1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT 9 Regular Session 10 Monday, January 11, 2010 11 9:00 a.m. 12 Commissioners' Courtroom 13 Kerr County Courthouse 14 Kerrville, Texas 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 PRESENT: PAT TINLEY, Kerr County Judge H. A. "BUSTER" BALDWIN, Commissioner Pct. 1 24 WILLIAM "BILL" WILLIAMS, Commissioner Pct. 2 JONATHAN LETZ, Commissioner Pct. 3 25 BRUCE OEHLER, Commissioner Pct. 4 2 1 I N D E X January 11, 2010 2 PAGE 3 --- Commissioners' Comments 5 4 1.1 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on order authorizing County Clerk to publish notice 5 of public hearing in connection with issuance of series of tax-exempt obligations to be issued by 6 the County to finance County's portion of construction of hangers at City/County Airport 13 7 1.2 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 8 accept and approve donation made to Kerr County Juvenile Detention Facility by the King's Ransom 9 Foundation and modify budget to include both revenue and expenditure of funds 20 10 1.3 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 11 approve submission of Energy Efficient and Conservation Block Grant application to Office 12 of the Comptroller of Public Accounts and authorize County Judge to sign application 21 13 1.6 Consider/discuss, accept Constable, Precinct 1, 14 annual report on racial profiling 28 15 1.7 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on annual report from Kerr County Historical 16 Commission; approve list of members 28 17 1.8 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to issue addendum to Request for Proposals for construction 18 of Sheriff's Office Annex/Adult Probation Office facilities to reduce the bid bond requirement from 19 10% to 5% of bid price and include provision(s) for liquidated damages 29 20 1.9 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 21 appoint Linda Garrett to ESD #2 Commission 36 22 4.1 Pay Bills 37 4.2 Budget Amendments 51 23 4.3 Late Bills -- 4.4 Approve and Accept Monthly Reports 57 24 1.5 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action 25 regarding property appraisal reports from TAC 58 3 1 I N D E X (Continued) January 11, 2010 2 PAGE 5.1 Reports from Commissioners/Liaison Committee 3 Assignments 68 5.2 Reports from Elected Officials/Department Heads 76 4 1.4 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on 5 order authorizing issuance of approximately $4,550,000 in principal amount of Kerr County 6 tax notes, Series 2010; authorizing levying of tax for payment thereof; authorizing execution 7 of paying agent/registrar agreement and purchase contract; and authorizing and approving other 8 instruments & procedures and sale related thereto 81 9 --- Adjourned 86 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 4 1 On Monday, January 11, 2010, at 9:00 a.m., a regular 2 meeting of the Kerr County Commissioners Court was held in 3 the Commissioners' Courtroom, Kerr County Courthouse, 4 Kerrville, Texas, and the following proceedings were had in 5 open court: 6 P R O C E E D I N G S 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. 8 Let me call to order this regularly scheduled meeting of the 9 Kerr County Commissioners Court which was scheduled and 10 posted for this date and time, Monday, January 11, 2010, at 11 9 a.m. It is that time now. If you would please join -- 12 rise and join me for a moment of prayer, and then followed by 13 pledge of allegiance. 14 (Prayer and pledge of allegiance.) 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you. At this time, if there's 16 a member of the public or audience that wishes to be heard 17 with respect to any matter which is not a listed agenda item, 18 this is your opportunity to come forward and tell us what's 19 on your mind. If you wish to be heard on an agenda item, 20 we'd ask that you fill out a participation form. There 21 should be some located at the rear of the room. If, for any 22 reason, you haven't filled out a form and wish to be heard on 23 an agenda item, when that item is called, get my attention in 24 some manner; I will give you the opportunity to be heard. 25 But right now, if there's any member of the public or 1-11-10 5 1 audience that wishes to be heard on any matter that is not a 2 listed agenda item, come forward and tell us what's on your 3 mind now. Seeing no one coming forward, we'll move on. 4 Commissioner Baldwin, do you have anything for us this 5 morning? 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: The burn ban is on in 7 Precinct 1. Had a late lunch with you yesterday. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Yep. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's all. And 10 Commissioner Oehler was there as well. 11 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Mm-hmm. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner Williams? 13 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Not a thing, Judge. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner Letz? 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Couple things. Anyone that 16 wants to go to Camp Wood tomorrow, there's a Region J meeting 17 there at 10 o'clock. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Where's the sign-up sheet? 19 (Laughter.) 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 21 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: You providing 22 transportation and lunch? 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: They usually provide lunch. 24 Usually it's pimento cheese sandwiches, as I recall, when you 25 get out there. (Laughter.) So, anyone that wants to go, 1-11-10 6 1 we'll be out there. The next day, Wednesday, anyone that 2 wants to go to Austin, they can listen to the statewide 3 committee on subdivision regulation rewrites, all that other 4 stuff that I'm working on. So, I'll be up there. Next week 5 there's a -- on the 21st, there's a -- our appeal will be 6 heard by Water Development Board up in Austin on the 21st, 7 and then on the 29th, Hill Country County Coalition's meeting 8 in Austin again, I think. Anyway, so I'll be traveling 9 around a little bit. 10 Another thing, I don't know if anybody from the 11 press was there. Quite a few from the public were there last 12 Thursday -- I think it was Thursday -- when U.S.G.S. gave a 13 presentation on a -- a study of -- they're about to embark 14 on, or looking to embark on it. Pretty interesting. I was 15 fascinated by it; of course, I get fascinated by this stuff. 16 They have chosen -- and this is the central region, which is 17 south of Denver, has chosen to do a very detailed, high-tech 18 study of the Trinity Aquifer. They did one several years 19 ago; it's a 5- or 6-year study on the Edwards. That's where 20 all of the real detailed knowledge of the Edwards Aquifer 21 came from. They went from that, and they're doing one up in 22 Oklahoma, the Arbuckle-Simpson Aquifer, and that aquifer up 23 there, along with what they learned on the Edwards, is 24 somewhat similar to the Trinity. And they're -- and they're 25 in the process of doing the scope of work to see about the 1-11-10 7 1 funding of it. It will be a -- probably a 5- to 7-year 2 project if it is approved by the U.S.G.S. higher-ups. 3 And what this project will do, they go in with a 4 lot of seismic data and mapping over areas of the Trinity, 5 and they're -- they kind of go into detailed areas in quite a 6 few different locations. One area will be eastern Kerr 7 County, one down towards Pipe Creek, and we're talking about 8 adding one from Kerrville up into Gillespie County. And it 9 will enable them to be able to map with pretty good accuracy, 10 in 3D, the aquifers, and they can split it out by zones. 11 They can go in and map the main rock and sand, the thickness 12 of it, in 3D over the entire area. The -- you know, the -- a 13 little bit of, I guess, the down side of it is you got 14 tools -- remember, in science, it's -- data in depends on 15 what data's coming out of it, so if there's too many 16 assumptions made, I don't think there's a whole lot of value. 17 But if they do it the way they're talking about, 18 and very detailed, talking about -- a lot of it's done 19 through magnetic surveys, and which they -- anyway, I'm not 20 going into detail on how they do it, but they'll run 21 helicopters possibly on a mile grid over pretty large areas, 22 and then do all this mapping. But, anyway, if this does come 23 to happen, it will be a tremendous tool for this whole region 24 in the state, and it says a lot, I think, of the importance 25 of our aquifer in this state. The region that's doing this 1-11-10 8 1 is the entire -- is the third -- middle third of the United 2 States. It's that U.S.G.S. office that's focusing on this, 3 so it's pretty interesting stuff. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Are they doing that in a lot of 5 other areas also? In this -- 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: They do one. This will be the 7 third one in the middle part of the United States. And 8 they're at a point now that -- they learned a lot on the 9 Edwards, 'cause it's a little bit, in a way, easier. But 10 they've learned a whole lot more on the Arbuckle-Simpson. 11 And what they can also do with this is they can actually map 12 the pretty minor faults, so they can figure out, you know, 13 exactly where -- they can't say where the water is, but they 14 can say where the sands are, or the different zones. And I 15 think in the Edwards -- and they got this done partially, but 16 they did the Edwards; they did an area up around Camp Bullis 17 and they were able to differentiate, I think, between 11 18 different zones in the Upper Trinity, which is the Glen Rose. 19 Pretty detailed. So, anyway, it's a -- an exciting thing if 20 it happens. Looks like it will. But it's a -- and the 21 purpose of the meeting was to garner support and pretty much 22 bring up the -- through mostly the groundwater districts. 23 They'll be the main participants with it, using that data and 24 getting it, you know, into this big new model. It's called 25 HIRT vision. Anyway -- 1-11-10 9 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Is this something they're 2 doing of their own initiative or in conjunction with Water 3 Development Board or what? 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's a U.S.G.S. initiative. 5 They -- they're out there. It's just, you know, funded as a 6 line item in the national federal budget, and it's for the -- 7 to do this type of work. And they think that this is a -- an 8 aquifer, because of the rapid growth in this whole region, 9 that it is a very important thing. And there's, you know, 10 acknowledgment that people don't understand this aquifer; 11 it's a very complicated aquifer. And they have some tools 12 they can come in that would really be a big benefit to this 13 area. 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'm sure the driving force, in 16 reality, is Austin, San Marcos, San Antonio. I mean, they're 17 where the people are that need -- that are coming up this way 18 into the zone. So, it's -- it was interesting for those of 19 us that like that kind of stuff. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, Jon, as you know, the 3D 21 seismic has proven to be highly successful utilized in the 22 exploration of oil and gas, and it's probably the biggest 23 thing to come down the pike there for the last 25 or more 24 years. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 1-11-10 10 1 JUDGE TINLEY: It's really -- really proven to be a 2 tremendously accurate exploration tool, so no reason it can't 3 work for fresh water strata, either. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And that's exactly -- and 5 they're -- I mean, this is technology that's been in the oil 6 business probably for the last 25 years, and they're finding 7 that they can modify it, tweak it a little bit, and go with 8 much shallower zones and get a little bit more precise. Oil 9 and gas is a little bit broader usually. But it's pretty 10 interesting. One of the things that is -- if this thing all 11 happens, when they do their magnetic surveys, they use a 12 helicopter and just -- this tool they use, unfortunately, 13 looks like a giant torpedo, and they're flying real low, and 14 they get a lot of the -- so they're saying they go out and do 15 a very large -- they learned this in Oklahoma; they need to 16 do a very large P.R. campaign before they start doing this, 17 because people get very upset with these things, like a 18 torpedo flying low on black helicopters. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Black helicopters syndrome. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But, anyway, it's pretty 21 interesting. 22 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I wonder if GMA-9 will take 23 any of this data and put it to good use. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Actually, I will -- Ron 25 Fieseler of GMA-9 is one of the driving forces behind it. It 1-11-10 11 1 was actually a letter that he wrote that got this on the 2 radar screen of the U.S.G.S. So -- so, you know, I haven't 3 always seen eye-to-eye with Mr. Fieseler. You know, this 4 one, we're in agreement. 5 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Well, that's good. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's it. Other than it's 7 been awful cold outside. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Do you have anything for us, 9 Commissioner Oehler? 10 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Burn ban's on in Precinct 4. 11 It may be coming off in the next day or so; we got some 12 moisture moving in maybe. The other thing, we -- Buster and 13 I and the Judge attended the ribbon cutting yesterday of the 14 Mountain Home Volunteer Fire Department's new building. 15 Very, very nice. And a representative from the foundation 16 was there that helped fund that thing, and it's -- the second 17 phase will be coming pretty soon, I think. 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Which foundation was it? 19 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I believe it was Cailloux. 20 They didn't want a lot of recognition out of it, so I won't 21 talk about it much. But -- 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: For -- if I may add one other 23 comment, I heard two -- two precincts have burn bans on. We 24 really don't have in place a system, since Joe Franklin left, 25 for burning prescribed burns during a burn ban. I will try 1-11-10 12 1 to get with their new -- Joe Franklin's replacement this 2 week, so there's a -- 3 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Who is it? 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Wayne something-or-another. 5 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: He's over there? 