1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT 9 Special Session 10 Monday, August 29, 2005 11 1:30 p.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 August 29, 2005 2 PAGE 1.1 Consider and discuss establishing Family 3 Protection and Child Abuse Prevention funds and setting fees as authorized by SB-6 to be 4 paid to such funds 3 5 1.2 Consider and discuss establishment of policy specifying amounts to be paid to Kerr County 6 jurors under various circumstances and authorize amounts of cash on hand to be maintained by 7 Clerks for payment of jurors 6 8 1.3 Consider and discuss formation of EMS Advisory Committee, appointment of members of Committee, 9 designation of general areas of responsibility of Committee and issue invitation to City of 10 Kerrville to jointly participate with Kerr County in working with and providing information to 11 Committee 11 12 1.4 Consider and discuss authorizing construction of new kennel/operations building at Animal 13 Control Facility with construction costs to be paid by private anonymous donor, authorize County 14 Attorney to prepare Memorandum of Understanding containing construction specifications, funding 15 requirements and other appropriate conditions; and authorize Road and Bridge to perform initial 16 site work for building site 15 17 1.5 Consider, discuss, and take appropriate action on Frontera Telecommunications, Inc. Contract 19 18 1.6 Consider, discuss and take appropriate action, 19 including amending and establishing deadlines for acceptance, on proposed Animal Control Contract 20 with the City of Kerrville 39 21 1.7 Consider, discuss and take appropriate action, including amending and establishing deadlines for 22 acceptance, on proposed Library Contract with the City of Kerrville 47 23 --- Adjourned 52 24 25 3 1 On Monday, August 29, 2005, at 1:30 p.m., a special 2 meeting 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: Okay. Let me call to order, 7 if I might, the special meeting of the Commissioners Court 8 scheduled for this date and time, Monday, August the 29th, 9 2005, at 1:30 p.m. It's a bit past that now, so we'll move 10 directly into the agenda. First item on the agenda is to 11 consider and discuss establishing Family Protection and 12 Child Abuse Prevention funds and setting fees as authorized 13 by Senate Bill 6 to be paid to such funds. The District 14 Clerk brought this matter to our attention. 15 MS. UECKER: And the problem was, the 16 previous meeting is -- I think I didn't have the wording 17 right to request the Court to take some action, so this 18 would correct that, and I'm asking the Court, in 19 consideration of Senate Bill 6, to first of all, establish 20 the -- a Family Protection fund, set a fee not to exceed 21 $30, and this fee is to be charged on all divorces and all 22 annulments. Half of that fund remains with the county, and 23 because the Court maintains these funds and manages them, I 24 don't know if you -- if it's the Court's pleasure to 25 designate an agency or just wait until they come and request 8-20-05 4 1 the money. I -- I don't know how you want to handle that. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Linda, what -- why 3 would we want to send some of the money to -- to another 4 county? 5 MS. UECKER: Because -- of course, that's 6 what the piece of legislation says. It doesn't say "thou 7 shalt." It says that it can be used for any one of those. 8 And I suspect that it's because some of the agencies in Kerr 9 County actually, benefit adjacent counties. So if, say, for 10 instance, Gillespie County uses the -- an agency in Kerr 11 County, their money can be used -- in other words, a Kerr 12 County agency can go over there and request funds under this 13 fund from Gillespie County if -- you know, if we service 14 them, which we do in many cases. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Who would make that 16 decision? I mean, this comes under Commissioners Court? 17 MS. UECKER: I don't know. The bill does not 18 -- the bill doesn't say. All it says is the Commissioners 19 Court manages these funds. There's two funds that are going 20 to have to be established, one for family protection and the 21 other one just for child protection. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. 23 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: The adjacent 24 county -- we use Gillespie as an example -- might use an 25 agency here in Kerr County that serves multiple hill country 8-20-05 5 1 counties. 2 MS. UECKER: Right, mm-hmm. 3 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Can they likewise -- 4 they likewise do the same thing and put this on their 5 additional fees? 6 MS. UECKER: They have to. It's required. 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: They have to? 8 MS. UECKER: Mm-hmm. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I make a motion we 10 establish a Family Protection fund pursuant to SB-6 and 11 establish the fee at $30. 12 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Second. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 14 the establishment of a Family Protection fund and the 15 setting of a fee of $30. Any question or discussion on the 16 motion? All in favor of the motion, signify by raising your 17 right hand. 18 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 19 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 20 (No response.) 21 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Now, Judge -- now I'll 23 make a second motion. I'll make a motion to establish a 24 Child Abuse Prevention fund pursuant to SB-6 and set the fee 25 at $100. 8-20-05 6 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 2 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Second. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded to 4 establish a Child Abuse Prevention fund, and the fee be 5 established at $100 on any conviction. Any discussion or 6 question? All in favor of the motion, signify by raising 7 your right hand. 8 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 9 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 10 (No response.) 11 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. The 12 next item that we have is consider and discuss establishment 13 of a policy specifying amounts to be paid to Kerr County 14 jurors under various circumstances and authorize amounts of 15 cash on-hand to be maintained by clerk for payment of those 16 jurors. 17 MS. UECKER: This -- this was also brought up 18 at the last meeting, and you actually entered an order 19 establishing a reimbursement. I think we either need to 20 rescind that order or clarify it some way so that it 21 reflects that those jurors that actually are requested to 22 report to serve as prospective jurors, they still get the $6 23 a day. And I think probably Commissioner Letz commented on 24 that the last time, and only those that are selected -- 25 report and are actually selected -- in other words, actually 8-20-05 7 1 sworn, whether it be the six in County Court at Law or the 2 12 in District Court, they are to be paid the $15 for the 3 first day and the $40 for each day thereafter. I think that 4 impact is much less than what maybe I had led you to 5 believe, and I apologize for that. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What did we do at the 7 last meeting? 8 MS. UECKER: You set the fee to be -- for 9 those that reported on the first day at $6, and those that 10 were selected at $15, and then $40 for everybody thereafter. 11 But the -- that second day, that needs to be clarified, that 12 even if -- for instance, if they don't actually complete 13 selection of a jury panel on the second day, they don't get 14 the $40. They still get $6 until they're sworn in. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I agree. I don't 16 think that they're selected until they're seated. And 40 17 bucks -- 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But, just to clean it up, 19 how hard is it to find that court order? 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I got it. Court Order 21 29326. 22 MS. UECKER: Whatever the Court's pleasure is 23 on that. I just wanted to make -- 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's that one that 25 we did last time. 8-20-05 8 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, you're going to make 2 a -- 3 MS. UECKER: -- make sure it's clear. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I can do it like -- I 5 move that we rescind Court Order 29326 and adopt the 6 recommendation of the District Clerk. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 9 rescission of Court Order 29326, and move to adopt the 10 recommendation of the District Clerk with regard to the 11 payment of jurors as outlined in the agenda request? 