1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT 9 Special Session 10 Monday, October 23, 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 October 23, 2006 2 PAGE --- Visitor's Comments 5 3 --- Commissioners' Comments 7 4 1.1 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on time frame for bid process 10 5 1.2 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on 6 replacing current Internet service provider with Bee Creek Communications Inc. at West Kerr Annex 12 7 1.3 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on bids 8 for three exit doors in indoor arena 14 9 1.4 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on 2006-07 payroll step & grade & position schedule corrections 19 10 1.5 Consider/discuss, approve 2006-07 Kerr County 11 Community Plan, adopt resolution for submission to AACOG 27 12 1.6 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 13 authorize participation of Kerr County Victims Services Department in Criminal Justice Center 14 Internship Program at Sam Houston State University 42 15 1.7 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action for concept of T-H Acres, Precinct 4 44 16 1.8 Discuss/take action to clarify budget regarding: 17 (1) requested merit increases for two employees, and (2) payroll error constituting overpayment to 18 another employee; and amend budget as necessary (Executive Session) 54 19 1.9 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action regarding 20 possible changes to position schedule (Executive Session) 54 21 1.10 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 22 authorize Kerr County to submit bid to perform certain airport services 64 23 1.11 Consider/discuss, approve Animal Control contract 24 with the City of Kerrville 69 25 3 1 I N D E X October 23, 2006 2 PAGE 3 1.12 Consider/discuss, take appropriate steps to post and/or advertise for Administrative Assistant/Court 4 Coordinator for Kerr County Commissioners' Court 70 5 1.13 Receive/take appropriate action on bids or proposals received for 2007 Employee Health 6 Benefits Program 75 7 1.14 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action with reference to report of Flat Rock Dam leakage 80 8 4.1 Pay Bills -- 9 4.2 Budget Amendments 87 4.3 Late Bills -- 10 4.4 Approve and Accept Monthly Reports 89 11 5.1 Reports from Commissioners/Liaison Committee Assignments 89 12 3.1 Action as may be required on matters discussed 13 in Executive Session 97 14 --- Adjourned 98 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 4 1 On Monday, October 23, 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 regular meeting of the Kerr County 8 Commissioners Court regularly scheduled and posted for this 9 date time and date, Monday, August (sic) the 23rd, 2006, at 10 9 a.m. It appears to be right at that time now. Commissioner 11 Nicholson? 12 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Will you please stand and 13 join me in prayer and the pledge of allegiance. 14 (Prayer and pledge of allegiance.) 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you. At this time, if there's 16 a member of the public or the audience that wishes to be heard 17 on any matter that is not a listed agenda item, feel free to 18 come forward and tell us what's on your mind at this time. If 19 you wish to be heard on a listed agenda item, we would ask 20 that you wait until that item is called, and we would prefer 21 that you fill out a participation form. They can be found at 22 the back of the room. It's not absolutely essential that you 23 do that, but it helps me to be aware that there is someone 24 that wants to be heard on a specific item when we get to it so 25 that I don't miss you. But even if you haven't filled out a 10-23-06 5 1 participation form, when we get to that particular item, if 2 you will get my attention in some way, shape, form, or manner, 3 I will recognize you so that you have the opportunity to be 4 heard. But if there's any member of the public that wishes to 5 be heard on any item that is not a listed agenda item, please 6 feel free to come forward at this time. Yes, sir, if you'll 7 come forward and give us your name and address. 8 MR. TRIGO: My name is Steve Trigo. My address is 9 165 Scenic Valley Road. In an article in the Kerrville Daily 10 Times on or about September 21st, 2006, Judge Tinley was 11 reported as saying, "As the county's chief elected official, I 12 am obligated by my oath of office to bring to light problems 13 that are costing the taxpayers money." Again Tinley was 14 quoted in the San Antonio Express on or about September the 15 10th, 2006, as saying, "The taxpayers are not getting their 16 money's worth and she (Nemec) is costing the taxpayers." I 17 question Judge Tinley's leadership. He wasted $3,835 of the 18 Kerr County taxpayers' money by ordering an unnecessary audit. 19 The alleged error with the 2005-2006 step and grade schedule 20 should have been handled by asking the principals -- County 21 Auditor Tommy Tomlinson, Sheriff Hierholzer, County Treasurer 22 Barbara Nemec -- to meet and resolve the problem, if actually 23 one existed. The $3,835 audit cleared the County Treasurer. 24 Kerrville Daily Times headlines: "Audit finds Nemec not at 25 fault in pay issue." San Antonio Express News: "Audit finds 10-23-06 6 1 no error in Kerr County pay." 2 Now here we are today truly facing an error with the 3 step and grade schedule. Judge Tinley, are you going to call 4 for an audit? Or since Ms. Nemec is not the responsible party 5 for the preparation of a step and grade and it's just a 6 personal vendetta you have with her, as you have evidenced 7 time and time again, are you just going to let it be fixed 8 among the experts who are hired and elected to do their job as 9 you should have done back in June? The above solution should 10 not have -- should only have saved the taxpayers $3,835, but 11 it would have reduced the level of strife and contention among 12 elected officials. It would have prevented nasty and unneeded 13 accusations from being aired in the local newspapers, and 14 freed official personnel to solve more pressing and important 15 problems. 16 It is poor leadership to continually and falsely 17 accuse an elected official publicly, but it is breaking your 18 oath of office to ignore your own waste of taxpayers' money. 19 Frankly, Judge Tinley, the taxpayers are not getting their 20 money's worth from the County Judge, and you are costing the 21 taxpayers money. Because of the duplicity involved, this 22 problem is far more serious than the one you brought before 23 the Commissioners Court on September 15th, 2006. I propose a 24 claim be made on Judge Tinley's bond for the $3,835. This is 25 a serious mistake, one that should not be ignored or brushed 10-23-06 7 1 under the carpet. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, sir. Is there any other 3 member of the public or the audience that wishes to be heard 4 with regard to any matter that is not a listed agenda item? 5 Any other member of the public that wishes to be heard? Thank 6 you very much. Let's move on. Commissioner Nicholson, what 7 do you have for us this morning? 8 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: I pass. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner Baldwin? 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yes, sir. I have one issue 11 -- well, thank you. I have one issue that I'd like to bring 12 up. I have a memo here from Jim Lehmann, the manager of the 13 Office of Court Administration, and he points out that there 14 are 64 county collection departments in the state of Texas. 15 64. Kerr County's collection rate is 94 percent. That puts 16 us number three in the entire state. And if you just looked 17 at County Court at Law only, we're number two in the state. 18 So, that's a -- this is great news. This is a lot better than 19 I thought it was. 20 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Very good. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's all. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, sir. Commissioner 23 Williams? 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I just noticed a little 25 memorandum in our box, a copy of which went to Commissioner 10-23-06 8 1 Letz and myself, indicating that TexDOT Aviation has agreed to 2 fund the business plan for our airport, which will be a 90 3 percent grant, $80,000. Ninety percent grant, with the 4 remaining 10 percent probably to come out of the airport 5 budget. So, we'll get a business plan underway sometime next 6 year, I would imagine. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Anything else? 8 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I don't know. 9 Commissioner's smiling; I'm not sure why. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I was just going to quote Sam. 11 His newest thing is, "Yee-haw!" (Laughter.) Only thing I 12 have is just that anyone who has been on Highway 27 in the 13 past couple weeks will notice a lot of construction, which has 14 almost come to completion. I would recommend not going on 15 Highway 27 to Comfort today or tomorrow, probably. But what 16 it is all about is putting the turn lane in at Lane Valley. 17 They've -- the new paving was put in, and they should be 18 striping it today and tomorrow. And it'll add greatly to the 19 safety of that stretch of the highway. So, I'm glad; just 20 want to report that that project's almost done, TexDOT 21 project. And -- 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I was -- I took that route a 23 couple weeks ago, and I think that is -- right in the area of 24 Lane Valley is the only area on that entire highway that 25 there's a turn lane. 10-23-06 9 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That'll take care of the 2 Commissioner's big rigs. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Commissioner's -- all of his 4 big rigs. 5 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Big rigs turning into Lane 6 Valley. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'd point out, the reason for 8 that intersection was it's listed in the top 10 most dangerous 9 intersections in rural Texas by TexDOT, and that's when TexDOT 10 put it on a priority fast track to put that turn lane in, and 11 as a result of McBryde Oil -- there's a couple. Really, two 12 wrecks that were real -- three pretty bad ones right there 13 within about a two-year period. One, McBryde Oil's truck was 14 broadsided as it was coming out of Lane Valley by a motor 15 home, and obviously, when you have a gasoline truck hit by a 16 motor home, it's not a good situation. Luckily, it didn't 17 explode, but it did a lot of damage. I think one person might 18 have been killed in that wreck in the motor home. Shortly 19 after that, there was another person pulling out that got hit, 20 and I believe there was a fatality in that wreck as well. And 21 then right after that, there was an older gentleman from 22 Kerrville, one of my constituents, who was rear-ended as he -- 23 just because he was -- he was driving rather slow on the 24 shoulder. And Commissioner Baldwin laughs; I knew who it was 25 'cause I recognized the bumper in the ditch. And -- Chester 10-23-06 10 1 Spenrath. But he was, fortunately, not hurt bad. But, 2 anyway, that was the reason for this turn lane. There was 3 just a -- a lot of very serious wrecks, and in a very short 4 period of time, and I guess that gets TexDOT's attention. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Anything else? 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's it. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner 4? That's right, you've 8 already passed. Okay, let's get down to business, folks. 9 First item on the agenda; consider, discuss, take appropriate 10 action on time frame for bid process. I'm not sure what bid 11 process we're talking about, but let's hear from Mr. Bond. 12 I'm sure -- 13 MR. BOND: Hopefully I can explain it to you. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: All right, sir. 15 MR. BOND: It's time to bid the pest control for the 16 county once again. And since we do a couple other large 17 places like the county, they have a bid structure where they 18 offer the bid every three to five years -- three or five 19 years, and I'd just like you to give consideration to doing 20 that. We're not the -- the principal for pest control right 21 now, but hopefully we will be when the new bid is opened. But 22 it -- and you might put an escalation clause in there, which 23 is rather easy to do, I believe, and just what percentage 24 whoever's bidding would increase everyone for two or three to 25 five years. So, that's -- that's what I would recommend. It 10-23-06 11 1 might simplify things for the County, and also for whoever's 2 making the bid to do it, 'cause it's kind of a pain in the 3 neck if we revisit every one of the sites that we bid on, and 4 so it takes some time do that. And if you have an escalation 5 clause in it, it should be sufficient to cover any 6 frugalities, and it's all part of the bid. A couple other 7 things. We try to be really active in the community -- 8 Lighting Committee, Rotary, Kiwanis -- in our company, and so 9 some of those things we would hope might be considered when we 10 -- when do you opening of the bids. I'm not sure that's 11 possible, but if it is possible, we'd like to have that 12 consideration. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Any member of the Court have any 14 questions for Mr. Bond? 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I have a question for our County 16 Attorney. This issue comes up frequently. We have taken the 17 policy on most issues of not doing multi-year bids, just 18 'cause of obligating -- I guess you can put -- we can put a 19 provision in there that it does not commit future budgets. Is 20 there any problem with doing what he's asking, as long as you 21 put in that clause? 22 MR. EMERSON: As long as you limit it with the 23 fact that so long as currently budgeted money is for the 24 contract, -- 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay, thank you. 10-23-06 12 1 MR. EMERSON: -- you're fine. 2 MR. BOND: Thank you. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, sir. Any member of the 4 Court have anything they wish to offer with regard to that 5 particular agenda item? Let's move, then, to Item 2; 6 consider, discuss, and take appropriate action on replacing 7 the current internet service provider with Bee Creek 8 Communications Incorporated at the West Kerr Annex, and 9 authorize County Judge to sign contract for the purchase of 10 same. Mr. Trolinger? 11 MR. TROLINGER: Good morning. The service was 12 actually started as of last week; there was an emergency, and 13 Bee Creek agreed to come out and install without a contract in 14 place. I just wanted to make that note. The contract had 15 four notes from the County Attorney, all of which have been 16 agreed to by Bee Creek to be written in on this contract, and 17 the service has been in place at the Ingram City Marshal and 18 successfully running two or three months, so I'm pleased with 19 their service there. 20 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: What's the cost of our 21 current service? 22 MR. TROLINGER: $69 per month. 23 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Current? 24 MR. TROLINGER: Yes, sir. 25 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Previous? 10-23-06 13 1 MR. TROLINGER: Same. 2 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: We're not changing 3 suppliers? 4 MR. TROLINGER: We're changing suppliers. The price 5 remains the same. 6 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Okay. 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: The price of the previous 8 supplier was the same? 9 MR. TROLINGER: Yes. 10 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Why are we changing? 11 MR. TROLINGER: Because the old service provider was 12 unreliable. 13 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: I spoke to Judge Ragsdale; 14 he says this is the best thing since sliced bread, so I move 15 that we approve it. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for approval 18 of the agenda item. Any question or discussion? 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We like sliced bread a lot. 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yeah. Particularly with 21 barbecue on it, right? 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: All in favor of the motion, signify 24 by raising your right hand. 25 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 10-23-06 14 1 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 2 (No response.) 3 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. Let's move 4 to Item 3; consider, discuss, and take appropriate action on 5 bids for the three exit doors in the indoor arena. 6 Mr. Bollier? 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Let me introduce this, 8 Judge. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay, fine. 10 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: On an earlier occasion this 11 year, the president of the Hill Country District Junior 12 Livestock Show spoke with me about a fire safety problem -- 13 public safety problem in the arena, and because all we have 14 are the big overhead doors, and if there was ever a fire in 15 there, young people or other or adults trying to get out would 16 have a difficult time getting out, trying to raise those 17 overhead doors, and he believed it was a fire problem. About 18 two weeks ago, Commissioner Letz and I visited with the Hill 19 Country District Junior Livestock Show people at a board of 20 director's meeting, and at the conclusion of our discussions, 21 they brought this back up again. So, I asked Mr. Bollier if 22 he would get some bids for installing doors with push-bar 23 handles to get out from inside, what that would take to 24 correct that public safety problem, and that's the reason for 25 this being on the agenda. 10-23-06 15 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Is this a budgeted item? 2 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I don't know; let's find 3 out. I don't know what he's got in his budget. Mr. Bollier? 4 MR. BOLLIER: I -- 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Was this issue talked about 6 when we built the budget? 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: No, it was not. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. All right. It's not a 9 budgeted item, then. 10 MR. BOLLIER: At this time -- 11 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: He has major repairs in his 12 budget, and this could fall under that. 13 MR. BOLLIER: Under Major Repairs, I believe I have 14 $1,200 in Major Repairs. 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: 1,200? 16 MR. BOLLIER: Yes, sir. 17 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Well, that won't cover it. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: This is something that I think, 19 from a fire standpoint, it does need to be done. My 20 understanding from talking with the folks is that we're -- 21 if -- without this, the fire marshal could shut down any 22 event, basically, if it wanted to. I mean, I don't know what 23 it would bar a whole lot in there, but it's one of those 24 public safety issues that we need -- 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Need to address. Tommy, 10-23-06 16 1 where do we have money? 2 MR. TOMLINSON: Well, I think the last -- the last 3 court, you -- your order was to consolidate Maintenance into 4 one department, and there's -- I think there's -- I don't 5 remember the exact amount, but I think there's 30,000, 40,000 6 in major repairs combined, county-wide. So, I would say -- 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Out of that item? 8 MR. TOMLINSON: -- take it out of that line item and 9 move it over to the -- 10 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That's kind of what I 11 thought. 12 MR. TOMLINSON: Do a budget amendment to move it to 13 the Ag Barn budget, the amount necessary to -- to satisfy the 14 contract. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Mr. Bollier, are you -- you 16 think these bids are reasonable, in your mind? I mean, they 17 look a little high, but it's not an easy job. 18 MR. BOLLIER: Well, the one that I got there from 19 Foxworth, if you'll look on there, that does not include the 20 guardrails and the concrete. And if you'll look over on Omega 21 Builders, in the bid that they gave us, it does include the 22 concrete and the guardrails, and -- 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Ramps. 24 MR. BOLLIER: -- and all of that. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean, clearly, looks like 10-23-06 17 1 Omega's the best bid. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 3 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Because it does have the -- 4 has the concrete, and gets us over the threshold. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's also cheaper. 6 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Did we solicit bids? I 7 don't remember seeing this. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: It was a short-fuse item because of 9 the time frame in trying to get it in before January. And -- 10 and Mr. Bollier, I -- was there any publication, other than 11 just telephone solicitation and contact with potential 12 bidders? 13 MR. BOLLIER: Yes, sir, that's all I -- I did. And 14 then they showed up at the Ag Barn, and I showed them the work 15 that we needed done. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Approximately how many did you 17 contact to solicit bids? 18 MR. BOLLIER: Nine. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. And you got two bids? 20 MR. BOLLIER: Yes, sir. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. Okay. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: The only thing I think that 23 we need to do here is transfer the full amount of the bid, and 24 leave the 1,200 there in that budget. 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Well, what do we have, 10-23-06 18 1 1,200? Do we have 30,000? 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Different line items. 3 MR. TOMLINSON: 1,200 in the Ag Barn budget. 4 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. But in general, in 5 the major repairs for maintenance, we have the other? I move 6 approval of the item, with $5,404.66 to be taken out of the 7 Major Repairs line item. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second -- second, maybe. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made -- oh. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The question is, Rex, can we -- 11 since this came in at over $5,000, doesn't it require a formal 12 bid process? Or -- 13 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: It's 25,000. 14 MR. EMERSON: 25,000. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 25,000? Okay. Then I don't 16 have -- then I'm -- 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Second is solid? 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second's solid. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. We have a motion and a second. 20 Any further question or discussion on the motion? All in 21 favor of the motion, signify by raising your right hand. 22 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 23 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 24 (No response.) 25 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion carries. You can notify 10-23-06 19 1 Omega, I guess it is, that we're going to get on with it. 2 MR. BOLLIER: Yes, sir. Thank you, sir. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Good job, Tim. 5 MR. BOLLIER: Thank you, sir. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Let's move to Item 4; consider, 7 discuss, and take appropriate action on the 2006-2007 payroll 8 step and grade and position schedule corrections. 9 Mr. Tomlinson? Ms. Hyde? 10 MS. HYDE: Good morning. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Good morning. 12 (Ms. Hyde handed up binders to the Court.) 13 MS. HYDE: The colors don't mean anything; they were 14 just what I could find. 15 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Well, I like that. Let's 16 not buy new covers if we don't have to. 17 MS. HYDE: I wanted to thank you for the opportunity 18 to present to the Court a revised 2006-2007 step and grade and 19 position schedule. Due to some discovered errors in the step 20 and grade and the position schedule, I respectfully request 21 your approval to the corrections presented. Using these as a 22 new baseline, I will also request that the elected officials 23 and department heads review this one more time to insure 24 accuracy so that, going forward, our payroll will be correct 25 and our employees get paid correctly on a bimonthly basis. 10-23-06 20 1 If you guys would open up your books, please, and go 2 to the first tab, you'll see the step and grade along with a 3 position schedule that I was given to use for payroll out of 4 the 2006-2007 county budget. At that point, we were told to 5 use the position schedule and pay personnel accordingly. As 6 we got going and got about 90 percent done with payroll, we 7 began looking at some items that didn't appear to be 8 consistent, and that is how much people were being paid. I 9 went back to the step and grade and looked at the step and 10 grade. So, if you guys would look at Step 12 on Pay Grade 12, 11 on the very first page and come down to your left to 12.5, 11, 12 13, 10, and just continue down, you'll see that those numbers 13 change. In a step and grade, those numbers should be 14 consistent. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Would you explain that again, please? 16 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: One more time. 17 MS. HYDE: If you go to Grade 12 -- 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yeah. 19 MS. HYDE: -- Step 12, you'll see that the 20 semimonthly amount is $1,069.68. 21 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Right. 22 MS. HYDE: If you go to 12.5, Step 11, semimonthly, 23 it's now $1,069.67. If you go down to step -- excuse me, 24 Grade 13, Step 10, it dropped again to 1,069.65. Does 25 everyone see what I'm showing? 10-23-06 21 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It went up on 14. 2 MS. HYDE: Right. If you go down to 14 and go down 3 throughout, they go up and down, and it just depends. This is 4 all due to calculations, and they can go up a few pennies and 5 go down a few pennies. But if we post this for employees to 6 look at, that doesn't help the employees when they look at 7 this and they see that they're either being shorted, in their 8 minds, a penny, two pennies, five pennies, seven pennies, and 9 some of these get worse as they go up the position schedule. 10 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: The total impact of these 11 irregularities, is it very small? 12 MS. HYDE: It's approximately .5 of a percent of the 13 total line item. So, this is what our payroll began to be on. 14 If you go to the second tab, after we found this error, I 15 requested an updated step and grade schedule. It's dated 16 10/4. We had to go back, redo payroll, to use this step and 17 grade pay for the personnel. At this point, it's already 18 10/11. We had to get payroll out, so we used this one, along 19 with updating the position schedule to give us a baseline. As 20 you can see, they still change. This one also included a 21 4.2 percent COLA versus a 4.21 percent COLA. If you go to 22 Tab 3 -- 23 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Where do we get -- I know 24 about the 4.2. What's the 4.21? 25 MS. HYDE: We were told it was 4.21. 10-23-06 22 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: By who? 2 MR. TOMLINSON: That's what I understood. That's 3 the way -- 4 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: 4.2. 5 MR. TOMLINSON: That was the -- what the -- that was 6 the last number that I heard that was -- was the Consumer 7 Price Index. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: The court order, to my recollection, 9 was 4.2 that we adopted. 10 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That's correct. 11 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: That's correct. 12 MS. HYDE: If you go to the fourth tab, your last 13 tab, this is what I'm presenting and asking for your approval 14 at this point. 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Fourth tab? Tab 4? 16 MS. HYDE: Yes, sir. And they'll be different 17 colors, so I can't tell you the color to go to, but at the 18 bottom it should say, "Revised 10/18 of '06." This one is 19 locked. I revised it with Mr. Trolinger's help, and then 20 locked it down. If you go to Pay Grade 12, Step 12, the 21 employee will receive 1,114.71. That includes a 4.21 COLA, so 22 if you want me to take it back down to 4.2, I'll need to 23 modify it. But if you go down to 12.5, 13, 13.5, you know, 24 those numbers match all the way down. All employees can see 25 that it's consistent. 10-23-06 23 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Is it going to be consistent 2 if you take it back down to 4.2? 3 MS. HYDE: I'll have to make it consistent. 4 MR. TROLINGER: Yes, because the -- the spreadsheet 5 now works off one beginning number, and once that's modified, 6 they all fall below. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: And that percentage increase will be 8 consistent all the way through the schedule? There won't be 9 any compounding as we get out -- 10 MS. HYDE: No, sir. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: -- to the later steps? 12 MS. HYDE: As we went back through there, we found 13 some errors in the macros. But Mr. Tomlinson is right; it was 14 4.21 that was the COLA. So -- although you approved 4.2, 4.21 15 was the COLA. 16 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Well, we're stuck with 4.2 17 unless we do something different. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Mm-hmm. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think the confusion may be 20 that we, by a previous court order, said we were going to set 21 -- do the COLA based on the C.P.I., but I don't think that 22 meant it was going to be the C.P.I. exactly; it meant that 23 we're basing our decision on 4.2, is what I believe the 24 discussion was. 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That's correct. 10-23-06 24 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, we'll have a 10/23 revision. 2 MS. HYDE: Behind that is also the position 3 schedule, and we've updated that as well. You can see in the 4 notes, it also shows the changes so that we can keep up with 5 them on what we've done to personnel, so that we can pass this 6 out to all elected officials and department heads so that they 7 can review it, insure that it's accurate and correct, and it 8 also has our notes for any errors or deviations from the 9 position schedule. 10 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Well, this is also based on 11 4.21 instead of 4.20? 12 MS. HYDE: Yes, sir. 13 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Do you want to approve 14 these changes based on it being recalculated at 4.2, or do you 15 want to see a 4.2 recalculation before you approve it? 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Ms. Hyde mentioned that she wanted to 17 get these out to every elected official and department head 18 one more time and give them one last opportunity to raise 19 their hand before any errors -- perceived errors, questions or 20 whatever. 21 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Let's rerun it at 4.2 and 22 then get it out to everybody. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: That's kind of what I'm thinking, 24 before we come back and finally nail it. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We'll be here next Monday, 10-23-06 25 1 Judge. We can formally adopt it next Monday when we're here 2 to pay bills. Don't we have a special meeting next Monday? I 3 believe so. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: That's what the Auditor tells us. 5 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yes, we do, to pay bills the 6 end of the month. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That way, we can get it adopted 8 prior to the payroll period. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Is that at 9:00 or 10:00? 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think it's at 10:00, my 11 recollection. But it doesn't make any difference to me. 12 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I thought it was 9:00, 13 because you got another meeting at 10:00. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 15 MS. HYDE: The 9th or the 10th? 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: At 9:00. 17 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: 9 a.m. 18 MS. HYDE: 9 a.m. on the 9th? 19 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Next Monday. 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Ms. Hyde, does the position 21 schedule that you have revised, does that include all these 22 payroll adjustments that you have on a separate sheet? 23 MS. HYDE: Mm-hmm. Yes, sir, they do. These are 24 all payroll adjustments. 25 (Discussion off the record.) 10-23-06 26 1 MS. HYDE: The payroll has to be completed this week 2 by Wednesday. That will give Ms. Nemec enough time to cut 3 checks and the County Auditor do the G.L. process. So... 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I would do it based on 4.2. 5 MS. HYDE: 4.2? 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Mm-hmm. 7 MS. HYDE: These payroll adjustments, there are no 8 names on them; they only have departments, and it tells about 9 the overpayments or underpayments. And I think that, based 10 upon the step and grade and the position schedule, that that 11 is now understood why there's some errors. We do have one 12 that we would need to -- I would respectfully submit we go 13 into executive session to discuss on Roads and Bridges. 