1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT 9 Special Session 10 Monday, September 20, 2010 11 10:00 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 September 20, 2010 2 PAGE 3 1.1 Public Hearing on proposed Kerr County 2010 tax rate 3 4 1.2 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 5 set date and time to adopt Kerr County 2010 tax rate 28 6 1.3 Consider/discuss and take appropriate action to 7 set date and time to adopt 2010 Lake Ingram Road District tax rate 29 8 1.4 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 9 certify and ratify date and time for public hearing on FY 2010/11 Kerr County budget 30 10 1.5 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 11 set date and time to adopt FY 2010/11 Kerr County budget 30 12 --- Adjourned 31 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 3 1 On Monday, September 20, 2010, at 10:00 a.m., a special 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 special meeting of the Kerr County 9 Commissioners Court that's posted and scheduled for this date 10 and time, Monday, September 20, 2010, at 10 a.m. It is that 11 time now. At this time, I will recess the Commissioners 12 Court meeting and I will convene a public hearing on the 13 proposed Kerr County 2010 tax rate. 14 (The regular Commissioners Court meeting was closed at 10 a.m., and a public hearing was held in open 15 court, as follows:) 16 P U B L I C H E A R I N G 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Any member of the public or audience 18 that wishes to be heard with respect to the proposed Kerr 19 County 2010 tax rate, this is your opportunity to be heard. 20 We would ask that you fill out a participation form at the 21 rear of the room. Helps me to be aware that -- that you do 22 want to be heard; however, that's not absolutely necessary. 23 If you haven't filled one of those out and you wish to be 24 heard, just get my attention in some manner. There are a 25 number of participation forms that have already been filled 9-20-10 4 1 out, so I will go through those now. The first one is Bryant 2 Truitt. Mr. Truitt, if you'll come forward, give us your 3 name and address and tell us what's on your mind, please, 4 sir. 5 MR. TRUITT: Good morning, gentlemen. My name is 6 Bryant Truitt. I live out in Hunt. My family has been a 7 resident of Kerr County since 1876, and I have several 8 subjects I'd like to speak with you about. The first subject 9 -- I got to get my notes. It's my understanding that after 10 visiting with, I believe -- I hope I pronounce the lady's 11 name correctly -- Ms. Hyde -- is that correct? Okay. She 12 was very gracious with her time on the phone, and we had a 13 very nice conversation. There's a couple of things I'd like 14 to ask about. One is the pensions that the good employees of 15 Kerr County receive. Is that based purely on their base 16 salary? 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Mr. Truitt, this is a public 18 hearing, and, unfortunately, the protocols for that, we're 19 here to listen. 20 MR. TRUITT: Mm-hmm. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: We're not here to engage in 22 discussion. 23 MR. TRUITT: That's fine. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: I apologize for that, if you thought 25 that was the purpose. 9-20-10 5 1 MR. TRUITT: That's fine. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay, sir. 3 MR. TRUITT: Pensions for the employees of Kerr 4 County should be based only on the base salary. No 5 additional protocol should be provided to the salary to 6 increase their pensions, and I trust that is what is the 7 policy of the county. Also, the cost-of-living index that I 8 recently read in the newspaper, I would propose to you 9 gentlemen to take serious consideration to tie that to the 10 Social Security index. In a year that the Social Security 11 provides a cost-of-living index to the public, recipients of 12 the -- private recipients of Social Security, the 13 cost-of-living index that county employees receive should be 14 tied directly to Social Security cost-of-living index. 15 Anything else, I think, is counterproductive when you look at 16 the fact that -- at the large number of folks that are 17 residents of Kerr County that are retired. 18 The next thing, I would also encourage you to check 19 every couple of years the employee list for your county 20 employees who have either gone on medical leave or pension 21 leave, to make sure that they are, in fact, eligible to 22 receive the continuing benefits. This is a general policy in 23 the private sector. I work in the private sector; I'm a 24 fraud examiner in the health care industry, and I would 25 encourage you to do so. Embezzlement is on the rise in the 9-20-10 6 1 public and private sector, and I would encourage you to 2 carefully review those recipients. There are cases where I 3 have personally investigated where the folks have been 4 deceased, and the families are still receiving benefits. 5 That is not in the best interests of anyone concerned, and 6 can raise considerable questions as to fiduciary 7 responsibility of all parties involved, including the 8 Commissioners Court. 