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yes, sir. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: All right. Any question or 14 discussion on that motion? All in favor of the motion, 15 signify by raising your right hand. 16 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 17 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 18 (No response.) 19 JUDGE TINLEY: The second part of that agenda 20 item deals with the amount to be kept on-hand by each of the 21 respective clerks. 22 MS. UECKER: Right. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Is action of this Court 24 required on that, Ms. Uecker? 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Let me relate to the 8-20-05 9 1 Court and to the District Clerk what the Auditor told me at 2 the conclusion of the previous meeting. He -- he recalled 3 that we had, in fact, set up those petty cash funds for 4 these purposes, and we had never established any ceiling, so 5 they're in place. 6 MS. UECKER: Okay. 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: And it's up to you 8 folks to tell him, or tell whomever what you believe is 9 required, and do the appropriate accounting for 10 reimbursement. 11 MS. UECKER: The reason I had put this on 12 here is because the Court -- at the time we initiated the 13 cash-pay jury plan, that amount was actually in that plan. 14 So, you know, if y'all are comfortable with, you know, us 15 making that decision, that's fine. 16 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: We believe there was 17 never a ceiling established, and that it's between you and 18 whomever. 19 MS. UECKER: No ceiling, but an amount was 20 put in that -- in that plan. 21 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. Well, if you 22 think it needs to be changed, we can change it. 23 MS. UECKER: Up to y'all. I don't -- 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: My only other 25 question I have is, are you satisfied that these numbers 8-20-05 10 1 will hold? 2 MS. UECKER: It just -- I think so, yes. I 3 talked to the County Clerk, I talked to the J.P.'s, and they 4 all assured me that this was -- this would be sufficient. I 5 had some doubt about the J.P.'s, but they tell me it'll be 6 okay, and I think we'll be okay. 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: We can always change 8 it. I would move that we set the jury cash fund cash 9 on-hand in the following amounts: For the District Clerk, 10 $6,000; for the County Clerk, $2,500; for J.P. courts, $500. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 13 setting the cash balances for jury payments as specified in 14 the motion. Any question or comment? All in favor -- 15 MS. UECKER: The reason -- Judge, the reason 16 I think that this is probably proper is because I'm going to 17 need something to go to the County Treasurer to say, "Give 18 me some more cash." So -- 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay, that's fine. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: I think that's what you're 21 fixing to get. 22 MS. UECKER: All right, good. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Any other questions or 24 comments? All in favor of the motion, signify by raising 25 your right hand. 8-20-05 11 1 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 2 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 3 (No response.) 4 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. Thank 5 you, Ms. Uecker. Next item is consider and discuss 6 formation of an EMS Advisory Committee, appointment of 7 members of the committee, designation of general areas of 8 responsibility of committee, and issue invitation to the 9 City of Kerrville to jointly participate with Kerr County in 10 working with and providing information to the committee. 11 Commissioner Baldwin. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you, sir. 13 Judge, I'm just going to start this by making a motion that 14 we form an EMS Advisory Committee, and we'll appoint the 15 members of that committee consisting of James A. Murphy, Joe 16 Herring, Jr., Walter Schellhase, Gordon Morgan, and Ray 17 Lehmann. The general areas of responsibility of the 18 committee is as follows: The Commissioners Court desires to 19 maintain a very high standard of medical care and service in 20 Kerr County. The Commissioners Court further believes, to 21 the extent possible and practical, that the EMS service 22 provided in Kerr County should strive to be financially 23 self-sustaining. With these goals in mind, an assessment of 24 the following items by the above-appointed committee will be 25 of great service to the residents of Kerr County. 8-20-05 12 1 Number 1, assess function and viability of an 2 emergency service district, county-wide ESD including the 3 City of Kerrville, a county-wide ESD excluding the City of 4 Kerrville. Number 2, review and make recommendations on the 5 billing system and the rate structure under the current EMS 6 contract with the City of Kerrville. Number 3, review and 7 make recommendations on collection system under the current 8 EMS contract with the City of Kerrville. Number 4, review 9 and make recommendation on an equitable funding formula 10 between the City of Kerrville and Kerr County for funding 11 any financial shortfall under the current EMS contract. 12 Number 5, review and make recommendation on other EMS issues 13 that affect quality of service, cost-effectiveness, or other 14 matters that may improve the EMS service in Kerr County. 15 The committee's to report back to Commissioners Court no 16 later than March 1, 2006, with its findings. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Wait a minute. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Oh. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And -- and in that 21 motion, I'd like for us to send an invitation to the City of 22 Kerrville to jointly participate with the Kerr County 23 Commissioners Court in working with and providing 24 information to the committee, and I would assume the County 25 Judge would send a letter to that effect to the powers that 8-20-05 13 1 be, the brethren across the river. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Now I'll second. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: That was a motion? 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That was a motion, 5 yes, sir. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: All right, thank you. Motion 7 and second. Any question or comment? 8 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Well, I'd like to ask 9 the Commissioner if we could make just a couple modest 10 alterations. Under Number 1, you have A and B. I'd like to 11 establish a C, that it -- that would instruct our committee 12 to examine alternative service options. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That would be fine. 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: And under 2 -- the 15 language is "examine alternative service options." And 16 under Number 2, we talk about "review and make 17 recommendation on the billing system." I'd like to offer 18 "make recommendation on claims coding, billing system, and 19 rate structure." Claims coding. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Very good. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's good. Fine. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Any other whining? 23 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That's it. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Commissioner 4? 25 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Yeah, this is a 8-20-05 14 1 really good charter. If that committee could bring those 2 five studies and recommendations to us, they'd be really 3 providing a valuable service. One other thing for 4 consideration; Commissioner Baldwin and I got a letter from 5 Kenneth Wood, the president of ESD Number 1, offering his -- 6 or their -- or somebody from the fire department's help in 7 examining at least one of these questions, and that's 8 question number one, I think, about the ESD's. I would like 9 to -- I would like for this committee, if they choose to 10 serve, to invite Kenneth Wood and Corky Nelson, the 11 president of ESD Number 2, to participate with them in 12 examining the options for forming additional or wider ESD's. 13 These two ESD's are really doing a good job. They're 14 running the west well, and they -- I think they would not be 15 part of the problem; they'd be part of the solution if they 16 were invited to participate. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You want to include 18 them in the committee? Or do you want to say that they're 19 available to the committee for advice? 20 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Commissioner, I 21 think they -- their input would be only on question number 22 one, so I would just ask that the committee invite them to 23 participate in that part of the study. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'll take care of 25 that. 8-20-05 15 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Just use them for a 2 resource. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think the committee -- 4 I hope they go well beyond their five members and get a lot 5 of input from other people on different questions. That can 6 really help them a lot, I think. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I will see that they 8 get those names. 9 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Thank you. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: As amended -- that amendment 11 is acceptable to you -- 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yes, sir. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: -- Commissioner Baldwin? All 14 right. As amended, do we have any further questions or 15 comments on the motion? All in favor of the motion, signify 16 by raising your right hand. 17 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 18 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 19 (No response.) 20 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. The 21 next item on the agenda is to consider and discuss 22 authorizing construction of a kennel/operations building at 23 the Animal Control facility, with construction costs to be 24 paid by private, anonymous donor; authorize the County 25 Attorney to prepare a Memorandum of Understanding containing 8-20-05 16 1 construction specifications, funding requirements, and other 2 appropriate conditions; and authorize Road and Bridge to 3 perform initial site work for the building site. I put this 4 item on the agenda. Commissioner Nicholson is aware of -- 5 as is Ms. Roman from the Animal Control facility. A private 6 citizen who wishes to remain anonymous, at least at this 7 point, has indicated a willingness to prepare and pay for 8 the cost of a new kennel facility out at the Animal Control 9 facility, and I wanted to get a preliminary green light, as 10 it were, from the Court. 11 I understand there are certain hoops that are 12 going to have to be jumped through. We're going to have to 13 make sure that any legal requirements for the construction 14 be properly accomplished, that certain assurances be put 15 into place for the funding; that if there was any particular 16 specifications that have to be put into place, under state 17 law or otherwise, building permits and so forth. But I 18 wanted to -- to get a preliminary -- preliminary approval 19 from the Court to move forward on this, subject, of course, 20 to these other matters being attended to. With regard to 21 the initial site work for that building site, the initial 22 indication I have is that it may take approximately 23 150 cubic yards of fill, which is not a great deal. But, 24 here again, we got a lot of preliminary things to get out of 25 the way. I just wanted to bring this so that we can get the 8-20-05 17 1 Court's preliminary action on it, and I assume the Court's 2 interested. Especially can't beat the cost. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: This is the -- I mean, 4 I'm certainly in favor of this. If I ever meet this person, 5 I'll thank him. But the -- just as the first step, I'd like 6 to get -- basically, to get the ball rolling, tell the 7 individual that we're willing, we're interested, and that 8 way we can get some drawings in or some -- a proposal as to 9 what the plan is before we say yes, we want to do this. I 10 mean, I think we really need to look at what the proposal is 11 before we say yes, we're going to do it. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, you'd need -- as I see 13 it, you'd need at least two things; a proposed Memorandum of 14 Understanding on how these things are going to be 15 accomplished and the various requirements and specifications 16 and responsibility, as well as the -- the proposed site plan 17 and plans for the facility itself. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, the site plan, that 19 could be part of the Memorandum of Understanding, I would 20 think. So, I mean, I think what we're doing right now is 21 just approving a Memorandum of Understanding and authorizing 22 Commissioner 4 and the County Attorney to bring that back to 23 the Court at some point. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Like I say, I was just 25 initially wanting to get the Court's willingness to proceed 8-20-05 18 1 on this as a matter of principle. 2 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: I make a motion that 3 we authorize the County Attorney to prepare a Memorandum of 4 Understanding containing construction specifications, 5 funding requirements, and other appropriate conditions to -- 6 in connection with the construction of a new kennel and 7 operations building. And that the -- I would ask the County 8 Attorney to bring that MOU back in a regular Commissioners 9 Court meeting so that we can authorize and give the -- a 10 green light to proceed. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 12 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: And I want to also 13 say that, you know, I really appreciate this kind of help, 14 and -- and as we work through it, we ought to do everything 15 we can do to make sure we don't bog it down in the 16 bureaucratic government process and discourage this donor. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: That was why I wanted to kind 18 of get the ball rolling today and went ahead and put it on 19 today's agenda. 20 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: You got it rolling. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: You'll be the contact 22 person? You -- I mean, you're the one? 23 (Commissioner Nicholson nodded.) 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Anything -- any other question 25 or comments on the motion? 8-20-05 19 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I just want to make a 2 comment, that I also appreciate it, and this is exactly the 3 way these things are supposed to work. The donors -- the 4 private sector step up to the plate and help as they can, 5 and that's exactly the way it's supposed to work. 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Sounds like a good 7 offer to me. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Any other question or 9 comments? All in favor of the motion, signify by raising 10 your right hand. 11 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 12 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 13 (No response.) 14 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. We'll 15 move on to the next item on the agenda. Consider, discuss, 16 and take appropriate action on Frontera Telecommunications 17 contract. I believe, Commissioner Baldwin, you placed this 18 on the agenda. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yes, sir, I did. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Going over the -- the 22 contract, there was a couple things that jumped out and 23 jumped off the page, at the County Attorney as well, and 24 I've put a copy of those two pages in your -- in your 25 backup. And it may be just -- may be just verbiage, and I 8-20-05 20 1 don't think I'm reading this wrong, but after visiting with 2 the I.T. guy last week, I feel a little bit better, but I 3 hope we can have a -- have a conversation just to clear it 4 up. But it clearly says in here that nonavailable -- or 5 traditional 9-1-1 dialing service -- 9-1-1 dialing is not 6 supported and will not work from the service. Does it or 7 does it not? 8 MR. TROLINGER: It does not. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. If I'm sitting 10 at my desk in my office and my ingrown toenail starts 11 throbbing, can I pick up my phone and dial 9-1-1 and get an 12 ambulance here? 13 MR. TROLINGER: Yes, same as today. No 14 change. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. Well, tell us 16 how that works, then. 17 MR. TROLINGER: Because the long distance 18 service, instead of dialing 9 as you do now to get an 19 outside line, then your number, and then your code, the 20 users will now instead dial 7 and 7 to get an outside long 21 distance line, so there's no confusion from old to new. The 22 only difference is, for long distance, a long distance 23 caller will have to dial 7 on the handset. 