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, he's in the NRCS, same 7 office Joe was in. And he's -- they don't have a whole lot 8 of burn knowledge in that office. But I've talked to them 9 once briefly about it, but I -- you know, we don't have a 10 policy yet. Certainly, people that are certified burn 11 managers can burn as they choose, but others, it's a little 12 bit gray. But I'll get with them, see if we can get the same 13 system in place that we did last year. 14 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That system worked pretty 15 well. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: What is Phase 2 of the Mountain Home 18 Fire Department? 19 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: It's going to be a big 20 training room and I think some showers and -- and some office 21 space. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: And that'll be on the -- 23 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Be on the east side. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: -- east side? Okay. Okay. 25 Anything else? 1-11-10 13 1 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That's it. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Let's get on with our agenda, if we 3 might. First item is to consider, discuss, take appropriate 4 action on order authorizing the County Clerk to publish a 5 notice of public hearing in connection with the issuance of 6 the series of tax-exempt obligations to be issued by the 7 County to finance the County's portion of the construction of 8 hangars at the City/County airport. I put this on the 9 agenda. It's part and parcel of our debt issue. After 10 considerable discussion with Ms. Hargis and discussion with 11 the financial adviser, the bond counsel, because of the 12 uncertainty as to -- as to the exact facility that they want 13 to build out there, when they want to build it, where they 14 want to build it, and how they want to build it, I suppose, 15 the recommendation that Ms. Hargis and I have to the Court, 16 based upon the advice from the financial adviser and the bond 17 counsel, is that we put that one on the shelf for now, and if 18 and when it becomes more of a reality in the definite 19 foreseeable future, then we'll bring that back. 20 That's something that -- that issue has to be 21 handled separately from the other capital items debt issue 22 because of the nature of use of the facilities that'll be 23 constructed with those funds, and if need be, we can bring 24 that back and probably have the whole thing completed in 60 25 days or less. So, the recommendation that Ms. Hargis and I 1-11-10 14 1 are making at this point in time -- and I assume I'm speaking 2 for you, ma'am -- after we had a lengthy discussion, is that 3 we pass on this for the time being. 4 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Judge, let me -- let me 5 enlighten the Court a little bit about a conversation that I 6 had subsequent to you and I talking about this very issue. I 7 understand the logic that you're putting forward, and that of 8 Ms. Hargis, that we don't want to be issuing debt and paying 9 interest on outstanding debt, not knowing the particulars or 10 the details of when and where and so forth. I did have a 11 conversation with a member of the board, and it's not 12 important which one, and they will be discussing probably 13 today the fact that it is their intention -- it likely will 14 be their intention to instruct the firm that's doing the new 15 airport master plan to take this particular issue and 16 front-load it into the master plan and do all the work 17 necessary to determine the who, what, where, and why on this 18 issue. And it is his sense that, that being the case, they 19 would be in a position to start construction on T-hangars 20 with all the particulars laid in place about the fourth 21 quarter of this year, with six months construction time, 22 making them -- you know, and maybe not that much, but they 23 could be built out by the end -- maybe the end of the first 24 quarter of the following year, of '11. So, with that little 25 caveat, where do you think that leaves us in terms of what 1-11-10 15 1 you're proposing? 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, we -- we had talked with the 3 financial adviser and the bond counsel about, you know, maybe 4 sometime this year, and they said, well, even so, you know, 5 that's a ways down the road, and until you know exactly what 6 you want -- and by that time, you may be into the next budget 7 year. There may be funding available so we don't have to do 8 that issue, even. So, we really don't know what we're 9 dealing with at this point in time. But when we responded to 10 the bond rating agency, they specifically inquired about 11 potential projects -- capital projects that -- that we might 12 have within next 12 months in which there might be debt 13 issues involved. We did disclose this one. I -- I was aware 14 at the time that the -- the master plan, which probably will 15 not commence for another month or two because of the funding 16 issue on it, I'm given to understand, and if they front-load 17 it, that master plan's going to be probably up to six months 18 in process, and that'll get us towards the end of the year, 19 and that -- that may be a legitimately good forecast. 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: The entire plan will be 21 about six months. I think it was -- the point was being made 22 that they would ask that firm to take this particular issue 23 and front-load it in the entire plan so that they would have 24 the information in-hand with respect to T-hangars. But, you 25 know, if we need to set it aside and then move it when 1-11-10 16 1 there's more information, whatever. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, I do know the Airport Board 3 had talked about one number of hangars, and then they talked 4 about a larger number of hangars, so they're not really solid 5 on -- on the size of the facility. That's probably another 6 thing being studied. 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Twenty-five or 50, 8 somewhere in that range. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think the -- how does this 10 relate to the other projects that are also -- I mean, we 11 pretty much did the, as I recall, one- to four-year funding 12 under this bond proposal of projects at the airport. I mean, 13 it was all of the projects out there, such as the water line, 14 the master plan, which is going right now, and the water 15 line's really in about the same situation as the hangars 16 right now. It's in a little bit of a stall because of -- of 17 finding out exactly what they're getting for it, because of 18 some conversations I've had with the City -- or the fire 19 marshal in the city. 20 MS. HARGIS: That one is true, but we don't have to 21 have separate funding for the water line or the master plan, 22 because that's considered a public issue. The reason we went 23 ahead and split the other one out is, it -- there's federal 24 requirements that we have to, and a special public hearing. 25 Those can be sold privately, because they're smaller. We 1-11-10 17 1 only took 325,000 out. The rest of it's still there. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, it's just that one project? 3 MS. HARGIS: Right. If we could have encompassed 4 that project in the main bond issue, we would have -- have 5 deleted it. But we have to sell that separately anyway. It 6 was probably going to be a private issue, and a private issue 7 we can get done in 30 days or less. So, it's not like -- you 8 know, it still had to be a separate bond issue. And it's got 9 a $30,000 price tag on it, anyway, for cost of issuance, so 10 we didn't really want to incur that. I'm also concerned that 11 we might need more money, so I would rather wait till we know 12 exactly how much money we need, 'cause it could be 500,000 13 instead of 325. 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yeah, it could. 15 MS. HARGIS: And it has to be a separate issue 16 anyway. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. All right, that makes 18 sense. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It may be zero. 20 MS. HARGIS: It could be. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Very well could be. The only thing 22 we carved out of the capital issue was that, and it's because 23 of the use. It's not a purely public use. These are going 24 to be for private use, going to be leased by the Airport 25 Board for private use. That was the reason it had to be 1-11-10 18 1 carved out and handled in a different way. There's some 2 different federal laws and tax laws. 3 MS. HARGIS: We have to do more public hearings and 4 stuff, and so we might as well, you know, just wait till we 5 really know. Then we can get the exact number. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Judge, these are the same 7 moneys that we will deal with in 1.4 later on? 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Yes. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yes? 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And I think it's wise -- I 12 mean, I can't imagine us taking too many more steps until we 13 know, you know, are you building a big building or a little 14 building? And how many buildings are you -- you know, 15 that's -- 16 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: No, that's important. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It's good business to -- you 18 know, let's encourage them to get their little ducks in a 19 row. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: And by the time we're in the next 21 budget year, which will be in October, things may be in -- in 22 shape that we don't have to do a debt issue at all. 23 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That's true. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: The thing, I think, that got -- that 25 got our attention up front quickly was the $30,000 cost -- 1-11-10 19 1 estimated cost of issuance for this -- this small item. And 2 until -- until we really knew what we were going to do and 3 how we were going to do it, we didn't see that it was 4 justified that we could incur that cost. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I didn't realize this one had 6 to be a separate issue until just now. 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Does that affect the 8 interest rate in any way, public or private -- personal 9 versus public placement? 10 MS. HARGIS: Not really. 11 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. 12 MS. HARGIS: I think that, you know, it's still a 13 tax-exempt bond. It's just that there's different federal 14 requirements, and because of the usage, again, it has to be 15 sold separately. So, you know, I mean, I don't think it's 16 going to affect the interest rate. It's just, you know, the 17 hoops that we have to jump through and the fact that it can't 18 be a public issue; it has to be a private issue. So, a 19 private issue of that amount of money is not hard to come by, 20 and I -- you know, we're dealing with $5 million, and we need 21 close to that. When you, you know, need to subtract out the 22 interest for that and the cost of issuance, it just seemed 23 wiser to me, especially after the meeting I attended in 24 December. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: All right. 1-11-10 20 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Anything else from any member 2 of the Court with regard to that particular agenda item? 3 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: We will not be doing a 4 public notice on this? Is that -- 5 JUDGE TINLEY: No. No, there's no need to if we're 6 not going to go forward with the issue. 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: That agenda item was provided for 9 the notice of a public hearing that's required -- 10 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: In the event of -- 11 JUDGE TINLEY: -- by FIRA, or whatever that acronym 12 is under the federal law. Let's go to Item 2, then. 13 Consider, discuss, take appropriate action to accept and 14 approve a donation made to the Kerr County Juvenile Detention 15 Facility by King's Ransom Foundation and modify the budget to 16 include both revenue and expenditure of funds. Mr. Stanton? 17 MR. STANTON: Good morning. We received a donation 18 right -- a little while back of $1,000 from the King's Ransom 19 Foundation to purchase food items and also clothing items for 20 the kids out at the juvenile facility, and we're just asking 21 the Court to authorize us to -- to receipt that donation and 22 also to exchange it in our budget, amend our budget to be 23 able to spend it, and also receive it. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Spend it in the manner that the 25 donor has requested? 1-11-10 21 1 MR. STANTON: Yes, sir. Yes, sir, to purchase 2 the -- 3 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That would be for what? 4 MR. STANTON: The two stipulations that they had 5 when they put it in was that -- that we use 500 of it to buy 6 meals for Christmas and for New Year's, and another 500 to 7 purchase clothes for kids, when we get kids into the facility 8 that don't really have clothes that they can wear when they 9 come to court and different things like that, to use that 10 money for those two items. 11 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move approval. 13 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Second. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 15 approval. Question or discussion on the motion? All in 16 favor of the motion, signify by raising your right hand. 17 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 18 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 19 (No response.) 20 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. Thank you, 21 sir. 22 MR. STANTON: Thank you. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: We'll move to Item 3; consider, 24 discuss, and take appropriate action to approve the 25 submission of the Energy Efficient and Conservation Block 1-11-10 22 1 Grant application to the Office of the Comptroller of Public 2 Accounts, and authorize County Judge to sign the application. 3 Ms. Lavender? 4 MS. LAVENDER: Good morning. 5 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Good morning. 