1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT 9 Special Session 10 Monday, September 25, 2006 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 September 25, 2006 2 PAGE --- Commissioners' Comments 5 3 1.1 Consider/discuss, take appropriate actions to 4 approve Sheriff and Constable Fees 8 5 1.3 Consider/discuss, approve interlocal subdivision ETJ agreement with City of Ingram 9 6 1.4 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on 7 Kerr County membership in National Association of Counties 13 8 1.2 2007 Kerr Emergency 911 Network budget presentation/ 9 approval 18 10 1.5 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to adopt Kerr County proposed 2006-07 holiday schedule 30 11 1.6 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on 12 construction of doorway between Collections and County Clerk's office 36 13 1.7 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to adopt 14 resolution authorizing sending notice to all health care providers and pharmacies, authorizing County 15 to pay indigent and Medicaid rates for care of inmates in the custody of Kerr County 42 16 1.9 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to make 17 any changes in proposed FY 2006-07 budget that Commissioners' Court considers warranted by law 18 and required by the interest of the taxpayers 43 19 1.8 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on any matters that may arise from progress report on 20 Kerrville South Wastewater Project 85 21 1.10 Public Hearing on Proposed FY 2006-07 Kerr County budget 85 22 1.11 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to adopt 23 FY 2006-07 Kerr County budget 86 24 1.12 Public Hearing for Revision of Lots 16, 17 & 18 of Riverside Park, Vol. 1, Page 70, Pct. 4 87 25 3 1 I N D E X (Continued) September 25, 2006 2 PAGE 3 1.13 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action for bringing Vista Hills Road into compliance for 4 County to accept it for maintenance, Pct. 1 87 5 1.14 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action for approval of a manufactured home community 6 at 150 Lydick, Pct. 1 95 7 1.15 Consider and approve interlocal agreement between Kerr County and City of Kerrville for operation 8 of the Butt Holdsworth Memorial Library, authorize County Judge to execute and forward agreement to 9 the City of Kerrville 103 10 1.16 Consider/discuss, approve interlocal agreements between Kerr County and City of Kerrville for 11 firefighting and emergency medical services, and authorize County Judge to execute same 107 12 4.1 Pay Bills 126 13 4.2 Budget Amendments 127 4.4 Approve and Accept Monthly Reports 131 14 4.3 Late Bills 132 15 5.1 Reports from Commissioners/Liaison Committee Assignments --- 16 --- Adjourned 135 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 4 1 On Monday, September 25, 2006, 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 this regularly scheduled meeting of the 8 Kerr County Commissioners Court scheduled and posted for this 9 date and time, Monday, September the 25th, 2006, at 9 a.m. It 10 is that time now. Commissioner Williams? 11 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Will you please rise and 12 join together with me as we pray the Lord's Prayer, followed 13 by the pledge of allegiance to the flag. 14 (Prayer and pledge of allegiance.) 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you. 16 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Thank you. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: If there's any member of the audience 18 or the public that wishes to be heard on a matter that is not 19 a listed agenda item, feel free to come forward at this time 20 and tell us what's on your mind. If you wish to be heard on 21 one of the agenda items, we'd ask that you fill out a 22 participation form; they're at the back of the room and 23 available for you. It's not essential. If we get to that 24 particular item and you wish to be heard, even if you haven't 25 filed a participation form, get my attention some way, and 9-25-06 5 1 I'll give you the opportunity to be heard. It helps me, if 2 you want to be heard, if you'll fill out that participation 3 form, because I can note my agenda to be sure and try and get 4 back to you. But if there's anybody that wishes to be heard 5 on any matter that's not a listed agenda item, please feel 6 free to come forward at this time. Seeing no one to come 7 forward, we'll move on. Commissioner Williams, what do you 8 have for us this morning? 9 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Just thankful for the extra 10 rain we had. Glad you're back safely, Judge. It never ceases 11 to amaze me how quickly our land turns green and beautifies 12 itself after we have a rain. We went through a whole summer 13 and the place looked like a burned out desert, and all of a 14 sudden it's green and lush again, and that's neat. That's all 15 I got. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner Letz? 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't have anything. I just 18 want to hear about the Washington trip. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Commissioner Nicholson? 20 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Good rains in west Kerr 21 County. We're thankful for that. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Hear, hear. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner Baldwin? 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That -- I couldn't have said 25 it better myself. 9-25-06 6 1 JUDGE TINLEY: All right. Well, I appreciate that. 2 I appreciate you gentlemen taking care of the tax rate while I 3 was gone. I noted that Commissioner Baldwin handled the 4 matter with great dispatch. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Less than one minute. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We were out of here. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: That's probably an all-time record. 9 I doubt, because of my legal training, that I could have 10 gotten the thing convened in that period of time. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I wouldn't argue with that 12 point at all. (Laughter.) 13 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Not debatable, is it? 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No, sir. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: As indicated, I was in Washington, 16 D.C. three days last week on behalf of Kerr County, and with 17 representatives from the City of Kerrville and Economic 18 Development interest. Our purpose was to make contact and to 19 see as many of our congressional, both House and Senate, 20 representatives as -- as we could. Mr. Guy Overby with the 21 Kerr Economic Development Foundation got it set up and did a 22 wonderful job. I don't know how he squeezed in as much as he 23 did for us being able to see all the folks that we did. In 24 addition, we managed to squeeze in one or two more after we 25 got there. But I think we were favorably received. We wanted 9-25-06 7 1 to be sure that all of those congressional people, both the 2 elected members and their staff, realized that -- that they 3 were on our radar screen; that we were going to be in 4 continued communication with them and talk to them about 5 things that interested Kerr County. 6 It also gave us an opportunity to identify the staff 7 members with each of the congressmen and senators' offices 8 that -- that would be handling particular types of issues. 9 They -- they've got some pretty large staffs, and they've got 10 their staff people segregated depending upon the type of 11 matter, type of issue. But, all in all, I think we were 12 favorably received. We're going to try and maintain 13 continuous contact with those folks, and hopefully it -- it 14 will bear fruit down the road. As with typical happenings in 15 D.C., everybody is nice and gracious to you, but we'll see 16 what happens when it gets down to the nitty-gritty and we've 17 got a particular item that we have a particular interest in, 18 and we'll see what happens to that once it winds its way 19 through the Congress. But, all in all, I think it was a good 20 trip. We were favorably received, and -- and I think there 21 was appreciation on behalf of the people in Congress, and -- 22 and the Senate and their staffs that we came to see them and 23 made that person-to-person contact. We'll see what the future 24 brings. Hopefully it will be good. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Buster, you're right. He 9-25-06 8 1 wouldn't -- or he's right; he couldn't have done it in a 2 minute. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Let's get on with our agenda. 5 First item, consider and discuss and take appropriate actions 6 to approve the Sheriff and constable fees pursuant to Local 7 Government Code 118.131. 8 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: In essence, we just have no 9 changes. I think our fees are in line across the state with 10 most of it, and these were set last year, and I'm not 11 recommending that the County change any of them. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move -- 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So moved. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second -- third. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Are you going to make a selection of 17 which one to put down over there? You make the call. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I seconded. 19 MS. THOMPSON: You seconded? 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I will. 21 MS. THOMPSON: Okay. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Of course, my name starts 23 with a B, so I could be the motion maker and Letz could be the 24 second. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Let's let her make the call. Okay, 9-25-06 9 1 we have a motion for approval of the agenda item. Any 2 question or discussion? All in favor of the motion, signify 3 by raising your right hand. 4 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 5 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 6 (No response.) 7 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. Let's move 8 to Item 3; consider, discuss, and approve interlocal 9 subdivision ETJ agreement with the City of Ingram. 10 MR. EMERSON: The short answer on that, gentlemen, 11 would be that it's the same agreement we have with the City of 12 Kerrville, with the exception that the ETJ was reduced from 13 2 miles to one-half mile, and they still have the same 14 obligation to provide us with a copy of the plat for comments. 15 And otherwise, they're going to handle all the other duties 16 that go along with plat approval. 17 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Move approval. 18 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Second. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for approval 20 of the agenda item. Any question or discussion? 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Question -- 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yes. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- I have -- the question I have 24 is that there's -- is there a -- do we have a plat, or -- 25 Greenwood Forest comes to mind right away. That subdivision 9-25-06 10 1 is likely to split with a half mile ETJ. Is it? 2 MR. ODOM: I'm sorry, what? 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Greenwood Forest. 4 MR. ODOM: Greenwood Forest. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is it all in the ETJ? The 6 reason is, it seems like -- 7 MR. ODOM: No. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Buster's saying yes, it is. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Not all of it. The major 10 part of it is. 11 MR. ODOM: The major part of Greenwood Forest, the 12 mobile home part starts to fall out of it back there. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think it gets into -- I mean, 15 it's -- hasn't Ingram been doing it all along? I always 16 thought they just used our rules. 17 MR. ODOM: They did, but Judge Henneke did not 18 finalize it when he was in office. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. And the other question I 20 have, I think it needs to be pointed out -- this came up with 21 the City of Kerrville one; this does not cover O.S.S.F. and 22 this does not cover mobile home rental communities. So, it's 23 -- I mean, this is not everything being handed over to them, 24 so there's still -- in many ways, the law has not simplified 25 things. It's almost made it more complicated in other areas. 9-25-06 11 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: What about the water 2 availability issues, Commissioner? 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: If the city doesn't have it in 4 theirs, it doesn't apply. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You can take the law that 6 says that the ETJ is 1 mile outside the city limit line and 7 change it to one-half mile? 8 MR. EMERSON: It's one-half mile on theirs. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Based on the population? 10 MR. ODOM: Population, less than 5,000. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Super. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But water availability is a good 13 issue -- is an important issue, because I don't think there's 14 anything like that in the municipal code. And they kind of 15 base the subdivision rules -- or the agreement we have with 16 the City of Kerrville is more based on their code as opposed 17 to our rules, so it's an issue -- I think they could adopt it, 18 but they have to go proactively and do that. 19 MR. EMERSON: The last conversation I had with Danny 20 Edwards was that they were trying to base their subdivision 21 rules off of ours, and sometime back they requested a copy of 22 our rules so that they could emulate them. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: You had a comment, Mr. Odom? 25 MR. ODOM: Yes, sir. Does that include floodplain? 9-25-06 12 1 Are they going to take care of floodplain -- 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No. 3 MR. ODOM: -- in their ETJ? Just the municipality? 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean, they -- no. This just 5 covers subdivisions, platting only. 6 MR. ODOM: Platting only. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Any other questions or comments on 8 the motion? All -- 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's the reason I say it's 10 made it more complicated in areas, because they still have to 11 deal with two entities. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Any other comments? All in favor of 13 the motion, 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. Let's move to 18 Item 4 -- 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge? 20 JUDGE TINLEY: I'm sorry. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Before we move on to that, 22 there's a provision that we also have with the City of 23 Kerrville related to making sure that their rules and our 24 rules are hand-in-hand. We had a deadline set. Did Danny 25 Edwards mention anything about when this -- 9-25-06 13 1 MR. EMERSON: It's in there. I don't remember 2 exactly what their date is, but it's shortly after this 3 meeting. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 5 MR. EMERSON: October something. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay, great. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Item 4, consider, discuss, and take 8 appropriate action on Kerr County membership in the National 9 Association of Counties. As -- as most of you gentlemen 10 recall, this item was placed on the agenda a few meetings ago 11 by the County Treasurer. At that time, no action was taken. 12 I put it back on the agenda primarily because of -- of the 13 suggestion of the Texas Association of Counties, which is an 14 organization that we rely on quite a bit and with whom we have 15 virtually all of our insurance, with the exception of our 16 health benefits program. The -- the item that they are 17 stressing more so than any others is the -- the availability 18 of a prescription discount program to every citizen in this 19 county if the county is a member of National Association of 20 Counties. Now, that's not going to help a great deal people 21 that have an insurance program, but for those that are 22 uninsured -- the percentage, I can't tell you. I think 23 statewide, it's probably somewhere around 20, 25 percent, if I 24 recall correctly. 25 The other thing that comes to mind where that might 9-25-06 14 1 be helpful is -- I'm sure you've been reading about the -- the 2 doughnut in the Medicare prescription program, where once a 3 certain threshold of purchase has been reached by 4 Medicare-eligible persons, suddenly they have zero coverage, 5 and -- and they're essentially on their own for the next 6 significant amount of prescription purchases. It occurs to me 7 that may be helpful in -- in that. The cost, as noted, for a 8 one-year membership is 800-something. It's there. 9 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: There's two different 10 numbers, Judge. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, the -- the 700 number that you 12 see was last year's program. 13 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: And the -- 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I see it now. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: This year's program is 861, and if -- 17 if we're going to do that, I think we -- we need to make that 18 decision now so that we can budget for it for the upcoming 19 year. I don't think it's included in any of our budgetary 20 figures at this point, and the Auditor is shaking his head, 21 indicating no, it is not. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Judge, if I -- or is he 23 fixing to talk? 24 JUDGE TINLEY: No, I was just passing along -- 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: If I knew that we had 9-25-06 15 1 citizens that added up to this 800-some-odd dollars, if there 2 would be a savings by using this insurance program that you 3 outline, I wouldn't hesitate. But, see, I've always looked at 4 NACO as a lobbying effort more than anything. They've just 5 recently added on this insurance issue. But we don't -- Kerr 6 County does not need a lobbyist in Washington. We have -- we 7 have a Representatives and we have two Senators that vote the 8 way we like them to, and if they don't, we find somebody that 9 will. It's pretty simple in my mind, so I'm not a real big 10 lobbyist guy. I don't know that I need to send $800 of Kerr 11 County taxpayers' money to help those folks from New Jersey. 12 It just doesn't -- doesn't jibe with me. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The question I have is the -- 14 you know, I can see that -- maybe the savings, but how do you 15 get the information out to those that need it? I mean, the 16 people that may qualify and may need the 20 percent, how are 17 they going to know that the County has joined this? I'm sure 18 they're going to have to apply for a card, and the reality is, 19 as wonderful as our press is in this town, and I'm sure they 20 can give us lots of press, they'll probably reach 10 percent 21 of the people, and probably not the people that need it. So, 22 I wonder -- I just don't see how -- how you get that out 23 there. If there was a -- a way to do that, I would probably 24 be much more inclined -- or, you know, may be at least a 25 little bit more inclined to go along with it. 9-25-06 16 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, you know, I don't have the 2 numbers, but -- but I don't think there's any doubt but what 3 if it were utilized to any significant degree by those in this 4 county that are eligible for this kind of help, that we would 5 easily surpass the $800. But the -- the getting the word out, 6 I think, is a major obstacle, and it -- that would be 7 necessary in order so that they could avail themselves of it. 8 There's one more item that's mentioned in here, and I know we 9 have some -- a number of different supply discounts available 10 to us. Apparently, they've also got contracts with Office 11 Depot, which allows deep discounts on some of its office 12 supplies and products. Whether or not that's better than what 13 we have now, I don't know. I've not looked at them, but 14 that's just a different benefit that they tap. I can 15 certainly understand getting the word out. That would be 16 necessary in order for citizens to avail themselves of it. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The Auditor has been jumping up 18 and down back there. 19 MR. TOMLINSON: Well, I just know that Bandera 20 County did this, and they offered the citizens this card. And 21 they -- I think they had an amount and handed them out to 22 schools, various civic clubs, and it -- from what I see, it's 23 been very successful. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: I could see where handing them out at 25 the school, they would get home to -- to younger parents, 9-25-06 17 1 which may be the group that you're trying to reach more and 2 more if there's -- if they're not skilled laborers and that 3 sort of thing. 4 MR. TOMLINSON: I don't really -- I don't remember 5 the details about how much usage that they've had, but I -- I 6 do remember hearing the Court talk about the numbers of cards 7 that they issued, and it is substantial. 8 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I would imagine the 9 logistics of the program put out by NACO would give you some 10 suggestions on how you do that. Service clubs, schools, 11 pharmacies, doctors' offices, publicity; there are a whole lot 12 of ways you can get the word out. And I -- I agree, Judge, I 13 think that in a heartbeat, we -- the number of people who 14 would apply for it and use it would far surpass the $800 that 15 we'd have to put up for it. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Tommy, in Bandera County, is the 17 County given, like, 10,000 cards, and it's up to us to hand 18 them out? They don't need to apply; they're just given a card 19 and that qualifies? 20 MR. TOMLINSON: They're just given a card, period, 21 and they don't have to sign an application or anything. They 22 can be handed out on the street. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And it's good for any pharmacy? 24 MR. TOMLINSON: I can't answer that one. I don't 25 know. I don't know. I don't know who honors what -- what 9-25-06 18 1 vendors honor those cards. 2 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: My guess is all your 3 national chains would recognize it. You know, people like 4 Walgreen's and Eckerd's and Saveon and all those people, and 5 national chains surely would recognize it, or they couldn't 6 have the kind of successful program they've had. 7 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Couple thoughts. First, I 8 share and agree with Commissioner Baldwin that we don't need 9 any -- any help lobbying Washington, D.C. The second thing 10 is, I don't know enough about the administration of this 11 program to know whether we ought to get into it or not. If it 12 means we're going to get 1,000 phone calls here wanting to 13 know how they get their cards, then we're not equipped to be 14 an administrator of the program, and don't want to hire 15 anybody else to get equipped. So, the little I know about it, 16 I'm not in favor of doing it. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Anything else on it, gentlemen? 