14 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: What are you looking at? 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Just inside the front cover. 16 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Oh. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Some of these are pretty 18 significant changes. 19 MS. HYDE: Yes, sir. 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yes, indeed. 21 MS. HYDE: There were some that were in the position 22 schedule incorrectly, so their position went up or down. 23 There are multiples that way. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Have the employees been made 25 aware of this adjustment? 10-23-06 27 1 MS. HYDE: The employees -- the employees know that 2 these are adjustments; however, most of these, if they're 3 position changes, they need to be brought before the Court and 4 get the Court's permission. There is another item on the 5 agenda for the District Clerk; she wants to discuss hers with 6 y'all in an executive session, and I think that at this point, 7 it would be easier if we went to executive session so that we 8 could name personnel items. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I would agree. I think the 10 Sheriff has an item, too. Don't you have an item? 11 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: It does -- mine is only 12 executive session if it was needed. It doesn't pertain to 13 anything she's doing. I'm doing some internal restructuring 14 in the department that won't affect what's she's doing. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Any member of the Court have anything 16 further to offer at this time with regard to this agenda item? 17 I think we're going to come back to some executive sessions. 18 We try and do those at the tail end of the agenda generally, 19 and that's probably where we're going to address these so you 20 might plan on kind of being around for that, okay? 21 MS. HYDE: Thank you. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you. Let's move to the next 23 agenda item. Consider, discuss, and approve Kerr County 24 Community Plan for '06-'07 and adopt resolution for submission 25 to Alamo Area Council of Governments. Ms. Lavender? 10-23-06 28 1 MS. LAVENDER: How are you? Good morning. What I 2 gave you just a minute ago is kind of a summary of the 42-page 3 document that was put together called the Kerr County 4 Community Plan for 2006-2007. As most of you know that have 5 been on the Court, been around, this community plan is sent to 6 AACOG, to the Alamo Area Council of Governments. Sent on an 7 annual basis, and it's from this plan that different agencies, 8 both government and private entities, apply for grants, 9 federal and state grants through AACOG. We expanded the plan 10 a little bit this year, did some things a little different 11 from what we've done before. Not because we thought CJAC, the 12 Criminal Justice Advisory Committee, would be able to help us 13 get funding for them, but just to address them as community 14 issues and open doors for -- perhaps for some other grant 15 opportunities through other agencies, both state, federal, and 16 perhaps some private foundation grants. And I put together 17 this little summary for you. 18 There's two or three things on here that I'd really 19 like to take just about 30 seconds each to point out to you, 20 because I think they're real important. We had about 48 21 people from the -- from the community who participated this 22 year in the community planning process, and we added a group 23 this year that we had not had before, and that's our Health 24 and Family deal. And that's not a CJAC issue as far as grants 25 are concerned, basically, but health and family has a whole 10-23-06 29 1 lot to do with criminal activity in this community and every 2 other community in the United States, and so that's the reason 3 that we added it. And we added it because people on the 4 committee felt like it was something important that we needed 5 to address as a community. Let me just hit a couple of 6 highlights on this. 7 On the juvenile issues, there's a couple of things 8 that you need to recognize, I think, as the body that controls 9 government in Kerr County. One is the need for a juvenile 10 probation officer to deal with children who have mental health 11 and some mental retardation problems. Unfortunately, that's 12 not just a juvenile issue; it's also an adult issue in this 13 community. And we can, through supporting this plan, help our 14 Juvenile Probation Department apply for a grant that's going 15 to provide that kind of probation officer. That person will 16 be paired with a TCOMI M.H.M.R. caseworker, and will be solely 17 responsible for working with children who have those issues. 18 The other thing in the juvenile issue that you may be aware of 19 is the Doyle School Community Center has a terrific program 20 going over there through the Kerrville School District, and a 21 lot of other organizations -- Greystone School out at 22 Schreiner has joined with them to do after-school mentoring 23 and other projects. And there are some safe and drug-free 24 schools funding, perhaps through the criminal justice area, 25 that they will qualify for to help them with their program. 10-23-06 30 1 Under Victims Services, basically, the first one is 2 to continue what we are doing; the Victims Services 3 Coordinator position, what CAP and Hill Country Crisis Council 4 and K'Star and the SANE nurse program and all of those are to 5 continue to work with victims in the community. We would like 6 to see a reinstatement of the funding for our V.A.W.A. grant 7 that we had last year. We have not talked about this. We'll 8 come back to the Court if we decide to try again, but the need 9 for the special prosecutor for crimes against women was 10 evident. We -- we did 50 percent more than what we committed 11 in the grant application, and yet it was not refunded, so 12 we're hoping maybe we'll find out exactly why not, and if we 13 opt to go with that, then another application will be made for 14 the grant for next year. 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That's a Governor's office 16 grant? 17 MS. LAVENDER: Well, it's a federal grant through 18 the Governor's office, yes, sir. The other thing is Number 4 19 under Victims Services, and if you'll look, Number 4 on 20 Victims Services and Number 5 under Health and Family have 21 kind of a statement that go with both of those. Housing for 22 people who are crime victims, and housing for people who are 23 homeless, and housing for some children in this community is 24 very limited. A statistic for you; there's 72 Section 8 25 housing units in a community that now has almost 47,000 people 10-23-06 31 1 here. That's 72 families that can get federal help to pay 2 their rent, and that's not very many. So, what it's doing to 3 us, and it's doing it in the victim's services too, is it's 4 filling up the shelter. And the shelter doesn't take people 5 for a week or two weeks; the shelter has people that have been 6 there four months and five months. And there are people that 7 leave the shelter and then, in a week or so, are back in the 8 shelter for one reason or another. And that's true with the 9 Salvation Army shelter, and it's also true through the Hill 10 Country Crisis shelter. 11 One thing the community needs to look at is an 12 intermediate shelter situation for victims of crime, where 13 they don't need the lock-down situation, but they need some 14 kind of support, counseling, and something to help these 15 people. The ladies at Hill Country Crisis Council are very 16 concerned about the situation, where particularly women and 17 children are going back into abusive situations because they 18 have no place else to go. 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Do you have any statistics 20 as to how many victims of crime are recipients of Section 8 21 housing vouchers currently? 22 MS. LAVENDER: Quite a few of them. 23 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Currently in Kerr County? 24 MS. LAVENDER: Yes. And there's a waiting list of 25 probably two and a half -- two to two and a half years for 10-23-06 32 1 Section 8 housing right now. And Habitat for Humanity builds 2 six or seven houses a year. The -- the City's Home 3 Opportunity Board housing is pretty much built out, so it's 4 really difficult. There is a new apartment complex going in 5 over on Meeker Road that I understand is going to be Section 8 6 housing, but it's a very limited field of interest out there. 7 And the Law Enforcement and Public Safety, all of our Homeland 8 Security and/or law enforcement people -- and we split these 9 into two different groups this year -- are concerned about 10 being able to talk to each other on the radio, the 11 interoperability of their radio systems and being able to 12 share information by computer, and so that's the Number 1 and 13 Number 2 issues. The third one is one I wanted to address 14 real briefly, and that's -- 15 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: I've got a question on 16 that. 17 MS. LAVENDER: Yes, sir? 18 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: The interoperability of 19 communications. I thought we were there. 20 MS. LAVENDER: We're not, not with firemen and not 21 with -- not on a consistent, day-by-day, 24-hour-a-day basis 22 yet. If the Sheriff knows something I don't know and the 23 committee didn't know... 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What -- I mean, we have the 25 capability, but we're not there. 10-23-06 33 1 MS. LAVENDER: We don't have the equipment. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We don't have the -- 3 MS. LAVENDER: Right equipment. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- walkie-talkies, the 5 equipment. 6 MS. LAVENDER: Exactly. And that's what they're 7 talking about, is equipment issues. The other one is the 8 School Resource Officer. I don't know whether you all are 9 familiar with the School Resource Officer programs or not, but 10 -- but Rusty had a grant that provided School Resource 11 Officers, a federal grant. It was three years, and then the 12 fourth year you funded it. And then it fell by the wayside, 13 and the City has an S.R.O. officer at the Kerrville School 14 District. Sherry James works both D.A.R.E. and as a type of 15 School Resource Officer in the county. But Ingram now, since 16 they annexed the Ingram School District out there on 39, the 17 secondary campuses, they don't have the money to put a School 18 Resource Officer in those campuses, and so Marshal Zachary is 19 very interested in looking at some way to fund this, an S.R.O. 20 for the Ingram secondary campuses, because the volume of 21 calls -- and his department's pretty limited in size and in 22 funding. And so that's something we're probably going to be 23 back to -- to ask for permission to do a grant on. 24 Homeland Security, Reverse 911. If the river comes 25 up, we can call you and say you are -- you know, the river's 10-23-06 34 1 coming up, and I think Bill Amerine has spoken to you about 2 that before. And then Number 3 under Homeland Security is 3 kind of interesting. This is the CERT/CARRT program, and you 4 all know -- 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Christine. 6 MS. LAVENDER: Christine McIntyre -- I couldn't come 7 up with the first name -- in the County Attorney's office is 8 very involved in this. And I think we saw on television about 9 a year ago down in New Orleans the fact that a lot of people 10 were unwilling to leave their homes because nobody could take 11 their dogs and cats and whatever with them, and that's what 12 this speaks to, is a program by which, if we have to evacuate 13 people, that we have a provision for the animals to be cared 14 for too, because people don't like it. Health and Family, you 15 can read through those. I think the most startling thing 16 about it as you read the statistics in the big report is how 17 many people are being treated in Kerr County for sexually 18 transmitted diseases, and the fact that the clinic that was 19 here that worked with those people and those kind of things 20 has closed, and so the funding -- the state funding was -- has 21 dried up, and it's a problem. And the other thing is the 22 mental health issues. Do any of you have any questions at all 23 about it? 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: On that very one that you 25 were just talking about, Health and Family, Number 2 -- 10-23-06 35 1 MS. LAVENDER: Mm-hmm. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: -- the last words are, 3 "hypertension plus education and counseling." 4 MS. LAVENDER: About those things. If you're 5 diagnosed with diabetes or hypertension or couns -- I mean 6 cancer, the clinic that was here before would -- they had 7 group sessions and did a lot of counseling and education on 8 those issues. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Does that include abortion 10 counseling? 11 MS. LAVENDER: In that clinic? You know, I don't 12 know. I don't have any idea. I know they do, you know, 13 family planning, but I'm not sure that that's -- 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Which most of the time means 15 abortion. 16 MS. LAVENDER: I'm not aware of that. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. That's the way it -- 18 what it means nationwide, anyway. Probably not here, of 19 course. 20 MS. LAVENDER: Well, the clinic that was open here 21 was a -- a state-funded clinic, so I doubt that that was a -- 22 because I think there's some limitations on funding about 23 that. I don't know. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And then Health and Family, 25 Number 5 that you covered, the homeless and transient 10-23-06 36 1 individuals. 2 MS. LAVENDER: Mm-hmm. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We want to provide homes for 4 these people? 5 MS. LAVENDER: No. No, what we're looking at is 6 additional shelter space. You know, the Salvation Army just 7 got this huge grant to build an activity center. Have they 8 been to you all and talked to you all about that? This will 9 be a premier facility. When they do it, it will be a 10 gymnasium with a swimming pool and very family-oriented type 11 thing, but no money for a shelter. The -- the Salvation Army 12 has 20 beds for men and 8 for women, and they're full almost 13 every night. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Mm-hmm. 15 MS. LAVENDER: And, no, I don't think you need to 16 provide permanent homes for people, but you do need -- and I 17 think law enforcement deals with it too, when you find people, 18 particularly in the wintertime, who need just a place to stay 19 the night. And if the Salvation Army's full, there's not much 20 place for them to go. And that was what we were addressing, 21 was the -- the need just for temporary housing. Certainly, we 22 don't want to encourage them to stay. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You know, I just find it hard 24 to feel sorry for those people that choose to be transients. 25 I -- 10-23-06 37 1 MS. LAVENDER: But many of those people are also 2 people who are dealing with mental health issues. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I understand that. 4 MS. LAVENDER: And the mental health system has let 5 them out of the facilities they were in, and they're on the 6 street. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What's the -- the agenda item is 8 discuss and approve the community plan. What happens with the 9 -- with the approved plan? 10 MS. LAVENDER: The approved plan is sent to AACOG, 11 and it's posted on their web site. All the counties in AACOG 12 have to do one. I guess all the counties in any COG in the 13 state of Texas do the plan. Then they post it, and then the 14 plan itself is used for a basis for those of us that do 15 grants. And we say, you know, the -- like the Victims 16 Assistance Coordinator is Priority 1 under the Victims 17 Services portion of the Kerr County Community Plan in our 18 presentation, and that's really all there is. Our reason for 19 adding these and separating and kind of restructuring it this 20 year was to kind of open up some more avenues, particularly 21 for some of these nonprofits in town to look at some funding. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Rosa? 23 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: If it's not in the plan, 24 likely it won't score very high. 25 MS. LAVENDER: Right, exactly. You get -- you get 10-23-06 38 1 points on the score sheet for -- for it being in the plan, and 2 where it is in the plan. If it's Number 1 in the plan, it's a 3 different position than it would be if it were Number 5. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: But with any of these grants, those 5 are individually brought before the Court, if Kerr County is 6 the applicant, and we have the decision whether or not to 7 approve application for a particular grant. This doesn't 8 automatically give -- we're not giving authority to make 9 application for any grants in that plan. 10 MS. LAVENDER: Right. Because, as with some of the 11 grants, there's matching funds and stuff, and you're not going 12 to commit yourself to pay anybody's matching funds, other than 13 your county. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But the other entities wouldn't 15 come to us. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: No. 17 MS. LAVENDER: No. No. Ingram could apply for one 18 themselves. It's -- any kind of government entity can apply. 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: But what this does, though, 20 it gives them -- gives them a better opportunity, or better -- 21 MS. LAVENDER: Right, exactly. 22 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: -- chance to score higher if 23 it's included in the plan. 24 MS. LAVENDER: Exactly. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Rosa, you may have talked 10-23-06 39 1 about this and I just missed it. Is there anything in this 2 plan that is brand-new to the county-wide plan? 3 MS. LAVENDER: The Health and Family. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That whole -- 5 MR. ODOM: The whole section of Health and Family. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That whole section. 7 MS. LAVENDER: Is all new. And then we separated 8 Law Enforcement and Homeland Security into two different 9 entities instead of putting those together. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Very wise. 11 MS. LAVENDER: So that they would -- I think it 12 stands out. Because let's say that -- that Rusty wants to 13 apply, or somebody else wants to -- the volunteer fire -- 14 let's say the volunteer fire departments want to apply for 15 radio equipment to create this interoperability. Here we've 16 got two different sections of our county -- our community plan 17 that address the communications needs of emergency service 18 providers. 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: It's a far better way to do 20 it. 21 MS. LAVENDER: Thank you. 22 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: To separate the two. 23 MS. LAVENDER: Thank you. Well, Stephen Ramirez 24 from AACOG came and helped us, kind of guided us through all 25 of this, and I'm kind of happy with it now that we've gotten 10-23-06 40 1 it done. It -- it's a good -- we are going to go back and add 2 the Salvation Army clinic to the list under medical services. 3 I just didn't get them in there, but I'm going to go back and 4 add them before I send it to AACOG. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Judge, I move we approve the 6 Kerr County Community Plan for 2006 and '07, and adopt the 7 resolution that is included in our packets. 8 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Second. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for approval 10 of the agenda item. Any question or discussion? I know 11 Ms. Lavender has worked long and hard on this plan. For a 12 number of years, we had a -- what -- we had a good plan, and 13 it had -- it had been kind of massaged and refined. But this 14 year, she stepped out and did a whole lot of additional work 15 on it, and as she's indicated, she's created some whole new 16 sections here to try and make it more susceptible to 17 availability of funds under the plan. 18 MS. LAVENDER: And this was kind of like writing a 19 curriculum guide, which I have a little experience in, too. 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Good show. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Any other -- 22 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: This is good work, and 23 it's -- 24 MS. LAVENDER: Thank you. 25 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: You can see -- this 10-23-06 41 1 one-page summary of what the needs are for Kerr County is 2 good. 3 MS. LAVENDER: Thank you. 4 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: The motion doesn't commit 5 Kerr County government to spend any funds? 6 JUDGE TINLEY: No, sir. 7 MS. LAVENDER: Does not. 8 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: No. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Any other questions or comments on 10 the motion? 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Just -- one other comment would 12 be is that it is a good snapshot of this portion of our 13 community, and I think it's good to get it, you know, as well 14 circulated as possible, 'cause it does -- I mean, reading 15 through it and all the statistics, it kind of it stresses 16 the -- 17 MS. LAVENDER: Capacity. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- the other -- I mean, a 19 different side of Kerrville and Kerr County than usually get 20 presented. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Any other questions or comments? All 22 in favor of the pending motion, signify by raising your right 23 hand. 24 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 25 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 10-23-06 42 1 (No response.) 2 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. We'll move 3 to Item 6; consider, discuss, and take appropriate action to 4 authorize participation of Kerr County Victims Services 5 Department in the Criminal Justice Center Internship Program 6 at Sam Houston State University. Ms. Lavender. 7 MS. LAVENDER: This request came out of a workshop 8 that I went to in Houston, and at a luncheon one day, I was 9 sitting with a lady who was an instructor at Sam Houston State 10 University in their Criminal Justice Department. And in 11 visiting with her, she found out my background and said to me, 12 "Did you ever have any student teachers?" And I said, "Well, 13 yeah, I did, quite a few of them." And she said, "Would you 14 be interested?" And I said, "Well, send me the paperwork." 15 And what this means is that we would be put on a list at Sam 16 Houston State University of potential organizations willing to 17 host an intern, and it would be a one-semester program. No 18 financial commitment from us at all. She said that they had 19 several students in that program down there -- it's now part 20 of the program, a component part of the program to have this 21 internship in victim services for some of them that are 22 getting degrees, and she said it would give that person an 23 opportunity to do that in our system here. But it would also 24 allow young people who are enrolled in Sam Houston from the 25 hill country to have an internship option here, where they 10-23-06 43 1 could come home and stay with family or friends or whatever 2 during that semester to do the internship. There's no 3 financial obligation for us at all. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Intern with you? 5 MS. LAVENDER: Mm-hmm. And they would be able to do 6 things at Hill Country Crisis Council and Kids Advocacy Place 7 and the Sheriff's Office and wherever else I could work out a 8 time for them to learn. 9 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: They select the intern, and 10 then -- 11 MS. LAVENDER: Yes, they would select the intern and 12 forward that to us. 13 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: They fund it? 14 MS. LAVENDER: Right. 15 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: I move to approve. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for approval 18 of the agenda item. Any question or comment? Question. Do 19 we have any folks that are currently into the program at Sam 20 Houston State from the hill country area? 21 MS. LAVENDER: I have no idea. She seemed to 22 indicate that there was, or she wouldn't have been so 23 interested when she found out where I was from. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 25 MS. LAVENDER: So -- I don't have any names or 10-23-06 44 1 anything like that. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 3 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: My granddaughter is there 4 studying pre-law, but I'm hoping there's still time to change 5 her mind. Maybe she -- criminal justice or something -- 6 anything else. 7 MS. LAVENDER: We'll work on that. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We need to pray about that 9 one. 10 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: I am. 11 MS. LAVENDER: Thank you. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Any other questions or comments? All 13 in favor of 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: That motion does carry. Let's move 18 to Item 7, if we might; consider, discuss, and take 19 appropriate action for the concept of T-H Acres in Precinct 4. 20 MR. ODOM: Good morning. This concept is about T-H 21 Acres. Mr. Hall owns 9.8 acres. He wishes to divide the lot, 22 but plat the only 5-acre lot as a one-lot subdivision called 23 T-H Acres. This will leave him with 4.8 acres, which he hopes 24 to add to an adjoining tract at a later date. My questions to 25 the Court are four: Does one lot constitute a subdivision? 10-23-06 45 1 Our rules says a division of a tract of land into two or more 2 parts. Is he required to show the other tract as part of the 3 subdivision? Should this not be a two-lot subdivision and 4 grant a variance to the size of two-tenths of an acre? Would 5 it not work to have the existing lot with the well, septic, 6 and house as 4.8 acres, and create a 5-acre lot allowing for a 7 well to be drilled? And if the Court allows this one-lot 8 subdivision, there's an existing house with a well and septic 9 and address that fronts on Highway 27. Do we need the 10 signatures of Environmental Health and 911? 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Let me ask you a question 12 about your question. 13 MR. ODOM: All right. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Where did you come up with a 15 .20 acre? 16 MR. ODOM: Well, 10 acres, so if you had a 10-acre 17 tract, he could divide this into two 5-acre tracts; won't be a 18 problem. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We have 9.80? 20 MR. ODOM: You have 9.80. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: He's going to keep 5 -- I 22 assume he's going to keep 5, and then the 4.80 will go into 23 some other -- something. 24 MR. ODOM: Either we don't show it -- 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Where did the .20 come from? 10-23-06 46 1 MR. ODOM: That's the variance for 10 acre. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Oh, I got it. Got it. 3 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Is Mr. Hall here? 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes, he is. 5 MR. ODOM: Yes. 6 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: What -- Travis, what's your 7 thinking about not going ahead and attaching this to the other 8 property now? 9 MR. HALL: I probably will, as soon as I can get my 10 in-laws -- my in-laws own the property next to me. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: That's 4.80? Or are you talking -- 12 MR. HALL: 4.8, yes, sir. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Okay. 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Would it be a significant 15 difference to you if -- if the tract upon which your home and 16 well is situated became the 4.80, leaving 5 to be transferred? 17 MR. ODOM: Or -- or if we did it like that, as I 18 said in 3, can he not have this well that we've already got a 19 situation that it's grandfathered? And then the 5 acres over 20 there could be put a well on? 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Not grandfathered, because he's 22 doing it currently. You can't grandfather something that's -- 23 MR. ODOM: Well, but the point is, you've already 24 got a structure there. 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Well, what's grandfathered 10-23-06 47 1 is the well. 2 MR. ODOM: That's right. 3 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: And so if you reduced it 4 from 5 to 4.80, the well's already in place. 5 MR. ODOM: It's already in place. Septic, 6 everything is in place. 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Right. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Let me ask Mr. Hall. You currently 9 own outright the 5 acres, correct? 10 (Mr. Hall nodded.) 11 JUDGE TINLEY: The 4.8 is owned by your in-laws 12 presently? 13 MR. HALL: No. No, I own the 9.8. 14 MR. ODOM: He owns the whole thing. 15 MR. HALL: I own the whole thing. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Okay. 17 MR. HALL: But I'm selling the 5 acres, is what I 18 had made the deal with, was 5 acres. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: You're selling -- 20 MR. HALL: I did not make the deal with 4.8 acres. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. You're selling the 5; 22 that's why you're keeping the smaller tract? 23 MR. HALL: Yes, sir. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But I think -- you know, I think 25 the problem came in if it's less than -- the 4.8-acre tract 10-23-06 48 1 isn't a problem with the County; it's a problem with 2 Headwaters. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's correct. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, I mean, it's a -- and I 5 think -- you know, I think he's probably in -- I don't know if 6 it's better or worse, but I don't see any problem with leaving 7 a -- a tract smaller than 5 acres outside of a subdivision. I 8 mean, I don't -- I don't know that we can make somebody 9 include it in a subdivision. But I think -- I mean, I think 10 what you're doing right here is what I would think needs to be 11 done. 12 MR. ODOM: I don't have a problem. I just -- we 13 wanted to present all the angles to you. I was hoping we 14 could do the 4.8 and give a variance off -- I mean, it's 15 already there. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, the problem -- 17 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: You're changing -- we need 18 to get Headwaters to sign off on it? 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, Headwaters wouldn't sign 20 off on this. I think Environmental Health does need to sign 21 off on the existing, 'cause that's another state law. That's 22 nothing to do with our Subdivision Rules. 23 MR. ODOM: It's an existing septic system. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Doesn't make any difference. If 25 it's a plan, it's got to be signed off on by -- 10-23-06 49 1 MR. ODOM: And 911. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't know about them. 3 MR. ODOM: It's already got an address. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean, that can -- that issue. 5 But, I mean, it's a different -- it's a whole -- it's T.C.E.Q. 6 that says Environmental Health needs to sign off on septic. 7 It's not a Kerr County rule. 8 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I thought we -- don't we 9 eliminate a problem if the -- the piece that doesn't contain 10 the home and the well, if that were to be made 5, you 11 eliminate a problem for -- with Headwaters? 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Correct. But if the person that 13 Mr. Hall wants to sell the 5 acres to wants 5 acres, he 14 doesn't have the luxury of giving -- 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Right. That, I don't know. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: I don't know where he is in his -- in 17 his sale procedure, but has the 4.8 -- if he retains only 4.8, 18 he potentially has a problem if he subsequently wants to 19 develop that or build a home place on it, or someone else 20 does, of being able to drill a well there if he doesn't have 21 arrangements made for water elsewhere. If, however, he can 22 adjust his sale to move that line where the remaining portion 23 is 5 acres or more instead of 4.8, and he sells off that part 24 that's already got the well on it, the well is grandfathered, 25 and he's in a position to -- to then be able to get himself a 10-23-06 50 1 well under current Headwaters rules with the 5 acres or more. 2 MR. ODOM: That's correct. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 4 MR. ODOM: That's the way I see it. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: See where I'm coming from, Travis? 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The only difference I would make 7 on the -- not really difference; the thing would I add, if -- 8 if at all possible, I thinks it's better from my standpoint to 9 not grant a variance, because that's a -- so it would be 10 better to sub -- if you can get that done, it would be better 11 to make the subdivision the tract without the house, make that 12 a 5-acre tract. That way that's a subdivision, and then the 13 remaining 4.8 is not in a subdivision. Do the same thing 14 you're doing, but kind of -- 15 MR. ODOM: Reverse it. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- reverse it. Because, 17 otherwise, we have to give a variance, and that's something 18 we've been very -- we haven't done, because it starts going 19 down a path. And it doesn't -- I don't think it changes your 20 deal at all. 21 MR. HALL: Can I -- let me ask -- let me ask a 22 question. If the well went out on that 4.8 acres, would the 23 people be able to get another one put on there? 