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Instead of dialing 9? 25 MR. TROLINGER: Correct. 8-20-05 21 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: So, what do we do 2 right now? We dial 9 to get out for any purpose? 3 MR. TROLINGER: Yes. 4 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: What's going to 5 happen thereafter? 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We dial 9 to get out for 7 local and 7 to get out for long distance. 8 MR. TROLINGER: 9 for local, 7 for long 9 distance, and the 7-7 service does not have 9-1-1. 10 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: And what about 11 operator intervention? 12 MR. TROLINGER: There is not a dial zero for 13 operator, but there is a -- dial the area code and 555-1212 14 for information. 15 MR. HUNT: Or 9-0. 16 MR. TROLINGER: Or 9-0. And, by the way, 17 Frontera is represented here. David Hamlyn, I asked him to 18 come in, and Curtis -- 19 MR. HUNT: Curtis Hunt. 20 MR. TROLINGER: Curtis Hunt is here from 21 Frontera. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. Would you -- 23 the minutes are not ready for me to read yet; they're not 24 printed out, and so I'm working off of memory here. And I 25 want you to go a little bit further and explain what I think 8-20-05 22 1 I heard you say, something about voice-over ID. What -- 2 what -- tell me what voice-over ID is. 3 MR. TROLINGER: David or Curtis, do you want 4 to explain that, please? 5 MR. HUNT: You'll let me do that? 6 MR. TROLINGER: Yes, sir. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You have to remember, 8 now, Curtis is one of my constituents, so I'm going to be 9 easy here. 10 MR. HUNT: That'll be a first. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 12 MR. HUNT: I thank the Court for allowing -- 13 I have some drawings here for you, if the Court would allow 14 me to hand these out. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Sure. 16 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Sure. 17 MR. HUNT: I noticed you didn't have a 18 chalkboard. I wouldn't even think about a -- let me keep 19 one. 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I'm sorry, 21 Commissioner. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's all right. 23 (Discussion off the record.) 24 MR. HUNT: I'm really surprised that we can 25 get telephone calls across the nation the way it is today, 8-20-05 23 1 but we're able to do it. What -- if you notice in the 2 drawing, there's a little blue box in there called Frontera 3 VOIP Equipment. That is a little ATA box. It's a terminal 4 adapter, and that is the only equipment that we have had to 5 provide for this -- for this operation. The green box there 6 is your present key system that you have. It's working 7 right now. And, as you notice over here, the county 8 courthouse end user, as he places a call through that green 9 box, which is the key system that the courthouse has right 10 now, as you call 7-7, it is routed over to our VOIP terminal 11 adapter. That is then sent through the Kerr County 12 Courthouse firewall equipment and out to the public 13 switch -- or, excuse me, the public internet, and it goes to 14 our switch in Dallas and is then sent out over the long 15 distance network. That path is how your 7-7 long distance 16 goes. 17 And, if you notice, it's going over -- over 18 an IP network that's out there. Now, everybody draws these 19 IP networks like it's a cloud, but it really is a network 20 out there, but it's just like a -- like any other 21 connection. But this happens to connect to our -- either 22 our Dallas switch or our Albuquerque switch; we have them in 23 two different places. That is how your 7-7 long distance 24 goes. We're calling it voice-over IP because it's the IP 25 protocol that's going out over the internet. It's voice 8-20-05 24 1 over the internet. All of the rest of your services, your 2 dial 9, your 9-1-1, your 9-1-plus -- if you still dial 3 9-1-plus, you're going to go out of whoever your long 4 distance carrier is coming out of your local telephone 5 company. We have not disturbed that. This gives you an 6 option to useless, expensive long distance, so that's how 7 this works. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, today it goes 9 out over telephone lines. A long distance call would go out 10 over telephone lines? Is that -- 11 MR. TROLINGER: Yes, it does. 12 MR. HUNT: You may not know, okay? I'm going 13 to tell you that coming out of your local telephone company, 14 you may not know how that's going out. It could be going 15 out over VOIP, it could be going out over telephone lines, 16 could be going out -- you don't know how your long distance 17 carrier is carrying it. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. So, my next 19 question is a moot point, then, of how reliable is internet 20 -- is the internet to -- to travel the phone call? 21 MR. HUNT: We're using it all over this -- 22 the Texas/New Mexico/Oklahoma territory, and it's -- it's 23 the way it's going. I don't know -- it's not 100 percent, 24 but y'all have been using it for a while. Now, there's 25 going to be some problems; no doubt that there will, just 8-20-05 25 1 like there always is. But we've -- 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, you know, just 3 -- this is boy-dummy here you're dealing with. It seems to 4 me that sometimes we get -- we get tangled up because of the 5 lack of enough internet service that we have here, and 6 adding long distance calls on it, I mean, what -- what would 7 happen if everything filled up -- that's my term, "filled 8 up" -- the internet filled up around here, and somebody's in 9 the middle of a telephone call? 10 MR. TROLINGER: Right. Basically, if our 11 bandwidth is -- is maxed out, if we used all our bandwidth, 12 the -- the telephone calls get something called quality of 13 service. Basically, it's a way to let the telephone call 14 have the priority over the internet web page. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Uh-huh. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: How likely -- I mean, how 17 often is our bandwidth going to be full? Isn't that a 18 problem right now? 19 MR. TROLINGER: It is not. That's been 20 resolved. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Been resolved. It was a 22 problem, though? 23 MR. TROLINGER: It was. We had a -- 24 basically a home DSL modem, fairly fast speed. Now we have 25 a much larger cable modem that gives us the opportunity to 8-20-05 26 1 use a service like voice-over IP. 2 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: This gentleman 3 mentioned that Frontera provides VOIP in Texas, New Mexico, 4 I believe -- Oklahoma, did you say? 5 MR. HUNT: Yes, sir. 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: What happens if we 7 dial 7-7 for a long distance call to, for example, 8 Washington, D.C.? 9 MR. HUNT: That's on -- if I may, that is 10 on -- that's on -- you see the purple -- the blue switch up 11 there at the top where it says "VOIP long distance 12 platform"? 13 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yes, sir. 14 MR. HUNT: Okay. That public switch network, 15 that's going out to the world from our switch in Dallas and 16 our switch in -- in Albuquerque. We use multiple carriers 17 up there; we use people like AT&T, MCI, Sprint. We use a 18 multitude of carriers that take the call from there on out 19 to the world. 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: So, it may not be 21 VOIP? 22 MR. HUNT: No, I -- the VOIP I'm talking 23 about are the people that use this service, like the Court 24 here is going to be using it. Does that make sense? You're 25 like a user here, and that -- but we can -- we can place 8-20-05 27 1 calls anywhere in the world out of our Dallas switch. We 2 have multiple carriers to get that out, international 3 carriers as well as national carriers out of both of our 4 switches for delivering the traffic. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What -- and he may be 6 boy-dummy; I'm boy-dummy 2 when it comes to this stuff. 7 Quality -- is the quality of the call -- is it going to 8 sound like it currently does when we're using our -- 9 MR. HUNT: Have y'all used it? 10 MR. TROLINGER: For about a month, and I have 11 had complaints when I changed the network configuration, and 12 I'm working with David to resolve that. We've got that on 13 the -- 14 MR. HUNT: Any time that you turn up a new 15 service, it takes some tweaking up, if you will, between the 16 -- the firewalls and the local area network, because this is 17 riding on the County's local area network, so we have to 18 work very closely with your I.T. people in making sure that 19 there's enough bandwidth there. But where we're using it 20 throughout the country, there hasn't been a problem. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I guess my other question 22 is, this looks incredibly complicated for a phone call just 23 to get from here to Washington, D.C. 24 MR. HUNT: Thank you. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is it really that 8-20-05 28 1 complicated? Is this what really is going on now and we 2 just don't know it? 3 MR. HUNT: Yes, it's going on now. This 4 is -- we have -- we own a telephone company down in South 5 Texas, and this is what we're doing there with our local 6 telephone company. So, this is the -- this is where it's 7 going. One thing I will say is that the cellular has 8 lowered the bar on the quality of service, and this is 9 better than cellular. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I hope so. 11 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I have one additional 12 question. Somebody said this is -- is this a replacement 13 service for what we currently have, or is this in addition 14 to what we currently have? 15 MR. TROLINGER: For the courthouse, I see it 16 replacing all long distance. 17 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: It is a replacement 18 service? 19 MR. TROLINGER: But we still have the option 20 to dial 9 and use the KT long distance if -- 21 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Now you've confused 22 me. Is it a replacement service or it is an additional 23 service? 24 MR. HUNT: I'd say it's additional. 25 MR. TROLINGER: It is additional. 8-20-05 29 1 MR. HUNT: Because you have an option. 2 MR. TROLINGER: Right. We don't have to turn 3 off one or the other; we have both. 4 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: So we can do -- dial 5 9 and a 1 and we'd be on SBC's net, or whomever's net that 6 KTLD -- 7 MR. TROLINGER: Correct. 8 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: -- contracts with? 9 MR. TROLINGER: Correct. 10 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Or we can dial 7-7 11 and we can go out through the Frontera blue box connecting 12 to some other -- 13 MR. HUNT: That's right. 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: -- colored box? 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Through the clouds. 16 MR. HUNT: Through the clouds. 17 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Somewhere in 18 cyberspace. Okay. 19 MR. TROLINGER: And the only thing I have to 20 add -- is there another question? 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: One more question, and 22 this is it. Do we have a broader band today than we did 23 with KTC? 24 MR. TROLINGER: Yes. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. 8-20-05 30 1 MR. TROLINGER: Only other thing I'd like to 2 say is the -- what I believe initially started this was the 3 billing and auditing issue of the KTLD's long distance bill. 4 It basically put our Auditor's office under a lot of 5 pressure -- a burden, actually -- to distribute the cost to 6 each user, each department. And Frontera's worked with us 7 to design the billing exactly the way it -- the Auditor's 8 department needs it so that they're back to a streamlined, 9 more efficient operation there. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Question I have before 11 we, I guess, move on with this is, we have -- it's styled to 12 accept basically the Frontera contract, but what I'm also 13 hearing is that we need to also have the KTLD contract 14 approved, because we need to have -- if you're going to dial 15 9 to get out that way, we need to have a contract for that 16 service as well, correct? 17 MR. TROLINGER: Yes. 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Anybody else want to 19 weigh in on this? 20 MR. TROLINGER: Well, I think it might be a 21 legal consideration for the County Attorney, because we -- 22 we received bids for long distance service, and we accepted 23 a bid for long distance service. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We frequently accept 25 multiple bids. 8-20-05 31 1 MR. HUNT: Excuse me, but we gave you an 2 option in there. 3 MR. TROLINGER: For the land lines, right. 4 (Discussion off the record.) 5 MR. TROLINGER: Well, the only question I 6 have is, since we accepted a bid -- a bid for long distance 7 service, do we have to use that bidder's service, or can we 8 continue with the existing contract from KTLD? 9 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I think that's sort 10 of what I was driving at a moment ago. 11 MR. TROLINGER: That's what I don't know. 12 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: My understanding, the 13 Sheriff's Office, we're going to have to have KTLD, because 14 this will not give us but one long distance line under this 15 service. 16 MR. TROLINGER: Initially. 17 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Okay. Which would have 18 to have us -- we have two different services totally. The 19 only other concern, if we add additional lines for the 20 Sheriff's Office under this service, then your bandwidth is 21 not wide enough, and the next step up on the bandwidth is an 22 additional $350 a month, give or take a few dollars, that 23 will be required out of the Sheriff's Office budget or 24 county budget to pay for additional bandwidth. Then you're 25 going to have the $350 a month additional bandwidth charge, 8-20-05 32 1 and still end up with KTLD service. 2 MR. TROLINGER: I've looked at the network 3 layout and done some application engineering work over the 4 weekend. This basic diagram is really good, and it will 5 become much -- it's much more complicated in detail, but 6 I've looked at a way to use our existing dedicated line from 7 the Sheriff's office to carry some of that traffic to -- to 8 make up the difference on -- 9 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Don't look at me, 10 Sheriff. 11 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Don't look. 12 MR. TROLINGER: It's a little complex. 13 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I'm very concerned about 14 our long distance service that we have out there and having 15 to go to different ones, and then, if we go to this, the 16 additional cost it's going to require. I'm concerned 17 whether it's going to be enough to support the training 18 facility stuff that we're looking at with AACOG. Right 19 now -- and I don't know enough about the broadband, but 20 right now I have some serious questions whether we're going 21 to have our -- the same type of service that we have right 22 now to be able to make long distance. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It seems to me this 24 Frontera proposal will save us money, but I think we need 25 the backup with KTLD. You know, if -- you know, if it's a 8-20-05 33 1 quality issue or if it's a bandwidth issue, whatever the 2 issue, we need to have a backup, and I don't see a problem 3 with us, subject to the County Attorney looking at the 4 contract, accepting both contracts. We do that frequently. 5 MR. TROLINGER: Curtis might have an answer 6 for you. 7 MR. HUNT: The -- the other option -- we had 8 an option -- was it Option A and B or Option 1 and 2? 9 MR. TROLINGER: Yes, A and B. 10 MR. HUNT: I don't remember which it was. 11 The other option that we had in our proposal was that we can 12 provide you, by -- and, actually, it's an agreement -- a 13 contract we have with Sprint to where, when you dial a 9 and 14 a 1, that call then would -- we would pick it up out of the 15 Kerrville Telephone Company office, and Sprint, in effect, 16 would deliver that call for us. We would then include that 17 in our billing back to the County. So, there were two 18 options. One was -- one was the 7-7-1-plus call. The other 19 one is the -- the conventional 9-1. See, 'cause you have to 20 pick -- right now you pick to KTLD when you dial a 9 and a 21 1. You're picked to Kerrville Long Distance, and it ships 22 out on Kerrville. We're saying we change that pick to 23 where, when you dial a 9 and a 1, it goes out over Frontera, 24 but it's actually out over the Sprint network. We have a 25 contract with Sprint nationwide to use that. Does that make 8-20-05 34 1 any sense? That was an option that we -- you know, that 2 leaves you your two different -- your two different paths 3 out of here, completely separate, and yet the billing, which 4 is very important to the accounting group, the billing will 5 all be done in one bill. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What's the cost of the -- 7 of that service? 