18 Anybody have anything to offer? Let's move to our timed item 19 of 9:15, 2007 Kerr Emergency 911 Network budget presentation 20 and/or approval. Mr. Amerine? 21 MR. AMERINE: Morning, Judge Tinley, Commissioners. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Morning. 23 MR. AMERINE: I'm Bill Amerine, Director of Kerr 24 911. I'm here to present the 2007 proposed budget for Kerr 25 911. I'd like to read a brief summary, if you will, and then 9-25-06 19 1 I'll be glad to answer any questions y'all might have. The 2 budget process for Kerr 911 is guided by the Health and Safety 3 Code 772, Subchapter (d), stating that the Director shall 4 prepare, under the direction of the Board of Managers, an 5 annual budget for the district. To be effective, that budget 6 will be approved by the board, which was done on 17 August, 7 2006, be presented to and approved by Commissioners Court -- 8 that's why I'm here today -- and be presented to and approved 9 by the governing bodies of each other participating 10 jurisdiction. The City of Ingram and City of Kerrville 11 approved, on 12 September and 19 September respectively, 12 budget highlights. 13 We're presenting a balanced budget. There's an 14 expenditure reduction from 2006 of $32,215, or about an 15 8.6 percent reduction. And, actually, after the board 16 approved this budget, we've had a staffing change that will 17 take effect on 1 January that will have another $13,856 18 savings. And I can answer questions about that when we -- 19 when I start addressing questions. So, the total savings in 20 2007 will be $46,075, or about a 12.38 percent reduction of 21 expenditure. We're also proposing a reduction in the 911 22 service charge from 6 percent of the total telephone service 23 base rate to 5.25. Which doesn't sound like a lot; it's 24 .75 percent, but the net savings to the citizens is $26,754 in 25 service charges, or about a 12 and a half percent reduction in 9-25-06 20 1 service charge across the board. 2 Our vision for 2007 -- this is one of those things 3 that I've -- every year that I've been here in front of 4 Commissioners Court, I say this is one of the things that we 5 have on our priority list, and we have yet to get around to 6 it, but now that we have new call center equipment, new 7 software, seem to have a lot of the other issues behind us, it 8 is our number-one priority. So, our top priority for 2007, 9 and hopefully we'll actually get the prerequisites done by the 10 middle of next year, by 2016, the complete implementation of 11 Phase I and Phase II wireless location process. We hope to 12 complete all the interactive map data validation by July of 13 2007. This data is instrumental in allowing dispatchers to 14 have a pinpoint graphic map, interactive map that shows where 15 the call comes from. Right now we have that capability for 16 the city of Kerrville. Most of the data validation is 17 affecting the rural nonincorporated area of the county. 18 We hope to complete the MSAG and the ESN updates; 19 those are essential for the validation of road names and house 20 number ranges, so that when customers apply for phone service 21 or change their phone service, they won't be putting down 22 nonrealistic addresses which we receive currently today. 23 We'll have the money and the time, now that we're -- all the 24 infrastructure is in place, to enhance our 911 public 25 awareness and education, which is still an issue. If you saw 9-25-06 21 1 today's paper, you see that the director and the supervisor of 2 dispatch are still complaining about 50 percent of the calls 3 we receive being nonemergency, and that's a big issue. When 4 you take away those resources for actual emergencies, they 5 can't address the real emergency. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Actually, I saw you 7 complaining about it. 8 MR. AMERINE: I said the director and supervisor. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Oh, okay. 10 MR. AMERINE: We are going to continue to provide 11 addressing coordination for the city of Ingram and Kerr 12 County, and we completed an interlocal with the City of 13 Kerrville to assist them in their process. We won't take on 14 that responsibility; the City of Kerrville will continue to do 15 that, but we'll -- we have an interlocal to assist them in 16 that process. We'll be recompeting our bank services, as 17 required by law, and implementing and adopting a Texas records 18 retention schedule and policy. I guess we've exceeded that 19 policy in the past, 'cause we keep everything. We don't 20 destroy anything, but it's starting to become cumbersome. We 21 have an entire vault that is full of paperwork that goes back 22 to the inception of 911, and it's too hard to maintain. And 23 we'll continue 911 sign sales. That's the summary of the 24 budget. I'll be glad to answer any questions. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Question. 9-25-06 22 1 MR. AMERINE: Yes, sir? 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And it's -- you were talking 3 about reducing your staff January 1? 4 MR. AMERINE: Yes, sir. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Is this the same thing as the 6 GIS Address Coordinator -- 7 MR. AMERINE: No. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: -- that's going to be funded 9 for the first six months? 10 MR. AMERINE: No, that is not. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's two different issues? 12 MR. AMERINE: At the employee's desire, our office 13 manager will be resigning on 1 January to pursue her life 14 elsewhere. What our plan is initially is to outsource the 15 bookkeeping and accounting of Kerr 911. We anticipate the 16 cost of doing so to be about $8,200 a year, versus the 28,000 17 we pay the office manager today, so there's going to be a huge 18 savings there. If that doesn't work out, if we actually need 19 a receptionist and full-time or part-time bookkeeper, then 20 we'll reevaluate that. But the plan right now, going into 21 1 January, is to outsource that function. The Board of 22 Managers has told me that they don't want a single point of 23 failure at 911, and if we go -- if we release the address 24 coordinator at the middle of the year, which is in the budget, 25 and have myself being the only full-time employee, then when 9-25-06 23 1 I'm not there, there's no one to support 911. So, when the 2 address coordinator -- GIS coordinator leaves in July, we'll 3 probably be hiring another full-time address GIS coordinator 4 to fill her position. That's why there isn't as much savings 5 as just going to myself and an outsource bookkeeper. 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I want to commend 7 Mr. Amerine for your stewardship. You've taken an operation 8 that was stumbling, and in some people's minds, bumbling for a 9 number of years, and you've turned it around and you made it 10 work, and I commend you for what you've done. I think you've 11 done a splendid job, and I think your budget this year is 12 excellent. I was looking at your vision for '07 and I thought 13 one thing was missing that I wanted to ask you about. 14 MR. AMERINE: Yes, sir? 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: You and I have talked about 16 this on a couple occasions. I don't see in there, in the 17 vision for '07, any status or planning for implementation of 18 Reverse 911. Could you address that issue for me? 19 MR. AMERINE: Yes, sir, be glad to. One of my 20 concerns all along with a reverse emergency notification 21 system is the -- the total cost of owning a function like 22 that, and how do you administer that? Because 911 wouldn't be 23 the sole user of such a system. I mean, the Sheriff's Office, 24 the Kerrville Police Department, the water -- river 25 authorities. I mean, you could -- Texas Department of Health. 9-25-06 24 1 Any number of those folks would be a legitimate user of such a 2 system. One of the things -- as Commissioner Williams and I 3 have spoken in the past, I think the proper way to approach 4 this is to look at who the base users are going to be and come 5 up with a system -- a shared cost for that. But that being 6 said, that's the standard answer from a year ago. I was asked 7 to participate in the Kerr County community planning process 8 this year, a plan that is about to wrap up. The number-two 9 priority on that is an item that actually addresses this 10 reverse 911 process. We hope to try to go the grant process 11 with that, and I think we'll be successful, because other 12 counties such as Comal, which we've talked about, was 13 successful in receiving grant money, and not just initial, 14 up-front start-up, but sustaining grant money year to year. 15 So, that's the -- that's the process we're looking at right 16 now, because that kind of eliminates the whole issue about 17 getting a whole group of people together and deciding how much 18 they're going to toss in to fund that process. 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Do you have some idea of 20 what the cost would be? 21 MR. AMERINE: It depends on whether you go 22 facility-based; in other words, you buy the hardware and 23 software and maintain it, or whether you go with service-based 24 and you use an internet-based system, but they run about 25 $50,000 a year every year. 9-25-06 25 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: The reason I keep bringing 2 it up is 'cause I think it would be a valuable service to our 3 citizens, but all of the 911's that are under the aegis of 4 AACOG now have that service. 5 MR. AMERINE: Yes, sir, I agree with you 100 6 percent. I think it's worthwhile. And, actually, if you 7 looked at spreading that cost out -- let's assume that the 8 grant process goes south. If you looked at spreading the cost 9 out, 911 would be a participant in partial funding of that. I 10 don't think it would be a huge cost for each agency that's 11 interested in being a legitimate user of that. Probably 12 talking a couple -- you know, tens of thousands, rather than 13 50,000 or 60,000 per group. The other thing that we'd have to 14 work out, and probably require an interjurisdictional 15 committee on how we're going to use that, because the way it 16 works is the allocation of minutes. So, do we allocate a 17 certain number of minutes to the Sheriff's Office and to P.D., 18 or do we have a lump sum -- let's say we have 50,000 minutes, 19 and if Rusty sends out a message to every one of the citizens, 20 that means then he's used the entire allocation. That's the 21 kind of issues that we need to look at to make sure that it's 22 appropriately administrated, that it's going to be dealt with 23 appropriately. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Do you know what the usage is by 25 the other counties? 9-25-06 26 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I don't know the 2 utilization, because it's relatively new. I think it's within 3 its first year or 18 months. I can find that out. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Be interesting to see, I mean, 5 other counties that are starting to -- comparable with us, how 6 much they're using it, whether it's really worthwhile. It's 7 one of those things that sounds good, but I have my doubts how 8 useful it really is. 9 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: It comes in cases of 10 emergency. That's -- 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But, I mean, there's -- normal 12 people -- I don't know if you put cell phones on or not, but a 13 lot of people don't have phones -- out in the far rural areas, 14 in weather-type situations, frequently there's phone line 15 problems. I mean, it's gotten a lot better in recent years, 16 but we still have a lot of times where our phones go out. 17 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I'll find out. 18 MR. AMERINE: I mean, the typical use, just to let 19 you know -- and this was something that most of the other 20 counties have identified. They use it for public health 21 notifications, like pandemic information, wildfire -- where 22 have you a wildfire out of control in one of the parts of the 23 county, you want to notify citizens that are in harm's way. 24 High water, with the flooding that we experience from time to 25 time here. Could have an Amber Alert, and you want people in 9-25-06 27 1 a certain part of the county to be looking out for a 2 particular vehicle or individual. There's all sorts of 3 legitimate uses. And I -- you know, when you look at the 4 total price tag, it's not that expensive to implement a system 5 like that. 6 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: I move to approve the 911 7 budget as submitted, and then I want to make a comment. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for approval 10 of the 911 budget as submitted. Questions or comments? 11 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: What we have here is a 12 government entity that is funded by taxpayer fees, tax 13 dollars, and they're proposing to reduce their budget. Have 14 you ever heard of that before? 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We should just be running the 16 guy out; there's something up. 17 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Actually, we're going to 18 have a budget hearing after a while. If you'd stick around 19 and give us a few pointers, we'd be indebted to you. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Also reducing the staff. 21 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Yeah. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Improved substantially since 23 he's been here. He's done a good job. 24 MR. AMERINE: I think, just to put anybody's mind at 25 ease, I don't anticipate any reduction in core services at all 9-25-06 28 1 in this reduction of budget or staffing. It should be just a 2 more efficient way of doing business. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Mr. Amerine, on the wireless 4 upgrades, -- 5 MR. AMERINE: Yes, sir? 6 JUDGE TINLEY: -- have the costs on those things 7 stabilized and kind of shaken out and reached level? Or -- 8 'cause I know they were all over the map initially. 9 MR. AMERINE: They still -- you're right on both 10 sides. And let me try to be brief. There is no F.C.C. or 11 state-mandated way for companies to pursue cost recovery, so 12 they can come up with whatever scheme they want, and it's a 13 negotiated process. Some of them use cell towers and 14 circuits. Some of them use customer base as a basis for cost 15 recovery. So, for instance, in our county, Sprint-Nextel is 16 going to be based on customer; they're going to be quite 17 expensive, whereas Verizon bases on the number of cell towers 18 and circuits they require, and they're going to be quite 19 affordable, but the costs themselves have stayed the same. In 20 our budget last year, we allocated over $75,000 for that, and 21 since we didn't implement it, that money has rolled over to 22 capital cash as reserve for equipment replacement in 2011, to 23 the tune of about $100,000 is what's rolled over to our 24 capital cash. But, yes, to answer your question, those prices 25 -- those costs have stabilized, but they're still 9-25-06 29 1 fundamentally all over the map on how they're calculated. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: But I note that one of your 3 priorities is -- for the coming year is to get all of those 4 upgrades in place. 5 MR. AMERINE: Yes, sir. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: And the F.C.C. keeps stretching this 7 requirement out again and again and again. Where are they 8 now? 9 MR. AMERINE: For most of the smaller carriers, 10 which we have two of them here in Kerr County -- what used to 11 be Cellular One, which has got a new owner down here, as well 12 as our local Five Star Wireless -- have applied for extensions 13 to the drop-dead date for having that implemented. My last 14 discussion with the General Manager over at Five Star Wireless 15 is that that -- they don't have a specific date now for 16 implementation of Phase II. They are on Phase I, which 17 provides some information. I think the cost -- overall cost 18 to these smaller carriers are tremendous, especially depending 19 upon the network that they choose. And, unfortunately, the 20 911 networks, who collect 50 cents per month per customer, 21 don't have the whereabouts to pay those companies back what 22 they're going to invest in doing that, so it's a financial 23 burden on -- on all parties concerned in the public safety 24 sector to make that happen. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you. 9-25-06 30 1 MR. AMERINE: You bet, sir. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Any question or discussion on the 3 motion? All in favor of that motion, signify by raising your 4 right hand. 5 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 6 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 7 (No response.) 8 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. Let's move 9 to Item 5, if we might. Consider, discuss, and take 10 appropriate action to adopt the Kerr County proposed 2006-'07 11 holiday schedule. The -- schedule that you have was furnished 12 to me by Ms. Nemec, the County Treasurer. It, according to my 13 calculation, provides for 12 holidays, which I think is one 14 day less than current, if I'm not mistaken, or maybe one and a 15 half days less than what we have had this past year. But 16 that's my calculation. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: This year, we -- as I recall, we 18 had -- because of Christmas, we had to -- we did some juggling 19 to make it fit better; we went higher than normal. The 20 comment I have is, one that I see is missing Veteran's Day. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: November the 11th? 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Which I believe is a -- 23 MS. NEMEC: Saturday. I think it's a Saturday. I 24 think that's why it's not on there. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is it not a -- it's usually -- 9-25-06 31 1 but do they -- on the federal -- those powers that be that set 2 that stuff, banks and all that stuff, do they move it to 3 Friday or do they just not have it? It's usually one of 4 those -- 5 MS. NEMEC: I didn't see it on their schedule. 6 That's -- you know, I got this -- I pulled it off the 7 internet. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Falls on Saturday. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's on Saturday, so they just 10 don't give that holiday this year? 'Cause it's a -- 11 everything is closed, but it's one of those that doesn't go to 12 a Monday; it's one of the few that stays on the actual date. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: I think -- I think the intent, at 14 least on the federal level, is to have that holiday actually 15 celebrated on the 11th day -- 16 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Mm-hmm. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: -- of November. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Whenever that is. 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yeah, not a Monday. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Mm-hmm. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. That answers that one. 22 The other one that I know Commissioner Baldwin frequently 23 brings up, and I'll bring it up first, is Texas Independence 24 Day. I think that's a more appropriate holiday than two on 25 the list that I see, being Columbus Day and MLK Day. But 9-25-06 32 1 since that's not a statewide holiday -- or I guess federal -- 2 federal holiday, though it should be, I understand the logic 3 for that, with kids and things of that nature and schools. 4 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I don't think Columbus Day 5 is a national holiday either, is it? 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Is it? 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah, I'm pretty sure Columbus Day is 9 a national holiday. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Why is a good question, but -- 11 JUDGE TINLEY: I'm not going there. 12 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Columbus sailed up the 13 Guadalupe, I guess. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I still think that -- every 15 year I say that, that we need to take Texas Independence as 16 opposed to MLK. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: San Jacinto Day, do banks close 18 on that day? 19 MS. NEMEC: What day? I'm sorry. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Texas Independence Day. San 21 Jacinto Day, April 21st. 22 MS. NEMEC: Did I put it on there? 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No. 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: He's shaking his head no. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's not on -- 9-25-06 33 1 MS. NEMEC: If I didn't put it on there, then it's 2 not. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 4 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: There are at least three -- 5 MS. NEMEC: The only ones that I put on there was 6 what I pulled off the internet as federal holidays. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: As federal holidays. 8 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: There are at least three of 9 these that conflict with Commissioners Court dates, but I 10 guess we'll discuss that at another time, reset Commissioners 11 Court dates. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: I think our approach has been if it 13 falls on a Monday that's the second or fourth Monday, we just 14 go to the following day. 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Mm-hmm. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: The next business day. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Barbara, how many days did we 18 have last year? 19 MS. NEMEC: I think we had one more day than we have 20 this year. One and a half, maybe. Because of Christmas, we 21 gave a half a day more 'cause of the way it fell. And then, 22 due to the -- that Saturday Veterans Day that we don't have 23 this year. But if we take off MLK, then we'll have two and a 24 half less days this year. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But we could add San Jacinto day 9-25-06 34 1 and be the same as we normally -- 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Are we talking about San Jacinto or 3 Texas Independence? They're two different dates, March 2nd 4 and April 21. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Independence. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: That's March 2, I believe. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Correct. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: San Jacinto is April 21, if I'm not 9 mistaken. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. I didn't know -- I 11 thought they were -- okay, either one. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's the way they do it 13 down in Comfort. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We take both. Either one of 15 those two is fine. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Plugged into that monument? 17 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Let's do that. Let's 18 substitute Texas Independence Day for MLK. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I was just going to add Texas 20 Independence Day. And the reason being is that we've had 13 21 previously. The only reason we're down one this year, from 22 the employees' standpoint, is that the Veterans Day falls on 23 Saturday. 