was 10 saying. That line chart is addresses, not parcels. Why 11 don't you define the difference between a parcel and an 12 address, T.? 13 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: It says properties on 14 the side. I'm only reading the board. It says properties. 15 MR. SANDLIN: That's how -- that board shows 16 that we have accounted for properties, seven -- 7,399 17 properties. In other words, we've accounted for that many 18 parcels on that. 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. And you, by 20 the board, are telling the public that you have notified an 21 additional 3,879? 22 MR. SANDLIN: Not an additional. Out of that 23 line. Out of those -- out of the 7,400. 24 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: We're not notifying 25 the same way, so that number -- that number doesn't have 39 1 meaning now. That bottom line could be off the chart. 2 MR. BALLARD: Total number -- 3 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That makes my 4 question more significant. If we -- if we have -- if we 5 have addressed 7,399, how many remain to be addressed? 6 MR. SANDLIN: About seven -- about -- about 7 the same amount. We figured, on our last count, that there 8 were about 14,000 address points in Kerr County, excluding 9 Kerrville, that would need to be addressed, so we're a 10 little over halfway on the -- on our projected count. We 11 project that there's 14,000 needed addresses in Kerr County 12 outside of the city of Kerrville, and we've accomplished 13 7,400 of those now, so whatever 7,400 from 14,000 is, 14 there's about that many left to go. 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Can you certify that 16 all the addressing within the city of Kerrville and within 17 the city of Ingram are correct and complete? 18 MR. SANDLIN: No, sir. 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: How many more would 20 be remaining in that case? 21 MR. SANDLIN: I don't know. We don't do city 22 of Kerrville. 23 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I see. 24 MR. SANDLIN: They do that on their own. 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: They do that on their 40 1 own. 2 MR. BALLARD: We do Ingram. 3 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. 4 JUDGE HENNEKE: Jonathan, did you have 5 something else? 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, no. I have some 7 things, but I was going to let him finish. 8 JUDGE HENNEKE: Okay. 9 MR. SANDLIN: That's -- I'm being short. 10 MR. BALLARD: Did you want to talk about the 11 process? 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think, first, you know, 13 there was another item of -- kind of some process 14 information on how we're doing things. Go ahead and bring 15 that up right now and talk about that now, and then we'll go 16 to other questions. 17 MR. SANDLIN: Okay. I had showed y'all 18 this -- I'll show the public -- had showed y'all this chart 19 once before, and Commissioner Letz got with me and made some 20 modifications to it, and I finished getting the 21 modifications done and got them out to him today. Along 22 with this were some changes to the suggested written 23 procedure, and he has those in front of you. 24 MR. BALLARD: This is in support of your 25 request to -- to document the detailed procedure on how we 41 1 do addressing, both graphically and word-by-word. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And this comes back -- I 3 think we talked about it in court several weeks ago, that I 4 felt that there was too much finger-pointing; "This person 5 should be doing this, this person should be doing that," so 6 I wanted a clear, written-down procedure as to who is 7 responsible for what. And, as T. likes graphics, T. created 8 a flowchart, and it is pretty helpful. And I took the 9 liberty of -- I worked out with him a -- some modifications 10 to it that, to me, is a little bit clearer than it was 11 originally. And also, basically, it says -- you know, 12 explicitly says that the County is responsible for keeping 13 the master road list, and that the -- that the County, by 14 court order, does road names. I mean, these are real 15 fundamental issues. Once we do a court order, that data 16 kind of goes over back to 911, where the addressing gets 17 done; then it gets to the Post Office, and once they approve 18 it, it gets disseminated to the public. That's what this is 19 supposed to show. I think it does. 20 MR. BALLARD: There's a word chart that goes 21 with it, too, for people who don't like flowcharts. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Then there's the 23 verbiage, as well. I don't know if it's something we need 24 to adopt, necessarily. We could at some -- at some future 25 date. It's not on the agenda. I think we need to get it to 42 1 Road and Bridge. 911 obviously looked at it, but I think we 2 do need to memorialize these procedures at some point in our 3 next agenda and put it up for an action item. 4 JUDGE HENNEKE: Okay. 5 MR. BALLARD: Probably need to send a copy to 6 Cindy, too. 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I have one more issue 8 I want to raise with you, T. This happened within the city 9 of Kerrville, and within the city -- within my precinct, so 10 I have some -- some interest in it. 11 MR. SANDLIN: Ashley? 12 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yeah. Do you have an 13 answer to that? 14 MR. SANDLIN: I didn't know that they had 15 changed the road. That was something new to us, too. 16 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Who's -- City of 17 Kerrville is responsible for notifying you? 18 (Mr. Sandlin nodded.) 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: City of Kerrville 20 would be responsible for taking care of this duplication, or 21 near duplication? 22 MR. SANDLIN: The latest roadmap that they 23 sent to us still showed the road in question as Cody Court. 24 And, you know, who changed what, I don't know. 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Well, if it was a 43 1 change from Cody Court to Ashley Drive, which it probably 2 was, because there was a plat review that obviously went to 3 the City of Kerrville's Planning Department for the approval 4 of the new Ultrafit building out there, so somebody signed 5 off on that as having been correct, then they signed off on 6 a name which already duplicated another name. So, that 7 would fall to the City to unscramble this little problem, 8 wouldn't it? 9 MR. SANDLIN: Yes, sir. 10 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: We'll call them in 11 the morning. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: My other comment is -- or 13 question is, kind of the -- two. First is, about a year 14 ago, when we had this last review, it was estimated that 15 about November/December, we would be through -- I think it 16 was most of the county; if not most of the county, certainly 17 my precinct, with the addressing. And, obviously, we're 18 behind schedule or not there. I know there's some reasons 19 for some of the delays. What is a timetable that is 20 realistic as to when you're going to finish the rest of the 21 county, and what is your plan of attack as to where we're 22 going when? 23 MR. SANDLIN: We have -- and I apologize for 24 turning my back to the public; I don't have a bigger chart. 25 We are currently making our research contacts in this area, 44 1 which is -- all of it would be in Precinct 3 or Precinct 2, 2 basically north of Interstate 10, coming around this way, 3 marching towards the east part of the county down towards 4 Comfort, Center Point, picking that area up, and then our 5 last phase would be Kerrville South and north, the 78028 zip 6 code and most of the Kerrville exchanges, which are right in 7 the center of the county. But our progress plan is to come 8 around and then go up, in general. And right now, we're 9 over in this area making our contacts, our assessments. I 10 think right now -- and I was looking at it today. I think 11 by the time that we get down to where we've cleared Center 12 Point and are working this basic area right here, I think 13 we're four to six months away from that, and then we will 14 enter the Kerrville South part and go north, and I wouldn't 15 venture a guess on that right now. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: You honestly think that 17 within six months, you're going to have addressing done in 18 the -- basically, what you're saying is the Comfort and 19 Center Point area? 20 MR. SANDLIN: We will have our contacts 21 and -- and the part that we do. Barring -- barring any more 22 unforeseens. 23 MR. BALLARD: A lot of -- a lot of this 24 addressing -- you try to anticipate the unknown, try to 25 schedule the unknown. We don't know what we're getting into 45 1 till we get there. There's no record in a lot of areas. 2 Parcel information is -- is scarce at best, and then when we 3 get it, there's a lot of research and field work that has to 4 be done, out of -- out-of-county residents that have to be 5 contacted, gates that have to be opened, coordination with 6 telephone companies, coordination with the Post Office. 