1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT 9 Special Session 10 Monday, January 22, 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 22, 2007 2 PAGE --- Commissioners' Comments 4 3 1.1 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 4 rescind Court Order 30098; authorize participation in HGCD water availability workshop scheduled for 5 2 p.m. Monday, January 22 7 6 1.2 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to approve contracts with KEDF, Mountain Home VFD, 7 and Ingram VFD, allow County Judge to sign same 18 8 1.4 Consider/discuss 2006 Child Services Board year-end report 19 9 1.5 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 10 approve new board member, Kathy Carpenter, for the Child Services Board 24 11 1.6 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action regarding 12 approval of purchase of a 2003 Ford pickup for the Sheriff's Office using funds in Capital Outlay, 13 with balance paid out of Sheriff's seizure fund 25 14 4.1 Pay Bills 29 4.2 Budget Amendments 33 15 4.3 Late Bills -- 4.4 Approve and Accept Monthly Reports 37 16 1.3 Consider/discuss structural change in Maintenance- 17 Custodial Department (Executive Session) 38 18 1.7 Consider/discuss, approve application to USDOJ Safe Haven: Supervised Visitation and Safe Exchange 19 Program, for 3-year grant to be administered under MOU with Hill Country Crisis Council 39 20 1.8 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on 21 reducing registration fees to $1.00 during Rabies Drive, February 3-17, 2007 53 22 1.9 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action regarding 23 report from Eric Maloney, First Responder Coordinator 57 24 5.1 Reports from Commissioners/Liaison Assignments 83 25 --- Adjourned 94 3 1 On Monday, January 22, 2007, at 9:00 a.m., a special 2 meeting of the Kerr County Commissioners Court was held in the 3 Commissioners' Courtroom, Kerr County Courthouse, Kerrville, 4 Texas, and the following proceedings were had in open court: 5 P R O C E E D I N G S 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. 7 Let me call to order this meeting of the Kerr County 8 Commissioners Court scheduled for this time and date, Monday, 9 January the 22nd, 2007, at 9 a.m. It's that time now. If you 10 would, please rise and join me in a moment of prayer followed 11 by the pledge of allegiance. 12 (Prayer and pledge of allegiance.) 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you. At this time, if there's 14 any member of the public that wishes to be heard on any matter 15 that is not a listed agenda item, this is the time for you to 16 come forward and be heard with respect to that. If you wish 17 to be heard concerning an agenda item, we would ask that you 18 fill out a participation form at the back of the room. It's 19 not essential, but it helps me know that there's someone that 20 wants to be heard with regard to that item. If, for some 21 reason, you want to be heard concerning an item and you 22 haven't filled out a participation form, get my attention in 23 some manner and I'll see that you're recognized. But right 24 now, if there's anyone that wishes to be heard concerning any 25 matter that is not a listed agenda item, please feel free to 1-22-07 4 1 come forward at this time. Seeing no one coming forward, we 2 will proceed. 3 I -- I'd like to recognize today our county 4 personnel who were active during this recent severe weather 5 that we had. Most of us that performed administrative 6 functions were safe and secure and warm in our homes. We 7 weren't able to transact our normal business here at the 8 courthouse for safety reasons, but we had a number of county 9 personnel -- of course, we had the Sheriff's Office; their 10 people were out assisting the citizens, as they always are. 11 Road and Bridge was very active through the day and night 12 providing whatever assistance they could, and, of course, our 13 maintenance people performing their functions that had to be 14 performed irrespective of the conditions. So, bear in mind 15 that we have some of our folks that -- that don't get a break 16 when that sort of a thing happens, and they're -- they're 17 there and they're doing their thing, and doing it for the 18 benefit of all of us. 19 The other thing I'd like to mention is the stock 20 show. We -- we just concluded that, and by all accounts, it 21 was a success. I see Mr. Walston here; I suspect maybe he'll 22 give us a little report later on today. But my mention of it 23 has to do with something I mentioned a few weeks ago, and 24 that's volunteers. We -- that whole function out there is 25 primarily the work of volunteers, and it takes a whole bunch 1-22-07 5 1 of them, and they do fantastic work. And the bottom line 2 result is, all that effort goes for the benefit of the youth 3 of our community, and that's a good thing, so we appreciate 4 the work of all those volunteers and look forward to future 5 success of that show. That's all I got today. How about you, 6 Commissioner 1? 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I agree with everything you 8 just said. Volunteers are the greatest organization on earth, 9 and dittos. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner Williams? 11 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Thank you, Judge. I, too, 12 had a good time at the stock show. I had an opportunity to 13 work with Commissioner Oehler. He and I have 16 years of 14 experience on this court, but three weeks working together, so 15 it was a good opportunity to get to know Bruce a little bit 16 better and watch him in action. Now, this is interesting, 17 because just about every class of hogs, swine, pigs, or 18 whatever you want to call them that came into that arena, 19 after about 15 minutes of their walking around, you seeing 20 little pig butts going in front of your eyes all the time, 21 this guy picks the winner just about all the time. That's 22 amazing. So, why are they spending money out there hiring 23 judges when we got one right here that can do that work for 24 them? (Laughter.) You know, I enjoyed it, Commissioner, and 25 learned a little bit about pigs and about each other. Had a 1-22-07 6 1 good time. And I agree with you, Judge, that show is -- is a 2 marvel in terms of volunteerism, and the dedication of the 3 people, the board members who stage it, work all year long to 4 make that thing happen, is just incredible. Enjoyed it. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner Letz? 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Just agree with everything said 7 so far. Not to belabor the point, but it is a great show, 8 great volunteers, and a great event. That's it. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, we'll go to our pig expert 10 here. (Laughter.) 11 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I'm not a pig expert, and I'm 12 not going to judge any shows and be put in that position. 13 Several things to say. One thing about the stock show that 14 was noted by the -- by the swine judge at the end of the show 15 was that -- that he felt like that it was maybe one of the 16 better shows as far as the actions of our youth being polite 17 and being kind to one another that he has ever seen. That 18 says a lot about the people that are having something to do 19 with those kids, the 4-H and FFA leaders, as well as the 20 parent leaders and all the other people that are involved in 21 it. Other thing is, I have met with TexDOT twice now since 22 the last meeting over the proposed bridge project on Highway 23 39 and Highway 1340 in the Hunt area. They are proposing to 24 have two more public hearings, if you want to call it public 25 hearings. They are tentatively scheduled for the week of 1-22-07 7 1 February the 19th, to be in Commissioners Court at some point; 2 they haven't nailed down an exact date yet, and also have 3 another public meeting at the Hunt School sometime that same 4 week. Also, met with them on a project that I'll bring 5 forward at the next meeting to do with the Cade Loop Bridge 6 project, but that'll be posted on another agenda and we'll 7 talk more about it then. That's it. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Anything else? Thank you. Let's 9 move forward with our agenda today. Our first item on the 10 agenda is to consider, discuss, and take appropriate action to 11 rescind Court Order Number 30098, authorize Commissioners 12 Court participation in the water availability workshop under 13 the auspices of Headwaters Groundwater Conservation District 14 scheduled for 2 p.m. today, Monday, January the 22nd, 2007. 15 Commissioner Williams? 16 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Judge, after our meeting two 17 weeks ago, I -- I followed the Court's instructions and 18 forwarded a copy of our agenda item that listed all the 19 various topics and questions that we had in mind to both 20 Mr. Wilson and to Ms. Summerlin. Subsequent to that, I think 21 the Court got a memorandum back from Mrs. Summerlin expressing 22 some concerns about our agenda item. That resulted in a 23 telephone conversation between Commissioner Letz and 24 Ms. Summerlin, and I'm going to let Commissioner Letz share 25 the sense of that conversation with you, which was -- prompted 1-22-07 8 1 this particular agenda item. But I have to say that, based on 2 the information that is contained in this glossy Power Point 3 presentation here, and I'm sure everybody got a copy of it, I 4 don't believe our questions are going to get answered. But, 5 Commissioner Letz, do you want to shed some light on this 6 before we move forward? 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The -- first of all, the -- the 8 gist of the phone call with Ms. Summerlin, her, I guess, 9 reason for wanting to do the format that we're going to have 10 today is that she did not think it is appropriate for the 11 Commissioners Court to be the -- the lead agency questioning 12 their employee, being Mr. Feather Wilson; that that 13 information should be coming -- that they're -- they oversee 14 him, and that any kind of -- a lot of our questions were kind 15 of, I guess, announcing to the public what he is doing, and 16 they thought that that -- or she thought that should be done 17 by their board, not by us. I can understand that point of 18 view a little bit, but I -- I explained to her in, I think, 19 rather strong terms -- probably a good way to say it -- that 20 if that entity or organization, being Headwaters, is going to 21 be critical of this Court on our water availability that we 22 have put in our subdivision rules, that we want our answers -- 23 our questions answered. And Mr. Wilson seems to be the one 24 that -- that they're designating to answer those questions. 25 So that my view is that we go along with a workshop, 1-22-07 9 1 which our conversation said was going to be a joint workshop, 2 and the reason for that being so that we could ask questions 3 at that workshop. I'm not sure she posted it that way from 4 their organization, but I think we've posted it. So, I'm not 5 sure what's going to happen on that side of it; be more 6 confidence about that in a minute. But my view is -- and I 7 tend to share -- after reading the presentation handout that 8 we received of what Mr. Wilson's going to give today, I share 9 a lot of the questions -- or, I guess, concerns about whether 10 we're going to get our questions answered or not. And -- but 11 what I've done also, for what it's worth -- you can do -- 12 y'all can all do what you want. I wrote down some questions 13 that I wrote based on my reading of his presentation. Some of 14 them are -- you know, I truly -- I haven't -- you know, I 15 don't know the answer to. Some of them I do know the answer 16 to, at least I think I know the answer to. But -- and this, I 17 think, is a -- I did this for the reason that I, I think, deal 18 with water issues more than anyone else on the Court, but at 19 the same time, I don't want to get in a situation where I'm 20 the only one asking questions. 21 So, these are things that came to my mind. If y'all 22 want to ask some of these, fine. If not, I may or may not ask 23 some of or all of them. I doubt I'll have time to ask all of 24 them. But a lot of what -- what I read in this is -- I -- 25 somewhere there was a question about this. This is not new 1-22-07 10 1 information. He has -- and I think I have a question -- as 2 worded, basically, what I see is that he is taking existing 3 maps produced by state agencies mostly, changed the color, and 4 put his name and seal on them, and I have a question about 5 that. As I said, you know, I don't see this as being new. 6 Most of this -- I'd say 90 percent of this document, I could 7 write the same thing off the -- go into the Texas Water 8 Development Board website and the Soil Conservation and a few 9 other entities that have these maps available. So, I'm very 10 concerned about what the actual product is that Headwaters is 11 getting, if they expect us to use it. I mean, they can 12 obviously do what they want with their taxpayer funds. And I 13 think this is a good effort for them to get a better 14 groundwater model. But if they're going to expect this 15 Commissioner to use that model to change our water 16 availability, they better get a lot more specific than what I 17 see so far. And that's where a lot of my questions did go. 18 Another issue I have is exactly what aquifers, and 19 hopefully we can at least find this out today, their model. 20 There's a lot of talk about the Trinity and Middle Trinity, 21 and some of the Edwards Trinity. Two-thirds of the county 22 doesn't have the Trinity, period. It's all west of Edwards 23 Trinity, and I don't hear a whole lot of talk about the 24 Edwards, which is where the bulk of the water in the county 25 is. The eastern part of the county, I would -- I'm very 1-22-07 11 1 interested as to what they've looked at, at existing wells and 2 where they are drilled to. My feeling is that most of the 3 wells are in the Glen Rose. They may not be good wells; they 4 may be pretty sorry water, but the models -- and everyone 5 talks about the Trinity, and Trinity is very good water and 6 it's a lot deeper, but, you know, I would dare say that during 7 the last drought, there wasn't a Trinity well, other than 8 maybe in the city of Kerrville, certainly in the eastern part 9 of the county, and those wells kept on producing for those 10 families and that livestock. So, I hope that they're 11 including the Glen Rose as -- as a source, because it clearly 12 is a major source. And he does mention the Glen Rose in his 13 backup here. 14 So, that's kind of where we are. I think it will be 15 an interesting presentation. I think hopefully we'll get some 16 answers, and I think if we don't, I think the next step is to 17 put a lot of the questions that I've written, and others 18 probably, in a formal letter to the Headwaters Board and -- I 19 mean, and ask them to bring Feather to us and let us ask these 20 questions directly. And if they say no, that's their choice, 21 but I think that will tell the public, you know, something as 22 well. I think that a lot of -- of hope is being put into this 23 study by the public as to determining how much groundwater is 24 there, and unless he's going to -- has a lot more information 25 that he's going to present than what's in here, I don't see 1-22-07 12 1 much coming so far. 2 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Well, I don't either, 3 Commissioner. Thank you for filling the Court in on the 4 telephone conversation. What kind of troubles me about this 5 presentation, of course, it's all -- it's all patented and all 6 put together, and there's not a lot of room for much 7 discussion. If you go to Page 7, you see some questions that 8 really need to be answered, but they're not going to propose 9 the answer here. All they're doing is putting the questions 10 on the screen and saying, "These are some of the questions 11 that we have attempted to answer, and it's an ongoing 12 process." Which tells you if you flip that screen up and go 13 to the next screen, you're not going to get the answers. And 14 then the other thing that really bothers me is on Page 33, 15 notwithstanding this fine list that you put together, "Please 16 fill out any questions you have on the cards provided, and 17 we'll respond." We'll see. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But I think in my final -- and I 19 don't know how it's going to play out up there. I'm certainly 20 going to leave a lot of this up to the Judge as to how he 21 handles our workshop, but it was -- it has been very clear 22 from the beginning that this was intended to be a joint 23 meeting between Headwaters and Kerr County -- Headwaters 24 consultant and Kerr County. 