1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT 9 Regular Session 10 Monday, July 11, 2011 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 GUY R. OVERBY, Commissioner Pct. 2 JONATHAN LETZ, Commissioner Pct. 3 25 BRUCE OEHLER, Commissioner Pct. 4 2 1 I N D E X July 11, 2011 2 PAGE --- Visitors' Input 4 3 --- Commissioners' Comments 11 4 1.1 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action for Kerr County Road and Bridge Department to fill 5 two Road Maintenance Technician positions 15 6 1.2 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action concerning adoption of Child Safety Fees by 7 Kerr County as permitted by Texas Department of Transportation 19 8 1.3 Consider/discuss pending or proposed Interlocal 9 Agreements with City of Kerrville for various services and/or operations; take any appropriate 10 action thereon 23 11 1.5 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on request from Kerrville Garden Club to be added 12 to the nonprofit list for use of Union Church building in order to receive reduced rental fees 28 13 1.4 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 14 request unclaimed capital credits received from Electric Cooperative pursuant to Section 74.602, 15 Texas Property Code; authorize County Judge to prepare letter of request 29 16 1.8 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on 17 HVAC at Ingram Annex -- 18 1.10 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on agreement between Kerr County and Freese and 19 Nichols regarding professional services for Flat Rock and Ingram Dam grouting project 30 20 1.11 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 21 approve and implement use of Vehicle Accident Information Sheet and add same to Kerr County 22 Policy Handbook 33 23 1.6 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on request for expenditure of $1,861.59 for rental 24 of seven light towers from Sunbelt Rentals for KerrFest for the outdoor arena August 5-6, 2011 46 25 3 1 I N D E X (Continued) July 11, 2011 2 PAGE 3 1.7 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to waive rental fees for tables and chairs for 4 KerrFest on August 5-6, 2011 55 5 1.9 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action regarding City of Ingram offer to purchase 6 real property (Executive Session as needed) 56 7 1.12 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to reconsider Court Order #32202 which approved 8 personnel position changes/vacancies, replacement and compensation in the County Clerk's office 58 9 1.13 Consider/discuss, approve the adjustment of 10 compensation of Dawn Lantz from 18.1 to 18.3 effective July 1, 2011, to reflect additional 11 duties 65 12 1.14 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to solicit additional bids with alternate 13 specifications for lighting at the outdoor arena at the HCYEC; award bid to lowest bidder 14 from previously submitted bids 65 15 4.1 Pay Bills 69 4.2 Budget Amendments 71 16 4.3 Late Bills -- 4.4 Approve and Accept Monthly Reports 74 17 5.1 Reports from Commissioners/Liaison Committee 18 Assignments 75 5.2 Reports from Elected Officials/Department Heads 77 19 1.15 Consultation with County Attorney concerning 20 possible litigation concerning floodplain violations at 7261 Highway 27, Comfort, Texas 21 (Executive Session) 86 22 3.1 Action as may be required on matters discussed in Executive Session 87 23 --- Adjourned 88 24 25 4 1 On Monday, July 11, 2011, at 9:00 a.m., a regular 2 meeting of the Kerr County Commissioners Court was held in 3 the Commissioners' Courtroom, Kerr County Courthouse, 4 Kerrville, Texas, and the following proceedings were had in 5 open court: 6 P R O C E E D I N G S 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. 8 Let me call to order this regularly scheduled meeting of the 9 Kerr County Commissioners Court posted and scheduled for this 10 date and time, Monday, July 11th, 2011, at 9 a.m. It is that 11 time now. Commissioner Overby? 12 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Let's stand for a word of 13 prayer, please. 14 (Prayer and pledge of allegiance.) 15 JUDGE TINLEY: At this time, if there's any member 16 of the audience or public that wishes to be heard on any 17 matter which is not a listed agenda item, this is your 18 opportunity to come forward and tell us your name and address 19 and tell us what's on your mind. If you wish to be heard on 20 an agenda item, we'd prefer that you fill out a participation 21 form. There should be some located at the rear of the room. 22 If, for some reason, you wish to be heard on an agenda item 23 and you have not filled out a participation form, that's fine 24 too. Just get my attention in some manner and I'll see that 25 you do have an opportunity to be heard. But right now, if 7-11-11 5 1 there's any member of the audience or public that wishes to 2 be heard on any matter which is not a listed agenda item, 3 this is your opportunity to come forward and tell us what's 4 on your mind. Hi, Chief. How you are you? 5 MR. OJEDA: Judge, thank you very much for allowing 6 me to address the Court. I am here on behalf of the 7 Kerrville Fire Department. First of all, let me get on the 8 record. My name is Robert Ojeda; I'm the Fire Chief for City 9 of Kerrville, and also serve as the Emergency Management 10 Coordinator for Kerr County. I am here to simply thank you 11 for a decision that y'all made last month in banning 12 fireworks in the county of Kerr. I'm here to report to you 13 that during the entire 4th of July weekend, the City of 14 Kerrville Fire Department did not respond to any fire 15 incident where fireworks were involved, and I just want to 16 simply thank you for taking the initiative and looking 17 forward, and preserving life and property by banning 18 fireworks during this drought time, that we're certainly 19 experiencing just a record drought. I also had an 20 opportunity to see and speak to Danny Smith, the chief for 21 the Center Point Fire Department, and he too informed me that 22 they did not respond to any incident that involved fireworks. 23 I also want to apologize to anyone on the Court if 24 they felt slighted by the City of Kerrville going forward 25 with their fireworks display on the -- on the Monday, the 4th 7-11-11 6 1 of July. That was a very difficult decision on my part, as 2 well as the City, in deciding whether or not to go forward 3 with the fireworks display, simply because many of the cities 4 and counties throughout the state of Texas were canceling 5 their fireworks displays. Our concern -- or my primary 6 concern was that we have always encouraged our citizens to 7 attend a professional fireworks display, one that is under a 8 controlled environment, where we can stop it at any time that 9 we feel like a dangerous situation is occurring. And so we 10 were afraid that if we were to cancel our fireworks display, 11 that the citizens would take fireworks into their own hands 12 and decide to utilize them, which puts it out of our control, 13 and so we did decide to move forward with the fireworks 14 display. It was attended by a record number individuals 15 there. It was a very fine display. The organization that 16 put it on was very professional. It was a new organization, 17 and we were very pleased with their professionalism, the way 18 they handled this whole situation during our concerns of -- 19 of the situation. 20 I also want to thank -- publicly thank the Ingram 21 Fire Department for assisting us with that fireworks display. 22 They brought a crew on a brush truck in order to assist us 23 with anything that might occur during that display. And so 24 that's all I'm here for, is just to personally thank you for 25 making that decision. I know it was a tough decision on your 7-11-11 7 1 part as well, and -- but I want to thank you on behalf of the 2 citizens of Kerrville for making that decision. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, Chief. 4 MR. OJEDA: Thank you very much. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you, sir. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Any other member of the public or 7 audience? Yes, ma'am. Come forward; give us your name and 8 address and tell us what's on your mind. 9 MS. CARLSON: Hi, I am Traci Carlson. The Judge 10 and I have already met, but I just wanted to introduce myself 11 very quickly. I am the new Chamber president for the 12 Kerrville area Chamber of Commerce, and I just wanted to say 13 I look forward to meeting with all of you, and I'll attend 14 the meetings regularly, so I hope we can work together. And 15 it's been nice talking with the Judge, so I look forward to 16 working with all of you. Thanks. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Appreciate you being here. Thank 18 you, Traci. Anyone else? Yeah, Mr. Gonzales. Come forward 19 and give us your name and address; tell us what's on your 20 mind. 21 MR. GONZALES: Joel Gonzales, 361 Stoneleigh Road, 22 Center Point, Texas. I didn't see this on the agenda here, 23 but did you -- did you have a great time, first of all? 24 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Wonderful time. I want to 25 make some comments in a second. You go ahead. 