7 It's hard to schedule the unknown. I can testify this; 8 these people are working hard. There's no shoddy work down 9 there. They're making as much progress as they can with the 10 staff that they have. If we wanted to increase it, we'd 11 have to increase the staff; I mean that, the GIS-type staff, 12 which is a fairly well-trained staff, and they wouldn't come 13 up to speed until we're done anyway. And if we go faster, 14 we might confuse ourselves. It's very difficult to say we 15 will be done at a certain date when you don't know what the 16 work -- the workload is until you reach it and you don't 17 know what the problems are until you reach it. We'll keep 18 you informed. If you'd like to hear about all our problems 19 as -- as they come up, we'll be glad to share them with you. 20 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: I think a rolling date 21 would be fair. I mean, you could give us your best shot, 22 you know, and then if that changes, then you change it. 23 MR. BALLARD: It's not a simple thing, 24 like -- like a city has when they have a permit system for 25 every change that happens on a piece of property. It's not 46 1 a mature system like you might have in a city that's been 2 around. This is a county; this is the first time it's been 3 done. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I guess -- and I 5 understand it is difficult, but I don't understand why it's 6 so hard to find people, 'cause they pay taxes, and they're 7 easy -- I mean, if KCAD doesn't have the information, Paula 8 Rector certainly does. 9 MR. SANDLIN: In some cases, finding the 10 landowner and sometimes finding the occupant who's in that 11 house and whose name the house is in is sometimes a totally 12 different thing. That's why we have to research a lot of 13 parcel data, because there is no record of occupancy. And 14 sometimes there's multiple occupancies, and many times with 15 these out-of-town owners, even though we find the owner, 16 sometimes it can take weeks before we get through to the 17 right person and find out that Mr. and Mrs. Joe Smith live 18 at that house and here's their phone number and address. 19 MR. BALLARD: Have you ever tried to talk to 20 a trust? First thing you get is a secretary, and she says 21 none of your business. Then you take it from there. And 22 that doesn't happen fast. We have a person -- the person -- 23 the reason we hired the part-time person is to help us with 24 this kind of research, and she works at it practically 25 full-time, trying to find these people and get access. 47 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. Well, you know, I 2 just wanted to -- you know, I'll write down on my little 3 sheet "4 to 6 months," and -- you know, and I hold y'all to 4 that, to a degree. I understand there's problems, but at 5 the same time, the constituents who feel that they've been 6 paying taxes to get this done for going on 12 years now are 7 tired of waiting. And I know you've heard me say that many 8 times, and I'm sure every Commissioner has heard that 9 complaint from the constituents. The other point is -- and 10 this is going back to something that I visited with the 11 Sheriff about recently, and he mentioned to me something 12 that clicked back from a year or so ago, with a meeting, and 13 it's primarily a problem with Hill Country Telephone Co-op 14 and getting the information into the system -- or out of the 15 system, I guess, as to where the location of these addresses 16 are. And I might even -- Rusty, I might defer to him if he 17 can help a little bit, because what it is, when calls go in, 18 addresses comes back as a code at the telephone company, 19 which is of no help to anybody. 20 MR. BALLARD: We understand that. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Where are we in resolving 22 that issue? And, I -- I guess mostly with Hill Country 23 Telephone Co-op. Maybe it exists with K.T.C. as well. 24 MR. SANDLIN: That's -- when that area is 25 addressed, it corresponds to that cable code. Then that 48 1 cable code gets replaced with a physical address. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Where are they in doing 3 that? Are they -- have they done -- the majority of Larry's 4 area has been changed, and postal -- through the Post 5 Office. Their addresses are now current, or -- or they 6 don't use the cable code any more? 7 MR. SANDLIN: Up to the point where we 8 stopped doing the notifications. And at that point -- 9 that's one reason we have on that little chart, when we get 10 ready to do an area and y'all say it's okay, Post Office 11 says it's okay, we'll have that done and we'll dump it to 12 them to put in their database at the same time, so 13 everything stays in the same -- 14 MR. BALLARD: Recently -- not recently, a few 15 months ago, we noted some problems in that area, and we did 16 a detailed software review of their database and improved 17 various situations, so that we feel pretty good about their 18 database up to the point that has -- up to the point of 19 today. We have had some areas -- issues there, and we've 20 found them and researched them; we solved them. 21 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Go ahead. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Going back to the Post 23 Office and our -- you know, it appears to me our 24 relationship -- that's going to work out with the San 25 Antonio office. To review where we are with them, 49 1 Larry's -- the majority of Precinct 4 out in the -- at least 2 the western area, not counting the City of Kerrville, has 3 been approved by the Post Office, and those people are using 4 their new addresses; is that correct? Or is that not 5 correct? 6 MR. SANDLIN: Well, with the -- to a degree. 7 If you'll recall back when Cindy Guerrero was here 8 explaining how they do their route conversions, particularly 9 the HC-1 and HC-2, HC-2 being essentially Highway 39 from 10 Hunt west, and HC -- I think they said that was HC-2, and 11 HC-1 is FM 1340, essentially. Even though we had addressed 12 by parcel and by house all those areas, we weren't able to 13 correlate those to some of those mailboxes. In many cases, 14 people out there get their mail either at Hunt, Ingram, or 15 Mountain Home, and they also have just never deactivated, or 16 occasionally use their postal box. Those are highway 17 contract routes, which literally means you come to the 18 highway to get your mail, and they have no spatial 19 relationship to anything. In some of those areas we are out 20 there on the check and edit sheets -- and I'll make up a box 21 number, since this is all confidential. Let's say HC- 22 blah-de-blah, Box 12, and that's all it shows. No name, no 23 nothing to correspond to it. Mail carrier gets something to 24 go in that Box 12, he puts it in there. It doesn't matter 25 whose name or anything. We have been able to go back and 50 1 convert or match up, as of last Friday, about 65 percent of 2 those, and I don't know that we'll go any further. The Post 3 Office -- the gentleman that stepped in for Ms. Guerrero 4 while she's on leave said they ran into a similar issue in 5 Andrews County. He suggested a letter that they use that 6 they put out, and that letter essentially will be going out 7 to HC-1 and HC-2, saying -- notifying the boxholder, you 8 know, Please contact your local Postmaster and your local 9 911 office to get your 911 address straight, and it will 10 list our phone number and the Post Office phone number. And 11 then, hopefully, that will help us clear up that other 12 35 percent so that we can go ahead and give those routes to 13 the Post Office as they requested. 14 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: But the real answer -- 15 and the answer is -- is that there are some that are still 16 receiving mail at the old address. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 18 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: And that's not going 19 to -- that's not going to change, not going to affect the 20 mail or anything. But until the Post Office -- actually, 21 until the Post Office, phone company, and everybody is in 22 line, you've still got a 911 issue or a mail issue, so 23 you've got to get them all lined up, and that's what the 24 bottom part of that chart -- 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 51 1 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: -- down here. 2 MR. BALLARD: We're working with the local 3 Postmasters and in those areas. We don't think we have any 4 problems because of this, but we're still correlating 5 mailboxes with addresses. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, if you've done -- 7 okay, the phone companies have been notified of all -- 8 MR. SANDLIN: Up to a point, they have been. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Up to a point in the 10 western part of the county, I guess. My question is, okay, 11 you've left that area primarily moving over to the eastern 12 part of the county right now. When -- and we've -- what are 13 you -- when are you going to go back and pick up the rest of 14 them? 'Cause there's still a bunch, evidently, that don't 15 correlate. 16 MR. SANDLIN: Some of them, it's a situation 17 where we can't make contact with the landowner; we've got no 18 reply back from them. Some of them, even though we've got a 19 square that identifies that as Lot 12 out of, you know, 20 whatever subdivision, we may not have any ownership 21 information on it. We will pick those up as a maintenance 22 factor as we go along. As soon as we finish, probably this 23 next -- I don't know that we'll get it done this week; 24 probably be next week that that mailout will go to the 25 people on HC-1 and HC-2. Depending on how quick they 52 1 contact us or the Post Office back, we can clear up those 2 matters on HC-1 and HC-2 and be done with it. There's 3 always going to -- always going to be ones's or twos's 4 floating out there. 5 MR. BALLARD: There's a point where you have 6 to go forward. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'm just trying to figure 8 out, one, how you pick up stragglers, and also trying to get 9 an idea -- because the addressing is a convenience issue, 10 which is -- is nice, but the guts of what you need to be 11 doing, or what 911 should be doing is getting emergency 12 services to people when they call. And that -- a lot of 13 that hinges on the phone companies changing their little 14 cable number. 