1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT 9 Special Session 10 Tuesday, December 27, 2005 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 December 27, 2005 2 PAGE --- Commissioners' Comments 5 3 1.2 Execution of written agreement authorizing 4 Special Prosecutor's Office to utilize office space in County Attorney's Office, establish 5 value of leased space for in-kind match purposes 6 6 1.3 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action approving rental fee for electronic voting 7 equipment as per Texas Election Code 123.032 7 8 1.1 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to award bids for stop loss insurance coverage for 9 2006 Employee Health Benefits Program, establish premium rates for coverage under such program 25 10 1.4 Present annual report of Kerr County Historical 11 Commission 38 12 1.5 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on proposed conditional lease agreement with Hill 13 Country Mounted Peace Officers Association for construction of multi-use facility 43 14 1.8 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action for 15 opening & awarding of sealed bids on two backhoes 49 16 1.6 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action approving County Clerk to acquire office space 17 now occupied by Parole and Historical Commission located in the lower level of the courthouse 50 18 1.7 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on 19 implementing Burn Ban 63 20 1.9 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action concerning City & County responsibilities in the 21 interlocal agreement for regulating subdivisions 64 22 1.10 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on final plat approval for Neunhoffer Addition, Pct. 2 69 23 1.11 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on 24 interlocal agreement with City of Kerrville concerning subdivision platting jurisdiction 25 within the ETJ 71 3 1 I N D E X (Continued) December 27, 2005 2 PAGE 3 1.12 Consider/discuss, take action to appoint four persons to serve as members of Emergency Service 4 District #2 Board of Commissioners 73 5 1.15 Consider/discuss, take action on 2005-2006 Library budget 117 6 1.18 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on 7 Addendum for 2006 Kerr County Market Days and Kerr County Farmers Market usage license, 8 authorize County Judge to sign same 119 9 1.13 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on Kerr County's 150th Birthday Celebration on 10 January 26th 126 11 1.14 Consider/discuss, take action on construction project at the Animal Control Facility 130 12 1.16 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action 13 on Field Agreement with U.S. Department of Agriculture, funding for same 131 14 1.17 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 15 implement Alternative Dispute Resolution fee for justice courts 132 16 1.19 Consider/discuss approval of resolution 17 expressing official intent to reimburse with tax-exempt obligation proceeds costs incurred to 18 acquire computer hardware and software from The Software Group, authorize County Judge to sign 133 19 4.1 Pay Bills 138 20 4.2 Budget Amendments 143 4.3 Late Bills --- 21 4.4 Approve and Accept Monthly Reports 146 22 5.1 Reports from Commissioners/Liaison Committee Assignments 146 23 --- Adjourned 160 24 25 4 1 On Tuesday, December 27, 2005, at 9:00 a.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: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. 7 Let me call to order the regularly scheduled meeting of the 8 Kerr County Commissioners Court posted for this time and date, 9 Tuesday, December the 27th, 2005, at 9 a.m. It is that time 10 now. This is our last regularly scheduled meeting for the 11 calendar year 2005. Commissioner Nicholson, I believe it -- 12 I'll defer to you this morning. 13 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Will you join me in prayer 14 and then the pledge of allegiance, please? 15 (Prayer and pledge of allegiance.) 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you. At this time, if there's 17 any member of the audience or the public that wishes to be 18 heard on a matter that is not a listed agenda item, feel free 19 to come forward at this time. If you wish to be heard on an 20 agenda item, we would ask that you fill out a participation 21 form. There should be some forms there at the back of the 22 room. It's not essential that you do that; it just helps me 23 to not miss you when we get to that item, and I can make a 24 note so that I'm sure to recognize you when we get there. But 25 if there's any member of the public or the audience that 12-27-05 5 1 wishes to be heard on any matter that is not a listed agenda 2 item, please feel free to come forward at this time. Seeing 3 no one coming forward, we'll move on. Commissioner Nicholson, 4 do you have anything for us this morning? 5 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: I do not have anything 6 specific, Judge. It was a good -- good Christmas in west Kerr 7 County, and seemed like lots of family around, and a good time 8 of celebration. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Hear, hear. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner 1? 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yes, sir, I have one comment. 12 One of my Christmas gifts was a ticket to -- to the Alamo Bowl 13 Wednesday night, and I'm going to go down there with my 14 grandson. A great, super ticket to watch Michigan And 15 Nebraska, for some reason, and it'll be -- I mean, I'm going 16 to have to root for Nebraska, because of the Big 12. But, I 17 mean, I know y'all can't even conceive that idea. It's -- 18 it's really difficult on me, so I pray -- I'd ask y'all to 19 pray for me during the week, and -- (Laughter.) Nevermind. 20 That's all, Judge. Thank you very much for the time. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner Williams? 22 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: We're going to pray that you 23 don't fall out of the stands in your acts of enthusiasm. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Just had a great Christmas 12-27-05 6 1 with family, and safe journey to and from the great 2 megalopolis of the north, and it's good to be back. Wish 3 everybody else Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Three? 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Same thing. Had a great 6 Christmas, ready to get things under way and get out of here 7 today. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Good to see everybody here today. We 9 appreciate you being here. Let's move on with the agenda, if 10 we might. Let's go to Item Number 2, if we might. Execution 11 of written agreement authorizing Special Prosecutor's Office 12 to utilize office space in the County Attorney's office during 13 grant period, and establishing value of leased space for 14 purposes of in-kind match for Grant Number WF-05-V30-17590-01. 15 Is that a long enough number? 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Are you serious? 17 MS. BAILEY: I believe so. Good morning, 18 Commissioners and Judge. This is really a housekeeping 19 matter. The County, as you know, is already providing office 20 space for the Special Prosecutor, which is my office. It's 21 grant-funded out of the governor's office. We just had a 22 grant review for the first quarter, and the reviewers said 23 that it was preferable that any kind of a grant like that we 24 have be in writing, and so what I've done is put in writing 25 what we're already doing, and then valuing the amount of 12-27-05 7 1 square footage that I'm using, and then that becomes part of 2 the County's in-kind contribution to -- to my position fund. 3 And so we're just asking that you execute that to memorialize 4 what we've been doing since October anyway. 5 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Move to approve. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for approval 8 of the agenda item. Any question or discussion? 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That includes authorization for 10 you to sign, Judge, I believe. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: All right. As Ms. Bailey indicated, 12 this came up as a result of a review process on this grant and 13 one other grant that -- that we have in process. It's just a 14 matter of documenting the in-kind match, I believe. 15 MS. BAILEY: Yes, sir. You'll be receiving another 16 similar contract for the VOCA position as well. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: All right. Any further question or 18 discussion? All in favor of the motion, signify by raising 19 your right hand. 20 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 21 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 22 (No response.) 23 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. Let's move 24 to Item Number 3; consider, discuss, and take appropriate 25 action approving rental fee for the electronic voting 12-27-05 8 1 equipment as per the Texas Election Code, Section 123.032. 2 MS. PIEPER: Gentlemen, we're back at square one 3 again on this. I believe whenever I submitted this, I 4 submitted the cost of the election equipment to you. There's 5 really no easy way to figure out how to do it per entity, 6 unless y'all can come up with something. And Sheila was going 7 to be here. 8 MS. CRAIG: Brenda. 9 MS. PIEPER: Brenda, I'm sorry. Would you figure 10 out an easy way that the -- she's from the city, the clerk. 11 MS. CRAIG: Thank you. 12 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: She has a name. Brenda 13 Craig. 14 MS. CRAIG: Yes, thank you. Thank you, Bill. My 15 question is, I've just come to listen and see what y'all are 16 presenting to us, and then I can take that back to the City 17 Council, but I do have some questions. First of all, the cost 18 of the equipment and the funding, where the funding came from, 19 and maybe Jannett could better answer that. 20 MS. PIEPER: Funding came from a grant. 21 MS. CRAIG: Okay. All of it? Federal? 22 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Federal moneys handed down 23 through the State of Texas, allocated all across the state to 24 every county for that purpose, for the HAVA purpose -- 25 equipment purpose. 12-27-05 9 1 MS. CRAIG: First of all, I want to recognize 2 Jannett for her efforts on behalf of all the local citizens to 3 secure a federal grant for that purchase of that electronic 4 voting equipment. That did take some effort on her part. I 5 don't know if y'all are aware of that, but she did work hard 6 on that grant. 7 MS. PIEPER: Thank you. 8 MS. CRAIG: And under a lease-rental plan, the 9 citizens of a city would be paying for the use of the 10 equipment five times, once through -- well, four times, if the 11 County is not paying. Or just the maintenance? 12 MS. PIEPER: Maintenance. 13 MS. CRAIG: Okay. So, the citizens of the city 14 would be paying through a federal tax, a county tax, 15 Headwaters, because Headwaters also has elections county-wide, 16 school tax for all the school districts, and a city tax. And 17 citizens of cities and school districts county-wide would be 18 paying to rent the same equipment that they just paid to 19 purchase. And I just wanted to keep -- y'all to keep that in 20 mind, if you would, please. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Are you speaking as a 22 taxpayer, or as a city employee? 23 MS. CRAIG: Either. Both. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Neither? 25 MS. CRAIG: Either or both. 12-27-05 10 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I see. Okay. 2 MS. CRAIG: Yeah. And if the County does charge a 3 rental fee, that fee should be equal to all entities, whether 4 it's a school district in Center Point or Divide or a city 5 such as Ingram or Kerrville. Since equipment was purchased 6 with tax dollars, in my opinion, it should be equal. And 7 that's all I have to say. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Ms. Craig? 9 MS. CRAIG: Yes, sir? 10 JUDGE TINLEY: It's my understanding that Hart or 11 some arm of Hart is -- has got itself in the rental business 12 for the purpose of offering this equipment to political 13 subdivisions that hold elections, and I assume that they have 14 a published rate schedule, do they not? 15 MS. CRAIG: No, sir, not any more. And I thought 16 that they had, and they did the first year or two that they 17 made the equipment, but now they have to sell all that they 18 have. They may at some point in the future, but not for the 19 next couple years. They did when first -- early on, to try to 20 get people to use the equipment when all this HAVA first came 21 out, but they no longer have any equipment available. They 22 are -- do have a unit available that would meet the City of 23 Kerrville's needs, and also the City of Ingram's needs, for 24 $7,500. Now, that's full purchase. And -- 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I think this issue is a 12-27-05 11 1 little different in that I think you have to examine the 2 issues. The current system is -- is paper ballots, a ballot 3 box and a secure -- or a place in which people can vote 4 confidentially, enclosed. We're talking about electronic 5 equipment now that has to be taken from the courthouse and 6 placed in locations, subject to damage, subject to breakage, 7 subject to malfunction, subject to theft. There are a lot of 8 different dynamics of this than there were previously in all 9 elections held up to this point. I don't think that in any 10 part -- the County's not looking to make money on this. We're 11 looking to make certain that we can cover the costs that will 12 be incurred to keep this equipment functioning and/or replace 13 it if it's broken or stolen. That's kind of the way I look at 14 it. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean, let me add a little bit 16 to what Commissioner Williams said. I mean, my view is 17 certainly not trying to recoup the grant money. That's 18 ridiculous. We've got a federal grant, and that's -- that 19 benefits all the taxpayers of the county, whatever entity. 20 But there's going to be a replacement cost; it's going to have 21 to be borne by somebody, and I look at it as a -- and the 22 users of the equipment, I think, should, under some formula, 23 start building a reserve to replace this equipment when it 24 does break. And I'm not sure what the useful life of it is. 25 Maybe it's 10 years. You know, who knows what it is? Maybe 12-27-05 12 1 it's five years. There also is a -- you know, some other 2 costs that can be attributed, and I don't -- you know, while 3 all of the entities also are county residents, I'm not so 4 sure, based on the way we do government overall, that the 5 County should pay all election costs regardless of the 6 elections. I think there ought to be some cost of that to the 7 entities that choose to use this system -- or this equipment. 8 MS. CRAIG: And I don't disagree with your 9 statement. In fact, I'm just getting information to take back 10 to City Council. I can't speak for the City Council. But you 11 are correct in that there may be some fees later on. I'm just 12 saying that whatever the fees are, that they be equal to all 13 entities. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What we were looking at just -- 15 MS. CRAIG: Like, Center Point may just need one 16 eSlate. City of Kerrville may need four, and so we ought to 17 all pay equally per -- 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Per machine. 19 MS. CRAIG: Per equipment, right. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We're looking at a per-machine 21 usage, probably, or a -- based on the number of units that are 22 going to be used, something like that, some sort of a fee 23 structure that's -- 24 MS. CRAIG: And in regard to Mr. William's comments, 25 I spoke just this morning to the Gillespie County Clerk, and 12-27-05 13 1 she said that they were in the process of working out an 2 agreement, for example, with the party primaries coming up in 3 March, where they would sign an agreement for any damages for 4 the equipment, and the State has set a fee for them at $5 per 5 piece of equipment. 6 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: I'm -- 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: The agreement regarding 8 damages would mean that the user would pay the damage costs? 9 MS. CRAIG: Yes. And their County Attorney was 10 working up such an agreement to cover any accidents that may 11 happen. 12 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: I'm in agreement with what 13 I've heard Commissioner Williams and Commissioner Letz say. I 14 suspect the real issue is obsolescence. I think it's kind of 15 a novel approach to voting; probably that the life of it won't 16 be very long, and we'll be having to replace it and pay for 17 it, and we ought to collect enough between now and then to do 18 that. I do disagree with the concept that the various 19 government entities should pay the same. I don't think the 20 Divide school district, with 116 registered voters, should pay 21 the same that Ingram or Kerrville ISD paid. 22 MS. CRAIG: My comment to that would be the county 23 tax is the same for all citizens whether they live in Divide 24 or Center Point, and you don't charge your tax bases equally 25 to each -- each resident in the county. The -- 12-27-05 14 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Ms. Craig, I'm sorry -- 2 MS. CRAIG: For example, the property tax is based 3 on valuation of whatever your property is, just like for the 4 City of Kerrville. It would be on the number of pieces of 5 equipment. We would need more pieces of equipment than Divide 6 school district would. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, Divide -- the average taxpayer 8 in Divide pays a whole lot more in ad valorem taxes than the 9 average homeowner in Kerrville. 10 MS. CRAIG: Well, that's my statement. That just -- 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Ms. Craig, are you -- are you aware 12 of any entity that is offering these types of equipment for 13 lease or rental purpose? 14 MS. CRAIG: No, sir. Just counties are offering 15 them to their cities and their school districts. And I'm here 16 speaking just for the City of Kerrville. There are a number 17 of school districts and another city out there, the City of 18 Ingram. I just happen to be the one that asked that it be put 19 on the ballot -- on your agenda today, because we need to call 20 our election in January. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: It occurs to me that there -- the 22 statute authorizes a daily charge up to, I believe, 10 percent 23 of the actual -- 24 MS. CRAIG: Yes, sir, you're correct. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: -- of the cost of the machine. 12-27-05 15 1 Except for primaries, which it's $5 per -- per machine. It 2 occurs to me that maybe the better approach would be, instead 3 of doing it on a -- on a daily basis, to do it on a 4 per-election basis. Might be a bit more simplified, and as 5 these other gentlemen have indicated, we're -- we're not 6 looking for a way to -- to recoup the cost here, because the 7 taxpayers have already paid that cost. But we do need to be 8 in a position where, when it comes time to replace that 9 equipment, that we're in a position to do so by virtue of what 10 we've been able to capitalize from it, and secondly, to pay 11 for any maintenance or repairs or -- or loss that may have 12 occurred to the equipment. Have -- have you any proposed 13 schedule or -- or thoughts on -- on what you believe would be 14 a fair -- fair value on this equipment? 15 MS. CRAIG: No, sir. Just to say that 10 percent 16 per day -- which is allowed; you are correct. We have early 17 voting for nine days, and then the election day voting. We'd 18 be better off to buy our own equipment, if you pay 10 percent 19 per day and you used it for 10 days. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: I would certainly agree with you that 21 that is -- 22 MS. CRAIG: I don't think I could convince the City 23 Council of that one. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: -- that's way too strong. 25 MS. CRAIG: Yes, sir. 12-27-05 16 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: When is -- when does City 2 Council have to make a decision on this? Or do you need this 3 decided today? 4 MS. CRAIG: We need to call the election in January. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: When? 6 MS. CRAIG: Our second meeting in January would be 7 the, I guess, 24th of January. I have to call the election by 8 the 24th of January. 9 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: For what date would the 10 election -- May? For a May election? 11 MS. CRAIG: Yes, sir, the second Saturday in May 12 this year is on the 13th. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think -- and we discussed 14 this, I don't know -- what, couple weeks ago? And I still -- 15 I think I need the same -- I need some sort -- I need Hart or 16 someone to tell Jannett or get to us what the expected life of 17 this equipment is. I mean, will it last 20 years? Five 18 years? I mean, what they -- I mean, it's going to be a guess, 19 but we need to know that, 'cause there's no way you can figure 20 out how to build up a reserve. And then I think you need to 21 work with the County Attorney about, you know, if it's -- 22 something is damaged. I have no problem with doing a -- 23 damage or loss of a machine, the replacement cost of that 24 machine goes back to the entity that was using it. I mean, 25 that's reasonable. I don't think that -- but anyway, then the 12-27-05 17 1 other costs, I really don't think it's that much other costs 2 that we're going to -- that the County is going to spend, 3 other than just the building up a reserve for the maintenance. 4 So -- 5 MS. PIEPER: I don't think we'll be able to build up 6 the reserve for maintenance, because it's $13,700 per year. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, we use the maintenance -- 8 the maintenance and the reserves for replacement, is what I'm 9 talking -- what I meant to say. We need to get a life of 10 the -- expected life of this equipment. 11 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: I have an accounting 12 question. Does the Local Government Code allow such a thing 13 as a -- a fund set aside for a specific purpose? 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: An enterprise-type fund. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Sinking fund. 16 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: County Attorney is right 17 there. 18 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: The principle is good that 19 we should -- we should collect enough to replace the equipment 20 and pay for the maintenance, but somehow that gets lost three 21 or four years from now. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Mr. Danny Edwards with the City of 23 Ingram is here with us this morning, and has indicated a 24 desire to be heard on this issue. 25 MR. EDWARDS: If it please the Court, I, of course, 12-27-05 18 1 concur with everything that was espoused by the City of 2 Kerrville representative. One thing that hasn't been 3 mentioned is the fact that there's a great disparity in all of 4 this by virtue of the fact that the Legislature has done its 5 usual magnificent job of passing the burden of everything down 6 to the counties and the cities. And in this particular 7 instance, they've even protected themselves on this by 8 allowing the Court to only charge the -- in the primary 9 elections, $5 per machine, which will -- but you're reimbursed 10 by the State of Texas. So, they have cast a tremendous burden 11 on the cities and the county to do their work. And I submit 12 that there's even more disparity in this by virtue of the fact 13 that the -- probably the maximum vote in the city of Ingram 14 will be about 60 people. Just the programming of the 15 machine -- two machines for the city of Ingram will cost us 16 $40 per vote by virtue of the programming that has to go in. 17 We have to have two machines, one for early voting. That's as 18 I understand it, one for early voting and one for election day 19 voting, so that the rate it's going to -- if we have -- I 20 don't know how the -- how the programming goes, whether they 21 program both machines for $2,100 or -- 22 MS. CRAIG: $2,100 per election. 23 MR. EDWARDS: Per election. So it's going to cost 24 us $40 per voter just to program the machines, and we haven't 25 even started talking about any rental basis yet. So, there's 12-27-05 19 1 a tremendous disparity here, not only among -- between the 2 counties and the cities, but among cities themselves, where 3 you've got a city that's got 16,000 voters as opposed to one 4 that has 50 voters, and we're going to pay almost the same 5 amount of money. They may have four machines; we're going to 6 use two, so we're paying 50 percent as much for 50 voters as 7 they are for several thousand voters. And it's quite possible 8 that if -- if this goes through -- and, of course, 9 Commissioner Letz has said you've been talking about it, but 10 you haven't told us what you're talking about, so I don't know 11 whether I'm premature or not, whether you're talking about $5 12 or $500 or $5,000, but it's very possible that if it gets too 13 high, Ingram -- pardon me, Ingram will not hold an election. 14 They have no money. This is not budgeted. It wasn't even 15 anticipated, and it's literally impossible for us to hold a 16 budget -- I mean, to have a budget to hold this election. And 17 that seems rather drastic to me, maybe to some of you, but 18 that's the way it is financially. There's no way we can come 19 up with $12,000, $15,000 to hold an election when our total 20 budget's $500,000. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't think it would be near 22 that much. I mean, I look at it -- I mean, I'm guessing -- I 23 hate to guess, but these machines, I think, start 10 years, so 24 you're looking at, you know, 28,000 a year, $287,000 for all 25 the equipment. That's for all of them; not -- that's not per 12-27-05 20 1 machine or -- 2 MR. EDWARDS: But it says up to 10 percent. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We're not -- I mean -- 4 MR. EDWARDS: We don't know what you're thinking 5 about. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I have no desire to go -- we're 7 trying to recoup the maintenance costs and any additional -- 8 MR. EDWARDS: You don't know what that is. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's 13,000 a year for all of 10 the machines. 11 MR. EDWARDS: All the machines? You got a contract 12 on it? 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 14 MR. EDWARDS: Okay. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And then we're trying to build 16 some sort of formula to build some sort of reserve, 'cause 17 they're going to have to be replaced at some point. 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: But you raise an interesting 19 point, Mr. Edwards, and that is that the programming required 20 to put the machines in a ready state for each election, 21 programming required for Ingram is different, at least the 22 setup costs -- 23 MR. EDWARDS: Yes. 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: -- are different for Ingram 25 than it would be for Kerrville or Center Point or wherever. 12-27-05 21 1 MR. EDWARDS: Right. 2 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: So who bears that cost, 3 Madam Clerk? 4 MS. PIEPER: The entity. 5 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: The entity. 6 MR. TROLINGER: And, if I may, Commissioner 7 Williams -- and Jannett's aware of this. The first election 8 cycle, it looks like Hart is actually going to do the 9 programming for us, and then -- is it correct, Jannett, we're 10 going to purchase the software to be able to actually create 11 the ballots -- 12 MS. PIEPER: That's correct. 13 MR. TROLINGER: -- following that? And that will 14 eliminate that cost per election. 15 MR. EDWARDS: Yeah. 16 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: And we would then create the 17 ballot for the entities; is that correct? 18 MS. PIEPER: Yes. 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: And your staff would then 20 check these items out -- these pieces of gear out to the 21 entity, be certain that they are not broken when returned? 