6 MS. LAVENDER: Last time we were here, we knew we 7 were going to get 100,000, but we didn't know how much more 8 than that, and in late December, we found out we were going 9 to get a little over 115,000 out of this allocation. And Tim 10 and I spent quite a bit of time discussing what we needed to 11 do with this, as you all had mandated that we do, and I think 12 you have a copy of the grant in your -- in your deal. You 13 may not have had time to look at it, but what we decided to 14 do -- it's $115,153, is the total allocation we're going to 15 get. And we decided the best use of it -- and the way that 16 the grant is worded, we need to look at ways to save energy, 17 save on our utility bills, and make the courthouse and the 18 Law Enforcement Center more energy efficient. And so we 19 decided that probably the best thing to do was to replace 20 these two air-conditioner/heating units here in the 21 courthouse that are so old with some energy-efficient heat 22 pumps, and the estimates we used were based on one bid that 23 we received. We'll have to go out for bids on the 24 air-conditioners. So, we -- you know, we had to use an 25 estimated cost, but we feel like that we can get the two 1-11-10 23 1 air-conditioner units here at the courthouse replaced for 2 about $13,000. And then we'll complete the replacement of 3 all of the air-conditioning units at the jail with the rest 4 of the -- or the bulk of the rest of the grant money, with 5 energy-efficient heat pumps. Those units on the jail are 15 6 years old, and you all had already, out of regular county 7 funds, replaced several of them in recent years. We feel 8 like this is the most efficient use of the money, the bulk of 9 the money. It's $83,000 it'll cost us, we believe, to 10 replace those units. And then the other thing that we'd like 11 to do is replace the T12 lighting here in the courthouse with 12 T8 bulbs, and also install motion sensors in areas where we 13 have little or no traffic. For example, the Law Library, 14 maybe some of the storage units, and maybe some of the 15 offices where you just have a single person in that office, 16 rather than flipping lights on and off and, you know, leaving 17 the office lights on when you're out of the deal, you'd have 18 a motion sensor in there that would turn the lights -- and 19 I'm sure you've been in buildings that had these. And KPUB 20 recommended this when they did the energy audit and said this 21 might save us some significant costs on our lighting. And so 22 that's the 18,000 for that. And then we've got two 23 district -- 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Let me ask a question. 25 MS. LAVENDER: Excuse me. Go ahead. 1-11-10 24 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I understand that -- I 2 understand that a motion -- somebody walks in a room, light 3 comes on. 4 MS. LAVENDER: Right. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Does it go off when someone 6 leaves, or just after a time frame? 7 MS. LAVENDER: No, it would go off when the person 8 leaves. Now, there will be probably a little small reset 9 time on it. But we feel like that -- that'll -- that would 10 be good for a lot of the offices and a lot of the areas of 11 the courthouse, and probably save us some electricity. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: These are recommendations that were 13 included -- 14 MS. LAVENDER: Right, in the KPUB -- 15 JUDGE TINLEY: -- in the audit that KPUB was kind 16 enough to donate for us? 17 MS. LAVENDER: Right, correct. And then the other 18 thing we added, simply because we had the money to do it, I 19 don't know whether you've been up in the district courtrooms 20 lately. I spend quite a bit of time up there, and the 21 thermostats up there were installed when that unit -- that 22 area was redone in '98, I think. And, you know, it can be as 23 much as 10 degrees difference in the front of the courtroom 24 and the back of the courtroom. And they come on and off, and 25 they're very -- you know, very inefficient fuel-wise, and so 1-11-10 25 1 we decided we'd replace those four thermostats. And if we 2 have money available, you know, when we get this done, when 3 we get the bids in, then we may add some other thermostats. 4 Tim says there's several other inefficient thermostats in the 5 courthouse that could be replaced. What we're going to do 6 is ask, you know, in this grant deal for the 114,550. That 7 leaves us about a $600 cushion, and until we get the bids in 8 on the air-conditioners, we feel like that we need to leave 9 that 600 uncommitted. And it may be that we'll end up with 10 more than 600 left over and be able to do some other 11 thermostats or whatever, or additional lights. We feel like 12 this 18,000 will do everything we need to do with the lights. 13 And so I -- 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: On the light bulbs, are 15 y'all -- is the plan just to replace them as they burn out, 16 or just go ahead and replace -- 17 MS. LAVENDER: No, go ahead and replace all of 18 them. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: All of them. What are you 20 going do with the old ones? 21 MS. LAVENDER: Well, I would think they need to be 22 recycled. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, it just seems -- you hate 24 to -- I mean, it seems like we have a lot of money in light 25 bulbs just to throw them away. It seems -- 1-11-10 26 1 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Light bulb sale? 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- kind of wasteful. 3 MS. LAVENDER: That would be a Tim question, not a 4 Rosa question. 5 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: All right. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: You can take two with you, Jon. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't want to take two home. 8 MS. LAVENDER: Well, actually, you could do 9 something like you could donate them to Habitat for 10 Humanity's ReStore if you really want to do something with 11 them. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Seems that we shouldn't throw 13 away a bunch of good light bulbs. I mean, I think -- how 14 many do we have in here? Twenty in this one room? We 15 probably have, you know, thousands. 16 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Buster has one burned out 17 over there. 18 MS. LAVENDER: We were waiting to replace that one. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You are good. God, I knew 20 there was something wrong. 21 MS. LAVENDER: The allocation grant paperwork is 22 due on Friday, and so we need to get the Judge to sign it. 23 And -- 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I move approval of the 25 submission of the Energy Efficient -- 1-11-10 27 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 2 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: -- Conservation Block 3 Grant, and authorize County Judge to sign same. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 6 approval of the agenda item. Further question or discussion 7 on that -- on the motion? All in favor of the motion, 8 signify 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. Let's go -- 13 MS. LAVENDER: While I've got the floor, let me 14 tell you one other thing. Last week we received the final 15 approval on our juvenile grant that we applied for through 16 the Edward Byrne Justice Grant program, and it's almost 17 $70,000, and Jason and them are going to get two new vehicles 18 ordered this week for it. And we're waiting -- we think the 19 latter part of this month, we'll get the other Byrne grant, 20 which includes 10 vehicles -- or five vehicles for the 21 Sheriff's Office and the software for 198th District Court 22 people. So, we're getting more money. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Always nice getting other people's 24 money. It's our money, but the bigger share we get coming 25 back to us, the better off we are. 1-11-10 28 1 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Just so we get our fair 2 share. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Better than our fair share, 4 hopefully. Let's move to Item 6, if we might. Consider, 5 discuss, and accept Constable, Precinct 1, annual report on 6 racial profiling. Commissioner Baldwin? 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It explains itself. It's 8 something that we do annually, and the report is in your -- 9 in your computer. So, I move for -- what do we do, accept 10 it? I move for acceptance. 11 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Second. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 13 approval of the agenda item. Question or discussion on the 14 motion? All in favor of the motion, signify by raising your 15 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. We'll move 20 to Item 7; to consider, discuss, and take appropriate action 21 on the annual report from the Kerr County Historical 22 Commission, and approve the list of members. Commissioner 23 Baldwin again. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, we do it every year, 25 guys. And the report is in here, the things that they have 1-11-10 29 1 done, the executive summary, the reports of their future 2 desires, et cetera, et cetera. Some of the awards, and some 3 of the issues that they're planning on in the future. We 4 have -- we actually have to take action on approving the 5 membership list, and I'd like to read those names in right 6 quick. This is the membership list for the -- let's see -- 7 for 2010. Ann Bethel, Sue Dyke, Haskell Fine, Julius 8 Neunhoffer, Bill Rector, Julia Stehling, Irene Van Winkle, 9 Lew Williams, and Mindy Wendele; Wilma Teague, Linda Nielson, 10 Larry Welty, and Carol Darling are nominated as new members, 11 and I present them to you for approval. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So moved. 13 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Second. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 15 approval of the membership list as indicated. Question or 16 discussion on the motion? All in favor of the motion, 17 signify by raising your right hand. 18 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 19 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 20 (No response.) 21 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. We'll move 22 to Item 8; to consider, discuss, take appropriate action to 23 issue addendum to Request for Proposals for construction of 24 Sheriff's Office Annex/Adult Probation office facilities to 25 reduce the bid bond requirement from 10 percent to 5 percent 1-11-10 30 1 of the bid price, and to include provisions for liquidated 2 damages. I put this on the agenda after discussion with 3 Mr. Peter Lewis, the architect on the project. The request 4 to lower that bid bond price is -- we got a requirement for a 5 performance and payment bond, whoever the successful bidder 6 is, anyway. And hopefully we won't have them spending all 7 their money that they add to the bid by putting up the bid 8 bond, and we'll get maximum -- maximum interest in our -- in 9 our construction bids. The liquidated damages came about as 10 a result of -- we got us a drop-dead deadline in the contract 11 for September 1, and we want to make sure there's an 12 appropriate incentive for whoever is the successful bidder to 13 meet that deadline. Mr. Lewis? 14 MR. LEWIS: Well, I think you have summarized it, 15 Judge. Commissioners, good morning. And I -- those are the 16 two issues at hand, and also just a -- a quick update. We've 17 had a lot of interest in the project. We have 11 bidders who 18 have received sets as of today from all the local suspects, 19 as well as folks from Boerne and San Antonio, and -- and have 20 been in conversation with them. We do have a pre-bid meeting 21 this week here at 10 o'clock on Wednesday. It's a mandatory 22 pre-bid, so we'll see what their level of interest really is, 23 and then bids are due next Friday. Commissioner Baldwin and 24 I were on TV on Friday morning to talk about this project a 25 little bit, so we've got it out on the airwaves as well, and 1-11-10 31 1 I suspect that we'll get a few more interested bidders by the 2 time bids are due. This is the -- one of the -- one of the 3 two or three public projects being bid in about a 100-mile 4 radius right now of any consequence, so it is a good thing. 5 And so I think that we will see some very good numbers from 6 this. 7 Back to the issue at hand, we do -- we had some 8 inquiries about a 10 percent -- requirement for 10 percent 9 bid bond, and we see 5 and 10 percent. The larger the 10 project, the smaller the bid bond, but it did seem a little 11 bit of a disincentive. What the bid bond is, for the 12 uninitiated, is -- it is a guarantee that the bidder will 13 honor their bid, so that someone that comes in with a low bid 14 doesn't walk away. If they should do that, they sacrifice 15 the bid bond. If it is 10 percent of a -- of a, you know, 16 one and a half to two million dollar project, that's 17 $150,000, $200,000. So, we -- I brought the issue to the 18 Judge for your consideration of reducing that from 10 percent 19 to 5 percent. I think that's fine. That would be our 20 recommendation. And then liquidated damages, that is -- we 21 did place a -- you do have a deadline, a drop-dead date for 22 the tenants -- for the occupants to move in, but we had 23 nothing to hold over a contractor's head in the event that 24 they exceeded that deadline, and liquidated damages is a tool 25 for doing that. And there's -- typically, it's a per diem, 1-11-10 32 1 and it can be anything that the Court desires, but it should 2 be reasonable or, again, it will be a disincentive to the 3 bidders. And so we discussed this. We suggested something 4 like $500 a day, so that -- 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Or maybe even a little less. Our -- 6 our exposure is -- our primary exposure is the lease cost, 7 ongoing lease cost for the probation. And there's a holdover 8 clause, I believe, at 125 percent, which runs it up to about 9 $4,000 a month, which would -- we could cover that at about 10 350, probably, under liquidated damages. So, 350 -- 300 to 11 500, I would say, would be probably appropriate. As you say, 12 you don't want to make it too high. 13 MR. LEWIS: Right. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Because you'll run people off. 15 MR. LEWIS: So -- yes. So, I think anything in 16 that $300 to $500 range is appropriate and reasonable, and I 17 don't think that either of those numbers, anything in that 18 range, would -- would discourage prospective bidders, at 19 least qualified, bona fide bidders. So -- 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Do you ever say to them, "We 21 will pay you what we've agreed to pay you if you meet 22 the deadline in the contract that you have signed"? 23 MR. LEWIS: We -- I mean, the contract -- the 24 contract stipulates that there is an early -- the concept of 25 early completion bonus or incentive, and I have -- I've never 1-11-10 33 1 seen that on a public project. I'm certain that that might 2 be considered on public work. Is that -- is that your 3 question? To say either that, yeah -- yes, you will be paid 4 what you've agreed to, or that there is some additional 5 incentive to complete it? 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No. No, my question was, 7 we'll live up to our part of the agreement if you will. What 8 in the hell do you draw a contract for if you don't live by 9 it? 10 MR. LEWIS: Well, that's -- you know, and that is 11 it. And the -- on the flip side -- the contract is that 12 document that states that. On the flip side, people walk 13 away from those all the time. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 15 MR. LEWIS: The -- I don't know all the details, 16 but I know that the Lemos Street Bridge crossing had 17 liquidated damages on it, and that contractor exceeded that 18 time. They just kept working away, and I imagine that's all 19 being worked out. But, you know, that's a very big project. 20 It's not a -- it might not be very punitive on a more modest 21 project. And this is a nice project, but it's -- you know, 22 it's not a 12 or 15 million dollar deal. I think it probably 23 behooves the Court to consider liquidated damages, just so 24 that the Adult Probation folks can be guaranteed occupancy, 25 and the Sheriff's folks as well. 1-11-10 34 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Sure. 2 MR. LEWIS: So, specifically, no, we don't state 3 anything other than in the contract regarding guaranteed 4 payments. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is there a -- and I'm just -- I 6 don't -- I'm not as familiar with the lease that we currently 7 have. Is there a reason for us to give an incentive to 8 finish it up to a month early? Will it save us money? 9 JUDGE TINLEY: No. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Doesn't help us if they really 11 finish it earlier? 12 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Main thing, we just want to 13 finish it on time. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. 15 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Or else. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: I would think 350 would be -- would 17 be adequate to cover our -- our ongoing costs if we have to 18 remain under a holdover status in the other -- other 19 facility. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So, 350 per day? 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Mm-hmm, per day. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Till whenever? 23 MR. LEWIS: No, until their completion. And 24 completion, we certify that with a substantial completion, so 25 that the burden is on us to help compel them to finish. And, 1-11-10 35 1 of course, the burden is on them. This is a project that 2 bona fide contractors are going to want to get in, complete, 3 and get out of, and they can make some money doing that if 4 they do. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, I agree. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: The contractor wants to finish as 7 quickly as possible, because that maximizes the contractor's 8 profit. And I don't think the time limitations are -- 9 MR. LEWIS: It's a generous -- 10 JUDGE TINLEY: -- unreasonable for this particular 11 kind of project. 12 MR. LEWIS: It's a fairly simple project. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move approval of the agenda 14 item, and set liquidated damages at 350 per day. 15 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Second. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded as 17 indicated. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Do we -- 19 MR. LEWIS: Do you want to do one on the bid bond 20 as well? 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. That includes reducing the 22 bid bond from 10 percent to 5 percent? 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 24 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yes. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: And to establish liquidated damages 1-11-10 36 1 at $350 per day beyond the required completion date. Further 2 question or discussion on the motion? All in favor of the 3 motion, signify by raising your right hand. 4 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 5 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 6 (No response.) 7 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. 8 MR. LEWIS: Very good. Thank you. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you. 10 MR. LEWIS: Thank you, gentlemen. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Let's go to Item 9, if we might. 12 Consider, discuss, take appropriate action to appoint Linda 13 Garrett to the Emergency Services District Number 2 14 Commission. Commissioner Oehler? 15 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yes, sir. We -- this will 16 fill our Board of Commissioners for ESD Number 2. We were 17 waiting for Mrs. Garrett to get -- get approval from her 18 employer that it would be okay for her to serve, and she got 19 that. So, I move that we appoint Linda Garrett to the ESD 20 Board of Commissioners Number 2. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 23 approval of the agenda item. Question or discussion? 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I just wanted to say that 25 she's going to make an excellent board member. She's an 1-11-10 37 1 excellent person. 2 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: She really is. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Any other questions? Comments? All 4 in favor of the motion, signify by raising your right hand. 5 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 6 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. That motion 7 does carry. I have purposely skipped over Item 4, as I'm 8 sure is evident to all. We anticipate having with us both 9 our bond counsel and a representative from the office of our 10 financial adviser to go over those items for us. So, let's 11 go ahead and go forward with Section 4 of the agenda, if we 12 might, the payment of the bills. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I move we pay the bills. 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Second. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for payment 16 of the bills. Question or comment or other discussion? 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Let's see. Now, we're 18 paying this pile of stuff right here, right? 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Mm-hmm. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. 21 MS. HARGIS: You did get a new report that will be 22 included in your packets from now on, and that's so that you 23 can understand what direct payables are paid in between. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: We'll get to that in just a minute. 25 Let's go ahead and do this first, and then we're going to 1-11-10 38 1 skip to that, 'cause I got some questions on that. 2 MS. HARGIS: Okay. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: We have a motion and second to pay 4 the bills. Further question or discussion? All in favor of 5 the 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: The motion does carry. We have a 10 Direct Payables Receipt Register that's been provided by the 11 Auditor's office. Do you want to give us some -- 12 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I don't see that. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: -- general lead-in on that, 14 Ms. Hargis? 15 MS. HARGIS: Yes. We do pay direct payables, as 16 you're aware, every Friday for bills that are going to incur 17 a late charge, or someone that -- mostly that should be used 18 for people who are going out of town and for registration or 19 something of that nature, and they're traveling. We're 20 including this because I want y'all to know everything that's 21 paid. And the -- the bills that you see in the first part of 22 the report, those are bills that would have incurred a late 23 fee, and we don't want to incur the late fee, so we paid 24 those. The others are bills that have been requested to be 25 paid by the department heads, and because of either the bills 1-11-10 39 1 not being -- coming in late to their office, or in this 2 particular case, we've got an unemployment contribution that 3 goes through both the Treasurer's office and the Human 4 Resources department, it didn't get to our office until late, 5 and they requested payment, because on the 10th of the month, 6 it had to be there. And I think that can be cured, but we'll 7 have to work with them on that. The postage -- 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Did you just use the word 9 "cured"? 10 MS. HARGIS: "Cured." I did. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. 12 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That's making something 13 well that's sick. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, that's kind of what I 15 thought. 16 MS. HARGIS: The next one is postage, and we 17 understand from -- this is coming from the Tax Assessor's 18 office -- that they didn't realize that their meters were 19 down, and they didn't have any postage. We're trying to 20 point these out so that the department heads understand 21 that -- that they need to get these things in on time. They 22 need to be more cognizant about their bills. And when they 23 come in the door, just having the ability to run them through 24 direct payables and the Court not see them is not going to 25 happen. Now, this has been going on since I've been here, 1-11-10 40 1 and I just feel like we're -- in my prior occupation, I 2 always presented every bill, whether it was late or 3 otherwise, to the directors, and I feel you should be 4 respected in the same manner. I think you need to know all 5 the bills that go through my office, whether they're a direct 6 payable or a late bill or anything of that nature. And so 7 we've actually come up with this little spreadsheet so that 8 you can see these. And, any question on that? 9 JUDGE TINLEY: The -- the bills that are shown on 10 the direct payables, they are not, then, included on the 11 general roster of the bills that we just paid? 12 MS. HARGIS: They are not. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. So, that being the case, in 14 order to comply with the law, we need to approve these direct 15 payables also, albeit separately, or collectively with a 16 motion, one or the other. But -- 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Just a minute, Judge. She 18 shook her head no. 19 MS. HARGIS: No, I -- I was agreeing; they do. I 20 would prefer that you do. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Oh, okay. 22 MS. HARGIS: I didn't mean to shake my head. I was 23 just trying to listen. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Sorry. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Most of these end up as direct 1-11-10 41 1 payables because of the time frame of when Commissioners 2 Court falls? 3 MS. HARGIS: Yes. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: And then the time frame of getting 5 them paid, that would otherwise incur some sort of charges in 6 addition to the bill itself. We're not necessarily talking 7 about undue delay within a department. Have we pretty much 8 got that behind us, and we're just now trying to -- 9 MS. HARGIS: We're still working -- 10 JUDGE TINLEY: -- keep things on schedule? 11 MS. HARGIS: We're still working on that just a 12 little bit. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 14 MS. HARGIS: We need to improve that, just -- we 15 still have to -- people need to watch when the bills come in 16 the door. They need to check their dates, and -- and 17 sometimes they don't, and then it falls on us and looks like 18 we're doing them. That's the reason why these late bills are 19 being paid. But we're working on that, and it's getting 20 better, because they're entering them, but sometimes it's 21 unavoidable, strictly because we got -- you know, Court 22 doesn't meet. But that last meeting in December, or end of 23 the month, you've got really almost two, two and a half weeks 24 in there, and some of these companies, like Walmart, they are 25 notorious about charging you late fees, and it's not small. 1-11-10 42 1 So, you know, those we try to avoid. Ikon is another one; it 2 has a late fee on it, and it has to be paid by the first of 3 the month, and we don't meet the first of the month. So, we 4 just -- we want y'all to be not only aware of them; we would 5 like to have your approval, knowing that the reason we're 6 paying them is -- is listed for you. And if you object to 7 that, we need to know that. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, I think under the law, we -- 9 we have an obligation and are required to approve every 10 expenditure of county funds. 11 MS. HARGIS: I believe that's correct. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: What knowledge does your office have 13 of these bills that go to the departments -- I guess my 14 question is, when a bill comes in, do you folks not see it 15 until it goes to the department that incurred it, and at some 16 point in time, in some manner, finds its way back to you? Or 17 do you have some prior knowledge of it by looking at our new 18 purchasing system, that something's hanging fire out here? 19 How do you folks handle that, knowing that we've got 20 something out here that's not being handled in a timely 21 manner, I guess is my question. 22 MS. HARGIS: I can't give you the exact 23 percentages, but we get a number of the bills that are 24 directed to each department. We do not open those; we put 25 them in their boxes. Sometimes we will hand-carry them to 1-11-10 43 1 them. They -- a lot of the departments get their bills 2 direct, so we never see them until such time as they come to 3 our office, so we don't really know the late dates or 4 anything of that that nature until they hit our office, and 5 that's after they've already been processed by that 6 particular department. And some of the departments have only 7 one person who handles bills, and so if they're out or 8 something happens, they, you know, tend to sit on their desk. 9 We've cured a lot of that, but we still have a little bit, to 10 where we need people to realize if they've got a bill -- and 11 some of them just don't get them. I mean, it just depends on 12 the time frame we get them. You know, we meet the second 13 week of the month, and sometimes that's on time. Like, 14 today's the -- what, the 10th? Well, most bills are due and 15 payable by the 10th without a late fee. So, there's not much 16 anybody can do about it. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: I guess my point, then, is if 18 there's dalliance in a department in -- in reviewing and 19 approving their bills and getting them back to you for 20 payment by the Court, at the present time, your way of 21 handling it is after-the-fact. 22 MS. HARGIS: Because we have no other way of 23 handling it. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 25 MS. HARGIS: And because we don't see the actual 1-11-10 44 1 bill itself until it comes into our office, it's been opened, 2 it's been approved. The P.O. system doesn't really help us a 3 whole lot, because we don't have the actual bill in front of 4 us. It's when the actual bills come into our office that we 5 review them right away to see if there's any -- even though 6 they've gone through the P.O. system, we look and check all 7 the dates, and when they're going to be late, then we try to 8 pull those out, because we don't want to pay the late fees. 9 If they were a dollar or two, it would be different, but 10 they've gotten pretty substantial over a period of time, 11 where the least you pay is $25. You start adding that up 12 over a period of time, it gets to be quite a bit of money. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I like you paying -- I like 14 the late fee part of it. I mean, I appreciate you doing that 15 to avoid costing us money. And -- but it has to be done in 16 this format. We have to be notified of them, number one. 17 But I -- let's talk -- and the Judge's line of questioning, 18 let's talk specifically. Now, the second section of it, it 19 doesn't have anything to do with late fees. Department head 20 -- "requested," maybe? Is that the word? 21 MS. HARGIS: Yes. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Like the TAC unemployment 23 contribution. Now, why would that be here and not be in the 24 regular set of bills? 25 MS. HARGIS: It was due on the 10th. And their 1-11-10 45 1 office -- 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So, is it a late -- it is a 3 late bill, then? 4 MS. HARGIS: It would have been a late bill, yes. 5 There's no fee on it, but -- 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 7 MS. HARGIS: -- it has to be in to the State of 8 Texas by a certain time frame. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Now, did -- is that because 10 it laid on someone's desk, or TAC didn't get it here in time? 11 MS. HARGIS: You know, we have a report that comes 12 off our system, and then we receive the formal document to 13 send to TAC, and they -- there is some accounting that has to 14 be done with that. I mean, they have to check to make sure 15 that that's the correct employees that they're showing that 16 they're billing us for and so forth and so on. So, you know, 17 this time of year, it could -- I don't know when it came in. 18 I can't tell you that. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well -- 20 MS. HARGIS: I'd like to be more proactive. I 21 understand that -- that this particular one, it could have 22 come in the last week of the month, and because of the two 23 holidays, it probably slipped through. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, actually, this is -- 25 this is a budgeted item, I'm sure. You know, we budget 1-11-10 46 1 $25,000, $30,000 for this particular insurance per annual, 2 and we pay it four times a year. 3 MS. HARGIS: That's correct. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And I don't know how that 5 would lay on somebody somebody's desk or wait on them to bill 6 us. It should be an automatic, every -- every quarter. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What I'm hearing -- 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Just the way I see it. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: If I'm -- between the two, if 10 I'm understanding, the actual premium is based on the number 11 of employees. 12 MS. HARGIS: That's correct. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: At that quarter, so someone's 14 got to verify those. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So the number changes? 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The number changes. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: But the payment's made -- 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: -- each quarter. 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Percentage is probably the 21 same, but the numbers change. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Should be pretty close, I would 23 think. 24 MS. HARGIS: It's based on the gross salaries of 25 that quarter. 1-11-10 47 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And the same thing -- is 2 this other TAC unemployment insurance thing, is that the same 3 thing? Same number, isn't it? 4 MS. HARGIS: Yes. They just listed it twice for 5 you. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We're not going to pay it 7 twice here in just a minute, are we? 8 MS. HARGIS: No. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What about the vehicle gas 10 and maintenance? Who is that? Is that Rusty's? 11 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yeah, bound to be. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Huh? 13 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Bound to be. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Have we all agreed that that's 15 Rusty? 16 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I haven't yet. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I just want to know. 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Either Rusty or his 19 chauffeur. 20 MS. HARGIS: No, actually, it's not Rusty, because 21 if you look at the account number, it's 640; it's the 22 Maintenance Department. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Uh-huh. 24 MS. HARGIS: And -- 25 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Falsely accused again. 1-11-10 48 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I was just fixing to take up 2 for you, Rusty. 3 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Oh, okay. 4 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yeah, me too. (Laughter.) 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Hold your breath for that to occur, 6 Rusty. 7 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I will. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, I like -- I like that 9 it's saving us money on the -- avoiding the late fee. I just 10 -- I don't understand the rest of it. We either pay our 11 bills and do it in the right way or we don't. 12 MS. HARGIS: It's just something you haven't been 13 presented in the past, and I just felt that it needed to be. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I appreciate it. Thank you. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think it's a -- it's going to 16 probably -- or hopefully solve a little bit of the problem of 17 coming in late, because it's going to be more publicized that 18 they're not getting their bills in to the Auditor on time. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, we can call them out 20 one at a time. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: One at a time, like the Tax 22 Assessor not reading her postage meter on time. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: As a matter of fact, I've got in red 24 ink on that report, "What department?" Question mark. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, there's a -- there's 1-11-10 49 1 different -- whatever 572, 475, 640 -- 640 is Maintenance; we 2 just got told that. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. Yeah. 4 MS. HARGIS: The 76 is the Juvenile Detention area. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Oh. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Who's 572? 7 MS. HARGIS: That's -- that's the juvenile -- it's 8 all juvenile, 'cause it says 76 in front of it. All the 76's 9 are Juvenile Detention. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 11 MS. HARGIS: And some of these departments want to 12 make sure they have all their tickets to compare to the 13 tickets they've, you know, been issued on this gas and stuff, 14 so there is some accounting involved in it. But I agree, it 15 -- you know, by putting it on the agenda, it does make a 16 difference. Sometimes people think they can just send it 17 through and it won't make any difference, but it does. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's my understanding the 19 report on the second page is the same as the first page -- 20 same numbers, just in a different format a little bit? 21 MS. HARGIS: Yes. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's the detail of it? 23 MS. HARGIS: It's more the detail. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I know there's companies 1-11-10 50 1 that -- that send us bills, and they want -- you touched on 2 it, about because of our meeting dates, we can't seem to hit 3 perfect on them, but I don't know any other way to do it, 4 unless we have a special meeting in between our regular 5 meetings just to pay bills. But I don't know how to do that. 6 MS. HARGIS: I don't think we have enough for me to 7 recommend doing weekly. If our volume -- if we grow and we 8 get -- if we go over 50,000 and it comes to that point, then 9 I'll come back and request it, but at this time, I don't 10 think so. Most of the ones that we are having are the same 11 -- same vendors, you know, that their bills just fall in the 12 gap. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 14 MS. HARGIS: And so until such time as we have 15 enough to warrant you coming together and having a special 16 meeting -- because that takes a lot of your time. So right 17 now, for, you know, maybe 10 bills a month, I don't think 18 that's -- that's a real issue. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: So, going forward, because these 20 bills are not included in the regular batch, we need to 21 approve these expenditures also to comply with the law? 22 MS. HARGIS: Please. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Do I hear a motion that the 24 bills as reflected upon the Direct Payables Receipt Register 25 be approved? 1-11-10 51 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: So moved. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion and seconded for approval of 4 the payment of the bills as shown on the direct payables 5 receipt register. Question or discussion on the motion? All 6 in favor of the motion, signify by raising your right hand. 7 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 8 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 9 (No response.) 10 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. Do we have 11 any budget amendments? 12 MS. HARGIS: Yes, we do. 13 (Discussion off the record.) 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's the Sheriff again. 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Sheriff with big bucks. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Would you just go down the 17 list? There's only four. 18 MS. HARGIS: Yes. The first one is for the County 19 Court at Law. And we have a portion of the -- their -- the 20 Judge's salary that comes out of one line item, out of -- of 21 428, and one that comes out of 427. And the way the 22 payroll's set up, it's hitting -- we had plenty of money in 23 427, but it's hitting 428, so we just -- we're just really 24 moving money to make it look -- because it wasn't a budgeted 25 line item there. His whole salary was budgeted for group 1-11-10 52 1 insurance actually in 427, so that's just a matter of a 2 mathematical move there. The VINE program, we -- we 3 receipted the money, we approved it, but we didn't -- we 4 didn't set up a budget item to spend it, so we can't -- can't 5 spend it till you approve the budget item. The court 6 transcripts, we've already gone over. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But on the court -- so the 8 216th is out for the year already? 9 MS. HARGIS: Mm-hmm, that's correct. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's three months. 11 MS. HARGIS: We got hit -- 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Three months and they're out 13 of money. 14 MS. HARGIS: We got hit the very first month of the 15 year for $10,000, and they only budgeted 12, so they're done. 16 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: How much was in there 17 originally? 18 MS. HARGIS: Twelve. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Do you participate in their 20 budget process? 21 MS. HARGIS: No, sir, I don't. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's nobody's business 23 until we get here. That's a statement, not -- you don't have 24 to respond to that; I understand. But I will say that. 25 MS. HARGIS: Taking into account that the District 1-11-10 53 1 Judge is -- this was his first year of handling it, and he 2 was kind of by himself this year, maybe. I don't -- I don't 3 know what they do on the transcripts. If you look back in 4 past years, sometimes they don't use it at all, and then 5 sometimes they use it all right away. And in the last two 6 years, that's been the case, so I would say in the future, 7 they probably need to take -- take a harder look at that. 8 The 198th usually does not use theirs. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So, court transcripts, and 10 we -- we discuss this almost every meeting, throw this 11 around. And here's -- not only have we depleted the budget 12 in three months, but we're going $485 over now, this time. 13 Is that what I'm seeing? 14 (Ms. Hargis nodded.) 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So, don't we see that the 16 next seven months, we're going -- we're going to have to be 17 moving a lot of money around so that we can pay people to do 18 court transcripts, right? I mean, wouldn't you suggest that 19 let's move -- let's find a pile of money and move it over 20 there now? Or are we going to piddle it around like this? 21 MS. HARGIS: I'd rather piddle it around. Because 22 they -- 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I would too. 24 MS. HARGIS: -- they may not have any more. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Oh, come on. 1-11-10 54 1 MS. HARGIS: Generally speaking, it's one case or 2 two cases. It's not -- it's not a whole bunch of them. 3 That's the issue. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It's easier to track if you 5 do it this way, I think. 6 MS. HARGIS: Well, I don't want to move money from 7 somebody else's line item until we need it. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yes, ma'am. Thank you. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Commissioner, are other people 10 already being paid to do this? 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I don't have any idea. 12 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: You had to ring his bell, 13 didn't you? You really did. (Laughter.) 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Got some extra gasoline you can 15 throw on this fire over here? 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I've no idea. 17 MS. HARGIS: I'm not going there. 18 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Judges have the authority to 19 lower the rate they can charge for this, don't they? 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Do they? 21 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I think they do. Reckon we 22 could maybe pass a note on to them, request that? 23 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: You dreamer. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Do we have another budget amendment, 25 Ms. Hargis? 