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That's right. 1-22-07 13 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: There's never been any question 2 about that. The way -- based on the letter that I saw from 3 Ms. Summerlin, she has totally ignored the Commissioners 4 Court, and I have a bit of an issue with that, of -- of being 5 presented to us and being told one thing, and then all of a 6 sudden, having this thing framed in the manner that I don't 7 even see a place for the Court to be a participant in the 8 workshop the way they've done it. And I think that -- I think 9 it's interesting information to listen to, but I'm very 10 disappointed if we are not allowed -- and I use the word 11 "allowed" -- we are not included in the discussion. One thing 12 I find very interesting in her letter to the Court, she talked 13 about the panel of experts. One of the panel members is 14 somebody from Region J. I'm chairman of Region J, and 15 Region J was not approached with this to provide panel -- an 16 expert. So, I don't know if she's expecting me to be that 17 person, or if she's contacted our consultant and maybe he 18 chose to come without telling me. I really don't know who 19 that expert is, and I find it interesting. I'm a little 20 concerned about that, about -- you know -- 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Jon, are we going to be able 22 to ask questions or not? 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: My view is, yes, we should be 24 able to. But -- 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Are we going to? 1-22-07 14 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think we -- 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Let me answer that. I -- I was 3 concerned that we were all going to be in the same place at 4 the same time, and like Commissioner Letz, I perceived it as a 5 kind of a joint meeting. Because one of the issues that 6 was -- that was involved is where this meeting could be held 7 if the Commissioners Court was going to participate, and if 8 y'all recall, there was some discussion about, from 9 Ms. Summerlin's standpoint, that, well, it was necessary that 10 it be held at the courthouse, because Commissioners Court was 11 participating and we needed to meet at the courthouse. This 12 issue's come up before, so that was the reason that we hit 13 upon Courtroom Number 2 upstairs in our initial discussions of 14 where we were going to have this. So, that being the case, I 15 went ahead and posted it as a workshop, so it's posted. And 16 we have the -- the only thing we can't do, obviously, is take 17 any formal action, which we don't in workshops. But workshops 18 are probably the best place for us to gather information by 19 asking questions and seeking additional information and -- and 20 discussion with whomever may have information on the subject 21 that's under review. So, yeah, I see it as being able to -- 22 to ask whatever questions we may have that's germaine to the 23 subject. Now, I -- I noted Commissioner Letz initially talked 24 about Mr. Wilson as being an employee, and then later as a 25 consultant. I think he's technically a consultant, is he not? 1-22-07 15 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes, he is. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Is it Headwaters' present position 3 that the only information this consultant is authorized to 4 release is that which the Headwaters Board authorizes him to 5 release? Is that the impression you got? 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No. No, I did not get that 7 impression. The -- the impression I got was -- let me try to 8 clarify that point. Ms. Summerlin -- what I heard her tell 9 me -- and, you know, I don't want to speak for her, certainly, 10 but what I heard her tell me was that if -- if Headwaters is 11 going to announce the results of the -- of their consultant's 12 findings, they should be the ones to do it, not under the -- a 13 Commissioners Court meeting. We talked about -- several times 14 about one of my issues that I have with Mr. Wilson is the fact 15 that he has, according to my memory, three times done press 16 releases in this county that have been put in the Kerrville 17 Daily Dimes. And she says, "Well, he's doing that as a 18 citizen." And I'm saying, "Well, that's -- that's a real 19 difficult issue for a consultant to do that on his own when 20 he's working for Headwaters." In my mind, I think it confuses 21 the public, much as if I would go out and make a press 22 release. I can't -- it's very difficult for me to do it as 23 a -- a citizen and say I'm not a Commissioner. I mean, I'm a 24 Commissioner. You can't -- I can't do things publicly and not 25 be a Commissioner. 1-22-07 16 1 I think -- I think a good example of how the public 2 perceives that is the -- I think the discussion over the UDC. 3 The County Judge made some comments from him personally, and 4 it was taken by the public and the City Council and everybody 5 else that he was speaking as Judge. And it's real hard not to 6 speak as Judge; he's a County Judge, so when he talks -- I 7 mean, we obviously all have the right to speak as individuals, 8 but it's very difficult to divorce ourselves from our public 9 position, and I think the same thing goes for our consultant. 10 When he speaks publicly about wells in Center Point and wells 11 in west Kerr County and anywhere else, as he has, he's kind of 12 speaking for Headwaters, in my mind. So, that's why I have a 13 little bit of a disconnect there, but hopefully we can resolve 14 these before we get started with the workshop, and it will all 15 work out. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, I don't have any 17 intention of grilling their employee as a big, bad 18 Commissioner. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That doesn't even cross my 21 mind. However, there's another side to this thing, and that 22 is that we are elected officials. We're the county fathers, 23 and we're hired to take care of the people's business. And 24 this document here in Mr. Featherspoon -- what's his name? 25 Featherspoon Wilson? 1-22-07 17 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's Feathergail. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Feathergail Wilson, excuse 3 me. That's taxpayers' money, and we're sent up here to 4 protect the public from these kind of things, and we have 5 absolutely, 100 percent, every right to ask questions. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I agree. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No question. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think the other thing everyone 9 needs to keep aware of, including Headwaters Board and 10 certainly the public, is that the Legislature has decided that 11 groundwater districts are responsible for watching over 12 groundwater and the wells drilled; however, they gave 13 Commissioners Court the sole authority of water availability 14 in the county. So, there is a -- a -- you know, a 15 collaborative effort that is necessary there, so I don't think 16 that Headwaters can look at this modeling if they expect us to 17 use it without us having input into it. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Absolutely. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And that is something I think is 20 very, very important to stress, is that the Legislature has -- 21 didn't give the authority to them -- to Headwaters or any 22 other groundwater district. They gave it to the Commissioners 23 Court, and that is the reason that I think it's very critical 24 that we be a full participant when it comes to this 25 groundwater model if it's going to be used by the Court. 1-22-07 18 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I agree. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think the public has some 3 expectation that we work together with Headwaters on that 4 model, so we'll see what happens. 5 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: It just seems to me that, you 6 know, if you're going to do a four-year study, how can you 7 start changing things after two years? 8 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Good question. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, I would agree. 10 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Move the agenda item. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for approval 13 of the agenda item. Any further question or discussion? All 14 in favor of the that motion, signify by raising your right 15 hand. 16 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 17 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 18 (No response.) 19 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. Let's move 20 to Item 2, if we might. Consider, discuss, and take 21 appropriate action to approve the contracts with Kerr Economic 22 Development Foundation, Mountain Home Volunteer Fire 23 Department, and Ingram Volunteer Fire Department, and allow 24 County Judge to sign same. I put this on the agenda because 25 we've got these contracts back before us. One question 1-22-07 19 1 quickly for the County Attorney. I assume there's been the 2 appropriate review. I know on the VFD contracts, those were 3 done and sent out with approval before they were sent, -- 4 MR. EMERSON: Correct. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: -- number one, and the KEDF contract 6 is a contract which is the same model as we've had previously, 7 if I'm not mistaken. Is that correct, sir? 8 MR. EMERSON: That's correct. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. So that's where we are legally 10 on those. 11 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Move approval. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for approval 14 of the agenda item. Any question or discussion? All in favor 15 of that motion, signify by raising your right hand. 16 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 17 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 18 (No response.) 19 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. On Item 3, 20 let's defer action on that item, because it appears that it's 21 going to have some executive session involvement, so we'll 22 defer on that and come back to that. We'll move to Item 4; 23 consider and discuss the 2006 Child Services Board year-end 24 report. Commissioner Baldwin, this could be interesting, how 25 you could enlist the support of Ms. Banik in presenting this 1-22-07 20 1 report and her take a verbatim transcript of this meeting at 2 the same time. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, she can do that. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: I knew that. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: But I'm not asking her to do 6 that. We're going to make an end run on you, and we have 7 Constable Billeiter coming up to give the report. But before 8 -- while he's coming, I just wanted to say that the Child 9 Service Board very easily -- in my mind, it is the finest 10 organization in Kerr County that we deal with. These guys -- 11 we lay out a little money at the end of the year to support 12 these troubled, hurting kids, and -- and they go out on their 13 own -- and I don't know how much they raised for Christmas 14 gifts, but it was tremendous, and they raised so much they 15 ended up giving each child two gifts. Oh, I'm giving your 16 report, I'm sorry. 17 MR. BILLEITER: That's all right. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: David Billeiter. Would you 19 please join me in welcoming him. 20 MR. BILLEITER: Got part of it anyway, Buster. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'm sorry. 22 MR. BILLEITER: Our year-end report, in this last 23 year we lost three members, but we also gained three new 24 members. The Rainbow Room, which is our supply closet, was 25 restocked and reorganized in March. That was quite a chore. 1-22-07 21 1 April was Child Abuse Awareness Month. Commissioners Court 2 passed a resolution. We had blue ribbons tied around 3 courthouse trees, and March 31st, a kickoff event was held on 4 the courthouse grounds with speaker Fred Gamble from Schreiner 5 College. The board did not meet from May to November due to 6 board turnover and scheduling conflicts. Christmas gifts. 7 Walmart gift cards were given to approximately 120 children. 8 I believe it was more than that, wasn't it, Kathy? I think we 9 had around 127, if I remember right. Board members -- we 10 asked for donations. We were trying to raise $3,000, or 11 around $3,000. We received an estimated $8,000 in gifts. 12 Kerr County citizens gave so generously that we were able to 13 double the gifts to the children. Instead of them getting a 14 $25 gift card, each one received a $50 gift card. Funds that 15 were not earmarked for Christmas gifts will be used to help 16 the children in the future. We have some upcoming plans and 17 projects. We're going to have a review and audit of financial 18 records by an outside source, and that report will be 19 available by -- hopefully by April of '07. Restock the 20 Rainbow Room, which is the supply room. Plan for Child Abuse 21 Awareness Month in April. Recruit new board members, set 22 terms of current board members, appoint board treasurer and 23 other officers. Review board expenditures and discuss types 24 of expenses board should pay. Plan fundraisers for upcoming 25 events. And starting real soon, plan for Christmas of '07. I 1-22-07 22 1 think this next year, we're going to try to have gifts for the 2 children instead of gift cards. That's something that we're 3 thinking about. And, of course the tri-county Christmas party 4 will be coming up. And that's about it. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I wanted to make a comment on 6 the Rainbow Room, if I could, just real quick. You know, 7 these children that we're dealing with here sometimes are 8 taken out of their homes in the middle of the night, in 9 pajamas only, and so this Rainbow Room -- they have it stocked 10 with, you know, diapers, a toothbrush, comb, those kinds of 11 things that -- and that's what we provide from this Court. 12 And that's what they keep it stocked with, so that when the 13 kid is removed in the middle of the night, they can 14 immediately go to the Rainbow Room and have supplies for that 15 child. So, it's really a super neat thing. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Commissioner, does the service 17 board accept clothing -- children's clothing and things of 18 that nature? 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Nod your head. Yes. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, I mean -- but -- I mean, but 21 they do accept that type, as long as it's in good condition, 22 any kind of clothing? 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yes. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Things of that nature? That 25 would be helpful if that's taken to the Rainbow Room as well. 1-22-07 23 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: A box of diapers, any size, 2 you know, up and down. Those kinds of things, yes, 3 absolutely. 4 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Where's the Rainbow Room 5 located? 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It's confidential 7 information. 8 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: If you tell me, you have to 9 kill me? Is that the deal? 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Something like that. 11 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: All right. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: I was really, really astounded at the 14 result when the announcement was made here in open court just 15 prior to Christmas, that -- suddenly looked up, and the number 16 of children you had to provide Christmas for was considerably 17 more than what had happened -- what you'd had in previous 18 years, and the suggestion was made that maybe we could get the 19 public's help, and I think by the end of that day, the coffers 20 were starting to fill up pretty good. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Sure was. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: That's the kind of thing you like to 23 see, people exhibiting the spirit of Christmas. So, that was 24 a -- a great thing. 