1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT 9 Regular Session 10 Monday, October 12, 2009 11 9:00 a.m. 12 Commissioners' Courtroom 13 Kerr County Courthouse 14 Kerrville, Texas 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 PRESENT: PAT TINLEY, Kerr County Judge H. A. "BUSTER" BALDWIN, Commissioner Pct. 1 24 WILLIAM "BILL" WILLIAMS, Commissioner Pct. 2 JONATHAN LETZ, Commissioner Pct. 3 25 BRUCE OEHLER, Commissioner Pct. 4 2 1 I N D E X October 12, 2009 2 PAGE 3 --- Commissioners' Comments 5 4 1.7 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to approve two private road names in Cedar Oaks 5 Mobile Home Park, Precinct 1 9 6 1.1 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to approve issuance of Notification of Intent and 7 resolution for submission of Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant program application 13 8 1.2 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 9 grant permission to Kerrville Memorial Post Number 208, American Legion, for use of Flat 10 Rock Lake Park on November 8, 2009, to stage 3rd annual Veterans March 17 11 1.3 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 12 grant permission to Kerrville Memorial Post Number 208, American Legion, for use of Flat 13 Rock Lake Park on April 2nd and 3rd, 2010, for annual chili cookoff and related events 18 14 1.4 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 15 authorize advertising for bids to construct Phase IV, Kerrville South Wastewater Project 19 16 1.5 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 17 seek grant funding from state and federal agencies for elements of Hill Country Youth 18 Exhibit Center master plan 20 19 1.8 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action regarding awarding of bid submitted to provide 20 food service for Kerr County Jail 24 21 1.9 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to accept $112,365 Homeland Security Grant to be 22 used to purchase interoperable radio equipment for Kerr County Sheriff's Office, Constables, 23 & Animal Control; authorize appropriate county officials to execute necessary documents for same 30 24 1.10 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action 25 regarding appointing two additional reserve deputies for Sheriff's Office 33 3 1 I N D E X (Continued) October 12, 2009 2 PAGE 1.11 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action 3 concerning the appeal from Kerr County to Texas Water Development Board on DFC's set 4 by GMA-9 for the Edwards-Trinity (Plateau), Ellenberger, and Hickory aquifers 34 5 1.12 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 6 nominate candidate(s) to Kerr Central Appraisal District 41, 97 7 1.13 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 8 appoint Commissioner Williams to act as Kerr County's representative on newly-formed "Alamo 9 Regional Rural Planning Organization" 44 10 1.14 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to authorize and/or approve preliminary planning, 11 evaluation, and other preconstruction activities or procedures in connection with proposed Law 12 Enforcement Annex/Adult Probation Building 47 13 1.6 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on resolution for Dietert Center's "Meals on Wheels" 14 grant application 54 15 4.1 Pay Bills 60 4.2 Budget Amendments -- 16 4.3 Late Bills 65 4.4 Approve and Accept Monthly Reports 66 17 5.1 Reports from Commissioners/Liaison Committee 18 Assignments 67 5.2 Reports from Elected Officials/Department Heads 70 19 1.15 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on 20 possible sale, lease, or other disposition of County-owned real property (Executive Session) -- 21 --- Adjourned 98 22 23 24 25 4 1 On Monday, October 12, 2009, at 9:00 a.m., a regular 2 meeting of the Kerr County Commissioners Court was held in 3 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: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. 8 Let me call to order this regularly scheduled meeting of the 9 Kerr County Commissioners Court posted and scheduled for this 10 date and time, Monday, October 12, 2009, at 9 a.m. It is 11 that time now. Commissioner Oehler? 12 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Please rise for a prayer, and 13 also the pledge of allegiance. 14 (Prayer and pledge of allegiance.) 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you. At this time, if there's 16 any member of the public that wishes to be heard on any 17 matter that is not a listed agenda item, this is your 18 opportunity to come forward and tell us what's on your mind. 19 If you wish to be heard on an agenda item, we'd ask that you 20 fill out a participation form. There should be some located 21 at the back of the room. If not, when we get to that item, 22 if you'll get my attention in some fashion, I'll see that you 23 do have the opportunity to be heard on that agenda item. But 24 right now, if there's any member of the public that wishes to 25 be heard on any matter that is not a listed agenda item, come 10-12-09 5 1 forward at this time and tell us what's on your mind. Seeing 2 no one coming forward, we will move on. Commissioner Oehler, 3 what do you have for us this morning? 4 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Well, we had the big Mountain 5 Home fish fry over the weekend at the fire department, and 6 very, very successful. I think we fed somewhere over 800 7 people; had 22 people helping with the catfish frying, and 8 the crew that we put together, and worked just as slick as 9 could be. No incidents, everybody got along, and nobody had 10 to stand in line very long to eat. So, we were very blessed. 11 We had great weather, and I believe they raised some good 12 money, and the new fire station will start to go forward with 13 Phase 2 shortly. Anyway, that's -- that was my weekend for 14 sure. Thank you. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you. Commissioner Baldwin? 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I just want to ditto what 17 Bruce is saying. What a -- what an event. A few months ago, 18 the Divide Fire Department had their steak dinner, and I just 19 couldn't believe what I was seeing way -- way out there in 20 the middle of nowhere. I mean, they piped in electricity and 21 lights and everything else out there. And -- and then 22 Mountain Home, Saturday evening, I -- I mean, who are those 23 people? Where did all those people come from? You know, you 24 recognize one out of 50 or something like that. It's 25 unbelievable. But they did a great job. Last meeting, I had 10-12-09 6 1 mentioned that -- that our Historical Commission wants to 2 invite the Commissioners Court out to Schreiner Library to 3 see those things that we've been talking about for a few 4 years now, and we've settled on a date, and that is November 5 the 16th. Monday, November the 16th, which I don't think is 6 a regular Commissioners Court meeting day; I think it's the 7 in-between Monday. But, anyway, I want y'all to -- being as 8 you're writing it down, are you agreeing to it? 9 JUDGE TINLEY: What time? 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Noon. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Noon, okay. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. And they -- 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Are they feeding us? 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We're having lunch -- 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Are you buying? 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: -- there. We're having 17 lunch there. I'm not buying anything, after this weekend. 18 So, anyway, it's going to be a big deal, and they're excited 19 about it and they want us there. And I'm excited about it 20 too; I want to see -- I want to see how all this work that 21 they've been doing has come together, the oral interviews of 22 some of the old families and, you know, the things that 23 they've been in here talking about for the last two or three 24 years, four years, five years, something like that. So, 25 anyway, that's -- the date is November 16th, noon, and we 10-12-09 7 1 will post a meeting and all of us go out there. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Sounds good. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's all I've got. Thank 4 you. 5 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Got it down. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You're a good man. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner Williams? 8 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Well, we didn't have a fish 9 fry in Center Point, but we did go to the birthday 10 celebration of the queen of Center Point, 90 years old. I'm 11 talking about Dora Townsend, who was a former city 12 commissioner over there, and she and her husband have been 13 longtime mainstays in the community. And so it's good to be 14 able to celebrate with somebody who has had a full and rich 15 life. Commissioner Letz and I also were at a meeting on 16 Friday down at Camp Verde. Just for the information of the 17 Court, there's going to be a -- a major addition to the Camp 18 Verde complex. And our meeting was with Texas state 19 Historical Commission, which we were trying to work out the 20 details between the owner and Historical Commission as to 21 what they'd like to see embodied in an addition to Camp Verde 22 Store. What -- what the plan is, is for a dining room, a 23 full-service dining room. If anybody -- any of y'all have 24 been down there for lunch lately, you know that they serve 25 absolutely super food, and I don't know how they turn out 10-12-09 8 1 that food in that little tiny kitchen that they've got in the 2 old store. So, I think we worked our way through the 3 hurdles -- don't you, Commissioner? -- with the Historical 4 Commission. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I never know with them, but I 6 think so. 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: At least we did at that 8 meeting. Who's to say what will come in a subsequent 9 meeting? And that will progress, probably -- I think the 10 plan is to try to get something underway about the first of 11 the year. That's it, Judge. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner Letz? 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: In addition to -- not just a 14 dining room; they're adding -- it's a 125-person capacity 15 restaurant. It's about a 10,000 square foot addition, and I 16 was happy to see it adds about a million dollars to the tax 17 rolls. But most of what I have is going to be -- I think we 18 have an item on the agenda related to our appeal, and most of 19 my conversation will be with that. Really, the fast track 20 with that process is now on, and I'll pretty much reserve my 21 comments to that. Great rains in the eastern part of the 22 county. Things are looking a lot better than they did a 23 couple months ago. That's it. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner, you mentioned Dora 25 Townsend as though, having lived a full and eventful life... 10-12-09 9 1 It ain't over yet. 2 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Oh, no, by no means. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: That gal is still as ornery as she 4 was 25 years ago, so -- (Laughter.) 5 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Maybe -- 6 JUDGE TINLEY: -- there's a lot more to come. 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Oh, there's a lot of living 8 left, that's true. You're right, Judge. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Let's get on with our agenda, 10 if we might. Len Odom has got a ways to go later on today 11 for a conference that he's scheduled to attend, so let's go 12 to Item 7 to begin; consider, discuss, and take appropriate 13 action to approve two private road names in Cedar Oaks Mobile 14 Home Park, and located in precinct 1. Mr. Odom? 15 MR. ODOM: Thank you, Judge. Thank you for letting 16 me go forward early. Cedar Oaks Mobile Home Park is off 17 Westway, and which is in Precinct 1. The owners of this park 18 would like to name the two privately maintained roads. The 19 first proposed road name is Deer Springs Cove South, and the 20 second proposed road name is Whispering Woods Loop South. 21 The Kerr 911 office has submitted the applications with the 22 naming of the two roads. The roads are about two weeks out 23 from completion. Since this development is not being 24 platted, it is a development program -- policy, there would 25 not be any final plat, and they only need a letter of 10-12-09 10 1 completion once this is through. At this time, we ask the 2 Court for their approval, contingent on the roads being 3 completed. It is a unique situation over there, that they 4 cannot get their electrical, so they have to apply for road 5 names, have to have an address, and that's the reason this is 6 coming forward. The telephone company will not set poles. 7 They've changed the policy. KPUB cannot put their electrical 8 on the telephone poles. And I've had a discussion with 9 Windstream and the others, so we would like for the Court to 10 move to name these two roads, and they can then apply for 11 electrical service, and which will expedite completing this. 12 All they need to do is do the roads. The electrical is just 13 something that we need to push forward, and this is a way to 14 push it forward. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I move for approval. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 18 approval of the agenda item. Question or discussion on the 19 motion? 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Just so I understand, the new 21 policy from the utility companies is they will not allow 22 utilities without a road name? 23 MR. ODOM: No, without -- what is it I'm trying to 24 say? They are not going to allow until they get a service. 25 In other words, you have -- they wanted me to complete the 10-12-09 11 1 roads without it being finished. So, Windstream, because of 2 the economic situation, has changed their policy. It says 3 that you have to -- someone has to apply for service. Well, 4 how do you do that if you haven't completed the road system? 5 And they cannot hook up the sewers, so -- you know, and they 6 have changed this. They had approved everything, and now 7 they have come in and changed their whole policy, and KPUB 8 can't bring in electrical service because there is a contract 9 with Windstream, or used to be Kerrville Telephone. They put 10 the electrical on the telephone poles. So, what we're -- 11 they need to do is have an address to go ahead and apply for 12 electrical service; you need a road name. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right, okay. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Road name, then an address. 15 MR. ODOM: Then an address. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Then an address, before you 17 have to -- 18 MR. ODOM: That's right. And then they will apply 19 for it, and we hope that puts pressure, then, on Windstream 20 to go ahead and set the poles, and then electrical be put up. 21 But in that interim, we're going to finish our roads. These 22 are privately maintained, and once they're completed to our 23 specifications, they're on their own. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. All right. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Any further question or discussion 10-12-09 12 1 on the motion? All in favor of the motion, signify by 2 raising your right hand. 3 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 4 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 5 (No response.) 6 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. 7 MR. ODOM: Thank you. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, Mr. Odom. 9 MR. ODOM: Thank you, Judge. I'm sorry, it's 10 confusing, but that's the way it is, Jonathan. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I know. It's fine. What I was 12 thinking, through, is do we need to make a change in our 13 rules? 14 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I think this is one of those 15 manufactured home community things that's being put in. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 17 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: They've got to get that 18 certificate of whatever -- compliance or completion or 19 whatever. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 21 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: We haven't done one of 22 those -- 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: In a while. 24 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: -- in a while. 25 MR. ODOM: And their policy may change when the 10-12-09 13 1 economic situation changes, if it does, if it gets better. I 2 don't know. But this was -- my understanding was 10 service 3 areas that they changed. Not overall, but we were one of 4 those 10. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you. Let's go to Item 1; 6 consider, discuss, and take appropriate action to approve 7 issuance of notification of intent and resolution for the 8 submission of an Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block 9 Grant program application under the American Recovery and 10 Reinvestment Act through the State Energy Conservation Office 11 Stimulus Program and Office of the Texas Comptroller of 12 Public Accounts, purpose of the grant being to pay a portion 13 of the costs of the acquisition and installation of energy 14 efficient windows and doors on the Kerr County Courthouse. 15 Ms. Lavender? 16 MS. LAVENDER: Good morning. 