1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT 9 Special Session 10 Monday, April 26, 2004 11 9:00 a.m. 12 Commissioners' Courtroom 13 Kerr County Courthouse 14 Kerrville, Texas 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 PRESENT: PAT TINLEY, Kerr County Judge H. A. "BUSTER" BALDWIN, Commissioner Pct. 1 24 WILLIAM "BILL" WILLIAMS, Commissioner Pct. 2 JONATHAN LETZ, Commissioner Pct. 3 25 DAVE NICHOLSON, Commissioner Pct. 4 2 1 I N D E X April 26, 2004 2 PAGE --- Commissioners Comments 4 3 1.1 Discuss adverse financial implications to J.P. 4 courts resulting from termination of Citation Disposition Receipt Program 7 5 1.2 Prohibit sale of goods/services at Youth Exhibit 6 Center and Flat Rock Lake Park without prior approval of Commissioners Court 25 7 1.3 Grant permission to Texas Arts and Crafts 8 Educational Foundation to utilize County's well at HCYEC to augment irrigation needs 36 9 1.4 Adopt Resolution authorizing designated signators 10 for T.C.D.P. Contract TBA 2004.P2 39 11 1.5 Approve Grantworks Administrative Contract for 2004 Community Development Project 42 12 1.6 Consider naming county representatives to a 13 committee to study/recommend local government incentives for new or expanding businesses 44 14 1.7 Approve road names for privately-maintained roads 15 in accordance with 9-1-1 guidelines 54 16 1.8 Accept presentation of 2002-03 Audit Report by Pressler Thompson & Co. 55 17 1.9 Approve proclamation for National Day of Prayer 81 18 1.10 approve Resolution to Senator Troy Fraser and 19 Representative Harvey Hilderbran opposing any legislation that has a negative financial impact 82 20 1.11 Approve contract with Global Tel*Link Corporation 21 for inmate telephone system 84 22 4.1 Pay Bills 96 4.2 Budget Amendments 96 23 4.3 Late Bills 99 4.5 Approve and Accept Monthly Reports 100 24 5.1 Reports from Commissioners, Liaison/Committee assignments 102 25 --- Adjourned 117 3 1 On Monday, April 26, 2004, at 9:00 a.m., a special meeting 2 of the Kerr County Commissioners Court was held in the 3 Commissioners' Courtroom, Kerr County Courthouse, Kerrville, 4 Texas, and the following proceedings were had in open court: 5 P R O C E E D I N G S 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Good morning. It's a bit past 7 9 o'clock. I'll call to order the regular Commissioners 8 Court meeting scheduled for this time and date. 9 Commissioner 4, I believe -- 10 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Join me in prayer, 11 please. 12 (Prayer and pledge of allegiance.) 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you very much. At this 14 time, if there's any member of the public or the audience 15 that wishes to bring to the Court's attention anything 16 that's not listed on the agenda for today, you're privileged 17 to do so at this time. We'd ask that you come forward. If 18 it's in connection with an agenda item that you have some 19 comments or some -- something you want to offer, we'd ask 20 that you fill out a participation form. It's not absolutely 21 required, but it kind of keeps me straight so that I don't 22 miss you when that item comes along, and that helps me to 23 keep from skipping over you. So, if there's any member of 24 the public that wants to talk to us about any item not 25 listed on the agenda, please come forward at this time. 4-26-04 4 1 Nobody seems to be making a move, so we'll get right down to 2 business. Commissioner 4, have you got anything for us this 3 morning? 4 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: No, sir. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: One? 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No, sir. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Two? 8 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Good rain. No, sir. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Three? 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Just welcome to Kathy 11 Mitchell. 12 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Yeah. 13 MS. MITCHELL: Thank you. 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Welcome, Kathy. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: That's that all you got? 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's all I got. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: That's one of the things I 18 wanted to point out, that we have a new Administrative 19 Assistant/Coordinator for Commissioners Court. Kathy 20 Mitchell comes here with a good deal of government 21 experience, and hopefully she can keep me straight. I 22 realize that's a pretty tall order, but she's willing to 23 try. She'll probably give up in short order, but welcome 24 aboard, Kathy. 25 MS. MITCHELL: Thank you. 4-26-04 5 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Appreciate you being here. 2 The other thing that I'd like to point out is I received a 3 letter -- or a copy of a letter, actually, from -- from the 4 people with the Hill Country Agility -- that's the dog 5 agility group that occasionally uses our Youth Exhibit 6 facility out there. And the original letter, of course, was 7 addressed to our Director of Maintenance and Facilities, 8 Mr. Glenn Holekamp. The substance of their letter was to 9 praise the efforts of our maintenance people in the 10 operation and their efforts out at the Youth Exhibit 11 facility. And, in fact, on the occasion in question, when 12 they were using the facility, there was a plumbing 13 difficulty; a pipe burst or whatever, which at least 14 temporarily disabled some of the restrooms, and 15 Mr. Holekamp's people immediately stepped in, got the 16 problem resolved, made arrangements for alternate facilities 17 during the interim, got the problem resolved. And, in 18 short, they were most, most complimentary of our maintenance 19 people out there at that facility, and I thought it well to 20 pass that along, because they're deserving of these kudos. 21 But that's all I have at this point, and so we'll get on 22 down to business. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge, if I may add 24 something, it kind of follows along the lines of your 25 comment. I received a note from -- I'm not sure of the 4-26-04 6 1 organization; it's the youth polo group that -- in west Kerr 2 County. They had thanked the Court for allowing the -- on 3 short notice, the Ag Barn facility to be used as a backup 4 facility when they were in town not long ago. I'm not sure 5 if they used it; it doesn't look like they did. I think 6 they used Camp Waldemar as their primary location. They 7 wanted to do it because of the rains that weekend. They got 8 hold of me and, you know, I got hold of Maintenance; they 9 were able to work out a backup arrangement. They're very 10 appreciative to the Court for helping them out. 11 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Polo or polocrosse? 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Polo. 13 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Polocrosse. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Was it polocrosse? 15 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Yeah. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Polo -- 17 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Well, it looks like 18 polo, but it's different. I didn't know about that, but 19 it's a good thing to support them. They bring a lot of 20 people into Kerr County for these meets, and we have -- this 21 competition that's just over with, they qualified to make 22 the national team, and last year we had three Kerr County 23 players on the national team that went to Australia. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The letter -- I guess the 25 organizers of the -- Audrey Schmidt; I think she's one of 4-26-04 7 1 the ones that organized it. Anyway, they wrote me a letter, 2 just thanked the Court, on short notice, for making the 3 facility available. They paid -- they were willing to pay 4 and had insurance and all the other things. We didn't do 5 any favors for them, other than just made it available for 6 them. 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: They didn't use it. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't think they did. 9 Didn't look like it was torn up. I think they used Camp 10 Waldemar or Stewart. 11 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Looked to me like 12 they were all out there; they were playing. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, Commissioner. 14 Let's move right into the agenda. First item on the agenda 15 was a timed item for 9:15, but I'm sure we're ready to go on 16 it, that being the consideration and discussion of the 17 adverse financial implications to Kerr County J.P. courts 18 resulting from the Texas Department of Public Safety's 19 decision to terminate its Citation Disposition Receipt 20 Program. Does that translate to their warrants program? 21 JUDGE WRIGHT: Yes, sir. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 23 JUDGE WRIGHT: I think they probably call it 24 Failure to Appear program. Let me preface anything I've got 25 to say by telling you I'm here for J.P. 2; I'm not 4-26-04 8 1 representing other J.P. courts. We don't all do this the 2 same way. I went back six months and just collected figures 3 from what I collected on failure-to-appears and warrant fees 4 in my court. It would have been a loss, I believe, of just 5 a little less than $18,000 with the Omnibase program. 6 They're telling me we can go ahead and do the warrants and 7 do the failure-to-appears and just hold them in our office. 8 This program is going to simplify our job tremendously. 9 We -- we do a failure to appear letter, and then if they 10 don't come in within the 10 days on that, we have to send 11 out another notice for show cause hearing and then issue a 12 warrant and a failure to appear complaint. All of this is 13 time-consuming, but the time reaps funds for Kerr County, 14 and this will be gone. I just wanted to be sure that you 15 gentlemen understand that this is going to have an impact on 16 our budget -- the income on our budget. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I guess -- I mean, as I 18 understand it, there's nothing that the -- we can do. The 19 D.P.S. eliminated the program, so it's gone, and there's 20 a -- the Omnibase -- whatever it's called, is a private 21 company that's going to pick up some of the slack. 22 JUDGE WRIGHT: Our association is meeting 23 this morning with the head of D.P.S. to try to get them to 24 rethink this program, because of the adverse effects on all 25 of the J.P. courts. We're hoping that there will be some -- 4-26-04 9 1 something good comes out of this. I -- I can't offer any 2 alternative suggestions. I've -- I don't know what we can 3 do instead of this. Rusty might have some suggestions. But 4 it's going to -- it's going to impact our county. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: It's -- it's my understanding 6 that their basis for terminating their warrants program was 7 there was some legal reasoning, and in order for them to get 8 back into business, there would have to be legislation for 9 them to be able to reinstitute that. Am I correct in -- in 10 that understanding? 11 JUDGE WRIGHT: They got out of it without 12 legislation. I'm not -- what they are trying to do is get 13 out of the money collection business, and that's why they 14 got out of the warrant business. But a warrant tells them 15 to take them to jail or bring them to me; it doesn't tell 16 them go collect the money. So, that's -- I don't know. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 18 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Judge, let me see if 19 I understand the financial implications. If -- if this 20 would have a negative impact of $18,000 in six months in 21 your court alone -- 22 JUDGE WRIGHT: Just in my court. Now, the 23 others, a lot of them don't file the failure to appears. 24 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: On an annualized 25 basis, for four courts, it may not be that much, but it 4-26-04 10 1 would be $145,000 or so. 2 JUDGE WRIGHT: I don't -- I can't speak for 3 them. I don't know. 4 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: If it is, that's a 5 significant impact for a small county's budget. 6 JUDGE WRIGHT: And another thing that you 7 need to keep in mind, if you just renewed your license and 8 you get a ticket, we're going -- and you don't come in and 9 pay the ticket, we're going to send a notice to Omnibase. 10 Four years from now, when you go to renew that license, 11 you're going to have to pay that ticket, but they don't put 12 you in jail then; they give you 60 more days to go see the 13 judge. And then, if you don't do it, they're going to take 14 your license or hold your license. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Are you prohibited, under this 16 Omnibase program, from issuing a failure to appear in a case 17 where the accused does not respond to the initial offense? 18 JUDGE WRIGHT: I can issue it and hold it 19 locally, hold it in my office. For what reason? They're 20 not going to bring them in. Joel works most of my warrants. 21 This money that's collected, it was D.P.S. tickets, but Joel 22 worked 90 percent of these and collected the funds that I'm 23 talking about, but they were still in their databank. If 24 they were stopped, then he could go pick them up, and they 25 didn't have -- they don't like to mess with the prisoners. 4-26-04 11 1 On most of them, he called or went and picked them up 2 himself, but it was a warrant that was issued, and he could 3 pick them up. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: If a failure to appear is 5 issued, could you not -- assuming you opted into the 6 Omnibase program, could you not also forward in the failure 7 to appear if that one wasn't responded to appropriately? 8 JUDGE WRIGHT: I've heard both ways. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. We don't know? 10 JUDGE WRIGHT: I -- I don't know. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 12 JUDGE WRIGHT: And I don't know what good it 13 would do to do it. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. My understanding is 15 that the -- the opting into the Omnibase program is -- 16 JUDGE WRIGHT: It's not an option. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Pardon? 18 JUDGE WRIGHT: I don't think it's optional. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: My understanding was that each 20 J.P. -- assuming that the contract was entered into by the 21 County, then each J.P. or other jurisdiction that collects 22 within the county has the authority to opt into the program 23 or not opt in. 24 JUDGE WRIGHT: Right. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 4-26-04 12 1 JUDGE WRIGHT: But what's our option? 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: This -- it's my 3 understanding you can still issue the failure to appear 4 warrant; it's just not going to be in the State's database, 5 so that if there's a traffic stop by D.P.S., no one's going 6 to know about it. But you can still issue -- 7 JUDGE WRIGHT: I can issue it and hold it 8 there in my office, and then in three or four years I can 9 call it in and cancel it. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean, and there's -- 11 I'm looking at Rusty. Rusty, is there any way to get it so 12 that locally, if it's a -- I mean, I don't know what percent 13 of the -- 14 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: What this -- I read the 15 -- the whole packet D.P.S. had put out when they decided to 16 cancel their warrant database. Their warrant database, what 17 it does, the -- the advantage of having it was that if any 18 person that had outstanding J.P. warrants, traffic warrants, 19 was stopped anywhere in the state of Texas and their 20 driver's license was run through the state computer, it 21 would show them having a warrant, and they would 22 consequently get arrested wherever they were, whether it be 23 Abilene, Texarcana, or anything else, even though it was a 24 local warrant. At that point, they actually had the -- 25 D.P.S. always had the option, I think, of taking a cash bond 4-26-04 13 1 and fines, and they're considering that as a fine. Officers 2 can't take fines, so that's where they're getting into the 3 question of whether it was legal or not to take that money. 4 Or D.P.S. had to send a trooper up there from here to go 5 pick that guy up and bring him back here, and they were 6 making trips; D.P.S. was all over the state all the time. 7 And, personally, I think that's why they got out of this. 8 It kept their officers on the road too much. 9 In reading the other part of this -- and I 10 spent a couple hours talking with Sergeant Stafford over it, 11 on the effects it would have locally. Dawn's right in a lot 12 of her aspects, but one thing is, you enter one warrant into 13 that Omnibase, okay, to do it. You can still issue all 14 other warrants; you can still charge all the other fees, but 15 as far as in the system, they issue one. If a guy -- they 16 immediately send the person a letter telling them you need 17 to contact this court and get this taken care of prior to 18 your renewing your license, or it won't be renewed. And 19 when they go to renew their license, then they also send 20 them another letter stating that now you have 60 days to get 21 this taken care of or we won't renew your license and you'll 22 be driving with an invalid license, which is a Class B 23 misdemeanor and you actually go to jail over. But you're 24 being allowed to charge a -- an additional $30 25 administrative fee on this, 6 of which goes to Omnibase for 4-26-04 14 1 their processing of the -- of the warrant; 20 goes to the 2 State Comptroller, and 4 stays in the county. So, you're -- 3 you're adding a $4 fee that would actually come back into 4 the county; then you are taking it away. 5 Now, they do leave it optional whether the 6 J.P. wants to issue the F.T.A. and the -- and the other 7 warrants, you know, in with that offense. But they only 8 enter one in the Omnibase, and that's the one that notifies 9 the person. So, Dawn's right; if they decide to ignore the 10 letter, it could go four years before you have an 11 opportunity to collect that -- that money. But it doesn't 12 keep you from serving a warrant locally. What we would have 13 to do is -- it's going to add more -- more work on our 14 staff, to be honest, and a lot of agencies, 'cause you have 15 to add another warning on your citations now that gives them 16 a written warning. You have to change the way they are -- 17 about their license not being renewed if they don't take 18 care of their warrants. 19 The other thing is, I would imagine it will 20 put all those warrants D.P.S. had in their database that 21 they now sent back to all of our J.P.'s -- eventually, after 22 their constables try and serve them, they will come to our 23 office and we will have to enter them onto our local 24 database, which we do on lots of other ones now, which means 25 any time an officer locally in this county checks to see if 4-26-04 15 1 there's outstanding warrants for somebody, those will show 2 and that person will get arrested locally. He just won't 3 get arrested in Abilene or anything else on those Class C 4 warrants. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is there any, you know, 6 opportunity, for lack of another word, to do an interlocal 7 agreement between us and at least the neighboring counties 8 of the Hill Country, or maybe use the C.O.G. or something 9 like that to get them to use this database or kind of expand 10 it? 11 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Well, I think -- as far 12 as showing that they have active warrants out of this 13 county? 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. 