8 MR. TROLINGER: You were at 7.5 cents. 9 MR. HUNT: 7.5. 10 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: .75. 11 MR. TROLINGER: I'm sorry? 12 MR. HUNT: Seven and a half cents. 13 MR. TROLINGER: Seven and a half cents per 14 minute. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: That's not my recollection. 16 My recollection was that the standard were -- 17 MR. HUNT: I'm just the owner of the company. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: -- five cents and four and a 19 half cents, is my recollection. 20 MR. TROLINGER: Right. Option A of the 21 Frontera bid was for 4.5 cents per minute with no line 22 charges, and using the voice-over IP. Option B from 23 Frontera was that they could also provide us Sprint long 24 distance on the existing lines, but at 7.5 cents per minute. 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Which is two and a 8-20-05 35 1 half cents higher than Kerrville -- KTLD. 2 MR. TROLINGER: Correct. So I thought this 3 was the best of both worlds. We'd have the -- the 4 inexpensive long distance voice-over IP, and we could move 5 the courthouse users over to that, resolve the billing 6 issue, and then as a backup, we still have an inexpensive 7 service by dialing 9 with KTLD. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Let me make a run at 9 this thing. We have -- and I made the motion last meeting 10 to approve the contract with Frontera, and -- but the County 11 Attorney needed to sign off on it first, and are you ready 12 to do that? You still -- 13 MR. EMERSON: On the contract? 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yes. 15 MR. EMERSON: No, sir. I had some concerns 16 that I passed back to John and the Judge to communicate and 17 try to work out. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So we're not ready to 19 do that. But I think the question here today is, let's 20 assume that all goes well and we approve the contract with 21 Frontera. Can we automatically keep the contract with KTC 22 at the same time? 23 MR. EMERSON: I think the answer to that 24 depends on how the proposal was put out for bids, and I 25 don't know if it was put out as an exclusive provider 8-20-05 36 1 proposal or just a wide-open offer. I don't know the answer 2 to that. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We can check that between 4 now and our next meeting when we finally wrap all this up. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: You know, the County 6 Attorney's still got some requirements, and so I'm not sure 7 we're in a position to take final action right now anyway. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No, we're not. I just 9 said that. My only concern was -- was the 9-1-1. Are we 10 going to be able to get an ambulance over here? They may 11 not run to a county facility; I don't know. 12 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: You can stand out on 13 the corner and let them pick you up. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 15 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Don't call them, 16 Commissioner; we lose $200, $300 on every run. (Laughter.) 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay, I'm going to 18 shut up before y'all jab them to death. That was my 19 concern, was the 9-1-1 service and the zero -- the operator 20 service. 21 MR. HUNT: Commissioner -- 22 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I want a 23 clarification on one other thing that's been bandied around 24 here a little bit. Mr. Trolinger, you keep making reference 25 to billing issues. What is -- what are the billing issues? 8-20-05 37 1 How are they being improved by Frontera, or how have they 2 failed to be improved by KTLD? Could you enlighten us on 3 that, please? 4 MR. TROLINGER: Yes. KTLD changed their 5 billing system from the existing or previous KTC -- KTLD 6 billing to Valor Communications billing system. The first 7 bill came in -- where normally we might receive a dozen, two 8 dozen pages, the first bill came in at, I believe, around 9 300 pages. Each individual call was specified. The 10 Auditor's office then had to go and tabulate each one of 11 those for each department. 12 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: No wonder he was so 13 unhappy. 14 MR. TROLINGER: We worked with -- and the 15 Auditor and I think Commissioner Baldwin worked with -- with 16 the local KTC office to try to get that billing corrected 17 and get it to the point where it was before, and -- 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And they did. They 19 corrected everything that we asked them to correct. 20 MR. TROLINGER: Okay. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Going to tell the 22 truth here today. 23 MR. TROLINGER: Okay, I didn't know that. I 24 thought -- the latest bill that I looked at, it was just for 25 approval, but it still was not -- 8-20-05 38 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No, they corrected 2 absolutely everything and then lowered the price, but go 3 ahead. 4 MR. TROLINGER: Okay. And somewhere -- 5 somewhere before the correction was made, obviously, this 6 Notice of Publication went out for soliciting bids for long 7 distance. Frontera's solution was to install a test system 8 of two lines here at the courthouse, and one just did get 9 installed at the Sheriff's Office, and to take that 10 information to use as an example billing statement to the 11 County. The Auditor's office received that, gave Frontera 12 some feedback. Frontera changed it exactly the way that the 13 Auditor's office had requested it, and they're happy with 14 the Frontera billing. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What was your 16 question? 17 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I think I heard 18 you -- 19 MR. TROLINGER: So, basically -- basically, 20 we went through a process where Frontera -- where they 21 accommodated us, and the Auditor's office is happy with 22 the -- 23 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: So, the bottom line 24 is, if I understand correctly, based on what Commissioner 25 Baldwin said, there are no billing issues that remain; is 8-20-05 39 1 that correct? 2 MR. TROLINGER: Sounds -- yes. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That is correct. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Anything further on this from 5 any member of the Court? 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No, sir. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Let's move on to the next 8 item. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Consider, discuss, and take 11 appropriate action, including amending and establishing 12 deadlines for acceptance on proposed Animal Control contract 13 with the City of Kerrville. 14 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: I'm going to talk in 15 a minute about bringing the contract to a conclusion, but 16 Commissioner Letz has got some information about how we can 17 follow the pattern that's being used elsewhere to get all of 18 our costs in the contract. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What I -- both the 20 airport and, I presume, the EMS -- though I was never given 21 that information, but I -- I know the airport, a percent of 22 the Human Resources Department is attributed to that project 23 or that budget at the airport, and it's rightly -- it 24 should. I have no problem with the way it was done in the 25 city. County has never done that. We have never attributed 8-20-05 40 1 a portion of our Auditor's office and Treasurer to any of 2 our contracts. But I thought that if we're going to -- you 3 know, we ought to treat each other equally. That's what I 4 keep hearing from the City. So, I made an attempt to do 5 that. Now, in the backup, I looked at it two ways. The 6 first page is administrative costs for Animal Control using 7 budgets. I took the total Animal Control budget, and 8 that's -- I believe I used last year's numbers. Took their 9 total budget divided by the County's total budget and came 10 up with that budget is 1.22 percent of our total budget. 11 And then I multiplied -- then I took the next -- say, County 12 Auditor, Treasurer, Maintenance Supervisor, I took the 13 Auditor's Department budget -- or I shouldn't say I did; I 14 should say Kathy did -- Treasurer's budget, and then the 15 Maintenance Supervisor's, only not his whole budget, 'cause 16 the rest of Maintenance is figured in already. That came 17 out to $309,620. Multiply that by that 1.22 percent and you 18 get $3,077 -- or $3,777. 