22 MS. PIEPER: That is correct. We -- yes, we will 23 have to keep track of that, just like we have to -- we will 24 have to keep track of each primary precinct. My office 25 will -- as always, we've always been involved in -- in helping 12-27-05 22 1 them with elections or, you know, being of assistance, but 2 with this equipment, we will be more involved. 3 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That's my point. 4 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: What I just heard from 5 Mr. Trolinger is that -- suggests that this exorbitant 6 per-voter cost will be eliminated because we can do the 7 programming ourselves? 8 MS. PIEPER: Well, once -- the rental fee from this 9 goes into a fund that can only be used on election equipment. 10 Because we had to cut the budget when we were negotiating the 11 cost of this election equipment, the one thing they cut was me 12 being able to program and print our own ballots. These -- the 13 ballots from the eScan are printed on just a sheet of paper, 14 but yet Hart's going to charge us $300 per thousand to do 15 that. But once I'm able to get money in this fund, then I can 16 buy that software and I can program and print the ballots for 17 all the entities. 18 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: I'm trying to get back to 19 this $40 per-voter cost which is outrageous. 'Cause -- does 20 this ameliorate that quite a bit, the fact that we can do our 21 own programming? 22 MR. EDWARDS: That's not all of it. Depending on 23 how this is handled -- and I'm not knowledgeable about the ins 24 and outs of it, but there are other requirements they have to 25 have about different kinds of equipment for reading, et 12-27-05 23 1 cetera, et cetera, et cetera. 2 MS. PIEPER: We -- that price is included. 3 MR. EDWARDS: Okay. 4 MS. PIEPER: In the equipment. 5 MR. EDWARDS: Okay. But, anyway, like I say, if -- 6 I don't know what the answer to it is. I'm glad I'm not 7 sitting up there now. But there's a tremendous disparity 8 between the city of Kerrville and the city of Ingram. You've 9 also got school districts involved in this, and I don't know 10 how they fare on it, but I can tell you how the city of Ingram 11 doesn't fare on it. We appreciate your consideration. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you. Pretty obvious to me we 13 need more information on this subject to be able to come up 14 with a solution. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think we need to -- and you 16 have the numbers here. The eSlate is 2,500, JBC 2,500, and 17 the eScan, 4,500. Those are the cost of each unit? 18 MS. PIEPER: Yes, it is. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And what is the minimum of -- 20 for one if someone's going to -- like, Ingram needs one 21 machine -- or two machines. Is that two of each of those? 22 MS. PIEPER: Yes, one for early voting and one for 23 election day. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, it's 90 -- they need 95 -- 25 so the city of Ingram is going to need $9,500 worth of 12-27-05 24 1 machines for -- or, I mean, 18 -- 2 MS. PIEPER: Times two, because you'll have one for 3 early voting and one for election day. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay, 19,000. If you took, you 5 know, the 10-year life, it's $190 or so that we're going to 6 have to recoup, totally. I think it's going to be a 7 reasonable amount, I think. I don't think it's going to be an 8 exorbitant amount. Divide it out between the number of 9 entities and number of machines, it's going to come to $190, 10 plus or minus, per machine -- less than that, $95. 11 MS. PIEPER: One percent would be $95. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't think it's going to be 13 too much. We're trying to do as little as possible, but at 14 the same time, we -- I don't -- we can't -- we haven't 15 budgeted to subsidize all the other entities. So, I mean, the 16 cost that we get is going to have to be passed on to the 17 entities. 18 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Mr. Edwards reminded me 19 again that this -- what started all this was the Help America 20 Vote Act, and that we somehow struggled along for 150 years 21 without any help from Washington, and all of a sudden, we've 22 got an expensive solution to a nonexistent problem. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Jannett, can we put this back on 24 the agenda -- I'm going to get with you between now and 25 then -- at our first meeting in January? 12-27-05 25 1 MS. PIEPER: That's fine. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Any other member of the Court have 3 anything further on this item? Let's go to Item 1, a timed 4 item for 9:15. Consider, discuss, and take appropriate action 5 to award bids for stop loss insurance coverage for 2006 6 employee health benefits program and establish premium rate 7 for coverage under such program. I put this on the agenda 8 pursuant to the bids that were solicited by our insurance 9 consultant, and he's here with us today, Mr. Gary Looney. 10 MR. LOONEY: Judge Tinley. Good morning, 11 Commissioners. I don't know about your constituents, but I 12 appreciate you all being here and working during this week. 13 There's a lot of insurance companies out there that I've had 14 trouble getting in contact with. So -- but, fortunately, 15 we're here today, and I did have one thing that occurred 16 during this holiday season I need to tell you about. That is 17 that I had the opportunity to have my son sworn in before the 18 Bar during this time frame. 19 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: All right. 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Congratulations. 21 MR. LOONEY: That is done and gone, so -- and sorry 22 about the attorney relationship, maybe, but -- but he is out 23 there active now. We put -- we solicited bids for the stop 24 loss insurance, and we put the information out to the 25 insurance community, and the insurance community decided that 12-27-05 26 1 they didn't wish to participate in our process. We received 2 the renewal from Mutual of Omaha, and that was the only 3 solicitation that we received. I suspect that part of the 4 problem is that our expectation for paid premium for this year 5 for our stop loss insurance is about $135,000 in premium. 6 We've had losses. We have had six losses in excess of our 7 specific deductible amount of $40,000, and right now our 8 expectation is to receive approximately $367,000 in refunds 9 over and above that $40,000 stop loss point. So, our 10 insurance functioned in the manner which it was supposed to 11 function; it protected us against those losses. But as the 12 insurance industry reviewed it, they decided they didn't want 13 to participate with us in those losses, so we negotiated with 14 -- as best we could with Mutual of Omaha. We beat them up a 15 little bit. 16 The good news is that, based on the results of our 17 negotiations, that we're within the budget constraints that 18 you all set during the budgeting period, so that we do not 19 have to impact the budget going forward with any changes that 20 were presented during your budget period. Now, we -- we did 21 change the process a little bit and the manner in which we're 22 managing internal insurance or our insurance portion of it, 23 the specific and aggregate. And in the past, we have had 24 estimated claims ratios and we've had -- our maximum liability 25 was based on the fact that the insurance company was insuring 12-27-05 27 1 losses over and above our expected losses by a 25 percent 2 corridor, which meant that once we hit our expectation, we had 3 to exceed an additional 25 percent of that to be reimbursed on 4 our maximum liability, which is that aggregate form of 5 insurance. We negotiated with Mutual of Omaha to reduce that 6 maximum liability back to a corridor of 15 percent, so we've 7 taken a 10 percent adjustment against that maximum liability. 8 We pay an additional premium for that, but that keeps our 9 maximum liability down and matches up with what our budget 10 constraints were. 11 So, if you will look at the first sheet, which is a 12 comparison of the rates and rating structures that we 13 received, you'll see that our maximum liabilities under our 14 claims going forward are pretty consistent from where they 15 were last year. Last year, we had a maximum claim liability 16 of approximately a million, eight -- a million, 828, which was 17 all of our fixed costs plus our expected claims cost plus our 18 maximum liability of that 25 percent. Going forward, we 19 reduced that maximum liability, again, back to the 115 -- 115 20 percent. And, by doing so, we limited our maximum liabilities 21 to approximately the same as they were this year; only about 22 $30,000, $40,000 difference. The difference in our costs 23 overall come in our fixed costs. We do have an increase in 24 our fixed costs. Fixed costs, as you can see, are increasing 25 substantially. We're going from a specific and an aggregate 12-27-05 28 1 premium of approximately 147,000 to approximately 270,000, so 2 that's a substantial increase in those premium dollars. 3 Two things are resulting in that premium increase. 4 One, again, is the losses that we incurred, which is that 5 $367,000 exposure that we're being returned this year. So, 6 actually, we have a $200,000 credit against our fixed premium 7 on our specific going forward from last year. The insurance 8 industry is trying to recover some of those losses. And then 9 we increased -- by increasing the aggregate premium, we've 10 reduced our maximum liability. And if y'all understand that, 11 I've got some property to sell to you in southern California. 12 (Laughter.) Sorry to be confusing, but that's the technical 13 -- technical aspect of this whole thing. End result, a couple 14 of things. One is that our HRA program, we had estimated a 15 maximum liability under our HRA program of $200,000. To date, 16 we have spent right at -- we will, through the end of the 17 year, spend approximately $90,000 of that. So, in our HRA 18 program, we've reimbursed employees approximately a little 19 less than half of what our total estimated liability was. 20 From an accounting standpoint, normally in a 21 situation dealing with organizations, we take those credits 22 and roll them forward in a budgetary manner. Same thing with 23 the credits that we generated against the budget that you all 24 had budgeted last year. You budgeted a certain amount of 25 money for your total medical expense for last year. 12-27-05 29 1 Typically, we take any credits that are generated and carry 2 that forward to the next year's budget. You did not carry any 3 credits forward on your budget, so we are on a cash payment 4 basis for your medical insurance going forward from your 5 fiscal year, end of October to the end of next September. 6 Consequently, when we set our premium rates, we set our 7 premium rates not assuming any credits carried forward, and 8 what that does is that makes it that our -- our budget number 9 that we use doesn't receive any of that credit balance, so 10 we're gross numbers when we're dealing with the premiums going 11 forward. The negative part of that is that we are unable to 12 create any reserve going forward, or any medical payments. 13 And the other portion of that is that it's difficult for us to 14 go back and credit employee contributions, because we're 15 budgeting at 100 percent, so we simply apply a percentage 16 increase to employee contributions. So, we have no credits 17 going forward. 18 Consequently, if you'll look at the page that 19 requests the changes in the premium rate, you'll see that we 20 do have a premium rate change for employees. It is relatively 21 minor, though, because of the impact, again, of our maximum 22 liability. Currently under Plan A, for instance, we have a -- 23 for children, contribution for family, we have a $164 premium. 24 That's going to $167, so we only have a $3 -- or, actually, a 25 $2.50 a month increase to cover children. For the spouse, 12-27-05 30 1 it's $5, and for the entire family, it's approximately $15. 2 That's on Plan A, which is where the majority of the employees 3 are. Under Plan B, we've had some adjustments, but as you'll 4 see there, in the family, child and spouse, there's really 5 only one person in each one of those categories, so we're not 6 impacting the population of the county by a great deal; we're 7 only impacting those three individuals. 8 We do have -- did have a credit of approximately $93 9 that was submitted for Plan B for employees last year. That's 10 dropping to $60 for this year, so there is that credit, but it 11 has gone down. But those funding amounts with the budget 12 number that you have submitted previously in that budget then 13 meets the requirements of our maximum liability funding, 14 including all the HRA accounts going forward for the next plan 15 year. The life insurance program had a two-year rate 16 guarantee, so we have no changes in the life insurance 17 program. That's why it was not indicated in this -- in this 18 procedure. I really think that there's an increase in the 19 specific deductible, that we should consider that. We have a 20 $40,000 deductible now. I'd like for that to move to $50,000. 21 It does save us hard dollar costs. It saves us about $32,000, 22 $33,000 a year in hard dollar costs, and I would like to have 23 those dollars then used to offset claim expense going forward 24 in the next year. And that will -- I'll be more than happy to 25 answer any questions that you may have at this time. 12-27-05 31 1 JUDGE TINLEY: The premium rates which you have on 2 the attachment, current insurance premium funding on the 3 information that you've provided us are the premium rates that 4 you are recommending -- 5 MR. LOONEY: Yes, sir. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: -- that this Court approve for the -- 7 for the coming year? 8 MR. LOONEY: Yes, sir, that's correct. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Gary, on the first page, under 11 the -- 12 MR. LOONEY: Let me get my glasses on. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- total annual cost -- 14 MR. LOONEY: Yes, sir? 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- category, what is "disease 16 management"? Some of these things look like something that I 17 don't see that we're getting anything for that. 18 MR. LOONEY: Disease management, you probably won't 19 see a lot of interactive -- unless you're in the area of -- of 20 the diabetic or the cardiovascular or those areas. When -- 21 when those -- when the diabetic or the cardiovascular, or 22 there's -- what's the other -- what's the third area under the 23 disease management? 24 MR. MALEK: Heart and -- 25 MR. LOONEY: Pregnancy? 12-27-05 32 1 MR. MALEK: No, that's a separate one. That's 2 health and maternity. 3 MR. LOONEY: That could be a disease. (Laughter.) 4 There's one other item; I can't remember what it is, but what 5 happens when the claimant starts receiving -- or when the 6 claim processors start receiving indication that indicates 7 that individuals are in that area, then they transfer that 8 information over to the disease management people, and the 9 disease management then starts interacting with those 10 individuals directly. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 12 MR. LOONEY: So it's not -- it's not a situation 13 where there is a lot of communication out to the general 14 public as far as that. It's more specific to the individuals 15 receiving that care. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. Under the -- under that 17 same total annual cost under the administration, COBRA, HIPPA, 18 HRA, that amount is 63 -- or going forward, about 78,000. 19 MR. LOONEY: Yes, sir. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: There was some discussion during 21 the year that -- especially on the COBRA, that we didn't have 22 anybody that was using COBRA, yet we were paying a fee for it. 23 Can you explain how that works and how -- I mean, that's a 24 pretty large number, 78,000. And as to -- you know, is there 25 a way, if we're not using -- or are we using it more than I 12-27-05 33 1 just stated? 2 MR. LOONEY: Based on turnover, anybody -- any 3 employee that turns over at the county, then you have the 4 notification process. You have an initial notification. One 5 notification is given to Mutual of Omaha. Then Mutual of 6 Omaha -- the County actually sends out the first letter of 7 notification, and then from that point forward, if any 8 individual participates in it, then they are monitored and 9 managed by Mutual of Omaha. As far as claims is concerned, 10 they transfer them into a different claim entity and collect 11 -- and work on managing that process. That costs us -- is it 12 50 cents or 30 cents? 13 MR. MALEK: Fifty cents. 14 MR. LOONEY: Fifty cents? It's 50 cents per 15 employee, per month, for total employees. So we have 254 16 employees, so it's -- you have to work on the math. Help me 17 with the math. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 125 a month. 19 MR. LOONEY: 225? 20 MR. MALEK: About 1,500 a year. 21 MR. LOONEY: $1,500 a year, something to that 22 effect. The main thing it does -- and the primary thing that 23 you're doing with that is that you're transferring the 24 liability to Mutual of Omaha. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, what's the -- if the COBRA 12-27-05 34 1 portion is 1,500, why -- the total amount is 78,000, almost 2 79,000. 3 MR. LOONEY: The COBRA is 50 cents. HIPAA is 30 4 cents, and then the H.R. administration is the balance, which 5 is $3 and some cents a month for -- $3.50 a month per employee 6 to manage the HRA claim function. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We're still only up to about 8 4.20 a month per employee, which is $1,000 a month, which 9 is -- we're coming in, like, $15,000. 10 MR. LOONEY: Well, let's see. We've got -- HRA 11 administration is $3.58. The COBRA administration is 50 12 cents. The HIPAA administration is 30 cents. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: You've got the general administrative 14 costs. 15 MR. LOONEY: And the general admin fee. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's -- 17 MR. LOONEY: Which is the $21.41. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. So, the general admin's 19 in that number also? 20 MR. LOONEY: Yes. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. The way it looks, looked 22 like it was admin of the COBRA, HIPAA, and HRA. 23 MR. LOONEY: No, I'm sorry. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Total admin. 25 MR. LOONEY: It's administration in addition to 12-27-05 35 1 those different items. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: All right. 3 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: But administration went up 4 from $16.32 a claim to $21.47? 5 MR. LOONEY: Yes, sir, that was by contract. That 6 was originally submitted two years ago; it was agreed to two 7 years ago. 8 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. Column 3 represents 9 what? 10 MR. LOONEY: Column 3 is the difference between the 11 $40,000 specific and the $50,000 specific. 12 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Got you, okay. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Gary, my only comment is that 14 I'm just blown away that there wasn't any participation. 15 MR. LOONEY: I was -- I had talked to two or three 16 underwriters during the process of the -- they would call me 17 and ask me questions and get information, gathering 18 information. I was fully expecting to get three or four more 19 bids in. I was very surprised that we did not receive 20 additional bids. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Any -- any thoughts on why we didn't 22 get more participation? 23 MR. LOONEY: Primarily the loss ratio and the fact 24 that the two or three of these are -- a couple of these cases 25 are continuing, and we will get additional -- and that 367 is 12-27-05 36 1 current reimbursement. We may very well end up getting an 2 additional reimbursement based on the claims that were made in 3 December. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So, insurance companies are 5 looking for large governments that don't use their services. 6 MR. LOONEY: Right. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That they pay into and don't 8 use the service. So, you know, if you use the service, then 9 they don't want to deal with you. Amazing, isn't it? 10 JUDGE TINLEY: They don't want $150,000 in premiums 11 and get to pay $400,000 in losses. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Just absolutely -- I love 13 this country. 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: There's nothing new about 15 that, Gary. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Mr. Wallace had a comment. 17 MR. WALLACE: I went to eight different markets. 18 Gary sent me the RFP, and I went to eight different markets 19 trying to get some different reinsurance quotes, and every one 20 of them came back declined. Most of them just said they were 21 not competitive. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, our decision today is to -- 23 to -- well, obviously, it's -- 24 MR. LOONEY: Threefold. One is to accept the 25 projected premium rates for the employee contribution going 12-27-05 37 1 forward for the year 2006. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 3 MR. LOONEY: The other is to accept or reject the 4 recommendation to move to the $50,000 specific, as opposed to 5 the current $40,000 specific, which is my recommendation. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And the -- so there's two. 7 MR. LOONEY: Those are the two primary things. And 8 then -- then, obviously, the renewal with Mutual of Omaha. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Mm-hmm, the stop loss contract. 10 MR. LOONEY: Of the stop loss contract. 11 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: And the bottom line to us 12 under 40,000 stop loss is 2.162? 13 MR. LOONEY: Yes, sir. 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: And the bottom line to us 15 under 50,000 is 2.185? 16 MR. LOONEY: That's maximum aggregate cost. 17 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: With maximum aggregate. 18 MR. LOONEY: Now, the difference in those two is 19 that we've got lower fixed costs with the $50,000. 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. 21 MR. LOONEY: So our potential is greater based on 22 our claims. 23 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: And in either situation, we 24 are working within the constraints of the budget numbers that 25 you were aware of? 12-27-05 38 1 MR. LOONEY: Correct. 2 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Judge, I would move that we 3 accept the bid from Mutual of Omaha for stop loss insurance as 4 presented by our consultant there, Mr. Looney, increasing the 5 stop loss from $40,000 to $50,000, and accepting the current 6 insurance premium funding for Kerr County employees as 7 presented on the attachment. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for approval 10 of the stop loss bid, with stop loss change from $40,000 to 11 $50,000 and approving the recommended premium funding -- 12 premium rates as presented by Mr. Looney. Any question or 13 discussion? All in favor of the motion, 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: That's everything you need. 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Thanks for your hard work. 20 MR. LOONEY: Thank you, sir. 21 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Thank you, Mr. Looney. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, sir. Let's go now to a 23 timed item that was set for 9:30, if we might. Presentation 24 of the annual report of the Kerr County Historical Commission. 25 Good morning, sir. 12-27-05 39 1 MR. SCHELLHASE: Judge, Commissioners, good morning. 2 You have a copy of the written report submitted. I'd like to 3 maybe cover a couple of recaps. This is required by the 4 bylaws of the Historical Commission. The election was held; 5 the officers are remaining in place, with the exception of the 6 Treasurer, which will be replaced. Ray Haney is replaced by 7 Ann Bethel. The individual assignments primarily in the 8 courthouse concern archives which we maintain here in the 9 courthouse in the basement. The activities for the year 10 involved a lot of historical markers. We had the Union Church 11 building project, doing some additional work on that building, 12 installing some sound equipment, putting a canopy over the 13 rear of the building. One of the projects we started this 14 year was also the landscaping and the parking for the whole 15 facility on the 5 or 6 acres that we have under lease from 16 Schreiner University. That's now in the process of being done 17 for 2006. We'll try to complete that. 18 A significant part of that is we've been able to 19 obtain the fence that was on the original courthouse here at 20 this site, which is rather old. It's a wrought iron fence 21 that we found on a residence in town, and have purchased that 22 fence, and will -- are in the process of working it into the 23 landscaping, and the fence that will surround the buildings 24 now has the pipe fence in front of Schreiner University on the 25 campus where we are. We're in the process of finalizing those 12-27-05 40 1 plans, and we'll submit them to Schreiner for approval first. 2 Then we'll take them to Glenn Holekamp to look at the 3 maintenance that will be involved in that facility, and when 4 those are all ironed out and we have the number, we'll bring 5 that to the Commissioners Court for final approval for that 6 landscaping plan. We hope to get that finished in 2006. 7 Another significant item during 2005 was the 8 historical markers. I'd like to give this to the Court. This 9 is a recap of all of the markers in the state -- in the county 10 that are recognized by the state that have been installed 11 since 1936, when we started. This was a state project that 12 was initiated several years ago which we participated in, 13 which was to locate the markers, transcribe all of the 14 inscriptions that's on them, get a GPS location, photograph 15 them, and prepare that document for the state. This is the 16 Court's copy. We have a copy for the State, and there'll be a 17 copy located in the history library. Our oral history is 18 continuing on. That process, as you know, takes place in a 19 small building behind the library on the second floor. We no 20 longer can use the first floor because it was flooded several 21 years ago and has not been repaired at this time. 22 We initiated some work in 19 -- in 2004 with the 23 City Manager to look at the possibility of renovating that 24 whole building for use by the Historical Commission. 25 Mr. Patterson was in favor of that, proceeded to the step that 12-27-05 41 1 we were authorized to seek grants if we could possibly get 2 them. During the process of 2005, you know, the personnel 3 change there, we never went back to Don Davis to discuss this 4 issue with him. Now that we have a new City Manager on board, 5 and when the time is right, we will go back and try to proceed 6 with that and see if something could be done with that 7 building so that we can locate all of our archives and things 8 at that point. The calendar project was not done in 2005 due 9 to the lack of interest, primarily, and the sales slump. We 10 did do a calendar for 2006; it's now on the market. Very 11 significant calendar. We have taken old sites that are still 12 in place, or those that are no longer in place, and did a 13 before-and-after site plan on them. Those sales have gone 14 extremely good. The banks primarily support that project. 15 The brochure for the historical markers at places in 16 town is in the process of being revised and updated with the 17 new locations that we have now. When the supply out at the 18 C.V.B. is exhausted, we will reprint those. The work on the 19 preservation, a presentation for Kerr County historically, 20 both video and slides, is in the process. We'll continue to 21 work on that during 2006. The archives down below, as you 22 know -- we have made mention of this every year and continue 23 to bring it to your attention. It's mostly inadequate. The 24 space is not adequate. The condition is not adequate. The 25 fact that it's -- it has accessibility to the crawl space of 12-27-05 42 1 this building, which makes it accessible to anyone that wants 2 to use it on a -- at times that they have to use it, and we 3 still feel like that other sites have to be obtained. As you 4 know, we have in those -- in the archives numerous items; 5 postcard collection, photo collection, historical documents 6 collection, a lot of archeological stuff that's located in the 7 space down below, and we continue to need to improve that 8 situation. 