1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT 9 Regular Session 10 Monday, November 9, 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 November 9, 2009 2 PAGE 3 --- Commissioners' Comments 7 4 1.1 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to renew Kerr County Market Days usage license 5 for 2010 13 6 1.2 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to approve resolution updating master plan for the 7 Kerrville/Kerr County Municipal Airport 16 8 1.3 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to adopt resolution in support of Kerr Economic 9 Development Foundation 20 10 1.7 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on request from Bob Wilson for an explanation as 11 to why Commissioners Court chose IKON copier contract over Toshiba copier contract 34 12 1.4 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action for 13 Tax Assessor/Collector's Office to be open on December 31st, 2009, a scheduled holiday, to 14 allow for end-of-year tax payments, and also open on March 2nd, 2010, also a scheduled holiday, 15 for the 2010 primary election 37 16 1.5 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to approve Kerr County Juvenile Center's policies 17 and procedures related to abuse and neglect 46 18 1.6 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on 08/09 fiscal review of Kerr County Juvenile 19 Detention Center 48 20 1.11 Public Hearing for proposed private road name Moorhead Road E., Precinct 2 55 21 1.8 Acknowledge receipt of quarterly investment 22 report from Patterson and Associates for quarter ending 9-30-09 55 23 1.9 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 24 clarify Commissioners Court's intent in recent designation of Ilse Bailey as acting County 25 Attorney of Kerr County 56 3 1 I N D E X (Continued) November 9, 2009 2 PAGE 1.10 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 3 approve resolution supporting Constitution of the United States of America 61 4 1.16 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on 5 request for easement for equipment placed at rear of courthouse property with Hill Country 6 Telephone Communications, LLC 70 7 1.19 Open bids for new county courthouse telephone system 78 8 1.20 Question and answer session presented by Jim 9 Lehman and Daphne Webber, representatives of the Office of Court Administration 80 10 1.24 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action 11 regarding City of Kerrville's application to TCEQ for Certificate of Convenience and 12 Necessity for 2 miles outside corporate limits of the city 91 13 1.26 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on 14 renewal of financial services agreement with RBC Capital Markets, Inc., as financial adviser 15 to Kerr County 118 16 1.12 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to approve private road name, Moorhead Road E., 17 Precinct 2 121 18 1.13 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to approve proposed road name Chico's Road SW, 19 Precinct 4 122 20 1.14 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to declare a 1998 Ford F150 as surplus 122 21 1.15 Update on dog issues at Flat Rock Lake Park 124 22 1.17 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 23 approve filling out an application for Texas Fleet Fuel; no bidding process required 124 24 1.18 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action 25 regarding contracting out Kerr County Jail commissary 127 4 1 I N D E X (Continued) November 9, 2009 2 PAGE 1.21 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 3 authorize and/or approve preliminary planning, evaluation, and other preconstruction activities 4 or procedures in connection with proposed Law Enforcement Annex/Adult Probation Building 130 5 1.22 Status report and update on courthouse window 6 replacement project 131 7 1.23 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to approve by court order the County Auditor doing 8 audits for ESD's 1 and 2 when records become available 133 9 1.25 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on 10 report of meeting with TCEQ Watermaster regarding Flat Rock and Ingram Lakes; authorize 11 lowering lake levels to facilitate dam repairs and silt depth determination at future date to 12 be determined; provide notifications to appropriate state/federal agencies as required 134 13 1.27 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 14 cast Kerr County's vote for Kerr Central Appraisal District Board of Directors 142 15 1.28 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on 16 request from Texas Association for Home Care to declare November "Home Care and Hospice Month" 143 17 1.29 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on 18 implementation of the burn ban 144 19 1.30 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to approve contracts with Turtle Creek VFD, Big 20 Brothers and Sisters, and Families & Literacy; allow County Judge to sign same 144 21 1.31 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 22 determine and notify TCDRS of plan provisions for 2010 145 23 1.32 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 24 set December 22, 2009, as the date for Kerr County Christmas Luncheon 146 25 5 1 I N D E X (Continued) November 9, 2009 2 PAGE 3 1.33 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on requesting County Attorney to pursue Open 4 Meetings violation by GMA-9 and review terminology in HB-1763 148 5 4.1 Pay Bills 151 6 4.2 Budget Amendments --- 4.3 Late Bills 152 7 4.4 Approve and Accept Monthly Reports 153 8 5.1 Reports from Commissioners/Liaison Committee Assignments 154 9 5.2 Reports from Elected Officials/Department Heads 161 10 1.34 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on personnel matter (Executive Session) 165 11 --- Adjourned 167 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 6 1 On Monday, November 9, 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 Kerr County 9 Commissioners Court posted and scheduled for this date and 10 time, Monday, November the 9th, 2009, at 9 a.m. It is that 11 time now. Commissioner Baldwin? 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yes, sir. I have a special 13 guest that's coming in today to do this, offer a word of 14 prayer, and -- and then after he finishes, we'll do the 15 pledge of allegiance. My good friend is probably the best 16 justice of the peace in Precinct 1. (Laughter.) The 17 honorable David Billeiter. You're the only one there, I 18 hope. 19 JUDGE BILLEITER: And you're the best Commissioner 20 in Precinct 1. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Very, very good. Very good. 22 JUDGE BILLEITER: Let us go to the Lord in prayer. 23 (Prayer and pledge of allegiance.) 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you. 11-9-09 7 1 JUDGE TINLEY: At this time, if there's any member 2 of the audience or the public that wishes to be heard on any 3 matter that is not a listed agenda item, this is your 4 opportunity to come forward and tell us what's on your mind. 5 If you wish to speak on an agenda item, we'd ask that you 6 fill out a participation form. There should be some located 7 at the rear of the room. If there are none, or if you decide 8 that you wish to be heard on an agenda item and you haven't 9 filled out a participation form, that's fine too. It just 10 helps me to kind of keep up with who I need to recognize as 11 we go through the agenda. But if we get to an agenda item 12 you wish to be heard on and you have not filled out a 13 participation form, get my attention in some manner and I'll 14 give you that opportunity. But right now, if there's any 15 person that wishes to be heard on any matter that is not a 16 listed agenda item, feel free to come forward now and tell us 17 what's on your mind. Well, seeing no one coming forward, I 18 guess we'll move on. Commissioner Baldwin, what do you have 19 for us this morning? 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Sir, I do have a couple of 21 items. I wanted to remind the Court, next Monday, the 16th, 22 we will be at Schreiner University at the library with the 23 Historical Commission. As y'all remember, they have moved 24 all of their stuff and things out there, and they have put -- 25 putting everything on computer, and they wanted to kind of 11-9-09 8 1 show off what they're doing and what they're going to do. 2 So, that's next Monday. And then the following day is 3 Tuesday -- happens every week; Tuesday comes right after 4 Monday -- and we are back out there again, and I think we're 5 going to eat lunch there at 11:15, is when they want us out 6 there, and this is with Leadership Kerr County. They're 7 doing a program that just sounded really interesting to me, 8 so several of us have signed up to be out there. That 9 evening, the County Attorney and myself and several others 10 will be up on Upper Turtle Creek with the community out there 11 trying to form a cemetery association. You remember a few -- 12 couple of years ago, we discovered that the County owns all 13 that property out there, that cemetery and the school and 14 everything. And -- and it -- recently, I had a gentleman 15 come in my office and say, "My mother is buried out there, 16 and my father's on his deathbed in the V.A. What can I do 17 about it?" I thought, oh, my god, I don't know. You know, 18 it's -- it's a Commissioner's duty to make those kind of 19 decisions. So, we're changing that, 'cause that doesn't work 20 real well. So, we're trying to form a cemetery association, 21 and -- and the County Attorney has agreed to go out and 22 explain that, and she has found an attorney here in town that 23 is volunteering his services to help them set it up. So, 24 it's going to be a neat thing and a fun thing, and that's 25 next Tuesday night. And I know that y'all are all -- will 11-9-09 9 1 all be there, so we may think about that. So, anyway, thank 2 you for your time. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Anything else? 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No, sir. Thank you. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner Williams? 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I pass, Judge. We got a 7 big agenda. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner Letz? 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Just a couple things. A lot 10 has happened the last couple weeks. Last Monday, we had the 11 administrative hearing on our appeal to Water Development 12 Board. Interesting. I think we presented the best case we 13 could have. It's now before the board of the Water 14 Development Board. It will be at their -- considered at 15 their January 21st meeting. See where it goes from there. 16 But I think we certainly did a -- raised the awareness of 17 these issues, probably on a statewide basis. The second 18 administrative appeal that they're hearing will be tomorrow 19 in Amarillo, which is related to a different set of 20 circumstances. They have a lot of water up there, but 21 they're arguing as to how they divide it up. And, 22 interestingly, there are four groundwater districts in GMA-1. 23 Three of them set different -- they all set different DFC's, 24 so they're trying to figure out which one works, and Boone 25 Pickens is right in the middle of that one. That's 11-9-09 10 1 interesting. That's happening tomorrow. 2 Another interesting thing, the Court might recall, 3 a month or so ago, I was nominated -- they nominated me to 4 serve on a committee, which I don't think we even really knew 5 what the committee was, but for better or worse, I was 6 appointed to that committee, and it's out of House Bill 2275. 7 It's the -- what's it called? -- Task Force on Uniform County 8 Subdivision Regulations. It's a 23-member committee, and the 9 first meeting is next week; find out what that's all about. 10 I'm not sure. Related closely -- well, the reason for it is 11 because legislation in the 80th Legislature changed Chapter 12 232, which gives us our authority for subdivision 13 regulations, and made all subsections applicable to all 14 counties. And before that, Subsection B only applied to the 15 border counties that were really -- really written for 16 colonias, and they're going to go back and rewrite that set 17 of rules under Subchapter B to make it applicable statewide. 18 A lot of conflict to that. That'll be interesting to see 19 where that goes. I think that's it. Bruce? 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner Oehler? 21 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Well, this maybe should come 22 under the meeting, but I'd like to talk a little bit about 23 some changes that are -- that are being planned for Animal 24 Control. And Janie went to a -- a seminar, conference, 25 whatever you want to call it, in Las Vegas recently. It was 11-9-09 11 1 paid for by Mr. Ginsbach; County didn't pay for it. She came 2 back excited, had some new ideas on sort of how to better 3 serve the community when we have pet problems. And I want 4 her to talk about it just for a second. One of the things 5 that she did last week, on her own, that -- and what the 6 result is, and I think it's going to be a positive for a long 7 time to come, and it gives a chance to make the community 8 aware of what it is that she is doing right now. And if she 9 would come up here and tell us a little bit, very shortly, -- 10 we got a long meeting; very briefly -- about what you 11 implemented last week that has really been a success so far? 12 MS. WHITT: Well, Freeman-Fritz received a pretty 13 large grant to spay or neuter animals over 40 pounds. People 14 weren't taking advantage of it, so I had them e-mail me a 15 flyer. We printed up a bunch of flyers, and four -- three 16 officers and myself paired up and we went door-to-door, 17 talking to people and handing out flyers. As a result of 18 that, within an hour of us handing out the flyers, 19 Freeman-Fritts had five -- five animals scheduled within one 20 hour. And as a result of that, as of right now, they have 21 done 10 spay or neuters, plus they have eight more scheduled. 22 We're planning on doing that, you know, on the slow days once 23 a week, going out for an hour, two hours at the most, and 24 handing out flyers for people to spay or neuter. I will be 25 putting other things on the agenda. One is -- is, hopefully, 11-9-09 12 1 I would like to change Animal Control's name, the facility 2 name. You know, work on new foster programs, things of that 3 nature. But we -- we really got a lot of good ideas, and I 4 think -- I really think it'll work. 5 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: It's been very positive. 6 Freeman-Fritts is picking up the tab; they have a grant to 7 pay for people's animals to be spayed or neutered, I believe, 8 that cannot afford to pay. That hasn't been done in the 9 past. 10 MS. WHITT: Pretty positive. Thank you. 11 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That's it. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you. Of course, our thanks to 13 Pat Ginsbach, who has been a wonderful benefactor out at our 14 animal facility, providing us with facilities and the ability 15 for our people to gain additional knowledge and ideas such as 16 this most recent one. Day after tomorrow, Wednesday -- that 17 comes right after Tuesday, Commissioner. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Dadgum. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Every week. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We're picking up on this 21 stuff fast, I'm telling you. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Veterans Day, we will have our 23 Veterans Day program out here on the west side of the 24 courthouse, as we do every year at 11:00 in the morning. 25 Eleventh hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, if you'll 11-9-09 13 1 recall, the war to end all wars ended, and it was originally 2 Armistice Day, as a result of the great war ending. It's now 3 become known as Veterans Day to honor all veterans. And all 4 of you are invited. In addition, our congressman from this 5 district, Representative Lamar Smith, will be there and will 6 offer remarks on the program. So, that'll give you an 7 opportunity to have some interaction with our elected 8 congressional representative. So, all of you are welcome. 9 We look forward to seeing you. It will otherwise be a 10 courthouse holiday, but it'll be going out on the west side. 11 Let's get on with our agenda, if we might. First item on the 12 agenda is to consider, discuss, take appropriate action to 13 renew Kerr County Market Days usage license for 2010. 14 Ms. Anderson? Good to have you here this morning. 15 MS. ANDERSON: Good morning. It's a pleasure to be 16 back again. I met Commissioner Baldwin as I was coming in 17 this morning, and he thought maybe this was the fifth year 18 that we'd been here, and we sort of surprised ourselves when 19 what I'm really here for today is to ask for permission to do 20 our ninth year of Kerr County Market Days. I think in 2002, 21 none of us ever expected that this day would come, but we're 22 here, and we would request your permission to continue the 23 Kerr County Market Days event in 2010. You do have a very 24 long agenda, so I'm going to try to be real brief and just 25 say that everything went good in '08. It's going a whole lot 11-9-09 14 1 better in '09. We think '10 will be super fantastic, and we 2 don't look for any changes. And I'd be happy to answer any 3 questions that anybody might have, or address any concerns. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: The license agreement, Ms. Anderson, 5 is essentially the same as it was in prior years, with the 6 only change being the year; is that correct? 7 MS. BAILEY: I believe that's correct. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And last year, we -- seemed 10 like it may have been ten years ago now, I think. But last 11 year -- seemed like it was last year -- we changed. Some 12 months you do two of -- 13 MS. ANDERSON: Correct. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Two programs a month, 15 correct? 16 MS. ANDERSON: We have been doing the two-day event 17 on Memorial Day now for several years. This upcoming market 18 will be our first two-day Thanksgiving market. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Fantastic. 20 MS. ANDERSON: And it's already huge. And we 21 expect it to go well and be a real positive event for us that 22 weekend here in Kerrville. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Is there a kind of a 24 Thanksgiving theme? 25 MS. ANDERSON: Yes, sir, there is. Many of our 11-9-09 15 1 vendors decorate their booths. Of course, we're following 2 the lighting event and the Christmas parade, so the holiday 3 season will have been kicked off, because we hope to have 4 pumpkins and, you know, kind of festive Thanksgiving, and 5 moving into Christmas decorations in the booths. And -- 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Fine. 7 MS. ANDERSON: -- we're also looking forward to 8 some live music performances that weekend, which will be 9 probably the biggest we've ever had. 10 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Not Commissioner Baldwin? 11 Not him, huh? 12 MS. ANDERSON: I haven't had the opportunity to ask 13 him yet. So -- 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What are y'all talking 16 about? 17 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Playing music on the -- 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Oh. 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: -- courthouse square. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Oh. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Any other questions for 22 Ms. Anderson? 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move approval. 24 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Second. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: I have a motion and a second for 11-9-09 16 1 approval. Any question or discussion on the motion? All in 2 favor of the motion, signify by raising your right hand. 3 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 4 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 5 (No response.) 6 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. Thank you, 7 Ms. Anderson. 8 MS. ANDERSON: Thank you. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: The next item on the agenda is to 10 consider, discuss, and take appropriate action to approve a 11 resolution updating the master plan for the Kerrville/Kerr 12 County Municipal Airport at Louis Schreiner Field. Mr. Bruce 13 McKenzie -- is your title Executive Director or President? 14 MR. McKENZIE: Airport Manager. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Airport Manager. 16 MR. McKENZIE: Yes, sir. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Good to have you here this 18 morning. 19 MR. McKENZIE: Thank you, I appreciate that. Good 20 morning, Judge. Good morning, Commissioners. We are 21 required to update our master plan -- our airport has a 22 master plan; it's quite a lengthy document. It's quite 23 comprehensive, and it needs to be updated every five to seven 24 years, according to the F.A.A. This document was finalized 25 in 2003, but it's actually -- the research was done in 2002, 11-9-09 17 1 so we're due. That being said, we made a trip to Austin, 2 myself and two of the board members, visited with TexDOT 3 Aviation. They concurred with our conclusion that we do need 4 to update this master plan. In that verbiage, that means 5 that they agreed to fund 90 percent of it through a grant, 6 the sponsors being the County and the City will fund 7 5 percent each, the other 10 percent. This is estimated to 8 cost about $175,000, so that's what we've plugged in. And 9 I'm respectfully requesting that the Court approve their 10 5 percent of this through this resolution. 11 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I believe we budgeted that. 12 I would move approval. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 15 approval. You're correct, Commissioner, we got it plugged 16 in. We knew this was coming and knew it was a necessity. 17 I'll be out later on today to swear in the most recent -- 18 MR. McKENZIE: Yes, sir. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: -- appointment to the board. I look 20 forward to that. It's a privilege doing that. Any other 21 question or comments? 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I do have another question. 23 MR. McKENZIE: Yes, sir? 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: There's nothing in there 25 that is a brand-new project that we have not talked about? 11-9-09 18 1 MR. McKENZIE: No, sir. This is -- this is 2 strictly a master plan; updates everything that's happened. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I understand. 4 MR. McKENZIE: Everything that's changed in here. 5 But there's nothing -- 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Nothing new? 7 MR. McKENZIE: And this -- this will include -- the 8 Court would probably be interested to know, this will be 9 included in upgrading our plans for our T-hangars. That will 10 be in this master plan, how we're going to lay them out, how 11 we can address the new parallel taxiway, if, indeed, we 12 decide to put one in. It's a very comprehensive plan, and 13 that is all included in this master plan. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And it's -- one of the keys to 15 the master plan is, if it's not in the master plan, it 16 doesn't get funded. Or if it does, it's not -- it's not 17 consistent, doesn't get funded by TexDOT. So, it's pretty 18 much a very broad document that looks as to where the 19 airport's going in the future. And critical that its stays 20 current, because otherwise you do not get the -- the -- 21 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: There's also likely -- 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: State funding. 23 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: There's also likely to be 24 some things that will come out of the existing one? 25 MR. McKENZIE: Yes, sir. 11-9-09 19 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: There were some vexing 2 issues in the past, most notably being the moving of Highway 3 27. I would think that that would come out in this new plan. 4 MR. McKENZIE: Yes, sir. That's all -- all in the 5 plan. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: We've been real fortunate with 7 TexDOT Aviation just recently. They don't have that big of a 8 budget, but they plugged us in for -- I think initially, it 9 was 14 million, if I recall. 10 MR. McKENZIE: Yes, sir. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Two phases, 6 million and 8 million. 12 The second phase that was just completed, bidding came in 13 significantly under what was estimated. 14 MR. McKENZIE: 42 percent under the engineer's 15 estimate, yes, sir. We were very fortunate. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: But we've -- we've received a lot of 17 funding for upgrades at that airport just recently. 18 MR. McKENZIE: Yes, we have. We're very blessed. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: We have a motion and a second. Any 20 further question or discussion? All in favor of the motion, 21 signify by raising your right hand. 22 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 23 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 24 (No response.) 25 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. Thank you, 11-9-09 20 1 Mr. McKenzie. 2 MR. McKENZIE: Thank you. 3 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Thank you, Bruce. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Let's go to Item 3; consider, 5 discuss, and take appropriate action to adopt a resolution in 6 support of the Kerr County Economic Development Foundation. 7 Commissioner Williams? 8 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Thank you, Judge. There's 9 been a lot said about the City's proposal to take over the 10 function of economic development, and there have been a lot 11 of meetings, and there will continue to be some meetings, 12 particularly, I believe, tomorrow night, where this issue is 13 on the agenda. To say that KEDF has not done a good job is 14 to be disingenuous, in my opinion. I believe it has done a 15 good job. And what's noted in the resolution that I'm going 16 to ask the Court to consider is all -- are all of the -- all 17 of the things that have taken place that KEDF has been a part 18 of over the last seven years. It's a lengthy resolution, and 19 I think -- the Judge and I agreed that we probably don't want 20 to read it in there, but we do want it to be a part of the 21 record. The plan that's being advanced by the City envisions 22 the creation of a -- of a council to -- to actually take over 23 this function and push KEDF to the side. I, frankly, believe 24 that's an improper way to go about it. I think, Judge, you 25 may want to weigh in on all this in a little bit. 11-9-09 21 1 And, so, what this resolution proposes to do, first 2 of all, is memorialize the activities, point out the fact 3 that everything that takes place under KEDF banner is done by 4 one person, one paid staff member, which has been the case 5 since it was taken away or separated from the Chamber of 6 Commerce several years ago, and by a volunteer board. For 7 this to be anything other than an independent foundation to 8 do economic development, in my opinion, is a mistake. And so 9 what I'm asking the Court to do is consider this resolution, 10 and remind -- we want to remind both the City and anyone else 11 who's interested that this -- that a creation of a council is 12 not all that bad if it's done correctly, but it needs to be a 13 nongovernmental entity, and it needs not to be controlled by 14 one governmental agency to the exclusion of another 15 governmental agency, or -- or the minimizing of that -- 16 marginalizing of that governmental agency. So, I would point 17 out that the -- the economic development plan, a strategic 18 plan that was developed by TX -- what's the name of that? 19 JUDGE TINLEY: TXP. 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: TXP well over a year ago 21 resulted in not only both the City and the County unanimously 22 adopting that strategic plan, but it also evolved where the 23 City and the County together, as well as the City of Ingram, 24 put together a uniform set of -- of incentives for the future 25 of businesses in terms of retention and expansion and -- and 11-9-09 22 1 the attraction of new businesses. And we would point out 2 that that plan should be followed, and this should not be 3 taken over by one governmental entity to the exclusion of 4 others. So, Judge, do you want to weigh in on this? 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Be happy to, Commissioner. I -- I 6 concur with your thoughts. The strategic plan, which was a 7 year and a half in development, and it had participants from 8 city and county consistently all the way through, as well as 9 the business community, was unanimously adopted by and 10 approved by both the City and the County upon its completion 11 after that 8- to 10-month period. And the strategic plan, in 12 fact, suggested and called for the creation of -- of the 13 council that -- that was mentioned by Commissioner Williams 14 as -- as an advisory group to assist and advise Kerr 15 independent -- Kerr Economic Development Foundation in 16 establishing criteria for benchmarks and -- and performance 17 criteria and things of that nature. 