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: What's the day? March what? 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Two. 9-25-06 35 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: March 2. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I think next year -- next 3 year, at a year when Veterans Day is during the week is when 4 the issue on substitution comes in, in my mind. 5 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Move approval by adding 6 Texas Independence Day of March 2. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yes. 8 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Buster, how many years -- 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: How long did it take us to 10 get that done? 11 JUDGE TINLEY: We don't have a second yet, unless 12 you -- 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: We have a motion and a second for 15 approval of the holiday schedule as submitted, with the 16 addition of Texas Independence Day on March the 2nd. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It will drop off next year. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Any question or discussion on the 19 motion? All in favor of the motion, signify by raising your 20 right hand. 21 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 22 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 23 (No response.) 24 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. Next item, 25 consider, discuss, and take appropriate action on construction 9-25-06 36 1 of doorway between Collections and County Clerk's office. 2 Commissioner Baldwin? 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, thank you. I asked 4 Brad to come and talk about how much does it cost, and what do 5 we have to go through to put a door there? And I don't -- 6 this Court has not approved the door yet, but I think that 7 this is the steps you take to get approval. 8 MR. ALFORD: Talked to our Maintenance Department, 9 Alyce in particular. She went out for the costs of a door, 10 which includes the lock, of 63.29. Had D.W. Electric come in. 11 There's possibly an electrical plug in the location of the 12 door; $70 to disconnect it. Other unbeknown costs, such as 13 maybe an extra two-by-four stud here or there, trim, et 14 cetera, they thought $50 to $75 would cover it. Total of 15 $208.29, to be covered by the Maintenance Department -- or 16 installed by the Maintenance Department. 17 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Well, now we know the cost. 18 Let's talk about why we need to do it. In my mind, the only 19 reason you need to do it is if you're going to give that space 20 to the County Clerk. Otherwise, you're tearing up her office 21 to create a hallway for you. So, I don't know why we even 22 need to do this. 23 MR. ALFORD: Just to make it easier for the people 24 to find them between the two offices. Instead of having to 25 send them out the hallway and around the corner, they can 9-25-06 37 1 point them straight through the door. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Where is this door going to go 3 into your office, Jannett? 4 MS. PIEPER: Right at the end of the -- right as you 5 walk in, where the little cubbyhole is. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: In that cubbyhole? 7 MS. PIEPER: Yeah. It will make it easier, too, 8 when we share employees. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: The -- the south door going into the 10 County Clerk's office, as you go in that door, you look dead 11 ahead into the east wall of his office, right there by that 12 corner. It'll also facilitate the painting of little yellow 13 footsteps, won't it, Buster? 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Are you going to paint little 15 yellow feet so these people can find it? 16 MR. ALFORD: I would like to get the door in place 17 before we discuss that matter. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You're avoiding these yellow 19 feet. 20 MR. ALFORD: Yes, sir. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We're going to have trouble 22 over that. I want the yellow feet on the floor. 23 MR. ALFORD: You and Commissioner Brown -- or Judge 24 Brown. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Where do the -- the people go 9-25-06 38 1 in the clerk's office? 2 MR. ALFORD: Back towards the back half. The County 3 Court at Law, I believe, is where they mainly go in at. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So somebody there, when we 5 get through with their paperwork, they can just say, "See that 6 door over there?" 7 MR. ALFORD: That's correct. 8 MS. PIEPER: Instead of trying to direct them out 9 the door, around the corner, past the elevator. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: These are folks that are looking for 11 an excuse not to be able to find this man right here. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Absolutely. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: We want to make it real easy. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And it's in the Maintenance 15 budget? 16 MR. ALFORD: Well, no, sir. You know, there is no 17 Maintenance budget for this. I have -- I'm going to have some 18 money left over in my telephone budget, that if we get this 19 implemented for October 1, I can transfer some over. 20 Mr. Holekamp had put an additional $400 in the County Clerk's 21 budget for some construction that she's offered to let us use 22 also. So -- 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Seems that 400 would cover it. 24 MR. ALFORD: Yes, sir. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Should cover it. 9-25-06 39 1 MR. ALFORD: Yes, sir, if we go to the new budget 2 year. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Tell me what kind of door. I 4 mean, I see all these words here -- 5 MR. ALFORD: Just a regular hollow-core door. Being 6 as it's not in a hallway, it doesn't have to be a fire door, 7 so it's just a hollow-core door with a lock on it, locking 8 handle. More of, I guess, a residential or inner office door. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Pretty secure? 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No. 11 MR. ALFORD: No. I would say no. 12 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: There are some extra secure 13 doors in storage, different locations around. You could have 14 a look at them and repaint them. 15 MR. ALFORD: Where are they at? 16 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Out at my storage facility. It 17 doesn't have the frame, and it's a steel door, but there are 18 some doors there. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I don't know how secure it 20 needs to be. 21 MR. ALFORD: Well, and that's what -- 22 MS. PIEPER: Well, with my outside office doors 23 having the -- the dual locks, and then his as well, I think -- 24 MR. ALFORD: That's kind of why we elected to go 25 with a more inexpensive route, being as we were already 9-25-06 40 1 securing the outside perimeters. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Why do you even need a door? 3 MR. ALFORD: We don't, I don't think. It's just 4 for -- in case, you know, there's a doorway there. It's -- 5 we're assuming we need a door. I really don't know if we do 6 or not. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean, if the approach is to 8 facilitate people going from one office to another, just cut 9 an opening. 10 MR. ALFORD: We talked about how to swing the door 11 to the inside to where it's open all business hours. 12 MR. TROLINGER: Only thing I could see, to chime in 13 on the door issue, Brad's office right now only has one door. 14 Does he have to have two, as far as fire and safety? 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Good point. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But this isn't a fireproof door. 17 MR. TROLINGER: No, for ingress and egress, getting 18 out. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: If that's an issue, then we've 20 probably got to get a better door than what we're talking 21 about. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No, what he's saying is 23 that -- doesn't have anything to do with the door; it's just 24 being able to get out. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Access. 9-25-06 41 1 MS. PIEPER: In case there's a fire at his door that 2 he -- the only door that he's got now, he can't get out of 3 there. 4 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Amazing that -- 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: He doesn't need a door; he just 6 needs an opening. 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Amazing, catching up with 8 that now after 25 years. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean, I still don't see the 10 reason for a door. I guess if they want an opening, that's 11 fine, but I don't see the reason why you need to put a door in 12 that opening. Just extra money. Cut an opening and put trim 13 around it and be done with it. 14 MS. PIEPER: That's true. 15 MR. ALFORD: That's true. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Get somebody to cut a hole in 17 the wall. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move that we authorize -- 19 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: I don't think we can act on 20 this. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Consider, discuss, take 22 appropriate action on construction? Yeah, we can. 23 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Okay. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move we -- 25 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: I was reading the wrong 9-25-06 42 1 thing. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- that we authorize the 3 Maintenance Department to put a doorway opening between the 4 Collections office and the County Clerk's office, at a cost 5 not to exceed $200, funds coming from the County Clerk's 6 budget. 7 MR. ALFORD: That physical door, you want to exclude 8 the physical door? 9 MS. PIEPER: Yeah, just an opening. 10 MR. ALFORD: Okay. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded. Any 13 question or discussion on the motion? All in favor of the 14 motion, signify by raising your right hand. 15 (Commissioners Baldwin, Letz, and Nicholson voted in favor of the motion.) 16 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 17 (Commissioner Williams voted against the motion.) 18 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Not necessary. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion carries. Let's go to Item 7; 21 consider, discuss, and take appropriate action to adopt 22 resolution authorizing sending notice to all health care 23 providers and pharmacies, and authorizing County to pay 24 indigent and Medicaid rates for the care of inmates in the 25 custody of Kerr County. I put this on at the request of the 9-25-06 43 1 Auditor. The Indigent Health Care Solutions program that we 2 have adopted apparently requires that we send these notices to 3 health care providers and pharmacies that we're going to take 4 this particular type of action. Anything you wanted to add to 5 that, Mr. Tomlinson? 6 MR. TOMLINSON: I do. There's one issue 7 concerning -- that I'll talk about at the budget -- 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 9 MR. TOMLINSON: -- budget item. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: This is part of the implementation of 11 the Indigent Health Care Solution package that -- that we've 12 contracted for the coming year? Okay. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move approval. 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Second. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 16 approval. Any question or comment? All in favor of the 17 motion, signify by raising your right hand. 18 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 19 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 20 (No response.) 21 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. Let's move 22 to Item 9, if we might. Consider, discuss, and take 23 appropriate action to make any changes in the proposed Fiscal 24 Year 2006-2007 budget that Commissioners Court considers 25 warranted by the law and required by the interest of the 9-25-06 44 1 taxpayers. I put this on the agenda to deal with, I guess, 2 last-minute/final budget items, so that we could get those 3 matters handled. I've got a partial list of items that I have 4 talked about; you gentlemen may have some also. The County 5 Clerk, as you know, had a request -- I believe it was for a 6 plat cabinet. Her option was to do a complete switchover of 7 how she was going to handle those, and -- and I believe it's a 8 scanner and a large printer for plats, an entire system that 9 she proposes to take out of her Records Management fund that 10 is a dedicated fund. 11 MS. PIEPER: That is correct. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: And you want to give us some more 13 edification on that, Ms. Pieper? 14 MS. PIEPER: Well, The Software Group is not going 15 to be supporting my land records -- my official public records 16 package any longer, and so I am -- between our I.T. Department 17 and myself, we're scoping out different vendors. So, in the 18 budget, I would like this money to be put so that we can get 19 new software for the land records package. And then, instead 20 of having to buy plat cabinets every year that's been such a 21 -- taking place, I would like to buy a large scanner/printer, 22 and this money would be taken out of Records Management money 23 that I have. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: How -- can you walk me through 25 how the public will now look at plats? I mean, if we don't 9-25-06 45 1 have a plat cabinet, everything is scanned in computers, and 2 whoever wants to come in there and look at a given plat, how 3 do they do that? 4 MS. PIEPER: If they walk in -- if I go with this 5 new system, they just walk in the office and pull it up on a 6 computer. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. But -- okay. Falling 8 Water Subdivision is large. How do you -- 9 MS. PIEPER: You can click on -- 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: How do you see it? 11 MS. PIEPER: Well, you can -- you will be able to 12 click on the different pages. You will be able to zoom down 13 into a particular lot. If they want to print the whole thing, 14 you know -- 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I guess my issue is that the 16 computer screen is, you know, this big. These plats are big. 17 You start reducing them down, I don't see how they're being -- 18 how you can look at them and really see much detail on them, 19 'cause some of them are pretty crowded as they are. 20 MS. PIEPER: Well, at that point, you're probably 21 going to be looking at one or two lots, and then you can look 22 at one lot at a time. You can zoom it up as big as the screen 23 is. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I guess -- I mean, let me go a 25 different direction. One of the things we use on the plat are 9-25-06 46 1 plat notes, and there's a lot of them on there that are very 2 important to the public from the -- and that's -- and we're 3 relying on those, everything from water availability, well 4 locations, floodplains and all that information is in each of 5 these plat notes, and this is going to come out the size of 6 a -- on the computer screen, it's going to be so small, it's 7 not going to be usable. So, the only way someone's going to 8 really be able to see this stuff, if I'm envisioning this 9 right, is to print the plat. Well, I'm sure we're going to 10 charge a fair amount to print these big plats, and I'm -- I'm 11 just wondering if we're not -- if we're not becoming very 12 non-consumer-friendly by doing this. And, I mean, it's a 13 question, and maybe I don't understand how it's going to work. 14 MS. PIEPER: Voelkel Engineers have been using the 15 system for a couple of years, and they -- they're all 16 computerized and are with it and seem to like it. But you can 17 zoom on whatever you want to make it larger on the computer 18 screen. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. I think that if we go 20 with this system, I think we need to really relook at how we 21 do plat notes, to have them so they're more easily viewed by 22 the public, because I don't think they're going to be viewed 23 very easily on -- on a big plat the way that we're currently 24 doing it. I mean, we've got wall-to-wall writing on our plats 25 right now, or page-to-page, side-to-side, whatever you want to 9-25-06 47 1 say. Mr. Odom? 2 MR. ODOM: Sir? 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Am I off-base on -- you know, 4 'cause you deal with them probably more in the public than 5 anyone else. 6 MR. ODOM: I don't know. I don't think you're 7 off-base, but then again, I don't know exactly what the -- 8 with my eyesight, anything would be bad. (Laughter.) But do 9 you have a -- 10 MS. PIEPER: Well, too, is they'll be on the 11 internet, to where he could sit in his office and call up the 12 subdivision plat as well. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, I see a plus to doing it. 14 I'm just trying to figure out -- we may want to -- I don't 15 know if there's a way that we can do the plat notes. That's 16 my probably biggest concern, that maybe we do those in a 17 different format, and have them scanned in separately so 18 people can get to the plat notes in one -- go down them on a 19 list and then see the actual plat, itself. Because we've been 20 relying on that heavily for informational purposes to the 21 public, and I see it being a lot more difficult now. 22 MR. TROLINGER: Is it your concern, Commissioner, 23 that the plat notes are on, say, the bottom or the very top of 24 the -- 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: They're all over. They're 9-25-06 48 1 surrounding it. 2 MR. TROLINGER: Right. And that somebody might just 3 print out their particular plat and not get all the notes 4 included? 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right, 'cause they're going to 6 have -- they're going to have to scroll all the way around it 7 to read the notes, and they may not -- I mean -- 8 MR. TROLINGER: I understand. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Just harder to view them. But I 10 think it can be solved by putting the plat notes in a 11 different format, having them in a -- almost like a -- a 12 Word-type document that's attached to the plat, maybe, or 13 something like that. I mean, I don't -- 14 MS. PIEPER: That's very possible, too. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It just -- we may need to look 16 at what the ramifications are in how we make the public use 17 these plats, not just making it convenient for us to store 18 them. 19 MR. TROLINGER: So it's really a procedure, how the 20 plat's distributed once it's electronic; whether Jannett 21 allows the public to print out that one small piece, or if 22 they're required to get that small piece and the notes 23 whenever they -- whenever they want to print out from the 24 computer screen. If they want to take a snapshot of what 25 they're seeing on the computer screen, then they'd be required 9-25-06 49 1 to also get the plat notes. 2 MR. ODOM: That's right, procedurally. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, because I think you need 4 the -- it's real -- you know, I see a lot of problems coming 5 if that's -- if those notes get left by the side. 6 MS. PIEPER: Well, but I cannot require somebody to 7 get all of a document. If somebody wants to come in and just 8 print Page 3 of 20, I have -- that's -- I can't govern that by 9 law. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But we could put in a big 11 disclaimer that there are plat notes that apply to this that 12 are -- I just -- that's my concern. Now, from the standpoint 13 of -- I think there is a lot of benefit to doing it, as long 14 as we can make sure that the plat notes are there and the 15 public can easily print on the big scanner at a reasonable 16 price. 17 MS. PIEPER: Right. We're charging $5 now. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's reasonable. And, John, 19 you can work out these other details? 20 MR. TROLINGER: Yes, sir. It's just procedure 21 mostly. But keep in mind, we're not just talking about plats; 22 we're talking about all of the land records that are in the 23 County Clerk's office. Everything. And -- 24 MS. PIEPER: It's -- basically, it's changing 25 software, but doing the same thing we're doing right now with 9-25-06 50 1 our official public records. 2 MR. TROLINGER: Right now, they're digitized back to 3 1997, I believe. 4 MS. PIEPER: 1986. 5 MR. TROLINGER: Well, the index is '86, but the 6 actual image -- 7 MS. PIEPER: Right. 8 MR. TROLINGER: -- is '97, and we're talking about 9 going back with all the records, to digitize all of them. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And those people that want to -- 11 that have a big scanner will be able to scan the whole plat. 12 Most of the surveying firms in town have large scanners, so 13 they could go on and -- and download the full plat. 14 MS. PIEPER: That is correct. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: At a big size. 16 MS. PIEPER: Or if somebody doesn't have a big 17 scanner, then -- 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Y'all can do it. 19 MS. PIEPER: If y'all allow me to purchase one, they 20 can come in our office and -- just like they do right now. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 22 MR. TROLINGER: And for someone that doesn't want to 23 come in the courthouse, they're -- if they want to go to a 24 local copy store and have them perform the service, that's 25 also a typical way to get a large print. 9-25-06 51 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: This is all coming out of your 2 Records Management fund? 3 MS. PIEPER: That is correct. I also need to make 4 one comment, though. I need to up that amount by about 5 probably 6,500, because I have a -- my big scanner that we 6 have used since day one from Software Group has broke, and 7 John says it's -- because of the age and all that, it's better 8 just to get a new one rather than trying to get that one 9 fixed, if it can even be fixed. 10 MR. TROLINGER: Well, I recommended that we purchase 11 a new scanner and send the other for repair. 12 MS. PIEPER: Oh, okay. 13 MR. TROLINGER: We'll still have the old scanner; 14 we're not junking it. We're going to get it repaired. 15 MS. PIEPER: Oh, okay. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Still the six grand which is 17 still in Records Management? 18 MS. PIEPER: That is correct. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: All of this money that we're 20 talking about is -- 21 MS. PIEPER: The money has been building up 22 throughout the year, and that's the only thing that this 23 money -- by law, that we can use it for, is records 24 management. 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Where are you going to put 9-25-06 52 1 this new technology so it's easily accessible for the public? 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: In the Collections office. 3 MS. PIEPER: I have three public terminals right 4 now. 5 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Juvenile detention 6 facility. 