9 I would also submit to you that you should be doing 10 at least a review of the policy manual and your employee 11 descriptions every two years, particularly in the state of 12 Texas. If that is not being done, you're going to leave 13 yourself open to serious ramifications of lawsuits. I would 14 also submit to you that if you're not doing that, you need to 15 hire a competent consultant. I do not do that type of work, 16 and would not do that in the county that I reside in. I do 17 that work in other areas. I would also submit to you that 18 someone needs to be checking out employees that bring in 19 prescription pad receipts as being shown as going to a 20 physician or a dentist or an eye care specialist. There is a 21 black market -- very viable black market in prescription 22 pads. Those pads go for $50, the open market price at any 23 flea market. All of the medical and dental software today 24 will print out a prescription pad receipt, and showing the 25 so-called employee of the county or city or state or private 9-20-10 7 1 sector employees was at -- at that medical practice at that 2 time. And you should not be receiving any receipt shown with 3 a rubber stamp. That is against HIPAA, and that is a federal 4 violation. 5 I would also submit to you that being in a county 6 or a city with a residence level that we have here, there are 7 many instances where you're going to find relatives working 8 in the medical industry that have access to these types of 9 documents, and they can be forged. And that is not in your 10 best interest, and can raise the cost of health care benefits 11 to the county. And from what I've been able to learn from 12 Ms. Hyde, she's working very hard to curtail these increases, 13 but at the same time, I will tell you that right now, I'm 14 working on a case in the state of Arkansas where an employee 15 edited her time sheet 272 times in one year and collected an 16 additional $30,000 in income, and no one corrected it. So, 17 be guided accordingly. Also, that is a continuing problem 18 that's going to get worse, unfortunately. That young lady, 19 by the way, is going to be prosecuted and sent to jail. 20 I would also submit to you that I think it is a 21 time in your -- the history of this county, and in the time 22 of our country that we need to seriously look at privatizing 23 and/or consolidating services, both at the city, county, and 24 state level, particularly in counties where we can look at 25 other jurisdictions around you, such as Fredericksburg, 9-20-10 8 1 perhaps consolidating and going in with their health care 2 program, because it's a larger group. Larger groups get 3 lower rates. And I would seriously look at doing that at 4 every level. I also have a handout for you on the last 5 subject. May I approach, Judge? 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Yes, sir, of course. Thank you. 7 MR. TRUITT: We have spoken about this on a couple 8 of occasions. This company is called CH2M Hill. They have a 9 wholly-owned subsidiary called OMI, which was founded in the 10 state of Texas in 1980. As a matter of background, CH2M Hill 11 was founded in 1946. They're a $63 billion company. They 12 have 23,500 employees in the world, and they operate in 116 13 countries. They have six offices in the state of Texas, and 14 they are the foremost leader in community-city-county 15 operation of those services that are listed there; 16 wastewater, laboratory management, administrative services, 17 billing collection -- there's a whole list of them there. I 18 would sincerely and strongly recommend that the County 19 Commissioners take a look at this group, particularly the -- 20 the OMI operation. They are particularly interested in 21 working with counties, cities, towns, and homeowners 22 associations to support water, wastewater, public works, 23 community development, and administrative operation. They 24 will take over everything in the county except law 25 enforcement, fire, and emergency services. They will come in 9-20-10 9 1 and do a survey of the county operation. They're 2 particularly good in maintenance. They do maintenance for 3 Dupont, as an example. 4 I also gave you a list of cities that -- that I 5 know of that they do work for. This is not the complete 6 list, but I would encourage you to look at the list. The 7 last two on the page, they do everything for that -- for that 8 community -- those two communities. I know that they do 9 everything except fire, police, and emergency services. The 10 gentleman that I spoke to said that they'll even consider 11 doing jailers, but that is an area that they're looking at, 12 and they're willing to take a look at it. The gentleman I 13 talked to is also from San Antonio. He no longer resides in 14 San Antonio; he now resides in Lexington, Kentucky. He is 15 happy to work with you gentlemen and get a group in here to 16 take a look at the county operation. 