17 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Good morning. 18 MS. LAVENDER: We received -- or the Judge did -- a 19 communication from the Comptroller's office back in late 20 September about this program. It's through the Comptroller's 21 office through the State Energy Conservation Office. And I 22 gave you two sheets of paper in the backup last week, and 23 what I've given you just now is the resolution itself, and 24 the letter of intent or notice of intent. This is -- the 25 cities and counties are eligible for what they call 10-12-09 14 1 non-entitlement cities and counties, and we were lucky enough 2 to be one of those. Susan Combs, in her original note, said 3 the small cities and counties don't have to bid for these 4 grants; the money is already allocated to them if they choose 5 to use it. So, what we're saying is, yes, we want the money. 6 We want to make sure that every eligible city and county gets 7 to use these grants, and will provide as much help as 8 possible. And I called them after the Judge brought me the 9 -- the facts, and they -- they are very helpful and 10 interested in helping us through this process. In order to 11 get the application itself, we have to send the notice of 12 intent, and the resolution was to follow very shortly. But I 13 figured it would be easier just to go ahead and bring both of 14 them to you. Rex has reviewed both of them. We are eligible 15 for $100,000. Which is -- 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: How much? 17 MS. LAVENDER: 100,000. So, I think that's a good 18 thing, and I would recommend that we move forward with this. 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I move approval. Probably, 20 we should put the resolved into the record so we know what 21 we're approving here. So, with your permission, Rosa -- 22 MS. LAVENDER: Please do. 23 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Therefore, be it revolved 24 by the County that, one, the County, through the County 25 Judge, pursue all E.C.B.G. funding made available through 10-12-09 15 1 A.R.R.A., and being allocated by the State Energy 2 Conservation Office to be used to assist in reaching the 3 County's goals of energy efficiency; and two, the County 4 continues its commitment toward energy efficiency for the 5 citizens of Kerr County and all of Texas. 6 MS. LAVENDER: I might say that KPUB, when I called 7 them about this, they were very enthusiastic about helping 8 us. And you have the original, Judge. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: I have a motion. Do I hear a 10 second? 11 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Second. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 13 approval of the agenda item, and the notice of intent and the 14 resolution. Further question or discussion on the motion? 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Quick question. Rosa, is the 16 100,000 the total allocated for Kerr County, or the total 17 we're eligible for this project? 18 MS. LAVENDER: It's allocated to the County. The 19 City also gets 75,000, and there is a possibility, if some of 20 the other cities and counties don't choose to accept the 21 allocation, there may be some additional money available to 22 us out of this down the road a little ways. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Would it make sense to apply 24 for that additional money right now? 25 MS. LAVENDER: Yes, sir -- well, no, we can't apply 10-12-09 16 1 for it now. We're going to have to apply for it later, but 2 we're going to indicate to them that we would be glad to 3 accept anything that they have. In the KPUB audit last 4 Thursday, Tim and I walked round with the guys that did it, 5 and I would share with you just a couple of things they said. 6 They said that there's a whole lot of lighting in this 7 courthouse that could be improved; efficiency, bulbs, and 8 particular kinds of lights. They were hesitant to do their 9 normal energy audit process by pushing on the windows, 10 because you don't push on the windows in the courthouse. 11 They're very fragile. Some of them are cracked. We took 12 pictures two years ago; my husband got up in the cherry 13 picker thing and we took pictures of the 72 windows in this 14 building, and that was where we started the process when we 15 sent the plan to the state Historical Commission, and then we 16 had to wait until they approved it. And I talked to S.E.C.O. 17 about that fact that we'd already let the contract on this. 18 They said it was no problem. I'll follow up with that again 19 and be sure, but we don't believe that it'll be a problem. 20 But at worst, if we get in the 100,000, we'll find something 21 in the way of energy efficiency improvement in some of our 22 buildings. We've got a building that we're going to build 23 out at the Law Enforcement Center here soon, so hopefully we 24 can nab some funding that will help us perhaps with the 25 lighting and such out there, too. 10-12-09 17 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What I was thinking of in 2 particular was, we can use pretty much all they want at the 3 Ag Barn. 4 MS. LAVENDER: That's right. We have -- 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Part of our plan was to redo 6 all the electrical and lighting in the existing arena, and 7 that's an extremely inefficient building. 8 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Extremely. 9 MS. LAVENDER: But, anyway, we're going to take 10 baby steps and see what we can tap into. Hopefully, we'll 11 get more than the 100,000, but this is our first step. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Any further question or discussion 13 on the motion? All in favor of the motion, signify by 14 raising your right hand. 15 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 16 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 17 (No response.) 18 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. Let's move 19 to Item 2; to consider, discuss, take appropriate action to 20 grant permission to Kerrville Memorial Post Number 208, 21 American Legion, for use of Flat Rock Lake Park on November 22 the 8th, 2009, to stage the third annual Veterans March. 23 Commissioner Williams? 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Thank you, Judge. This is 25 a request that's come before us before from the Kerrville 10-12-09 18 1 Memorial Post Number 208 of the American Legion, this time to 2 use Flat Rock Lake Park for their annual walk, and any 3 proceeds that they earn from that go to the benefit of the 4 veterans at the Veterans Administration Hospital. Move 5 approval. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 8 approval of the agenda item. Question or discussion on the 9 motion? All in favor of the motion, signify by raising your 10 right hand. 11 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 12 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 13 (No response.) 14 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. We'll move 15 to Item 3, to consider, discuss, and take appropriate action 16 to grant permission to the Kerrville Memorial Post Number 17 208, American Legion, for use of Flat Rock Lake Park on 18 April 2nd and 3rd, 2010, for their annual chili cook-off and 19 related events. 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: This, too, is from the same 21 American Legion post. This one's a little early, but they'd 22 like to get their permission in place, and also be able to 23 block out the date. This is for their annual chili cook-off 24 and related events for children and so forth, and it is for 25 April 2nd and 3rd of 2010. I move approval. 10-12-09 19 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 3 approval of the agenda item. Question or discussion on the 4 motion? 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Question. Is this the same 6 group that used it last year at this time? 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yes. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Easter. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Any other question or discussion on 10 the motion? All in favor of the motion, signify by raising 11 your right hand. 12 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 13 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 14 (No response.) 15 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. Let's move 16 to Item 4; consider, discuss, and take appropriate action 17 authorize advertising for bids to construct Phase IV, 18 Kerrville South Wastewater Project. Commissioner Williams? 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Finally, we're getting to 20 that point where we can go to bid on Phase IV of the 21 Kerrville South Wastewater Project, and I'm asking the Court 22 today for approval to advertise for bids. I'd like to be 23 able to provide dates to you for when the advertisement will 24 appear and when we will open those bids, but I was advised 25 over the telephone over the weekend that this -- the plans 10-12-09 20 1 still need to have the final approval of the City of 2 Kerrville's Engineering Department, and I think our engineer 3 lost sight of that, and so those plans will be forth -- will 4 be going to them for their final look-see and approval. 5 Everything should be in order, but I wanted to get the 6 Court's permission to advertise for bids, and we'll establish 7 the dates for when the bids are to be returned as soon as I 8 know when the City review is complete. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: So, you're seeking permission to 10 advertise for bids only at this point? 11 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That's correct. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Very well. 13 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: So moved. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 16 approval. Question or discussion on the motion? All in 17 favor of the motion, signify by raising your right hand. 18 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 19 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 20 (No response.) 21 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. Item 5; 22 consider, discuss, and take appropriate action to seek grant 23 funding from state and federal agencies for elements of Hill 24 Country Youth Ranch -- Hill Country Youth Exhibit Center 25 Master Plan. Commissioner Williams again. 10-12-09 21 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: One more time. Judge, I 2 put this on the agenda because of some recent -- I'm trying 3 to get it up here on my computer -- some recent awards that 4 were made -- came through AACOG, through the review at AACOG. 5 One of them was a Texas Parks and Wildlife award that went to 6 Kendall County for half a million dollars, and the other was 7 a U.S.D.A. award for a little over half a million dollars. 8 If I could get my computer to give me that information, I'll 9 tell you who that was. All of which is to say that there are 10 dollars out there, and I just wanted to bring it to the 11 Court's attention that maybe we should begin to pursue some 12 of those avenues to see what's available for us for certain 13 elements of the improvements that we are hoping to be able to 14 achieve at the Hill Country Youth Exhibit Center. That's the 15 whole purpose of it. Maybe it will facilitate some 16 discussion. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think the Court has already 18 previously authorized Commissioner Oehler and myself to 19 pursue any grants necessary to get that thing done. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I agree with that. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So I think we already -- the 22 permission's out there. I think it's a good -- anything that 23 you can find at AACOG would be of great -- 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Anything I could find at 25 AACOG? Well, what that really -- 10-12-09 22 1 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Well, you're the one that's 2 promoting this. 3 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Now that you've 4 reestablished that permission has been granted, Commissioner, 5 let's talk about how you're going to put together the grant 6 application. (Laughter.) 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think the -- one of the 8 challenges -- certainly, a lot has happened on the federal 9 side of funding, and there's a lot more, you know, through 10 the stimulus package, and actually the new Farm Bill finally 11 got signed, and it freed up a lot of money that was in a 12 logjam for a long, long time. So, I think it's a good idea 13 to go -- to look at that. And any assistance you can provide 14 in finding a -- a source of that would be greatly 15 appreciated. 16 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I will be happy to do that. 17 But we really need to explore those two avenues. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Because there are dollars 20 out there. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I think the -- I'll 22 probably -- Bruce and I will -- we'll get with Rosa, who's 23 very adept at finding some of these grants, and see if we can 24 find something out. Bruce and I informally talked with some 25 local foundations previously, and it was just -- the timing 10-12-09 23 1 was not great when we first did that; they were committed to 2 quite a few projects. But I think the time is probably good 3 for us to go back and talk to them a little bit more, see if 4 it's about time maybe to put in some formal applications. 5 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: It's time to move forward. 6 We've kind of sat on this for a lot of reasons, funding being 7 the major one, but with the City of Kerrville also talking 8 about a convention center and all that kind of stuff, we 9 might want to revise our plan slightly, but not very much. 10 Because -- 11 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Well -- 12 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: We really need what we've 13 proposed to do, as far as renovation of the new building out 14 there. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. And I think I mentioned 16 this, probably, to the Judge, that I met with Joel Gourley at 17 the U.S.D.A. office, and they are very interested in using 18 this facility, leasing space in this facility, and they take 19 a pretty big dent, have a lot of square footage that they 20 currently lease. 21 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: It's time to move forward. 22 We've sat on it long enough. 23 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: It really is. And the type 24 of award that came through Parks and Wildlife, the one that 25 went to Kendall County, seems to me to fit very well with 10-12-09 24 1 what we're thinking about doing, or would like to try to 2 achieve. So -- 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 4 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Let's do it. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Let's do it, okay. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: So, the permission already exists, 7 so we don't need to take further action. Is that correct, -- 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Correct. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: -- gentlemen? Okay. Let's go to 10 Item 8; consider, discuss, and take appropriate action 11 regarding awarding of bid submitted to provide food services 12 for the Kerr County Jail. Sheriff? 13 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Y'all accepted all the bids 14 last time, and so this time I've gone through them. We've 15 looked at them, kind of put them in a 1-2-3 order, and the 16 primary one I would like to accept so that we can go into 17 just a little bit deeper negotiations with that one, and then 18 the second and third one. And all of them fell right in line 19 with price, anyhow. It's lowest bid and then the second and 20 that. So, what I would like to do is, Five Star Correctional 21 Services had the lowest bid of a dollar 20.3 cents a meal, 22 which is quite a bit of savings to us, and so I would like to 23 rank them as the first bid for acceptance, or for forwarding 24 it to them, pending the final negotiations over transition 25 and just how it would all work out to -- to take it over. 10-12-09 25 1 The second bid would have gone through ABL Food Service or 2 ABL Management, and theirs was a dollar 31.9 cents a meal. 3 And the third one was Canteen Correctional Services at a 4 dollar 32.9 cents a meal. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: All three of these are new? 6 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: As far as -- 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: To us. 8 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: We've never dealt with any of 9 them for food service; we've always done our own in-house. 10 But our cost is getting up there, about $1.42 a meal to cook 11 ourselves. The way it's going, with them buying in bulk and 12 coming in and cooking and doing everything -- 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We're at $1.42 doing it 14 ourselves, and what is the low bid? 15 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: $1.20 point 3. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 17 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: So, I don't think we can go 18 wrong. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: The -- in calculating our cost, is 20 there any utility or maintenance costs rolled into that? 21 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: No. Insofar as the cost of 22 operating the kitchen here, the calculation that I have used 23 and that Ms. Krauss, our head kitchen cook right now, have 24 used in our cost of $1.42 that she estimated this year, and 25 $1.40 this last year, is totally off food prices. It does 10-12-09 26 1 not include employee salaries; it does not include 2 electricity or anything like that, or gas to run the stoves. 3 It's totally all food costs. The problem I have is that 4 having just her do the -- or oversee supervising the kitchen, 5 and you're normally using trustees to do the cooking, and the 6 issue I faced all the years that I've been sheriff is that we 7 do a lot of heat and serve. You end up buying a lot of 8 precooked foods and then heat them up and serve them to make 9 the menus correct, and your cost is more. This company comes 10 in and actually cooks. They have their own cooks, their own 11 hired employees that come in. They use all our equipment. 12 We maintain our equipment, okay, and they would come in. 13 Their employees do the cooking. We use trustees to serve and 14 clean up, and then I use my current two employees to 15 supervise the trustees when they're in the kitchen with their 16 cooks, all right? But their people actually do the cooking, 17 and they even have their menus attached and that. 18 So, with them doing that, and serving 20 other 19 counties across the state, including Tarrant up around 20 Dallas, okay, Dallas County, the large amount of food that 21 they do is where you get the savings. They actually come in. 22 We have checked with four of the counties that they use. 23 Three of them are still using them, love them, say they don't 24 have any problems at all. They wish they'd gone to them a 25 lot sooner. The fourth one is not using them any more, but 10-12-09 27 1 using another company. And their deal was -- from the people 2 we talked to, is they wish they were still using them, but it 3 was a -- or according to them, a political deal that it went 4 to another company. 5 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: So, this way we're not going 6 to have any direct employees any more supervising in the 7 kitchen or the meal service? 8 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: They will not be doing the 9 cooking. Right now, Ms. Krauss and my one other one's 10 actually doing the cooking and supervising the inmates, okay, 11 that are in there helping serve. What this will do is, this 12 company's employees will do all the cooking. Ms. Krauss and 13 my other kitchen help will be in there, 'cause I still have 14 to have them in there when inmates are in there, and they 15 will be in there at any time that the trustees are in there 16 assisting with the -- with the serving. You know, the 17 dishing up and then the actual serving will be done by our 18 people and trustees. 19 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Okay. So, we're not 20 really -- the only thing we're really saving on is the actual 21 per-meal cost. 22 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: That's a fact. 23 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Everything else remains the 24 same. 25 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Everything else will have to 10-12-09 28 1 remain the same. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Are they going to come along 3 and -- after we award the bid, and decide we have the wrong 4 color of stove? Or they don't like this or like that, and we 5 have to make some new purchases or anything? 6 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: No, we maintain what we have. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Are you going to talk to 8 them about that? 9 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: That will all be discussed. 10 They've all taken -- in the process before they actually 11 submitted their bid, they've all taken a tour of the 12 facility. They've seen the equipment we have. They base 13 their bids on our equipment, and that's where we stand. The 14 bids are firm for a year, and then we -- we, you know, 15 recalculate food costs after a year and see where we go. 16 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: This is going to be an annual 17 bid or rebid, or whatever? 18 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Not -- I don't -- well, it may 19 have to be. We'll have to look at it and see how it -- how 20 it works out. When you've got employees that they hire and 21 put in there, it may be an annual bid. I'll have to get with 22 Rex and see how it's done. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: You may put in there, so we 24 don't have to rebid it every year, that food costs stay 25 within 5 percent or some amount, so that we can just go ahead 10-12-09 29 1 and use the same company. 2 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Because what I have right now 3 is all the bids. I don't even have -- the actual contract -- 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 5 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: -- has not come yet. That's 6 what we'll all sit down and negotiate, the final deal we'll 7 get. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And they may -- you know, we 9 may be able to work that to our benefit if we go with a 10 multi-year contract. 11 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: What I came up with just as a 12 ballpark, comparing the prices and the number of meals we 13 serve, you know, our own inmates, and then Juvenile Detention 14 also, and then you do have employees that are working 12-hour 15 shifts that eat. The cost savings that I see coming to the 16 county is anywhere from 30,000 to 33,000 a year. 17 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: And that does include the 18 Juvenile Detention Facility, correct? 19 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yes. 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Thank you. Any changes in 21 the methods of service to the Juvenile Detention Facility? 22 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Not that I'm aware of yet, 23 there won't be. We'll get into the nuts and bolts of all 24 that. 'Cause we serve them only a portion of their meals, 25 you know; the school district does it through the school and 10-12-09 30 1 all that. We do it the rest of the time. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: So, what you're seeking today is the 3 Court's approval and the award of the bids in the order in 4 which you gave them to us, being Five Star Correctional, ABL 5 Management, and Canteen Correctional, to give you the 6 authority to go forward and see if you can reach an agreeable 7 contract in that order? 8 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: That's correct. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: I assume that's acceptable 10 methodology, Mr. Emerson? 11 MR. EMERSON: It is, Judge. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move approval. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 16 approval as indicated. Question or discussion on the motion? 17 All in favor of the motion, signify by raising your right 18 hand. 19 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 20 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 21 (No response.) 22 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. We'll move 23 to Item 9; consider, discuss, and take appropriate action to 24 accept the $112,365 Homeland Security grant to be used to 25 purchase interoperable radio equipment for the Kerr County 10-12-09 31 1 Sheriff's Office, constables, and Animal Control; authorize 2 appropriate county officials to execute necessary documents 3 for the same. 4 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I haven't seen the documents 5 yet, but this is something that I think our chief deputy 6 needs a good pat on the back for. He's the one that put 7 together the grant proposal and had to do the presentation at 8 AACOG in San Antonio. This is the radios that were all 9 talked about in the loan -- in the capital improvement deal. 10 Not the 50,000 that covers the upgrade to narrow band, but it 11 does cover the digital radio and portables for the 12 constables, for Animal Control, and for the remainder of our 13 department, coming to that total of the $112,365. It was 14 approved, and I just need formal acceptance of that money so 15 that we can get the radios ordered. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move approval. 17 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Second. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 19 approval. Question or discussion? 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Has the County Attorney seen 21 the contract with this? 22 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Normally there isn't a 23 contract. It's just a reporting, and with this being a 24 one-purchase deal and not a multi-year type thing, they give 25 one. We get the -- the proof of the purchases, showing all 10-12-09 32 1 that; the chief deputy will then submit that showing that 2 it's been done. Now, sometimes -- what they have done with 3 one of them in the past is -- is the County actually pays for 4 it up front and then we submit everything, being the paid 5 bills and that, and they reimburse us. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But there's some agreement 7 somewhere? 8 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: It'll be forthcoming. 9 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: It will. We'll get that part. 10 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I might add that when the 11 County's grant was approved, the Homeland Security grant was 12 also approved for the City in an amount just a little bit 13 greater than Rusty's, 136,000, something like that. 14 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yeah. Theirs is going to 15 upgrade the fire department and EMS radios to digital. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The approval -- my approval is 17 subject to the County Attorney at least reviewing whatever -- 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Right, whatever documents. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- documentation we need to 20 document. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah, it's an acceptance document. 22 Further question or discussion on the motion? All in favor 23 of the motion, signify by raising your right hand. 24 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 25 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 10-12-09 33 1 (No response.) 2 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. We'll move 3 to Item 10; consider, discuss, take appropriate action 4 regarding appointing two additional reserve deputies for the 5 Sheriff's Office. 6 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: What this is, is y'all 7 currently gave me authority several years ago to have three 8 reserve deputies with the Sheriff's Department. The County's 9 expense in having those three is a bond for each one of them, 10 and then they're added to the workers' comp insurance. The 11 bond is $50 a piece. We -- you know, per year we pay that. 12 I don't have a problem. I currently have three reserve 13 deputies. I don't have any extras in mind at this time, but 14 I would like to have two more positions that we can use if we 15 get good peace officers that would want to be a reserve for 16 us. Our requirements and our training program for reserves 17 is the same as it is for our regular officers on the street. 18 It's not one of those deals where somebody that's retired, 19 doesn't want to work, you know, comes in and does it. The 20 current reserve we have is such as here at the courthouse, 21 Officer Coppinger is a reserve. He's doing everything he 22 does around the courthouse and helping out for free, gratis. 23 We pay his bond and worker's comp. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So there's no budget impact on 25 this? 10-12-09 34 1 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: No budget impact as far as the 2 bond, and I don't know if there is as far as the worker's 3 comp, just adding him to the policy. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Negligible. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: It's based on payroll, so if there's 6 no payroll -- 7 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: No payroll. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move approval. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 10 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Second. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 12 approval. Question or discussion? All in favor of the 13 motion, signify by raising your right hand. 14 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 15 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 16 (No response.) 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion carries. We'll move to Item 18 11; consider, discuss, take appropriate action concerning the 19 appeal from Kerr County to the Texas Water Development Board 20 on the desired future conditions set by Groundwater 21 Management Area 9 for the Edwards-Trinity Plateau, 22 Ellenberger, and Hickory Aquifers. Commissioner Letz? 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Jody, would you get me a 24 pillow? (Laughter.) 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The -- the process is going a 10-12-09 35 1 lot quicker than I originally thought, largely because of the 2 way they're calculating timelines and the holiday schedule 3 coming, that this is going to be before the Water Development 4 Board on their January 21st meeting, which has really pushed 5 everything forward. Bottom line to us is, there will be a 6 hearing held in Kerrville November 2nd from 10 o'clock to 7 5 o'clock. Then you might want to bring your pillow. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: At that hearing, both sides' 10 petitioners, being Region J, Kerr County, U.G.R.A., will 11 present their case, and then the GMA-9 will present their 12 case as respondents. There's no -- 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Just petitioners? Or 14 general public? 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Just petitioners. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: There's no -- no -- it's not a 18 formal legal hearing from the standpoint there's no 19 cross-examination, there's no debate back and forth. You 20 just present your case, and then the other side is presented. 21 Water Development Board's attorney, Joe Reynolds, will be 22 conducting the meeting. They'll have a court reporter 23 present from Water Development Board that will make a 24 transcript, and that information gets forwarded on to their 25 board. There is a period of, I think, two -- up to two weeks 10-12-09 36 1 after that where written testimony also can be submitted from 2 anybody. At our last meeting, we talked about bringing in a 3 couple of consultants possibly to assist with this. Because 4 of the time frame, we're -- U.G.R.A. is offering up their 5 legal counsel, Tony Corbett. He'll be helping out the legal 6 side of it, and that's really not too extensive. He's really 7 just coming, looking at our appeal and the state law versus 8 their regulations by T.W.D.B. And then Charlie Keitler, I 9 believe is his name, is a modeling expert that U.G.R.A. is in 10 contact with. They have a scope of work from him. He is the 11 head of the LBG Guyton office in Austin. And at our -- well, 12 and he's going to bring on to help him a little bit John 13 Ashworth and James Beard, who are both very familiar with the 14 modeling that Water Development Board has done. All three of 15 them are very familiar with it. 16 Ray Buck and myself are going to Austin this 17 Friday. We're going to meet with everybody and kind of 18 figure out exactly who's doing what with this scheduled plan, 19 and how much testimony we need. I don't think it's all that 20 much. We don't have a -- a contract yet. Region J approved 21 expenditure of an amount of 15 percent of the consulting 22 fees, up to a $3,000 maximum. The maximum that U.G.R.A. has 23 looked at is $20,000. I just don't see how you can get that 24 high, but I could be wrong. I would like, as I think I said 25 last time, the County to pay of the remaining balance -- 10-12-09 37 1 after Region J's 15 percent, the remaining part, that the 2 County would pick up 50 percent of the cost, up to $5,000. I 3 think that would come out of our professional fees. It's a 4 little bit unknown right now, mainly because we won't really 5 know exactly where we're going until this Friday. And we 6 don't have the time frame to wait for another Commissioners 7 Court meeting. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Your 50 percent, not to exceed 9 $5,000, is the total fee capped at $5,000, or is Kerr 10 County's exposure for 50 percent capped at $5,000? 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's 50 percent, up to $5,000. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: So, Kerr County's exposure would be 13 up to $5,000. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Correct. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: So, the total fee could be as much 16 as $10,000 under that scenario. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. And if the cost -- if 18 the fee is more, U.G.R.A. absorbs that part, and -- largely. 