7-11-11 8 1 MR. GONZALES: Okay. One, I appreciate what you 2 guys have done, what you gentlemen have been doing for Center 3 Point and our park; especially you, Commissioner Overby, and 4 your support and everything like that. Everybody has -- this 5 past weekend we had a little shindig out there; it went on as 6 well here at the park. I cranked up some music in between 7 time; we just had a great time. What Commissioner Overby has 8 been doing working with Friends of Center Point is excellent. 9 I want to thank you for that, and I'll keep on thanking you. 10 We have gotten very much positive response, what the park has 11 been doing, just the little bit that y'all have allowed us to 12 do. We want to continue doing more. In September we are 13 planning to have a fundraiser. And, of course, we haven't 14 gotten with Commissioner Overby to get it on the court -- to 15 get y'all's approval, but we want to have a Labor Day weekend 16 fundraiser, and on September the 16th, we want to have also a 17 fundraiser there at the park. We're going to talk to -- 18 further with Commissioner Overby as to what's going to happen 19 and what we want happening. 20 Center Point, as I -- last time I was here, you 21 know, I said we're tired of being a stepchild, and we are. 22 There -- there's many of us that -- that are coming together 23 now. No, we don't plan on being a town like Ingram or 24 anything like that, you know. It's -- but we appreciate 25 everything that's happening, what y'all are starting to do. 7-11-11 9 1 There is a new breed, as I said the last time, here in Center 2 Point that want -- wants our little town to be known. We 3 want to bring festivals there. We want to do a lot for our 4 little town, rather than just seeing it go down and down and 5 down, and having it industrialized all the way around. Many 6 people have looked on us as -- Friends of Center Point as the 7 new organization that is working with not just the park, but 8 we want to do more. And we want to let all of y'all know 9 that we -- all my -- the people that are on the board, 10 they're not here; they're out of town. Ms. Lovett takes care 11 of our son. But everybody's out of town except me; I always 12 try to be here and talk to you guys and give you a heads-up. 13 And I want to personally invite y'all one day to 14 come and take a walk with me at the park, you know. Yeah, I 15 know everybody's been down there, but we would like to 16 personally ask each and every one of y'all to take a walk 17 with us, you know, and get to know us better on an outside 18 basis, and what we want to do with Center Point is basically 19 in that park -- at the park. But I want to thank y'all 20 personally for what y'all are doing, what y'all have approved 21 so far, and hopefully what y'all will approve in the -- in 22 the future. We also would like -- you know, we asked about a 23 survey the last time. We need the survey, because we want 24 to -- we want to put volleyball courts out there. We want to 25 do -- you know, put picnic tables. There's a bunch of dead 7-11-11 10 1 area there that's just going to waste that people would just 2 love to use. Yes, we're in the floodplain zone, but New 3 Orleans is in the floodplain zone and they rebuild and 4 rebuild and rebuild. And I continue hearing, "You're in the 5 floodplain zone." Well, they rebuilt. Why can't we? And 6 we're just a little park. 7 And there is ways to structure the bathrooms that 8 we want out there, things like that, to structure that all up 9 on top where the water hardly ever touches. Yes, it will 10 touch when it becomes a 100-year flood. You know, when that 11 100-year flood comes around, it will touch up on top, but so 12 far these floods have not touched them. And that's -- like I 13 say, and hopefully, again, y'all will accept this invitation 14 to come and walk the park with us. I actually got five 15 kayaks that I can get; let's make it six, you know, if Pat 16 Tinley wants to -- if the Judge wants to come along. 17 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I'd love to see these guys in 18 kayaks, man. That would be worth a picture. 19 MR. GONZALES: I thank y'all very much. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Do you have life jackets with -- 21 MR. GONZALES: Yes, we have life jackets. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: -- with the kayaks? 23 MR. GONZALES: Yes, sir. Yes, sir. But the people 24 of Center Point have really enjoyed the park changing. I go 25 out there on a volunteer basis. We clean up the park. I 7-11-11 11 1 know every weekend, Sunday afternoon, Sunday evening if I get 2 the chance, I go out there with my own personal trash bags 3 and start picking up the trash. We need more trash cans and 4 stuff like that. We need a lot of things. But I want to let 5 y'all know that we are strong, we are doing good, and the 6 public does enjoy what they're seeing so far. Thank you. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, sir. 8 MR. GONZALES: Thank you, Commissioners. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Anyone else? Seeing no one else 10 coming forward, let's move on. Commissioner Overby? 11 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Yeah, I just want to follow 12 up again what Joel just said. I had the opportunity to go 13 out this weekend and enjoy looking at the -- and 14 participating in the Center Point activities that were out 15 there. Wonderful parade. They had 50 folks, 50 different 16 floats that were out there at the parade this weekend, and 17 lots of horses. Man, I tell you, the horses -- I mean, I was 18 going to -- you know, we were really represented well. But 19 it was exciting. I think the passion that Joel and friends 20 of the Center Point community are out there trying to do, I 21 -- I applaud what you guys are trying to do. The Center 22 Point community lined up the streets, and they were out there 23 this weekend, and had a great time. 24 I was glad to hear the Chief talk about 25 corresponding, talking with Danny Smith, our Center Point 7-11-11 12 1 Volunteer Fire Chief that's out there. I talked with Danny 2 and I asked him how the numbers were. And I think you know, 3 Commissioner Oehler had made some comments about big numbers 4 out at the different other volunteer fire events this year. 5 I asked Danny how was it coming this year. He says it's just 6 -- huge crowd. And I know Diane Bolin was serving lots of 7 folks out there. There were others out there working. But 8 the whole thing was done very well, and it was packed. And 9 just enjoyed the day out there on Saturday -- on Saturday, 10 and the community out there just really enjoyed it. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Anything else? 12 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: That's it. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner Letz? 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Just, if I can, a quick 15 follow-up on Center Point, just to kind of -- there's a lot 16 of people that are buying houses and fixing things up there; 17 old families are buying and fixing up. I know the Mostys 18 have fixed up some of their old family houses. Dixon lives 19 out there, and Richard, I think, is living out there in one 20 of the -- his mother's house, or someone's fixed up that 21 house, and down in downtown Center Point. So, Center Point 22 is happening; it's really -- it's revitalizing itself, and 23 that's good to see. I spend a lot of -- I drive through 24 there a lot and spend a lot of time in Center Point as well. 25 Other than that, I'm just really difficult to get going; had 7-11-11 13 1 a good weekend. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner Oehler? 3 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Not really much of anything, 4 other than the annex seems to be doing well, and they're 5 very, very busy out there. Two clerks now most of the time, 6 and people seem to like it a lot better. And, of course, it 7 has a lot more space. And look forward to seeing where it 8 goes from here. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Commissioner Baldwin? 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No, sir, thank you. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: The Center Point situation, I was 12 down -- down there early afternoon yesterday and came across 13 the low-water crossing. Lots of folks up in the park, kids 14 and adults swimming in the river. Really seemed to be 15 enjoying themselves and having a good time. I managed to 16 make it there before they cut off the barbecue serving on 17 Saturday. I was running a little late, but I got there for 18 that, thank goodness. But all in all, they seemed to have a 19 real big crowd down there on Saturday and Sunday. They were 20 just -- seemed to be enjoying that park immensely. 21 We had another event here Saturday morning. The 22 event was -- was termed the Crossing of America. It's to 23 call attention to our wartime heroes, wounded warriors and so 24 forth, to -- to bolster those projects, call national 25 attention to them. There are some specially-painted and 7-11-11 14 1 outfitted jeeps that began a journey from San Diego. It was 2 launched on the aircraft carrier Midway in San Diego, and 3 these jeeps are moving across the country. There are 4 veterans groups and individuals sponsoring every mile of 5 their journey, where they will end up in New York on 9/11. 