19 And then the lower part, I took the Animal 20 Control budget, and where it says Commissioners Court, 21 3,772,000, that's the budgets that report straight to us -- 22 and that doesn't look right on that. Those are budgets that 23 report straight to us. Did the same math, came out to 24 5.57 percent of their budget kind of was directly under us 25 compared to other departments that report straight to the 8-20-05 41 1 Court. I took Commissioner Nicholson's salary, the Court 2 Administrative Assistant salary, and came out to $70,166, 3 and multiplied it by the percentage and came to $3,908. 4 Those are the components that come in that, to me, should be 5 added to the cost of that. And then 60 percent of that 6 total, if that's the breakdown we're using in the contract, 7 I believe attributed to the City. And the other part, the 8 second page is the same calculation using number of 9 employees as opposed to dollars, and came out with a higher 10 group of numbers. But, I mean, it's the same basic 11 calculation. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Can you back up just a 13 second? Back on Page 1, you said something about 60 percent 14 right at the end. What -- 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The current contract that 16 I believe was sent over to the City or that we've discussed 17 is that 60 percent of the Animal Control budget is for work 18 being -- or percent, I guess, of the work is done in the 19 city. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Oh, I see. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And we're -- on an 22 equitable breakdown, it came out that they would fund 23 60 percent of the cost. Therefore, they would -- if we add 24 these numbers or the Page 2 numbers into the total 25 administrative costs, 60 percent of that total would then be 8-20-05 42 1 added on top of their actual budget numbers. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So the question is, 3 are you going to use the budget or number of employees? 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Or something in between. 5 I mean, those are just two -- you know, and I didn't want to 6 really belabor this in great length to try to figure out 7 exactly how many employees. We didn't figure in Jannett's 8 time to go back and count court orders and all that. I'm 9 not going to get into that kind of detail. But this is a 10 pretty good idea looking at both dollars and employees. And 11 I think it is -- you know, technically, right now we're 12 spending all of our time on it on the Court, but 13 Commissioner Nicholson is liaison, so I just attributed that 14 time, so I'm being very conservative in my numbers, in my 15 opinion. 16 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: On each of these 17 pages, there are two different formulas? Or do we add these 18 two numbers together? 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: You add the numbers in 20 bold together. 21 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I see. Okay. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I don't have a 23 calculator here. I should have done that, I'm sorry. 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Judge has got his 25 magic machine there. 8-20-05 43 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: On the first page, it 2 would be 3,777 plus 3,908. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: And then a 60 percent factor? 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, what's the total? 5 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: And the answer is? 6 JUDGE TINLEY: I'm figuring the 60 percent. 7 First one was 4,611. The second one is 7,351. 8 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: It doesn't take 60 9 percent of those. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 11 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Do you? Okay, go 12 ahead. 13 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: The total on the 14 first page is 63-something? 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: First -- 16 JUDGE TINLEY: First page, 4,611. Second 17 page is 7,351.80. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's at the 60 19 percent. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Like I mentioned in 21 court, I didn't think these were going to be huge numbers 22 one way or the other, but I -- you know, I think it's 23 appropriate to do it this way. 24 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: It's consistent with 25 other practice. 8-20-05 44 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Consistent with our other 2 contracts. But I don't really have any strong preference as 3 to which form you use. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: An average of those two 5 numbers is 5,981.40. Rounded off -- 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That's on Page 2? 7 JUDGE TINLEY: An average of the two numbers, 8 of the two 60 percent numbers. 9 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Oh. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's fine. 11 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: What's the first one? 12 JUDGE TINLEY: 4,611 is 60 percent on the 13 first page. 60 percent of the second number is 7,351.80, 14 and then if you take an average of those two, it comes out 15 5,981.40. $6,000? 16 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Thank you. 17 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Okay. I'm going to 18 make a motion that will include that. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Which one? 20 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: $6,000. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 22 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: On June 27th, we 23 sent a proposed contract to the City of Kerrville with the 24 -- including them paying their fair share of the 60 percent 25 rate, and we have not had a response on that. And then in a 8-20-05 45 1 minute, we'll talk about the library contract. We need to 2 nail that down so we can finish our budget. We need to know 3 if we're going to run an Animal Control facility only for 4 the county outside of Kerrville, or for the -- for the 5 entire county. So, I'm going to make a motion that we amend 6 the contract that we offered in a letter dated June 27, to 7 amend Paragraph 6(a) to include 60 percent of the budgeted 8 Animal Control expenses plus $6,000 for administrative 9 expenses, and give the City of Kerrville until 5 p.m. July 10 the 7th -- 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: July? 12 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: I mean 13 September 7th, to make a decision on the contract. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is that -- what day of 15 the week is that? 16 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: A Wednesday. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: I don't think -- 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: They won't meet -- 19 JUDGE TINLEY: They won't meet before then. 20 MS. MITCHELL: Second Tuesday. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: They meet the second Tuesday. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What does that have to 23 do with it? 24 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: We're having a 25 meeting this afternoon. I'll -- are we going to be okay 8-20-05 46 1 waiting another week to -- to have the numbers we need for 2 our budgets on that and the library contract? 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean, I think so. I 4 mean, I -- 5 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Okay. Let me change 6 that to the -- the deadline to be September the 14th at 7 5 p.m. That's a Wednesday. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded. Any 11 question or comment? All in favor of that motion, signify 12 by raising your right hand. 13 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 14 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 15 (No response.) 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll just make a brief 17 comment on that, and I think that's being extremely 18 generous. I mean, I think the City, as I understand, has 19 voted on their budget, and I think it's kind of odd they 20 haven't told us what they're doing. The press is saying 21 they have not voted on it. Well, either way, I mean, I 22 think this is still -- this has been -- they've had this 23 before them for months. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Anything else on that 25 particular agenda item? Let's move to the last item for 8-20-05 47 1 today, consider and discuss, take appropriate action, 2 including amending and establishing deadlines for 3 acceptance, on proposed library contract with the City of 4 Kerrville. 