1-11-10 55 1 MS. HARGIS: We have one other one, and that is the 2 I.T. budget. And when we set the I.T. budget, we put all the 3 phone costs in the I.T. budget. And we didn't put any in 4 nondepartmental, and so John prefers that the internet cost 5 hit nondepartmental, so we're moving that to that line item. 6 So, we're moving our internet -- we get a separate bill for 7 our internet charge for the phone line, okay? It's a 8 separate bill. It's a small amount of money. And it had, in 9 the past, gone to nondepartmental, and we -- when we did the 10 budget, we set up for our basic phone bills and long distance 11 and the internet to go through John, and he prefers having 12 the internet split out separately, so we're going to put that 13 back in nondepartmental. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Why? 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: This is for the remainder of 16 the year? 17 MS. HARGIS: For the remainder of the year. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What's the reason? I think it 19 makes sense, to me, to be in his budget. 20 MS. HARGIS: He didn't want it in his budget, so 21 I'm just trying to comply with the department. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: This is a service charge, as opposed 24 to a capital item. 25 MS. HARGIS: Yeah, this is just the monthly charge. 1-11-10 56 1 It's a small amount of money, as you can see, $1,000 a 2 month -- a year. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: All the software -- annual software 4 updates are in his budget. Capital costs for new equipment, 5 the computers, -- 6 MS. HARGIS: Right. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: -- telephones and so forth, that's 8 in his budget. But he wants the service cost for the 9 internet service moved into nondepartmental? 10 (Ms. Hargis nodded.) 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Equivalent of a monthly phone 12 bill. 13 MS. HARGIS: It is. It's a small amount. It's a 14 small amount. 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Move approval of the budget 16 amendments as presented. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 19 approval of the budget amendments as presented on the 20 summary. Question or discussion on the motion? 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Question. Rusty, what was 22 your comment going to be, that this may be the last of it? 23 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: No. No. That transcript that 24 you're talking about in -- I don't know, was that 216th 25 court? That very well could be -- and the reason for the 1-11-10 57 1 high cost is in that organized crime murder case that we've 2 had pending for over a year now, with all the 23 defendants, 3 I know that the Court ordered that all of those videotape 4 interviews, statements, everything be transcribed and given 5 to all the defense attorneys. And I -- I know our department 6 didn't do the transcribing; it was just too overwhelming for 7 us, so it may have been that the Court had them do that. 8 That's where that bill's coming from. That's why you get 9 one -- and there's very few that it ever happens. First case 10 I've seen. But there were -- there were well over 50 11 interviews on video tapes that all had to be transcribed in 12 that thing. Just a possibility of an explanation. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Any other question or discussion on 14 the motion? 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: That motion does carry. Do we have 20 any late bills? 21 MS. HARGIS: No. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Reports. 23 MS. HARGIS: Can we go back? 24 JUDGE TINLEY: I've been presented with monthly 25 reports from Constable, Precinct 1; Justice of the Peace, 1-11-10 58 1 Precinct 3; Justice of the Peace, Precinct 4; County Clerk 2 and Environmental Health. Do I hear a motion to approve 3 those reports as presented? 4 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: So moved. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 7 approval of the named reports as presented. Question or 8 discussion on the motion? All in favor of the motion, 9 signify by raising your right hand. 10 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 11 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 12 (No response.) 13 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. Ms. Hargis, 14 you had something else? 15 MS. HARGIS: Yeah. Can we go back to Item 5, which 16 was at 10 o'clock? I think it's 5. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Say again? 18 MS. HARGIS: Item 5 on the agenda. I think it's 5. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay, yeah, if you want to go there. 20 It's a 10 o'clock timed item, Item 5. It's after that time 21 now. Consider, discuss, and take appropriate action 22 regarding property appraisal report from Texas Association of 23 Counties. Ms. Hargis? 24 MS. HARGIS: As you recall, we -- about -- I want 25 to say three months ago, we got a letter from TAC saying that 1-11-10 59 1 they were going to offer us a free appraisal service, and 2 they would let us know when we would be getting ours. Well, 3 we're fortunate enough to be one of the first ones to get 4 one, and this is really good, because in the past, my 5 predecessor had always used the Appraisal District, and we 6 had requested them to come over every year, and they had not. 7 So, this is a thorough audit. We accompanied this gentleman 8 throughout the entire system, as did the Sheriff, and so we 9 really feel like we have good values. It is going to be an 10 increase in our insurance, because you can see some of the 11 values were under, and I've been concerned about that. 12 Especially, like, the building with historical, and it's 13 better to be over-insured than under-insured with these 14 things, because the 80 percent, 90 percent coverage, then we 15 start building, then we're going to end up -- so, we -- we 16 will have to pay a little bit more premium. We have not been 17 billed that yet, but we wanted y'all to be aware of the 18 values. And if you had any problems with any of them, or -- 19 we've looked at them; we feel like they're very fair. And 20 some of them went up, some of them went down. 21 And the other thing that we had in our policy -- 22 and I think that Rusty can address this -- is, for instance, 23 that out at the jail, we have that building behind the jail 24 that has radio equipment and stuff. That was all lumped into 25 one, so it was hard to determine how much the value of that 1-11-10 60 1 building was. So, now what this adjustor has done is split 2 it all out so that every freestanding building is on its own 3 on our policy, which is, I think, much better. And not 4 having been here all those years, it was kind of hard for me 5 to determine why they were lumped together. Now they're all 6 split out. And I think Road and Bridge also helped, as I 7 understand. All the large departments actually went with 8 this gentleman and agreed with him on these values. So, we 9 just need you to -- you know, basically wanted you to review 10 it so that when the increase in premium comes up -- because I 11 have -- I have agreed that the increase in premium needs to 12 be made. You also have pictures of all the facilities, which 13 I think, you know, is -- is a good thing. Tracy's worked 14 really, really hard with this insurance to try to get 15 everything we have on there. There's been some gaps, and 16 every time we think we've closed a gap, we find something 17 else, but we hope we have everything on here. Our -- the new 18 upgrade in -- on our accounting system, our computer system, 19 is going to allow us to put pictures of every asset, and 20 we're going to -- in the process this next six months of 21 doing that, so that if someone needed to see the value of any 22 particular large piece -- especially large pieces of 23 equipment, that would be in our computer system and 24 available. So -- 25 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Is that going to be public? 1-11-10 61 1 Pictures of the -- 2 MS. HARGIS: It's -- I don't -- I don't know. 3 We're not going to make it public, because in order to make 4 it public, we'd have to make our whole accounting system 5 public. We don't have a way of doing that. If a person 6 wanted a copy of a picture of the assets, they probably could 7 get it, 'cause it's public. They have them now; it's just 8 that -- being able to have them with our values so that if 9 there is a claim, it makes it a lot easier for us to process 10 that claim. 11 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I can understand the values 12 being public. Sometimes the -- the design or diagram of some 13 of the things we might have -- you know, you're kind of 14 getting into blueprints, a sabotage-type deal. I don't -- I 15 wouldn't necessarily want those -- 16 MS. HARGIS: It's not going to be anything but the 17 front of the building, Rusty. There's not going to be any 18 interior-type shots. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: This is part of that ongoing process 20 that Ms. Soldan's been working on to give us the complete 21 inventory of our assets and to document them, arrange them 22 and so forth. And when it comes to having each one of these 23 buildings listed separately, I think that avoids us having an 24 issue down the road, if there is a loss, to know what the 25 actual amount of insurance on that particular structure was. 1-11-10 62 1 MS. HARGIS: That is correct. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: I would call the Court's attention 3 to the first item on there. The value of the courthouse has 4 increased by over a million dollars, with the comment that 5 the new windows improve value. 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Seven million. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The -- that number's the one 8 that -- that seems low to me. I don't think you can rebuild 9 this courthouse for $9 million. I mean, that number -- of 10 all the numbers, that's the one that jumped out at me -- 11 well, there's two numbers that jumped out at me, and that one 12 jumped out as being low. And I would be amazed if 13 Commissioner Williams' Center Point office has a $244,000 14 value. (Laughter.) That building is nothing but a -- a 15 shed, and without any heat. I mean, you don't want to meet 16 with him over there during the winter; you'd freeze to death. 17 But, I mean, that number seems -- but it's probably better to 18 be high than low. 19 MS. HARGIS: This is what I need your comment on. 20 If you -- and then if you feel we need to insure the building 21 for more than the appraisal, that's fine. I just need -- 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Look at the line. 23 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yeah, mine's only 1,000. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Oh, 17,000, okay. That's more 25 in line. 1-11-10 63 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Something's happened, 2 because it's not worth 5,000. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The other thing, the airport 4 isn't on here. None of our property at the airport is. Is 5 that under a different schedule? 6 MS. HARGIS: The City is still carrying the 7 property. We're carrying the liability, because that's part 8 of the management agreement. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 10 MS. HARGIS: But we will incur that when we take 11 over the maintenance side of it. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. All right. 13 MS. HARGIS: But if you would like for me to 14 increase these, if y'all would just let me know. I mean, I'm 15 -- I agree with you; we probably couldn't rebuild for 16 nine million. 17 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Let's go back to the one 18 that Commissioner Letz just referenced. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The Center Point Road and 20 Bridge precinct garage, okay? What contributes to the 21 218 percent increase in value there? Is it because of 22 equipment that's parked there or what? 23 MS. HARGIS: Yeah, we put a trailer there. 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: We put a trailer there? 25 MS. HARGIS: Remember, he got a trailer -- was 1-11-10 64 1 it -- 2 MS. SOLDAN: FEMA trailer. 3 MS. HARGIS: A FEMA trailer. 4 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Pardon me? 5 MS. HARGIS: A FEMA trailer. 6 MS. SOLDAN: I don't think that FEMA trailer's 7 there yet. 8 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: He got a regular trailer -- 9 that's the one out west? -- that we went to. That's the 10 regular trailer house, single-wide. 11 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Didn't we buy one in Ingram? 12 We paid 8,000 for it. 13 MS. HARGIS: Well, this one -- 14 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: This is a bigger one. 15 MS. HARGIS: This is a bigger one. We got it for 16 3,200, but to replace it I think would be more. But that -- 17 he put the trailer there so that they could have a true 18 substation and have people actually work out of that, out of 19 that office. 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Where are you hiding that 21 trailer, Sheriff? 22 MS. HARGIS: No, not the Sheriff. 23 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Not me. That's Road and 24 Bridge. 25 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Road and Bridge. 1-11-10 65 1 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Out there at their precinct 2 yard in Ingram. 3 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: It really must be under 4 wraps. 5 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: It's in the back. It's a 6 pretty good size trailer. 7 MS. HARGIS: You're talking about the Center Point 8 location. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You're talking Ingram. 10 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: You're talking Ingram; I'm 11 talking Center Point. 12 MS. HARGIS: There's one there too, as well, isn't 13 there? 14 MS. SOLDAN: There is a structure there. The FEMA 15 trailer is not there right now. 16 MS. HARGIS: Okay. I don't know the answer to that 17 one. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Just a corrugated metal pole 19 barn in Center Point. 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Exactly. There's no 21 trailer. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No door on it. Is there a 23 door? 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yeah, there's a door. 25 MS. SOLDAN: There is a door. We couldn't get 1-11-10 66 1 inside; he could only base his estimate on outside. 2 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Someone -- 3 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: We've got -- Rusty's got a 4 communications trailer. But you keep it on your grounds. 5 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: He didn't even see that one. 6 MS. HARGIS: No, there's a new one out there. 7 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Road and Bridge got a second 8 FEMA trailer. 9 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: That's right. 10 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Not too long ago. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: There's one at Ingram. 12 Where's the other one? 13 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I thought that moved to 14 your precinct. 15 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That was the very first one; 16 it was 8,000 bucks, and it's not near as big as the second 17 one. 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Well, then it's Road and 19 Bridge. 20 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Must be in their yard, 21 because -- 22 MS. SOLDAN: The last one they just got is, I 23 believe, at their Spur 100 location. 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: You might want to take a 25 look at that. 1-11-10 67 1 JUDGE TINLEY: We may have something stacked on the 2 Center Point that needs to be at the Road and Bridge main 3 office. 4 MS. HARGIS: Where's Spur 100? 5 MS. SOLDAN: Main office across from the Ag Barn. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The other thing is the recycle 7 building or center. Shouldn't the City carry that? 8 MS. HARGIS: It's our property. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's our property, so we keep 10 the insurance on that? 11 MS. HARGIS: Mm-hmm, it's our property. They're 12 renting. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: This is not necessarily insurance. 14 This is what we own. Now, for insurance purposes, the lease 15 may provide otherwise. I think they're obligated for all the 16 operational and maintenance costs, and unless the lease 17 provides otherwise, normally the owner of the property 18 provides basic hazard insurance. But we have to go to the 19 lease to find out exactly what the obligation is. And what 20 action do you desire us to take on this item other than 21 acknowledging -- 22 MS. HARGIS: Do you agree with the values? Do you 23 want me to increase some of the values? 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: What's the bottom line? I 25 don't see it. 1-11-10 68 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Thirty million. 2 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: 33,550. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean, I think they're -- 5 they're better than they were. 6 MS. HARGIS: Uh-huh. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think they're okay. I think 8 we might want to look at -- next year, look at the 9 courthouse, make sure that's a real -- that's a good number. 10 That's the only one that's a little concerning to me. 11 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I agree with that. 12 MS. HARGIS: I can call Peter and ask him what he 13 thinks it would cost to rebuild based on square footage. 14 We'll come up with a better number. I'll bring it back next 15 time. Do you want me to do that? 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. Okay, anything else? Why 17 don't we take about a 20-minute recess? 18 (Recess taken from 10:18 a.m. to 10:45 a.m.) 19 - - - - - - - - - - 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay, let's come back to order, if 21 we might. We were in recess. Let's continue with Section 4 22 of the agenda -- no, we've concluded 4. We'll go to 5, 23 reports from Commissioners in connection with their liaison 24 or committee assignments. Commissioner Baldwin, do you have 25 anything in the areas of your liaison assignments? 1-11-10 69 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner Williams? 3 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yes, sir, a couple things. 4 There'll be a -- they're bringing the AACOG road show down in 5 February early, and while I tentatively put a hold on the Ag 6 Barn, there's some thought maybe we could find a venue with a 7 few more creature comforts. We're looking alone; the County 8 doesn't get the bill for that. Got some scouts out looking, 9 so we'll see. But worst-case scenario is it will be at the 10 Ag Barn unless we notify people to the contrary. And on the 11 11th of February, we'll be doing a public hearing in Center 12 Point on the wastewater -- as a requirement of Section B of 13 the T.W.D.B. master plan, and so there'll be notification 14 going out for that. Just in the F.Y.I. category, the Center 15 Point Alliance for Progress again this election cycle will 16 conduct a candidate's forum for all contested races, and -- 17 and we'll be inviting all other candidates that are not 18 opposed if they wish to come be introduced and make a 19 comment. That will be on the 5th of February. That's it. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay, thank you. Commissioner Letz? 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I received word from the City 22 giving me the schedule for the year for Library Board 23 meetings, so at least I'm up to speed on that. 24 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Don't hurt yourself, now. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And on the -- Commissioner 1-11-10 70 1 Williams pointed out that Councilperson Keeble will put on 2 the City Council agenda for tomorrow night the subdivision 3 regulations in the ETJ, and I presume that's going to be a 4 status report as to where that is. And it's been a while 5 since we've met, but where that process is right now is 6 that -- I think it was probably late November was the last 7 time Councilman Motheral and I met, and both of us are in the 8 process of rewriting our respective rules to accommodate one 9 set -- to try to come up with one set of rules. Councilman 10 Motheral told me that he thinks that they should be based on 11 the city rules, and in my opinion, it needs to be based on 12 the county rules. 13 And the reason for me is not -- and I said I really 14 don't care what it's based on, but I said there's two 15 requirements that have to be in anything that I can support 16 coming to this Commissioners Court on, and one is, you recall 17 that several years ago, as part of the Center Point project, 18 we had to adopt the state model subdivision rules, which 19 covers all lots in the county less than 5 acres, and that's a 20 pretty broad -- broad and specific set of provisions, 21 probably 20 pages long. And the County is required, under 22 those grants that we've been receiving, to enforce those 23 exact rules, and there can't be any deviation from that. And 24 I've told that to Councilman Motheral. He was kind of, "Oh, 25 I didn't know that." So, that is a -- will require a major 1-11-10 71 1 change to the City's rules. Because, I mean, it's not a gray 2 area. We don't have any option. I said their option is they 3 can write a check to the state for the -- and the county for 4 all the grants that we've accepted up to date, because that's 5 the penalty for not doing it. 6 And the other thing that I said that has to be in 7 the -- and any set of rules that I would take forward to 8 Commissioners Court would be that there can be no 9 subjectivity in it. There -- you know, on roads, I don't 10 care, roads, any part of it, it has to be black and white 11 what the rules are. The current city rules largely state, 12 "to current city standards," and that isn't going to cut it. 13 The standards have to be spelled out. And I told them that 14 the county -- that any -- or I guess the third thing that I 15 wouldn't support would be any provision -- or a provision has 16 to be in there, I guess, that both entities have to approve 17 any waivers in the ETJ. 'Cause we're not going to get in a 18 situation that I hear too frequently, and I heard about it 19 just again from Dick Colvin, through a letter of the City 20 giving a direction, and then three months later sending out a 21 new letter and changing what was told to them. That happened 22 on the project out by the -- that Dick Colvin's working on 23 out by the airport. And so those three things. And, to me, 24 I don't care really, like I said, who writes the rules. The 25 city -- the county rules are a lot easier to adapt, in my 1-11-10 72 1 opinion, than the city's rules, but that's where we are, and 2 it's not an easy task. And until the City staff or City 3 Council understands that those three things are not 4 negotiable, then maybe we can -- you know, once we get there, 5 we should be pretty much pretty far along. So, I'm rewriting 6 our rules, trying to accommodate the city's rules, and he's 7 rewriting the city rules trying to accommodate the county 8 rules, and it's a little bit of a waste of time to me, but 9 that's the way he wanted -- or I guess we're proceeding. So, 10 that's where we are. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Anything else? 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No, that's it. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner Oehler? 14 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Well, let me see. Animal 15 Control has gotten all sides closed in with roll-up doors 16 now, courtesy of Pat Ginsbach, which is a very big 17 improvement. They can open and close those and not have 18 those doors that were just lifted up, hanging by a cable. It 19 could fall on somebody. So, that's been upgraded. And -- 20 and let me think. Other than that -- 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Janie's radio thing. 22 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yeah, Janie did a little 23 radio thing the other day. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: State-wide radio thing. 25 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: It's going well. She's done 1-11-10 73 1 -- she's really been pretty aggressive on a lot of things out 2 there, just like Environmental Health has been. There's big 3 changes in the way they do business and the problems they've 4 had and the way they have to address them. Anyway, Janie's 5 doing real well. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Since he's not going to go more 7 into the detail on Janie -- 8 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Just go right ahead. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: There was a story, I think, 10 that came out of Beaumont, I believe, originally. There was 11 a cruelty case, and someone got into the state organizations. 12 Texas Public Radio did it. 13 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yeah. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And it was in reference as to 15 who to contact about cruelty. I don't know what agency was 16 talking to the state. The recommendation was to talk to Kerr 17 County's Animal Control, because they are very adept and 18 doing a fantastic job of handling cruelty cases, animal 19 control cases. And the Texas Public Radio contacted Janie; 20 she gave them an interview which aired statewide, I believe. 21 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yeah, got all that. I'm glad 22 you mentioned it. I'm glad you were aware of it. Let's see, 23 she has done -- and they do -- it's kind of like our 24 Environmental Health Department; it's been kind of the 25 example that T.C.E.Q. points to whenever there are counties 1-11-10 74 1 that are having problems. The same way with our Animal 2 Control. 3 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I saw that article that the 4 Commissioners are talking about. It was good. 5 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yeah. So, I think we're 6 taking a proactive approach to a lot of things, and I think 7 it's coming along -- I know it's coming along well. I don't 8 think; I know it. I see that it has. Now, if we could just 9 do something about the Sheriff, we'd be in good shape. 10 (Laughter.) 11 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: It's a lost cause. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Prayer and fasting. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Speaking of animal issues, we've got 14 an employee in the County Attorney's office, Christine 15 McEntyre, that is really on the leading edge of animal issues 16 statewide, and beyond the state, actually. She was involved 17 in Katrina down in New Orleans helping with some of those 18 animals. But some of you may have seen -- there have been a 19 series of news reports -- I believe it was on Channel 12 -- 20 dealing with a case of an animal that had been abused or 21 neglected that had been taken from a puppy mill and so forth. 22 And Ms. McEntyre has -- far as I know, she spends all her 23 vacation time responding to these -- these crises in animal 24 control where they -- there was one up in Fort Worth recently 25 where there were, like, 400 animals that they had to make 1-11-10 75 1 some disposition of. And she's been doing a lot of the 2 statewide emergency planning; she's been at the leading edge 3 of that. I think it's later this week, possibly next week, 4 there's a -- a CARRT trailer that's being delivered. 5 Actually, she's going to go down and take custody of it in 6 San Antonio, "CARRT" being -- I believe it's Companion Animal 7 Rescue Team, is what that stands for, I believe. But she 8 is -- she's really out there at the forefront of everything 9 going on in the state when it comes to animal issues, and the 10 state's getting the benefit of a lot of her work and 11 expertise, and we need to recognize her for that. 12 Phone system, they're continuing to run cable. A 13 lot of you have had those people in your hair with wires 14 dangling. I think the wires this time are green, are they 15 not? 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Green. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Courthouse, the windows are 18 complete. They're doing some minor touch-up on some of them. 19 It's very, very minor. The main portion to go is the front 20 doors. If you haven't noticed, the front doors have been 21 removed. They're gone. We're boarded up in the front. 22 They're being completely reworked. The -- all of the 23 remainder of that door unit is going to be reworked on-site 24 so that we get the same appearance, but it'll be upgraded to 25 new. When they get through with those doors and bring them 1-11-10 76 1 in, they will only open one direction, and they -- they will 2 seal when they're closed, which will be a -- a new experience 3 for a lot of us, where you can't stand down in front of the 4 County Clerk's office and feel the breeze from the front 5 door. I think Chuck Brecher -- his comment to me was, 6 "There's a gap wide enough, somebody can throw a dead dog 7 through there." It made the point, but maybe it's a little 8 harsh. But I think we really got something to be proud of 9 with those windows. Let's go to elected officials. Elected 10 officials got any -- got any reports they'd like to -- 11 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Thank you. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Enter the Sheriff. 13 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Just quickly, just the jail 14 status, I think one thing needs to be brought out. But 15 before we get to that, as far as pending, you know, people in 16 jail, this morning the total overall population was 142. 