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Good use of it. Put it in 8 the Collections office; that's a great use for it. 9 MS. PIEPER: I have three public terminals right 10 now. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, the same terminals will be 12 hooked up, accessed the same way as all the other records? 13 MS. PIEPER: That is correct. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The -- I think it's a good idea 15 overall, as long as we work through some of the bugs and make 16 sure the disclaimer's there, that people who start printing 17 single pages, that there's a lot of this information related 18 to O.S.S.F. and shared wells and non-shared wells and 19 everything else on these plats. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Mr. Trolinger, on the plat, can that 21 thing be programmed to provide, on any print that's made, a 22 notice that there are -- there are plat notes or provisions 23 that are an integral part of -- of the subdivision, language 24 of that sort that might be given to the County Attorney so 25 that they're specifically put on notice when that thing prints 9-25-06 53 1 out, it's going to end up being printed on it? 2 MR. TROLINGER: One of the vendors we're looking at, 3 yes, but we haven't chosen a software vendor yet, so I can't 4 say definitely that they'll be available. We're getting ready 5 to go through the demo process, so I can make that a 6 condition. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think that's pretty important. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Mm-hmm. 9 MS. PIEPER: Actually, I think both of the vendors 10 that we're looking at can do that, because they will put on 11 all my required stamps on the documents as it goes through. 12 So -- 13 MR. TROLINGER: Oh, yes, that's correct. Yes, 14 that's possible. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And the other thing that we'll 16 be -- I think you need to figure out a way to print off the 17 plat notes, which -- you know, and I don't know -- I mean, 18 one, you have to figure out going forward. We can require 19 them to be submitted in a different format that can be scanned 20 in page by page, but on the old ones, I don't know how -- I 21 mean, how that's going to be done. 22 MS. PIEPER: I think it can be framed where, if you 23 want a plat, the whole plat prints out and you can't print 24 just part of -- or a section of a plat. I mean, because it's 25 going to be cheaper for the public to get the whole plat 9-25-06 54 1 rather than get six or seven pages. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Judge, we can't spend a whole 3 day on a plat. Can we go to the next item or something? What 4 was -- what was the bottom line figure that you're -- 5 JUDGE TINLEY: 117 and change. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: 117 and change. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: That includes the 6,000? 8 MS. PIEPER: No, sir, it doesn't. I would like 9 that -- 10 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That's a firm number, not 11 knowing who the software's going to be? 12 MR. TROLINGER: It's based on the software costs and 13 the indexing and imaging costs to be done as the Records 14 Management money becomes available. In other words, we've got 15 thousands -- hundreds of thousands of pages, and those will be 16 scanned over time, and that's the variable cost. 17 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: My question went to the cost 18 of software. Since you didn't -- since you hadn't 19 concentrated your decision on one or another of software, the 20 cost is going to be the same, no matter -- 21 MS. PIEPER: No, we're in -- we're negotiating, 22 depending on which company we go with. We don't have firm 23 prices on -- 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I guess that goes to the 25 heart of my question. 9-25-06 55 1 MS. PIEPER: But -- but we're thinking that this 2 amount of money -- actually, 117,825, if we're adding in that 3 6,500. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 5 MS. PIEPER: We think that will cover either 6 software, plus the -- 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Repair to the existing scanner? 8 MS. PIEPER: Yes, plus the -- the scanner and 9 printer that we'd like to get. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll make a motion that we 11 authorize up to 118,000 for a new land records software system 12 to be purchased out of the Records Management fund. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: How did you arrive at 118? 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 'Cause they said 117 and 15 800-some dollars. And I just rounded up, 'cause I don't know 16 what -- 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I thought 6,500, plus -- 18 JUDGE TINLEY: 111,325, and then add 6,500, comes to 19 117,825. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I didn't know the amount; I just 22 rounded up. 23 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Is that noted -- is that 24 noted in this list of amendments that the Auditor gave us? 25 MR. TOMLINSON: I do want to say that the Clerk has 9-25-06 56 1 referred to Records Management moneys. The -- the fund is 2 actually a Records Archive. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 4 MR. TOMLINSON: That's a separate fee from -- from 5 Records Management. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: My motion is the Records Archive 7 fund. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. We have a motion to expend up 9 to $118,000 out of the dedicated Records Archives fund for 10 upgrade in scanning and printing in the County Clerk's office. 11 Any second? 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I second that motion. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: We have a motion and a second. Any 14 question or discussion on the motion? All in favor of the 15 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: That motion does carry. 20 MS. PIEPER: Thank you. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: I've got another item that was 22 mentioned that dealt with a vehicle for the Environmental 23 Health Department. The budget, at present, contains -- I 24 believe it's a $6,000 capital outlay item dealing with -- that 25 would be the first set of lease payments for the Environmental 9-25-06 57 1 Health Department, a new vehicle to be purchased by them. 2 Yes, looking at Page 50 of your budget, if you will turn to 3 that, you have it in-hand. 4 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: What year is the vehicle 5 and how much mileage does it have? 6 MR. ARREOLA: It's a 2007; it's new. 7 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: No, the one -- 8 MR. ARREOLA: The one we have? I provided you a 9 full record of each vehicle, and the one we're talking about, 10 it's 63,158 miles, 2000. 11 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: My '99 pickup's got 100,000 12 miles on it, and it's probably going to go another hundred. I 13 don't know of anybody that trades in a vehicle with 14 60,000 miles on it. 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: What's the problem with it? 16 MR. ARREOLA: It needs some work. Needs -- it's not 17 working properly. We have scheduled maintenance that I have 18 been putting off because of the cost, probably another $2,000 19 that we need to put on it to keep it running good. So, we 20 been putting money -- 21 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: 2,000? 22 MR. ARREOLA: $2,000, yes, sir. 23 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: To get it running good? 24 MR. ARREOLA: Uh-huh. 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Versus the new one at a cost 9-25-06 58 1 of? 2 MR. ARREOLA: Thirty -- 29,000 over five years. 3 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Sounds like a deal to me. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think we're going to repair. 5 MR. ARREOLA: Okay. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We need to delete the 7 lease-purchase and add in repair of $2,000. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: That's a motion? 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's a motion. 10 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Second. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: I have a motion and second to delete 12 the acquisition of a new vehicle, lease cost in the existing 13 budget of $6,000; in lieu thereof, add $2,000 to Vehicle 14 Repairs. 15 MR. ARREOLA: Is that going to be in the same line 16 item, or it's going to move to another? 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It will be on the repair line 18 item. 19 MR. ARREOLA: Okay. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. Repair line, add -- 21 MR. ARREOLA: Add $2,000 to maintenance in the -- 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: To the maintenance. 23 MR. ARREOLA: Okay. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Any question or discussion on that 25 motion? All in favor of the motion, signify by raising your 9-25-06 59 1 right hand. 2 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 3 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 4 (No response.) 5 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. 6 MR. ARREOLA: I have a couple of questions on my 7 budget, if you -- 8 JUDGE TINLEY: I'm sorry? 9 MR. ARREOLA: I have a couple of questions on my 10 printout budget, if you don't mind. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 12 MR. ARREOLA: First is my salary. The latest 13 printout I have, it doesn't have any COLA, any -- it has last 14 year's salary, and I don't know if that's the way it's going 15 to be? It's just FICA, maybe. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: I don't know which one you're looking 17 at, but the one I have here I think is going to have a COLA. 18 I'll calculate it right quickly. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Should be last year's plus the 20 COLA. 21 MR. ARREOLA: Okay. So, it's just a typo? 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. Yeah, it's included. 23 MR. ARREOLA: Probably don't have the same -- the 24 same copy. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: This is an 8/31 or 9/1 version that I 9-25-06 60 1 have. 2 MR. ARREOLA: 8/31? 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. 4 MR. ARREOLA: Okay. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Actually, I dated mine 9/1. Any 6 other questions? 7 MR. ARREOLA: Yes, sir. On On-Site Council Fees, I 8 would like to make that $2,500 instead of 1,800. That's 9 basically what we normally pay. That's money we collect for 10 the State and then we send it to them back, so it's -- it's 11 not coming out of the general fund. 12 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: It's a pass-through? 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Mm-hmm. 14 MR. ARREOLA: Yes, sir. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: The projected year-end cost for the 16 department is just under $2,300 for this year, and we have 17 budgeted -- apparently you only originally requested 1,800. 18 MR. ARREOLA: Yeah, that was when I begin that, but 19 we need 25. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 21 MR. ARREOLA: It's On-Site Councils, 434. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: 2,500 is your request? 23 MR. ARREOLA: Yes, sir. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Do I hear a motion to that 25 effect? 9-25-06 61 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So moved. 2 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: So moved -- second. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: We have a motion and second. Any 4 question or discussion? All in favor of the motion, signify 5 by raising your right hand. 6 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 7 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 8 (No response.) 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, sir. 10 MR. ARREOLA: Thank you. 11 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: If we start trading 12 vehicles in at 60,000 miles, we're not going to be able to 13 afford a Sheriff. 14 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: About three or four times that 15 many. 16 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Take you about six months 17 to get that far? 18 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: At the most. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Judge Wright sent me a note on her 20 budget. I don't know whether you've increased her bond cost. 21 Apparently, she's -- let me take a quick look here. She says 22 her actual bonding cost is going to be 178. We've only 23 allotted 100 in the -- in here. Apparently, she's got an 24 actual quote. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move we change it to 178. 9-25-06 62 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Second. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded to increase 3 the J.P. 2 Bond line item to 178. Any question or discussion? 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Judge, what are the other 5 J.P.'s? What did we put in for bonds? 6 JUDGE TINLEY: That's a good question. Looks like 7 one is $200. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Nevermind, you don't have to 9 go any further. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Three is $320, four is $100. 11 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Maybe we need to change them 12 all. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's pretty interesting. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Any other questions or comments? 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No, sir. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: All in favor of the motion, signify 17 by raising your right hand. 18 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 19 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 20 (No response.) 21 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. Okay, 22 there's a couple of items on the position schedule that we've 23 got some questions with Maintenance on where the personnel are 24 shown, and where they're actually included on the -- on the 25 budget. I don't know that we've got any problems with the 9-25-06 63 1 amounts; it may be just reshuffling them or moving them from 2 one place to another on the position schedule. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge, on Maintenance, I think 4 I'd really almost rather -- I mean, we can look at it now, but 5 I think that's going to probably -- possibly have some changes 6 in there based on whatever we end up doing finally with that 7 department. There may be some reorganization and changing up 8 and down, and I suspect it will take a budget amendment during 9 the year to do that. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: I don't have anything to indicate 11 that the numbers are not correct in that particular 12 department. Now, there's another one that we may have to look 13 at some adjustments on. 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Judge, following up on that, 15 that's correct, we may have to do that. But secondly, did we 16 move the -- the costs for parks mowing to Road and Bridge like 17 we talked about doing? 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I think so. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I thought we did, but -- 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I thought we did. 21 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I thought we did, too. I 22 just want to be sure. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yes is the answer. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That would be a good answer. 9-25-06 64 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I think also we need to note 2 that I think the way to handle it down the road on some of the 3 airport work, assuming the County does bid, and if we do 4 happen to be successful bidder on some of that work, it will 5 probably require a budget amendment during the year. 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That'll be part of it. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Like I say, I don't have anything to 8 indicate that the numbers are not correct. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 10 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Let's move to the Tax Assessor. That 12 position schedule, according to Ms. Bolin, indicates that 13 there needs to be some changes there. They're not 14 significant. The good news is that it comes down about 15 $1,700. But she's given me a position schedule here on -- on 16 a couple of changes. I think it has to do with some movement 17 of some people in positions. And it was also, I think, some 18 longevities that -- that needed to be recognized. 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Plus 17? 20 JUDGE TINLEY: No, it's actually down about 1,700. 21 It goes down from 196,239 to 194,516 on her -- on her direct 22 personnel costs. That, of course, doesn't include anything 23 with the rollups. But -- you know, one thing would be just to 24 leave it as-is. There's adequate funding now, and adjust that 25 based upon their actual pay grades and whatnot. 9-25-06 65 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: And there'll be some excess. 3 MS. BOLIN: That'll be fine. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: It's not as though you won't have 5 enough money. 6 MS. BOLIN: Right. That's what I wanted. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Might be a problem if you weren't 8 going to have enough. Okay. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge, on these -- like the Tax 10 Assessor's changes, is she going to bring that back to the 11 Court for us to adjust that position schedule, or how does 12 that information get into the payroll system, is what I'm 13 thinking. I mean, do we need to come back and approve that so 14 there's a court order? 15 MS. NEMEC: I received changes from department heads 16 or elected officials, and also from the Auditor, and I've made 17 those changes to the position schedule, so I can get you an 18 updated schedule -- 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 20 MS. NEMEC: -- of what I've done, and you can file 21 it with the budget. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. That would be helpful. 23 MS. NEMEC: 'Cause I have made probably some of 24 those changes that y'all are talking about. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. We're dealing off of that book 9-25-06 66 1 that you furnished us -- 2 MS. NEMEC: Okay, there have been changes. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: -- about a month ago, I guess. 4 MS. NEMEC: Yeah, there have been changes to that. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 6 MS. NEMEC: Per the Auditor's instructions, and then 7 also some other departments that had changes done to them, or 8 that, you know, something did not coincide with what they had. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, we normally adopt the position 12 schedule as part of the budget. 13 MS. NEMEC: But the dollar figure that you all have 14 in your budget should be correct, because the Auditor has that 15 figure, and that's the figure that he plugged into those line 16 items, so that figure is correct. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, you may want to make sure 19 that the changes that you're talking about are reflected, just 20 so they're -- 21 MS. BOLIN: The only problem that I have is, I have 22 two people that would have not gotten longevity, that were not 23 included on here. The people are here, but the longevity was 24 not. 25 MS. NEMEC: See, and that's been changed. 9-25-06 67 1 MS. BOLIN: That has been changed? 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: All right. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: The Auditor was wanting to be heard 4 about this. 5 MR. TOMLINSON: I gave you a list of amendments. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah, I'm going to get to that in 7 just a second. 8 MR. TOMLINSON: But -- excuse me -- all the position 9 changes are reflected in -- in this list that I've given you 10 today. So, what Diane -- what the Tax Collector's talking 11 about is already in these numbers. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay, good. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 14 MR. TOMLINSON: They're not -- they're not in the 15 proposed budget, but they are in the list that I handed out. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So we'll need to adopt that list 17 of amendments as of today to the budget, in addition -- 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Adopt the budget with this 19 list of amendments, right. 20 MR. TOMLINSON: Yes. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: And then you'll do a new printout 22 reflecting these amendments? 23 MR. TOMLINSON: Yes. Plus the -- plus the ones that 24 you've just done. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Yes. 9-25-06 68 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Let's see, what was it? Week 5 before last, we approved a change in the Treasurer's budget. 6 Are there any more changes to be made in the Treasurer's 7 budget relative to those figures in view of that action? 8 Okay. 9 MS. NEMEC: May I have -- may I look at the latest 10 run on my budget? 'Cause I don't -- Environmental Health 11 didn't have his latest run, and I just want to make sure. 12 MR. TOMLINSON: If you'll look in the -- on this 13 list -- 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Mm-hmm. 15 MR. TOMLINSON: -- I changed the -- let's see, let 16 me find it here. Right at the bottom of the page, about six 17 lines up, eight lines, I've changed the official salary from 18 the 28,750 to 43,257. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Page 1? 20 MR. TOMLINSON: Yeah, the first page. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 22 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Which page? 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Page 1. 24 MR. TOMLINSON: First page of this list. 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I see it, thank you. 9-25-06 69 1 MR. TOMLINSON: Of amendments. And I've also -- 2 JUDGE TINLEY: The rollups changed, and then postage 3 was increased to 3,000. Office supplies was increased to 4 3,600. Is that correct? 5 MR. TOMLINSON: That's correct. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Any other changes to be made 7 to that budget? Okay. 8 MS. NEMEC: May I see the -- 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. 10 MS. NEMEC: -- budget, please? No, the budget that 11 the Judge has. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: I'm sorry, I had my -- 13 MR. TOMLINSON: Barbara, the -- that budget is the 14 proposed budget. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: That's the one that -- I'm sorry. 16 Okay. 17 MR. TOMLINSON: So it won't -- that one will not 18 have these changes. 19 MS. NEMEC: Okay. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: And here are the changes that go with 21 that that are bracketed through there, if you want to take a 22 look at them. 23 MS. NEMEC: Okay, thank you. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay? All right. Those are the only 25 items that -- that I had placed in my final consideration 9-25-06 70 1 file. 2 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I do have a question, Judge. 