18 The -- the objections that seem to have arisen most 19 recently in this effort by the City of Kerrville seem to be 20 that the -- the participation of the board of KEDF is too 21 unwieldy, too large. And there is a meeting scheduled 22 tomorrow, as a matter of fact, to consider reducing that 23 board. That action's been under consideration for several 24 years now because of -- of the number on the board, and -- 25 and the other objections seemed to be the apparent lack of -- 11-9-09 23 1 of benchmarks or performance criteria. Of course, the -- the 2 council -- the advisory group, as anticipated by the 3 strategic plan, would have that very purpose, and would be 4 made up from all sectors of government and nongovernment, 5 business community and so forth for that purpose. So, I 6 think it is important that the lead effort for economic 7 development in Kerr County not be controlled by any single 8 governmental agency, be it city, county, or other 9 governmental agency. I think it's important that it be an 10 independent nongovernmental agency, because you've got so 11 many stakeholders involved in virtually every project, and I 12 think it's -- that's one of the reasons it's important. 13 The other -- the other -- another very important 14 reason is, when it comes to economic development, a lot of us 15 are kept in the dark about what's going on, and that's by 16 design. People don't want their business on the street. 17 When they're anticipating expanding their business, bringing 18 new business in, there's all sorts of competitive 19 considerations, acquisition of property, a lot of different 20 considerations that it's necessary that there be 21 confidentiality in the development of this kind of activity. 22 So, it causes two things to happen. Number one, people say, 23 "Well, nothing's going on over there." Well, there's 24 something going on over there. You just don't know about it. 25 And, as a matter of fact, that's by design. The second thing 11-9-09 24 1 is, if it's in a public entity, I have serious concerns about 2 the Public Information Act, which gives citizens the right to 3 public information. And if -- if these businesses and -- and 4 entrepreneurs that are wanting to enhance or relocate here 5 are -- do not have a secure feeling that their business won't 6 be on the street, I think it's counterproductive to the 7 economic development effort. But we need an effort in which 8 all of the stakeholders -- the governmental entities 9 certainly are stakeholders, because we end up being economic 10 partners in virtually every project that comes down the pike, 11 but there are a lot of other stakeholders involved too, and 12 we want them involved. They involve education. They involve 13 water resources. They involve other businesses. And I think 14 it's important that this be handled independently and outside 15 of the control of any single government entity. 16 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Judge -- Judge, there's one 17 other thing I'd like to add to what both of us have said to 18 the Court and to the public about this. One of the 19 initiatives that's been on KEDF's plate and forefront in 20 their activities has been the effort to secure development of 21 a new U.S.D.A. facility for the Knipling-Bushland U.S. 22 Livestock Insect Research Lab. For many of you who do not 23 know, there is a laboratory out on Highway 16 North on the 24 left-hand side going to Fredericksburg. It's been there 25 since the end of World War II, I believe, just about, and the 11-9-09 25 1 work that they do is absolutely amazing with respect to 2 research for insects that -- that are detrimental to a viable 3 cattle industry. And that facility, if you went out to visit 4 it, is in quonset huts. 5 Now, quonset huts date back to World War II, and 6 the ability for these people, highly-trained scientists -- 7 there's a cadre of them out there that are tremendous in 8 terms of their knowledge and their ability. KEDF has been 9 leading the effort for a new facility for that purpose, and 10 in the process, many trips to Washington. Much work has been 11 done, and over $4 million in federal funding has already been 12 committed and in the process of being expended for the 13 purpose of designing a new facility through the United States 14 Department of Agriculture. In that same context, KEDF has 15 purchased 86.71 acres of land on Peterson Farm Road for the 16 purpose of that lab relocating to a new facility. That's 17 highly, highly important, not only for us here, but for the 18 cattle industry in the United States of America, and anybody 19 else that has cattle that comes into the United States of 20 America. So, just needed to point that out. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I wanted to bring up one thing 22 that -- and I think the fact that we're even having the 23 discussion today is exactly the reason that we need to -- to 24 pass this resolution. I mean, I don't know -- three years 25 ago is when we did this strategic plan, three years ago that 11-9-09 26 1 everyone -- two years ago everyone signed onto it, including 2 the City Council, the Commissioners Court, and we were going 3 in one direction. And almost at a whim, the lightning bolt 4 hits down the street, I guess, and then they decide to change 5 directions, and now economic development is a long-term 6 process. And you can't change based on who's elected or 7 who's unelected here or down the street. It needs to be very 8 much -- I mean, certainly, independent to a degree, of local 9 government. It's got to be largely staffed and run and 10 decision making by local businesses, and that's the way KEDF 11 is set up. 12 To have -- you know, just because there's an 13 election takes place and we change direction in the county 14 how we do economic development is not going to work. That's 15 going to be the most detrimental thing we could possibly do. 16 We participated in an economic development strategic plan. 17 The City did. We just need to step back and let that plan 18 work; at least give it five, ten years before we start 19 tinkering with it and implement things that it said. KEDF 20 has come a long way since I've been a Commissioner. They're 21 getting -- they now have a very proactive person in Guy 22 Overby, who's president of it. He's doing a great job, and I 23 just think that we just need to implement some of the things 24 that were in the strategic plan. But to try to move and 25 change direction right now makes absolutely no sense to me. 11-9-09 27 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I agree with that 100 2 percent, and I also agree big time that an agency like this 3 should not be under the -- under one government entity. 4 However, I do disagree a little bit in the sense of this 5 transparency issue when you're dealing with public money. 6 If -- you know, if -- as long as we're -- the public is 7 paying for it, they -- you know, I just feel like that should 8 be an open book. And the answer to that, I guess, is, you 9 know, if you don't want people looking into it, then maybe 10 the funding needs to come from the private sector, those 11 businesses that they're out there dealing with and 12 protecting, and that's a wonderful thing. 13 I also think -- you know, I didn't realize that the 14 City -- I think the Judge -- somebody mentioned that the 15 City's goal was to just take the thing over. I didn't 16 realize that part. That's -- that would be a bad thing. It 17 would be a bad thing if we tried to take it over. It just 18 does not belong in a government entity. But I do believe 19 that those types of agencies that -- that are public funded, 20 people need to -- there's that old boy out in west Texas; I 21 can't remember his name. He's always talking about peeking 22 under the hood. We need to -- as a government body, we need 23 to be peeking under the hood at all times and make sure that 24 the thing is transparent as much as possible, and accountable 25 to those folks that actually pay for it. 11-9-09 28 1 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I think there -- 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I know it's a good group in 3 place right now, but, you know, we're a good group. But we 4 still need to lay everything out on the table in front of the 5 folks that pay for it. 6 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Also, that the KEDF, 7 especially Guy, being that he's the main source of 8 information, has done studies and things in areas to -- to 9 just report to the City especially on -- on what 10 infrastructure is needed in order to keep businesses in the 11 area. He did that just recently out between Ingram and 12 Kerrville with the industrial park area. You know, they -- 13 there's some things that need to be done there that would 14 enhance those businesses, just by providing sewer and water 15 to them, that employ a lot of people. And he took the time 16 and went and spent -- I don't know. It took him over a 17 month, going early and meeting with all the employers out 18 there, to get information to supply that would be helpful in 19 business. I know that for a fact. But, you know, I have 20 no -- I would have no intention of anyone, us or the City, 21 taking that thing over. That doesn't make any sense at all. 22 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Judge, let me read the 23 resolved. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Doesn't work. 25 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Doesn't work. 11-9-09 29 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Let me read the Resolved 2 into the record. We'll see where it goes. "Resolved: That 3 Kerr County Commissioners Court, by adoption of this 4 resolution, does hereby support the continuation of Kerr 5 Economic Development Foundation as an independent 6 nongovernmental entity and the establishment of an Economic 7 Development Council in support thereof as recommended by the 8 Economic Development Strategic Plan, which was unanimously 9 adopted by the City of Kerrville and Kerr County; and be it 10 further resolved that the Kerr Economic Improvement 11 Corporation provide the funding for the operations of KEDF 12 and provide the additional resources in support of economic 13 development projects which are initiated by KEDF; be it 14 further resolved that a signed copy of the resolution be 15 forwarded to KEDF, City Council, City of Kerrville, Ingram 16 City Council, and Kerr Area Chamber of Commerce." I move 17 adoption. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second, with a -- 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 20 adoption of the resolution. And, Commissioner, I believe you 21 indicated that you want the -- the entire resolution to be 22 included within the record? 23 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yes, sir. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: For purposes of publication. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Commissioner, if they're -- if 11-9-09 30 1 you can accept a real minor amendment to it, on your first 2 Resolved, the last line, where it says "unanimously adopted 3 by the City of Kerrville and Kerr County," can we put the 4 date, or at least the year that that was done? 'Cause I 5 think it's important that we're changing course very soon 6 after everyone just agreed to go in one direction, or they 7 were talking about changing course. And I don't know what -- 8 if it's 2000 -- 9 JUDGE TINLEY: 2008. Early 2008 is when -- 10 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Are you talking about the 11 first Resolved? 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. So, the last sentence 13 would read, "...was unanimously adopted by City of Kerrville 14 and Kerr County in 2008." 15 JUDGE TINLEY: I believe it was January 2008 that 16 the formal adoption took place, and which initiated also 17 the -- the incentives committee, which was subsequently -- 18 their actions were approved in September of last year. 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: We can do that, 20 Commissioner, but the first Resolved just picks up the 21 mission statement of KEDF. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, I guess my concern is 23 that -- I want it real clear that this is a very recent 24 event. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Mm-hmm. 11-9-09 31 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I will find a place to put 2 it. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Somewhere, we need to put the 4 date that that resolution was adopted by the City and the 5 County to support this future plan. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: My recollection is January of '08, 7 but we can go back and make sure we put in the correct date. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That will -- 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I have one question, Judge. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Yes, sir? 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Here's an example of peeking 12 under the hood. Bill, did you say that KEDF has purchased 13 property? 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yes. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And so those -- that's 16 public money commingled with private funds, I'm sure. 17 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: It's money that -- the 18 bulk -- the bulk of it -- Judge, help me out here, but the 19 bulk of it is borrowed from the banks, and the interest is 20 paid through Kerr Economic Improvement Corporation. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: E.I.C., that's correct. 22 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: E.I.C. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: As I recall. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: If there's -- my point is, 11-9-09 32 1 if there's any public funds, somebody needs to be keeping an 2 eye on it, just to keep everything above board. That's all 3 I'm trying to say. 4 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Exactly. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: As I recall, the predecessor to 6 KEDF owned property out towards the airport, and wasn't that 7 property somehow -- wasn't it configured and sold or swapped 8 for -- you know, it was a -- there was -- that's where the -- 9 some of the funds came from, I believe. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, let me give you a total 11 history, Commissioner. Back in the -- when the insect lab 12 was originally created out just north of I-10 on Highway 16, 13 at that time, the predecessor of KEDF was the Kerr Industrial 14 Foundation, and they provided the land to the United States 15 government for that facility. It's 34 acres out there. And 16 they subsequently became the owners of some other property 17 totally unrelated to that out at the airport area, which they 18 still currently own. I think in connection with some 19 adjustments made to Mooney's operation out there, they 20 swapped some land with Mooney, but they still own some 21 acreage out there adjacent to the airport complex. 22 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I think what you're 23 thinking about was -- is embodied in one of these whereas's. 24 There was a time not too long ago where, to assist Mooney 25 applying for a Texas Capital Grant with the City of 11-9-09 33 1 Kerrville, the foundation gave a piece of land to Mooney 2 Airplane Company to expand its parking facility and clean up 3 some -- 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 5 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: -- issues. And that then 6 enabled them to go on and file an application for Texas 7 Capital Grants. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That was a different issue. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Any other questions? Comments? 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We talked about everything 13 but screw worms. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's what -- 15 JUDGE TINLEY: That lab -- 16 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I was going to bring that up. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: That lab is what solved the screw 18 worm problem -- 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Absolutely. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: -- for the cattle industry. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Absolutely. I remember the 22 screw worms. Y'all want to talk about screw worms? 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. As a kid, that was my 24 job. 25 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Nasty job, I'll tell you. 11-9-09 34 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Nasty job, that old purple 2 stuff. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: The other thing that they're working 4 on which is somewhat interesting is the tick problem with 5 whitetail deer. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: And, of course, that -- that affects 8 the entire country. And they've been very, very successful 9 in working on that program. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You reckon they have 11 anything that'd keep fleas off of beagles at my house? 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I bet they have something to 13 keep it off. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Might be able to keep it 16 off you. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Any other questions or comments? 18 All in favor of the motion, signify by raising your right 19 hand. 20 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 21 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 22 (No response.) 23 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. Let's move 24 to a timed item at 9:30. Item 7, consider, discuss, take 25 appropriate objection on request from Bob Wilson for 11-9-09 35 1 explanation as to why Commissioners Court chose IKON copier 2 contract over the Toshiba copier contract. Mr. Wilson? 3 MR. WILSON: Judge, thanks for the time. I wanted 4 to assure you that I grew up on a farm in Charlotte, Texas, 5 and I remember that purple screw worm stuff, Commissioner. I 6 have a handout. Thank you for the opportunity to address the 7 Court, Judge. I'll just read my statement. I wish to 8 address the recent copier award for the Commissioners Court 9 by the Commissioners Court. I obtained a copy of the new 10 signed lease agreement, which is included in the package. 11 Included in this is a copy of your signed agreement and a 12 copy of my proposed agreement, which clearly shows that I was 13 lower. And I was assured by Ms. Grinstead that I met all the 14 purchasing criteria, and by Judge Tinley that the County 15 really does want to pay, you know, the least amount possible 16 for these services. And, respectfully, I ask -- and I 17 reiterate, respectfully. Respectfully, I wish to ask for an 18 oral and written itemized account as to why I, being a lower 19 price, could not earn the Kerr County taxpayers' business. 20 And number two, just, you know, what the purchasing criteria 21 for Kerr County is. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Let me give you mine. You 23 won't get it in writing, but you'll sure get it in verbal. 24 MR. WILSON: Okay, sir. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And I am really kind of -- I 11-9-09 36 1 don't understand what you're doing here. This is kind of 2 disturbing to come -- somebody to come in and ask these kind 3 of goofy questions. But lowest price -- 4 MR. WILSON: Yes, sir. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: -- product, all those things 6 are part of it, but my big issue is -- is the service that we 7 have gotten from the other company for -- how many years? A 8 lot of years. 9 MR. WILSON: Yes, sir. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's enough for me, and 11 that's enough for you. Thank you. 12 MR. WILSON: Okay. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Let me address, if I might, the -- 14 the agreements that were tendered were submitted to the 15 County Attorney for review. 16 MR. WILSON: Yes, sir. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: There were significant problems with 18 the agreement which your company submitted. 19 MR. WILSON: Mm-hmm. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: And I'm sure that had something to 21 do with it. It certainly did in my mind. Along with 22 Commissioner Baldwin, our history with the IKON people, in 23 dealing with their product and the service that we have 24 gotten from them, was -- had been always satisfactory. Their 25 product had performed capably and up to our expectations and 11-9-09 37 1 beyond that. Thirdly, there were, of course, references by 2 each provider, and unfortunately, your references indicated 3 some negative report of Toshiba representatives. Now, that 4 may have included you, Mr. Wilson. I don't know. But, 5 certainly, that -- that goes to the service issue. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Anything else? 7 MR. WILSON: I just wanted to ask. I understood 8 about meeting the criteria. The references, I -- I was told 9 everything was okay. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, we have a number of qualified 11 bidders on any particular item. Just because you're 12 qualified does not mean that -- that that means you're 13 assured any business. 14 MR. WILSON: I understand, Judge. Respectfully. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Thank you, sir. Let's move 16 to Item 4, if we might. Consider, discuss, take appropriate 17 action for the Tax Assessor/Collector's office to be open on 18 December 31st, 2009, a scheduled holiday, to allow for 19 end-of-year tax payments, and for Tax Assessor/Collector's 20 office to be open on March the 2nd, 2010, also a scheduled 21 holiday, for the 2010 primary election. Ms. Bolin? 22 MS. BOLIN: Well, last year we were closed on 23 December 31st, which was the very first time, as far as I 24 know. We literally caught hell over it for months, because 25 we've got taxpayers that insist on waiting until the 31st to 11-9-09 38 1 come in and pay their taxes. We have numerous ways that they 2 can pay them, but they want to do it in person. And it's -- 3 I made the statement last year to y'all that I did not want 4 to be closed on the 31st again because of the problems that 5 we had with it. It was my understanding that several of you 6 got phone calls from constituents because they were upset 7 because we were closed. It is a very busy day for us. It's 8 a very busy day in my motor vehicle department, and I would 9 really, really request being open. I spoke to the Sheriff 10 about having someone here, security issue. And he said that 11 it would cost him about $200, but that someone would need to 12 be here. But I honestly feel like we need to be open. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: And you want to be open? 14 MS. BOLIN: Yes, sir. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: This is a little bit strange 16 for me. Good. 17 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: You -- 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you. 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: You would be open, just 20 your department? Your people, all of whom know of your plan? 21 MS. BOLIN: Yes. 22 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: And -- 23 MS. BOLIN: Actually, they were the ones who said, 24 "I thought we weren't going to do this any more." Because of 25 the grief that we caught over it last year. 11-9-09 39 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Let me ask you something. 2 Is this a holiday? Is the 31st is a holiday? 3 MS. BOLIN: Yes, sir. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You're going to stay open 5 for what reason? 6 MS. BOLIN: For motor vehicle and property taxes, 7 but mainly property taxes. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Can you send out a note or 9 make phone calls and tell them to come in the day before? 10 MS. BOLIN: That doesn't work. We've tried the 11 newspaper. We've tried everything that we know. We can 12 accept payments online. We can accept payments postmarked 13 that day. But you've got your constituents who do not want 14 to trust those; they want to come in on the 31st. I 15 understand. It doesn't make sense to me either, but we've -- 16 we've allowed everything that we can possibly allow, and I 17 really didn't think we'd have such a problem last year. We 18 had a -- a big repercussion over it. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Go on to your other -- the 20 second -- the March 2nd date. 21 MS. BOLIN: Mm-hmm. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Obviously, that date, we -- we 23 have to be open, because it's a primary. 24 MS. BOLIN: Right. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The election department, 11-9-09 40 1 anyway, has to be open. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Mm-hmm. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Now, that one, I don't think we 4 have -- there's no option on that. 5 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That's not a scheduled 6 holiday, is it? 7 MS. BOLIN: Yes, sir. 8 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: It is? 9 MS. BOLIN: It's Texas Independence Day. 10 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Oh, Texas Independence Day. 11 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That's Buster's. 12 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That's Buster's holiday. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I guess the issue is -- and it 14 doesn't -- you know, I guess it makes a difference from the 15 standpoint that we -- it's not just your office that's 16 affected; it affects other departments as well. That means 17 that, you know, likely some -- possibly maintenance is going 18 to have to be at work that day, Sheriff's Department. I 19 don't know what it does on the -- the Auditor is sitting 20 here -- with dollars. I mean -- 21 MS. BOLIN: Why would maintenance need to be open? 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: If something -- I mean, I think 23 we generally have Maintenance Department around any time 24 we're open in case something breaks. I think that it's a -- 25 you know, I think -- I don't think you need a full staff, but 11-9-09 41 1 it does affect other offices. And I think that if we do 2 this, we need to figure out how we -- I guess you just get a 3 day -- a floating day for your employees to use when they -- 4 when they would want to use it. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Is the what your plan is? 6 MS. BOLIN: Yes. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: To give them an alternative 8 day? 9 MS. BOLIN: To give them an alternative day. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Or are you going to pay them 11 time and a half? 12 MS. BOLIN: Right, and that's for both of those 13 holidays. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: They get paid time and a half 15 and get a floating -- 16 MS. BOLIN: No, they'll get the floating. 17 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: So, you would have your 18 employees, and they would have a floating day that they would 19 take off within a prescribed period of time? 20 MS. BOLIN: Correct. 21 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: The Sheriff will provide 22 courthouse security? 23 MS. BOLIN: Correct. 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Oh, there's the Sheriff. 25 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: It would be time and a half 11-9-09 42 1 for my guys. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: There you go. Absolutely, 3 it would. 4 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Don't have a choice. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I don't know if I agree with 6 this or not. It's a holiday. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The -- 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Nobody's ever called me. I 9 guess maybe they will now. (Laughter.) 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Probably a safe bet, Commissioner. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Pretty good bet. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: On that day, I tend to agree 13 with Commissioner Baldwin. On the other day, I think that we 14 made a mistake on our holiday schedule, and I think that we 15 should substitute -- this is just throwing this out -- maybe 16 San Jacinto Day as a holiday, as opposed to Texas 17 Independence Day. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I disagree with you there. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Because I think that it's -- on 20 the election day, it affects a lot of different offices. 