17 It would also be beneficial if we could look at 18 consolidation of services with the city and see where there's 19 mutual compatibility to lower our costs, particularly in the 20 area of pensions and health care benefits. I know that 21 you're going up on the fees for your health care next year. 22 I think Ms. Hyde is doing a -- a good job in that area, but 23 still, I think there are savings that could be generated, and 24 mainly through consolidation, possibly. But they will take 25 over all maintenance, motor pool, all of it. They -- from 9-20-10 10 1 the documentation that I have read, they retain the same 2 employees wherever possible, and they -- they operate it as a 3 business. So, I would strongly recommend that you give 4 consideration to these possibilities. I've given you the web 5 sites. I've also picked up business cards of the Judge and 6 of the other Commissioners, and I will be submitting those to 7 CH2M Hill. I personally have worked with this firm in the 8 past. They are world class. You can go on the web and you 9 can look up their credentials, and they will stand well above 10 anyone else in the industry. So, I would strongly encourage 11 you to do so. Thank you very much. Appreciate your time. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, Mr. Truitt. Bill Drake? 13 MR. DRAKE: Good morning, Judge. Morning, 14 Commissioners. I appreciate the effort that goes into giving 15 us these public hearings, chances to share ideas with you. 16 I've read the entire budget carefully. Overall, 17 congratulations, I think, are due to the county officials in 18 keeping salaries at reasonable levels and keeping the number 19 of employees to perform the tasks required at reasonable 20 levels. I've got four specific areas, though, where I 21 believe that costs can be very significantly reduced or 22 eliminated. I have one specific area of potential revenues 23 that I am quite certain has never been examined, and after I 24 finish speaking, I have an action request for the 25 Commissioners. I know the Commissioners have my handout, but 9-20-10 11 1 I'd like to pass this around to the folks here, if you 2 wouldn't mind taking one, passing it back. I'd like to go 3 through this piece by piece. 4 Everybody here who watches television or reads 5 newspapers is aware of the current financial situation in the 6 U.S. and worldwide, but I think there's a couple of things 7 that bear on your decision to raise property taxes here in 8 Kerr Valley -- Kerr County. We know that property values are 9 generally stagnated. We know that new property purchases are 10 declining. The consensus seems to be that recovery in the 11 housing market's likely to take 5 to 10 years nationwide, and 12 I doubt that Kerr County's going to be much of an exception. 13 Personal incomes are dropping. Net worth is declining. 14 People are raiding their retirement savings and their 15 401(k)'s just to survive. Young people are leaving this and 16 many other rural counties and not returning. This means 17 fewer new families being formed in the county, lower levels 18 of economic activity in terms of buying homes, cars, 19 furnishing the house with appliances, local consumption, and 20 local tax revenues. 21 We're seeing no net job creation generally around 22 the country, certainly in Texas and here. Each year the 23 value of the dollar is declining, so the dollars that are 24 being paid in -- for example, in pensions are losing their 25 value every year that the taxpayers are putting money into 9-20-10 12 1 your pension plans. Hyperinflation -- inflation or 2 hyperinflation is being forecast by many reasonable people in 3 the near future. Federal and state funding is getting scarce 4 in supporting critical social service areas. We're getting 5 less money -- less federal and state money for our schools, 6 for our -- our health programs, for programs that are kind of 7 the icing on the cake that make life more than just bearable, 8 that make it worth living for a lot of people. So, the 9 upshot, I think, is that we -- meaning you, our elected 10 officials, and we, the citizens -- need to get control of as 11 much of the out-of-control financial programs that are -- 12 that are underway, programs that may have been -- we might 13 have let things slide for back when times were good. Times 14 are hard now, and I think getting harder, and now's the time 15 to get control. 16 So, here are my suggestions for three things that 17 we can do, based on my reading of the budget. I think we can 18 close the jail. The average daily jail population is about 19 160, the Sheriff's Office told me after a number of calls I 20 made just asking for an estimate. The average -- the annual 21 cost of operations of the jail is around 2.6 million. It's 22 probably a little more than that. I just went through and 23 added up the obvious together; I didn't do any forensic 24 accounting on the budget. It costs a little less than $40 a 25 day, but I understand it's going to $40 a day for us to send 9-20-10 13 1 prisoners to other counties. If we sent all 160 of the 2 average daily population to other counties where there are 3 empty jails, that would cost us 2.3 million, versus 2.6 4 million to run the jail. So, right there is $300,000. 