1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT 9 Regular Session 10 Monday, January 8, 2007 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 BRUCE OEHLER, Commissioner Pct. 4 2 1 I N D E X January 8, 2007 2 PAGE --- Commissioners' Comments 5 3 1.1 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 4 designate Commissioners' and Judge's liaison appointments for various functions for 2007 9 5 1.2 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action 6 regarding report from Eric Maloney, First Responder Coordinator -- 7 1.3 Appoint two new ESD #2 directors to fill 8 expired terms 16 9 1.4 Review of Kerr County Juvenile Detention Facility first quarter budget revenues 17 10 1.5 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 11 schedule and receive detailed presentation from Headwaters Groundwater Conservation District (HGCD) 12 consulting Geologist Feather Wilson on aquifer modeling in Kerr County. Presentation to be 13 scheduled for January 22, 2007 24 14 1.6 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on correspondence from Milton E. Taylor regarding 15 easement to his property adjacent to Kerr County's Flat Rock Lake Park (new section) 36 16 1.7 Public Hearing concerning Revision of Plat for 17 Lots 5 & 6, Cypress Springs, Phase I, in Pct. 4 51 18 1.8 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action concerning Revision of Plat for Lots 5 & 6, 19 Cypress Springs Estates, Phase I, Pct. 4 51 20 1.17 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to approve Final Plat of Lasso Ranch, Pct. 3 53 21 1.9 Public Hearing concerning Revision of Plat for 22 Lots 16 & 17, Bear Creek Ranch Estates, Pct. 1 57 23 1.10 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action for Revision of Plat for Lots 16 & 17, Bear Creek 24 Ranch Estates, Pct. 1 57 25 1.11 Public Hearing concerning Revision of Plat for Lots 124 B & 131A of Falling Water, Pct. 3 60 3 1 I N D E X (Continued) January 8, 2007 2 PAGE 3 1.12 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action for Revision of Plat for Lot 124B & 131A of Falling 4 Water, Pct. 3 60 5 1.13 Public Hearing concerning Revision of Plat for Lot 1 of Heartland Acres, Pct. 2 75 6 1.14 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action for 7 Revision of Plat for Lot 1 of Heartland Acres, Pct. 2 75 8 1.15 Public Hearing concerning Revision of Plat for 9 Lot 12, 13A & 13B, Riverside Park, Pct. 4 77 10 1.16 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action for Revision of Lots 12, 13A & 13B, Riverside Park, 11 Pct. 4 78 12 1.19 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to bring new hire in at 13-2 due to six years prior 13 experience using budgeted funds from prior employee 79 14 1.18 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to allow merit/step increase using budgeted funds from prior 15 employee 81 16 1.20 Public Hearing on Revised Kerr County Subdivision Rules and Regulations 85 17 1.21 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to adopt 18 revised Kerr County Subdivision Rules/Regulations 88 19 4.1 Pay Bills 95 4.2 Budget Amendments 96 20 4.3 Late Bills -- 4.4 Approve and Accept Monthly Reports 99 21 5.1 Reports from Commissioners/Liaison Committee 22 Assignments 100 23 --- Adjourned 110 24 25 4 1 On Monday, January 8, 2007, at 9:00 a.m., a regular 2 meeting of the Kerr County Commissioners Court was held in the 3 Commissioners' Courtroom, Kerr County Courthouse, Kerrville, 4 Texas, and the following proceedings were had in open court: 5 P R O C E E D I N G S 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Let me call to order, if I 7 might, this regular meeting of the Kerr County Commissioners 8 Court scheduled and posted for this time and date, Monday, 9 January the 8th, 2007, at 9 a.m. It's that time now. 10 Commissioner Oehler? 11 (Prayer and pledge of allegiance.) 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you. At this time, if there's 13 any member of the audience or the public that wishes to be 14 heard on any matter that is not a listed agenda item, feel 15 free to come forward at this time. If you wish to be heard on 16 a particular agenda item, we'd ask that you fill out a 17 participation form. They can be found at the back of the 18 room. It's not essential, but it helps me to not miss you 19 when we get to that item. If, for some reason, you should not 20 have filled out a participation form and you want to be heard 21 on an agenda item, get my attention in some manner so that you 22 can be heard, and I'll be happy to recognize you. But as to 23 any matter that is not a listed agenda item that any member of 24 the audience or public wishes to bring to our attention, 25 please feel free to come forward at this time. 1-8-07 5 1 (No response.) 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Seeing no one coming forward, we'll 3 move on. Commissioner 4, what do you have for us this 4 morning? 5 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Well, I guess one of the 6 things that's stirring in the west end of the county is the 7 fact that -- you know, the new bridge project that's being 8 proposed on Highway 39, and there are very few that seem to be 9 excited about this. There are more that are upset about it, 10 and so that will play -- play out shortly. I think we're 11 going to have a workshop here; TexDOT will come and meet with 12 us and give the public a chance to air their frustrations or 13 their -- their applause, I guess you might say. I don't think 14 there will be very many that will be in favor of the 15 $16 million project that's been put together in less than a 16 year, and the need does not seem to be -- be there, according 17 to the public. Other than that, I don't really have much. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I just want to piggy-back on 20 Bruce's comment there; that it took them less than a year to 21 put this program together, and we meet at least once a year 22 with TexDOT on a 10-year plan, trying to keep long-range 23 things going that are important to the -- really important to 24 the community. And I don't recall those -- upgrading those 25 bridges out there as a part of that, and I'm just a little bit 1-8-07 6 1 bumfuzzled by it. But, as you know, the Dallas Cowboys are on 2 vacation, and football season's over. Kind of difficult. 3 And, of course, we have to put up with that round ball thing 4 for a few more months, and -- but the exciting part about it, 5 track and field is upon us, so we -- indoor season's going, 6 and that's, of course, the most exciting sport of all, so I'm 7 pretty excited. 8 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Are you? 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. I'm really excited 10 about today. We're going to -- we're going to do some things 11 that are wonderful. 12 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: We're going to breeze 13 through it? 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We're going to breeze through 15 this thing. It's good. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Is that it? 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's it. That's all I 18 know. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Bill? 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I saw a notice in the paper 21 that Hilmar Pressler died. Hilmar Pressler, an old-time 22 stalwart of the community, and one of the founding fathers of 23 Pressler-Thompson, and that's -- that, as most people know, is 24 the firm that for many years has done our external audit. 25 There'll be a memorial service for Hilmar at Zion Lutheran 1-8-07 7 1 Church this afternoon at 3 o'clock. The only other thing is, 2 I'll remind the Court, I'm conducting a public hearing 3 Thursday in Center Point, the first phase of the sewer project 4 for public input, and let the engineers tell the public how 5 they're beginning to see a wastewater collection system 6 shaping up. That will be 7 o'clock at the school cafeteria 7 this coming Thursday night. I'm kind of like Commissioner 8 Baldwin; I don't recall, Commissioner, that when we met with 9 TexDOT and set priorities, I don't remember that ever 10 surfacing. We talked about 39 on the south side of the river, 11 talked about a lot of things, but I don't remember that being 12 on the priority list or wish list from Kerr County. Somebody 13 had a pipe dream someplace. That's it, Judge. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner Letz? 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Couple things. I see 16 Mr. Lipscomb in the audience, so I will bring up one thing. I 17 do plan to put on the agenda soon library funding a little 18 bit. I want to just kind of bring it up again. I know we 19 received a report from the library on the library district, 20 and they thought that that was not a good idea. I just want 21 to remind the Court and the public that I had a -- at our last 22 joint meeting with the City, I thought it was something that 23 needed to be resolved, and with a long-term solution in mind, 24 and if the library district isn't the one, I would really like 25 to hear from the Library Board as to what they think our 1-8-07 8 1 options are, what we should do. So, it'll be on the agenda to 2 try to get this moving. I really don't want this to be a 3 budget dilemma, as it has been numerous times. I want to try 4 to get this handled way ahead of time. I certainly know we 5 have a problem there of funding of it, and different thought 6 process on how -- what we should do there, so that'll be on 7 the agenda. 8 League of Women Voters has asked me to participate 9 in a water forum that they're putting on; I believe it's the 10 25th, 26th, something like that, of this month. I told them I 11 would. They -- I'm not sure of the -- I know the purpose of 12 it is to educate the public on water, but other than that, I 13 don't have a whole lot of details. Ann Sullivan asked me to 14 do that. And the other thing is, I have not yet, but I do 15 plan to meet with the new members of the court in Kendall 16 County, and we have in my precinct, as you all know, certain 17 things pending between them. Some of them I won't touch that 18 will be controversial on the road side, but -- at least not 19 without Rex present, but EMS, I want to keep that trying to 20 move, and what we're going to do with that. Those who haven't 21 been into Falling Waters and The Reserve subdivisions, they 22 have just exploded; there's probably upwards of around 100 23 homes in these two subdivisions now, and it's becoming more 24 and more of an EMS problem. That's it. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you. Like you, Commissioner 1-8-07 9 1 Letz, I'd like to see some direction to the library solution 2 start to get firmed up so that we don't get down to 3 approaching budget time, and it's a contentious issue. It 4 would be nice if we knew somewhat in advance the way that 5 thing is going. I'd like to talk a little bit about something 6 that I think we've all kind of taken for granted. I -- I read 7 continuously in the local news about various individuals in 8 the public service, volunteer service. We've got a tremendous 9 amount of volunteer work going on in this community, and a lot 10 of people putting in a lot of hours that achieve a whole lot 11 of success that otherwise wouldn't be available if -- if they 12 didn't step forward and do that work, and I -- I think we need 13 to recognize that continuously and -- and to thank these 14 people that offer their time and volunteer for the various 15 things that they do out here in various aspects of public 16 service. So, when you see these folks, thank them for their 17 work and tell them how much you appreciate their work. That's 18 all I've got. 19 Let's get on with the agenda, if we might. First 20 item on the agenda is to consider, discuss, and take 21 appropriate action to designate the Commissioners' and Judges' 22 liaison appointments in various functions for calendar year 23 '07. I put this on the agenda because I'm given to understand 24 that's an annual type situation that we like to review and 25 reallocate or discuss as necessary. The -- the backup that 1-8-07 10 1 I've given you there is what I think, with certain 2 interlineations, is our current state of assignments. If I'm 3 not correct on that, I apologize, but I think the one I was 4 working from is '05, and I think since then we've made a few 5 adjustments that I've indicated. But I put that out for your 6 consideration, and let's decide where we want to go on it. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'd like to keep the 8 assignments that I have. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I would -- the two -- two of 10 them I would like to stay on. One of them is Airport Board. 11 I think it's a little bit -- it's important, at least for the 12 next couple years, that we keep a little continuity on that. 13 Ag Barn, I've been on there quite a long time. I'd like to 14 have it one more year. After that, I know Commissioner Oehler 15 traditionally has done a lot of work with the ag group, but if 16 he would like that, I would be -- you know, if I can get one 17 more year, I'd appreciate it. There's some plans that I have 18 that I'd like to work on. 19 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Fine with me. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 21 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Well, yes, I would like to be 22 back on it at some point, but, you know, if you want to do 23 another year, that's fine with me. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Those are the two main ones. 25 The other one is 911, and that's -- you know, I don't mind. 1-8-07 11 1 I'll be glad to continue or -- or not. It doesn't -- 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Nothing going on there. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: There may be a little bit, with 4 the dispatch, possibly there, but I don't see that that -- 5 this assignment makes that much difference with that. And so, 6 I mean, I'm kind of happy with where they are. 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I'd like to keep the airport 8 and AACOG, those two things for sure. I'm a little conflicted 9 about the Ag Barn. If you want to get back into that, 10 Commissioner, I'll be happy to cough that up to you. 11 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I'd love to. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. 13 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: And, let's see. Judge, you 14 and I are doing the economic development. That's fine. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Mm-hmm. 16 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Well that's a -- that's a 17 train load. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: One that's not -- actually it is 19 on here. Law enforcement. It has Buster. I'm currently in 20 that spot, I believe. Am I not, Buster? 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Don't look at me. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'm pretty sure I am. I'm 23 the -- I think in this spot now. I'll be glad to keep it or 24 not keep it; doesn't make any difference. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Are we going to change that 1-8-07 12 1 over to Commissioner Letz? Okay. Commissioner Oehler? That 2 kind of leaves old pickings -- kind of leaves your pickings 3 where they were, with one modification. 4 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Well, that's okay. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: That will work for you as indicated 6 there? Just move over Commissioner Nicholson's assignments 7 over to you, and -- 8 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Doesn't seem like anybody else 9 wants to volunteer for it, so I guess I should do that. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: If you would -- I don't mind, 11 you know, giving up the law enforcement and I don't mind 12 taking over some of these if you want to do something 13 different. 14 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I don't -- O.S.S.F. and 15 Environmental Health, I guess that also includes the Animal 16 Control? Well, Animal Control is a separate deal. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Separate deal. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: But it would also go with that. 19 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Okay. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Doesn't have to. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Does that work for you? 22 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Well, I figure I have to do 23 something. I can't just sit here and let the rest of the 24 Court do it. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 1-8-07 13 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Judge, where are we on the 2 juvenile? I see that you scratched out me, which is okay; I'm 3 not asking to get back. I didn't know what Commissioner 4 Baldwin -- 5 JUDGE TINLEY: I made an error on that. I should 6 have scratched out Commissioner Baldwin, because he -- he 7 deferred to me on that, and -- 8 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: -- I scratched you out instead of 10 him. 11 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That is correct. 13 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: So, it's you and me on that? 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Juvenile, okay. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: I should have noted that I made that 17 error. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: If you remember, last year at 19 this time when we made this election, it wasn't a real good 20 time for me to be on a juvenile -- 21 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I recall. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: -- with the juvenile group. 23 I'd have been out there with bulldozers. But I've changed my 24 mind now. 25 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: So, is that -- just leave -- 1-8-07 14 1 Dave Nicholson was on the Library Board. Is that -- 2 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yes, sir. 3 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That puts me in the hot seat 4 there? 5 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: You can settle that. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It's not a hot seat, it's an 7 opportunity. 8 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: It's -- there are a lot of 9 opportunities. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's good to have a fresh view 12 on the library. 13 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That's what we need, fresh 14 eyes. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: So, what was your current thinking 16 about the juvenile facility? 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Williams and Judge. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Okay, I couldn't tell whether 19 there had been a change of heart because there's been a change 20 of circumstances. You know, I thought maybe you were -- okay. 21 All right. Does that pretty well thrash that out? 22 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: So we can get the 23 administrative assistant to prepare a list, Judge? 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll make a motion that the 25 modifications made be adopted. 