15 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: When an officer stops 16 them and those? I don't know how would you get a database, 17 other than D.P.S.'s they're doing away with, that would show 18 that in all the counties around. It's just more of a -- a 19 matter of, you know, either calling that agency and 20 wondering -- I know Stafford -- Sergeant Stafford did advise 21 me that if they had D.P.S. warrants here and the J.P. wanted 22 those warrants to try and get them served here, that they 23 could give them to D.P.S. individually, and they would go 24 out and try and find them here locally. But, that's what 25 that's going to amount to, is just -- it's all going to be 4-26-04 16 1 done locally, and done only -- otherwise, only at time of 2 license renewal. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: This -- this Omni program, 4 it's my understanding it's been in operation for a year or 5 better? 6 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I think it's been in 7 operation a lot longer than a year. City of Kerrville, 8 Ingram, Kendall County, most of the counties are -- there's 9 a whole list -- are part of it. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Do we have any feedback from 11 these jurisdictions that have been using this system? 12 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I have not talked to 13 them directly myself. Now, Sergeant Stafford told me to 14 talk to, like, Freida Pressler's office over in Comfort; 15 that they thoroughly don't have any problem with this, and 16 that they actually collect more out of it. 17 JUDGE WRIGHT: The ones I talked to love it. 18 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: That's what I was told; 19 they love the program. And Dawn -- 20 JUDGE WRIGHT: There's not as much work. 21 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yeah, there's not as 22 much if they don't want to issue those F.T.A.'s, but they 23 still can. But if Dawn doesn't want to send in a warrant to 24 that database, she doesn't have to. It's just that warrant 25 will only show up as an outstanding arrest warrant on a 4-26-04 17 1 person here locally in this county; they won't show up in 2 any other statewide computer, except for when they go to 3 renew their license and that. 4 JUDGE WRIGHT: We do send copies of warrants 5 to adjacent counties, to the constable in that precinct, and 6 Lin will make a copy of the warrant and stamp it "copy" and 7 forward it to them. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Is that normally when -- when 9 the offender lives out of county, you've got an indication 10 he lives in Kendall or Bandera? 11 JUDGE WRIGHT: If it's a local -- an adjacent 12 one. 13 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yes, if it's a local 14 warrants officer, ours or hers would normally look at where 15 the address is and send that agency a letter saying, "We 16 show that we have outstanding warrants on this subject. 17 Would y'all please attempt to find him?" That's just a 18 phone call or a local warrant deal we do on all warrants, on 19 trying to get warrants served, no matter what they are. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It seems to me that 21 this would be -- this issue would be a good marriage for our 22 Collections Department to get involved in, as well as what 23 they're talking about right now, is sending the judge or the 24 constable sending a letter to the -- to the neighboring 25 county. But I think our Collections office does those kinds 4-26-04 18 1 of things already in other areas, and in a little more of a 2 threatening type way, actually. 3 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Only thing we don't -- 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I think we need to ask 5 them to get involved in it. Take a look at it, at least. 6 There's not a lot we can do about the D.P.S. issue. 7 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Right. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It's over. 9 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Well, and the only 10 question I have in regards to this whole thing, as far as 11 how it works, any time a warrant is actually issued, it gets 12 directed to any peace officer in the state of Texas, and it 13 states, "You are hereby commanded to arrest..." That's 14 what's on the actual warrant. Now, how D.P.S. is going to 15 know when they come in to get their license renewed that 16 they have an actual warrant, and you got a D.P.S. officer 17 that tells them, "Well, you got 60 days to take care of it," 18 when he's got a warrant there that says he's commanded to 19 arrest, that's some legal part D.P.S. has got to take care 20 of, 'cause, to me, the officer doesn't have a choice. But 21 you've got that -- you've got the deal that -- and they have 22 some legal issues I'm just concerned about. 23 Say the guy gets -- goes to get his license 24 renewed in Fredericksburg, and it shows that he's got 25 outstanding warrants out of J.P. 2 court here. They give 4-26-04 19 1 him 60 days to get that taken care of before his license 2 renewal. He drives back over to Kerrville, gets stopped 3 right when he enters Kerr County and gets arrested on them. 4 Did he have 60 days or did we arrest him -- you know, could 5 we arrest him? Then, when we arrest him, he gets out of 6 jail first thing the next morning on a P.R. bond that gives 7 him 10 days to take care of that warrant, but he already got 8 a notice of 60 days to take care of that warrant from 9 Fredericksburg. If he doesn't show up in the 10 days and he 10 says, "Well, they gave me 60 over there," are you going to 11 be able to issue another F.T.A. -- I think, you know, 12 there's going to be some confusion in that, but that's 13 D.P.S.'s problems and not -- 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, that's where the 15 legislation comes in, is to clean all that up. 16 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: That's what I think 17 they'll still have to work out. But I think it's going to 18 add more -- less work on the J.P.'s; it's going to add more 19 work on the Sheriff's Office on the -- on getting all these 20 warrants to put them in our database. 21 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: To the extent you 22 know, either Sheriff or Judge Wright, we fund a position at 23 D.P.S., -- 24 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yes. 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: -- right? 4-26-04 20 1 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yes. 2 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Does this alter the 3 workload of that individual by increasing workload or 4 diminishing the workload, and if so, how much? 5 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I haven't seen what her 6 actual job description is. I would think it would have a 7 definite impact on her job, because she doesn't have to 8 handle warrants any more -- or their corporal doesn't, but I 9 don't know how much it would decrease or increase. I know 10 she does do other things for them, as far as typing up 11 accident reports, all that kind of stuff, and regular case 12 reports that they have. So I couldn't say how much it 13 increases or decreases. 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Well, I think that's 15 something we want to know, particularly when we get to 16 budget time. I see Judge O'Dell sitting behind Judge 17 Wright. So, to what degree are you concerned with this, 18 Judge O'Dell? 19 JUDGE O'DELL: Same degree Judge Wright is. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Pardon? 21 JUDGE O'DELL: Same as Judge Wright. But, 22 now, going back to Tommie Damron, she didn't handle, I mean, 23 the -- the warrants. That was Corporal Olive that did all 24 the warrants. I do know that. 25 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I don't know how much 4-26-04 21 1 paperwork part of that she handles. 2 JUDGE O'DELL: Right, yeah. 3 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: No one seems to have 4 a solution, right? 5 JUDGE TINLEY: We can't solve the D.P.S. 6 problem, because the Legislature's the only one that can 7 solve that one. 8 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I understand. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: From what I'm hearing at this 10 point -- 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Seems to me we sign up 12 with the Omnibase program and see how it works and hope for 13 the best. And if it doesn't, we, you know, go from there. 14 That's the only option we have right now. 15 JUDGE O'DELL: And maybe have Collections 16 help us. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: They're available. Right, 19 Brad? 20 JUDGE WRIGHT: They've offered. 21 MR. ALFORD: I've already talked to some of 22 the J.P.'s, and what we're going to try to do is implement a 23 program that, whenever the constables are through and 24 they're fixing to push the magic button to go to Omni, 25 they're going to give us 30 days. We're going to kind of 4-26-04 22 1 prolong this four-year deal by 30 days. By giving us time 2 to do more research, send out a little bit stiffer letter, 3 that type of deal, what we have learned is that, through our 4 program we've run, these people move and we're able to 5 locate them. And, after they've moved about three or four 6 times and all of a sudden they get a letter from Kerr 7 County, it kind of gets their attention that, oh, they can 8 still find us. So, that's what we're going -- Collection's 9 going to try to do. 10 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: We don't have a problem 11 with the fuse? That you got to send it in to Omni within a 12 specific time frame, or -- 13 MR. ALFORD: No, sir. 14 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: -- or you're out? 15 MR. ALFORD: No, sir, there's not. 16 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Only other question that 17 we have, which is our problem, of course, we can't confirm a 18 warrant being existing on anybody unless we have the actual 19 hard copy of the warrant at the Sheriff's Office, and some 20 of this can get slowed down. Some of it can. We already 21 had a problem where D.P.S. sent them all back to one of the 22 J.P.'s, and then one of the guys got picked up, but the 23 warrant was at the J.P. after hours; we didn't have it at 24 the Sheriff's Office. We can't confirm the warrant type 25 deal, so you can't charge them with it. 4-26-04 23 1 JUDGE WRIGHT: It's my understanding that 2 there's not even a warrant; it's just a list that goes to 3 Omnibase of people that fail to appear. There's not a 4 warrant for their arrest issued. 5 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: You want to issue a 6 warrant, which is what D.P.S. database is, is warrants, 7 okay? It's still up to the J.P. to issue that warrant and 8 to make sure it goes where it needs to. 9 JUDGE WRIGHT: Anyway, there's going to be a 10 loss of revenue, and you're now aware of it. 11 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Well, we ironed it 12 out, but we didn't solve it. 13 JUDGE WRIGHT: Just have to try to make it up 14 elsewhere. I'm -- I've got trials, excuse me. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Anything further on this 16 particular agenda item? 17 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Mr. Holekamp, would 18 you adjust that thermostat, please? 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'm just wondering, 20 Judge -- 21 (Discussion off the record.) 22 JUDGE TINLEY: You had something? 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. I'm wondering 24 if the Collections Department is just going to move forward 25 -- first, the first question is, are -- do we need to take 4-26-04 24 1 any more action on getting involved with Omni? 2 JUDGE TINLEY: No. We have -- we've signed 3 the master contract, the County, with D.P.S. Omni that 4 allows us to go into the program. Now, each particular 5 J.P., at that J.P.'s election, can -- 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: -- go or not go with the 8 program. And then our Collections Department is just going 9 -- they don't need us to order them to do it. They're just 10 going to automatically go on and work with the J.P.'s. 11 MR. ALFORD: Yeah. I think some of it is 12 part of Kerr County criminal collections. I mean, I 13 think -- let's just get it done. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I agree. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Just wanted you to say it 16 out loud. 17 MR. ALFORD: What? Oh, thanks, Commissioner 18 Letz. On the Omnibase, on the $30 deal, even if we collect 19 after the J.P.'s have gone on and sent it to Omni, Omni 20 still gets their money. So, once it goes to Omni, it's -- 21 Omni gets their money. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Oh, yeah, sure. Once 23 they put it in their database -- 24 MR. ALFORD: It's their money. 25 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: If they're acquitted, 4-26-04 25 1 you don't have to pay that money. 2 JUDGE O'DELL: That's correct. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: But we want you to 4 collect it all. 5 MR. ALFORD: That's right. I just -- we 6 won't -- we'll talk about it later. Nevermind. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Anything else on this agenda 8 item? Let's move to the next agenda item, consider and 9 discuss prohibiting sale of goods or services at the Youth 10 Exhibit Center and Flat Rock Lake Park without contracting 11 or booking the use of premises or prior approval of the 12 Commissioners Court. I put this on the agenda because a 13 concern was raised Saturday at a planning meeting in 14 connection with the Arts and Crafts Fair, that what is to 15 prohibit someone from rolling into Flat Rock Lake Park on 16 the Arts and Crafts Fair weekend and becoming an 17 entrepreneur and selling their own little arts-and-craftsy 18 items? I guess the first question is, do we currently have 19 an overall policy that prohibits that kind of activity? 20 Some of you with more experience on this Court than I could 21 hopefully answer that. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I thought we did. 23 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: No, I thought that -- 24 I thought that it was going to be in Parks Rules and Regs, 25 but we never did do Parks Rules and Regs. 4-26-04 26 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. I mean, I can't -- 2 you know, I thought we had one, but I thought something came 3 up when Flat Rock first -- a while back. Now, it does not 4 -- anything we have does not cover Hill Country Youth 5 Exhibit Center. If we have anything, it covers the park. 6 And I thought we did something, because there was something 7 -- somebody wanted to -- actually, it might have been your 8 son -- wanted to sell canoe rentals or something. Or -- 9 MR. MILLER: Yeah, very well may have been. 10 He was looking for a site to sell -- to rent canoes on the 11 river. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. And so I thought 13 it came up, but I thought that -- I thought we did something 14 to limit that, you know. Best of my memory. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Including overnight 16 camping and -- 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, you can't overnight 18 camp there, I thought. And I thought we have a basic set of 19 rules, but -- 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I don't remember. 21 MR. HOLEKAMP: I don't think they were ever 22 adopted. 23 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I don't know of any. 24 MR. HOLEKAMP: I think Commissioner Williams 25 is right; I think they were proposed, but never adopted. 4-26-04 27 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Let's do one. 2 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Well, I think that's 3 my recollection, Mr. Holekamp, that that was going to be 4 embodied in Parks Rules and Regs, which we got up to a 5 certain point and it foundered over fireworks or something. 6 MR. HOLEKAMP: That's right. 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: And we didn't get it 8 done. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Why do the chili folks 10 have to come to us to use the park? 11 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: 'Cause they're using 12 the park. 13 MR. HOLEKAMP: Using the park. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: They come to get permission to 15 use the park. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: These people were using 17 the park. We had to have something originally. If we 18 didn't have something on the books, they'd just go use the 19 park. 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Well, you know, 21 this -- there are those who, for example, follow parades, 22 and all of a sudden, there's a parade in town; you got 23 somebody on the street corner selling balloons and junk and 24 monkeys and everything else, right? You know, he didn't ask 25 the City to use those streets; he just showed up at the 4-26-04 28 1 corner of whatever and whatever to do that. That's what -- 2 exactly what I think the Judge is talking about, that kind 3 of thing, or somebody making Indian pottery from his 4 backyard. I don't know. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So, this -- 6 MR. MILLER: Judge, from the point of view of 7 the Arts and Crafts Foundation, we're a nationally-rated 8 fine arts and crafts fair. To have people setting up with 9 trinkets and things that really would not qualify for our 10 fair will denigrate that fair and its reputation throughout 11 the state. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: I agree. That's one of the 13 bases that I put it on the agenda for consideration. 14 MR. MILLER: And we rent the entire Hill 15 Country Youth Exhibit Center during our event so that we can 16 have parking and the rest of those facilities there, and 17 under our lease agreement, we have the use of Flat Rock Lake 18 Park for parking, but it really -- we don't have any -- we 19 don't have any other authority that we know of at this point 20 to do anything else in that park, in Flat Rock Lake. I 21 don't -- we don't have the ability to limit anybody. Our 22 parking people who will be down there helping park cars I 23 don't think have any authority to stop anybody from doing 24 anything, 'cause one of the things we talked about at the 25 planning meeting was to still leave the back section open 4-26-04 29 1 for -- even during our event, to allow people to use the 2 park. So, it's not completely shut off to the public. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, the -- the booking of 4 the facility includes the entire Youth Exhibit complex, but 5 it does not include Flat Rock Lake Park. 6 MR. MILLER: That's correct. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: That, I see -- I'm not as 8 concerned about the Youth Exhibit facility now that I 9 understand that -- that you've got the entire thing booked. 10 MR. MILLER: Yes. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Because that gives you 12 control, and you can control what does happen if you have it 13 booked. What I'm concerned about now is Flat Rock Lake, 14 because your booking does not include Flat Rock Lake. You 15 have the right to use it for overflow parking, but it's not 16 exclusive. 17 MR. MILLER: Right. And we probably ought to 18 have some ability to book it in a more formal manner. 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Judge? 20 MR. MILLER: And basis. 21 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Rather than just take 22 up this issue separately, if the Court would prefer, we can 23 bring back Park Rules and Regs and see if we can put that in 24 place in plenty of time to take care of Mr. Miller's 25 problem. If I promise not to put fireworks back in, we can 4-26-04 30 1 take a look at it. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, let me propose an 3 option, if I might, Commissioner. And I -- if we're going 4 to impose park rules, we're probably going to have to have a 5 public hearing. That's going to take what, 30 days? We're 6 past the Arts and Crafts Fair. 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Well, that's true. 8 That's true. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Now, a potential alternative 10 would be that we put on the next agenda -- or that the Arts 11 and Crafts people put on the next agenda a request that they 12 be permitted to use Flat Rock Lake Park so that they have 13 control over it for their event. 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Exclusive? 15 JUDGE TINLEY: If they choose to allow others 16 to use it concurrently with them, under certain guidelines, 17 they're certainly privileged to do so, but that won't 18 require a public hearing if we grant them the right to use 19 that. We've -- we've gotten to the same result intended, 20 and then we've got time to work on rules if we want. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'd much prefer that. My 22 thinking was that we -- it also does something else, because 23 another problem we got with the park rules is that -- 24 enforcement. And this way, we're shoving enforcement over 25 to the Arts and Crafts group, as opposed to the Sheriff's 4-26-04 31 1 Department, who doesn't know what rules and what laws people 2 are actually breaking. So, I think it's much better to give 3 it to Arts and Crafts. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Why don't you just do 5 that right now? 6 JUDGE TINLEY: I'm not sure the agenda item 7 will cover it. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think it does. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Oh, come on. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It says right here -- it 11 says "without contracting or booking the use of the 12 premises." 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. I do -- I think 14 it covers it. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll make a motion that 16 we -- we probably should have an agreement, though, as to 17 what we're giving to them. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: This is a one-time 19 shot, and they -- we can do an agreement for years out later 20 on if we want to. 21 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Well, we don't have 22 on record the request from Arts and Crafts for the official 23 use of Flat Rock Lake Park, exclusive or otherwise. 24 MR. MILLER: Can I make that request? 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yes, you can. 4-26-04 32 1 MR. MILLER: I'd like to formally make a 2 request for the exclusive use of Flat Rock Lake Park from 3 May 27th through the 31st. 4 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Now you're getting 5 closer. 6 MR. MILLER: 2004. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I move that -- that 8 that request be adopted. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 10 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I'll second it. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded to 13 grant the request of the Texas Arts and Crafts -- Texas 14 State Arts and Crafts Educational Foundation to use the Flat 15 Rock Lake Park premises for the period May 27th through 16 May 31st. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Exclusive -- the word 18 "exclusive," I think, is the big word. Good word. 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I was going to raise 20 that point. Exclusive. But, in doing so, when we say 21 exclusive, is it our intention to keep fishermen out from 22 the fishing pier and so forth? 23 MR. MILLER: No. 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. I didn't think 25 so. "Exclusive" ought to be in there, Judge. 4-26-04 33 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. You adopt that into 2 your motion? 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yes, I do. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: All right. Second? 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: All right. Any further 7 questions or discussion? All in favor of the motion, 8 signify by raising your right hand. 9 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 10 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 11 (No response.) 12 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I was going to mention 14 something to Commissioner Williams, but I'll do it after the 15 meeting. It's really -- 16 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, Mr. Miller. 18 MR. MILLER: Thank you, Judge. 19 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Judge, with 20 Mr. Miller and Mr. Holekamp both here, just let me pass on 21 to them some information I just received this morning in my 22 office at the Ingram Dam Cafe. (Laughter.) The F.F.A. has 23 expressed a concern about the new barbed wire fence that's 24 close to the -- to the rodeo arena. 25 MR. MILLER: Yes, sir? 4-26-04 34 1 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: And they're 2 concerned about the youthful riders getting tangled up in 3 that barbed wire fence, to the extent that they blocked off 4 that area last Friday night to keep riders out of there. 5 Will the two of you look into that and see if there's 6 anything that needs to be done? 7 MR. MILLER: Okay. Let me -- let me -- it's 8 not going to be an easy solution. Number one is, we pulled 9 our fence back from the rodeo arena; actually, our lease 10 agreement -- the boundary of our lease agreement is the side 11 of the rodeo arena. We pulled it back, because when we were 12 out there looking at where we were going to fence it, they 13 had an event out there and they had some bleachers in that 14 area, so I pulled the fence back so they could always put 15 bleachers back there. I wasn't aware that they used that 16 portion. It's outside of the arena proper, in truth. 17 Before our fence was there, it was open field from their 18 fence on out, so I didn't -- there was nobody -- no way for 19 us to be aware it was a problem. The barbed wire we need, 20 'cause that keeps nonpaying people out of the park, to have 21 a strand of barbed wire across the top. 22 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: I don't know what 23 the solution is. We just -- I'm just kind of tipping you 24 off that that -- that complaint may come forward. 25 MR. MILLER: Okay. 4-26-04 35 1 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Maybe we need to 2 block it off. I don't know. 3 MR. MILLER: Well, that's what they did for 4 the event; they put up panels at each end to block off the 5 use of it. And I wasn't there over the weekend. I'm not 6 sure how they used it, but -- or did they actually use that? 7 'Cause it was raining. 8 MR. HOLEKAMP: No, they used the arena Friday 9 night. 10 MR. MILLER: Did they? 11 MR. HOLEKAMP: Yeah. 12 MR. MILLER: It all worked out for them, the 13 way it was blocked off. 14 MR. HOLEKAMP: Yeah -- well, sort of. But -- 15 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: That's not on the 16 agenda, Glenn. I just -- 17 MR. HOLEKAMP: No. 18 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: I found it 19 convenient, with both of you here, to go ahead and say it. 20 MR. HOLEKAMP: Commissioner Nicholson, you're 21 right, we had several parents that brought it to our 22 attention last week, the concerns of the barbed wire. And I 23 guess it -- it's really not an ideal place to use barbed 24 wire. Barbed wire is for livestock, primarily. With 25 children playing, it's rather dangerous. But if -- if we 4-26-04 36 1 need to, we can do some barricading to keep them off of it, 2 possibly. 3 MR. MILLER: We can sure work on that. It's 4 just one strand of barbed wire across the top; it's not a 5 five-strand barbed wire fence or anything -- no, it is too. 6 It is a five-strand. 7 MR. HOLEKAMP: It is a five-strand. 8 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: According to the 9 F.F.A., it is. 10 MR. MILLER: Part of it is and part of it 11 isn't. 12 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: We'll deal with 13 that. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 15 MR. MILLER: We'll work on that. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Is that it for that agenda 17 item, gentlemen? 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I hope so. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Let's move on to the next 20 agenda item, consider, discuss, and take appropriate action 21 to grant permission to the Texas Arts and Crafts Educational 22 Foundation to utilize Kerr County's well at the Youth 23 Exhibit Center grounds to augment irrigation for the River 24 Star Arts Park grounds, with all expenses associated 25 therewith to be borne by the Texas Arts and Crafts 4-26-04 37 1 Educational Foundation. 2 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: It is what it says, 3 Judge. The Arts and Crafts people probably could use some 4 extra water to irrigate their grounds in this growing season 5 to get it up to where it needs to be. We all know that they 6 have city water, but we all know what rate they have to pay 7 to use it. And so, what all this would do would be having 8 the Court give permission for them, if they chose, to do 9 what is necessary to take water from our well and get it 10 over to their grounds. That's -- if they don't want to do 11 it, they don't have to do it. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Is there a pump in that well? 13 MR. HOLEKAMP: No. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think it's a good idea. 16 It's a -- one, it helps Arts and Crafts Foundation, and two, 17 it puts a pump in that well that, several times in the past 18 in severe droughts, we've tried to find a way to have water 19 to allow public use. This would, all of a sudden, give the 20 County a pump in that well. Part of the deal is that, if 21 the County needs the water, we can use it too. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Mr. Holekamp? 23 MR. HOLEKAMP: Is anything going to have to 24 be addressed with the Headwaters or anything on this 25 particular well? Or -- 4-26-04 38 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: It's a permitted 2 well, isn't it? 3 MR. HOLEKAMP: Huh? 4 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: It's a permitted 5 well, is it not? 6 MR. HOLEKAMP: I'm not aware of it. That was 7 many, many, many, many, many years ago. 8 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Then it's 9 grandfathered in. 10 MR. MILLER: I have met with the Headwaters 11 people and asked them specifically what the limitations were 12 to the use of that well. We would be under the pumping -- 13 you know, their normal pumping limits on the well. They use 14 it as a monitoring well. I asked them, if we put a pump in 15 it, would that, you know, keep them from using it as a 16 monitoring well? And they said absolutely not. It would 17 not be a problem to them at all. Really, the only question 18 at this point is, what is the down-hole condition of the 19 well? I don't think anybody knows, 'cause I don't think 20 it's been used in a long time. We just have to get that 21 checked out. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 23 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Motion to approve, 24 Judge. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: And second? 4-26-04 39 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 3 approval of the agenda item. Any further question or 4 discussion? All in favor of the motion, signify by raising 5 your right hand. 6 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 7 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 8 (No response.) 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion carries. 10 MR. MILLER: Thank you, gentlemen. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, Mr. Miller. The 12 next item is consider, discuss, and take appropriate action 13 on a resolution authorizing designated signators for the 14 Texas Community Development Program Contract TBA-2004.P2. 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Judge, this -- this 16 is another in our series of fundings for the Kerrville South 17 wastewater project. It'll be the latest funding that was 18 approved, and it is the required resolution that sets out 19 who handles the vouchers and who handles the dollars and who 20 signs and who is the chief executive officer, which will be 21 the County Judge, and other signators, which will be the 22 Treasurer and so forth and so on. So, it's rather 23 perfunctory; it's a requirement of the grant. I would move 24 its adoption. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 4-26-04 40 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 2 approval of the agenda item. This is essentially what we've 3 done in each case? 4 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yes. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: In each of the new Kerrville 6 South wastewater contracts? 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yes, sir. The only 8 other thing is, in the -- the others, in addition to you, I 9 have been designated as a signator as well. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Question I have is -- 12 it's the wording of it. It just says "Commissioners Court 13 designates County Judge, County Clerk, and County 14 Commissioner." I mean -- 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Because typically 16 Grantworks, when they prepare these, doesn't know who the 17 Commissioner is. In our case, it's been me. If you want, 18 we can change that to you. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No, I don't want to sign. 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I think we can modify 21 it to put a name in there, but -- but by court order, it has 22 been me in the past. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It would be cleaner -- 24 because of this being so specific, I would say "County 25 Commissioner, Precinct 2." 4-26-04 41 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: We can do that. We 2 can add that -- we can change it. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Or the Commissioner of 4 the precinct. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, either way. It 6 seems odd having it singular. 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: We can amend it that 8 way and reprepare it. Kathy can do that, and we can add 9 either my name or my precinct, whichever you think is 10 appropriate. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: To me, precinct. 12 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Fine. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay? Would that -- I assume 14 that -- 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That's acceptable. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: -- becomes part of your motion 17 and second? 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yes. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Any further questions or 20 discussion? All in favor of the motion, signify by raising 21 your right hand. 22 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 23 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 24 (No response.) 25 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. Next 4-26-04 42 1 item is a companion item; consider, discuss, and take 2 appropriate action on Grantworks Administrative Contract for 3 the 2004 Community Development Project, the last funding 4 phase for that Kerrville South wastewater project. 5 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: This is the follow-up 6 action, Judge, to the RFP in which Grantworks was chosen as 7 the administrative group to handle the dollars and all the 8 paperwork that goes with the federal and state funding. I 9 move adoption -- 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 11 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: -- of the contract. 12 Thank you. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 14 approval of the agenda item. Any -- any question or 15 discussion? 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Has the County Attorney 17 reviewed this? I'm sure it's the same form as the last one. 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: It is exactly the 19 same form. It has been reviewed earlier, originally. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And the numbers remain 21 the same? Do you think that the consultant fee has been 22 25,000? 23 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: The numbers haven't 24 changed, no. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: The fee amounts are 4-26-04 43 1 the same? 2 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Mm-hmm, yes, sir. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Very good. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think -- 5 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Those fee amounts 6 are paid out of the grant. 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: They'll come out of 8 the grant, yeah. They'll come out of the grant. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think they -- when they 10 did the RFP's, that was the amount they bid, was 25,000, so 11 that's -- 12 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: It reflects their 13 RFP. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Reflects their RFP. 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Right. 16 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Move to approve. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: I think we've got that 18 already. 19 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Oh, we did? 20 MS. PIEPER: Yes. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Any further question or 22 discussion? All in favor of the motion, signify by raising 23 your right hand. 24 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 25 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 4-26-04 44 1 (No response.) 2 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. 3 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: And with that, the 4 County Judge is authorized to sign; is that correct? 5 JUDGE TINLEY: That would be the same on the 6 previous one, I assume, also? Okay. Okay, next item on the 7 agenda is consider and discuss naming county representatives 8 to a committee to study and recommend local government 9 incentives to be made available to businesses expanding 10 operations or commencing new operations in Kerr County. I 11 placed this on the agenda. It's basically an economic 12 development initiative. Traditionally, when we have a -- an 13 existing business that wants to expand their operations 14 significantly, or new operation that's thinking about coming 15 into Kerr County, and they contact the various leadership in 16 the county, one of the first questions they ask is, what 17 incentives are available to me; i.e. tax abatements, 18 business development grants, tax increment financing, all of 19 these various economic development possibilities. At the 20 present time, unless there's something I've missed along the 21 way, the answer that they get is pretty standard. It's, "I 22 don't know." 23 I would like, in order to be able to 24 encourage the right kind of addition to our tax base -- and 25 I think we need to transition our tax base and redistribute 4-26-04 45 1 it more towards the business end of it. I think it's 2 probably made more evident by the fact that we just got 3 through with the freeze on the residential homesteads of the 4 elderly and the disabled. We need to be in a position to 5 give these people a better response, if that's possible. 