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I would say -- I mean, I can't 25 answer that, because that's a Headwaters question. But I 10-23-06 51 1 think the -- I mean, if it's not in a subdivision, it's just a 2 4 point -- there's lots of tracts around the county that are 3 smaller that are not in a subdivision that have wells, and I 4 would think they'd have a difficult time keeping you from 5 doing that, or that person from doing it. But that's 6 something that -- you know, it's a Headwaters issue. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Probably be more of a deepening 8 issue, would it not? Deepening the existing well? 9 MR. HALL: It's 23 foot deep. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Oh. 11 MR. HALL: A hand-dug well. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Deep enough out there, though. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Good old Johnson Creek. 14 MR. HALL: Yes, sir. 15 MR. ODOM: Mm-hmm. 16 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Travis, will this solution 17 work for you? 18 MR. HALL: Well, in other words, what you're saying 19 is -- is for me to take the 4.8 and sell that, and make -- the 20 5, I keep. Is that what y'all are saying? 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah, and create a plat for the 5, as 22 opposed to a plat for the 4.8. Which it's now the 5 with the 23 improvements on it. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. I mean, I think we're 25 willing to do it either way. This is fine as well. If this 10-23-06 52 1 -- if this makes it easier from a selling standpoint, you can 2 do this, and then you can try to get the .2 acres from your 3 neighbor. That's fine, too. Or in the inverse, if you sell 4 4.8 acres and keep 5 in a subdivision, either way. Whatever 5 works best for you. 6 MR. HALL: Well, I'm set to close on the 1st of 7 November with the 5 acres, and then I was going to deed the 8 4.8 to my in-laws that own 9.8 -- or whatever it is, 9.6. 9 Because if they ever subdivide it, there's -- they couldn't do 10 it either, so that's why I was wanting to put that with 11 theirs. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's fine. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: They own the adjacent property? 14 MR. HALL: Yes, sir. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Oh, okay. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 17 MR. HALL: That's what I'm saying, is my in-laws own 18 the property right next to me. And theirs is not a 10-acre 19 tract either. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: It's 9-something, isn't it? 22 MR. HALL: Sir? 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Isn't it 9-something? 24 MR. HALL: Yes, sir, it's 9.69 or -- you know what 25 it is, Lee? 10-23-06 53 1 MR. VOELKEL: 9.86. 2 MR. HALL: 9.86. And, see, if they did the same 3 thing as what I'm doing, they'd be in the same boat as what 4 we're here for. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, this is fine. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: But they could do two tracts. That 7 way they'd have 13, 14 acres, yeah. 8 MR. HALL: Yes, sir. 9 MR. ODOM: Then we can go just like we're going to 10 proceed. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I see no problem. 12 MR. ODOM: Good enough. Thank y'all. 13 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Do we need to do a court 14 order with contingencies? Or we need to look at it again? 15 MR. ODOM: This is just a concept. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: This is a concept plan. 17 MR. ODOM: Trying to make sure we know which way to 18 go. 19 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Okay. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think with the time coming -- 21 you know, yeah, I think I see no problem with this. This is 22 exactly following our rules. 23 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Okay, good. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Let's move on to -- 25 MR. HALL: Appreciate it. 10-23-06 54 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Ms. Uecker, on Item 8, that's going 2 to be an executive session item, at least for opening 3 purposes, will it not? 4 (Ms. Uecker nodded.) 5 JUDGE TINLEY: We'll defer on that one and come back 6 when we take up our other executive session items. 7 MS. UECKER: All right. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Sheriff, on your Item 9, you note 9 executive session. Are there some parts in open? 10 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Well, there are parts in 11 there -- if the Court wants me to, I can give you a real basic 12 quick deal of what I'm doing. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay, let me go ahead and call Item 14 9; consider, discuss, and take appropriate action regarding 15 possible changes to position schedule. 16 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: All I'm doing is trying to 17 restructure some things and get some workload off some people 18 and spread it evenly throughout other people in the 19 department. I've got, like, a certain lieutenant right now 20 that's working at the house trying to review all offense 21 reports, and it's an overload, and I've got a warrant officer 22 that's overloaded with cars. I've got a training officer 23 that's so overloaded with other duties, as far as patrol 24 schedules and things like that, that he can't get some of his 25 primary duties done, which are very important, because one of 10-23-06 55 1 those is, he's my contact with Dailey Wells on all our radio 2 systems, besides he's also the -- the computer guy on our end 3 of it. And how important that is, he's got a relationship 4 with Dailey Wells where our maintenance contract per year has 5 been cut 25 percent just because he helps them do some stuff. 6 So, they've cut 25 percent off our deal, so it's a big 7 savings. 8 So, what I'm doing is, I'm eliminating one 9 sergeant's position. I'm changing a -- what is a position 10 Grade 27 for one of my lieutenants to a position Grade 26, 11 which is a pay cut for one lieutenant, and he already knows 12 and understands that. And I'm creating a patrol lieutenant to 13 help review all the reports and take care of patrol cars and 14 -- and scheduling, and then what was a position schedule 27 as 15 a lieutenant is a position schedule 27 as -- I guess you have 16 to technically say a captain over all of patrol and 17 investigations. Bottom line, what it amounts to, okay, is at 18 the starting grades for any of my -- my budget process, it's 19 about a -- anywhere from a $1,000 to a $4,000 budget cut in my 20 payroll salary line item, depending on where that person is in 21 -- whoever takes that other position is in his longevity and 22 educational. But it is not a budget increase, and won't be in 23 the future, 'cause I've lowered -- I've lowered a lieutenant, 24 okay, down a grade, and I've kept my kind of new position in 25 the -- the captain-type at the same grade that a lieutenant 10-23-06 56 1 was, and then I brought one patrol sergeant up to a lieutenant 2 and did away with the sergeant. That's what it amounts to. 3 If you want to talk specifics, you have to kind of 4 get into the personnel and why I'm doing it and what I'm 5 doing. I had a lieutenant that was supervising four people, 6 and it didn't make sense to me; didn't make sense to my goal 7 of how we run the department, and I didn't want too many 8 chiefs and not enough indians, and we're just restructuring to 9 make it work better. And we rewrote the -- the job 10 descriptions and did all that to go along with it, which I got 11 a copy if you want to -- 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And all this -- you discussed it 13 with our H.R. Department? 14 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Not the specifics, but we have 15 it all ready for her, because it's not changing things. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But -- 17 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Her position schedule changes 18 she's making in executive session, I don't have any -- I don't 19 have any idea what those are. I haven't seen them, haven't 20 asked her. 21 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: But there need to be some 22 record changes and so forth. 23 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: And I have that for her here, 24 along with the -- the other -- we've redone a new position 25 schedule where this would show for her a copy. She's aware 10-23-06 57 1 this was going on, that it's not changing. But due to the 2 actual position, I felt it needed the Court's approval. Not 3 on my restructuring, but that I'm kind of creating a captain 4 position, doing away with a sergeant position. I'm not adding 5 personnel or anything; it's just how those positions are. I 6 wasn't sure whether y'all wanted to -- 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Bottom line is, you're 8 saving us payroll dollars; is that correct? 9 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yes, sir. 10 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: You're not increasing 11 payroll dollars. 12 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Not increasing payroll dollars. 13 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Then I don't even need to 14 know the specifics. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Correct. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Actually, your -- your, quote, 17 promotion, unquote, is not any increase in step or grade? 18 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: That's right. That's exactly 19 the same. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: The other -- the other personnel 21 schedule actions that you're taking are reducing what were 22 Grade 27; you're lowering those to 26? 23 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: The promotion to the -- kind of 24 considered chief investigator or captain, whatever you want, 25 is a -- is no change at all in position, in grade. The -- the 10-23-06 58 1 promotion from one sergeant to a lieutenant, which normally, 2 under the way it's structured now, would have been a 3 two-step -- you know, two-position grade increase, is now a 4 one. And the current lieutenant is -- one of the current 5 lieutenants is going down one, so it's one up, one down, and 6 the captain stays the same. I had to get even all the people 7 involved. It's an internal structure deal where we just had 8 too many duties on some people that couldn't get them done. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Do you feel it's imperative that you 10 have the Court's approval of this internal reorganization in 11 your department? 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Our H.R. Department says yes. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What was the question? 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Do we need to act on this or 15 need to do this? Can he do this without -- 16 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Because it is a position 17 change, so I can give her a position that she can go back and 18 see court orders, yes, I would like a court order that shows 19 these position changes. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I think it's wise for us to 21 adopt an official -- whether we have the authority or not, 22 just something that's in concrete in the record, et cetera. 23 But what -- especially, what about the job descriptions? Job 24 descriptions. Is that something that we need to officially 25 adopt? 10-23-06 59 1 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I would like for you to. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I think we should. 3 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Because what I have here, if 4 you see -- and we took these straight off our old ones. This 5 is a copy of what my proposed new ones are. The last line at 6 the very top heading, and even the way our old ones were, had 7 an "Approved by" and an approval date from Commissioners Court 8 on those type job descriptions. That's the way they've been 9 all along since I took office. The other benefit to -- to a 10 Commissioners Court approval is -- is to make it easier on any 11 predecessors I have, such as when I took office, there had 12 been a change where a jailer's position had been cut and the 13 salary split between the two nurses, and there was never any 14 court action on that, and it made it a nightmare for me to try 15 and figure out why I didn't have as many jailers as I had been 16 approved to have. So, there are some things like that to 17 where I think it's very advantageous to be -- those are all 18 different. That's one package. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Oh, okay. 20 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: It's not one copy for each. 21 Each one of those is a different job description that needs 22 the approval, sorry. Those are all the job descriptions to 23 change the duties around. 24 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: If I knew how to word it, 25 I'd make a motion, but I don't know how to word it. 10-23-06 60 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is my -- my question -- well, I 2 would agree with what you said, but the other part of it is, 3 do we need to do it now, or do we need to do it when we do the 4 whole position schedule? I mean, you know, do we -- it seems 5 to me what we're doing right now is we're authorizing the 6 Sheriff -- or authorizing H.R. to make the change that the 7 Sheriff has requested, get them in a new position schedule 8 that we're going to readopt next week anyway. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: I'm -- I'm tending to agree with 10 Commissioner Letz here. I think the -- our H.R. Director 11 needs to look at these job descriptions, and to the extent 12 there are any position schedule changes, plug those changes 13 into the overall position schedule along with several others 14 that she's going to do, and bring it to us, I think, next 15 week. 16 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: That's exactly why I'm doing 17 this now, so I know, for those -- you know, the 27's, 26's 18 dropped down, so I can get approval for that, so she knows 19 that that can be adopted in hers. Otherwise, I don't -- I 20 can't tell her on hers -- 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 22 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: -- that, you know, "You need to 23 do it this way," but it hasn't been Court-approved yet. Or, 24 "No, you need to do it this way," but where -- you know, I'm 25 trying to clarify things so it makes it easier. 10-23-06 61 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I make a motion to authorize the 2 Sheriff to make the changes he has requested in his 3 department, and to get with the H.R. Department so they can 4 incorporate these changes into our step and grade and payroll 5 schedule and bring them back to the Court at a future date. 6 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Second. That's what I was 7 going to say. (Laughter.) 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded as 9 indicated. Any question or discussion on the motion? 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: One comment. I think that 11 the Sheriff needs to -- not necessarily us, but provide the 12 other office this plan in writing. Put together where you're 13 moving captains and sergeants and that kind of thing. 14 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: What she will see has already 15 been -- 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Are you refusing to do that? 17 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: No, but what I'm showing you -- 18 and that is -- this is and will be the -- the total new 19 position schedule, including all those changes for the entire 20 Sheriff's Department, okay? And that's where she has to plug 21 in the position. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I can't wait for the Sheriff's 23 schedule to disagree with the H.R. Department's schedule. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I know it. I know it. We're 25 going to have a ball. 10-23-06 62 1 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Believe it or not, I think the 2 H.R. Department -- and I may say this a little bit out of 3 turn. We've had several conversations, and since my 4 department's the largest in the county, I think we have really 5 agreed a whole lot on how some things work, and I don't see us 6 having those problems. 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That's a good thing, 8 Sheriff. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So far. 10 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: If we do, you will hear about 11 it. But -- 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'm sure. 13 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: -- I think were also both 14 hard-headed enough that we -- if we don't agree, we're not 15 going to. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We're fixing to vote on 17 something here, and I want to make sure that it's going to be 18 clear somewhere of what we're voting for. That document that 19 you just waved in front of us, does that explain what we're 20 doing? 21 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: The documents you have, the 22 individual job descriptions, explain what I'm doing. And the 23 overall final outcome of those -- and you would have to adopt 24 this if you're going to look at the actual document for this 25 budget year, because this doesn't just have the position; it 10-23-06 63 1 has who's in it and what the salary is. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't see us making a change 3 right now. I think all we're doing is authorizing the Sheriff 4 to get with H.R., and the change will -- the actual 5 documentation will be at a future court date. 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That's what I wanted to get 7 clarified. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: This is just a concept. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: All right. 11 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Okay. When is that court date 12 going to be? 13 JUDGE TINLEY: A week from today. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's up to the H.R. Department. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Hopefully a week from today. 16 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: 'Cause I had these changes set 17 hopefully to take effect November 1st, at an even time for the 18 payroll stuff to work out. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So -- so, we really didn't 20 have to give approval on anything. You know, we're giving 21 approval to him to go cut the deal. 22 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Talk to H.R. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 24 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: I think somebody said 25 concept. We're saying -- 10-23-06 64 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 2 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: -- we'll approve that if 3 you get the documentation done. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Bless thee. 5 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Get everybody signed off on 6 it. 7 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I have no problem with that. 8 It makes it work better where everything's above board. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Any other questions or comments on 10 the motion? All in favor of the motion, signify by raising 11 your right hand. 12 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 13 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 14 (No response.) 15 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. Let's move to 16 Item 10; consider, discuss, and take appropriate action to 17 authorize Kerr County to submit bids to perform certain 18 airport services. Which one of you gentlemen wants to run 19 with this? 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Very simply, the bid package 21 has been ready by the Airport Board, approved by the Airport 22 Board. I think it was advertised this weekend for the first 23 time. And Commissioner Letz and I have been talking for a 24 long time and working toward the goal of Kerr County bidding 25 on some of these services, so all this asks us is for is 10-23-06 65 1 authority to proceed with the bid. 2 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Move to approve. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for approval 5 of the agenda item. Any question or discussion? 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Question. I remember mowing. 8 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: It's lights, by the way -- 9 most of the outside services, actually. 10 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: It's in the weekend 11 newspaper, Request for Bids, a whole -- what, 15, 18, 20 12 items? 13 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I think it's 15 items. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Fifteen items. Everything from 15 a little bit of maintenance of lighting and things out on the 16 runways, repair of runways, mowing -- some mowing. This is 17 not the big mowing contract; this is just some ancillary 18 mowing. Herbicide, cleaning brush. It's a lot -- most of it 19 is -- are things that are done by Road and Bridge Department. 20 Some are not things that they traditionally do, and this is 21 really just to -- I think this is not -- we will be meeting 22 again before the bids are turned in, correct? Or not? 23 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: What was the date, Leonard, 24 I gave you on that? 25 MR. ODOM: The pre-bid? 10-23-06 66 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: The time sheet. 2 MR. ODOM: I don't have it on me. Pre-bid was the 3 end of this month, and I think around the 1st of November, 4 something like that. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: We could put it on next 7 Monday if we need to. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's really -- I think my sense 9 of this motion is to tell Leonard to propose the bid. 10 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Right. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And that they can -- I think he 12 probably ought to bring it back. I think the Court probably 13 needs to -- 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Authorize the actual 15 submission. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, of the -- of the bid 17 document which we get. But this is a direction to you to do 18 it, and you may need to work with Maintenance for some of that 19 work a little bit. 20 MR. ODOM: Well, I understand. But do understand 21 that some of this is a daily thing. 22 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Sure. 23 MR. ODOM: This is daily and weekly. And some of 24 this, yes, you're right, but there's a little bit more 25 involved. 10-23-06 67 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. Well, there's a person 2 in your budget if we win. 3 MR. ODOM: We're talking about somebody -- I don't 4 know this individual, but we're talking about somebody that, 5 for tort liabilities, I've got to have somebody that can read 6 and write and make decisions -- 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, we hope so. 8 MR. ODOM: I hope so, too. 9 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I hope most of your people 10 can do that. 11 MR. ODOM: Well, I don't know. They say I don't 12 sometimes, so I don't know. They're more intelligent than I 13 am. But it is a little bit more involved. Meeting this bid, 14 and it's a weekly mowing, it doesn't mean that I'm going to do 15 that weekly, but we're talking about weekly mowing, to bid it 16 that way. So, there's a -- 17 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Right, we understand. 18 MR. ODOM: Okay. 19 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Mr. Odom? What's the 20 mileage on your county vehicle? 21 MR. ODOM: 225,000 miles. 22 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Just got it broke in. 23 MR. ODOM: I just -- well, that's about time for 24 Ford to find out if they produced a good vehicle, I guess. 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Their commercial said 10-23-06 68 1 250,000. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. So, we're looking to bring 3 that one back, too. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, it's authorize -- I think 5 we -- the motion is to authorize him to prepare the bid, which 6 I think we -- that stands. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's the way I understood 9 it. 10 MS. THOMPSON: We had a motion and second. Is this 11 changing the motion? 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. It's to authorize Road and 13 Bridge to prepare the bids for those services as currently 14 being requested by the Airport Board. 15 MS. THOMPSON: Yes, sir. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Any further question or 17 discussion on the motion? 18 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Just one other thing. You 19 two on the board, I saw two requests for bids. One was from 20 the Airport Board, the other from the City for airport 21 services. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: This -- I haven't read the 23 article, but, I mean, the -- 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That could have been an 25 error. That could have been an oversight. We asked them to 10-23-06 69 1 correct all of that. It's really the Airport Board that's 2 soliciting the bid. 3 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: It seems like they were for 4 separate things. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The City is currently doing the 6 work, and the City staff has told the Airport Board that the 7 City plans to bid on this work as well. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: The City is here, if you can 9 get a -- get an answer. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's not the whole City, just a 11 piece of the City's here. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. 13 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: You've heard me say it 14 before, and I will again. I really like the direction that 15 the Airport Board has been going the last year or two. I 16 think that it's a step-rate improvement in the management. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Any other questions or comments? All 18 in favor of the motion, signify by raising your right 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. Let's move to 23 Item 11; consider, discuss, and approve Animal Control 24 contract with the City of Kerrville. We finally got the 25 contract. The County Attorney has reviewed it, and I assume 10-23-06 70 1 everything is A-OK? 2 MR. EMERSON: Yes, sir. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 5 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Move to approve. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 8 approval. Any question or discussion? I would note that the 9 payments under that contract from the City to the County 10 specifically provide that they're to be made in equal 1/12 11 monthly payments. 12 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Mm-hmm, I was looking at 13 that. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: I did note that. Any other question 15 or comment? All in favor of the motion, signify by raising 16 your right hand. 17 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 18 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 19 (No response.) 20 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. Item 12; 21 consider, discuss, and take appropriate action steps to post 22 and/or advertise for Administrative Assistant-slash-Court 23 Coordinator for the Kerr County Commissioners Court. As all 24 of you know, our Court Coordinator/Administrative Assistant 25 will be taking office as J.P. 3 come January 1, and I think 10-23-06 71 1 she's going to be taking some vacation time that she has 2 accrued towards the end of December. And we probably need to 3 get high and behind posting that so that we can get that -- 4 get responses to that request and get the selection process 5 underway, and hopefully get a little -- some amount of 6 training done before our Administrative Assistant/Court 7 Coordinator -- we're probably going to have to bring this new 8 one on board before January 1, based upon the timetable that 9 I've generally been given. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think I would like to note 11 that due to the superb job Commissioner Williams and Nicholson 12 have done here on, you know, posting and interviewing 13 candidates and bringing them to the Court, I would make a 14 motion that we authorize those two to continue that good 15 effort, and to -- 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What a great mind. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: In conjunction with our H.R. 18 Director? 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Correct. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Mr. Letz, you are a wise man. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: And that was a second? 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That was a second. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: I thought so. 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I have a question. That 25 does include advertising as well as posting? 10-23-06 72 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Correct. Correct. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No questions, I'm sorry. 3 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: No questions? 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: The -- you need to do your 5 little thing? Or -- I'm a little concerned about this time 6 frame thing. Now, is she taking off, like, two weeks at the 7 end? And how could we get a person in here to get training 8 when she's not here? 'Cause she doesn't -- a new -- a new 9 person, whether male or female, doesn't want us training them. 10 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: We don't want that either. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We do not want to do that 12 either. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: I understand, Commissioner, that her 14 present intentions are to -- she's got, I know, one one-week 15 training session that she's committed to attend for her J.P. 16 qualification. That is in December, and I think there are two 17 additional weeks that she plans on being away, so we're 18 looking at essentially three weeks in December. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So, we need to bring -- 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Do you know when that 21 training is? 22 JUDGE TINLEY: I think we're going to be able to 23 find out here pretty quick. Were we able to find 24 Ms. Mitchell? 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So, we -- if we want to have 10-23-06 73 1 this person to have training under Ms. Mitchell for at least a 2 week, we need to bring them in December 1. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: That's probably about right. Not 4 later than December 1, I would think. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. I just want to make 6 that clear before we -- 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah, good point. 8 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I think we can -- I think we 9 can still have enough time to get the process moving and make 10 that selection. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: I would note that there have been 12 some -- some resumés already been submitted. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Correct. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: From folks that know that 15 Ms. Mitchell will be taking office, and we've already received 16 several resumés. I don't know exactly how many, but I know we 17 received several. 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I do have one question. 19 Ms. Hyde, I know we -- we gave you a copy of what we believe 20 to be the existing job description. Have you had an 21 opportunity to get with Ms. Mitchell and make certain that's 22 correct? 23 MS. HYDE: Yes. I also got one from Kathy 24 herself -- from Ms. Mitchell herself, so we've consolidated 25 and put it all into one. 10-23-06 74 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Thank you. 2 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Do I understand that an 3 employee who is elected, becomes a -- transferred to/becomes 4 an elected official, has the option of taking their earned 5 vacation or being paid for it? Didn't we deal with that issue 6 here? 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Yes, we did. In the tax office. We 8 sure did. And sick time, of course, is not compensable. 9 Any -- any comp time that that employee has coming, any 10 vacation time that that employee has coming that is not taken, 11 I think we're obliged to pay for. 12 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Probably Ms. Mitchell's 13 aware of those options, but -- 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: We could certainly tell her. 15 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: If she's not, it might 16 change things. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: I think what she's planning on doing 18 is -- is using the other time, not including her -- her school 19 time, is to use vacation time. I think that's generally her 20 intent. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But she's got -- she will be 22 using vacation time to attend school, correct? 