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Commissioner, do they help 1-22-07 24 1 children all over the county, or just within the city? 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: All over the county. All 3 over the county. And we're kind of -- kind of partners with 4 Fredericksburg, Boerne, and Bandera as well. I don't know how 5 that works as a region, but we're kind of partners in that. 6 And sometimes when we -- they have the Christmas parties, all 7 those counties gather together to have Santa Claus and hand 8 out the gifts and those kind of things. So -- and many times, 9 when they have meetings in other counties, some of our board 10 members go to them and, you know, stay in touch and see what 11 the needs are and that kind of thing, and help each other. 12 It's a neat organization, guys. Super neat. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you, David. 15 MR. BILLEITER: You're welcome. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Let's move -- anything further on 17 that particular item? 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No, sir. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Let's move to Item 5, if we might. 20 Consider, discuss, and take appropriate action to approve a 21 new board member, that being Kathy Carpenter, for the Child 22 Services Board. Commissioner Baldwin again. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We have Kathy Landrum 24 Carpenter that is -- has agreed to serve on our board as a new 25 board member. Kathy, would you -- there you are. Is there 1-22-07 25 1 anything you'd like to say to us? 2 MS. CARPENTER: No. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, I'd like to say thank 4 you very much for offering, and you can see on her little 5 sheet here the skills and what she brings to the table, and 6 truly another professional, and we thank you very much for 7 your service. Thank you. 8 MS. CARPENTER: Honored to be asked. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I move we approve Kathy 10 Landrum Carpenter as a member of the Kerr County Child Service 11 Board. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for approval 14 of the agenda item as indicated. Any question or discussion 15 on the motion? All in favor of that motion, signify by 16 raising your right hand. 17 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 18 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 19 (No response.) 20 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. Let's move to 21 Item 6, if we might. Consider, discuss, and take appropriate 22 action regarding approval of purchasing a 2003 Ford pickup for 23 the Sheriff's Office using funds in the amount of $6,818.69 in 24 Capital Outlay, with the balance to be paid out of the 25 Sheriff's seizure fund. Sheriff? 1-22-07 26 1 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Okay. Originally, during the 2 first start of the budget year, we had zero in Capital Outlay. 3 What happened in the last three or four months, I ended up 4 with two cars getting totaled. Both of those -- one was our 5 fault; one was not our fault. The total settlement -- these 6 were such good cars, narcotic vehicles -- was $6,800 from the 7 insurance company. Tommy put that in Capital Outlay, and I 8 need to replace those cars. I replaced one and paid for that 9 car totally out of seizure fund. This one I'm replacing, as 10 y'all can see what it is on there. I am asking for that 6,800 11 that was settled on the insurance, that I have a hand check 12 for it to go to the car company, and then the remainder of the 13 balance of that vehicle, I'm also paying out of seizure fund. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So moved. 15 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Second. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for approval 17 of the agenda item. Any question or discussion? 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, I have a question. 19 Now, are you going to rig this thing up, like, with lights and 20 sirens? 21 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: No. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: All that stuff? 23 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: No. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Did you just tell us why and 25 I missed it? Or -- 1-22-07 27 1 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: No. This -- 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Why not? 3 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: These vehicles aren't used in 4 that capacity. These aren't patrol vehicles. These are -- 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What are they? That's my 6 question. 7 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Narcotics unit. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I did hear you say that, 9 okay. 10 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Out of our Narcotics unit. 11 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: What are you going to use 12 the pickup for? 13 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Narcotics unit. 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Can you tell us the color and 16 the -- 17 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: No. Thank you. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Sheriff -- 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: What kind of wheels you got 20 on it? 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Nice chrome wheels. Sheriff, I 22 notice there's a mention of the Peterson Foundation grant. 23 Has -- 24 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Pardon? 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Am I just confused about that? 1-22-07 28 1 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I guess you're confused on 2 that. I don't know why -- 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's in the backup. 4 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Maybe she attached something. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Under "RE:" it says Peterson 6 Foundation Grant. 7 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Okay. That probably -- she 8 typed that wrong. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 10 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: When we first started that -- 11 it's actually part of Cailloux, not Peterson. There was some 12 donated funds, but most of it's out of seizure. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 14 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: All right? 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Any other question or discussion on 16 the motion? All in favor of the motion, signify by raising 17 your right hand. 18 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 19 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 20 (No response.) 21 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. We've got two 22 options, gentlemen. We can go ahead and take care of our 23 bills and whatnot, or we can go into executive on Item 3. 24 What's the Court's preference? 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Do them both, Judge. 1-22-07 29 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Might be able to. Let's go ahead and 2 do the bills right quick, if we might, and -- and if we've got 3 any time remaining, we can come back and do that other. That 4 moves us to Section 4 of the agenda. Item 1, payment of the 5 bills. 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Move we pay the bills. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'll second that. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded to pay the 9 bills. Any question or discussion? I have one question here. 10 Page 11. We've got more Court-appointed services here, it 11 looks like for the 216th. That budget's on a further train 12 wreck for those items? 13 MR. TOMLINSON: Yes, I have a budget amendment for 14 that purpose. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. And it's going to cover those 16 two, obviously? 17 MR. TOMLINSON: Yes. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Any other questions or 19 discussion? 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Let's go back to that page. 21 And, Tommy, through my 15 years of being here, I know I've 22 asked this question five, 600,000 times. I still don't get 23 it. It's because I disagree with it, is what it is. The 24 court reporter, the second one -- second item there, is paid a 25 large salary. Large salary. And here we are paying her 1-22-07 30 1 another $1,000 to transcribe, in my opinion, the work that 2 we've already paid her to do. I don't get that, sorry. And I 3 never will get that, because it's not right. 4 MR. TOMLINSON: They must have a good lobby. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, all we have to do is 6 say no. 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Is that the answer? 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I can answer that one. We 9 can say no and find out how good they are. But -- do y'all 10 see what I'm saying? I mean -- 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 12 MR. TOMLINSON: You're not alone in your opinion. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I don't know how much this 14 county pays, but isn't it a kind of a -- other counties pay 15 in, one of those deals? And -- Rex? 16 MR. EMERSON: By statute, we don't have a choice. 17 And I can tell you, I've researched it extensively trying to 18 figure some way around it. And there is one small 19 possibility, but that would require the cooperation of the 20 judges, because technically, the court reporter works for the 21 judge. And theoretically, as a contract employee for the 22 judge, you could put it in their contract that they weren't 23 going to bill the county for transcripts provided to the 24 county. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What contract? Do we have a 1-22-07 31 1 contract? 2 MR. EMERSON: But that's -- 3 MR. TOMLINSON: I have -- 4 MR. EMERSON: -- that's a whole 'nother battle. 5 MR. TOMLINSON: This -- most of the transcripts that 6 we pay for go to -- 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Indigent. 8 MR. TOMLINSON: It's for indigent defendants, as 9 well as going to another agency. Especially -- that's 10 especially true for appeals. That's generally when you have a 11 transcript, is -- 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: The other agency is that 13 higher court -- 14 MR. TOMLINSON: Yes. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: -- that it's appealed to? 16 MR. TOMLINSON: Yes. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Is that a state court? 18 MR. TOMLINSON: Yes, it would be. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Bingo. 20 MR. EMERSON: I'm going to throw my two cents in. 21 The exception to that is that if the defendant appeals -- for 22 instance, if it's in Judge Brown's court, if the defendant 23 appeals, we have to turn around and order a copy of the same 24 thing and pay for it so that we can answer the appeal. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: The copy, fortunately, is cheaper 1-22-07 32 1 than the first cut. 2 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Right. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: But if the defendant is indigent and 4 desires to appeal, the transcript must be provided to the 5 defendant, and that's how it gets charged up here. 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: So that would be the case in 7 this particular one? 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Yes. 9 MR. TOMLINSON: They are -- they are reimbursable 10 on -- on capital murder cases. I mean, that's the only 11 exception that I know of. But you can -- the County can apply 12 for reimbursement through the state on -- on capital cases. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Does -- I mean, maybe I'm, I 14 guess, ignorant in this area. Doesn't the court reporter 15 automatically transcribe what they've -- they don't 16 transcribe? 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I don't know if you've 18 noticed or not, but this court has a court reporter. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And it's transcribed. That's 20 why I thought -- 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And she transcribes all the 22 time, and I've never seen a bill, because that seems like 23 that's part of her job, and we pay her a salary to do that. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Duh. 1-22-07 33 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: For some reason, I just -- I 2 always thought they were all -- I thought it was always done 3 like ours, that they're all transcribed. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So I've got a losing battle 5 here again. See you next month. Nice try. 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Keep trying. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Any other questions or discussion? 8 All in favor of the motion, signify by raising your right 9 hand. 10 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 11 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 12 (No response.) 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion does carry. Budget 14 amendments. Budget Amendment Request Number 1. 15 MR. TOMLINSON: Okay. Number 1 is for the County 16 Treasurer. The request is to transfer $172.58 from Office 17 Supplies to Office Equipment -- Operating Equipment. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Operating Equipment. That's 19 a copy machine? Or -- 20 MR. TOMLINSON: It's for a computer monitor. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Oh. 22 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: For what? 23 MR. TOMLINSON: A monitor for a computer. 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Move approval. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 1-22-07 34 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 2 approval. Any question or discussion on the motion? 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Did it -- now, these kind of 4 things -- this is just a question. These things still go 5 through the computer guru? 6 MR. TOMLINSON: Yes. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Purchasing? Okay. 8 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Purchase. 9 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: So he has blessed this one? 10 MR. TOMLINSON: Yes. 11 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Okay. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Any other questions or comments? All 13 in favor of the motion, signify by raising your right hand. 14 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 15 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 16 (No response.) 17 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. Budget 18 Amendment Request Number 2. 19 MR. TOMLINSON: Number 2 is for the Jury Fund. We 20 need to transfer $741 from Jury Fees to Interpreters for 21 the -- in the 198th District Court. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So moved. 23 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Second. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 25 approval. Any question or discussion? 1-22-07 35 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Question. So we budgeted 2 $4,000 -- a little over $4,000 for interpreters, and we're two 3 months into the budget, and we've already busted that, and 4 there's probably going to be more? 5 MR. TOMLINSON: Very well could be. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Amazing. I'm just amazed. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner, I think the one case 8 that consumed the vast majority of that was the case in which 9 the Mexican Consulate was involved, the case that came back 10 from the appellate court for -- for review here locally. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Are you defending this? 12 JUDGE TINLEY: No, I'm just telling you -- telling 13 you where it got 'et up at. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you. 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: Motion does carry. Budget Amendment 21 Request Number 3. 22 MR. TOMLINSON: Number -- Number 3 is for the case 23 that the Judge just mentioned, and it's for the 216th District 24 Court. We need a transfer of 2,284.01 from the 25 Court-Appointed Attorneys to Court-Appointed Service line 1-22-07 36 1 item. It's for -- that's for expert witnesses for the case 2 you just mentioned. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So moved. 4 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Second. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 6 approval. Any question or discussion? All in favor of the 7 motion, signify by raising your right hand. 8 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 9 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 10 (No response.) 11 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. Do we have 12 any more budget amendments? 13 MR. TOMLINSON: No. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Late bills? 15 MR. TOMLINSON: Well, there's no late bills, but the 16 Sheriff mentioned a hand check. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Hand check to Cecil Atkission Motors 18 for 16,000 -- 19 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: No, just for that six -- 20 whatever is in that Capital Outlay. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 22 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: And then I'll write a seizure 23 check. 24 MR. TOMLINSON: 6,818.69. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I move for approval. 1-22-07 37 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Second. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for approval 3 of the hand check issuance to Cecil Atkission Motors in the 4 amount of $6,818.69 from the Sheriff's Capital Outlay budget 5 line item. And any question or discussion? 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. We don't have to 7 approve your fund? 8 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Not seizure. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Any other question or discussion? 10 All in favor of the motion, signify by raising your right 11 hand. 12 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 13 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 14 (No response.) 15 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. I have 16 before me monthly reports from Justice of the Peace, Precinct 17 4; County Clerk, both general and trust fund; activity report 18 for Justice Court, Precinct 2 for December 2006; the Kerr 19 County District Clerk; and Justice of the Peace, Precinct 1. 20 Do I hear a motion that these reports be approved as 21 presented? 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So moved. 23 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Second. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded. Any 25 further question or discussion on the motion? All in favor of 1-22-07 38 1 the motion, signify by raising your right hand. 2 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 3 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 4 (No response.) 5 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. At this 6 time, we will recess the open or -- or public portion of the 7 Commissioners Court meeting at 9:47, and we will go into 8 executive or closed session to discuss personnel matters, as 9 indicated on Agenda Item Number 3. 10 (Discussion off the record.) 11 (The open session was closed at 9:47 a.m., and an executive session was held, the transcript of which 12 is contained in a separate document.) 13 - - - - - - - - - - 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay, we are back in public or open 15 session again at 10:33. Does any member of the Court have 16 anything to offer as a result of what was discussed in open 17 session? 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Closed session. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Hearing nothing there, we'll 21 go to our 10 o'clock item before we take our break. That is 22 to consider, discuss, and approve application to Department of 23 Justice, United States, Safe Haven, Supervised Visitation and 24 Safe Exchange Program for three-year grant to be administered 25 under a Memorandum of Understanding with the Hill Country 1-22-07 39 1 Crisis Council. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: You don't look like Ms. Bailey. 4 MS. HOWARD: She's in court. She said if you need 5 her, Judge, she would be happy to come over. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: All right. If you'll tell us who you 7 are for the record and your address, please? 8 MS. HOWARD: Thank you. Appreciate being here 9 today. My name is Sheryl Howard with the Hill Country Crisis 10 Council. I also have with me today another Council staff 11 member, Letty Turkett. Members of the Court, the Crisis 12 Council, you may know us as the battered women's shelter, rape 13 crisis center for Kerr County and surrounding areas. We also 14 do the prevention training in public and private schools to 15 make the schools and students safer, including anti-bullying, 16 safe touch, date rape, sexual harassment, sexual assault, 17 dating violence prevention work. And after the Alzheimer's 18 Association office closed here in Kerrville last summer, we 19 picked up all of their services and added to that a new 20 division called Senior Care, so we're working with issues of 21 senior abuse and neglect, and particularly related to medical 22 crisis, which can throw seniors and their families in crisis. 23 But one of the things that we've noticed over the 24 years in working with families, particularly in the domestic 25 violence/sexual assault area, there's a big glaring hole in 1-22-07 40 1 the service delivery package of the Hill Country Crisis 2 Council in those situations where there's a divorce or child 3 custody dispute, the lack of a -- what's called a Safe Haven 4 project, supervised visitation and safe exchange programs. 5 Many communities around the state have them, and there is a 6 national network supporting those programs. Most recently, 7 the U.S. Department of Justice has released a grant 8 application request, and I'll go over the materials in the 9 packet in just a second, and it gives us an opportunity to 10 kind of correct that problem and fill this hole by developing 11 a Safe Haven program. I have before you in this -- in this 12 book some information which you may find useful, and I'll be 13 happy to answer any questions. 14 The first is a briefing paper under Tab 1, which 15 just explains what a Safe Haven project is in summary form. 16 It would be a program, whether it's under a referral of a 17 court in a child custody case or from Child Protective 18 Services, where it is ordered that a family either have 19 supervised visitation or supervised exchange of a child, and a 20 contingent situation that you do it in a neutral site, and 21 what we're doing is proposing to do that. The U.S. Department 22 of Justice grant proposal is for $400,000. It's a three-year 23 grant, but it does require that it -- that the grantee be a 24 local unit of government. So, the request today is for the 25 Commissioners Court to allow us to partner with Kerr County on 1-22-07 41 1 this project and seek application for those funds. 2 Tab 2 is an actual copy of the grant application 3 information from the U.S. Department of Justice, and it 4 includes the breakdown of how that money would be spent from 5 the Justice Department. The three-year grant is for areas 6 which do not have a Safe Haven project today, so this is a 7 development grant. The first year is just to -- is for 8 $50,000, just to do the development and implementation work, 9 and then the next two years would actually be operations. Of 10 that $400,000, $50,000 has to be set aside for the Office of 11 Violence -- on Violence Against Women at the Department of 12 Justice, technical assistance. So, it's 400,000 less their 13 $50,000 chunk of the change there. 14 Tab 3 is a proposed memorandum of understanding 15 between the Crisis Council and the County. We did the draft 16 on this. We sent to it Ms. Bailey. The copy that's in this 17 packet includes the revisions from Ilse Bailey, and basically 18 what it does is, it answers some questions that didn't come up 19 earlier; makes it very clear that the Crisis Council would be 20 responsible for the work and for all the -- both performance 21 and financial data to the County, and that we would indemnify 22 the County from any financial liability back to the Department 23 of Justice if there's any weakness or failing under the grant. 24 It also specifically has language in there that says that at 25 the end of the three-year grant, that the Council understands 1-22-07 42 1 that it would not seek continuation of funding from the 2 County, and we would -- the grant application anticipates 3 providing a continuing funding plan as part of the proposal, 4 and we would do that without looking to the County for future 5 funding. 6 There are a couple things that -- while we -- the 7 Crisis Council will be responsible for doing the proposal 8 itself, and this is my first time with doing one with the 9 Department of Justice. They are very involved proposals, and 10 you kind of wonder what you're getting yourself into when you 11 do this. There are a whole bunch of deliverables that have to 12 happen in order to make this application. The first is 13 actually due tomorrow, and it's a nonbinding letter of intent. 14 A draft of that is under Tab 4 in your packet. And then under 15 Tab 5 are all of the other pieces, which I would need to work 16 with somebody on County staff -- we'd have to work with 17 somebody to get this filled out. It's financial 18 accountability questionnaires and some standard forms and 19 assurances, all this type of thing, and we're prepared to make 20 the same assurances and provide the same information back to 21 the County as part of that for -- through your use. 22 And then, finally, at the back of the notebook are 23 some background documents on the Crisis Council, just so that 24 you can feel secure in the financial stability and operations 25 of the Council. It includes our most recent annual audit, a 1-22-07 43 1 copy of our current financials through the end of December, a 2 list of the Board of Directors, and a list of key staff at the 3 Council. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is there any -- with the letter 5 of intent, is there -- I mean, if something happened, or you 6 -- or we decided that we didn't want to continue, we could 7 withdraw it? 8 MS. HOWARD: It's a nonbinding letter, yes, sir. 9 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: For the benefit of the 10 members of the Court, at the invitation of Ms. Bailey, both 11 Commissioner Baldwin and I met with Ms. Howard and others and 12 we talked about this to get some familiarity with what it's 13 all about. I think you need to tell the Court exactly what 14 Kerr County's involvement is, aside from being the lead agency 15 eligible to apply for this grant. What's our ongoing 16 obligation in terms of following the assurances of the grant, 17 and who's going to monitor the performance standards that make 18 certain that these things are accomplished and so forth? 19 Would you -- would you talk to us about those things? 20 MS. HOWARD: Sure. As I understand it from talking 21 to the grant manager at Department of Justice, the reason why 22 they've done the grant, unlike some others that are currently 23 on the table right now, through a local unit of government is 24 they want to insure that in operating this program, there's 25 very close collaboration between not only the Safe Haven 1-22-07 44 1 provider, but also the domestic violence advocacy program, 2 which is us, so we're kind of talking to ourselves in that 3 case, but also local courts, law enforcement. And, so, by 4 putting it with the local units of government, in this case 5 the County, what you're doing is you're helping us facilitate 6 that collaboration with the county courts and with law 7 enforcement here. So, that's the reason for this -- the flow 8 of the work in that way. 9 In terms of accountability, the proposal and then 10 the subsequent contracts with Department of Justice would have 11 specific performance measures on units of service delivery, 12 you know, dates of operation. They don't really have any 13 quality measures built into the proposal. Do you remember -- 14 I don't remember seeing anything. I don't know how you would 15 measure that exactly; I haven't gotten that far into this. 16 But in terms of just units of service, that would all be part 17 of the contract, what the -- what an anticipated delivery 18 would be. What we would do, then, is report to you every 19 month what was actually occurring, you know, the units of 20 service, and then the records would all be open to the County 21 if you actually wanted to have somebody come in and monitor 22 services. Much as, say, the Attorney General does on our 23 sexual assault grants or the Health and Human Services does 24 for us on our domestic violence grants through the state on 25 the financial side, you would just get a financial report, and 1-22-07 45 1 we would actually prepare the documents in electronic form; 2 that after you review it, you could just send it on, so that 3 wouldn't really take more than just a -- you know, a desk 4 review, if you will, of the documents to send on to the 5 Department of Justice. 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Do the funds from the 7 Department of Justice come directly to Kerr County, and then 8 are -- then are measured out to you based on requests -- 9 requisitions for funding based on services performed? Or do 10 they go directly to you, and you -- and how is the audit 11 process taken care of? 12 MS. HOWARD: The funds would come through the 13 County, and the Department of Justice would audit -- or would 14 review monthly, and then on the quarterly performance reports, 15 both financial and performance measures, and at the end of the 16 year -- at the end of the grant, the information submitted by 17 the County, which would be information submitted by the Crisis 18 Council. And, as I said, and that would be -- that's the 19 reason for the language in the memorandum of understanding, is 20 that to the extent there was a problem today, that they 21 would -- we would either rectify the problem, or if they came 22 back for money as a result of the problems the Department of 23 Justice finds, we would indemnify the County on those funds. 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Who would indemnify the 25 County? 1-22-07 46 1 MS. HOWARD: The Crisis Council. We'd be 2 responsible for the funding. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: A couple of questions, if I might. 4 Number one, the -- the initial letter of intent that's due not 5 later than tomorrow, I understand, is not binding? If the 6 Court were to commit to that -- to issue that today, our total 7 options would be open insofar as the actual application itself 8 that's due to go in in mid-February? 9 MS. HOWARD: Yes, sir, it's due February 13th. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: The purpose -- there is no -- there 11 is no county match, either in funds or in-kind? 12 MS. HOWARD: No, sir. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: The -- I note that there's not a -- 14 there's no requirement that we obligate ourselves to continue 15 the program if, in fact, we apply and it's awarded, beyond the 16 period of the funding that's actually granted by the D.O.J.; 17 is that correct? 18 MS. HOWARD: That is correct. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: I note that there's no proposed 20 budget. I assume that would come with -- with the actual 21 application itself before this Court made any commitment to 22 authorize going forward with the actual application on 23 February the 13th; is that correct? 24 MS. HOWARD: There is not a proposed budget packet. 25 Now, I have done some real rough numbers on a budget, and 1-22-07 47 1 we'll be happy to share that with you, but we've got some 2 significant woodshedding to do on the actual personnel and 3 other expense side of this. I actually did it -- again, very, 4 very rough, and of the $400,000, I came up with $399,996. I 5 didn't do that on purpose, but that's the way it came out. 6 The -- and I'll be happy to share that with you. I brought 7 copies if you want to see that, just kind of my thinking about 8 this. But, as I say, we need to do some work with that. And 9 Mrs. Turkett has been trained in operating Safe Haven 10 programs, and actually was in the process of starting one 11 here, and then coincidentally came to work for us in a 12 different area and we started talking about putting it 13 together. So, all that set aside, she's the one that knows 14 more about the actual day-to-day operations, not me. Let me 15 go back to your first question. The whole purpose of the 16 letter of intent, as explained in the grant application kit, 17 is so the Department of Justice gets an idea of how many 18 review panels they need to have to look at applications. 