21 Things have to run smooth, and I think that it's -- that's a 22 problem day for us to be closed, county-wide. Because, 23 obviously, the election -- 24 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: It's not going to happen 25 every year. It's just -- 11-9-09 43 1 MS. BOLIN: It just happens to fall that way. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Maybe take San Jacinto Day for 3 one year, then go back to Texas Independence Day. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Can't we just pretend Texas 5 Independence Day is another day? Y'all can't pretend very 6 well. (Laughter.) This is a holiday. You know, and the way 7 -- the way I see it is that we provide holidays for families 8 to be together. This is part of the Christmas issue. And I 9 don't get it. I don't know why you want to do it. I 10 wouldn't do it. I wouldn't. 11 MS. BOLIN: I -- 12 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I may be different, but I 13 don't have a problem with it. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's fine, whatever you 15 want to do. 16 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I don't have a problem. 17 We're in the service industry. 18 MS. BOLIN: Yeah, that's where my employees are 19 coming from also. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's fine. It's your 21 choice. You're the elected official. 22 MS. BOLIN: As opposed to -- they'll have a 23 three-day weekend for New Year, then another three-day 24 weekend some other time in December and January. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Maybe we can set up a little 11-9-09 44 1 bucket back there for the taxpayers that come in on that day 2 to throw in a couple of dollars to pay Rusty's people. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: I would have thought that an 4 adequate median education program alerting folks far in 5 advance that we're not going to be open on the 31st; however, 6 here are your options. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Sure. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Post it by mail, online. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Pigeons. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. Slide it under the door, 11 whatever. But -- 12 MS. BOLIN: We've had that happen, too. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: And that's effective. It works. 14 Probably not the most recommended method, but -- 15 MS. BOLIN: No, it's not. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: -- my thinking is if you adequately 17 inform them so that they know what their options are, and 18 that personally presenting themselves on the 31st or any 19 other holiday is not an option, that ought to work. But I'm 20 sure you're the one that catches the most flak. And -- 21 MS. BOLIN: Yes, we do. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: -- when that happens, as 23 Commissioner Oehler said, we're in the service business. 24 That's what we do. 25 MS. BOLIN: That's true. 11-9-09 45 1 JUDGE TINLEY: We work for these people, and we 2 need to be responsive to them. 3 MS. BOLIN: And to me, it's not like they're not 4 going to have a long weekend, because they're going to have 5 three days. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What are we going to do on this 8 March 2nd? This one, I'm -- its up to you, in my opinion. 9 The March 2nd one's a little bit more of an issue. I think 10 this affects the county as a whole. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, I agree with you. 12 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Better put that on the next 13 agenda and decide to substitute a day for the -- 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Let's defer that. Let's 15 just deal with December 31st, which is coming up real quick. 16 I would move approval of the Tax Assessor's request to be 17 open on December 31st, 2009. What hours of the day are you 18 talking about, Ms. Bolin? 19 MS. BOLIN: 8:00 to 5:00. 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: 8:00 to 5:00. 21 MS. BOLIN: Same as normal. 22 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Second. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: I have a motion and a second. 24 Further question or discussion on this motion? 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What is the motion? I mean, 11-9-09 46 1 we're -- that we're agreeing with an elected official, or 2 what? 3 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I think she can probably set 4 her own, but -- 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. Withdraw it, Bill. 6 Bill, please. (Laughter.) 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Any other question or discussion? 8 All in favor of the motion, signify by raising your right 9 hand. 10 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 11 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 12 (No response.) 13 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion carries. Thank you, 14 Ms. Bolin. 15 MS. BOLIN: You're very welcome. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Let's move to -- 17 MS. BOLIN: Just real quick, when do you want the 18 March 2nd one back on? The next meeting? 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah, bring it to us then. 20 MS. BOLIN: Okay, you got it. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Let's move to Item 5; consider, 22 discuss, take appropriate action to approve Kerr County 23 Juvenile Center's policies and procedures related to abuse 24 and neglect. Mr. Stanton, good to see you this morning. 25 MR. STANTON: Morning. 11-9-09 47 1 JUDGE TINLEY: I assume that these policies and 2 procedures are some that are mandated by changes at Texas 3 Juvenile Probation Commission? 4 MR. STANTON: Yes, sir. With all the stuff that's 5 gone on with the Texas Youth Commission the past couple 6 years, T.J.P.C. has taken upon itself to, I don't know, 7 expand their abuse and neglect programs and policies, and 8 they've passed down a -- a guideline for all the detention 9 facilities to use; it's probably about 150 pages thick, that 10 we need to adopt our own policies and procedures. And 11 basically what I'm asking today is -- is this is -- this is 12 just a portion of our policy and procedure manual, and all 13 this covers is the abuse and neglect portion of that policy 14 and procedure manual. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: And these conform to the recent 16 regulatory changes from Texas Youth Commission and T.J.P.C.? 17 MR. STANTON: Yes, sir. Yes, sir, they do. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move approval. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 21 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Second. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 23 approval. Question or discussion? All in favor of the 24 motion, signify by raising your right hand. 25 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 11-9-09 48 1 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 2 (No response.) 3 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion carries. Let's go to 4 Item 6, another item of Mr. Stanton's. Consider, discuss, 5 take appropriate action on the '08-'09 fiscal review of the 6 Kerr County Juvenile Detention Center. I appreciate you 7 furnishing us this information. It's very enlightening. 8 Significant increase in this immediate past year over the 9 prior year, and I would note that it's very close to the -- 10 very close to the same percentage increase of the referrals 11 that we've experienced in our Juvenile Probation Department. 12 There's been a significant increase in the past year over 13 prior -- over the prior year. 14 MR. STANTON: Yes, sir. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: The amount of taxpayer funds that 16 are required to fund this operation continues to decline, and 17 that's good news, of course. The -- the percentage of 18 revenue from third-party users outside of Kerr County appears 19 to remain about the same. It's about 28 percent, the way I'm 20 calculating. 21 MR. STANTON: Yes, sir. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Does that seem pretty much on track, 23 based on what you're seeing going into the current year? 24 MR. STANTON: It does. Well, in fact, we've had 25 one month so far this year, and actually, we've seen an 11-9-09 49 1 increase in out-of-county kids. This past month, we 2 actually -- we're about 22 percent over our last year's this 3 past month, so we're actually seeing an increase, even more 4 than we were last year, this year so far in the one-month 5 period. But we had about a 50/50 split this month -- this 6 past month, or about a 60/40 split this past month in 7 out-of-county compared to Kerr County kids. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Is that -- the percentage of 9 out-of-county use continues to just slowly increase? 10 MR. STANTON: Yes, sir. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: That's interesting. Also, it's 12 financially attractive. 13 MR. STANTON: Yes, sir. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What's the -- is the primary 16 decision geographic? I mean, 'cause it looks like -- 17 obviously, the counties that are near us are the ones that 18 are using our facility the most. Is that the reason they're 19 using it, or is it the services that we offer? 20 MR. STANTON: I think it's a little of both. There 21 are other counties that -- other facilities that they could 22 use. We've tried to make our services a little more 23 user-friendly. I mean, we've -- we've agreed to -- with our 24 doctors and dentists, we've been able to help every county 25 get physicals and dental evaluations for their kids. We 11-9-09 50 1 don't pay for it; we bill them. We just do the transports 2 back and forth to the doctors and dentists for them, and 3 that's a big help, 'cause they'd have to drive all the way in 4 from their county, pick the kids up for a doctor's 5 appointment, take them back, where we can just run them over, 6 back and forth. So, there are a few things that we do that 7 other facilities aren't doing that I think -- I've gotten 8 some feedback that that's very helpful from other people like 9 that. Plus right now, the rates that we charge are a little 10 bit less than other people around that -- the other counties. 11 We charge about -- right now, about $5 less a day than a lot 12 of the other counties do. We've got one county, Cameron 13 County, that's sent us a contract that's going to be on the 14 next agenda. They're wanting to pay us $110 a day to house 15 their kids. They have their own facility; we would be kind 16 of an overflow facility if they get too full, but they 17 contract out at a rate of $110 a day. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What's our current rate? 19 MR. STANTON: $90 a day. 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Is that what you plugged in 21 for this current budget, $90? 22 MR. STANTON: Yes, sir. Yes, sir. What we had 23 talked about was looking at next year; come September of next 24 year, when the contracts are coming up due again, reviewing 25 it and looking, and looking at the surrounding counties and 11-9-09 51 1 seeing what they're paying or what their contracting rates 2 are at, and possibly bumping ours up a little bit. But, you 3 know, we're -- right now, we're staying pretty full, and 4 pretty happy, and everything's going really well. So -- 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Kevin, let's see. Y'all are 6 probably going to throw rocks at me, but that's all right. I 7 see all kinds of breakdowns of counties and days and billable 8 days and all those kinds of things, but my question is -- and 9 you probably don't know the answer to this, but I'm just 10 curious. 11 MR. STANTON: Mm-hmm. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: How many illegal aliens do 13 you deal with? 14 MR. STANTON: Last year, we had -- I actually know 15 the answer to that question. Last year, we had two that 16 I.N.S. had to come pick up. Other than that, in the -- in 17 the three years that I've been here, I can -- or the three 18 years that I've been running the facility, I could think of 19 about four or five kids that we've had to deal with that 20 I.N.S. has been involved with. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's fantastic. Thank you 22 for that. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: How does -- how does that work? 24 I mean, if you -- if a juvenile goes out there who is an 25 illegal, or here illegally, you contact I.N.S.? Or I.N.S. 11-9-09 52 1 already knows? 2 MR. STANTON: I.N.S. usually knows before we get a 3 kid. I mean, the Probation Department is usually on top of 4 that. They'll tell us I.N.S. is involved with this kid 5 before they even bring them out to us, and then we'll just -- 6 we house them till I.N.S. comes and picks them up or -- or, 7 you know, has their hearings and does whatever they do with 8 them. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But in the process, I mean, 10 they're -- they become responsibility of I.N.S. as soon as 11 that can be done? Or -- 12 MR. STANTON: Well, they -- they're the 13 responsibility of whoever places that child in our facility. 14 I mean, we bill whoever -- if it's Kerr County, Kendall 15 County, Kimble County, we bill them, and then when I.N.S. 16 comes in and takes custody of them, they leave our facility. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is there -- let me rephrase. 18 Is there a situation that we've dealt with where -- where 19 we're aware they're here illegally, and I.N.S. doesn't come 20 pick them up? 21 MR. STANTON: No, sir. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 23 MR. STANTON: Not that I've been aware of. 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: What's your current status? 25 MR. STANTON: Right now, we have nine juveniles. 11-9-09 53 1 We have nine juveniles out there. This month -- this month 2 is -- in the last three years has been our lowest month every 3 year. With Christmas coming up and Thanksgiving, November, 4 December are usually our lowest months. Like I said, last 5 month we were actually 27 percent ahead of what we were at 6 last -- the previous year. So, hopefully we'll get back at 7 least even where we were last year. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Do you need for the Court to take 9 any formal action, other than -- other than being aware of 10 the information you furnished us? 11 MR. STANTON: No, sir. And the other thing that I 12 need to let the Court know is that, with the new T.J.P.C. 13 standards that they're coming out with, every quarter I have 14 to present you -- the Court with a report. Not only the 15 financial issues, but also any cases of abuse and neglect, 16 restraints, those types of things. And I wanted to ask if 17 you guys -- if the Court would -- would want me to just 18 present it in report form, or if you actually want me to come 19 before you and -- and present it verbally. I -- I'll do it 20 either way, however you -- however the Court pleases. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: I would think initially, Mr. 22 Stanton, let's try the -- the report form. And then if we 23 feel like we need to do something in addition to that, if 24 there's questions we have or whatever, we got confidentiality 25 issues sometimes that -- that we have in these particular 11-9-09 54 1 kinds of cases, so -- for the protection of the children, and 2 so I would think, initially, that's -- let's try it on just a 3 report form. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It's not something that the 5 Commissioners Court needs to approve? Or -- 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Take action on? I wouldn't think 7 so. 8 MR. STANTON: It's just an information -- it's an 9 information deal. And I have to present -- when T.J.P.C. 10 comes to do their audits of our facility, I have to show that 11 I've presented reports to the County Commissioners on a 12 quarterly basis. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I agree with the Judge. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Any more questions for Mr. Stanton? 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Good. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Good job. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, sir. 18 MR. STANTON: Thank y'all. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: You know, we never hear what's going 20 on out there, and if y'all stop and think about it, that's 21 good news. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's real good news. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Not like it used to be. 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: No. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Let's go to our 10 o'clock -- 11-9-09 55 1 actually, 10 o'clock item, Item 11. At this time, I will 2 recess the Commissioners Court meeting, and I will convene a 3 public hearing for the proposed private road name, Moorhead 4 Road East, located in Precinct 2. 5 (The regular Commissioners Court meeting was closed at 10:02 a.m., and a public hearing was held in 6 open court, as follows:) 7 P U B L I C H E A R I N G 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Is there any member of the public or 9 the audience that wishes to be heard with respect to the 10 proposed private road name, Moorhead Road East, located in 11 Precinct 2? Seeing no one coming forward, I will close the 12 public hearing in connection with the proposed private road 13 name, Moorhead Road East, located in Precinct 2, and I will 14 reconvene the Commissioners Court meeting. 15 (The public hearing was concluded at 10:02 a.m., and the regular Commissioners Court meeting was 16 reopened.) 17 - - - - - - - - - - 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Let's go to Item 8, if we might. 19 Acknowledge receipt of the quarterly investment report from 20 Patterson and Associates for quarter ending 9-30-09. 21 Ms. Williams, we have the -- the report, and you merely want 22 us to acknowledge that we've received it; is that correct? 23 MS. WILLIAMS: Are you talking to me, sir? 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Yes, ma'am. 25 MS. WILLIAMS: Sorry. Yes, I just need to get the 11-9-09 56 1 Court to acknowledge that we received the quarterly 2 investment report from Patterson and Associates. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So moved. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Is there any member of the Court 5 that did not receive a copy of this report? Let the record 6 reflect that all members of the Court, including myself, have 7 received copies of the investment report. I do have one 8 question, if I might. Ms. Williams, I noted there is a 2007 9 capital project. Should that not be 2008? 10 MS. HARGIS: We actually approved it in '07, so 11 that's why it's called -- 12 JUDGE TINLEY: But in a lot of other places, it's 13 carried as 2008, if I'm not mistaken. 14 MS. WILLIAMS: Yes, sir. It's the same. Same 15 thing. 16 MS. HARGIS: One and the same. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Anything further? 18 MS. WILLIAMS: No, sir. Thank you. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you. Let's go to Item 9, if 20 we might; consider, discuss, take appropriate action to 21 clarify Commissioners Court intent in recent designation of 22 Ilse Bailey as acting County Attorney of Kerr County. I put 23 this on the agenda as a result of some questions that may 24 have arisen with respect to the designation which the Court 25 made of Ms. Bailey to -- as the acting County Attorney, I 11-9-09 57 1 believe was the term that we used, to kick in upon the 2 resignation of our County Attorney, Mr. Rex Emerson, who was 3 recently sworn in -- last Friday, I believe, as -- no, Friday 4 a week ago, I guess -- as 198th District Judge. And the -- 5 Mr. Emerson, in one of his probably final acts, forwarded us 6 a memorandum dealing with that subject, the memorandum being 7 dated October 29th, 2009, indicating that apparently there 8 was some confusion expressed to him or some question 9 expressed to him about the Court's intent with regard to that 10 appointment. 11 I would note that in Mr. Emerson's memorandum, 12 while he still was acting as County Attorney, he formally 13 appointed Ms. Ilse Bailey as his, quote, first assistant, 14 unquote, to be able to, in essence, be in command of the 15 County Attorney's office pursuant to applicable statutory 16 provisions, that being Section 601.002 of the -- of the 17 Government Code. But I wanted to make sure that the Court 18 had an opportunity to designate what its intent was, whether 19 it was to make her the acting individual, with the Court 20 having the options open to formally appoint someone to, 21 quote, fill the vacancy in the office of County Attorney at 22 any point in the future, or whether it was the Court's intent 23 to -- to designate her as the County Attorney to serve in 24 that capacity by appointment to fill the vacancy in that 25 office until the successor was sworn in. My understanding 11-9-09 58 1 was, obviously, from our request for -- for those that were 2 interested in the position to file applications and resumés, 3 that it was the former of those two, to designate her as the 4 acting so that we have our options open to actually fill the 5 vacancy in the future if we decided to do so. You gentlemen 6 may have had some other understanding. I don't know. 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: In that context, Judge, 8 then as first assistant, which was the designation that the 9 former County Attorney placed on Ms. Bailey, that would -- 10 that would then give her the ability to, as first assistant, 11 to step up and run the office of County Attorney with no 12 further action on the part of the -- required on the part of 13 Commissioners Court until the next election. Is that 14 correct? Which would be March 2, 2010; is that correct? 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Or until this Court took formal 16 action to, quote, fill the vacancy and make the appointment, 17 which we would then have that right at that point in time, 18 up -- up to the point that the successor qualifies as a 19 result of the upcoming election. 20 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Could be January of '11. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah, could be. 22 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: It could be that far. 23 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: It could run that long. 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: It could, yes. 25 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: If we decided that's the way 11-9-09 59 1 we wanted to go, and let -- 2 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That's the outside. 3 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: -- let the election process 4 take -- 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Which is not a bad idea. 6 You know, the -- the thought of having someone there, even 7 though in my mind, anyway, it's a probability that the -- the 8 County Attorney would be elected in March, to even continue 9 this appointment on throughout the year to give that person 10 that much time, an opportunity to get up to speed on that 11 office. It's just -- it's just -- that's another option out 12 there. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think my recollection was 14 that it was a -- that based on knowing all the facts now, we 15 didn't need to do anything to accomplish what we did. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I think that's kind of 18 where I was, that we didn't want to do anything, and make -- 19 and push the decision, if we want to -- choose to make it, 20 down the road a ways. 21 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: So, in effect, what we're 22 saying is the action that we took, coupled with the 23 explanation or the appointment as First Assistant by the 24 former County Attorney, really, in effect, takes -- resolves 25 it. 11-9-09 60 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: They're consistent. 2 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yeah. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 4 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yes. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Anything else on that item, 6 gentlemen? 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What did we just do? 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, we just clarified our 9 position, that what we intended to do was exactly what 10 Mr. Emerson did sort of before he left office by naming 11 Ms. Bailey as first assistant to give her the authority, but 12 that we reserve the right to make an appointment at any time 13 in the future, I guess up to the point where the successor 14 takes office in -- whoever that new -- whoever that person is 15 going to be, on January the 1st, 2011. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's good. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge? 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Yes, sir? 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: If we can go back to 1.8 a 21 minute, there's -- I made a motion that's just kind of 22 dangling out there. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: I didn't realize you made a motion, 24 Commissioner. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I'll withdraw the motion, 11-9-09 61 1 based on the way you handled that item. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Just to make the record -- so 4 we don't have a motion just dangling out in space somewhere. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: I'm sorry, I didn't realize you made 6 a motion. Must be my left ear again. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: One of those dangling 8 motions. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah, danglers. You got to watch 10 them. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Watch those danglers. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Let's go to Item 10, if we might, to 13 consider, discuss, take appropriate action to approve 14 resolution supporting the Constitution of the United States 15 of America. Commissioner Oehler, I'm going to let you have 16 this one. 17 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: All right. Well, I had some 18 constituents in the west end of the county that have asked 19 that this be presented to the Court, and hopefully will get 20 approval. And Larry Heppler is here; he wants to address 21 this issue, and more than likely read it into the record, see 22 what happens. Mr. Heppler? 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Morning, sir. 24 MR. HEPPLER: Thank you, Judge. About a month ago, 25 I got an e-mail from a friend of mine in Clovis, New Mexico, 11-9-09 62 1 and he said that he was quite proud that he had just gone 2 before his commissioners with a resolution supporting the 3 Constitution. And I said, "That's a pretty good idea, and I 4 think I'll contact my commissioner and see what happens." 5 Well, he e-mailed it to me. I e-mailed it to Bruce, and he 6 said go with it. So, I'd like to read the preamble that came 7 with this. 8 Without question, the Constitution of the United 9 States of America is the most amazing document ever crafted 10 by people seeking freedom. This incredibly blessed work of 11 the heart, mind, and spirit has enabled our nation to foster 12 and preserve liberty and to root out injustice. 13 Unfortunately, it's becoming increasingly more evident that 14 the political atmosphere in America is clouded with 15 partisanship and polluted with influences which have under -- 16 which undermine the foundation of our great nation. Both 17 major political parties have contributed to the turbulent 18 condition we are now experiencing. As a consequence, only 19 three in ten Americans trust Congress to make the right 20 decision for our country. At times like these, getting back 21 to the basics is of paramount importance. Honest, 22 free-loving servant leaders should all be able to embrace the 23 Constitution of the United States as a means to unify our 24 country. This is why it is important for Americans, at the 25 grass roots level, to get involved and ask their 11-9-09 63 1 representatives at the lowest levels of government and higher 2 to show their support of our Constitution by voting in favor 3 of this resolution. 4 As you read the resolution supporting the 5 Constitution of the United States, keep in mind that the 6 intent of the resolution is twofold. First, it specifics the 7 first and second amendments are the enabling amendments, and 8 without the integrity of these two amendments, all other 9 amendments are either at risk or may have never been adopted. 10 Secondly, the resolution asks all federal officials to 11 refrain from any effort to reduce or regulate any rights 12 protected by the Constitution of the United States of 13 America. Adopting this resolution is an opportunity to begin 14 to restore sanity, purpose, and optimism back to America. Do 15 you want me to read the resolution? Or just -- 16 JUDGE TINLEY: It's your preference, sir. We can 17 have it included within the record, or -- 18 MR. HEPPLER: If you would. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: But whichever way you'd prefer it. 20 MR. HEPPLER: Have it included in the record for 21 publication. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Very good. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Mr. Heppler, what -- when I 24 took my oath of office, I swore that I would uphold the 25 Constitution of the United States of America. 11-9-09 64 1 MR. HEPPLER: Yes, sir. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What -- what -- by taking 3 this action that you're requesting today, what would that -- 4 what would that do? What does that do? 5 MR. HEPPLER: I'm bringing out the point that our 6 senators and all of our elected officials in the United 7 States government have also given that same oath. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Correct. 9 MR. HEPPLER: And they are not abiding by it. So, 10 starting at the grass roots, we've got to support this 11 Constitution by putting it on the record again, and bringing 12 to mind -- to -- you know, that we need to support the 13 Constitution. I know you've all -- Bruce said that he -- 14 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: We all take that -- 15 MR. HEPPLER: -- swore to it. I've sworn to it 16 before. But our government is not abiding by it right now. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, I'm not being 18 negative. I'm not being a smarty pants here, okay? I'm just 19 trying to figure out what we're doing. Sounds like to me, 20 though, that what you're asking us -- I mean, why don't we 21 write a letter to our congressman, or why don't we get ahold 22 of him next Tuesday when we're with him? 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Wednesday, Commissioner. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Wednesday. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: That comes after Tuesday. 11-9-09 65 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: This Wednesday. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And our two senators write 3 them a letter; tell them, "Hey, we want you to uphold the 4 Constitution of the United States." 5 MR. HEPPLER: Wouldn't you like to have that 6 congressman and senator read this, that you've already -- 7 you've adopted it again in support? 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: They know that I have, 9 though. I mean, that's the deal. Okay, whatever. 10 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Well, I think we're just 11 basically restating our belief, and I think it would be a 12 good idea if we adopt this and agree to that, we hand this 13 off to our congressman -- congressman and senator and let 14 them see what they want to do with it. But I think it's a -- 15 its not a bad idea, I don't think, to be reminded every now 16 and then that you really ought to -- 17 MR. HEPPLER: It was adopted by two counties in New 18 Mexico, and I'm hoping that all counties in Texas will adopt 19 it. 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Is it before the other 253 21 counties, to your knowledge? 22 MR. HEPPLER: Pardon me? 23 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Is it in front of the 24 commissioners courts of the other 253 counties? 25 MR. HEPPLER: No. 11-9-09 66 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: To your knowledge? 2 MR. HEPPLER: No, sir. 3 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. What happened to the 4 other counties in New Mexico, I'm wondering? 5 MR. HEPPLER: Two of them adopted it, two adjacent 6 counties. But I don't know. This has only been a month. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Roosevelt County, isn't it? 8 MR. HEPPLER: In Clovis? 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. 10 MR. HEPPLER: I don't recall the name of the -- 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Clovis. I think it's Tatum and 12 Clovis both. 13 MR. HEPPLER: Tatum I know adopted it, yeah. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Roosevelt, I think. Those are 15 pretty independent ranch-type rural folks out there. I -- 16 you know, it's difficult to see anything negative about the 17 Constitution. Maybe that's what the Sheriff wants to say. 18 He wants to impart some wisdom about the subject to us. 19 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I don't believe there's 20 anything negative about the Constitution. I think we all 21 have sworn to uphold that. The only issue I had, is this 22 taking what would be your interpretation of the Constitution 23 and kind of putting that off on everybody else's -- everybody 24 else's thinking? 'Cause the only thing I have an issue with 25 over it, does this -- and you can clarify. And I'm not 11-9-09 67 1 trying to be smart-alecky or not, but I've had a lot of 2 people contact me saying that we need to uphold the 3 Constitution, which is to keep I.R.S. or any of the other 4 federal agencies out of this county, and from being able to 5 foreclose, or even filing I.R.S. income tax stuff. That's 6 where I'm at issue. Is this taking it that far? 7 MR. HEPPLER: No. 8 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That's an interesting 9 point, Sheriff, and one of the things that I noted in one of 10 the whereas's that talks about legislation before the United 11 States Congress that would, through regulation, taxation, or 12 restriction, alter the fundamental rights found in the First 13 and Second Amendments to the Constitution. Obviously, 14 everyone in this room right now has been taxed more or less 15 than they would like to be, and that's been -- it's part of 16 our being. And so I'm wondering how this particular verbiage 17 comports to what's already a part of our life, and that is 18 the Internal Revenue Service Code, which we all abide by as 19 citizens of this country. Your point -- your thoughts on 20 that, sir? 21 MR. HEPPLER: Well, involving the I.R.S., for 22 example, in health care is a -- is a mistake. They're having 23 -- they're revising the I.R.S. code with this new health care 24 bill, and it's going out of control. That's -- that's just 25 my thoughts on it. 11-9-09 68 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Just a note. There's a typo as 2 well. 3 MR. HEPPLER: Yes, on the second -- 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second line. 5 MR. HEPPLER: -- second line, ought to be "all" 6 people instead of "app" people. 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Well, there's two of them. 8 There's one, "fond" instead of "found," on the -- one, two -- 9 fourth whereas. 10 MR. HEPPLER: That's not on the copy I submitted. 11 That's on the copy that Mr. Oehler retyped. 12 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I didn't retype it. All we 13 did was make copies. Whoa, I just made copies. 14 Ms. Grinstead is the one that changed it. 15 MR. HEPPLER: I'm sorry, Jody. 16 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I see. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Any other questions or comments? 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I like -- I mean, just a 19 comment. I like the -- I mean, or like the intent on this of 20 supporting the Constitution and urging our congressional 21 delegation to support it. I'm a little -- you know, I would 22 rather have it reworded slightly to get rid of some of the 23 taxation language and some of the other language here, but 24 fundamentally, I -- you know, I like the concept. I just 25 don't like some of the wording a whole lot. 11-9-09 69 1 MR. HEPPLER: Okay. 2 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I think I agree with that 3 thought, Commissioner. I don't think anybody here in this 4 room does not support the Constitution of the United States 5 and the Bill of Rights. That's a given. There are -- there 6 is some language in here that I am not comfortable with, that 7 is unnecessary in stating your support of the United States 8 Constitution. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Any other comments? 10 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I'd like to see them rework 11 it, bring it back. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Maybe you can rework it, bring it 13 back in a more general format. 14 MR. HEPPLER: Could you be more specific on your 15 comments? 16 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Well, I'm particularly 17 concerned about -- one, two, three -- fourth whereas. Maybe 18 you'd like to take a look at that. Maybe some other 19 Commissioner may have some other thoughts. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Mine would be pretty much in 21 the fourth whereas, and -- and actually, the third whereas a 22 little bit as well. Third and fourth whereas, when we're 23 talking -- you know, when we're talking laws and regulations. 24 Those -- 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, gentlemen. We appreciate 11-9-09 70 1 it, Mr. Heppler. 2 MR. HEPPLER: All right. 3 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Larry, I'll get with you and 4 we'll work it up. 5 MR. HEPPLER: Okay. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: We -- let's go to our 10:15 item, if 7 we might, a timed item. Consider, discuss, take appropriate 8 action on a request for easement for equipment placed at the 9 rear of courthouse property, Hill Country Telephone 10 Communications, L.L.C. I put this on the agenda initially at 11 the request of Mr. Trolinger, who's our I.T. Manager. And 12 let me first issue a disclaimer, if I might. My youngest son 13 is employed by Hill Country Telephone Cooperative -- I 14 believe that's who he's employed by -- which is affiliated 15 with Hill Country Telephone Communications, L.L.C., I'm given 16 to understand. As far as I know, he owns no interest in 17 either of those facilities, other than any co-op member owns 18 an interest in their own co-op. But, as a matter of fact, I 19 don't think he -- he even gets service from the co-op, 'cause 20 he lives here within the City of Kerrville at the present 21 time. So, he may have some other service he gets. I don't 22 see that I have any conflict, but I feel compelled to 23 disclose it. Hopefully that doesn't cause him any grief 24 either. So, I'm going to turn it over to -- to the people 25 from Hill Country Telephone Communications, L.L.C. 11-9-09 71 1 MR. DREISS: I'm Jimmy Dreiss with Hill Country 2 Telephone Co-op. You did a good explanation on our 3 subsidiary, Hill Country Telephone Telecommunications, L.L.C. 4 We are proposing to set an equipment cabinet on the north 5 side of the courthouse property between the sidewalk and that 6 retaining wall where I guess the parking kind of goes below 7 grade level. This cabinet is to serve Kerrville business 8 district in this area. We're -- currently, we're building 9 fiberoptic cable up Highway 16, going out 27. We're also 10 going to go out towards Peterson Farm Road, Mooney, the new 11 high school, out that way, business district, and the 12 hospital, the hospital district where the mall is and 13 Albertsons and all that. We're going to use the cabinet to 14 offer high-speed internet, give everybody a choice in town. 15 There's a couple other providers and we're just going to come 16 in and offer our services and -- and that. 17 And Hill Country Telephone does not pay for 18 right-of-way easements. We never have. We -- I've 19 negotiated many of these with private owners, county 20 right-of-way. We basically ask people to be a good neighbor 21 and help us out and that sort of thing. We've set the 22 installations. We work with landowners, we hide them, we do 23 whatever it takes to make sure they're not, you know, 24 sticking out. We plant shrubs, we build fences, we do 25 anything we can to -- to make them less obtrusive in the 11-9-09 72 1 area. The cabinet will be about my height, and it will be 2 about 4 feet wide -- about, I guess, 36 inches wide. I don't 3 have the -- the dimensions in front of me. It will be 4 mounted on a vault. That means we have to dig it into the 5 ground, about -- a hole about 6 by 5, about 4 feet deep. So, 6 probably have a little archeological dig there to find out 7 what else is buried out there. (Laughter.) So, I do have the 8 form -- the right-of-way easement form for your 9 consideration. I'm sure legal will have to take a look at 10 this. I need to find out who I need to present that to. 11 So -- and that's about it. 12 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: This is intended to be the 13 hub for what you're doing in stringing fiberoptic cable 14 throughout -- 15 MR. DREISS: It is -- 16 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: -- the city? 17 MR. DREISS: It is one of the hubs. 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: One of the hubs. 19 MR. DREISS: One of the hubs. We -- we're going to 20 put one at Commerce Drive over in the Walmart area. There is 21 a public right-of-way, dedicated public utility easement 22 there. We're going to set one close to Peterson Regional; 23 there's another public utility right-of-way there. And we're 24 currently negotiating with Schreiner College to set one on 25 their campus. 11-9-09 73 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Well, first I want to say I 2 applaud your efforts. I really am pleased to see that you 3 are doing this. I'm hopeful that you'll continue doing it so 4 that anybody that wants high-speed internet service can get 5 it. But it sounds like you're just trying to -- to 6 accommodate at this point the business community, and maybe 7 the educational community. 8 MR. DREISS: Yes. 9 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Is that correct? 10 MR. DREISS: That's correct. 11 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Are there plans that you 12 take it further than that? 13 MR. DREISS: There can possibly be plans. You were 14 talking about the economic development and how people are -- 15 don't want people in their business and things like that. 16 We're -- there are plans, but we would not really want to go 17 into them right now. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But they're, I mean, clearly 19 going -- you're just talking about the city of Kerrville 20 area. They're clearly going throughout the whole area with 21 these same type units. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Would placing this cabinet at the 23 back of the courthouse facilitate making that service 24 available to this courthouse and Kerr County offices, make 25 that more accessible in the future if we would choose to 11-9-09 74 1 utilize that service from your organization? 2 MR. DREISS: It would make it more accessible. 3 It's basically -- where we've decided on the hub, it's just 4 the crossroads there, and it's just easy to get to -- to all 5 locations north, south, east, and west from here. It's just 6 the way the power lines line up. And plus we already had an 7 access point there that we originally ran a fiber from Ingram 8 to Comfort, aerial, through this area, and we chose to put an 9 access at that point, thinking the courthouse would need 10 access in the future. We did this about three years ago. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'd move approval, subject to 12 the County Attorney's office approving the form of the 13 contract. 14 MS. BAILEY: I had an opportunity to review the 15 easement -- proposed easement last week, and my only minor 16 concern is on the second page, about the middle of the page, 17 the paragraph starting out, "The easement herein shall 18 entitle H.C.T. to the right to remove or repair any 19 equipment" -- it says, "to remove or repair any equipment 20 within such easements as may be determined by that company, 21 without being responsible for the replacement of 22 improvements, paving, or surfacing necessitated by such 23 removal or repair." If that's what your intention is, then 24 that's all right, but I have a little bit of concern that 25 that allows them to remove or move or modify their 11-9-09 75 1 installation, and if it causes any damage to our streets or 2 sidewalks, that they're not responsible for the payment of 3 that. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Your preference on the County's 5 behalf would be that they be required to restore the premises 6 to its original condition? 7 MS. BAILEY: Either that, or include some language 8 that says that they'll use their best efforts not to -- to 9 cause damage unnecessarily. That's entirely up to the Court, 10 but that's -- I just draw your attention to that language. 11 Otherwise, I see no problem with it. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: You could come up with some 14 language to address those -- that issue? 15 MR. DREISS: Yeah, we can. 16 MS. BAILEY: Yes. If you want to approve it 17 subject to that change, I think you could do that. 18 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That's basically what your 19 motion was? 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's the motion. 21 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I'll second your motion. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded as 23 indicated. Question or discussion on the motion? 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Question. We have an item 25 coming up, Number 1.19, bids for the new telephone system. 11-9-09 76 1 Is Ingram -- is this same company one of the bidders with 2 that? 3 MR. DREISS: Yes, we are. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: The -- that's a big old ugly 5 box. Can you hide it? Can you dress something up? 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: If you put "Tivy Fight" on it, 7 he'll be happy. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. Paint it blue and 9 gold; I'll be happy. 10 MR. DREISS: Yeah. Well, I think a -- 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I don't want you thinking. 12 I want you to tell me you're going to do it. 13 MR. DREISS: We'll conceal -- 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Trees, bushes. 15 MR. DREISS: We have in the past. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's a big old box, and 17 that thing's ugly. 18 MR. DREISS: I -- yeah. But we can -- we can -- 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Looks like my refrigerator. 20 MR. TROLINGER: Judge Tinley, we've had some 21 discussions -- some verbal discussions about maybe a -- a 22 service or bringing some fiber in the courthouse as part of 23 this project. I don't know if we can negotiate that before 24 you sign the contract, but we had some discussion about that, 25 and I wanted to bring that up. 11-9-09 77 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, we're looking down the road at 2 our operations too, is what -- essentially what you're 3 saying. 4 MR. TROLINGER: Yes. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: And what you're looking at, from 6 whatever provider it may be, good broadband access is going 7 to be essential for what you're looking at down the road? 8 MR. TROLINGER: In particular, we talked about 9 connecting two facilities in Ingram using the fiber that 10 Supreme brought through town. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Do you know what he's talking 12 about, Jimmy? 13 MR. DREISS: Which two facilities? 14 MR. TROLINGER: Ingram City Marshal and the Ingram 15 courthouse annex. 16 MR. DREISS: And the annex. You want fiber to 17 those locations? 18 MR. TROLINGER: Yes, point-to-point from the 19 courthouse to the -- to those two facilities in Ingram. 20 MR. DREISS: Point-to-point? You just -- virtual 21 VPN type server? 22 MR. TROLINGER: Yes. 23 MR. DREISS: We can certainly look into it. 24 MR. TROLINGER: Okay. 25 MR. DREISS: I mean -- 11-9-09 78 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Any other question or comment on the 2 motion? All in favor of the motion, signify by raising your 3 right hand. 4 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 5 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 6 (No response.) 7 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion carries. Thank you, -- 8 MR. DREISS: Thank you. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: -- gentlemen. We appreciate that. 10 Let's do the first of our 10:30 timed items. Item 19, open 11 bids for that new courthouse telephone system. Far as I 12 know, I have some here. 13 (Discussion off the record.) 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What a leader. That's good. 15 Thank you. 16 THE CLERK: I copied one of the bids for each of 17 you. Those are individual copies for each of the 18 commissioners. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. The first bid that I am 20 opening appears to be from Carousel Industries. Looks like 21 these folks are located out of Exeter, Rhode Island? Wow. 22 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Jobs must be tough up there. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: There are a number of options, so 24 I'm not going to go into each of them, but rather just to 25 acknowledge the bids that we received in response to the 11-9-09 79 1 Request for Proposal. The next one that I have is from 4ip 2 Technology & Media, L.L.C. They show to be out of 3 Fredericksburg, Texas. The next one is from Computer Plus, 4 and let's see where they're out of. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Kerrville, I believe. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: They're local? 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I believe so. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. And the -- is this the last 9 one? 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes, sir. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: The last one is from Hill Country 12 Telecommunications from Ingram. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move we accept all proposals 14 and forward them to the I.T. Department for recommendation. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 16 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Second. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded to accept 18 all bids and forward to I.T. for evaluation and 19 recommendation. Question or discussion on that motion? All 20 in favor of that motion, signify by raising your right hand. 21 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 22 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 23 (No response.) 24 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. Let's be in 25 recess for about 15 minutes. 11-9-09 80 1 (Recess taken from 10:38 a.m. to 10:55 a.m.) 2 - - - - - - - - - - 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Let's come back to order, if we 4 might. We have another 10:30 item that I feel compelled to 5 take up before we get to the item I think that's of the most 6 interest to the people here in the room. Item 20, question 7 and answer session presented by Jim Lehman and Daphne Webber, 8 representatives of the Office of Administration. This matter 9 was placed on the agenda at the request of Ms. Lyle, who 10 heads up our Court Compliance Department, I believe. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you. Last time I saw 12 you was in front of the courthouse in Lubbock, Texas. 13 MR. LEHMAN: The day before the big storm. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Exactly. 15 MR. LEHMAN: I remember. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Mr. Lehman, Ms. Webber, good to have 17 you here from the big city of Austin, I presume. 18 MS. WEBBER: Yes. 19 MR. LEHMAN: Yes, sir. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. My question to you is, I 21 realize that there are a number of reports that all of our 22 court offices are required to file with Office of Court 23 Administration that are mandated under certain statutory 24 authority or -- or regulation. Beyond -- beyond reporting 25 these things to you, what -- what degree of authority does 11-9-09 81 1 your office have with regard to establishing policy for the 2 operations of -- of court collections or compliance offices 3 in each county of the state? 4 MR. LEHMAN: Well, we have statutory authority to 5 assist courts in counties that are mandated under Code of 6 Criminal -- Code of Criminal Procedure, Article 103.0033, 7 which I've given you a copy of. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 9 MR. LEHMAN: And, essentially, that statute 10 requires that the cities and counties, or counties with 11 50,000 populations or more, have the Collection Improvement 12 Program, and it mandates them to have two -- two components 13 to that program. One is that their program be developed 14 based on a model that O.C.A. has created, and two, that they 15 also have a process for collecting cases that are more than 16 60 days old, or very delinquent. O.C.A. is concerned with 17 the front end, and essentially before it gets to the back 18 end. And in order to develop that model and get input from 19 everybody, we created administrative rules, which we also 20 have given you a copy of. That essentially lays out a 21 process for collections. And I've also attached a couple of 22 other items in your handout that specifically sets up a 23 process for dealing with defendants as soon as they come out 24 of court, if they're unable to pay court fees and fines 25 immediately. And that process goes from obtaining 11-9-09 82 1 information from them, contact and ability information, all 2 the way through the point of contact, if there's a default. 3 There is a tremendous amount of flexibility built in the 4 model, and essentially operational policies, who supervises 5 the program, if a program is centralized or decentralized, 6 all of those things are completely left up to the county or 7 the city that implements the -- implements the program. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: But, essentially, what we're talking 9 about -- what triggers your authority is the county reaching 10 a population of $50,000 -- 50,000 or more? 11 MR. LEHMAN: That's correct. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. So, under 50,000, other than 13 the mandated reports that come through your office, nothing 14 else is triggered; is that correct? 15 MR. LEHMAN: Everything else is voluntary. In 16 fact, mandatory programs were established because of the 17 success of the voluntary programs, one of which was created 18 right here by -- by you. So you're responsible for the 19 mandated programs, essentially, being put into the process, 20 and those programs have been developed based on the same 21 model. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. We were kind of the pioneer 23 here in Kerr County that actually led to the creation of the 24 office that you now serve in. 25 MR. LEHMAN: Right. And this young lady next to 11-9-09 83 1 me, Daphne Webber, is here. Her predecessor is somebody you 2 may know, Russ Duncan. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Oh, yes. Oh, yeah. He's the one 4 that cranked it up here. 5 MS. WEBBER: And I think you guys are right on the 6 cusp of becoming 50,000. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: We think that may happen in the next 8 census. We don't know yet. Obviously, we're not there yet, 9 but we may get there; we may not. We don't know until that 10 census comes out, and it probably won't be until 2011, 11 actually, that we get those final numbers, -- 12 MR. LEHMAN: Right. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: -- you know, from the 2010 census. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What does happen at that 15 time if we reach the 50,000? Are you still in a guidance -- 16 MR. LEHMAN: Absolutely. Absolutely. In fact, 17 we've been talking already and working with -- in sessions 18 with those cities and counties that have already identified 19 themselves at or exceeding the mandatory population limit. 20 And, yeah, we'll come in and we'll start. Now, it would be 21 probably very simple for a place like Kerr County to adapt to 22 the mandatory program, but there are cities and counties out 23 there who don't have the foundation that you do. So, we come 24 in, and first thing we do is ask for them to examine what 25 they have in place currently, and then to produce a plan 11-9-09 84 1 based on a list of components that we give them in a survey. 2 And the survey just asks them a lot of what you see here in 3 the critical components. Do you have written policies? Do 4 you have someone on staff, dedicated staff time dedicated to 5 collections? If a person seeks to have an extended period of 6 time to pay, do you take an application? All of those kinds 7 of things. And once we work with them to establish their 8 plan, the next step is to help them implement it, and then 9 the last phase is to help them maintain it. 10 MS. WEBBER: And I've come out about two weeks ago 11 and checked out the program, and Terry is doing just about 12 everything that -- that they -- that she needs to be doing. 