5 However, if we sentence only violent and sexual 6 offenders to jail in this county, and if we took the ankle 7 bracelet approach to nonviolent offenders, with a strong 8 community service component to the sentencing of nonviolent 9 offenders -- I would ask us all to remember that we elect our 10 sheriffs, our judges; we elect the people who make these 11 decisions. If we did this, we could reduce our average daily 12 jail population to perhaps 75. I was not able to get, either 13 from the Sheriff's Office or the District Attorney's office 14 or the jail -- I started trying last Wednesday -- a figure 15 for the average daily jail population of nonviolent 16 offenders, so I'm just guesstimating here. If we reduced the 17 average daily jail population to 75 and sent them out of 18 county, our cost is 1.1 million, versus a current cost of 19 operations of 2.6 million. That saves us $1.5 million, 20 roughly. If we do close the jail, as I'm suggesting, we can 21 then cancel the $900,000 Sheriff's annex. The -- if the 22 Sheriff's Office, in doing the excellent job that it does, 23 needs additional space, the jail would be available as an 24 annex space for the Sheriff's Department. That saves 25 $900,000. 9-20-10 14 1 I believe we should also modify the county health 2 and retirement programs. We are currently paying -- and, 3 again, these -- I probably didn't catch every line in the 4 budget, but by my count, we're currently paying $1,968,000 5 for health insurance. On a personal note, I'm on Medicare, 6 so I don't have a problem. But my wife, who is 62, has had 7 serious health problems for the past four years, and we've 8 had to come up with a little over $100,000 out of the money 9 that we were counting on to live on in our golden years to 10 pay for her medical care, while at the same time I've been 11 paying my taxes to pay for your medical care. If we reduced 12 the county share of employee health coverage by 50 percent, 13 we would save $984,000. I'm not saying we take medical care 14 coverage away or make the county employees pay for all their 15 medical care, though that's not a bad idea. But if we reduce 16 it by 50 percent, we save $984,000. 17 We are currently paying -- we are currently paying 18 1,186 -- $1,186,000 toward retirement for county employees. 19 That's in addition to the FICA. I mean, we're paying Social 20 Security, but we're also paying for their retirement. I 21 believe that if somebody wants -- a public employee, somebody 22 who I'm paying their salary, wants retirement, good for them. 23 They should be able to buy it. But they should buy it; I 24 shouldn't buy it for them. Probably too much to ask for the 25 county employees to take over 100 percent of their costs of 9-20-10 15 1 retirement, but if we reduced the county share of county 2 employees' retirement by 75 percent, we would save $889,500, 3 and we would reduce the long-term liability of this -- of the 4 county, 20- or 30-year span of liability significantly. And, 5 as I said, right now we are already paying FICA. These three 6 items combined would reduce the budget by $4,273,500, and 7 would allow the County Commissioners to vote a property tax 8 reduction on every property owner in the county of in excess 9 of 30 percent. And, gentlemen, if you want a stimulus 10 package for the people in Kerr County, you reduce our 11 property taxes by 30 percent by following this or some 12 similar plan, and you will see fiscal savings. 13 I have now one -- as I said, one potential revenue 14 resource that I very seriously doubt has ever been calculated 15 or looked at, and I'd like to pass this out and around. This 16 will be very brief. I just want to point out a stream of 17 revenue that is currently leaving the county, in amounts that 18 perhaps nobody has realized to this point. The top line here 19 is the number of adult smokers in the county, the number of 20 packs a day that they smoke, and the cost per pack. The 21 bottom set of lines are -- and that's one pack a day, the top 22 set of lines. The bottom four lines is assuming if somebody 23 smokes two packs a day. If 1,000 -- if there are 1,000 adult 24 smokers in Kerr County, each smoking one pack of cigarettes a 25 day, there is a revenue stream of $1,825,000 leaving the 9-20-10 16 1 county every year. 3,000 smokers, one pack a day, the 2 revenue stream leaving -- leaving the county, coming out of 3 our pockets and leaving the county, $5,475,000. With a 4 population of about 40,000 -- I don't even know what the 5 adult population of Kerr County is. Anybody know what the -- 6 roughly the adult population of our county is? Let's say 7 20,000. Is that reasonable? Just -- probably not? 8 AUDIENCE: I think 25,000 total, so -- 9 AUDIENCE: That's just for the city. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: We have a problem with the reporter 11 taking it down with six people talking. 12 MR. DRAKE: I'm sorry. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: One at a time, please. 