19 They're just trying -- that's just planning for their part; it 20 doesn't obligate you to anything. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: The -- when I was referring to the 22 budget, in the event a letter of intent is issued today -- 23 MS. HOWARD: Yes, sir. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: -- and then it's presented to us 25 sometime in early February, "Here's an application that we 1-22-07 48 1 want you to sign off on," at that point in time there would be 2 an actual budget that must be submitted as part of the 3 application; is that not correct? 4 MS. HOWARD: Yes, sir, and in several different 5 formats. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 7 MS. HOWARD: You'll see both the proposal itself has 8 to have a personnel breakdown and budget included in it, as 9 well as all the performance measures that we're -- we're 10 committing to. And then you'll see in the attached documents, 11 there are several forms that even talk about -- basically 12 regurgitating the same information in a different format. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: But we'd have the option to look at 14 all that information as part and parcel of the application 15 before we authorize it to go forward in final form? 16 MS. HOWARD: Yeah. And that would be important to 17 know, because those would be the numbers that we would be 18 reporting against each month and each quarter, and then at the 19 end of each grant year and the end of the grant, as to whether 20 or not we were in compliance with the grant. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. The Auditor, I think, may have 22 had a question. 23 MR. TOMLINSON: Yeah. I think that -- is this a 24 reimbursable account? 25 MS. HOWARD: Yes. 1-22-07 49 1 MR. TOMLINSON: Where you expend the funds and then 2 apply for reimbursement? 3 MS. HOWARD: Yes. 4 MR. TOMLINSON: My question would be, who -- who 5 funds the program up front? I mean -- 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Upon which to seek reimbursement. 7 MR. TOMLINSON: Right. So, what I'm hearing is, if 8 the grant's awarded, we'll be responsible for paying the funds 9 up front; then after we pay them, we would receive 10 reimbursement from the D.O.J. under the terms of the grant? 11 That's my question. 12 MS. HOWARD: No. No, you would not -- you wouldn't 13 have any obligation to Crisis Council for any up-front moneys. 14 The way it would be structured is just that we would fund 15 operations with unrestricted revenues, and then submit a -- a 16 statement. It would go through the County. When you get 17 reimbursed, the money comes back to us and pays it 18 retroactively. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Does that answer your 20 question? 21 MR. TOMLINSON: Yeah, that does. Because most of 22 the time, the County winds up paying up front the first 23 quarter's expenses before we apply for reimbursement. So -- 24 MS. HOWARD: No, this is -- just to answer your 25 question, this is the same way we as handle our two grants 1-22-07 50 1 with the Attorney General's office, through the Sexual Assault 2 Prevention program, and -- or Victims Assistance grants, as 3 well as the two grants through the Governor's office. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 5 MR. TOMLINSON: In the budget, are there -- do they 6 allow for any -- any funds for a single audit? 7 MS. HOWARD: Well, we're required to do a single 8 audit every year. 9 MR. TOMLINSON: Yeah, but if the funds come to us, 10 we have to do the single audit. 11 MS. HOWARD: I see what you're saying. 12 MR. TOMLINSON: Because, I mean, the threshold for a 13 single audit is 500,000. So -- 14 MS. HOWARD: 500,000 a year? 15 MR. TOMLINSON: In a year, right. So if -- 16 MS. HOWARD: In federal grants? 17 MR. TOMLINSON: Federal grants. And so my question 18 would be, if -- if there was a provision in the grant that 19 would reimburse the County for any expenditures the County 20 might make for a single audit. Some years, we -- we qualify 21 and some years we don't. So, if -- you know, if a third of 22 that 400,000 pushed us into a single audit position, then -- 23 then would there be any way to retrieve any -- any funds to 24 pay for that? 25 MS. HOWARD: There is provisions in the grant 1-22-07 51 1 request for putting in the budget for indirect expenses. It 2 doesn't specifically -- as I recall, doesn't specifically talk 3 about audits, but we were also thinking that -- I actually 4 hadn't thought about the audit. But thinking about any other 5 administrative expenses the County might have doing the 6 reviews and, you know, processing the documents, both ways. I 7 guess that would just be something we have to sit down and 8 look at. 9 MR. TOMLINSON: Well, but it would be -- 10 MS. HOWARD: You're talking about $150,000 a year 11 for the two years of implementation. Remember, $50,000 goes 12 to -- back to the D.O.J. 13 MR. TOMLINSON: Well, we -- we sometimes are -- are 14 subject to single audits and sometimes not, depending on the 15 amount. So, you know, a hundred and -- 100,000 might push us 16 into a single audit. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Our single audit obligation is 18 triggered as a result of all federal grants that we receive? 19 MR. TOMLINSON: That's right. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: It's not applicable to just 21 individual programs? 22 MR. TOMLINSON: No. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: It's the combined total of all 24 federal grants? 25 MR. TOMLINSON: That's correct. 1-22-07 52 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The -- just a quick question, 2 and I'll make a motion. When's the grant due? The 13th, you 3 said? 4 MS. HOWARD: The application is due, both in 5 electronic and hard copy format, on February 13th. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. Our next Commissioners 7 Court is February 12th. 8 MS. HOWARD: Timing is everything. 9 MS. TURKETT: Timing is everything. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll make a motion that we 11 approve the nonbinding letter of intent based on the sample 12 provided, and hopefully between now and then you can work with 13 the County Attorney and the Auditor to make sure -- some of 14 these other questions I know they both have. 15 MS. HOWARD: If you could just give me a date that 16 you'd like to see a proposal by, so that then on the 12th 17 you're not seeing it cold? 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It will be due for our agenda 19 package on the 7th, I believe. 20 MS. HOWARD: 7th? 21 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Second. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: We have a motion and second as 23 indicated. Any further question or discussion on the motion? 24 All in favor of the motion, signify by raising your right 25 hand. 1-22-07 53 1 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 2 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 3 (No response.) 4 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. The next 5 item we have is a timed item for 11 o'clock. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: So we'll be in recess until, oh, 8 about five minutes after 11:00. 9 (Recess taken from 10:50 a.m. to 11:07 a.m.) 10 - - - - - - - - - - 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay, let's come become to order, if 12 we might. We were in recess, and we'll now go to Item 8, 13 which is an 11 o'clock timed item. Consider, discuss, and 14 take appropriate action on reducing registration fees to $1 15 during the Rabies Drive on February the 3rd, 2007, through 16 February the 17th, 2007. Ms. Roman? 17 MS. ROMAN: Good morning. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Morning. 19 MS. ROMAN: Well, as you know, our Rabies Drive is 20 quickly approaching, and my department is just asking that we 21 -- or that y'all reduce the -- the registration fee to $1 22 beginning on February 3rd, and it will go through 23 February 17th. 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: This is what we did last 25 year? 1-22-07 54 1 MS. ROMAN: Yes, sir. This is an annual thing. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And doesn't the rabies -- 3 doesn't the rabies shot -- aren't they lasting, like, three 4 years now? 5 MS. ROMAN: Well, it's three years in the county. 6 One year in the city, yeah. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Rabies -- 8 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Is it watered-down vaccine in 9 the city? What is it? 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Is rabies worse in the city 11 than they are in the county? 12 MS. ROMAN: No. No. Why the City hasn't changed it 13 yet, I have no idea. The City's working on that. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Are they working on it? 15 MS. ROMAN: Yes. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Diligently. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So, if I took my dog last 19 year and got a rabies shot, I can wait two more years? 20 MS. ROMAN: Well, it depends. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And if I'm in the city -- 22 MS. ROMAN: Well, the majority of the vets give a 23 three-year vaccine anyway, whether you live in the city or the 24 county. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Right. 1-22-07 55 1 MS. ROMAN: But you -- the owner of the animal has 2 to request that, the vaccine that they've -- in other words, 3 they have to request that the vaccination certificate is a 4 three-year certificate. Otherwise, we have to -- we can't 5 honor it. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Unless you request it, you're going 7 to get a one-year certificate? 8 MS. ROMAN: Right. Right. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So the vaccine is actually the 10 same? 11 MS. ROMAN: The vaccine is a three-year vaccine. 12 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Not watered down. 13 MS. ROMAN: Right. And a lot of the vets -- what a 14 lot of the vets will do is, a lot of the vets -- like I said, 15 if you don't request that you get a three-year certificate, 16 then they'll just do it for one year. And people will come in 17 and register their animal and say, well, you know, this is 18 just a -- a one-year vaccine. I tell them yeah. You know, 19 it's just -- it's really confusing. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Do you all send -- I guess this 21 is the question. Do you send renewals out on -- 22 MS. ROMAN: Registrations? No, we don't. It would 23 just -- we can barely keep up with the registration program 24 right now. 25 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Be much easier if everybody 1-22-07 56 1 would get a lifetime registration on their pet. 2 MS. ROMAN: Exactly. 3 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I have one on mine. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We might want to look at that, 5 the cost of doing that, because I think -- I mean, you forget. 6 I've got one -- I think right now it's current. 7 MS. ROMAN: Most people are really good about it. 8 Most people will -- because we send forms to the vet's office, 9 so when they take their animal in to the vet to get it 10 vaccinated, the vet will give them a form, and they send us a 11 copy of the vaccination certificate with the fees. And so 12 most people register their pets at the same time that they 13 vaccinate them, so it works pretty well, actually. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 15 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: You don't know about the 16 lifetime registration? Mine's number four in the county. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Maybe I got a lifetime. I don't 18 know. I don't know what I got. 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: What took you so long to get 20 there? (Laughter.) 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Judge, I move we approve 22 reducing registration fees to $1 during the Rabies Drive of 23 February 3rd, '07, through February 17th, '07. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: We have a motion and second for 1-22-07 57 1 approval of the agenda item. Is there any question or 2 discussion on the motion? All in favor of the motion, signify 3 by raising your right hand. 4 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 5 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 6 (No response.) 7 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. Thank you, 8 Ms. Roman. 9 MS. ROMAN: Thank you. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Let's move now to Item 9. We're a 11 minute or two ahead of time. We're always ahead of the curve, 12 of course. Consider, discuss, and take appropriate action 13 regarding report from Eric Maloney, First Responder 14 Coordinator. Mr. Maloney? 15 MR. MALONEY: Morning, Judge. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Morning. 17 MR. MALONEY: Morning, Commissioners. How are y'all 18 this morning? Actually, I was requested to come before y'all 19 today from Buster Baldwin, who I've been in contact to in 20 regards to the First Responder program, and give y'all just a 21 little bit of update where we're at. It's probably been about 22 a year and a half, I think, since I've addressed the Court, 23 and so just -- I'll go through a little review and just a 24 little refresher for those who don't remember. 25 The actual First Responder program that we have 1-22-07 58 1 designed is actually through the Kerr County budget; actually 2 comes through y'all. And we currently have First Responders 3 in the county that provide First Responder assistance in 4 emergency cases, either medical or trauma, where they actually 5 take their volunteer -- it's a volunteer organization. They 6 actually take their time, go out to the scene, and they will 7 get there first before any of us and provide medical care, 8 contact EMS, kind of give a patient update and so forth. And 9 we do that for the entire county. We divide the county up 10 into five different zones to actually provide that care, to 11 kind of make it easier for dispatching capabilities and 12 sending the information out. 13 Currently, we have 31 total First Responders for the 14 county, so the program has increased over the last few years. 15 There are 16 non-fire department members. And what I mean by 16 that is non-Kerrville Fire Department. So -- excuse me. 17 These members are -- Jeff Lavender is one; he's in the First 18 Responder program. In the past, we've had everyone from Tim 19 Ahrens, who was the chief out at Turtle Creek; Scott Gross was 20 a First Responder, so we do have a -- very, very certified 21 individuals through the state. They are certified as EMT 22 basics at a minimum to actually respond and work under the 23 protocols of Dr. Nail. We also have 15 fire department 24 members, and these members also volunteer their time off duty 25 to actually respond to calls. They live out in the county in 1-22-07 59 1 either place, out in Center Point or out in Hunt. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Fifteen city of Kerrville 3 Fire Department firefighters? 4 MR. MALONEY: Yes, sir. Yeah, 15 city of Kerrville. 5 So -- which gives us -- you know, everyone volunteers their 6 time. It's all off duty, so the fire department doesn't pay 7 them to actually respond, so it's still volunteer, but I do 8 kind of separate the two. Just to let you know that we do 9 have 16 people that actually volunteer their time who have 10 different jobs, various jobs throughout the day, and actually 11 do provide this care. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Eric, while we're on numbers, -- 13 MR. MALONEY: Yes, sir? 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- what do you do with Comfort 15 Volunteer Fire Department? Do you count the Kendall County -- 16 MR. MALONEY: They are actually -- we utilize them. 17 They don't actually respond under our protocols, not under our 18 designation as a First Responder program. We actually have to 19 certify through the State of Texas, through the Department of 20 State Health Services to actually be a First Responder 21 organization, and we are certified as a First Responder 22 organization. Therefore, I have to actually give them a list 23 of actually individuals who respond for the organization. 