5 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: I'm going to try to 6 be real brief on this. Two-minute tour of the history of 7 the last two years on the library contract. June 18, 2004, 8 Commissioner Williams got a letter informing the County that 9 the City wouldn't -- would not be meeting with us to discuss 10 joint contracts in general, and the library contract in 11 particular. On May 6th, 2005, I sent a letter to Antonio 12 Martinez, the director of the library, asking him to set a 13 meeting with me to comply with the contract in existence 14 that requires that the library director and a -- a member of 15 Commissioners Court appointed by the Court meet together 16 over the details of the library. On May 18, Judge Tinley 17 got a letter from the then City Manager saying that they 18 didn't intend to conduct such a meeting; they didn't intend 19 to comply with the contract. On June 24, the Library 20 Advisory Board Chairman, Mr. Randall Johnson, wrote the 21 Interim City Manager asking a representative of the City and 22 the County meet with the Library Board and discuss the 23 budget. I responded I thought that was a good idea; I was 24 ready to meet, and the Library Board didn't get a response 25 from the City on that offer either. 8-20-05 48 1 So, the last action that was taken was in the 2 -- on behalf of this Court. In our last budget meeting, we 3 penciled in an amount so we could keep our budget process 4 going. We penciled in an amount of $3,000 -- I mean 5 $300,000. Today, I talked with the City Manager's -- 6 Interim City Manager's secretary. He and I have a meeting 7 on Friday to discuss the budget. I don't know if that 8 includes discussions of the contract or not, but anyhow, 9 they've had the contract in-hand since June 27th. And I 10 propose and make a motion that we set a deadline of 11 September 14th at 5 p.m. on our offer for a library 12 contract. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Is that the only thing 14 in your motion, is the deadline? 15 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Yeah. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'll second that. I 17 think you're being very generous with this time frame, 18 but -- 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, I think on -- on 20 this one, you know, I have no problem with having the 21 contract by that date, but I don't know what difference it 22 makes currently. I mean, but the -- I think the expenditure 23 is -- I think the amount that we set at our last meeting is 24 the amount we're going to fund the library. They need to 25 adjust their budget accordingly. 8-20-05 49 1 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: I'm thinking, 2 Commissioner, that probably we should not be making -- 3 sending funds to the City without a contract. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I would agree -- I agree 5 with that, and that's something they need for the contract 6 for that reason, but I think that the amount that -- I mean, 7 their lack of giving us any information, you know, I stand 8 by the amount that we penciled in for the budget, I think, 9 which was -- and I can't remember what it was. 10 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: 300,000. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 300,000. 12 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Your motion was to 13 set a deadline for them to respond to us? 14 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Yes. I'm not 15 proposing any changes in the contract, just saying we need 16 to know by the 14th of September whether or not we've got a 17 contract. 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Would it be fair -- 19 well, I guess it would be fair. To-date, you have received 20 no budget numbers, no printout, nothing that indicates what 21 the operating categories and expenses are? 22 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Commissioner, some 23 time ago I attended a -- like, six weeks or two months, an 24 advisory board meeting where a -- you know, 45, 50 pages of 25 budget preparation documents were handed out. At that time, 8-20-05 50 1 they hadn't been submitted to the City. No -- no recap or 2 totals or anything like that. So, no, that's the only 3 thing. I've got nothing from the City. 4 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Thank you. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean, I think the -- I 6 don't think them just signing off on the contract -- I mean, 7 I'm not sure where we are versus -- you say the same 8 contract we currently have. Well, they haven't lived up to 9 that contract, so I'm not willing to sign that contract 10 until they start -- I mean, why should we sign a contract 11 and then have them not follow it? They haven't followed it 12 in -- I've been a commissioner nine years. Nine years, they 13 haven't followed the contract, so why should we sign the 14 same contract again? It just makes no sense to me. 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Well, we asked to 16 renegotiate that contract, I think, over two years ago. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well -- 18 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Commissioner, it's a 19 good question. There might be one reason for signing the 20 new contract, and that's because the proposal we made would 21 be -- would have the opportunity to bring better governance 22 to the library. That would be that -- that board that's 23 created a little bit like the Library Board. It's got some 24 specific authorities and responsibility. That's -- that's 25 all that would be new, as far as I know. 8-20-05 51 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean, I want to have a 2 contract and I want to fund the library, but I see no point 3 in -- you know, and I think the only leverage we have is our 4 funds. 5 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Yeah. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And that doesn't appear 7 to be very much. 8 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: No, it doesn't. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, I -- you know, until, 10 you know, I get an indication from City Council that they're 11 going to make their City staff live up to the contract, I'm 12 not willing to approve that contract. And -- you know, so I 13 think that should be what you need to convey at your meeting 14 with the City Manager -- or Interim City Manager, that I 15 think we're at a point that City Council has to say, "We are 16 going to direct our staff to live up to the terms of this 17 contract," and then I'll go along with it, 'cause I believe 18 those folks. But, so far, I see no reason to enter into a 19 contract with them under the same scenario we have for past 20 years. 21 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Well, I think it's 22 safe to say that there's a willingness on the part of the 23 Court -- most of the members of the Court to fund that 24 library, but I don't understand the unwillingness to be 25 communicative about it and to forward the document, or to 8-20-05 52 1 sit down and negotiate the changes that are necessary. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Anything further? 3 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: No. All we're doing 4 at this time is setting a deadline. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And -- 6 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: And I'll communicate 7 the -- 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And also, I'd also 9 communicate the amount that we're budgeting, and we don't 10 see that changing, possibly. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Anything further? All in 12 favor of the motion, signify by raising your right hand. 13 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 14 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 15 (No response.) 16 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. 17 Anything else to come before the special meeting? 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: See you Wednesday. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: If not, we will adjourn that 20 meeting. And why don't we take about a 10-minute break 21 here, and we'll come back and do our workshop here in -- it 22 was scheduled for 2:00; we're running about 30 minutes 23 behind. 24 (Commissioners Court adjourned at 2:33 p.m.) 25 - - - - - - - - - - 8-20-05 53 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 1st day of September, 8 2005. 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 8-20-05