14 MR. DRAKE: Okay. Let me just say that if our 15 population is 20,000 adults, and the proportion of smokers in 16 this county is the same as the nationwide proportion, we have 17 5,000 adult smokers in this county. So, 5,000 adult smokers, 18 each smoking one pack a day, there's $9,125,000 leaving the 19 county every year. If they're smoking two packs a day, 20 that's $18,250,000 leaving this county. I'm not going to 21 stand here this morning and take your time with my proposals 22 for how to deal with this, but I think that by identifying a 23 revenue stream of this magnitude, we could, among ourselves, 24 with all of our good minds here, come up with some way to tap 25 at least a small portion of that revenue stream beyond what 9-20-10 17 1 may already -- I don't know if the county imposes taxes at 2 this point, but I think that there are things that can be 3 done. And the reason I am confident of this -- I just want 4 to say as one aside -- back in the early 1980's I founded a 5 company called the Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company, the 6 first organic cigarette manufacturer in the country. That 7 company is now worth $600 million a year in sales, and it 8 demonstrated that a very, very small operation that is based 9 on tobacco as a revenue source can generate tremendous 10 revenues. 11 I'll end by saying at the bottom of this page here, 12 I have a question. Commissioners, will you vote now here 13 today to impanel a volunteer citizens' group to study whether 14 or not these, and I might say other recommendations that will 15 come forward today, can and should be implemented, and that 16 panel report back to the Commissioners in 30 days, and -- and 17 you will suspend action on the proposed budget until that 18 date? I ask that in the name of all those here who feel that 19 there -- there can be solutions; that those solutions need to 20 be reasonable. They need to be based in fact. But I think 21 that letting this budget go forward unexamined, as it is, is 22 a disservice not only to the people here, living here in the 23 county today, but to the people who will come to live in this 24 county in the future. Thank you. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, sir. 9-20-10 18 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Judge, can we get 2 Mr. Drake's address? 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Your address, Mr. Drake, is 317 4 Sidney Baker South? 5 MR. DRAKE: That's my mailing address, sir, yes. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: All right, sir. 7 MR. DRAKE: And at the bottom of the handout is my 8 e-mail address. If anybody wants to contact me with the idea 9 of perhaps we should all get together and -- and have a 10 discussion of this, let's have a cup of coffee and do that. 11 Thank you, sir. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, sir. Ronald Connelly? 13 MR. CONNELLY: Good morning, Judge. Morning, 14 Commissioners. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Your address, sir? 16 MR. CONNELLY: Sir? 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Your address? 18 MR. CONNELLY: I wanted to speak to you about 19 taxes, and -- in the county here. There's a couple things I 20 need to say. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: I need for you to give the reporter 22 your address. 23 MR. CONNELLY: Oh. It's 160 Poehnert Lane. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you. 25 MR. CONNELLY: Kerr County. I'm -- I'm against 9-20-10 19 1 this, because, you know, right now the country's in bad 2 shape. People are -- most of the people in this community 3 are retired, and -- and as a retired person, I -- I had to 4 pay for my own insurance, had to pay for my retirement, 5 dollar and a half an hour for each one of them. And upon my 6 retirement from the local -- I lost all my insurance. You 7 know, it's not in effect any more. And I get $183 a month 8 for all the service of 20 years. And I just don't think that 9 anybody that's getting any kind of insurance or any kind of 10 retirement should be getting it for free. I think that it 11 should be something you participate in, and something that it 12 would be worthwhile for you for. And I -- that's about all I 13 had to say, except there's a lot of retired people like me 14 that don't have an excess of money, and we have to struggle 15 to stay above water, and don't worry about wages. And if you 16 think that you -- you're not going to be able to keep your 17 people, you put an ad in the paper; this place would be full 18 of people trying to get your jobs. And that's about all I 19 have to say. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, sir. Scott Clay? 21 MR. CLAY: Gentlemen, ladies, Scott Clay, 440 Twin 22 Springs Road North. I just have two observations or 23 thoughts. My pedestrian knowledge of benefits and 24 compensation would -- would make me extrapolate out that if 25 you have an employee earning a certain amount of money, the 9-20-10 20 1 cost to the company or taxpayers, as it were, you take that 2 compensation or wage and multiply it by about 1.8, and that 3 would cover your pensions, your benefits, your Social 4 Security match, wages, et cetera, et cetera. And in the 5 private sector, it's about 1.6, because the private sector 6 will -- the private sector employee will put in about a 7 dollar to, say, a 401(k), where a good Fortune 500 company 8 will put in a 50-cent match. In the public sector, you don't 9 really fund your own retirement. So, that's how you 10 extrapolate out those numbers. 