6 And I'm given to understand that it may be that they deviated 7 from their route slightly in order to come through Kerrville 8 and then dip down into San Antonio, specifically for the 9 purpose of -- of honoring Corporal Jacob Leicht, who, as all 10 of you know, family lived here and he was the 1,000th killed 11 in action in Afghanistan. 12 And we had a local AMVETS chapter that was 13 organized here, the Jacob Leicht Memorial Chapter Number 14 1000. And they told Corporal Leicht's story at the launching 15 of this journey at the aircraft carrier, so it was 16 appropriate that they stop here in Kerrville. And Corporal 17 Leicht's widow, Leslie, drove that jeep from here in 18 Kerrville down to San Antonio, where they had another 19 gathering and celebration, and there were a number of 20 veterans groups here at 9:30 Saturday morning for that event, 21 for her taking off and going that part of the journey. I 22 think it was a -- it's an appropriate thing, given our recent 23 burden that's been placed upon our armed forces, and 24 recognizing them for the sacrifices that they have endured. 25 But all in all, it was -- it was good to be there for -- for 7-11-11 15 1 her taking off and doing that leg, and we appreciate the 2 veterans organizations' participation. Let's get on with our 3 agenda. We had a 9 a.m. item, which, of course, it's a bit 4 past that now. Consider, discuss, take appropriate action 5 for Kerr County Road and Bridge Department to fill two Road 6 Maintenance Technician positions. Mr. Odom. 7 MR. ODOM: Good morning, Judge. 8 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Morning. 9 MR. ODOM: Just here recently, I listened to 10 everybody else ask for permission to fill positions, so I 11 thought it was appropriate to come to the Court and get a 12 direction whether -- whether or not I could fill two 13 positions. I have two vacant 14-1's. One of the positions 14 was created recently when Doug retired, and I've had one, and 15 I was asked to hold it, so I've been holding that. But now, 16 as you've read my item that I sent y'all, I have to displace 17 people as we go along. I have three people that are out now, 18 and all due to muscle sprains, so I've got a 14-1 with an 19 ankle sprain; I don't know when he'll be back, maybe another 20 month. I've got a supervisor out with an elbow, and a 21 mechanic out with a sprained elbow. So, I'm down to -- it's 22 tight, and I can't respond to things as I should, or I feel 23 like I should. I just don't have the backup, and when 24 someone's down, there's no backup to move around. So, I 25 would ask the Court for direction. Can I fill this -- these 7-11-11 16 1 two positions, or one position or what? 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Mr. Odom, the concern I have based 3 upon the information you gave us is the safety issue if 4 someone is out there by themselves and having some sort of 5 incident or accident, and there not being someone there to 6 assist or to call for assistance. That -- that's my primary 7 concern, is the safety issue. So, personally, I think maybe 8 letting you go ahead and adding -- adding one of the two 9 would be appropriate for that reason. 10 MR. ODOM: Okay, I appreciate it. I -- the 11 gentleman that's out there is Deter, one of my better ones. 12 He's been doing it for years, so that's the only reason we 13 have him out there, and we try to keep contact with him to 14 make sure things are all right. But I appreciate that. I 15 can fill that at least one 14-1 position, then. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, that's my personal thinking. 17 Now -- 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And the -- and the slots are 19 budgeted in this budget? 20 MR. ODOM: They are budgeted, sir. As a matter of 21 fact, I've looked at, and if I fill this, it's still a 22 savings into next year's budget. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Mm-hmm. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: I don't care how experienced that 25 man is. Incidents can always happen. 7-11-11 17 1 MR. ODOM: Well, that's what's happened. Murphy's 2 law has occurred with three people. I mean, removing 3 something out of the trailers and -- and catching that elbow, 4 and then cutting in this hot sun and straining a muscle or 5 ligaments, it happens. But, unfortunately, it happens at the 6 wrong time. Murphy's law. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: On the -- the three that are 8 out on -- or are, I guess, out on injury, whatever you want 9 to call that, if they were -- when they come back, could you 10 do without that person? Or two people. Without those two 11 people? 12 MR. ODOM: No. One is going to be just to fill 13 back. I mean, I've got to have a side person, and then I've 14 got to have the backup, and that's what it was for, was 15 backup for everything. So, basically, I'm going to get back 16 in and one will go to Joe's crew, which is the catch-all; the 17 maintenance part, not a crew. But -- and the other one's 18 going to be a side person. 19 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: When was the vacancy created 20 by Doug's retirement? I know it was just -- it's not been 21 too long. 22 MR. ODOM: The end of May. 23 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Two months? 24 MR. ODOM: Yes, sir. 25 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: In that area, okay. 7-11-11 18 1 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I'll go along with one. I'd 2 hold the other one open. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: That was a motion, Commissioner? 5 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I guess it was. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. We have a motion and a second 7 to authorize -- 8 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I'm for that. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: -- the hiring of one -- 10 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: 14-1. 11 MR. ODOM: 14-1. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: -- Road Maintenance Technician, 14 13 position. Further question or discussion? 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I just -- I agree with the 15 Judge. I look at it as a safety issue as well, and you need 16 some help out there. 17 MR. ODOM: Yes, sir, I do. Thank y'all. I 18 appreciate it. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: All in favor, signify by raising 20 your right hand. 21 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 22 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 23 (No response.) 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion carries. Thank you, Mr. 25 Odom. 7-11-11 19 1 MR. ODOM: Yes, sir. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Let's go to Item 2; to consider, 3 discuss, take appropriate action concerning adoption of a 4 child safety fee by Kerr County as permitted by Texas 5 Department of Transportation. This is an annual deal, 6 gentlemen. You'll recall you've seen it before. It 7 authorizes us to adopt a fee not less than 50 cents, nor more 8 than $1.50 per vehicle registration for -- it's a child 9 safety fee. It's got to be -- the funds raised need to be 10 used for school crossing guards. In the past, we've -- we've 11 declined to adopt it. Here it is again. I just need to 12 certify to TexDOT whether our fee's going to remain the same 13 or whether we're going to add that one. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Personally, I want to add 15 it, but I don't know how you get from .50 to $1.50. What's 16 the recommended -- or what is everybody else doing? Or do 17 you go for the max, and -- 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah, most of them are doing 1.50. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I move we adopt the -- adopt 20 this fee at $1.50. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded to adopt 23 the child safety fee at $1.50 per registration. Further 24 question or discussion? 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Question on the -- on the use 7-11-11 20 1 of the funds. It says it has to be used for school crossing. 2 Can that be used as -- that function is done through our 3 Sheriff's Department and our constables, isn't it? Don't 4 y'all -- 5 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: We don't do school crossings, 6 and I don't believe any of the constables are. Most of 7 the -- the City did do some in town, but I think that most of 8 them are done by the schools themselves. They hire -- either 9 teachers stay late or whatever. They assign somebody to do 10 those. But the actual crossing guards, no, it isn't done by 11 us. 12 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: My question is, where are we 13 going to spend the money? Are we going to -- 14 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Are we going to give that to 15 the school districts to spend for safety issues with 16 children, or how's that work? 