23 JUDGE TINLEY: No, sir, I don't think so. 24 MS. HYDE: I don't think so. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: That's -- that's going to be on our 10-23-06 75 1 nickel. She's obliged to do that, whether she does it now or 2 later, and she needs training. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We're obliged -- well, I guess 4 we pay for it either way. We pay the salary as well, 'cause 5 you're not here. Except that in that position, that spot 6 would go unfilled. I mean, we would not bring in -- or she 7 would not bring in a person; she'd make arrangements with the 8 other J.P.'s to handle her duties for that week. So, in a 9 sense, we are paying a week's salary that we normally wouldn't 10 pay. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: My lord. 12 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Charge it to the J.P. 3 13 budget. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. We have a motion pending? 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yes, we do. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Any further question or comment on 17 the motion? All in favor of the motion, signify by raising 18 your right 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. Let's quickly 23 do Item 13, if we might. Receive and take appropriate action 24 on bids or proposals received for 2007 Employee Health 25 Benefits Program. 10-23-06 76 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Do we need to open these, or 2 just need to read for the record who they're from, and then we 3 can refer them to somebody? 4 JUDGE TINLEY: I don't know that we need to open 5 them if we can identify who we got them from. These bids were 6 required to be submitted by 11 a.m. last Friday, the 20th. We 7 got a total of -- looks like four different boxes. Which -- 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Can't read the writing. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Now, last year, did we do 11 this, or did Mr. Looney do this? 12 JUDGE TINLEY: The actual review and -- 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: This part right here. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: No, we -- we received the bids and 15 then referred them to him. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So, we received one bid last 17 year and sent it to him? 18 JUDGE TINLEY: I think it was more than one last 19 year. I'm not sure what we got. Then, after the review and 20 we make a determination of what -- what of these proposals, 21 one or more of them, that we might -- that we might be 22 susceptible of accepting, he then engages in direct 23 negotiation with them for the lowest and best offer, is 24 generally how the process works. 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: However, this year, as 10-23-06 77 1 opposed to last year, we'll engage our H.R. Department as part 2 of this process as well as Mr. Looney, correct? 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, I think -- definitely think she 4 should be involved in it, but the consultant is normally -- 5 the insurance consultant normally does review and evaluation. 6 Now, what degree of -- of interaction there is, why, 7 certainly, is -- have you had any discussions with Mr. Looney? 8 MS. HYDE: No, he's not returned my calls at this 9 time. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 11 MS. HYDE: He's been on other processes. I would 12 appreciate it if -- if afforded the opportunity to review with 13 Mr. Looney some questions that I have regarding our health 14 insurance. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 16 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: I'd like that. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think we're probably -- my 18 recommendation is we turn these all over to you. 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: And she give them to Mr. 20 Looney? 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And you get with Mr. Looney. 22 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: There's been a disconnect 23 in the past -- 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I agree. 25 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: -- between those two 10-23-06 78 1 functions, so I'd like to cure that disconnect. 2 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I agree with you. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. The first one we have is from 4 Group and Pension Administrators, which includes T.P.A. 5 administration and stop loss proposals. That consists of a 6 total of three binders. The next one that we have is a box 7 from Wallace and Associates, and this particular box indicates 8 that it's primarily decline letters, where Wallace submitted 9 to third parties and they declined. The next one we have is a 10 proposal submitted by United Health Care. Looks like there 11 are several binders in the box, probably three of them, as 12 best I can tell. The -- 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Three binders. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: The last one is from Fiserv -- that's 15 F-i-s-e-r-v -- Health, and I believe submitted through Wallace 16 and Associates. And there are three binders in that box. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We also have -- we have a -- 18 this was on top of it somewhere, on top of all of them. I'm 19 not -- I think it's a record of -- 20 JUDGE TINLEY: The other -- the other documentation 21 that we have is a copy of the Request for Proposals that was 22 advertised, and some notes made by Mr. Wallace indicating 23 submissions, and in the margin there's references to "TD" for 24 turn down, and indications of things that might be received, 25 or no -- no communication received. A copy of this -- of 10-23-06 79 1 course, Ms. Hyde did receive a copy of that, so she's up to 2 speed on that. 3 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Judge? The current provider 4 did not bid? 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Pardon? 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: The current provider did not 7 bid? 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Surely there's one in there. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: They might have bid through Don 10 Wallace. 11 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Oh. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: I think it's -- 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't know that. 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Maybe it came through him. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. 16 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. All right. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: They may have done that. 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: It is what it is. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: It is what it is. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move we accept all bids and turn 21 them over to the H.R. Department for review and coordination 22 with our consultant, Mr. Looney. 23 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Second. 24 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Second. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded as 10-23-06 80 1 indicated. Any question or discussion on the motion? All in 2 favor of the motion, signify by raising your right hand. 3 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 4 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 5 (No response.) 6 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. Why don't we 7 take about a 15-minute recess? 8 (Recess taken from 10:34 a.m. to 10:50 a.m.) 9 - - - - - - - - - - 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay, let's come back to order, if we 11 might. We were in recess for a few minutes. Let's go to Item 12 14, if we might. Consider, discuss, and take appropriate 13 action in reference to a report on Flat Rock Dam leakage. 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Thank you, Judge. Last week 15 I got a -- I got an e-mail from Ray Buck at U.G.R.A., which he 16 sent word over that somebody from probably Guadalupe Heights 17 area had spotted a leak in Flat Rock Lake Dam. And Ray 18 quickly determined that that dam didn't belong to them, so he 19 busted it over here to Commissioners Court here. He sent some 20 pictures, which you all saw, and there appears to be some 21 leakage. I don't know how serious that all is. I was in 22 communication with T.C.E.Q., their Dam Safety Division. I 23 talked to Mr. Samuelson -- Warren Samuelson, and we talked 24 about -- and I sent him the same pictures so he could take a 25 look at it and so forth, and he responded by e-mail late last 10-23-06 81 1 week, "Here are my thoughts." And in the first photo, it 2 appears that you have soil coming through the dam in the 3 water. There's also a moderate amount of water. It appears 4 that there has been vegetation in the joint in the past. What 5 we need is, can someone go out and determine if there is 6 visual evidence of soil, either in the flow on the concrete, 7 or at the water line below? If there is soil, it could 8 indicate a problem. Also, if the person going out could tap 9 on the concrete with a metal bar or hammer to see if there's a 10 hollow sound around that particular area of the leak. And one 11 of my staff, he says, will be available to come out if 12 necessary. However, we need to determine if this is serious, 13 and the key to finding out whether or not it is, is if there 14 is soil coming with the water. 15 So, I was wondering if -- perhaps if maybe Mr. Odom 16 could accompany me, and we'll go down there and we'll take a 17 look a little closer and determine if there's any soil coming 18 out, and I'll be in touch with T.C.E.Q. to find out what the 19 next step is going to be. We don't have an engineer, and so 20 it might -- you know, if it's serious, I guess it will -- we 21 probably have to think about that. But let me find out more 22 and report back to them and get their report back. Just 23 wanted you to know. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That dam sure causes trouble. 25 People shoot fireworks out there, leaks, -- 10-23-06 82 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Walking, jumping, hopping. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- walk, jump, and hop on them, 3 and we can't open the plug. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We can't open the plug. 5 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: So, what's the answer? Blow 6 it up? 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The people in Center Point could 8 probably help. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I remember years ago having 10 this same problem there and Ingram Dam, and the County hired, 11 I think, someone to come out and X-ray the dams, and found 12 cavities in the dams. And at that point, we filled them up 13 with concrete. 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: How long ago was that? 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: A long time ago. 16 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Long time ago, okay. 17 MR. ODOM: Jerry Menafee. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Was it Menafee? 19 MR. ODOM: It was Menafee. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, it wasn't that long 21 ago, then. Ten or 12 years ago or something like that. 22 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: What Commissioner Baldwin 23 has said, he's not the 250-pound guy with the thumb that wants 24 to stick his finger in the -- 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Too busy. I'm too busy to 10-23-06 83 1 hang around out there and do that. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think your approach is good, 3 and see where it goes and monitor it. 4 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: We'll see what the 5 recommendations are and go from there. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Any further action needed on 7 that item? 8 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I just wanted the Court to 9 know about it. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: I was looking for the Auditor so that 11 we can take the appropriate action under Section 4 of the 12 agenda, but we don't have an appearance here yet. The 13 alternative would be to go into executive or closed session, 14 but I think the thought is we'll do that last. I've not seen 15 a tabulation of bills yet. Maybe we don't have any. 16 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: We're not going to pay them 17 till next week. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We're going to do them next 19 week at the end of the month. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. All we've got, then, is budget 21 amendments that we need to -- 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Let's get the Auditor in here 23 and do that. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Bring him in at gunpoint, 10-23-06 84 1 Sheriff. 2 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Okay. 3 (Discussion off the record.) 4 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: He didn't -- said he didn't 5 have any, sir. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No budget amendments? 7 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: He said he didn't have any. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We got two. 9 (Discussion off the record.) 10 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: He's going to get his book, but 11 he still doesn't think he has any. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: He can borrow mine. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: They're pretty -- 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: This -- the first one, 15 though, I think we need to get clear, because I heard some 16 rumors last week, and I want to know if they're tied to this 17 or not. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Been monitoring the rumor mill, huh? 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'm the rumor mill monitor. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: I see. Hall monitor, rumor mill 21 monitor. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: You've taken over the hallway, 23 so I'm the rumor mill monitor now. 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: He be the monitor. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: I didn't mean to assume your hall 10-23-06 85 1 monitor chores. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'm kind of hurt about it, 3 too. So, when he walks in the door, I'm going to hit him with 4 it. 5 (Mr. Tomlinson entered the courtroom.) 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I got a call last week, 7 Tommy, from a service provider in the county that had hauled a 8 confiscated vehicle in a drug bust or something, and the -- 9 and they had not been paid. The wrecker service had not been 10 paid, and it was, like, six or eight months old. So, I go to 11 the Auditor's office, and they said, well, that's up -- that's 12 up to the constables, because the car had been awarded to two 13 constables, and it was up to the constables to pay that bill. 14 And I'm wondering, is that what this is? 15 MR. TOMLINSON: I don't think so. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I don't either. 17 MR. TOMLINSON: No. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: 'cause it's not near enough. 19 MR. TOMLINSON: That's Chapter 59 money; that's 20 seizure money. And any expenditures related to that seizure 21 have to be paid from that -- from that money. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. 23 MR. TOMLINSON: Just like from the -- like, if -- if 24 there's court costs involved, if there's -- if there are funds 25 from seizure, they have to pay the court costs. The -- the 10-23-06 86 1 seized money has to follow the court case. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's a good thing. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Who -- which constables got the 4 money? 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: 1 and 2, I think. 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Well, that's good. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: 1 for sure. 8 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: How much? 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It was a vehicle. 10 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Two. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. So, we got bills that we're 12 going to take up next Monday? 13 MR. TOMLINSON: Yes. But I do -- 14 JUDGE TINLEY: We got two budget amendments. 15 MR. TOMLINSON: Yeah, I do. They were attached 16 together; I didn't see them. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Has he been out there with 18 Kinky? Is that -- 19 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yeah. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I see. 21 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Kinky blinded you. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I see why you're a little 23 confused now. Okay. 24 MR. TOMLINSON: No, I did not do that. I want to 25 make that perfectly clear. 10-23-06 87 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I know what you mean. 2 MR. TOMLINSON: Okay. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Budget Amendment Request Number 1. 4 MR. TOMLINSON: This is an amendment to recognize a 5 donation to Constable, Precinct 1, and we're increasing his 6 budget by $100, by the amount of the donation. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Was that a cash donation? Do 8 you know? 9 MR. TOMLINSON: Mm-hmm. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Hmm? 11 MR. TOMLINSON: Yeah. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, I move to -- if 13 somebody is giving him money, I move to accept it, or approve 14 this or whatever we do. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for approval 17 of Budget Amendment Request 1. Any question or discussion? 18 All in favor of the motion, signify by raising your right 19 hand. 20 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 21 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 22 (No response.) 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion does carry. Budget Amendment 24 Request 2. 25 MR. TOMLINSON: Two is from the County Clerk, to 10-23-06 88 1 move $107.41 from Signs to Election Supplies. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So moved. 3 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: So moved. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Both of them -- these guys. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: You figure it out. We have a motion 6 for approval of Budget Amendment Request 2. Any question or 7 discussion? 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Tommy, what -- let's see. 9 Which one is County Clerk and which one's Elections? Election 10 Supplies is Elections? And why does the Clerk have signs? I 11 don't remember that. 12 MR. TOMLINSON: They have signs for their voting. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's not part of Election 14 Supplies? 15 MR. TOMLINSON: Well, the signs -- that is it, yeah. 16 That's Elections. 402 department is Elections. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Oh, I see. It's moving from 18 one line to the other. Third. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Any other question or comment? All 20 in favor of the motion, signify by raising your right hand. 21 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 22 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 23 (No response.) 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion does carry. Do we have any 25 late bills? 10-23-06 89 1 MR. TOMLINSON: No. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: No late bills? 3 MR. TOMLINSON: No. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: I've been presented with monthly 5 reports for Justice of the Peace, Precinct 1, for September 6 '06, as amended -- report, September '06. And Justice of the 7 Peace, Precinct 4, and Justice of the Peace, Precinct 2. Do I 8 hear a motion that these reports be approved as submitted? 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So moved. 10 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Second. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for approval 13 of the reports as submitted. Any question or discussion on 14 the motion? All in favor of the motion, signify by raising 15 your right hand. 16 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 17 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 18 (No response.) 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion does carry. Do we have any 20 reports by any member of the Court that they wish to render at 21 this time considering their committee or liaison assignments? 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Want to talk about the ETJ 23 subdivision thing? 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, go ahead. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No, you go ahead. 10-23-06 90 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Commissioner Baldwin and myself 2 met with a bunch of folks over at the City. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And Leonard. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And Leonard. That's right, 5 Leonard was there. And to go over the subdivision rules in 6 the ETJ, and it appears that after 11 months of -- no, 7 actually 10 months of working on this project, we haven't 8 progressed at all, and -- and largely due to City processes. 9 And Mr. Hofmann, I think, would agree with everything I'm 10 saying, and I think would take, I think, responsibility for 11 letting it get out of hand. It got into Planning and Zoning, 12 and Planning and Zoning started making a bunch of -- changing 13 different things; it started growing and growing and growing. 14 And it was recently, when Mr. Hofmann and I had another 15 conversation, he kind of looked -- got more involved with it 16 and said, "Hey, we need to get back to what we originally 17 started doing," which was just getting the -- the County and 18 the City in line in the ETJ. And there may be a -- and 19 probably is a major rewrite of city subdivision rules sometime 20 in the future, but this is not the time or the place for that. 21 So, it's back -- that's kind of where it is right now. I 22 think it will be coming back for Commissioner Baldwin and I to 23 look at those, along with Mr. Odom, in the next -- I know I 24 told the City, in my mind -- they were very concerned about 25 the September 30th deadline. I said that deadline is real for 10-23-06 91 1 us to -- but that was self-imposed by the City and the County. 2 It really doesn't impact the fact that the City is doing this 3 work. And I told them to pass a new date through City 4 Council, and then we would affirm that date after the fact, 5 whatever date they thought it would take to get this resolved. 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: What happens if a 7 subdivision plat comes up for review in the ETJ now? 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The City's using their rules, 9 their current rules. And the differences are not that great. 10 I mean, I say that -- well, they're really not that big. I 11 mean, they're not that far out of line. The County's road 12 standards are actually stricter than the City's, so the roads, 13 which is our biggest concern -- I mean, you know, the roads 14 are not quite to our standard, but, I mean, from a development 15 community, they're getting a little bit of a deal. And we're 16 talking very minor changes; talking about right-of-way width 17 and depth of base. They require 6 inches; we require 8. We 18 require a little bit more right-of-way, and that makes sense, 19 because our roads have higher speeds, generally, and are more, 20 you know, rugged terrain, things of that nature, where you 21 need more bar ditch width. But they have no problem with 22 going with County's. And the other thing we're looking at is, 23 they have -- I'd say the most onerous thing they have is, they 24 still have a street light provision in the ETJ, which they can 25 waive and will waive. And we said we really don't even want 10-23-06 92 1 that in there. We don't want street lights in the ETJ. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: They're taking sidewalks out 3 for sure. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Sidewalks are out. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And probably street lights. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. But, anyway, they -- 7 they're doing a little bit more work on it, and we'll be 8 bringing that back shortly. That's where that is. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Any other reports? 10 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I've just got a question, 11 Judge. Has the issue been resolved with respect to our 12 obligation for certain contractual obligations, payment on the 13 1/12th basis? 14 JUDGE TINLEY: That one issue with regard to the EMS 15 contract is currently in the County Attorney's office. I 16 understand there are a number of items ahead of it, so we 17 hopefully, in due course, will get a response to that on 18 review of that. That's my understanding from talking to the 19 Auditor, where it was going. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: You mentioned EMS. There is one 21 other update I have. In the two subdivisions north of Comfort 22 off of Highway 87 that have been an issue of trying to get 23 Kendall County to pick up as primary server of these areas at 24 the request of those subdivisions, being Falling Waters and 25 The Reserve, Chief Holloway, Mark Beavers, and Eric Maloney, 10-23-06 93 1 we all met with the EMS Coordinator from Kendall County in 2 Comfort last week, and have moved a little bit on that, 3 finally, after a long, long period of time. And I've recently 4 sent an e-mail to both the County Attorney, the Fire Chief, 5 and the head of the main homeowners' association pushing this, 6 kind of saying where we are, what we've agreed on. The big 7 issue is still -- is really the dispatch issue, where it -- 8 where the 911 call goes first. Because any way you do it, 9 we're introducing a lot of human handling of these calls, as 10 opposed to being -- which I think is bad. And I think, by the 11 tone of my e-mail, which Mr. Emerson got a copy of, I'm not 12 particularly in favor of doing this. I think it's a -- I 13 think it's just opening up problems for those residents, about 14 as much as I thought it was opening up problems out in west 15 Kerr County when they -- when the folks out in the far west 16 wanted to go to Junction. 17 Needless to say, if they want -- and I did tell them 18 that it's going to require a letter from the homeowners' 19 association, and it's going to have to have a vote of the 20 property owners before I'll bring it to the Court. And I'll 21 visit with Rex a little bit about anything else we may need to 22 protect our liability, because I have some real concerns about 23 this. Because, in reality, the way it will work is that 24 Comfort will be the primary server if the Comfort ambulance is 25 in, which will mean Kendall County will serve if their 10-23-06 94 1 ambulance is there. If their ambulance is not in, Kerr County 2 will respond, so both EMS's are going to have to work with 3 each other, which I see as a problem, just from the standpoint 4 of -- 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What 911 office does the call 6 come in to? 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right now, it's coming to 8 K.P.D., Kerrville. The issue comes if it comes to the K.P.D., 9 then those folks have to manually switch it to Kendall County, 10 which Chief Holloway doesn't really like; he'd rather have the 11 call go straight to Kendall County. But if it goes straight 12 to Kendall County and it's a law enforcement, then it's got to 13 be transferred back, or if the Comfort ambulance is out, then 14 it's got to get transferred back. So, either way, there's a 15 likelihood of, for 70 households, the dispatchers, one being 16 the city of Kerrville, one being the city of Boerne, having to 17 make a manual determination as to what happens. And I think 18 that it's just going to be an issue of delaying time. There 19 is also a cost that Kendall County's going to want to do this. 20 The number they threw out right away is $20 to $25 per 21 household that we're adding to their service area, which 22 equates somewhere -- probably $2,000 to $5,000, somewhere in 23 there. I'm not sure how many homes are actually in that area. 24 And, you know, that's -- but there is some cost to Kerr County 25 to do that. And I -- and I don't have a problem with that 10-23-06 95 1 part of that, but I think we ought to get a little bit of 2 reduction off the EMS contract, because the people that are 3 benefiting from this is the Kerrville EMS. So -- 4 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Commissioner, the issue 5 about the inconvenience of transferring 911 calls, that's not 6 different than what we do in Cypress -- it comes to K.P.D. and 7 gets transferred to the service? 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. I think the -- I think 9 the problem probably is, it's going to happen more. This is a 10 little bit more populated area than that real rural area out 11 there. And, I mean, there's not a lot of EMS calls in Falling 12 Water, but there are probably two a year, you know, so there 13 is a -- this is going to happen. This is not just a what-if. 14 This is a -- there are actual calls going in there. So, 15 anyway, I'm going to visit with Rex a little bit about it, but 16 that has moved a little bit. There is somewhat of a budget 17 impact, several thousand dollars. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Any other reports from members of the 19 Court? 20 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: I'll just brag again about 21 Animal Control. We're going to have a record number of 22 adoptions this month, maybe a whole lot, and there's a lot of 23 reasons that we're having that success, but one of them is all 24 five employees there are actively engaged in promoting 25 adoptions. They're on the telephone, doing all kinds of 10-23-06 96 1 things they can to increase them, so things are going pretty 2 well out there. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Anything else? Rex? 4 MR. EMERSON: Just a question on the EMS issue with 5 the -- the payments. It was originally passed to my office, 6 and then I was called and told don't worry about it, that it 7 had all been resolved, and it was in one-twelfth now. So, do 8 I need to put it back on the research block, or leave it 9 alone? 10 JUDGE TINLEY: There may have been some movement in 11 that issue since I talked to the Auditor about it and 12 suggested that he refer it to you. Maybe I'm not up to speed. 13 This was sometime probably the early part of last week. 14 MR. EMERSON: Okay. Well, last time I talked to 15 Tommy was Thursday or Friday. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Well, okay. 17 MR. EMERSON: I'll check with him and make sure we 18 don't drop the ball somewhere, but -- 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 20 MR. EMERSON: -- my understanding is he put in a 21 call. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: I don't mind dropping the ball if 23 they're going to insist upon an entire year's payment up 24 front. 25 MR. EMERSON: Well, then, I'll jump into it and 10-23-06 97 1 we'll see what we can do. But my understanding is, he made 2 the appropriate calls to the City, and shortly got an answer 3 back that said, "Well, we'll bill you monthly." 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Well, if that's the solution, 5 we're okay. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: He told me that, too. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah, okay. Any -- any other reports 8 from anybody on the Court? Elected official reports? Okay. 9 At this time, we will go out of public or open session, and it 10 is 11:13. 11 MR. EMERSON: Y'all want me in or out? 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: In. 13 MR. ODOM: Do you need Road and Bridge? 14 JUDGE TINLEY: I don't think we're going to need 15 Road and Bridge. 16 MR. ODOM: Well, one issue. 17 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: One of them is. 18 (Discussion off the record.) 19 (The open session was closed at 11:13 a.m., and an executive session was held, the transcript of which 20 is contained in a separate document.) 21 - - - - - - - - - - 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. We will come back into open or 23 public session. It is 12:18 now. Does any member of the 24 Court have any -- anything to offer specifically with regard 25 to the items discussed in closed or executive session? 10-23-06 98 1 Hearing none, any other business -- 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge, I'll just make a comment. 3 Not a motion, though. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Sure. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That my understanding is that 6 the H.R. -- H.R. Department will be making the numerous 7 adjustments that were necessary and were discussed with the 8 Court during the executive session, and that will then be 9 presented as a revised position schedule next Monday. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: That's my understanding. Anything 11 further? Any further business to come before the Court today? 12 We'll stand adjourned. 13 (Commissioners Court adjourned at 12:19 p.m.) 14 - - - - - - - - - - 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 10-23-06 99 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 25th day of 9 October, 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 10-23-06