1-8-07 15 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Second. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded as 3 indicated. Any question or discussion on the motion? All in 4 favor of the motion, signify by raising your right hand. 5 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 6 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 7 (No response.) 8 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Let's get a new order so we know 10 where we are for next year. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Exactly. That will be helpful. 12 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Is that -- I have one 13 question. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Yes, sir? 15 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Is there -- I assume that 16 somewhere there is a schedule of when regular meetings are for 17 these -- say, for instance, the Library Board. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: I'm sure Mr. Lipscomb would be most 19 pleased to tell you exactly when they meet. 20 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I just need to be informed to 21 know when to appear. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: I got a sneaking -- I got a sneaking 23 feeling, come break, he's going to be conversing with you to 24 let you know exactly what you need to know. 25 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Okay. I thought that was -- 1-8-07 16 1 MR. LIPSCOMB: I'll be back. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Let's move to Item 2; consider, 3 discuss, and take appropriate action regarding report from 4 Eric Maloney, First Responder Coordinator. Commissioner 5 Baldwin? 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yes, sir. I want to pull 7 that item. We're not ready to do it yet, but we'll be back 8 next meeting. Thank you. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Let's move to Item 3, if we 10 might; appoint two new ESD Number 2 directors to fill 11 unexpired terms. Commissioner Oehler. 12 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: We have two ESD Board members 13 that are not asking to be reappointed; their terms are up. We 14 need two new members to be appointed to that. Their first 15 meeting is on this coming Thursday, the first meeting of the 16 year. And two people I would like to put forward are Garland 17 Reece, who is here, and Perrin Wells. Perrin will be here 18 shortly, but I guess he's running a little bit late. Garland 19 has lived up on Beech -- Byas Springs Road, for quite a few 20 years, and retired airline pilot. Perrin Wells has worked for 21 the Texas Wild Game Co-Op in Ingram for 23 years, and I asked 22 both of them if they would serve, and they've both agreed to 23 do so. So, I would move that we appoint Garland Reece and 24 Perrin Wells to the ESD Board of Directors Number 2. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'll second that motion. 1-8-07 17 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for approval 2 of the agenda item as indicated. Any question or discussion 3 on the motion? 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Commissioner Oehler, would 5 you give me the names of the folks that are going off? 6 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Cleo Meadow and Wes Patton. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Mm-hmm. This is an exciting 8 time. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Any further question 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: Motion does carry. 16 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I'd also comment that they 17 need to have their oath of office administered in the County 18 Clerk's office, and see Nadene and she will get you signed up. 19 Thank you for doing it. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you, Mr. Reece. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you. Let's move to Item 4, 22 review of the Kerr County Juvenile Detention Facility first 23 quarter budget revenues. Mr. Stanton? 24 MR. STANTON: Good morning. I've given you 25 gentlemen a copy of -- probably a little bit more information 1-8-07 18 1 than you really want. But if you have any questions, I'd be 2 happy to try to explain the numbers or -- or whatever you 3 need. Just some brief highlights. If you look at the very 4 first page, this is a report that's done by the Juvenile 5 Probation Commission, and we've -- during the first three 6 months of the budget year, we've detained 109 kids out at the 7 facility, with a total of -- total detention days of 1,350 8 days. We've averaged 15 kids out there for the first three 9 months. If you go over to -- it's probably Page 5, our 10 projected budget, if you look at the very top of the page, the 11 projected budget -- or revenue for the juvenile facility was 12 303,000 -- $303,300. So far, we've billed out $122,086 in the 13 first quarter, which is about 40 percent of the projected 14 revenue in the first three months, so we're ahead of schedule. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Does that -- does that 16 include Kerr County kids? 17 MR. STANTON: Yes, sir. Yes, sir. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And so Kerr County sends kids 19 out there, and you turn around and bill the hand that just fed 20 you? 21 MR. STANTON: Yes, sir. Yes, sir. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you. 23 MR. STANTON: If you'll skip over two more pages, I 24 think this is probably the most interesting one that 25 Mr. Baldwin will find. It's a breakdown of the population out 1-8-07 19 1 at the facility by counties. And the -- or, I'm sorry, it's 2 the estimates and totals. We -- to make to it our projected 3 budget, we needed to bill 280 -- 280 billable days a month. 4 If you'll look at the first gray column -- the second gray 5 column is the actual, what we've been billing for the first 6 three months. We've actually been billing almost 400 -- or a 7 little over 450 days per month, so -- 8 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: 280 meets your budget? 9 MR. STANTON: 280 meets the budget. We're billing 10 450. The next -- 11 JUDGE TINLEY: The budget was based upon just under 12 a daily average of 11 residents, and you're running about 15, 13 so -- 14 MR. STANTON: Yes, sir, at this point. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: -- that's the magic number. Plus we 16 went up slightly on the daily rate, too. 17 MR. STANTON: Yes, sir. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: From $83 to $90. 19 MR. STANTON: Yes, sir. Yes, sir. The very next 20 page is the one -- I'm sorry, Mr. Baldwin -- is the one that 21 breaks it down into the population per county. As you can 22 see, Kerr County -- Kerr County's about 61 percent of our 23 population, which is actually down from last year. We've 24 gotten a big increase from Burnet County from the 33rd 25 Judicial District. We're starting to get all their kids now, 1-8-07 20 1 so that's kind of offsetting Kerr County's -- 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Let me ask you a question. 3 The Judge just said that we budgeted for just under 11 kids 4 per day. 5 MR. STANTON: The revenue. The revenue. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Right. 7 MR. STANTON: Yes, sir. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Does that affect the manpower 9 in any way? 10 MR. STANTON: No, sir. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So, where -- where are we -- 12 how many -- let's see, try to get the -- as far as state 13 standards are concerned, the ratio between employees and kids, 14 where are we in that? 15 MR. STANTON: We're fine. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: How many are we staffed to 17 handle? 18 MR. STANTON: We're staffed to handle -- excuse me. 19 We're staffed to handle 24 kids. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: 24, okay. That's what I was 21 looking for. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's the minimum that we can 23 really staff at? Or could we staff at a lower level? 24 MR. STANTON: That's the minimum we can staff at 25 because of the male/female ratios, and -- 1-8-07 21 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: We can do it with the 2 staffing in place? You can do one to 24? 3 MR. STANTON: Yes, sir. 4 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Have one kid, same staffing; 5 24 kids, same staffing? 6 MR. STANTON: Yes, sir. 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. 8 MR. STANTON: Yes, sir. And the most we can hold in 9 the facility is 25, and we've been up to 24 twice this year so 10 far. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay, thank you. 12 MR. STANTON: But the rest of it is -- is basically 13 breakdowns by county. Each county's broken down by the number 14 of kids they've detained, the cost, and those types and 15 numbers. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Kevin, when I went through 17 there, I didn't see an expenditure. 18 MR. STANTON: No, sir, this is all just -- I was 19 just doing the revenue. The expenditures were online. The 20 only thing that we're running a little short in at this point, 21 which is -- I'm hoping will decrease now that the holidays are 22 over, is the -- the money that we were using to pay 23 part-timers. We had a lot of people taking off end of year, 24 trying to burn up the comp time that they had earned last 25 year. We were having to fill those with part-timers, plus we 1-8-07 22 1 had quite a few people taking off during the holidays. 2 Hopefully the use of part-timers will slow down now throughout 3 the rest of the year. 4 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Where are we in tems of 5 getting rid of the comp time, Kevin? 6 MR. STANTON: We're done. 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: We're finished with it? 8 MR. STANTON: Yes, sir, we're finished with it. 9 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Good. 10 MR. STANTON: We're online with -- with the rest of 11 the county now that -- we're paying it out every -- I believe 12 it's 30 days, like the rest of the county employees. 13 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Just for Commissioner 14 Oehler's benefit, there was a huge amount of accumulated comp 15 time as a result of -- of what was taking place out there 16 before we cut it back with Kevin. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 1,700 hours or something. 18 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Wow. 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: We've gotten rid of most of 20 that -- all of that. Okay. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, you see -- I mean, you have 22 no complaints about the operations as currently staffed and 23 the way we're doing things right now? You don't recommend 24 doing any kind of change out there? 25 MR. STANTON: Not at this point. I only -- I mean, 1-8-07 23 1 I was a little surprised that we're averaging 15 kids a day 2 out there. But the -- the ratio as far as the number of kids 3 we're -- that are being detained, as far as the number of days 4 -- the billable days, the -- the percentages haven't gone up 5 the same. Actually, what it is, we're getting more kids, but 6 we're actually keeping the kids longer that we're getting now, 7 so I think that's one of the reasons for the increase in the 8 billable days. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What's the reason for that? 10 MR. STANTON: I believe it's the types of crimes 11 that are being committed. Plus we're getting a lot of kids 12 that have been on probation multiple times, and they're having 13 to hold them longer, looking for different types of 14 residential placement and those types of things. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, we're getting the worst -- 16 MR. STANTON: Well, we've got -- an example is, 17 since I've been out here and since I've been in Kerr County, I 18 could be wrong, but we've got a young man out there for 19 capital murder right now, and this is -- we've never had 20 anybody with that type of charge on him before. So -- 21 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Were there any counties that 22 fell by the wayside as a result of the per diem increase? 23 MR. STANTON: No, sir. No, sir. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: What have other facilities -- similar 25 facilities done on their -- on their daily rate for 1-8-07 24 1 preadjudication? 2 MR. STANTON: You know, when we were looking at it 3 before, before we changed our rates, it was -- it was anywhere 4 from -- I mean, the highs were, like, in the 101's to 105's, 5 all the way down to $80 a day. The surrounding counties that 6 were around, Atascosa County, San Marcos or Hays County, I 7 believe they're right at 90 to 95, somewhere in there, the 8 same as we are. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Any more questions for 10 Mr. Stanton? Thank you, sir. We appreciate your report. 11 MR. STANTON: Thank you very much. 12 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Thank you, Kevin. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Let's move, if we might, to Item 5; 14 consider, discuss, and take appropriate action to schedule and 15 receive a detailed presentation from Headwaters Groundwater 16 Conservation District consulting geologist Feather Wilson on 17 aquifer modeling in Kerr County, the presentation to include 18 water availability of the Middle Trinity, Lower Trinity, 19 Edwards Trinity, Glen Rose, and other aquifers based on 20 scientific data and consulting work done for Headwaters, and 21 present status of Groundwater Availability Modeling efforts 22 and the use of same to determine the water availability in 23 specific areas of Kerr County, such presentation to be 24 scheduled for Commissioners Court meeting of January the 22nd, 25 2007, at 11 a.m. Wow, that was long. 1-8-07 25 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Thank you, Judge. That was 2 good. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay, now we can move to the 4 next one. 5 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: For the better part of the 6 last six or eight weeks, both Commissioner Letz and I have had 7 discussions with various members of the Headwaters board about 8 the need to -- for us and for the public at large to have a 9 better understanding of what it is that they're -- Headwaters' 10 consulting geologist has been doing with respect to aquifer 11 modeling. I believe he's under contract to Headwaters to do 12 that, and so we thought the best way to do that -- and we 13 spoke with several individual members of that board. The best 14 way to do it would be to invite Mr. Wilson to come to court 15 and make a presentation, and the public at large, as well as 16 the Court, could understand exactly what's taking place, and 17 have -- have the opportunity to ask questions about water 18 availability and -- and some of the determinations he's made 19 in his -- in his modeling efforts, and so that's the purpose 20 of it. We put it on the agenda today just for the purpose of 21 the Court knowing exactly what it is that we're proposing to 22 do, and if the Court has no objection, it'll be on the agenda 23 for January 22 at 11 o'clock. And in the meantime, I will 24 e-mail the agenda item as you see it, unless we change it, to 25 the Headwaters board president so they know exactly what it is 1-8-07 26 1 that we're proposing. I see three members of the board out 2 there -- two members of the board and the General Manager out 3 there today, so, obviously, they'll get a copy of it pretty 4 quickly. Commissioner Letz, do you have something to add to 5 that? 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: A couple things that I helped 7 with were probably partially responsible for the length of the 8 item. But I want it real clear, is that the -- the intent 9 from my standpoint is the Legislature, in its wisdom, has 10 given counties the authority to do water availability, and 11 that's our only role in reality, and underground water and 12 everything else is under Headwaters. And I -- and some 13 Headwaters board members and others have been critical of this 14 Court for not being, you know, on the right page on water 15 availability. And I want it real clear; I want to know 16 exactly what Headwaters' geologist -- this is not -- the 17 reason I think we're having the geologist to come, Feather 18 Wilson, as opposed to a joint meeting with the board -- that 19 may be something we need to do down the road -- is that this 20 isn't a policy issue; this is a fact issue. We need to know 21 if -- if we need to tweak our water availability portion of 22 our subdivision rules. We need to know what the facts are. 23 We can't act on speculation in long-term policy, so we need to 24 know exactly what the new modeling that they have done through 25 that consulting geologist -- what it says. 1-8-07 27 1 If it comes -- if they're at the point now of saying 2 that, you know, right around the airport, we know for a fact 3 there is "X" -- you know, a certain amount of water available, 4 in other parts of the county there's another amount available; 5 in west Kerr County, there's this available, we need to know 6 that information, 'cause we are the ones that are charged with 7 the water availability portion of the Subdivision Rules. And 8 that's the reason, is to see exactly where they are. And if 9 we need to make any changes, we -- you know, maybe we'll look 10 at that. And I think, you know, down the road, there may be 11 -- if it's a good time to have another joint meeting, I think 12 it's always healthy to have joint meetings with Headwaters and 13 other entities that we interact with, but this is much more of 14 a fact-finding item, in my opinion. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So, what you're saying -- I 16 just want to make it clear. What I'm fixing to see here in a 17 couple of weeks is that Mr. Wilson is to come here and give 18 scientific fact or his theories about scientific fact, or he 19 has reached some conclusion of some sort, I'm assuming. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Based on what I read in the 21 paper, he's reached some conclusions. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't know what it's based on. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's what the reason -- I 1-8-07 28 1 mean, if he's basing it on speculation, that's one thing. If 2 he's basing it on -- if he has the actual scientific data that 3 says he knows for certain if he drills a well here, we're 4 going to get this much water out of that well, that's another 5 issue. I think it's -- I think we need to know either way. I 6 think we react either way. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Let me ask you this. If he 8 comes in and says he can drill a well here and it's going to 9 draw down water over here, or whatever he's going to say, 10 would there be other geologists that may say something 11 different? 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Possibly. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I mean, you know, facts are 14 facts. I don't know. Do you expect him to come in and give a 15 complete scientific report on each one of the -- I mean, you 16 have Middle Trinity, Lower Trinity, Edwards, and -- 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Obviously, I'm very familiar 18 with what Mr. Wilson's done, being on Region J. I don't know 19 -- but I don't know exactly where he is in his modeling. The 20 idea is -- I mean, Headwaters is -- they're certainly here and 21 can correct me if I'm not accurate here, but they're investing 22 a lot of money in modeling, which definitely, in my opinion, 23 needs to be improved. I don't know if he's at the point -- if 24 he's halfway through or a quarter through, 99 percent through. 25 I don't know where he is in his modeling efforts. I would 1-8-07 29 1 suspect he's not done yet, from what -- you know, from my 2 other conversations with Mr. Wilson, but he's certainly made 3 some headway. 4 I've got to be honest; some of these questions I've 5 never asked him. I don't know if he is modeling the Glen 6 Rose. I have no idea; I've never asked him that question. 7 But I think that's something important to know, because there 8 are a lot of wells -- even though the water may not be real 9 good quality, there is a huge number of wells out of the Glen 10 Rose. There's a huge number of wells that are 50 feet deep 11 along a creek. So, I think that there's a -- you know, 12 people -- there's a -- I guess a presumption in the community 13 that when wells go dry, the Trinity's going dry. Well, I 14 think we need to really look at where the -- where the Trinity 15 wells are; I mean, what wells we're actually talking about. 16 There's all kind of aquifers. I think these are the aquifers 17 that are producing. The other kinds are alluvial type, 18 shallow creeks and rivers and all that. I think I've 19 identified them here. I don't know. Like I say, I never 20 talked to him specifically about if he's even looking at these 21 other aquifers. But I know Headwaters, I think, has a pretty 22 good handle on the total number of wells in the county, but 23 I'm not sure they have a real good handle on where are all 24 these wells are producing from, because they're not permitted 25 wells. 1-8-07 30 1 So, I just really wanted to update a very 2 specific -- I didn't want to talk about whether we should 3 require different types of water availability and whether we 4 should do Chapter 230 or not. I want to focus -- that's more 5 of a policy issue, in my mind. I mean, I want to know 6 exactly, scientifically, where they are. And if they think -- 7 because they're -- I mean, some of them have been very vocal 8 in the paper that we should try to tighten up our water 9 availability. I think that's -- you know, I want to know if 10 there's a basis; if it's their feeling or if it's based on 11 actual work that they now have that we haven't seen. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So, it's a possibility that 13 we may should tighten up. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's just -- I mean, I really -- 15 I've talked to Feather a great deal, but never in this 16 context. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Mm-hmm. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Or this specific. I talk to him 19 more on a regional basis. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. My final question, you 21 said you're going to put it on the agenda for 11 o'clock? 22 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yes, sir. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Should we order out lunch 24 that day, and possibly dinner? That sounds like a long, 25 drawn-out thing. 1-8-07 31 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think it should be a 1:00 or 2 1:30 item. 3 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: We can change it, 4 whatever -- 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think we need to allow the 6 time, and I think also the other reason to put on it the 7 agenda, there may be some others in the public that want to 8 hear it. There's no reason to have 20 different 9 presentations. If we're going to have one, whoever wants to 10 come, come. Hopefully it will be in the paper, and it's not 11 -- you know, but Bill and I discussed quite a bit whether we 12 wanted a workshop or an agenda item, and my thought was to 13 keep it an agenda item so our County Attorney will keep us 14 focused. I don't want to be talking about all different 15 items. If we have a workshop, then you can talk about 16 anything. If it's a specific item, as worded here, that's all 17 we can talk about. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's good. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And that's, I think, helpful 20 from a -- 'cause this is such a huge topic. 21 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: If the Court believes we 22 should have it after lunch, at 1:30 or 1 o'clock, that's fine. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 1:30. 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: 1:30? 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I see board members nodding 1-8-07 32 1 their head. 2 MR. ELLIOTT: I'm John Elliott, Precinct 4, 3 Headwaters. But I'm thinking, instead of duplicating our 4 presentations, we ought to do it -- I think -- hasn't 5 everybody been invited to a workshop presentation at 6 1 o'clock? Did you get that invite from Mary Ellen? Why 7 don't we do it -- no, you did not? Did we not -- 8 MR. WILLIAMS: Hasn't gone out yet. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: She cleared with me the use of one of 10 the courtrooms. She asked me to clear that, and I have done 11 so. And -- but she was going to handle the notification. 12 MR. ELLIOTT: I'm just thinking, instead of 13 duplicating Feather's presentation or efforts, we ought to 14 maybe combine the presentations into one. 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: When was that other 16 presentation? 17 MR. ELLIOTT: 1 o'clock, I think Mary Ellen was 18 thinking. Isn't that right, Judge? 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: On the 22nd? 20 MR. ELLIOTT: Yes, uh-huh. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, I -- 22 JUDGE TINLEY: I know I cleared the courtroom, 23 but -- and that sounds like the correct date, because we know 24 we have a jury reporting on that date. E.B.A. 25 MR. ELLIOTT: Well, I'll tell Mary Ellen, and she'll 1-8-07 33 1 get with you. All I'm trying to do is not duplicate -- 2 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That's a good point, John. 3 We were not aware that that was -- 4 MR. ELLIOTT: Okay. Well, that's -- 5 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: -- that that was perking 6 from your side of the equation. Okay. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I guess I don't have any problem 8 with combining meetings, but I'm very focused on what I want 9 the Court to talk about. 10 MR. ELLIOTT: And, you know, Commissioner, I'm the 11 same way. I think we ought to find out -- 12 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: If we do it this way, then 13 it's posted for us, and this is the way we'd like to invite 14 the presentation to be. 15 MR. ELLIOTT: Okay. So, you're suggesting at 16 11 o'clock, he present it to the -- 17 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: No, we changed it to 1:30. 18 MR. ELLIOTT: That's great. Perfect. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We can do -- they can be done 20 together. We could have our item, and then they could go into 21 other items, if Mary Ellen has -- whatever her workshop is. 22 MR. ELLIOTT: That makes sense to me. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What's more important to me 24 is that if we do it with an agenda item, it's on the record. 25 Whatever is said is on the record, and I think that that is 1-8-07 34 1 major important. 2 MR. ELLIOTT: That's fine. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: She's looking at 1 o'clock? Is that 4 your recollection? 5 MR. ELLIOTT: That's my understanding, yeah. I'll 6 clear it up with her. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 8 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: If we can reconcile that, 9 we're going to take action here in just about two seconds. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Why don't we just set -- 11 MR. ELLIOTT: 1 o'clock? 12 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: 1 o'clock? 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But I think we should do -- we 14 can do an agenda item; we can post it. We can do both at the 15 same time. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Sure. 17 MR. ELLIOTT: Yeah. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Then we can just follow them 19 back to back. 20 MR. ELLIOTT: Sounds like a plan. Thanks. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Very good, thank you. 22 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: What's the pleasure of the 23 Court? 1:00 or 1:30? 24 MR. ELLIOTT: Either works for me. 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: 1 o'clock is good. I'll 1-8-07 35 1 move that the agenda item as drafted on 1.5 be posted on 2 Commissioners Court agenda for January 22nd at 1 p.m. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded as 5 indicated. Any question or discussion on the motion? All in 6 favor of the motion, signify by raising your right hand. 7 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 8 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 9 (No response.) 10 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. Let's go to 11 Item 6 -- 12 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Before we do, Judge, are you 13 going to convey the sense of that to Mary Ellen, or would you 14 like me to send her an e-mail indicating exactly what -- how 15 this is structured? 16 MR. ELLIOTT: Both. 17 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Both. Will do. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And the -- one other question is 19 on -- do we leave it up to you or to Gene to contact Feather, 20 or should we contact Feather directly? 21 MR. WILLIAMS: Maybe you should contact him. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. Okay. Bill, maybe you 23 can get hold of him and send him a copy of the item, 'cause 24 it's -- either one mentions the presentation. 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Will you give me an e-mail 1-8-07 36 1 or a phone number or something for him, please? 2 MR. WILLIAMS: I'll get it to you. 3 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I'll be happy to do that. 4 MR. WILLIAMS: Thank you. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Are we all through with that 6 item now? Let's move, then, to Item 6; consider, discuss, and 7 take appropriate action on correspondence from Milton E. 8 Taylor regarding easement to his property adjacent to Kerr 9 County's Flat Rock Lake Park, the new section on the east end. 10 Commissioner Williams? 11 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: If the Court read the 12 correspondence from Mr. Taylor, as I did, you might be a 13 little confused as to what this is all about. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Something to do with 15 connecting a fence to a gate? 16 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yeah. It has something to 17 do with a fence and a gate. So, after trying to call him 18 three or four times and being unsuccessful, I finally got hold 19 of him, and he and I visited on Saturday morning out at -- on 20 our property. About four years ago, Commissioner Letz and I 21 met with Mr. Taylor, and he wanted to cut a hole in our fence 22 and put a gate in so he could do whatever it is he wanted to 23 do. And nothing's changed except four years have elapsed, and 24 he has more junk accumulated on his property. I gave you this 25 map just to give you an idea, and the sketch that I drew sort 1-8-07 37 1 of gives you a sense of what this is all about. If you'll 2 note in his letter, the Number 3 item, Last, but not least, on 3 November 7th I was charged and pled no contest to a Class A 4 misdemeanor, illegal commercial dumping, 5 to 200 pounds, 5 solid waste -- whatever, whatever. "This is part of the area 6 included in the judgment, and I am required to clean up this 7 area. I need better access to this property..." 8 That's probably true; he does need better access to 9 the property. My initial inclination is to say no, he's not 10 cutting a hole in the county fence. But given the fact that 11 he has been cited and ordered by the Court to clean up that 12 property, not only all in and around the creek there, which 13 affects our property, but I went out and I looked at it one 14 more time, and if you look at my drawings, the yellow is the 15 fence -- our fence that's on our property, and he's got all of 16 this heavy equipment -- buses, trailers, trucks, junk -- on 17 his property, and he says, "I can't get it out." Why can't 18 you get it out? You've got a driveway. You got it in. How 19 come you can't get it out? "Well, because the grade's too 20 steep and I can't get it out." So, what he'd like to do is 21 put a gate in our property, which gives him a flatter ingress 22 and egress to get the stuff out and up that easement. 23 Now, my inclination is to say no. But, by the same 24 token, I thought about it, and a temporary easement at his 25 expense -- cutting the fence, putting the gate in and 1-8-07 38 1 repairing the fence and taking the gate out -- for six months 2 might facilitate cleaning up that property, which is next to 3 our property and is an eyesore. And we're getting ready to 4 open a bridge this year. The new bridge piers have been 5 poured and the cap's going to be poured in the -- you know, 6 maybe 30, 60 days, Leonard? Something like that on that 7 bridge. Maybe 90 days. Anyhow, we hope to have the new 8 bridge open, so we're bridging the two sections of our 9 property. I'd like to see it get cleaned up, and I don't know 10 if this is a way to facilitate getting it cleaned up. I do 11 know that if we said no, you can't do that, then we probably 12 would be impeding the cleanup. I don't think there's any 13 question about that. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't -- I think your -- I 15 would agree with you, the answer is no to a long-term 16 easement. I see no benefit to the taxpayers of the county by 17 giving Mr. Taylor access through our park to get to his 18 property. On a temporary basis, I wouldn't -- I don't have a 19 problem with it; however, I would get an estimate from the 20 Road and Bridge Department as to what that is going to cost to 21 put the gate in and paid off, and get the funds from 22 Mr. Taylor up front. 23 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Right. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And then proceed, rather than -- 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That would be -- 1-8-07 39 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- leave it up to him. 2 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That would be my approach, 3 to get a contractor of our choice to do the fence work and 4 install the gate. Find out exactly what the cost is to put it 5 in and create that ingress and egress, and put it back the way 6 it was, say, six months down the road, and get that money up 7 front and in a contract the County Attorney can draw up. That 8 way, maybe we can control it. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: My only concern is this six 10 months thing. Why not the time -- the same time frame as the 11 court order states? 12 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I think he has a year to do 13 it. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Six months is a lot better. 15 I like six months. (Laughter.) 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Has any thought been given to trying 17 to strike some bargain in return for accommodating him so that 18 he can comply with the T.C.E.Q. requirements? 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Such as, Judge? 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: A larger easement. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: To get an easement, either from 22 Riverside or something else off of 27, to give us better 23 access to that particular tract of land than the pretty poor 24 access that we have to it right now. 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Well, once we get the bridge 1-8-07 40 1 in, we have -- we have good access. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, that bridge is not going to be 3 for vehicular access, according to my understanding, or it's 4 not meant to be for vehicular access, but rather foot traffic 5 and maybe maintenance-type vehicles, things of that nature. 6 I'm thinking about more -- more permanent vehicular access 7 that's reasonable. I don't know what the lay of the land is 8 coming off Riverside. I'm sure there's a way that something 9 could come off 27. I don't know what it -- 10 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Judge, we looked at that 11 last time we talked with Mr. Taylor. You and I, wasn't it, 12 Len? 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We went walking all over it. 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Walked all over it, and 15 Leonard's been out there over and over again. And if you see 16 how -- how Third Creek comes in there, you know, it comes in 17 at a real bend. Comes across Highway 27 and it bends severely 18 to the -- you know, makes a 45-degree angle and hooks around, 19 and -- and we only have access across the creek after it 20 straightens out. Which is good, 'cause that's where we're 21 putting the bridge, but that's a pretty steep cliff in there 22 where that creek comes around and bends around on his 23 property. And then you've got -- at Riverside and Highway 27, 24 I know what you're talking about, in that -- be lovely if we 25 had that, but we don't have that, because it needs to be 1-8-07 41 1 cleaned up as well on both sides of Riverside Drive. So, I 2 don't know where that would be, Judge. We looked at it four 3 years ago. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: It occurs to me that if you're going 5 to be in a position to try and strike a bargain with that 6 landowner to get a different and better route of access to 7 that Flat Rock Park piece of property, that now is the very, 8 very best time that you're going to have to do that. 9 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I don't disagree with that 10 at all. Because I would hope someday we could abandon that 11 easement on top that comes down from the Swap Shop. That's 12 terrible. It's not good for public ingress and egress to that 13 piece of property, which is a gorgeous piece of property. I 14 would hope that someday we could abandon that. We can take 15 another look at it. I'll be happy to do that, take another 16 look at it and see whether there is anything else. But, 17 Leonard, while we're here on this topic, that bridge that's 18 going to go in will take vehicular traffic, will it not? 19 MR. ODOM: It will. 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. 21 MR. ODOM: Just like the Guadalupe River crossing at 22 Hermann Sons. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't think -- you can't take 24 -- I think what it is, there was a weight limit. 25 MR. ODOM: 17,000, but that was arbitrarily put. I 1-8-07 42 1 mean, before it was -- 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 3 MR. ODOM: You know. I mean, could take a load of 4 80,000. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, if you were to have a -- some 7 sort of event or fair on that piece of property, with a large 8 portion of that to be utilized for parking, it'd really be 9 better if you had another route of access, would it not? Than 10 just that bridge and that -- 11 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Come up, Leonard, so we can 12 talk to you. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Part of the -- well -- 14 MR. ODOM: Now, part of crossing the river, again, 15 is cost analysis, and we've got this in pretty cheap; 21,000 16 for the piers and about 13, so 34 -- 35,000 is what it's going 17 to cost us plus putting that across. So, if I -- I don't know 18 where the route would be. We'll take a look at it. However, 19 I believe that it would probably be more cost effective to 20 have some traffic control. You're going to go -- if you 21 parked on the other side, then it's sort of like that same 22 analysis of how do you get them out of Houston? You've got 23 to -- for another read-up. You've got to have better 24 control -- Houston does -- to get them out. So I think you 25 could do the same thing. If they're on this side, then 1-8-07 43 1 there's no traffic going in; it's all coming out. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Mm-hmm. 3 MR. ODOM: And the same thing there; you're not 4 letting them come out, and you've got this huge area over 5 there to park people. I just don't know what's -- you know, 6 what the criteria would be, but that bridge would -- would 7 hold, just like we have at Hermann Sons. 8 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I think in -- in the context 9 you're talking about, Judge, I think once we get the bridge 10 in, then I think we're going to have to improve our own 11 driveway off of Riverside Drive down to that bridge, 'cause 12 that's not good where it is. 13 MR. ODOM: Where it's at, it's going to be 14 relocated. Exactly where it's at now, it's going to change 15 because of the angle that we've got. And we have an idea 16 where it's going to come out at, so there will be some -- a 17 little bit of change there, or you will only have the entrance 18 down at the other side. That's up to y'all. I just need a 19 little lead there, but we just need to get end caps poured; I 20 don't have those done yet. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, my whole point is, there's not 22 going to be a better time to strike a bargain with this 23 landowner than right now. And even if we don't utilize a 24 particular right of access that we manage to obtain, if we're 25 going to get one, now's the time to get it, something 1-8-07 44 1 different than what we got. 2 MR. ODOM: Than what you got. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: And -- and if there's even the 4 remotest of possibilities down the road, years, that it would 5 be beneficial for us to have another access, let's try and get 6 it in the equation now, because now's the time that we -- 7 we've got the ability to talk to this landowner. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We -- Bill and I talked to him 9 about getting an additional access, and he was not at all 10 receptive before. That's part of -- on that side of it, part 11 of the problem is where he built his house. I mean, any road 12 -- you can't, I think, cost-effectively cross Third Creek 13 again; that doesn't make sense, so you got to come off of 27, 14 really. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Mm-hmm. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And not a very big spot there. 17 It's a pretty long -- it's a lot further from 27 to our park 18 than you think. I mean, I walked through -- I think Len and I 19 walked through it. I think Bill was there, too. It is -- 20 it's a swampy, rough mess in there. But I hear what the Judge 21 says; there may be opportunities for us to -- you know, I 22 don't think Milton's going to give up an easement for nothing. 23 I don't know how much it's going to cost him to clean up, but 24 we may be able to help him in his cleanup if he gives us the 25 easement. And I think that is a -- it's -- you know, it's 1-8-07 45 1 worth pursuing. You know, if we say we'll take care of the 2 cleanup -- or I see the County Attorney getting -- 3 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I don't even want to look at 4 the County Attorney after you just said that. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I've got a question. 6 Commissioner Oehler was a member of this Court when the -- 7 when that land was purchased? 8 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Purchased. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And I was just wondering if 10 there were any thoughts -- original thoughts when you 11 purchased it. Were you thinking about some kind of entrance 12 into that piece of property? 13 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: We were hoping sometime in the 14 future to gain some wider access from -- from Milton. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Here we are. 16 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I have met with Milton 17 numerous times in past years and was not able to get any more 18 right-of-way, but this may be a good opportunity to do some -- 19 some trading. 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Where did you have in mind 21 for the additional right-of-way, Commissioner? On that -- 22 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Like you said, and that 23 property down by his house and crossing the creek again is 24 cost prohibitive, I think. I think we need to have it on the 25 west -- on the east side where the existing easement is now, 1-8-07 46 1 just have a wider one. 2 MR. ODOM: See, we only have 20 foot. 3 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I know we don't have but 20 4 foot. We need to have 100. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: He built a new house right -- 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: There's another structure in 7 there now. 8 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Over the -- on the east side? 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: He's right -- where our gate 10 goes in -- where the easement goes in, he's right at that -- 11 it's 20 feet from our gate. 12 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Oh, no. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Overlooking the park. 14 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That may have been 15 intentional, too. 16 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: There's another one right 17 there, up there at the top as you come in off the highway. 18 There's a structure right as you come in off the highway. You 19 come in the road like you're going up to Swap Shop, and right 20 as you would turn right to go on that -- on our easement to go 21 down, there's another structure there. That's -- it's a 22 double-wide that has part of his church. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But there's a house he built, 24 right? 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Big two-story house. 1-8-07 47 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That's where he lives. 2 That's his dwelling. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That house is right -- that 4 house wasn't there when we bought the property? 5 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: No, it was not. 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: But there's now another one, 7 is what I'm trying to tell you. There's another structure 8 even -- right -- almost right across from the Swap Shop. As 9 you come up that road going to Swap Shop and you turn right to 10 go into our park, there's the structure right there. Then 11 down a little bit is his house. If you look at my little 12 drawing, you'll see it. I saw a little -- right up at the 13 top, there's a new structure right there. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I -- 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Before his house. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think the Judge is very 17 accurate; it's a good time to visit with him again, see if 18 there's anything we can do. 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yeah. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And we can see where it leads. 21 I mean, the -- his new house that he lives in is really messed 22 up. The plan I think that the Court had originally -- I mean, 23 it's like, you know -- 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: The position of it. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The position of it is just -- 1-8-07 48 1 it's right where we would need access. But there's -- you 2 know, he may be -- the other side of it, to his -- it would 3 probably benefit him if there was access into the middle of 4 that property. 5 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Well, if you remember -- if 6 you recall, when we visited with him, he's got two posts and a 7 gate, which is probably 10 or 12 feet back from our fence, 8 which is what he wanted to connect. Well, he says now that 9 will be better served if he could connect it, put a gate in 10 at -- at a lower elevation so that he can pull all that heavy 11 stuff out on the flat and then go up that easement, as opposed 12 to going up his driveway. His driveway's kind of like that. 13 So if the Court gives -- wants to give me authority to see 14 what we can do and work out the details of something, I'll do 15 that. 16 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I would say that it's not our 17 responsibility to help Mr. Taylor get his junk off of his 18 property, being that there has been a court order issued 19 against him to do so. 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I agree. 21 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I think that, you know, if he 22 wants us to help him, he has to be willing to give something 23 that we need in order for us to make it easier for him. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: There you go. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Somebody said it. 1-8-07 49 1 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I say no, Mr. Taylor. You 2 have not cooperated with the County in any form or fashion. 3 You want us to do for you, and you're not willing to 4 cooperate. No, absolutely not. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'm with Bruce. Y'all notice 6 that the Commissioners Court has two pulling tackles now? 7 (Laughter.) 8 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: The only question I have in 9 mind is, if we're going to try to negotiate a quid pro quo on 10 a temporary basis -- not a permanent easement, temporary -- 11 where do we think that improved easement would be? 12 MR. ODOM: Off 27. 13 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Off 27, coming in. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right where the driveway goes 15 up, trying to get it more straightened out there. 16 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I'd say to take it from where 17 the easement is now down to where you come off of 27 to go 18 straight. Going straight would take everything. Get -- some 19 way or another, get that piece of land, 'cause that -- and if 20 you have to give a little to go around his house, that would 21 be the adequate -- 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 23 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: -- and the right way to do it 24 for the County for the future. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. So, you would turn off 27 1-8-07 50 1 and go straight through the park, as opposed -- 2 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Plus that gets us away -- 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Instead of going up and turning, 4 kind of, you go -- you have to go up at a little bit of an 5 angle. 6 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That will keep you far enough 7 away from the creek to have decent access on high ground that 8 will probably be out of the floodplain. 9 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. 10 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: If he wants to give a 60-foot 11 easement for us to help him, or maybe we even make some kind 12 of agreement with him to do something, but I -- as far as 13 helping him, at this point, no. 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: We'll see what -- we'll see 15 what we can do, see where it takes us. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Anything further on that particular 17 agenda item? 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I think we beat that dog to 19 death. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: It's straight up 10 o'clock now. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What a leader. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: And so at this time, I will recess 23 the Commissioners Court meeting, and I will convene a public 24 hearing concerning the revision of plat for Lots 5 and 6 in 25 Cypress Springs, Phase I, as set forth in Volume 7, Page 12 of 1-8-07 51 1 the Plat Records, and located in Precinct 4. 2 (The regular Commissioners Court meeting was closed at 10 a.m., and a public hearing was held in open 3 court, as follows:) 4 P U B L I C H E A R I N G 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Is there any member of the public 6 that wishes to be heard concerning the revision of the plat 7 for Lots 5 and 6 of Cypress Springs, Phase I, as set forth in 8 Volume 7, Page 12 of the Plat Records of Kerr County, and 9 located in Precinct 4? 10 (No response.) 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Seeing no one coming forward, I will 12 close the public hearing, and I will reconvene the 13 Commissioners Court meeting and call Item 8. 14 (The public hearing was concluded at 10 a.m., and the regular Commissioners Court meeting was reopened.) 15 - - - - - - - - - - 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Consider, discuss, and take 17 appropriate action for -- concerning the revision of plat for 18 Lots 5 and 6 in Cypress Springs Estates, Phase I, as set forth 19 in Volume 7, Page 12 of the Plat Records, and located in 20 Precinct 4. Mr. Odom? 21 MR. ODOM: Yes, sir. This revision is being done 22 under the alternate plat process and will combine two lots, 23 Lots 5 and 6, making one lot, 5R, 4.69 acres. At this time, 24 we ask that you approve this revision on the plat as 25 presented, and authorize the Judge to sign same. 1-8-07 52 1 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: So moved. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for approval 4 of the agenda item. Any question or discussion on the motion? 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: One question -- one question, 6 Mr. Odom. 7 MR. ODOM: Yes, sir? 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Are you responsible for this 9 vicinity map? 10 MR. ODOM: Am I responsible? I allowed it to be 11 done, but -- 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You ought to be ashamed of 13 yourself. You can't read that thing at all. 14 MR. ODOM: Mr. Voelkel? 15 MR. LEE VOELKEL: I'm responsible for that, yes, 16 sir. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Oh, that's okay then. That 18 makes it okay. 19 MR. ODOM: Makes it okay? 20 MR. LEE VOELKEL: Let me look at that again. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Don't -- 22 MR. LEE VOELKEL: I think I agree with you. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Any other questions or comments? All 24 in favor of that motion, signify by raising your right hand. 25 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 1-8-07 53 1 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 2 (No response.) 3 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion carried. Let us do Item 4 17; consider, discuss, and take appropriate action to approve 5 the final plat of Lasso Ranch located in Precinct 3. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Leonard? 7 MR. ODOM: Yes, sir. Let me find it here. Okay. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Pretty straightforward. 9 MR. ODOM: Yes. They've given their letter of 10 credit. They're going to do the final here. They have paid 11 the bill for Wayne. There will still be some, but we have 12 that letter of credit, so I don't have a problem with that. 13 They still have some work still to be done; that is the base 14 on top, as well as sealcoat, and I believe that's waiting on 15 utilities. But as it's platted right here, I ask the Court to 16 accept it as -- as platted for a final. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I make a motion to approve. 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Second. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 20 approval. Any question or discussion? 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: A quick question. I know that 22 the -- the B.F.E. was an issue on this one, an issue from the 23 standpoint as to how it should be done, and we kind of looked 24 at establishing the B.F.E. 25 MR. ODOM: Establishing the B.F.E. yes. 1-8-07 54 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And as I understand it from 2 talking with Don Voelkel and -- and the fact that you got it 3 here today, seems like it worked out pretty well? Is that 4 accurate, that it's kind of looking at the law and complying 5 with the law, that it was a -- and with the size of these 6 lots, it worked out, of you working with the surveyor, 7 basically, to determine where the B.F.E. should be? 8 MR. ODOM: Yes. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Kind of an informal -- 10 MR. ODOM: Informal type deal when they have this. 11 My understanding is -- is that when we talked to FEMA about 12 that, that they did not have a typical -- not a fixed answer, 13 yes or no, other than an ambiguous answer. We could -- they 14 could leave it undone, or you could do it. We had to be 15 consistent in what we were doing. So, I don't have a specific 16 answer, other than that we put -- putting this note on here 17 that says that they come to the Floodplain Administrator, 18 whoever that may be, whether it's me or whomever, to -- 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Seems like a good resolution to 20 me as to -- rather than going to the expense of doing a 21 tremendous amount of work, going off of the maps that are 22 existing and working with the surveyor and just establishing 23 the B.F.E. 24 MR. ODOM: When it's an AE, a floodway, then that's 25 a given. I mean, it shouldn't be a -- there's not a question. 1-8-07 55 1 AE is there, and it could be interpolated by a surveyor or an 2 engineer. But when it's an A, an unstudied area, I don't have 3 a problem going by and taking a look at it, coming up with a 4 base flood elevation. Unless the County Surveyor has any 5 comments. 6 MR. LEE VOELKEL: I'm sorry, I wasn't paying 7 attention. 8 MR. ODOM: I didn't think so. 9 MR. LEE VOELKEL: Are you on floodplain? 10 MR. ODOM: Yeah. That's all right. 11 MR. LEE VOELKEL: No comment. 12 MR. ODOM: I think the County Surveyor ought to be 13 the Floodplain Administrator, myself. 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: For free, right? 15 MR. ODOM: For free. That's what I'm doing it for. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: And turn over all fees generated in 17 that capacity to the County, of course? 18 MR. ODOM: Sir? 19 JUDGE TINLEY: And to turn over all fees generated 20 in that capacity to the County? 21 MR. ODOM: That is -- that is correct. All the big 22 money that we make on it. I don't have a problem with the 23 plat as it is. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Looks good. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Any other questions? 1-8-07 56 1 Comments? 2 THE CLERK: We have a motion and a second. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: All in favor of the motion, signify 4 by raising your right hand. 5 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 6 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 7 (No response.) 8 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. Looks like 9 we're running just a few minutes ahead, by golly. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Take a break. We have a 10:10. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah, we're a couple minutes off. I 12 don't see anything else that we've got that we can thrash 13 around on that's not -- 14 MR. ODOM: If we come back at 10:30, then we could 15 go right through everything. Take a break and -- 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. Yeah, why don't we just go 17 ahead and take a 15-minute recess now, and we'll come back and 18 plow through these things. 19 (Recess taken from 10:07 a.m. to 10:24 a.m.) 20 - - - - - - - - - - 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay, let's come back to order, if we 22 might. We were in recess for a mid-morning break. At this 23 time, I will recess the Commissioners Court meeting and 24 convene a public hearing concerning the revision of plat for 25 Lots 16 and 17, Bear Creek Ranch Estates, as set forth in 1-8-07 57 1 Volume 3, Page 75 of the Plat Records, and located in Precinct 2 1. 3 (The regular Commissioners Court meeting was closed at 10:25 a.m., and a public hearing was held in open 4 court, as follows:) 5 P U B L I C H E A R I N G 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Is there any member of the public 7 that wishes to be heard concerning the revision of plat for 8 Lots 16 and 17 in Bear Creek Ranch Estates, as set forth in 9 Volume 3, Page 75 of the Plat Records? 10 (No response.) 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Seeing no one come forward, I will 12 close the public hearing, and I will reconvene the 13 Commissioners Court meeting. 14 (The public hearing was concluded at 10:26 a.m., and the regular Commissioners Court meeting was 15 reopened.) 16 - - - - - - - - - - 17 JUDGE TINLEY: And I will call item 10; consider, 18 discuss, and take appropriate action for revision of plat for 19 Lots 16 and 17 of Bear Creek Ranch Estates, as set forth in 20 Volume 3, Page 75, Plat Records, and located in Precinct 1. 21 MR. ODOM: Yes, sir. We have -- the plat, as far as 22 I can tell, is acceptable. There was one question that we had 23 about water, but Mr. Mark Andrews, the attorney at law, drew 24 this up. It has been drawn up, as you see in the attached 25 information. And we were taking -- dividing two lots into 1-8-07 58 1 three, making Lots 16A, 16B and 16C. Each lot is over 2 3 acres, and there's a shared well agreement with a water 3 system that originates on Lot 15, also owned by a family 4 member. The attorney drew this up, and it says that -- 5 basically, he explained why it is not signed at this point, 6 but it would be signed after the division of the property. He 7 says, "I am holding the water well agreement and will get it 8 executed and recorded immediately upon the revised plat being 9 approved." So, I don't have any problems, and I ask the Court 10 to approve this revision of plat. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: My only question is this 12 block on the plat here that says, "Kerr County not responsible 13 for road maintenance." Is that a -- 14 MR. ODOM: That is correct. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Is that a fact? I just want 16 to make it clear to the property owners. 17 MR. ODOM: Cub Lane is not maintained by the County. 18 MR. LEE VOELKEL: That's a very interesting point, 19 too, Commissioner, because it is a public right-of-way. It's 20 just a road that's not maintained by the County. 21 MR. ODOM: By the County. It can be a public access 22 or it can be private, or it -- either maintained or not 23 maintained, but we do not maintain it. It does have public 24 access, 'cause it doesn't have a gate up front. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And they're choosing to plat it, 1-8-07 59 1 just from the standpoint of getting it platted? I mean, even 2 though it's not required to be? 3 MR. ODOM: I'm sorry? 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's not required to be platted 5 as a family division. I mean, they're just choosing to -- 6 MR. ODOM: It would not be under 1.03; however, 7 they're doing that because it is a smart thing to do in case 8 one member would -- would do this, we wanted it platted, and 9 they chose to do so. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay, that's good. It was just 11 -- just going above and beyond. 12 MR. ODOM: Right, it was up and beyond. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: These people are some of the 14 nicest people that I've worked with in a long time, that have 15 -- you know, we showed them the rules and what you can do, 16 what you can't do, and they met everything, and then gone 17 above and beyond the call of duty, so I move for approval. 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Second. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second -- third. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for approval 21 of the agenda item. Any question or discussion on the motion? 22 All in favor of that motion, signify by raising your right 23 hand. 24 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 25 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 1-8-07 60 1 (No response.) 2 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. I will recess 3 the Commissioners Court meeting, and I will convene a public 4 hearing concerning the revision of plat for Lots 124B and 131A 5 of Falling Water, as shown in the plat of Volume 7, Page 52, 6 Plat Records, and located in Precinct 3. 7 (The regular Commissioners Court meeting was closed at 10:30 a.m., and a public hearing was held in open 8 court, as follows:) 9 P U B L I C H E A R I N G 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Is there any member of the public 11 that wishes to be herds concerning the revision of the plat 12 for Lots 124B and 131A of Falling Water, as set forth in the 13 plat in Volume 7, Page 52, Plat Records, and located in 14 Commissioners Precinct 3? 15 (No response.) 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Seeing no one coming forward, I will 17 close the public hearing and reconvene the Commissioners Court 18 meeting. 19 (The public hearing was concluded at 10:30 a.m., and the regular Commissioners Court meeting was 20 reopened.) 21 - - - - - - - - - - 22 JUDGE TINLEY: And call Item 12, that being to 23 consider, discuss, and take appropriate action for the 24 revision of plat for Lots 124B and 131A of Falling Waters, 25 located in Precinct 3. Mr. Odom? 1-8-07 61 1 MR. ODOM: Yes, sir. The owner is combining two 2 lots into one under the alternate plat process. This meets 3 all the requirements of our subdivision rules. At this time, 4 I ask you to approve the revision of plat as presented, and 5 authorize the Judge to sign the same. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move approval. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for approval 9 of the agenda item. Any question or discussion on the motion? 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'm trying to figure out how 11 the -- 12 MR. DON VOELKEL: Is now a good time to talk? We've 13 had some discussion with Miguel about these type of plats 14 where we're combining lots, and the routing slip didn't get 15 signed by Miguel because he had a difference of opinion about 16 this type of lot. I think when Bruce was on the commission 17 before -- and I think y'all's opinion in the past has been we 18 want to try to encourage people to do this, to make fewer 19 septics and fewer lots, larger lots out of smaller lots. So 20 Miguel, when he first got the preliminary plat, he sent it 21 back to me as insufficient because I didn't have a topographic 22 survey, I didn't have a soil survey, I didn't have drainage 23 reports and all these things. And I called him and I said, "I 24 have a problem, because these are not -- you know, this is 25 combining lots. I don't think these are required." And he 1-8-07 62 1 referenced the -- in the Texas Administrative Code, the 2 chapter. 3 I went to it, and in that chapter it specifically 4 says persons who are subdividing land and developing land 5 should do all these items. And I called him back and I said, 6 "We're not subdividing it; we're not developing it. This is 7 already developed. It's already been subdivided. I don't 8 think that applies, so I don't think..." And he goes, "Well, 9 y'all just go ahead and make them do it," because he didn't 10 have it in his file. And I -- I told him I didn't see that -- 11 that the owner of those lots should have to pay several 12 thousand dollars to get a topographic survey, drainage study 13 and all that stuff. So -- and so we had a difference of 14 opinion. That's why he didn't sign the routing slip, and he 15 hasn't signed the final plat. 16 So, I called T.C.E.Q. He had said he had talked to 17 T.C.E.Q. and they told him, yeah, you have to have it. I 18 talked to a guy named Ren Berra who is in the same office; the 19 guy that he had talked to was out of the office. And 20 initially, the man told me, "Oh, you have to do that. I've 21 talked to Miguel -- or I've talked to the guy that talked to 22 Miguel, and this is all required." And I told him, "Find it 23 in the law, and we'll start doing it, but I didn't find it." 24 And he goes, "I'll look it up." He called me back about an 25 hour later and said -- this was Friday. And he said, "At the 1-8-07 63 1 end of the day, if he signs it or doesn't sign it, later on in 2 the permit process he can still do it." So, my interpretation 3 of that, he didn't find it in the law either. 4 So, what I wanted to find out from y'all is, in the 5 future when we do these, are we going to allow people to get 6 them done without having to do a topographic survey and things 7 like that? And you may want to talk to Miguel and let him 8 give you his input. That's kind of where I'm coming from. 9 I'm not trying to circumvent anything; I've never tried to 10 circumvent anything. I just don't think that it's something 11 that -- that is needed when you're combining lots, and I don't 12 think the law says you have to. I even went to Black's Law -- 13 I've done a lot of research. The Black's Law Dictionary even 14 exempts from resubdivisions, combining lots, so I don't think 15 that this type of plat -- and I don't think we're hurting the 16 public by combining these and making them bigger, having fewer 17 septics. And Miguel -- he may give you a different slant, but 18 I want y'all to be able to, while we're on this issue, come up 19 with some kind of a policy or something, 'cause it's not in 20 the subdivision regulations. And if you look at the 21 subdivision regulations, the developer is defined as someone 22 dividing and subdividing land, so I don't think this applies 23 to that specific instance. So, you may want to have Miguel go 24 over that also. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We probably need to address 1-8-07 64 1 it outside this meeting, though. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, if we're going to talk about a 3 general policy issue, that may be true. If we're -- if that 4 particular issue is related to this particular -- 5 MR. ODOM: Plat. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: -- plan, of course, it is relevant 7 here. But on the broader scope of things, it's probably a 8 policy issue that we need to address. But as to this 9 particular agenda item -- 10 MR. ARREOLA: I have something as to this particular 11 item. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah, mm-hmm. 13 MR. ARREOLA: Like Mr. Voelkel said, we did contact 14 T.C.E.Q. to make sure we were doing what the state law 15 requires, and all have been concurring to that approach over 16 the phone. I just got an e-mail this morning. I would like 17 to read at least the first three items that he says here, and 18 I'll give you a copy of the whole e-mail. He says -- and it's 19 from Ren Berra, the one who he spoke on Friday. It says, 20 "Miguel, I wish to reaffirm staff's support of your proper and 21 correct decision for the request of planning materials 22 pursuant to the 30 TAC" -- that's the Texas Administrative 23 Code -- "285.4(c)" -- that's what the law is; that's where the 24 requirement comes from -- "for an existing subdivision replat 25 agenda item scheduled for hearing on January 8, 2007, before 1-8-07 65 1 the Kerr County Commissioners Court. Based on discussions 2 with both your office and that of Mr. Voelkel of Voelkel 3 Engineering, as presenter of replat, concerning the details of 4 the subject agenda item, I offer the following points which 5 led to this decision:" 6 Number one. "The replat which makes one single 7 tract -- one single large tract from two separate small 8 tracts, outer boundary not altered, was deemed to be a 9 significant enough alteration of the original approved 10 subdivision plat and development plan that it required public 11 notice, possible public input, and Commissioners Court 12 decision. This decision for placing it before the 13 Commissioners Court could or should have come from County 14 Engineer, Surveyor, or Attorney." 15 Number two. "Simply stated, a subdivision plat, 16 even a replat, necessitating Commissioners Court approval, 17 triggers a 285.4(c) request and review. Staff is very 18 disappointed and -- and concerned with the Commissioners' 19 decision not to seek a proper and rule-mandated recommendation 20 from its OSSF permitting authority." 21 Number three. "As the Designated Representative of 22 Kerr County, it is both your duty and responsibility, cited in 23 285.62(4), to conduct subdivision reviews for their compliance 24 with T.C.E.Q. OSSF rules." 25 And it goes on, but I'll give you a copy of this. 1-8-07 66 1 My position is, that's what the rules require. T.C.E.Q. tell 2 me that that's what the rules require. Everybody's doing it. 3 Every single surveyor in the county's doing it. Everybody 4 gets it. I got just five today that all comply, and I don't 5 see why -- 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Five revisions? 7 MR. ARREOLA: Excuse me? 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Five of the same -- 9 MR. ARREOLA: No, not the same scenario. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: See, the problem I have with 11 this, Miguel, is that there are -- currently, the County has 12 approved two septics on this property, on the 6-acre. Now 13 we're going to approve one septic. If you could have two, you 14 can certainly have one. And I don't -- and the County's 15 policy has been -- as long as I've been a Commissioner, is to 16 encourage people to do just this. We've many times taken two 17 1-acre lots or three 1-acre lots and made two acre-and-a-half 18 lots, even though that's below our minimum requirements, just 19 from the standpoint it's still better than where we were. 20 MR. ARREOLA: Sure. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Trying to -- if we strictly 22 enforce that statute, we might as well just forget it. People 23 are just not going to do it. Why would someone spend $2,000 24 just to clean up their property for no reason? I mean, they 25 own multiple tracts; it doesn't affect where they build their 1-8-07 67 1 home. It doesn't affect anything other than making the 2 subdivision plat, you know, a little bit more clean from their 3 standpoint -- from a tax standpoint, really. 4 MR. DON VOELKEL: And one thing Ren told me when I 5 was on the phone with him Friday, he said at the end of the 6 day, if this doesn't get done at the time of the plat, when 7 these people come back in to Miguel to get a permit, they -- 8 they're subject to the same requirements, and at that time 9 they may have to do any or all of these things. And I told 10 him I didn't know that that was the case, and as long as 11 they're doing everybody the same way, whatever he's requiring 12 anybody else for a permit should be done with these. But I'm 13 like Commissioner Letz; that, you know, if we're taking two 14 septics and making one out of it, I don't see how we're, you 15 know, doing any detriment to the public by not doing what -- 16 what that -- and I -- I'm still of the opinion that -- I 17 looked at state law. I don't think it's required. But 18 Mr. Berra, he -- he couldn't tell me where it was required, 19 but he didn't -- he kind of just left that alone. 20 But I -- if y'all want to get together sometime and 21 have a workshop, I can give you all the -- and I'm sure Miguel 22 can give you some of the stuff -- the same stuff I'm looking 23 at, same stuff they have, and I don't see that it applies. 24 That's where I'm coming from. I'm not trying -- and if this 25 stuff gets done when they go to permit it, we're not losing 1-8-07 68 1 any ground, I don't think, personally. But that's -- that's 2 why he had hasn't signed this plat yet, and that's kind of 3 where we got to a stalemate before. 4 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: From my perspective, this is 5 not a subdivision. It's already an approved subdivision back 6 when it was done originally. 7 MR. ARREOLA: Correct. 8 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: We haven't altered anything 9 except taking out a lot line and combining two lots, so why go 10 back and do all this stuff? It's not a subdivision. It is 11 the reverse of a subdivision. I think it's ludicrous to 12 demand that people do these extra things whenever they've done 13 their job to make it bigger and better, not where they're 14 making it smaller and harder to do. I can understand a 15 division. This is the reverse of a division, in my opinion. 16 MR. ARREOLA: Okay. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It's a combining. 18 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yeah. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What I think you need to do 20 is give that to the County Attorney and let him give us an 21 opinion. But I've got a question. Did it really say in there 22 that their staff was disappointed in this Commissioners Court? 23 MR. ARREOLA: I got a copy of the memo. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That is unacceptable language 25 from a state agency. 1-8-07 69 1 MR. ARREOLA: Well, I don't know if they were 2 completely informed of what -- what was really going on. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Thank you, Miguel. Miguel, 4 you're just -- you're in the middle on this. 5 MR. ARREOLA: Yeah. Well, I'm trying to do my job, 6 that's all. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: "Staff is very disappointed and 10 concerned with Commissioners' decision..." 