9 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: What space are you looking 10 for? 11 MR. SCHELLHASE: We need about 400 square feet, 12 something 20 by 20. If there's any questions, that concludes 13 my report. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Anybody have any questions for 15 General Schellhase? Thank you, sir. 16 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Are we required to ratify 17 the leadership or what? 18 MR. SCHELLHASE: Yes, sir, you're required to accept 19 the report, which includes the leadership. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move we accept the report as 21 presented by General Schellhase. 22 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Second. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 24 acceptance of the report. Any question or comment? All in 25 favor of the motion, signify by raising your right hand. 12-27-05 43 1 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 2 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 3 (No response.) 4 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. Let's move to 5 the 9:45 timed item; consider, discuss, and take appropriate 6 action on proposed conditional lease agreement between Kerr 7 County and the Hill Country Mounted Peace Officer Association 8 for the construction of a multi-use facility adjacent to Kerr 9 County Law Enforcement Center for emergency operations, law 10 enforcement training, and other law enforcement and emergency 11 functions and purposes. This was placed on the agenda at my 12 request. I thought we had a conditional lease agreement that 13 was at least in tentative approved form. Is that correct? 14 MR. PHILLIPS: I can address that, Judge. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: All right. 16 MR. PHILLIPS: Morning, Commissioners. I've been 17 here five years now, and this is the the first time I've had 18 the honor of being here. My specialty is criminal law, as you 19 know, so if you ask me a question, I think in most cases what 20 I'm going to have to say is "I'll get back to you." But as 21 far as this issue here goes, Mr. Emerson -- first off, let me 22 say he's sorry he couldn't be here today. I guess he thought 23 that the vacation was more important. Anyway, on this issue 24 here, as it's written, there's a 40-year lease, and 25 Mr. Emerson's notes indicate that it was supposed to have been 12-27-05 44 1 a 25-year lease with the option to renew to 40. And so, as 2 it's written right now, it's probably not the way it was 3 intended. That's the only thing that Mr. Emerson saw in the 4 proposed lease agreement. 5 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: All of the other notations 6 that he had on his first return of his first draft had been 7 incorporated into this draft? 8 MR. PHILLIPS: That's -- as far as I'm aware, that's 9 correct, Commissioner. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Are we here today just to 11 approve the form to get it sent back over to the Hill Country 12 Mounted Police Officer Association, or -- 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah, so that -- so that they can 14 move forward on their fundraising effort. 15 MR. PHILLIPS: The lease term was the only issue 16 Mr. Emerson had a question about. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: I talked with him about that. 18 Essentially, my discussion with him was that the original 19 discussions had been 40 -- maximum 40-year lease term, and 20 this includes an extension option, which was something new 21 that came up on the radar screen at the -- in Paragraph 21. 22 But he said that was a matter of policy decision for the Court 23 to decide, and -- but other than that one item, as a policy 24 matter, why, things were acceptable to him. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'm a little bit opposed to 12-27-05 45 1 going to a 40-year plus a 40-year option. I mean, 40 years is 2 a long time. I don't want to try to predict what's going to 3 be used on that property 40 years from now. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Commissioner Letz, 25 years 5 is a lot of time for anybody at this table. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. I mean -- 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That's true. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I don't -- 9 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Which makes 40 more 10 unacceptable. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I want to delete Paragraph 21. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I agree. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Just as a note, as currently 14 styled, it's set up for the County Attorney to sign the 15 agreement. I think it needs to be changed for the County 16 Judge to sign the agreement. 17 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Are there any other 18 references to 40 outside of Page 1 that we're aware of? 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Only in the extension option. 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Of course -- 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That looks fine to me. 23 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Sheriff, do you have any 24 concerns about this transaction? 25 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I haven't seen the lease 12-27-05 46 1 agreement at all. 2 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Do you have -- giving up 16 3 acres, is that -- 4 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: We have 17 acres out there. 5 This is off to the one side by -- and they haven't surveyed it 6 at this point. That will come. The area they're talking 7 about, it's really going to depend on whether the City's going 8 to allow them to actually put a building there, because that's 9 also where that man-made water catch basin had to go, is right 10 there in that same area. There should be enough room around 11 it, but I'm just not positive. But they were going to do the 12 survey, 'cause that's the only place it can go, which would be 13 on that -- on the north side, kind of. I would totally be 14 against it if it went behind the building at all, because 15 that's going to have to be used for expansion of that jail 16 sooner or later. That's the way it was designed. But the 17 north side would be all right. 18 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: You can't envision any 19 circumstances that in 15 or 20 years, you would need that 20 space for some expansion of your facility? 21 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Not on that side, no. The only 22 thing that I can see is the expansion of the jail itself, the 23 expansion of administrative offices, and then expansion of 24 parking lot, which should all come out to the front, or -- 25 this will, in essence, even expand the parking lot some, 12-27-05 47 1 depending on how they build it. But the main thing is the -- 2 all the acreage between the jail and Schreiner College, that 3 would have to be used for jail expansion. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It seems to me a little bit -- 5 they haven't surveyed it yet; therefore, they can't have an 6 Exhibit A. Therefore, they don't have a description to put on 7 the lease, so we're -- really, the way this is worded, I mean, 8 it doesn't -- I don't see how we can do a lease without a 9 defined description. I mean, I think we can agree to the 10 terms so they can maybe go out and get a survey, or -- that's 11 what they need. But I just don't see how you -- 12 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: In just some of the talk in 13 passing in the hallway with them, and Joel Ayala's part of 14 that, I think their main deal before they started putting out 15 the expense of having that survey, they wanted to make sure 16 there would be an agreement, and that's why they're doing this 17 tentative lease agreement. And it's all going to come up to 18 how the survey actually comes out on that part. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So we're -- 20 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: My understanding. But they 21 didn't want to spend the money and go through the expense if 22 it wasn't going to be agreed to. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So they'd like a -- 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Subject to survey. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And the term we're going to 12-27-05 48 1 leave at 40 years? 2 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Fine. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Or 25? 4 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Isn't that what you were 5 talking about? 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I didn't want the option; that's 7 what I got rid of. Make the term 25 years with an option to 8 40? Or 40? 40 is fine with me; doesn't make that much 9 difference. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: The attorney said his 11 original thought was 25. 12 MR. PHILLIPS: 25 with an extension to 40 originally 13 was -- 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That's what I understood, 15 yeah. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. I had an understanding that 17 the original term was going to be 40, so whatever. 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: So, 25? 19 JUDGE TINLEY: You get there either way. 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: 25 with an option of 15. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I make a motion to approve the 22 tentative lease form with the following changes: Change the 23 lease term to 25 years with an option to extend for an 24 additional 15 years, delete Paragraph 21, change the county 25 signatory from the County Attorney to the County Judge, and 12-27-05 49 1 it's subject to -- it's tentative subject to a survey, and at 2 that point it'll be brought back to the Court for final 3 approval. 4 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Second. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for approval 6 of the agenda item as indicated. Any question or discussion? 7 All in favor of the motion, signify by raising your right 8 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. We'll need to 13 move to a 10 o'clock timed item now. Amazingly, we're back on 14 schedule. Consider, discuss, and take appropriate action for 15 the opening and awarding of sealed bids on two all-wheel-drive 16 backhoes with power tilt attachments. Looks like we have the 17 bids here. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: This has to be an exciting 19 moment for some of you folks that's never been to court. 20 We're opening bids to a tractor -- for a tractor. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Two tractors. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Two tractors. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Yes, indeed. The first one is 24 from -- looks like Caterpillar Financial Services, or maybe 25 it's just Cat; I'm not sure. With Holt Cat. I think the 12-27-05 50 1 actual bid is from Holt Cat out of San Antonio, with the 2 Caterpillar Financial Services being tied to it for the 3 financial aspect of it. The next one that we have is from RDO 4 Equipment Company out of San Antonio. Well, it looks like 5 they sent us a check. The -- next one that we have is from 6 Equipment Depot Incorporated, also out of San Antonio, and 7 included with it is a bid bond check for $11,604. And the 8 last one is from Texana Machinery, also out of San Antonio. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move we accept all bids and 10 refer them to Road and Bridge for recommendation. 11 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Second. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 13 acceptance of all bids and referral to Road and Bridge for 14 evaluation and recommendation. Any question or discussion? 15 All in favor of the motion, signify by raising your right 16 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. Let's go to 21 Item -- 22 MR. ODOM: Thank you. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: -- 6, if we might; consider, discuss, 24 and take appropriate action approving the County Clerk to 25 acquire office space now occupied by Parole office and the 12-27-05 51 1 Historical Commission located in the lower level of the 2 courthouse for election equipment storage. 3 MS. PIEPER: Gentlemen, I've done some more 4 checking, and actually I think I found a place that would be 5 better, and we wouldn't have to try to find different 6 locations for the Historical Commission or the Parole office, 7 and that is right off of the sallyport that is being used by 8 the Christmas Lighting for storage. It's 8 feet by 30 feet, 9 and I think that would work to store my election equipment in. 10 I do have a little, bitty storage area underneath the 11 stairwell, right off of the common area downstairs, and that 12 we may be able to trade off. I don't know if it'll be big 13 enough for the lighting committee, but I would be -- 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Is Mr. Holekamp here? 15 MR. HOLEKAMP: Yes. 16 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Can you tell us a little bit 17 about availability of storage space in the annex basement? 18 MR. HOLEKAMP: Everything is pretty much filled up, 19 and all box storage in the annex, we currently -- the space 20 that Jannett mentioned is -- is the option. Of course, the 21 lighting people had asked permission to place their storage 22 there, but they've kind of outgrown it and utilized other 23 spaces someplace else also. I don't -- we have no other space 24 down here. We're crowded. District Attorney's office has 25 indicated a need for a bunch more box storage, which we don't 12-27-05 52 1 have, so I think -- I think there's going to have to be some 2 decisions made as to whether we're going to rent some space or 3 try to utilize some space elsewhere, because we really don't 4 have it in this building. The little space that Jannett was 5 talking about would not help, really, anybody. It's about a 6 6-by-8, maybe. 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Which one is that? 8 MR. HOLEKAMP: That one down below the stairwell. 9 MS. PIEPER: The one below the stairwell. 10 MR. HOLEKAMP: The Historical Commission's space is 11 -- it's already been moved once this year to accommodate Rosa 12 Lavender's office in the -- in that corner. Theirs has 13 currently been moved to an old space that was used by a 14 S.W.A.T. officer, and now we have Parole in there also, which 15 is a -- they use it one week, I think, a month. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Glenn? 17 MR. HOLEKAMP: That would give us another, probably, 18 12-by-10 space. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Glenn, what's the -- 20 MR. HOLEKAMP: Yes, sir? 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What you're painting a picture 22 of is a lack of space in lots of areas, or in a lot of 23 different... 24 MR. HOLEKAMP: Obviously. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What's the feasibility of 12-27-05 53 1 converting the new Juvenile Detention Facility to storage and 2 another office building for the County? 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Wait a minute. Say that 4 again? He didn't just say what I think he said. 5 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yeah, he did. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You're a smart man, Jon. 7 MR. HOLEKAMP: Feasibility? Was that the -- 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. I mean, could it be used 9 to start with without a whole lot of expense, is what I'm 10 asking. I mean, if we're going to put offices out there, some 11 changes will have to be made. 12 MR. HOLEKAMP: Yes, sir, and I would probably 13 reserve that -- my comments until studying it a little closer. 14 I've done some measuring of overall square footage, and it's 15 substantial. The -- the individual -- I call them cells; I 16 don't think they call them cells, but that's what they are. 17 Something would have to be done with plumbing in those -- 18 those areas, but they could be used for storage. But I 19 would -- I would probably want to disconnect in some way or 20 another the -- the plumbing in there, because that -- plumbing 21 and storage -- paper storage is not real friendly. 22 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: A couple months ago, I asked 23 Mr. Holekamp to take a look at that issue, Commissioner, 24 because it's obvious needs are arising. And we vacated that, 25 for all practical purposes, with the T.Y. -- from the T.Y.C. 12-27-05 54 1 use. And I'm not sure at what point you are in your study, 2 but I do know that he's been looking at the plans and trying 3 to determine whether or not -- how much of that space could be 4 allocated for dry storage and how much of it could be revamped 5 and re -- remodeled for office space. I think it's something 6 the County needs to take a long, serious look at in terms of 7 office space. We're renting space around the city. We have 8 available a building that, probably with modest expense, that 9 could be converted to both dry storage and office space, and 10 with those thoughts in mind, I asked Mr. Holekamp to get the 11 set of plans, and last time I visited with him, he had them 12 spread out on his desk. I don't think, however, he's ready to 13 give you that answer today. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean, that's a -- I mean, how 15 long -- how soon do you need space, Jannett? 16 MS. PIEPER: Right now. January the 4th, I'm going 17 to use trustees and we're going to unbox everything. I have 18 two pallets sitting in the Maintenance Department. I have two 19 and a half pallets spread out in the back of my office, and 20 there's maybe a 2-foot span to get down that hallway. Plus I 21 have a lot of equipment in the election room that came in that 22 is still boxed up, and I've got to get ready for early voting 23 that starts in February. 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Wouldn't that purpose be 25 better served for you initially in that space just outside the 12-27-05 55 1 elevator on the lower level? Because there's plenty of light 2 there; there's a new floor in there. 3 MS. PIEPER: We will continue -- 4 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: You'd have easy access 5 initially to get to that equipment and determine what you're 6 going to do and so forth. 7 MS. PIEPER: We will continue -- yes, sir, we'll 8 continue to use that common area there for our early voting, 9 and then if we could utilize the storage that is off of the 10 sallyport, because I've got to have that equipment here 11 because we will -- it's -- we don't just hold an election and 12 then just stick it back into storage. We've got to do a lot 13 of maintenance on it. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I guess what I'm trying to do, 15 and I think Commissioner Williams -- what I think he's trying 16 to get at as well is to try to keep from moving stuff around a 17 couple of times. If we can just hold off a little bit and 18 store it somewhere in the courthouse, that space is open down 19 there. Before you do the early voting, if we can figure out a 20 way to secure that until we figure out where we can go. The 21 spot that you're looking at off the sallyport, I think, would 22 be fine to store the equipment, but if you have to get down in 23 there and work with it, I think you still have the same 24 problem. I don't know whether you're going to be able to set 25 up and work with the machines in that closet. 12-27-05 56 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I don't either. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So I don't think that's a good 3 long-term solution, other than just to store it. But that 4 doesn't solve all your needs, as I understand them. 5 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I'm just talking about the 6 initial run. You're going to be getting the stuff in. You 7 have to unbox it. You got to inventory it, set it up, get it 8 programmed. You got to do a whole raft of things. 9 MS. PIEPER: Right. 10 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: You need some working space 11 with some elbow room and some lights. 12 MS. PIEPER: I do, yes, sir. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Glenn, how hard would it be to 14 secure that area downstairs below the annex, that common area? 15 MR. HOLEKAMP: Hard -- hard walls-type secure? 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't know what kind of walls. 17 MR. HOLEKAMP: I mean, a -- 18 MS. PIEPER: Once it gets -- once those ballots get 19 programmed in there, it has to be under -- I mean, it has to 20 be secured. 21 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Sure. 22 MS. PIEPER: And then once an election is over, it 23 has to be secured for 22 months. 24 MR. HOLEKAMP: It would be very difficult to secure 25 it with hard -- hard walls if you're continuing to use it for 12-27-05 57 1 early voting, because that's going to take about over half of 2 that space. 3 MS. PIEPER: And that won't work, because I have to 4 have all that space for early voting. 5 MR. HOLEKAMP: That would be the problem with 6 storing it in a work area where -- 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 8 MR. HOLEKAMP: -- voting takes place. 9 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Is there any potential for 10 freeing up any space on the third floor? 11 MR. HOLEKAMP: Third floor? Up in that old jail? 12 The old -- we call it the penthouse. There is some space up 13 there, but it's rather difficult to get to and work up there. 14 MS. PIEPER: Are you talking about the old juvenile 15 detention -- no, sir, there's three flights of stairs. That's 16 the only way to access those. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: When's this -- when do you need 18 this, or when's this equipment arriving? 19 MS. PIEPER: It has arrived. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: You said January -- what's the 21 date? 22 MS. PIEPER: January the 4th, I'm going to utilize 23 trustees to help me unbox it. January the 5th, I have a 24 person from Hart coming here. 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Where do you have it stored 12-27-05 58 1 now? 2 MS. PIEPER: Well, I have two pallets in the 3 Maintenance office, and I have about two and a half pallets in 4 the back of my office and on the loading dock. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I would hope -- 6 MS. PIEPER: And we hope the fire marshal doesn't 7 come in between now and then. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: My feeling is, for lack of 9 anything else, just put it at the new juvenile detention 10 facility and secure it there where you can work on it. I 11 mean, I just don't see -- I don't see that we have any room 12 anywhere in this courthouse right now for you to be able to 13 unpack a bunch of equipment and start -- and work with it. I 14 mean, I don't know where -- I mean, a closet sallyport isn't 15 going to -- you can unpack it there, but why -- 16 MS. PIEPER: If I can un -- if I can unpack it there 17 and get everything together downstairs, then I can wheel it 18 into the -- to the storage there at the sallyport. 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Glenn, would one of those 20 dorms in the Juvenile Detention Facility annex, would that 21 satisfy her need, you know, for unpacking, setting up, doing 22 the things necessary to make this equipment ready? 23 MR. HOLEKAMP: Yes, sir. 24 MS. PIEPER: The only problem, gentlemen, I don't 25 have a vehicle big enough to even get one box over there. 12-27-05 59 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Pardon? 2 MS. PIEPER: I don't have a vehicle big enough to 3 get one box over there. 4 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: The County has vehicles. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Trustees use the pickup for 6 transporting -- 7 MS. PIEPER: Well, you better count all those boxes. 8 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: We pick up -- I just don't know 9 about, you know, how fragile those type of machines are. I 10 have no problem with using a flatbed trailer. If the 11 Sheriff's Office has to transport it over there, that's 12 separate. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's either that option or we 14 can move the -- ask Maintenance and the Sheriff to work 15 together to get the Christmas lighting stuff out and store it 16 somewhere. I don't think we can ask them just to, in a matter 17 of a week over the holidays, find a place to put equipment. 18 MS. PIEPER: There was not but a couple of items 19 that was down there when I left there. 20 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: It's all out right now. 21 MS. PIEPER: Right, because it's all out. And I 22 don't know how much they store, and that's why I offered my 23 little cubbyhole underneath the stairwell to them. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Their stuff's pretty big, the 25 stuff that I see. 12-27-05 60 1 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yeah. 2 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yeah. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean, it's -- I don't have a 4 problem with that option either, of using that, but I just 5 don't think it's a very good location for you. I don't see 6 how it's going to work very well. But it's your choice, in my 7 mind. You can have that choice, or you can use the Juvenile 8 Detention Facility, where you have a spot to set up and work. 9 MS. PIEPER: I'd like to try the storage downstairs, 10 if I may. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. I'd say use that, and 12 then see if we can get Maintenance and Sheriff's Department, 13 through trustees, to move whatever needs to be moved out to 14 the -- our new temporary storage facility, until we have a 15 better use for that facility or other space available. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Now, where does that leave the 17 Christmas Lighting people? 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Their stuff goes out to the 19 Juvenile Detention building temporarily. 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: How much stuff do they have, 21 Glenn? All the big displays? 22 MR. HOLEKAMP: They're out in the yard right now, 23 yes, sir. 24 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: All the little Christmas trees 25 along the side and the big displays. They got quite a bit; 12-27-05 61 1 they'll use up one of those dorms out there. 2 MR. HOLEKAMP: General Schellhase is here, and I 3 know he's not the head person of the Christmas Lighting, but I 4 know he's been involved since -- well, a long period of time. 5 And I do know they have some storage elsewhere. I don't know 6 the capabilities or potential for moving these -- some of 7 these displays there versus putting them back in the space. 8 And I do remember when they got the space, it was based on the 9 fact that the County did not need it at that time. So, you 10 know, I think the Court has -- you know, has the ability to, 11 you know, give the lighting -- this would be an opportune time 12 for the lighting people to make a decision before they put it 13 in here and then have to take it back out again. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's true. 15 MR. HOLEKAMP: 'Cause they're pretty 16 labor-intensive, those displays. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, I addressed the 18 lighting people a couple of years ago, and it was unpleasant, 19 so I'm going to kind of slide back over here in case there's 20 any bombs lobbed. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean, I think if Jannett feels 22 that that space suits her best, that's the space that -- I 23 mean, it's a county function; we need to provide for that. 24 The -- and I think we should try to accommodate the Christmas 25 lighting people as much as possible, and I think we do have a 12-27-05 62 1 building that's not being used that hopefully -- that, you 2 know, maybe Glenn, in the next week, can look out there and 3 see if there's a spot that we can put stuff until we decide a 4 long-term use of that facility, which I think is rapidly 5 approaching. 