6 And, so, what I have done -- and have I talked informally 7 with K.I.S.D. and City representatives about the possibility 8 of forming a committee with representatives from each of 9 these entities, as well as economic development interest 10 stakeholders, to, number one, first see what incentives are 11 available. I don't think any of us, at this point, know 12 really what the full list of incentives are that could be 13 offered. What we might be able to offer, if any, is going 14 to be different, in all probability, with what the City 15 might be able to offer, or the school. But I think we all 16 need to know collectively what is available. 17 Secondly, I think we need to know what our 18 competition has made available or is offering for -- to the 19 same or similar type prospective business operations, and 20 hopefully -- hopefully come up with a matrix or a schedule 21 in which a prospective business operation, when that inquiry 22 is made, is handed a fairly definitive itemization of what 23 incentives are available, depending upon the amount of 24 capital investments, depending upon the number of jobs 25 created and even the types of those jobs, wage scales, 4-26-04 46 1 possibly factor into it any additional infrastructure costs 2 that are required from the local governments. Even if we 3 don't get there, I think we'll -- the educational process 4 will be good. We'll be that much further ahead just knowing 5 what's available, and secondly, what the competition is 6 doing. But the ultimate goal is to come up with a schedule; 7 when they make that inquiry, to hand it to them and say, 8 "Here it is." You don't have to wait around for months 9 while it's debated and it becomes a political football or 10 other difficulties. This is nothing -- nothing more than a 11 look at economic development opportunities. 12 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Judge, it's a good 13 thing to do, and I will remind the Court that, oh, I guess 14 18 months or so ago, Bob Waller, who's now the current 15 chairman of the KEDF, attempted to do this sort of on an ad 16 hoc basis, and he brought together for a series of meetings 17 KEDF, the Chamber, City officials, County, those of us who 18 serve on that board and others, school and so forth, in an 19 attempt to develop that -- this very thing, and -- and 20 reduce to it some sort of a matrix and package so that when 21 somebody does come into town and seeks that information, we 22 can just hand them a package and say, "Here it is." That's 23 better than saying, "We don't know," which is what we say 24 now. So, I would support the idea. And I think, 25 probably -- I don't know if you're talking about forming a 4-26-04 47 1 committee or just authorizing us to participate in that 2 discussion fostered by some other agency; I'm not sure which 3 way you're going with it. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, I don't think there's 5 any particular desire to be the -- the former of the 6 committee. I certainly think we need to participate in it, 7 and I think there needs to be a -- a group that -- that 8 organizes and forms for that purpose. And, as I said, I've 9 informally talked with -- with the City representatives and 10 school representatives, and they think it's a great idea. 11 We -- we think we'd like to get in, be part of it. I -- 12 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I would -- I would 13 move that. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Wait a minute. 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I just want to get 16 this on the table. We'll continue discussion. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: All right. 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: 'Cause I had an idea 19 I wanted to embody in it, that the Court approve the naming 20 of County representatives to a committee to recommend local 21 government incentives, and that we ask the KEDF to form that 22 committee. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's fine. Is that 24 a motion? 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That would be, yes. 4-26-04 48 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. 2 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: I second. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. The -- you want 4 to call it? 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Hmm? 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: There's a motion and 7 second made. Is there any discussion? Yes. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Oh. (Laughter.) 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thought I'd just jump 10 in. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: I'm sorry, I was asleep over 12 here. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I -- I agree; I think 14 that we need to do it. We have talked -- this body has 15 talked about tax abatements in years past under Judge 16 Denson, and had some great discussions, and I have some 17 great ideas, I think, and some thoughts about tax 18 abatements. My thinking has not gone beyond tax abatements 19 themselves. I've looked at and studied it. I have friends 20 around the state that do that, and they actually go out on a 21 stump and speak about it. But I don't -- I don't see the 22 benefit of us getting together with the City or the school 23 district, because we're going to find that the authorities 24 of the different government entities are going to be 25 different; that we're not going to have the same authority 4-26-04 49 1 as the City, per se. So, I think that you probably need to 2 form a couple of members of this body to put together what 3 -- what our authority is, and that list, as far as the 4 County is concerned, and then we need to step out there and 5 put that, then, with the overall body or group. 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That would be done. 7 That would be the idea, sure. 8 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: I really support any 9 efforts to -- to bring new commerce, new jobs, better jobs 10 to Kerr County, and I support this effort. It's -- it's 11 necessary to have a package ready when somebody inquires, 12 but on top of that, I'd like to see somebody take the lead 13 on it. I would think it would be KEDF, but I don't know. 14 And -- and be -- instead of just passively waiting for 15 somebody coming around asking, be proactive; go out there, 16 be aggressive in trying to bring the right kind of new 17 enterprise to Kerr County. I think some other counties and 18 cities have done a pretty good job of trying recruit 19 suppliers for -- for the new Toyota facility in San Antonio, 20 and I'm disappointed that we don't have the -- the 21 infrastructure, the capability to do those kinds of things. 22 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Let me throw a 23 comment or two on top of that, Commissioner. I think there 24 has been a really renewed and redoubled effort on the part 25 of KEDF -- reconstituted maybe is a better descriptive 4-26-04 50 1 adjective. After splitting off from the Chamber and having 2 a -- and then setting up a whole separate board and separate 3 leadership and separate executive director, there have been 4 renewed efforts, and this is one of the key components, as 5 you all know and I know, that the executive director needs 6 to get that done. They've made a lot of inquiries, but 7 they've also had a lot of -- a lot of opportunities to say, 8 you know, "We don't know. No, we haven't put that together 9 yet." 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think it's a -- I mean, 11 I -- I like the idea, but I have -- I'm trying to figure out 12 how to -- it's a big task. In my mind, I think KEDF is the 13 -- I like using them, 'cause that's what they're supposed to 14 be doing; we provide funding over there. And, so, there's a 15 couple of things that are going through my mind. I think it 16 was under -- when Bob Denson was Judge. I don't even 17 remember who it was -- Buster, you might remember -- that 18 came in; that we discussed this at length, and there was, by 19 some members of the Court at the time -- or some members 20 that aren't on the Court now were very much opposed to doing 21 anything. And what that brings to mind, to me, is that, 22 with the turnover that comes on this Court and City Council 23 and other entities, you know, I hate to spend a whole lot of 24 time, because I can almost assure you it isn't going to fly 25 in two years. You know, I'm thinking -- but my memory tells 4-26-04 51 1 me it was Commissioner Oehler at the time was very much 2 against doing it. And I can't -- I forgot who it was that 3 we were talking about doing something with. But any kind of 4 abatement, I think it's -- that we need to know what we can 5 do. I like knowing our authorities and things of that 6 nature, and what schools can do and what the cities can do. 7 I don't know why KEDF can't look at all three and come 8 report back to the entities, 'cause I just -- it's something 9 that I think that we're not doing our jobs if we don't 10 pursue it; at least know what we can do. And -- 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I agree. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- when it comes to 13 schools, I think that -- I don't know if the Judge talked to 14 more than one school district or not, but -- 15 JUDGE TINLEY: I just talked to the one. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Because of the layout of 17 these districts, you clearly -- in my mind, KEDF needs to 18 talk to Comfort, Center Point, Ingram, and Kerrville. I 19 don't know that Hunt really has -- you know, I think they 20 certainly could be involved, but because of the way they 21 fall, right next to the airport you have Center Point, and 22 all of -- what's that place called out here? 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Whiskey Canyon. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: All of Whiskey Canyon is 25 Comfort. Anything going in big out there, you know, you 4-26-04 52 1 have to get that school on board on it as well. And I think 2 that if we don't, you know, get all those school districts 3 kind of at least, you know, in line, you kind of come up 4 with the same thing. "Well, if you're over here on this 5 side of the street, you can do this, but over here we don't 6 know." Which makes us look as bad as we are right now. 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That's a good point. 8 I'm not sure that KEDF, if they become the umbrella to make 9 this map, is fully aware of that. That's a good point. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But, to me, the first 11 step is you have to research. You go to the County, City -- 12 I don't care how they come up with it; find out what schools 13 can do, what cities/municipalities can do, what counties can 14 do, and then go to the entities and say, "Here's what you 15 can do. Are you willing to participate?" That's the 16 approach that I would recommend. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: No question but what the 18 educational process is -- is step one. That's the only way 19 you're going to get there, is to first know what -- what's 20 available. And whatever it takes to initiate that process 21 to start this educational step, I -- I think we need to do 22 that. Whether it's done by -- by KEDF or some members of 23 county government working with KEDF, city government, school 24 district government, whatever, working with KEDF, we just 25 need to get the process going. 4-26-04 53 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Or it's not going to go along. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. Well, with -- 4 based on the motion that Commissioner Williams made, we -- 5 he said utilizing KEDF. My recommendation would be to pass 6 that motion, or proceed with that motion, and then, at the 7 next KEDF meeting -- which I believe both of y'all are 8 members. 9 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Next week. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Next week. Bring it up, 11 and if they're willing to take it on, let them do it. If 12 they're not, come back; we'll figure out another way for the 13 County to figure out what the County can do. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: As good a way as any to do it, 15 but we'll start. 16 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay? 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That Letz is wise, 19 isn't he? 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Wise. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: We had have a motion and 23 second on the table for -- let me get you to restate your 24 motion. 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Well, let's see if I 4-26-04 54 1 can remember how I stated it. That -- that we name county 2 representatives to a committee to study and recommend local 3 government incentives to be made available to businesses 4 expanding operations or commencing operations in Kerr 5 County, and urge the KEDF to be the sponsoring agency to get 6 that work underway. 7 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: That's good. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Any further discussion 9 of the motion as stated? 10 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: We've got a wise man 11 and a wordsmith. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: All in favor of the motion, 13 signify by raising your right hand. 14 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 15 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 16 (No response.) 17 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. Next 18 item is consider approving road names for privately 19 maintained roads in accordance with 9-1-1 guidelines. 20 Ms. Hardin. 21 MS. HARDIN: We have nine private roads, and 22 I have one correction to make on the -- the next to the last 23 road, and that would be Flintlock instead of Flint Rock, all 24 one word. 25 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: L-o-c-k? 4-26-04 55 1 MS. HARDIN: Yes. And your backup material 2 is all correct. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So moved. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 5 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: We've got a Six 6 Shooter, a Bronco, a Flintlock. It's the wild west out 7 there. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Out in your area. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Didn't you second? 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yes, sir. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. We have a motion and 12 second for approval of the agenda item, with the correction. 13 Any further question or discussion? All in favor of the 14 motion, signify by raising your right hand. 15 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 16 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 17 (No response.) 18 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. Next 19 item on the agenda, accept the presentation of the '02-'03 20 Audit Report by Pressler Thompson and Company. 21 MR. TOMLINSON: Good morning. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Good morning. 23 MR. TOMLINSON: I've invited Doug Sundberg 24 from the firm to come present the '02-'03 audit, and for you 25 to have the opportunity to ask any questions about -- about 4-26-04 56 1 his comments. We're slightly late with this presentation 2 this year as a result of -- of finalizing the -- the dreaded 3 conversion to GASB-34 statements. And the statements that's 4 in front of you conform to GASB-34, and all -- the statement 5 plus the -- the single audit report is -- is all-inclusive 6 in the statement. So, with the exception of -- of the 7 evaluation of -- of the infrastructure, we -- that's not 8 required for this year for anything that's -- that's with 9 the limitation of $500,000 or more. We didn't have 10 anything, so we are -- together with Truby and Leonard, we 11 are in the process of doing that. We're -- we've had a 12 meeting, and we're -- we're -- we have plans to -- to 13 complete that by the end of this fiscal year. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Are you talking about 15 the actual county roads and things like that, actual 16 properties? 17 MR. TOMLINSON: Yes. The right-of-ways, the 18 roads themselves, any bridges, low-water crossings. 19 That's -- that's about it. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's going to be 21 tough to do. What's the value of a -- of Letz' new bridge? 22 What's the value of a low-water crossing? 23 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Or the one that he 24 lost. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, we can tell you 4-26-04 57 1 what the value of his is. A lot. 2 MR. TOMLINSON: Well, my approach is to -- to 3 have -- to have Leonard estimate the actual cost of 4 construction today of -- of a facility, whether it be a road 5 or bridge or low-water crossing. And then the next question 6 comes to -- as to when the original road was -- came to the 7 county. And if we -- I mean, I know that some of those 8 situations are going to be an estimate, but what my plans 9 are is to use the current price deflater table, which I got 10 from -- from the Comptroller's office, and we will deflate 11 the current price or the construction price today back using 12 that table to go back to the original cost. 13 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: To construct a road? 14 MR. TOMLINSON: Yes. 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Does that take into 16 account the cost of the right-of-way? 17 MR. TOMLINSON: No, the right-of-way is 18 separate. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: The value of the 20 right-of-way? 21 MR. TOMLINSON: The right-of-way's separate. 22 We do -- I'll get an appraisal -- a current appraisal of 23 property in a given area. We know how many acres are -- are 24 within one road, and I'll place a value-per-acre on current 25 prices; do the same thing, devalue that current price back 4-26-04 58 1 to the date of the original -- or when it became the 2 County's property. And, if any of those properties exceed 3 $500,000, then they will be included in the amount that we 4 record as infrastructure. They're -- the Comptroller's 5 office has -- has put a limitation of $500,000 -- a floor of 6 $500,000.00 any property or any structure, that anything 7 over that amount, then we -- we include as -- as an asset in 8 the financial statements. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And if it's under 500, 10 you don't include it? 11 MR. TOMLINSON: Don't include it. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Do you aggregate 13 everything under it? 14 MR. TOMLINSON: I think that's -- I think 15 they -- each road stands on its own, because they're all 16 different. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So, you -- you do the 18 roads individually? 19 MR. TOMLINSON: Yes, we'll do the roads 20 individually. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So, right-of-way's not 22 right-of-way. I mean -- 23 MR. TOMLINSON: Yeah, it is. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Right-of-way's 25 right-of-way? 4-26-04 59 1 MR. TOMLINSON: It is, but it's separate, 2 because it's not depreciable. The land is not depreciable. 3 So -- so, they become -- the land itself is separate from 4 the road. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Tommy, is that -- I mean, 7 I guess that -- you know, if that's the edict from the 8 Comptroller. Makes no sense to me, though. Just if it's 9 less than 500,000, you don't aggregate it. I mean, to me, I 10 can see not keeping track of it as a line item, but I 11 don't -- I mean, you could change road names every so often, 12 and not have to count -- 13 MR. TOMLINSON: Well, I have -- I'm not 14 absolutely sure about that answer, but I -- I have not seen 15 in their -- in their directives that you -- that you 16 aggregate it. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's nether here nor 18 there. I mean, I think it's -- I don't understand why they 19 would do it that way, but -- what about prescriptive 20 easements? 21 MR. TOMLINSON: Not included. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Not included? Does Road 23 and Bridge have a -- I guess -- well, how do they know 24 what's prescriptive and what's not prescriptive? 25 MR. TOMLINSON: Well, I think -- I think we 4-26-04 60 1 know. I mean, according to the road list that -- that Truby 2 and Leonard have, we know. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well -- and I'll just 4 take a road that I'm familiar with, which is Lane Valley. 5 Lane Valley has -- you know, a little piece here is deeded, 6 and this will be prescriptive for the next mile, then a 7 little piece here is deeded. And it's happened because, 8 over time, people -- usually when property changes hands, 9 people want to get rid of the -- paying taxes on this little 10 bit. But you have roads -- most roads in my precinct are 11 both. And, I mean, if they have a way to accurately tell -- 12 I guess I probably need to go to Road and Bridge. I'd love 13 to see a map as to what's prescriptive and what's deeded. 14 MR. TOMLINSON: Well, that's -- you know, 15 that's the issue that we're going to have, you know, to 16 face. And -- 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, it hasn't been 18 that many years since Kerr County's required deeds. It's 19 only been, like, 13 or 14 years. 20 MR. TOMLINSON: Since '81. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: '81 since we started 22 requiring deeds, like subdivisions and that kind of thing. 23 So, you can separate all those. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. I mean, those 25 will be easier, but I'm -- like, on the older roads, 4-26-04 61 1 whenever we've done -- on Lazy Valley, when we did -- and 2 Stoneleigh, we did all that construction. Whenever we've 3 gone in and done any work, we've converted all those from 4 prescriptive to deed. 5 MR. TOMLINSON: Maybe I can get you to help 6 me. 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: When does our audit 8 have to reflect the inclusion of the value of these roads? 9 What year? Beginning when? 10 MR. TOMLINSON: '81. 11 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Pardon? 12 MR. TOMLINSON: They -- well, the way we're 13 going approach it is to go back as far as we can. 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I know, but it's not 15 included in here. 16 MR. TOMLINSON: It's not included. 17 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: So, what year will it 18 show up? 19 MR. TOMLINSON: Next year. 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Next year. And that 21 will mean that our asset -- our net assets will be increased 22 by an "X" factor, whatever that is; is that correct? All of 23 a sudden? 24 MR. TOMLINSON: Well, it'll be the net of -- 25 of the original cost, less depreciation. 4-26-04 62 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. 2 MR. TOMLINSON: Land -- the land itself or 3 the right-of-way will be at cost. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Definitely increase. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 6 MR. TOMLINSON: Okay. Doug? 7 (Discussion off the record.) 8 MR. SUNDBERG: Good morning, Your Honor, 9 Commissioners. Well, it's here. Let's start out on what's 10 labeled as Page 2, the Independent Auditor's Report. And 11 the third paragraph down starts out by saying, "In our 12 opinion, the financial statements referred to above present 13 fairly, in all material respects, the respective financial 14 position..." of all the entities of Kerr County. And then 15 the next paragraph points out that we are now -- we have now 16 implemented the new reporting model, GASB-34 required, and 17 the Management's Discussion and Analysis. In essence, a 18 clean opinion. From there through about Page 13 is the 19 Management Discussion and Analysis that, unless somebody 20 wants to go through it, I'll let you read that and go 21 through it at your own pace and -- and can ask Tommy 22 whatever questions you may have regarding that. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I have a question. 24 MR. SUNDBERG: Yes? 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Was that the management 4-26-04 63 1 schedule written by your firm or by you or by Tommy? 2 MR. SUNDBERG: No, by Tommy. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It wasn't -- weren't we 4 told that we needed to write this at our conference? 5 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I thought I heard 6 that. 7 MR. TOMLINSON: I gave you a copy of it about 8 three weeks ago to look over. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'm glad you did this 10 year, but it's just something that, I mean, is -- 11 MR. TOMLINSON: And Commissioner Williams 12 made -- made some comments. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 14 MR. TOMLINSON: But I think it's about, 15 like -- actually, two weeks ago I sent everybody a copy, 16 along with a memo to review and either -- make any 17 recommendations that we want to make. So, it came time 18 for -- for us to have to send these audits out to different 19 places. I know, as far as Commissioner Williams, with the 20 -- with O.R.C.A., they were -- they were really adamant 21 about getting their -- their audit report by, actually, 22 March 31st. And, so, there -- there are state agencies that 23 have been requesting audit reports, and so I -- you know, I 24 made my own decision to go ahead and -- since I didn't hear 25 anything, to go ahead and finalize the report so I could 4-26-04 64 1 give them that. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'm glad you did. I was 3 just curious. I think next year, just more for us than 4 anyone, we should spend a little more time on it. 5 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I didn't realize that 6 the memo Tommy circulated -- my comments was going to end up 7 in print here. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. Thank you. 9 MR. SUNDBERG: Okay? We'll jump over to Page 10 15, which is the Government-Wide Statement of Net Assets. 11 This is the first new statement under GASB-34. This puts 12 the County under full accrual accounting basis. The first 13 column, the Governmental Activities, represents all the 14 funds of the County. Whether they be the general operating 15 or whether they be debt service, those that used to be 16 classified as special revenue are all under this one column. 17 The only ones that aren't there are what's in the second 18 column, which is the Business-Type Activities, which is the 19 Juvenile Detention Facility, and what was labeled as trust 20 and agency over the fiduciary funds, those that you just 21 maintain for other entities, those are not included in this 22 column. What it does include also is the capital assets. 23 You notice down in the current -- current assets, all the 24 capital assets that used to be classified under the fixed 25 asset column are now included here. Also, in addition to 4-26-04 65 1 that is the debt. The -- the bonds and notes payable, the 2 capital leases, et cetera, are included down in the 3 Liabilities section. 4 Under the Net Assets section, they're a 5 little different in that we are reporting things as 6 restricted or unrestricted, whereas in the past, it was -- 7 we had fund balance or maybe you had designated a certain 8 item or something. Here they're restricted in -- in that an 9 outside party has -- has restricted those assets for a 10 particular person -- not person. Particular activity. The 11 first item there is "Invested in Capital Assets, Net of 12 Related Debt." That number represents the total assets less 13 depreciation up above, less the debt associated with that. 14 The Restricted section, for debt service and all other 15 purposes, is basically what was in the special revenue 16 section, which was for those particular funds, whichever 17 ones they were in. So, the general operating fund has an 18 unrestricted fund balance of -- of 4.4 million. The second 19 column, which is the business activities or the Juvenile 20 Detention Facility, really isn't much different than what 21 we've been reporting on in the past, because that has 22 already been on the full -- on full accrual basis. It's 23 just all the other County activities. 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Doug, is the -- 25 Column 2, Business-Type Activities, is the Juvenile 4-26-04 66 1 Detention Center the only thing incorporated into that? 2 MR. SUNDBERG: Yes. 3 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. 4 MR. SUNDBERG: Yes. The next page, on 5 Page -- 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Before you get off this -- 7 MR. SUNDBERG: Sure. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: -- statement of assets, you 9 show a receivable there, "Due from Insurance Company." 10 MR. SUNDBERG: Yes. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Where did you get that figure? 12 MR. SUNDBERG: That figure is that health 13 insurance claim that you have that has been unpaid. And we 14 got that from -- 15 MR. TOMLINSON: That's the net of -- of the 16 amount that we paid, less -- 17 JUDGE TINLEY: The reported reimbursements? 18 MR. TOMLINSON: No, the actual 19 reimbursements. The -- I think the net is -- is, what, two 20 hundred and -- 21 MR. SUNDBERG: 230,000. 22 MR. TOMLINSON: 230,000. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Did you give him that 24 figure, in essence? 25 MR. TOMLINSON: Yes. 4-26-04 67 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Okay. 2 MR. SUNDBERG: One other thing I'll point -- 3 glad you mentioned that. One other thing I'll point out 4 there just above that number is Receivables, is Court Fines 5 and Fees. This is -- Tommy went back and analyzed clear 6 back, from whenever to the current, what was still due on 7 various fines and fees the courts have assessed, less an 8 allowance that has been taken into account, and that's the 9 figure that we came up with, which has never been reported 10 before. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: You did age -- did an age 12 analysis to determine collectability, basically? 13 MR. SUNDBERG: Right. 14 MR. TOMLINSON: Yeah, I did a 10-year running 15 average and I determined how much was collected in each 16 court for -- for a 10-year period, and I -- then I applied 17 that -- that ratio to the outstanding fines and fees that 18 were as of 9/30, and that's how I arrived at -- at the 19 reserve part that I did. There -- it's quite enlightening 20 to see the difference in the three -- in the county, 21 district, and J.P. courts as to what -- as to how much is 22 collected out of the fines and fees that are assessed in 23 Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, and Year 4. And, for instance, in 24 the J.P. courts, probably 80 -- probably 85 percent of the 25 fines and fees are collected in the first year and a half. 4-26-04 68 1 Then, when you get past four years, it's zero. And it's 2 essentially the same thing with the County Court at Law, 3 except it extends it somewhat. And then, when you get into 4 district court, there -- there's relatively zero by -- you 5 know, by the time you get to seven, eight years. After -- 6 after that period of time, there's -- there's just not much 7 effort or ability to collect, you know, those fines and 8 fees. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. I think the problem is 10 we don't have the legislative authorization to do a lot of 11 things with the district court fines and fees that we have 12 available to us in the County Court at Law -- the 13 misdemeanors. 14 MR. TOMLINSON: Yeah, that's correct. We -- 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Maybe or maybe not. 16 Maybe not. Maybe. No one's decided whether you have the 17 authority or not. No one's ever tested it. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: I think there's a serious 19 concern about the degree of authority we have -- 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I agree. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: -- in the district courts with 22 felony cases. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I agree. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Maybe a better way to put it, 25 yeah. 4-26-04 69 1 MR. SUNDBERG: Anything else? Okay. One 2 thing I would have you note, notice at the bottom of Page 15 3 under the first column, the total net assets of 12 million, 4 261. I want you to keep that in mind, 'cause we'll have a 5 different number when we get to another report over here. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's comforting. 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Creative accounting 8 or what? 9 MR. SUNDBERG: Yes, we can make it read what 10 we want. (Laughter.) The next pages, 16 and 17, are the -- 11 is the Statement of Activities. This is a little 12 considerably different format than what we've had in the 13 past. And the first section there, Governmental Activities, 14 and then you got your Business-Type Activities below that, 15 they're both treated the same way. The first column is your 16 total expenditures under the GASB-34 reporting model, full 17 accrual basis, the 15 million, 522 for the community -- 18 excuse me, the governmental activities. 19 The next columns over -- well, back up. What 20 this report is supposed to do is show you where the revenue 21 comes to support -- comes from to support these 22 expenditures, what that revenue is, and then what has to be 23 made up by your governmental revenue taxes, sales tax, et 24 cetera. Okay? And this -- in the governmental activities, 25 you've got 15 million, 522 of total expenditures. 4-26-04 70 1 2.6 million came from charges for services, which included 2 in that line is the Court's fines and fees that we were 3 talking about. That's part of that. Then you've got 4 various other grants, operating grants, construction grants, 5 capital grants, et cetera, that are part of that. And you 6 come up to your governmental activities, net shows that we 7 still had 11,916,000 of expenditures that we still had to 8 have revenue to support. Down below, then, on Page 17, 9 you'll see General Revenues, listing there property taxes 10 levied, sales and other taxes, investment earnings, et 11 cetera, to a tune of 12 million, 9. That covered the 12 11 million deficit, so to speak, up above. So, we had an 13 increase in net assets for the year of $1,012,000 under the 14 full accrual basis of the County. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: A million 12? 16 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I don't see that. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I can't see that 18 number. 19 MR. SUNDBERG: Okay. On Page 17, it's about 20 the third line from the bottom. 21 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay, I do now, yeah. 22 Thank you. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: About a 5 percent -- little 24 over 5 percent gain in overall budgeted expenditures. 25 MR. SUNDBERG: Mm-hmm, right. This is under 4-26-04 71 1 the full accrual basis. Okay. Under the -- the Juvenile 2 Detention Facility, going across into the same basis on that 3 same line, they had a decrease in their net assets of 4 188,000 for the year. 5 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: And the reason for 6 that would be what? 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Incurred -- 8 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Incurred debt? 9 MR. TOMLINSON: Indebtedness. 10 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Debt service on that? 11 MR. SUNDBERG: Well, the additional 12 indebtedness really didn't have anything to do with it, 13 'cause in this -- except for the interest paid on that debt, 14 okay, because the principal payments and -- and capital 15 outlay are not part of these expenditures like they have 16 been in the past. So, the main thing there would have 17 been -- as far as the debt is concerned, would have been the 18 interest paid on that. 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, just -- I mean, so 21 expenses went up or revenue went down? 22 MR. SUNDBERG: Right. Okay. Next page, on 23 Page 18, this -- there's where we come into that different 24 net asset figure I was talking about before. This -- this 25 statement is -- is a little different than what you've had 4-26-04 72 1 before, but it's basically on the modified accrual basis of 2 accounting which has been reported on in the past. The 3 difference here is that we don't have it broken down by 4 general funds, special revenue funds, et cetera. We have it 5 broken down by what -- what the GASB there referred to as 6 "major funds." A major fund is one that their -- I got to 7 look at this to make sure -- where their total assets, 8 liabilities, revenues, or their expenditures are at least 9 10 percent of the total of all funds of that category type, 10 and the total assets, liabilities, revenues, and 11 expenditures of the individual governmental fund are at 12 least 5 percent of the corresponding total of all 13 governmental funds. 14 Under that scenario, the General Fund, which 15 is always a major fund, and the Road and Bridge were the 16 only two that qualified as major funds under this category. 17 All other funds are -- are listed under the Non-Major 18 Governmental Funds column. Like I said before, this is 19 under the modified accrual basis, so in this statement, you 20 don't see your capital assets or your bonds and related debt 21 associated with that. And so we come down to the final 22 column over there of fund balance of 6,082,000, as opposed 23 to the 12 million net assets we saw in the previous balance 24 sheet. 25 The page right next to that, Page 19, 4-26-04 73 1 reconciles that out for us. We take the 6,082,000 that we 2 have included here, the total fund balance, and then we add 3 back -- excuse me -- we add to that the fixed assets, less 4 the accumulated depreciation, less the long-term debt 5 associated with that, and we also add to that -- which is 6 the 5,239,000, and then we also add to that various items 7 that were recognized as revenue that are not included in 8 receivables and so forth that were included on the other 9 report that are not included here because of going from full 10 accrual to modified accrual. Okay? And that gets us down 11 to our 12 million, 261 that we saw on the previous 12 statement. 13 Going to Page 20, here again, is this more in 14 line with what -- how we reported the revenues and 15 expenditures in the past under the modified accrual basis, 16 but here again, under the major and non-major fund 17 categories. Under this, you'll notice that we have, under 18 the far right column, we had a million -- what, a 1,012,000 19 increase in net assets on that previous statement of 20 activities for the year, under the full accrual. Under the 21 modified accrual, you'll see that we have a $460,000 22 decrease. The reason for that, here again, is on Page 22, 23 where we reconcile that out, and mainly it's because of -- 24 under the modified accrual approach, capital asset 25 additions, principal payments on long-term debt, those types 4-26-04 74 1 of things are part of your expenditures. Under the full 2 accrual, they are not. They are used to decrease your debt 3 or increase your fixed assets, as the case may be. Any 4 questions? 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What was your name 6 again? (Laughter.) 7 MR. SUNDBERG: I understand your confusion. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, there is some, 9 'cause you spouted some numbers that are not on my page. 10 MR. SUNDBERG: Is there any questions? I'm 11 going through it kind of fast, I realize. And, you know -- 12 okay. On Pages 23 through 25 is basically the balance 13 sheet, income statement, and statement of cash flows for the 14 Juvenile Detention facility, which are basically the same as 15 we saw on the previous pages. This type of reporting didn't 16 change, like I said, because this was already under the full 17 accrual basis, since it was an enter -- a business-type 18 activity. So, that's -- 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Reserves at the 20 end -- or from Juvenile Detention Center, cash reserves at 21 the end of '03 was 260,746; is that correct? 22 MR. SUNDBERG: The cash reserve? Where are 23 you looking? 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Whatever -- whatever 25 reserves they have. 4-26-04 75 1 MR. SUNDBERG: Oh, okay. Well, at the bottom 2 of Page 23, they have unrestricted net assets or reserves of 3 $727,000. 4 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. 5 MR. SUNDBERG: There's 411 that's restricted 6 for the debt service. 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. 8 MR. SUNDBERG: And a million, six, which is 9 restricted for the project -- the construction out there. 10 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Mm-hmm. 11 MR. SUNDBERG: And then they -- then they 12 have a negative 2.1 million in investment and capital asset. 13 The reason for that is the debt that's -- that's now there. 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: So, again, my 15 question is, what's their operating reserve? 16 MR. SUNDBERG: 727,000. 17 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. 18 MR. TOMLINSON: Commissioner, that would 19 be -- essentially, that would be the cash plus any current 20 receivables that are readily converted into cash. 21 Basically, that's what our current operating reserve is. 22 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Thank you. 23 MR. TOMLINSON: That's oversimplification, 24 but that's essentially it. 25 MR. SUNDBERG: Okay. On Page 26, as I stated 4-26-04 76 1 before, there were several funds -- accounts that were not 2 included previously. That's this statement right here, 3 Statement of -- of Fiduciary Net Assets. This is all the 4 trust and agency accounts that the County is maintaining for 5 other entities. All we're doing is fiduciary capacity, not 6 really part of your net assets or liabilities. Okay. 7 Starting on Page 27, then, is the notes, which basically 8 there's some -- a little different information, but 9 basically the same type of information as you've had in the 10 past. I think you can probably go through and read that, 11 unless there's something that -- questions that someone has. 12 Page -- Pages 40, 41, and 42 is a little different analysis 13 of the debt that you -- that the County has; just kind of 14 gives us a slight analysis of each bond, note, capital lease 15 obligation, et cetera. And then Page 42 just kind of 16 summarizes that to show you the debt that's due as of 17 September 30, '03, and your requirements over the next five 18 years. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Going back -- looking on 20 Page 41 -- 21 MR. SUNDBERG: Mm-hmm? 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- why does the Road and 23 Bridge -- I mean, they -- obviously, they have a lot of 24 leases -- long-term leases as well. Are they somewhere 25 else? 4-26-04 77 1 MR. SUNDBERG: That's all -- that's all part 2 of this. Now, if they were a cap -- you know, if it's an 3 operating lease where they're just leasing the equipment on 4 an annual basis -- 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 6 MR. SUNDBERG: -- that's not a capital lease. 7 That would be capitalized here, or a liability set up for 8 it. These are the capital leases that are, in essence, 9 purchases of that equipment. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. They're over 11 there, too. I see Caterpillar there on the page -- some of 12 them. All right, thank you. 13 MR. SUNDBERG: Okay. I might touch on Pages 14 48 and 49, which is the budget comparison. This is a little 15 different this year also in that, in the past, we've -- 16 we've reported on the final adopted -- or final amended 17 budget, the actual, and then the variance compared to that. 18 This year, we also reflect the original budget as originally 19 adopted, so that you can see the difference between what you 20 originally adopted and what the final amended one came in 21 at. And we present that for both -- for both of the -- what 22 we describe as major funds on the previous statement. So, 23 the General Fund and the Road and Bridge fund are presented 24 here, okay? The only other thing that I would like to 25 mention, unless there's some more questions, is on 67, which 4-26-04 78 1 relates to the federal -- the single audit part of this, the 2 federal grants that you had. The first line there indicates 3 that it was an unqualified opinion on the single audit 4 issues also, and that there were no findings and questioned 5 costs in relation to that. So, here again, that's a clean 6 opinion on that part of it also. The only other thing is 7 the -- is the management letter which you have before you. 8 If there's any other questions, I'd be glad to try to 9 answer. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I think it's very well 11 done. I think that if we see this a couple of times and get 12 accustomed to it, it's going to be simpler for us. 13 MR. SUNDBERG: Right, I agree. 14 MR. TOMLINSON: Next year, in the -- in the 15 management discussion analysis, we will be able to have some 16 comparative summary statements, because we now have one year 17 behind us that we have the information for. So, next year, 18 when we do that same analysis -- when we do the M.D.& A., we 19 can put in '02-'03 and '03-'04, put them side-by-side to be 20 able to compare, you know, the activities of the County 21 between -- between years. So, that would -- that will be 22 helpful to some -- to some people, to be able to see that 23 as -- as a mental picture of what happened as a result of 24 operations. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Excellent. 4-26-04 79 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Doug, on Page 48 -- 2 MR. SUNDBERG: 48, okay. Mm-hmm? 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Excluding Road and 4 Bridge, which is on Page 49, we increased our fund balance 5 $1.13 million last year? Am I reading that right, that -- 6 that final -- 7 MR. SUNDBERG: No. You had budgeted for a 8 deficit of 495,000. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 10 MR. SUNDBERG: Under this analysis, you had 11 an increase of 640,000, so there was a variance of 1.13. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Oh, variance. Okay. 13 MR. SUNDBERG: Okay. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, we increased it 15 640,000. 16 MR. SUNDBERG: Right. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Our fund balance last 18 year. And then, in Road and Bridge, we increased the fund 19 balance there -- 20 MR. SUNDBERG: Actually, there -- 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Decreased it there 83,000 22 -- 82,000. 23 MR. SUNDBERG: Right. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 25 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Are we in compliance 4-26-04 80 1 with GASB-34? 2 MR. SUNDBERG: Yes, to the best of our 3 ability. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: And what you're telling us is 5 that we've got an unqualified and clean opinion? 6 MR. SUNDBERG: Right. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: And, secondly, with regard to 8 the compliance standards with various grants or other 9 compliance requirements we have with state, federal, we have 10 no deficiencies? 11 MR. SUNDBERG: That's correct. 12 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Judge, I would move 13 the Court accept the presentation of the '02-'03 audit as 14 presented by Pressler Thompson and Company. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded to 18 accept the 2002-'03 audit report by Pressler Thompson and 19 Company. Any further question or discussion? All in favor 20 of the motion, signify by raising your right hand. 21 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 22 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 23 (No response.) 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion does carry. We're 25 about at break time. Why don't we stand in recess until, 4-26-04 81 1 oh, between five and ten to 11:00? 2 (Recess taken from 10:39 a.m. to 10:55 a.m.) 3 - - - - - - - - - - 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay, let's come back to 5 order. We were in recess and we'll now resume. Next item 6 on the agenda is consider and discuss approving a 7 proclamation for the National Day of Prayer. Commissioner 8 Williams? 9 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I don't think that's 10 mine, Judge. That's Commissioner Letz. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I believe it was 12 Commissioner 3. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Sorry. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's all right. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: I misread it. I apologize, 16 Commissioner Letz. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: This is just the 18 proclamation that was forwarded to us by -- by Fern -- by 19 Ms. Lancaster, and it's here for approval. I move for 20 approval. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 23 approval of the resolution. All in favor, signify by saying 24 "aye." 25 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 4-26-04 82 1 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. Next 2 item on the agenda is consideration and discussion of a 3 resolution to State Senator Troy Fraser and State 4 Representative Harvey Hilderbran opposing any legislation in 5 the current special session of the State Legislature that 6 has a negative financial impact on county government. 7 Precinct 3, Commissioner Letz. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: This one, actually, you 9 can probably refer to Commissioner Williams, 'cause he 10 helped draft this. I did the first draft; he did the second 11 draft of this. I put this on the agenda and kind of drafted 12 this just because of some of the ideas floating around in 13 Austin these days. And I think we received a -- a 14 memorandum from -- or I received e-mail from Jannett as well 15 related to special session and things, and I just tried to 16 -- and I read some others from other counties that were more 17 specific. I decided that they're going to change whatever 18 they have up there from the original bills that -- that were 19 submitted, so we're trying to make a resolution to keep them 20 from negatively impacting the county. So, I have -- we can 21 make changes, modifications, approve, not approve, whatever. 22 I just put it on for discussion, and that's it. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I think it's a good 24 blanket statement. I know that there are a dozen or so 25 issues floating around, unfunded mandates and other, other, 4-26-04 83 1 other, other things, but this is a good blanket statement 2 and a good start. I would hope that -- there are a couple 3 that are important to me, I think that should be important 4 to all of us, that are just now coming out that -- that, I 5 mean, you see all these things, and we've already joined the 6 affray on the unfunded mandate, but there's a couple of them 7 poking their heads out now that we really are going to take 8 some interest in a little bit later. But this is a good -- 9 this is good. I second his motion, if he'll make one. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move -- I made a 11 motion. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Did you so move? 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I moved. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: All right, and seconded by 16 Commissioner Baldwin. Any further question or discussion? 17 All in favor of the motion, signify by raising your right 18 hand. 19 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 20 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 21 (No response.) 22 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. The 23 next -- 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Thanks to Commissioner 25 Williams for getting the resolution in the proper format for 4-26-04 84 1 resolution. Our wordsmith expert over there assisted in 2 the -- the original draft. 3 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: He's got a lot of 4 expertise on this Court. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. Next item on the agenda 6 is consider, discuss, and approve contract with Global 7 Tel*Link Corporation for the inmate telephone system. 8 Sheriff? 9 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: In our discussions about 10 changing inmate phone system vendors, I put out the word; we 11 decided to accept proposals, and then got proposals from 12 five different vendors. About a week ago, week and a half 13 ago, Judge Tinley and I sat down and went over them. I do 14 have a recommendation, which is this Global Tel*Link. It's 15 a little bit lower percentage of commission rates than what 16 some of the other ones offer, but the equipment and the 17 technology that this one offers is far greater, in my 18 opinion, than what the other ones offer. So, I think we 19 will actually do real well on the commission rates, because 20 of the type of collection stuff they do and type of billing 21 we have, and the equipment itself will allow us to enhance 22 the security in the -- in the jail facility greatly over 23 what we currently have. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: And some of the other 25 offerors, while the percentage commission may have been 4-26-04 85 1 higher, it was on collected rather than actually billed. 2 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Number one, some of them 3 were on collected revenues, not billed revenues, which is a 4 big difference. And, number two, some of them were a higher 5 percentage rate of commission, but also the calls were 6 costing the inmates' families a higher amount, and I didn't 7 really want to get into that, too. This will actually lower 8 it just a little bit. It's a five-year contract. They had 9 in their overall look a sample of the five-year contract, 10 which I did let -- did send to County Attorney Motley. He 11 has also looked at, and I would recommend that we go with 12 this system. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Mr. Motley, I assume that the 14 contract with Global Tel*Link is considerably different than 15 the contract for our current provider? 16 MR. MOTLEY: Very much different. It's a 17 good contract for us. It provides far more options -- 18 services than the other one can, apparently. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Gives us rights and remedies 20 in the event -- 21 MR. MOTLEY: Yes. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: -- there's no performance? 23 MR. MOTLEY: Thirty days notice. If there's 24 a failure of the consideration or the system doesn't work, 25 you got 30 days notice to terminate the contract, and we did 4-26-04 86 1 not have that in the previous contract. The only one 2 question I had about it is, it does have us indemnifying 3 them in there against certain acts of -- of our employees. 4 Generally speaking, the County cannot indemnify another 5 group unless they provide a sinking fund or unless there's 6 certain other things done, one of which would be to boldly 7 set out the fact that County's indemnifying them for certain 8 specific acts, and clearly set out in the contract as 9 another way we could probably get past that. But it's not 10 much indemnification; it's just saying if our people screw 11 something up, we'll be responsible for it. So, I may talk 12 to their representative about that, see if there's some way 13 we can change that language. But, other than that, it's a 14 really good contract, I think. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: David, the -- the out 16 provision for the County is, I guess, as beneficial to the 17 County as we could hope to have? 18 MR. MOTLEY: Well, I -- you know, I would say 19 it's very standard. It's -- it tells that they will -- you 20 know, there is a lot of literature that was provided Rusty 21 apart from the contract, and I don't think it's technically 22 within the letter of the contract, but they talk about the 23 maintenance and how they're wanting to maintain it, how 24 quickly they'll maintain it, to what standard they'll 25 maintain it, what happens in different events. If the, you 4-26-04 87 1 know, electricity goes off and all kind of different things, 2 and -- but, you know, it gives us -- it gives us 30 days -- 3 it gives us 30 days notice if they are not performing up to 4 the -- I don't know. I've got it marked -- hold on a 5 second; I got it marked back here. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And the reason, I'm 7 just -- 8 MR. MOTLEY: I think it's great, and it's 9 great compared to what we have; I can tell you that. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, this is the third 11 phone service contract, since I've been a commissioner, 12 we've had out there. We have -- and each one was a 13 five-year term. So, obviously, we haven't made it yet to 14 our -- or maybe one of the three. We're not progressing too 15 far on these so far, so hopefully this company is a little 16 bit more -- I guess does a better job. 17 MR. MOTLEY: Well, this company certainly -- 18 Rusty was telling you; he didn't share it with you too much, 19 but this company has just a tremendous increase in 20 technology and things that can be done, and the security and 21 additional services that are going to be provided to the 22 jail are just amazing, the way the technology is. It just 23 says if either party is in breach of or default of any terms 24 or conditions of the agreement, and shall continue for a 25 period of 30 days after written -- giving written notice 4-26-04 88 1 thereof to the party, the other party can cancel the 2 contract without any charge or -- 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And the contract's 4 explicit enough as to what they're -- service they're 5 providing? 6 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yes. When you go back 7 to services, it -- Number 3 of the contract states, At no 8 cost to the premise provider, the company shall provide 9 all -- all management services necessary to implement this 10 agreement, and shall be responsible for the furnishing, 11 installing, repairing, and servicing the equipment. The 12 establishment, if and to the extent required by the company, 13 and compliance with all the tariffs, rules and things like 14 that. So, there -- and then they will set out a maintenance 15 schedule to where, if they consider it a catastrophic 16 failure of equipment, like more than, you know -- well, 17 catastrophic, 100 percent of the jail system goes down, and 18 then they have minor and major, doing percentages of the 19 system that goes down and what their response time will be 20 to fix those problems. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Rusty, do we address 22 in here the -- your problem with recording phone calls? 