3 It might affect one of these numbers. In another agenda item, 4 we're going to talk about the EMS and the fire contract, the 5 library contract. The status of Animal Control, what do you 6 know about that? And does that affect our budget? 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Right now, we've got the total cost 8 of Animal Control in the budget. My recollection is about 9 142. And -- oh, no, correction, that would be the City's 10 portion of the cost, would it not? 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We still haven't heard back from 12 the City on that? 13 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Not that I know of. 14 MR. EMERSON: I talked to the City Attorney last 15 Thursday and Friday, at which point he talked to the City 16 Manager, who gave us kind of an unintelligent answer. 17 Basically, it was we're the provider, and therefore we were 18 supposed to provide the contract. And my answer to that was, 19 well, our last notification from you was that you canceled the 20 contract, and to our -- to our knowledge, there has not been 21 any further discussion by City Council on the issue; 22 therefore, we have no contract. And they requested that I 23 forward the contract, so we updated it, forwarded it over, and 24 I guess we'll see what happens tomorrow. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Is their number approximately 9-25-06 71 1 142,000? Does that number ring a bell? 2 MR. EMERSON: I don't -- I'm sorry, Judge, I don't 3 remember the exact number. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 5 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Well, so you forwarded a new 6 contract over to them? 7 MR. EMERSON: Correct. 8 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That answers the question. 9 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: I've got some observations 10 to make that could lead to specific changes; I'm not sure. I 11 see a budget that's -- where spending exceeds revenues by 12 about a million dollars, and that -- without a tax increase, 13 and that deficit funding comes out of the rainy-day fund, 14 lowers it by about a million dollars. And the primary reason 15 for that million-dollar deficit spending are due to generally 16 two things; one, significant increases in the costs of joint 17 operations between the city and the county, and then a much 18 larger increase is increased payroll. By my count, we're 19 proposing to increase our head count by seven or eight people, 20 and that probably costs somewhere around $850,000, something 21 like that. 22 The specific changes are these. We've established 23 an H.R. department, and that adds one person, which is 24 partially offset by the deletion of a Deputy Treasurer 25 position, so in terms of head count, there's a wash there. In 9-25-06 72 1 terms of costs, there's a little more cost. We're adding two 2 to the 216th D.A.'s office. We're adding five people to the 3 Sheriff's Office; three dispatchers, a bailiff, and a medical 4 clerk. And we're adding a road crew employee. That would -- 5 and we have not yet, in my mind, made a final decision on 6 whether or not we're going to merge the Chief Probation 7 Officer into the Juvenile Detention Facility Director's job. 8 So, depending on how that comes out, we're adding either seven 9 or eight people and $800,000 or $900,000 in payroll costs. 10 And to pile that on top of the fact that we already -- 11 compared to other counties our size, we're already employing 12 more people than any other county our size. So, I certainly 13 see us going in the wrong direction. We're adding payroll 14 costs, and we're deficit spending. And it's a whole lot more 15 difficult to cut payroll costs than it is to add to it. Once 16 -- once they're added, it's pretty much pulling teeth to get 17 it out of there, and I think we should rethink those -- those 18 eight additions. 19 I see the Sheriff's Department -- Sheriff, we're 20 adding three dispatchers when we're pretty certain that we 21 have a less than economically viable situation by having two 22 dispatch units, one in the city and one in the county. That 23 work could be done better and for less if we had one. Should 24 we be adding three dispatchers when there's uncertainty about 25 that question? I don't know. The case for two more in the 9-25-06 73 1 216th District Attorney's office is very appealing. They've 2 got numbers to back it up, and I can't deny the need there. I 3 think our Road and Bridge Department is a very frugal 4 department. When they say they need more one more road crew 5 member, I don't question that. That's general observations, 6 not a specific proposal. I've got one specific proposal, is 7 that we merge the Chief Probation Officer job and the Juvenile 8 Detention Facility Director's job. And the precedent for 9 that, of course, is almost all other counties who have a 10 juvenile detention facility have those two -- have one job and 11 not two for those two categories. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Commissioner, I admire you 13 and your -- your bulldog-type thinking. And you've brought up 14 that issue, one guy being in both places, just about every 15 meeting we've had in the last five or six months. But I think 16 -- I agree with you. Always have agreed with you. And if 17 there was something -- you know, if that issue came before us, 18 I would vote with you. But I don't -- I don't think that that 19 issue's going to -- you know, you take Tinley out behind the 20 woodshed and kind of work him over a little bit, and we can 21 take turns on him, I guess. But I don't know how you get that 22 thing done. And each department that's come in that has asked 23 for more people, the whole thing's driven by population 24 increase in our community, and I -- and I see that. I watch 25 Fox News, and they're talking -- you know, all the hippies on 9-25-06 74 1 the east coast and the hippies on the west coast are talking 2 about the housing thing going under. That's not happening 3 here. Everywhere I look, there's homes -- large homes being 4 built. And those people come here and demand more services, 5 or them being here is -- the services are demanded of us. And 6 I -- because of that, I see Rusty's increase. Because of 7 that, I see the D.A.'s increase. And because of that, I see 8 the Road and Bridge. And then -- so we're back to the 9 juvenile facility and the probation issue. And would you like 10 to take Mr. Tinley out first, or do you want me to take him 11 out? (Laughter.) I don't know. 12 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: He's only got one vote. 13 You got one. I've got one. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'd vote with you, but I 15 don't think that'll go anywhere. I just don't see it. 16 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I share your concern about 17 that, and -- you know, following up on what Commissioner 18 Baldwin is saying. But, you know, it seems to me there are a 19 couple other votes in another location in this building that 20 didn't want to do that when we had an opportunity to do that, 21 and I'm not sure that's going to change. But the issue of -- 22 of the District Attorney and the new District Attorney -- the 23 District Attorney made a compelling case. He did. And I 24 think there was no argument about his stats being what they 25 are. What's lurking behind the scene, however, is the 9-25-06 75 1 creation of another district court, and if that happens, 2 and -- which requires legislative action, then that changes 3 the dynamics of our life, because there's going to be another 4 District Attorney someplace to handle that district court, and 5 that case will undoubtedly get reduced. So, I guess we just 6 bear with that and see where that takes us through the next 7 one or two legislative sessions. 8 The other issue with respect to dispatch, I share 9 just as passionately with you your point of view. I believe 10 that we have an opportunity, and I know that the ball's in my 11 court to craft a resolution that hopefully the City and the 12 County will latch onto and take a deep introspective look at, 13 at merging dispatch. To me, that is so obvious that it just 14 defies logic for us not to do it. And so we're going to be 15 adding three dispatchers to get the Sheriff's complement up to 16 10 to match the City's complement of 10 to do the same work, 17 duplicating the same efforts day after day after day. So, I 18 pledge to the Commissioners I will get that resolution drafted 19 and before the Court very quickly. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I pretty much agree with what 21 Commissioner Williams and Baldwin said, and you as well, 22 Commissioner, on the dispatch issue. I think that's probably 23 the one that we really need to work on the hardest. And I 24 like the way I saw -- or have seen Mr. Amerine run 911, and I 25 think it needs -- he's an integral part of this, and I think 9-25-06 76 1 if he can bring those efficiencies along to dispatch and move 2 it out of the city and out of the county, it may be a real 3 good option, 'cause he certainly has demonstrated an ability 4 to run an efficient operation. And -- but I think, going back 5 to what Commissioner Baldwin said about population, I don't 6 know how many of you take National Geographic. I think my 7 wife does; I got it yesterday, and there was a map in the 8 newest version, and there were about 20 locations in the 9 United States designated with little blurbs, and one of the 10 20, and the only one in Texas or any of our surrounding 11 states, was the Texas Hill Country. It -- I don't think it 12 was intended to be an advertisement for people to come here, 13 but I think that's the kind of advertising that we're getting, 14 and we're going to continue to have the growth. I just don't 15 see anything changing in that area. So, I think we're going 16 to have to hopefully continue to be very frugal, but I think 17 we're going to have certain areas where we're dealing with the 18 public, we're going to have to increase staff over time. But 19 Juvenile Probation, I think they're -- both these two have 20 alluded to the two judges sitting upstairs in the annex, and I 21 think we need to get them on board to combine those positions. 22 I just don't see how you can do it without their support. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, let me tell you, combining 24 those two is a legal impossibility now, with the Juvenile 25 Probation Department, under state law, being under the 9-25-06 77 1 auspices and jurisdiction of the Juvenile Board, and the Kerr 2 County Juvenile Detention Facility being under the 3 Commissioners Court. So, right now it's a -- it's a legal 4 impossibility. It cannot happen. Let's assume for the moment 5 that -- that both were under the same agency. The only way 6 that will work is if it's under the Juvenile Board, because by 7 state law, the Juvenile Board has jurisdiction over the 8 Juvenile Probation Department. Now, having said that, of the 9 50-some-odd detention facilities that are under the control of 10 the Juvenile Probation Department of that particular county 11 where that facility is located, I think you will see that all 12 of those, with one possible exception, the Chief Juvenile 13 Probation Officer is not also the facility administrator. 14 They're two separate -- two separate operations, and they have 15 totally separate individuals, so I don't know what you're 16 going to obtain by that. But right now, at the present, under 17 the present structure, it is legally impossible to combine 18 those two. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, you got out of that 20 trip to the woodshed, didn't you? 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, I'll go to the woodshed, but 22 I'm going to tell you the same thing when we get there. 23 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: There's a possible solution, 24 Judge; we can give you back the Juvenile Detention Center. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: I think you might find some 9-25-06 78 1 reluctance. I'm reminded of the Toyota commercial, "You asked 2 for it; you got it." 3 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: We got it. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't think we asked for it. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No, I don't think so either. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We just got it. 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Be that as it may... 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, we need a -- a motion here 9 to amend -- adopt or to amend the budget with the -- 10 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: We got to do the public 11 hearing first. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, no, we can go ahead and make 13 these amendments. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: This list of amendments. I think the 16 Auditor has one more that we're going to get to, but -- and 17 we'll give him that opportunity, but in addition to the ones 18 we've considered, we also have these amendments as he's lined 19 here. Most of them -- most of them are salary adjustments, 20 retirement, rollups, tax and so forth. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll make a motion to approve 22 the amendments provided by the Auditor. 23 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Did we have another one, did 24 you say? 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We'll, we're doing one at a 9-25-06 79 1 time. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I second that motion. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: We have a motion and second to 5 approve the amendments to the -- I note you have '05-'06 at 6 the top of that; should be '06-'07, of course -- as provided 7 by the Auditor. Three pages, delineating by account number 8 and "From" and "To." Do we have any discussion on the motion? 9 All in favor of the motion, signify by raising your right 10 hand. 11 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 12 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 13 (No response.) 14 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. Mr. Auditor? 15 Do you have something you want to weigh in on? 16 MR. TOMLINSON: Yes. Just my skeptical nature made 17 me research the issue of -- of prisoner medical, and in 18 relation to the indigent health care rolls. I did this last 19 week, and -- and determined that even though -- even though we 20 can pay the indigent health care rate for prisoners' 21 medications and -- and physicians' services, it does not count 22 toward our -- our total liability for indigent health care. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: That doesn't surprise me. 24 MR. TOMLINSON: So, what we -- what I remember about 25 the budget workshops is that we -- we removed approximately 9-25-06 80 1 $20,000 to $30,000 from the jail medical budget and increased 2 Indigent Health Care. So, I think it might be -- it might be 3 wise to change that, to go backwards with that change. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Is it 20 or is it 30? 5 MR. TOMLINSON: We -- we've already changed -- if 6 you change it to -- by 20,000, it'll give us 70? 7 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: No, I don't think so. I think 8 all you left in there was enough for the jail doctor, and 9 then -- maybe 20,000 total. 10 MR. TOMLINSON: We added 20 on top of what was 11 there. 12 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I don't have my last run of 13 the -- 14 JUDGE TINLEY: It went from 80 to 30. 15 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yeah. And that's -- 16 MR. TOMLINSON: It's 30 now? 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Mm-hmm. 18 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yes. 19 MR. TOMLINSON: So I don't have -- I don't really 20 have a feel for what -- 21 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: About 20 of that was going to 22 be -- or 15, 16, 17, 18 -- about at least 18 of that 30 was 23 going to be the jail doctor's contract salary. Now, the other 24 problem I have along with Tommy's, and I hadn't seen the 25 people that are going to handle a lot of that, is actually 9-25-06 81 1 under the Indigent Health Care program, it pays for either two 2 or three prescriptions a month for an inmate in custody. And, 3 unfortunately, as I pointed out last time, when you're dealing 4 with M.H.M.R. inmates, some of those prescriptions are over 5 $900 apiece that we're running into for a 30-day supply. And 6 I -- our jail doctor informed me two weeks ago that, 7 unfortunately, now the V.A. Hospital is doing the same thing; 8 that if it is a veteran put into custody, that their services 9 cut off and the County has to start picking up the bill, and 10 that could have a drastic impact. So, if this new company 11 that I haven't had the chance to meet with, that's going to do 12 everything, is not going to be able to meet that as well as we 13 should, I'd say leave it at at least what it was last year. 14 If not, upping it from the 80 to 100, 'cause we're going to 15 have some drastic increases this next year. 16 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: So, what should the number 17 be? 18 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I don't spend it unless it's an 19 actual medical deal, but I would say put it at 100,000 in that 20 budget, because I think we're going to need it until we -- we 21 find out what this new company's going to be able to do and 22 how many prescriptions. I went to, you know, a 23 $12,000-a-month prescription bill from 6,000 just in the last 24 few months because of what M.H.M.R. and the V.A.'s' going to 25 start doing. 9-25-06 82 1 MR. TOMLINSON: We don't have any experience today 2 about what paying the indigent health care rate will do to -- 3 to Prisoner Medical. Now, we've had an estimate from -- from 4 experience from other counties that -- that it could be -- 5 JUDGE TINLEY: 30 percent less, I think. 6 MR. TOMLINSON: -- 30 to 40 percent less. So -- 7 but -- and that doesn't have anything to do with what the 8 Sheriff's talking about, with initial costs from M.H.M.R. and 9 the state. So, it's hard to -- to estimate, you know, what 10 our total would be. I think -- I think we could lower the 11 Indigent Health Care budget by at least 25,000. I think we 12 have it -- I think we have it at -- 13 JUDGE TINLEY: 910. 14 MR. TOMLINSON: -- 910,000. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: That's actual payment. That doesn't 16 including include the administrative -- 17 MR. TOMLINSON: That's right. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: That's just eligible expenses at 910. 19 MR. TOMLINSON: So, above -- above that, then it 20 would just have to be an increase in -- in the Sheriff's jail 21 budget. Or we could leave it -- I mean, we could go ahead and 22 leave the 25 in the Indigent Health Care, and later on 23 transfer it -- transfer it over to his budget when needed. 24 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Well, the only -- within the 25 first three months of the budget, if things don't change and 9-25-06 83 1 the new company or indigent health care doesn't make up a big 2 difference, with 30,000 there, and with just prescriptions, 3 not medical bills and not inmates' overnight stays in the 4 hospital, with just what prescriptions are going, within three 5 months of the new budget, we're going to be overdrawn in that 6 budget. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah, I noted in the current list of 8 bills, it's over 10,000. 9 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yeah, and that's just bills, 10 not prescriptions. And, yeah, unless this new company the 11 County's going to makes a big difference, I'm very concerned 12 about where we're going with inmate medical. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What is in the line right 14 now? 15 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: 30,000. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 30,000. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And we want to go to 100? 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Total, between the 25 in 19 indigent and -- 20 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Well, we can, you know -- 21 JUDGE TINLEY: His requested was 80. That was 22 before we got into the Indigent Health Care portion of the 23 solution. As a result of that, it was dropped to 30. Now, 24 the Indigent Health Care portion of the budget was 25 increased -- that has been increased recently. It started at 9-25-06 84 1 800, which wasn't going to be enough to begin with, we found 2 out right away, to 910. 3 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: If you can put it back -- 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Theoretically, we've got 50 -- we've 5 got 50 in the Indigent Health Care for the Sheriff's Office 6 because of the 50 we took away from him, we added over here. 7 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Well, if you can put that 50 8 back in and put it at least back up to 80, that would give us 9 enough working room in there to see what the new system and 10 the new company's going to be able to do to at least get us 11 through six months or so. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: What he's suggesting is amending the 13 Indigent Health Care budget, to lower it by 50 to 860, and to 14 increase the Prisoner Medical from 30 to 80 by that same 50. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll make that motion. 16 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Second. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded. Any 18 question or discussion on the motion? All in favor of the 19 motion, signify by raising your right hand. 20 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 21 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 22 (No response.) 23 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion carries. We're a little 24 bit past our -- first of all, do we have any more budget items 25 that we need to look at? Let's go ahead and take about a 9-25-06 85 1 15-minute break. We're a little past due. 2 (Recess taken from 10:47 a.m. to 11:04 a.m.) 3 - - - - - - - - - - 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay, let's come back to order, if we 5 might, please. We were in recess for a short period of time. 6 We have a 10 o'clock timed item; consider, discuss, and take 7 appropriate action on any matters that may arise from progress 8 report on Kerrville South Wastewater Project. Commissioner 9 Williams has advised me that that one's not quite ready. Some 10 of the principals that need to be here cannot be here today, 11 and he wants to pass on that. 12 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I'll put it back for our 13 first meeting in October, Judge, and the Grantworks folks will 14 be with us that day. We'll have a little bit update -- 15 additional updated information, and we'll also restyle the 16 agenda item so that we can take action on a subsequent 17 application for additional funding for Phase IV at that time. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: All right, thank you. We'll move to 19 Item 10, and at this time, I will recess the Commissioners 20 Court meeting, and will convene a public hearing on the 21 proposed Fiscal Year 2006-2007 Kerr County budget. 