6 MR. SCHELLHASE: Our take-down date is January the 7 7th, so make a decision before then. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We're not going to meet prior to 10 January 7th. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No. 12 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: No. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, I mean, I think that -- I 14 have no problem putting it out in the building. 15 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: I'm okay with it. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Now, that's assuming that Glenn 17 does handle it and find a spot for it. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, that's what you do. 19 MR. HOLEKAMP: Yes, sir. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I think what he's saying, 21 Glenn, if you need a place to put Christmas lights -- 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: He said yes; he agreed. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: -- put Christmas lights, take 24 them and put them in the -- formerly known as -- known as the 25 Juvenile Detention Facility. 12-27-05 63 1 MR. HOLEKAMP: Okay. 2 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: This doesn't take a court 3 order. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No. 5 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: They just do that. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: We have a consensus? Anything 7 further on that particular agenda item? Let's move forward to 8 Item Number 7; consider, discuss, and take appropriate action 9 on implementing the burn ban. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I move for approval. 11 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Second. 12 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Second. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for approval 14 of the agenda item. Any question? 15 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: And authorize County Judge 16 to sign same. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Any question or discussion? 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Just for information to Rusty, I 19 -- in talking with Joe Franklin with NRCS, and also the County 20 Attorney on a way to allow landowners to do prescribed burns 21 during the burn ban, it's becoming a little bit more 22 difficult, it appears, but we're hopefully going to be able to 23 do something similar to what we did last year. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Super. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: This will be back on our next 12-27-05 64 1 agenda. 2 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I noticed in our local 3 paper, we had several fires here -- brush fires here over the 4 holiday, Christmas holiday. I noticed them in my travels up 5 to the Dallas-Fort Worth area. There were numerous fires, 6 fire companies out all over the place. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's very dry. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Any further question or discussion on 9 the motion? 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: The motion does carry. Let's move to 15 Item 9; consider, discuss, and take appropriate action 16 concerning the City and County responsibilities in the 17 interlocal agreement for regulating subdivisions. 18 MR. ODOM: Yes, good morning. I would -- I believe 19 that I'm probably a little bit premature on this agenda item. 20 However, it came about Tuesday when we found out that there 21 was an item going to be put on. We had some questions 22 primarily of the existing plats that we had already been 23 working with, and since that time, we have basically got a 24 direction. But I would like to add one; that was Valley View 25 Estates that, Buster, we had worked on. We forgot about that 12-27-05 65 1 one, was Valley View Estates, where -- that was that 19 acres 2 over there, Buster, that -- 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 4 MR. ODOM: -- that we talked about. We forgot about 5 that one, so we wanted y'all to know that. I really -- I 6 think that it would be wasting your time if I went over this. 7 I think it's probably premature, but we -- we were concerned 8 that -- that this could come up, and we couldn't -- we had 9 some questions. So, if -- 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: A little -- I'll just make a 11 comment here. I was kind of the one, I guess, that talked 12 with Truby a fair amount, and also talked with Mr. Hofmann 13 with the City about these. And I think, through other items 14 on the agenda today, hopefully we're going to take care of -- 15 the Neunhoffer Addition Subdivision is the most critical one 16 from a time standpoint that we're going to deal with today. 17 And the remaining of them -- Las Colinas, Cut Off Business 18 Park, Crestar Ranch, and Valley View Estates -- are all 19 working in the ETJ, but are really not that far along. None 20 of them -- actually, none of them have a preliminary plat yet. 21 MR. ODOM: That's right. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So they will all be working with 23 the City on that, and it's -- hopefully, it's not too 24 inconvenient. Hopefully, they should have been -- should be 25 working with the City on all these, anyway. 12-27-05 66 1 MR. ODOM: Well, they should have, and they were 2 told to do that. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So they'll no longer work with 4 the County on those, and we'll continue to work with the City. 5 So, I think we've been able to solve something that we really 6 didn't think through real clearly earlier, but -- 7 MR. ODOM: Right. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Other -- these questions, I 9 think I went over with your office on. 10 MR. ODOM: Sure. 11 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Well, I was going to ask 12 that question. Have all these various questions that Mr. Odom 13 brings, have they been addressed? 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I just went over them out there. 15 I reviewed them, and pretty much it was -- I mean, some of 16 them were really related to, like, flood -- the issues related 17 to Environmental Health or working out with the City of 18 Kerrville and the ETJ through the Environmental Health 19 Department. Most of those are -- you know, the law's the law. 20 As to some of these, we have to come to an agreement. We've 21 done that. There is a mechanism for both the City and the 22 County to start trading more information than they have in the 23 past. Hopefully, that's not going to be burdensome to either 24 party. If there's -- in the county, if we get a plat in the 25 ETJ and Leonard doesn't have any comment, he doesn't have to 12-27-05 67 1 make any comments. If he does have something, he has -- 2 there's a mechanism for him to go to the City and talk to 3 them. The County will be responsible for these roads in the 4 ETJ still, so I think there needs to be some cohesiveness 5 there. I think we're working on getting our subdivision rules 6 in the city and the county in line too, so there shouldn't be 7 any issues there. We're going to have to play it by ear a 8 little bit. We have a six-month period to kind of work 9 through any bugs and problems and get some rules and comment. 10 MR. EDWARDS: Can I comment on that? 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Surely. 12 MR. EDWARDS: I spent about six weeks several years 13 ago working with the City -- County Attorney's office, and we 14 put all of our Subdivision Rules in line with the county. I 15 redid the road reg -- requirements for roads in our city, and 16 I prepared an agreement -- two-page agreement to be executed 17 and was sent to the Judge to put on the agenda, and it was 18 never put on there. So, we -- we spent several weeks working 19 on this when this all was passed. I don't know what happened 20 to it. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I referred it back to the County 22 Attorney, and, you know, based on our conversations -- 23 MR. EDWARDS: Not you, Judge. The prior judge. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. The -- 25 JUDGE TINLEY: I was drawing a blank, Danny. I 12-27-05 68 1 appreciate you pointing that out. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It was on the agenda during a 3 period, and then all of a sudden, the Legislature changed the 4 rules again and gave a -- I think a -- 5 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: More time. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- moratorium for three years, I 7 think, and that's why I think during that period, it -- 8 nothing was done. I have talked to the County Attorney and 9 asked him to relook at it, and he will be contacting you, 10 Mr. Edwards, about what needs to be done in the city of 11 Ingram. I suspect we need to do the same thing for the city 12 of Ingram, and it should be pretty simple. I mean, the 13 agreement we have with City of Kerrville is very simple. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Anything further on this item? 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I was wondering if 16 Mr. Hofmann may have a comment to make. If he'd like to, I 17 certainly want to give him an opportunity. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: I looked at him a couple of times, 19 and he hasn't waved his arms, so I guess he's going to remain 20 mute on this. 21 MR. HOFMANN: I think Commissioner Letz' summary was 22 excellent. 23 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I do want to ask one of the 24 questions that Leonard has here. It has to do with 25 maintenance of roads in the ETJ after they have been 12-27-05 69 1 constructed and so forth. We continue to maintain them? 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. 3 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. 4 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: The question about where's 5 the one stop, that's the one that concerns me. My reading of 6 the agreement, I thought, said that citizens and builders 7 wouldn't have to deal with both entities; that they'd be 8 dealing only with the City in the ETJ. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's right, they do. The City 10 deals with the County and the County deals with the City, but 11 the public deals with the City. 12 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: For me, that may be the 13 most important part of the whole agreement. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Absolutely. It's the most 15 important to me. That's what it's all about. I couldn't care 16 less about all that other stuff. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Anything else on that agenda item? 18 Let's move to Item 10; consider, discuss, and take appropriate 19 action on final plat approval for Neunhoffer Addition located 20 in Precinct 2. 21 MR. ODOM: Yes, sir. What you have before you is an 22 alternate platting process, and it's -- everything is fine. 23 What I do have is, I would like to recommend a final 24 contingent on having the mylars, because two owners need to 25 sign this. What we had was an illegal platting, and we're 12-27-05 70 1 correcting that by this alternate plat process. And at this 2 time last week, they had not been able to contact those two 3 owners to get both their signatures on this plat. 4 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Well, the approval date's 5 what's important, is it not? It's approved today, but -- 6 MR. ODOM: Right, and contingent of having those 7 signatures. And I can sign it and then authorize the Judge to 8 sign it, and we'll have it finalized. 9 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Leonard, we revised and did 10 this through the alternate plat process, and I don't 11 personally see anything wrong with it. Do you see any 12 problems? 13 MR. ODOM: No, sir, I don't. 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I would move approval of the 15 subdivision plat revision of Neunhoffer Addition in Kerr 16 County, Precinct 2, as presented to us. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And that's subject to retaining 18 -- obtaining all the signatures on the mylars? 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yes -- yeah. And authorize 20 the County Judge to sign same. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for approval 23 of the agenda item as stated. Any further question or 24 comment? 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'll make a comment, that the 12-27-05 71 1 adjoining property here -- and this may be really a part of 2 the original properties -- is Julius Real and Oscar Neunhoffer 3 property, so they're some of the original -- original owners. 4 MR. ODOM: Original people. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's neat. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Any further question or comment? All 7 in favor of the motion, signify by raising your right hand. 8 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 9 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 10 (No response.) 11 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. Let's, before 12 the break, go to Item 11; consider, discuss, and take 13 appropriate action on interlocal agreement with the City of 14 Kerrville concerning subdivision platting jurisdiction within 15 the ETJ. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The agreement is before us. I 17 believe the City Council has already approved this. This 18 memorializes our agreement with City of Kerrville related to 19 platting in the ETJ. City of Kerrville will be the primary 20 party. I move approval of the agreement. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for approval 23 of the interlocal agreement as stated in the agenda item. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And authorize County Judge to 25 sign same. 12-27-05 72 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Any question or comment on the 2 motion? 3 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I just have one question. 4 Would this not become the format for a similar agreement 5 between the City of Ingram and -- 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I would certainly think so. I 7 mean, the work's already done on it; we just need to forward 8 it to the City of Ingram. 9 MR. EDWARDS: I don't know what it says. Our 10 original agreement provided for the City of Ingram to take 11 over control of the -- 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: This would say the same thing. 13 MR. EDWARDS: -- the ETJ. 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: This would do the same 15 thing, only in current terms. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We'll forward it to you. We'll 17 get it on our next agenda. 18 MR. EDWARDS: We'll work with you any way we can. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Any further questions or comments on 20 the motion? 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. Why don't we 12-27-05 73 1 take about a 15-minute recess to give our reporter time to 2 refresh here. 3 (Recess taken from 10:31 a.m. to 10:45 a.m.) 4 - - - - - - - - - - 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Let's come back to order, if we 6 might, after a short 15-minute recess. We'll move to Item 12; 7 consider, discuss, and take action to appoint four persons to 8 serve as members of the Emergency Service District Number 2, 9 Mountain Home Board of Commissioners. I would note that we 10 have a number of participation forms that have been given to 11 me in connection with this, and once we get opened up, why, 12 I'll get to you folks. Commissioner Nicholson? 13 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Yes, sir. The Emergency 14 Service District Number 2 that's located in the Mountain Home 15 area is going to be two years old January 1st, and we have the 16 first two-year appointment seats on that Board of 17 Commissioners expiring, so it's our duty to -- and we have one 18 other vacancy due to a resignation, so it's our duty to fill 19 those seats. And I'm going to make a proposal to do that, but 20 first I'm going to invite the ESD Board to -- to give a 21 summary of their efforts of the first two years. Corky 22 Henson, are you going to make the presentation? 23 MR. HENSON: I will. There's five copies there, 24 Dave. I'm F.C. Henson; I'm representing Kerr County Emergency 25 Services District Number 2 this morning. Good morning, 12-27-05 74 1 gentlemen, and thank you for the opportunity to present the 2 Kerr County Emergency Services District annual report to you 3 today. While a copy of that report is being distributed, 4 perhaps a couple of words of introduction are appropriate. 5 Currently, Wes Patten, who's here with us today, is the Board 6 vice president. Cleo Meadow is secretary. John Gibbens is 7 Treasurer, and I am president of that board. It's my honor to 8 be so. Although such a report -- that is, an annual report -- 9 is not required by law unless an emergency services district 10 lies in more than one county, the spirit of the law is clear. 11 An ESD board is required to, quote, administer the district in 12 accordance with, end quote, Chapter 775 of the Texas Health 13 and Safety Code. You, the Commissioners Court, are required 14 by the same statute to appoint the ESD Board. Clearly, you 15 need a way to monitor the conduct, the activities, and the 16 accomplishments of that board relative to the applicable Texas 17 statutes, so it's both appropriate and timely that we discuss 18 the activities and the accomplishments of Kerr County 19 Emergency Services Board Number 2 today. 20 Judge Tinley, with your permission, I'll address our 21 major accomplishments and financial results for the calendar 22 year 2005, as required by Chapter 775, and then I will invite 23 the Court's questions on our report. Having been authorized 24 by the voters of Mountain Home community in the fall of 2003, 25 Kerr County Emergency Services District Number 2 first levied 12-27-05 75 1 an ad valorem tax in 2004 and began funding fire protection 2 services from those tax revenues early this year, early in 3 2005. The district board is subject, as I indicated, to 4 Chapter 775 of the Health and Safety Code, Chapter 171 of the 5 Local Government Code, and a number of other state statutes 6 that apply to taxing entities. Our first responsibility is to 7 the district taxpayer, and our mission is to provide funding 8 for improved fire prevention and protection within Kerr County 9 Emergency Services District Number 2. 10 Some of our noteworthy accomplishments for 2005 11 include, first, in August of 2004, the board authorized a 12 $10,554.20 project to purchase individual firefighting 13 apparatus and communications gear for the Mountain Home 14 Volunteer Fire Department. That authorization was 15 incorporated in the district budget and the tax rate for 16 Fiscal Year 2005. Project was revised slightly in March of 17 2005, and amounted to about 65, or -- or 60 percent of our 18 entire budget for the year. Of the final $10,624.35 capital 19 expenditure authorized, $9,670.15 has been committed and spent 20 this year by the Mountain Home Volunteer Fire Department, and 21 the remaining $954 remains uncommitted. Details of the income 22 and expenditures are attached, and I'll touch briefly on those 23 in a moment. 24 A small committee of members of the Mountain Home 25 Volunteer Fire Department and the Emergency Services District 12-27-05 76 1 was established early in 2005 to write grant applications for 2 the Volunteer Fire Department. The committee completed two 3 applications, one of which was approved by the Texas Forest 4 Service for $108,000 to purchase a tanker truck. Project 5 funding requests were solicited from the fire department 6 beginning early in the year, in April. To support the fiscal 7 year 2006 budget and corresponding tax levy, a funding request 8 by the VFD for up to $56,000 in support of the purchase of a 9 new tanker truck was approved unanimously by the ESD Board in 10 August of 2005. This substantial multi-year commitment was 11 possible, as the ESD has the power to borrow against future 12 tax revenues. The first year's loan payment, approximately 13 $14,000 of that total, was approved in the fiscal year 2006 14 budget and in its tax rate. Subsequently, the Volunteer Fire 15 Department withdrew their request for funding, which reduced 16 the fiscal year 2006 budget by $14,000, from $19,000 to just a 17 little under $5,000, and the corresponding tax levy was 18 reduced to a little bit more than 8/10 cents per $100 19 valuation, a substantial savings for local taxpayers. 20 In keeping with the wisdom of "an ounce of 21 prevention is worth a pound of cure," the ESD provided 22 funding, and members of the district board, the Volunteer Fire 23 Department, Ladies Auxiliary, and local citizens provided the 24 volunteer labor to distribute some 700 copies of fire 25 protection literature to district property owners. The 12-27-05 77 1 brochures were provided by Fire Wise at no cost to the 2 district and to the citizens, and they describe numerous ways 3 that landowners in the urban wildlands interface can take 4 individual and inexpensive action to reduce fire hazards 5 around their home and property. Financial records for the 6 Emergency Services District for fiscal year 2005, which ended 7 on September 30th, have been favorably audited by the Kerr 8 County Auditor, and this Court will receive a copy of that 9 audit under separate cover from the County Auditor's office. 10 Our plans for the upcoming year include continuing the fire 11 protection education for district citizens, to identify water 12 sources and ways of effecting deployment of those sources in 13 fire emergency, responding to our own areas growing needs for 14 improved emergency services, especially those supported by the 15 Mountain Home Volunteer Fire Department. 16 What follows on your copy is a -- is a summary of 17 the calendar year 2005 financial summary. I would point out 18 that the statute requires a calendar-year summary. The audit 19 that you will receive -- or you may have already received 20 it -- covers the fiscal year, so those numbers don't match, 21 all right? One's for the calendar year; the other is fiscal 22 year. We started the year with a little over $3,200 in the 23 bank. We spent on fire protection projects a bit over 24 $10,000. Our overhead amounted to about -- about $1,400, and 25 our balance as of the 22nd of this month is $8,463.82. Are 12-27-05 78 1 there any questions from the Court on that summary? 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Any member of the Court have any 3 questions for Mr. Henson? Thank you, sir. We appreciate it. 4 MR. HENSON: Thank you very much for the honor and 5 privilege of serving. 6 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Okay. What we have is four 7 of the five seats on the ESD Number 2 board are due for 8 appointment. The term of the seat held by Steve Bauer, who 9 resigned, runs through 2006, and the seats held by Cleo 10 Meadow, John Gibbens, and F.C. Corky Henson are due for 11 two-year appointments. The term of the seat held by Wes 12 Patten does not expire until the end of 2006. Mr. Gibbens has 13 chosen not to stand for reappointment. These residents of the 14 ESD Number 2 district are nominated for election to the board: 15 Cleo Meadow to serve the one-year unexpired term of the seat 16 vacated by Steve Bauer. Ms. Meadow is an asset to the 17 district. She is secretary of the board, and she is willing 18 to serve one more year in order to provide needed continuity. 19 Mr. F.C. Corky Henson to be reappointed to a second two-year 20 term. Mr. Henson has served as president of the board, and he 21 has excellent leadership and organization skills. Mr. Joseph 22 H. Shafer, Jr., to be appointed to a two-year term. 23 Mr. Shafer is a retired engineer, has an M.B.A. He has 24 supported the fire department for many years, and did support 25 the establishment of the ESD Number 2. His management skills 12-27-05 79 1 will be valuable on the board. Mrs. La Verne Talbert Boles to 2 be appointed to serve a two-year term. Ms. Boles has a B.S. 3 and M.S. degree from Baylor, is a graduate of Tivy High 4 School, is a retired educator, and has deep roots in the 5 Mountain Home area. Ms. Boles will be a valuable and credible 6 member of the board. So, I make the motion that we appoint to 7 the Mountain Home -- or the Emergency Service District Number 8 2 Mrs. Cleo Meadow to serve a one-year term, and to serve 9 two-year terms, Mr. F.C. Corky Henson, Mr. Joseph H. Shafer, 10 Jr., and Mrs. La Verne Talbert Boles. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: We have a number of members of the 12 public that have asked to have an opportunity to speak, and I 13 will go through those now. As I indicated, there are a number 14 of them, and in the interest of time, I would ask that the 15 speakers try not to be repetitious of what maybe a speaker 16 before them has already covered. But we do want to give you 17 the opportunity to be heard. Just exercise good judgment in 18 that regard, I would ask. The first one is Cleo Meadow. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge, before you get -- I have 20 just kind of a procedural question, something I'm not sure of, 21 before we get to these. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: On the appointment. We make the 24 appointments. Are there nominations, or do we just make 25 appointments? And the reason I'm asking is that I received a 12-27-05 80 1 letter for a nomination for somebody in addition to the ones 2 that were nominated by the ESD. So, I mean, is it, like -- do 3 we put all of the names into -- that are nominated in a hat 4 and pick from that? Or can we do -- we just do what we want? 5 I don't know how -- I don't know how the law -- I don't know; 6 it's a legal question. I don't know. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, there's actually a 8 motion on the table. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Mm-hmm. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 11 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: No one seconded it. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But -- 13 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: We -- I don't think we're 14 bound by any process to seek nominations. I did receive from 15 two different sources, sources associated with the fire 16 department and sources associated with the ESD, I received 17 nominations, and I think all of you have seen some -- seen 18 those. Also had some other verbal suggestions. The four 19 nominations I made did include one person who was -- who was 20 nominated by both the participants in the fire department and 21 participants in the ESD, so that's either a good sign that 22 it's a bad nomination or a very good one. I think it's a very 23 good one. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Very good one. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: In answer to your question, 12-27-05 81 1 Commissioner, I don't think there's a formal nomination 2 process for appointing these members of the board. I do think 3 that through the process here today, the speakers will have an 4 opportunity to suggest to the Court possibly other members 5 that -- other citizens who meet the qualifications under the 6 law to serve, and that will give them the opportunity to have 7 their input into this issue. 8 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: At this point -- just one 9 more comment on that subject, Commissioner. It's my belief 10 that the fire department should not overly influence the 11 selection of -- of ESD commissioner appointments. I think 12 there needs to be an arm's-length relationship between those 13 two entities. And -- and a part of the role of the ESD is a 14 watchdog over -- over taxpayer funds. On the other hand, I 15 think also the ESD should not exert much influence on the -- 16 the management and operation of a fire department. That's not 17 their role. 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Question, Commissioner. The 19 names that you've put before the Court for consideration, are 20 they all just members of ESD Number 2, or are any of them also 21 members of the Mountain Home Volunteer Fire Department? 22 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: None of them are members of 23 the Mountain Home fire department. Some of them have been 24 associated with it in one way or another. And, again, I think 25 it would be inappropriate to have interlocking directorships. 