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, the funds are to be used to 18 provide school crossing guard services, with any remaining 19 money to be used for programs to enhance child safety, 20 health, or nutrition, including child abuse intervention and 21 prevention, drug and alcohol abuse prevention. But the -- 22 the first-line use is school crossing. You've got -- I don't 23 think they're using crossing guards out at Nimitz. They may 24 want to, and if in fact they do, we could -- if the school is 25 providing those, we could pick up part of that. Other -- 7-11-11 21 1 other schools out in the county, we got Center Point. The 2 Ingram schools are -- all those within the city of Ingram 3 proper, I think -- I think the ones where you'd use school 4 crossing guards would be. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I know the Nimitz one, if 6 you come through there early in the morning, there are a lot 7 of kids out on that road, and it's dark and you can't see. 8 And -- 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Mm-hmm. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: -- it's really dangerous. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Particularly in winter. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, particularly in 13 winter. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But I'm still unclear as to how 15 we spend it. I mean -- 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Pay those guards to do it. 17 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Do they become county 18 employees? 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No. Who's paying -- I just 20 want to make sure we have -- I guess we can start collecting 21 it and start building an account. But at some point during 22 the budget, we're going to need to go through it and figure 23 out how we're going to do this. 24 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: We need to have those -- 25 those schools to request funds for that, and I surely don't 7-11-11 22 1 want us to have more county employees -- 2 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Right. 3 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: -- that are school crossing 4 guards. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: I think it's probably best to 6 reimburse the schools for some of their costs that they incur 7 with that. 8 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Do we have any idea what that 9 -- what that might generate in revenue? 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'm sure Diane can tell you. 11 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Do you have any idea? 12 MS. BOLIN: I didn't hear your question, but -- 13 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: What would be the potential 14 revenue generated from this? 15 MS. BOLIN: That part I don't know. But I will 16 tell you that it would be our responsibility to disburse the 17 money, and it would have to be done every month, so I'm not 18 clear on exactly how it gets disbursed. And that's one thing 19 that I've been looking at, and I really didn't expect this on 20 here until the last of the month. So if we -- 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Want to defer on it? 22 MS. BOLIN: -- can get it back on the end of the 23 month, then I'll get the information and pull it together. I 24 do know the county can keep 10 percent, but it is a dedicated 25 fund, and so we'll have to be careful where that goes. But 7-11-11 23 1 if we can defer and put it on the end of the month, I will 2 finish up my research on it, and -- 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll withdraw my second. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'll withdraw my motion. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay, we'll defer on that item. 6 Let's go to Item 3; to consider, discuss, and -- and discuss 7 pending or proposed interlocal agreements with the City of 8 Kerrville for various services and/or operations, take any 9 appropriate action thereon. We have forwarded our proposed 10 drafts of those agreements that the County Attorney did over 11 to the City -- a week ago last Friday? 12 MR. HENNEKE: At least. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: I believe that was about the time 14 that that occurred. I've not heard anything back. Have you? 15 MR. HENNEKE: I had a brief conversation with 16 Mr. Parton on Friday afternoon. I was asking him if there 17 was any information I could report. Mr. Parton advised, of 18 course, that it is on the agenda for tomorrow night's City 19 Council; he's going to present those agreements that we 20 revised and sent them back over. I asked him if he 21 anticipated any major issues arising. I think there's still 22 some discussions to be had on the airport agreement. He 23 didn't have any -- he didn't express any concerns on the 24 language that we've been discussing for EMS and Animal 25 Control or library. And, you know, our discussion on the 7-11-11 24 1 fire service was just on getting the verbiage right to make 2 sure that we specifically identify the Kerrville First 3 Responder service area, which we're going to do by having a 4 map that specifically identifies what's part of that covered 5 area, and -- and to make sure that the coverage is provided 6 as necessary to respond to any emergency as appropriate to 7 protect the public and property. And we've just had some 8 discussions about verbiage, and I don't see any disagreements 9 that we had. It's just looking forward to today's meeting 10 and to their meeting tomorrow. It sounds like we're -- it's 11 positive and we're moving forward in a positive direction. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: They're on the agenda for tomorrow 13 night? 14 MR. HENNEKE: Yes, sir. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: You mentioned -- have you -- 16 are you aware if they have modified your revisions? 17 MR. HENNEKE: The Council has not met since the -- 18 my revisions to the draft were sent over, and I have not 19 received any staff revisions or edits from the staff. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I guess my question is, the 21 Judge and I met with Mayor Wampler and City Manager Todd 22 Parton about three weeks ago, and my understanding out of 23 that meeting was that the way the process was going to work 24 is that the attorneys were going to work it out, and then it 25 would go to the body for approval. And I hope the City isn't 7-11-11 25 1 changing the process and now going to send it back into the 2 -- into the Council and then, you know, debate these again. 3 That wasn't our agreement. Our agreement was to let the two 4 attorneys work out something that -- 'cause, I mean, I think 5 conceptually it's very clear what the intent of, certainly, 6 the Court is, and I thought what the City Council was. And I 7 just -- anyway, so if you visit with Mike Hayes or something, 8 you might mention to him that -- or, you know, the City 9 Manager, that that was -- 10 JUDGE TINLEY: And I had this very discussion with 11 the County Attorney, that we essentially -- I think the term 12 I used was "dropped it in yours and Mike's laps." 13 MR. HENNEKE: And -- and where we went from there 14 is I did -- you know, I did revise the agreement as I saw 15 that would be consistent with what the Court has expressed. 16 I know that y'all have not given any final approval to any 17 agreements. I sent them to Mr. Hayes promptly after the last 18 meeting, and was advised that they had received them and that 19 they were under review and discussion. And, you know, -- 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll be optimistic that 21 everything moves forward. 22 MR. HENNEKE: -- we'll see what the response is 23 tomorrow. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Sheriff? 25 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: We also have the one other 7-11-11 26 1 agreement, which is on the jail housing -- inmate housing 2 agreement, and I know that's been back and forth. I don't 3 believe the Court's actually seen it. The chief and I did 4 meet. The police chief and I came to an understanding on it. 5 It's been forwarded to Rob and to Mr. Hayes for them to work 6 out. My only issue is that I would like to get some kind of 7 resolution on that as soon as possible, because that's -- if 8 us and the City of Kerrville agree to that agreement, it's 9 the same exact agreement I'd like to send to the City of 10 Ingram, so that we can give them plenty of notice in their 11 budget process. But I wanted to get all the legal language 12 worked out in it so that it was agreeable, but I'd like a 13 little bit of movement on that, because the only other thing 14 we will have to do if they're just -- and I'm not saying they 15 are, but if they're just stalling, then I'm going to have to 16 send them a termination notice on the old agreement, or it 17 stays in effect unless we do that. But I think we can just 18 agree to this. And the chief and I did agree to it, and it's 19 not any major changes or anything in it. I'd like to see 20 that one move forward too if we can. 21 MR. HENNEKE: Yes. I'd characterize my discussion 22 with -- with Mr. Parton on Friday as -- as positive, and I 23 hope the lack of response is because the -- at least for 24 fire, EMS, Animal Control, and library, that the language 25 that we sent over is -- looks good to them, and they're 7-11-11 27 1 willing to agree with it. And, you know, we'll see a 2 positive result -- or a final result on Tuesday. We won't 3 know, of course, till the Council addresses it. I do know, 4 on that agreement that the Sheriff mentioned, that that has 5 been -- you know, I think the City hasn't wanted to address 6 that until after these -- these interlocals are finalized. I 7 have tried to move that forward. And, Sheriff, I hope when 8 we get this worked out this week, we'll get a quick 9 resolution on that. 10 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yeah. 