19 And I think it's a fair approach, because U.G.R.A., their 20 arguments are a little bit different than ours, possibly, in 21 some areas. I will be handling most of the testimony from 22 the county standpoint, but there will -- on the modeling 23 part, there will be some help from the county as well. 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Commissioner, to what 25 extent is Headwaters Groundwater Conservation District 10-12-09 38 1 participating? 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's a little bit unclear 3 still. We have -- I visited with Gene Williams. He's in 4 a -- because of a divided board on this issue, he's not real 5 sure where they are, and based on who's out of town and not 6 out of town, he's really unsure what their status is. I -- 7 it's unknown. They may make a statement, obviously, in 8 support of the appeal or not support of the appeal. I don't 9 know. They clearly did not -- up to now, they have been very 10 consistently voting in favor of the appeal. But, you know, I 11 don't want to try to look in their crystal ball and predict 12 what that board's going to do. 13 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: But there is no financial 14 participation? 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No. 16 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: To your information? 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No, no financial participation. 18 Let me think if there's anything else. I think that's about 19 it that I know today. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Mr. Emerson, do you see any problem 21 with the financial commitment under the terms of the agenda 22 item? Seems pretty broad. 23 MR. EMERSON: I believe it will allow it, Judge. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll make a motion that Kerr 10-12-09 39 1 County participate with the -- in the consulting fees in 2 preparation for and making the appeal of an amount of 3 50 percent of the consulting fees -- what did we say? -- 4 50 percent of the remaining consulting fees, taking out the 5 Region J's portion first, up to $5,000. 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Second. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded as 8 indicated. Question or discussion on the motion? All in 9 favor of the motion, signify by raising your right hand. 10 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 11 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 12 (No response.) 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion carries. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: One quick comment, and I'll put 15 it in everyone's box, but there is a -- a recent water 16 conference. Ed McCarthy, who is very knowledgeable on water 17 issues, had a long talk about how critical this DFC process 18 is and how it is about to be one of the biggest grabs of 19 private property rights ever. That's pretty interesting. 20 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I would just hope that our 21 Headwaters people would start siding more with the feeling of 22 the county as a whole, and -- and U.G.R.A., rather than being 23 split on decisions they make. That's really pretty 24 frustrating. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. I mean, Headwaters -- 10-12-09 40 1 it's been a three-two split, and it's been -- Ms. Summerlin 2 and Mr. McVey are the two that have been voting against the 3 appeal. And the more I look at it, the more I don't 4 understand that vote. But -- 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, me too. Just simply 6 doesn't make any sense. But I agree with Bruce, that -- and 7 when they do side with the county, they need to make it 8 known. Say it out loud in the community, community of Kerr 9 County and outside. 10 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Whenever you go to the GMA-9 11 meeting, the representative from Headwaters on that panel or 12 that board down there basically thumbs his nose at the rest 13 of us. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, speaking against us. 15 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That, to me, is not 16 representation. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Absolutely. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Also at their board, 'cause 19 their board has been voting consistently, and the General 20 Manager has been very consistent in support. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: The minority position of the board 22 is the one -- of the Headwaters board is the one that's being 23 offered at the GMA-9 meeting. 24 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Exactly. 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Correct. 10-12-09 41 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Sounds familiar. 2 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Something about that just 3 doesn't seem right. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And also, I would like to -- 5 really, U.G.R.A. has been, you know, very helpful. Ray's 6 done a lot of work. They've offered up their outside counsel 7 pretty much, you know, at no cost, and Ray is really taking a 8 very strong leadership position with his board, and his 9 board -- Lana Edwards has done a really good job as well. 10 They clearly understand the importance of this to this 11 county's future. 12 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yeah. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. We've done all we can do on 14 that one, gentlemen? 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Mm-hmm. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Let's move to Item 12; consider, 17 discuss, take appropriate action to nominate a candidate or 18 candidates to the Kerr Central Appraisal District. I put 19 this on the agenda because it is again that time of year, and 20 you've got the material from the Appraisal District about the 21 nomination process. My recollection is that our support 22 previously has been Chuck Lewis? 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Correct. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: From -- he has a Comfort address. 25 He's from Kerr County, formerly served on 911 Board of 10-12-09 42 1 Managers. I had significant involvement with that agency 2 when he was there, and he always did a very competent and 3 excellent job, but I'll defer to whatever the Court wishes to 4 do. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, Judge, I want to make 6 a suggestion here. Let's ask Commissioner Letz to visit with 7 Mr. Lewis to make sure that he's willing to serve, desires to 8 serve -- continue serving, et cetera, and if not, we need to 9 come up with a -- I mean, I have no idea. I haven't heard a 10 peep out of him in a couple of years. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I have not visited -- 12 obviously, I've seen him. I have not asked him if he's 13 interested in continuing or not continuing. I think it's -- 14 I've always been a believer of -- of turnover in positions. 15 I don't think you want to get the same people too long, 16 because I think you need new ideas on some of these boards. 17 So, you know, I'd like to visit with him first and see what 18 he thinks, see -- you know, and visit -- and with a little 19 bit of an indication of possibly making a change there. 20 But -- 21 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I think that's not a bad 22 idea. We're starting to get more rumbling amongst the 23 natives whenever it comes to the KCAD. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's right. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I think it's -- you know, 10-12-09 43 1 Chuck's done a good job, but at the same time, I think that 2 it's just -- people get a little more complacent when they're 3 in one spot for a long time. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: I would note that the process 5 requires us to submit the names of nominees by written 6 resolution to the Chief Appraiser before October 15 of this 7 year. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So you're calling him at 9 break time? 10 JUDGE TINLEY: You're reading my mind, 11 Commissioner. You're reading my mind. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: All right, we'll do that. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Let's pass on that one for the time 14 being, if we might. 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Good idea. 16 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Talk about waiting till the 17 11th hour. Is that what this is? 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's a two-year or four-year? 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: It's two, I think. It's 20 two, isn't it? 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think it's two as well. 22 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Did Fourth just remind us of 23 this just prior to this meeting? Maybe Jody needs to make a 24 note of this for next year. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Two years? 10-12-09 44 1 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: So that we can do this a 2 month or two in advance, where we have time to -- 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, the -- the procedure called 4 for before October 1, '09, Chief Appraiser notifies each 5 voting taxing unit of the number of votes it may cast, and 6 that each voting unit may nominate one candidate. So, I 7 suspect that if this came in before September 28th -- I don't 8 recall whether it did. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 24th is the date on it -- oh, 10 14th is the date on it. I don't know when. Anyway -- 11 JUDGE TINLEY: But we are where we are, gentlemen. 12 So -- 13 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yeah. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: -- let's move on to Item 13, if we 15 might; consider, discuss, take appropriate action to appoint 16 Commissioner Williams to act as Kerr County's representative 17 on newly formed Alamo Regional Rural Planning Organization, 18 in accordance with Article IV, Section 4.1(a)1(a) of the 19 A.R.R.P.O. bylaws. I put this on the agenda. Recent 20 communication from AACOG allows us to appoint either myself 21 or one elected commissioner to that particular organization. 22 I believe it's called a board, I guess. 23 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yes, sir. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: And as all of you are well aware, 25 Commissioner Williams is, quote, our man at AACOG, and is on 10-12-09 45 1 the Executive Committee down there, amongst -- amongst other 2 things. So, that was my reason for putting it on the agenda. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I think we need to do some 4 vetting here, check his background. 5 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yeah. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: His teeth. Are those all 7 your own teeth? 8 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: No, I borrow some from time 9 to time. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. That's a good thing. 11 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Let me remind the Court 12 what this is really about. Thank you, Judge. This is -- you 13 may recall an earlier occasion, I apprized the Court of the 14 fact that TexDOT's no longer conducting these little area 15 meetings with the area engineer to determine what it is that 16 we'd like to see happen, and then they tell us what's going 17 to happen. We don't do that any more. They've stopped doing 18 that, and they prefer to have a more regional approach to 19 rural planning. And the federal Department of Transportation 20 wants rural planning to take place in conjunction -- excuse 21 me -- with metropolitan planning in the major urban areas. 22 And while the State of Texas looks favorably upon it, they 23 did not enact some legislation while they had the opportunity 24 to do so at the last legislative session. But the district 25 engineer out of San Antonio is very much in favor of this 10-12-09 46 1 process, so what this really is all about is that 2 representatives from the rural counties surrounding Bexar 3 County will get together. This is more under the aegis of 4 the rural judges' group, which is a sub-group to AACOG, than 5 it is AACOG generally, or particularly. And we will meet to 6 talk about those things that are important to rural counties 7 and convey that to the district engineer, who, along with the 8 rest of us, are voting members of the regional rural 9 planning. So, that's what this is all about. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I move we appoint Bill. 11 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I'll second that. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 13 approval of the agenda item. 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Do you want to check my 15 teeth now or later? 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No, I'm going to take your 17 word for it. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Further question or discussion on 19 that motion? All in favor of the motion, signify by raising 20 your right hand. 21 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 22 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 23 (No response.) 24 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Hey, Judge, do you want to 10-12-09 47 1 go back just for a second? I have a piece of information on 2 the KCAD thing. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: All right. 4 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I was looking through it, 5 and it talks about after January, members draw lots to 6 determine who will serve one- and two-year terms. That's 7 embodied way down in there, Page 12 or 13. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. That's after they get -- they 9 get seated, then they determine how long they're there? 10 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I think that's the case. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: So, in discussing with our potential 12 nominee, we can't tell him whether he's going to be there for 13 one or two years. 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: The way it looks like it 15 reads, yes, sir. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Either way, two years goes by 17 pretty quick. I think we can -- you know, if he's interested 18 in doing it for a two-year term, and then maybe we'll make a 19 change. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Let's go to Item 14; 21 consider, discuss, take appropriate action to authorize 22 and/or approve preliminary planning, evaluation, and other 23 preconstruction activities or procedures in connection with 24 the proposed Law Enforcement Annex/Adult Probation building. 25 I put this on the agenda, and you will probably see it as a 10-12-09 48 1 kind of a standard item for a while, to make sure that we're 2 in a position to take whatever action that may be necessary 3 if we go forward on that -- on that project. By way of 4 report, I would tell you that Mr. Lewis is working on -- he's 5 already initiated some things on the site planning and the 6 drainage issues with the -- the floodplain engineer. He's 7 had some preliminary meetings with the City on site planning 8 that is required. He's working on tweaking the floor plan, 9 and will have a final meeting with the representative of the 10 Sheriff's Office, Adult Probation office, and possibly myself 11 and the other members of the Court as -- as needed or as 12 desired before he brings back some documents or construction 13 elements for us to approve. He indicated there wasn't 14 anything that he needed to put before us today. I'm not 15 personally aware of anything we need to get the Court's 16 approval on today, but I did put it on the agenda for the 17 purpose of -- of doing an update and being in a position to 18 approve anything we need to keep that project moving. Does 19 any member of the Court have anything else they wish to offer 20 on this? 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Not on that, Judge, but I 22 have a question. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: All right. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Are we still on schedule in 25 regards to -- with the agreement we have with the landlord of 10-12-09 49 1 this old facility, the building that we're in now? 2 JUDGE TINLEY: The leased premises? 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Right. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner, I would tell you 5 that's going to be very, very tight -- 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: -- to make that. I'm not 8 optimistic, but maybe we'll get lucky. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. I'm wondering if 10 they're -- these kind of things, you know, are there more of 11 these kinds of things coming, planning, let's look at this, 12 let's approve that? 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, they got to get the 14 construction plans ready. Then once they get the 15 construction plans ready, we'll have to put those out for bid 16 and decide how we're going to put it out for bid. There are 17 a number of different ways that we can do that. Once we do 18 that, we put it out for bid, have an opportunity for 19 prospective bidders to bid, receive the bids, evaluate them, 20 award them, and then -- then you launch the turning the dirt. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Maybe those -- maybe those 22 kinds of things like, you know, this awarding the bid process 23 that we have to make decisions on, maybe we can talk about 24 those things in a coming meeting to kind of be briefed on it 25 so we don't have to tinker with it all the time, so we can 10-12-09 50 1 start making some decisions and -- or at least be 2 understanding how it's -- what we think is going to -- how 3 it's going to work so we can kick this can down the road. 4 I'm kind of concerned about this time frame thing. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, I am too, Commissioner, and 6 even best case scenario and everything falling together in -- 7 in the tightest time frame possible, I think it's going to be 8 extraordinarily difficult to meet that April 1 deadline. The 9 next set of good news, I guess, is our backup position is 10 that the -- the savings would amount to about $16,500 if we 11 are able to accomplish it by April 1, because we'd save the 12 balance of that lease, less -- six months worth of lease, 13 less one month, because we have to pay a month's penalty to 14 terminate the lease six months early. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's a lot of money. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, it is. It is, but if it's a 17 question of rushing things to conclusion, maybe to the point 18 that after the fact, we've got some -- some corrections to 19 make or some things that we omitted to do, it doesn't take 20 much to chew that up -- 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: -- pretty quickly if we've acted too 23 hastily. So, we'll see how it develops. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, I don't want to do 25 that. I don't want to make hasty, wrong decisions, but I do 10-12-09 51 1 want to do everything we can to get it -- get it down the 2 road. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: We're trying to fast-track this 4 thing just as much as we can, Commissioner, with the legal 5 requirements that we got to comply with and that -- that 6 we've got to offer in the way of opportunity for bidding and 7 so forth. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge, on that same note, why 10 can't we decide the bid process today, and then start 11 preparing the -- the bid documents? 'Cause they're going to 12 be based on the final construction plans. That way, we're 13 not -- I mean, we're not going to do anything, but I wouldn't 14 know why those documents would change any, 'cause you're 15 basically per attachment. And figure out -- I mean, 16 there's -- you know, you said there's different ways we can 17 bid it, I presume thinking of -- you know, to me, the way we 18 do a project like this is, it makes sense if Mr. Lewis is 19 responsible for -- you know, as kind of our man on the spot 20 to make sure it's built according to plans; that we're just 21 going to put it out to low bid based on his specifications. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, there's some -- there's some 23 alternative bidding processes of whether or not we want to 24 bid slab and the base shell construction as one element, 25 whether we want to bid the interior finish out in two 10-12-09 52 1 components so as to get an early finish out on the probation 2 side. There's some options that I think Mr. Lewis wants to 3 look at and put before us, and some of that's going to be 4 determined on how those final plans come out. If you can, 5 for example, separate the finish out into two -- two phases, 6 two components, for example, whether or not you want to 7 reserve out another option to exclude saving interior 8 painting and finishing that we may want to do in-house, or 9 other things we may want to do in-house. It's -- I don't 10 think it's as simple as just saying we're going to 11 competitively bid the thing on a turnkey basis. In my 12 preliminary discussions with Mr. Lewis, I think he's 13 inclined -- I indicated that I thought bidding the shell and 14 the foundation as one component, and then the finish out 15 maybe with options as a second component. I think he seemed 16 to think that may be the way to go, as opposed to bidding it 17 as a turnkey; that we might be able to save some money. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I guess I'm going to be 19 reluctant to go with something that's not pretty close. It 20 can be built in two components, but I'm not going to be in 21 favor of having a project where we're -- where the County's 22 Maintenance Department is responsible for finishing out 23 anything other than -- at least the first phase of it. I 24 mean, leaving one part of the building unfinished, I don't 25 have a problem working on that, but I see a -- an issue of 10-12-09 53 1 accountability all of a sudden if you start -- you know, if 2 the County is going in there, finishing stuff out, and then 3 they nick something, and then you have to go back and do 4 sheetrock work, and I just want one person responsible. 5 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Particularly if you have a 6 contractor on the job. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 8 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That can happen. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's -- I just think that we're 10 asking for trouble, especially with the tight time framework, 11 if we turn part of it over to our Maintenance Department to 12 finish. I'm just not in favor of that, except for the part 13 that we're not going to finish out. As opposed to doing it 14 in, bidding it out. Whereas finishing one part before the 15 other, I mean, doesn't make any difference to me. I can't 16 imagine how that's going to save us the 16,5 that you're 17 talking about. You know, they're going to -- lots of that 18 stuff, it takes -- you know, you bring the electricians in 19 and they come in at a certain stage, and if you have people 20 come in in a different order, it's going to eat up 16,000 21 real fast. So, to me, I'd just like to get the -- you know, 22 I want to -- I want it built and done. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, those are some issues I'd like 24 to have Mr. Lewis in on the discussion, obviously. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 10-12-09 54 1 JUDGE TINLEY: And my plan is -- is to have him 2 here next meeting, and I think he'll be in a position to lay 3 in front of us where he is at that time, and we'll probably 4 be in a position to direct him in the manner to how the thing 5 ought to be -- go forward on bidding and so forth. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 7 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Okay. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Anything else? Okay. Let's go to 9 our 10 o'clock item, to consider, discuss, take appropriate 10 action on a resolution for the Dietert Senior Center's Meals 11 on Wheels grant application. Ms. Woods, good to have you 12 here this morning. 13 MS. WOODS: Good morning. 14 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Good morning. 15 MS. WOODS: How are y'all? I'm Tina Woods, and I'm 16 the Executive Director at the Dietert Center, and I'm happy 17 to be with you again this morning. First of all, thank you 18 again for the generous support that you have given our Meals 19 on Wheels program for the past many years. And I came to you 20 last year also requesting this resolution. The Texas 21 Department of Agriculture has a grant program that originally 22 was just supposed to last two years, but thanks to Meals on 23 Wheels of Austin and Meals on Wheels of Texas, they were able 24 to successfully negotiate to have the grant continued for two 25 more years, which is wonderful for us. But part of our 10-12-09 55 1 ability to apply for this grant, first of all, we have to 2 receive money from the county, which you guys have been so 3 gracious to give us in the past, and we -- and this year as 4 well, which we greatly appreciate. We also require a 5 resolution that states that the county has given money 6 towards our program, as well as that you approve our 7 accounting system. So, I'm here to ask you again for another 8 resolution. 9 The grant deadline is November 1st. Last year we 10 received $64,000, which was just more than we expected. We 11 had about 20,000 unfunded meals last year. We will have 12 about that same number this year. We don't put folks on a 13 waiting list for our Meals on Wheels program. And, 14 ironically, what we've discovered with this grant process, 15 the grant is awarded on your unfunded meals of the year -- 16 previous year, and for providers who have a waiting list, 17 they can't demonstrate that they've had unfunded meals. So, 18 even though folks might have been eligible to apply, the 19 grant awards have been larger than that dollar per meal that 20 they anticipated early on, because some folks do put seniors 21 on a waiting list. We feel they've got to eat, and we'll 22 find a way to get the money somehow, and so we do have a bulk 23 of unfunded meals annually, so we're able to get more money. 24 So, it was wonderful. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move approval of the 10-12-09 56 1 resolution. 2 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I will second it. And I 3 want to say for the record that Tina's organization does a 4 tremendous job, and it is recognized at AACOG through 5 Department of Aging up there as one of -- one of the premier 6 providers of service that we deal with or fund. And there's 7 just no question about that. We see others in the south 8 Texas region who have nothing but problems and inability to 9 service the people that they try to service, and then there's 10 Dietert. And Dietert always stays in the forefront, and 11 that's a great credit to you, Tina. I have one question, 12 however. On this "Resolved" on the resolution, it talks 13 about the County hereby certifies that it's made a grant to 14 the organization in the amount of, to be used between -- and 15 that is for unfunded meals; is that correct? Or is that 16 just -- can you certify that the amount of money that the 17 County gives to Dietert each year qualifies under this 18 particular paragraph? 19 MS. WOODS: It does qualify. It doesn't state that 20 the grant funds have to be for unfunded meals. The 21 Department of Agriculture grant is based on unfunded meals. 22 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. 23 MS. WOODS: But our county agreement states that we 24 can use those funds for our program, as long as it doesn't 25 pay salaries, and we always use that to purchase food. Our 10-12-09 57 1 food budget is about $150,000 annually, so we definitely can 2 devote that towards food purchases. 3 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay, thank you. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Tina, on Section 3, is there a 5 -- do we have a formal document that says we appeal -- I mean 6 approve your accounting system? 7 MS. WOODS: No, we really don't. If the Court 8 would like us to create something, or have the County Auditor 9 come and work with us to certify that, that would be great. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think it probably wouldn't 11 hurt just to use the wording, "The County hereby certifies 12 that it approves the organization's accounting system or 13 fiscal agent." I think if you do just a letter from the 14 Auditor approving the fiscal agent, we probably -- that way 15 it's in your file and our files. Probably wouldn't be a bad 16 idea. 17 MS. WOODS: Sure, that would be great. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Probably serve to protect both of 19 us. 20 MS. WOODS: Right. We do provide a copy of our 21 annual audit. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 23 MS. WOODS: Which has been done by Pressler 24 Thompson. This year will it will be done by Davidson Freedle 25 Overby. But, yes, that would be wonderful. 10-12-09 58 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Or a copy of that audit on 2 file with our Auditor's office. 3 MS. WOODS: You get one every year. 4 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. 5 MS. WOODS: And so does Judge Tinley. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That may be sufficient, but 7 just -- you know, a -- you know, doesn't hurt to get a 8 letter. 9 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Maybe change what that 10 states. 11 MS. WOODS: We'll be happy to do that. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Ms. Woods, in previous years, you 13 were somewhat surprised by the amount of the awards you got 14 because we were providing assistance, and you had indicated 15 that a number of other organizations similar to yours went to 16 school on that, where they were not getting county 17 assistance, and they went to their county commissioners 18 courts and said, "We can give some leverage if you'll -- 19 you'll give us some money here." Has that materially 20 impacted the amount of the assistance that you folks have 21 gotten under this program? 22 MS. WOODS: Possibly a little bit, only because 23 more providers were able to be eligible to receive the funds. 24 The question is how many unfunded meals they provided, and if 25 anything, it may be moving some groups that were using a 10-12-09 59 1 waiting list type of program to go ahead and provide meals 2 for their constituents, simply because they can't access the 3 grant funds if they can't show they had unfunded meals. But 4 I do think that several providers have gone to their counties 5 and asked for assistance, and it has opened those doors a 6 little bit so that more seniors are being fed across the 7 state, 'cause this is a wonderful incentive to do that. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Bottom line, the seniors of this 9 state have benefited from this. 10 MS. WOODS: Oh, absolutely. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 12 MS. WOODS: Absolutely. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: I have a motion and a second. 14 Further question or discussion on the motion? All in favor 15 of the motion, signify by raising your right hand. 16 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 17 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 18 (No response.) 19 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. Thank you. 20 MS. WOODS: Thank you so much. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you. 22 MS. WOODS: We appreciate it, and I'll get with 23 Jeannie and work on that letter. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 25 MS. WOODS: Thanks. 10-12-09 60 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Why don't -- why don't we go 2 to Section 4 of our agenda. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We're not going to take a 4 short break? I just wondered. Not getting old like you, 5 though. 6 (Discussion off the record.) 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Payment of the bills. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Guess it's no. 9 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Move approval. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded to pay the 12 bills. Question or discussion on the motion? 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Judge, I do have a -- on -- 14 I had about 40 questions, and I forgot to mark them as I went 15 through. But these are just -- I'm sure this is simple. On 16 Page 31 -- are you there? 17 MS. HARGIS: Yes. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. Krauss' Garage, fuel 19 and oil, $1,300. 20 MS. HARGIS: There were several repairs on his 21 automobile through there that -- we just reviewed that this 22 morning with the Judge. It's a pretty large invoice covering 23 his air conditioning system and several other items he had 24 repaired, so that's just the only item they have to put that 25 type of -- we don't have maintenance of his cars in that line 10-12-09 61 1 item. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I see. 3 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Shouldn't that be listed as 4 repairs rather than fuel and oil? 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. "Fuel and oil" is -- 6 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Is that your question? 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: -- what threw me. 8 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Or separate the two. 9 MS. HARGIS: We don't have a budget for the two, 10 and we can. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's the constable. 12 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Oh, constable, okay. 13 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Don't get excited, Sheriff. 14 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I knew I had a budget for the 15 two. I was wondering -- 16 MS. HARGIS: No. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Whatever. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: There's about 82,000 miles on that 19 vehicle, and extensive brake work was also done. It was a 20 blower assembly that had to be replaced or something. There 21 was -- it went on for about a page and a quarter worth of 22 things that were done. I -- I had Tess pull the bill and 23 brought it to me this morning. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: The next page, second item, 25 Ken Stoepel Ford, and then the third item under there for 10-12-09 62 1 $358, the word "organizer" threw me a little bit. 2 MS. HARGIS: I didn't review that one. I'll have 3 to review that one. 4 MS. MABRY: I believe it was a trunk organizer. 5 (Discussion off the record.) 6 MS. MABRY: It was a trunk organizer. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'm sorry, I can't hear you. 8 MS. MABRY: A trunk organizer. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Trunk organizer? 10 MS. MABRY: Yes, for his vehicle. 11 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That's Constable 3, right? 12 MS. HARGIS: Yes. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's Constable 3. 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: His commissioner should 15 know the answer to that. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: $358 for a trunk organizer? 17 Okay. Is that a person or is that a box, or what is that? 18 MS. MABRY: No. 19 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: A large box dividing it out. 20 You can purchase those that help keep all his different 21 equipment -- 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Look who knows about it. 23 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: -- in the trunk. I get 24 advertisements for them all the time. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And then two more down 10-12-09 63 1 there, G.T. Distributors, Inc., operating equipment. 2 MS. HARGIS: That's his ammunition. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Armor. 4 MS. HARGIS: That's his ammunition that he buys 5 once a year. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. I think it's just 7 these words like "armor"; that's what throws me a little bit. 8 MS. HARGIS: Well, the individuals are now putting 9 these in, so -- we try changing as many as we can. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Page 40, Rabies and Animal 11 Control, three-quarters of the way down, Tractor Supply, 12 capital outlay supplies, $915. What do they buy over there, 13 Bruce? Do they buy, like, feed buckets? Troughs? Pens? Or 14 what do you reckon? 15 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I'm not real sure what this 16 one is. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What is that? 18 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Do you have any idea what it 19 is? 20 MS. HARGIS: I didn't check this one either. I'll 21 have to look on this one. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Wouldn't it be something 23 like that, though, from Tractor Supply? 24 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yeah, it's going to be 25 some -- some things like you described. More than likely 10-12-09 64 1 some -- some dog food and stuff, too. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Oh, okay. 3 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Cat food, dog food they run a 4 special on or something. That's the -- they sell that there 5 too. 6 MS. HARGIS: Eva seems to know. 7 MS. HYDE: This is the one where they changed those 8 pens out. Tim had to help build that stuff to cover -- 9 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Oh, the covered sheds back 10 there. That's what they got there. That was -- 11 MS. HYDE: Yeah, that's the -- 12 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: -- the tin and the posts. 13 MS. HYDE: And Tim did all the work. 14 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Okay. Well, that explains 15 that. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Capital outlay. 17 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Gosh, it's been a while. 18 That's been done for three or four months. 19 MS. HYDE: Yeah, they just got it done; getting all 20 the bills in. 21 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That last pen. The last 22 cover over some stalls. 23 MS. HARGIS: It doesn't show up. 24 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Storage shed for the 25 trailers. 10-12-09 65 1 MS. HYDE: The bill didn't come in last month's 2 billing. 3 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Anyway, it's cheap enough. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's all, Judge. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Any other questions or comments on 6 the bills? All in favor of the motion, signify by raising 7 your right hand. 8 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 9 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 10 (No response.) 11 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. Do we have 12 any budget amendments? 13 MS. HARGIS: No budget amendments. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Any late bills? 15 MS. HARGIS: Yes, we do have some late bills. 16 They're really not late, but these are bills we need to get 17 into the system. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: These are encumbrances? 19 MS. HARGIS: These are encumbrances, and we needed 20 to get them in the system so -- we wanted you to be able to 21 see them. We didn't run them through direct payables; I 22 don't like doing that. But these are what we call direct 23 payables, but they're for you to see, so we call them late 24 bills. And these are the ones that -- some of the bills that 25 are coming in marked September, and we need to get them in so 10-12-09 66 1 that we get -- we can close our books, which we're trying to 2 do for the audit. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move approval. 4 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Second. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: For what? 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 7 approval of the late bills. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: They're in our books. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Question or discussion on the 11 motion? All in favor of the motion, signify by raising your 12 right hand. 13 (Commissioners Williams, Letz, and Oehler voted in favor of the motion.) 14 15 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 16 (No response.) 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion does carry. 18 THE REPORTER: Did you vote, Commissioner? 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No, I didn't vote. Thank 20 you for asking. But I will next time. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: I've been provided with monthly 22 reports from -- excuse me -- Constable, Precinct 1, County 23 Clerk, J.P. 4, J.P. 3, District Clerk, J.P. 1, and 24 Environmental Health. Do I hear a motion that these reports 25 be approved as presented? 10-12-09 67 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So moved. 2 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Second. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 4 approval of the reports as presented. Question or 5 discussion? All in favor of the motion, signify by raising 6 your right hand. 7 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 8 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 9 (No response.) 10 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. Let's go 11 ahead and do Section 5 quickly; reports from Commissioners in 12 their liaison or committee assignments. Commissioner Oehler? 13 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Nothing in particular, except 14 that we do -- Animal Control did capture a barasingha the 15 other day running down the highway, so now we have an exotic 16 animal that's maybe shortly put on the endangered species 17 list, and she has it -- has it -- 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Barasingha? 19 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: It's an exotic deer. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Like an elk or a moose or 21 something. 22 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Like a whitetail, but a whole 23 lot bigger. And native to either India or somewhere like 24 that. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Is that that thing that 10-12-09 68 1 killed the fellow -- 2 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Same animal that killed -- 3 very docile animal normally. 4 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Wow. 5 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: But they tranquilized it the 6 other day, and it's being held by a man who has a facility 7 that has agreed to do that very inexpensively, because we do 8 not have it out at Animal Control. And -- 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Any more exciting news? 10 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That's enough. We don't need 11 any more wild animals for a while. 12 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That's good. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner Baldwin? 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No, sir. My Historical 15 Commission is my report for the month, or week or whatever. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner Williams? 17 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: The Court may well remember 18 that we have an interlocal -- or a letter of intent, 19 actually, from the Kendall County W.C.& I.D., signed by both 20 me and Kerr County with respect to an intent to negotiate an 21 interlocal agreement for wastewater and related services. 22 The first meeting will take place this week; Commissioner 23 Letz and I will be there. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Anything else? 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: No, sir. 10-12-09 69 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, sir. You got anything 2 for us, Commissioner Letz? 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Just one non-water thing that 4 I'm kind of involved in. I don't know how I get involved 5 with some of these things, but most of us have heard probably 6 about Camp Bullis, and there's some legislation on buying 7 land and all this stuff. Well, somehow or another, that's 8 also been tied in now with L.C.R.A. power lines because of 9 mitigation that L.C.R.A. may have to do with some of these 10 power lines. And one of my constituents thought that I 11 should be advised of this. And even though the person 12 heading this up out of Bexar County I don't think was overly 13 enthusiastic, I will either be on one of two committees, it 14 appears, creating the habitat conservation plan for four 15 birds, some invertebrates, and 18 plants. That covers a good 16 part of the hill country, and all in my precinct. 17 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Congratulations, 18 Commissioner. 19 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Sure glad it's in your 20 precinct and not mine. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'm trying to figure out how 22 it's -- you know, I'm not sure which of the two groups I'm 23 going to end up on. But -- 24 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Is this going to us cost any 25 more consulting money? 10-12-09 70 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't believe so. 2 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Is this going to be another 3 speech before the Sierra Club? 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That I don't know. Hope not. 5 But it is rather -- it is interesting; I will say that. 6 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Good luck. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. I'll need it with this 8 group, I'm afraid. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Any other exiting news you have for 10 us, Commissioner? 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's it. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Well, now, why don't we take 13 us about a 15-, 20-minute recess. We'll come back and pick 14 up the one remaining item. 15 (Recess taken from 10:22 a.m. to 10:45 a.m.) 16 - - - - - - - - - - 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay, let's come back to order from 18 our recess. We'll continue with Section 5. Do we have any 19 reports from elected officials or department heads? Sheriff? 20 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I wanted to give a quick 21 update on our jail status and population and stuff, and where 22 I see our direct file -- how it's working, things like that. 23 So, right off the bat, we are currently -- this morning we 24 were at 158 inmates in that jail, which has gone up quite a 25 bit from the upper 90's that we were. Of those 158 inmates, 10-12-09 71 1 55 of them have County Court at Law charges; 26 of those have 2 already been taken care of and disposed of. Actually, 29 3 have been taken care of and disposed of. Rex has 26 pending, 4 which is not that bad for misdemeanor cases. The 216th court 5 has 42 inmates in jail; 9 of those have already been disposed 6 of, so they have 33 pending. Of those 33 pending, 17 have 7 been in there for over 100 days. What most of those 17 are 8 is the organized crime murder case that was worked several 9 months ago, last summer -- almost a year ago, from up in 10 Ingram. And those are just taking a long time, because, one, 11 the Court ordered that all the interviews be transcribed, be 12 videotaped interviews, and you're talking hundreds of them, 13 and so the cost there, and the time, and it's got to be done 14 for each defendant. Each defense attorney has a right to 15 have copies of all those things, so there's just beaucoups of 16 stuff that's going to be going in that one. The 198th has 41 17 inmates in jail. Three of those have been taken care of, so 18 they have 38 pending, compared to the 33 pending in the 19 216th. And they have seven with over 100 days in jail. Now, 20 some of those in both courts -- and the over 100 days is 21 important, but you have to remember, we have to count, like, 22 Vincent Seard, okay, and a couple others that are in mental 23 hospitals at different locations that we're still responsible 24 for. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. But, Rusty, you do 10-12-09 72 1 not put them in these numbers here, do you? 2 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yes, they're all in those 3 numbers. They're still counted as ours. They're not counted 4 against our in-house population, 'cause they're technically 5 in another facility. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So, these numbers are not 7 in-house population? 8 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: The 158 is total population. 9 The -- the inmates that are being housed out of the county, 10 but ours, are six, so you got 152 total in-house population 11 as of this morning. Now, those totals that you get, and that 12 I'm giving you, still leaves 35 other inmates that aren't in 13 either one of the three courts. Ten of those -- today, 10 of 14 those are Gillespie County inmates, okay, which still leaves 15 another 25 inmates. Those are either your child support 16 inmates or your -- they were brought back on a civil case 17 from T.D.C. and they're here on a bench warrant so that they, 18 you know, can testify in another case, or civil case, or not 19 really in either court any more. Or they're your parole 20 violators that we're waiting for the Parole Board to do 21 something on, or they may be new ones that came in that the 22 case file hasn't made it to a court to be assigned a cause 23 number yet. And so -- 24 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: What do you think it will be 25 by the end of the week? 10-12-09 73 1 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I think still we're going to 2 be running real close to the same, okay, on everything. My 3 concern is the -- and you have the two different deals that 4 we're working. Direct file is a way of making sure they 5 don't fall through the cracks, and then you have the fast 6 track, is the way that we get them plea offers and get things 7 moving quicker. Our fast track is not going as fast as I 8 would like to see it. They did plead a number of them out 9 last week, but they only had two attorneys that -- defense 10 attorneys that were really doing that, and getting a lot of 11 conflicts of -- of different cases in different counties, and 12 so it's slowing that process down. 198th is doing better. 13 They weren't using it quite as much as they had been. 216th 14 is slowing way down right now. I think we'll have to wait 15 and see what the future brings, whether it's with a District 16 Court Judge appointment and who ends up taking over that, and 17 I know that the assistant that's kind of running a lot of 18 those things in the 216th is not near as fast. She likes to 19 have -- I think that she likes to have people sit in jail 20 longer, and not quite the offers made that the -- that the 21 other assistant was making, so it clogs up the system more 22 there. But when you look at overall numbers in the 216th, 33 23 pending is not bad. It's just the 17 that are over 100 days, 24 they're sitting there longer. So, that's kind of where we 25 are. 10-12-09 74 1 JUDGE TINLEY: With regard to the cases that have 2 been disposed of, I assume those are paper-ready to go to 3 some other facility? 4 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Depending on which court, 5 okay, and what the other cases are. Rex has a number of his 6 that are taken care of. Now, once in a while -- not very 7 many Rex does, but once in a while, there are some that have 8 to do 365 days in jail, you know, things like that, that need 9 to be there. Rex does -- and so they're fulfilling those 10 sentences. In the district courts, where we run into a lot 11 of issues is if there is -- they may have a case in each 12 court, which then it's -- this court's waiting on this court, 13 and no, this court's waiting on this court, and it just gets 14 all drug out forever. Or you have them with a parole 15 violation and a new district court charge. Then the parole 16 people don't want to take care of the parole violation until 17 they see what happens to the new court charge. The new court 18 charge, the Court doesn't want to take care of that court 19 charge until they see what happens with the parole violation, 20 and they sit there forever and we can't get them moving, 21 because one court's waiting on another court. 