12-27-05 82 1 That would, in my opinion, tend to raise the question of 2 compromising the integrity of one of the boards. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Thank you, Judge. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Mrs. Meadow? 5 MS. MEADOW: My name's -- 6 MR. SYFAN: If the Court please -- 7 JUDGE TINLEY: If you'll come forward. 8 MR. SYFAN: I would request to lead off, if I may. 9 If -- would that be all right with you? 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Ms. Meadow, I had already called your 11 name. If you -- each of you, when I call your name, if you'll 12 come to the podium, please, and give your name and address, 13 and you'll be given an opportunity to speak. 14 MS. MEADOW: My name is Cleo Meadow, and I live at 15 149 Roaring Rock Road close to Mountain Home. I've been a 16 resident of this area all my life, and it's been a pleasure to 17 serve on the ESD Board at Mountain Home. And I fully support 18 this slate of -- of board members to be elected, and I just 19 want to say that our president, Mr. Henson, has led in a very 20 professional and informed way this year, and I would be 21 pleased to work with each one of them again. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, ma'am. 23 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Thank you for your service, 24 Ms. Meadow. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Mr. Gibbens? Mr. John Gibbens. 12-27-05 83 1 MR. GIBBENS: I'm John Gibbens. I live at Mountain 2 Home at 6395 I-10 West. I've served two years. I've been 3 living in Mountain Home since 1988. A couple of things I want 4 to point out. One is, this board has done everything possible 5 to administer the taxpayers' money fairly and within the laws 6 of the state of Texas, according to Chapter 775 of the 7 Constitution, which establishes this ESD Board. We have tried 8 to work with the fire department as best we could within the 9 laws, and not bend them or -- the problem has been lack of 10 cooperation with the fire department. And it's been -- well, 11 those few of you that might know me personally, I don't mince 12 words. We cannot cooperate with the management of the fire 13 department, the upper management. We have no problems with 14 the firefighters at Mountain Home. They do a wonderful job 15 and they're dedicated, just like we're dedicated to this board 16 to administer the laws of the state and try to protect the 17 taxpayers' money and spend it like we felt it should be spent. 18 But we got very little cooperation on some reports that were 19 due us by the -- a couple of people in the fire department 20 that I won't name, or -- but I think a lot of people know who 21 they are. They do not want to cooperate with us. And if you 22 don't keep integrity in this board that you're going to 23 appoint -- and it can't be mixed in with people that are in 24 the fire department in any way. They've got to be kept at 25 arm's length, like Mr. Nicholson said. They can't be 12-27-05 84 1 intermingled. Then you're defeating the purpose of having 2 this board. Just give the tax money to the fire department 3 and let them go, and that's not the intent of this. I hope I 4 haven't made anybody mad. But you've got to have two separate 5 identities here, but they do have to cooperate. Now, there's 6 got to be some changes made, but I think the changes have to 7 be with management of the fire department, and it can be done. 8 It's just going to have to bite the bullet in some cases and 9 work with people and try to work things out. Thank you for 10 listening to me. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, sir. Mr. Joe Shafer? 12 MR. SHAFER: My name is Joe Shafer, and I live at 13 135 Byas Springs Road West. I'd like to say that I've 14 attended most of the ESD Board meetings this past year, and I 15 found that everyone on the board has acted in a professional 16 manner and to the good of the taxpayer. I think a large -- 17 large part of it is due to Corky Henson and his leadership 18 role, and I completely concur with everything that the board 19 has done. Thank you. 20 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Thank you. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, sir. Wesley J. Patten? 22 MR. PATTEN: I'm Wesley J. Patten. I am the vice 23 president of the board at the present time. I thank you for 24 this opportunity to speak to you. I feel like that as an ESD 25 Board, it has done everything unanimously this past year in 12-27-05 85 1 all of our actions. We've discussed it. We've had open 2 discussions and followed the Open Meetings Act, as we should, 3 and we have done everything you asked me in our relationship 4 with the Mountain Home Volunteer Fire Department. If this 5 board can't support us -- if this County Commissioners cannot 6 support us -- you appointed us; we ask for your support now, 7 and Dave Nicholson -- support of Dave Nicholson as he presents 8 this list, then you haven't -- you shouldn't have appointed us 9 in the first place if you can't support us right now. Thank 10 you. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, sir. Mr. Bernard Syfan? 12 MR. SYFAN: Gentlemen, there was a letter in the 13 Kerrville Times yesterday that said, in effect, that the fire 14 department decided not to respond to criticism. That was a 15 good tactic on their part. Don't talk about what you don't 16 want to have people to talk about. They have good reason to 17 do their talking behind closed doors. I hope that they have 18 not been completely successful. Members of the service 19 district board have been silent for another reason. They 20 hoped in vain that the fire department management would come 21 to its senses and decide to play by the accepted and 22 legislated rules of society. This hope has been in vain. It 23 has been said that all that is necessary to have tyranny 24 prevail is to have good people say nothing. We are here today 25 to be heard. 12-27-05 86 1 It is sad to see that the Mountain Home fire 2 department management has stooped to seeking revenge on the 3 Emergency Service District Board for doing its duty as a 4 watchdog for public funds which have been entrusted to them by 5 this Court. The quietly pursued, yet unrelenting and 6 orchestrated attack on Corky Henson is -- is an attack on the 7 entire board. They believe in what they have been doing, and 8 will continue to do if allowed. They voted unanimously to 9 fulfill what they felt was their responsibility to protect the 10 public interest. The management of the fire department, on 11 the other hand, has consistently and hostilely confronted the 12 service district board in a manipulative and bullying fashion, 13 and has resorted to multiple and significant deviations from 14 the truth in their presentations to the Emergency Service 15 District Board and to the public. The law setting up service 16 districts, for good reason, specifically provides for the 17 separation between them and the organizations with which they 18 may choose to contract for emergency services. To give 19 credence to the fire department's drive -- should be "the fire 20 department management's drive" -- for revenge for the proper 21 and unanimous actions of the board would be a travesty of 22 justice. 23 It should be known that while he was a member of the 24 fire department, Corky Henson solely researched and wrote the 25 successful grant that was used to purchase the department's 12-27-05 87 1 new brush truck in 2003. Then, as president of the ESD Board, 2 he is the one who proposed that a joint committee of that 3 board and the fire department cooperatively make the 4 application that resulted in the department getting the 5 $108,000 grant that made the purchase of another new truck 6 possible. The specifications for the new tanker truck that 7 were used in the application were drawn up by Jim Haney of the 8 fire department, who also edited the application. Corky 9 Henson did all of the research and composed the successful 10 grant application. There was good cooperation between the 11 fire department and the district. It was the management of 12 the department that has failed us. Ask yourselves, would any 13 support of this sought revenge against the people doing their 14 best to uphold the law be proper -- a proper way to show 15 appreciation for dedicated and effective public service? Or 16 will you decide to reward those who shamelessly ignore the 17 rules of society? I thank you for this opportunity. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you sir. Stephen Bauer? 19 MR. BAUER: I'm Stephen Bauer. I reside at 140 20 Kensing Road. Been a member of the ESD area for eight years, 21 since -- or since 1988, when I moved into that area. I 22 appreciate the opportunity to address this Court on this 23 matter this morning. The Mountain Home Volunteer Fire 24 Department provides a valuable service to the community, and 25 the volunteers should be commended for those services. The 12-27-05 88 1 ESD also provides a valuable service to the community by 2 serving as stewards of the tax dollars and moneys collected 3 from those district citizens. These volunteers, as appointed 4 by this Court, have also given of their times and talents, and 5 to fulfill their duties to the taxpayers of the ESD. The 6 Mountain Home Volunteer Fire Department, as in times past, 7 seeks to influence the decisions made by the ESD Board by 8 striking against the leadership of the board, Corky Henson. 9 For this reason and others, the laws establishing the ESD call 10 for a separation between the ESD and the emergency services 11 with which they choose to contract. As the Court knows, good 12 leadership is invaluable in a volunteer organization such as 13 the ESD. Corky Henson and this board have displayed strong 14 leadership by voting unanimously on matters of responsibility 15 concerning the managing of the district's tax moneys. Corky 16 has given unselfishly of his time to help the Mountain Home 17 Volunteer Fire Department to write grant applications. One, 18 as previously mentioned, was for the $108,000 grant which has 19 enabled the fire department to purchase their newest truck. 20 He has also assisted in other successful grant applications 21 for the fire department. 22 As this Court is well aware, many times decisions 23 made by these boards, such as the ESD and others, concerning 24 responsible management of tax moneys are not always favorable 25 to the public. As stated earlier, these decisions made by the 12-27-05 89 1 board have been unanimous. They have been opposed only by a 2 small handful of the Mountain Home Volunteer Fire Department 3 who are resistant to change and want total control, not only 4 of the Mountain Home Volunteer Fire Department, but also of 5 the ESD. I ask you to consider this in making your decision 6 for your appointments to the ESD Board. Leaders should be 7 chosen on their ability to lead and direct and make sound 8 legal decisions based on facts and truths. They should not be 9 chosen based on retaliatory actions of a small group who wants 10 to influence the selection of the ESD Board. Thank you for 11 this opportunity. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, sir. Jean H. Henson. 13 MS. HENSON: I will pass to the next one. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: All right, thank you. Jim Anderson. 15 MR. ANDERSON: Thank you, gentlemen, for listening 16 to what I have to say this afternoon. I came in -- 17 originally, I sent to you over the weekend e-mails explaining 18 my position as a director of the Mountain Home Volunteer Fire 19 Department. I do not live in the district; I'm a volunteer 20 outside of my area. I live in the Ingram district. Two years 21 ago, I was elected unanimously by the firefighters of our fire 22 department to be a director. The people of Mountain Home 23 Volunteer Fire Department support an ESD district for our 24 area. It's needed. We don't have the capital in most cases 25 to go out and buy what we need to buy, so the ESD was created, 12-27-05 90 1 and we appreciate the ESD. We don't have a problem with four 2 of the members that have been recommended by the ESD. One of 3 them I don't know very well. One of them was nominated by 4 both parties, which I think is an excellent choice. A third 5 one has served two years and is willing to come back and serve 6 another year, and we agree with that. I do. I do not agree 7 with the fact that the board is trying to dominate the ESD. 8 We have submitted names to you for recommendation to 9 the board. It's not necessary -- in fact, I haven't given 10 much thought about who would be the fifth person on the board. 11 It's just that, in my opinion, we need to eliminate one 12 individual that's on the board today. I don't care who you 13 replace him with. I don't care if you replace him with 14 someone that's other than the individual that has been 15 recommended, or if you want to select someone from the fire 16 department. That's up to y'all. But we have a conflict of 17 wills and people in the fire department and ESD. Some of that 18 was brought out earlier. It exists. It's not going to 19 change. Things have been done in the past year that have 20 irrevocably ruined the opportunity to get the two sides 21 together. I thank you for your time. I appreciate your 22 consideration, and thank you. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, sir. Steve Goebel? 24 MR. GOEBEL: Judge, I have also -- when I wrap up 25 here, I'd like to save a stamp and drop off the contract 12-27-05 91 1 between the Mountain Home Fire Department and the -- and Kerr 2 County, if you don't mind, sir. First of all, I'd like to 3 introduce myself. I'm Steve Goebel. Two months ago, in 4 October, I was elected to the Board of Directors of the 5 Mountain Home Fire Department, and I was very soon thereafter 6 elected president of the Board of Directors of Mountain Home 7 Volunteer Fire Department, and I am thrilled to have inherited 8 this situation. It has caused me a great loss of sleep at 9 night, and I come to you looking for suggestions. Thank you 10 for letting me come this morning. My wife and I ranch on 11 Midway Road. Don't know the exact address; it's the south end 12 of the highway -- or south end of the road. 13 I am a Mountain Home volunteer firefighter, and I've 14 only been here a relatively short time, but since being 15 elected to our board and becoming more deeply involved in the 16 community, I've spoken with many residents and I've learned a 17 great deal in a very short time. As you know, relations 18 between the volunteer fire department in Mountain Home and ESD 19 Number 2 are extremely strained. From what I've learned, the 20 primary source or the primary cause of this friction between 21 the two organizations is some sort of personal feud between 22 the chief of the department and the president of the ESD, 23 Corky Henson, a former volunteer firefighter in Mountain Home, 24 and appointee who we have just learned is being reconsidered 25 for -- or being considered for reappointment. From my 12-27-05 92 1 perspective as a citizen, and lately as a firefighter, let me 2 tell you of the impressions I've received from watching Corky 3 Henson's leadership of the ESD. At different ESD meetings, 4 I've personally watched him confront and antagonize the chief 5 and belittle one of our board members. 6 Just last week, our department took delivery of a 7 brand new fire truck, thus enhancing the fire protection in 8 our community. Corky and at least one other person actively 9 campaigned against that truck. The ESD, under his direction, 10 budgeted absolutely zero dollars to support the volunteer fire 11 department for 2006. Under his direction, the ESD now finds 12 itself collecting hard-earned taxpayer dollars just to 13 maintain its own existence, and is not supporting the 14 financial need of its own fire department. How is our 15 community better off? Our ESD was founded with the noblest of 16 intentions. Our community realized that the department's 17 responsibilities were rapidly outgrowing its ability to 18 attract enough voluntary contributions, and that additional 19 resources were needed. In spite of the recent turbulence, I 20 and most of our firefighters and fellow citizens believe in 21 the concept of ESD's, and believe that a cooperative and 22 congenial relationship between the ESD and our department is 23 urgently needed. In my view, such a positive relationship is 24 possible only with removal of anyone involved in the feud that 25 I mentioned earlier. 12-27-05 93 1 Let me mention some of the things that have changed 2 at the volunteer fire department in the last couple of months. 3 The fire department Board of Directors is now solely 4 responsible for running the business affairs of the 5 department, no longer the chief. The board president is now 6 the primary spokesman for the department at the ESD, no longer 7 the chief. The board, and not the chief, now calls dedicated 8 business meetings so as to not detract from the department's 9 training needs. The ladies auxiliary of the volunteer fire 10 department has returned monies to the department that it had 11 collected over the years and held in the department's behalf. 12 As is only right, though, the fire chief must remain in 13 operational control of the department during emergencies. 14 Changes at the ESD are mandated also, and this is where our 15 community -- our community desperately needs the help of the 16 entire Commissioners Court. Our community and our volunteer 17 firefighters deserve an ESD composed of reasonable and 18 fair-minded citizens, not a person with a vendetta or a person 19 involved in a destructive and divisive feud. Please do the 20 right thing in appointing new members to our ESD. Thank you. 21 Judge, I'm available for questions at any time. Thank you all 22 for your past support. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, sir. Is there any other 24 member of the public here who's not already spoken that wishes 25 to be heard on this issue? I just want to make sure everybody 12-27-05 94 1 gets an opportunity. I have a motion on the floor made by 2 Commissioner Nicholson, for which presently we have no second. 3 Do I hear a second to the motion? 4 (No response.) 5 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion by Commissioner Nicholson 6 dies for lack of a second. Do I hear any further motions? 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I have a question, or -- 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I have some comments to make. 9 Judge, looking at the annual report, it talks about the 10 funding of the tanker truck, reducing budgets and reducing tax 11 levies, et cetera, et cetera. That was the issue that kind of 12 lit my fire, 'cause I look at the thing as the -- the 13 citizens, the property owners, the taxpayers, who are the 14 owners out there, voted to put an ESD in place in order to 15 raise funds to protect their life and property. It's really 16 that simple. And in doing that, suddenly there's this 17 contest -- and I'm not real sure where it is. I haven't been 18 involved; just read the paper and listen to -- listen to you 19 all talk. There's this contest between the ESD Board and the 20 fire department, and we have all watched -- watched it through 21 the last year or so. And a month or so ago, Mr. Nicholson, 22 that I know has been working hard on this issue, came in here 23 and reported that he thought that we're all going to kiss and 24 make up. I can't remember your exact words, but those are my 25 translation of your report. And shortly thereafter, I hear 12-27-05 95 1 about Texas Rangers investigating fire department members, and 2 that just doesn't sound like cooperation and kissing and 3 making up to me. It just sounds like that it's added on. And 4 your comments earlier, I mean, that -- that wasn't any kissing 5 and making up in that. I mean, you basically called them 6 liars and thieves. 7 MR. SYFAN: That's because they were, sir. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: See, I don't know that, and I 9 think it's extremely inappropriate for you to say that. I 10 really do. You know, those -- those things bother me, being a 11 fourth-generation Kerr County boy, and -- and in love with the 12 western end of the county in particular. It just -- it 13 bothers me that we get into these ego contests that nobody 14 wins, including the taxpayers. And, you know, this thing of 15 -- you know, it seems to me, the way I saw it was the fire 16 department wanted to buy some kind of truck, and the ES -- the 17 Board comes along and says, "No, we -- you're ordering the 18 wrong color, or the tires are too big, muffler's too loud. We 19 want you to buy this kind." And fire department says, "No, we 20 don't want your money; we're going to go..." -- whatever all 21 that was about, and go off and do it. And then -- and then I 22 don't know if it -- the board acted out of anger or acted out 23 of getting even with them-ism, or what it might be, but you 24 come along and lower the tax rate. 25 And I know that each one of you board members 12-27-05 96 1 disagree with me on that, but I think that's one of the most 2 foolish things you could possibly do. The people voted this 3 ESD to be in place to raise funds to support that department 4 out there, to protect their lives and properties, and you're 5 making it difficult to do. Now, I'm not totally convinced yet 6 that that does not affect Mrs. Rector's operation down there. 7 I just don't know. To move the tax rate from one point to 8 another during the year, I mean, I just can't get it straight 9 in my mind that that's okay. There has to be a problem with 10 that. And she's got a great calculator or whatever, but it's 11 just my opinion that the tax rate needs to be set to where it 12 can raise funds out there to support that department, because 13 I think that's what the taxpayers voted to do. And to -- to 14 move that around, to move it down to -- and I think I'm 15 reading here, 0.0081 cents per $100 value, that's basically 16 nothing. And that -- that looks like to me that was an action 17 of anger or you're going to get even with somebody, and I 18 dislike that very much. 19 So, I see -- I see a problem with the ESD Board, and 20 I'm going to tell you right now, I see a problem with the fire 21 department as well. If I had the opportunity to vote on the 22 Board of Directors in the fire department, Mr. Hall would be 23 removed today, but I don't have that authority. I don't have 24 that opportunity. Yet. I may come out there and live amongst 25 y'all in a few years and vote myself, but -- then I'll vote 12-27-05 97 1 him out at that point. But if I had that opportunity, I would 2 remove him as well. I think there's a major problem, and -- 3 and I think that this Commissioners Court needs to address 4 that major problem on behalf of the taxpayers. So, I'm not 5 going to -- I'm going to support -- I will not support 6 Mr. Henson's reappointment. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I have a question. I don't know 8 if it's -- Mr. Henson can answer it, or maybe Mr. Nicholson 9 can. On the same tax rate issue, and that's my big problem 10 that I see also, so I pretty much agree with Commissioner 11 Baldwin on the fact that two years ago, the citizens voted in 12 a tax rate and a -- the ESD, and I can't -- was it three 13 cents? What was the levy previously before it was reduced? 14 MR. HENSON: Three and a half cents per $100 15 valuation. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, three and a half raised 17 16,990? 18 MS. HENSON: You're looking at the calendar year. 19 For the fiscal year, it was a little bit in excess of 19,000. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 19,000? 21 MR. HENSON: Yes, sir. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So we've gone down from 23 19,000 -- round it up -- down to raising around 5,000 or so, 24 4,000. 4,000 to 5,000 is what's going to be raised in the 25 future. 12-27-05 98 1 MS. HENSON: Exactly the amount that the fire 2 department removed from the budget. We are an entity, as you 3 are, that sets taxes according to the laws of the state of 4 Texas, which means first we have to set a budget. We also 5 have to re -- have to receive requests from the fire 6 department for funds in order to set that budget. At the 7 point in which the budget was reduced, we had no requests for 8 funding from the fire department. The fire department had 9 withdrawn their earlier request for funding for the tanker 10 truck. We had no replacement requests for funding. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, next year you can -- if they 12 give you a request, you can just raise taxes next year? 13 MR. HENSON: You bet. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I thought the ESD -- I didn't 15 know -- I was not aware the ESD can change your -- 16 MR. GIBBENS: We had no requirement, so we lowered 17 the tax rate on the taxpayers. We had no need for the extra 18 money. 19 MR. HENSON: Our upper limit is 10 cents per $100 20 valuation by statute. The initial year we set at three and a 21 half cents. We can increase that limit subject to the tax 22 laws, all right? Rollback provisions apply. But the 23 justification for those funds comes ultimately from the fire 24 department, and that's what the -- 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Mr. Anderson had his hand up. I 12-27-05 99 1 believe it's Mr. Anderson. 2 MR. ANDERSON: I'd like to bring to the 3 Commissioners' attention that in September, when the ESD held 4 their meeting on the second Thursday of the month, they 5 approved a rate of .0311, which is basically the same as the 6 3.50, as the year before, because our increased value went up 7 and they kept the amount -- the same amount. Hurricane Rita 8 came through, and Hurricane Rita -- Travis Hall, who is our 9 chief, and many other D.P.S. personnel were moved to the 10 Jasper area for security purposes. During that period of time 11 in which he was gone, the ESD called a special meeting, posted 12 it properly at the post office, made notification at the post 13 office and held a meeting on or about the 27th or 29th of 14 September, and cut the rate. 15 True, we had decided not to ask the ESD for 16 assistance in acquiring the truck, which was not more than 17 $56,000, is what we asked for. We were going to go through 18 the Buy Board and do it through the Buy Board, expeditiously. 19 We have a nine-month commitment with the Texas Forest Service 20 that the truck must be in our barn and operational within nine 21 months. We had a sales price from Pierce Manufacturing, 22 Incorporated for September the 30th, or -- 30th, at which time 23 the sale price disappeared. That was the end of their working 24 year, and so the price was good for a period of about 30, 45 25 days. And we had asked the ESD Board to consider a Buy Board 12-27-05 100 1 purchase of a truck, which they denied. The original purchase 2 of the tanker truck was the $137,000 that was on the grant 3 form for the 108,000 we received from the Texas Forest 4 Service. 5 The fire department felt that it was in the best 6 interest of the community to upgrade that tanker-pumper truck 7 at this time so that it would be foam capable and have 8 extinguishers on it. We have six extinguishers on this truck; 9 it's a new truck. It has four foam lines, two reel lines of 10 about 200 feet apiece, and two overlay lines which are capable 11 of foaming, which increases the rate of water to a 12 three-to-one ratio with foam. All of us know that in west 13 Kerr County, the water is not really available to us on a 14 moment's notice, and so we felt like with a second foam truck, 15 that would put us up about 8,400 gallons of foamed water that 16 we could take on any -- just about any fire that came up at 17 the time. But the tax rate was reduced to eight-tenths of one 18 percent in a vindictive way, in my opinion, because they had 19 set the rate and less than three weeks later, they reduced it 20 from .0311 percent to eight-tenths of one percent. Thank you. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I guess, you know, I'm not real 22 sure I understand why the ESD lowered the tax rate to the 23 extent they did, but they did. My biggest concern is really 24 just that there's two entities out there that have to get 25 along, and they're obviously not getting along. And the board 12-27-05 101 1 needs to -- my position is, what I'm hearing from the nominees 2 that all spoke here today is that it's "my way or the highway" 3 at the fire department, and that isn't going to work. The ESD 4 Board has got to get along with the fire department, and until 5 a board comes -- a slate of candidates can come forward that 6 there's at least some agreement on, I just think we're just 7 perpetuating a problem out in west Kerr County, and the whole 8 reason we did the ESD. That's just how I see it. 9 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I'd like to weigh-in on 10 that, too. I'm troubled by the seemingly inability to 11 reconcile the differences, and what's at stake is public 12 safety and the taxation which you have the authority to level 13 -- levy. And I -- I really would like to see a slate of 14 officers or directors presented to Commissioners Court that 15 all entities involved can endorse, as opposed to this 16 conflict. If the Court takes one action or the other today, 17 or took an action to confirm the slate that's put before us, 18 we have, in effect, perpetuated the conflict, and I, for one, 19 am not willing to do that. 20 MR. PATTEN: Mr. Tinley -- Judge Tinley? Since your 21 Court doesn't seem to have any confidence in any of us, I'm 22 the only one that's left on the board that's the original 23 board. If you can't support us, I'd offer my resignation to 24 you, and you can put five people out there if you think they 25 can do the job. The reason the rate -- right now, to answer 12-27-05 102 1 some questions before I get to sit down, the reason the rate 2 was reduced is because we could not justify it in our budget 3 process without having a place for the money to go. We're not 4 going to be like some of the taxing entities in Kerr County 5 that build a large reserve with no intent or purpose for it 6 being there. I've heard Mr. Baldwin speak about that at some 7 time in the past, about some of our taxing entities here that 8 he has no control over that have a large reserve with no 9 intent to spend it. We were not going to be that kind of a 10 board. 11 We only want to tax the people for money that we 12 have a use for, and since we didn't have a use for any more 13 money than that, by law, we had to make a bond for that, we 14 had to pay for the -- the Tax Collector, the appraisal 15 district, so we have a bottom floor that that's as low as we 16 can go, and that's exactly the money we tax the people for, 17 just to keep us in existence. Next year -- this coming year, 18 if they present us with -- if they present the board with a 19 project that they need money for, we'll be happy -- if this 20 board was still in existence, we'd be happy to consider that. 21 They withdrew their request because we tried to follow what we 22 considered the state law. We wanted to -- a bid process on 23 the truck. We didn't care whether they got it from Pierce or 24 from somebody else. We asked them to specify what they 25 needed, which could have been a delivery date, and they chose 12-27-05 103 1 not to do that. That -- those are the facts. I also 2 expressed a problem with the fact that when we lowered the 3 rate, that we would have to go through this part, that we 4 could have a rollback. I don't have any problem going to 5 people and telling them, "Hey, we got to raise the taxes above 6 what you can call us for a rollback," if there's a need there. 7 But I'm certainly not going to do it unless there's really a 8 need. Thank you for your consideration. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Did you just resign? 10 MR. PATTEN: I resign. If you -- if you can't put 11 faith in this board as we currently existed and as we 12 recommended to you, then I don't want to be a part of a board 13 that you don't have confidence in. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I guess my -- two comments. 16 One, you know, I don't -- I want boards to think independently 17 and -- and, you know, do what they think is right. You know, 18 so the fact that the -- I mean, I don't expect a board always 19 to be in total agreement. But going back to the tax rate 20 thing, unless my memory is wrong, I remember when we -- the 21 whole discussion when the ESD was formed, before it went 22 before the voters, was that it was -- and the request was that 23 three and a half cents, or a very -- a lot less than we could 24 do, was that, yes, it wasn't going to raise much money, but it 25 will be a little bit, and over time they could build some 12-27-05 104 1 money to do some good. And y'all have done just the opposite 2 of that, and that's what the voters agreed to, and that's -- I 3 just can't -- I mean, I don't want -- I'd be equally, I think, 4 upset if y'all went to 10 cents just to keep the money in the 5 bank, or whatever the maximum amount is. But to go to -- to 6 cut the reserves down to make it bring in a total revenue of 7 $5,000, with the expense of firefighting equipment, I just 8 don't see how that's a prudent thing to do when you're trying 9 to fight -- or when you're -- when the only way for you really 10 to provide a fire service right now is through the Mountain 11 Home Volunteer Fire Department. If there's another service 12 out there, they're going to need funding as well. I just -- I 13 don't understand the cut to the point you did, and I think 14 that it's contrary to what the voters voted on. 15 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Commissioner, I -- 16 MR. SYFAN: I'd like to speak to that. 17 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: It's my turn to talk. I 18 have a different point of view. I -- I think it's 19 inappropriate for government to take money away from taxpayers 20 and put it in its savings account. The Board had nothing to 21 spend any money on for this year except their required 22 expenditures. The only -- they had approved a request from 23 the fire department. The fire department subsequently 24 withdrew the request. They had no -- no projects to spend any 25 money on in that tax year, and I think it's wrong to take 12-27-05 105 1 money from taxpayers and put it in a savings account. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Mr. Goebel was asking to be 3 recognized. 4 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Let me ask the Commissioner 5 a question first, Judge. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Can somebody please tell me 8 why the request for funding for 56,000 or whatever it was for 9 a fire truck was withdrawn? What was the reason behind that? 10 I'd like to hear from the fire department and somebody else; 11 I'd like to hear two responses. I hear -- I see a fire -- 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Mr. Anderson? 13 MR. ANDERSON: The fire department withdrew its 14 request for the $56,000. During that period of time of 15 September -- between the time they had set the tax rate, from 16 that date to less than three weeks later, when they cut it to 17 almost nothing, the reason we withdraw our request for the -- 18 for their assistance to purchase a truck was the time 19 constraints that we were under. We had the possibility of -- 20 of acquiring an 1,800-gallon pumper tanker, which included the 21 $108,000 grant. They didn't want to go the Buy Board route, 22 which they had that option. They elected not to take the 23 option. They elected for us to sit down and draw up 24 specifications for three or four different companies in that 25 short a period of time. We didn't -- in a volunteer 12-27-05 106 1 organization such as a fire department, we all work for a 2 living. When I leave here today, I'm going to Ozona to go 3 back to work. But that is why we said, "Thank you, but no 4 thank you; we'll do it on our own." And that's what we're 5 going to try and do. 6 We acquired a truck this past Thursday, and it's 7 outfitted to go and fight a fire right now. We did that on 8 Friday morning. We serviced it, we foamed it, we watered it, 9 we put hoses on it, and we have mobile communications. The 10 radio has not been installed. If the radio is installed, it's 11 ready to go. That is why the fire department withdrew its 12 request for the less than $56,000 from them. Probably would 13 have been in the neighborhood of $49,000 by the time we got 14 the price down from 170,000 to $163,631, with all the whistles 15 and bells that we had requested, because it was our opinion 16 the truck is going to be with us for 10 to 20 years; that it 17 may be a little bit more than what we need today, but I doubt 18 it. It could -- it's going to be used. But over a period of 19 time, as west Kerr County continues to grow, as it's grown in 20 the past couple of years, we're going to have a need for that 21 fire truck -- a very strong need for that fire truck in 22 fighting possibly structure fires. So, that is the reason we 23 had said -- 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Well, that causes me to ask 25 a follow-up question. 12-27-05 107 1 MR. ANDERSON: Okay. 2 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Which is, is this the sole 3 reason -- underlying reason for this dispute? Or are there 4 other underlying reasons for this dispute? 5 MR. ANDERSON: The -- the original -- in my opinion, 6 the original dispute is between the two heads of -- of these 7 two organizations; Travis Hall, who is chief, and Corky 8 Henson, who was a firefighter at one time. Corky, to the best 9 of my knowledge -- and I overheard this conversation myself 10 between Corky and Travis when it was being discussed. If 11 you're going to be a volunteer in this organization, you got 12 to show up at 3:30 or 4:30 in the morning when we're called 13 out. You can't turn your pager off. You got to get up and go 14 like everybody else does. That's where all this comes from. 15 It comes from a firefighter that was going to be a volunteer 16 on his basis, and not on -- on the department's policy. A 17 volunteer is a volunteer, and that's how Travis wanted him to 18 be. A short time later, Jerry Wheeler, who also lives on the 19 same road, wanted to be fire chief. Corky nominated Jerry for 20 fire chief. He didn't get a second. Jerry Wheeler quit. 21 Corky quit shortly thereafter. The ESD was organized and set 22 up, and Corky was appointed head of the ESD, and Travis is 23 chief of the fire department, and the two of them have never 24 gee-hawed at all during that period of time. We had an 25 election this past October, an annual election of the fire 12-27-05 108 1 department, and Travis Hall was unanimously voted in as chief 2 without any exceptions. And so we've got a chief that is 3 responsible, is knowledgeable, he's experienced, and he's well 4 liked by most of the people in the department. 5 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Thank you. Somewhere down 6 the line, it seems we've lost the ability of reasonable people 7 to resolve differences, and that's very troubling. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Mr. Goebel? You've been asking to be 9 recognized for some time. 10 MR. GOEBEL: Yes, sir, thank you. Just a reassuring 11 note. The volunteer fire department does have the financial 12 wherewithal to be in existence and to be thriving for the next 13 12 months, and that includes the $7,000-some-odd note payment 14 due on this new truck. When the fire department bought this 15 new truck, it did make -- make use of a grant from the Forest 16 Service, and I commend Corky for contributing to that grant 17 request. I commend every citizen that helps the fire 18 department and contributes to the community. Okay. On a 19 personal note, and as, I guess, an official stand of the fire 20 department, as I am now the president of the board. 21 Gentlemen, an ESD is needed. We completely endorse the 22 concept of an ESD. It's important. It is vital to our 23 community. And, lastly, I would like to echo Commissioner 24 Baldwin's comments. Shame on anyone who has allowed a 25 personal feud to allow neighbors to be against neighbors, to 12-27-05 109 1 divide the community and to poison the relations between a 2 department composed of volunteers and an ESD composed of 3 volunteers. Gentlemen, thank you. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, sir. Mr. Gibbens, you had 5 something you wanted to offer? We need to wind this up. 6 MR. GIBBENS: Well, if you want to talk about feuds, 7 gentlemen, this is not a one-way feud by any means. Mr. Hall 8 is going to run that area out there. I didn't get up -- come 9 here today to name names, but names have been named. 10 Mr. Henson is a gentleman. He's got as much integrity, I 11 would say, as anybody here. Now, if you're going to tear down 12 people, there's other people need to be teared down involved 13 in this thing, too. We voted unanimously, all five of us, and 14 we've never been coerced into a vote in the last two years to 15 make anything unanimous. We voted like we felt, all five of 16 us on this board. We voted that tax rate down because we 17 thought our job as the ESD Board was to raise taxes to support 18 the volunteer fire department. That's the only reason we're 19 there, to support the volunteer fire department. Since they 20 saw fit not to furnish us with a budget that we could support, 21 because Mr. Hall didn't want it the way we felt like we had to 22 operate under our guidelines and bylaws and -- and things -- 23 well, you go out on bids and maybe save $40,000 or $20,000 on 24 the same truck they wanted, but they might have to justify -- 25 some justification as to what they wanted on their truck. And 12-27-05 110 1 it might be three or four months later, which we would foot 2 the bill on the cost. 3 Mr. Hall wanted to show us he didn't need us, so 4 that they withdrew their project. All right. We're not going 5 to stick it to our taxpayers. We're not a collecting agent 6 just to put it over here in the bank somewhere. We don't need 7 it, because we didn't have a project we wanted to spend it on 8 other than our -- just our operating things. So, yes, we got 9 a deadlock out there, but don't put all one side on both 10 entities, because then you're going to get no accountability 11 at all if the fire department's going to have members in both 12 areas. Because right now, the fire department don't want to 13 account to anybody. The management, the head -- the chief. 14 That's all I got to say. I'm going out. And I enjoyed the 15 first year of the two years, until it come down to where we 16 had to put our foot down because we weren't getting any 17 cooperation. That's all it amounted to. So, then things 18 began to knock heads. But don't blame Corky. Corky did the 19 best job I ever saw of being president of an organization that 20 was getting no cooperation and trying to get some cooperation, 21 but he couldn't get it. He won't get it from the present 22 management. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, sir. Is there any member 24 of the Court that has anything further to offer on this agenda 25 item? 12-27-05 111 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I do. And this is not going 2 to take over three or four hours, so -- I promise. I don't 3 know Mr. Shafer. Just simply don't know the person, but I 4 remember in your comments that he's very highly qualified and 5 very professional. You know, if I could see maybe one of 6 these -- these names from the fire department group go over 7 there and fill in that number three slot, like Mr. Lamb, for 8 example, or Mrs. Bloys -- Mrs. Bloys, probably, that has 9 expressed over and over the desire and the willingness to 10 serve on this board. If we could get her put in there in that 11 number three slot, and if we could get some kind of commitment 12 from the board and the fire department to sit down like grown 13 people and representatives of the taxpayers and work this -- 14 work this issue out -- if nothing else, get some boxing gloves 15 and go down on the creek and get it over with. That's what I 16 would prefer. I'd love to watch that. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Commissioner? 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Be reasonable men and sit 19 down and work these issues out. And I know it can be done. I 20 know -- see, there's a negative right there. That -- that is 21 so incredible when y'all act that way. I know Travis Hall is 22 a hard-headed little jackass. I know that. 23 MR. GIBBENS: You said it. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's right. Well, I know 25 it a lot better than you do, believe me. 12-27-05 112 1 MR. GIBBENS: I know it. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: But I also know that if you 3 sit down with that man over a period of time and be 4 reasonable, that you're going to make an agreement with him; 5 there is no doubt in my mind. So, you know, coming in here 6 and throwing rocks at people, that's not going to cut it with 7 this group of guys, I can tell you that. So what I'm saying 8 is, is I'm willing to go with your motion if you can amend 9 that -- amend that one slot. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So -- I mean, so you want to 11 insert Mrs. Bloys for Mr. Shafer? 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Correct. 13 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: No, that's not what you 14 said. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, that's exactly what I 16 said. 17 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: To substitute her for who? 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: This Mr. Shafer. 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't have a problem with 21 that, and I don't have a problem with Mr. Henson specifically. 22 But I do -- I mean, I -- if Commissioner, Precinct 4, can go 23 along with that, I can go along with that settlement here. 24 But my biggest concern is not getting along. Y'all have got 25 to figure out how to get along, because there's no -- I mean, 12-27-05 113 1 it isn't going to work otherwise. And I don't think it's 2 Mr. Henson's fault. I don't think it's Mr. Hall's fault. 3 Probably some of -- usually, when something like this happens, 4 it's somewhere in between. But for the betterment of the 5 people in that ESD who are served by that fire department, 6 there's got to be cooperation and agreement between those two 7 entities. And, you know, I'm -- it sounds like the fire 8 department understands that there is some problem with Mr. 9 Hall, and they've made some changes in their organization to 10 accommodate that. That -- I'm glad to see that. But I think 11 the ESD needs to put forth an effort as well. Anyway -- 12 JUDGE TINLEY: I'm trying to figure out if I -- the 13 last I knew, I didn't have a motion. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Oh, that's right. It's up to 15 you, sir. No deal? 16 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: I don't -- frankly, I don't 17 know how many vacancies we have to fill. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Four. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: At least four. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Oh. 21 MR. PATTEN: I was just saying if you can't support 22 it, I'd offer my resignation. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No, I heard you resign. 24 MR. PATTEN: I said if you can't support the board, 25 I'll -- 12-27-05 114 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Didn't I hear you say that 2 you resigned? Doug? I mean, you -- 3 MR. PATTEN: I'll resign if you want me to. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You either resign or you 5 don't. 6 MR. PATTEN: If you want me to resign, I'll resign. 7 That's what I'm saying. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It's not my wishes; it was 9 you. 10 MR. PATTEN: If the board -- County Commissioners 11 can't support the board they appointed, I'll resign. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I understand that. 13 MR. PATTEN: And you can start your board all over. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, we might do that too. 15 What was you saying? 16 MS. MEADOW: Well, I don't understand your 17 substituting a person that we don't know -- we don't know her 18 qualifications -- for Mr. Shafer, who has qualifications. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'm the one that's voting 20 here, though, and I'm -- I'm having a hard time voting for 21 someone that I don't know, is the whole point. 22 MR. GIBBENS: Which five were you proposing there 23 when you said that? 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Mrs. Meadows, Mr. Henson, Ms. 25 Boles -- exactly what you want, except for one person. 12-27-05 115 1 MR. GIBBENS: Except for the one. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Except for Mr. Shafer that I 3 simply don't know. 4 MR. GIBBENS: And that left -- Mr. Patten was still 5 on the list? 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Mr. Patten is still on the 7 board until we receive something in writing that he doesn't 8 want to be there. 9 MR. GIBBENS: So you're just changing the one name 10 out for the -- 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yes, sir. 12 MR. GIBBENS: -- other one? That's what you were 13 speaking about? 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Ms. Bloys is supported by the 15 fire department as well, I believe, on the list we got. 16 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Ms. Boles? 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Bloys. There's a Boles and a 18 Bloys. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You're -- that's correct. 20 That is correct. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Evelyn Bloys and La Verne Boles are 22 the two individuals. Was that a motion, Commissioner? 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, I kind of wanted to get 24 a nod from down at the other end of the table. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 12-27-05 116 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'd like to move that we 2 reappoint Ms. Cleo Meadows, Evelyn Bloys, F.C. Corky Henson, 3 and La Verne Talbert Boles to the -- whatever board that -- 4 ESD Number 2 Board. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: I have a motion on the floor. Do I 6 hear a second? 7 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: I second. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: I have a motion and a second. Any 9 question or discussion? All in favor of the motion, signify 10 by raising your right hand. 11 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 12 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 13 (No response.) 14 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. 15 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Judge, without starting 16 another discussion, I just want to offer to the fire 17 department and to the ESD that one source of assistance that 18 you might get would be nonbinding mediation. We have a 19 mediation service here in the county. It costs little or 20 nothing; if it costs something, I'll pay for it. And it has 21 the possibility of helping you all get past these personality 22 issues. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's an excellent idea. 24 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Just a suggestion. If you 25 want for me to be involved, I'd have to hear from both sides 12-27-05 117 1 that, "Yeah, we want to try that." And if I hear from both 2 sides, I'll help you get it started. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Excellent. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Hope we don't go through this 5 again next year. Good luck. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Y'all need to be proud of 7 your Commissioner; a good, hardworking man. He truly is. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. We're at straight-up noon. 9 We're obviously not going to get through by lunchtime. I 10 notice there are a number of City people here today, and we 11 may want to go ahead and try and get to that issue before 12 lunch. I assume we're talking about Item 15; would that be 13 correct? So, let's move to Item 15, if we might; consider, 14 discuss, and take action on the 2005-2006 library budget. 15 Commissioner Nicholson, you seem to find these hot-button 16 items. 17 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Well, this is really just a 18 report. I could have made it in the report section as 19 liaison. I don't see any action is necessary; it's just 20 letting you know that the Library Director has let us know 21 that there's -- that the three-year average requirement for 22 being eligible for membership in the State Library system was, 23 on the one hand, one way of maintaining membership, but 24 there's another formula that we overlooked or didn't know 25 about, and that second formula is $13.50 per capita. That 12-27-05 118 1 provides a much lower threshold for a budget to continue to be 2 qualified to be in the State Library system and reap the 3 benefits of that membership. So, what that says is that when 4 we were discussing the budget, we were not putting the 5 membership in jeopardy at a lower level, much lower than we 6 had funded it in the past, but that it would not be in 7 jeopardy until we got down to a $617,000 level. The only 8 other thing -- the one other thing I have to report is that I 9 have met with the City Manager and his staff, and we talked 10 about the -- how much was it? A hundred and -- 11 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: 94. 12 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: No, $94,000. And all I can 13 report to you is that I didn't learn any more about who in 14 county government might have approved that movement of the 15 $94,000 that was owed to us and promised to us to -- to fund 16 the library last year, and I have not learned any more about 17 how that decision was made on the city side. The City Manager 18 told me he talked to the mayor, and if it required any review 19 or action by the Council, that that would not be feasible 20 until a January meeting. So, that's where we stand on that 21 right now. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No action. 23 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Well, I appreciate your 24 report on it, Commissioner. And I think it's interesting to 25 note that while the threshold that the State, through the very 12-27-05 119 1 codes, seems to require is $13.50 per capita, we're well above 2 that. Reading from the synopsis paper from the City's budget, 3 it would appear that we're at $17 and either 59 cents or 81 4 cents; I'm not sure which, either of which is well above that 5 threshold number, and it's good to know that. I hope that the 6 public learns about it, because when comments are made in a 7 "cry wolf" fashion, the public who has an interest in this 8 topic gets alarmed, and then all sorts of things flow from 9 that, so I'm glad to see the record get set straight. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Anything further on that, 11 Commissioner? 12 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: No. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Let's quickly take up Item 18. I 14 note Ms. Anderson and Ms. King are here, and I don't think 15 that's going to take too long. Consider, discuss, and take 16 appropriate action on addendum for 2006 Kerr County Market 17 Days and Kerr County's Farmers Market Usage License, and 18 authorize the County Judge to sign the same. This was on the 19 agenda because we're changing the frequency of the market into 20 this coming year, and that's the request; is that correct? 21 MS. ANDERSON: That's correct. This has been a year 22 that we've seen a lot of different things affecting Market 23 Days. Our conversations with folks, vendors and operators of 24 other similar events, indicate that we're not alone in what 25 we've experienced this year. We started the year about 10 12-27-05 120 1 percent ahead of prior years in terms of vendor signups. We 2 ended the year about 8 percent below. When we look at our 3 vendor days, the actual vendors per market, we ran about 12 to 4 15 percent lower than last year. We've seen the fuel price 5 effect. We've seen, kind of, some folks who have general 6 economic concerns seem to be affecting these type of events. 7 So, really, what we're looking at is taking a step back, going 8 to a once-a-month schedule on the fourth Saturday. Which, 9 basically, on the fourth Saturday, we're about the only game 10 in south Texas. On the second Saturday, we're in competition 11 with a couple of other locations. Fourth Saturday, it will be 12 all ours. We want to regroup, focus our efforts, and come 13 back stronger than ever in 2007. 