23 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yes. These will all be 24 recorded, and a lot of other features also onto that. Along 25 with it also, it takes it into our visitation booths in the 4-26-04 89 1 jail. It over -- it has a lot better security system on 2 being able to issue inmates what's called pin numbers, which 3 is their S.O. number, so that they can use their number 4 to -- to code in when they want to make calls. But I always 5 was concerned about that in the past, 'cause you could have 6 one inmate claim that another inmate stole his number. This 7 also requires the inmate to put his fingerprint on the phone 8 itself, so you have a pin number and a fingerprint, and it 9 takes his picture every 30 seconds he's on the phone, so it 10 will solve all these problems that we have ever had in the 11 past. And -- 12 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Sheriff, what are the 13 financial details of this contract, and is this a one-year 14 contract or with an evergreen or a rolling contract, or what 15 is it? 16 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: No, this is a five-year 17 contract with one-year renewals at the end of that if 18 neither party, you know, wants to break the contract or 19 anything. They provide all the equipment, everything else, 20 and then the commission rates are -- the County will receive 21 35 percent the gross billable revenues and that, and the 22 company gets the remainder of it. 23 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: How does that compare 24 with your current -- 25 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Our current one is a 4-26-04 90 1 fluctuating deal. Normally, it's probably about 38 to 2 40-something percent. I don't -- I may have that contract 3 with me. And some of these other ones offer better rates, 4 but one of my -- going up to -- the current one could go up 5 to 45 percent, where this is 35 percent. 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: If you're in need of 7 service, where does that service come from? 8 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: The headquarters for 9 this company is out of Alabama. They have a second office 10 in Houston, and most of the service would come directly out 11 of Houston. The main sales representative on this is out of 12 San Antonio; used to be with SBC, and they are hourly rates 13 for how long they have to -- to respond. Most of the 14 maintenance, unless it's an actual piece of equipment, the 15 phone itself broke or went down, most everything else is 16 done by computer, and they fix all their software problems 17 and run diagnostic checks daily on all the equipment, 18 computer-wise, from their corporate office. So, it just 19 keeps everything in fine tune. 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: If they detect 21 something, they can fix it remotely? 22 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: They can fix it remotely 23 without us ever knowing anything was wrong. 24 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Considering the 25 changes in revenues and costs, what would be the net impact 4-26-04 91 1 to the County of this contract versus the current one? 2 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I think we will see a -- 3 in my opinion, a large increase on the revenues that the 4 County's going to get, even though the percentage rate is a 5 little bit different. The other deal on this is, I can 6 actually look up at any time on the computer and see exactly 7 where our statement and how many -- who made what calls, 8 what percentage is the county's, what percentage is the 9 company's, so we can keep track of it, instead of once a 10 quarter just getting a check and not having any idea and any 11 way of verifying exactly what's on that. This allows us to 12 do that, plus it's a monthly billing rate that the County 13 would receive a check every month instead of every quarter, 14 and we can actually download statements. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: On the front end on 16 this cover sheet here, it says approve the contract with 17 Global Tel*Link. 18 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yes. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: But in the back here, 20 it says that we're terminating services with -- on the 21 agenda request, it says we're terminating with Advanced 22 Telecom. What are we doing? 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, that -- that's going to 24 come back as a separate item under the next -- next segment 25 of the agenda. 4-26-04 92 1 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Under the executive 2 session. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. So, we are now 4 -- we are now approving a new contract? 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, we -- if you'd be more 6 comfortable waiting until we consider the other item and 7 then come back to this one, that certainly would be -- 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Wouldn't that -- 9 JUDGE TINLEY: -- wouldn't be out of order. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Wouldn't that make 11 more sense, Mr. Attorney? 12 MR. MOTLEY: Sounds good to me. 13 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: The last Commissioners 14 Court gave us the approval on the termination of the other 15 item and giving them days, which is why I'm bringing this 16 back in the executive session, is just to get the formal 17 letter sent out with the number of days. 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: You don't care 19 whether we approve this one first, or doesn't make any 20 difference? 21 MR. MOTLEY: I think -- I think -- I mean, 22 this is properly posted for this situation. I don't know 23 that this, per se, needs to go into executive session. I 24 don't see any exception to Open Meetings that would let this 25 come into executive session. It's not particularly 4-26-04 93 1 high-tech equipment, necessarily, so I think it's okay to do 2 it now. But if the Court wanted to wait and put off their 3 action on it until after they converse and talk about the 4 other matter in executive session, that would probably be 5 fine. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: I think that's probably -- we 7 can come -- after considering the others, come back out into 8 open and then bring this one back up, as well as take 9 whatever official action may be required or we want to take 10 with regard to the other item. I think that would probably 11 be the best way to handle it. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Sounds good. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Seems like that's where we are 14 at this point. 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That's fine. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. So, at this time, we're 17 down to that portion of the agenda where we will close the 18 open portion of the Commissioners Court meeting at 11:10, 19 and we'll now go into executive or closed session. Why 20 don't we take that item out of order, and keep the Sheriff 21 and the -- and the County Attorney in here, but -- and 22 obviously the reporter, but everybody else probably we can 23 do without. 24 MR. TOMLINSON: Judge, do you think that 25 you're going to finish before lunch? 4-26-04 94 1 JUDGE TINLEY: I sure hope so. 2 MR. TOMLINSON: Probably? I'll be in my 3 office. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Don't go to lunch 5 early. 6 (The open session was closed at 11:10 a.m., and an Executive Session was held, the 7 transcript of which is contained in a separate document.) 8 - - - - - - - - - - 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. We will come back into 10 open session. It's now 11:43. We'll come back to Item 11 11 on the regular agenda; consider, discuss, and approve 12 contract with Global Tel*Link Corporation for the inmate 13 telephone system. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move approval of the 15 contract as presented and recommended by the County Attorney 16 and the Sheriff. 17 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Second. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 19 approval of the agenda item. Any further question or 20 discussion? All in favor of the motion, signify by raising 21 your right hand. 22 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 23 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 24 (No response.) 25 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. 4-26-04 95 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Just a word of 2 clarification, Judge, because -- because there is a tad bit 3 of confusion, not over the action we just took, but over -- 4 over the wording on Number 11. Commissioner Baldwin and I 5 were just talking about that. What did we do with it? 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Consider and discuss 7 approval of contract. 8 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: We just did that, but 9 we also, in exec, talked about actual termination. Now, the 10 Court approved termination previously of the Advanced 11 Telecom thing, and the only thing to come out of that 12 discussion was on the length of time that would be required. 13 Does that need any confirmation? I guess that's my 14 question. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: No, that was just a matter of 16 logistics. The approval was given previously. 17 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: It was. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Previous court session, and in 19 open session by a motion and second, and it passed. 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Thank you, sir. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Anything -- anything proposed 22 to be offered in open session, formal action with regard to 23 matters discussed in executive or closed session? 24 (No response.) 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. We will move forward. 4-26-04 96 1 I guess now we're down to payment of bills. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I move that we pay the 3 bills. 4 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I second. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded to 6 pay the bills. All in favor, signify by raising your right 7 hand. 8 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 9 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 10 (No response.) 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion does carry. Next item, 12 budget amendments. Budget Amendment Request Number 1. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Sheriff's Department. 14 MR. TOMLINSON: Yes. It's for the Sheriff's 15 Department for the -- the lease towers from -- one's for the 16 Mountain Home site; the other is for the Center Point site, 17 and they're actually for two years. 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That would explain 19 the 50 -- what appears to be a 50 percent increase in the 20 fee. 21 MR. TOMLINSON: Yes, they're for two years, 22 and they're actually for 2,000 each. We have -- we have 23 bills in hand for 8,000, but we know that we will have 24 another one for approximately $250 from L.C.R.A. that will 25 need to be paid this year, so that's the reason we're asking 4-26-04 97 1 for this amendment of $5,840, to be able to take care of 2 that invoice from the L.C.R.A. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Tommy, this tower -- 4 this Mountain Home tower, is that the Black Bull Ranch -- 5 MR. TOMLINSON: Yes. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: -- deal? Okay. 7 MR. TOMLINSON: Yes, it is. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move approval. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 11 approval of Budget Amendment Request Number 1. Any question 12 or discussion? All in favor of the motion, signify by 13 raising your right hand. 14 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 15 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 16 (No response.) 17 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. Budget 18 Amendment Request Number 2. 19 MR. TOMLINSON: Number 2 is a repeat from 20 last -- last meeting, and Miguel is with us right now to -- 21 if you have any questions. He's -- his request is to 22 transfer $984.82 from Postage, with 931.74 into Operating 23 Expense and 53.08 into Capital Outlay for purchase of a -- a 24 computer for his new person, I guess. So, here's Miguel. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Here's Miguel. 4-26-04 98 1 JUDGE TINLEY: The reason I had a question 2 about it, Mr. Arreola, is that when it was previously 3 presented, there was no current expense requirement. 4 MR. ARREOLA: Sure. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: And I had no -- no basis to 6 know -- you obviously see something coming down the pike on 7 Operating Expense that you're going to need some more money 8 on. 9 MR. ARREOLA: Yes, sir. We -- we need to 10 make that office space for Solid Waste. We can buy some 11 dividers for the office, and that's basically what it's for. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, it's office space 13 and -- 14 MR. ARREOLA: And a computer. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. 16 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: So moved. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 18 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Second. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 20 approval of Budget Amendment Request Number 2. Any further 21 question or discussion? 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: One more comment. You're 23 going to have enough money in Postage for the year? 24 MR. ARREOLA: Yes, sir. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We aren't going to see 4-26-04 99 1 you -- 2 MR. ARREOLA: No, it won't be a problem. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Any further question or 4 discussion? All in favor of the motion, signify by raising 5 your right hand. 6 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 7 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 8 (No response.) 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion does carry. Do we have 10 any late bills? 11 MR. TOMLINSON: I have one, to Hourglass 12 Construction. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Instruction? 14 MR. TOMLINSON: Construction. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: All right. 16 MR. TOMLINSON: For $600 for work space 17 counter in O.S.S.F. 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Is that part of the 19 original O.S.S.F. construction budget? 20 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: It was planned in 21 the original construction budget. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: My recollection was they came 24 in under -- 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 4-26-04 100 1 JUDGE TINLEY: -- what was budgeted earlier. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: As long as there's -- 3 there's money in the budget for this, right? 4 MR. TOMLINSON: Yeah. No, we're not asking 5 for an amendment. 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That's all I really 7 wanted to know. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So moved. 9 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Second. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 11 approval of late bill and hand check, I presume, to 12 Hourglass Construction in the sum of $600. Any further 13 question or discussion? All in favor, signify by raising 14 your right hand. 15 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 16 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 17 (No response.) 18 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. 19 MR. TOMLINSON: That's it. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: That's it for you? 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Thank you, Tommy. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Have a nice lunch. 23 MR. TOMLINSON: I'll try. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: We don't have any minutes. I 25 do have some monthly reports that have been presented from 4-26-04 101 1 Justice of the Peace, Precinct 1, from Road and Bridge, and 2 from Constable, Precinct 3. Do I hear a motion to approve 3 as presented? 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. So moved. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 7 approval of the reports as presented. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: How many constables? 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: My constable. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Your constable. And 11 yours was last time, and -- 12 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Last time. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So we're -- we're 14 dropping off a little bit here, already. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, your constable. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We are dropping off -- 17 we're not precinct commissioners; we're county 18 commissioners. You have to help me look out for my side, 19 too. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: All right. 21 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. That's all. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Any further -- 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: If I see yours, 25 should I shoot him or what? 4-26-04 102 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No comment. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Any further question or 3 discussion? All in favor of the motion, signify by raising 4 your right hand. 5 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 6 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 7 (No response.) 8 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. 9 Reports from Commissioners, liaison/committee assignments. 10 Commissioner 1? 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Not at this time. 12 Next meeting, I will have a herd of things. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: A herd? 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: A covey. 15 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Plethora. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Plethora. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner 2? 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Couple items, Judge. 19 The -- the task force or working group, whichever -- 20 whatever you want to call it, to nail out this -- nail down 21 the airport governance had its second meeting, and we are -- 22 we are working our way through it. A third meeting will be 23 a week from today, and we should be, at that point, I think, 24 probably able to put a stamp of -- a final kind of stamp on 25 the draft of the document that will come back to 4-26-04 103 1 Commissioners Court and/or City Council. Yet to be 2 determined, however, are going to be the economics of a new 3 arrangement, because the economics of a new arrangement 4 would -- new arrangement would entail all things that are 5 related to airport operations, being accounted for through 6 the board and -- and to the respective governing body 7 owners. And the new arrangement would -- would envision two 8 members of this Court and two members of City Council 9 serving on that board. But everything then gets lumped up 10 into a budget which gets approved by that board, and all 11 that then gets passed back to the owners for stamp of 12 approval. And, so, all the items that go into that are 13 going to have to be discussed. And I know Commissioner Letz 14 and I have some concerns about how some of the numbers that 15 have been proffered to us as being reasonable for that 16 operation, how they came -- how they came into being, and so 17 that's going to be an interesting session. Whether we get 18 to it in this next meeting on Monday, I don't know. I think 19 we probably will. 20 The second item relating that to that has to 21 do with the -- the City's document -- UVC document, which is 22 garnering a lot of public comment. And there are two issues 23 there that involve us, but only one involving the airport, 24 and that is the airport overlay zone, which is a part of 25 this UVC document. I've asked Mr. Patterson to present to 4-26-04 104 1 this working group some assessment of what the overlay zone 2 means to the owners of that property, and to do it in this 3 working group so that we have a little sense of what that's 4 all about, and not be required to stand in line at the 5 public hearing to give our comments about an overlay zone 6 over property which both governing bodies own and operate. 