1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT 9 Budget Workshop 10 Tuesday, August 11, 2009 11 2:00 p.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 August 11, 2009 2 PAGE 3 Review and discuss FY 2009-10 budgets and fiscal, capital expenditure and personnel matters related 4 thereto for various county departments, including, but not limited to, the following departments: 5 County Attorney ..................................... 3 6 198th District Attorney ............................. 5 216th District Attorney ............................ 33 7 City/County Joint Operations ....................... 42 Adult Probation .................................... 46 8 District Clerk ..................................... 53 Commissioners Court ................................ 62 9 County Judge ....................................... 68 County Court ....................................... 68 10 County Auditor ..................................... 71 County Treasurer ................................... 78 11 Nondepartmental..................................... 81 Human Resources .................................... 98 12 Tax Assessor/Elections .............................101 Capital Outlay..................................... 111 13 --- Adjourned ......................................... 145 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 3 1 On Tuesday, August 11, 2009, at 2:00 p.m., a budget 2 workshop meeting of the Kerr County Commissioners Court was 3 held in the Commissioners' Courtroom, Kerr County Courthouse, 4 Kerrville, Texas, and the following proceedings were had in 5 open court: 6 P R O C E E D I N G S 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay, let me call to order this 8 Commissioners Court workshop scheduled for this date, 9 Tuesday, August 11th, 2009, at 2 p.m. It is a bit past that 10 now. The purpose of the workshop is to review and discuss 11 Fiscal Year 09-10 budgets and fiscal capital expenditure and 12 personnel matters related thereto for various county 13 departments, including, but not limited to, various 14 departments that we'll go through one by one. County 15 Attorney's got some business down the hall that is pressing, 16 so I told him we'd go ahead and take him first. So, we'll 17 take the County Attorney's budget first off. Is that the one 18 you got up there, Tess? 19 MS. MABRY: Yes, sir. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 21 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: What number is that? 22 MS. MABRY: It's 475. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: 475. 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: There it is, County 25 Attorney. 8-11-09 bwk 4 1 JUDGE TINLEY: I think we've pretty well thrashed 2 out all the issues, haven't we? 3 MR. EMERSON: I don't think we have any issues, 4 Judge. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: He seems like a nice young 6 man. (Laughter.) 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: He's got a suit and tie on. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. 9 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Smiling. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Any member of the Court have any 11 questions about any of the items on the County Attorney's 12 budget? A lot of these -- a lot of these have been piled 13 through. Let me take this opportunity to let the Court know 14 that the Auditor and her staff have been extraordinarily 15 helpful in this entire process, particularly for me this 16 year. They have done a lot of work behind the scenes, and 17 we've discussed things and kicked them back and forth and 18 made adjustments, worked with various departments. I worked 19 with some; they probably worked with a whole lot more. And 20 so there may be a lot of these budgets that we pretty well 21 thrashed out and have resolved. Now, if we do, that's good 22 news, the way I see it. Anybody got any questions for the 23 County Attorney? 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No, sir. 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I don't. 8-11-09 bwk 5 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Do you got any issues with your 2 budget? 3 MR. EMERSON: No, sir. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: You're free to go down the hall and 5 go to work. 6 MR. EMERSON: Thank you. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, sir. Let's go with 198th 8 D.A. And -- 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Judge, I notice that -- I 10 see here that under his budget numbers, it still has the 355, 11 and I recall the D.A. came in and said I want to change it to 12 250 or something like that, I think. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, we're going to be talking 14 about that. There are two or three different 198th D.A. 15 budgets floating around, I think. There's the original -- 16 the original requested budget that had the real numbers in 17 it; the numbers that, without any supplement, forfeiture 18 support and so forth, this is what it really costs to run 19 this office. If the Court recalls, subsequent to that, there 20 was a meeting of the county budget officers in the entire 21 198th district with Mr. Barton, and there was quite a bit 22 accomplished up there, a lot of activity that went on, and 23 there was a revised -- it wasn't the budget that you were 24 proposing; it was a budget that you said, you know, if push 25 comes to shove, that we could live with -- 8-11-09 bwk 6 1 MR. BARTON: It was a -- 2 JUDGE TINLEY: -- if you had to. 3 MR. BARTON: It was a budget that reflected a 4 quarter of a million dollar cut. If -- if the county judges 5 at that time, and, you know, the respective courts wanted to 6 see what would the 198th D.A.'s budget look like with a 7 quarter million dollar cut, that's the revised budget there, 8 which Kerr County's number comes out to 245, approximately, 9 in that version. 10 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Instead of 355, it comes to 11 245? 12 (Mr. Barton nodded.) 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Even 245? Or -- 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No, it's -- 16 MR. BARTON: 245,526.91. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: 526. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Judge, can I just take off 20 talking? 21 JUDGE TINLEY: You sure may. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, thank you so much. 23 245. First thing I want to say is, in this year's budget, 24 from last year to the budget we're under right now, you got a 25 41.99 percent increase, and now it appears to me that you're 8-11-09 bwk 7 1 asking for another 45 percent increase. 2 MR. BARTON: Do you mind if I come over there and 3 see what you're -- you're going from what year to what year? 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Last year to your proposed 5 next year. This year that we're -- "last year" meaning the 6 year that we're under right now. 7 MR. BARTON: Okay. Going from 193 to 3 -- or to 8 245? 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: 245. 10 MR. BARTON: Okay. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So, from -- from the 112 to 12 the 193 is a 41 percent. 13 MR. BARTON: Mm-hmm. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And then 193 to 245 is 15 another 45 percent. 16 MR. BARTON: Is that right? That seems like -- 17 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: These are -- 18 MR. BARTON: Yeah, it would be -- I would -- I 19 would guess that would be somewhere under 20 percent. But 20 just -- 21 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: 245 would be. 22 MS. MABRY: Buster, that's if that 355 was 23 remaining, that 45 percent. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: 355? 25 MR. BARTON: Buster, just -- I'm sorry. 8-11-09 bwk 8 1 Commissioner, I would think that that would be somewhere 2 around just 20 percent. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 4 MR. BARTON: Trying to do that in my head. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, I guess -- and she's 6 right, 355, and I'm showing 355 on all the computers and 7 everything else. We may need to establish that. Are we 8 talking 355 or 245? 9 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I'll tell you real quick. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think -- I mean, just -- I 11 think your budget almost has to go back to look at historical 12 data a little bit, because the whole way your budget has been 13 funded is -- I don't know, not normal. I mean, and I think 14 we need to look at -- you know, I don't know how you go back 15 and, you know, I don't -- I'm not real sure how your 16 predecessor was funding everything, really, 'cause it was 17 kind of done out in Junction. And I understand how you're 18 doing it; I appreciate you being -- bringing up the full 19 information. But it seems to me that there needs to be 20 parity between the D.A.'s offices. And I think you look at 21 kind of what -- historically, where y'all were and what Bruce 22 is doing and caseloads, and you kind of come up with a number 23 like that. Give you a number and let you develop your 24 budget. 25 MR. BARTON: Well, that's certainly one way to do 8-11-09 bwk 9 1 it. You know, I don't know that the D.A.'s would really care 2 to be bootstrapped to each other with regard to -- with 3 regard to the operations. And I don't think this Court wants 4 that either. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No. 6 MR. BARTON: For example, if -- if our budget was 7 apportioned the same way that the 216th apportioned their 8 budget, by population, then in the 198th Judicial District, 9 that would have Kerr County responsible for 73 percent of the 10 budget, as opposed to 56 percent. So -- 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 12 MR. BARTON: The numbers that we've arrived at are 13 done in the fairest manner that -- that we can -- we can have 14 that happen. Now, the reality is, the 216th has three other 15 counties that are significantly greater contributors to their 16 budget than what we have. And I know that's not the fault of 17 Kerr County, that the 198th has much smaller western counties 18 than we see out east of us. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But it -- I mean, from a basic 20 premise, shouldn't it -- forget about how it's divided. And, 21 I mean, I agree -- I mean, there's -- I like the way it's 22 being divided from the Kerr County taxpayers' standpoint, but 23 there ought to be some -- based on caseloads, and it 24 shouldn't cost one office, per case, per population, 25 whatever, to operate that much more or differently than the 8-11-09 bwk 10 1 other office. I mean, you're doing the same thing; you're 2 dealing with the same general type of cases. Not -- I don't 3 have a problem -- 4 MR. BARTON: What is the disparity that you're 5 seeing now between the 216th Kerr budget and the 198th? 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Say again? 7 MR. BARTON: What is the disparity? What's the 8 delta between -- 9 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I'll tell you what it is. 10 On a two-year basis of cases filed between 198th and 216th -- 11 MR. BARTON: I'm talking about the funds. 12 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I'm going to get there. If 13 we do it on the basis of cases filed, the cases filed total 14 are 988 over the last two years, two years that you had any 15 responsibility for. Of that 988, you're responsible for 16 38 percent and 216th is responsible for 62 percent. However, 17 216th budget increases over the same period of time is 18 19 percent, and yours was 64 percent. Explain it. 19 MR. BARTON: Sure. 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Help us. 21 MR. BARTON: I'll be happy to. The -- the problem 22 with that calculation is it takes into -- into account an 23 anomaly year in 2008. If you look at, historically, the 24 apportionment of cases throughout the district, the 198th has 25 filed and resolved more cases every year except for 2008, 8-11-09 bwk 11 1 going back as far as I could get data from the District 2 Clerk's Office. So, 2008 is an anomaly year. 3 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Let me help you out. Over 4 a five-year basis, the 216th versus 198th, there were 3,754 5 cases filed. 59 percent of those were in the 216th. 6 40 percent were in the 198th. 7 MR. BARTON: Did you see the same numbers, though, 8 that I did? That every year, the -- the 198th filed more 9 cases and resolved more cases than the 216th except for 2008. 10 The one anomaly year is that what's skewing your -- the data. 11 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I'm looking at data that 12 talks to me about both district courts, the D.A.'s filing of 13 cases. 14 MR. BARTON: Yeah. 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Total cases filed. I don't 16 know about resolved. I don't care about resolved. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Now, let me step into this. 18 Going back to what I'm saying, your numbers aren't far off. 19 I mean, they're, I think, reasonable. Your 298 -- the second 20 number, the second set of numbers is basically in line with 21 the 216th costs. I mean, they're -- you know, not trying to 22 say you need to be the same. I don't want to say the 23 population can be this much, caseloads should be this much, 24 but they shouldn't be hundreds of thousands of dollars apart. 25 MR. BARTON: Sure. 8-11-09 bwk 12 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I think with that number, 2 it's within reason. Close enough. 3 MR. BARTON: And also, looking forward, one of the 4 things that I tried to do, Commissioner, since coming in is 5 to get that exact parity that you're talking about, to get an 6 equal distribution, or as equal a distribution of caseload as 7 we can, given that 2008 anomaly. There was -- it was skewed, 8 216th. Dramatically skewed. So, given some of the -- the 9 checks that we put into place, given the division of labor 10 that we put into place, that there should be every 11 expectation that, going forward from January 1st of 2009, 12 whenever I came on board, going forward, that you should 13 cease to see disparities like that. I can't control what 14 happened before I took the helm at the 198th D.A.'s office. 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I'm not going there. 16 MR. BARTON: No, but I'm being made answerable for 17 -- for those numbers in 2008. 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Not really. What's 19 important to me is the last two years and the combination of 20 the increases in the budget for the prior -- past two years. 21 And what I see is 64 percent increase in your budget for two 22 years versus 19 percent increase in the budget for the 216th. 23 Now, if you take that alone, and then apply it to casework, 24 which I assume is what the District Attorney offices are all 25 about, I have a problem with that much increase in your 8-11-09 bwk 13 1 budget versus the 216th, given that your caseload is the 2 lightest of the two. 3 MR. BARTON: Well, it's not the lightest of the two 4 going forward. 5 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Well -- 6 MR. BARTON: It -- if you take into account that 7 2008 anomaly year, that's not what we see. That's not 8 reality. Also, the 2008 budget was not reality. And I've 9 explained that to the Court, that the number that I've given 10 the Court is what it costs to operate this machine right now, 11 today, in its current circumstances, in its current fashion. 12 That's what was handed over to me in January of this year. 13 That -- those are the numbers, and so I wanted to apprize the 14 Court of those numbers. In recognition of, hey, that's 15 probably not going to happen, that's where this second 16 revised budget came from. You know, I'm not here to -- to 17 say that those -- those numbers in the past are not askew 18 like you talked about, but there's some things that are 19 different with us than the 216th that I'm proud of. I would 20 encourage you to look not just at the number of cases, but 21 look at the -- the amount of fines and fees that we've 22 assessed. You know, we're over 300,000. And I'm not sure 23 where the other district stands, but there are things that we 24 have put in place that are helping the county carry the load, 25 that are helping out. You know, we're not just sitting here 8-11-09 bwk 14 1 with our hand out, Commissioner. We're doing everything that 2 we can to offset some of these increases that you're seeing. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Commissioner, are your numbers 4 based on the percentages on the proposed 355 budget? 5 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I just -- yeah. Well, 6 originally it was. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 8 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: And that was 84 and a half 9 percent. I scaled it back with the new number to 64 percent. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 11 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: For the two years. The 12 second year was 45 point something or other percent; now it's 13 scaled back to 22 percent. The combination of the two was 14 64 percent. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Question. Was that the -- just 16 so I understand what you're saying, the funded budget, that 17 is what we funded, or what was their real budget? 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: No, the Kerr County piece. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 20 MR. BARTON: That was what was -- what was funded. 21 And I will submit to the Court, those numbers are different 22 than the numbers that the District Clerk and I pulled back a 23 few months ago. Looking at -- I think we went back to 2003, 24 and the numbers that you're relaying to me don't sound right 25 to me. But -- 8-11-09 bwk 15 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I didn't make them up. 2 MR. BARTON: I understand. But there is -- having 3 some -- I don't know who pulled them for you, but there is -- 4 when you go pull those numbers, if you don't check the right 5 box, you're going to get the wrong number. 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I didn't do any box; I went 7 to somebody who had the boxes, though. 8 MR. BARTON: Okay. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Mr. Barton, there's two ways to 10 allocate the division of this budget among the various 11 counties in the district, and I believe the 216th is doing it 12 by population. 13 MR. BARTON: Yes, sir. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: And you have elected to do it by -- 15 by caseload. I assume you feel like that your -- your 16 methodology is more equitable? 17 MR. BARTON: I think that it's equitable, given the 18 circumstances of the district. I think if we had a more 19 evenly populated district, then we could look at doing some 20 kind of pro rata per capita. It just -- it doesn't work out 21 to be equitable in any way to the citizens of Kerr County 22 that, because there's sparsely populated areas westward, that 23 Kerr County should be responsible for 73 percent of the 24 budget. And I'll submit to the Court, this -- this revised 25 budget, I think, is reasonable. I think it's necessary to 8-11-09 bwk 16 1 the protection of our community. I think that there's not 2 much more room to make cuts in there. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: That's the one that has Kerr County 4 paying 245? 5 MR. BARTON: That's correct. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. You're aware that there's a 7 proposal out with respect to your budget that it be allocated 8 on the basis of population? 9 MR. BARTON: No, I'm not -- I don't guess I'm 10 familiar with that. What is -- 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, I think Judge Cordes has 12 suggested that. 13 MR. BARTON: Oh, right. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: That -- 15 MR. BARTON: I thought you meant from this county. 16 Judge Cordes in Menard has -- hasn't made any formal request, 17 but he asked me, you know, holding me accountable to he and 18 his court, "Why aren't you allocating this based on 19 population?" 'Cause it would inure to a great benefit to 20 those counties out there. And the plain and simple fact is, 21 where you spend your time is where you need to spend your 22 money. You know, if we're spending 15 percent of our time in 23 Menard, then it makes sense that they would be paying 24 15 percent of the budget, as opposed to 3 percent. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: And that's basically your 8-11-09 bwk 17 1 explanation as to the equities involved with how you've 2 allocated based on caseload, because notwithstanding the fact 3 that their population is a very small portion, you still got 4 to be up there a portion of -- one week a month. 5 MR. BARTON: For example, if -- hypothetical. 6 Where Mason had the interstate going through it, they may 7 have a much larger crime rate, given that they've got the 8 interstate going through it, but have a very small 9 population. It wouldn't make sense -- if I was spending 10 40 percent of my time in Mason fighting interstate crimes, 11 then I submit to you that the -- that the pro rata 12 distribution based on caseload is the most equitable way to 13 do it. It just doesn't work out any other way that I can 14 see. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And the good judge from 17 Menard also indicated -- I don't know if it was in his letter 18 or a visit I had with him in here the other day -- indicated 19 that -- I mean, he was talking about he felt like that you 20 needed to move some personnel around, that he -- that you 21 needed the investigator back in and those kinds of things. I 22 hope whatever number we come up with here at this table, and 23 however we come up with it, that we come up with that number 24 and give it to you, and then you take care of moving those 25 people around. I don't want to get -- obviously, he had some 8-11-09 bwk 18 1 interest in that, maybe some personal -- I don't know what 2 his interest was, but I don't want us to get into that. I 3 want to hand you some money and you take care of your budget 4 like you're supposed to. Now -- 5 MR. BARTON: That's well received. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Sure. Well, that's the way 7 it's supposed to be. Okay, I'm going to continue here. I 8 think what I'm seeing here is in the last -- I'm going to go 9 back to Jon Letz' talk about history, and how do we arrive at 10 a number? Now, some of us talk, and some of the things 11 that -- some of the points that you were making, counselor, 12 was -- is things that we would -- we're going to see or 13 possibly see in the future. I am not a guy -- a commissioner 14 that -- I mean, I don't vote on things that may or may not 15 happen. I have to have -- I have to have firm numbers and 16 firm facts in front of me before I make commitments for the 17 taxpayers of Kerr County. So, I think the way I -- only way 18 I can think of to look at the numbers in a real way is to go 19 back and look at the history. So, we went back five years, 20 198th D.A.'s budget, and we see that an average increase 21 annually -- the average is about 9 percent. So, that says to 22 me every year, the average -- the budget went up 9 percent. 23 So if you have -- if we have a proposed budget of 245,000, 24 and we're at 193 right now, and we add on the 9 percent, 25 that's about -- that's a little over $211,000 budget for next 8-11-09 bwk 19 1 year. So, that's what I propose, is that we stay with the 2 average increase over the last five years and just continue 3 that increase on. 4 MR. BARTON: Can I speak to that just for a second? 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Certainly can, but I want 6 you to know if I were king, I'd pass it right now. Go ahead. 