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I have a question, 15 Ms. Anderson. 16 MS. ANDERSON: Yes, sir? 17 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Is your proposed revised 18 schedule in conflict either with the Memorial Day weekend or 19 Veterans Day? 20 MS. ANDERSON: The fourth -- 21 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: You're talking about the 22 fourth? 23 MS. ANDERSON: Right. Fourth Saturday in May 24 generally falls before Memorial Day, and has ever since the 25 market began, and that's one of our very best markets. It's a 12-27-05 121 1 great day, it seems like, for the whole community. Veterans 2 Day, since it kind of -- it's my understanding it's on the 3 11th of November, and so it's not necessarily on a weekend. I 4 would not anticipate any conflict whatsoever. 5 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: But there appears to be a 6 conflict with Memorial Day; is that correct? 7 MS. ANDERSON: We've always had Market Days on 8 Memorial Day weekend, yes, sir, and we would continue to do 9 that. 10 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: We also always have 11 memorial-type services planned and executed -- 12 MS. ANDERSON: Right. 13 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: -- on the courthouse square. 14 MS. ANDERSON: And we have -- 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: On the weekend as well. 16 MS. ANDERSON: Yes. 17 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: And we have had conflict in 18 the past, I believe. 19 MS. ANDERSON: We've tried to work with the veterans 20 groups and coordinate our activities so that -- in fact, we 21 thought it worked quite well for both of us. At least no 22 one's ever expressed to me that there had been a problem. We 23 certainly are open to do whatever's necessary to make those 24 observances as solemn and as appropriate as they should be. 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Well, I think that in my -- 12-27-05 122 1 in my view, that is a necessity. 2 MS. ANDERSON: Yes, sir. 3 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That there not be a conflict 4 with the Memorial Day services that are routinely every year 5 scheduled and -- and set up on the courthouse lawn driveway. 6 MS. ANDERSON: Absolutely. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I think it's a very wise 8 move, what you're doing, actually. I think we're going to see 9 a lot more activity by going to the one -- one day. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: You've -- your vendors have become 11 fewer on the second Saturday and more on the fourth? 12 MS. ANDERSON: Right. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Because of being the only game or not 14 being the only game? 15 MS. ANDERSON: Well, when the -- more and more of 16 our vendors travel from some distance away. Well over 50 17 percent of our folks come in from at least 35 miles distant, 18 and when they have to choose one or the other, they're 19 certainly choosing the fourth Saturday to come to Kerrville. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Have you had any reports in the last 21 year or so about perceived difficulty or problems with the 22 Memorial Day situation being held concurrently with your 23 market? 24 MS. ANDERSON: I -- no, sir, I haven't. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, I haven't either. Do they 12-27-05 123 1 manage to get along, General? 2 MR. SCHELLHASE: No, I think we have a major 3 conflict, because the area taken by the booths over by the 4 memorial are taken by the Market Day those days. The two 5 we've had conflicts with, major, they move us to the stairs at 6 the center of the courtyard, which is totally unacceptable, 7 and attendance has been severely hampered. 8 MS. ANDERSON: We can easily accommodate whatever is 9 necessary if it's communicated to us prior to the event. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, I mean, it sounds like the 12 -- what needs to be done on Memorial Day is you can't use that 13 -- the driveway facing Sidney Baker. 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Until after that service is 15 over. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Until after that service. That 17 would solve that problem. 18 MS. ANDERSON: That's -- we're certainly open to 19 work that out. No problems. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, don't make us bring in 21 the Mountain Home Fire Department. 22 MS. ANDERSON: No, sir. 23 MR. SCHULTZ: I complained on this, so to speak, 24 politely a few years ago. I didn't know we could come to you 25 and complain about Memorial Day vendors superseding the 12-27-05 124 1 Memorial Day honoring. I didn't know that; otherwise, I would 2 have, to answer your question. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But, in your mind, this should 4 solve that problem with that driveway on that side of the -- 5 MR. SCHULTZ: May I suggest something? 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Sure. 7 MR. SCHULTZ: The vendors start at 1 o'clock. 8 That'll give the courthouse plenty of room and time for our 9 services, and then the vendors can come in and set up and 10 start at 1 o'clock, and there will be no conflict or friction. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's going to be chaos, I'm 12 afraid, Reverend. They're going to be -- there will be chaos. 13 They're going to be bringing in booths and trucks and trying 14 to be setting up right during the ceremony. They almost need 15 to set up ahead of time, I think, but we just need to make 16 accommodation for that area, or for an area that's 17 appropriate. 18 MS. ANDERSON: If we know what the requirements are 19 for the ceremony, we can work around those without any 20 difficulty. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 22 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Well, I think that's easily 23 determined by talking to the veterans groups and those who 24 plan and execute the Memorial Day services. That's pretty 25 easy to determine. 12-27-05 125 1 MS. ANDERSON: In our prior meetings with the 2 groups, we've accommodated every request that has been made to 3 us, and we'll certainly accommodate any future request. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. All right, I'll move 5 approval of the amendment to the agreement as submitted -- 6 it's an amendment? 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Addendum. 8 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Second. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Addendum to the agreement, and 10 authorize the County Judge to sign same. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Do I hear a second? 12 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: I did. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. We have a motion and second. 14 Any question or discussion on the motion? 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: There is a little more 16 discussion, Judge. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: While I don't want to -- 19 this comment to affect the addendum for the contract or change 20 it, I do want it known that if you're unable to reconcile the 21 difference with the folks who put on Memorial Day program, I'd 22 like to see you back in Commissioners Court discussing it so 23 we can make the determination. 24 MS. ANDERSON: You have my word. 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Thank you. 12-27-05 126 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Just mention the -- 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Any question or comment? 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Just mention that Mountain 4 Home Fire Department thing; they'll snap right in here, buddy. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: All in favor of the motion, signify 6 by raising your right hand. 7 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 8 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 9 (No response.) 10 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. Why don't we 11 stand in recess until about -- 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 1:15. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: -- 1:30. 14 (Recess taken from 12:13 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.) 15 - - - - - - - - - - 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay, let's come back to order. We 17 were in recess for the lunch hour. It's 1:30 now. Let's go 18 to Item 13; consider, discuss, and take appropriate action on 19 Kerr County's 150th birthday celebration on January the 26th. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: If you remember, the 26th is 21 the actual anniversary, and then they were going to have a 22 party in April. 23 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Right. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: But on the 26th, I thought it 25 would be kind of neat to -- the County Clerk's office to cook 12-27-05 127 1 up a bunch of cookies, and -- and we could have kind of an 2 open house type thing. I'm just wondering, don't y'all think 3 that we should do something like that and invite the public? 4 MS. PIEPER: But you forgot other elected officials. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, that's for you to 6 handle. Don't be bothering me with that detail stuff. 7 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: What day of the week is it? 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Thursday. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It's a Thursday. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think we ought to have an open 11 house of some sort. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Something, you know. Coffee 13 and some cookies. And do you want to do it in -- during the 14 noon hour? Do you want to do it in the evening? 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: 4 o'clock to 6:00. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: 4:00 to 6:00, something like 17 that. 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That gives people an 19 opportunity who are not working to come, and those who are 20 working to come. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Do we got some kind of 22 entertainment lined up? 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Buster's going to be here. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, I can. I can. 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Maybe we can get Bill Stacy, 12-27-05 128 1 Jr., to strum on the guitar. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, we probably could. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean, just have something 4 here. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 6 MS. PIEPER: Wouldn't 3:00 to 5:00 be better? 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Who's going to make the 8 cookies? 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: See? See? 10 MS. PIEPER: Well, Thursday nights I have a second 11 job. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, 3:00 to 5:00, then. 13 But people are still work -- at work. We want to -- 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: You'll be here for the first 15 half. 16 MS. PIEPER: Yeah. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Just bring the cookies. 18 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Do we encourage people to 19 dress like the people did 150 years ago? I kind of dress that 20 way anyhow. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'm there, man. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: As old as you are, that -- 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's what I'm doing here. 24 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: That's Option A. 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: You're ready. 12-27-05 129 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'm ready. So, what do y'all 2 think? 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'd get someone at Tivy or one 4 of the local schools, Tivy or Ingram quartet playing out there 5 or something, is what I'd do. 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: How about the Tivy choir? 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Tivy choir. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Someone like that, just to do 9 something for -- 10 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Something to look -- 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- 15 minutes. 12 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Distraction. 13 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Patriotic music? Or do we 14 have a contest of somebody to write a new Kerr County song? 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: All hail the mighty Kerr 16 County Commissioners Court. 17 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Something like that, yeah. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'll write the song. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: All right. You're in charge, 20 Buster. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay, thank you. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: General Baldwin did so well on the 23 Christmas -- employees' Christmas luncheon, we'll just place 24 him in command of this operation. 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: He just practiced up for the 12-27-05 130 1 big event. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I am fastly becoming the 3 social director. 4 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I like that. 5 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Good role. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Any further action on that item? 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Reception. 8 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: With the political skill I 9 saw this morning, if you had been born 30 years earlier, you'd 10 have been L.B.J.'s chief of staff. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That was not a compliment, 12 believe me. 13 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: It is. He's my hero, my 14 all-time hero. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: All right. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Got you out of the ditch, didn't it? 17 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: I wasn't the only one in 18 that ditch. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: That's true. Let's go to Item 14. 20 Another hot-button issue, Animal Control facility. Consider, 21 discuss, and take action on the project at the Animal Control 22 facility. 23 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: I keep taking space on the 24 agenda just in case there's some development that can't wait 25 two more weeks, and there's not. The last word, of course, is 12-27-05 131 1 all the plumbing and electrical is done; now we're just ready 2 to erect the building. I don't have anything more to report 3 on cost of the sidewalk. I'll do that when I learn something. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Anybody got anything further 5 on that? Let's move on to 16, consider, discuss, and take 6 appropriate action on the Field Agreement between the U.S. 7 Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection 8 Service, Wildlife Services, and Texas Wildlife Damage 9 Management Service and Texas Wildlife Damage Management 10 Association, Inc., and Kerr County, and the funding for same. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I put this back on the agenda, 12 and as I stated previously, my recollection was that we were 13 given notice this was going to happen and that we declined to 14 budget for it, and my recollection was correct that we did 15 receive notice for it back in April. They gave it to us early 16 so that we'd have ample time to make plans for it. They just 17 didn't understand that this was too early for us. So, the -- 18 as I would compute what the shortfall is, it's actually 19 $3,600; it's nine months at $400 a month additional. We don't 20 have to worry about this current year. It starts -- according 21 to their earlier memo, the increase is effective January 1st. 22 You know, I think that we just -- we need to either find it in 23 the budget or do an emergency. I mean, it's something that I 24 think we need to do. My preference would be to go to the 25 Sheriff's budget and take some money out of his line items. 12-27-05 132 1 And I mean that half seriously, in that there's usually -- in 2 one of his salary line items in the jail, usually there's an 3 excess, but I don't want to do it without him being here. But 4 I think we should pass on this until we get to the budget 5 amendment portion of the agenda, and handle it at that time. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, do we need to approve the 7 contract subject to the funding? 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's probably correct; we 9 probably do. I'll make a motion to approve the Field 10 Agreement submitted with the increased funding of $400 per 11 month as submitted, and authorize County Judge to sign same. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for approval 14 as indicated. Any question or discussion? All in favor of 15 the motion, 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 motion does carry. Let's move to 20 Item 17; consider, discuss, and take appropriate action to 21 implement Alternative Dispute Resolution Fee for justice 22 courts in an amount not to exceed $5 per case, as authorized 23 by Section 152.005 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code. 24 You'll recall that we increased the A.D.R. fee on court costs 25 in county and district court cases, the authorization from $10 12-27-05 133 1 to $15 per case, but we did not implement anything for the 2 justice court cases as authorized by 152.005, which authorized 3 it for justice court cases in all counties, not just certain 4 counties as it had previously been written. We can set an 5 A.D.R. fee that goes into our A.D.R. fund with justice court 6 cases, up to $5 per case for all civil cases. Just civil. 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: So moved. 8 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Second. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for approval 10 of the agenda item, with a fee to be established at $5 per 11 civil case as authorized by section 152.005 of the Civil 12 Practice and Remedies code. Any question or discussion? All 13 in favor, 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. Number 19, 18 consider, discuss, and approval of resolution expressing 19 official intent to reimburse with tax-exempt obligation 20 proceeds costs incurred to acquire certain computer hardware 21 and software from The Software Group Division of Tyler 22 Technologies, Inc., prior to the issuance of such obligations, 23 and authorization for County Judge to sign same. This item 24 was put on in connection with our acquisition of the new 25 Odyssey system and the tax anticipation note that's going to 12-27-05 134 1 be issued to fund it. And this is to permit those proceeds to 2 reimburse Kerr County for any amounts Kerr County advances in 3 that regard, if they advance any. It may be that we don't 4 ever do it, but if we don't have this in place, we cannot 5 reimburse ourselves if we advance funds before the -- before 6 the debt is actually sold and proceeds received. 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Up to a million? 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah, up to a million dollars, right. 9 Which is the estimated cost of the entire Odyssey system. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: When -- what is the anticipated 11 timing of us needing money, and the anticipated timing of us 12 receiving the revenue from the tax anticipation note? 13 JUDGE TINLEY: I am told that they're first going to 14 be seeking funds, at the earliest, probably mid-February. 15 When the -- when the Odyssey people start to do their thing to 16 start putting it into place, they're going to -- they're going 17 to require some sort of advance payment. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: When will the tax anticipation 19 note likely be -- 20 JUDGE TINLEY: It may be sold by then, but if it's 21 not and we advance the funds, we can't get reimbursed by these 22 tax-exempt funds without passing this resolution, bottom line. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: My preference would be to hold 24 off on the resolution until the time that we need to, and the 25 reason is, until you explained it, I was confused as to what 12-27-05 135 1 this was, and it's just one of those confusing documents that 2 circulates around; it looks like we're trying to do something 3 even though we weren't. I mean, if that makes sense. I mean, 4 there's nothing wrong with doing it right now, but if we don't 5 need to, why do it? 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Except that if we lay out 7 money within a month, and that is not in place -- the tax 8 anticipation note resolution is not in place, we can't 9 reimburse ourselves. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right, but we just don't pay out 11 any money. We don't pay anything until we do this. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Actually, I think it's within 60 13 days. Not earlier than 60 days from the date of passage of 14 this resolution. 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: What's not earlier than 60 16 days? 17 JUDGE TINLEY: The payment by the County. 18 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: This has to be in place for 19 60 days before we can make payments? 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Which means we would be 21 funding it out of general funds which are unbudgeted. We 22 could be funding it as late as April or May -- March or April. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: You got a 60-day window that -- that 24 you can get reimbursement for. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 12-27-05 136 1 JUDGE TINLEY: But you got to have the resolution in 2 place to do that, is the problem. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: This was all furnished by Spurgeon's 5 office, our bond counsel that works with Bob Henderson in 6 connection with all of these debt issues. 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: When would the tax 8 anticipation notes actually go to market, and at what rate? 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, we don't know the rate yet. 10 That will be determined by the market. That's going to be on 11 into late next month or on into February. If, at that time -- 12 January at the earliest, probably more like February. 13 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: So, this really is just a 14 resolution that enables us to reimburse ourselves after we 15 have, in open court, adopted a resolution to issue tax 16 anticipation notes. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: We don't have to adopt a resolution 18 other than this to -- according to my understanding from 19 talking with Spurgeon, we don't have to adopt a separate 20 resolution for the issuance of the tax anticipation note. 21 This merely allows us to get reimbursed for any funds which we 22 pay out of the Kerr County treasury out of those funds 23 received from the sale of that note. My understanding is we 24 don't have to adopt any other resolution for the issuance of 25 the tax anticipation note, according to what Spurgeon told me. 12-27-05 137 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: How do you issue them? Just 2 with a court order? 3 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: C.O., certificate of 4 obligation. Is it going to be C.O.'s? I guess -- 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, it's called a tax anticipation 6 note. 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That's what I thought. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Which is one of the coolest 9 things to come down the pike as far as financing, in my 10 opinion. 11 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I'll move the resolution. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'll second it. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for approval 14 of the resolution. Any question or discussion? All in favor, 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 motion does carry. Okay. Does 20 anybody have anything to go into closed or executive session? 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I do not. 22 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I do not. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. We don't have the Auditor with 25 us. Do we need the Auditor with us? 12-27-05 138 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: To pay bills. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: To find out where we're going to 3 get $3,600. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, that's a budget amendment. If 5 you would, please, John, I thank you. Okay. First item, 6 payment of the bills. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I've got a couple of 8 questions from the Auditor -- or to the Auditor, I mean. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Hopefully we'll have the Auditor here 10 to answer those questions for you. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Y'all might be able to answer 12 before she gets in here. Do you want to try? 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Page 15, the Juvenile 15 Detention Facility. 16 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: There she comes. 17 MS. WILLIAMS: Afternoon. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I went to Page 15, the 19 Juvenile Detention Facility bills. 20 MS. WILLIAMS: Yes, sir? 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And about halfway down, 22 there's a grouping of Dr. Borchers. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Mm-hmm. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And a couple of months ago, I 25 was in here with the exact same issue, or a similar issue, of 12-27-05 139 1 bills that had been held for months and months and months and 2 months and months, and he was kind of wondering where his 3 money was. You know, "I performed a service and I'd like to 4 get paid." I mean, very nice guy, but just kind of wondering 5 about that stuff. And I see here that we have, oh, eight or 6 ten bills here that were in last year's budget cycle. 7 MS. WILLIAMS: Yes, sir. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Two in March and April. And 9 I'm wondering, how did this -- how does this happen? You 10 know, we went through the same conversation two months ago, 11 and we're back here with the exact same thing again and with 12 the exact same guy. 13 MS. WILLIAMS: Basically, the conversation that I 14 had with Vicky at Dr. Borchers' office about a week ago, she 15 called and wanted to know why they hadn't been paid. My first 16 question to her was, did you submit the invoices to the 17 detention facility? And she said, "Yes, we do. When they 18 come in, they leave with an invoice." I said -- my next 19 question is, "Do you know if they still have the invoices?" 20 And she said when she spoke with Heather Way out at the 21 detention facility, she was told they, being the facility, 22 could not pay these bills until they received money from the 23 other counties. And I said, "No, that's not the way we've 24 ever handled it." We pay the bill, we bill the other 25 counties, we get the moneys in. If it takes us six months, a 12-27-05 140 1 year, that's our problem, but we cannot hold these bills for 2 these providers. So, what we're going to do in the future is, 3 every time they take a child out there for services, they will 4 send a bill back with that representative from the facility. 5 They will also fax us a copy so that we can follow up on it 6 and make sure it gets paid timely. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So, the providers hand the 8 facility a bill and then turn around faxing the thing over 9 here. That just saddens me that we're causing people to do 10 double work. 11 MS. WILLIAMS: Right. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So they can get paid for the 13 services that they performed, at a cheap rate. $28? You 14 can't park in the parking lot for $28. 