'Cause the main deal is 11 I do want to give Ingram plenty of notice on those changes 12 and let them see the same thing, but get all the wording 13 right between the legal people to make sure we're okay and 14 everything. But it needs to move for their budget. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: My final comment, I just want 17 to thank Rob and Mike Hayes for working on these agreements, 18 because for a long time, these have just been kind of renewed 19 and renewed for years, and they were way out-of-date, didn't 20 make sense any more based on where we were and what the 21 actual agreements were. It's been a lot of work to get these 22 in -- to bring them up to the current date and the current 23 agreements, and I appreciate the time you're spending on it, 24 and Mike Hayes as well from the city standpoint. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Anything further on this one, 7-11-11 28 1 gentlemen? Let's move to our 9:30 timed item, Item 5; to 2 consider, discuss, take appropriate action on request from 3 the Kerrville Garden Club to be added to the nonprofit list 4 for use of the Union Church building in order to receive a 5 reduced rate on the rental fees. Rose Burton. 6 MS. BURTON: Yes, sir. Good morning. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Yes, ma'am. Good morning. 8 MS. BURTON: My name is Rose Burton, and I'm the 9 present president of the Kerrville Garden Club. And my 10 other -- the former president, Shirley Hagele, is here as 11 well. I am here this morning to verify that we are a 12 nonprofit organization under $25,000, and that we would like 13 to be able to rent the Union Hall at the appropriate rent of 14 $50 to use on one day only, but to put our name on the 15 nonprofit list for possible further use. I have two papers 16 here to verify. One is a pin number showing we are a 17 nonprofit, and the other comes through the Texas Garden Club 18 to the I.R.S. showing that we are nonprofit. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move approval. 20 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I second. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 22 approval to add the Kerrville Garden Club to the nonprofit 23 list for use of the Union Church building. 24 MS. BURTON: Thank you, sir. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That letter from the I.R.S. is 7-11-11 29 1 very similar to what a lot of organizations get. 2 MS. BURTON: Do you need a copy of these? 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Yes. 4 MS. BURTON: I can give it to whomever. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: She said no. 6 MS. GRINSTEAD: I don't keep copies once you 7 approve it. 8 MS. BURTON: That's it? All right. Thank you, 9 sir. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you. Further question or 11 discussion on the motion? All in favor of the motion, 12 signify by raising your right hand. 13 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 14 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 15 (No response.) 16 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. Let's go 17 back to Item 4; to consider, discuss, take appropriate action 18 to request unclaimed capital credits received from Electric 19 Cooperative pursuant to Section 74.602 of the Texas Property 20 Code from the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, and 21 authorize County Judge to prepare letter of request. This is 22 an annual requirement also. There's accrued capital credits 23 that, if they're unclaimed, we have the ability to claim 24 those for those that have accrued in this county, but 25 unclaimed, but it takes an authorization from the Court and a 7-11-11 30 1 specific letter from myself in order to be able to do that. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Move for approval. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 5 approval of the agenda item. Question or discussion? All in 6 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: The motion does carry. Let's drop 11 down to Item 8, to consider, discuss, take appropriate action 12 on HVAC at Ingram annex. It's my understanding that we're 13 going to pass that for this meeting? 14 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yes. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Very well. Let's go to Item 10; to 16 consider, discuss, and take appropriate action on agreement 17 between Kerr County, Texas, and Freese and Nichols, Inc., 18 regarding professional services for Flat Rock and Ingram Dam 19 grouting projects. Commissioner Oehler? 20 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: The Court instructed Rob and 21 I to meet with Freese and Nichols to try to come to an 22 agreement on the settlement amount to be ratified by the 23 Court. We have done that. I guess it was last week, Rob and 24 I met with -- what was the man's name? 25 MR. HENNEKE: John -- we met with Mr. Boyd, and I 7-11-11 31 1 forget John's last name, the principal of Freese-Nichols. 2 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Wolfholt or something like 3 that. 4 MR. HENNEKE: That's right. 5 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Anyway, we met for probably 6 an hour and a half, and I believe that we reached a fair -- a 7 fair settlement. The amount is -- the original amount, I 8 believe, was 52,000, and we had been holding a $12,000 9 payment to figure out how far the original contract went and 10 where the second part of it started when we found all the 11 problems with Ingram Dam. And the agreement that we came 12 to -- Rob, you have the exact amount there. I don't know; is 13 it on here? 14 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: 28,000? 15 MR. HENNEKE: Yes, sir. 16 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That 28,000 includes the 17 12,000 that was owed under the original contract, so 18 actually, the settlement was -- I believe they wanted -- in 19 the beginning, they had proposed 49,000 in addition. They 20 came down to 38,000, and then they came down to 33,000, and 21 that's when we met with them, and I believe it's a little 22 over 16,000 that we agreed was a fair amount. They agreed to 23 take that amount. They proposed that amount, and I think 24 it's fair. They claim they have a lot of other additional 25 expense over and above that amount, but they -- they wanted 7-11-11 32 1 to get on down the road and -- and settle it. And we did not 2 have to have a mediator; we did it independent of any 3 mediation cost. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: The -- 5 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: So -- go ahead. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: The proposed amount total is 7 28,518.75, which includes the 12,000? 8 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That includes what was left 9 from the original first contract amount of 12,000 -- I think 10 it's $518.75. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: These are all in the budget 12 under the Dam Repair line item, correct? 13 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yes, it would come out of the 14 capital line item we set aside to repair both the dams. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move we accept the agreement 16 negotiated by Commissioner Oehler and the County Attorney. 17 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I'll second that. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 19 approval of the agenda item, to accept the negotiated 20 agreement to pay Freese-Nichols $28,518.75 as the total 21 amount due for Freese and Nichols for all of their work on 22 that project. Question or discussion? All in favor, signify 23 by raising your right hand. 24 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 25 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 7-11-11 33 1 (No response.) 2 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. Let's go to 3 Item 11; consider, discuss, and take appropriate action to 4 approve and implement use of vehicle accident information 5 sheet and add the same to the Kerr County policy handbook. 6 Ms. Hargis? 7 MS. HARGIS: Yes, I'm waiting for Tracy. We had 8 asked her to wait until the item came up, so it's a little 9 soon, so she is coming. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Go, Tracy. 