7 So, we're moving. Bottom line is, we're moving. Secondly, 8 I had a -- oh, no, I'm sorry. One other item on that. 9 There's going to be a meeting tomorrow, I believe, first 10 meeting with the architects regarding zoning regarding the 11 airport -- 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Hangar? 13 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: No, the terminal 14 building. Design of the terminal building. And on that 15 working committee are Commissioners Letz and myself, 16 Councilmen Wampler and Smith, Roger Bobertz, the Airport 17 Board, and Dave Pearce, the Airport Manager, and I imagine 18 Mr. Patterson will sit in as well. That starts tomorrow. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Can I go? 20 JUDGE TINLEY: No. 21 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Design. Okay, one 22 other item. David Dozier, the K.I.S.D. Board, contacted me 23 with respect to the possibility of support from members of 24 the Court regarding the new synthetic turf project K.I.S.D. 25 has going. He originally thought maybe a resolution of 4-26-04 105 1 support from this body would be what he'd like to see, but I 2 told him it was too late for this agenda. Next meeting is 3 too late for their meeting, and so if any Commissioners 4 would like to write K.I.S.D. Board President or the 5 Superintendent voicing your support for the synthetic turf 6 proposal, feel free to do so. Here's some information that 7 was sent to me, if you want to see it. And, lastly, I had a 8 phone call on my voicemail today requesting a meeting from 9 Aqua Spot -- from AquaSource. It would appear they are 10 getting ready to regear for another rate increase. I know 11 that some of the folks in your territory have been just as 12 upset about previous rate increases as they have been in 13 mine. That's all I have, Judge. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Three? 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: One more thing on the 16 airport committee. I think it's -- I think the -- I guess 17 the view that Commissioner Williams and I are taking at 18 these meetings is this is likely to be truly a jointly run 19 airport from the standpoint of -- you know, they put in a 20 bunch of their numbers and what it costs to pave this and 21 cut this piece of grass and all that, and many of these 22 services -- some of these services, it appears to me and 23 Mr. Williams, I think, that the County could staff -- have 24 staff in place that does the same thing. And, as a -- to 25 make sure that they're using real, very accurate numbers, 4-26-04 106 1 we've let that be known to them, that we'll -- at that 2 price, maybe the County will be glad to do that service. 3 And -- and, anyway, that's part of the thinking, but I 4 sincerely think that we may look at doing some of these 5 services as opposed to a cash contribution, or to offset the 6 cash contribution. So, anyway, that's kind of the 7 direction, so I'm bringing it up, just -- 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: If we're going way off 10 base, someone please pull us in and get us -- you know, let 11 us know. 12 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: No. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I think you're on the 14 right track. I would never question y'all anyway, but if I 15 were going to, this would be my question. What -- what in 16 the hell is taking so long on this governance issue? What 17 is the holdup? 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Well, it seems like 19 it's taking a long time, and it has -- 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It is taking a long 21 time. 22 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: It took -- it took 23 Mr. Patterson a good length of time -- and this is really 24 the delay -- up front, before we ever sat down, Commissioner 25 Letz and I and this working group, to get the law 4-26-04 107 1 researched, run it through his Council, ask questions of -- 2 of the State, TexDOT, and Aviation Division, all with 3 respect to the law as it is today, and then -- then look at 4 the differences, and then go back to TexDOT and -- Aviation 5 and find out how much of the old is not valid and what we 6 have to do to get out of what we are in and so forth. He 7 did a lot of work up front. Whether there were delays on 8 his part, I suggest there might have been. I don't know. 9 But that's -- he did a whole heck of a lot of work up front 10 before we ever sat down, and he gave us three basic working 11 documents. And once we got the three working documents, 12 we've moved pretty quickly. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, we're talking 14 about -- is this going to be a joint-run operation like the 15 present day, or are we going to turn it over to the Airport 16 Board? Are we going to create a real, live airport board? 17 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: The vision is -- 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'm not interested in 19 who's mowing what. I just want to know who's going to run 20 it. 21 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That's subordinate to 22 the issue, but it is envisioned as a seven-person board; two 23 County Commissioners, two -- 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Are you sure you want to 25 say all that? 4-26-04 108 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Pardon? I'll give 2 you the floor. Just go ahead. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No, my question was, 4 until we have a -- the draft is presented by everyone, I 5 thought we weren't going to discuss the details of the 6 draft. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. I'll shut up, 8 Bill. 9 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Good point. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I told you I wasn't 11 going to ask the question. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: But if you were, you'd ask it 13 later, right? 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I didn't ask it. 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Thank you for pulling 16 it back, Commissioner. 17 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Can you say that -- 18 that sometime in the future, it's going to be managed by the 19 Airport Board, and not the City and County jointly? 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't think you can say 21 that. 22 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: You don't think we -- 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No, I think that you -- I 24 think that the -- you have to go back even further, and what 25 is taking so long -- first of all, I personally think that 4-26-04 109 1 the City didn't do anything for the first nine months, 2 whether Mr. Patterson or City Council doesn't make any 3 difference. I don't think anything was done until last 4 fall, when we again raised it to the front burner. At that 5 point, the City Manager decided to really tackle this, and 6 has done a great job, in my opinion. He has researched it 7 very thoroughly. And what is going to come out of it is not 8 a bandaid; it's going to be to fix the problem out there, 9 and I'm very happy with where we're going with it. I think 10 there are still -- and I think there's pretty much agreement 11 as to -- I think the City and County, the Airport Board are 12 all going to be very involved in running that airport. That 13 makeup, I don't think there's been a final recommendation by 14 the committee yet, but I think the County's going to be more 15 involved, City's going to be more involved -- City's 16 probably going to be less involved; we'll be more involved, 17 and the Airport Board's going to be more involved. So, I 18 think it's going to be a very good, workable resolution to a 19 longstanding problem out there. 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I concur in that. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And -- but when we saw 22 something of the numbers, all of a sudden -- I'm trying to 23 avoid heart attacks on this table when we get the budget 24 implications of some of this thing. So, we're going at 25 those numbers real hard right now, and that's kind of where 4-26-04 110 1 we are. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: In total context, a year or so 3 delay after 30 years of operating in the wrong -- I mean, 4 what's the difference? 5 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Not bad. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: No. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'm trying -- I thought 8 that I was going to add something else, but it was a 9 fleeting thought. 10 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: On the airport? 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No, not on the airport. 12 Oh, K.I.S.D. I've also talked with their -- Mr. Dozier, and 13 one of the things that I really should have had on this 14 agenda, and plan to get on the agenda very soon, is a -- a 15 concept for an interlocal agreement between K.I.S.D. and all 16 other school districts on purchasing products, just to let 17 them basically follow -- and more on construction-type 18 things. We got in a discussion on the parking lot at the 19 Antler Stadium, to allow the schools to use our purchasing 20 ability to buy materials for some of their projects. 21 Wouldn't cost the County anything; this would just be 22 enabling them to basically do some of the purchasing through 23 our -- since we buy so much more than they do, for specific 24 projects. They don't do much of that type work. And also 25 possibly using some of our Road and Bridge staff or 4-26-04 111 1 expertise and knowledge. But, anyway, that will be coming 2 up just as a concept, as to whether we want to pursue that 3 or not. I think Mr. Dozier will present it to the school 4 board as well, whether they want to pursue it. And if -- I 5 think if K.I.S.D. and we agree, then it needs to go to the 6 other school districts as well, but I think it's an 7 opportunity for -- basically, to save the taxpayers some 8 money hopefully by doing some joint purchasing arrangements. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Couldn't that possibly work 10 both ways, too? 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: They probably buy a lot more 13 food service products than we do. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: We might be able to turn that 16 to our benefit also. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So -- anyway, so that's 18 in the works. I've talked to Mr. Dozier about that as well. 19 I think it's a -- it's -- I was happy to see that it appears 20 to be coming -- going forward on this. That's it. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: We've run you all the way up 22 to the noon hour. 23 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Okay. Last Tuesday, 24 at the invitation of Miguel, some 12 or 13, something like 25 that, -- 4-26-04 112 1 MR. ARREOLA: 15. 2 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: -- septic tank 3 contractors -- septic system contractors met with us. And 4 "us" was me and Miguel and Tish and Judy, and we spent an 5 hour and a half talking about ways that we can work better 6 together, and in a way that can be beneficial to both 7 parties, and agreed with the -- with the contractors that we 8 saw this as kind of a partnership where it was in -- we want 9 to administer the O.S.S.F. regulations in a way that we're 10 absolutely sure we protect the environment, but we also want 11 to do it in a way that helps them be profitable and continue 12 to be in the business. So, we first talked about -- and 13 I'll back up and say, twice in the last few months, two -- 14 two contract -- a contractor has asked us to meet with 15 them -- two different contractors, to get their input. 16 First we thought we'd just invite a handful of them and -- 17 and get sort of a -- a census of what they might be 18 thinking. Miguel said, "Heck, no, let's give all of them a 19 chance to come in and say what they have to say." So, we 20 first -- the first thing we talked about is what we're doing 21 right, and we got a good report. They said that they were 22 surprised that the transition went so well. Recognized that 23 there was a whole lot of tear-down and setup work to be 24 done, and that they acknowledged that they thought the -- 25 the department and the staff were working hard and trying to 4-26-04 113 1 make it work and trying to -- trying to do it in an 2 efficient, effective way. 3 So, we got -- got a report of a few 4 compliments, and then we got into the issues that were 5 bothering them, and what we did was record all of those. 6 Each one of them discussed what the issue is to make sure we 7 understood it. Not necessarily come to any resolution of 8 it, but to acknowledge that that was an issue. And the 9 issues were in two different areas. One was the 10 regulations. What are the regulations, and do you have any 11 flexibility in that, and can you do it in a different way, 12 or are you required to do it the way you're doing it? And 13 then the other one was not the regulations, but our 14 processes and procedures, how we're working and how they get 15 their appointments set up and how we handle that. And I 16 think all of you know that one of the major concerns is 17 that, if we're very bureaucratic, they've got a lot of 18 downtime; they got a piece of equipment sitting there, they 19 got a -- got their laborers standing by, and that can -- 20 doesn't take a whole lot of that to turn a profitable 21 contract into an unprofitable one. That's the area they 22 probably need the most help in. 23 Where we left it with them was that we would 24 use that information they had provided to us, and we would 25 -- when we get it typed up, to -- in a way that acknowledges 4-26-04 114 1 their concerns, that Miguel and his staff would prepare a 2 response to each of those concerns, and then we would feed 3 that information back to them. What I think would be a good 4 idea is, before we do that, that Miguel provide a copy of -- 5 draft copy of that report to each of the members of this 6 Court that -- and ask for our comments on it. We can't 7 comment on what the issue was, because the issue is what it 8 is, but we might want to give some consideration to Miguel's 9 response to each one of them. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Sounds good. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Splendid. 12 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: It was a very good 13 meeting. 14 MR. ARREOLA: Yes, sir, I think it was very 15 productive. It was very -- very friendly. There's a few 16 concerns, a few comments that we got, and we're working on 17 them. We're almost through with all the responses. We have 18 the rules to go by, and basically we can -- we can't do a 19 whole lot in that area, but we're trying to improve our -- 20 the process, how we work, and make it faster and make it 21 more productive for them, too. So, our response is going to 22 have both ends, and, you know, I think it's going to be 23 faster for everybody. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Communication is key. That's 25 what it's all about. 4-26-04 115 1 MR. ARREOLA: Yes, sir. 2 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: I would say that -- 3 that all of those present, including Bennett Jordan, left 4 with a pretty good feeling about what Miguel had done, 5 holding the meeting, and an expectation that things were 6 going to be better for them, and that's not a bad outcome of 7 it. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: But, going into the meeting, 9 their feeling was generally positive overall anyway? 10 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Yes. They were 11 saying, "You've done a good job of moving this over here, 12 and that's working well, and you worked hard to get it up 13 and running, but we still got these concerns and we need 14 your help." 15 MR. ARREOLA: Yes, sir. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: There's always going to be 17 room for improvement in virtually anything. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I really -- I think it's 19 a great idea to meet with them. I think it would be 20 something good to do on a semiannual basis. Don't want to 21 do it too much, meet with them all the time, but to get them 22 in there -- I'm sure they give you comments out in the 23 field, but you're not the in the mind-set to receive 24 comments then, and they're not in the mind-set really to 25 think about what they're saying, necessarily. So, I think 4-26-04 116 1 you gave them an opportunity; that's a real good forum. 2 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: While we're on 3 Environmental Health, Miguel and I learned that the Solid 4 Waste Advisory Committee, which is a large committee and it 5 sits on top of a large pot of gold, rejected our request to 6 waive their longstanding rule that they would consider 7 funding a position, having once funded it and they went onto 8 the County payroll. We were asking, as you may recall, for 9 funding for three extra days or three new days in addition 10 to the two that we pay for with Mr. North now, which were 11 originally funded by those folks. They rejected that 12 request. They rejected it for us and one other county -- or 13 two counties, other entities. They didn't want to go back 14 on their longstanding rule. So, if we're going to go 15 full-time on the Solid Waste, we're going to have to think 16 about how to do that in the next budget, I guess. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Also, if you might just 18 be thinking as to what, possibly, in Solid Waste/O.S.S.F. 19 they -- you know, be thinking about what we could get 20 funding for. Maybe vehicles, computers, stuff like that. 21 If they're not going to try -- and then we can reshuttle -- 22 or shuffle our money towards personnel. Let them buy 23 vehicles or something along that line. 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I did do that, 25 Commissioner. I will get with the lady who runs the Solid 4-26-04 117 1 Waste AACOG department, and we'll see how we can channel, 2 and see if we can figure out a way to move our dollars some 3 other direction so we can get a full-time person down there. 4 I think it's important. Miguel, thinks it's important. I 5 think Commissioners think it's important. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yes, indeed. 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: To have a person down 8 there. So, we'll keep working on it. 9 MR. ARREOLA: Thank you very much. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Thank you. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Anything further from 12 Commissioner 4? 13 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Nothing, Judge. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, we didn't quite make it 15 by noon, but anybody else have anything further? If not, 16 we'll stand adjourned. 17 (Commissioners Court adjourned at 12:10 p.m.) 18 - - - - - - - - - - 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 4-26-04 118 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 29th day of April, 8 2004. 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 4-26-04