13 There's a few things that she didn't do, but she's doing them 14 now. So, you guys are right in line with -- 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Even though we're a voluntary -- 16 MS. WEBBER: Even though you're a voluntary. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: -- participant? 18 MS. WEBBER: Yes. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: You're doing -- she's doing what 20 y'all suggest in the way of -- of requirements once reaching 21 50,000 population? 22 MS. WEBBER: That's correct. Yes, she is. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 24 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: But you don't have 25 established guidelines or procedures that are mandatory -- 11-9-09 85 1 MR. LEHMAN: We don't have -- 2 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: -- for that particular 3 office? 4 MR. LEHMAN: Those guidelines are generic. I mean, 5 they're pretty firm, as far as you have to take an 6 application when you do what you do. In fact, if you look in 7 the handout, one of them is sort of an at-a-glance chart. It 8 looks like -- this one right here is what I'm wanting to you 9 see. If you look at that -- I got it upside down. If you 10 look at that, you can kind of see the timelines. The person 11 comes in; take an application. You go through a process. 12 So, there -- there's a specific timeline. But if what you're 13 asking, Commissioner, is do we tell you who to hire, how much 14 to pay them, or -- 15 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: No, that's not -- 16 MR. LEHMAN: -- how to get people from the judge to 17 the Collections office, or what person should run the 18 Collection office, how to set up your internal process? 19 Absolutely not. 20 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That's what my -- my main 21 question is, the process and the guidelines of exactly -- you 22 have to do this, this, and this, or you have to have this 23 specific computer program to do your business. 24 MR. LEHMAN: No. Your internal -- 25 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: You don't have anything to do 11-9-09 86 1 with that? 2 MR. LEHMAN: No. Your internal procedures are your 3 own. 4 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Procedures that will be set 5 up by Kerr County. 6 MR. LEHMAN: Right. 7 MS. WEBBER: That's correct. 8 MR. LEHMAN: As long as the components that are in 9 the model are being adhered to, -- 10 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Right. 11 MR. LEHMAN: -- then we're okay with whoever does 12 it and whatever independent internal procedures you have set 13 up on your own. 14 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Right. 15 MR. LEHMAN: We don't interfere with that. 16 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I just wanted to be sure that 17 there wasn't some statutory requirement that you had exact 18 procedures that we had to follow in that office, other than 19 just basic guidelines. 20 MR. LEHMAN: No. And we have suggested 21 implementation policies and maintenance policies, and those 22 policies have been established by places like Kerr County, 23 who've had, you know, a collections program established 24 for -- what, almost -- more than ten years. What works as 25 the best practice internally we make available to our 11-9-09 87 1 voluntary programs. We are statutorily required to solicit 2 and cultivate at least five voluntary programs, everybody in 3 them, so our mission continues on the voluntary side as well 4 as the mandatory side. But we don't have specific -- we 5 don't say, "You've got to come in at 8:00 and leave at 6 10:00." Those things are your -- your -- 7 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I'm talking about the 8 methods -- the methods of the way that the -- the agreements 9 are made, and the exact process that's recommended that they 10 go through in order to insure that they do collect. 11 MR. LEHMAN: Well, we have -- we have -- as part of 12 the methodology, you can see in your part that certain 13 payment requirements as far as terms are concerned. 14 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Right. 15 MR. LEHMAN: Not to interfere with judicial 16 discretion. But, for instance, on the justice court side, 17 four months is the suggested term for a justice count -- 18 justice case to be paid. But there's an exception and 19 flexibility in that, based on ability. 20 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Mm-hmm. 21 MR. LEHMAN: And based on judicial discretion. 22 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Right. 23 MR. LEHMAN: None of what we do is going to 24 interfere with the judge's discretion to deal with the 25 situation the way they feel fit -- see fit. 11-9-09 88 1 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: There's no way that you would 2 dare cross a judge's order to do a specific thing to insure 3 collections? 4 MR. LEHMAN: No. We're not -- 5 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Insure how payments will be 6 applied to payment -- to the overall amount owed? 7 MR. LEHMAN: No, nothing in the process is -- 8 conflicts with the Judge's discretion. 9 MS. WEBBER: That's correct. 10 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: So there's no way that a 11 District Judge or a County Court at Law Judge would sign an 12 order saying that fines, fees, whatever, be applied to the 13 next month's payment, as opposed to being applied at the end. 14 MR. LEHMAN: Well, that's a policy -- 15 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: As long as it doesn't take 16 precedence over -- 17 MR. LEHMAN: That's an internal policy decision. 18 Now, we could obviously recommend what works better. I would 19 probably suggest that that would be handled on a case-by-case 20 situation. If you have, for instance, someone who works out 21 on an oil rig and wants to -- he's going to be out for 90 22 days; he wants to pay up for 90 days, I don't have a problem 23 with that. On the other hand, you may have another situation 24 where you have someone that is notorious for not paying, and 25 they show up and drop a big payment down. If you advance 11-9-09 89 1 that for eight months, you may not see that person again. 2 MS. WEBBER: Right. 3 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: So, that's a case-by-case -- 4 but that's not anything that's a significant -- 5 MS. WEBBER: Suggestion. 6 MR. LEHMAN: That's a suggestion, not a mandate. 7 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Mandated policy. 8 MR. LEHMAN: Right. Right. That's why you have -- 9 I believe that's why you hire and have trained staff, to deal 10 with defendants and to deal with their various situations. 11 And that's why you have the judge. 12 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Is one of your suggestions 13 that that department work very closely with the two that have 14 the statutory requirement or duty to actually do the money 15 collecting? Which would be the District Clerk and County 16 Clerk in this state -- in this -- 17 MR. LEHMAN: I think it's a tremendous -- I 18 think -- first of all, I think everyone here is here because 19 you have the community's interest. 20 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Right. 21 MR. LEHMAN: You want to put that first. It's in 22 the community's best interest that, you know, public servants 23 work together. 24 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Right. 25 MR. LEHMAN: For a common end. So, yeah, 11-9-09 90 1 obviously, it always works better if there's not a conflict 2 there. 3 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Right. 4 MS. WEBBER: Everybody's on the same page. 5 MR. LEHMAN: Without a doubt. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Any more questions? 7 MR. LEHMAN: And in the past, this has always been 8 one of the communities that we could trust to do that. This 9 program would not have been started or created without all of 10 you saying, "This is what the community needs." And, indeed, 11 it's been very successful because of that. 12 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I just wanted -- I just 13 wanted to be sure that y'all -- that this was a flexible 14 thing, and that you weren't telling our office person that, 15 "You're going to do this, this and this, and nobody else can 16 tell you any different." 17 MR. LEHMAN: No. 18 MS. WEBBER: No. 19 MR. LEHMAN: We are -- 20 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Because that's -- 21 MR. LEHMAN: We are employed by the state, but we 22 actually work for you. 23 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That's what I thought. I was 24 just checking. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Any more questions for either of 11-9-09 91 1 these two individuals? Thank you very much for being here 2 today. We appreciate you providing us with the information. 3 MS. WEBBER: Thank you. 4 MR. LEHMAN: Pleasure and honor to be here. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Appreciate you working with 6 Ms. Lyle, and I'm going to be interested to see what happens 7 in our next census. I think we all are. 8 MR. LEHMAN: We will too. 9 MS. WEBBER: Thank you. 10 MR. LEHMAN: Thank you. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: We have a number of people here that 12 are interested in Item 24, so we'll go to that item now. 13 Consider, discuss, take appropriate action regarding City of 14 Kerrville's application to T.C.E.Q. for a certificate of 15 convenience and necessity for 2 miles outside the corporate 16 limits of the city. Commissioner Williams, you asked that 17 this matter be placed on the agenda. 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I did, Judge. Thank you. 19 And subsequent to the City sending out its notification to a 20 number of people, perhaps as many as 9,193 -- I'm really not 21 sure -- I've received no less than 20 to 25 phone calls in 22 the past week, e-mails and a lot of personal face-to-face 23 discussions with people who have a concern about exactly 24 what's going on. The City has said that it wants to extend 25 its extraterritorial jurisdiction by 2 miles in a sense from 11-9-09 92 1 the current city limits, and it wants to -- and there's an 2 action for a new certificate of convenience and need to 3 provide water and sewer utility service in Kerr County would 4 be for about 13,268 acres in a 2-mile radius belting the 5 existing city of Kerrville corporate limits. So, most of the 6 phone calls I've had have to do with, "What's this all 7 about?" And some people even thought that it was something I 8 initiated, and I want the record to clearly show I had 9 nothing to do with it. (Laughter.) 10 However, we're going to talk about it today, 11 because there's significant issues -- significant concern as 12 to exactly what this is all about. Is it a land grab? Yes, 13 if you think so, in terms of what the City's asking. Is it 14 annexation? In the original or current context, I'd say 15 probably not, but who knows what the future holds? And 16 what's it all about? How's this going to affect me as a 17 property owner with 20, 25 acres or more of property in Kerr 18 County, in the unincorporated area of the county? Does it 19 affect my taxes? Does it affect my well? Does it affect my 20 water supply? And lastly, what are you going to do about it? 21 So, I think with those thoughts in mind, I want to open up 22 the discussion. I want to get comments from other members of 23 the Court. 24 There are some things in there, before I turn it 25 over to other members of the Court, though, in the document 11-9-09 93 1 that was filed by the City of Kerrville, that really kind of 2 are troubling to me, and I think bear some examination. For 3 example, we're talking about in relation to the -- under item 4 -- Section 4 of the application, in relation to the proposed 5 CCN, "The City of Kerrville is the most centrally located 6 water provider" -- that may be true -- "with the best water 7 and financial resources to provide service, especially 8 considering the varied topography." That question is up for 9 debate, I would think. And Subsection C talks about 10 developers will be constructed -- this would be developers of 11 property in the unincorporated areas of the county, and I see 12 some of them sitting in the audience right now. Developers 13 will be -- will construct systems according to city 14 specifications as developments are planned and built. 15 They're seeing none at this particular time, but what that 16 means is that, should you decide as a property owner that 17 you, sometime in the distant future, wish to develop your 18 property for reasons of yours which you think are taking your 19 property to a highest and best use, you're going to do that 20 to city standards. 21 Another section which is kind of interesting to me 22 is that Kerrville, through adoption of resolution -- blank, 23 blank, blank -- established a leadership role in an effort to 24 insure the long-term availability of adequate water supplies 25 for municipal purposes in Kerrville and Kerr County. I can't 11-9-09 94 1 argue with that statement with respect to Kerrville, but I 2 certainly have questions and can reasonably debate that with 3 respect to what they could do in Kerr County, what they 4 haven't done or what they propose to do. Kerrville is 5 requesting a water CCN that extends beyond its city limits 6 into the ETJ as shown in the maps provided in this 7 application. Water utility is a nonprofit system, thus 8 giving the City the ability to -- the area the ability to 9 benefit from water rates that are supposedly pumped back into 10 the water utility system. And under I, which I have some 11 question about, the ability to provide adequate service, the 12 application states, "City of Kerrville imposes an aggressive 13 water conservation plan during droughts." For the sake of 14 this discussion, I would say so does the U.G.R.A. and so does 15 Headwaters Groundwater Conservation District. 16 Water conservation during droughts and our tiered 17 rate structure promotes conservation year-round within our 18 jurisdiction, thus allowing Kerrville to provide adequate 19 service to its customers. Kerrville plans on using these 20 water savings and developing additional water supplies, such 21 as treating reuse water to drinking water standards and 22 storing in aquifer storage and recovery system, purchase 23 additional surface water rights, develop additional 24 groundwater wells, and expanding the ASR system. All of that 25 is reasonable, I suspect, and is certainly laudable. 11-9-09 95 1 However, it doesn't talk about the major -- major part of 2 this whole equation, which is currently, there's no ability 3 to deliver any of that water outside the city limits of the 4 city of Kerrville. If Kerrville is awarded the CCN 5 requested, we would impose our strict conservation standards 6 and develop the water system described above for the entire 7 service area. So, then it goes on about financial and notice 8 requirements and so forth and so on. So, I'd like to hear 9 the comments of the Court about this. And, Judge, there are 10 a lot of people here today who would like to ask questions, I 11 think, and weigh in on the topic. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Let me -- I have a couple of 13 comments. And I think the -- you know, I'm probably more 14 confused than anything else. I just don't know what the 15 intent is of this. I see lots of -- of red lights that go 16 off. One, the ETJ is 1 mile, and they're talking about 17 2 miles here. Every projection I hear from the city staff is 18 that their ETJ is not going to be expanded to 2 miles into 19 the current -- or the census about to be undertaken, so 20 they're going on a CCN that's bigger than their ETJ, and I 21 have a -- you know, that gets into a lot of issues in my 22 mind. I don't think they have to be the same, but more 23 issues come up. Our Subdivision Rules and Regulations, I'm 24 not real sure how all this interacts, and I think it's 25 peculiar to me that city staff has not -- or city elected 11-9-09 96 1 officials have not contacted anyone on this court that I'm 2 aware of, even talked about any of these issues. And I think 3 that's -- you know, I don't know if they were trying to slip 4 one through quickly with no one knowing what happened. 5 I'd heard a rumor about this, but it just seems odd 6 to me that someone who's -- certainly, our constituents are 7 going to be greatly affected if they're outside the city 8 limits. Our constituents in the city are also going to be 9 impacted, so I think we have a bit of a fiduciary 10 responsibility to kind of get involved in this, even though 11 we're not a water purveyor, but certainly our citizens are, 12 and we're the elected officials that -- in that 2-mile area 13 that represent the people; they're not represented by City 14 Council. So, I think there's an issue -- a reason that we 15 need to be very much involved in this. And I really would 16 like to see the process slowed down greatly so that the 17 public can be aware of what's going on. 18 Now, it's possible that I may be in agreement with, 19 you know, the CCN; I just don't know. I don't know the 20 ramifications. I don't know how it's going to affect wells. 21 I lost track. I don't know how it's going to impact -- 22 there's a lot of ranches around here that have carved out 23 1-acre tracts for their homesteads, and they go to families. 24 You may have a nephew or someone who has a 1-acre tract, and 25 all of a sudden, is the CCN which we're talking about small 11-9-09 97 1 tracts now going to be -- that are exempt from the platting 2 rules going to be subject to having a water system? How is 3 the water going to get delivered out into this area? 4 Certainly, someone's going to have -- if I had a ranch in 5 this area, or property, and wanted to, you know, give a 6 relative some land, certainly there wouldn't be some 7 obligation to extend a -- you know, a water main 2 miles out 8 into the ETJ. How does -- if a developer wants to do it, how 9 is the right-of-way acquired? How is the construction done? 10 There's just so many questions in this that it just goes on 11 and on and on. 12 So, I really think that the process needs to kind 13 of -- I'd heard a rumor that something was going on about 14 this through T.C.E.Q., but the fact that there was a 30 -- 15 all of a sudden, residents -- constituents of mine receive a 16 letter that said you've got 30 days to make a decision really 17 took me aback. And I was very -- I'm kind of shocked that 18 the City of Kerrville didn't do a better job of informing, 19 certainly, the government entities that are involved, like us 20 and probably U.G.R.A. and Headwaters, to what the impact is 21 and what they're trying to do and kind of explain it. That's 22 just kind of where I am. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Jon, it looks like to me 24 that it's an infringement on the free enterprise system, the 25 competition with other water companies and their ability to 11-9-09 98 1 participate and have their companies to operate inside the 2 county as well. And -- and with that, it looks like to me 3 that it's a taking of property, is what it looks like. It 4 just -- it looks that way. I don't know where they're -- I'm 5 like you; I don't know where they're going, but just first 6 glance at it, it looks like a taking of property to me. 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: What's missing in the 8 application is intention. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Let me address that, if I might. 10 I -- I contacted the City Manager -- 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: There's a good start. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: -- about a week ago, and when I -- 13 actually, I first noticed it in a publication in the local 14 newspaper under the legal notices. And I called him, and I 15 asked him if he had a white paper on what this was all about, 16 thinking that, obviously, they had thought this thing 17 through, and there were a number of motivational factors that 18 caused them to launch this thing. And -- and he said that 19 there was -- there was one being developed, and he would send 20 me a copy of it. I use the term "white paper." I don't know 21 that he agreed with that, but what -- what I got was a 22 memorandum that had attached to it a map that's attached 23 to -- everybody that got one of those notices, as well as one 24 of those notices. Which we got, anyway, because we own 25 property in the county that would be affected by this, so we 11-9-09 99 1 got one anyway. But the memorandum was a one-page document 2 reciting that -- that they have done this. Council has 3 initiated this process in order to insure the long-term 4 availability of adequate water supplies for municipal 5 purposes in Kerrville and Kerr County. Municipal purposes, I 6 think, is a very key word there. Further develop conjunctive 7 use of surface, ground, and aquifer stored water within 8 Kerrville and Kerr County, which, of course, is laudable to 9 the extent we can use surface water, which has been a model 10 that the U.G.R.A. has been very active in, as well as what 11 we've been active in. Encourage economical growth from 12 increased levels of water availability, insure that future 13 developments have the capacity for proper fire flow 14 protection. Without water, growth is limited. With the 15 proper water supplies and conservation measures that 16 Kerrville has to offer, positive economic impact associated 17 with smart growth will occur. And, that of course, is -- 18 water is necessary for any growth to occur. But I've had a 19 number of constituents -- I suspect many of y'all have too -- 20 that talk about within -- what's included within the 21 corporate limits of the City of Kerrville, they either are 22 not providing or have indicated they don't have the ability 23 to provide the type of services that they're asking for a 24 certificate of convenience and necessity out beyond that. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 11-9-09 100 1 JUDGE TINLEY: We're not talking about -- just 2 about potable water; we're also talking about wastewater 3 services, so this has a lot of far-reaching effects. And I 4 know they have some initiatives under way to expand their 5 infrastructure in the city of Kerrville. They recently 6 authorized the sale of a pretty significant dollar amount of 7 bonds in order to enhance, and they're -- by all accounts, 8 they're trying to play catch-up within what they have now. 9 So, I'm also confused about it, and I -- I think the possible 10 remedy that -- that we have in order to get these answers 11 that we need, as well as the citizens, would be to request a 12 public hearing. That's what the notice gives, and that 13 would, as Commissioner Letz mentioned, kind of -- kind of 14 stabilize this process for now, and see where it goes, 15 without just letting it go like a runaway train. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge, I think -- 17 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Judge, let me read a 18 resolution into the record, and then we can open it up for 19 people to comment. Because we're -- the resolution, in 20 effect, does what you're suggesting. This would be a 21 resolution of Kerr County Commissioners Court requesting that 22 Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, T.C.E.Q., to deny 23 City of Kerrville's Application Number 36469C and conduct a 24 public hearing on the matter. Whereas, City of Kerr -- City 25 Council of City of Kerrville, on February 10, 2009, 11-9-09 101 1 authorized the filing of an application with T.C.E.Q. for a 2 Certificate of Convenience and Need to provide water -- 3 water/sewer service for an area extending 2 miles beyond the 4 current corporate limits of the city into the unincorporated 5 area of Kerr County; and Whereas, said application is 6 identified as an amendment to the City's current CCN Number 7 12928, and received by T.C.E.Q. on July 28th, 2009; Whereas, 8 the area being requested includes approximately 13,268 acres 9 and 9,193 current customers in zip codes 78028, whatever -- a 10 bunch of zip codes; Whereas, there exists considerable 11 confusion and questions among property owners within the 12 proposed area as to the meaning of the City's intentions and 13 its ability to deliver water and/or sewer services to any 14 potential customers beyond its current service area; Now, 15 therefore, be it resolved that Kerr County Commissioners 16 Court, by adoption of this resolution, does hereby request 17 the T.C.E.Q. to deny the City of Kerrville's Application 18 Number 36469 and take the necessary measures to conduct a 19 public hearing, and if necessary, a contested case hearing on 20 this matter at the earliest possible time. I would move 21 adoption of the resolution. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll second it. Then I have a 23 comment. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: We have a motion and a second. 25 Question or discussions on that motion? 11-9-09 102 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: One other comment that kind of 2 -- that I didn't mention earlier. As the Court will probably 3 remember, oh, a year ago, maybe a little over a year, I had 4 some -- at one of our joint meetings with the City, there 5 were some areas in my precinct that are very close to the 6 city that don't have services, and they said, "Well, we never 7 have, you know, looked at any of these. No one on the 8 Court's ever given us a definite list of these areas to 9 evaluate." And most of them are in my precinct. I did that; 10 I sent a list of all -- of several areas. One that comes to 11 minds is Roy Street, which is right up behind -- up by the 12 stadium, some of that area in there, which is almost in the 13 city. And the response we got back from the City on all of 14 this, the areas that I submitted was, "No, we have no 15 interest in expanding." And I find it interesting that there 16 are areas that are -- you know, from our standpoint, a 17 definite kind of health and safety issue; they're very small 18 lots, individual wells, septic problems, right next to the 19 city. They don't want to take those on, yet they want to 20 expand into all these other new areas. I see a conflict in 21 that, to me. 22 There's -- and Kerrville South is another great 23 example. I was at the -- happened to be over at the U.G.R.A. 24 offices a fair amount the past couple of weeks for some water 25 issues, and was parked up there and looked across the street, 11-9-09 103 1 and it dawns on me that if you're on the -- the west -- 2 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: West side. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- west side of the road, 4 that's all outside the Kerrville city limits. And the City 5 has done -- or actually has declined to want to do anything 6 from a water standpoint, utility standpoint, to try to 7 improve that area, other than point out to the County that 8 that's all your fault over there because you didn't have good 9 rules in place. And yet they won't try to work with us on 10 trying to figure out how to solve some of those problems and 11 deliver water, and in areas that are very high density right 12 now. So, anyway, just a couple other areas of conflict. 13 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Some of those areas are 14 almost surrounded by the city. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. Mainly, the ones in my 16 precinct are. 17 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yours are. Kerrville South, 18 just anything basically in -- Buster, correct me if I'm 19 wrong, but west of Highway 16 right there, starting at where 20 Big Earl's Barbecue was, that's all -- that's all the county, 21 right? 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Correct. 23 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Right. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Sure enough. What y'all are 25 saying is they're not taking care of what they have. Why do 11-9-09 104 1 they want more? 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: You got it. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Sounds like. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: You've got a way of boiling things 5 down to the lowest common denominator. 6 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yeah. I can tell you, I 7 tried to get -- work with them to get a bunch of businesses 8 hooked up to city sewer out along Highway 27, and they were 9 all for it, except for the fact they couldn't get it to the 10 sewer plant 'cause the infrastructure wasn't good enough. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That area's been in the city 12 for many, many, many years. 13 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yeah. And some of those 14 areas are even paying city taxes, and haven't gotten 15 services. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Never have gotten services. 17 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Nineteen years. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'm angry now. 19 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I can tell. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: There have been a lot of opinions 21 expressed up here, and concerns expressed. I don't want to 22 let this thing drag on forever, but certainly, the public has 23 an opportunity to be heard. If there's anyone in the 24 audience that wants to give us their comments or thoughts on 25 this matter, why, we'll let you come forward one at a time. 11-9-09 105 1 Give us your name and address and briefly tell us what's on 2 your mind. Yes, ma'am. If you'll come forward and give us 3 your name and address, tell us what's on your mind. 4 MS. MATTHEWS: I just had a couple questions. My 5 name is Mary Matthews. I own 100 acres across from the 6 airport that's included in the CCN. I was wondering what 7 Mr. Williams was reading from earlier, what document? 8 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Actually, I was reading 9 from the application that was submitted to T.C.E.Q. by the 10 City of Kerrville, and I was reading from some -- some 11 sections of the notification, which I believe was published 12 in the local paper. Those were basically the things I was -- 13 MS. MATTHEWS: The application, is that available 14 online? Or -- 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: It should be, Ms. Matthews. 16 I'll give you what I have here, which you should be able to 17 pull it down. 18 MS. MATTHEWS: 'Cause there was some details that 19 were not available in the mailing they sent out. 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: The application number is 21 36469-C. 22 MS. MATTHEWS: Okay. 23 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: And it is styled as an 24 amendment to the current CCN which the City holds, identified 25 as CCN Number 12928, and it's a T.C.E.Q. document. 11-9-09 106 1 MS. MATTHEWS: Okay. 2 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: You should be able to pull 3 it down. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Indicates this was received by them 5 July 28th of this year. 6 MS. MATTHEWS: Thank you. Then you've also 7 mentioned 13,000 acres, and my document says 60. 8 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Your document says what? 9 MS. MATTHEWS: 60,000 acres. 10 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: It is 60,000 acres. If I 11 said 13, I misspoke. It's 60,000 acres, and 9,193 potential 12 customers. 13 MS. MATTHEWS: Okay. And the last issue I guess I 14 have about the resolution is that there's sort of a problem 15 here legally in that people that have more than 25 acres are 16 given the opportunity to opt out, but they have to respond 17 within 30 days. 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: And not only do you have to 19 respond; you have to provide them with the metes and bounds 20 and the total legal description of your property. 21 MS. MATTHEWS: Well, I was hoping that you might be 22 able to include something in your resolution that would deal 23 with this problem, because people who have over 25 acres will 24 not be able to go to a public hearing, because, obviously, a 25 public hearing would be after the 30 days. 11-9-09 107 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Will be after 30 days? 2 MS. MATTHEWS: Yeah. We have to respond within 30 3 days. 4 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yeah. 5 MS. MATTHEWS: To opt out of this. 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yeah. 7 MS. MATTHEWS: And -- 8 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Well, you have 30 days 9 to -- I'm going to ask Bill -- 10 MS. MATTHEWS: You have to formally opt out. 11 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: -- to also talk to this 12 particular issue. Thirty days in which to get your -- get in 13 to the T.C.E.Q. your request for a public hearing. I'm not 14 sure that the 30 -- same 30 days applies to the opt-out. 15 MS. MATTHEWS: No, it says if you're a land owner 16 with a tract of land at least 25 acres or more, you may 17 request to exclude the tract by providing written notice to 18 the Commission within 30 days from the date that notice was 19 provided by the applicant. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I would recommend that -- I 21 mean, I have not read it, but to -- if you want to opt out, 22 or anyone that wants to opt out, send a letter saying you 23 want to opt out. 24 MS. MATTHEWS: But we don't know, because we 25 haven't had the public hearing. 11-9-09 108 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: You could always withdraw your 2 opting out later, is what I'm saying. 3 MS. MATTHEWS: Oh. You can do that? 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I would think -- I mean, I 5 don't know that. 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I would think you could if 7 you wished to do that, yeah. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean, I don't know, but if I 9 was -- you know, I think the safe course to allow you more 10 flexibility is for you to opt out. Later, certainly, the 11 boundary could be adjusted during this process, I would 12 think. 13 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: We're certainly willing to 14 amend it, okay, if it covers a point that needs to be 15 covered. 16 MS. MATTHEWS: I was hoping that we would be able 17 to have a public hearing in order to find out more about it 18 before we had to make the decision. 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That's the sense of this. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 21 MS. MATTHEWS: Okay. Thank you. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Yes, sir? Come forward. Give us 23 your name and address, and give us your comments. 24 MR. LOUK: My name's Rick Louk, 691 Pass Creek, and 25 I live in a development out there. We have a homeowners' 11-9-09 109 1 association, and I am concerned as to where they got the 2 number arbitrarily of 20 acres. There's no indication as to 3 how they came up with you can opt out if you got 20 or more 4 acres. Some of the notification to some of the people in our 5 development have more than 20 acres and were not notified 6 with any kind of letter. And we're interested in knowing 7 whether our association would qualify in that it's 220 acres, 8 and whether we could opt out as an organization. I guess 9 some of the questions that our -- people in our association 10 have is, what's in it for us? Obviously, with this -- this 11 issue. We all have our own well and septic as it is now. We 12 moved to the county because we wanted to be in the county, 13 not because we wanted to be in the city. 14 In my past experience, when an area wanted to be 15 annexed to a city, they went to the City and asked to be 16 annexed. And in my opinion, this down the road is going to 17 be an annexation issue, depending on who's in office and so 18 forth. And if they put in the -- the sewer and the water 19 eventually down the line, then the taxes will come with it 20 also, and who's going to pay for that? I'm concerned about 21 what's going to happen to my property value as a result of 22 people opting in and opting out, and what it's going to do to 23 the county as a whole. So, I hope that in this hearing, that 24 all these issues are addressed, and specifically, where the 25 city -- it's pretty obvious, just listening to what you folks 11-9-09 110 1 have had to say about it, what they're trying to do. And I 2 know from personal experience that the City can't take care 3 of the water demand they have right now, and it's pretty 4 obvious what they're looking to do. So, I -- I just hope 5 that this is slowed down and that it's investigated 6 completely. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Sir, the notice that I've seen, the 8 break point is 25 or more acres. But be that as it may, one 9 suggestion I might make to you is, if you have a homeowners' 10 association, that if -- if, in a proper meeting of that 11 association, they vote to request a public hearing or to opt 12 out or both, I would think that you could probably take an 13 affirmative vote of the association, send them the whole 14 subdivision plat, to include the whole 220 acres I think you 15 mentioned. That's one possibility. The worst response you 16 could get is, "Well, there's more than one owner here, so we 17 can't honor this." But at least you're making the effort to 18 protect the subdivision as a whole. 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Or your homeowners' 20 association, by its own action, could authorize that 21 particular communication on behalf of all of the property 22 owners within that subdivision, following up on what the 23 Judge is saying, so you cover both bases at the same time. 24 MR. LOUK: Well, part -- 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: With respect to 11-9-09 111 1 Ms. Matthews' question, though, and on point with yours as 2 well, it talks about a landowner of 25 acres or more, notice 3 to the Commission within 30 days from the date the notice was 4 provided by the applicant. I guess that would be the notice 5 that you received in the mail. 6 MR. LOUK: I didn't receive one. 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: You didn't receive one? A 8 lot of people did. 9 MR. LOUK: Right. And that's part of the issue. 10 AUDIENCE: No one that I know of that's here that 11 has less than 25 acres received notice. I mean, we found out 12 by accident, which I think is another issue, you know, this 13 notice. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: I don't know why we have the 25-acre 15 break point. That's probably another issue to be looked 16 into. 17 AUDIENCE: Could that be addressed? 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Why the 25, as opposed to 10 or 15 19 or 5, whatever. We appreciate you -- 20 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: By our rules, it would be in 21 excess of 5. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Under our rules. 23 (Several people speaking at once.) 24 THE REPORTER: One at a time, please. 25 MR. LOUK: Thank you. 11-9-09 112 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, sir. 2 MS. MORE: I'm Linda More and I live on Center 3 Point River Road. And I've spoken to several of y'all, and I 4 also talked to some folks from the city and from the City 5 Council. And I said, well, where did this imaginary 25 acres 6 come from? Who set that acreage? Because if we hadn't had a 7 neighbor give us this information, we wouldn't have gotten 8 it, because we have less than 25 acres. And so I said, "Who 9 designated the 25 acres?" And he said, "Well, if you have 10 less than 25 acres, why don't you just go ahead and send in a 11 letter to the city and to the state asking to opt out, and 12 maybe they'll do it." 13 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Ask for a public hearing. 14 MS. MORE: I went, "Huh?" So, it's -- there's too 15 many unanswered questions that are scaring me about, is it 16 going to change my taxes? Is are they going to take my well? 17 Are they going to meter my well, or are they going to go 18 across our property with water lines? Just too much stuff 19 that's not covered in this that I think they're kind of 20 rushing passing that. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: I told you, I think they got that 22 woman stirred up a little bit, didn't they? 23 AUDIENCE: I have enough trouble doing sports, much 24 less all this stuff. I know drilling a well this summer -- 25 we had to drill a well; our well went dry because of the 11-9-09 113 1 drought. That's 20,000 a month, and I'm sure other people in 2 our area did the same thing. It's a question -- it's 3 something to deal with, seriously. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Any other citizens have any comments 5 they wish to offer? Come on up, Mr. Childs, and tell us 6 what's on your mind. 7 MR. CHILDS: I'm Bill Childs and I live at 845 8 Turtle Creek Road. I don't have anything to add. The 9 questions are all great questions. And I'm worried more 10 about the hidden agenda and where it's going. And, of 11 course, the people with less than 25 acres, I think it's a 12 very valid argument. I think we're going to have to opt out, 13 because the hearing will certainly not be set before the 14 30-day time period is up, so I think we're stuck with having 15 to opt out. I don't know what the people with less than 16 25 acres can do. But there's a lot of great questions. And 17 all of the requests are there, and there's a lot more that we 18 probably haven't even thought about yet. So -- 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Mr. Childs, I note that in the 20 notice that went out, it required that to opt out, you must 21 include a scale general location map and a metes-and-bounds 22 description of the tract of land. I would submit that that 23 may not be feasible in a lot of cases, and people may want to 24 give notice that they wish to opt out, whether they have 25 25 acres or 2 and a half acres, as far as that goes. But a 11-9-09 114 1 metes-and-bounds description may not be available. You may 2 have a -- a platted tract in a subdivision. That certainly 3 is available. The Appraisal District has some pretty good 4 maps which give you a general location where they have marked 5 out where each particular tract of land is that they deal 6 with. That may be a source of information for folks. If 7 they don't have a metes-and-bounds description, I would think 8 an explanation in their request to opt out would be that it's 9 not available, and it's -- the location of the property can 10 be adequately described and ascertained, and don't feel it's 11 appropriate for them to be required to hire an engineer in 12 order to do a complete metes-and-bounds engineering 13 description just for this purpose. And I -- I think you'll 14 be heard, and I think you'll be considered. 15 MR. CHILDS: Absolutely. And I think the question 16 is, if we don't do this precisely the way they requested it, 17 which is a scale map of the general area and a 18 metes-and-bounds description, then could they deny our 19 opt-out? So -- so I've been scrambling, as everyone else 20 has, to figure out how to do that. We really -- I wish there 21 was a very specialized attorney here in town that we could 22 hire, because he could probably -- it's a very specialized 23 question, and a very legal question, and I think that's 24 probably what we need. And I don't -- I would suppose we 25 don't have anybody; probably we'd have to go to Austin to 11-9-09 115 1 find somebody that really zeros in on this particular 2 problem. But -- but, at any rate, if there is somebody here, 3 I'd love to be able to talk to them. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: My suggestion is that people utilize 5 the resources they have readily available to them. And -- 6 and enough to identify themselves, identify their property, 7 and identify that they -- and the amount of property they 8 have, that they clearly desire to opt out. And I -- you 9 know, these rules are nice, but you can't always fit the 10 square peg in the round hole. And I think if they -- if the 11 Commission gets enough of these folks, I think they're going 12 to be compelled to pay attention. I just don't think they're 13 going to want to face that many individual constituents that 14 are trying to do the best they can with what they got to work 15 with, and just tell them, "Well, I'm sorry, we got these 16 bureaucratic rules, and you play by them to the T or you're 17 out and we're going to run smooth over you." I just don't 18 see them doing that. If they do, unfortunately, it's after 19 the fact, but there's recourse available, and it's called a 20 ballot box. 21 MR. CHILDS: Well, I appreciate the Court's going 22 for a hearing on this matter, and asking for the -- for the 23 entity to deny the request of the City at this point. As you 24 say, we may at some point say, "Hey, it's a good idea." I 25 don't think so, but it's possible. And -- and at least then 11-9-09 116 1 we'll have time. Thirty days doesn't give anybody enough 2 time. So, I appreciate the Court. Thank you. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, Mr. Childs. 4 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: One more comment, please. 5 Ms. Matthews called to my attention that in the -- one, 6 two -- third "whereas," we had misstated the number of acres 7 that's being proposed with what the City wishes to encompass 8 in its application. That should be 60,000, so we'll get Jody 9 to reprepare this for our signature. My -- my thought is 10 that for property owners with less than 25 acres, perhaps 11 this resolution, which will be out of here by this afternoon 12 or in the morning at the very latest, covers all of those 13 folks. But I would urge the press, in covering the story, to 14 talk to people in Kerr County and tell all those 9,193 folks 15 that this is an imperative for you, and you -- you need to 16 write the T.C.E.Q. demanding a public hearing, and if you 17 need to also state your opt-out preferences, then do so too. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge, one other comment. I 19 think most of the people in the room are -- are residents 20 that live outside the city limits, but I also want to point 21 out that a lot of my -- and I've heard from constituents that 22 live inside the city limits. They'll probably go talk to 23 City Council on that route, but it's also a big impact on 24 those people as well. The City, from what I can tell, has 25 had difficulty providing the water quantity necessary. And 11-9-09 117 1 what this may do to the residents of the city of Kerrville 2 currently paying for the city system, it could drive their 3 cost up. I think it needs to be considered. It's not just 4 an outside the city limits of Kerrville issue; it's also 5 inside the city limits of Kerrville, because as they start 6 devoting resources to expanding the service area, and they 7 already have these other problems that could cost them money 8 as well. And the final thing, I would encourage everyone 9 also to contact your local state representative -- both 10 Representative Harvey Hilderbran and State Senator Troy 11 Fraser, because T.C.E.Q. tends to respond a little bit more 12 when they start pounding on their door than sometimes when we 13 do at the commissioners court level. So, I'd certainly 14 encourage you to contact them. And they have gotten involved 15 in the past on issues related to T.C.E.Q., and they have been 16 helpful. 17 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: We'll send copies of the 18 resolution to both Senator Fraser and Representative 19 Hilderbran. 20 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I can assure you that if 21 there could be a meeting between Hilderbran and Fraser and 22 the T.C.E.Q., there might be a change of heart in what has 23 been, you know, promoted here. They do listen. Just like 24 TexDOT listens; it's no difference. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Any further question or comment on 11-9-09 118 1 the motion? All those in favor, signify by raising your 2 right hand. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Judge, what was the motion? 4 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion is adoption of the 5 resolution. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. 7 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 8 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 9 (No response.) 10 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. I thank all 11 of you for being here. I'm sorry for the delay in getting to 12 that item, but we -- actually, we skimmed over a couple of 13 timed items to get there. We'll give you folks time to 14 leave. 15 (Discussion off the record.) 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Let's go to our 11:15 timed 17 item now. Item 26, to consider, discuss, and take 18 appropriate action on renewal of financial services agreement 19 with RBC Capital Markets, Inc., as financial adviser to Kerr 20 County. I put this on the agenda. As everyone on the Court 21 is aware, we're in the process of having our financial 22 adviser work on a proposal that we're going to take to market 23 here quite soon, and he notified me that in seeing if his 24 ducks were in order, he discovered that the contract that we 25 have renewed 18 times now is up for renewal again. And -- 11-9-09 119 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: He's just thinking of 2 himself. He's just thinking of himself. When is he going to 3 get down and do something for us? 4 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: It's commission time? 5 MR. HENDERSON: I have an inner ear infection, so 6 I'm not going to be as animated as normal. In other words, 7 Commissioner, I'm going to let that go. For the record, my 8 name's Bob Henderson. I'm with RBC Capital Markets. We do 9 have the honor and the privilege of being the financial 10 advisers to Kerr County. I have worked with the County since 11 1984. These contracts have been 5-year renewals, so I guess 12 this would be about the fifth renewal. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. 14 MR. HENDERSON: In 25 years. Or maybe the sixth. 15 Our contract did expire on October the 29th, literally two 16 weeks ago, and -- not even quite that. And under the 17 Securities Exchange Commission rules, the municipal 18 rule-making board's rules, we need, for your protection, to 19 have a financial advisory contract in place so that we are 20 prevented from undertaking any activities that might be 21 deemed not in your best interest. The term of the contract 22 is five years. It is the same fees and expenses that we've 23 had for the past two renewals. The only thing that has 24 changed is our name, once again. The last time our name was 25 RBC Dain Rauscher. This month its RBC Capital Markets. What 11-9-09 120 1 it will be next month is anybody's guess. (Laughter.) So, 2 I'll be happy to answer any questions. I'm trying not to 3 breathe on the microphone; I don't want anybody else to get 4 sick. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Judge -- 6 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: You're sick and you came in 7 here? 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Let's just approve this 9 thing and get on. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move approval. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 13 approval of the agenda item and the financial adviser 14 agreement. Question or discussion on the motion? All in 15 favor 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. 20 MR. HENDERSON: We are proceeding with the 21 preparation of the documents, and we do expect to be back in 22 Commissioners Court in two or three weeks. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: When you're healthy. 24 MR. HENDERSON: Or Dusty Traylor will be here, one 25 of the two. 11-9-09 121 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Bob, did you say two or 2 three weeks? 3 MR. HENDERSON: Yes, sir. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 5 MR. HENDERSON: Thank you. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Let's go back and pick up 9 under Number 12 and move this thing forward. Consider, 10 discuss, take appropriate action to approve private road 11 name, Moorhead Road East, located in Precinct 2. Mr. Odom? 12 MR. ODOM: Yes, sir. Mr. Moorhead has requested 13 his private road be named Moorhead Road. The proposed road 14 is located off Sanders Way, which is off Elm Pass Road. 911 15 office has reviewed this request and has no issues with the 16 request, so at this time, we ask the Court for their approval 17 of the road name, Moorhead Road East, Precinct 2. 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Move approval. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 21 approval. Question or discussion on the motion? All in 22 favor of the motion, signify by raising your right hand. 23 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 24 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 25 (No response.) 11-9-09 122 1 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. We'll move 2 to Item 13; consider, discuss, take appropriate action to 3 approve proposed road name, Chico's Road Southwest, located 4 in Precinct 4. Mr. Odom? 5 MR. ODOM: Yes, sir. Again, we have a road name. 6 Mr. and Mrs. Vlasek have applied through the 911 office to 7 name a private road Chico's -- Chico's Road Southwest, which 8 is located in Precinct 4 near Camp Flaming Arrow on the 9 opposite side of Highway 39. At this time, we ask the Court 10 to approve the proposed private road name, Chico's Road 11 Southwest, and this road is to be privately maintained, not 12 by the County. 13 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: So moved. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 16 approval. Question or discussion? All in favor of the 17 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: Motion does carry. Item 14; 22 consider, discuss, take appropriate action to declare a 1998 23 Ford F-150 vehicle as surplus. Ms. Whitt, that's one that 24 you've phased out in your operation out there? 25 MS. WHITT: Yes, sir. That's the old blue Ford 11-9-09 123 1 that had been moved from department to department, and it 2 needs a new motor. It just -- it's not in -- it's just not 3 able to be used any more. 4 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: It's junk, is what you're 5 trying to say. 6 MS. WHITT: Yeah, basically. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move approval. 8 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Second. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 10 approval. Question or discussion? 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What happens to it? 12 JUDGE TINLEY: We sell it. 13 MS. WHITT: Going to try to sell it. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Going to run an ad in the 15 newspaper? 16 MS. WHITT: Well, I'm going to get with the Auditor 17 on that. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay, thank you. 19 MS. WHITT: We'll see what option is best for us. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: May be a matter for the scale. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 22 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Maybe a slash and crush. 23 MS. WHITT: Yeah. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Any other question or comment? All 25 in favor of the motion, signify by raising your right hand. 11-9-09 124 1 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 2 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 3 (No response.) 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion carries. We'll go to Item 15 5 for an update on issues at Flat Rock Lake Park. Update on 6 dog issues, excuse me. 7 MS. WHITT: Well, I'm happy to report that we have 8 had no issues at the park since -- since we set the new rules 9 in place to have the upper section of the park as an 10 off-leash area. We had one minor incident that really didn't 11 -- didn't involve us. It was reported to us. We asked that 12 person to contact law enforcement. But we have had no 13 issues. We patrol there, you know, pretty much every 14 morning, and we've had no issues, so it seems to be working 15 well. 16 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Good. Thank you. 17 MS. WHITT: You're welcome. 18 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: You know when something works 19 for a while. 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Finally did something, 21 didn't we? 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Let's move to Item 17; consider, 23 discuss, and take appropriate action to approve filling out 24 an application to Texas Fleet Fuel. No bidding process 25 required. Sheriff? 11-9-09 125 1 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Y'all will recall a number of 2 months ago, Mr. Bill Williams came in and presented a 3 proposal to the County, and I just kind of let it slide for a 4 number of months. I did get with Rex, who looked everything 5 up. We do not have to do a bidding process on it. It is a 6 state bid -- or under state contract type deal on that co-op. 7 I don't intend on going to that company totally yet. I don't 8 intend on changing what we have, except I would like to go 9 ahead and fill out the application; have it. They do service 10 to a large number of gas stations and that all around the 11 state and in other states, and mainly on transports, where we 12 fill out the application, get it approved, and have those 13 cards to at least see how it starts to work before we -- we 14 would go to it totally. 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Let the record reflect that 16 the Bill Williams the Sheriff mentioned is not this one. 17 (Laughter.) 18 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: He's a lot younger. Oh, I 19 didn't say that. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Rusty. What was the -- is 21 it basically the same kind of thing that you do right now? 22 You have your little cards, and you go to the gas station, 23 fill up, and -- 24 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Right. There's -- 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What is the benefit? 