11 So, for example, I saw in the paper a 12 $32,000-a-year income for a county employee. Multiply that 13 out, you come out to about $58,000 cost to the public. If 14 the department heads sat down with their people and went 15 through this type of thing line by line, I don't know if it 16 would make them feel a lot better if they're making $32,000 a 17 year and possibly wouldn't get a raise, but they might 18 understand really what the cost to the public and what their 19 benefit may be. Because, for example, an employee that 20 retires, has 25 years of retirement, gets, say, an average 21 $30,000-a-year pension, that's three-quarters of a million 22 dollars per employee for retirement. So, if they just -- you 23 know, if the department heads just went over, "This is what 24 your job is worth to you," say, for example, $58,000, maybe 25 they'll feel better. Maybe they won't. Maybe that's low. 9-20-10 21 1 Maybe your studies will say, "Wow, we're really shafting our 2 county people. We got to get them up." That's the way it 3 goes. I don't mind being fair. 4 The other observation I had, which bothered me a 5 little bit -- and I may be wrong on this, so if I am, don't 6 pay any attention -- was I saw in the paper that there was 7 going to be possibly 10 positions possibly let go or -- or 8 eliminated. And I thought to myself, let's just assume this 9 is a $25,000 position, not a super-important position for the 10 county to -- to cover the responsibilities and demands of the 11 public. So I'm thinking, if you got 10 positions at 25,000 12 bucks that you could do without, that's a quarter million 13 dollars. Why were they funded to begin with? I mean, if the 14 county can function without the 10 positions, why did they 15 exist to begin with? That kind of bothered me. You're on 16 the inside. You know, if those positions were necessary and 17 now they're not, I'm not going to make a decision on that. 18 We elect you and pay you to make those decisions, then let 19 you know what we think of your decisions at the voting booth. 20 But that was just a couple observations I had. I don't know 21 if that'll do any good or not, but it makes me feel better. 22 (Laughter.) 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, sir. 24 MR. CLAY: Thank you. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Barbara Connelly? 9-20-10 22 1 MS. CONNELLY: I'm Barbara Connelly, 160 Poehnert 2 Lane, Comfort, Texas, but I do live in Kerr County. I'm not 3 as well up on this as this gentleman and this gentleman, but 4 we made our mind up that we're going to be in the future. I 5 just got this this morning, and I'm kind of appalled at some 6 of the -- you know, one salary in here is going from 37 -- 7 going 59 to 62, and they only work two days a week. Now, 8 hey, that's a -- 9 AUDIENCE: That's a good job. 10 MS. CONNELLY: That's a good job, two days a week. 11 And $400,000 for indigent health care? You know, I have to 12 pay for my own insurance. If we wouldn't give all these 13 illegals such good health care, maybe they would go home. Or 14 give them, you know, free medical and free this and free 15 that. You know, you have an illegal here right now that's 16 been prosecuted for murder, and our tax people are going to 17 pay for his appeal. They come into the attorney's offices; 18 they get a free attorney. But you give some woman out here 19 who's a single mom, who may be on welfare, whatever, and her 20 deadbeat husband is not paying his child support, they got to 21 come up with 1,500 bucks up front before they'll even talk to 22 them. Somehow that doesn't seem fair to me, when we're 23 giving all these, you know, drug dealers and drug people and, 24 you know, alcoholics and whatever free legal fees, and taking 25 care of them, whether they want a dentist or health care. 9-20-10 23 1 You know, it's just -- like I say, I just -- just 2 took a few minutes to look over this, and I'm just appalled 3 at some of the costs. And employees should have to pay for 4 their own retirement. We paid for ours. Wasn't all that 5 great. You know, Social Security ain't all that great, you 6 know. Retirement really sucks, if you want to know the truth 7 of it. But I'm just now beginning -- becoming aware of 8 what's going on nationally. And I've been lax; I'm guilty of 9 not paying attention, but starting a few months ago, I'm in 10 it 100 percent for every local election, every national 11 election, whatever I can do, whatever my family can do to get 12 this country back to its conservative roots where we ought to 13 be, and not all this free stuff for freeloaders. Thank you. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, ma'am. Don Temple? 15 MR. TEMPLE: Morning, gentlemen. Don Temple, 2605 16 Junction Highway. Just a couple of notes today, that I think 17 some things need to be clarified. I think we all assume and 18 know that Kerr County only has one way to offset its budget, 19 and that's with tax increases. I'm a businessman in Kerr 20 County. I really don't like having to pay tax increases, but 21 I will if I have to. There's several things I see wrong 22 right now with the city and the county. City of Kerrville, 23 they can offset their budget by increasing fees, such as 24 water and sewer, which they did, over $20 per month, per 25 account. They also -- they also sent over a $130,000 9-20-10 24 1 increase to the county in EMS services, and if you guys 2 didn't pay it, they were going to cut it off. That's not 3 right. 