15 MR. SANDLIN: Right. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And so what you're 17 telling me is that in the next -- in about six weeks, when 18 you're finished with the Comfort area, the Center Point 19 area, you will -- once the Post Office approves those two 20 changes, which should be pretty soon, 'cause both those 21 Postmasters are fairly easy to work with, have expressed a 22 willingness so far, then that information will be done with 23 the Hill Country Co-op? 24 MR. SANDLIN: When the Post Office is done 25 with their coding and everything and notifies y'all back 53 1 that it's ready, we'll dump that to the -- to the respective 2 phone company, and they can input it in their database. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And how long are they 4 taking to put it into their database, I guess? 5 MR. SANDLIN: It doesn't take long, because 6 on Hill Country, the way it's working, we're doing most of 7 the work up front for them anyway. Mainly a hold -- it's a 8 hold deal right now. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. All right. Those 10 are all the questions I had. 11 JUDGE HENNEKE: Anyone else? 12 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I have one comment, if I 13 can on that. T., is that Kerrville phone -- or Kerrville 14 Post Office area or Ingram Post Office area, or anywhere -- 15 is that different? 16 MR. SANDLIN: Now, what? 17 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: That you were talking 18 about. Is Ingram separate from Kerrville in post office 19 stuff? 20 MR. SANDLIN: As far as what Postmaster and 21 everything, Ingram has its own Postmaster, and Hunt and 22 Mountain Home and Center Point and Comfort; each has their 23 own. Kerrville's Postmaster mainly takes care of the 78028 24 and 78029 zip code. 25 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: And that's where the 54 1 problem is coming in with Hill Country? 2 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: A lot of it. 3 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: From what I 4 understand -- 5 MR. BALLARD: We work with the Kerrville 6 Postmaster. 7 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Right, that's what I'm 8 talking about. The problem I still have -- and I'm not -- 9 T. and Mr. Ballard and everybody knows this. It's just a 10 problem I have, since I submitted the resignation as a 911 11 Board member. But the problem I have, as Sheriff -- okay, 12 these are not for public information, because there is 13 some -- some private information in here. And T. is welcome 14 to see this. T. and I and Mr. Ballard have talked about 15 this on numerous occasions. I pulled our 911 calls for the 16 month of February, from February 1st to right now, okay? 17 That front cover sheet -- and T. may look at this with me -- 18 has the number of calls the Sheriff's Office has gotten from 19 February 1st, 911 calls to present, total of 66 calls. We 20 have addresses on 18 of those. Twelve of those 66 are cell 21 phone, which you won't have addresses on, okay? But 18 is 22 the only ones we do. Two were unknown by this printout. 23 Thirty-four are local calls with no address information. 24 Now, you look at -- if you look at -- and I'll show you, T. 25 If you look at the first red tab down towards the bottom, 55 1 since I can't give people's names, that just -- but just 2 pull that tab. You'll see in the address line what we get. 3 MR. SANDLIN: Mm-hmm. 4 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Okay. That's a -- 5 that's a cable address. That's Ingram. The yellow tab is 6 another one; that's Center Point. The blue tab is another 7 one. That's Hunt. We're not getting addresses for these 8 yet. The top red tab, you can pull, and you can see the 9 name of the business, and this is the business, but we still 10 don't have an address for it. 11 MR. BALLARD: This is good information, and 12 we sure wish you'd started sharing it with us a year ago. 13 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I did. 14 MR. BALLARD: Not the specific -- 15 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: In fact, you called 911 16 from your phone to see how it printed out; you had yours 17 corrected and nobody else's. 18 MR. BALLARD: We went through the whole 19 software program. But, all I'm saying is -- is that when 20 any of the emergency services have a problem, each time they 21 have a problem, they owe us some feedback immediately. If 22 we -- if we work together every time we have a problem, and 23 you pass to it 911, we can work it and keep working it and 24 keep working it. This kind of documentation is probably 25 good -- it's definitely good. And it can -- it can be 56 1 researched and we can find out where our problems are 2 specifically. But we need specific feedback as it happens, 3 and in a timely manner. We haven't seen it. This is the 4 first time we've seen it. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Does the ambulance -- 6 does the ambulance service get this same kind of -- 7 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Same exact information. 8 That's what we get if it's out in the county. And I hate to 9 be contradictory, Mr. Ballard, but I had Mr. Ballard and T. 10 and the other board members out at the Sheriff's Office and 11 showed them the exact printouts that we get, which are 12 these, okay? Mr. Ballard went to his residence in Hunt and 13 called 911; we did a test. It gave us a Houston address, 14 okay? To let him see exactly what the problem was. And I 15 believe that one's been corrected, and -- if I'm not 16 mistaken, and you have a correct address. This isn't 17 something that 911 -- and this was a lot of my problems over 18 the last year. This is my concern as Sheriff, okay, that 19 over half of the calls we're getting, we do not get an 20 address on. If people hang up, they can't say where they 21 live verbally, we're going to have a hard time finding them. 22 It's a liability I don't want to accept. It was a major 23 agenda of mine while I was on the 911 Board, and we still 24 have the same problem, okay? I'm not going back. I know -- 25 and what I'm hoping, and why I mention it to y'all, really, 57 1 is you made a lot of progress getting the phone -- not 2 phone, the Postmaster in here and starting to organize how 3 that's worked, and I would hope that that will be done with 4 Hill Country Co-op so that people can come in and get this 5 problem taken care of so we can provide the services we need 6 to. 7 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Let me ask a question. 8 MR. BALLARD: May I -- 9 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Oh, sure. 10 MR. BALLARD: Just about the phone -- test 11 phone call we made from my residence. It wasn't to cure my 12 problem. We immediately -- the Sheriff's apparently 13 forgotten this. We immediately made contact with the Hill 14 Country Telephone Co-op. We found some problems in their 15 software transformation, which we gave them software and 16 they transformed it, and it didn't come out right. There 17 were a lot of problems. T. spent the better part of about 18 three weeks working with them to fix this software. Not 19 fixing my address, fixing the phone problem. He went 20 through their software routine in its entirety, made all 21 those checks and fixes. We found it, we worked on it, we 22 fixed it. We didn't wave it in the air. And, there was a 23 lot of work done -- good work by T., good work by the 24 telephone co-op, and that software interface problem has 25 been cured. We still have problems getting data to the 58 1 entities, and every time we have a problem, I wish they 2 would send it to the 911 office instead of collecting it and 3 presenting it to us through the County Commissioners office. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So what you're saying is 5 you want all the emergency medical services to give you a 6 copy of all the printouts? 7 MR. BALLARD: Any time -- no. Any time the 8 Sheriff, the police, or the fire people, every time they 9 think they have a data processing problem, they should 10 notify us immediately. 11 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That prompts a 12 question, Dave, about this whole matter. And I went over 13 this with the Sheriff this afternoon, and my understanding 14 of these printouts coming off of the console -- or the 15 printer at the console, which I believe is a 911 console; is 16 that correct? In the Police Department in Kerrville? Am I 17 correct about that? It is a 911 console, is it not? 18 MR. SANDLIN: Yes, that's the printout that 19 comes from the 911 database. 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: So you're saying that 21 there's a problem in getting information back so that you 22 can get it to the telephone company to get it corrected? My 23 question is simply, what's the matter with this printout 24 that comes off the console in your own 911 dispatch? Why 25 can't that be the base document that automatically creates a 59 1 query to the telephone company to get an address assigned to 2 a telephone number? 3 MR. SANDLIN: We do that. And the cases -- 4 let's say the eastern part of the county, where we've not 5 assigned addresses yet, you're -- you get a call from Center 6 Point or out in the Comfort area, you're going to get that 7 -- that cable address. A few of those out in Hunt, where we 8 have not been able to confirm or match up the address to 9 deliver to it them -- and there's not many, but there's 10 still a few where you're going to get that cable address. 