22 (The regular Commissioners Court meeting was closed at 11:05 a.m., and a public hearing was held in open 23 court, as follows:) 24 P U B L I C H E A R I N G 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Is there any member of the public 9-25-06 86 1 that wishes to be heard on the proposed Fiscal Year 2006-2007 2 Kerr County budget? Any member of the public wishing to be 3 heard on that proposed budget? Seeing no one moving to come 4 forward or seeking to be recognized, I'll close the public 5 hearing, and I will reconvene the Commissioners Court meeting. 6 (The public hearing was concluded at 11:05 a.m., and the regular Commissioners Court meeting was 7 reopened.) 8 - - - - - - - - - - 9 JUDGE TINLEY: And we'll go to Item 11, to consider, 10 discuss, and take appropriate action to adopt the Fiscal Year 11 2006-2007 Kerr County budget. 12 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Judge, I move adoption of 13 the budget for 2006 and '07, with the amendments as proposed 14 and approved by the Court. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded to adopt the 17 proposed Kerr County FY '06-'07 budget, including -- to 18 include the amendments that were made earlier today and 19 approved by the Court. Any question or discussion on the 20 motion? 21 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: I'm not very proud of the 22 budget, but I'm going to vote for it. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Any other questions or comments? All 24 in favor of the motion, signify by raising your right hand. 25 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 9-25-06 87 1 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 2 (No response.) 3 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. We'll move 4 now to Item 12, and I will again recess the Commissioners 5 Court meeting and convene a public hearing for the revision of 6 Lots 16, 17, and 18 of Riverside Park, as set forth in Volume 7 1, Page 70, Plat Records, and located in Precinct 4. 8 (The regular Commissioners Court meeting was closed at 11:06 a.m., and a public hearing was held in open 9 court, as follows:) 10 P U B L I C H E A R I N G 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Is there any member of the public 12 that wishes to be heard with respect to the revision of Lots 13 16, 17, and 18 of Riverside Park, as set forth in Volume 1, 14 Page 70, Plat Records? Anyone wishing to be heard on that 15 item? Seeing no one seeking to come forward or seeking to 16 obtain recognition to be heard, I will close the public 17 hearing for the revision of Lots 16, 17, and 18 of Riverside 18 Park, as set forth in Volume 1, Page 70, Plat Records. 19 (The public hearing was concluded at 11:06 a.m., and the regular Commissioners Court meeting was 20 reopened.) 21 - - - - - - - - - - 22 JUDGE TINLEY: And I will reconvene the 23 Commissioners Court meeting and move to Item 13; consider, 24 discuss, and take appropriate action for bringing Vista Hills 25 Road into compliance for the County to accept same for 9-25-06 88 1 maintenance, that being located in Precinct 1. Mr. Odom? 2 MR. ODOM: Yes, sir. Thank you, Judge. Vista Hills 3 Road was a County-maintained road from the time it was built 4 in 1988 until June of 1999, when the homeowners at that time 5 wanted it to be a gated community. At their request, it was 6 abandoned from county maintenance by Court Order Number 25891, 7 and the road was gated. Since that time, the gate has been 8 removed and the owners have changed. The current owners have 9 contacted us and Commissioner Baldwin requesting the road be 10 maintained by the County. Kerr County Subdivision Rules state 11 that the County shall accept a road for maintenance when all 12 the conditions in the attached chart -- and you have that with 13 the agenda item that I've put -- when they've all been met, 14 and all the tests and the inspections must be paid by the 15 developer. 16 At the request of the homeowners and Commissioner 17 Baldwin, I inspected the road and found that it is in dire 18 need of repair. The road currently has 6 inches of Type C 19 base, which is pit run material, which is not unusual for that 20 -- every other road in there is built that way. The rules 21 call for 8 inches of Type A, which is all a quarried base of 22 limestone, which is crushed base. The road width is correct; 23 it's at 24 foot of pavement. The cul-de-sac's in place and 24 it's correct. The current road needs the following: Base 25 failures need to be repaired, cold mix patches on the potholes 9-25-06 89 1 at the edges, cut the brush back off the right-of-way and 2 herbicide the edges, and a new single sealcoat should suffice 3 that. The homeowners would like to know before they pay to 4 have the road work done if the Court will accept the current 5 6 inches of base instead of 8, and if they must have a density 6 test, et cetera. They would also like some assurance that if 7 they expend the funds to complete the road, that Kerr County 8 will accept the road for maintenance. I'm open for any 9 questions or -- 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What do you recommend? 11 MR. ODOM: I believe that I can do -- that these 12 gentlemen can do exactly what I've proposed to do. I don't 13 think tests are necessarily -- I mean, it's a good road. It's 14 just oxidized and cracked. The base is the same road. I'm 15 familiar with that area; I've done zipping up and down that. 16 That's all good material. I'd just say that you fix the base 17 failures and do the cold patching and do a seal, cut the brush 18 back. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: A single-layer seal? 20 MR. ODOM: Right. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And how -- that's the part 22 that I kind of question a little bit. How does that differ 23 from if you were building a brand-new road, the single layer? 24 MR. ODOM: If I was building a brand-new road, it 25 would be a double penetration. 9-25-06 90 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Double penetration. 2 MR. ODOM: Right. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And you think you can get 4 away with a single penetration? I mean, it would be adequate? 5 MR. ODOM: If memory serves me right, sir, that -- 6 at the time that, in 1999 -- I came here in '91 -- that we had 7 already done a sealcoat back in that area, so it already had 8 one seal on it. And it had the rock -- looking at it, it came 9 from Henry -- Mr. Griffin's pit down here. It was big -- big 10 pea gravel. So, that runs in line with their -- just from 11 memory. So, I remember us having that down for maintenance at 12 the time to do another seal, and then the doctor that owned 13 the majority of this land asked to have it gated, and so we 14 went to the Court and had it abandoned in 1999. So, if you 15 ask that it could be a double penetration, I would leave that 16 to your discretion, but basically, the road there has just got 17 some base failures, and -- and more than anything, that's 18 oxidation because there was nobody living on the road. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I kind of look at this as -- I 20 think it's virtually impossible to bring an old road to 21 current standards without building a new road. I mean, you 22 can't do it. So, I look at this as if -- if Len feels that 23 the road basically meets our minimum requirements with 24 upgrades, I think that's sufficient. I don't -- you know, I 25 don't know if it's really a variance, in my mind, that, you 9-25-06 91 1 know, we have to grant. I think it's -- 'cause it's -- we 2 have -- I think there's kind of an "or equivalent" type 3 language. 4 MR. ODOM: Right. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's implied. And I think 6 it's -- you know, as long as Len's comfortable that the road 7 should be accepted, an existing road, I think that's fine with 8 me. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's -- 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't know whether you can 11 do -- 12 MR. ODOM: I happen to be familiar with it out 13 there. So, I -- like I say, it's unique, because it was built 14 to standards at the time. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, and the cul-de-sac is a 16 good size. 17 MR. ODOM: Yes, sir, it's a good cul-de-sac. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Is this the group right here, 19 these three guys? 20 MR. ODOM: Elgin, would you like to address the 21 Court? Or does the Court have any questions? I mean -- 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's a pretty rough looking 23 crowd you got there with you, Leonard. 24 MR. ODOM: They promised to shoot over my shoulder. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I see, okay. They're some 9-25-06 92 1 rough looking -- I asked the Sheriff to kind of search them a 2 little bit, 'cause somebody's holding a piece back there 3 somewhere. But I agree with Letz, that if -- upon the 4 recommendation of the Road Administrator, that it's a good 5 thing. And it's -- to tear that entire road out and rebuild 6 it to bring it up to county standards, I don't know if this 7 county can afford to do that, but I'm certainly in favor of 8 it. 9 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: The Road Administrator is 10 always very cautious, so if he says something can be done, I 11 take him at his word. 12 MR. ODOM: May I -- let's make sure that we're not 13 setting precedents at all, because this is unique. If someone 14 came to us -- if these gentlemen had came to me and it was 15 something that was not County-maintained and built to county 16 standards, then I would say, "Here it is; this is what you 17 do." But this is unique. It's up there. And we have four, 18 five homes in there, maybe six now -- seven. Seven homes, 19 where before there was really nothing there but a water 20 system. And so, you know, we're talking about a different 21 scenario. I don't want the Court to think that I'm just 22 making an exception for them up there. This is a unique deal, 23 and it's not like it hasn't been done before. It was built to 24 a standard. 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Well, and that may be -- 9-25-06 93 1 that may be the key here, Leonard. What I'm about to say -- 2 I'm not opposed to it, and the length of the road is probably 3 not more than a quarter of a mile. 4 MR. ODOM: If it's that much. 5 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: But in terms of precedent, 6 don't overlook the ongoing efforts that we've had on 7 Creekwood. Those folks want us to take Creekwood -- us to 8 take Creekwood into county maintenance. You know, I don't 9 know if this is an identical situation or a different 10 situation, but I'm not opposed to it. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think the Creekwood issue and 12 a lot of these issues, I think you have to look at -- our 13 rules have changed a lot. Traffic volume and counts and 14 classification of roads has been a big change. This is going 15 to be a country lane -- paved country lane, based on the 16 requirements, where Creekwood, based on the rules now, is into 17 a collector. 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That's true, and that is a 19 distinction. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's a lot different. 21 MR. ODOM: A lot different. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: At the time this road was approved, 23 the standards, the 6-inch base was -- 24 MR. ODOM: Type C. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: -- was appropriate? 9-25-06 94 1 MR. ODOM: Was appropriate. And it was up until we 2 changed the rules. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Just here earlier this year? 4 MR. ODOM: Earlier this year. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Upon the recommendation of 7 the Road and Bridge Administrator, I move that we -- that the 8 County -- Commissioners Court/County will take in this Vista 9 Hills Road into the county system after they've met these four 10 issues that the Road and Bridge Administrator's laid out; base 11 failure repaired, cold mix patches, brush cut off the 12 right-of-way, and a new single sealcoat. 13 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Second. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for approval 15 of the agenda item as indicated. Any question or discussion? 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Commissioner, do you want this 17 brought back to the Court to make the decision? 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No. No, I think the -- 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Len can make it? 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: -- Road Administrator signs 21 off on it, and we go from there. 22 MR. ODOM: If you like, I'll send a letter at that 23 point on acceptance to the Court, to c.c. everybody. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: I think that's good communication. 9-25-06 95 1 Any other question or comment? All in favor of the motion, 2 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: That motion does carry. Let's go to 7 Item 14; consider, discuss, and take appropriate action for 8 approval of the plan for a manufactured home community at 150 9 Lydick and located in Precinct 1. 10 MR. ODOM: Yes, sir. This is before the Court 11 again. I was asked to bring it again. Mr. Howard has been 12 before the Court several times. Today we're presenting the 13 plan for a small manufactured home community of three units, 14 his office and shop. To approve it as presented, it will need 15 a variance from paving the road and clearing a 30-foot 16 right-of-way. Basically, what he's asking for is 20 foot that 17 we've been to the Court before. The -- the catch to this is 18 that in our manufactured rules, which were not changed, it 19 says that I have no alternative but to say -- you go through 20 it and it says paved road, but then it goes back to the 21 existing Subdivision Rules, and here's a unique situation, 22 because it will be an unpaved, basically, country lane. And 23 we have that in our Subdivision Rules, but I'm going to have 24 to ask the Court for a variance to do this. And the 30 foot 25 is given as part of the right-of-way, so there's 20 foot that 9-25-06 96 1 we had discussed before, which is acceptable to me. The other 2 question was -- was a cul-de-sac. He's got this design with 3 the circular road through there, which is acceptable, that EMS 4 and emergency vehicles could get around. We looked at the 5 analysis of runoff. There's only one-tenth of a cubic foot 6 per second difference between having this unpaved, so there's 7 not a problem with runoff. He's looking to have an unpaved 8 country lane, and I think that I'll present it to the Court 9 for your -- your comments and -- 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Let me ask you, to trigger a 11 manufactured home, it has to be two or more -- 12 MR. ODOM: Units, rented. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: -- units -- excuse me? 14 MR. ODOM: Two or -- 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: "Two or more" is the way it's 16 worded, I think. 17 MR. ODOM: Right. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And in here, it shows that 19 there are three. 20 MR. ODOM: That is correct, sir. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: This one here has access by a 22 different driveway. These back here, the driveway that he -- 23 that Leonard's referring to, I think this home is actually 24 there. 25 MR. ODOM: That's correct. 9-25-06 97 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And this one may or may not 2 show up. They're talking about putting another one here for 3 their college-age kid, a place for their college-age kid when 4 he comes home. She doesn't want him in the house. (Laughter.) 5 I'm just quoting what she said. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Doing something smart, isn't she? 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. I think it's something 8 to do with laundry or something. 9 MR. ODOM: Like a boomerang, it keeps coming back. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: This home is not here 11 presently, and it may never show up; we don't know. So, that 12 is two or more, definitely. But in my -- in my mind, this -- 13 this one here is -- has access by another driveway. And I -- 14 to me, I don't know how you -- the two or more thing doesn't 15 come into my mind as part of the game, because it has 16 different access to it. 17 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: It's all on the same lot, 18 though. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It is all on the same lot, I 20 understand. 21 MR. ODOM: All the same lot. And that was a 22 preexisting condition before Mr. Howard bought this. So, in 23 other words, when he bought the property, it had this mobile 24 home on it and it had a house. And that's his office for the 25 water department right there, so basically, he is adding one 9-25-06 98 1 back there. He wants to have a rental, and the other one 2 would be for a relative. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But the -- this one's an office, 4 right? 5 MR. ODOM: The house is. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: This mobile home. 7 MR. ODOM: No, that's a rental. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Oh, okay. So, there's three 9 rentals? 10 MR. ODOM: Mm-hmm. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, two rentals. 12 MR. ODOM: And a possible -- 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: This is a rental and this is 14 a rental, and this is for a family member, no money to change 15 hands. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: This is -- I've talked to -- 17 MR. ODOM: Bruce. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, Bruce, or I've talked to 19 people on this, it seems, several times. I have no -- I 20 think, on the road issue, whether it's paved or unpaved, I 21 mean, I don't recall why we say paved in our manufactured 22 home -- 23 MR. ODOM: I don't know. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think we need to look at that, 25 add it on the list to look at that once we do our final 9-25-06 99 1 tweaking on the Subdivision Rules, 'cause I don't think we 2 can -- my recollection was we can't make the mobile home rules 3 any stricter than our Subdivision Rules. So, I'm a little 4 bit -- I just don't understand that. So, I don't have a 5 problem on that part of it. On the other -- and what's the 6 right-of-way on the mobile home? 7 MR. ODOM: We had talked at 20 foot, because of the 8 house and the location of the house. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But what's our rules say? 10 MR. ODOM: 30. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 30. Why can't you get 30? Why 12 can't you make the cul-de-sac -- well, the right-of-way go to 13 the inside? I mean, you -- 14 MR. ODOM: You're up against the fence. You can go 15 to the right. Could they get 30-foot from that fence? 16 MR. HOWARD: I don't believe so. I believe it's -- 17 the house and the other -- the shop buildings would encroach. 18 I think it would be very difficult to do. They have some -- 19 the well or a shed up in front. That's shown on there, and it 20 would really jam it right up against it. 21 MR. ODOM: Now, the road doesn't have to be built 22 there but the right-of-way could -- might be given. 23 MR. HOWARD: The -- the whole point, I think, from 24 the Howard standpoint -- and I've discussed this with both 25 Mr. Baldwin and Mr. Letz. You're really serving potentially 9-25-06 100 1 two residences. That's really what it boils down to. And 2 this is not -- they're not dedicating this to the County for 3 county maintenance. This is a private driveway, private 4 maintenance. And I can see in your rules if you had a half 5 dozen or more units you were serving, then you've got a 6 different ballgame. But this tract is not that big; it can't 7 have that many. So -- 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean, I think our rules -- and 9 I'm not going to oppose it. I think this is a -- I commend 10 Mr. Howard for doing it the right way and trying to come to 11 the Court. I mean, it's a bad situation for us to try to make 12 it fit our rules; it just doesn't fit it real we'll. I mean, 13 the other one down here, that driveway isn't in -- doesn't 14 really meet the standards real well either. I don't know how 15 you count that driveway. I mean, the reason for the rules is 16 driven by -- the reason the State did it, it's driven by 17 emergency services, and that's -- you know, and the roads you 18 put -- the more we do, the worse we make on it this particular 19 lot. So, no matter whether we give a variance or not, I think 20 it's a bad precedent. But... 21 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Have all the water and 22 septic issues been addressed? 23 MR. HOWARD: My understanding is -- of course, he's 24 got the water system out there, and that's a nonissue. The 25 septic, the County's -- Miguel was somewhere. Anyway, he was 9-25-06 101 1 not going to give his approval until the Court gave the 2 approval for the variance, so that they could go forward. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: He didn't see a problem? 4 MR. HOWARD: No, he did not see a problem. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: As it's laid out here? 6 MR. HOWARD: Correct. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I remember when it came to us 9 before, in the entrance coming off Lydick Lane, where you -- 10 wherever it is here you drove in, there was a -- there was a 11 telephone pole or a high line, an electrical pole -- 12 MR. HOWARD: Right. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: -- there in the middle of the 14 road. What did we do about that? 15 MR. HOWARD: The -- we're working with Windstream. 16 They are to move that pole, eliminate it entirely, and all the 17 guy-wires. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Actually, a truck came 19 through there and took it down anyway. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Took it down? 21 MR. HOWARD: Yeah, it's nearly removed by itself. 22 MR. ODOM: And there is a plat note here as well as 23 a letter that I have from Mr. Howard stating the fact that 24 he's working with the new telephone company, and they are 25 trying to get that easement, but have been assured that we're 9-25-06 102 1 -- that is going to be addressed. And -- and basically, even 2 if you give this variance, or whatever the wording we use, but 3 if there is a variance, it will never be maintained by the 4 County. It doesn't meet it. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's not the driving force 6 behind our rules. 7 MR. ODOM: No, but I'm just saying if there is -- 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Nothing to do with it, really. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I move for approval of a 10 variance from paving the road, and having a 20-foot 11 right-of-way. Is that all you're asking? 12 MR. HOWARD: Right. 13 MR. ODOM: Right. 14 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: I second. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for approval 16 of the agenda item as indicated. Any question or discussion? 17 All in favor of the motion, signify by raising your right 18 hand. 19 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 20 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 21 (No response.) 