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Should we get them to define "staff," 12 Commissioner Baldwin? 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: We hear that out of other agencies, I 15 think. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We do. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: There seems to be some anonymity with 18 the word "staff." 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think -- 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That it's a hide-all -- 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think we need to have a 22 workshop on this topic with the County Attorney having some 23 time to do some research into it, and invite T.C.E.Q. down 24 here as well, and have them -- 25 MR. ARREOLA: Sure. 1-8-07 70 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But in this particular instance, 2 I mean, I -- you know, I'm in favor of going forward and 3 approving this, with -- even though Miguel hasn't and there 4 may be a question. But to me, it makes no sense -- we've done 5 everything we can to make doing this as easy as possible, 6 'cause it benefits the public. And to try to go the other 7 direction, to me, is not where we should be going. 8 MR. ARREOLA: Just one comment. I agree with you, 9 and it is positive to get larger tracts. It helps everybody. 10 This needs to be done. My point of view, it's better to do it 11 while at this stage instead of putting the new buyer into 12 this, when it's already approved and done and there's no way 13 back. We can see a potential problem now and detect if it's 14 going to be a problem for a septic in there, which it might 15 not be, 'cause it's a large tract and it's just a matter of 16 submitting the information to doublecheck, make sure it's 17 good, and everybody's good from now on. The other way, 18 someone is going to buy it not knowing what they're getting, 19 and it's already approved; we're going to have to work with 20 it. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But I don't think that in this 22 particular -- I don't think they're in the process of selling 23 this lot. I think they're just doing it 'cause they're 24 probably going to build. I don't think there's a house on 25 this yet, is there? 1-8-07 71 1 MR. DON VOELKEL: No. This one owner, Mr. 2 Blackwood, wants to combine and build one house. And -- and 3 where Miguel and I -- this is the biggest gap between our 4 opinion. His opinion is, we've got to know if there's a 5 problem. Well, like I said a while ago, you already approved 6 it for two lots, two houses, two septics. How can putting one 7 on there make any problem for anybody? I just don't see that. 8 And that's why I'm talking with Bruce. It just doesn't seem 9 prudent to make them spend a couple thousand dollars to 10 combine lots and take one lot line. And in this man's letter, 11 I'm real disappointed with T.C.E.Q., I'd like to go on record, 12 'cause when I talked with him Friday and I specifically told 13 him I'm going to go to Commissioners Court Monday, and I've 14 reviewed this and looked at the law enough -- I told him, 15 "I've done a lot of research, and I don't find it in the law 16 that it requires it." And he told me -- he told me -- called 17 me back, and he says, at the end of the day -- when he and I 18 talked 4:30 on Friday afternoon, he said he was of the opinion 19 that -- that if we let them do it about without doing it now, 20 then eventually, when they get a permit, it would be done. 21 So, he led me to believe Friday afternoon that he was going to 22 say, yeah, it ought to be signed and ought to be done, and not 23 have to do all those things, 'cause eventually they'll get the 24 permit process going and everything will be fine. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Based on the location, I mean, I 1-8-07 72 1 think -- I have no problem with Miguel taking -- I think you 2 should look at it. This is going to be a difficult site no 3 matter if it's 10 acres, 1 acre, whatever, to put a septic on 4 top of a hill in solid rock. But even with that, one is 5 certainly going to be better than two in that location. 6 MR. ARREOLA: I agree. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And they can do something; they 8 can build a septic system. It may be an expensive septic 9 system. 10 MR. DON VOELKEL: May be an alternative engineered 11 system. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It will probably be an aerobic 13 system. That's what they tend to use on those hills. I just 14 think that the -- you can look at this map and know that they 15 have problems, and I have no problem with the plat note even 16 saying that this is a difficult site for septic. But I -- 17 trying to do a bunch of work at this point, you know, I think 18 it's better served the public if they go through the -- when 19 they get an actual plan, their septic's going to vary a lot, 20 whether they have a -- you know, a minimum house for Falling 21 Water is about 1,700 square feet, versus 6,000 square feet. 22 And I think -- and so a bunch of work now really doesn't do a 23 whole lot, other than cost that money. They're going to have 24 to go through and spend it anyway whenever they build a 25 septic. So -- 1-8-07 73 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I agree with everything 2 that's been said here. However, because of the -- I mean, I 3 want to know what the County Attorney has to say about it, so 4 I withdraw my second. If somebody else wants to second it, go 5 on; that's fine. I'm not going to. 6 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: What was the motion? I'll 7 second it. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Well -- 9 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: If it meets the rules, I'll 10 second it, and it evidently does. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, it meets the rules, the 12 way you and I interpret the rules. 13 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yeah. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It doesn't meet them the way 15 some others may interpret the rules. 16 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I'd like the County Attorney 17 to give us a little reading on it. 18 THE CLERK: We have a motion and second. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Any further question or comments on 20 the motion as pending, to approve the -- the revision of plat 21 for Lots 124B and 131A, Falling Water? 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Quick question. Does the County 23 Attorney have an opinion, or does he need to do more research? 24 MR. EMERSON: I mean, I haven't researched it, so -- 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. All in favor of the motion, 1-8-07 74 1 signify by -- 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: One more question before we 3 vote. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Hmm? 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is there a time reason to vote 6 on this today? Is it a problem for the Blackwoods to -- 7 MR. DON VOELKEL: I don't know that they necessarily 8 have to have it done today. If y'all want to look at this and 9 come back next time or something, that's fine with me, if you 10 want to just table it. I mean, I -- they're anxious to get it 11 done, because they're in the process of getting their house 12 plans and stuff going. They'd like to -- they were 13 anticipating getting it done today. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't have a problem with 15 tabling it, but I have every full intention to support doing 16 it. It's -- I mean, I -- you can convey that to them. But I 17 want that input, because I think we can waive that requirement 18 if we so choose. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Who made the motion? 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Me. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: You made it. Do you want to withdraw 22 your motion? 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll withdraw it and table it -- 24 and request we table it. 25 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Me also. 1-8-07 75 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Bring that back? Okay. I will now 2 recess the Commissioners Court meeting, and I will convene a 3 public hearing concerning a revision of plat for Lot 1 of 4 Heartland Acres, as set forth in Volume 7, Page 322 of the 5 Plat Records, and located in Precinct 2. 6 (The regular Commissioners Court meeting was closed at 10:46 a.m., and a public hearing was held in open 7 court, as follows:) 8 P U B L I C H E A R I N G 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Is there any member of the public 10 that wishes to be heard concerning the revision of plat for 11 Lot 1 of Heartland Acres, as set forth in Volume 7, Page 322 12 of the Plat Records, and located in Commissioners Precinct 2? 13 (No response.) 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Seeing no one seeking recognition or 15 otherwise coming forward, I will close the public hearing 16 concerning the revision of plat for Lot 1 of Heartland Acres. 17 (The public hearing was concluded at 10:46 a.m., and the regular Commissioners Court meeting was 18 reopened.) 19 - - - - - - - - - - 20 JUDGE TINLEY: And I will reconvene the 21 Commissioners Court meeting, and we will take up Item 14, that 22 being to consider, discuss, and take appropriate action for 23 the revision of a plat for Lot 1 of Heartland Acres, as set 24 forth in Volume 7, Page 322 of the Plat Records of Kerr 25 County, and located in Commissioners Precinct 2. Mr. Odom? 1-8-07 76 1 MR. ODOM: Yes, sir. Wiedenfeld Water Works owns 2 the well tract between 14 and 15 on Windwood Oaks and has 3 assured the owner that he will furnish the Lot 1A with water. 4 Therefore, this will meet the 3-acre average required by Kerr 5 County Subdivision Rules, and we ask that you approve the 6 revision of this plat. 7 MR. LEE VOELKEL: Judge, may I make a comment as we 8 move -- before we move on? 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Surely. 10 MR. LEE VOELKEL: As you will see on this plat, it 11 adjoins the state highway, and there is a requirement to get 12 the approval of TexDOT. All of this information, as far as 13 the preliminary plat and the data with it, has been delivered 14 to TexDOT a week or so ago. Mike Coward, the man that signs 15 the plat, has not been available for his signature. I was 16 told that he would be back today, and that we could get that. 17 But before you approve that, I just wanted you to know, as of 18 this time this morning, I do not have the TexDOT signature on 19 the plat. I would ask if we could do it contingent upon his 20 signature, and we'd come back to you for your final signature 21 when all the other signatures are in place. 22 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Move approval, conditioned 23 on the TexDOT approval for the highway. 24 MR. LEE VOELKEL: Thank you. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 1-8-07 77 1 JUDGE TINLEY: We have a motion and second to 2 approve the revision of plat, conditioned on TexDOT's approval 3 as requested by Mr. Voelkel. Any question or discussion on 4 the motion? All in favor of that motion, signify by raising 5 your right hand. 6 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 7 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 8 (No response.) 9 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. At this time, 10 I will recess the Commissioners Court meeting, and I will 11 convene and open a public hearing concerning the revision of a 12 plat for Lots 12, 13A, and 13B in Riverside Park, as set forth 13 in Volume 1, Page 70, Plat Records, and Volume 7, Page 251, 14 Plat Records, and located in Commissioners Precinct 4. 15 (The regular Commissioners Court meeting was closed at 10:50 a.m., and a public hearing was held in open 16 court, as follows:) 17 P U B L I C H E A R I N G 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Is there any member of the public 19 that wishes to be heard concerning the revision of a plat for 20 Lots 12, 13A, and 13B in Riverside Park, as set forth in 21 volume 1, page 70, of the plat records and Volume 7, Page 251 22 of the Plat Records, and located in Commissioners Precinct 23 Number 4? 24 (No response.) 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Seeing no one seeking to be 1-8-07 78 1 recognized or otherwise coming forward, I will close the 2 public hearing concerning the revision of a plat for Lots 12, 3 13A, and 13B in Riverside Park, and I will reconvene the 4 Commissioners Court meeting. 5 (The public hearing was concluded at 10:50 a.m., and the regular Commissioners Court meeting was 6 reopened.) 7 - - - - - - - - - - 8 JUDGE TINLEY: And go to Item 16, which is to 9 consider, discuss, and take appropriate action for the 10 revision of Lots 12, 13A, and 13B of Riverside Park, located 11 in Commissioners Precinct 4. Mr. Odom? 12 MR. ODOM: Yes, sir. This has been before the Court 13 as Lots 13A and 13B. Environmental Health had some issues 14 with the septic, so no action was taken there. The revision 15 now includes Lot 12, and we believe O.S.S.F. issues as well as 16 Kerr County Subdivision Rules have been met. We had called, 17 and Miguel was gone. 18 MR. ARREOLA: Yeah, it's good. 19 MR. ODOM: It is good? That was the impression we 20 got from Tish. At this time, we ask that you accept this 21 revision as platted and authorize the Judge to sign the same. 22 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: So moved. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for approval 25 of the agenda item as indicated. Any further question or 1-8-07 79 1 discussion on the motion? All in favor of the motion, signify 2 by raising your right hand. 3 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 4 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 5 (No response.) 6 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. Well, here 7 we are, short again on our public hearings, aren't we? 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: How about executive session 10 items? Well, we can just wait. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Is there a necessity that we go into 12 executive session -- 13 MS. BOLIN: I wouldn't think so. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: -- necessarily? 15 MS. BOLIN: That was suggested. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, let's see if we can handle them 17 outside of executive session. 18 MS. BOLIN: Okay. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Let's -- I'm going to take Item 19 20 first. Let's go to Item 19; consider, discuss, and take 21 appropriate action to bring in a new hire at 13 -- Grade 13, 22 Step 2, due to six years prior experience, using budgeted 23 funds from prior employee. 24 MS. BOLIN: Yes. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Ms. Bolin? 1-8-07 80 1 MS. BOLIN: I -- when I went into office this time, 2 I chose to let one of my problem children go, and there is a 3 woman who came in from Bandera County with six years 4 experience. I would like to take my employee's salary and 5 split it, actually bring her in at a 13-2 because of the 6 experience. And that's it on that one. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: The employee that you elected not to 8 redeputize was what grade and step? 9 MS. BOLIN: 13-3. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. So, you're proposing to bring 11 this one in at one step lower? 12 MS. BOLIN: Yes. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. And the upgrade from a 13-1 is 14 because of the six years prior experience? 15 MS. BOLIN: Correct. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Dealing with the same things that 17 this employee would be dealing with -- 18 MS. BOLIN: Exactly. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: -- in your office? 20 MS. BOLIN: Yes. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: The -- my question is, I 23 mean, I can't -- I can't tell how much money we're talking 24 about that you'll take from the former employee's salary. And 25 adding here, because you're going to do it -- you're going to 1-8-07 81 1 do this exact same thing on this other item. 2 MS. BOLIN: Actually, what I'm going to do is, she 3 was a 13-3, and I'll bring in the new one at a 13-2 and use 4 the other one to take one up -- use the other step to give one 5 a merit increase. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: 13-2. Well, my question 7 is -- I don't want to commingle these things, but -- 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Let me go ahead and call Item 18. 9 That might be well, and we can -- 10 MS. BOLIN: Good idea. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: -- discuss freely between the two. 12 Item 19, which I'm calling now, is to consider, discuss, and 13 take appropriate action to allow a merit or step increase 14 using budgeted funds from prior employee. 15 MS. BOLIN: Yes. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Is there enough money to -- 17 from the old employee's salary to cover these two items? 18 MS. BOLIN: I spoke to Ms. Hyde, and she said yes, 19 that there shouldn't be a problem. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is the employee under Item 18 21 also a 13? 22 MS. BOLIN: He's a 13-3, yes. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, that person will be a 13-4 24 and this one will be a 13-2? 25 MS. BOLIN: Right. He's been here five years. He 1-8-07 82 1 got his five-year pin at the meeting, and he has just gone up 2 step-by-step. And I -- I feel like because he does do the 3 supervisor's position when she's not here, that he really 4 needs to do better than what he's doing. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Tommy, have you had an 6 opportunity to take a look at this to see that the salaries 7 will fit? 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean, if they're both -- if 9 they're all 13's, you should be able to move steps around, as 10 long as you're -- 11 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yeah. 12 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Isn't each step 2 and a half 13 percent? It shouldn't make any difference budget-wise or 14 money -- dollar-wise. 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: It won't. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: You had two 13 -- 17 MS. BOLIN: 13-3's. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Two 13-3's, and it's now a 13-2 19 and a 13-4. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So, it's basically the same. 21 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Same thing. 22 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Same dollar amount. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Same dollar amount. 24 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I have no problem with that. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Then I don't either. But the 1-8-07 83 1 only question I had, then -- and I'm assuming that Ms. Hyde 2 said that the 13-4's and the -- the 13-2's and 13-4's still 3 fit -- 4 MS. BOLIN: Yes. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: -- in the pay grade -- step 6 and grade system? 7 MS. BOLIN: Yes. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The only long-term thing I do 10 see is that a year from now, there's an automatic longevity 11 increase, so that one does get ticked up. So, there is a -- a 12 slight long-term effect when you start someone above a 13-1. 