11 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: So, what happens when 12 you get the cable address? That's really what I want to 13 know. Where do we fall apart? Where's it falling through 14 the cracks? When you're getting this number back that says 15 the address is Hunt 275D30087, I have no idea what that 16 means. I happen to recognize the name of the -- of the 17 property, but what happens when you get that? 18 MR. SANDLIN: Same thing that's happened ever 19 since it's been coming out. It's a legal address, but it's 20 nothing that you or I would understand and respond to. That 21 cable address has been keyed into the Hill Country database 22 since 1992. 23 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: We're missing each 24 other here. 25 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: May I try? 60 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Somebody try. 2 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: What is the process 3 for the fix? Let's just take anyone. 4 MR. SANDLIN: As we get the physical 5 address -- 6 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: I'm talking about -- 7 okay, this comes out -- this comes out on the printer, or it 8 comes up on a display and it has no address. And if the 9 system worked perfectly, we'd fix it. Who would notify you, 10 or how would you find out that -- not that you'd be 11 notified, but how would you find out that this popped up on 12 a screen or in a printout and didn't have an address? How 13 would you find that out? 14 MR. SANDLIN: Are we saying didn't have an 15 address, or had that cable address? 16 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: It has a cable 17 address. 18 MR. SANDLIN: We -- 19 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: How could you find 20 that out? 21 MR. SANDLIN: We download and review those 22 daily. 23 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: All of these? 24 MR. SANDLIN: The problem is, on a lot of 25 those we don't have a physical address to release to them 61 1 yet on some of these areas that haven't been addressed. 2 Say, for instance, the Center Point area. 3 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: I got that. 4 MR. SANDLIN: Some of the areas -- a couple 5 have come through on Hunt that we call and check, or -- it 6 doesn't have to be Hunt; might be Ingram area, trying to 7 validate where they are, whether it's a pay phone or 8 whatever, so that we can give them a physical address. And 9 some of those are just in the holding pattern; we don't know 10 where they are, so we don't know where to address them. 11 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Okay. But you 12 maintain a file on all of these, then, until you get them 13 resolved? Some may take longer than others, but you -- 14 MR. SANDLIN: Yes, we -- 15 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: -- but you have them 16 until they're -- until they're -- 17 MR. SANDLIN: We maintain that information 18 indefinitely, I guess. But we -- that -- all calls, 19 including any -- well, all calls and any associated data 20 with them that are in the 911 database, we download and 21 review weekly. We keep a record of them. 22 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: So, would some of 23 these have been fixed by now? 24 MR. SANDLIN: Some of them, we don't know 25 what address -- 62 1 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: No, I'm saying on this 2 list. 3 MR. SANDLIN: Those particular ones, I don't 4 know, because I haven't -- 5 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: I'm saying there's a 6 good chance -- 7 MR. BALLARD: To answer that question, we 8 haven't seen this. 9 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: I know, but what I'm 10 saying is that there's a chance, then, that some of these 11 have been fixed in your normal routine of doing business, 12 because you have a file -- you get it in a different way 13 than a package, but you -- 14 MR. BALLARD: We get it through our software. 15 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Okay. 16 MR. BALLARD: But I don't know what's on that 17 list. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But it would be doubtful, 19 because this is the last 19 days. I mean -- 20 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: That's the last 19 days. 21 And, as T. just said, they get that data, they review it 22 daily, they update it. And I have taken each one of them 23 out there and showed them problems, and, "We haven't seen 24 this; we don't get this." They haven't seen these 19. They 25 had the whole database on there. And I'll make a statement 63 1 that I hope the press will be cautious with, but as you 2 gentlemen can see, the last one on there that is a Hunt 3 business was La Hacienda. Now, how long has that place been 4 there and how long have they had an address, and we don't 5 have an address for them in 911 yet? 6 JUDGE HENNEKE: Well, it appears to me that 7 there's obviously multi-layers to this problem, and the 8 Court, with the assistance of 911, has worked diligently to 9 interface the 911 system through the Court with the Post 10 Office, and I believe that we now have a process in place 11 to -- to make that happen expeditiously so that everyone is 12 satisfied. And it may be that that's the next step that has 13 to be done, which is to -- to bring the telephone exchanges 14 into it so that the information that -- that has been 15 approved through 911, the Court, and the Post Office then 16 gets integrated into their systems in a timely fashion. And 17 I think all of our jobs and all of our emphasis is on the 18 provision of emergency services to the citizens, and so we 19 just have to keep plugging away and -- and filling gaps 20 and -- and attacking problems as they arise until we get to 21 the solution. If we keep at it with good faith, we'll get 22 there. 23 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Sounds like we do need 24 to do the same thing we did with the Post Office with the 25 phone companies, because if the phone companies don't get 64 1 the data in there, for whatever reason -- I mean, I'm not 2 saying the phone companies are necessarily at fault, or 3 anybody's necessarily at fault, but it seems like we need to 4 do the same kind of coordinating activity with the phone 5 companies that we did with the Post Office. 6 MR. SANDLIN: And we've done great with Hill 7 Country Telephone. Like I said, right now, out of that -- 8 out of that curve chart I showed you, we have a lot on hold 9 till we are able to sync that with the Post Office and 10 they do their letters. At that point, we'll dump it to 11 them. It's a -- some of it's just a synchronistic problem. 12 Not that we haven't done it; it's just keeping everything 13 synced up. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: How many do you have out 15 in the western part of the county which are -- I mean, the 16 reason I'm saying that is 'cause those are obviously not 17 Comfort postal routes that are pending to go or addressed at 18 the U.S. Post Office. 19 MR. SANDLIN: Addresses? 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. 21 MR. SANDLIN: How many do we have pending? I 22 can't give you a hard count on them. There's about -- oh, I 23 think 3,000, 3,500. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That are down there 25 waiting? Or, I mean -- 65 1 MR. SANDLIN: Waiting to get found, because 2 we're trying to match up, like, HC-1, HC-2, HC-3, HC-78, 3 those routes that are in this area where we've addressed 4 matching the boxes up to the physical addresses we've given 5 them. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: How long before they get 7 to the Post Office? I mean -- 8 MR. SANDLIN: I don't know. Like, on HC-1 9 and HC-2 in the Mountain Home route, they will be sending 10 out those letters from the Post Office hopefully towards the 11 end of this week, first of next week, and then however long 12 it takes those people to reply back to us to clarify it. 13 JUDGE HENNEKE: Anything else? 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, I'd like to ask 15 the Sheriff a simple question. Rusty, if -- help me 16 understand here. If my vicious beagle bites me at my house, 17 and I call 911 and I've lost some blood and I pass out right 18 in the middle of the phone call, how are you going to find 19 me? 20 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Unless we know you, 21 we're not. Unless we call you back. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You're not going to 23 find me? 24 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: We'll have your phone 25 number and we'll have your name. 66 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: But you're not going 2 to have an address on me, so you'd have to research through 3 the phone book? 4 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Like, the 66, we had 18 5 addresses. 6 MR. SANDLIN: Are most of your emergency 7 calls on your 7-digit numbers, or most of them on 911? 8 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: These are only 911. 9 MR. SANDLIN: You don't get a bunch on your 10 1133 or 1216 number? 11 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Not really, not any 12 more. 13 JUDGE HENNEKE: Do you have the ability to 14 take the cable number and convert that to an address? 15 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: No. 16 JUDGE HENNEKE: Not without calling the 17 telephone company? 18 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: That all falls within 19 911 and the phone company. 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Do you have a 21 telephone cross-reference, number-to-name? 22 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: We have the phone books 23 that are issued that have the number and name in there, the 24 last four digits of the number, and that's how we do find a 25 lot. That, or somebody knows them. 67 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: If you had to do it 2 all the time like that, you don't need 911. 