11-9-09 126 1 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: The price you get. And it's 2 so many cents above our -- 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Rack. 4 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: -- rack price or whatever. 5 The only issue I had is, there is something -- and, of 6 course, I'd let Ilse look at the application; it's a standard 7 application, before it's approved, is they have in there to 8 where they would like to bill it weekly. And I'm not sure 9 that really works for the Auditor nor myself, that we get 10 billed every week. And then, if you're two days late, 11 billing it weekly, with Commissioners Court only meeting, you 12 know, two times a month, it could rack up late charges. I 13 don't want to get into that type of -- of issue. And I had 14 not noticed that until this morning, when I went back through 15 everything, that -- 16 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That needs to be part of the 17 agreement of what -- 18 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: That it's a once-a-month deal. 19 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: -- is to be billed, and also 20 paid. 21 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I agree. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll move approval of 23 authorizing you to submit -- or fill out the application and 24 submit it. 25 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Second. 11-9-09 127 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Subject to working out any 2 details with the County Attorney in the implementation. 3 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Second. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded as 5 indicated. Question or discussion? All in favor of the 6 motion, signify by raising your right hand. 7 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 8 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 9 (No response.) 10 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. Item 18, 11 another item from the Sheriff. Consider, discuss, take 12 appropriate action regarding contracting out Kerr County Jail 13 Commissary. 14 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: The same company that we have 15 that officially started -- last Friday was the first meal 16 served by the Five Star Correctional that took over our meal 17 service, and about a 22 cents a meal savings right now. So 18 far, that's going real well. Haven't seen any kind of issues 19 or problems with it. It looks like a good one. But they 20 also do commissaries, and it would be -- the difference is, 21 we wouldn't have a lot of the in-house issues on auditing or 22 anything else, and a lot of it's done by computer program 23 with them. The Auditor still would have access, even to the 24 whole computer stuff. A lot of it goes back to the same 25 issue as with the food, in that they buy in such a large 11-9-09 128 1 bulk, 'cause they do commissaries all over, that their prices 2 are better. Consequently, their -- their profits are better. 3 So, when we -- we would be signing this and getting a 4 31 percent profit off the commissary sales that would go back 5 to the inmate. I think, in the long run, we may even come 6 out as well, if not a little bit better, because of the -- of 7 the price difference. The County Attorney -- I'd originally 8 given it to Rex to look at the contract. I think Ilse's 9 reviewed it, and as of Friday, she was finishing up that. 10 What did you get? 11 MS. BAILEY: I'm pretty comfortable with it. I 12 would like for Trolinger to take a look at it to make sure 13 that they're doing -- a lot of the proposal has to do with 14 computers that they provide that work their process. It's 15 interfaced to a certain extent with ours, and I want to make 16 sure that we've got no security issues there. But otherwise, 17 I don't have any problems with the contract. It's very 18 similar to the one that they did for the food service. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Any requirement for competitive 20 bidding on that particular matter? 21 MS. BAILEY: No, because it's just -- it's a 22 sole-source provider, and -- 23 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: It is required once every five 24 years. We have to bid this, even though it's -- 25 MS. BAILEY: But we don't have to bid it the 11-9-09 129 1 initial time; at least that's our interpretation. 2 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Every five years after that, 3 the Local Government Code says I'm required to bid it. I'm 4 not sure at this point that I would even -- they have a 5 stand-alone system for ordering. Everything gets scanned in. 6 I'm not even sure at this point that we're going to try and 7 interface it with our computer system at all. It may just 8 stand alone. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, you -- you want to go ahead 10 and go with this company? 11 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Well, the other issue is -- 12 I'd like to go with it. And then in our agreement, we'll 13 date it starting December 1st. December 31st, the lady that 14 has done our commissary for the last 15 years is retiring, 15 and I'd like to get this swapped over. And I think it will 16 save us in the long run, 'cause it will allow me to cut that 17 down kind of to a part-time type position. I'm not cutting a 18 position, Bruce; don't jump yet. 19 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I thought I heard you say 20 that. 21 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: No, I didn't say that. 22 Because the second part of that time will help fill in with 23 our gal guarding the trustee in the kitchen area, with those 24 -- with the one we have now. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: You're going to use December for a 11-9-09 130 1 transition month, then? 2 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Right. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. I have a motion. Did I hear 4 a second? 5 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Second. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: I have a motion and second. 7 Question or discussion? All in favor of the motion, signify 8 by raising your right hand. 9 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 10 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 11 (No response.) 12 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. With regard 13 to the projects going on, the law enforcement/Adult Probation 14 building, Mr. Peter Lewis was not able to be here with us 15 today. He had a death in his wife's family, and he's tending 16 to that. I did get some details from him that I can report 17 to you. The development site plan has been prepared and 18 submitted to the City of Kerrville. It's in the review 19 process now. Once that final site plan has been approved, 20 the bid plans and documents, he hopes to have it ready in 21 approximately the middle of December. He sees that as the 22 probable time frame, possibly bid in early January, he said. 23 He doesn't like to put anything out for bid during the 24 holiday period, 'cause you don't get -- you don't get any 25 return on it. And because of the degree of complexity of the 11-9-09 131 1 project, he doesn't anticipate they'll need to be out too 2 long. Be received by -- by the end of January, and possibly 3 taking action on the bids in early February. So, that's the 4 report there. 5 On the windows, what you see is what you get. And 6 what we're getting, I think, is a pretty doggone good 7 product. They've had one minor glitch; they're short a few 8 trim pieces. Those are on order. But they're continuing to 9 move forward. They're on track, payment wise, for what 10 they've installed, so we can move that part of it forward 11 today. They will -- they intend to -- weather permitting, 12 there's a complete unit, door and surround unit for the west 13 end of the building that they plan on installing tomorrow, 14 and I think that'll make a -- a pretty strong visual impact 15 once that is in. But everyone who's made comments to me has 16 been very, very impressed by the look that we're getting, how 17 compatible the interior wood finish is with what we presently 18 have in place. It -- it's kind of like fitting a hand in a 19 fist-tight glove. Everything seems to be working really 20 well. Any member of the Court have any -- yes, Sheriff? 21 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: On that same capital 22 improvement issue, I know that in that loan, in the financial 23 aspect of it, there's a lot of other things in the 24 departments that were approved, such as cars and things. Do 25 we have any idea of when that financial stuff will go through 11-9-09 132 1 so that those orders can be made? 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Mr. Henderson said two or three 3 weeks, he'd be back here for the document side of it. So, 4 Ms. Hargis, end of year? 5 MS. HARGIS: Right. I don't want anything ordered 6 until such time as we actually get it started, because we -- 7 you know, we're trying to build our cash flow up. It will 8 come in in December. I think once we approve the document, 9 let me look at the cash flow, and I'll come back to the Court 10 and ask you if you're willing to do that or not. I'd prefer 11 you be in agreement with that before we did anything like 12 that. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 14 MS. HARGIS: Little different situation this year 15 than we had last time. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: That -- as to that issue also, we're 17 trying to move it forward to get that process underway so 18 that the funding can be in place as early as possible, 19 commensurate with what we got a deal with there. There's 20 essentially about a 45-day lag from -- 21 MS. HARGIS: From -- yes, from the time -- 22 JUDGE TINLEY: -- from the time you pull the 23 trigger on it till the time you actually get funding. 24 MS. HARGIS: I don't think we'll get funded at this 25 rate until probably January. 11-9-09 133 1 JUDGE TINLEY: That gives you a target to look at, 2 right? 3 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Thank you. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But what I heard the Auditor 6 say, as soon as our balances are high enough and we have the 7 documents secured, she may be able to let purchasing go on, 8 maybe in December. 9 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yeah, because it will take a 10 while once you place it, so I know there's computers; there's 11 all kinds -- to get those. I just didn't know when we could 12 start placing orders. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We'll let everyone know. 14 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Thank you. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Item 23, consider, discuss, 16 take appropriate action to approve by court order County 17 Auditor doing audits for ESD's Number 1 and Number 2 when 18 those records become available. Commissioner Oehler? 19 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: This is something that we 20 need to do every year for the Auditor. She has to have it 21 before she can do those audits. So, I move approval. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 24 approval. Question or discussion? 25 MS. HARGIS: I have. One of the E.S.D.'s has asked 11-9-09 134 1 me to go back and do -- I believe it's 2007. We did 2008, 2 but we didn't do 2007. So, we'll actually be performing 3 three audits this year. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: And you want to make -- 6 MS. HARGIS: 2007. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: -- sure that '07 is also included 8 within the purview of this order? 9 MS. HARGIS: Yes, please. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's fine. 11 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Ask that '07 be included in 12 this order. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Very good. Further question or 14 discussion? All in favor of the motion, signify by raising 15 your right hand. 16 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 17 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 18 (No response.) 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion does carry. Let's go to Item 20 25, to consider, discuss, and take appropriate action on a 21 report of the meeting with T.C.E.Q. Watermaster regarding 22 Flat Rock and Ingram Lakes, authorize lowering lake levels to 23 facilitate dam repairs and silt -- silt depth determination 24 at a future date to be determined, and provide notification 25 to appropriate state and federal agencies as required. 11-9-09 135 1 Commissioner Williams? 2 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Thank you, Judge. There 3 was a meeting on October 27th. Commissioner Oehler joined me 4 in that meeting. The meeting was with Al Segovia, the 5 T.C.E.Q. Watermaster. Also in attendance were Charlie 6 Hastings of the City of Kerrville; John Hewitt, the Kerr 7 County Floodplain Administrator; Kelly Hofer, Road and 8 Bridge; and John Paul Jones of T.C.E.Q., and Mr. Segovia, 9 Mr. Oehler, and yours truly. And we talked about the issues 10 that Mr. Segovia had with respect to our desire to and need 11 to, at some point in the future, lower the lake level to 12 effect the repairs of both Ingram and Flat Rock Lake Dams, 13 and engage in some sort of a test project once the lake level 14 has been lowered to determine the depth of the silt so we 15 know what we're dealing with. We have no idea what we're 16 dealing with. 17 And, so, Mr. Segovia had a list of questions. What 18 provisions will be in place to pass flows downstream, and 19 what amounts? And we sort of note -- noticed for him that 20 when there is no water going over the spillway at Flat Rock 21 Lake Dam -- I'm talking about Flat Rock now, basically -- 22 there continues to be a flow downstream. And, undoubtedly, 23 that is coming from either around or underneath, one or the 24 other, and so there's nothing that we intend to do to disturb 25 that flow. He wanted to know whether or not we would be 11-9-09 136 1 amenable to pumping water over the -- over the spillway to 2 augment flow if need be, because it concerns protecting the 3 downstream flow. Bruce, interrupt me if I -- 4 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: No, I'm listening. You're 5 doing good so far. 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: -- if I'm not telling the 7 straight story. 8 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I'll give them the Old Ingram 9 version. 10 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: We said yes, if we need to 11 put a -- a pump to augment the downstream flow, we could do 12 that. Will the Ingram Dam also require repairs? Yes, we 13 told him that Ingram Dam also requires repairs. And we also 14 made the point to him that it's necessary to lower the lake 15 level because the non-evasive testing that we did on Flat 16 Rock Lake and Ingram Dam before did not take into account any 17 voids that might be on the upstream side of the dam, the flat 18 surface of the dam. And, so, by lowering the lake level 19 appropriately, we can do that, so we can determine in advance 20 if we have more slurry that needs to be pumped in there for 21 the voids that we haven't earlier identified. As to the 22 wildlife -- Texas Parks and Wildlife being contacted for 23 approval of the necessary -- they haven't, but they will be. 24 And we know who that is that we have to send letters to. 25 What is the time frame -- these are all questions that the 11-9-09 137 1 Watermaster asked. What is the time frame once work begins 2 on either structure to complete each dam project? We 3 estimated that the start would be 2010, October, with a 4 finish somewhere around January 2011. The dam repairs 5 probably to both dams won't take that long, and so that 6 would -- that time frame would apply more to Flat Rock, 7 because we'd like to also at the same time do the testing on 8 the depth of the silt, and so if we had the water level down, 9 we can do the silt. So, silt-depth testing, that is a 10 confusing thing. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: It's tough to say, isn't it? 12 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: It's tough to say, yeah. 13 What is the plan, he asked, for notifying downstream water 14 rights holders, riparian water rights holders, and how far 15 downstream will this notification be implemented? Well, 16 that's a good question. Answer is, we don't even know who 17 they are, so if any notifications were necessary, riparian 18 rights downstream and other -- other diversion rights 19 holders, it would seem to me that Mr. Segovia has those folks 20 in his file, and maybe T.C.E.Q. can engage in that 21 notification. I think he agreed to do that. 22 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: He agreed to do that. Under 23 protest, but -- 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: What is the time for 25 refilling the reservoirs? We estimated that to be about 90 11-9-09 138 1 days. And we also indicated our coordination with Comanche 2 Trace Golf Course and other water diversion rights holders on 3 Bandera Highway, west of the dam. 4 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Right. 5 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: So, that's the sense of it. 6 When we finished that meeting, he didn't indicate that he had 7 any objection to our doing it. And so our thought would be 8 that we would gear up to do this in the time frame around 9 October of '10 -- 2010, and get the -- get the dam repairs 10 done, and probably at the same time be able to engage in some 11 sort of test to determine what the depth of the silt is. 12 Questions? 13 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: We were trying to get it done 14 for this year, and he just -- you know, he kept dragging his 15 feet. He said, "No, no, no." I said, "Look, if we just 16 lower the level this year, we could find out what we need to 17 know" -- 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Next year. 19 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: -- "for next year." Now, we 20 wouldn't have it down very long. It's just -- just long 21 enough to evaluate what we're going to have to do to make 22 sure that Comanche Trace can still have water going into 23 their intake. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 25 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: You know, we have -- there's 11-9-09 139 1 nobody that has that knowledge about that lake, because it 2 hasn't been drained. And we have no plans that were drawn, 3 other than what -- the same dam as Ingram. So, you know, I 4 mean, it's really kind of a look-and-see type thing, and then 5 get an idea of what we're facing. This may be a three-year 6 project. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Probably. 8 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: May be a one-year project, 9 but we don't know until we get some information. 10 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Well, certainly, the silt 11 removal is a multi-year project, and we don't even know the 12 method yet. So -- 13 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I can tell you one method it 14 isn't, and that's dredging. 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Very expensive. 16 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Too expensive. 17 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: So, I guess I'm asking the 18 Court to authorize our -- authorize to proceed lowering the 19 lake levels at a time, and do the silt-depth determination at 20 a future date to be determined. But it's going to be close 21 proximity to October of next year. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, I would -- I think you, I 23 mean, get all the proverbial ducks in a row so that we can do 24 it next October. Or, you know, certainly -- 25 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: If there was some way he 11-9-09 140 1 would allow us to lower it this year, it would be fine, but I 2 don't think he's going to do it. 3 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: No, I don't think so 4 either. He's still concerned about downstream flow, and we 5 understand that. 6 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: We told him, you know, that 7 downstream flow is not going to be interrupted; it's going to 8 be increased for a short time, and then it's going to be 9 maintained by what the flow is. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 11 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: And we asked them to 12 determine how big a pump we needed to pump water over to 13 maintain the flow; said, "Well, it needs to be the same as 14 the river flow." I said, "Well, the lake will never fill if 15 we pump the same amount out that's coming in." That's the 16 Old Ingram version, you know. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Ingram engineering, yeah. 18 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yeah. That's that -- 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: On the water rights issue -- or 20 diversion rights, if they provide them, that's great. But 21 Region J has it, and Jody is very familiar with mailing out 22 notices to anyone who has water rights. She's done it 23 before, all of South Texas for Region J before. 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: She's frowning at you, but 25 thank you for the information. That's good to know. 11-9-09 141 1 MS. GRINSTEAD: Thanks. 2 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Also, right now we don't 3 know -- and we'll find this out by subsequent discussions 4 with Comanche Trace. We don't know and they don't know the 5 depth of their intake box, and what's going to be involved in 6 protecting their ability to take water to meet their needs. 7 So, we'll find all that out. And we talked to -- well, 8 Mr. Hastings from the City was there, and we asked him if he 9 had any problems with respect to their park, which is across 10 the river from our park, and he didn't. But also, he 11 understood that this would be a good opportunity maybe to 12 clean out the gravel bar which is right in front of their 13 park. So, I thought we covered all of our bases. And what 14 we're saying is, let us -- we ask the Court to let us proceed 15 and set the date as we -- as we determine that we can do all 16 these things. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Just take good notes, so as 18 this multi-year project continues, we'll know how to do it 19 the next year and the following year and the following year. 20 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Mm-hmm. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 'Cause it sounds -- 22 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I think we finally have -- 23 you know, we kind of -- we did drain Ingram last year, and 24 it's kind of like we asked for forgiveness. 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yeah. 11-9-09 142 1 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: We didn't really get 2 permission. 3 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yeah. Bruce said, "Hey, 4 I'm sorry." Anyhow -- 5 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: But this is a different 6 situation, because there's a lot different -- especially with 7 Comanche Trace having -- having pumping rights right there. 8 You know, that -- and not having another source of water 9 coming in downstream of the lake, you know, it kind of stops 10 the flow whenever you plug that one up. 11 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yeah. The motion would be 12 to authorize lowering the lake levels to facilitate dam 13 repairs at a silt-depth determination at a future date to be 14 determined. 15 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Second. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded as 17 indicated. Question or discussion on that motion? All in 18 favor of the motion, signify by raising your right hand. 19 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 20 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 21 (No response.) 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion carries. Let's move to Item 23 27; consider, discuss, take appropriate action to cast Kerr 24 County's votes for Kerr Central Appraisal District Board of 25 Directors. It's that time of year again. We have -- what, I 11-9-09 143 1 think 1,101 votes? We can accumulate our votes and cast 2 1,001 for our nominee, Charles Lewis; that will -- or should 3 insure his election, and the 100 somewhere else, or just cast 4 all 1,101 for Mr. Lewis. I don't think we're going to make 5 that much of an impact, but whatever the Court's pleasure. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I make a notion that we cast 7 1,101 votes for Charles Lewis. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded as 10 indicated. Question or discussion? All in favor of the 11 motion, signify by raising 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. Item 28; 16 consider, discuss, take appropriate action on request from 17 Texas Association for Home Care to declare November "Home 18 Care and Hospice Month." Obviously, I received this from the 19 association to ask that we pass a resolution that's included 20 in your materials to proclaim November 2009 as Home Care and 21 Hospice Month in Kerr County. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So moved, and authorize the 23 County Judge to sign same. 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Second. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded as 11-9-09 144 1 indicated. Question or discussion? All in favor of the 2 motion, signify by raising your right hand. 3 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 4 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 5 (No response.) 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion does carry. We'll go to Item 7 29; consider, discuss, take appropriate action on 8 implementation of the burn ban. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move approval. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 12 approval. Question or discussion on the motion? All in 13 favor of the motion, signify by raising your right hand. 14 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 15 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 16 (No response.) 17 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion carries. Let's go to 18 Item 30; consider, discuss -- 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So moved. (Laughter.) I 20 wanted to beat Letz this time. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Consider, discuss, take appropriate 22 action to approve the contract with Turtle Creek Volunteer 23 Fire Department, Big Brothers, Big Sisters, and Families and 24 Literacy; allow County Judge to sign same. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So moved. 11-9-09 145 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion by Commissioner Baldwin. 2 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Second. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Second by Commissioner Oehler. 4 Question or discussion on the motion? All in favor of the 5 motion, signify by raising your right hand. 6 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 7 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 8 (No response.) 9 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. We'll go to 10 Item 31; consider, discuss, take appropriate action to 11 determine and notify T.C.D.R.S. of plan provisions for 2010. 12 I thought I saw Ms. Hyde here. The Court has already, in the 13 budgetary process, determined the elections that we've made 14 for T.C.D.R.S. Essentially, the percentage contribution is 15 the same. The rate is set. It's a little bit higher rate 16 because of the economics in the plan investments. The -- it 17 includes a 50 percent COLA for retirees, which carries no 18 cost, but does make the provisions for it, as we have in the 19 past. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I move for approval. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 23 approval as indicated. Question or discussion? All in favor 24 of the motion, signify by raising your right hand. 25 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 11-9-09 146 1 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 2 (No response.) 3 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion carries. Item 32, 4 consider, discuss, and take appropriate action to set 5 December the 22nd, 2009, as the date for the Kerr County 6 Christmas luncheon. Commissioner Oehler? 7 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That's the date I'm 8 requesting that we set. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move approval. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 11 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: The Tuesday before -- I 12 believe that's a Tuesday. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Yes, it is. 14 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: And that is ample time prior 15 to the holidays. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: The actual holiday starts on 17 Thursday; that's Christmas Eve. And then, of course, 18 Christmas is on Friday. 19 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: And, of course, everybody 20 will give a little bit to help pay for the meal that we will 21 propose. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: That's to come later. 23 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: And that's not any income to 24 me; it is to cover the cost of supplies. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Are you planning -- how -- I 11-9-09 147 1 can't remember exactly what you do. You provide -- 2 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Everything. Except, like, 3 Betsy does the salad, and then we have some other people that 4 show up with cakes and pies and -- 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. So, you provide the 6 meat and -- 7 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Meat, beans, some sort of 8 salad -- other salad, like a pasta salad was last year. And, 9 again, there will be some -- be a larger amount of fresh 10 venison sausage, axis. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'm in. 12 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That's -- as well as pork 13 loin. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So, does everybody in the 15 county participate financially? Or -- 16 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Mostly department heads and 17 elected officials. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: For the cost of the meat 20 and stuff, right? 21 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yeah. That's just -- 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Reimbursement cost. 23 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: -- reimbursement cost. We're 24 talking about minimal. It will be less than last year, 25 except if you give the same as you did last year, that leaves 11-9-09 148 1 more left-over money to do some of the prizes and things. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Good. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay, fantastic. 4 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Sounds good. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I like the date. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I made a motion. 8 THE CLERK: I have a motion. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: And second. All in favor, signify 11 by raising your right hand. 12 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 13 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 14 (No response.) 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion carries. Item 33, consider, 16 discuss, take appropriate action on request from County 17 Attorney to pursue Open Meetings violation by GMA-9 and 18 review terminology in House Bill 1763. Commissioner Letz? 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Really, the question to the 20 County Attorney is, what is the process? We notified 21 everyone at the administrative hearing about what we think is 22 an Open Meetings violation. But the concern was -- when I 23 talked to their attorney was that that may not be a proper 24 venue to notify, and I'm not sure how you pursue an Open 25 Meetings violation. Is it through the GMA-9? Do we need to 11-9-09 149 1 send them a letter? Do we need to -- 2 MS. BAILEY: There are a couple of different ways, 3 and probably what the Court needs to do is to authorize us to 4 pursue any and all necessary means to -- to address that Open 5 Meetings violation, because it could be either in the form of 6 a request for an Attorney General's opinion or a lawsuit or a 7 mandamus, or just a complaint to GMA-9, and we probably need 8 to confer about that. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't want to spend any money 10 on a lawsuit. 11 MS. BAILEY: Exactly. I'm just saying the 12 potential different ways of -- 13 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Surely we can get a -- find a 14 District Judge that will sign an order. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: All right. I'll make a -- on 16 this part of the agenda item, I'll make a motion to authorize 17 the County Attorney to pursue the Open Meetings violation 18 against GMA-9. 19 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Second. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded as 22 indicated. Question or discussion? All in favor of the 23 motion, signify by raising your right hand. 24 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 25 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 11-9-09 150 1 (No response.) 2 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: On the second part of that, the 4 language -- and this is something I'd just ask the County 5 Attorney to look into. In House Bill 1763, it refers to the 6 districts adopting the DFC's. The Water Development Board, I 7 guess, has deemed that to mean GMA-9, or GMA's adopt the 8 DFC's, and this actually came out of a -- Anthony Corbett, 9 U.G.R.A.'s attorney, he just couldn't understand that. And I 10 started thinking about it, and really, I don't understand it. 11 So, I'd really like you to look at that language of whether 12 -- if districts -- how they made the jump from districts 13 adopting it to a group of districts that doesn't even have 14 any legal status adopting it, as to how that's done. And if 15 that's -- and this may require an Attorney General's opinion 16 as to what that means. To me, I mean, to clarify it, can 17 "districts" be construed to mean a GMA? Or does it mean each 18 district has to adopt the DFC? 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Jon, one of your steps 20 here -- just a recommendation here. One of the steps towards 21 all that, I would think, is to contact the guy that wrote the 22 bill and ask him his intent. And nine times out of ten, they 23 can answer that. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Oh. 25 MS. BAILEY: Well, there's an online bill analysis, 11-9-09 151 1 too, that we can on look at, but it's usually not a guy who 2 wrote a bill like that; it's usually many, many people 3 involved in many committee hearings. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, somebody carried the 5 bill, though. 6 MS. BAILEY: I see what you mean. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'm just saying, it's really 8 not relevant to what we're doing, but I think it is a 9 confusing point. And if stuff's going to be looked at by the 10 Legislature, it'd be helpful at least to clarify it at some 11 point in that piece of legislation. That's it. I don't 12 think it requires a motion. I just wanted to -- 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Just a question to the County 14 Attorney? 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Correct. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Let's move to Section 4 of 17 the agenda. First item under Section 4 is payment of the 18 bills. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'm a firm believer in 20 paying my bills. 21 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Want to pay mine? 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Do you have any in here? 23 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: No. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Nope. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Was that a motion, Commissioner? 11-9-09 152 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yes, sir. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: All right. We have a motion. 3 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Second. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: And a second. Question or 5 discussion on the bills? All in favor of the motion, signify 6 by raising your right hand. 7 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 8 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 9 (No response.) 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion does carry. Budget 11 amendments. I don't think we have any of those, do we? 12 MS. HARGIS: No, sir. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Late bills. I'm looking at what are 14 denominated as late bills. Are these more accruals or 15 deferrals, as opposed to late bills? Or -- 16 MS. HARGIS: No, I believe these are -- were bills 17 that came in after the fact, and we want you to see them. I 18 want y'all to see all the bills that go through our office. 19 So, if we do direct payments, you're going to see this 20 additional. Also, because of our system now, some of the 21 bills, if they were paid for last year, they have to be 22 printed for you separately, because the report won't print 23 out right now because of -- we're overlapping fiscal years 24 right now, and we haven't closed the books, so that's one of 25 the reasons why your reports are longer. So, having not been 11-9-09 153 1 here, I'm assuming that we've split it out in that manner as 2 well. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: And a lot of these are, in fact, 4 encumbrances on these late bills? 5 MS. HARGIS: Right. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Which we'll see right after the 7 beginning of a new fiscal year? 8 MS. HARGIS: Right. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. You need an order to pay 10 the -- what are denominated as late bills; is that correct? 11 MS. HARGIS: Yes. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So moved. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: I have a motion. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: And a second. Question or 16 discussion? All in favor of the motion, signify by raising 17 your right hand. 18 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 19 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 20 (No response.) 21 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. I've been 22 presented with monthly reports from J.P. Precinct 3, County 23 Clerk, Constable Precinct 1, Constable Precinct 4, and 24 Environmental Health, Kerr County payroll for October '09, 25 and Kerr County Treasurer for October '09. Do I hear a 11-9-09 154 1 motion that these reports be approved as presented? 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So moved. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded that the 5 indicated reports be approved as presented. Question or 6 discussion on the motion? All in favor of the motion, 7 signify by raising your right hand. 8 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 9 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 10 (No response.) 11 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. Okay, 12 reports from Commissioners in connection with their liaison, 13 committee, or other assignments. Commissioner Baldwin? 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Just don't forget about the 15 luncheon. I think we got another e-mail today reminding us 16 to pay up or shut up, or something like that. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: When's the luncheon? 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Next Monday. 19 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I won't be there on Monday. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. 21 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I will go to the deal on 22 Tuesday, 'cause I agreed to help pay for it. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. That's all, Judge. 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Ask Commissioner Letz if 25 he's going to be there. 11-9-09 155 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Commissioner Letz, are you 2 going to be there? 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think so. Didn't you pay for 4 me? 5 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I did, yes. That's the 6 reason -- (Laughter.) That's the reason I'm asking. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: I was hoping he'd say no and I could 8 ride on that prepayment, Bill. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's all. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Any reports from you, Commissioner 11 Williams? 12 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yes, sir, there is one. I 13 have some easement issues out at Kerrville South Wastewater 14 Project, Phase IV, with respect to getting those eight 15 properties on Ranchero Road hooked up. And so I had a 16 meeting out there that involved the City Engineering 17 Department and the City Manager and the Assistant City 18 Manager, and -- and a huge truck that you couldn't get in 19 this room, it's so big, to prove out the point that the 20 easement's not big enough for them to repair a sewer line. 21 So, we looked at all sorts of things, just spent a lot of 22 time talking about it. And the reality is, that's what we 23 have to work with; we have a 10-foot easement to put a pipe 24 down. And I've asked the property owners on Ranchero Road to 25 give a 20-foot construction easement -- temporary 11-9-09 156 1 construction easement to facilitate construction work. The 2 City doesn't particularly like that; it's narrow. And I 3 understand; it is narrow, and there are other utilities and 4 things that conflict with this particular easement. And they 5 did, in fact, bring out this huge truck that they use to suck 6 whatever they used to suck out of a pipe when the pipe is 7 stopped up. And they -- 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Fire truck? 9 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: -- wanted to demonstrate 10 that they couldn't get that pipe in this particular easement. 11 So, to make a long story short, we walked up -- they wanted 12 to know if we'd consider the Ranchero Road side, putting the 13 pipe down. So, I checked with Road and Bridge to see whether 14 we had a -- a sufficient easement there to do that. We 15 walked up Ranchero Road and looked at all the properties that 16 front Ranchero, and there is a 15-foot easement that 17 exists -- road easement that exists along that strip of 18 Ranchero Road. But the problem is -- and Commissioner 19 Baldwin and I have talked about it. It would be absolutely 20 horrendous, and I really don't want to go that way. It would 21 be horrendous to shut down Ranchero for construction in that 22 long block from 16 down to Ripplewood for any period of time 23 at all. With the volume of traffic that comes out of 24 Kerrville South in there, it just would be unbelievably 25 problematic. So, I did indicate we'd check on it, and I'll 11-9-09 157 1 get back with the City and tell them our findings, but we 2 haven't solved it. So, we do have a problem. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner, we've got -- right 4 there at the intersection of 16 and Ranchero, where they're 5 doing that construction work, that alone is creating enough 6 chaos. 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yeah. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: With the traffic flow on Ranchero. 9 If you have to take a -- at least a good portion of the -- be 10 the northbound traffic, I guess it would be, on Ranchero to 11 lay in that easement that -- 12 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: It's not a good solution. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: No, I don't see it. 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Not at all, and I'm not 15 proposing that. That just doesn't work. So, we'll have to 16 have another meeting with the City, tell them that's not a 17 good option. I'm not sure what we're going to do. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Anything else? 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And along with that, there 20 possibly could be a conversation about eminent domain 21 regarding this. Bill doesn't like to talk about that, but 22 I'm saying that there's -- that's an option. 23 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Well, that's a good point. 24 I thank you for reminding me. The original option was to run 25 laterals from those homes on Ranchero -- and I've talked to 11-9-09 158 1 the County Attorney about this -- down to the existing pipe 2 that runs through Oak Grove Mobile Home Park. The pipe's 3 already there, and it requires the owner of Oak Grove Mobile 4 Home Park giving us an easement to cut laterals through. So, 5 the thought occurred to me that, rather than going the main 6 route, maybe we can propose to him a solution that might be 7 more satisfactory to him, and that would be giving us the 8 easement to get the laterals across and into the existing 9 pipe. And if he changes the use of that property from a 10 mobile home park to something which he might consider a 11 higher and better use of that property, that we would -- we 12 would then put a pipe in parallel to Ranchero at back of the 13 those properties, and if he would give us an extra 10 feet. 14 I want to talk to Ilse about drafting up a proposed agreement 15 with him that embodies that solution, that -- that idea, and 16 we'll sit back down with the man and see whether or not we 17 can work it out. 18 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Are his mobile homes hooked 19 up presently? 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: His mobile homes in that 21 park are hooked up to the pipe that goes through the middle 22 of the -- of Ranchero. That was Phase 1. That's the story, 23 Judge. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Just briefly, last Wednesday, I 25 was in Austin, met with Representative Hilderbran and 11-9-09 159 1 Representative Rose, and Chief of Staff Representative Miller 2 about some of the county authority issues, and had a good 3 meeting. I think all three representatives are on the same 4 page. We'll see where it goes. 5 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Good. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's it. 7 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I just -- I want to make sure 8 that we support Janie in what she's trying to do with Animal 9 Control. That is really a -- really a big step to getting 10 some of the problems -- I mean, we never cure them all. 11 We'll never be to a point where we won't have to have Animal 12 Control, I don't think, but if we can encourage people that 13 can't afford to have animals spayed or neutered to get it 14 done, at no cost, then there's no excuse not to have it done. 15 And that will sure help with the population -- overpopulation 16 of a lot of our problem areas that are overpopulated with 17 animals. And we're excited about her doing that. That's a 18 good thing. She's -- she's going out a lot, trying to get 19 animals adopted, and is doing a good job, I think. And, of 20 course, Ray -- Environmental Health has been great with what 21 he's doing, and -- and hopefully we'll get going the with the 22 Ag Barn stuff here before too long. I think that Rosa told 23 me the other day that there's some money out there, some 24 grant money that we didn't know existed, and she found -- 25 found some to maybe start the first phase of what needs to be 11-9-09 160 1 done out there, and it might be enough to help. We'll get 2 that; maybe we can get some others, or it may be enough with 3 today's market. May need a little bit of our money to go 4 ahead and regrout and reinsulate that indoor arena. 5 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: U.S.D.A. Parks and Wildlife 6 or some other source? 7 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: No, it's another source. I 8 can't remember what she told me it was, but it's money that's 9 been approved. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: What they call SECO money. It's 11 energy efficiency money. 12 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: There you go. That'll tie 13 in. I think the grant initially is to have been 100,000 14 approved for just about everybody that applies for it, and 15 those that don't apply for it may get divided up the portion 16 of those that didn't -- didn't request it. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah, we've already -- Court's 18 already authorized serving notice that we wish to participate 19 in that. 20 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yes. So that's a positive on 21 the Ag Barn. Other than that, that's it. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Any elected officials have any 23 reports they wish to -- 24 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: You knew Rusty was going to 25 get up. 11-9-09 161 1 JUDGE TINLEY: You got 15 seconds, Rusty. That 2 includes the time it takes you to get up here. 3 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Give me 45. Real quick, just 4 a status update on a couple of issues. One was, if you'll 5 remember during budget time, as part of the capital 6 improvement loan, we applied to a couple local foundations to 7 upgrade courtroom technologies. Both of those grants were 8 denied. 9 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Oh, no. 10 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: So that third that we put into 11 that capital improvement loan is still going to be there, and 12 whatever it can be used for. Now, there are some shorter 13 ways of doing that that we could upgrade that would be less 14 than that. It's a roll-around type system that would cost 15 about 10,000 that would be in there. It may be considered at 16 that time. Secondly, as I told you a while ago, the food 17 service has taken off. We'll see how that works. It seems 18 to be going real well. They did take over Friday. They even 19 provided the food for Juvenile Detention Center. All that's 20 been working correctly, and no complaints as of yet. 21 Thirdly, we currently have 161 inmates in-house. That was 22 this morning. That's getting closer to my limit. If we get 23 six or eight more, I'm probably going to have to tell 24 Gillespie County to start moving some, or we're going to have 25 to find another way. We currently have 15 Gillespie County 11-9-09 162 1 inmates. We have 32 awaiting trial for 216th, we have 23 2 awaiting trial for 198th, and we have 29 out of County Court, 3 and 51 that are already sentenced, waiting to be -- either 4 finish serving their county sentence or be shipped to T.D.C. 5 or what. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: How many of them are paper-ready for 7 other facilities, other than -- 8 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Probably about -- some that 9 are -- we consider them paper-ready now, T.D.C., there's 10 probably about six or eight of those that are paper-ready, 11 but we don't have dates when we can take them just yet, okay? 12 We get them paper-ready, and then T.D.C. give us the dates. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Are we able to start the meter 14 running on the state of Texas when they are paper-ready? 15 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: No. They have to be 16 paper-ready for 50 days, everything sent in and approved for 17 50 days, and then after that they'll start letting us run our 18 meter. But they will normally get them out within 19 40-something days so that we don't get to run our meter on 20 those. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Kind of like the Attorney General's 22 office. When they tell you six months on the opinion, it's 23 five months and 29 days. 24 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Exactly right. But that's 25 kind of where we are. It is going up. I don't know -- now, 11-9-09 163 1 some of that, as you can see, I think the two district courts 2 now, after the last few meetings, 23 in the 198th and 32 in 3 the 216th is not bad. There are some of the organized crime 4 murder ones that are going to be there quite a while. But 5 we're just going up. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Any other elected officials? 7 Department heads? We have one executive session item dealing 8 with a personnel matter, so at this point, we will go out 9 of -- 10 MS. HYDE: Can I introduce them to you before you 11 go into executive? The insurance folks. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah, sure. We haven't gone out 13 yet. We were close. 14 MS. HYDE: I didn't have my hand up. I think most 15 of the Court remembers Carey Malek from Mutual of Omaha 16 several years ago. And then these are our folks from U.M.R., 17 and they are in San Antonio, which is a whole lot closer than 18 Louisiana. So, I'm going to let -- Kelli Merchant is 19 actually the account exec, so I'll be working closely with 20 her. 21 MS. MERCHANT: Really excited to have you come on 22 board. We're going to get your plan up and going, which 23 you'll probably be seeing hopefully a lot of me. 24 MS. ARMMER: My name is Gloria Armmer. I'm a 25 customer specialist, so if you have any questions or concerns 11-9-09 164 1 about your benefits, you can contact me. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. What's the name of your 3 company? 4 MS. MERCHANT: U.M.R. 5 MS. ARMMER: U.M.R. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: The third-party T.P.A. that's going 7 to help us administer our employee benefits plan? 8 MS. MERCHANT: Correct. 9 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: You have cards and phone 10 numbers? 11 MS. ARMMER: Yes, I do. 12 MS. MERCHANT: I think I'm on her speed dial. I 13 think I'm already on her speed dial. We're looking forward 14 to it. 15 MS. ARMMER: Good to meet everybody. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you. 17 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Thanks for coming. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: And for the Court's edification, 19 Ms. Hyde and Mr. Malek and myself have been discussing some 20 plan issues that are going to dovetail and interface with -- 21 with our coverage issues and our stop loss carrier and so 22 forth, so we'll be bringing that to you probably -- maybe -- 23 maybe next meeting, but probably at the latest, first meeting 24 in December. Correct? 25 MS. HYDE: Talking about the plan documents? 11-9-09 165 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. Yeah, final plan documents. 2 MS. HYDE: Yeah. The executive session is what -- 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. There's some issues there, 4 yeah. So, at this time, we will go out of public or open 5 session to go into executive or closed session for the agenda 6 item. 7 (Discussion off the record.) 8 (The open session was closed at 12:40 p.m., and an executive session was held, the transcript of which 9 is contained in a separate document.) 10 - - - - - - - - - - 11 JUDGE TINLEY: All right. We're back in open or 12 public session. If there are proposed policy changes to our 13 employee benefits package, let me make a suggestion, and that 14 is that you work up some sort of a summary where you 15 delineate these in some sort of written format, and then give 16 an explanation of why it might be appropriate to consider 17 adopting them. We'll have an opportunity to -- to digest 18 those, maybe ask you questions about them. 19 MS. HYDE: Mm-hmm. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Then, come next meeting, we can put 21 an agenda item on to make changes to our health benefits 22 policy and plan documents, and we'll wrap this thing up 23 properly. 24 MS. HYDE: Okay. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: And we'll all be legal. Okay? 11-9-09 166 1 MS. HYDE: All right, thank you. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Anything else to come before the 3 Court? 4 MS. PIEPER: Judge, just for the Court's benefit, 5 for the record, this is from Windstream. The representative 6 came while we were on break, 10 or 15 minutes late, and we 7 did not accept her bid. And evidently she took to it John, 8 and John had her file it in with the clerk's office, and she 9 had filed it in at 12:48. However, the first time she came 10 she was 15 to 20 minutes late, so we did not accept it. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah, there was mention made of that 12 during the break. It was certainly within 15 minutes of 13 10:30. And I mentioned to her shortly ago that she probably 14 needs to request an agenda item for the -- request the Court 15 to consider considering this bid, and give the explanation of 16 why it was -- 17 MS. PIEPER: Okay. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: -- it was tendered late. But -- so 19 we expect to hear that next meeting, probably. I think there 20 was just some confusion. Of course, that's what was reported 21 to me. It'd be a matter for the Court to consider. Okay. 22 Anything else to come before the Court today? We'll be 23 adjourned. 24 (Commissioners Court adjourned at 1:06 p.m.) 25 - - - - - - - - - - 11-9-09 167 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 official reporter for the Commissioners Court of Kerr County, 6 Texas, at the time and place heretofore set forth. 7 DATED at Kerrville, Texas, this 16th day of November, 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 11-9-09