15 MS. WILLIAMS: Right. The one question I asked 16 Heather when I spoke to her that day, I said, "Would you look 17 in the kids' files and make sure that the bill is not in their 18 file out there?" That someone may have just thought we have 19 to keep it in the file and then just dropped the ball. They 20 didn't send them to us; we'd never seen them before. But I 21 had asked Vicky if she would send us individual invoices so we 22 could pay them, and she did. She mailed me one of -- each one 23 of these that's on this list. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So we have a handle on it, 25 and we have money in last year's budget to pay? 12-27-05 141 1 MS. WILLIAMS: No, we've closed out last year's 2 budget. We cannot encumber these any longer, so we're having 3 to take them out of the current-year budget. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I see. 5 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Do we know whether or not 6 they've been reimbursed by the sending county? 7 MS. WILLIAMS: Until we know which counties these 8 children were sent here from, we have no way of tracking it. 9 But if we can get the sending county, we can go back and check 10 to see if we've been reimbursed, assuming that the counties 11 have been billed for the services. That's another thing. 12 So -- 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Now, who does that? Help me 14 remember what -- 15 MS. WILLIAMS: The detention facility -- I believe 16 Heather's handling that now. Prior to that, I want to say it 17 was -- 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We don't have to have names, 19 but -- 20 MS. WILLIAMS: Yeah, it was someone else who's not 21 there now. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So, it goes directly from the 23 detention facility to the other county? 24 MS. WILLIAMS: Yes, sir. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: All these kind of things. 12-27-05 142 1 MS. WILLIAMS: Mm-hmm. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Do we handle the Sheriff's like 3 that? Who does the Sheriff's billings? 4 MS. WILLIAMS: They do them out at the -- 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The Sheriff does? 6 MS. WILLIAMS: Out at the jail, yes, sir. And there 7 are two -- we pay the bill and then we get reimbursed by the 8 other counties. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But they understand out at the 10 detention facility that we -- we pay our bills right away? 11 MS. WILLIAMS: We hope they do. 12 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yes, we do, don't we? 13 MS. WILLIAMS: Yes. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you. That is all my 15 questions, Judge. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move we pay the bills. 17 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Second. 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Second. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded to pay the 20 bills. Any question or discussion? All in favor, signify by 21 raising your right hand. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. 23 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 24 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 25 (No response.) 12-27-05 143 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion does carry. 2 MS. WILLIAMS: No budget amendments, no late bills. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We have a budget amendment. 4 MS. WILLIAMS: No. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Yes. Yes. 6 MS. WILLIAMS: Okay. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: You need to find $3,600. 8 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Just like that. 9 MS. WILLIAMS: Well, let's see. One, two, three -- 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No, it's under the Trapper 11 contract. 12 MS. WILLIAMS: Oh, okay. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We -- they sent us a letter that 14 they notified us in April of this increase, and for nine 15 months, $400 a month, is $3,600 we need to add to that line 16 item. 17 MS. WILLIAMS: What are we currently paying them? 18 Do you have any idea, monthly? 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It should be -- monthly, it 20 should be 1,800 a month. 21 MS. WILLIAMS: I don't think we have them on here 22 this time. I'll have to go look and pull that. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The old contract was 1,800 a 24 month, and they've increased to it 2,200 a month, but we only 25 have nine months left in this fiscal year. 12-27-05 144 1 MS. WILLIAMS: Okay. All right. I will go back and 2 see if I can find $3,600 -- within how long? Do we need to do 3 this before the next court meeting? 'Cause -- 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's effective the first of the 5 year. If we approved the agreement, we probably -- 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Probably need to do it today. 7 MS. WILLIAMS: Okay. If you can give me maybe half 8 an hour, -- 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Sure. 10 MS. WILLIAMS: -- I should be able to get something 11 together then. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I can sleep that long. 13 MS. WILLIAMS: Or less, if possible. And I also 14 need to get with the other three Commissioners regarding the 15 burn ban, updating it, since Kathy's not here today. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's implemented. 17 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Yes. 18 MS. WILLIAMS: And it stays in place? 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. 20 MS. WILLIAMS: Very good. Thank you. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: How far -- how far does the 22 Trapper come into Kerr County? 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Not far. The new one? 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: This is addressing the 25 Kendall County thing, isn't it? 12-27-05 145 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No, this is not. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: This is county-wide? 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: All counties? 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: This is -- yeah, this is really 6 -- this really addresses the west Kerr County Trapper. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Since east Kerr County is now 9 handled in another area. It's Elm Pass Road, up kind of 10 around Stoneleigh, then up Hasenwinkle, any properties that 11 are accessed on either side of the road off of those roads. 12 We like the name Hasenwinkle, so we threw that one in here. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's where Victor Lich 14 lived, is on Hasenwinkle. He always told me that that's 15 German for "bunny trail." Is that not true? 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It may be true. His son denies 17 that it's true. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: About -- well, I'm just going 19 by what one of the best commissioners who ever lived -- 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: If he told you, it had to be 21 so. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Could be. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Hasenwinkle, once. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. I have been handed monthly 25 reports from Justice of the Peace, Precinct Number 1, and 12-27-05 146 1 District Clerk. Do I hear a motion that these reports be 2 approved as submitted? 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So moved. 4 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Second. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded that the 6 monthly reports indicated be approved as submitted. Any 7 question or discussion? All in favor of the motion, signify 8 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. Any of you 13 gentlemen have any reports in connection with your liaison 14 assignments or other endeavors? 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Guess not. I can't remember 16 what assignments I have, so -- 17 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I got a couple things, 18 Judge. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: -- doesn't matter, I guess. 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I'll leave out the calendar 21 for anybody that wants to inspect it, the AACOG budget for 22 2006, which is something like $29,280,000. Up over 26 million 23 from this year, and the other 3 million coming in is coming in 24 from the federal government for Homeland Defense projects 25 within the area. Member dues, which account for about 12-27-05 147 1 $210,000 of that budget, remain unchanged again this year, for 2 about the third or fourth year in a row. I'll leave this out 3 for anybody who wants to take a look at it. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Is Al Notzon's salary in 5 there? 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yes. It would be somewhere 7 in there, yes, sir. Criminal -- under the criminal justice 8 side of the AACOG equation, there are going to be some 9 anticipated -- New Braunfels and Comfort High School will be 10 added to the list of new schools participating in the Regional 11 Youth Education Program in the spring. And I asked the 12 question, "What is that program?" 'cause I knew you would ask 13 me that question. That program is a sort of a primer for 14 young folks in high school who might be interested in a career 15 in law enforcement, to give them some sense of what a law 16 enforcement career is all about. Also, in the regional 17 academy, the AACOG law enforcement distance learning network 18 was slated for installation in mid-December at both the main 19 campus and at Kerr County Law Enforcement Center and some 20 satellite training, and they hope to have a ribbon-cutting 21 ceremony for our piece of that initial program, the first one 22 in the state of Texas, sometime in January of '06. 23 Our Weather Assistance program, there were six cases 24 in Kerr County which were handled, folks being allocated about 25 $12,000 for weatherization of their home projects. Total 12-27-05 148 1 number of runs on the Alamo Regional Transit for the year, 2 minus 60. About -- about 8,000 runs of the under-60 group and 3 about 8,500 runs -- ART runs in the plus-60 group. And that's 4 a total of about almost 13,000 miles that he ran picking up 5 people for various and sundry things; transporting clients 6 from Hunt and Ingram to Kerrville appointments, transporting 7 clients to San Antonio for dialysis, and then locally every 8 Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and general public who need 9 transportation for medical appointments in the local area, San 10 Antonio, and for the errands they need to do, such as -- these 11 are folks who have no transportation -- shopping, hair 12 appointments, visiting friends, going to the doctor, et 13 cetera. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, sir. Anything else? 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: No, sir. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: What do you have for us, Commissioner 17 Letz? 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't -- I guess the only 19 thing is airport. Just to kill a little bit of time while 20 waiting to handle the budget amendment, is that we're 21 rebidding the terminal again, as I think most of you probably 22 read in the paper. I voted against the original part of that, 23 primarily because I think it's a waste of time, but hopefully 24 the bids come back closer to what -- well, I think they're 25 going to come back above our budget, but there's possibly some 12-27-05 149 1 opportunities to get some other money to help get that project 2 built. 3 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Thus the need to get it -- 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. So, anyway, we don't 5 need to go into all the details on that, why I voted against 6 it when I did, but we've had a less than cordial relationship 7 with our architect on that project. 8 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That's a diplomatic way to 9 put it. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: This is a public projects architect? 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The problem is that he -- he 14 designed a building that, under his own statements, could not 15 be built within the budget, which creates a bit of a problem. 16 And now he's coming down with that -- you know, early on, he 17 said it could, I mean, before he bid it the first time. But, 18 you know, by the time he came back, you know, his own people 19 are saying it's a little bit -- or pretty unlikely it's going 20 to come in within his budget -- or our budget. But -- 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So, once he admitted it, then 22 you voted for it? You changed your mind? 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, there's -- 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: There's another issue, too. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: There's some other reasons to go 12-27-05 150 1 -- the other part of it is, one of my problems was his fee was 2 such that we had already paid him $75,000, or sixty -- 3 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: 69 or something. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- $69,000. And I was concerned 5 that if we -- the bid comes back in and it's, say, $200,000 6 over what we had, and we find that other money, I didn't want 7 him benefitting from the fact that on a bigger project, as 8 most of the percentage contracts -- well, his actually -- the 9 contract, actually, he's been paid almost all that he's going 10 to get paid, and he only gets paid another 11,000 during the 11 construction. 12 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: His contract was front-end 13 loaded. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: A front-end loaded contract with 15 the architect, so it would cost a fair amount to switch 16 architects at this point. He's not going to make much more 17 money out of the deal, so that was one of my biggest concerns. 18 But hopefully bids will come in and we'll -- we're going to 19 get something done. Need to read the fine print closely. 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I do have an F.Y.I. Judge, 21 you had passed on the request for additional information from 22 Texas Water Development Board on the Center Point project, and 23 all of those requests have been satisfied and answered to 24 them. In addition to that, they were looking for some more 25 expressions of public support, which I now have a ton of them 12-27-05 151 1 on my desk, and those will be faxed to them today indicating 2 there is a lot of public support for the project. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. I know last week there were -- 4 I noticed one or two individuals from Center Point area 5 brought some things down from businesses in the area. 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Right, I had requested 7 those. I have them. I'll fax them in to them, if not this 8 afternoon, certainly tomorrow, ahead of the deadline. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Do you have an update on your 10 rock-crushing facility? 11 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: January -- yes. January 12 24th is a public meeting in Center Point, conducted by 13 T.C.E.Q. at the Center Point Independent School District. I 14 would imagine it'll be either in the gymnasium or the -- or 15 the new cafeteria. Don't know yet, but we'll find that out. 16 7 o'clock on the 24th is the date that's been set, and he has 17 been issued a -- a stop work order, or cease and desist order 18 for the construction of what appears to be the rock-crushing 19 equipment. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Should we send Mountain Home 21 Fire Department down there for security? 22 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I wish we could. Will you 23 arrange for that? 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Commissioner Nicholson? 25 (Laughter.) 12-27-05 152 1 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Let's see. One -- I might 2 just talk about the new Library Board a little bit. I've got 3 good reason to believe that they're going to be proactive and 4 they're going to work on the things we want them to work on, 5 particularly the budget. At their next meeting, which will 6 be, I think, January 17th, they'll set a budget calendar and 7 they'll begin with the day it's due to the Commissioners Court 8 and -- and City Council and back up from that, and set various 9 steps and activities that are required to get one done and get 10 it in on time. I think, in connection with that, one of the 11 things that I'm going to suggest -- I think it's a follow-up 12 on what Commissioner Letz asked for in our previous meeting 13 upstairs, and it was a -- a kind of a budget which would 14 probably be an alternative budget. What would it take to 15 operate at a lower cost level? And a good place to start 16 would be that $13.50 per capita. If -- what kind of library 17 would we have if we operated at that level? And then build 18 from there. And I've got a little confidence in the -- the 19 smaller board, the people who've been selected. I think 20 they're going to not meddle in library affairs, but I think at 21 the strategic level, and offer some good input to the two 22 entities that pay for it. We'll see. 23 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Dave, there was an 24 invitation sent out, which I'm sure all members of the Court 25 probably got, to hear the consultant's final report to the 12-27-05 153 1 Friends, and I happened to be someplace with Mayor Gene Smith, 2 and he and I decided to attend that. And I wasn't there to 3 take your place, but I know you weren't there that day. But, 4 you know, what's interesting about that consultant's final 5 report was -- goes to this issue of per capita funding, right? 6 We were led to believe we were underfunded. Now we know we 7 weren't underfunded; we know we're about $17.50 per capita. 8 This guy is saying to the Friends and the public at large, 9 anybody that wants to listen, we really should be almost $10 10 or $12 per capita above that level right now. That's what 11 he's telling us. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We should be at $30? 13 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yeah, somewhere in that 14 general range. 15 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Commissioner, this will 16 sound pretty cynical. I know consultants, and I think what 17 people like he does is they're paid to come in and tell us you 18 need more money, more staff, and more building. So, they give 19 you the answers that they're paid to give you. 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I understand that, and 21 you're right about that. He also said something else which is 22 a little disturbing, in that he's reporting on his findings 23 and so forth and so on, where he was in his recommendation -- 24 or their recommendation this time versus where they were 10 25 years ago when the same people did it and made essentially the 12-27-05 154 1 same recommendation. One of the things he said which I think 2 is kind of disturbing is that the place is dirty, needs to be 3 cleaned up. And he really cited them; he was very harsh on 4 the library administration people for the -- for the actual 5 facility, the state of the facility. Kind of interesting. 6 They should be keeping the damn building clean. But he said 7 it right out there in broad daylight for everybody else to 8 hear. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Is the new board aware of this 10 alternative funding to stay in good standing with the State 11 Library system? 12 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: The documents that I gave 13 you were presented by the Library Director to the board in the 14 last meeting. That's how I got them. 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Did the newspaper see them 16 for the first time today? 17 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Probably. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: You didn't get yours directly from -- 19 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Not from the City. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: -- from the City? 21 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: I got it from the Library 22 Director, as a member of the board, but I got it at the same 23 time the other new board members got it. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: That's interesting. 25 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: I didn't even know it was 12-27-05 155 1 coming. I -- actually, the impetus for investigating this 2 alternative funding minimum came from the City. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It came from Brian Brooks. 4 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Brian said, "Why are we 5 not -- what do we need to know about this? Why are we not 6 looking at this minimum?" 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Commissioner Baldwin, as 8 liaison -- one of the liaisons, you're the liaison to the "old 9 geezer" group. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Working on it. Trying to get 11 them in first meeting in January to give a -- 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: An update? 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: An update. 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Are they all participating, 15 Commissioner? 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No, there's two that are 17 doing the work. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: There's two out of the -- 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Dr. Morgan and General 20 Schellhase. 21 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Are not? 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Are the ones who are working. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Jim Murphy and Joe Herring 24 decided not to? 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I haven't seen them. 12-27-05 156 1 (Discussion off the record.) 2 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: The City's committed to 3 having their staff do some work to think about the future of 4 the library, and that's good and that needs to be done. And 5 on the 17th, I'll talk to the board about this. I'd like to 6 see that board participate in that. That's the kind of 7 strategic thinking that I think deserves their input. And 8 what I'm hoping will happen is, instead of just blindly 9 accepting the consultant's report, is to begin thinking about 10 what's the library going to look like 20 years from now? If 11 we were standing here in a public library, any of them, 20 12 years from now, what would be different than it is today? And 13 then, when you think you've got a picture of that -- I may 14 have a partial and incomplete picture of it. Then you start 15 making decisions today that will lead you toward that -- that 16 future -- a future that you expect. It would be good and 17 timely for -- for some thinking like that to occur. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's not too early. Twenty 19 years is -- I mean, 20 years ago -- about 20 years ago is when 20 the High Water Bridge started getting talked about. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, 17, 18 years ago. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We put the money -- 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, the County started 24 funding the High Water Bridge. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And that's just a bridge. 12-27-05 157 1 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Ma'am? 2 MS. WILLIAMS: I'm back. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Madam Auditor. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Are we back to budget amendments? 5 MS. WILLIAMS: Okay. I looked through this last 6 statement of expenditures that was as of November 30th. I see 7 one definite line item in Nondepartmental, which is Property 8 Insurance line item. There's $658.37 there that we're 9 probably not going to need the rest of this year, so that -- 10 that's a start. We still need to come up with 2,941.63. Now, 11 there is a line item in the Commissioners Court budget, 12 10-401-500, Survey Services, has $1,144.30 left. We've 13 already taken money out of this line item once before. My 14 question is, do you gentlemen know if that money is going to 15 be needed during this budget year? 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We can make it not available. 17 1,100 there. 18 MS. WILLIAMS: Right. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Almost halfway home. 20 MS. WILLIAMS: We still need roughly another $1,800. 21 There are two line items in Nondepartmental budget. First one 22 is the Contingency line item; it's got $3,000, I think. Would 23 you prefer not to touch the Contingency line item at this 24 point? 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: How much? 12-27-05 158 1 MS. WILLIAMS: There's $3,000 left. 2 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. 3 MS. WILLIAMS: The other line item is the 4 Telephone/Computer line item. It's 10-409-420. At the 5 present time, we've got over $6,900 unexpended. In looking at 6 last year's trend, I don't believe we're going to even spend 7 but maybe two-thirds of that amount, so I think we could 8 easily take the difference out of that particular line item to 9 reach the $3,600 that you need. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 11 MS. WILLIAMS: Now, I did have one question. That 12 particular line item for the Trapper contract, is there -- was 13 there extra moneys put in there for the Kendall County? 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: $5,000 was put in there for the 15 Kendall County agreement. 16 MS. WILLIAMS: Okay. I was going to say, there is 17 adequate money there, but then it dawned on me that we had 18 this discussion last time. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 20 MS. WILLIAMS: Okay. So, if it's agreeable with the 21 Court, those are the three line items I think we need to take 22 the funds from. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So moved. 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Second. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for budget 12-27-05 159 1 amendment as indicated. Any question or discussion? All in 2 favor of the motion, signify by raising your right hand. 3 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 4 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 5 (No response.) 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion does carry. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Would you read those lines 8 back to me one more time, please? 9 MS. WILLIAMS: Sure. The first one is going to be 10 10-409-480. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: All right. And the amount? 12 MS. WILLIAMS: $658.37. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: All right. 14 MS. WILLIAMS: 10-401-500, $1,144.30. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Mm-hmm. 16 MS. WILLIAMS: The last one would be 10-409-420, and 17 if my math is right, it should be $1,797.33. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you. 19 MS. WILLIAMS: Would you add those up and make sure 20 you come up with $3,600? 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No. I got 35,900. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: I come up 3,600 even. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. 24 MS. WILLIAMS: Okay. Thank you very much. Is that 25 all we need? 12-27-05 160 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Thank you. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, ma'am. Anything else, 3 gentlemen? We'll stand adjourned. 4 (Commissioners Court adjourned at 2:12 p.m.) 5 - - - - - - - - - - 6 STATE OF TEXAS | 7 COUNTY OF KERR | 8 The above and foregoing is a true and complete 9 transcription of my stenotype notes taken in my 10 capacity as County Clerk of the Commissioners Court 11 of Kerr County, Texas, at the time and place 12 heretofore set forth. 13 DATED at Kerrville, Texas, this 3rd day of 14 January, 2006. 15 16 17 JANNETT PIEPER, Kerr County Clerk 18 BY: _________________________________ Kathy Banik, Deputy County Clerk 19 Certified Shorthand Reporter 20 21 22 23 24 25 12-27-05