7 MR. BARTON: I would just say, in doing that, 8 you're -- you're kind of saddling the D.A. -- not "kind of." 9 You are saddling the D.A.'s office with what -- the approach 10 that was taken five years in the past. I think if you -- if 11 you take a look at the numbers out of the District Clerk's 12 office, you're going to see that. Now, if you look just from 13 2008 to 2009, there's this equity of caseload. There's this 14 equity in division of labor. There's no more of this flux 15 that we -- that we used to see because of the whim of -- of 16 law enforcement or whatever the factors were that were 17 contributing to one D.A. getting this or one D.A. getting 18 that case. Those have -- have roughly been solved. So, 19 going forward today, we're looking at the budget into the 20 future, which contemplates an equitable division of cases, 21 and I think that it's important to consider that. So, 22 history is a good indicator of where we're going, assuming 23 that there's -- there's been some stability. I think we can 24 all agree that there has been some significant changes in the 25 very recent past. 8-11-09 bwk 20 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We see -- we're seeing more 2 stability; that's one thing the Menard judge said. It's the 3 first time we've seen real stuff, ever, out of that -- out of 4 your office. 5 MR. BARTON: The -- the second point that I'd like 6 to make on that is, the budget historically has had an 7 element of fantasy to it. And the budget that you're 8 seeing -- 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. 10 MR. BARTON: -- now is the real McCoy. This is 11 what it takes to get it done. So, if you're looking at a 12 five-year average and basing what we do today on the fantasy 13 budget, then it -- we're still arriving at a function of a 14 fantasy number, 9 percent increase of a fantasy number. This 15 is -- this 245 number is what it's going to take to get it 16 done, so I would respectfully submit that adding 9 percent to 17 a fantasy number just isn't going to get us there. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 19 MR. BARTON: And then I would ask the Court to 20 consider -- look at what I'm doing for you. Really, hold me 21 accountable. Take -- go pull 2009 numbers. Look at the 22 fines and fees that are being assessed out of my office, and 23 please take that into account. I would submit to you that 24 there are very few departments that you've got in your county 25 that, for your investment, is getting that return. So, I 8-11-09 bwk 21 1 challenge you; whatever those numbers are, go, you know, 2 check the boxes and take a look, and take that into 3 consideration when you're -- when you're deciding whether to 4 -- 'cause at this point, we're kind of down to a 5 nickel-and-dime deal. We're somewhere between 190 and 245. 6 I've already made well over a $100,000 drop. Please don't 7 nickel-and-dime me out of essential personnel. Take a look 8 at what we've got. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Let's talk about maybe 10 nickel-and-diming, okay? 11 MR. BARTON: Yes, sir. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: And what I'm looking at, Mr. Barton, 13 is the revised 7/22 that you were kind enough to furnish us 14 when you were here earlier, and that's the one that dropped 15 it down to a 245. At that time, my recollection, you 16 indicated that there might be some areas that you could make 17 some adjustments, although not big ones. 18 MR. BARTON: Yes, sir. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: I think you're the first to 20 acknowledge that there was a lot of sticker shock on your 21 budget any way you went about it, because of the -- the 22 fantasy element in the prior budgets. So -- 23 MR. BARTON: One -- 24 JUDGE TINLEY: -- we're wanting to minimize the 25 sticker shock as much as we can. 8-11-09 bwk 22 1 MR. BARTON: One that I think we can move over or 2 eliminate is under payroll expenses, the line item for 3 contract labor apportioned to the budget. You see a number 4 there, 10,000. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Mm-hmm. 6 MR. BARTON: That is money that I put in there 7 because we, in this past budget year, had a large expense 8 associated with appellate contract labor related to the 9 Mexican Mafia trial, which we want, but it was expensive. 10 So, looking forward -- now, we've got -- we've got some big 11 cases that are on appeal, you know, and I think I said this 12 to the Court; you know, we sentenced some guy to 390 years or 13 290 years or something like that. Those are cases that are 14 going to get appealed every time. And in swinging the bat 15 for the community, there's going to be those follow-up costs 16 as well. So, I put that in there. If y'all want to strike 17 that, I will -- I will find a way to cover that expense. 18 We've got to have it. There's -- there's -- we can't cut the 19 expense, but we can at least cut it from the budget, and I 20 will commit to finding a way to fund that. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: How much was that, Judge? 22 JUDGE TINLEY: 10,000 total. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay, you're heading in the 24 right direction. 25 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Don't stop now. 8-11-09 bwk 23 1 JUDGE TINLEY: You're getting lots of encouragement 2 here. 3 MR. BARTON: There is a $5,000 amount set in there 4 for meals associated with out-of-county travel and whatnot. 5 We have, on our own, moved that expense to the burden of the 6 employee, so the -- the -- unless it's a jury trial, there 7 will be no more supplement for employee meals, so if you want 8 to strike that 5,000, or significantly reduce it, I think 9 that's an area where the employees can -- 10 JUDGE TINLEY: On jury cases, we have a separate 11 jury budget, and we allocate -- we have an item for meals for 12 jurors, if that's what you're talking about. 13 MR. BARTON: No, sir, I'm talking about the D.A.'s 14 staff. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 16 MR. BARTON: If we're trying a case out of our home 17 county, then we incur expenses related to that. So, that -- 18 that had, in the past, covered if we were out of county for 19 pretrials and stayed through the lunch hour, it would cover 20 that expense too. But now the employees are absorbing that 21 cost and that -- that circumstance, so if you wanted to 22 reduce that down, maybe leave $1,000 in there to cover meal 23 expenses associated with an actual jury trial, or cut the 24 whole thing, you know, if you're looking to pick up 5,000. 25 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Are you getting -- is this a 8-11-09 bwk 24 1 1,200 -- you use that as a supplement that you're proposing? 2 MR. BARTON: That is -- the State mandates that 3 when the District Judge -- which the D.A.'s salary's a 4 function of the District Judge's salary, and maybe Bruce can 5 help me out with that. But when the District Judge receives 6 a supplement for service on a juvenile board, that that's the 7 offset. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: That's Juvenile Board. 9 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Okay. 10 MR. BARTON: The -- 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Do you see more items that you might 12 be of some help on -- 13 MR. BARTON: Well, just one. The telephone and fax 14 expense is a big number in there, and most of that expense 15 has already been incurred in the past, in -- in this budget 16 year, with acquisition of -- 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Equipment. 18 MR. BARTON: -- phones and equipment and things 19 like that. So, I would -- I would submit that we can 20 probably cut that telephone and fax expense as you see fit. 21 Now, we may still have necessary expenses that I would -- I 22 would ask that we be permitted to spend out of asset 23 forfeiture funds, but if you want to move some of that out of 24 -- out of the budget, I think it would be reasonable to cut 25 that number. 8-11-09 bwk 25 1 JUDGE TINLEY: What do you think is a reasonable 2 figure to cover your '09-'10 telephone and fax expenses? 3 MR. BARTON: I think cutting that in half would be 4 reasonable. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Cutting down to 10,5? 6 MR. BARTON: Yes, sir. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: How much did you cut out? 8 JUDGE TINLEY: 10,5. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, you do not have to 10 yell. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. You've been complaining you 12 haven't been hearing very well, Buster. I just want to help 13 you. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Selective hearing. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: I see. Debbie told me about that. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I've been around these 17 lawyers too much. Hey, he's doing good. Another ten grand, 18 he's got me happy. 19 MR. BARTON: I was just advised by Ms. Hargis that 20 the 1,200 in there that -- that I have accounted for in my 21 budget is already allocated under the Juvenile Board budget. 22 That's -- 23 JUDGE TINLEY: That's right, it's under the 24 Juvenile Probation budget. 25 MR. BARTON: So you can scratch the 1,200. 8-11-09 bwk 26 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: 1,200 line to your name? 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah, mm-hmm. 3 MS. HARGIS: Actually, the Treasurer as well. It 4 was Mindy's call. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Got 88 to go. Right, Buster? 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: 88 to go. 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Are you finished, Judge? 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Let's see if he's finished. He's 9 moving the right direction. 10 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: He's going in the right 11 direction. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Let's give him plenty of 13 time to figure. 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Keep studying it, yeah. 15 MR. BARTON: I think we're hitting the -- the 16 bottom of that. 17 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Help me understand your 18 staffing. Now, I don't want to get into staffing, but I -- 19 I'd like to have some job descriptions attached to names. 20 Help me understand your department a little bitter. 21 MR. BARTON: Yes, sir. 22 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I can either go down the 23 names or you can go down. 24 MR. BARTON: Sure. Garvene Adams is a -- she's 25 been with the office a decade or more. She is the secretary/ 8-11-09 bwk 27 1 legal assistant that was assigned to Kimble County -- not 2 assigned to Kimble County, but that office that was in Kimble 3 County, with responsibilities throughout the district. And 4 she still travels with us to court regularly. She is one of 5 the jobs that you can see, it -- with the quarter million 6 dollar cut that we initially made, we're trying to retain her 7 position. She would be given a little box to work out of in 8 the Kimble County Courthouse to facilitate drafting search 9 warrants and affidavits and things of that nature, so our law 10 enforcement out there could have someone that's immediately 11 responsive to them, as a concession to closure of that Kimble 12 County -- that Junction office. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: She also works the other northern 14 counties too? 15 MR. BARTON: She works the entire district. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. 17 MR. BARTON: She does. Okay. Todd Burdick, he's 18 our lead investigator. He's been with the office for -- I 19 think since 2000, or maybe '99. I'm not sure. And his 20 salary was once computed to coincide, I want to say, with the 21 chief deputy's salary. I don't -- I don't think that's the 22 case any more. Jeri Causey is a front office girl. She 23 handles reception, filing, just general secretarial work. 24 Mike Chapman is an unbudgeted employee. Kyle Dean is our 25 office director. Jack -- which we call him Brad -- 8-11-09 bwk 28 1 McCullouch, he is the assistant, and Theresa is the paralegal 2 here in the Kerrville office. 3 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: You're the only attorney on 4 staff? 5 MR. BARTON: No, Jack McCullouch -- Brad is the 6 Assistant D.A. 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Thank you. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Any other questions for Mr. Barton? 9 Do you have any thoughts, comments, Ms. Hargis? 10 MS. HARGIS: No. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: We've been chewing on this pretty 12 good for the last few weeks. 13 MS. HARGIS: Yeah. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What's the total that he cut 15 out today? 16 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: 35,500. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: 35,500. 18 MS. HARGIS: Where'd you get 35? I only get 15. 19 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I think it's 25,000. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What? How much? 22 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: 25,5, I'm sorry. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, and you add 1,200. 24 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I was just hoping for the 25 other 10. 8-11-09 bwk 29 1 MR. BARTON: I come out with 26,700. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah, that's right, 26,7. 3 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: 26,7. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: When you add the 12. 5 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Off of what? 154? 6 JUDGE TINLEY: No, it's off of the -- 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: 245. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Down there. And then we -- our 9 savings are 53 percent of -- or 56 percent of that 26,7. 10 MS. MABRY: It's down to 218,826. 11 MS. HARGIS: It was -- 12 JUDGE TINLEY: 218? 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: 218. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: And what? 15 MS. MABRY: 826. 16 MR. BARTON: Is that right? Jeannie, does that 17 figure in the apportionment? Or is that just a -- 18 MS. HARGIS: Yeah, hang on a second. It's 16,2 19 plus 10,500 -- it's 26,7 which is correct. 20 MR. BARTON: Times 56. 21 MS. HARGIS: Minus -- minus the entitlement. 22 MR. BARTON: I would say that's going to be a net 23 savings to Kerr County of about 14,000, just doing it in my 24 head. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. I'm coming with 230. 8-11-09 bwk 30 1 MS. HARGIS: 230,510. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: 230,511 -- rounded off, 511. 3 MS. HARGIS: That's what's I got. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Say those numbers again? 5 JUDGE TINLEY: 230,511. 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: As opposed to 245,526. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What was the number last year? 9 MS. HARGIS: 193. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: 193. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 193. 12 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: 193. We're still -- that 13 still is up. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, but there's a lot of fantasy 15 money that absorbed some of those extra, too. That's the big 16 -- the big kicker in this thing, is the fantasy money that 17 has been involved heretofore. I appreciate your helping us 18 lessen that sticker shock, and I know it's been difficult for 19 you. And I know that you're in a position of having to make 20 some decisions you'd prefer not to have to make. 21 MR. BARTON: We're all big boys, and we're going to 22 do a good job for you with what you can give us. I -- we're 23 going to make it work. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: I appreciate it. Any more questions 25 for Mr. Barton? 8-11-09 bwk 31 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Thank you for your time. 2 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Fantasy money can also be 3 used to subsidize some salaries too, can't it? 4 JUDGE TINLEY: In fact, some of it is being used to 5 subsidize salaries in his current budget. 6 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I realize that. But, I mean, 7 that's just kind of a reminder of however you want to 8 allocate to that, if it's that important, makes it a little 9 more lucrative to go after the money now. 10 (Low-voice discussion off the record.) 11 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Looks like on this sheet 12 there, prior to all these adjustments we talked about, about 13 $154,000 of 479. 14 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Right. 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Is that right? Allocated 16 to the forfeiture fund. 17 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Right. 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Is that about correct? 19 MR. BARTON: I'm sorry, I missed the first part of 20 that. 21 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: In response to Commissioner 22 Oehler, I said it looked like, based on this sheet I'm 23 seeing, revised, about $154,000 of your 479 is attributable 24 to be charged to forfeiture fund. 25 MR. BARTON: Yes, sir. The -- the forfeiture 8-11-09 bwk 32 1 fund -- in this budget process, we have to be real careful in 2 discussion of the forfeiture fund, because we're prohibited 3 from discussing the availability of those asset forfeiture 4 funds as a necessary component of the D.A.'s budget. So, 5 what -- what we want to set up is a rock-solid D.A.'s office 6 that -- you know, I think we talked last time we were 7 together, if the ship runs aground, so to speak, with asset 8 forfeiture, our citizens are still protected. The key 9 functions of the D.A.'s office are still going to be 10 available to citizens without the supplement from the asset 11 forfeiture account. That being said, there are some 12 tremendous benefits to the county that can be had through the 13 asset forfeiture fund, through the programs that my office 14 has implemented. I think that the Sheriff is about to 15 fiscally realize some of those benefits, but those are things 16 that it takes a little while to -- to see the benefit, 17 because it's not a direct reduction in the D.A.'s budget. 18 That would be nice if I could say to our taxpayers, 19 "We're operating the D.A.'s office tax-free," which may be 20 doable if there were certain asset forfeiture funds 21 available. I see the security that the Legislature intends 22 by prohibiting us from considering the availability of those 23 funds. But to inure to the County's benefit, you're not -- 24 may not have to buy as many patrol cars. You may not have to 25 fund certain improvements in -- in area law enforcement, 8-11-09 bwk 33 1 because that can be funded in part through -- through these 2 funds. Again, I don't mention that so that y'all are maybe 3 not wanting to fund the Sheriff's budget as much because that 4 -- that possibility is out there. It's exactly that; it's a 5 possibility. With the asset forfeiture fund, there is just 6 no guarantee that those funds will be there, so we need to 7 have something that's secure for the citizens. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Is that it? Thank you. Appreciate 9 it. Let's go to the 216th D.A. 10 MR. CURRY: Good afternoon. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Question to you is, how much do you 12 want to voluntarily give up? 13 MR. CURRY: Oh, well -- 14 (Laughter.) 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Did that get to the bottom line, 16 Buster? 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you, sir. 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Goes right to the heart of 19 the matter. 20 MR. CURRY: Well, I'll wait for a specific thing. 21 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Do you need some guidance? 22 MR. CURRY: Yeah, I need some guidance. 23 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Can we help you out? 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Ms. Hargis, do you have the cattle 25 prod handy? 8-11-09 bwk 34 1 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: You're in the right position 2 to use it. (Laughter.) 3 MS. HARGIS: I am in that position. 4 MR. CURRY: I need Rex up here. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, I don't see Clete coming up 6 here to help you, 'cause his budget's later on. I don't 7 think he wants to get in that trap. 8 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: My hearing aid must have 9 gone out. I haven't heard anything, Bruce. 10 MR. CURRY: Well, I just prefer to respond. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: What about your personnel matters? 12 Are those on here? Except as may be required by -- by 13 personnel policies of Kerr County. Is that correct? 14 (Low-voice discussion off the record.) 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Ms. Hargis, I think you've been 16 through this budget and have looked at what the anticipated 17 year-to-date expenditures are going to be for this year, and 18 how that relates to his next-year requests? 19 MS. HARGIS: Yes. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: I note there -- 21 MS. HARGIS: I think it -- really, the only new 22 thing is -- is the contract labor. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: I'm sorry? 24 MS. HARGIS: The part-time assistant that he 25 requested. 8-11-09 bwk 35 1 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Sounds like the Hot-Shot's 2 coming up. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah, powering up the Hot-Shot. 4 Don't be looking around. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Bruce, there's a note here 6 on yours that -- and I can't tell you who put it on there. 7 Somebody from around here. 8 MR. CURRY: Yes, sir. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: The additional 50,000 is for 10 contract prosecutor at the jail, which is Kerr County only, 11 and then it goes on to say, "Moved the prosecutor to new 12 department, 437." 13 MS. HARGIS: Right. I did that because you wanted 14 the new department set up so that we could track the 15 prosecutor, the court reporter, and the judges. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: She did that because I 17 wanted her to do it, so we could track the -- thank you. And 18 you're aware of that? 19 MR. CURRY: No, but I'll -- that's fine. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We created another 21 department to put all that jail stuff -- 22 MR. CURRY: Yes. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: -- under one department, so 24 we can kind of really keep an eye on the jail issue. 25 MR. CURRY: That's fine, yes. 8-11-09 bwk 36 1 JUDGE TINLEY: What's the capital outlay item on 2 here? 3 MR. CURRY: That is some -- giving in to my 4 assistants, who really want to get some stuff for the 5 courtroom. Overhead projector. We don't have any of that -- 6 basically, any -- 7 MS. HARGIS: I didn't take that out. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Pardon? 9 MS. HARGIS: I didn't take this one out. I can. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 11 MS. HARGIS: But if we leave it in, the other 12 counties will share in the cost of it. 13 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: You talk about that with the 14 Sheriff? 15 JUDGE TINLEY: This is going to be portable; it's 16 not going to be wired in here. 17 MR. CURRY: Correct. 18 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: It's going to be a totally 19 separate deal from what Rusty's talking about? 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah, mm-hmm. It's going to be 21 portable so that they can pack it around the districts -- to 22 the districts. 23 MR. CURRY: It's a trial thing, to show stuff on 24 the -- 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. 8-11-09 bwk 37 1 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Pack it everywhere but here? 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Bruce, we -- 3 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: 'Cause we'll have one. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We're approving going with a 5 high-tech system up here for our courtrooms. 6 MR. CURRY: Oh. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Should be high-tech; it costs 8 175,000. 9 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yeah. 10 MR. CURRY: Well, I guess this would be mostly out, 11 then, out-of-county. I didn't -- I wasn't taking that into 12 account. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Good point. 14 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Well -- 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. 16 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: You pack it around to the 17 other counties, well, they can pay for it. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Other counties have lots of 19 money. Let them pay for their own system over there. 20 MR. CURRY: That will be available soon? Or -- 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We -- actually, we have a 22 grant, and it's supposed to be able to take the different 23 formats, DVD's, play it all. 24 MR. CURRY: Well, seriously, if we're doing that, I 25 mean, that -- that -- you know, we can maybe adjust that a 8-11-09 bwk 38 1 little bit, because it really is a -- that was intended for 2 everywhere, and a lot in Kerr County. I just don't know 3 where that is. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We should know -- 5 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Couple weeks. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- before the budget -- 7 MR. CURRY: Okay. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- whether we're going to get 9 that money or not. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: What about your 6,100 miscellaneous? 11 MR. CURRY: I think -- 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Seemed like a pretty big jump. 13 MR. CURRY: Yeah. That's -- we initiated that case 14 management system in our office, and I think that's what -- 15 MS. HARGIS: That's software maintenance. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Software? 17 MR. CURRY: Yeah, she moved it into -- 18 MS. HARGIS: And his is separate from ours, so it's 19 not included in -- 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. So, that puts you just a 21 little bit under 200 for Kerr County's share, when you take 22 the 50 out? 23 MS. HARGIS: Yeah, 198. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 198,723. 25 MS. HARGIS: Uh-huh. 8-11-09 bwk 39 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And the capital item may come 2 out, which will reduce it beyond that, right? 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. That -- 4 MS. HARGIS: We did reallocate the population based 5 on the 2006 census, so that helped us a little bit, because 6 the other counties have grown. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: So, the allocation that's shown on 8 the 7/29 sheet is the most recent? 9 MS. HARGIS: It's the most recent published numbers 10 that we have. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 12 MS. HARGIS: Which is 2006. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Any other questions for Mr. Curry? 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: No, I'm good. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you. Appreciate it. 16 MR. CURRY: Thank you, sir. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Let's do talk just for a 18 second about this jail prosecutor guy that is now under a 19 whole new department. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: All right. Who -- who is in 22 charge of that person? Can we ask Mr. Curry to continue 23 riding herd on that thing? Or -- 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, it was originally set up under 25 his office. 8-11-09 bwk 40 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Right. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: But my understanding is, what 3 happens there is those cases get parceled right there at that 4 point between 198th and 216th, don't they? 5 MR. CURRY: Yes. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: And -- and that prosecutor will 7 handle them for both D.A.'s if -- for example, if they plead 8 out. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So, he's there doing his 10 job. Nobody has to tell him to be there on Wednesday or 11 Friday or -- 12 MR. CURRY: Is that a fair -- 13 MR. BARTON: Yeah, he's working really well. I 14 don't have any statistics for the Court, but it seems to be 15 working real well. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay, thank you. 17 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: 198th is participating in 18 this? 19 MR. BARTON: That's correct. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But some -- one of the two need 21 to be over that budget. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Doesn't somebody need to 23 sign off on -- or do we just pay the guy equal -- 12 equal 24 payments? 25 MR. CURRY: I think so. 8-11-09 bwk 41 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I think is what we do. So, 2 what else do we need to do to him? 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What if we need a new one? Say 4 he decides he doesn't want to do it any more. 5 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Just leave whatever money is 6 left. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But who's going to be 8 responsible for getting a new one, is my question. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: You guys want to flip a coin out 10 there? 11 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Well, if they just -- 12 MR. BARTON: We've got a pretty good working 13 relationship, and just like with David, we both had input. 14 And when David has an issue -- Mr. Cavazos, who's out there 15 at the jail -- if it's an issue with a 216th case, he 16 consults with Bruce. If it's a 198th case, he consults with 17 my office. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: And if you -- one of you guys gets 19 unhappy with him, you're going to go to the other D.A. and 20 say, "Hey, I got some concerns; let's talk about it"? 21 MR. BARTON: Let's be positive, now. It's going to 22 work. (Laughter.) 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay, that's fine. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah, I agree. Let's be positive. 25 But I'm looking for accountability, and I guess that means 8-11-09 bwk 42 1 both of you guys, right? 2 MR. CURRY: I think so. 3 MR. BARTON: If it's one of my cases, he's 4 certainly accountable to me, and I expect the same is true 5 for Bruce's office. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: What about accountable to the 7 Commissioners Court, who's funding it? Both of you is what 8 I'm looking at. 9 MR. BARTON: I think if -- I think that's exactly 10 right. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. That answer your question, 12 Buster? 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It does. Thank you. 14 MR. CURRY: All right, thank you. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Let's go with City/County 16 joint. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Joint. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah, joint. 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: What's the number? 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Oh, boy, I don't know. 21 MS. MABRY: 595. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What is it? 23 MS. MABRY: 595. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 595. 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: 595? 8-11-09 bwk 43 1 (Low-voice discussion off the record.) 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What is the salary line? 3 MS. HARGIS: Well, the -- the salary through 4 retirement, we have to put those line items in here to budget 5 them, but then we also put the revenue to offset them, 'cause 6 our cost is really the 350. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I see. 8 MR. BARTON: So that's kind of an in and out, but 9 we have to show them to be able to hit those lines. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yes, ma'am. 11 MS. HARGIS: I'm not -- 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That person is the Airport 13 Manager. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, I see that now. 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Right. 16 MS. HARGIS: I don't think that the capital 17 number's good. I don't think we have a good capital number 18 yet. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: No, that's not been decided yet. 21 The 8750 is probably good, but I don't know about the 300. 22 Would that be your call? Master plan? 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, that's -- yeah, 8750, 24 that's probably -- but they -- at the Airport Board meeting 25 yesterday, they are going to -- are coming up with a capital 8-11-09 bwk 44 1 item; they're relooking at the -- 2 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: T-hangars. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- T-hangars and where they 4 want to put them, and actually came up with -- I think it's a 5 good idea. They're moving them across the airport from 6 Mooney, so you don't have to worry about the slope of that 7 land. It's going to be more comparable to build, and they're 8 actually using words like "return on investment" out there, 9 trying to make sure -- 10 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Well, this is going to be the 11 big one, I can tell. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- how small that is, but -- 13 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: It's small, but it's a start. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But, anyway, there's -- I would 15 suspect a couple weeks, probably. They know our deadline, 16 and they're working on a capital number. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The -- the water line issue 19 came in at 795? 20 MS. HARGIS: Seven hundred -- 768, wasn't it? 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But it's -- 22 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: 308,750. 23 MS. HARGIS: No, it's 700-something thousand. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Well, I got 308,750. 8-11-09 bwk 45 1 MS. HARGIS: That's -- 2 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That came from you. 3 MS. HARGIS: That was the old -- the old budget. 4 That's not -- after we went yesterday, I didn't change it, 5 because I didn't know what our share was going to be. 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: It changes the bottom line 7 significantly. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So -- anyway, but that project 9 has gone up. They're looking at a -- a Phase 1 and Phase 2 10 on that. 11 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Possibility, yes. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But -- 13 MS. HARGIS: I think that was originally 450,000. 14 Now it's gone to 768 or 798. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 600 last -- 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Six. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Wasn't it at 600? 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: 600 originally. Now it's 19 760 or something like that. We keep looking ahead; it'll get 20 to a million. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay, are we done with that one? 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We pennied you to death. We 23 go to the airport, and it goes like that. 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That's the way airplanes 25 do; they fly away. 8-11-09 bwk 46 1 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: The solution to the problem? 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We're the only solution. 3 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Cheapest, best option. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Any more questions on that 5 particular budget? 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Only option. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We're just going to bring this 8 one back later. We need to keep this one... 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Adult Probation. That's 571. 10 MR. BUCKALEW: Afternoon, gentlemen. Y'all have 11 the numbers? 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Good afternoon, Captain. The rent, 13 that's in conformity with the new lease beginning October 1, 14 as though it were going to go for the whole year? 15 Ms. Hargis? 16 MS. HARGIS: I put the whole year in here. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Good. That's what you needed to do. 18 MS. HARGIS: It's the 38,000, correct? 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. Well, I took it off the 20 lease. 21 MS. HARGIS: Okay. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: If there's any question, we need to 23 definitely tie it to that lease. It's some odd-numbered 24 figure. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Do both Adult Probation 8-11-09 bwk 47 1 departments have DOEP instructors? D-O-E-P instructors? 2 MR. BUCKALEW: Commissioner Baldwin, no, as far as 3 I know, that class, that drug -- it's a drug offender 4 education program, and the 216th is the only one with the 5 instructor here. But that certainly does not prevent the 6 198th from sending their folks over to -- to take that class. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: The same class under their 8 salary? 9 MR. BUCKALEW: Yes, sir, under that. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Super. Super. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: And I suspect you get some of those 12 folks anyway, don't you? 13 MR. BUCKALEW: Yes, sir. Yes, sir. My budget 14 is -- is -- and I don't know if anyone has ever explained to 15 the Court, but my budget is 41 percent state, derived from 16 the state, and the other percentage is made up from the 17 collection of the probation fees, which are part of the 18 judgments at the time of probation. So, my budget is -- a 19 big portion of it is a projection as to what we hope to 20 increase -- or hope to collect over the time frame. 21 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: 41 percent of your budget 22 comes from the state? 23 MR. BUCKALEW: From the state, yes, sir. 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Which leaves 59 percent to 25 be allocated to the four counties in 216th; is that correct? 8-11-09 bwk 48 1 MR. BUCKALEW: Well, it will come from the three 2 counties, in that Kendall County is no longer a part of the 3 216th Probation Department; just Kerr, Gillespie, and 4 Bandera. 5 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Forgot about that. 6 MR. BUCKALEW: But in Kerr County -- Kerr County, 7 we're currently -- there are approximately 894 individuals 8 under adult supervision. 466 of those are felonies, and 432 9 approximately, in the last count, were misdemeanors. There's 10 ten officers that will supervise those 894 in Kerr County 11 alone. That doesn't -- those are Kerr County numbers. The 12 biggest part -- the biggest thing that I believe that the 13 probation department, as well as part of the -- that's our 14 responsibility, is to provide public safety through 15 supervision of these offenders here in Kerr County. The -- 16 the real benefit as to -- I guess on an economic aside to the 17 County is that at the time that these individuals are 18 sentenced, they're sentenced to a term of community service, 19 so many hours of community service, depending on their time 20 they're placed on probation. In the last fiscal year, which 21 was the 2008-2009, there was approximately 85,000 hours of 22 community service provided to public entities, which there 23 are about 35 here in Kerr County. So, 85,000 hours of 24 community service by these probationers from the 216th 25 provided service to these nongovernmental entities. 8-11-09 bwk 49 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: In Kerr County only? 2 MR. BUCKALEW: Yes, sir, this is Kerr County only. 3 At a savings of about $441,000 to the citizens. Now, there 4 was approximately 19,000 hours in community service provided 5 to Kerr County entities alone, or to Kerr County alone. 6 And -- 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: The government of Kerr 8 County? 9 MR. BUCKALEW: The government of Kerr County, yes, 10 sir. 11 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: What is the percentage of 12 your -- of your budget that's funded by your -- by the 13 probation fees? 14 MR. BUCKALEW: About 59 -- 59 percent, 15 Commissioner. And, actually, I have -- I've cut the budget 16 for the 216th Probation Department probably about 22 percent, 17 just to be, you know, conservative. I've cut some -- cut 18 back on some longevity, cut back on my salary, just in an 19 effort that we can make sure that we stay fully operational 20 for the -- for the citizens of this county. And, you know, 21 that's -- the probation officers, they're all, at a minimum, 22 college -- with a college degree. My minimum time with the 23 Probation Department is -- probably averages probably about 24 ten years, so they're long-term officers. And, again, the 25 biggest part of that is to monitor these offenders and 8-11-09 bwk 50 1 provide public safety to the citizens. 2 I know since I've come -- when I came on into the 3 Probation Department, we had probably a little over 100 4 fugitives from the Probation Department, absconders 5 throughout the state. And, as you well know, my 30 years 6 with law enforcement allowed me to collaborate and network 7 with these -- with the U.S. Marshal's Service and the Ranger 8 service, and along with Sheriff Hierholzer, we've had over -- 9 in the last two years, two different roundups that 10 actually -- working with U.S. Marshal's Service, we had Bexar 11 County Sheriff's Department up here, San Antonio Police 12 Officers, Texas Rangers, Deputy U.S. Marshal Service that 13 came into Kerr County and -- and helped Sheriff Hierholzer 14 and our Probation Department, because they're -- his 15 fugitives are my fugitives in most cases, too. And the first 16 year, we had over 35 arrested, and this year we had -- I'm 17 sure there were over -- over 20. 18 So, what does that do as far as the public safety 19 for the citizens of Kerr County? If you abscond from 20 probation, doesn't matter where -- I mean during that 21 roundup, we got an individual out of Michigan that the 22 Marshals -- if we find a lead here, the Marshals will follow 23 that lead up out of state. It's the same thing right now 24 today. I probably -- I have Rangers that are looking for 25 absconders from 216th and the 198th Probation Department. 8-11-09 bwk 51 1 So, doesn't matter for me and for my department whether it's 2 the 198th or the 216th, and just like Mr. Barton said, it's 3 all about getting the bad guy off the street, or in their 4 case, prosecuting. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What's your total budget? 6 MR. BUCKALEW: This year, Commissioner, it's 1.3 -- 7 $1,326,030. Approximately 1.1 million of that will be 8 salaries. The State has cut me 5 percent in my -- in that 9 budget itself, as well as my cuts. My community service 10 program has been cut another 5 percent. My insurance went 11 up, so I took a -- took a pretty good lick overall. Again, 12 25 percent just in-house, and then the cuts that the state 13 gave me. But -- so, our -- the probationers who are put on 14 probation that we supervise, obviously, again, the fees are a 15 big part of what -- what we do. And we also collect 16 restitution. In the last -- as of -- I believe in -- in the 17 last numbers I had, which was in January, when Judge Williams 18 came on, we had about $160,000 collected in restitution that 19 was sentenced -- that these individuals were sentenced to. 20 Obviously, that's more now. 21 And that -- a part of that DOEP program, about 22 $6,800 of that, as of, I guess, January -- I haven't caught 23 up with it lately -- goes back to the county. Because a 24 portion of that, that -- on that DOEP program, that money 25 that we charge -- the moneys that we charge for that goes 8-11-09 bwk 52 1 back to the county. So, that's over $6,000 that -- that 2 we've done. We -- and in an effort to get these individuals 3 into that program, when I got here, it was -- we were 4 charging $85. That was pretty much consistent with what was 5 being charged throughout the county for the other programs, 6 but these people need that program. They're drug offenders; 7 they need to get into that program. And so I reduced that, 8 just in an effort that these people could get to that program 9 and have access to it and be successful on their probation. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Any other questions of Mr. Buckalew? 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Is it a pastime of yours to 12 remember all those numbers? Is that fun for you? 13 MR. BUCKALEW: Oh, no. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Let me ask you a question, 15 though. I'm curious about people having workloads. How many 16 probation officer do you have? 17 MR. BUCKALEW: Ten in Kerr County. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And how many offenders right 19 now? 20 MR. BUCKALEW: 894. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: God almighty. Excuse me -- 22 my English. That's a pretty good workload. 23 MR. BUCKALEW: And 894, I might say, those are 24 direct -- Commissioner Baldwin, they are directly being 25 supervised here by these probation officers. Now, indirect 8-11-09 bwk 53 1 are individuals who are sentenced in Kerr County, but live in 2 another county and are supervised, and so these probation 3 officers are still responsible for all the -- the monitoring 4 of these through their judgments. If they come back to the 5 court because they're revoked or whatever, they're required 6 to follow up with that. So, there's probably about another 7 -- there's another 350 to 360 probation -- probationers that 8 are there indirect. So, totally, there's -- there's 1,100 in 9 Kerr County that have been sentenced in Kerr County and on 10 probation. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's a case load. 12 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yes. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's a load right there. 14 Wow. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Appreciate the information. 16 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yeah. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, sir. District Clerk. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Where might that person be? 19 MS. UECKER: Okay. As do I every year, I have some 20 statistics that I pass around. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Do you think we're going to go -- 22 start going north instead of south on your budget? You know 23 better than that, don't you? 24 MS. UECKER: I'm not asking that. You know better 25 than to think that I might. The only changes that we've 8-11-09 bwk 54 1 made, that you probably already have on yours, is reduce -- 2 we reduced the bonds and insurance. We reduced -- increased 3 the employee training by 500, is what I'm requesting, and 4 reduced postage. And let's see. Then the only question I 5 have, that I had originally requested on computer software, 6 was an additional license on our PaperVision, where we and 7 the public and other county offices can log onto PaperVision 8 and view the images, you know, the documents that we send to 9 CASO, the older documents. Those are viewable on 10 PaperVision. And we only have two licenses, which means if 11 there's two people on, somebody has to wait till the other 12 one gets off. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: How much activity do you really have 14 on that? 15 MS. UECKER: Quite a bit. A lot. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Do you frequently have people 17 standing in line between the two stations? 18 MS. UECKER: Mm-hmm, yes. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: PaperVision? 20 MS. UECKER: Paper. PaperVision, yeah. It's a 21 little program. It's going to cost about another $3,200, 22 which could actually come from Records Preservation if we 23 want it to. 24 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Sounds like a good place to 25 take it. 8-11-09 bwk 55 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 3 MS. UECKER: So -- 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: If it's necessary. You're 5 talking about another station -- 6 MS. UECKER: No. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: -- where it could be three 8 people? I missed it then, I'm sorry. 9 MS. UECKER: Okay. CASO Document Management is 10 where we send all of our documents. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: San Antonio? 12 MS. UECKER: To San Antonio, and they image them. 13 That includes all of the old stuff that they've already done. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Uh-huh. 15 MS. UECKER: And they're the ones that preserve on 16 microfilm, for archival purposes, old records. Well, they 17 have a little program, and we started out with one and then 18 we went to two, and this year I'm asking for the third. 19 Their program is you can log on, and that's mainly what the 20 public uses, especially if they're doing older stuff, which 21 most of them do. To pull up any document from 1836, you can 22 pull it up on PaperVision and look at it and print it right 23 there. It's saved us beaucoups of time, and -- and it's just 24 a license. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I see. 8-11-09 bwk 56 1 MS. UECKER: It's like we have two licenses. That 2 means if I'm on, looking something up for -- in preparation 3 of filing a case or issuing something, and there's somebody 4 else at the counter looking it up, then another clerk, I 5 mean, would have to wait for either me to log off or the 6 person at the counter to log off. Abstractors use it all the 7 time. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Let me ask you this question. When 9 a citizen wants a copy, how is -- how is that arrangement 10 worked through CASO, where -- there's some portion of a fee 11 that comes to you? 12 MS. UECKER: No, you're talking about e-filing. 13 You're talking about e-filing. CASO, all of that comes to 14 us. All of the revenue from those copies -- 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 16 MS. UECKER: -- comes to us. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Because we actually own 18 everything? 19 MS. UECKER: Exactly, we own that program. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: They don't take a portion of it? 21 MS. UECKER: No, sir. The only thing they charge 22 us is for the -- 23 JUDGE TINLEY: The license. 24 MS. UECKER: -- little program, the license itself. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 8-11-09 bwk 57 1 MS. UECKER: They install it. 2 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Take it out of Records 3 Preservation. 4 MS. UECKER: Yeah, and it can come from Records 5 Preservation. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 7 MS. UECKER: So, we can move it over there if you 8 want to. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Anything else? 11 MS. UECKER: I think that's it on my budget. The 12 -- we did increase -- in working with the Auditor's office, 13 we increased operating supplies and jury meals in the jury 14 budget, because we're already pretty far extended over the 15 jury meals and supplies. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Jury? 17 MS. UECKER: So, on those, I requested an increase, 18 which I think she's already put on there, on yours as well. 19 The other thing is, I don't have the Law Library -- and I can 20 print out the current, but I never was able to get onto the 21 Law Library budget. 22 (Low-voice discussion off the record.) 23 MS. UECKER: Okay. All right. Yeah, we've already 24 put the 50,000 in there, because we're already over on the 25 book expenses for this year by about 6,000 or 7,000, if you 8-11-09 bwk 58 1 count what I'm working on right now submitting. So, I see 2 she's already got the 50 in there, so that's good. That's 3 it. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: General fund, jury, is that 5 -- what jury is that? Is that district level? Is that -- 6 MS. UECKER: That's all of them. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: All juries are together? 8 And y'all carve out the little meals, or -- 9 MS. UECKER: Most of the time, the J.P. jurors last 10 maybe, you know, an hour at the most. Very, very, very 11 seldom does -- 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So, the district level is 13 really the only one that stands out? 14 MS. UECKER: And that includes if a Grand Jury is 15 working late or they're working through lunch or they want to 16 get through, or something like that happens, we have to order 17 in. And, of course, we do it as economically as possible. 18 We joke sometimes, they want steak, so they get sandwiches. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Steak sandwiches. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Tube steak. 21 MS. UECKER: Tube steak, exactly. Tube steak. 22 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Linda, are the passport 23 fees, are they in your total receipts? Are the fees included 24 in the total receipts? 25 MS. UECKER: On the -- the new civil stuff that 8-11-09 bwk 59 1 we're getting now, yes. On the cases that we're transferred 2 up from County Court at Law. 3 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I think you misunderstood 4 my question. The passport fees? 5 MS. UECKER: Oh, passport. 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yeah. Are the passport 7 fees, totals of each year included in your total receipts, or 8 are they separate? 9 MS. UECKER: I think they're included. 10 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I see. 11 MS. UECKER: 'Cause you can see passport fees are 12 down just a hair. But they're -- just in the last couple of 13 weeks, it's shot back up again. I don't know why it 14 fluctuates like that. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Spike and then level. It 16 should go back down because the Mexico-Canada rush is over. 17 MS. UECKER: Right. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: A lot of people that -- 19 MS. UECKER: That's where the problem was. I also 20 understand now that the Post Office is also accepting 21 passport applications, but I think you probably have to make 22 an appointment, so I don't know how that's going to work. 23 Folks don't want to do that. We're still having people 24 coming from San Antonio because they have to wait in line in 25 San Antonio, so they'd rather come over here and get it done 8-11-09 bwk 60 1 and move on down the road. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: They just want to come see you, 3 Linda. 4 MS. UECKER: That's it. That's it. They go, 5 "Where is that famous District Clerk?" 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: State champion. 7 MS. UECKER: State champion. 8 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Still in office. 9 MS. UECKER: The only other thing that I increased 10 was the part-time. I asked for an increase of $5,000 there, 11 from five to ten, and the reason for that was to accommodate 12 the direct file load. I did not want to add another person 13 just for that. I want to try it and see. I think we can 14 make it work. I've got a part-time person right now; this is 15 her last week, but she has been really helping a lot and 16 going out to the jail and going to do the pretrials. Because 17 of the way the pretrials are working now, especially in the 18 216th, it takes three clerks, the way they've got them set 19 up. And sometimes they split that, bring another judge in, 20 and -- so I think that I can make that work, 'cause I really 21 did not want to take on another employee. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And that's directly related 23 to the "something" file? 24 MS. UECKER: Direct file. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Direct file out at the jail. 8-11-09 bwk 61 1 MS. UECKER: Which, so far -- you know, knock on 2 wood -- I think has been a tremendous success. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: But it may be a -- may be 4 some cost to us a little later on? 5 MS. UECKER: I don't know. I hope not. But -- 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, me too. 7 MS. UECKER: Yeah. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I sure would like to know 9 about it if it does, though. 10 MS. UECKER: I'm sure you will. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Do you think we should transfer a 12 part of that part-time money over to that special budget that 13 we're doing on that rapid file and disposal system? 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You mean from her budget 15 over to -- 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. Yeah. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't. 18 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I don't either. 19 MS. HARGIS: Let's don't do that. That gets a 20 little complicated. That'll get a little complicated. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 22 MS. UECKER: Yeah, 'cause -- 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Still her office. 24 MS. UECKER: -- I don't have any of Amos' fantasy 25 money, so -- (Laughter.) 8-11-09 bwk 62 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: We've done enough 2 fantasizing for one day. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That was funny. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah, we're going to see how much 5 fantasy money the Sheriff has here. 6 MS. UECKER: Okay? 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you. 8 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Thank you. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Let's go with Commissioners 10 Court. We made a few adjustments on that, didn't we, 11 Ms. Hargis? 12 MS. HARGIS: Yes. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Like what? 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Getting ready to tell us. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: You don't want to know. You don't 16 need to know. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: More of this fantasy stuff. 18 MS. HARGIS: We reduced the professional services 19 by 10,000. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And what did we use that 21 for? That's engineers and architects and stuff like that? 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: At some point, we're probably 23 going to -- related to that whole Center Point project, 24 probably need to hire a water guru a little bit -- water 25 attorney. 8-11-09 bwk 63 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: We are. We're going to 2 have to have a water attorney. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's in there. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's -- there's plenty 5 here to do that. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And what -- what about, 8 like, Peter Lewis' work? Does that come out of here? 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Either there or -- or 10 nondepartmental, either one. But -- 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: One of the two, yeah. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. 13 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: What -- 14 JUDGE TINLEY: We're okay. We're okay. Hopefully, 15 most all of that's going to be in this year's budget. 16 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: What did we have in 17 professional services last year? See, we got in there now 18 that Alamo Insurance brokerage -- 19 MS. HARGIS: Okay, that Alamo Insurance, and then 20 the Sheriff said we -- 21 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: What is that? 22 MS. HARGIS: -- we pay -- 23 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Frigerio normally comes out of 24 that with that attorney stuff for any lawsuits. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah, the -- 8-11-09 bwk 64 1 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: And that deductible is 10,000. 2 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: So, that only gives us 3 6,000 for any -- any other contingency? 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What's in nondepartmental? You 5 almost have to look at those two together. 6 MS. HARGIS: Yeah, nondepartmental. I think we put 7 50 in that contingency. I can't remember. I don't think 8 it's here today -- yeah, it is. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Fifty. 10 MS. HARGIS: Well, actually, we -- hang on a 11 second. Professional services, we got 30. We reduced it to 12 30, 'cause we've only spent -- 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think that those -- that 14 combination looks sufficient to me. 15 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I would hope so. 16 MS. HARGIS: We haven't even spent any of this out 17 of this line item, but we'll probably end up spending it this 18 year on that C.P.S. case. No? 19 JUDGE TINLEY: We may have to make a budget 20 amendment to transfer some from there over. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We won't have any redistricting 22 in next year's budget? That will be the following budget? 23 That one will be a big hit, whenever -- 24 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That will be a big hit on -- 25 MS. HARGIS: I thought you told us it wouldn't come 8-11-09 bwk 65 1 out till 2010. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think we start doing some 3 work next year. 4 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Very little next year. The 5 big bulk of the work is 2011. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: For redistricting. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And if we do this -- 8 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Probably the next budget 9 year. Probably most of it will happen after October. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right, after October. 11 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: This budget year will be 12 ending -- well, the one we're going into for 09-10 will be 13 ending, and we'll be going into 10-11. 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That's the one we need to 15 plug in the redistricting. 16 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I think that's right, if I 17 remember. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What about the -- 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Road program. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- road program? 21 JUDGE TINLEY: That's going to be eight for next 22 year. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 8,000. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: If we get into that one. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We talked about it yesterday. 8-11-09 bwk 66 1 What about -- 2 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: If we do that. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The -- and this may come out of 4 Flood Control, but the dam engineering work that we -- if we 5 go anywhere with it. 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Well, I think we can -- can 7 we not wrap up anything associated -- software, every cost 8 associated with the dam repairs, we can wrap it up under the 9 capital. 10 MS. HARGIS: I think -- yes, I would say let's do 11 engineering. 12 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Soft costs as well as hard 13 costs. 14 MS. HARGIS: Yes. 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think -- 17 JUDGE TINLEY: We got a total of 60 under both 18 budgets. 19 MS. HARGIS: Sixty for professional? 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah, 30 and 30. 21 MS. HARGIS: Thirty and 30. Sixty all together, 22 yes. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What's the audit run? Does the 24 audit come out of that? 25 MS. HARGIS: No, the audit is a separate line item. 8-11-09 bwk 67 1 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Separate line item. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 3 MS. HARGIS: And it came in at 35, so I changed 4 that. We had 50 last year, and he -- in his new engagement 5 letter, he put 35 in, so we locked that down. The other two 6 audits are paid by the -- those departments. Juvenile pays 7 theirs, and Adult pays theirs. 8 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Where's the floodplain come 9 out of -- administration come out of? Road and Bridge 10 budget? 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. 12 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Out of floodplain. It's a 14 separate budget, I think. 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Correct. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 17 MR. ODOM: How much did you say? 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Just asked where it was, 19 not the amount. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We didn't touch any of your 21 money. 22 MR. ODOM: I only have 5,000, so that's all that's 23 there. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: My only -- my only question 8-11-09 bwk 68 1 is if we -- if we do hire an attorney to help us with water 2 and wastewater issues, which we're going to have to do, we 3 only have 6,000 out of that 30 that's unallocated. There's 4 already 24,000 allocated. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But there's the 6 nondepartmental. 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And it's -- 9 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: So we have a second line to 10 turn to if we need to. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Why don't we take about a 10-minute 12 break. 13 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Good idea. 14 (Recess taken from 3:32 p.m. to 3:47 p.m.) 15 - - - - - - - - - - 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay, let's come back to order, if 17 we might. The next one is County Judge. Well, we did cut 18 some. We did cut some. 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Will you take these 20 handcuffs on me -- the D.A. put on me? 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Y'all weren't very nice down 22 there. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Why don't we do the County Court 24 while we're there also? Those two are together. The bad 25 news on that one is that we had to increase the attorney's 8-11-09 bwk 69 1 fees, and that was the only item we increased, wasn't it, 2 Ms. Hargis? 3 MS. HARGIS: Yes, we did have to increase the 4 attorney fees on all the line items. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Buster would say these lawyers are 6 just getting too fat off the county, right? 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Too fat off the county. 8 County Court, that's this 426? 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. Mm-hmm, yeah. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Your court? 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Mm-hmm. 12 MS. HARGIS: The mental health hearings are also in 13 here, aren't they? And the J.P. stuff. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. Any time we have someone 15 committed outside, we -- the court costs, at about $425 a 16 pop, come out of that account too. So -- 17 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Are we on County Judge or 18 County Court? 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Either one. Both. 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. 21 MS. HARGIS: 426 is County Judge. That's what's 22 we're on right now. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Judge, in your notes here, 24 you're -- let's see. Hold on. Hold on just a minute; I 25 can't read this thing. 32,000. Court-appointed attorneys. 8-11-09 bwk 70 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Mm-hmm. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Increased to 32 from 3,000 3 per P.T.? 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Mm-hmm. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: "P.T." meaning what? 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Me. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You're P.T.? 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. Of course. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: That's what my mama named me. 11 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: He just left the middle 12 initial out. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So, that's Pat Tinley, isn't 14 it? Or is it Tinsley? 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Could be. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Better get the spelling right 17 before we get -- 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Get this straight, because I've 20 seen it "Tinsley" before. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, you told me that was your 22 favorite fried chicken. Or was it chewing tobacco? 23 MS. WILLIAMS: Uh-oh. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'm sorry I asked the 25 question. 8-11-09 bwk 71 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Mm-hmm. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: I was hoping you'd finally admit 3 that. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. Wore me down, didn't 5 he? 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Mm-hmm. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Anything else there? Okay. 8 We'll go to County Auditor. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: All right. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: That one better be in good shape. 11 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: What number is that? 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What is y'all's number? 13 MS. MABRY: 495. 14 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: 495-102. 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Got it. 16 MS. HARGIS: My training had to increase, because I 17 have three new people, and three new people need to go to 18 school, and the auditors conferences in Galveston. We're 19 also noticing -- I don't know if you guys are noticing on 20 yours, but in all of our hotels now, the ones that we had for 21 $95 have gone up to $120. 22 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: How much? 23 MS. HARGIS: 120. The Omni has always had a 24 contract for 95. Jannett ran into the same problem. It was 25 Jannett or Diane, one of them, ran into that. They changed 8-11-09 bwk 72 1 the rate on us, which really makes a huge difference when 2 they have these three- and four-day conferences. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Has the State -- has the State 4 changed their so-called state rate? I know it used to be 85. 5 MS. HARGIS: I don't think so. The hotels give 6 you -- now, I know the Texas Association had an agreement 7 with the Omni since '92 for $95 -- $90 or $95. And when I 8 called to get my rate back in May, they raised it, and every 9 Omni's gone up to 120. And that's a -- a big convention 10 hotel, because they would allow people to come in for 11 conferences that don't have a big room over -- you know, big 12 room load, and also they don't like government rate any more. 13 The rate that we had at the Hilton for the TAC conference was 14 149. And that's -- 15 JUDGE TINLEY: 149? 16 MS. HARGIS: 149. And then the rate at the 17 auditors conference in Galveston is 149. I'm getting Tracy 18 certified to be a financial officer as well as Mindy; they're 19 going to school together. And that's a week-long school, 20 even on Saturday; they take the test on Saturday. And then 21 there's a second phase to that, so that will be a kind of a 22 dual control. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: In Austin? 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Back to school. 25 MS. WILLIAMS: Back to school we go. 8-11-09 bwk 73 1 MS. HARGIS: Yeah. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Is that in Austin? 3 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: On your assistant salary, 4 those are -- that is three people? 5 MS. HARGIS: It's three people, yes, sir. 6 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: And then you have part-time 7 in there. 8 MS. HARGIS: I do have part-time in there. 9 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Why is that? 10 MS. HARGIS: We have had to use part-time for 11 people being out, and for -- last year we didn't have very 12 many people, and for different times of the year when I'm 13 doing the auditing and stuff, it gets a little tough. I can 14 cut that back if you like, but I'd like to have a little bit 15 in there. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: What do you think you can get by 17 with? 18 MS. HARGIS: I'd like to at least have, you know, 19 5,000. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Why don't we see if that'll 21 work. 22 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Just an observation. You 23 know that I -- I've been kind of critical of your office 24 throughout the whole year. I don't think it's any secret. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I didn't realize that. 8-11-09 bwk 74 1 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Let me point it out to you. 2 MS. HARGIS: That's fine. 3 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I noticed on Monday, when we 4 had Commissioners Court, three, including you, were in here 5 in court all morning, and I don't necessarily understand why 6 we need to have three people out of your office of four -- 7 how, if you're so busy, they could take a whole morning off. 8 MS. HARGIS: We didn't have all three of them in 9 here the whole time. 10 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: You most certainly did. I 11 sat here and watched. 12 MS. HARGIS: Tracy left and went back to the 13 office. Tess went back when Tracy was here. They 14 alternated. 15 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: They were both in here 16 several times at the same time. 17 MS. HARGIS: Tracy is working on the fixed assets, 18 which is a huge project, and I am letting her make those 19 presentations. Tracy -- and Tess is in here with me for the 20 budgeting, and she will continue to be in here with me so 21 that she can learn, and so that if I'm not here, she can be 22 present, and then you won't be without someone. But Tracy is 23 working on the fixed assets. We're -- we are trying to 24 reduce your insurance that 224,000. I think that's the first 25 time you've had write-offs actually brought to you so you 8-11-09 bwk 75 1 really know what your -- Tommy wrote off, when I got here, 2 two and a half million dollars. I know you never saw that. 3 I don't want to do that. I want you to know what I write 4 off. And she has found equipment that we no longer have, 5 equipment that we've been paying for on our insurance, 6 equipment that's overvalued. So, we are trying to get our 7 insurance rates down, as well as get our fixed assets to what 8 they truly are on our balance sheet, and that's what she's 9 doing. Go ahead. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The -- what I'm hearing -- and 11 I would agree that having a lot of staff in here is not 12 always necessary, but if they're here for training purposes, 13 so this is a -- at a point, they'll not all be here. 14 MS. HARGIS: Well, she won't be here unless she's 15 presenting a fixed asset situation. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 17 MS. HARGIS: And she had a 10:30 item that she came 18 in a little before 10:30 and she left. Tess has been -- 19 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That was more an 20 informational item than it was anything. That was kind of -- 21 not a great presentation value to it, in my opinion. It was 22 just basically a -- a list of stuff, and that's just -- you 23 know, I don't know that the person has to be present to 24 present that. You could have presented it. 25 MS. HARGIS: Well, if you want me to present it, I 8-11-09 bwk 76 1 will present it. I just gave her an opportunity, because 2 she's been working very hard on it. It gives her an 3 opportunity to present her work. That's not a problem. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Have we made the change on the 5 part-time? 6 MS. HARGIS: I marked it on mine. 7 MS. MABRY: Yes. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: You got that plugged in, Tess? 9 MS. MABRY: I made it. 10 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Another thing is, I guess you 11 know -- I feel pretty confident that I know this, and that is 12 that the Judge has placed quite a bit of responsibility 13 dealing with position schedules and things like that with 14 H.R. And so, you know, I don't see that you're understaffed 15 by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, I think you're 16 overstaffed, because a lot of that stuff that's being done 17 that used to be done in there, you're not doing any more. 18 MS. HARGIS: I've never done the position schedule 19 since I've been here. 20 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Well, it used to be done in 21 that office, and -- 22 MS. HARGIS: It was done by -- it was done by Eva 23 when I got here, and I believe that it was -- who did it? 24 Did Tommy do it before then? 25 MS. WILLIAMS: I think the previous County 8-11-09 bwk 77 1 Treasurer and the Auditor kind of worked together on it. 2 MS. HARGIS: So -- 3 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Okay. Well, I just -- you 4 know, I think that you're -- you're heavy on staff, is what I 5 think. That's my opinion, and mine only. And -- 6 MS. HARGIS: Well, I'm having -- 7 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: -- I know that you're 8 catching up, doing some things that have not been done 9 before, but once that's done, what's going to happen then? 10 MS. HARGIS: The auditing needs to be done on an 11 annual basis of every single department. And the scope of 12 that audit has -- it will be either increased or decreased 13 depending on the department. Because -- and the more cash 14 that we have in this building, the more audits we're going to 15 have to have. We're just bringing in an ATM machine now with 16 more cash. The audits are not a one-time thing. If you read 17 what we're supposed to be doing, we're supposed to be 18 auditing people on a quarterly basis. There's no way we can 19 do that. And if we get people done once a year, we're really 20 hustling to get that done. We still haven't completed all 21 the audits of departments we didn't get done last year. The 22 J.P.'s are supposed to be audited. I'm supposed to do the 23 commissary on an annual basis. The Sheriff knows that. 24 There's all kinds of other forms and surveys and things that 25 we don't -- we just do them, and this juvenile and the adult 8-11-09 bwk 78 1 probation is a large part of what we do. We do a lot of work 2 for them. We do quarterly reports for them. So, you know, 3 I'm here every day. 4 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Well, I'm just here as one -- 5 one voice on the Court, and I think that -- my opinion is 6 that there's a lot of smoke goes up in the air, and not a lot 7 settles out of it, seems like. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: On part-time, are you at 5,000? 9 MS. MABRY: Yes. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 11 MS. MABRY: I will have to reduce the FICA and -- 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Pardon? 13 MS. MABRY: I'll have to reduce the FICA 14 accordingly also. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Okay. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: God, you don't have that 17 done yet? 18 MS. MABRY: No, 'fraid not. 19 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Other than that, I don't have 20 any comment about it. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Any more questions with 22 regard to the Auditor? Okay. Let's move on to the 23 Treasurer. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What is your number? 25 MS. WILLIAMS: 497, Fund 10. 8-11-09 bwk 79 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's the next one. 2 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Mm-hmm. 3 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Mindy, your conference seems 4 awfully high. $5,000 in conferences? 5 MS. WILLIAMS: Well, if I'm going to C.I.O. 6 training, there will be extra hours, extra training that I'll 7 have to have next year in order to keep that certification. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: You're promising to pass the test, 9 now, aren't you? 10 MS. WILLIAMS: I'm going to do my darndest. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: That's not what I'm asking. I want 12 you to promise me you'll pass the test. 13 MS. WILLIAMS: I'm going to pass that test. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: There you go. 15 MS. WILLIAMS: Please, Lord. (Laughter.) 16 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: You were talking about the 17 -- that conference line. The note says that it increased 18 from two to four. 19 MS. WILLIAMS: That was for the current year that 20 we're in right now. 21 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: So, now we're going to 22 five? 23 MS. WILLIAMS: Yes, sir. 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. 25 MS. WILLIAMS: And I'll try to make it on four if 8-11-09 bwk 80 1 you think that will work. It'll be tight. 2 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Motel 6. Keep the light on 3 for you. (Laughter.) 4 MS. WILLIAMS: That'll work, too. 5 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I've stayed in some worse 6 than that. 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: So have I. 8 MS. WILLIAMS: Just so you gentlemen know, the few 9 conferences that I have gone to this budget year, I have 10 gotten my travel in advance. I have turned some of that 11 money back in. I only pay for my actual gas, so I have 12 turned some of my travel money back in so far. 13 MS. UECKER: I learned a little trick, y'all, with 14 the room. The -- if the contract rate for a conference is 15 149, if you just go online and get a flat government rate, a 16 lot of times you get that same room for 98. 17 MS. HYDE: Right. 18 MS. UECKER: That's how I get them. 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Good trick. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Any other questions about 21 Ms. William's budget? 22 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: No. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, ma'am. 24 MS. WILLIAMS: Thank you. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Appreciate it. 8-11-09 bwk 81 1 MS. WILLIAMS: You're welcome. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You're a nice person. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Nondepartmental? 5 JUDGE TINLEY: We already did nondepartmental, 6 remember? 7 MS. HARGIS: No we didn't. 8 MS. WILLIAMS: No. 9 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: We talked about it. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We did City/County. 11 MS. HARGIS: We haven't done nondepartmental. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We only did the professional 13 services item on nondepartmental. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Oh, okay. 15 MS. HARGIS: We looked at -- 16 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: What number is 17 nondepartmental? 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 409. 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: 409. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. Whole bunch of insurance in 21 there. 22 MS. HARGIS: Yeah. Our workmen's comp is 23 definitely up. We probably will get a check back, but that's 24 what the premiums are reflecting right now. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What is photocopy expense in 8-11-09 bwk 82 1 this item? Why is it such a big number? 2 MS. HYDE: Did you say "Ms. Hyde"? 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Photocopy expense is 5,000? 4 MS. WILLIAMS: That's where I think the -- don't 5 y'all order the copy paper? 6 MS. HARGIS: That's for the whole -- 7 MS. WILLIAMS: We order bulk copy paper. 8 MS. HARGIS: That's the paper for the whole 9 building. 10 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: We order what, Mindy? 11 MS. WILLIAMS: Bulk copy paper, 40, 60, sometimes 12 70 boxes. 13 MS. HARGIS: Yeah, we buy in bulk, and we bid it 14 every time we buy it, and then the different departments call 15 and get it from us. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: And it's charged out to each 17 department depending on how much they get, yeah. Okay. 18 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Autopsies and inquest is 19 down. 20 MS. HARGIS: The autopsies are up -- cost is up. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Has the cost of them gone 22 up? 23 MS. HARGIS: Yes. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Or the travel over there? 25 MS. HARGIS: Both. 8-11-09 bwk 83 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Or we have people -- 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Both. 3 MS. HARGIS: Both. The autopsy itself has gone to 4 350 from 250, and it's costing us 300 -- I believe 300 to 325 5 to transport them. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: 350 to transport. 7 MS. HARGIS: 350 for the -- 8 JUDGE TINLEY: And it's 2,300 now per autopsy. 9 MS. HARGIS: Oh, that's right. Oh, no -- no, it's 10 more than that. 11 MS. MABRY: 2,650. 12 MS. HARGIS: 2,650. 13 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: 26 -- yeah. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: 2,650. 15 MS. HARGIS: The pauper burials we left the same. 16 Those the Judge is keeping in hand. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: On the immunizations -- 18 MS. HARGIS: That I'm going to refer -- oh, Judge, 19 you reduced that. Oh. 20 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I think that's for -- 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 22 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That's for the deputies, the 23 Sheriff's Department. 24 MS. HYDE: What? 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Immunization. 8-11-09 bwk 84 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Immunizations. Is it going to 2 always be that big? 3 MS. HYDE: No, sir. No, sir. The last year, 4 remember, y'all -- I had asked for 20,000 for the hep, and 5 y'all said no, I could have half of it, so that's why. Half 6 of the people got it this past year. Half of it needed to 7 get it next year, and then they're good for ten years. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 9 MS. HYDE: But, you know, flu shots, that's at -- I 10 hope that's every year, you're going to let us have them. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 12 MS. HYDE: Because it's a lot cheaper on us. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's the 3,000 for the flu 14 shots out of that 20, okay. 15 MS. HARGIS: But -- 16 MS. HYDE: And then the tetanus shots is 14,000, 17 but that's going to be for everybody, unless y'all tell me to 18 cut it again, because I got a lot of grief about cutting it 19 in half this year. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Are we -- well, if I add this 21 up, it should be 37,000, and I see 20,000. 22 MS. HYDE: Oh, you kept 17,000 out of it? 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The Judge did. 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Somebody did. 25 MS. HYDE: Oh, dear. 8-11-09 bwk 85 1 MS. HARGIS: Yeah, that's what I just said. 2 MS. HYDE: Okay. The 20,000 for hep is for 150. 3 I've got to have 20,000 for the hep to get the rest of the 4 folks. 14,000 is for tetanus for 300 folks. And then -- I 5 mean, that is what it is. So, y'all tell me what you want me 6 to do. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We got a tet and a hep and 8 a -- something. 9 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Mix the two together and we 10 get a tet-hep? 11 MS. HYDE: A tet-hep? A hep-tet. Oh, that didn't 12 sound good. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's for all employees, or 14 the -- or the tetanus and hepatitis? 15 MS. HYDE: The tetanus would be for all 300 16 employees. Now, the hepatitis -- the 20,000 is for the 150 17 that didn't get it this year. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: I think we need to do the hepatitis 19 for the at-risk employees. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 21 MS. HYDE: And that'll be the rest of them. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: I got no problem with it, but this 23 business about becoming a health care center, generally, I 24 don't know why we need tetanus. I mean, we're not working in 25 a hazardous environment around here for a lot of us. 8-11-09 bwk 86 1 MS. HYDE: Well, we sort of are. One of the things 2 that we looked at this year on medical costs, this is saving 3 us money on our medical costs, because if we go and have 4 these shots, which we did this year; we had 26 tetanus shots 5 this year that people had to go get. Those shots, you got to 6 pay for the doctor and then you have to pay for the shot. 7 The shots themselves was 175 bucks a pop. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: For a tetanus shot? 9 MS. HYDE: For a damn -- darned tetanus shot. 10 (Laughter.) 11 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: You had it right to start 12 with. 13 MS. HYDE: Just like the flu shots, if you go to 14 the doctor for your flu shot, you're going to pay 40 or 50 15 bucks. You can get them at 10 bucks when you go out to the 16 Ag Barn when they do the special, but we're getting it for 5 17 bucks, and we're getting it for free, 'cause we're giving 18 them ourselves. And that's the other part of it; we're 19 giving these ourselves, so we don't have to pay for it. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well we had 26 we gave last 21 year. We can take 26 off. 22 MS. HYDE: Sure, if you want to. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I had no idea tetanus shots 24 cost that much. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: I didn't either. 8-11-09 bwk 87 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But, you know -- 2 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: They do if you go to the 3 doctor. 4 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Seriously, though, is there 5 a need for tetanus shots beyond Maintenance, Road and Bridge, 6 Environmental Health? 7 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yes. 8 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Sheriff's Department? 9 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yeah, Sheriff's Department. 10 MS. HYDE: Sheriff's Department, your J.P.O.'s, 11 your J.D.C. 12 MS. WHITT: Animal Control. 13 MS. HYDE: Animal Control. 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yeah, okay. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Environmental Health. By the 16 time you add up those who need it -- 17 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Once you get there, you 18 might as well go all the way. 19 MS. HYDE: Pretty much. We get a better rate. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Now, is there a problem with 21 deferring the tetanus to next year, when we are spreading 22 these out over a three-year period? 'Cause were doing the 23 hep again this year, so the hep last year, hep this year, 24 then tet next year. 25 MS. HYDE: I mean -- 8-11-09 bwk 88 1 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: There's not a problem with me, 2 Jonathan. It's just normally we end up probably with, 3 realistically, three to five employees a month that end up -- 4 you know, either they've had theirs and they're okay, or 5 they've gotten cut at a wreck scene or cut at barbed wire, 6 you know, where whatever animal -- all these livestock calls. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: And you're saying by the time we run 8 them through there and get them a hep, a tetanus shot -- 9 MS. HYDE: Half of them don't even know if they've 10 had them or not. That means they got to go to the E.R. or 11 they have to go to their doctor, and so it's costing us on 12 our med side -- our medical side, prescription and claims. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Twenty-six times. 14 MS. HYDE: So, I know of 26. We can document 26. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: At 300 a pop? 16 MS. HYDE: Yeah. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 175 and the office visit. 18 MS. HYDE: Yeah. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Well -- 20 MS. HYDE: And if it's under -- 21 JUDGE TINLEY: 7,500 bucks. 22 MS. HYDE: The good news is, if it's under worker's 23 comp, I can do it under worker's comp. But I got to be 24 careful, because it raises our worker's comp, because it's in 25 one section of our population. 8-11-09 bwk 89 1 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: The other thing is, there 2 may not be that many left that really have to have the 3 tetanus, since -- what is it, once every seven years? 4 MS. HYDE: Once every ten for tetanus. 5 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Ten years. Road and Bridge, 6 most of theirs have had it. I know a lot of my guys had to 7 have it. Did it the more expensive way, but they had to have 8 it, so they've already got -- 9 MS. HYDE: We could take a -- we could do half of 10 it, if you want to try to do half of it, or put it off for 11 one year, but it's pay me now or pay me later. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Let's get the at-risk people this 13 year, and then we'll load the rest of them next year. 14 Because the ones that are most likely to need it will be cut 15 off that expense. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Do half this year, half next 17 year. 18 MS. HYDE: Okay. So -- 19 MS. HARGIS: What about the flu shots? 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Keep flu shots in. 21 MS. HYDE: And we're going to keep the hep shots? 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Oh, yeah, we're committed to that. 24 MS. HYDE: Okay. And then -- so, you're going to 25 cut 7,000 -- to 7,000 on the tetanus? Is that what we're 8-11-09 bwk 90 1 doing? 2 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I'm just curious as to why 3 immunizations is in nondepartmental and not in H.R. line 4 item. 5 MS. HYDE: I paid for them this year. 6 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I don't want her with a 7 needle. 8 MS. HYDE: You got them today, and I got a good 9 rate. Smooth and easy. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 11 MS. HYDE: I mean, do you want to put it in mine? 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No, that's fine. 13 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I just asked the question. 14 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: This year -- this year, Bill, 15 I'll do them. 16 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Why? 17 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I'll go out to the feed store 18 and get some 16-gauge needles. 19 MS. HYDE: Oh, those are bad. Those are deadly. 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Use them on the Sheriff's 21 Department. 22 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: On the Sheriff. 23 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Got to catch me first. 