4 The other shortfall is, why does the county furnish 5 all animal control for the city, at their cost? The city is 6 mandated by the state, on their population and size of the 7 city, to have animal control. We're paying about $130,000 a 8 year; the city doesn't send anything back to us. You ought 9 to stand your ground there and make the city take care of 10 their deal. We've got $200,000 that you guys supplement the 11 library with a year. That's a lot of money. I don't even go 12 to the library. I think we need to have one, but that's a 13 lot of money. Y'all supplement the fire department $190,000 14 a year, and they're charging you $130,000 a year increase in 15 EMS. Something doesn't balance there either. The county 16 pays for every court cost that -- for everything that comes 17 to the court, including lawsuits, divorce, all criminal cases 18 Class B and above. And you got a city judge that won't even 19 come to the county -- or to the county jail to magistrate a 20 prisoner. What's wrong with that? Questions you should be 21 asking. 22 All costs to the Kerr County jail, they're paid by 23 the county. Every cost. 96 percent of the arrests are made 24 by the city. I know the argument is, well, the city people 25 are taxpayers too. Well, you know, I'm a taxpayer, county 9-20-10 25 1 and city, but if P.D.'s going to go out and make 96 percent 2 of all arrests a year, which are about 4,000, there should be 3 some kind of money consideration there. And it is about $36 4 a day per prisoner. If they fronted us 15 times 4,000, think 5 of the offset. I know he's got his calculator running back 6 there, but he should, and you shouldn't wait until we have to 7 increase before you think about that. There's 44 deputies, 8 certified police officers in Kerr County. There's 55 9 certified police officers in Kerrville. Kerrville's 14 10 square miles. Kerr County's 1,100. Start cutting services, 11 and when they call 911 out in the county, who's going to come 12 out? Sure ain't going to be P.D. Think about that one. You 13 got a county sheriff that makes 30,000 less than a police 14 chief. Police chief here in Kerrville doesn't even have a 15 jail. I don't understand that. 16 Had a big write-up about an exercise room out at 17 the annex. By the way, I went through the annex; it's a nice 18 facility out there. I don't mind paying for stuff like that. 19 Had a big hoopla about deputies and jailers exercising, 20 needing to stay fit to work prisoners and stuff and make 21 arrests. Nowhere did I find anybody, even you guys, clarify, 22 stating that that thing was going to be paid for out of 23 seizures. That's money that we don't have to pay. That's 24 seizure funds, so clarify that. Also, the fact that P.D. 25 gets paid one hour per day while they're on duty; it's called 9-20-10 26 1 on-duty time, P.D. and the fire department, EMS, to exercise 2 and stay physically fit. Sheriff's only asking for one hour 3 per week, one hour per month. It's nothing. Let's see, what 4 else we got here? City talked about their layoffs and 5 savings. They give in to your raises. I'd really like to 6 know what the actual numbers are on the layoffs from the 7 city, just for my own benefit. 8 Some round numbers, EMS increase sent over to the 9 county was 130,000. Animal Control costs about 130,000; 10 that's with staff, vehicles, and facility. The library 11 supplement, 200,000. Fire department supplement, 190. You 12 could have anywhere from 70,000 to 140,000 in prisoner 13 supplement by the city on their arrests. And, you know, you 14 put all this stuff together, it's over $800,000. That's real 15 money. I think that's kind of close to the number you guys 16 were talking about on where you got shortfalls and stuff. I 17 got another thing to state, too, and it's nothing personal, 18 but you guys are paid well per hour for what y'all do as 19 county commissioners. And I think the couple hours a week 20 that you work, four times a month, that's too much money. 21 So, you need to think about that. You all set your rates and 22 your salaries and stuff; maybe you can also set a decrease to 23 help the county out. And I hope that you ran for office to 24 help the county out. And if you didn't, my name's Don 25 Temple, and I'll see you at the next election. Thank you. 9-20-10 27 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, sir. 2 (Applause.) 3 JUDGE TINLEY: That's all the participation forms 4 that I have at present. Any more? 5 THE CLERK: No, sir. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Is there anyone else that wishes to 7 be heard with respect to the proposed Kerr County 2010 tax 8 rate? Yes, sir. Come forward, give us your name and 9 address, and tell us what's on your mind. 10 MR. WRIGHT: I'm Brian Wright, Center Point. And 11 basically, I'm just asking that the Commissioners and the 12 Judge think outside the box. We obviously had some community 13 members that have gone outside the box already, and I think 14 there might be some great opportunities to utilize the 15 community to come up with some ideas about what you gentlemen 16 are having to struggle with. So, good luck. Thank you. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, sir. Anyone else that 18 wishes to be heard with respect to the proposed 2010 Kerr 19 County tax rate? Anyone else? Here's your opportunity. 20 Seeing no one else seeking an opportunity to be heard, I will 21 close the public hearing with respect to the proposed Kerr 22 County 2010 tax rate. I thank all of you for attending. We 23 appreciate your participation, and we look forward to your 24 continuing discourse with us with regard to your county 25 government. Thank you very much. 9-20-10 28 1 (The public hearing was concluded at 10:45 a.m., and the regular Commissioners Court meeting was 2 reopened.) 3 - - - - - - - - - - 4 (Discussion off the record.) 5 JUDGE TINLEY: At this time, I will reconvene the 6 Commissioners Court meeting, and we will go to Item 2 on the 7 agenda; consider, discuss, take appropriate action to set 8 date and time to adopt the Kerr County 2010 tax rate. 9 Ms. Bolin? 10 MS. BOLIN: Well, we need to set this up for either 11 the 27th or the 29th. I think the 27th is what you and I 12 discussed this morning, Judge. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Mm-hmm. I've publicly stated that I 14 wanted to knock down both the budget and the tax rate finally 15 at our regular meeting on the 27th, which is a week from 16 today. 17 MS. BOLIN: Correct. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: And I have here a note of 10:20 a.m. 19 Next Monday, the 27th. 20 MS. BOLIN: Correct. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We need a motion? 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So moved. 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Second. 9-20-10 29 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded to set the 2 date and time to adopt the Kerr County 2010 tax rate for 3 September the 27th, 2010, at 10:20 a.m. Any question or 4 discussion on that motion? All in favor of the motion, 5 signify by raising your right hand. 6 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 7 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 8 (No response.) 9 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. Let's go to 10 Item 3; consider, discuss, take appropriate action to set 11 date and time to adopt the 2010 Lake Ingram Road District tax 12 rate. Ms. Bolin, the note I have here is that you've asked 13 that for the same date, September 27th, 2010, at 10:25 -- 14 MS. BOLIN: Yes, sir. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: -- a.m.; is that correct? 16 MS. BOLIN: Yes. 17 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: So moved. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded to set the 20 date and time to adopt the 2010 Lake Ingram Road District tax 21 rate for September the 27th, 2010, at 10:25 a.m. Any 22 question or discussion on that motion? All in favor of the 23 motion, signify by raising your right hand. 24 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 25 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 9-20-10 30 1 (No response.) 2 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. 3 MS. BOLIN: Thank you. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Item 4, to consider, discuss, take 5 appropriate action to certify and ratify date and time for 6 public hearing on fiscal year 2010-11 Kerr County budget. 7 The notation I have here is for that to be at 10 a.m. on 8 September the 27th, 2010. 9 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: So moved. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for the 12 ratification of the date and time for public hearing on 13 fiscal year 2010-11 Kerr County budget be set for September 14 27th, 2010, at 10 a.m. Question or discussion on that 15 motion? All in favor of that motion, signify by raising your 16 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. We'll go to 21 Item 5; to consider, discuss, take appropriate action to set 22 date and time to adopt fiscal year 2010-11 Kerr County 23 budget. The notation I have is for that to be set for 24 September 27th, 2010, at 10:15 a.m. 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: 27th or 25th? 9-20-10 31 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: 27th. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: September 27th, 2010, at 10:15 a.m. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So moved. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded to set the 6 date and time to adopt the Fiscal Year 2010-11 Kerr County 7 budget for September 27th, 2010, at 10:15 a.m. Question or 8 discussion on that motion? All in favor of that 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. Gentlemen, 14 that's all I have on the agenda for today. Anything else 15 that needs to come before the Court at this time? Hearing 16 nothing further, we'll be adjourned. 17 (Commissioners Court adjourned at 10:54 a.m.) 18 - - - - - - - - - - 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 9-20-10 32 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 23rd day of September, 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 9-20-10