3 MR. SANDLIN: That's right. 4 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Could have had three 5 heart attacks in that time. I just -- I just want to 6 reinforce what Commissioner Letz said earlier, by saying I 7 know you're working on it, but the single most-asked 8 question I get has to do with, When will we get the 9 addressing completed with 911? The single most-asked 10 question. And I'm sure my colleagues get the same thing. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's true. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: When there's an 13 emergency, and you get that one real fast -- and you should, 14 because that's -- the addressing, like I say, is a 15 convenience. It's the other one that is more a concern, 16 and -- it really is. And I'm not sure that -- you know, it 17 sounds like the phone companies are cooperating; it's just a 18 matter of getting it to them. And that's risky. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, let me ask you 20 this. 911, you guys have worked real hard, and particularly 21 in the last year when we were all kind of beating each other 22 up a little bit. We stepped it up and -- and got it going. 23 And then suddenly the Post Office is a booger-bear, and 24 we've tackled that and worked through those issues, and now 25 the telephone companies are a booger out there, and we have 68 1 to tackle that. Do we foresee anything else beyond 2 telephone companies? 3 MR. SANDLIN: I don't think it's the 4 telephone company being a booger-bear. It's the issue of 5 getting them the data in a timely fashion that syncs up with 6 -- synchronizes with everything else at this point. 7 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: And that's all done -- 8 that is a software process, right? It's a tape ship or 9 something? I mean, do you ship them a tape? 10 MR. SANDLIN: Ship it to them. They have to 11 do a signed receipt for it, or we'll take it to them on 12 disk. 13 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Right. So -- well, 14 I'll talk to you later. Seems like we maybe -- 15 MR. SANDLIN: There's a telephone number 16 matching it to -- 17 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Software distribution 18 stuff, we might be able to do back and forth to make sure 19 that they're synced. I'm sure you do that. 20 MR. BALLARD: That's what we've developed. 21 We have developed that. 22 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Yeah, okay. 23 MR. BALLARD: We didn't have -- we have 24 developed that. 25 JUDGE HENNEKE: Okay. Is there anything 69 1 else? 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Hope you feel better, T. 3 MR. SANDLIN: Thank you. I tried to keep it 4 short. 5 JUDGE HENNEKE: Yeah, your 10 minutes is up. 6 Thank you, Dave. Thank you, T. Let's do the next item real 7 quickly, gentlemen, and then we'll take a break. Next item 8 is Item Number 5, consider a variance from 25-foot building 9 setback on Lot 112, Kerrville South II, Precinct 1. 10 Commissioner Baldwin. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yes. Mr. Johnston, I 12 think, is going to present it -- or I guess this is 13 Mr. Kass? 14 MR. KASS: Yes, I'm Mr. Kass. Good evening, 15 gentlemen. I just would like to request a variance for 16 construction of a motor home parking garage on Lot 112. The 17 reason for the variance would be because of the -- the 18 configuration of the lot; it's an extremely sharp uphill lot 19 with a rocky base, and on the right-hand side of the lot is 20 a natural drainage ditch which protrudes from the roads and 21 the properties above, which limits where I can actually 22 place this building and still be able to enter it with the 23 motor home. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Number one, Spring 25 Drive East has been changed to Indian Head, I understand, so 70 1 there's a road name change. 2 MR. KASS: I hope I got it. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: But don't call 911. 4 Well -- did Franklin leave? 5 MR. KASS: He's here. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Oh, there you are. 7 MR. JOHNSTON: Well, the issue we had which 8 brought it up, part of this building extends out into the 9 County right-of-way, and we've had a policy since I've been 10 here not to have construction in the right-of-way. We've 11 made people tear buildings down that were in the 12 right-of-way on several occasions. And it also intrudes on 13 the utility easement across the front, which I -- looks like 14 a 10-foot easement. And the Subdivision Rules have a 15 20-foot -- not 25, but 20-foot building setback easement. 16 That's the reason we had him stop and come talk to y'all. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What is the structure? 18 What is the -- what is it? 19 MR. KASS: Motor home parking garage. Metal 20 motor home parking garage. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, it's a garage 22 attached to a home? Or -- 23 MR. KASS: It's a freestanding, 24 pre-engineered metal building from Metco. 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Is it already there, 71 1 or to be placed? 2 MR. KASS: It's to be placed. 3 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: To be placed? 4 MR. KASS: Mm-hmm. The concrete forms are in 5 right now, that's all. 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Just the forms? 7 MR. JOHNSTON: Just some ditches and forms. 8 No concrete poured or anything. 9 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That's -- 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: My concern is that -- 11 the way I approach this in my mind is trying to look 10 12 years down the road, what is going to be happening at the 13 end of that road down there? Could there be further 14 developments? Could there be all kinds of things. Who's 15 going to be sitting at this table? And I would -- 16 personally, I'm not in favor of granting a variance here 17 because of possible future problems that it presents. 18 Franklin mentioned -- I remember out in Cedar -- the Cedar 19 Cliffs area out in Hunt one time, they -- we had them remove 20 an entire building, an entire home, because it infringed on 21 the -- in the right-of-way, and couldn't -- we couldn't work 22 County-owned property because of it. And -- 23 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: I just have a 24 question. What kind of engineering task would be involved 25 to placing this, you know, on the -- at the proper setback? 72 1 I mean, I know it's -- 2 MR. KASS: I don't think it would be possible 3 to go back far enough. To put the building where you want 4 it, I wouldn't have access from the street, because the door 5 would have to be in the very front of it, and it would put 6 it back too far where I couldn't get the motor home in 7 because of other structures along -- the street's not wide 8 enough to turn the motor home back onto it. If I went back 9 that far, then the actual dirt would be above the roof of 10 the building, so the building would be set back into a -- a 11 cave. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Mr. Kass, I hope you 13 don't think that I'm just being mean to you. 14 MR. KASS: Oh, no I understand. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You know, there's 16 42,000 other citizens in the county that we have to look 17 after. And I just -- I just don't think that it's a good 18 thing to do for Road and Bridge, and our County Engineer is 19 suggesting that we do not do it, and I just don't think that 20 it's the right thing to do, either, possibly creating 21 problems down the road. And I -- let's avoid them while we 22 can, is my point. So I will not make a motion to grant a 23 variance in this case. 24 JUDGE HENNEKE: Does anyone else care to have 25 any comments? If not, the item fails for lack of a motion. 73 1 Thank you, Mr. Kass. 2 MR. KASS: Okay, thank you. 3 JUDGE HENNEKE: At this time, let's take a 4 15-minute break and return promptly at 8:15. 5 (Recess taken from 8:00 p.m. to 8:15 p.m.) 6 - - - - - - - - - - 7 JUDGE HENNEKE: Okay, folks, it's 8:15. 8 Let's resume this regular special session of the Kerr County 9 Commissioners Court. Next item for consideration is Item 10 Number 6, consider and discuss authorizing Kerr County Judge 11 Henneke to sign Caterpillar lease. Mr. Motley? 12 MR. MOTLEY: I don't know -- there's not much 13 to say. We just need to get the Court to authorize the 14 Judge to sign on the lease, is all. 15 JUDGE HENNEKE: Okay. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I make the motion, 17 whatever, to authorize Judge Henneke to sign the lease with 18 Caterpillar. 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Second. 20 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion by Judge -- motion by 21 Commissioner Baldwin -- you got promoted there -- second by 22 Commissioner Williams -- 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That may have been 24 prophetic. 25 JUDGE HENNEKE: -- that the Court authorize 74 1 the County Judge to sign the lease with Caterpillar. 2 MR. MOTLEY: And it's relative to motor 3 grader 4XM03101, and it's between Kerr County and 4 Caterpillar Financial Services Corporation. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 6 JUDGE HENNEKE: We already had a second. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Third. 8 JUDGE HENNEKE: Any questions or comments? 9 If not, all in favor, raise your right hand. 10 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 11 JUDGE HENNEKE: Opposed, same sign. 12 (No response.) 13 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion carries. Thank you, 14 David. 