17 We've been staying right around that area for quite a while 18 now. There's 38 of them in the 216th court waiting to go to 19 court. There's 27 in the 198th, and there's 35 in County 20 Court at Law. So, we've got 35 that are serving time either 21 in jail or waiting on transport to T.D.C. And Gillespie 22 County has 11. We've got 16 parole violators and 47 23 probation violators. We do currently have inmates out of 24 Travis, Bexar, Montague, Winkler, Kimble, Hidalgo, and Taylor 25 County. Most of those also have local charges; that's why 1-11-10 77 1 they haven't gone back to their own counties yet. But my big 2 issue is females. This is something that needs to be brought 3 up. I have four female cells that will house a total of 32 4 females, eight in each cell. It's by design. They have to 5 be kept out of sight and sound of all male inmates, so it's 6 all down one side. And we are at a critical time with 7 females. Gillespie County was housing a couple. I made them 8 come get them Friday and take them back. We couldn't house 9 their females any more. Friday, we had 30 females in 32 10 beds. We were fixing to have to -- we were keeping our 11 fingers crossed all weekend, we didn't have to put them on 12 the floor. Currently, as of this morning, I had 27 females 13 still in jail. Of those 27 females, 24 have no bonds. The 14 other three, two of them have $100,000 bonds, and the other 15 one's got a $75,000 bond. Those people aren't going 16 anywhere. I'm stuck. If we go over -- actually, you know, 17 80 percent of 32 beds would have been 26 females. Problem 18 is, when you only have four cells and classification, you 19 really can't even hit the -- you know, the 80 percent. It 20 may not be long, with the way our female situation's going, 21 that I'm going to have to request this Court to house females 22 out of county. We're going to have to come up with something 23 different on females. My male population is fine, but the 24 female population is -- is not going down. It's been coming 25 up for a couple of years now. I think we had mentioned it 1-11-10 78 1 one other time. But I do see us having to take some kind of 2 long-term solution with housing female inmates, and I don't 3 know what that would be. I don't know if the old juvenile 4 detention facility -- if you tried to revamp that, I'm afraid 5 that the cost... Because when you're talking females, I'm 6 not talking minimum security females. You know, some of 7 these are murder and that. You still have to build it for 8 all the way through the deal of minimum to maximum, and I 9 just don't know where we're going to go, gentlemen, with the 10 female situation. 11 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Sheriff, are the jail 12 standards different for holding a female prisoner versus a 13 male prisoner? 14 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: No. 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: They're the same stringent 16 standards? 17 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Same standards totally on 18 those. I know that Bandera -- I don't know how many female 19 beds they have. Now, in their old jail, they had one, so I 20 don't know, when they built this one, you know, what they 21 have. You know, Gillespie County, of course, the same. 22 Kimble County wasn't even designed to house females. 23 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: How about -- how about the 24 new Bandera -- 25 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I don't know how many -- like 1-11-10 79 1 I said, I don't know how many female designed beds they have 2 at Bandera. I know that they -- they originally stated that 3 they were going to be charging $50 a day housing per inmate, 4 and I think they've dropped it down to 40 now, the last I 5 heard. 'Cause Gillespie's even having to house some people 6 there. But, you know, unless Gillespie has to house females 7 over there, they're only a 96-bed jail. Now, ours was built 8 with 32 females out of 192. If they're a 96-bed jail, I 9 doubt that they have very many female cells. It could be 10 that we end up having to go quite a ways to house females. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Is your facility constructed in a 12 manner that would allow you to convert some of your male cell 13 blocks to female and still maintain the sight and sound 14 separation? 15 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Short answer is no, okay? 16 It's not -- the males are housed down the main hallway. The 17 cells face each other, and the cells are interlocked; two 18 cells have common gates that you can see each other, you 19 know, through there. And then the sound is not. The 20 females -- the hallway that the females are housed down, the 21 middle part of that hallway, or the -- the center area is our 22 medical area, and then storage, and then you have a blank 23 hallway, and then you have the females down that far side. 24 So, they are out of sight and sound at this point. I don't 25 know that we could reconfigure that jail. I've thought about 1-11-10 80 1 it and thought about it, any way that would allow us to house 2 more females inside our own facility. Plus with the male 3 population, it still stays up. It's just not -- you know, 4 we're not critical right now, but I don't know that if we cut 5 out, you know, that many more female beds -- or added that 6 many more female beds, taking away from the male beds, that 7 we would really be doing ourselves any service, other than 8 putting us up over what we probably should have with males. 9 It's just going to be an issue that I'm afraid the next two 10 or three years isn't going to solve. 11 MS. BAILEY: You might want to put that on the 12 agenda for discussion next time. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Might be a good idea. 14 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I thought it ought to be 15 mentioned before this afternoon. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Anything else? 17 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: No, that's all the good news I 18 have. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Any other elected officials? 20 Department heads? We'll be in recess till 1:45, take up Item 21 Number 4. 22 (Recess taken from 11:03 a.m. to 2:11 p.m.) 23 - - - - - - - - - - 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Let's come back to order, if we 25 might, for our Commissioners Court meeting. We were in 1-11-10 81 1 recess. We'll go to Item 4; consider, discuss, and take 2 appropriate action on order authorizing the issuance of 3 approximately $4,550,000 in principal amount of Kerr County, 4 Texas Tax Note Series 2010, authorizing the levying of a tax 5 for the payment thereof, authorizing execution of a paying 6 agent/registrar agreement and a purchase contract, and 7 authorizing approving other instruments and procedures and 8 sale related thereto. I put this on the agenda in order to 9 comply with the requirements to sell the pending debt issue 10 that we have to do a number of capital items, most notable, 11 probably, of which is the Kerr County Sheriff's Office 12 Annex/Adult Probation building, various items of equipment, 13 and so forth. We have with us today Mr. Dusty Traylor with 14 R.G. -- 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: R.B. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: RB Dain -- RB -- RBC Capital now? 17 MR. TRAYLOR: Judge, you're as good at it as I am. 18 It's RBC Capital Markets. They change their name once every 19 six months just to aggravate us a little bit. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Whether you need it or not? 21 MR. TRAYLOR: That's exactly right. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: And we've also got Tom Spurgeon, our 23 bond counsel, here with us with us to lead us through this 24 little drill. Dusty, it's all yours. 25 MR. TRAYLOR: Judge, Commissioners, again, my name 1-11-10 82 1 is Dusty Traylor with RBC Capital Markets. Bob Henderson and 2 I have the honor and privilege of representing the County as 3 financial advisers. I apologize for my tardiness this 4 afternoon. We entered into the market this morning with the 5 tax note issue, for -- to be able to put four and a half 6 million dollars into the County's project fund, and we 7 entered into a negotiated underwriting with Southwest 8 Securities. Southwest Securities went out and took the bonds 9 in their various blocks and broke them up and sold them off 10 to individual investors at the individual maturity levels 11 that you have there. You're selling -- you're selling these 12 notes in maturities '11 -- 2011 through 2016. This is a 13 process that we have today that's been going on for a number 14 of months. We worked closely with the Judge and definitely 15 with Jeannie to help prepare the disclosure document that was 16 disseminated to the -- to the investors in these bonds, and 17 to obtain a municipal bond rating for the County on these 18 notes. 19 As you know, the higher your bond rating, the 20 better you're deemed in the market as a worthy credit, and 21 this time the County's credit was upgraded to a double 22 A-minus, which is a significant upgrade. And it represents 23 the strong financial condition here in the county, as well as 24 the economic claim here within -- within Kerr County, being 25 -- being a strong county and represented as a strong county 1-11-10 83 1 for -- for investment by municipal bondholders. Southwest 2 Securities ended up coming back to us with a bond that is 3 actually a par amount of 4,350,000. We're still putting 4 $4,500,000 in the -- in the project fund; however, we're 5 doing that with a combination of a par amount on these bonds, 6 plus there's a premium amount that the buyers of the bonds 7 are paying for the bonds to the County so that you can get 8 four and a half million going into your project fund. And 9 the true interest cost -- that's the interest rate on these 10 notes plus the cost to issue the notes -- is 2.7022 percent. 11 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: 2.7 -- 12 MR. TRAYLOR: 2.7022. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's pretty good. 14 MR. TRAYLOR: I'll tell you, this is a favorable 15 time to be in the bond market right now. There's a flight to 16 quality that's gone on in the marketplace. Folks want 17 municipal bonds, and the short end of the yield curve is a 18 very good place to be. Those short end of the yield curve 19 interest rates are very low, and that's precisely where 20 you're selling these notes. You're not going out a long way, 21 you know, 20 or 30 years. You're just going out six years. 22 You put these notes at the right spot in the yield curve to 23 get a good bid, and you've done that here at 2.7022 percent, 24 so that's something we, as your financial advisers, are very 25 excited about. It's a great interest rate. Mr. Spurgeon is 1-11-10 84 1 here from -- from McCall, Parkhurst, and Horton. Their role 2 is to make sure that these notes are issued in compliance 3 with the state and federal laws, and then shepherd this 4 process through the state Attorney General's office. I'll 5 turn it over to Tom for any comments that he may have. 6 MR. SPURGEON: Very briefly. Judge and 7 Commissioners, I'm delighted to be here again, and I 8 mentioned to a couple of you, it's been a couple years, and 9 it's always a delight to come back and see y'all again, and 10 your faces just haven't changed, and everybody looks good and 11 all those kind of things. The -- what you have in front of 12 you is the order itself that authorizes the tax notes that 13 Dusty was describing to you. It's -- I'm not sure if you 14 have a copy of the draft that was put in the -- or that we 15 sent a couple weeks ago, but the only thing that's changed is 16 essentially filling in all the numbers that -- that Dusty's 17 given you today. It's -- it's a straightforward order, if 18 you will. I mean, it authorizes the issuance of these tax 19 notes to Southwest Securities at the interest rates and the 20 principal amounts that are in the numbers that Dusty gave 21 you. It requires that the County levy a tax on an annual 22 basis, approves the official statement that was used for 23 purposes of the offering document, approves the paying 24 agent/registrar agreement with Wells Fargo. That is -- is 25 really your intermediary, if you will, between -- you send 1-11-10 85 1 them the money, they send it on to the bondholders, or in 2 this case, what's called a depository trust company, and then 3 they -- they forward it on through sort of electronic 4 processes and things like that. So, that's -- that, in a 5 very quick nutshell, is -- is the order that you'd be passing 6 today. I'll be glad to answer any questions that you have. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Any questions for Mr. Spurgeon? 8 MR. TRAYLOR: Any questions for me? 9 JUDGE TINLEY: So, what you're seeking today is an 10 order which authorizes the issuance of $4,350,000 in 11 principal amount of Kerr County, Texas tax notes, Series 12 2010, and authorizing the levying of a tax for the payment 13 thereof, and authorizing execution of the paying 14 agent/registrar agreement and a purchase contract, and 15 authorizing and approving other instruments and procedures 16 related thereto, and the sale of those bonds. 17 MR. SPURGEON: Yes, sir. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: As per the summary which you've 19 given us, with the final pricing numbers from Southwest 20 Securities. 21 MR. SPURGEON: Yes, sir. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Is that correct? 23 MR. SPURGEON: That's correct. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Judge, that covers -- this 25 language you have on the agenda item, "other instruments and 1-11-10 86 1 procedures," that covers all of that? 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Yes. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. 4 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Is that called an order -- 5 is that what that's called, entitled "Order"? 6 JUDGE TINLEY: That's exactly what I read off. 7 And, of course, what would probably work is someone saying, 8 "I so move." 9 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I so move. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: We have a motion and a second as 12 indicated. Is there any further question or discussion on 13 that motion? All in favor of that motion, signify by raising 14 your right hand. 15 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 16 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 17 (No response.) 18 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. Gentlemen, 19 anything else to come before the Court in today's meeting? 20 We will be adjourned. 21 (Commissioners Court adjourned at 2:15 p.m.) 22 - - - - - - - - - - 23 24 25 1-11-10 87 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 13th day of January, 8 2010. 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 1-11-10