'Cause they -- 22 they want to see what they're going to do before they make 23 some kind of offer. So, it does slow things down. The only 24 issue I have is that I just don't like seeing it -- you know, 25 if we were at our -- our 80 percent, and what I've told y'all 10-12-09 75 1 is I thought, with the way it was going down to 95, we could 2 make it another, you know, eight years or so, six years. And 3 a lot of these out of that 35 will go down, okay. So if you 4 take 10 out and get 148, you take some that will get out 5 today, the misdemeanors that came in over the weekend, you're 6 probably down to 140. Some of those civil ones, you know, 7 you're all right. I said 148 -- 158; take the 6 off there 8 first. Let's start at 152 in-house. Take 10 out of there, 9 it's 142. Take what came in out over the weekend and drop it 10 down, that would get out during -- during the day; you're 11 probably talking 142 -- probably about 135. And some, Rex 12 may get out tomorrow; he's got court on Tuesday. We're still 13 talking a population -- sound population of probably 130. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Now, Rusty, so about 130. 15 And how many of those are out-of-county? 16 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Ten is what he said a minute 17 ago. 18 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I already took those out. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You took that -- 20 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: 130 is going to be ours. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: 130 would be ours? 22 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Right now. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And I understand -- I 24 understand the organized crime issue. 25 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: That's a large number. 10-12-09 76 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And there was another issue 2 kind of like that; I can't remember what it was now, but 3 those were two -- two issues. The Judge has ordered them 4 there for "X" amount of time. I understand those things. 5 But tell me again now why they're still hanging around there. 6 I mean, we have a court, we have a judge, and we have a 7 prosecutor. 8 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Well, it's how many -- 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And we have this direct -- 10 wonderful direct file thing that -- and you tack on fast 11 track on that. 12 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: You're always going to have 13 those that are going to hold out till the last minute to get 14 the best offer they can, or that are just going to choose to 15 take a jury trial. And if they're going to take a jury 16 trial, Buster, you're talking -- you know, you can't try but 17 more than about six a year, so they get tried here in 18 district court. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: How -- I guess, if I see where 20 Buster's going, and I would agree, how do we get the D.A.'s 21 to stop the negotiation and make the best offer, period? I 22 mean, I think once the -- and I know -- and I know the 23 answer, too; everyone's shaking their head. We have no 24 ability there. But, you know, from a citizen standpoint, I 25 mean, not just being a commissioner responsible for budget 10-12-09 77 1 stuff, I don't really like the idea of negotiating. They 2 should just make their offer. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Absolutely. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Why should they be negotiating 5 on a felony? 6 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: You need to talk to the 7 prosecutors and defense attorneys about that. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The facts are the facts, and 9 you make the best offer that you do for this person. I mean, 10 if they end up with a year less, or -- I mean, they need to 11 figure out what they can live with and do it. I just don't 12 understand the difference. And if it isn't working, then we 13 need to defund some of these spots. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 15 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Well, the problem you have at 16 this point -- I definitely wouldn't defund. I think if you 17 defunded any of these spots, you'd see jail population -- 18 that would -- you know, we'd cut off our nose to spite our 19 face on that. Realistic offers, you know, some prosecutors 20 are just going to be more hard-nosed and hard -- and want 21 longer sentences, which, being a law enforcement officer, I'm 22 all for, okay? But I would rather see them serve that 23 sentence in T.D.C. than here. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, not here. 25 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Is my opinion. But, you know, 10-12-09 78 1 it's one of those, can do you it? But we have jumped up, you 2 know, 30 in population in three months. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Rusty, just let me ask one 4 more question, then I'm through. For a minute. Friday 5 morning, how many -- how many prisoners were removed from 6 your jail from the -- from the Friday morning court? 7 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Removed, probably none. 8 Sentenced, I think about six or seven. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So, eventually those people, 10 when they get the paper ready and T.D.C.'s ready to receive 11 them -- 12 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yeah. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: -- and all that stuff, then 14 they will leave? 15 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Right. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Is that the only thing that 17 we deal with in there, is T.D.C. type folk? 18 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: The Friday morning dockets, 19 most of that is going to be felony cases, okay, that may or 20 may not be going to T.D.C., or may have, you know, other 21 county charges somewhere else. Just have to see. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Sounds like to me the 23 options are they go to T.D.C., they go to another county, or 24 they sit in your place. 25 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Or -- or a lot of times 10-12-09 79 1 attorneys will make motions to have the bond lowered. 2 Sometimes the bond gets lowered and they'll make bond. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: How do you like that? 4 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Depends on the case. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Is there primarily one single thing 6 that's causing this to creep up again? I think what I'm 7 hearing from you is, in the past weeks, the number of plea 8 bargains that have been struck previously -- 9 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Have slowed down. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: That's -- in the past few weeks, it 11 hasn't been what the norm has been prior to that. 12 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I think the -- I think the 13 prosecutor that was hired and assigned to help do a lot of 14 the -- the fast tracking, okay -- the direct file's working. 15 I'm not complaining. The fast tracking, I think he is doing 16 as much as he can do. And I think you have -- 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Based on the authorization that he 18 has. 19 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: That's exactly it. Okay? 20 That's where you're going to be, is the authorization and the 21 ones that he can make the offers on, that aren't pulled -- 22 "No, we're not making that offer" -- pulled from him, all 23 right, I think is working. I think you have two issues with 24 -- and it's both courts, all right? One court that -- that 25 wants to do most of it still themselves, although he is 10-12-09 80 1 coming around and doing more and more; that's the 198th. And 2 the 216th is -- an assistant says, "No, we're not making that 3 offer," you know, "I'm not going to let them plead for that," 4 and then they sit for a lot longer, type deal. Both of 5 those, I don't think neither you nor I can really control 6 much of, so we're where we are. It's not bad, but it has 7 gone up a lot more than what I was hoping it would be up at 8 this time. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: This picture that you just 10 drew, of -- of 216th D.A. -- Assistant D.A. not willing to 11 take the deals as readily as 198th or anyone else would, has 12 that increased? I mean, we have an increase here, a major 13 increase. Now, has that -- are we -- did we make somebody 14 mad in our budget process, to where they're going to hold 15 our -- 16 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I think it's a difference in 17 philosophy between different prosecutors. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, that's always been 19 there. 20 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: If I were offering somebody -- 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It's always been there, 22 hasn't it? Where's the increase? 23 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Ask your prosecutors. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay, I will do exactly 25 that. 10-12-09 81 1 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I think they need to speak for 2 themselves. I'm just giving you where we are. 216th has got 3 40 -- 216th has got 33 pending cases, with 17 over 100 days 4 in jail. 198th has 38 pending cases, with 7 over 100 days in 5 jail. That's the main thing I can tell you. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So, we went from 97 to 158 7 because a D.A. doesn't want to -- 8 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I think there's a lot of 9 different factors, Buster. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. 11 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I don't think it's just 12 because of a D.A. I think it's a lot of different issues, 13 and different people. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It just amazes me, all of a 15 sudden we have a lot of different issues. Just all of a 16 sudden. The number -- 17 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Not all of a sudden. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What do you mean, not all of 19 a sudden? We were down to 90 -- in the 90's, working this 20 program, and then all of a sudden we've doubled. 21 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Some take plea bargains, some 22 don't. Some, you know, inmates want their day at a jury 23 trial. I can't blame it totally on the D.A.'s. I've seen 24 our jail population in the past years go over 200 and down to 25 95, okay? But it's not all of a sudden. But, yes, it's 10-12-09 82 1 jumped higher quicker than what I'd like to have seen after 2 we started the fast track and the direct file. 3 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Buster's going to go visit, I 4 can tell. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I am. I am. 6 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: You should. That's your 7 boy -- your liaison, isn't it? 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I don't know. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: It is now. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It has been for about a 11 year, just trying to get this thing put together. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, Sheriff. 13 MR. EMERSON: Just for what it's worth, too, if the 14 fast track slows down, it increases the misdemeanor numbers 15 also, because we have a lot of concurrent cases. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Mm-hmm. 17 MR. EMERSON: And the defense attorneys don't want 18 to plead to -- they don't want to plead their clients on 19 misdemeanors before the felonies. 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Real domino effect. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Sure. 22 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: All the way around. Major. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, Sheriff. 24 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: You're welcome. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Any other elected officials? 10-12-09 83 1 Department heads? 2 MS. HYDE: Insurance. An update for the insurance. 3 Gary and I worked last week, and as of Thursday, we now have 4 six competitive bids isolated. The competitive bids have 5 multiple options, which are -- which is good; we haven't had 6 that many that had multiple options in the last couple years. 7 At this time, we will be within the projected budget, which 8 should make everybody real happy. We were a little bit 9 nervous when we opened up the first few. All the benefits 10 look to remain the same, with a few changes in prescriptions, 11 and we'll give you guys an update on that, because he and I 12 are going to work on it again this week. At the end of this 13 week, it should take us about eight days, because we will 14 have to work back with these bids and make sure that all the 15 information is accurate and correct. We did receive one 16 ominous, threatening letter from a vendor that's been shared 17 with the Judge and with the County Attorney, who the County 18 Attorney -- attorneyed. 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: It wasn't ominous. Oh, 20 that's right. Yeah, it was ominous. It was threatening. 21 MS. HYDE: We did finish -- Gary and I finished 22 last Thursday evening the initial spreadsheet, and now what 23 we're doing is we're verifying the quotes to make sure that 24 all the things are in there that are supposed to be in there. 25 Most of them will want one more pass-through on what our 10-12-09 84 1 trends are, any -- you know, anything new that's hit us in 2 the last 60 days. And just -- I think everybody knows, but 3 just in case, FARA notified us that they wanted us to move to 4 a different vendor; they're getting out of the medical 5 portion of insurance. And we also received notification that 6 Monumental, who is our stop loss carrier, has decided -- they 7 pulled their offer as well. So, that's where we stand. So, 8 we're -- 9 JUDGE TINLEY: On renewal? 10 MS. HYDE: Yes, sir. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 12 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: How do you address the FARA 13 issue? 14 MS. HYDE: I'm sorry? 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: How do you address the FARA 16 issue? Is there another vendor that you're looking at? 17 MS. HYDE: Yes, sir. They put in a bid for -- they 18 are now in the process of merging those two companies. 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I see. 20 MS. HYDE: So, that's an update on the insurance. 21 We should have -- Gary and I are pretty optimistic that at 22 the next Commissioners Court meeting, we can probably bring 23 you the information and make the suggestions. We're trying 24 to be aggressive on it, to get it out there. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Will we have enough recent 10-12-09 85 1 claims information to the -- to the bidders so that they're 2 locked in by the end of this month? 3 MS. HYDE: We believe so. We believe so, barring 4 something unforeseen. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. 6 MS. HYDE: And then what we would do is just -- we 7 would give them our best guess estimate based on last 8 trending. So, flu shots. They are going to be on 9 November 4th, which is a Wednesday. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Do I get one? 11 MS. HYDE: Sure. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. 13 MS. HYDE: Do I get to give it to you? 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is there a makeup day? 16 MS. HYDE: What we'll do is we will help you by 17 making an appointment over at the Schreiner One building so 18 that you can go over there and get it. But -- I'll tell you 19 later. 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: No comment. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Department of Health? 22 MS. HYDE: Yes, sir. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. I didn't know -- I mean, 24 I thought -- 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Get your food stamps while 10-12-09 86 1 you're over there. 2 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Took the words right out of 3 my mouth. 4 MS. HYDE: The health and wellness reimbursement, 5 the Sheriff and I are going to finish that up this afternoon. 6 I'd like permission, with y'all's -- okay, to work with 7 Commissioner Baldwin to make sure that it meets what you guys 8 would want to see as far as, "Yes, I've done it," "No, I've 9 not," and what we're going to use. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: The certification on -- 11 MS. HYDE: Yes, sir. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: -- the wellness participation? 13 MS. HYDE: Yes, sir. Would it be all right if I 14 worked with Commissioner Baldwin on that? 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Being a picture of health, it seems 16 to me that -- 17 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: He's been showing up. 18 MS. HYDE: He's been showing up. I'm proud of him. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Been showing up. 20 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Been leaving a big puddle. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's all you have to do, 22 is show up. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: That's what you thought. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. I've got to get me -- 25 I've got to get a truck with an automatic transmission, 10-12-09 87 1 'cause when I walk out of there, I can't get my gears 2 shifted. I'm going to -- it's pretty bad. 3 MS. HYDE: The policy book, I'm three-quarters of 4 the way through getting that printed, or getting that ready 5 to print off. The Tax Assessor is going to let me use their 6 color printer for the color portion, and the rest of it I'll 7 use my black and white printer. We've got 50,000 pages that 8 we can copy. We look to start that the third week of 9 October. Tuesday, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, and we're going 10 to trade it out, morning class versus afternoon class, four 11 hours a pop. 12 MS. HARGIS: You mean November? You said October. 13 MS. HYDE: Third week in October, we're going to 14 start. We had an employee that got hurt over the weekend, 15 Marc Allen at Animal Control. He broke several ribs and his 16 clavicle -- shoulder bone and clavicle, so he's going to be 17 out a bit. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It wasn't that thing? 19 MR. EMERSON: Employment-related injury? 20 MS. HYDE: No. I said this weekend. 21 MR. EMERSON: Okay. 22 MS. HYDE: Non-employment. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Can we talk about all that in 24 here? 25 MS. HYDE: And we're also working on the GASB 10-12-09 88 1 audit. Jeannie's given me the information, and we're going 2 to get popping on it. It's pretty extensive. She's 3 volunteered to do all the financial parts, so that's great, 4 and then we'll do all the HIPAA-protected information. 5 That's it. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Next? 7 MS. HARGIS: As you know, or don't know, I was in 8 Austin on Monday and Tuesday for a -- a C.P.A. conference 9 that's put on by the Texas Society of C.P.A.'s. The main 10 topic was the ERISA money and all the rules and regulations 11 attached to the money that's coming out of Washington. We do 12 have some of that money coming down the pike already. 13 Apparently, the grant that we got for Juvenile Probation and 14 for Amos is that type of money. There are a ton of reporting 15 requirements. In fact, this thing can get so expensive that 16 your reporting requirements will outweigh what you get, so we 17 want to be careful that -- they're advising us, you better 18 get a lot of money; otherwise, it's going to cost you more 19 than what you get. The reporting requirements can be weekly, 20 monthly, quarterly. It's pretty extensive. The A.G.'s 21 office is very heavily involved, both from the -- from the 22 Washington level, as well as the state level. 23 So -- also, even if we weren't required to do a 24 single audit, if we get any of these ERISA money, we're going 25 to have a single audit, so that's another fee on top of. 10-12-09 89 1 Last year we didn't have one. We probably will skate by 2 without one this year. We will have -- when we get the funds 3 for the sewer project, we'll have to have one anyway. But 4 when you do a single audit, it's a compliance audit more than 5 it is a financial audit; takes more time. All money that we 6 received from ERISA will be on the single audit and will be 7 chosen regardless. That'll be one of the programs that has 8 to be picked out. So, it's -- they're very worried about it. 9 The main thing that Washington is looking for is, have we 10 created jobs? Have we retained jobs? Do we have new jobs? 11 So, we need to be real careful; if we get this 100,000 on the 12 windows, we're going to have to go back to the vendor on 13 that, because we're going to have to figure out if we created 14 jobs, retained jobs. That seems to be the most important 15 number they're looking for, rather than some of the other 16 things that one would think. 17 There's a conflict going on between O.M.B., which 18 is the budget office, the G.A.O., and the A.I.C.P.A., and 19 some of the states that are getting this money. There's a 20 pilot program out there. There's 16 states involved, and 21 Texas is one of the 16. Apparently, Texas is leading the 22 pack, even from the A.I.C.P.A. level, from the speaker we had 23 there, with being the number-one state doing the things that 24 they want to do and setting a parameter of what we're going 25 to do. So, they -- they have to push the button to submit 10-12-09 90 1 the first reports on the 10th, which is Saturday. Most of 2 them are submitting them on Friday. So, with that being 3 done, that was -- the first wave of money was mostly school 4 money. None of -- now, I understand we didn't get much, but 5 throughout the state, the biggest ticket items were schools. 6 So, there are grants out there. 7 I did talk to some. There were a few other 8 counties who have C.P.A.'s who were at the conference, 9 because this was a single audit conference and a governmental 10 conference. Williamson County had several of these audits, 11 and -- I mean, of the grants, so I'd like to contact them. I 12 am going to contact them and see what they are. But I would 13 suggest that -- you know, apparently there is a lot of money 14 out there in this energy package. The governor's office was 15 there, and she told me that in the energy package, along with 16 the 100,000 we hope to get, there's a lot more money, so I 17 think we probably need to look at that. I would suggest that 18 we try to look to see if there's anything any of the other 19 counties have done and try to get in on that. If we're going 20 to try, we might as well try for the big enchilada, not the 21 little one. So, I want to work on that. 22 There are two -- two focuses as well that I want to 23 bring y'all up to date on. I want to get the audit done in a 24 very timely manner this year because of the loan we're going 25 to get. And I do know last time, we were a little bit late 10-12-09 91 1 with the audit. We need to get it done. We -- I have to 2 depend on Eva to help me with the GASB 45 requirements, 3 because it will have to be done -- he tells me if we get the 4 information to him within, you know, the next two or three 5 weeks, it will take them about four to six weeks to get it 6 done. We've already paid for the bulk of that audit, as you 7 recall. It's just a matter of getting the data. They were 8 hired to do the T.C.D.R.S. audit, so they already have some 9 of our actuarial information; it's just a matter of plugging 10 it in, and that will go. But I really need the cooperation 11 of all the departments on the regular external audit this 12 year and getting their numbers and things in to me so we can 13 get that done. I haven't heard from our financial adviser 14 this last week as to where we are, other than to ask for some 15 minor information, which we have sent to him. But other than 16 that, you know, unless the Judge -- have you heard from Bob? 17 JUDGE TINLEY: No. What I was going to ask you is 18 if it was your intention to kind of jog him up and see where 19 we were this week? 20 MS. HARGIS: Yes. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 22 MS. HARGIS: I will be leaving on Thursday, and I 23 won't be back for, like, ten days. The TAC conference starts 24 on Monday, and I'm taking a couple of days off Thursday and 25 Friday. The TAC conference starts on Monday in Galveston, so 10-12-09 92 1 that's a week-long conference. I'll be coming in -- it ends 2 on Friday at noon. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What kind of conference? 4 MS. HARGIS: Texas Association of County Auditors. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Auditors? 6 MS. HARGIS: Mm-hmm. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Fun group, huh? 8 MS. HARGIS: Oh yeah, whoopee. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I bet they have a ball. 10 MS. HARGIS: I tell you what, after -- after the 11 conference on Monday and Tuesday, I was ready to sign the 12 retirement papers. There were a whole bunch of them. This 13 stuff with ERISA is really very, very complicated, and 14 they're very worried about small counties and intermediate 15 counties and those of us who don't deal with that kind of 16 money on a regular basis, report -- making the right reports, 17 and the way it's going to, you know, impact the state. In 18 fact, there's -- the Controller's office and the Auditor's 19 office got involved in it a little bit. The Controller was 20 making a speech, 'cause we had asked them earlier, 'cause we 21 put this program together, like, you know, in the middle of 22 the year -- actually, in the spring, and we foresaw a lot of 23 these problems. But, anyway, he made a speech and he said, 24 "Here's the Controller's website." Well, the Auditor's 25 office was out in the audience, and wanted their five cents. 10-12-09 93 1 They got up. They have all their -- their criteria. We got 2 the Controller's criteria, we got the Auditor's criteria, and 3 it's going to be a little bit overwhelming. So, like I said, 4 I -- but I still believe that if there's money out there, to 5 get it, and there is a lot of it coming into the state. We 6 need to -- we need to apply just like everybody else. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Do they talk about any, I 8 guess, mechanism to figure out where the money -- what the 9 money is targeted for? I mean -- 10 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Controller's office has a 11 -- a major website that identifies all that. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 13 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: And last thing out of the 14 Controller's office was that I think Texas was supposed to 15 get either 11 or 14 billion -- 14, wasn't it? 16 MS. HARGIS: He didn't talk about it. 17 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Three million has arrived; 18 there's still a lot of money out there. 19 MS. HARGIS: Still a whole lot of money that has to 20 come. They have -- though they are distributing it through 21 the COGs, which is -- you know, there is, as they call it, 22 kind of a pyramid effect that they're trying to do. They're 23 doing it through the governor's office down through the COGs, 24 and then down to the local levels. And -- and there's some 25 agencies involved, like we may get some grants via, like, 10-12-09 94 1 Juvenile or Adult Probation via -- down through the COGs, 2 like Adult Probation got the 80 rider. It's additional 3 money. That's stimulus money, but because their agency is 4 getting it, we don't have to worry about that. So, some of 5 the money, if it comes down through an agency, we're already 6 better off than if it comes through -- but AACOG is going to 7 get a whole lot of it. 8 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: They're going -- they've 9 already identified 350 million or more in the various 10 programs, but there's a good bit more that doesn't come 11 through AACOG. There's tons of money that doesn't come 12 through AACOG. 13 MS. HARGIS: The governor's office has a lot of it. 14 She told me this energy package was huge. So, if we're only 15 getting 100,000 out of it, that it's -- it's a bigger 16 package. This is the lady that actually gave a speech to -- 17 through the Texas Association of Counties about three or four 18 months ago that I attended, and I walked up to her to ask her 19 about this particular grant, and she told me that it was a 20 really big grant. So, when they say "really big," it must 21 have an awful lot of money in it. So, if 100 is all we 22 qualify for, I guess it's all we get, but we sure might try 23 for any more. But they didn't -- none of them gave us any 24 numbers, just -- just the down side of getting it, pretty 25 much, and what we had to do. And there is one good thing. 10-12-09 95 1 The A.I.C.P.A. always comes in with this little scare tactic 2 every year, tells us how bad we all are. But both from -- 3 you know, in the government areas, as well as in the private 4 practice. 5 But there was a study done in 2007 on 208 single 6 audits. Of the 208 single audits, half of them failed, and 7 they were the small practitioners. So, the A.I.C.P.A. 8 developed what they call a quality control center. They 9 asked all the firms who are doing single audits to sign up to 10 get help to keep from getting in trouble. Currently, we have 11 528 audit firms in the state of Texas signed up to do single 12 audits, and of that, only 74 have signed up in the quality 13 control center to do it right. And, fortunately for us, our 14 auditors are one of them. So, I was really pleased to hear 15 that, because they are turning these single audits back. 16 They're going to fine these firms. Does this mean they're 17 going to fine us as well? They don't know, but they are 18 going to start assessing penalties for these single audits 19 being wrong, both at our level and from theirs. So, the -- 20 the Controller's office and the Auditor's office actually 21 have the parameters for auditees to follow, as well as for 22 the -- for the auditors, so I'm going to pull those down. 23 The quality control center is going to open that up to 24 everybody to pull that down as well. So, a lot of homework 25 to do with that kind of money. 10-12-09 96 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: On an unrelated issue, I 2 don't think you were in the office when I gave a request that 3 came in from Texas Water Development Board for audit 4 material. I think I gave to it Tess. Is that moving through 5 your office so that you can get that back to Water 6 Development Board? 7 MS. HARGIS: They asked for next year's audit, as I 8 recall, the 2010 audit. Now, they already have this year's, 9 but I may not have seen that. I send them a copy 10 automatically every year; they're on the list. But if they 11 want another one, we'll send them another one. 12 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: There's a whole list of 13 things -- well, it was two pages on both sides, and there was 14 several items that -- take another look at it, okay? 15 MS. HARGIS: Okay. I don't think I've seen that. 16 Anyway, just wanted to make a report on that. So, it's going 17 to be an interesting year. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you. Anyone else? The County 19 Clerk has -- or not the County Clerk; Ms. Alford from the 20 Elections Department has notified me that we will need to 21 canvass the results of the November 3 Constitutional 22 Amendment election, and she has made the agenda request for 23 November the 12th, which is the Thursday a week following, I 24 guess, the election itself. I'm not sure of the time frame. 25 My recollection is it's not less than 3, nor more than 10 10-12-09 97 1 days after, but the requested date at this point is 2 November 12th, which is a Thursday, at 10 a.m. If somebody 3 else has a date and time that fits within the proper window, 4 why, we'll listen to that. We've got time to sort that out. 5 Any more reports to be rendered? Okay, at this time, we 6 will -- 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge, are we going back to 8 Item 12? 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Oh. Go to Item 12, is what we'll do 10 at this time. And I will again call consider, discuss, take 11 appropriate action to nominate candidate or candidates to the 12 Kerr Central Appraisal District. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge, I visited with Chuck 14 Lewis, and I told him that if he wants to be reappointed, we 15 would reappoint him for one more term; this would be his last 16 term. He said he would like to serve. Therefore, I will 17 make a nomination that we reappoint Chuck Lewis to our slot 18 on Kerr Central -- nominate Chuck Lewis to Kerr Central 19 Appraisal District. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded. Question 22 or discussion on the motion? All in favor of the motion, 23 signify by raising your right hand. 24 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 25 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 10-12-09 98 1 (No response.) 2 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. At this 3 time, we will go out of public or open session at 11:23 for 4 the purpose of going into executive or closed session. 5 (The open session was closed at 11:23 a.m., and an executive session was held, the transcript of which 6 is contained in a separate document.) 7 - - - - - - - - - - 8 JUDGE TINLEY: It's 11:40; we are now reconvened in 9 public or open session. Any member of the Court have 10 anything else they -- anything they wish to offer in 11 connection with matters considered in executive session? Any 12 member of the Court have anything else to offer in connection 13 with the agenda for today? We will be adjourned. 14 (Commissioners Court was adjourned at 11:40 a.m.) 15 - - - - - - - - - - 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 10-12-09 99 1 STATE OF TEXAS | 2 COUNTY OF KERR | 3 The above and foregoing is a true and complete 4 transcription of my stenotype notes taken in my capacity as 5 County Clerk of the Commissioners Court of Kerr County, 6 Texas, at the time and place heretofore set forth. 7 DATED at Kerrville, Texas, this 15th day of October, 8 2009. 9 10 JANNETT PIEPER, Kerr County Clerk 11 BY: _________________________________ Kathy Banik, Deputy County Clerk 12 Certified Shorthand Reporter 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 10-12-09