15 MR. MOTLEY: Judge, I would be happy to give 16 this to the Court now, and when it's done, if you want to 17 holler at me, I'll sign it. 18 JUDGE HENNEKE: As soon as you've signed off 19 on your opinion, get to it me and I'll sign off. 20 MR. MOTLEY: Okay, I'll just do it right now. 21 JUDGE HENNEKE: Next item is Item Number 7, 22 consider and discuss authorization to initiate right-of-way 23 condemnation proceeding for new Hermann Sons bridge 24 property. Commissioner Letz. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: As everyone is aware, 75 1 with TexDot's assistance, the County and TexDot are working 2 on replacing the Hermann Sons bridge. The new alignment of 3 the bridge is going to require that the tract -- or the new 4 bridge is going across the property owned by Mr. Tijerina 5 out of San Antonio. He has been difficult -- or he, up to 6 date, has not returned the calls or worked in any way with 7 TexDOT on -- on this project. He has -- he did receive -- 8 they sent him a letter recently. It was sent certified; he 9 did sign for it. They haven't heard back from him. And, in 10 visiting with Mike Howard at TexDOT, he requested to put 11 this on the agenda so we could begin the process. The 12 construction date is late this year, early next year, and if 13 we do have to go through full condemnation to get this 14 tract, it would require a lengthy -- you know, a fair amount 15 of time trying to get everything lined up at the present 16 time, so we're really just putting it on the agenda. The 17 bridge will -- I'll hold this up. The current road goes 18 like this right now, and it's proposed to kind of cut right 19 through this corner and line up straight -- they're going to 20 straighten it, move the bridge downstream about, I don't 21 know, 50, 100 feet. 22 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: I forgot, what kind of 23 acreage were we talking about that we had to acquire on this 24 one? 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: His tract is -- in Kerr 76 1 County is about plus-or-minus 3 acres, I believe. He 2 also -- this tract here extends into Kendall County, as 3 well, which is not at all affected by this project. The -- 4 depending on what the exact alignment would be, in my mind, 5 and what he wants to do, since this is a very small tract 6 and we're going to be dividing it, he may want to get rid of 7 the whole thing. He may want to just get rid of the least 8 amount possible. I don't know. I think we should be 9 willing to go either way. But I think, at this point, what 10 I would do is, we will be obligated to pay for the 11 right-of-way under this project. I think it's in our budget 12 in Road and Bridge, and I make a motion that we authorize a 13 survey of the tract and an appraisal of the tract, an 14 official appraisal, so that we can have that in our files, 15 and authorize Road and Bridge and/or TexDOT to proceed down 16 towards condemnation, if that is needed. Of course, that 17 will be the last resort. That's my motion. 18 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Second. 19 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion by Commissioner Letz, 20 second by Commissioner Griffin, that the Court authorize a 21 survey and appraisal of the tract of land to be acquired for 22 the Hermann Sons bridge property, and furthermore authorize 23 the initiation of condemnation proceedings to acquire such 24 tract if that becomes necessary. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And, for the record, 77 1 Mr. Tijerina's name is T-i-j-e-r-i-n-a. 2 JUDGE HENNEKE: I have a motion and second. 3 Any questions or comments? If not, all in favor, raise your 4 right hand. 5 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 6 JUDGE HENNEKE: Opposed, same sign. 7 (No response.) 8 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion carries. Next item is 9 Item Number 8, consider and discuss the approval of purchase 10 of 2 joggers for use during elections by taking $1,000 from 11 unexpended budget line item for Rentals and placing it into 12 Capital Outlay. The County Clerk's present. Can't we get 13 joggers for cheaper than $1,000? I mean, there's lots of 14 them out there -- 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Talking about cattle 16 guards. 17 MS. PIEPER: Well, these are also known as 18 hoppers. I've heard them called different things. I've not 19 ever seen these, but I heard that all the counties that have 20 the A.I.S. ballot scanners, such as we do here in Kerr 21 County, have what they call hoppers or joggers, and you're 22 supposed to put the ballots in that and it's supposed to 23 shake them and get the dust off of them and keep them from 24 sticking together and all that when they go into the 25 scanner; they're just supposed to shoot right through, 78 1 rather than us having to feed them in one at a time. I 2 called the only company I know that sells these -- and, 3 actually, I would like to change that figure. Instead of 4 $1,000, I would just like to request $965, and I think that 5 should take care of the shipping as well as the cost on 6 this. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Jannett, is there such 8 a thing as maintenance contracts on -- I have not a clue 9 what you're talking about, but is there a maintenance 10 contract on this machine? 11 MS. PIEPER: I have no idea. 12 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Hooks onto the 13 scanner? 14 MS. PIEPER: No, I think it stands alone. 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Stands alone? 16 MS. PIEPER: And, from what I understand, we 17 just plug it in and it does what it does. The -- I had the 18 machine serviced last week, and I haven't got the bill on 19 that, but the -- I was telling the man that -- that came in 20 and serviced them how much trouble we've been having with 21 these throughout the years, and that it got to a point of 22 literally hand-feeding them in one at a time during the last 23 election, and he was looking around and -- and he said, 24 "Well, do you not have a jogger?" And I said, "No, I 25 don't." And he said, "Why not?" And I said, "I don't know. 79 1 These machines were here prior to me taking office." And he 2 said, "Well, that's one of your problems." And he explained 3 that these ballots go through the printing so quick, and 4 then -- they go through a printing, and I guess the ink is 5 sprayed on them, and then there's some kind of powder that 6 is sprayed on them also, because they stack so quickly. And 7 that's one thing that this jogger's supposed to do, is get 8 all that dust off, plus the dust that accumulates during the 9 election. 10 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Judge, I'd move that 11 the County Clerk be authorized to purchase two joggers in 12 the amount of $965, transfer funds from the unexpended 13 budget line of Rentals and place it into Capital Outlay. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 15 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion by Commissioner 16 Williams, second by Commissioner Baldwin, that the Court 17 approve the expenditure of $965 for the purchase of two 18 joggers by the County Clerk for use in the coming elections, 19 and further authorize the transfer of $965 from the 20 unexpended budget line item Rentals into the Capital Outlay 21 line item, and further authorize the amendment of the 22 Capital Outlay list for the County Clerk to include such 23 joggers. 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I said all that, 25 didn't I? 80 1 JUDGE HENNEKE: You did say all that, and 2 said it well. Any further questions or comments? If not, 3 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. Thank you, 8 Jannett. 9 MS. PIEPER: Thank you. 10 JUDGE HENNEKE: Next item, Item Number 9, 11 consider and discuss approval of a contract with Western 12 Union that will allow defendants to pay fines and court 13 costs via Western Union at no cost to the County. 14 Mr. Duncan? 15 MR. DUNCAN: Yes. This is something that 16 Western Union has offered. It's being used throughout the 17 state of Texas by many of the larger counties; now they're 18 trying to get some of the smaller counties involved. What 19 happens is that a defendant goes into any Western Union 20 station, Super S, H.E.B. or anywhere, gets a money order for 21 fees or court costs in the amount of anywhere from $5 to 22 $5,000. It costs the defendant $11. They then enter the 23 information into the database on the computer. If it's 24 during the hours of 7:30 in the morning till 4:30 in the 25 afternoon, a check is automatically printed out at our 81 1 printer, made out to whichever entity, County Clerk, 2 District Clerk, J.P., that it's destined for, along with the 3 defendant's name, address, phone number, and information 4 that we currently -- would make our life a little bit 5 easier. The good thing about this, they furnish the check 6 stock, they furnish the flyers, information to give to the 7 defendants on how to use the system. They do everything, 8 and it costs the County nothing. Of course, they make their 9 money off the $11 charge, and that's where their money comes 10 in. They service and maintain the equipment. If the 11 equipment breaks down, they come in immediately and replace 12 the equipment. There is a charge. I -- this is a misnomer, 13 because we will have to have a dedicated phone line, at 14 about $19 a month -- isn't it, Jannett, for a dedicated 15 phone line? 16 MS. PIEPER: Something like that. 17 MR. DUNCAN: About $19 a month for a phone 18 line, and that's the only expense, and I have the money in 19 my budget to do that. 20 JUDGE HENNEKE: Questions or comments? 