24 First Responder organizations must be affiliated with an EMS 25 transport service, which is the Kerrville Fire Department, and 1-22-07 60 1 they work under their protocols, is how they do it. Comfort, 2 they provide first response, but they actually work under 3 Kendall County, and Comfort Fire Department does all first 4 response for -- I believe it's the same as their fire 5 response. I believe they take that same district. More than 6 positive. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, I guess their -- when a Kerr 8 County/Comfort Volunteer Fire Department area comes in, say 9 Hill Country Ranch Estates, that call comes in, they 10 internally, through Kendall County, let those First Responders 11 know? 12 MR. MALONEY: Actually, that will come through our 13 dispatch center here, so when the call comes in, our dispatch 14 center will look at the street of where it is and will show 15 actually who needs to respond with the fire department and who 16 the First Responder zone is, and it either says Zone 1 through 17 5 or Comfort Fire Department. Then they will dispatch out 18 Comfort Fire Department to respond as First Responder for that 19 call. So, we get one response. So, as far as tones going 20 out, we can either send Zone 2, which is the Center Point 21 area, or we send Comfort Fire Department, depending on who's 22 on our list. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Does the 30 -- does the 16 24 non-Kerrville Fire Department, does that include the Comfort 25 Fire Department? 1-22-07 61 1 MR. MALONEY: No, sir, they are not. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And so, actually, there's more 3 than 31 if you're counting the Comfort Fire Department, which 4 covers a good part of eastern Kerr County. 5 MR. MALONEY: Right. Officially, we only have 31. 6 I guess, unofficially, we utilize Comfort. We've used Tierra 7 Linda before; the fire department out there has assisted us 8 out there, 'cause that's a little different. Because it 9 actually is in Gillespie County, so it's a little bit 10 different. And we've utilized other services on the far 11 reaches of the west end of the county, so -- but we do 12 actually have responders out there. So, we lost two great 13 First Responders, two responders that have been with us since 14 the beginning, and that was Tim Ahrens, who has moved out a 15 little further to the west, so actually he's out in Utopia, I 16 believe is where Tim is, out there. So, we lost him. And he 17 was obviously the fire chief of Turtle Creek, so he moved on. 18 We also lost Scott Gross, who was another one of our First 19 Responders who was in Zone 2, and he decided not to respond 20 any more. So, we did lose two who have been here since the 21 beginning for that, but on the same note, we are adding more 22 to the program. 23 I just completed an EMT basic course, and that 24 finished up last September, and with that course -- upon 25 completion of the course, we were adding four people to the 1-22-07 62 1 First Responder program who have received their certification, 2 the EMT basic, so we're going to be moving up the numbers 3 again, which is good. And there is a future course planned in 4 May of 2007, in which case I do hope to bring more First 5 Responders over. If we can -- if we could add 40, 50 First 6 Responders, it would be a great thing out there. So, 7 obviously, covering a vast area of 1,100 square miles can be 8 very difficult. Other things -- any questions regarding the 9 First Responders or the EMT basic -- 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 11 MR. MALONEY: -- course? 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, I do have some 13 questions. I want you to tell us about how -- how it works. 14 How -- if I want to become a First Responder, how do -- I 15 mean, are you conducting a school? Do I meet you out at 16 Chili's and drink beer? How do we do this thing? 17 MR. MALONEY: To actually become a First Responder, 18 saying that I start where I do not have any certifications 19 with the state of Texas, I am acquiring a basic EMS 20 Coordinator for the state of Texas, which means I can actually 21 hold an education class that will get them -- not certified as 22 an EMT basic, but actually get them a course completion. So, 23 at the end of that course, when they come in and take the EMT 24 basic course, they will get a course completion. From there, 25 they can take that course completion that allows them to sit 1-22-07 63 1 for the National Registry exam. They can sit for that exam 2 for the National Registry. If they pass the exam with that 3 and they get their National Registry certification, they can 4 apply with the State of Texas, become certified as an EMT 5 basic. 6 After they become an EMT basic, then they have to 7 apply for the First Responder program, and that's just a 8 simple application, demographics, where they live and what's 9 going to work out best for us. And, basically, from there we 10 bring them into the program. If you're already certified as 11 an EMT basic, then it would be a matter of meeting with me. 12 And -- and, you know, you already missed the first step, so 13 then just kind of turning in all your certifications. 14 Dr. Nail, our medical doctor, requires that you have a minimum 15 of an EMT basic certification to be a First Responder, to be 16 part of our First Responder organization. Tierra Linda, 17 Comfort can do as they wish. They don't work under our 18 protocols, so -- but he requires the basic because there is an 19 ECA certification which is kind of a First Responder -- it's a 20 40-hour course that is similar to, like, the Red Cross first 21 aid course, and -- but he does require the EMT basic 22 certification. 23 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: How many levels of training 24 are there above basic? 25 MR. MALONEY: The EMT basic -- there's the ECA, 1-22-07 64 1 which is beginning. The EMT basic is your first step in the 2 professional level. From there, there is the 3 intermediate-slash-paramedic. That paramedic has a 4 certification course which takes approximately one year to 5 actually complete that. From there, the next step after that 6 is actually a licensed paramedic, and that is basically the 7 same certification as a paramedic, but that means you have a 8 degree behind it, so -- an associate's degree behind it. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You and I e-mailed back and 10 forth recently. 11 MR. MALONEY: Yes, sir. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And I appreciate you helping 13 with all this. I want to read a couple of sentences from your 14 e-mail; I want you to explain it to us, please. 15 MR. MALONEY: Yes, sir. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It says, "The EMT basic 17 certification course costs $800. GEM Training Center, Eric 18 Maloney, offers the course once a year to anyone who wants to 19 apply." Tell us about that. 20 MR. MALONEY: The GEM Training Center is actually 21 myself doing business as GEM Training Center. That is a 22 private company that was set up to actually provide the EMT 23 certification course through the state. I had to set up 24 something as far as -- let me think here. I have to be 25 recognized for the state, so I actually applied for the 1-22-07 65 1 course. It's a long -- probably about a four-month process to 2 actually apply for the course. Has to be some sort of 3 business name, so I chose GEM Training Center for that. And 4 once getting approved by the State to hold a certification 5 course from there, then it actually is just an application 6 process with tuition, because it is private; it actually is 7 under my dime. So, people do apply for the course and pay 8 $800 tuition for that. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Let me tell you -- let me 10 tell you what I'm seeing, and then you tell me where I'm 11 seeing it wrong. Obviously, you will. 12 MR. MALONEY: Yes, sir. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I am seeing that the County 14 sends moneys over to the City. Part of it's the EMS contract, 15 part of it's for Dr. Nail, and part of it's for you. Now, the 16 equipment is a separate item. 17 MR. MALONEY: Yes, sir. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Separate line item. So, 19 I'm -- I'm seeing us send money over there for you to instruct 20 and certify the First Responder people, and then you turn 21 around and charge them another $800 to do the same thing. 22 MR. MALONEY: Okay. Clarification on that is that 23 my instruction and certification for the First Responders, our 24 current First Responder list of individuals, is with the 25 continuing education and the CPR certification, is what we 1-22-07 66 1 offer them and try to get them -- instruct them for. So, 2 that's management of the actual First Responder program. Any 3 individual who is actually enrolled in the EMT certification 4 course is not an actual First Responder, so it's not part of 5 the organization. Myself teaching the course, being program 6 director, I am not affiliated with the fire department at that 7 point or the county First Responder program. So, this is kind 8 of a separate, on-the-side certification for that. So, it 9 isn't fire department related; it isn't Kerr County related, 10 as far as the two. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I understand that, and I -- 12 and that's exactly the way I understood it. But I've always 13 understood that it worked the way that I just described to 14 you, as far as us providing certification for individuals from 15 the ground level. Classroom -- those classroom hours, 16 whatever the subject might be, someone sits down and teaches 17 those classrooms, and you hold a -- and I'm just giving you an 18 example here. You have a one-hour class every Tuesday night 19 for 16 weeks, and these people become certified because you 20 cover all the areas that the State requires. And I've always 21 been under the understanding that that's what we pay you to 22 do. 23 MR. MALONEY: No, sir. That is actually the 24 continuing education to keep them certified. They are 25 required by the State, as an EMT basic, to get 72 hours every 1-22-07 67 1 four years, so part of my responsibility for that is to make 2 sure they maintain that 72 hours. So, that is the one-hour 3 teaching increments that we do every other month. We get 4 together, we have our bimonthly meetings, or we do the 5 certification for the CPR. The actual instruction for the 6 course has to be in a classroom setting, by the State, so you 7 can't break it into one-hour -- well, we'll get together, talk 8 about the subject for an hour. It has to be very structured. 9 Excuse me. It has to be very structured through the State, so 10 actually bringing someone from ground zero up does not 11 necessarily mean that they're going to be in the First 12 Responder program for that, since the other individuals -- the 13 other eight individuals chose not to be actually in the First 14 Responder program. So -- 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: First time I've ever heard 16 that. 17 MR. MALONEY: Sorry? 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It's the first time I have 19 ever heard all that. 20 MR. MALONEY: In regards to -- I mean, everything? 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Everything that you just 22 described. 23 MR. MALONEY: Okay. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I actually never thought about 25 it, so -- I mean, first time I've heard it, but I've never 1-22-07 68 1 really thought about it before. I presume you have to be a 2 basic EMT to be a city paramedic, or you have to be above -- 3 that or above? 4 MR. MALONEY: Yes, sir. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: If somebody wants to be a 6 paramedic and is not licensed, do they have to go through the 7 same -- I mean, not necessarily your program, but a program 8 similar to that? Or does the City pay for that? 9 MR. MALONEY: Okay. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: To get your basic EMT? 11 MR. MALONEY: As far as the City of Kerrville -- 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Say I want to be a paramedic 13 with the City of Kerrville. 14 MR. MALONEY: Okay. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I'm not an EMT or anything 16 else. 17 MR. MALONEY: You would actually have to apply or 18 enroll in a course at San Antonio College, the Health Science 19 Center, or Bulverde Training. Those are probably the three in 20 the area that actually do the intermediate/paramedic training 21 for that, so -- we don't provide that training here, as far as 22 that. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 24 MR. MALONEY: Then, when you obtain the course 25 completion for that, you can pass the National Registry exam, 1-22-07 69 1 apply with the state, and actually become a certified 2 paramedic. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I guess your question, -- 4 MR. MALONEY: Then apply -- 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- if someone wants to be a 6 paramedic with the City of Kerrville -- or any other entity, 7 but I'll use City of Kerrville since you work with the City 8 also. They are responsible for getting their training to get 9 licensed before they can get hired? 10 MR. MALONEY: Yes, sir. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: They're not hired and then given 12 the training by the City? 13 MR. MALONEY: Yes, sir. If we actually -- on 14 occasion in the past, we actually have hired firefighter 15 basics on the understanding that they are going to go to 16 paramedic class at our choice, which has usually been 17 Bulverde, Spring Branch Training Center, and they have to pass 18 in order to maintain their employment with the City of 19 Kerrville. But, yes. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Who pays that? 21 MR. MALONEY: The City of Kerrville does. So, if -- 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's where, I guess, it seems 23 like a little bit of a difference. 24 MR. MALONEY: If we decide to actually hire the 25 firefighter basic -- which, typically, most of our testing is 1-22-07 70 1 for firefighter paramedic, because a one-year -- it's a very 2 intensive course, and it's very expensive to send somebody to 3 that course. The course is $3,000 or $3,500 tuition with 4 Bulverde Spring Branch. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Let me ask you a question, 7 just following up on yours. 8 MR. MALONEY: Yes, sir. 9 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Say I respond to an 10 advertisement; I'm just off the street and I want to become a 11 First Responder. I don't know a thing about it. Sounds like 12 something that I'd like to do with my spare time. And I -- I 13 show up your firehouse, or I show up in Center Point or 14 wherever, and I -- and I say, "Okay, I want to do this." Who 15 pays for that training? Me? Or is that -- is that basic 16 training provided through you or through the City EMT, and 17 funded partly by the County? How does that work? 18 MR. MALONEY: That would be all your responsibility 19 as far as the -- 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: My responsibility? 21 MR. MALONEY: Any expenses to get -- to obtain your 22 certification would actually come from you. 23 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. 24 MR. MALONEY: If the Court chose to actually pay for 25 this tuition, it would, obviously, have to come through y'all 1-22-07 71 1 and have to come through the budget, if y'all actually chose 2 to pay for the tuition and allow for people to go through the 3 course, or whatever it may be for something like that. But it 4 actually would have to go through the budget for something 5 like that, for approval. So -- but they are responsible for 6 that. Yes, sir? 7 JUDGE TINLEY: In your training programs that you've 8 put on, what percentage of those that complete the educational 9 requirements and obtain their appropriate license through 10 National Registry actually come into the First Responder 11 program, and what percentage don't? 12 MR. MALONEY: Currently, we got -- we got four out 13 of eight, is what we got. So, we got a third right now, so a 14 total of 12 people completed the course, and we got four First 15 Responders out of this last program, is what we ended up 16 receiving. Some more maybe interested, but at this time, they 17 were looking to either further their education, to go take 18 paramedic, or take a job as an EMT basic on an ambulance in 19 San Antonio. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: So, a third of them elected to go 21 into First Responders, two-thirds of them probably in some 22 sort of an educational or job opportunity? 23 MR. MALONEY: Yes, sir. Yeah, for job enhancement, 24 whether they -- one moved to Tennessee. So, it just kind of 25 depends. 1-22-07 72 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 2 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: How much are we currently 3 spending on the First Responder program through the City? 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well -- 5 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Do you know, Buster? 6 JUDGE TINLEY: About 10, as I recall. 7 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: 10,000? 8 MR. MALONEY: 10,400. 9 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: What are we getting for our 10 money? 11 MR. MALONEY: $10,400. You are -- for that, it is 12 the basic gear bag and equipment. So, I turned in the budget 13 for the year with the anticipation for this year actually to 14 put four people on, 'cause I kind of anticipated I would get 15 at least four people out of the course. So, your bag and 16 equipment, portable radio, and some basic equipment 17 replacement. The City of Kerrville takes care of some of the 18 equipment replacement, but some of the more expensive stuff is 19 a first-time buy. So, the actual County sets up a First 20 Responder one time with all their equipment actually in their 21 bag -- their equipment bag; all the medical supplies, portable 22 radio, Sterling flashlight, portable vest -- which, actually, 23 the vests are coming -- 24 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: How much for each one of 25 those? 1-22-07 73 1 MR. MALONEY: Which one in particular? 2 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Well, a setup for a new First 3 Responder, the bag and all the things you described. 4 MR. MALONEY: That's almost $1,000. 5 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Okay. 6 MR. MALONEY: Just under, I believe. That's what 7 the total was. So, it's -- it does cost a lot to get set up. 8 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: So, what's the -- 9 MR. MALONEY: The medical equipment behind it may 10 cost more. 11 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: What does the rest of the 12 money go for? 13 MR. MALONEY: The rest of the money is our C.E. 14 renewal. We purchased maps this year. We purchased some maps 15 last year for the -- for the First Responders. We're 16 finishing up the rest of the maps this year, so we have good 17 maps -- code mapping of the entire county, I believe. This 18 year we're getting some more safety reflective vests, so we're 19 going to start purchasing those. The fire department chose 20 the vest that the fire department's going with, and we want to 21 get one very similar for the First Responder program. That 22 way, in the event of a mass casualty, we'll all kind of look 23 the same. We play the same game out there, so we're getting 24 the vests, which are the safety reflective Class 2 vest. 25 We're going to do -- we're increasing this year with the 1-22-07 74 1 intubation, sort of advanced airway kit, so this year, 2 actually as a First Responder program -- we changed the 3 designation a year and a half ago to ALS, so we went from BLS 4 First Responder program to ALS, which means we can provide 5 more care and more service out there, definitely in the far 6 reaches of the county. So, paramedics out there start IV's. 7 Currently they're approved through the state, and what's 8 coming is advanced airway procedures out there. So, those are 9 the two, and then oxygen refills. So, for a grand total of 10 10,400. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What's the stipend, I guess you 12 call it, that you get for the coordination? You get paid 13 something to do this. 14 MR. MALONEY: It's -- 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, what do we pay the City to 16 get you to do it? Whichever way it works. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It's hard to find these days. 18 I'm in the process of finding those numbers as we speak. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. All right. 20 MR. MALONEY: I don't actually -- I never receive 21 anything separate that is coming from the County. I just 22 receive one check. I believe it was -- it was a quarter of -- 23 of the pay. I want to say somewhere around 10,000, but I'm 24 not actually -- I believe that's -- 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Quarter of the pay. That's 1-22-07 75 1 exactly it. We did the same thing with Dr. Nail, but you 2 don't see it. It just goes to the City, and then the City 3 pays these guys. 4 MR. MALONEY: That's the all-inclusive, which is 5 part of that. So -- 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 7 MR. MALONEY: You know, this budget specifically 8 that was mentioned for -- on the Commissioner does come out of 9 Kerr County, so that actually is in the budget every year. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: As supplies. 11 MR. MALONEY: Yes, sir, and I turn that in with -- 12 with Mr. Baldwin specifically. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Eric, there's still one thing 14 I'm a little bit unclear about. Now, when you go to Chili's 15 once a month and y'all visit about issues and equipment 16 problems and all those kinds of things, is that different from 17 your C.E.U. program? 18 MR. MALONEY: Yes. What we changed, and actually 19 what the Court approved, was we went to an online continuing 20 education with the First Responder program. What we found 21 was -- the difference is, before, we were doing two hours 22 every month of continuing education when I first came in. 23 Well, it's very tough logistically to ask First Responders to 24 take more time to try to come up for a two-hour C.E., and 25 people were falling short and having to spend money to 1-22-07 76 1 actually maintain their certification to volunteer for the 2 First Responder program. So, we changed -- we went to an 3 online continuing education program, actually through 4 eGenesis. That's coming up for renewal this year, and that 5 allows each individual -- each First Responder to get his 6 required continuing education at his leisure, and also for 7 whatever his requirements -- 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And we approved that -- or we 9 had this chat a year ago, or year before last; I can't 10 remember. 11 MR. MALONEY: Year before last, sir. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Year before last. 13 MR. MALONEY: Yes, sir. It's coming up for renewal 14 this April, actually, is when we renew that. And it's been -- 15 everyone seems to enjoy the online C.E.; it works better 16 logistically, 'cause sometimes it was difficult. And you're 17 required by the State to do certain content areas, so you have 18 to maintain so much C.E. in about six different content areas, 19 and it's a tough thing to schedule for logistics. If everyone 20 could make it every time, it would be relatively easy. But if 21 you're doing airway this month, you may not come back to 22 airway for six months. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 24 MR. MALONEY: Therefore, if somebody misses it, they 25 would have to make the next one, and it does ask a lot 1-22-07 77 1 sometimes. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Are you finding anybody out 3 there any more that doesn't have a computer? 4 MR. MALONEY: Not really. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: There's not anybody out 6 there. 7 MR. MALONEY: No, sir. Actually, we started the 8 program with the First Responders with the County, and we 9 moved on, and we're now doing it with the fire department 10 also. So, we're using the same eGenesis online for the fire 11 department, and it works very well. It really does. Most 12 people have computer access. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Were we before the City got 14 involved? 15 MR. MALONEY: Yes, sir. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So we were first. 17 MR. MALONEY: Yes, sir. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay, very good. 19 MR. MALONEY: Actually, -- 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'm feeling better about it. 21 MR. MALONEY: -- you were the test run, so I went 22 through y'all to make sure everything worked, and I got a 23 great response on the First Responders and it worked well, and 24 so we implemented it with the fire department. We put all the 25 fire department personnel on there too. So -- 1-22-07 78 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I wanted to ask you -- you 2 have a student back there -- if the computer program is -- is 3 that working for you? 4 MR. LAVENDER: The computer program that we use 5 for -- 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Would you tell the court reporter 7 your name, please? 8 MR. LAVENDER: Jeff Lavender. The computer program 9 that we use that Eric set us up with, I guess about a year or 10 so ago, we actually go online and get a preface to what was 11 going to be taught in this lesson, we get the lesson content, 12 we get photographs to view in the lesson, we get objectives 13 that need to be met in that lesson, and then there is a post 14 examination upon completion. Usually takes about an hour to 15 an hour and a half, depending upon which lesson you choose, 16 and then your credits are based on the time that was spent in 17 the course. Some are one credit, some are two credits, some 18 are five credits. Those usually take two to three hours to 19 do. So, you can start a lesson, get into it, spend 30, 40 20 minutes in it, put it on hold or suspend it, come back to it 21 at a later date, pick up the same place you left off. And it 22 may take three days to complete a two-hour C.E. course, so if 23 you only had 30 minutes a day for the next three days, you 24 could go in and do that. So, the course that we get in 25 continuing education through online computer is very good. 1-22-07 79 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So that sounds like to me 2 that's better than sitting and listening to him flap his gums. 3 MR. LAVENDER: Well, it gives you a chance to 4 absorb, and we can back up and relook at things and look at it 5 again. We don't have to do it just once; we can go through it 6 two or three times. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 8 MR. LAVENDER: And we can get out of it, you know, 9 what is required at the end. If we have to go back and look 10 into it, we can go back into the course and look and get the 11 answers to the examination so that we grasp the knowledge. 12 So, yes. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Heck, yeah. 14 MR. LAVENDER: A lot of times it is better, and 15 logistically it's better. To try to get a shift person that 16 works a 3:00 to 11:00 or 11:00 to 7:00 at a 10 o'clock meeting 17 on a Tuesday morning for training for your volunteers, they 18 go, "Oh, I'd rather sleep." It's worked out real well for us, 19 and we all -- almost all the First Responders I know have 20 computers. We e-mail back and forth and we communicate with 21 Eric via e-mail a lot. But that training outside through the 22 computer through eGenesis is wonderful for us, and I like it a 23 lot. I really do. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Now, your original 25 certification, you went where to get that? 1-22-07 80 1 MR. LAVENDER: I went through the Kerrville Fire 2 Department when they had a letter -- this has been three years 3 ago now -- two and a half, three years ago. I went through 4 the Kerrville Fire Department, and they were looking for First 5 Responders, and I filled out an application form through them 6 and then went through an EMS or EMT course that was given out 7 of Station 3. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Who taught that course? 9 MR. LAVENDER: Kyle. Kyle Young. 10 MR. MALONEY: Program director. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Did they charge $800? 12 MR. LAVENDER: Did they charge me? We paid for 13 books and tuition, and that class -- and I believe the County 14 at that time had picked up the course content, but it was a 15 totally different setup from what Kyle was teaching as to what 16 Eric is teaching. Not in the curriculum, but in the way the 17 two were set up. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay, thank you. 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: And your training is basic 20 or advanced? 21 MR. LAVENDER: I am an EMT basic. 22 MR. MALONEY: Actually, his wife just completed my 23 last course in September, so she will be a First Responder, 24 Beverly Lavender. 25 MR. LAVENDER: We'll have two out of one household. 1-22-07 81 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Thank you. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You live in Precinct 1, don't 3 you, Jeff? 4 MR. LAVENDER: Precinct -- I live in Center Point. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: He lives in my precinct, 2. 6 MR. LAVENDER: Two? Okay. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You're in 2. 8 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Twice as good as Precinct 1. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: His mother and daddy live 10 in 1. 11 MR. LAVENDER: I cannot answer that question. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 13 MR. MALONEY: Few other things, briefly. He brought 14 up the meeting. We do meet bimonthly. Typically, I do keep 15 in touch with the Court via Mr. Baldwin, so I'll usually send 16 him a c.c. on an e-mail that we're meeting, or I'm trying to 17 keep in contact with the responders out there. And I just -- 18 we meet for dinner at Chili's, where we're currently meeting, 19 and we do 6:30 and just kind of do discussions, go over things 20 that we can improve, what can we do for next year, and I pass 21 out things at that meeting. CPR is offered for free, with the 22 exception of buying the certification card, through Brandy 23 Miller or myself. Brandy Miller owns Goldstar CPR in town, 24 and he does -- is willing to do that for any of the First 25 Responders. He teaches probably twice a week around town, 1-22-07 82 1 and -- or they can actually get the certification through me, 2 and all they have to do is pay $2 for the card, which is a 3 good deal. So -- and, actually, the last year, just to make 4 sure everyone is aware that KPUB did donate those AED's, so 5 they were generous to donate some AED's to us last year which 6 went in the First Responder program, which gave us a total of 7 24 out there right now. We have 24 AED's in the county. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Are they all out in the 9 field? 10 MR. MALONEY: Yes, sir, they are all out in the 11 field. So, we -- we tried to strategically place them in 12 different zones so that we get as many in each zone as 13 possible. And, per KPUB, they are going to do this again, so 14 this is a wonderful thing. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: This will be three years in a 16 row. 17 MR. MALONEY: Yes, sir. Yes, sir, it will be a 18 great thing, so -- really. Is there anything else I can -- 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you very much. 20 MR. MALONEY: Yes, sir. 21 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Thank you. 22 MR. MALONEY: My pleasure. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Appreciate it. 24 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Thank you. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And Eric's always a great person 1-22-07 83 1 to track down with EMS problems, if you have them. If someone 2 calls and complains, I always call Eric. Eric is very good at 3 looking at the run sheet, whatever it is, and seeing what the 4 problem was, if there was one. 5 MR. MALONEY: Thank you. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Appreciate it. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you. Okay. Do we -- do we 8 have any reports from any of the Commissioners in connection 9 with their liaison/committee assignments or otherwise? 