24 MS. HYDE: What we can do to help look at -- I 25 can't promise, but what we can do is get people to sign -- 8-11-09 bwk 91 1 the other 150, I can get people to sign up, and if they sign 2 up, then they're committed before we buy. And that might 3 save us a little bit on the hep. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Is this a second series hep? 5 MS. HYDE: This is the other 150 employees that 6 didn't get the opportunity this year. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: We're not just doing at-risk 8 employees on the hep? We're doing everybody? 9 MS. HYDE: This is the rest of them. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think they need to sign up. 11 I'm not going to get one. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't see any reason. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: How many -- how many 15 employees are you talking about? Are you talking about 16 county employees only, or are we doing it for these other 17 agencies? 18 MS. HYDE: We've already done the other at-risk 19 agencies. They paid for it. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: They paid for it, okay. 21 MS. HYDE: Mm-hmm. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I would -- 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Why are we doing it, then? 24 If they're paying for it, why don't they just do it? 25 MS. HYDE: 'Cause we get a better rate the more we 8-11-09 bwk 92 1 buy. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: On the hep? 3 MS. HYDE: That's how we were able to buy the rest 4 of it. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think we need to have people 6 sign up. We need to make sure all the at-risk people are 7 done. 8 MS. HYDE: Anybody -- 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Sign up or not give it to them. 10 MS. HYDE: Anybody else that is a new hire -- for 11 example, we got seven new hires that are at risk. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 13 MS. HYDE: That we need to get going, and we're 14 going to continue to do those folks. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right, we need to keep them. 16 But, I mean, you know, I bet none of the five of us up here 17 are going to get the hep shot, 'cause we don't need it. So, 18 I mean, I don't think you should order it for everybody, or 19 plan on it. I think we should figure out who wants it. 20 MS. HYDE: Cut it back to 100? 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Does an employee have the 22 option to take it or not? You make them do it? 23 MS. HYDE: No. The at-risk folks kind of sort of 24 had to, but the not-at-risk folks kind of sort of don't. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Oh, gosh. 8-11-09 bwk 93 1 JUDGE TINLEY: It's a new policy, "kind of, sort 2 of." We kind of sort of know. 3 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: So, that's the kind-of 4 sort-of number, right? 5 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: The at-risk folks, Buster, 6 were -- were pretty well told that if you didn't take it and 7 you came down with it, your worker's comp may or may not 8 cover it. 9 MS. HYDE: Right. 10 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: So they were pretty much -- 11 MS. HYDE: Pretty much kind of did it. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So, that's a strong 13 suggestion. 14 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: You got it. 15 MS. HYDE: Yes, sir. We did that for all of them, 16 and we don't want to do that to the folks here, but at the 17 same time, there are some high-risk areas, even here in the 18 courthouse. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No, I agree. They should do 20 it. I just don't want to hold a gun to their head and make 21 them do that. 22 MS. HYDE: Right. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I would let people -- let 24 them -- maybe make them sign up. 25 MS. HYDE: I got to get 100 or I don't get the 8-11-09 bwk 94 1 rate, and then the rates change, and that's another 50 bucks 2 a pop. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, I'd go down to 100, then, 4 on the hepatitis. 5 MS. HYDE: Okay. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: So, we got to put that at 30 instead 7 of 20; is that correct? 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: For half of the tetanus? 10 MS. HARGIS: No, sir, not half -- oh, half the 11 tetanus is seven. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah, and three. 13 MS. HARGIS: Seven and three is ten, but then -- 14 (Low-voice discussion off the record.) 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 30,000 should more than cover 16 it. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: May be able to squeeze some 19 more tetanus in under that 30,000. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. 21 MS. HARGIS: It's about 13 -- 13,5. 13,5 and then 22 7 -- 7 and then 3. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 24,000. So, 30,000. And you 24 can probably get almost all the tetanus done for that. 25 MS. HARGIS: 23,5, so that would just bring it up 8-11-09 bwk 95 1 3,500, instead of all the way to 30. 2 MS. HYDE: Okay. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The Judge said go all the way 4 to 30. 5 MS. HARGIS: Did you want to go to 30? 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. In case -- in case we -- I 7 don't know what we're going to do on this hepatitis. I don't 8 know what kind of sign-up we're going to have, and that's the 9 big number. 10 MS. HYDE: Yes, sir. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: That's per capita cost. 12 MS. HYDE: I know that when -- when y'all said we 13 could only do half of them last year, I got a lot of 14 blow-back, because how was I going to choose who is at risk 15 and who wasn't? I had the Sheriff with his big gun help me 16 with the at risk. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: The other issue is, when you figure 18 at-risk people on the tetanus, it may be more than half, so 19 let's put it to 30. Let's put it at 30, and if there's 20 enough -- I'd do the hepatitis first, get that out of the 21 way, then use the rest of the money on the flu. 22 MS. HYDE: And then the tetanus, what's left. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Get as many tetanus as we can 24 this year. 25 MS. HYDE: The new pneumonia, I'm being asked 8-11-09 bwk 96 1 about, and so I'll just tell you. The new H1N1 virus 2 vaccine, really and truly, if you go to even the Texas State 3 Department of Health and Human Services website, they're 4 saying right now that we will be the guinea pigs on this as 5 it comes out, on the vaccine. So -- 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: "We" being Texas? 7 MS. HYDE: "We" being whoever gets it first. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I was -- I heard that on the 9 news, you know, whatever that means. 10 MS. HYDE: Right. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That Texas -- 12 MS. HYDE: Texas is -- 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Texas is the first state that 14 comes out with the vaccine. 15 MS. HYDE: So, I didn't put anything in there for 16 H1N1, and here's why. Because, talking to the doctors and 17 state agencies, right now they're still using Tamiflu. 18 They're using everything that they still use for the old flu. 19 All we're trying to do is make sure, if you think that you've 20 got it, you go to your doctor. If it's on the weekend, you 21 go to the E.R. Get the swabs, get the test; 72 hours, they 22 should be able to tell you. But it's the respiratory part 23 that gets you. 24 MS. HARGIS: It's the pneumonia part. 25 MS. HYDE: So, you know, I'm not a doctor. I'm 8-11-09 bwk 97 1 just listening to what they're telling me. They're still 2 using Tamiflu. 3 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: One big difference is, the 72 4 hours, they'll tell you you have the flu. They don't tell 5 you you have the H1N1; that takes all kinds of special tests 6 they just normally don't even give. 7 MS. HYDE: Right. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, 30,000, I think it ought 9 to cover -- 10 MS. HYDE: Okay. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- immunizations. 12 MS. HYDE: Thank you, gentlemen. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: What else we got on that one, 14 gentlemen? 15 MS. HARGIS: We removed contingencies down to 16 50,000, guys. So, that 50 plus the 60 is 110. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Let's get back to professional 19 services. Bill, if you get into significant water issues, I 20 think we need to increase that by 15 to make allowance for 21 that. 22 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: 'Cause I hope you get into 24 significant water issues. 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: So do I. 8-11-09 bwk 98 1 JUDGE TINLEY: And you're about to that juncture in 2 your East Kerr program, that you're going to need that. 3 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: We'll know pretty quickly. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And that will also -- at the 5 same time, those discussions can go on with our M.O.U. with 6 G.B.R.A. They -- they're going to go right at the same time. 7 We're going to need some legal counsel on -- to wade through 8 that. 9 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: So, we add 15? 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Go to 45, Tess. 11 MS. MABRY: Yes. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 13 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That'll work. That's good. 14 MS. HARGIS: Anything else? 15 JUDGE TINLEY: I think that pretty well got it. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: H.R. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 493. 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: 493. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What's the health consultant? 21 MS. HYDE: I don't know. I was going to ask that 22 question. I didn't know what it was. I didn't know his 23 name. I thought -- 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. That's got to be Looney. 25 MS. HYDE: Oh, it's Gary. 8-11-09 bwk 99 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Gary, yeah. 2 MS. HYDE: Oh, so y'all just put it in my budget? 3 Okay. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Huh? 5 MS. HARGIS: Yeah, we put it in her budget. So, 6 really, you've got the full -- that note from last year, so 7 you have the -- you have more than 6,000 there. So, I 8 forgot; I put it in her budget because she approves it, and 9 she wanted to be able to put it in when she gets the bill. 10 So, on the other one, you have the full 30,000, so do you 11 want to take the 15 back? 12 JUDGE TINLEY: I don't think so. 13 MS. HARGIS: Okay. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Why is it a health consultant, 15 not an insurance consultant? 16 MS. HYDE: I didn't put it in there, sir. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I just asked the question. 18 MS. HYDE: I guess 'cause he's the health insurance 19 expert. 20 MS. THOMPSON: Jeannie, up there. 21 MS. HARGIS: I put -- 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I would rather that term be 23 changed, because health consultant, to me, is health, whereas 24 a health insurance -- 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Just show it as insurance 8-11-09 bwk 100 1 consultant. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. That would make more 3 sense to me. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Health benefits and insurance 5 consultant. Make it this long. 6 MS. HARGIS: I don't have room to put insurance 7 consultant. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: I know you don't. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Just put I-N-S. 10 MS. HYDE: Oh. 11 MS. WILLIAMS: No, no, you don't want to -- 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Put it in your budget. 13 MS. HYDE: Yeah. Help me. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Lawyer just came into the 15 room. 16 MS. HYDE: Oh, no. Wait a minute, I'm doing my 17 budget. Stay back there. 18 MS. HARGIS: We have to go to the -- 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Everything else okay in that 20 one? 21 MS. HARGIS: You can't do it from here. 22 MS. MABRY: Okay, I'll fix it when I get back in. 23 MS. HYDE: Anything else changed, y'all? 24 JUDGE TINLEY: If you can't find it, we're not 25 going to tell you what we did to you. 8-11-09 bwk 101 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Question I have on employee 2 training. 3 MS. HYDE: Mm-hmm. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's just your department? 5 MS. HYDE: It's our training, but it's also when we 6 put together all the training packs and we go out and train 7 here in the county. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. That number just looks 9 small to me, but I'm glad. 10 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Don't look a gift horse in 11 the mouth. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. Shhh. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: All right. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Let's move on to Tax Assessor 15 and Elections. 16 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Tax Assessor, 499. 17 MS. BOLIN: I have a question before we actually 18 get started here. On the group insurance and retirement, the 19 requested budget was the same as last year, but they've 20 changed. The group insurance went down, and the retirement 21 went up, and I don't know -- I didn't do that. 22 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: There's a reason for that. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: You don't need to worry about that 24 part of it. It'll be calculated in there automatically once 25 we calculate the total costs of the program and -- and the 8-11-09 bwk 102 1 retirement rate that we end up paying. 2 MS. BOLIN: Okay. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Because the retirement rate has 4 changed; it's gone up because of the -- the actuarial 5 crunching of the numbers and the market going into the tubes 6 this past year. 7 MS. BOLIN: Okay. I was just curious, 'cause 8 those -- 9 JUDGE TINLEY: That will be taken care of. 10 MS. BOLIN: -- don't ever change. 11 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Be nice if they'd give us a 12 revised number based on the improvement in the market. 13 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: We're sure going to be paying 14 a lot more for training and conferences than we've ever paid 15 before, seems to me like. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's what I'm just looking 17 at. 18 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That's a big number. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Mm-hmm. 20 MS. BOLIN: The biggest part of the training and 21 conferences is because we went from one person to three, and 22 sometimes five, depending on -- and we do share rooms, and we 23 pay as much as we can from other sources. 24 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Is that mandatory? 25 MS. BOLIN: Yes. 8-11-09 bwk 103 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Talking about for R.T.A.? 2 MS. BOLIN: For elections. Pardon me? 3 JUDGE TINLEY: In the Tax Assessor, that's for 4 R.T.A.? 5 MS. BOLIN: The Tax Assessor is for the R.T.C., in 6 my other budget, yes. And this will be the last year. But 7 this one, this is only the second year for this budget with 8 Voter Registration and Elections together, so there are some 9 changes. And Nadene and I have gone forward and backwards on 10 this trying to figure out what's what and what we need to do 11 and not do, because she's familiar with the elections and I'm 12 familiar with the voter registration part of it. This year 13 is our mass mailout for the whole county. That is why my 14 office supplies went from the 4,000 to the 9,000. Because -- 15 JUDGE TINLEY: That's your elections budget, 16 though. 17 MS. BOLIN: That's the elections. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 19 MS. BOLIN: Isn't that the one we're on? 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No, we're on tax. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: We're on Tax Assessor. 22 MS. BOLIN: We did that last time. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Oh, we did? 24 MS. BOLIN: Yeah. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Go straight to elections, then. 8-11-09 bwk 104 1 MS. BOLIN: I'm going, okay, so I don't understand 2 this. I'm sorry. No, it's the election budget. 3 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: What number is elections? 4 MS. BOLIN: 402. 5 MS. HARGIS: 402. 6 MS. BOLIN: Sorry. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 402. 8 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: There it is. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Whatever happened to the 10 H.A.V.A. deal? 11 MS. BOLIN: To the H.A.V.A. deal? 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: The H.A.V.A. deal. 13 MS. BOLIN: It expires. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It die on the vine? 15 MS. BOLIN: It expires the end of this year. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank God. We've -- we've 17 used about everything we can use. 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: There's a check. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: 294, babe. Oh, you got the 20 -- you got the autograph. 21 MS. BOLIN: There you go. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Anything else, Commissioner? 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No, that'll be all, thank 24 you. 25 MS. BOLIN: Okay. 8-11-09 bwk 105 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Cheapskate. 2 MS. BOLIN: We did go down. The Judge and I talked 3 about several of these that had dropped. The ballots, Nadene 4 said 25,000 ought to work, so that's 5,000 less than I 5 requested. And I was kind of basing it on what we had spent 6 for the last November election, because we did go over 7 budget. The -- my elections -- not elections. My office 8 supplies, it only shows 5,000 here, and it should be nine. 9 And that's because we had 4,000 for this year, and we've 10 really scraped it together and we still have several things 11 that we haven't put into the P.O. system yet. 12 MS. MABRY: I'm sorry for that, Diane. That was my 13 mistake. I added the note, but I forgot to add the amount, 14 so I'll change it right now. 15 MS. BOLIN: Okay. But that went up. It will 16 fluctuate year to year because of the mass mailout. We 17 dropped our books, publications, and dues; 500 will work. I 18 didn't know that I had the Law Library accessible -- that 19 fund accessible to pay for my Election Code books. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What did you say about 21 mileage reimbursement? 22 MS. BOLIN: I didn't say anything about mileage 23 reimbursement. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Don't you think you should 25 about this time? (Laughter.) Do we not reimburse our 8-11-09 bwk 106 1 employees for driving to Comfort at all? 2 MS. BOLIN: I tried that last year, and y'all took 3 it out because we have the county vehicle. But when we're 4 having an election, I've had Michelle and Nadene both at 5 opposite ends of the county at the same time, and they prefer 6 to use their own vehicle. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: But if that's your 8 choice, -- 9 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Thank you very much. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: -- we appreciate that very 11 much. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: If they decide they want other 13 transportation, they can use yours. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 15 MS. BOLIN: Do you have a motorcycle handy? 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I think Bill does. 17 MS. BOLIN: Okay. 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yeah. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It's in Del Rio getting 20 fixed, though. 21 MS. BOLIN: Oh. 22 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: You're going to check on 23 that, aren't you? 24 MS. BOLIN: Okay. The elections supplies went from 25 8,600 to 4,500. And when you and I talked this morning, I 8-11-09 bwk 107 1 couldn't remember why it had gone up. It's because we have 2 the November election; we have to pay for the early voting 3 for the primary and a possible runoff, so we're looking at 4 three instead of one, and that's why it had jumped up so 5 substantially. So, I really need -- Nadene said 8,100 would 6 work. Nadene said -- 7 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Anything you're going to 8 incur in the general election won't be till November. 9 That'll be in next year's -- 10 MS. BOLIN: That's what this budget is, but we have 11 the constitutional election. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: This November. Legislature's got -- 13 MS. BOLIN: Yeah, we have the constitutional. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: -- 18 Constitutional amendments, so 15 a whole bunch of those things. 16 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Oh, that's right. 17 MS. BOLIN: So, we have that, and then we have the 18 primary in March, and we have to pay for the early voting on 19 that. And then if there's a runoff, we have to pay for that. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. What number are you showing 21 there now, Tess? 22 MS. MABRY: For -- for elections supplies? 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Yes. 24 MS. MABRY: 6,000. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 8-11-09 bwk 108 1 MS. BOLIN: Can we go 8,100, please? 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Hmm? 3 MS. BOLIN: Nadene said 8,100 was kind of scraping 4 it, so -- 5 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Say that again? 6 MS. BOLIN: 8,100. I started with 86, and what 7 this sheet shows is 45. 8 MS. MABRY: It was increased to 6,000 this morning. 9 It was increased to 6,000. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Earlier today, as a result of the 11 discussion you and I had, we went back to six. 12 MS. BOLIN: Okay. I couldn't remember why we had 13 gone up so much, and then Nadene was like, "Well, we got 14 these and these and these," and that's why. Now, we can try 15 it at six, but -- 16 JUDGE TINLEY: So, when you told me you could live 17 with six, there was something you'd left out of your 18 thinking? 19 MS. BOLIN: This was out of my thinking, yeah. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Well, is it going to take 21 more than six? 22 MS. BOLIN: Well -- 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Nadene, I'm looking at you. 24 MS. ALFORD: I -- we can live with six. We can try 25 to live with six, and -- 8-11-09 bwk 109 1 MS. BOLIN: Even if we have to pull from someplace 2 else. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: If we got to pull, we got to pull, 4 but I'd like to set these numbers realistically if we can. 5 We're hopefully just a tad afloat. 6 MS. BOLIN: Yeah. But the 8,100 is what Nadene and 7 I had talked about what we thought it would cost us if we 8 have a runoff. If we don't, of course, we're going to have 9 that extra, but we never know until that time. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: That's the primary runoff, in which 11 case you'll have the early voting for it. 12 MS. BOLIN: Well, we have the early voting for the 13 primary, and then we would have to fund the -- the whole 14 runoff. Correct? 15 MS. ALFORD: Just the -- just early voting. 16 MS. BOLIN: Just early voting. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: On each, yeah. The parties pay for 18 the actual election, but the big expense is on the early. 19 MS. BOLIN: Right. 20 MS. ALFORD: And the new ballots, depending on how 21 many mail ballots we have. 22 MS. BOLIN: Right. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: But if -- boy, there's a good chance 24 we're going to have a runoff in something in the primaries. 25 Let's go ahead and stick that back to 81, if that's a more 8-11-09 bwk 110 1 realistic number. 2 MS. ALFORD: I think so. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Would that be in the County 4 Judge's slot? Or -- 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: -- what is your prediction? 7 JUDGE TINLEY: You told me you're going to run, 8 Buster. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'm thinking about it. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: I know you are. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Took me 17 years to learn 12 how to spell "commissioner." It's time to move on. 13 MS. BOLIN: Okay. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: I'm thinking about the Senate race 15 and some of those others there. There's going to be a crowd 16 in the coming governor's race. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: The governor's race. 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: A lot of things. 19 MS. BOLIN: On the maintenance expense, the 20 decrease will work, depending on how capital outlay comes 21 out. If we get the new eSlate machines, then that will cut 22 it down to a thousand. If not, I'll need to have the two. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Our -- we're anticipating getting 24 some new eSlates. 25 MS. BOLIN: Okay. 8-11-09 bwk 111 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Slowly replacing those as they... 2 MS. BOLIN: Okay. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Is that it? 4 MS. BOLIN: Yes, I believe that covers everything. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Any questions? 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: No, I'm good. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Thank you, ma'am. 8 MS. BOLIN: You're very welcome. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. That brings us to Capital 10 Outlay. Everybody got the latest sheets? As of 8/10? 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What does it look like, 12 Judge? 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Looks just like this. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Did we get that today? 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Would have gotten that yesterday. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I think that's mine, isn't 17 it? 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: No, it's mine. It was 19 e-mailed to you. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I got one e-mailed to me. 21 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: It was e-mailed to you, an 22 attachment. 23 MS. HARGIS: Everybody got one. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No, hold on. 25 MS. MABRY: Do you want me to go make copies? 8-11-09 bwk 112 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Capital requests? 2 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yes. 3 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Do you have one? 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No, but I've got the 5 computer. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I got that one. 7 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Where is it? 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: E-mail. 9 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Oh. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, I got it. Yeah, I got 11 it. I've seen this, too. 12 (Low-voice discussion off the record.) 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you, Jody. You're 14 such a nice person. This -- the constable things, the radios 15 could be reimbursed from the grant. 16 MS. HARGIS: Okay, the radios. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Oh, forgive me for talking. 18 MS. HARGIS: Okay. The 141,000, of that 141, 19 50,000 cannot be reimbursed. The other is the Homeland 20 Security grant that we -- that Rusty asked for that we're 21 applying for again, which is around 90,000 -- 90,000, 91,000. 22 And the other radios that you see up here, the ones that are 23 -- the 4,000 ones, those also would be in that $90,000 grant. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Are we going to get the 25 grant? 8-11-09 bwk 113 1 MS. HARGIS: We don't know that. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: How do we -- well, from my 3 end of the table -- I can only speak for me -- that we're 4 putting together the budget here, and I think we would need 5 to know, do we need to put 4,000 in or 4,000 out? 6 MS. HARGIS: We need to put it in until we get the 7 grant. We didn't get approval on the grant last year until 8 November or December, so we might not get them. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you very much. 10 MS. HARGIS: I would rather have it in on the 11 capital side. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I would too. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What are these radios for? Did 14 I miss something? 15 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: This is changing out the old 16 analog radios out of the cars into the digital so that we can 17 keep talking with the City. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Sit down, sit down, sit down. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It's A.M., so everybody can 20 start listening to Rush. 21 (Discussion off the record.) 22 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: The 50,000 in there is to do 23 the narrow banding at the power site, which requires the -- 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Rusty? 25 MS. HARGIS: I was just reminded, the safety 8-11-09 bwk 114 1 committee met, and I don't think y'all gave me a hard number 2 when I left, 'cause I left early. So, is 25,000 what you 3 want? 4 MS. HYDE: Yeah, we -- we guessed. 5 MS. HARGIS: The safety committee probably want to 6 add an additional 25,000. 7 MS. HYDE: Right? 8 MR. BOLLIER: Yeah, we need that money. 9 MS. HOFFER: We started going through all the 10 things we need to do. 11 MR. BOLLIER: We can't have a safety committee 12 without some money -- without some funds. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Buster, I'm offering my suit back. 14 I'm going to have to put it on if they keep up like that. 15 MS. HARGIS: I'm going to step out of school, but I 16 think that one of the things is we may need signage and 17 lights to -- for the evacuation plans. 18 MS. HYDE: Hazwop -- Hazwoper. 19 MS. HARGIS: Do you want to explain what that is? 20 MS. HYDE: Y'all know what Hazwoper is, right? 21 JUDGE TINLEY: What? 22 MR. McHAZLETT: Hazwop. Hazcom. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Hazmat? 24 MS. HYDE: Hazmat, there you go. Buster knows, so 25 I know y'all know. Right now we don't have M.S.D.S. going on 8-11-09 bwk 115 1 in the courthouse. We need to have M.S.D.S., so that if 2 you've got chemicals or supplies, they need to be listed. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: And marked. And marked. 4 MS. HYDE: Yes, sir, and marked. We need to have 5 safety areas so that if law enforcement have to come in or if 6 E.M.S. or firemen or whoever -- if we've got something that's 7 going to blow up or going to be hazardous with water, they 8 kind of know about it before they come in, or they don't come 9 in. 10 MS. HARGIS: We need more fire extinguishers. 11 MS. HYDE: We need more fire extinguishers. 12 Anytime you want to jump in there. And quit rolling your 13 damn eyes, 'cause this is where I got it from. 14 MR. BOLLIER: The fire extinguishers, when Bruce 15 first put these out -- Bruce is the guy that works for the 16 Hill Country Fire -- Fire Extinguisher. When he first put 17 these out, he said they need to go every -- they have to be 18 within 75 feet from an office. I mean, you know, like if 19 you're there, and they need to be 75 feet from you to where 20 you can go get it. What we end up with, we have one fire 21 extinguisher that operates for three offices down in the 22 lower level, H.R., Environmental Health, and Juvenile 23 Detention, and the fire extinguisher is out there. So, what 24 we need to do is probably add a couple of fire extinguishers 25 to Juvenile and to Eva's office. And then there's some other 8-11-09 bwk 116 1 places in the courthouse that I believe that we need to add 2 some fire extinguishers to, like -- she's not in here -- 3 Diane's office. You know, the Tax Office, the Clerk's 4 Office. And, you know, we don't even have a fire 5 extinguisher here. 6 MS. HYDE: For y'all. 7 MS. WHITT: Didn't y'all also talk about the 8 evacuation signs? 9 MS. HYDE: Evacuation signage. 10 MS. WHITT: Because it has to be in Braille also. 11 MS. HYDE: It doesn't have to be in Braille; I went 12 ahead and checked on that. It doesn't have to be in Braille. 13 I know it was talked about, but it doesn't have to be in 14 Braille. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: This is a fire -- 16 JUDGE TINLEY: I got to go get my suit on. 17 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: You need to. 18 MS. HYDE: Go get the suit on? Is that what you 19 said? 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Where's the evacuation stuff on 21 here? 22 MS. HARGIS: It's not on here, because they just 23 had that meeting, and I didn't add it. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: How much did this -- 25 MS. HYDE: Lights. 8-11-09 bwk 117 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No, evacuation. We're talking 2 about 5,000 for all that stuff? 3 MS. HYDE: You're talking about lights. You're 4 talking -- 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Lights? 6 MR. BOLLIER: I'm just listening to what you're 7 saying. 8 MS. HYDE: You're talking fire extinguishers. The 9 signage, I think we could probably -- kind of probably get 10 our Road and Bridge Department to help us with for a less 11 expensive rate, because the signage is huge. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think -- 13 MR. HAYES: Hazcom, Hazwoper, Hazmat is expensive. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Why do we need Hazmat? 15 MS. HYDE: That's kind of federal law. We have to 16 do Hazwoper training. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We do the training. We don't 18 have to buy stuff for it. 19 MS. HYDE: Yeah, we kind of have to abide by the -- 20 the law on that. That's one. Federal laws, we have to. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Do we have a number for what 22 all this -- 23 MS. HYDE: We were asked to kind of come up with 24 one, so -- 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, I don't see it. 8-11-09 bwk 118 1 MS. HYDE: It's not in there. 2 MS. HARGIS: It's 25,000. 3 MR. BOLLIER: And, see, down in the -- 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: 25,000? 5 MR. BOLLIER: We don't have -- we have an M.S.D.S. 6 book downstairs, but it hasn't been updated in I don't know 7 how long, and it needs to be put out, an M.S.D.S -- what's it 8 called? 9 MS. HYDE: It's a book that tells you what the heck 10 we got here. 11 MR. BOLLIER: Yeah, what each chemical is, how to 12 take care of it. Say Buster goes down there and gets a -- 13 some mop stuff and gets it in his eye. We tell him that we 14 need to flush it for ten minutes, we need to go do whatever 15 that's -- what it tells you. 16 MS. HYDE: Make the person throw up, don't make the 17 person throw up. We need an eyewash station. 18 MR. BOLLIER: And that is something that we do 19 need. 20 MS. HYDE: For his little area, he needs an eyewash 21 station. 22 MR. BOLLIER: We need an eyewash station. I 23 don't -- 24 MS. HARGIS: Okay. I think -- anyway, they need 25 25. 8-11-09 bwk 119 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. And I don't -- 2 MS. HARGIS: That's a possible number. We can 3 refine that a little bit. 4 MS. HYDE: A lot. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Why don't we buy the book this year 6 to figure out what we're going to need next year? 7 (Laughter.) How much is the book? 8 MS. HYDE: 5,000 bucks. 9 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Scratch that idea. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean, the down side -- I 11 mean, some of this stuff we do need to have, because if there 12 is a fire and we don't have an evacuation plan and we don't 13 have the signage, we don't have the lights, we're in big 14 trouble. The 25,000 will look real cheap. 15 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yeah. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's true. And -- and -- 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Fire extinguishers and all that 18 stuff. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I hope we get advice from 20 the city fire marshal as well as this salesman. 21 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yeah. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Do we have to? 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. Yeah, you need -- we 24 need to know what they expect and what their rules are. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: We are bringing the TAC safety guide 8-11-09 bwk 120 1 in -- 2 MS. HARGIS: First. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: -- as a precursor of that. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Of the fire marshal? 5 JUDGE TINLEY: That's why we're not inviting the 6 fire marshal first. No. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 8 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Second. 9 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Fox in the hen house, Buster. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: All right. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. What else we got on the 12 capital? 13 MS. HARGIS: Okay. We've got -- we've got the 14 eScans. And these poll books are -- Diane left? There she 15 is. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Start at the top. 17 MS. HARGIS: Do you want to explain what those are? 18 MS. BOLIN: I think Nadene talked to several -- 19 MS. HARGIS: Do y'all understand what the poll 20 books are? 21 MS. ALFORD: Electronic -- instead of paper books 22 for the people to sign into the -- sign in when they come in 23 to the election, they'll look them up on this. They can 24 swipe their driver's license; it will pull immediately all 25 their information -- their voter information up. They can 8-11-09 bwk 121 1 print a label. They'll put that on a sheet of paper, sign 2 that and get their ballot and go on, instead of having to 3 look them up in the voter registration rolls and that. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And if they don't have a 5 driver's license? 6 MS. ALFORD: If they have their voter registration 7 card, there's a bar code scanner; you can scan the card. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: If they don't have that? 9 MS. ALFORD: Then they'll have to type them in and 10 look them up. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What I'm -- I guess my question 12 is, are we trying to tighten up on voter fraud? 13 MS. ALFORD: Mm-hmm. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Or eliminate it, which I don't 15 see we have much of a problem in this county, but okay. And 16 that's -- 17 MS. HARGIS: That's what that is. That's the whole 18 thing. 19 MR. TROLINGER: Nadene, doesn't it also 20 automatically upload -- 21 MS. ALFORD: It can upload automatically, put it on 22 a jump drive; you can take that. It will automatically 23 upload in the state system that that person voted. 24 MS. HARGIS: Want to pass those out? 25 MS. BOLIN: And normally what happens with that is, 8-11-09 bwk 122 1 when someone comes in and they actually sign the signature 2 rosters, then we get the signature roster that evening after 3 voting is over, and the next day, we spend sometimes two days 4 inputting the voter history. So, this will -- jump drive 5 does it and saves five of us working on it. 6 MR. TROLINGER: It's a huge savings in time. That 7 alone justifies the system. 8 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Nadene, the new voter 9 registration cards will have a bar code on them? 10 MS. ALFORD: Yes, sir. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 12 MS. HARGIS: Okay. The next item, then, is I.T. 13 And this is -- is a combination of all the I.T. items that we 14 needed in the entire building, okay? New software, 15 additional computers, another -- I can't even think -- 16 network? 17 MR. TROLINGER: It's all county facilities, not 18 just the courthouse. Instead of being spread out through the 19 various budgets, it's now consolidated. Starting this year, 20 it's completely consolidated, so there are no capital outlays 21 in any of the budgets for computer equipment. 22 MS. HARGIS: And this -- it's about -- I think he 23 had originally budgeted 250 to 300 a year, and that's -- we 24 didn't do it last year because we had the -- the note, and we 25 did -- remember, we budgeted for two years in that note, and 8-11-09 bwk 123 1 so we got by without having to do it in our general budget 2 for two years. So, this is the normal replacement, every 3 three years type situation. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What number do you have in 5 yours? 6 MS. HARGIS: 307,484. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Have you notified the 198th 8 D.A. that we kind of took some from him and threw it in 9 there? 10 MS. LAVENDER: He's here. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Oh, he's here. That was a 12 joke. Sit down. (Laughter.) 13 MR. BARTON: I brought some numbers to address some 14 of the things that -- that came up on that point, though, if 15 you -- if you want. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Oh. 17 MS. HARGIS: J.P. 2, I think that she's been 18 requesting this same furniture for several years. 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yeah. 20 MS. HARGIS: J.P. 4, their printer-copier basically 21 is about to go out. It did go out; we repaired it last year 22 under somebody else's budget. I think in Court Compliance, I 23 think this is already included in the 7,000. But it was 24 added at the last minute, so I went ahead and put it in. 25 This may come out. 8-11-09 bwk 124 1 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I don't think -- doesn't that 2 need to be run through I.T., and doesn't that also need to 3 be -- I think what's available, it's already usable with the 4 system we have? 5 MS. HARGIS: This -- this is -- 6 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: This is something I don't 7 believe that's going to be compatible and useful. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, that's your opinion. 9 Isn't -- isn't -- 10 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: It is my opinion. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, it is. Isn't that -- 12 I thought that was already in the 307. 13 MS. HARGIS: We weren't sure, so I added it, 14 because I couldn't get ahold of John. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. 16 MR. TROLINGER: It is in the I.T. capital outlay. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay, so that line comes out. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It is already in. 19 MR. TROLINGER: It is in there, but there's a $600 20 increase for the annual cost of that subscription to add one 21 feature to that software, and that's the auto -- automated 22 calling system. So, it's $600 more to the I.T. budget. 23 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Automated calling system? 24 MR. TROLINGER: We're talking about Court 25 Compliance. 8-11-09 bwk 125 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yeah. 2 MR. TROLINGER: Yes. There's one additional 3 feature that just became available, and that is -- say, for 4 instance, John Trolinger owes money. A tag or a flag can be 5 added to my case to say we'll call him up every day at 6 p.m. 6 during dinner and tell him you owe money. 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That's the way to do it, 8 right as you're sitting down to dinner. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's what they do to me. 10 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Still? 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 12 MS. HARGIS: Okay. Again, this item -- this list 13 can be, you know, refined more. The Treasurer's office, as 14 you recall, when we came -- when we started using the folding 15 checks, we bought a folding machine, and we have just about 16 worked it to death, and it's -- it's -- we've been putting it 17 together with screws. Just -- and there's not anybody that 18 can really repair them. This is more of a heavy-duty. We're 19 going to keep the other one, but we need two. We do run a 20 lot of checks through there. 21 MS. WILLIAMS: We average between 600 and 700 A.P. 22 checks a month, and 300-plus direct deposit and payroll 23 checks each pay period. 24 MS. HARGIS: Keep in mind, we're not buying 25 envelopes any more. 8-11-09 bwk 126 1 MS. WILLIAMS: Right. Well, we are a few. 2 MS. HARGIS: A few, but not as many. 3 MS. WILLIAMS: Not as many. 4 MS. HARGIS: The second one is a new shampooer, 5 and -- and I think there's more than one shampooer and some 6 vacuum cleaners here. Jail maintenance, this is the 50,000 7 that we're continuing to replace those air-conditioners on 8 the top of the jail. Then the operating equipment, the -- we 9 need some scanners. Sheriff needs leg shackles, food cart, 10 and camera for the jail. Some of the cameras have gone out, 11 I believe, or need replacement, or you need more cameras. 12 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I don't know which ones you're 13 at. 14 MS. HARGIS: The scanners, the leg shackle ones. 15 It's operating equipment. The next item is a van for the 16 jail, and it's not -- we're not going to lease it; we're 17 going to purchase it and the necessary equipment for that 18 van. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is this replacing? 20 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: That's replacing the current 21 van. That's one of those that's been around for years and 22 years, and started out, I think, as a juvenile van. It was 23 purple and white, as you remember, and it got painted. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is there a way to get it -- I 25 mean, that van is used for prisoners back and forth, right? 8-11-09 bwk 127 1 That's pretty much the sole purpose? 2 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yeah, except we will also be 3 hauling prisoners to San Antonio, catching the chain bus down 4 there. We'll be hauling some to -- 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Chain bus? 6 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yeah. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Penitentiary. 8 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: T.D.C. 9 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: To go to the big house. Taxi 10 service to the big house. 11 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: And that's that ones totally 12 equipped with the bars and window already, everything in it. 13 It's a high-security van for the inmates. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I guess a used van wouldn't 15 work. 16 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Not to get the equipment in 17 it. 18 MS. HARGIS: The next one is the Sheriff, the rape 19 prevention loss. 20 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Judge Tinley may have heard 21 about this. This was the act that was created in '90 -- or 22 2003 by the federal government. They passed it, the Prison 23 Rape Prevention Act, which all the funding went to the state 24 pens. Well, last year, the federal government decided, okay, 25 now it's time to enact it upon all the state and county jails 8-11-09 bwk 128 1 and any lockups and prisons, and what that will cost, we did 2 it with the Sheriff's Association and Jail Association. It 3 requires me to be able to monitor anyplace inside the jail 4 that an inmate could be assaulted or sexually abused by 5 another inmate. Our jail was not built with any cameras 6 inside cells. We have zero cameras inside cell blocks. We 7 would have to put at least two to three cameras in each 8 cellblock to comply with this new law. The date they make 9 the law actually pertain to county jails, they -- the 10 guidelines so far is the feds have to come out with the plan 11 of the implementation of making it by this September, and so 12 I'm trying to get just kind of a head start on it, 'cause the 13 overall cost in our jail would be horrendous. We're talking 14 about adding probably 100-some-odd cameras to that jail, 15 along with all the monitoring stations and recording devices 16 to go with it, and it's going to be unreal. So, if we're 17 going to do the capital deal, I would recommend we put at 18 least the 150 in it to get us started in compliance with 19 that. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Rusty, you say it's a -- 21 you're talking federal government and new laws and all that, 22 but you also -- or somebody out here says the word 23 "optional." New item, optional. 24 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: What I'm saying is, it is 25 required. They haven't set the deadline date on when the 8-11-09 bwk 129 1 County's got to have it and all that kind of stuff, so that's 2 why I'm saying it's kind of optional. I think we need to get 3 started. I think getting a head start on this, if we're 4 going to do this as a capital deal, would be wise. But it is 5 optional, if it comes down to it. It's optional as far as 6 this county doing it this year. 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: What's the timetable by 8 law? 9 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: They're coming out in 10 September and telling us, but I won't know. That's why I'm 11 suggesting we put something in there. They allocated -- when 12 it first came out, they allocated, like, $2 million in Texas 13 to do it, so we called up to the governor's office and said, 14 "Okay, how do we apply for this?" They said, "Forget it. 15 It's going to the state prison system," period. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: All right. 17 MS. HARGIS: Okay. There's another truck for the 18 Maintenance Department, and then again, these are the radios 19 we talked about earlier that can be included. Those are for 20 the constables' cars. Those are included in the -- in the 21 grant. And then we -- the Sheriff's Department didn't -- has 22 five cars, plus equipment. This is actual purchase of these 23 cars. We've also put in there to pay off the existing lease 24 on the Tahoes and the two Crown Vics that we bought. And 25 then we actually put in, if you want to do it for two years, 8-11-09 bwk 130 1 the purchase of five additional patrol cars, so we put it in 2 for two, for 2011, if we wanted to do the two-year -- cover a 3 two-year program instead of a one-year program. So, that's 4 up to y'all. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Sheriff, what kind of cars 7 does this contemplate? 8 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: This is the Crown Vics. 9 That's what it is, ten Crown Vics on that. Now, the deal 10 behind this is, right now on patrol, I have over ten active 11 patrol cars with over 100,000 miles on them. We got a little 12 bit behind on replacing cars. I have 26 cars in the 13 department with well over 100,000 miles on them, some with 14 198,000 miles on them. We've got to start getting on a 15 decent schedule. We have gotten, just to let you know, 16 approval. I haven't got the final-final word. We are told 17 it was approved through the grant that we asked for with -- 18 with AACOG of five new patrol cars. That's not any of these 19 five. And then I'm -- I've asked for five in the budget. 20 And then, if we do this two-year deal, you get five more. 21 That will replace 15 of my -- my 26 that have over 100,000 22 miles right now. 23 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Did we build anything for 24 cars into this current budget? 25 MS. HARGIS: No. 8-11-09 bwk 131 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Or we skipped this year? 2 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: We got -- 3 MS. HARGIS: You got two. 4 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: -- two this year. 5 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: We bought two, okay. 6 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I think is all we did. And 7 that's -- we've just gotten behind. And then, if you'll 8 remember two years ago, because we did a lot of -- some of 9 what Amos I guess is calling fantasy money, but we were 10 fortunate; we had some that year that we actually bought four 11 patrol cars out of that, that the County didn't have to fund. 12 But I think we're at the point we need to replace these. 13 MS. HARGIS: Then the next item, the 60,000, is the 14 grant that Rusty talked about yesterday for the video 15 teleconferencing equipment for the courtrooms. That's our 16 one-third share. The Juvenile Probation had $1,000 worth of 17 equipment and supplies for the new -- the Juvenile Probation 18 Offices. Environmental Health, they also have the radio. 19 That radio is also included in the -- the grant that we're 20 asking for. All the radios are included in the grant. And 21 then in the Youth Exhibit, we're asking for an FM-150 and 22 Bobcat attachments for 15,000. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What's an FM-150? 24 MS. HARGIS: It's a -- 25 MS. HYDE: He left. 8-11-09 bwk 132 1 MS. HARGIS: Tim left. 2 MR. TROLINGER: He's across the hall. 3 MS. HARGIS: I think it's another truck. 4 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Does this contemplate a new 5 one or a used one? 6 MS. HARGIS: I think we put a new one in here, but 7 the Bobcat attachments are pretty expensive, I think, that he 8 had in here. That is -- I think that's a little Bobcat with 9 attachments. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Depends what you want. They 11 average, like, five -- 5,000 a piece. 5,000, 6,000. I'd 12 like to see what -- what he's thinking about there. 13 MS. HARGIS: Okay. Then over to the radio 14 equipment. The airport number we know is no good any more. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Oh, the airport number. 16 MS. HARGIS: So that brings us in the general fund, 17 separate Fund 29, which is where the cameras will -- 18 equipment at a million, seven. And then Road and Bridge has 19 asked for -- Leonard is here -- for various heavy equipment. 20 And do you want to address y'all's capital items? 21 MR. ODOM: I'm sorry? 22 MS. HARGIS: Do you want to address what you wanted 23 in capital items? 24 MR. ODOM: Sure. I had an F-750 cab and chassis. 25 A pneumatic roller, steel wheel roller, used water truck, 8-11-09 bwk 133 1 another broom to replace the old one sometime in the '80's. 2 Utility trailer. We have one that's broken; hasn't been -- 3 it's not fixed. It's cracked in the frame, so we want to 4 replace that. And I had three side loaders that we use off 5 the old 6-yards. We want to go ahead and replace them now, 6 and particularly, we think it's a good time to buy compared 7 to the future. A lot of these -- today, I had a young man in 8 talking about the broom and some of the other things and the 9 number that we put in. These new engines, Tier 1 through 10 Tier 4, off-road versus on-road, the price is double on some 11 of this stuff. It's even since I put it together. A broom 12 today -- in '05 -- the '04-'05 budget, I bought one for 13 25-some-odd thousand dollars. He quoted me 70-some-odd 14 thousand. I fell out. It's because of the new engines. 15 They're having to -- you've got to get bigger engines because 16 of compression and the sulfur and every -- the way they're 17 doing it now with this clean air. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: You talking about EPA? 19 MR. ODOM: The EPA regulations. The engines are 20 doubling and tripling. They have to redesign everything just 21 to fit the engines in there. It's -- now is the time to -- 22 to buy this equipment. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Trying to get the old stuff? 24 MR. ODOM: Well -- 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: As much as you can? 8-11-09 bwk 134 1 MR. ODOM: There's going to be a point that there 2 will be a federal law. What I read over the deal, they're 3 going to mandate it. It's coming, I'm telling you. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And a pole barn? Pole barn? 5 MS. HARGIS: Yeah. You had equipment. 6 MR. ODOM: I'm sorry, I didn't have that down, a 7 pole barn. But that pole barn should probably go under 8 maintenance budget for 10,000, is what I was looking at, next 9 -- this budget. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Maintenance Department? Or 11 your -- 12 MR. ODOM: Under my -- there's a line item there -- 13 I'm sorry. I didn't -- 14 MS. HARGIS: You don't have your budget? 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: All right, that's fine. Is 16 that at your current yard, or is this -- 17 MR. ODOM: At the current yard, what I'm thinking. 18 Let's see if I can find it. 19 MS. HARGIS: We just tried to pull out anything 20 that was -- 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 22 MS. HARGIS: -- remotely capital, so we could get 23 the budget balanced. 24 MR. ODOM: Maintenance facility, I have 10,000, is 25 what I had in the other one to buy that trailer and all. 8-11-09 bwk 135 1 Probably for a fence, too. But build some pole barns so I 2 can put a $182,000 chip spreader up underneath, and my 3 distributor. I want to try to protect it, save it a couple 4 years. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 6 MR. ODOM: And, you know, what's amazing is we 7 talked about the price of a chip spreader, 'cause he was 8 saying, "What do y'all have?" And I told him, and he said, 9 "What do you think it's going for?" I said, "Around 10 $180,000." And that's the new price now, and that's because 11 that is an item that they can't sell a lot. But the smaller 12 equipment, and with these new federal regulations and all, 13 they're going out of sight with the prices. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: All right. 15 MS. HARGIS: Is that enough on his? Thank you. 16 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I marked it all up. Jody has 17 one. 18 MS. HARGIS: Here, here's one. 19 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I put marks all over it. 20 MS. HARGIS: Any other questions? Any other 21 questions on Leonard's for right now? 22 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: No. 23 MS. HARGIS: Okay, thank you. Let's go back to 24 Tim, since you're here. Tim, you wanted an FM-150 Bobcat and 25 attachments out at the Youth Exhibit Center. 8-11-09 bwk 136 1 MR. BOLLIER: An F -- well, that should be an 2 F-150. That's the Ford pickup. I don't know where the "M" 3 came from, but it should just be an F-150. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's -- 5 MS. HARGIS: It's in two places, so we need to 6 remove it. 7 MR. BOLLIER: We should remove from it one place. 8 MS. HARGIS: Let's remove the one that's 19. 9 MR. BOLLIER: And then I don't know what the F -- 10 FM-150, and then the Bobcat attachments, I haven't -- I don't 11 know what I put in there for that. 12 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That's not -- 13 MR. BOLLIER: There was only a couple of 14 attachments I had. That's what I was telling you earlier 15 over there. I only need, like, 30,000 for the truck, and 16 probably another $5,000 to $10,000 for attachments. It just 17 depends on what I get. If I buy the attachments outright, 18 it's going to be anywhere from 2,000 -- it's $2,500 for the 19 six-way -- it's $2,500 for the six-way bulldozer blade that 20 goes on the front of the Bobcats, you know, where I can move 21 it. That's $2,500. And then there's only -- then I needed 22 an auger. I already have the attachment for the auger; I 23 just need to replace the auger that I have with a rock auger. 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Are you looking for one new 25 truck or two? 8-11-09 bwk 137 1 MS. HARGIS: One. 2 MR. BOLLIER: Just one, sir. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. So, you're -- instead of 4 69, we can reduce yours to 25. 5 MS. HARGIS: He said 30 for the truck. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Nice truck. 7 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: No, 25 ought to cover the 8 truck. 9 MR. BOLLIER: 25 would cover the truck. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Thirty. 30,000. 11 MR. BOLLIER: Okay. 12 MS. HARGIS: Okay. 13 MR. BOLLIER: Done deal. 14 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: You can buy a used one a lot 15 cheaper than that. 16 MS. HARGIS: The next line item is the permanent 17 improvement funds. I put 25,000. We don't have to do this, 18 but we've been putting 25,000 a year for the Exhibit Center. 19 Then Juvenile Detention Facility asked for some minor items, 20 dining room tables and projectors, and then this -- this is 21 the $5,000 projector that Bruce was asking for earlier. So, 22 we need to remove it in both places, I guess. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: In the past, I've had money 25 in Parks for tables, benches -- tables and benches. Would 8-11-09 bwk 138 1 you prefer it be on this list, or in under Parks? 2 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: We could use new tables for 3 the Ag Barn, too. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. Yeah, he's right 5 about that. 6 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Those things are falling 7 apart, a lot of them. They've been redone. 8 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: They have been for a long 9 time. 10 MS. HARGIS: Okay. I'll have to get an estimate. 11 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: 5,000 on the -- for tables, 12 park benches and tables. 13 MS. HARGIS: Okay. What about at the Ag Barn? We 14 have any idea how many of those chairs and tables -- 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't know what those tables 16 cost. Get with Tim. 17 MS. HARGIS: Tables and chairs. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Or the Juvenile Detention 19 people are buying some. I wonder if they'd be -- is that the 20 same kind? 21 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: No. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Or do they -- 23 MS. HARGIS: I don't think so; these are dining 24 room tables. Then he also wants a projector. So, these -- 25 these is just really -- I mean, it's pulling out everything 8-11-09 bwk 139 1 we can pull out that -- that could be put in here. 2 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: What's the permanent 3 improvement for the Exhibit Center? What's that? 4 MS. HARGIS: We've just been putting that 25,000 5 away every year. 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: We could do tables under 7 that, couldn't we? 8 MS. HARGIS: Huh? 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, tables can probably come 10 out of that, actually. 11 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Do the tables under that. 12 Did we put money in this current budget to move the outdoor 13 arena? 14 MS. HARGIS: No. 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: We did, didn't we? 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's in the -- 17 MS. HARGIS: It's in that money that we had. We 18 had 350. We spent a little bit of it for Peter Lewis to look 19 at a couple things, but we haven't spent any of that money, 20 because I thought the -- 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I thought it was 3,500. 22 MS. HARGIS: No. 23 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Is that all? 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 350. 25 MS. HARGIS: 350. Yeah, I went back to the 8-11-09 bwk 140 1 original notes and checked that. It was only 350. And this 2 does not include -- this does not include the building. 3 So -- 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Looks like the Sheriff's ready to 6 leave. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So am I. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 9 MS. HARGIS: Anybody else? 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, does the D.A. have 11 something back there? 12 MR. BARTON: If I could just -- this is just a 13 short, short deal. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: He came in to give us another $5,000 15 reduction. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 17 MR. BARTON: Well, maybe. You know -- 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I still have my list out. 19 MR. BARTON: Part of the reason I do what I do is 20 'cause I think things need to be right, and I don't want 21 there to be any false impressions. The -- I went upstairs 22 and pulled the numbers and had Robbin pull them up for me. 23 And year-to-date, okay, since -- since taking office, the 24 numbers for the projected year, or actuals -- I don't know 25 which one y'all want, but -- 8-11-09 bwk 141 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Give us the actual to-date. 2 MR. BARTON: Actual year-to-date number of cases in 3 the 198th is 209. Actual year-to-date cases in the 216th is 4 201. So, you can see that the systems we put in place are 5 roughly equating -- the 198th is a little higher, but roughly 6 equating to -- 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Are you talking about '09, 8 the first seven months? 9 MR. BARTON: That's correct. 10 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: What numbers did you have? 11 MR. BARTON: 201 -- 201 for the 216th, and 209 for 12 198th. 13 MS. HARGIS: Since January, right? 14 MR. BARTON: That's -- yeah, since I took office. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Cases filed. 16 MR. BARTON: Cases filed. And here's where -- 17 here's where it's important, I think. Looking at the 18 financials for the two districts -- and I want to preface 19 this by saying I think Bruce does a good job over there. I 20 think we do a good job, too. So, when I'm giving you these 21 numbers, because that was brought up by the Court, comparing 22 the two, I just want to be clear that I'm -- I'm not running 23 down anything Bruce has going. We assessed -- in the 216th, 24 they assessed fines year-to-date, $64,000. Year-to-date in 25 my court, 141,000, more than double. Restitution collected 8-11-09 bwk 142 1 -- or restitution assessed for the citizens of Kerr County in 2 the 216th, 62,000. In the 198th, 108,000. Now, here's the 3 big kicker. Attorney's fees assessed year-to-date in the 4 216th, 134,000. In the 198th, 63,000. So, we're getting 5 double the performance for half the cost of those attorney's 6 fees. You see? 134,000 in attorney's fees in 216th, 63,000 7 in attorney's fees in the 198th. Those are the year-to-date 8 numbers since I took office. And I want you guys to know 9 that I am scrapping for you. I'm doing a lot with not a lot. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Let me ask you a question. 11 It's something I thought I understood, and has become cloudy. 12 When we're talking about -- we're equalizing the districts 13 now, and so Joe Blow goes to you, and Sammie John goes to the 14 other district, and that's what y'all are doing. So, you 15 know, who are those people? Is that people that are in the 16 jail? 17 MR. BARTON: That are doing that apportionment? 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. I mean -- 19 MR. BARTON: That's part of what -- what you're 20 paying for with your jail prosecutor. That's happening on 21 the front end. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So, that's just jail, 23 though? That conversation of -- when we talked about you get 24 -- you get the first guy and Bruce gets the second guy, 25 that's just jail people that you're getting? Right or wrong? 8-11-09 bwk 143 1 MR. BARTON: The numbers that I quoted to you are 2 all cases that come to the 216th, all the cases that come to 3 the 198th that result in a prosecution being initiated. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. 5 MR. BARTON: So that's not just -- that's just not 6 what's happening out at the jail; that's the whole -- 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay, that's what I'm 8 looking for. So, how do you -- so who says, "okay, you get 9 this one and you get this one"? 10 MR. BARTON: It's a formula that -- that Bruce and 11 I have set out that is -- the actual who's running the 12 cutting chute is happening at the District Clerk's office. 13 They know that if it's -- if it happens on an even date, it 14 gets cut into the 216th. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. 16 MR. BARTON: If it happens on an odd date, it gets 17 cut to the 198th. If I've already got the guy on probation 18 on a case from last year, then he -- even if it happens on an 19 even date, it comes to me, because that's the efficient way 20 to do it. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Mm-hmm, I agree. That's 22 interesting. I never did -- I wasn't clear about that, how 23 that worked. Good. 24 MR. BARTON: But it's neat to see the numbers, that 25 even though there is some even and odd, that's not going to 8-11-09 bwk 144 1 result in an exactly equitable -- you know, the numbers kind 2 of speak for themselves. It's working out that year-to-date 3 projections are within 10 or 15 cases of each other. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Over the long term, it will pretty 5 well even itself out, even with these qualifiers with 6 conflicts or with other cases, same defendant, additional 7 cases, or -- or probation existence or that sort of stuff. 8 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Well, the thing is, now with 9 the new e-file deal, it's going to even out more than 10 probably it ever has. 11 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That's good. 12 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I mean, that's, I think, what 13 we want to happen. 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That's exactly -- good. 15 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: But without that, there 16 wasn't any mechanism to make it even. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, they had the old deal of 18 the drug cases went here and the other cases went here, and 19 that got everything all messed up. 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I think they should be. I 21 really thank you for the information. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Thank you. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Anything else? 24 MR. BARTON: Would y'all like me to put that in a 25 memo and submit it to you, or not? You've got it? 8-11-09 bwk 145 1 JUDGE TINLEY: I would like to have some -- 2 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yeah, I'd like to see it. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: -- some official documentation of 4 that. I really would. 5 MR. BARTON: Okay, I'll have it -- I kind of drew 6 on this one, but I'll -- 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Appreciate it. Thank you. 8 MR. BARTON: Thank you. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Are we through for the day? 10 We'll be adjourned. 11 (Budget workshop was adjourned at 5:12 p.m.) 12 - - - - - - - - - - 13 14 STATE OF TEXAS | 15 COUNTY OF KERR | 16 The above and foregoing is a true and complete 17 transcription of my stenotype notes taken in my capacity as 18 County Clerk of the Commissioners Court of Kerr County, 19 Texas, at the time and place heretofore set forth. 20 DATED at Kerrville, Texas, this 2nd day of September, 21 2009. 22 23 JANNETT PIEPER, Kerr County Clerk 24 BY: _________________________________ Kathy Banik, Deputy County Clerk 25 Certified Shorthand Reporter 8-11-09 bwk