22 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. Thank you, 23 gentlemen. 24 MR. HOWARD: Thank you. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Next item is -- sorry, did you have 9-25-06 103 1 something? 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No, I'll be quiet. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Next item is to consider and approve 4 an interlocal agreement between Kerr County and the City of 5 Kerrville for the operation of the Butt-Holdsworth Memorial 6 Library, and authorize County Judge to execute and forward the 7 agreement to the City of Kerrville. Commissioner Nicholson? 8 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Yes. We've prepared a new 9 library agreement, and the essential difference is that last 10 year we had some language in Part 5 that said the County's 11 contribution shall be a minimum of "X" dollars. I don't 12 remember what those dollars were. That same -- in a different 13 form, that same language is in here again, minimum 14 contribution of 443,667. I don't think there's any intention 15 that the contribution will be any more than that. We can 16 leave "minimum" in there if we want to, or we can change it to 17 "County's contribution shall be 443,667." I point out that is 18 50 percent of the proposed operating expense budget for the 19 library. And this budget was developed with participation 20 from the new revamped Library Advisory Board, so it's gotten 21 more critical and careful examination than the one we got last 22 year, and I'm recommending approval of it, approval of the 23 contract. And I'll make that motion, that we approve the 24 contract. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'm going to second the 9-25-06 104 1 motion, with a question. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: We have a motion and a second. Any 3 question or discussion? 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Is that 443,667 the exact 5 figure that's in the budget today? 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Should be the one that's in there 7 now. I know we had the figures transposed of 434 previously. 8 I'm not sure about the 667. I think I can find it pretty 9 quick. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We ought to look. 11 MR. TOMLINSON: It has 443. Doesn't have the -- 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Doesn't have the change? 13 MR. TOMLINSON: No. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Maybe they won't notice. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We've got to fix that. We 16 have to amend the budget, or -- 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We got to go all the way back. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Got to go back and do that. 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Add $667. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Or we can do a budget amendment 21 during the year. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Anybody want to volunteer their 24 budget up to give up that money? I know the Tax Assessor has 25 some extra in hers. 9-25-06 105 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: She already gave it to us. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: If you could get the Juvenile 3 Detention Facility guy moved over to the library, and maybe 4 that -- 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Hadn't thought of that one. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Two questions. Has the County 7 Attorney looked it? You're happy with it? 8 MR. EMERSON: Yes and yes. 9 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I have a question. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And another question, before -- 11 did -- did y'all look at -- did you look at this before the 12 City Attorney looked at it and it was signed by them? I mean, 13 I don't -- in future years, I'd rather the "County 14 contribution shall be" language be in there, as opposed to 15 minimum contribution. Just a note, but since it's already 16 been signed by the mayor, it's okay this year. 17 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: One feature of it that was 18 new to me was the last sentence of Part 5, which said the 19 "City proposes to fund $50,000 in Capital Improvement Projects 20 for a study of library facilities and services, with no 21 funding participation from the County." It is good to point 22 out that the County will not participate in that $50,000 23 study. And then, just as an editorial, I might add that it's 24 my opinion that the capital improvement project study is 25 premature. We don't currently have a vision of what the 9-25-06 106 1 library -- the future is going to be, so it may -- it may 2 result -- the study may result in spending for capital 3 improvement projects that haven't been well thought out. And 4 if the County continues to participate in sharing operational 5 costs of the library, undoubtedly those operational costs 6 would go up if the facility is enlarged or expanded. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: By the same token, Commissioner, in 8 the following paragraph, there is a statement, "This one-year 9 agreement recognizes the stated intent of the County 10 Commissioners Court to phase out, over time, its funding 11 participation for library services. City staff will research 12 other funding options to be presented to the City/County for 13 library operations beyond FY '07." I think that's helpful to 14 have in there too, because it conforms with those discussions. 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Well, I highlighted that 16 also, that particular paragraph, the sentence that you noted, 17 Judge. And I guess, since the City's already adopted this and 18 the mayor's already signed it, more than likely, it was 19 drafted by the City. It didn't take note of the County's 20 position to urge creation of a library district, but that's 21 okay. 22 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: I probably should say at 23 this point in time that -- that it's my expectation that the 24 Library Advisory Board, and perhaps even the Friends of the 25 Library, will recommend against a -- I think they will 9-25-06 107 1 recommend against the formation of a library district. 2 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I guess they got a good 3 option in mind. 4 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: And I'll -- I will join 5 them in that recommendation. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 7 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Got a -- did I make a 8 motion to approve and authorize County Judge to sign? 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I believe so. I believe 10 Commissioner Baldwin seconded it. 11 MS. THOMPSON: We have a motion and a second. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Any further discussion on the 13 motion? All in favor of the motion, signify by raising your 14 right hand. 15 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 16 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 17 (No response.) 18 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. We will move 19 to Item 16; consider, discuss, and approve an interlocal 20 agreement -- interlocal agreements between Kerr County and the 21 City of Kerrville for firefighting and emergency medical 22 services, and authorize County Judge to execute same. 23 Actually, we've got two separate agreements, so we've got two 24 items in one agenda item. I would note in the firefighting 25 agreement, in the first full paragraph, "beginning on the 1st 9-25-06 108 1 day of October, Texas," I think that should read "2006." And 2 "together with personnel" on the following line, "to 2006," I 3 think the "2006" needs to be eliminated, so that it reads, 4 "beginning on the 1st day of October, 2006, a pumper truck and 5 other firefighting equipment, together with personnel, and 6 terminating on the 30th day of September, 2007." I don't know 7 how that got jumbled in there, but it makes no sense the way 8 it's written. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I agree. Well, let's clean 10 up the City's mess and send it back over there. 11 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yeah, that's cumbersome. 12 Did you get some suggested changes? 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, yeah. Where it says "Texas" 14 after October, in lieu of "Texas," put in "2006." And then on 15 the next line, where it reads "to 2006," line through those, 16 leaving the comma in. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: On the first -- under the -- 18 where it says "A. Structural Fire," the second-to-last line, 19 "For the Kerrville South area, City shall be considered the 20 'first responder' fire department..." Is there a map that 21 goes along with this? 22 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Just came out. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: I think that's on EMS. 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Oh, that's EMS. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: That's EMS. 9-25-06 109 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And the reason is that I think 2 that we understand -- at least I understand kind of where that 3 area is, but it also covers area north of town. And I think 4 it's -- it really would be helpful to the public -- in fact, I 5 had a constituent who recently called and I couldn't give him 6 a definitive answer. They live on the north side of town, and 7 I'm not sure where the break -- they think they're on the 8 wrong side of a given street; that the line goes down their 9 street and they're on one side, and the other side is served, 10 but their side is not. And I don't have a map to know where 11 this line is, so I think it would -- we really need to know 12 where this area is, I think. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You mean Kerrville South? 14 Both? 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Both. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Or this -- 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think the whole area. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: The coverage area. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The whole coverage area. I 20 think that needs to be tied down. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I agree with you. It needs 22 to be -- the verbiage needs to be put in there, and we've 23 always understood that north was included. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. And I think -- but I 25 think it would be helpful to get a -- I think, a plat, 9-25-06 110 1 basically, that just says this is the primary -- the first 2 responder coverage area. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Former Kerrville South area 4 delineated on a map and designated as an exhibit to the 5 contract. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't think it should be 7 called Kerrville South area. I think it should be the first 8 responder area. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, I agree with that. 10 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Area of first response. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Or area of first response, 12 something along those lines. And get a -- and I'm sure the 13 fire department -- 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: They have it. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: They have a map or certainly 16 have some way of defining where -- what they consider the area 17 to be. I think that way, the public will be aware as well. 18 You know, because of the date and where we are, I certainly 19 don't want to delay this. And -- you know, from the 20 standpoint of approving it, but I think that needs to be, you 21 know, brought out. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I agree. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Possibly do an addendum to the 24 contract later on. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 9-25-06 111 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You remember, under Grass 2 Fire, my concern about that language of everybody calling back 3 and forth? They fixed that, and very, very well, I think. 4 It's very plain and to the point. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And the other -- the thing 6 that -- going back to the areas of coverage, under Auto Fires, 7 it doesn't say where. I mean, it's obvious -- if I was to 8 read this, I would read it to mean that if there's an auto -- 9 a wreck just outside of Comfort, that Kerrville's going to 10 send a truck, and that's not the intent or what happens. So, 11 I think -- you know, 'cause that would be served by Comfort, 12 but it doesn't say that here. It just says the City shall 13 respond to auto fires. 14 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: And they do. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Not in Comfort. 16 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: In Kerr County anywhere. They 17 always have. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 19 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Okay? If it's just this side 20 of Comfort, but inside Kerr County, we have had the City of 21 Kerrville go down there to help with cleanup and rescues and 22 everything else on all auto fires. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I think that's true. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. I stand corrected, then. 25 I have never noticed a Kerrville fire truck at a wreck outside 9-25-06 112 1 of Comfort. 2 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yeah. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: On the interstate I have, but 4 not -- 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, don't go down there and have a 6 wreck to prove it. 7 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: I don't know that it's 8 needed. 9 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: It's not that often, but they 10 have, and we request them sometimes. Now, if I can back up on 11 your very first paragraph on here, under number 1-A, 12 Structural Fire -- right now is the first time I've ever seen 13 one of these agreements, okay? And where it says in there 14 about the jurisdiction has not responded within four minutes, 15 the Sheriff's Department dispatcher may request they send a 16 pumper, we have never done that. That's always -- the 17 volunteer fire departments have always requested the City of 18 Kerrville's assistance. It has never gone through our office. 19 I don't know what their old agreement was, but -- I mean, I 20 don't mind us doing it, but a lot of times it is the 21 volunteers requesting additional help, not -- the Sheriff's 22 Office never has. And the City of Kerrville dispatches for 23 the volunteers. 24 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Seems like an unnecessary 25 process. 9-25-06 113 1 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I don't mind leaving it in 2 there if we can, but I don't want to all of a sudden have to 3 be left totally up to the Sheriff's Department when we may not 4 even be at that scene or whatever yet, not in four minutes. 5 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Well, the sentence that 6 really needs to be addressed is the next one, the City shall 7 not be obligated, huh? 8 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: That's kind of -- 9 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: The volunteer fire 10 department is on the scene first, and the only one on the 11 scene of the -- 12 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Kerrville South is always hard 13 to get to. City of Kerrville can beat most of them out there. 14 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: When they're on the scene 15 and they decide they need more help, who do they go to? 16 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: They call straight into -- 17 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Dispatch? 18 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: -- Kerrville P.D. dispatch, not 19 Sheriff's Office dispatch, and they request additional 20 assistance, 'cause they're the ones that dispatch Kerrville 21 Fire Department. They don't come through the Sheriff's 22 Office. 23 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: That's way it should be. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I'm not -- you know, 25 probably should have had a lot of these conversations before 9-25-06 114 1 today, but on D, I'm not sure I understand what that -- I 2 mean, what we're saying there. I mean, it says if there's 3 a -- as I read that, if there is a false alarm on a fire on an 4 alarm system in my house, they're going to respond, and that 5 doesn't make sense. And they -- it doesn't make sense. A and 6 B, they don't do it. So, I mean, I think, you know, it's -- 7 it's a bunch of fluff that's not accurate. 8 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Well, that part on the false 9 alarms, now, the part on the investigations they do do, and we 10 do -- 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 12 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: -- ask for -- 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The Fire Marshal's office -- as 14 to the county Fire Marshal, I understand that part of it, but 15 some of that language -- you know, again, I think the 16 appropriate way is to approve this, probably, and then maybe 17 look at an addendum to the agreement, and look at maybe a lot 18 of these changes that are -- look at it in the next year, 19 or -- or through the addendum process. Is there a motion to 20 approve this? 21 MS. THOMPSON: We have no motion. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: No. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll make a motion to approve 24 the fire contract -- what's it called? -- the Interlocal 25 Agreement for Firefighting Services between the City of 9-25-06 115 1 Kerrville and Kerr County as submitted, and authorize County 2 Judge to sign same. And we'll bring it back at a future time 3 and work on an addendum to this agreement. 4 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: And change the date -- 5 correct the dates, the things that the Judge noted in 6 Paragraph 1? 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. And authorize the Judge to 8 hand-write in the changes that he noted in the first 9 paragraph. 10 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Second. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded as 12 indicated. Any question or discussion on the motion? 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So, if the Judge is 14 handwriting changes, maybe we should address the Sheriff's 15 Department dispatcher thing while he's there hand-writing. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's a pretty big deal. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, it is. To be honest 18 with you, I never paid any attention to it. I just -- I just 19 saw law enforcement. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I just don't want to get in a 21 situation where we don't have a contract the 1st of October 22 'cause the City's not going to be able to -- and I'm also -- 23 maybe not -- thinking this through, I don't even want the 24 Judge to make his changes on it. We'll do it all through the 25 addendum process. Because once we start changing it, then the 9-25-06 116 1 mayor has to sign it, and he can't make any changes until 2 after the City Council meeting, and that won't be until after 3 October -- 4 JUDGE TINLEY: You're exactly right. If we make any 5 change, that's, in essence, a counteroffer, and all bets are 6 off. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, my motion is that we approve 8 the contract as submitted, and that we'll bring it back at our 9 next meeting in October to offer an addendum to the City to 10 correct some of these. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Let me ask a question. 12 That's fine. And your second -- you seconded it? 13 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Mm-hmm. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: In that -- in the Structure 15 Fire part where the Sheriff's Department -- what if you 16 just -- and the idea of this whole thing is that if the 17 volunteer department doesn't answer within four minutes, then 18 the dispatcher calls the city fire department out. So, if you 19 just struck "Sheriff's Department" out of that, then whoever's 20 dispatching would automatically send -- do you agree or not 21 agree? 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think it makes sense to do it 23 that way, but I think it still changes the -- 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No, for the future. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: For the future, correct. 9-25-06 117 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: For the future. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Correct. 3 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yeah. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: What you're -- the rationale is, 5 whoever dispatches that truck normally will dispatch that 6 truck? 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Sure. 9 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Very good. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And that's kind of been the 11 agreement -- the understanding all along. Four minutes, call 12 the City. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 14 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Well, are you -- and in your 15 discussion with that, you may want to define what "responding" 16 is. Some people are going to think that it's on the scene. 17 Other ones are going to think that it's just when they're 18 notified. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Notified, left the station, 20 responded. 21 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: A lot of times, "notified" and 22 "left the station" is a big difference, and so getting on the 23 same -- 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I don't think getting on the 25 scene is "responded." They may have responded, but they say, 9-25-06 118 1 "Yeah, we know about the fire; we got to go." 2 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I would ask for a copy of this 3 so I can give it to my dispatchers so, as it's written right 4 now, we can try and abide by it until y'all make your 5 amendments. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Any other discussion? All in favor 8 of the motion, signify by raising your right hand. 9 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 10 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 11 (No response.) 12 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. We'll move to 13 the EMS contracts. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Number 4, on the Y.O. Ranch 15 area, I'm not real clear what's happening with that. Do they 16 have ambulance coverage out there or not? 17 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: They do from -- I always 18 get mixed up -- Kendall or Kimble -- Kimble. From Kimble 19 County. What's probably confusing is that we don't have an 20 interlocal agreement with Kimble County. They say they'll 21 provide the service, but they don't want an agreement. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And don't want to be paid for 23 it. 24 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: They don't want the $1,000. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: That's the fire agreement, I think. 9-25-06 119 1 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: That's correct. I'm 2 confused. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: The fire agreement that we don't 4 have. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We don't have an EMS either, I 6 don't think. 7 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: No, but they're -- that 8 service is being provided by Kimble. 9 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Who has the agreement? I 10 thought there was an agreement in place. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, they never did sign it. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: They don't want the liability, 13 in other words. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I don't understand that, but 15 I guess it's cool. As long as they have -- you know, the 16 citizens out there, as long as they have fire coverage and 17 ambulance coverage, that's all we should be concerned with, I 18 guess. 19 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: I think they're now -- the 20 citizens are now satisfied with their -- if they weren't, we'd 21 be hearing from them. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, that's true. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. 24 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: And I think that in 25 addition, that helicopter -- air ambulance gave them more 9-25-06 120 1 confidence that their needs will be taken care of. 2 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: What is this fee schedule 3 that's attached to this -- 4 JUDGE TINLEY: I think that applies to a standby fee 5 for -- for an ambulance. I asked where Exhibit B was, hourly 6 charge for dedicated ambulance service. It's going to be an 7 event, and they said that that's what that applies to. I'm 8 having a hard time -- 9 MR. EMERSON: Paragraph M is where it shows up in 10 the contract. 11 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Paragraph M? 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. But I'm having hard time 13 finding the fee schedule, what the standby is for an 14 ambulance. 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That's kind of what I'm 16 asking. We've got everything in here under the sun. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Junkyard peddlers, sexually 19 oriented businesses. Doesn't tell you what the ambulance fee 20 is. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The City has a new approach; 22 they wait until we can't make a change -- 23 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Not a bad -- 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- and then submit the 25 documents. 9-25-06 121 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Not a bad strategy. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, we got the Exhibit A, Service 3 Area, this morning. And I did inquire about Exhibit B, and 4 the initial response was that -- from the City Secretary was 5 that there wasn't an Exhibit B. And I referred her to 6 Paragraph M, and she said, "Well, that's already in the fee -- 7 that's in the fee schedule." I don't see it there. But it 8 was meant to be an hourly standby charge, if you want an 9 ambulance standing by at some sort of an event. 10 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Well, there's a lot -- there 11 are numerous times during the year that we may be doing a 12 hazardous search warrant or hazardous entry or barricaded type 13 subject, and we're going to call for EMS to come out and stage 14 or stand by at a location very close to where that event's 15 going to take place in case we have something major happening 16 during it, and I would like to know what the fee's going to be 17 when I do that. I haven't seen this contract either. So -- 18 and I don't know if that's one of the things that are included 19 in there. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: I can't find the hourly standby 21 fee -- 22 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I can't either. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: -- of an event or activity for an 24 ambulance in that schedule. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think -- I mean, I'd say, 9-25-06 122 1 based on this, it's the same as what we did with the first 2 contract; we need to approve it and then put it on our next 3 agenda with a list of where we need an addendum, and maybe 4 send an addendum back over there. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: We probably got a 30-day bail-out on 6 this thing, don't we? 7 (Discussion off the record.) 8 JUDGE TINLEY: 90 days, unless there's a breach, in 9 which case you got 30 days to cure it. 10 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: That standby fee is on the 11 fee schedule. I don't have -- 12 JUDGE TINLEY: I don't think it's on this particular 13 fee schedule; it's on another one. 14 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: It's on the -- I think they 15 must have sent this by mistake. This doesn't have any -- 16 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Wrong attachment. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move approval of an interlocal 18 agreement for emergency medical services -- 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Second. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- between City of Kerrville and 21 Kerr County. 22 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Second. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 24 approval. Any question or discussion? All in favor of the 25 motion, signify -- 9-25-06 123 1 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: No, I just have some 2 discussion. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Sorry. 4 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: I've got your September 1 5 letter saying that we were wanting to adopt a policy of 6 user-pay. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Mm-hmm. 8 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Any response to that? 9 JUDGE TINLEY: The response -- here's an August 31 10 memo from Chief Holloway -- to Chief Holloway from the EMS 11 Coordinator mentioning the review of EMS fee schedule. 12 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: That's the response? 13 JUDGE TINLEY: That's all I've seen. 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Mm-hmm. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Unless something got by me, that's 16 all I've seen. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Does the -- I'm just looking for 18 the actual paragraph related to billing. 19 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Part A -- Part III, 20 Paragraph A. Part III. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I couldn't -- I can't read that 22 paragraph, 'cause there's a stickum over that paragraph. 23 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Well, the August 31st memo 24 really is -- Commissioner, is really a nonresponse. It's a 25 memo, but it doesn't say anything. 9-25-06 124 1 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: The underlying economic 2 model is -- was it Ronald Reagan who called it voodoo 3 economics? It would suggest that Kendall County could cut 4 their fees in half and their revenues wouldn't go down. So 5 there's no reason for us to double our fees, 'cause our 6 revenues wouldn't go up. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, they acknowledge that revenues 8 would go up, amazingly. If the -- if the fee schedule 9 increase were adopted for all patients, the net revenue would 10 increase approximately $100,000 per year. That's a pretty 11 nice chunk of dough. 12 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yeah, but they -- then they 13 go on and list all the reasons why they don't want to take the 14 100,000. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: The fact that 70-something percent 16 are Medicare, that has no bearing on it. 17 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I understand. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: They're going to do what they're 19 going to do. It' beyond my comprehension of why you would 20 provide a service to an identifiable segment of the population 21 and not at least charge them what you know your cost is to 22 provide that service. In addition, those that have private 23 insurance, they're sure as the dickens not going to pay any 24 more than -- merely because it's below cost, any greater 25 amount. 9-25-06 125 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean, I think the -- 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Mind-boggling. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think we're, as a body, in 4 total agreement. I think the best approach may to be visit 5 with some City Councilmen and get it on their agenda to ask 6 why the City Manager and the Chief think the way they do. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: I know one of those guys, and I think 8 I'll talk to him. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I know several of them. 10 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Why don't you want to cover 11 your costs? 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean, I don't see -- I mean, 13 we get the same answer from the City Manager, so the only way 14 to move forward on this is to talk to Council directly. 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Apparently. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And probably one-on-one. 17 MS. THOMPSON: You have a motion and a second. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Any further discussion on the 19 motion? Thank you, Commissioner, for throwing that in. All 20 in favor of the motion, signify by raising your right hand. 21 (Commissioners Baldwin, Williams, and Letz voted in favor of the motion.) 22 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 23 (Commissioner Nicholson voted against the motion.) 24 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion does carry. 9-25-06 126 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Did you vote against? 2 (Commissioner Nicholson nodded.) 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Do we have anything else -- 4 anything we need to go into executive about here? All right, 5 we will move on to the approval agenda. Let's talk about the 6 bills. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, personally, I think 8 that we probably need to pay our bills. It's just -- 9 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: I second. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Good business? 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It's good business. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: I have a motion and second to pay the 13 bills. Any question or discussion? I would point out the 14 Sheriff's prisoner medical pharmacy bill for this trip is 15 about 11 grand. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Thanks, Rusty. 17 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: It's not by choice, believe me. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Why is J.P. 3 ordering letterhead? 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: We've got a new J.P. coming 20 in. 21 MS. PIEPER: She'll need it come January. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No, but J.P. 3 is coming out 23 of -- J.P. 3 isn't going to be around in January. 24 MS. PIEPER: Oh. I don't know. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Hence my question. 9-25-06 127 1 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: He's ordering enough to get him 2 through till January. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 4 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: I've got plenty, thank you. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: You don't need any more? That's the 6 economic model. We have a motion and a second? 7 MS. THOMPSON: We have a motion and a second. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: All right. Any other question or 9 discussion? All in favor of the motion, signify by raising 10 your right hand. 11 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 12 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 13 (No response.) 14 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. Let's go to 15 Budget Amendment Request Number 1. 16 MR. TOMLINSON: Number 1 is for the Juvenile 17 Detention Facility. We're transferring $28.52 from 18 Professional Services to Residential Medical, and along with 19 this we need a hand check payable to H.E.B. for -- 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Move approval. 21 MR. TOMLINSON: -- 28.52. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded, to include 24 a hand check to H.E.B. for 28.52. Any question or discussion 25 on the motion? All in favor of the motion, signify by raising 9-25-06 128 1 your right hand. 2 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 3 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 4 (No response.) 5 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. Budget 6 Amendment Request Number 2. 7 MR. TOMLINSON: Number 2 is for the County Jail, a 8 request from the Sheriff to transfer $240.49 from Jailer 9 Salaries, 23.40 to Prisoner Medical and 217.09 to Vehicle 10 Maintenance. Along with that, I have two late bills, one 11 payable to H.E.B. for $53.91. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: 53.09? 13 MR. TOMLINSON: 91. 53.91. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: All right. 15 MR. TOMLINSON: And the other is to Krauss Garage 16 for 2,482.75. 17 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: 2,000 what? 18 MR. TOMLINSON: 482.75. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. Or -- 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- motion. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: We have a motion and second for 23 approval of Budget Amendment Request Number 2 and payment of 24 late bills to H.E.B. for $53.91 and Krauss Garage, $2,482.75. 25 Any question or discussion on the motion? All in favor of the 9-25-06 129 1 motion, signify by raising your right hand. 2 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 3 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 4 (No response.) 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion does carry. Budget Amendment 6 Request 3. 7 MR. TOMLINSON: This is a request to transfer funds 8 from the General Fund to Indigent Health Care in the amount of 9 $39,810. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So moved. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded. Any 13 question or discussion on the motion? All in favor of the 14 motion, signify by raising your right hand. 15 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 16 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 17 (No response.) 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion carries. Budget Amendment 19 Request 4. 20 MR. TOMLINSON: Four is to declare an emergency and 21 pay 47,409.58 for Eligible Expenses for Indigent Health Care. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So moved. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So moved. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for approval 9-25-06 130 1 of the agenda item for Budget Amendment Request Number 4. Any 2 question or discussion on the motion? All in favor of the 3 motion, signify by raising your right hand. 4 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 5 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 6 (No response.) 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion does carry. Do we have any 8 further budget amendments? 9 MR. TOMLINSON: No. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Do we have any late bills -- 11 MS. PIEPER: I have one, Judge. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: -- that we haven't passed? 13 MS. PIEPER: Judge, I have a budget amendment. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Sorry about that. 15 MS. PIEPER: And I don't know if Mindy had given 16 y'all a copy, so I'll give you mine. This is my part-time -- 17 I mean my overtime employees. We had a total of 425.44 18 overtime hours, and Mindy has found where to take the money 19 from in order to get them paid to clear out that budget cycle. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Do you want to give -- do you have a 21 copy? 22 MS. PIEPER: I don't have an extra copy. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: That's the only one? Okay. 24 MR. TOMLINSON: I don't have it. 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: $7,000, about. 9-25-06 131 1 JUDGE TINLEY: We'll need to give it back to the 2 Auditor so -- he can recite those things better into the 3 record than I can. 4 MR. TOMLINSON: Okay. The request is to transfer 5 3,337.21 from Operating Equipment, 1,767.05 from Software 6 Maintenance, 2,000 from Group Insurance, with 6,149.58 to 7 Overtime and $470.45 to FICA Expenses and 484.13 to 8 Retirement. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So moved. 10 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Second. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for approval 12 of the budget amendment request as indicated. 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: Motion does carry. I -- I have in my 19 hand monthly reports from the District Clerk as amended for 20 August 2006, and from Justice of the Peace, Precinct Number 1. 21 Do I hear a motion that those reports be approved as 22 presented? 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So moved. 24 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Second. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 9-25-06 132 1 approval. Any question or discussion? All in favor of the 2 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: That motion does carry. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think the Auditor has 8 something else. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: What do you have for us? 10 MR. TOMLINSON: I have an issue I haven't made up my 11 mind on. We -- we have a -- a principal/interest payment that 12 is due on 10/1. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: 10/1? 14 MR. TOMLINSON: Yes. And it's -- it comes -- it 15 comes out of the '06-'07 budget, and we're not going to have a 16 meeting until after it's past due. It's -- the principal is 17 25,644.82, with interest of 3,343.16. It's for the equipment 18 that Road and Bridge financed through lease/purchase agreement 19 with Security State Bank. And -- 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Chip spreader and -- 21 MR. TOMLINSON: Yes. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 23 MR. TOMLINSON: And I don't have to have a check. 24 We -- since it's with Security State Bank, we can just 25 transfer the funds internally to the bank. But I -- I want to 9-25-06 133 1 get approval so I get -- for the -- it would be the -- Monday, 2 the 3rd, I believe it is, or is that the 2nd? The 2nd. And I 3 would like to be able to make that payment on that day. 4 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: When it's due. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What do we need to -- we need to 6 approve authorizing a -- 7 MR. TOMLINSON: The payment of that -- of the 8 principal and interest on that. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The principal and interest. Why 10 do we have to approve it if it's in the budget? Why can't you 11 just do it? 12 MR. TOMLINSON: Well, I -- 13 JUDGE TINLEY: That's why he's having a hard -- he's 14 not sure what he thinks about it, I guess. 15 MR. TOMLINSON: Well, I mean, in the past -- I mean, 16 policy has been that the Court approves the writing of a check 17 for whatever -- 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 19 MR. TOMLINSON: -- purpose. And so we're not going 20 to have time to get the Court to approve that process. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: That technically would fall under -- 22 kind of a late bill? 23 MR. TOMLINSON: Yes. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah, okay. Okay, as a late bill. 25 MR. TOMLINSON: But it's not payable out of the 9-25-06 134 1 '05-'06 budget; it's payable out of the '06-'07 budget. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: But it's due immediately after the 3 first of the year, and if we wait until the regular meeting, 4 it'll be technically past due? 5 MR. TOMLINSON: That's right. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, what am I making a motion to 8 do? 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Say, "So moved." 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So moved. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for payment 13 to Security State Bank for the equipment as indicated. Any 14 question or discussion? 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: As per the Auditor's 16 explanation. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Correct. All in favor, signify by 18 raising your right hand. 19 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 20 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 21 (No response.) 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion does carry. Okay. Do we have 23 any reports, gentlemen? 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No. 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: No, sir. 9-25-06 135 1 JUDGE TINLEY: You're going to Buzzie's and have 2 some barbecue, right? 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Probably all by myself. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Wait a minute. 7 MR. EMERSON: You kind of blew through the executive 8 session so fast, I couldn't get my hand up. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Oh, I'm sorry. 10 MR. EMERSON: But that's okay. I need to talk to -- 11 I need to talk to y'all in executive about pending litigation 12 very quickly. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. So, at this time, we'll go out 14 of public or open session, and it's 12:06 p.m. 15 (The open session was closed at 12:06 p.m., and an executive session was held, the transcript of which 16 is contained in a separate document.) 17 - - - - - - - - - - 18 JUDGE TINLEY: It is now 12:16, and we are back in 19 public or open session. Does any member of the Court have 20 anything to offer with respect to anything that occurred in 21 closed or executive session? Hearing none, I gather there is 22 none. Anything further to come before the Court today? We'll 23 stand adjourned. 24 (Commissioners Court adjourned at 12:16 p.m.) - - - - - - - - - - 25 9-25-06 136 1 STATE OF TEXAS | 2 COUNTY OF KERR | 3 The above and foregoing is a true and complete 4 transcription of my stenotype notes taken in my 5 capacity as County Clerk of the Commissioners Court 6 of Kerr County, Texas, at the time and place 7 heretofore set forth. 8 DATED at Kerrville, Texas, this 29th day of 9 September, 2006. 10 11 JANNETT PIEPER, Kerr County Clerk 12 BY: _________________________________ Kathy Banik, Deputy County Clerk 13 Certified Shorthand Reporter 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 9-25-06