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I've already forgotten what 11 they are. 12 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Just a couple notations 13 here, Judge. Just a reminder, Al Notzon's 40 years of service 14 to AACOG will be celebrated at a retirement party event at 15 Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center next Sunday from 2:00 to 16 5 p.m. And then one other note here, just a comment. I had 17 an e-mail from Mr. Richard Mosty of the Mosty law firm with 18 respect to the name of "Las Colinas," which he had platted at 19 his home place back in the '80's, and then suddenly there's 20 another Las Colinas that came into being in the ETJ. And 21 then -- Kerrville's ETJ. Are you familiar with this? Read 22 the e-mail, and I'll tell you what the answer is. And so we 23 checked on it, and of course, that was platted by -- under the 24 interlocal agreement between Kerr County and the City; was 25 platted by the City, and the name "Las Colinas" was never 1-22-07 84 1 researched, and so, therefore, we have two of them. It did 2 come before me, the County Attorney reminds me, as a -- as a 3 concept plan several months ago, but not the name issue. So, 4 I guess all of that is to wonder aloud, have we managed to 5 obtain coordination with the City in terms of subdivision 6 rules coordinated with Kerr County, or is that still hanging 7 out there in the balance? 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I made the mistake of relaying 9 to the City Manager, I think, in retrospect, that there was no 10 rush in finalizing that agreement. I mean, as long as things 11 were working. And -- 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: February. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, and February is when the 14 new deadline is. So, February is now the deadline that the -- 15 hopefully, the City is working towards. So, I have heard 16 nothing from the City on this issue since we had the -- since 17 September. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I haven't either, but part of 19 the agreement is that anytime the city issue comes up, they 20 immediately contact County Road and Bridge. I mean, that 21 communication has got to be open. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And -- 23 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Apparently that didn't 24 happen here, or the name "Las Colinas" would -- which our 25 folks at Road and Bridge knew about -- 1-22-07 85 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 2 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: -- would have come into 3 play. Somebody would have said, "There's already a Las 4 Colinas platted." So, obviously, that didn't happen. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But the response to Mr. Mosty, I 6 would say the one the City approved recently has to change, 7 not Mr. Mosty's. 8 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Well, the response went 9 back, he needs to take this issue to the City, who issued the 10 plat. Am I correct, Mr. County Attorney? 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I think so. 12 MR. EMERSON: It's not a County issue; it's a City 13 issue. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: You have anything? 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No, I don't. 16 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Well -- 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'm done. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner 4? 19 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I have an annual report from 20 ESD Number 2. Everything seems to be in order on that. The 21 Library Board meeting has been changed because of weather last 22 week, when we were scheduled to meet. I think it's going to 23 be the 30th of this month. And I also got a copy of -- of the 24 Board of Directors' thoughts about maybe priorities to come in 25 the future, and they do not necessarily go along with the 1-22-07 86 1 librarians' suggestions. 2 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That would be novel. 3 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: So I will find out more when 4 the meeting occurs on the 30th, and will report back with my 5 findings at the next meeting. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I do have one, actually. You 7 said -- brought up the library, which made me think of the 8 City of Kerrville, which made me think of -- somewhere, 9 someone asked me about a joint meeting. I think it was Irene 10 at the City. Maybe it was Jody here. Anyway, are we having a 11 joint meeting in February? 12 JUDGE TINLEY: I got a communication from people at 13 the City last week, and I have -- I have instructed 14 Ms. Grinstead to give you guys copies of it, suggesting we 15 need to try and light on a date for a joint meeting, and also, 16 if there -- there were some issues or areas outlined in that 17 letter; whether there were additional ones that need to be 18 considered or put on the table. So, you should have copies of 19 those things in your box -- I did my dictation over the 20 weekend, and so either today or tomorrow. And the -- one of 21 the items specifically mentioned had to do with the issue of a 22 library district, as I recall, in that letter. But you'll get 23 copies of those, and to determine your availability for a 24 joint meeting, and also issues that you want to lay on the 25 table. 1-22-07 87 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Judge, does it -- does it 2 mention who's buying the food? 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: They are. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: I don't think there's any mention in 5 there about food at all. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Someone told me that they were 7 buying breakfast at KPUB; they're providing breakfast. It was 8 a morning meeting. 9 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I haven't heard or seen 10 anything about it. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'm not sure. I could have 12 dreamt this information, too. I'm not sure where it came 13 from. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: I think I read both of those letters 15 that came, and I don't recall it being in either one. And, 16 actually, I think I read them over the weekend, so that's 17 fairly recent. I think I'd remember, but maybe not. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: One thing that -- just to toss 19 out, that I think we need to get on the table is a -- a 20 long-term EMS plan for eastern Kerr County. The -- the issue 21 with Falling Water and Reserve seems to be floundering for the 22 third year now. I don't know that the City doesn't want to do 23 it -- you know, or I'm not sure where the problem is. I mean, 24 it's in their court currently, but there continues to be more 25 and more development. I know that we approved one the other 1-22-07 88 1 day, Lasso Ranch up almost in Gillespie -- Kendall County, 2 very remote, far northeastern Kerr County. There's growth 3 around Center Point continuing. If there's other development 4 out Lane Valley, we're talking about a large area there, and I 5 think that somewhere, that we're obligated, you know, from our 6 residents' standpoint, to figure out how we're going to handle 7 that remote part of the county, or far eastern part of the 8 county, much as -- you know, I think your area as well. I 9 think that that needs to get on the table. I don't think we 10 need to resolve it right now, but we need to figure out how 11 that's going to get resolved, because we need to act at some 12 point. If the City of Kerrville is not willing to expand into 13 some of these areas to get a little bit closer coverage, I 14 think we need to look at other options. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Rex, aren't you tired of 16 hearing about this? 17 MR. EMERSON: For the 40th time? 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. Can -- do you think 19 that you and I can get with the City -- do they have a City 20 Attorney these days? Get with the City Attorney and whoever 21 their liaison is, and sit down have a visit about this, and 22 see if we can't get something moving down the road? 23 MR. EMERSON: I'm sure we could. But it -- I've 24 inquired about it, and I think Commissioner Letz has inquired 25 about it, and my understanding is the contract is sitting at 1-22-07 89 1 City Hall somewhere waiting to be developed to be sent out to 2 Kendall or Boerne or whoever it is that handles that area. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And that's one of the -- the 4 current contract is -- it's kind of strange. It's in my lap, 5 but the County's not a party to it. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, wait a minute, now. 7 I'm -- we're fixing to get the -- just in a few minutes, get 8 the copy of the EMS contract, our EMS contract. Doesn't it 9 say in there that they cover all of Kerr County? 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right, they do. But the issue 11 at the far eastern part that we're trying to get Kendall 12 County to respond to, we can't get that out of the City, that 13 -- and there are some issues as to how you handle the 14 logistics of a 911 -- when you dial 911, what happens to your 15 phone call -- 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- is a hangup. But -- 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: But as far as we're concerned 19 and your citizens in Falling Water are concerned, when they 20 have a fire, -- 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Kerrville. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: -- we have a contract with 23 the City to -- or not a fire, but a car wreck, the City of 24 Kerrville goes down there and takes care of it. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Correct, and they are. They're 1-22-07 90 1 doing it. They -- you know, they're way out there, I know. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So if they have a problem 3 with doing that -- providing that service, they need to work 4 it out with Kendall County. Isn't that the -- am I wrong 5 about that? 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: They're right -- you're right. 7 But the -- my constituents don't -- I mean, they have nothing 8 to do with City of Kerrville. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And they have nothing to do with 11 Kendall County, so by default, it comes to me, because I'm 12 kind of the one that can coordinate the two entities. Even 13 though, technically, it's not a county -- it's a county 14 problem, 'cause we have a contract with -- or a county issue, 15 only because we have a contract with City of Kerrville to 16 provide the service, and they're unhappy with the level of 17 service because of the distance issue. It's not the quality. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: The time frame. 19 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Pretty much the same thing as 20 with Y.O. Ranchland. 21 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Exactly. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But the problem -- the 23 difference, I think, is that east Kerr County is getting so 24 much more development now -- I mean, The Reserve and Falling 25 Water alone, those two subdivisions probably have 80 homes 1-22-07 91 1 now, and they're continuing to grow. And there's all -- the 2 new one, Lasso Ranch, which was just approved is another 17 3 lots. But I know that most of those -- a lot of those lots 4 are already selling, and we assume there'll be the final plat 5 approval. There's contracts on a lot of that. Something is 6 going to happen out Lane Valley, whether it's the 200 lots 7 that are envisioned by the developer, or 50 lots. Either way, 8 there's going to be a significant number of homes that are 9 very remote out there, so we're looking at -- you know, you're 10 looking at very easily 150, probably, homes that didn't exist 11 five years ago in far eastern Kerr County, and that's -- and 12 that has to be addressed as to how that's going to be handled, 13 'cause that growth's going to continue out there. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: In the Y.O., if I remember 15 right, we all had this big pow-wow. 16 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Mm-hmm. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And everyone agreed to what 18 we were going to do. Kendall County was going to provide -- 19 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Kimble. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'm sorry, Kimble County was 21 going to provide service, and we put together a contract and 22 sent it up there, and they never signed it and sent it back. 23 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Oh, really? 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But they're responding -- 25 they're -- my understanding is they're responding, but they 1-22-07 92 1 didn't want a contract. 2 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Right. 3 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: It was my understanding they 4 wanted a contract at the beginning, which was what was holding 5 up the process. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 8 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I mean, I kind of got into 9 this a little bit before I became -- 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We don't have a contract. 11 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: -- before I was seated in this 12 chair here. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We don't have a contract with 14 Kimble County. 15 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: They just have a contract with 16 the landowners? 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: They just have an agreement. 18 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: An agreement to provide 19 service? 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, I think. 21 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Which is all they really 22 needed to start with, in my opinion. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I do have one other quickie 25 if we're off of EMS, and that has to do with the consultant 1-22-07 93 1 that the Airport Board is going to choose, funded 90 percent 2 by TexDOT. We met to select that consultant; there was the 3 mayor, Guy Overby and me, and we did select a consultant. But 4 prior to that meeting, we talked to TexDOT about the date that 5 they had in their letter of transmittal, to make sure that 6 wasn't a drop-dead date, and tell them that we are engaging -- 7 hope to engage a consultant to do a broad study of Kerr 8 County, and that we would not like this thing to go off on its 9 own without some coordination between the two. TexDOT didn't 10 have any particular problem with that. I will recommend to 11 the Airport Board at its next meeting, whenever we meet, the 12 selection of consultant, and the -- we will be delaying the 13 start of that work by about 60 days to give the other one an 14 opportunity to get started and get some coordination going. 15 And there will -- we'll also be talking about maybe changing 16 the scope of work for us somewhat to take up some issues that 17 need to be addressed. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The reason we're not sure we're 20 going to meet, the Airport Manager's on extended vacation, so 21 we're not sure when we're going to meet. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: He's in Germany. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Who is? 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Dave Pearce. He's -- where is 25 he? In Germany? 1-22-07 94 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Germany, from what I understood. 2 He's -- 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: He's gone for a month. 4 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Good. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So we're, you know, not sure 6 what -- I mean, we tried to -- the meeting got canceled during 7 the ice storm, so we don't know if we're going to meet for 8 another month or not, even though we have a huge agenda 9 already. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Is that all from the 11 Commissioners? Any elected officials have reports? Anything 12 else? We stand adjourned. 13 (Commissioners Court adjourned at 11:54 a.m.) 14 - - - - - - - - - - 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 1-22-07 95 1 STATE OF TEXAS | 2 COUNTY OF KERR | 3 The above and foregoing is a true and complete 4 transcription of my stenotype notes taken in my 5 capacity as County Clerk of the Commissioners Court 6 of Kerr County, Texas, at the time and place 7 heretofore set forth. 8 DATED at Kerrville, Texas, this 25th day of 9 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 1-22-07