13 A year from now we've increased a -- 14 MS. BOLIN: But that person that would have been 15 there, wouldn't they have gotten that anyway? 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Every three years. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Three years after the first year. 18 MS. BOLIN: And he wouldn't get a longevity until 19 2008. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. But I don't have a 21 problem doing this. I think it's pretty minor. We want to 22 keep -- 23 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Bottom line is, your 24 budget's not affected negatively? 25 MS. BOLIN: No, sir. 1-8-07 84 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Do you want to take these 2 separately, Judge, or together? 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Separate. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Probably separately would be better. 5 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Move approval of -- of 6 Agenda Item 1.18 and 1.19, as requested by the Tax Assessor/ 7 Collector. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Let's do one at a time. 9 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: 1.18. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: I have a motion and second for 12 approval of Agenda Item 18. Any question or discussion on 13 that motion? All in favor of that motion, signify by raising 14 your right hand. 15 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 16 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 17 (No response.) 18 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. 19 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I move that we approve the 20 Agenda Item 19. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: I have a motion and second for 23 approval of Agenda Item 19, as requested by the Tax 24 Assessor/Collector. Any question or discussion? All in favor 25 of the motion, signify by raising your right hand. 1-8-07 85 1 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 2 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 3 (No response.) 4 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. Let's move 5 now, since we are at straight up 11 o'clock -- 6 MS. BOLIN: Thank you. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: You didn't realize I had this all 8 planned, did you? 9 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Beginning to take shape, 10 Judge. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. We have a timed 11 o'clock 12 item. At this time, I will recess the Commissioners Court 13 meeting, and I will convene and open a public hearing on the 14 revised Kerr County Subdivision Rules and Regulations. 15 (The regular Commissioners Court meeting was closed at 11 a.m., and a public hearing was held in open 16 court, as follows:) 17 P U B L I C H E A R I N G 18 JUDGE TINLEY: I guess we'll defer to Commissioner 19 Letz for this one. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We're doing the public hearing. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. Any member of the public 22 wishing to be heard on the revised Kerr County Subdivision 23 Rules and Regulations, come forward. 24 MS. FOX: Thank you. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Please give your name and address. 1-8-07 86 1 MS. FOX: My name is Catherine Fox, and I live in 2 Hunt, Texas. I want to say good morning and preface by 3 saying, Judge, I want to thank you so much for your New Year's 4 resolution in the Kerrville Daily Times. Stating that you 5 would make everything possible in your ability to make 6 government more open, efficient, and public officials more 7 accountable made me feel better about coming here this 8 morning. And I want to welcome my new Precinct 4 9 Commissioner, Mr. Oehler. I'm here because I'm always here 10 when there's anything that has to do with water issues, and 11 when I saw the words "floodplain issue" quoted in the public 12 notice in the newspaper, of course, that had me a little 13 concerned. 14 On Friday, I spoke by telephone with the County 15 Attorney, Mr. Emerson, and he was kind enough to explain to me 16 that it was concerning the B.F.E.'s, and I didn't really need 17 to be concerned because they weren't going to be removed. 18 But, nevertheless, I was compelled to come, Commissioner Letz, 19 and respectfully inquire, in my humble attempt to better 20 understand and stay abreast of what's going on with our 21 Subdivision Rules and Regulations, why they might have been 22 considered to be removed in the first place. And if the 23 County Attorney had told you that there wasn't going to be a 24 problem and you would have been able to do that, would you 25 have gone on with presenting them for proposed approval? And 1-8-07 87 1 if so, why? 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I can't really go into that, but 3 I'll be glad to answer that on the next agenda item. 4 MS. FOX: Okay. And then I will conclude by saying, 5 if that were to have taken place, it was going to affect Kerr 6 County's participation in FEMA's National Flood Insurance 7 Program, and might affect Kerr County's community rating 8 system. And I am always extremely concerned when anything has 9 to do with flooding, because Kerr County is extremely prone to 10 flooding, and I question, therefore, why the Court would 11 propose to weaken flood protection. It's been my personal 12 experience, over the last seven years watching the Court in 13 action, that occasionally I personally perceive the Court's 14 stand on private property rights to be so ingrained that 15 sometimes it forgets that with the freedoms and rights that a 16 democracy affords, a price must be paid, and that price is 17 responsibility. Now, granted, this is based solely on the 18 answer being that you intended to go ahead and do this, and 19 what your explanation might be. But I believe that the County 20 carries a burden of responsibility to protect homeowners, 21 builders, and business investors from those who might seek -- 22 and in this case, it would be surveyors and developers -- to 23 tamper or disregard with their safety, for whatever their 24 personal reasons might be, and even if that means protecting 25 individuals from themselves at times, so that therefore we 1-8-07 88 1 could protect others that already reside nearby. To me, 2 personally, nothing is more important than preventing loss of 3 life and property with regard to our Subdivision Rules and 4 Regulations. Thank you, gentlemen, for your time. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, ma'am. Is there anyone 6 else that wishes to be heard with respect to the revised Kerr 7 County Subdivision Rules and Regulations? Seeing no one else 8 seeking recognition or coming forward for same, I will close 9 the public hearing. 10 (The public hearing was concluded at 11:03 a.m., and the regular Commissioners Court meeting was 11 reopened.) 12 - - - - - - - - - - 13 JUDGE TINLEY: And I will reconvene the 14 Commissioners Court meeting, and I will call Item 21; 15 consider, discuss, and take appropriate action to adopt the 16 revised Kerr County Subdivision Rules and Regulations. And 17 now I'll hand it to you, Commissioner Letz. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: First let me try to answer some 19 of Ms. Fox's questions. I'll probably do it in a little bit 20 reverse order of what you -- of your comments and your 21 questions. There would have been no change to -- well, this 22 Court, as I was -- I don't think this Court would do anything 23 to change FEMA rules and what that does in the participation 24 in the county-wide program with FEMA and floodplains and all 25 that, and that's why this issue was on there. The County 1-8-07 89 1 Attorney looked into it, and the FEMA regulations does require 2 the floodplain line be put on the plat, so -- and that is the 3 reason that it -- you know, we're not a -- I'm not 4 recommending that we make that modification. The reason for 5 it was not at all to lower the standard. What has come -- we 6 have two things happening right now when it comes to 7 floodplains and platting. 8 Most of the county -- or much of the county is 9 unstudied areas, as I know you're aware, so the -- you 10 establish a B.F.E. or base flood elevation, which sets the 11 100-year floodplain. And it's -- it's not real accurate, to 12 be honest, the way it's being done right now. Very 13 inaccurate. Unstudied areas, you kind of take an estimation 14 and do some -- and if you were here earlier, you would have 15 seen one done on a new subdivision called Lasso Ranch, where 16 it was basically a mutual agreement between our Floodplain 17 Administrator and the surveyor as to where that should be, 18 because it -- a creek goes through the property and it's 19 totally unstudied, and there's nothing studied within tens of 20 miles of this area. So, that was one of the areas as to how 21 -- at times it's very difficult to establish a base flood 22 elevation that's a real accurate number. You can always put 23 one on there arbitrarily, but you need to get an accurate one 24 that's real. 25 Second part of it was, in the unstudied areas and 1-8-07 90 1 the studied areas, those lines move. Every time we get a 2 major flood event, like we did in 2000, all of the floodplains 3 changed in eastern Kerr County. Well, what that means is that 4 all of our plats done before 2000 have a different floodplain 5 line on them than everything after -- after 2000, and it makes 6 -- so if someone goes in and is buying a piece of property 7 based on a map of an older subdivision, looks at that 8 floodplain map, that may not be right. They're getting 9 misinformation, because that floodplain line changed. Just 10 because it's on the plat, that's not the -- I guess the final 11 say as to where that line is. It changes over time. 12 The proposal was going to be to put a note on the 13 plat that, hey, that these lots -- you know, and list them -- 14 are in the floodplain, and you need to look at the most 15 current information of the Floodplain Administrator as to 16 where that line actually is at the time you, you know, choose 17 to build. So, it was actually a -- the attempt was to come up 18 with a more accurate way to delineate the floodplain. FEMA 19 doesn't want that. They want a line on the map, whether it 20 may be wrong a year from now, so we're putting the line on the 21 map. So, that much -- the intent was much more to really -- 22 to make it more accurate, rather than trying to reduce any 23 kind of regulation. 24 And I -- just briefly, rather than go through 25 this -- I don't think we need to go through every change that 1-8-07 91 1 was recommended. We've gone over them before, but the gist of 2 them, other than correcting some typos, was to eliminate 3 the -- the shared well concept. If you're going to have a 4 water system, you have to be a licensed T.C.E.Q. system to get 5 the benefits of a smaller average lot size. That's all we've 6 done. You can still do them, but you're going to be on a 7 5-acre minimum lot size. If you're over 15 connections, you 8 can go to a 3-acre average lot size. So, that's -- that's 9 basically what the change that we're looking at. And this has 10 been driven largely by a -- a large number of plats recently 11 of people putting together shared well agreements that are 12 being driven solely by the lot size, not by the -- having a 13 shared well. And, in my mind, that's really circumventing 14 what the intent of our rules was. So, they can still do it, 15 but they have to have 5 acres to do it. That's the main 16 change. The rest of them I think are all typos. 17 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Does that apply to all 18 circumstances, including family-type situations? 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: If you're a family, you're 20 exempt from platting. If they choose -- 21 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I thought that was the case. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think you have to comply with 23 the platting rules. If they choose not to plat, that's their 24 decision. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Did you have any other questions, 1-8-07 92 1 comments with regard to this, Ms. Fox? 2 MS. FOX: If I may. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Surely. 4 THE WITNESS: Just one brief -- do I need to stand, 5 sir? 6 JUDGE TINLEY: It makes it easier for the court 7 reporter to get it down. 8 MS. FOX: All right. Let me look at my notes here. 9 Because, of course, -- 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay, surely. 11 MS. FOX: -- Commissioner Letz knows more about this 12 than I. 'Cause I want to make sure -- okay. With regard to 13 the flood insurance rate map, does the County have the ability 14 or the right to go to FEMA occasionally and request that 15 certain areas be remapped? 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Sure, the Floodplain 17 Administrator can. I think the County can, because we -- 18 through our administrator, yes. 19 MS. FOX: Do you, by chance, know when was the last 20 time Kerr County did that? 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Most of the county -- or much of 22 the county was remapped in 2000. 23 MS. FOX: Okay. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right after that massive 25 flooding, especially in the eastern part of the county. They 1-8-07 93 1 did a very -- I mean, a master overhaul of the eastern part of 2 the county. I'm not sure if it was done much in the west. 3 They probably went to up about Ingram if they did it. But 4 most of that -- a good part of the county was redone in 2000. 5 It's usually driven by a flood. 6 MS. FOX: Right. Well, west Kerr County -- and I 7 was in the court many years ago, with an issue pertaining to a 8 lot, and it was concerning this very issue, and there wasn't 9 any current data. And I -- you know, we have a tremendous 10 amount of growth in west Kerr County as well, and I would just 11 love to see them update that to some degree in the near 12 future, if at all possible. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think that's a good point. We 14 can certainly ask them, you know, what their plan is on 15 updating, but I think they usually look at flood events as 16 what drives them to go into areas and relook at it, has been 17 my experience. 18 MS. FOX: Thank you, sir. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: After there's a major flood event, my 20 sense of it, they come in and see where the debris is and -- 21 and take further first-person accounts from individuals in the 22 area to reestablish that line. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Let me ask a question. The 24 one she's referring to, back then, on that particular creek 25 that comes in, there wasn't any data at that time. Could it 1-8-07 94 1 possibly be that even still today, that there is no data on 2 that same creek? 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Probably likely. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Likely. 5 MS. FOX: There is no data, sir. I checked with the 6 state and the FEMA people by internet, and there is no data. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think one of the problems you 8 get into also is, I mean, it's a cost. I mean, it's a -- you 9 know, I don't want to get into FEMA's policy; I have no idea 10 what their policy is, but it's a lot cheaper to go look at a 11 debris line than to do a major analysis and a model of a creek 12 or a river basin. I mean, it's very -- and it's much more 13 accurate. I mean, when you get a flood, you know how much 14 rain you got and you know what the creeks did, and it's kind 15 of -- because every -- as you well know, Ms. Fox, every flood 16 event is very unique. I mean, the fact is that Bee Creek may 17 get a 20-inch rain at the headwaters, but the next creek over, 18 whatever -- whatever creek that is, may get nothing almost. 19 So, I mean, and that changes -- it changes a lot, and -- I 20 mean, such an interrelationship. And every time we get a 21 flood, it's a very unique event, so I think FEMA kind of waits 22 till we gets those events and kind of sees what happens. 23 Probably not the best way to do it. We can certainly ask them 24 if they plan to do any in west Kerr County. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Anything else? 1-8-07 95 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Nothing else. I'll make a 2 motion that we approve the Subdivision Rules as revised -- as 3 proposed revisions. 4 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Second. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: We have a motion and a second to 6 approve the revised Kerr County Subdivision Rules and 7 Regulations. Any further question or discussion on the 8 motion? All in favor of that motion, signify by raising your 9 right hand. 10 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 11 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 12 (No response.) 13 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. That brings 14 us to the end of our agenda. Does any member of the Court 15 have anything further to offer on any of the items with regard 16 to executive session? Hearing none, we'll move on to the 17 approval agenda. I guess it's time for the Auditor. 18 MR. TOMLINSON: Good morning. 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Move we pay the bills. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: I have a motion and second to pay the 22 bills. Any question or discussion? Couple of questions. 23 Page 11. Is that for one month? 24 MR. TOMLINSON: Yes. According to the description, 25 it is. 1-8-07 96 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Page 43. Is this software 2 maintenance that was allocated? Is that what's being paid 3 here from J.P. Technology funds? 4 MR. TOMLINSON: Yes. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: That's obviously a permissible use of 6 that? 7 MR. TOMLINSON: It's -- it's for -- yes, it's for 8 their software. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah, okay. Thank you. Anybody else 10 have any other questions or comments? 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: All in favor of the motion, signify 13 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 go to 18 budget amendments. Budget Amendment Request Number 1. 19 MR. TOMLINSON: Budget Amendment 1 is for the 216th 20 District Court. We have a need to transfer $9,421.81 from 21 Court-Appointed Attorney line item to Court-Appointed 22 Services. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So moved. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 1-8-07 97 1 approval. Any question or comments? 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Seard trial? 3 MR. TOMLINSON: No, this is Hernandez. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Hernandez trial. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Experts, interpreters, psychological 6 evals. We got more of this coming, don't we? 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: For both. 8 MR. TOMLINSON: Sure we do. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Any other questions or comments? All 10 in favor of the motion, signify by raising your right hand. 11 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 12 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 13 (No response.) 