21 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: I'm -- I'd like to 22 make a motion that we approve the contract with Western 23 Union that allows defendants to pay fines and court costs 24 via Western Union, and authorize County Judge to sign same. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 82 1 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Or whoever has to 2 sign. Is that -- 3 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion by Commissioner 4 Griffin, second by Commissioner Williams (sic), that the 5 Court approve the contract with Western Union that will 6 allow defendants to pay fines and court costs via Western 7 Union at no cost to the County, other than the dedicated 8 phone line, and authorize County Judge to sign any necessary 9 documentation. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Only question I have is, 11 how many other ways can you find for defendants to pay? 12 MR. DUNCAN: I'm trying -- anytime I find a 13 way to get money in rather than putting money out, I will do 14 it. When they say "free," I will go there. Judge, may I be 15 excused? 16 JUDGE HENNEKE: Just a moment. Any questions 17 or comments? If not, all in favor, raise your right hand. 18 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 19 JUDGE HENNEKE: All opposed, same sign. 20 (No response.) 21 JUDGE HENNEKE: Does anyone object to 22 Mr. Duncan being excused? 23 MR. DANFORD: Going to Abilene. 24 JUDGE HENNEKE: Abilene. Okay, item Number 25 10, consider and discuss an update presentation on the 83 1 Sheriff's communication system, and possible appointment of 2 Court liaison to facilitate the enactment thereof. 3 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Okay. We're still in 4 the process of getting the leases signed for the towers. 5 The two leases for L.C.R.A., as far as I know, they're in 6 pretty good shape, and probably are extremely close to just 7 going ahead and signing those and bringing those back for 8 the Judge to sign. The two leases -- or possible leases 9 with the Kerrville Telephone Company and Five Star is really 10 not moving along as fast as I would like to see it move. 11 And I don't think it's -- that anybody is intentionally 12 trying to slow down the process or anything. It's just 13 really not moving that fast. And I feel that if the Court 14 would appoint a liaison, like the Judge or somebody, so that 15 we could organize just a sit-down meeting with the attorney 16 for the County, being Mr. Pollard, attorney for the phone 17 company, being Richard Mosty, maybe Scott Parker with the 18 phone company or Calvin Weinheimer and myself, and possibly 19 the Judge, if y'all would appoint him to where we can just 20 sit down at a table, probably within an hour or so 21 everything will be worked out and we'd have leases done. 22 And that's what our holdup is right now. Dailey Wells has 23 been procuring and getting all the equipment and everything 24 else ready to go, and the design stuff, and they've got it 25 ready. They just can't apply for the F.C.C. licenses until 84 1 the leases are signed, so they have all the information on 2 the -- 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Rusty, I apologize, my 4 mind was wavering at the very beginning when you were 5 talking. We're going back to using the K.T.C. tower? 6 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Not necessarily -- well, 7 at least one of them, we have to. The one in Center Point 8 is a Kerrville phone company or Five Star tower, okay? The 9 one out on the west end off 41 is -- one of them is Five 10 Star; the other one is the T.D. Hall tower. Those we're 11 still looking at, at the advantages of both of them. 12 There's some work that would have to be done that's fairly 13 expensive, in my opinion, on the Hall tower site, but it may 14 work out. As far as the lease and -- the monthly rent and 15 monthly lease, it would be better to do it that way, but we 16 just -- Buster brought this up and put it on the agenda for 17 this purpose, and had asked me about it, and I said, "Well, 18 I think we're at the point of just appointing somebody, and 19 let's sit down at one table and get it finished." 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It's just -- it seems 21 like it's just not moving forward on the western end of the 22 county, and something -- it's just not moving, so we have to 23 do something to get this thing going. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is that a motion? 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And the motion is -- 85 1 is to appoint Judge Henneke as our representative to 2 initiate and gather up all the powers that be and get this 3 thing off high center and start -- is it rocking and 4 rolling? What the did the president say? 5 AUDIENCE: Rolling. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Let's roll. 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Not rolling and 8 rocking. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Sorry. So, that's my 10 motion, is to appoint Judge Henneke as our liaison. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 12 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion by Commissioner 13 Baldwin, second by Commissioner Letz, that the Court 14 oppose -- appoint the County Judge to serve as the liaison 15 in sitting down and discussing the Sheriff's communication 16 radio tower leases and report to the Court. Any questions 17 or comments? If not, all in favor, raise your right hand. 18 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 19 JUDGE HENNEKE: Opposed, same sign. 20 (No response.) 21 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion carries. Next item is 22 Item Number 11, consider and discuss revisions to the Kerr 23 County Subdivision Rules and Regulations and set a public 24 hearing for same. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Next time. 86 1 JUDGE HENNEKE: Okay. We're going to -- 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'm -- 3 JUDGE HENNEKE: -- defer that for now. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Defer it till next 5 meeting. 6 JUDGE HENNEKE: Okay. The last item for 7 consideration is consider and discuss approval of the final 8 application for payment from Stoddard Construction Company. 9 Tommy, do you want to address us first on that? 10 (Discussion off the record.) 11 MR. TOMLINSON: I'm requesting two -- two 12 amendments. One covers the expenditures of three -- I think 13 three items. One is to Stoddard Construction Company for 14 $311,513.84. That's the retainage under contract. I do 15 have the application for payment that's signed by our 16 architect, and then the second part of this is -- is the 17 interest on that -- accumulated on that retainage over the 18 period of March '99 through today, and the total is 19 $29,405.79. 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: How much? What was 21 the number again, Tommy? 22 MR. TOMLINSON: It's $29,405.79. Then I have 23 a bill from our architect in the amount of $3,678. 24 JUDGE HENNEKE: And that's -- where is that? 25 Is that reflected in these numbers? 87 1 MR. TOMLINSON: That's reflected in the 2 budget amendment. 3 JUDGE HENNEKE: Budget Amendment Request 4 Number 2? 5 MR. TOMLINSON: Yes, Number 2. 6 JUDGE HENNEKE: What is the budget -- 7 MR. TOMLINSON: The total amendment is for 8 $324,736.18. The total of the bills totals $344,597.63. We 9 had budgeted $25,000 for 2001/2002, so the difference 10 between the amount -- the amount that we budgeted for this 11 year and the bill is the amount of the amendment. 12 JUDGE HENNEKE: This is money that is already 13 in the bank, money that we've held out for Mr. Stoddard for 14 his retainage, and also the interest that's been earned on 15 that money that was held out? 16 MR. TOMLINSON: That's correct. 17 JUDGE HENNEKE: These are -- these are not 18 funds that are -- that are coming out -- 19 MR. TOMLINSON: Well, they -- we didn't -- we 20 anticipated this payment to be made in October/November of 21 this year, and consequently, we had -- the funds were 22 available at year-end, with anticipation of -- of paying 23 this in October and November. We -- from an accounting 24 standpoint, we would have encumbered this amount back to the 25 2000/2001 year. It didn't happen, so -- in the meantime, 88 1 our audit is complete. Our statements are printed, and -- 2 and I can't see us spending the time and the funds to go 3 back and correct -- and change our statements. Other than 4 that, that's the reason I'm asking for -- for an amendment 5 to that fund. Now, the other -- the other part of that 6 is -- is to transfer $83,848.95 from the General Fund to the 7 Permanent Improvement Fund for there to be cash in that -- 8 in that fund to make the payment. 9 JUDGE HENNEKE: All right. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, the -- this amount 11 was budgeted in last year's budget and wasn't spent? 12 MR. TOMLINSON: Right, that's correct. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So it went in the 14 reserve, essentially? 15 MR. TOMLINSON: That's exactly right. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And because of the way we 17 do the budget, we didn't budget this year, 'cause we thought 18 we would have already paid it? 19 MR. TOMLINSON: That's correct. 20 JUDGE HENNEKE: Okay. Before we -- before we 21 act on the budget amendment, let's -- I'll ask if there's 22 any questions about the application by Stoddard Construction 23 for final payment. Mike Walker's here to answer any 24 questions, if anyone has any questions regarding the 25 application for final payment. Keith Longnecker's brother 89 1 died in Dallas over the weekend, and he's there and not able 2 to be with us tonight. So, does anyone have any questions 3 regarding the application for final payment by Stoddard 4 Construction Company? 