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion carries. Budget Amendment 15 Request 2. 16 MR. TOMLINSON: Number 2 is for the Jury Fund, to 17 transfer $40 from Jury Meals to Interpreters. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So moved. 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Second. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 21 approval. Any question or discussion? Same case? 22 Interpreters? 23 MR. TOMLINSON: No. It's Eduardo Medina. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. That fund was eaten up by that 25 Hernandez case, though, wasn't it? 1-8-07 98 1 MR. TOMLINSON: Sure it was, yes. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Any other questions or 3 comments? All in favor of the motion, signify by raising your 4 right hand. 5 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 6 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 7 (No response.) 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion carries. Budget Amendment 9 Request 3. 10 MR. TOMLINSON: Number 3 is for Justice of the 11 Peace, Precinct 3, to transfer $1,203.28 from Group Insurance 12 line item to Part-Time Salaries. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So moved. 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Second. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 16 approval. Any question or discussion? 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: How long is this -- is this 18 going to be the final one needed here? Only one needed here? 19 MR. TOMLINSON: We anticipate that it is, but -- 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean, 'cause it's -- as long 21 as the new hire gets hired. 22 MR. TOMLINSON: Yes, within -- within a month. I 23 think they'll be -- this will be enough, I think. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: To get through the -- 25 MR. TOMLINSON: To get through the month, yes. 1-8-07 99 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Why would -- why would we 2 even have to do -- it's okay, but why are we doing it if 3 there's not an employee there? They got a part-timer taking 4 the place of the budgeted employee? 5 MR. TOMLINSON: Well, she -- 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The full-time employee had 7 vacation time, so she's -- 8 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. 9 MR. TOMLINSON: We used up 138 hours, I believe. 10 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. 11 MR. TOMLINSON: Vacation time. 12 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: So this covers the gap? 13 MR. TOMLINSON: Yes. 14 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Okay. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Any other questions or comments? All 16 in favor of the motion, signify by raising your right hand. 17 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 18 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 19 (No response.) 20 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. Any more 21 budget amendments? Do we have any late bills? 22 MR. TOMLINSON: None at all. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: I've been presented with monthly 24 reports for Justice of the Peace, Precinct 3, and the County 25 Attorney through December '06. I believe that's an entire 1-8-07 100 1 annual report, if I'm not mistaken. 2 MR. EMERSON: Yes, sir. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: With an addendum to it. Do I hear a 4 motion that these reports be approved as presented? 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So moved. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 8 approval. Any question or discussion? All in favor of the 9 motion, signify by raising your right hand. 10 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 11 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 12 (No response.) 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion carries. Do we have any 14 reports from Commissioners in connection with their liaison 15 assignments or otherwise? 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yes, sir. I have a report, 17 that as the watcher of the federal government for this Court, 18 as you know, the new congress is coming into place, and today 19 really being their first day of work, that they are going to 20 move to a five-day work week. 21 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: This week only? 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No, from -- from this point 23 on. But today, they've decided to take off because of 24 tonight's national championship football game. True story. 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Great reason. 1-8-07 101 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And then next Monday is a 2 holiday. So, I just wanted to report that to y'all. And I 3 want you to feel comfortable that I'm on the -- on the job. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: They're voting it in today, but 5 they're -- then they're going to take off? How are they going 6 to vote it in today if they're going to take off today? 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It's tricky. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: You have to be a congressman to 10 do that. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You got to be at the federal 12 level to do that. We can't do that kind of stuff. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Obviously, I'm not at that level, 14 right? 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's right. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Or I wouldn't have asked that 17 question. 18 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Take a telephone survey? 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Any other -- 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I think I'll stop at that 22 one. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: All right. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I don't want to give y'all 25 too much. 1-8-07 102 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Any other reports from Commissioners? 2 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yes, sir. Judge, I'll give 3 the Court copies of the AACOG's annual report and the proposed 4 budget -- or the approved budget for 2006-7. So, you know, 5 you can find time to read it if you wish, or you can not read 6 it if you choose not to do so. You'll note a couple things in 7 terms of the budget. First of all, member dues, which is 8 always an issue, represented by half a percent of the total 9 budget. And the budget revenues are increasing for AACOG this 10 year from 30 million to 43 million. That's a sizable 11 increase, brought about by two programs that AACOG is taking 12 over. One is the Ryan White program, which is the H.I.V. 13 program, administering that program for Bexar County, 14 essentially. And the -- the Mental Health and Mental 15 Retardation program, they're taking over the administration of 16 that from Bexar County Commissioners Court. Those funds are 17 moved accordingly, so that represents basically the changes. 18 And otherwise, that's the picture. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Speaking of pictures -- 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is Bill in here? 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, he's peeking. 22 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Just barely. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: He's peeking and peering. 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Peeking out behind Judge 25 Garcia from Frio County. 1-8-07 103 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: But what's that big old white 2 thing right in the middle sitting down there? 3 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Big old white thing in the 4 middle? That's the judge from Bandera County. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That is pitiful. 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I'm going to tell him what 7 you said. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I planned on that. 9 (Laughter.) 10 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: You were confident I would, 11 right? 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Hopeful. Got anything else? 13 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: No, sir. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. How about over here? 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Commissioner Baldwin, one of our 16 next upcoming meetings, will you give us a little bit of an 17 overview maybe of our own convention coming to town? 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Surely. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Just so we can kind of be 20 thinking about it and what you expect us to do for that. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. Yeah, next meeting, I 22 will be happy to do that. 23 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I already have some 24 information on that. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We need to talk. 1-8-07 104 1 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: It has already been kind of 2 pushed on me to help do some things. You know, maybe I could 3 give up some other things, but, you know -- 4 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: For the month of March only. 5 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: -- I get to do all these 6 wonderful -- 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Just for the month of March. 8 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yeah. Well, we have two 9 things in March. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I guess the other item I 11 mentioned, I think, last time too a little bit, the water 12 issue with G.B.R.A. and all that. That's still working. 13 G.B.R.A. is being a bit slow on it, but it still looks 14 promising that that's going to happen. 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: The news release that was 16 hoped for by year end did not occur? 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No. 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Legislature has its own 19 pitted battle going on right now -- pitched battle. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Anything else? 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's it. 23 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I don't know what I can 24 report. I haven't been here. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: I understand. 1-8-07 105 1 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I would assume there will be 2 something to report in the future, though. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Tomorrow I will be at AACOG 4 heading up the Regional Review Committee that scores 5 applications for Community Block Development Grant funds from 6 all of the various jurisdictions within AACOG. There are 24 7 applications, I believe. There were 25; one was withdrawn. 8 That was a program under which the City of Kerrville, last 9 go-round, got some first-time sewer installation out here just 10 west of town, just outside the city limits. The only 11 application pending out of Kerr County is one out of the city 12 of Ingram, dealing with their water and sewer needs there. I 13 will, of course, be ineligible to act on that. But -- 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You will be ineligible? 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Yes. Under our conflict rules, any 16 jurisdiction within Kerr County, I would -- I'm ineligible to 17 participate in, in the scoring. 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Hopefully you'll be 19 ineligible on our C.D.B.G. grant coming forward. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: I hope to be ineligible on that very 21 soon, as a matter of fact. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: But when it comes to the full 23 board, our representative votes on it? 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I do. I do vote, yes. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: But that process works. It's a 1-8-07 106 1 two-tiered process. Half of the scoring takes place at the 2 COG level, which is what we will do using certain criteria 3 that we've already adopted and put in place and assigned 4 various point values to, and then the Office of Rural 5 Community Affairs at the state level has the other point 6 value, which is equal to ours, to assign -- they use different 7 criteria. But the -- the total point values which are 8 achieved that way are -- determine the ranking, and then you 9 just plug in the amount of money and see how far it goes, 10 and -- and you stop when you run out of money. But it's based 11 upon the -- the point totals that you achieve. 12 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Judge, the Ingram one you 13 mentioned, that's not the sewer grant to U.S.D.A., is it? 14 JUDGE TINLEY: It is part and parcel of that. 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: They're trying to accumulate funds 17 from, of course, every source that they can. My recollection 18 is that the U.S.D.A. is something just over $3 million. 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Mm-hmm. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: And, of course, we're limited per 21 project by 250,000. And, of course, that is their application 22 to the Regional Review Committee. But there's -- it's a -- 23 it's a pretty enlightening experience when you see the shape 24 that some of these smaller municipalities, particularly, 25 and -- and other jurisdictions are in, particularly as it 1-8-07 107 1 concerns water availability, their distribution to their -- to 2 their citizens, and also the wastewater disposal. Some of 3 them are -- are really in a big world of hurt, particularly 4 the smaller municipalities. They just don't generate the 5 revenue that -- that you can in a larger jurisdiction. 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Right. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: So that's what I'll be doing all day 8 tomorrow. And the -- one other item. As I distributed to 9 each of you gentlemen, we did receive a -- I received, because 10 I'm on the distribution list from the Internal Revenue 11 Service, a response from them relative to the Treasurer's 12 appeal to be relieved of the penalty and interest occasioned 13 by late payment of payroll taxes. That appeal was denied. I 14 don't know what has happened subsequent to that. The Court, 15 of course, authorized the payment of those funds to stop the 16 further accrual of penalty and interest. And maybe at the 17 next meeting, we can get the Treasurer to give us a report as 18 to where that stands. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: If my memory serves me, she 20 said that you usually don't get it the first time, that you 21 have to try over and over again. Wouldn't that -- didn't she 22 say that? 23 JUDGE TINLEY: She indicated that you -- you 24 normally have to appeal it multiple times, and so that's what 25 I'm anticipating. But I haven't heard, so I don't know -- I 1-8-07 108 1 don't know what -- what action, if any, she's taking in 2 response to that, but I'd be interested to know -- to know 3 that, as I'm sure you folks would, too. That's all I got. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: One more question. You 5 touched on the AACOG several times. When is the retirement 6 party? 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Oh, thank you for reminding 8 me. The 28th. I'm sure the invitation will be forthcoming, 9 but it is Sunday, the 28th. It is not Super Bowl Sunday. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Who cares? 11 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Doesn't make any difference, 12 since the Cowboys are not in it. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Who cares? 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: My understanding is 2:00 to 15 5 p.m. at the Henry B. Gonzales -- or one of the sections of 16 the Henry B. Gonzales Convention Center. 17 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Who's retiring? 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Al Notzon, after almost 40 19 years as the head of AACOG. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We need to go. Anybody that 21 can hang in there 40 years... 22 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: And he will be replaced by 23 Gloria Arriaga. I don't know if you've ever had the 24 opportunity to meet Gloria, but I will -- at the earliest 25 opportunity, I'll invite Gloria to come to court so everybody 1-8-07 109 1 can meet her, talk to her. She's extraordinarily 2 knowledgeable, has worked her way up this ladder, and she 3 survived a really rigorous search for a new executive 4 director. She'll do a good job. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Anything else? You got anything for 6 us? 7 MR. EMERSON: One quick item. Responses out of my 8 office may be a little bit slow towards the end of the month. 9 I have two different employees undergoing surgical procedures, 10 so just bear with us if we're not quite as fast as we usually 11 are. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Another item, I think some of you got 13 an inquiry from the constituent concerning the status of the 14 E.B.A. suit. As far as I know, that is still set for trial on 15 January the 22nd, but I believe there is a -- status hearing? 16 Is that the correct terminology? Set for later this week. 17 MR. EMERSON: Correct. Status hearing where Judge 18 Jordan will address all motions pending before the court and 19 decide whether or not to put off the hearing or not. And 20 there's some concern that he might, based on Union Labor 21 Life's attempt to bring in a new party. So, we'll see. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: That is the 11th? Status hearing? 23 MR. EMERSON: 11th or 12th. I'm sorry, I don't 24 remember which. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 1-8-07 110 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: What do you mean by "status 2 hearing"? 3 MR. EMERSON: That's Judge Jordan's words. There's 4 multiple motions pending before the court. E.B.A. filed for 5 bankruptcy. 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Right. 7 MR. EMERSON: And, as y'all are aware, bankruptcy 8 froze the civil litigation. Since that point, there's been a 9 hearing in federal court where the civil litigation was 10 unfrozen and allowed to proceed, based on the fact that we're 11 primarily pursuing the insurance policies, not physical 12 assets. In the meantime, there's been motions for partial 13 summary judgment, second amended petitions, second amended 14 answers. All kinds of documents have flown back and forth, 15 and Judge Jordan basically scheduled a hearing this week to 16 try to clean everything up before we go to trial. 17 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay, thank you. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Anything else? We'll stand 19 adjourned. 20 (Commissioners Court adjourned at 11:31 a.m.) 21 - - - - - - - - - - 22 23 24 25 1-8-07 111 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 11th day of 9 January, 2007. 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 1-8-07