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: My only, I guess, two 6 questions are that, one, everything on the punch list -- and 7 I don't know, but everything has been done by Stoddard? 8 MR. WALKER: That's correct. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's correct. And the 10 second question is, all subcontractors have been paid by 11 Stoddard? 12 MR. WALKER: I'm going to defer that question 13 to somebody else, because Mr. Longnecker was dealing with 14 Mr. Motley and making sure that the wording on the 15 affidavits of lien were correct, and so I would defer that 16 question to somebody else, because I didn't go through 17 those. 18 MR. TOMLINSON: I would add one thing to 19 clarify the -- the interest part. That the interest -- that 20 was part of the contract, and so we -- we do owe the 21 interest on those funds. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 23 MR. MOTLEY: On that business about the 24 affidavits, what -- what they provided us was not actually 25 -- they didn't provide us releases or waivers, actually. 90 1 What they provided is some form of an affidavit that would 2 say that the -- the lien or possible lien that's reflected 3 on the piece of paper attached to this affidavit is not 4 going to be filed, or if it's filed, it was vacated. And 5 then there's no piece of paper attached to it, and so it was 6 just kind of a mess. And I talked to Keith about it quite a 7 bit, and although we feel like the time for filing 8 construction material money and construction liens against 9 the County has expired, I still -- if we're going to have 10 our druthers on it, I want the actual release or a waiver. 11 I don't want an affidavit referring to some thing that they 12 don't attach. And, so I talked to Mr. Stoddard, and he was 13 not aware of the situation, and he told me that they would 14 check into it and get back to me. I would think that as 15 soon as he pays his subcontractors, assuming he has paid 16 them all -- and I know that's something Buster was worried 17 about, but I think as soon as he pays them, he ought to be 18 able to receive some sort of an affidavit from them to his 19 favor, and all we would need would be to get a copy of 20 those. So, I've expressed that to him, and I don't think it 21 would be a -- shouldn't be a, hopefully, hard task for them 22 to get us copies of those. But I wasn't comfortable with 23 the affidavit form with the thing attached. I want the 24 actual waivers or the releases. 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: David, are we then 91 1 releasing money before you get what you need to be 2 satisfied? 3 MR. MOTLEY: Well, as far as this money on 4 the -- this is the retainage on the -- 5 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: You're okay with 6 that? 7 MR. MOTLEY: Well, I -- you know, to tell you 8 the truth, I'd rather have it all in hand before we did 9 that, but I think the time has come to -- I might need to 10 get ahold of Mr. Stoddard again and just see where he is on 11 this because of these releases, because he was supposed to 12 have contacted me back again. But -- 13 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Judge, would it be 14 possible for us to go ahead and approve the budget 15 amendments, but not -- but make the payment -- the actual 16 pulling of the trigger contingent upon the receipt of all of 17 the proper releases? 18 JUDGE HENNEKE: I see no reason why not. 19 MR. MOTLEY: Let me also stress -- 20 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: So that we don't have 21 to come back to it again. But the money's there. As soon 22 as David's satisfied that everything's hunky-dory, we'll 23 pull the trigger. 24 MR. MOTLEY: I don't want to make a 25 representation that all of the subcontractors were given 92 1 those sort of documents, because we have plenty of them that 2 are well done and appropriately done. There's probably a 3 half a dozen to 10 that are questionable. And, even though 4 I think that the risk of them actually trying to go after 5 the County for some sort of a lien is very minimal, I just 6 don't know why we can't have what we're entitled to. That's 7 what I'd like to see. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: On the contract, we're 9 entitled to these waivers, correct? 10 MR. MOTLEY: Oh, yeah. I want to get them 11 together -- and they should have already done it. I'll call 12 Mr. Stoddard, see what he has to say. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I have no problem with 14 what Larry says about approving it and be done with it, but 15 most -- 16 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Not pay up until the 17 County Attorney is satisfied. 18 MR. MOTLEY: I might know something tomorrow, 19 hopefully. 20 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: I'll make that motion, 21 that -- 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Let me ask a question 23 before you do. I -- I have a little concern about the 24 agenda item, the verbiage on the agenda item just mentioning 25 Stoddard Construction Company. It doesn't mention Mr. 93 1 Walker. And I just -- is Mr. Walker's payment a part 2 of this? Or -- 3 MR. TOMLINSON: Part of the amendment, but 4 it's a separate bill. That's the reason I came back. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I don't know about 6 this amendment stuff. 7 JUDGE HENNEKE: Commissioner, typically we 8 haven't acted separately on Mr. Walker's bills; they've just 9 been presented as part of the bills. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I see what you're 11 saying. 12 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: So -- it's a budget 13 amendment, so it's okay. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, I see what 15 you're saying, okay. 16 MR. TOMLINSON: I would like to get approval 17 to go ahead and pay the interest -- the interest. 18 MR. MOTLEY: Yeah, I don't see any problem. 19 MR. TOMLINSON: So -- so that won't run any 20 more. 21 JUDGE HENNEKE: Yes. 22 MR. TOMLINSON: I'd like to stop that for 23 good. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: How can -- 25 MR. TOMLINSON: I mean, if he -- I mean, 94 1 after some conversation with Mr. Stoddard -- 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Even if we pay the 3 interest, if we don't give him the retainage, he's going to 4 want more. 5 JUDGE HENNEKE: He's going to want interest 6 on any retainage we keep until we pay this. 7 MR. MOTLEY: I don't think that is too far 8 down the line, to be honest with you. 9 MR. TOMLINSON: Okay. 10 MR. MOTLEY: I don't -- you know, I don't 11 think we're looking at a tremendous amount of time. And it 12 becomes a question of how much of the delay is occasioned by 13 our actions and how much delay is occasioned by 14 Mr. Stoddard's actions. I've asked him to get us releases, 15 and he was surprised that we didn't have them, and so he's 16 supposed to check into it. So -- and Keith knows about the 17 situation pretty well; we've been talking about it 18 regularly. So, I'll call Mr. Stoddard tomorrow. 19 JUDGE HENNEKE: Anyone else have any further 20 questions or comments? 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Can't wait to hear the 22 motion. 23 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: I'll make the motion 24 that we approve the budget amendment as presented, with the 25 proviso that the final payments not be made -- the payments 95 1 not be made until the County Attorney's satisfied that we've 2 got all the proper documentation that we're entitled to 3 under the contract. 4 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Second. 5 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion by Commissioner 6 Griffin, second by Commissioner Williams, that the Court 7 approve Budget Amendment Request Number 2 and 3 for 8 permanent improvements, and further approve the final 9 application for payment from Stoddard Construction Company, 10 with actual payment of the retainage and the accrued 11 interest not to be made until such time as the County 12 Attorney notifies the Auditor that all proper documentation 13 has been received on behalf of Kerr County. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Only question -- 15 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: I have a question. 16 What date was that interest figured as of? 17 MR. TOMLINSON: I calculated it through the 18 28th. 19 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: So we've got a few 20 days -- we've got three days, David. 21 MR. MOTLEY: I'll go talk to -- I'll go over 22 to San Antonio and look at him face-to-face, tell him to 23 give us copies. I know they have it, or they wouldn't pay 24 their people. 25 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: That's right. That's 96 1 right. 2 JUDGE HENNEKE: Do you have a question? 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: My question is, do we 4 need to -- technically need to declare an emergency, since 5 these are coming out of reserve funds, as opposed to just 6 regular budgeted amount? 7 JUDGE HENNEKE: You're correct. The motion 8 has been amended to declare an emergency. 9 COMMISSIONER GRIFFIN: Yes, the motion is 10 amended. 11 JUDGE HENNEKE: Okay. Does everyone 12 understand where we are now? Any further questions or 13 comments? If not, all in favor, raise your right hand. 14 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 15 JUDGE HENNEKE: Opposed, same sign. 16 (No response.) 17 JUDGE HENNEKE: Motion carries. All right. 18 Gentlemen, if there's nothing else to come before us, we 19 stand adjourned. 20 (Commissioners Court adjourned at 8:45 p.m.) 21 - - - - - - - - - - 22 23 24 25 97 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 28th day of February, 8 2002. 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