11 MS. SOLDAN: Good morning. I'm sorry, I just 12 walked in. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Just in time. 14 MS. SOLDAN: We currently don't have anything 15 written up as far as what people should do if they get in an 16 accident, or if there's an accident involving County-owned 17 property, and so I just did this vehicle accident information 18 sheet, which kind of lists step-by-step of what somebody 19 should do in case of an accident, who they should contact. I 20 just wanted to put it before you guys and approve it. And I 21 had one change that I noticed after I gave it to you. Item 22 Number 5, in case of an injury; I just changed it, who they 23 should contact, to a Kerr County worker's comp 24 representative. So, that's the only change that I have that 25 you guys don't have. 7-11-11 34 1 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: What was that again? What 2 language was that? 3 MS. SOLDAN: Employee should -- must contact the 4 Kerr County worker's comp representative. 5 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Okay, thank you. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: And I noted that the format is one 7 that Texas Association of Counties Risk Management Pool had 8 developed. 9 MS. SOLDAN: Yes, it's their form. And it has all 10 the information that I need in order to report the accident, 11 'cause I don't always get the information, a VIN number and 12 year, make, and model of the vehicle and that sort of thing. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: You in turn -- once there's an 14 initial report, you are required, under our risk management 15 policy, to report it to TAC as our casualty carrier; is that 16 right? 17 MS. SOLDAN: That's right, in a timely manner. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: So you're doing on it their form. 19 It ought to be adequate, wouldn't you think? 20 MS. SOLDAN: That's right. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move approval. 22 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Second. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 24 approval. 25 MS. MAGENHEIMER: Judge Tinley, excuse me. I have 7-11-11 35 1 some comments about this item. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: I understand. Any discussion or 3 questions? 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I want to make sure we 5 understand. We're approving this document and adding it to 6 the policy handbook? 7 JUDGE TINLEY: That's correct. Okay, 8 Ms. Magenheimer. 9 MS. MAGENHEIMER: Yes, sir. I have some prepared 10 comments about this item. Right now, as it stands, there are 11 forms in the policy book; first report of injury, policy and 12 procedures, a waiver option form on insurance. And these are 13 really just intended to be used as examples. My suggestion 14 would be to make it available -- to make this form that 15 Tracy's talking about, to make it available on the Auditor's 16 and/or the Human Resources web site. Because the -- the 17 county policy -- the personnel policy is not the first place 18 that employees would seek information. The -- I think they 19 should be guided to go to the web site of -- either web site. 20 Also, during a recent visit with Diana Cecil from TAC, she 21 stated that the acknowledgment pages that are currently there 22 are in need of additional language. Right now, it leaves us 23 as a liability, because those acknowledgment pages do not say 24 "read and understand," and there was a recent lawsuit that 25 was won by the employee over that issue. So, any additions 7-11-11 36 1 would be subject to enforcement, because right now we don't 2 have a good acknowledgment page. 3 And the other thing is, who is going to be 4 responsible for making those changes/additions to the policy 5 book? We need to get the acknowledgment pages fixed. It's 6 going to need to go in all 300 policy books, plus it has to 7 go out to the department heads and elected officials. They 8 have to have everybody sign off for it, and it needs to be in 9 everybody's book. This isn't just a -- a cut and -- 10 cut-and-dried situation. And the big thing is, not everybody 11 reads the personnel policy book. So that is saying, again, 12 that they are not going to go there for information. I -- 13 I'm sure that there's been problems with getting these 14 reports filed in a timely manner, but I don't necessarily 15 think that the best way is to put it in the policy book. I 16 would recommend that we put on it the Auditor's and/or the 17 Human Resources web site. And we can guide as needed when 18 they call one of us, you know, where they need to go, and if 19 they need more information, the Auditor's office could give 20 them detailed information. 21 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Are you suggesting that maybe 22 on top of that, that every -- that all the department heads 23 and elected officials have -- get a memo regarding this to 24 instruct them where to go to -- how to find -- 25 MS. MAGENHEIMER: Yeah. If they -- if they want to 7-11-11 37 1 include this in the policy book, any changes or additions to 2 that personnel policy has to go to all the department heads, 3 elected officials, along with a brand-new acknowledgment page 4 where the employees say, "I have read and I understand." And 5 even that page that we currently have does not say that. So, 6 I just feel like that -- 7 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Looks like we need to wait 8 till the next meeting till we talk about this some more. 9 MS. MAGENHEIMER: And I won't be here. 10 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That's not nice. 11 MS. MAGENHEIMER: I know, but my grandkids are more 12 important. (Laughter.) 13 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Well -- 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Ms. Magenheimer, based on what 15 you're saying, this is a much broader issue than just 16 adopting this -- and I agree with you with regard to the 17 first line of information is probably either going to be the 18 Auditor's office or the H.R. office. 19 MS. HARGIS: It's us. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: So, even though it ends up being 21 adopted as policy, possibly, I see no problem of putting it 22 there for the purpose of having access to that information. 23 But would you agree that it is important that any time that a 24 county employee has an accident when using county equipment, 25 vehicles, such as that, that it -- it's required that they 7-11-11 38 1 follow this procedure and fill out these reports and provide 2 this information? 3 MS. MAGENHEIMER: Yes, I do agree they need to 4 follow procedure. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. But I guess -- I guess your 6 point is that it's not just as simple as adopting it here, as 7 the pending motion would have us adopt it, but rather it's a 8 little bit broader range of things that we have to do, and 9 maybe it needs to be brought back with the whole scope of 10 things that has to occur. 11 MS. MAGENHEIMER: Yes. And -- and the other thing 12 that I have thought about is that the personnel policy has 13 been under the direction of the Human Resource department, so 14 if this does go ahead and you do allow it to be put in the 15 personnel policy, who's going to take on doing all -- doing 16 this work to get it in? Plus any revamping that's going to 17 need to be done on the acknowledgment pages? 18 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Maybe it just needs to be 19 done by court order, and not be added to the policy book. 20 MS. MAGENHEIMER: That would be -- that would be a 21 good idea. Still, I would make it available on -- on both 22 the websites. 23 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Right. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think you bring up some 25 questions, 'cause until we decide where we're going to go 7-11-11 39 1 with the budget process with the H.R. department and the -- 2 replacing the director there -- 3 MS. MAGENHEIMER: But right now, you know, that is 4 in our hands. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. So, I think it's -- I 6 kind of like Commissioner Oehler's idea that we adopt it as a 7 -- as a court order, that it needs to be done, and then we 8 figure out how to get it into the policy down the road. I 9 think it needs to get in the policy handbook, but I also -- 10 what I'm hearing you say, that we really need to get a form 11 to all employees that they read and understand the policy 12 handbook, and this would be a good time to do it all at one 13 time, that we get all of that out. That needs to be done, 14 but now might not be the best time to do it. 15 MS. MAGENHEIMER: Right. And right now, 16 enforcement of this would be difficult because of the -- the 17 lack of verbiage. 18 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Okay. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: All right. I'll -- did I make 20 a motion? 21 THE CLERK: Yes. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll modify the motion to 23 just -- so this is adopted by court order only. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: And be placed on the websites of -- 25 of the Auditor and H.R.? 7-11-11 40 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And H.R. department. 2 MS. SOLDAN: I have one more thing. The very first 3 sentence of this vehicle information sheet says that a driver 4 should verify that this form and the current insurance card 5 is in the glove compartment before even driving, so that 6 would also be a way of making it available to any driver that 7 might get into an accident. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, I think the other thing 9 that we can do is, you know, maybe not as part of the court 10 order, but that this should be sent by memo to all department 11 heads with this, and that it needs to be hand -- maybe even 12 signed for by all those that are going to be using company 13 vehicles so that they're aware -- I mean, there's employees 14 that don't ever drive company vehicles. There's some that do 15 quite a bit, and those that do it need to have that and see 16 it. But I think that can be done by memo from either the 17 Auditor or the H.R. department or both to the department 18 heads, not necessarily as part of the court order. 19 MS. HARGIS: Yeah, the property and casualty come 20 out of our department, so we'll put that on our web site. 21 But I -- you know, I do think that it needs to be added to 22 the policy, because it's not -- they're not necessarily going 23 to go our web site to find it when they have an accident. 24 But if they're aware of it when they read the policy, they 25 know that they have to at least fill out the accident report. 7-11-11 41 1 That's the reason we wanted it added. I was not approached 2 by Jackie, so I'm kind of hit -- blindsided by her remarks, 3 'cause she didn't visit with me on this before today. I'm 4 sure there's going to have to be modifications to this policy 5 handbook as we go along. I mean, this is a moving document 6 that always has to be changed. So -- but we'll put it on our 7 web site. We've always had it out there, but it doesn't mean 8 that -- necessarily that people follow it. So, we do need 9 some kind of organization with this, because we -- we do have 10 a lot of accidents, and sometimes we're the last ones to 11 know, and then it's pretty late when we get it to TAC, and 12 the adjusters are not happy with us. So, we need to get it 13 in line. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We'll get it in the policy down 15 the road. We can just get it implemented today. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: And, Ms. Hargis, your department 17 will -- will author and distribute that memo to all 18 departments? 19 MS. HARGIS: Yes, and we will put it on our web 20 site right away. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 22 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: It's -- the policy manual is 23 -- I don't know if Human Resources has the original in their 24 computer, but it's based off the same format the Sheriff's 25 Office policy manual is. They can't update it very quickly. 7-11-11 42 1 My only concern would be, at this point, is you're going to 2 have a court order saying one thing and a policy that says 3 another thing, and it's going to be extremely hard, as Jackie 4 said, to enforce that when you have two different things. I 5 don't have a problem at all updating our policy -- you know, 6 Sheriff's Office policy manual to reflect this, but when you 7 show two different things, it's going to be difficult to 8 enforce. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Why don't we do it by court 10 order today and, like, restate the motion at our next 11 meeting? Or we can look at the policy manual, figure out how 12 we incorporate the two. 13 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Put an effective date or 14 something. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean, is there something 16 contradictory to this in our policy handbook? 17 MS. HARGIS: See, I know -- 18 MS. MAGENHEIMER: Well, on the acknowledgment 19 pages, it does not say that you read and understand. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No, I know that. I understand 21 that, but I mean of the actual -- of what we're asking 22 employees to do that are in an accident. Is there a conflict 23 between this and the policy? 24 MS. MAGENHEIMER: Well, the -- the personnel policy 25 is really to guide the employees and the department heads, 7-11-11 43 1 elected officials on the right way to handle, you know, 2 day-to-day situations. You know, how to treat your 3 employees, what we expect from the employees, to treat 4 others. It's -- it is a personnel policy. It is a 5 directional thing that -- the one thing that we all need to 6 remember, the department heads, elected officials do not have 7 to abide by that policy book. 8 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Department heads do. Elected 9 officials probably do not, because they have their own 10 department. The biggest deal -- and just thinking of ours 11 off the top, and most of the county's policies are the same 12 as ours. I think you're going to have some issues that in 13 the county one, it doesn't say anything about getting three 14 bids, notifying the Auditor; none of that kind of stuff is 15 covered in the current one. 16 MS. HARGIS: Right. 17 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: There's no forms in the 18 current one as to that. I don't know that there would 19 actually be a conflict, other than things like, you know, 20 there's -- there's nowhere in the -- in the current one that 21 you have to have a copy of your driver's license down with 22 the Auditor's office or with Human Resources or whoever, and 23 in this there is. And there -- there's mainly going to be 24 additions to what is current at this time. Currently, it's 25 very basic and brief. Notify -- you know, in case of an 7-11-11 44 1 accident, you notify appropriate law enforcement agency and 2 make sure your department head is immediately notified, and 3 that's kind of the main gist of it at this point. 4 MS. MAGENHEIMER: It's really instructional for the 5 employees and for the elected officials/department heads. 6 It's to help them. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Maybe what we need to do is add 8 to the policy manual, "and other requirements of the 9 insurance provider," but have it in a separate document. 10 MS. MAGENHEIMER: That's a possibility. 11 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: It could just be a document 12 that is used to report accidents. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, it doesn't have to be 14 part of the policy handbook. 15 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Right. What would be wrong 16 with that? 17 MS. MAGENHEIMER: I'm sorry, I did not hear that. 18 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Just use that form -- the new 19 form as the way to report an accident, rather than adding it 20 to our policy manual. How hard -- 21 MS. MAGENHEIMER: But you're just -- you're just 22 going to put the form in there without explanation? 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No. The form -- we're adopting 24 the form as a court order. Employees have to follow it under 25 the court order. 7-11-11 45 1 MS. MAGENHEIMER: Right. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But it's not part of the policy 3 handbook. 4 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Just a form to report 5 accidents. 6 MS. MAGENHEIMER: Right. But -- but the Auditor's 7 office was wanting to put it -- make it part of the policy. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's -- we're saying we're 9 changing that. 10 MS. MAGENHEIMER: Right. Do it as a court order 11 instead? 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 13 MS. MAGENHEIMER: And that's agreeable. 14 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Simpler. 15 MS. MAGENHEIMER: Yes. 16 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Don't make it worse than it 17 already is. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Anybody else have some additional 19 confusion they want to cast upon this? (Laughter.) The 20 motion is whether we adopt the tendered instructions and loss 21 report form as a court order, with a requirement that it 22 be -- both of those be posted on the web site for both the 23 Auditor's office and the H.R. department, with the Auditor's 24 department to circulate a memo to all elected officials and 25 department heads for their employees to follow. Correct? 7-11-11 46 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Correct. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 3 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Correct. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Any further question or discussion 5 on that motion? 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And the language, "add same 7 to the policy handbook" is not in the -- 8 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: No, we're just adopting a 9 form to use for the reporting of accidents. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I understand. I just want 11 to make sure we're doing it. 12 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yeah. I hope that's what 13 what's going to happen. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: All in favor of that motion, signify 15 by raising your right hand. 16 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 17 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 18 (No response.) 19 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion carried. All right. Now 20 let's go back to our 9:45 timed item; to consider, discuss, 21 and take appropriate action on a request for an expenditure 22 of $1,861.59 for the rental of seven light towers from 23 Sunbelt Rentals for KerrFest for the outdoor arena for August 24 5th through 6th, 2011. Good morning. 25 MS. CRADDOCK: Good morning. 7-11-11 47 1 JUDGE TINLEY: We have the Chamber here with us, 2 right? 3 MS. CRADDOCK: Yes, sir. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Identify yourselves for the record, 5 and tell us what's on your mind. 6 MS. CRADDOCK: Kristan Craddock, Kerrville Area 7 Chamber of Commerce. 8 MR. FOSTER: Denny Foster, Kerrville Area Chamber 9 of Commerce also. 10 MS. CRADDOCK: We're here to talk about KerrFest. 11 Again, everybody knows what that is. It's coming up August 12 5th and 6th, and I know everyone has worked really hard to 13 try to get lights out at the outdoor arena; however, they 14 will be up just a little bit after the date of the event, it 15 sounds like. So, obviously, we need to light the outdoor 16 arena area, and so we're here to ask for an expenditure of 17 $1,861.59 that will pay for seven light towers to be up there 18 Friday through Saturday night out at the arena August 5th and 19 6th. 20 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: There's been some new 21 development since we met the other day. 22 MS. CRADDOCK: All right. 23 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: The indoor arena is 24 available. It is not going to be used, and we can -- if you 25 could use that instead of this, then we don't have to rent 7-11-11 48 1 any lights. There are lights there, and if it rains, you got 2 a covered facility. Lester Myers had the rodeo in there 3 before; you wouldn't have to -- nobody would have to even 4 expend this money. I didn't find out about this till after 5 our meeting. 6 MR. FOSTER: Well, and I appreciate the 7 information; however, we've added stuff to be included with 8 the -- with the event around the arena, so we would then 9 split the event into two -- basically two different areas, 10 which would kind of -- well, it would take away from the 11 event itself. I -- I don't think using the indoor arena at 12 this point is going to be a viable option for us. With three 13 weeks left, we've already got, well, vendors set up. 14 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: How many vendors do you have? 15 MS. CRADDOCK: We had five to six at that time, as 16 of our meeting on Friday, this past Friday. 17 MR. FOSTER: And is that -- that's just the food 18 vendors? 19 MS. CRADDOCK: Correct. 20 MR. FOSTER: We also have pony rides, bounce 21 houses, game trailers. We have the -- well, we were trying 22 to create an atmosphere around the arena that people would be 23 able to see from the road and, you know, create -- create 24 buzz out there at the park. 25 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Well, that was just an 7-11-11 49 1 option. I know Tim and I talked about it the other day, and, 2 you know, I -- I was hoping we would have the lights up, but 3 we're not going to. And I asked them to come to the Court 4 and -- and ask for this, and it's something we weren't 5 expecting to do. We've got money in our Parks budget we 6 could pay for it out of. We want this to be a nice event, 7 not -- you know, it's hard for me not to support their 8 request if they can't use the indoor arena. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Let me ask a question, if I may. I 10 know we've got multiple sponsors for this event. 11 MR. FOSTER: Mm-hmm. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: And we've got another agenda item 13 which is asking us for other assistance. Are we trying to 14 prorate all these various expenses out to the various 15 sponsoring organizations? Is everybody kind of pulling the 16 wagon to the same degree? 17 MR. FOSTER: Absolutely. We've -- as you know, 18 we're working with not only the County, the C.V.B., the City, 19 and the Chamber, and everybody is pitching in. We -- we have 20 had offers from the City for additional help. We've got some 21 proposals that we're going to them for this week. But the 22 C.V.B. has really stepped up and been a great help, so we 23 have -- we've received a lot of help from everybody, and 24 we've been making that very public when we've gone and talked 25 to Rotary and the Kiwanis. We have an appointment to speak 7-11-11 50 1 in front of the Lion's Club. We're trying to make sure 2 everybody knows how great all the entities have pulled 3 together to make this event work. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: So what I'm hearing from you, then, 5 is that the assistance that you're asking from us today is 6 essentially what you've kind of calculated as our fair share 7 as one of the sponsoring organizations? 8 MR. FOSTER: Yes, sir. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I look at it kind of as our 11 fair share is being the owners of it and providing the 12 facility as the contribution for the taxpayers of Kerr 13 County. That's the way I look at it. I'm going to vote no 14 on it because of that. I think the property and the -- the 15 facility is the -- is the contribution from the county 16 taxpayers. Tim wants to donate his paychecks for the next 17 year, I think. Is that what you're doing? 18 MR. BOLLIER: No, sir, I'm not, believe me. My 19 question to you guys is, I'm hearing y'all say y'all are 20 going to have vendors and stuff around the outdoor arena. 21 Well, do you understand that there's no electricity around 22 the outdoor arena? The only electricity you have is on that 23 fence. 24 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: They're talking about on the 25 fence. 7-11-11 51 1 MR. FOSTER: We are going to have it on the fence, 2 yes, sir. All of our food vendors are going to be along that 3 fence. 4 MR. BOLLIER: Okay. 5 MS. CRADDOCK: An extension cord's coming out 6 there, like, from the back where the grandstands will be. 7 MR. BOLLIER: I'd kind of like to see it in the 8 indoor arena, personally. It would be a whole lot easier. 9 You've got all the electricity on that red fence in front of 10 the barn. That's how they usually set it up, and I think 11 that would be a whole -- the easiest aspect for everybody, to 12 put it inside instead of outside. But you -- there's going 13 to be a lot of work that'll have to be done out there. 14 MR. FOSTER: Well, you know, we rushed to put this 15 event together. We only had about 90 days from the day that 16 it was brought to -- to the Chamber and asked for us to run 17 with this event, so we've been planning, you know, and we've 18 only got three weeks left to do everything on the outside. 19 We were -- we were told that -- that there wouldn't be a 20 problem with those electrical outlets and we could use that. 21 There was also -- I mean, trying to create atmosphere and 22 being able to see it from the road and trying to encompass 23 the new arena was our goal. Maybe we should have adjusted 24 that goal, but, you know, with only three weeks left, I 25 really don't know how we could efficiently swap ends, if you 7-11-11 52 1 will. I'm not saying it's a bad idea. I mean, it's just -- 2 MR. BOLLIER: No, sir, and I appreciate that. I'll 3 do anything that you want, okay? I'll do anything that you 4 want. I'm just -- I'm just thinking that the indoor arena -- 5 everything's there. You know, we don't have to do a lot 6 there. Outside, we're going to have to do a lot, okay? 7 MR. FOSTER: Yeah. 8 MR. BOLLIER: So -- and with the few people that I 9 have, that -- that it becomes -- it becomes a time thing 10 getting everything done. 11 MR. FOSTER: Okay. 12 MR. BOLLIER: That's why I was going towards the 13 indoor arena. But I will do anything that you guys want. 14 MR. FOSTER: I appreciate that. Thank you. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Just a general comment. I 16 agree largely with Commissioner Baldwin, but at the same 17 time, I think we -- when y'all came here 90 days ago, we said 18 we'd have lights, so I think that, you know, we're obligated 19 to get lights up there. But I think in the future, you 20 know -- 21 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: We'll just do the facility. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. The facility is what our 23 contribution is. And planning with the Maintenance 24 Department, 'cause I would suspect, even though everyone's 25 pulling your weight -- y'all certainly volunteered and put in 7-11-11 53 1 a huge amount of work -- I suspect that we're contributing a 2 lot. But, anyway, that being said, we did agree to -- we'd 3 get this done. 4 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: That's right. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll stand by that decision, 6 then. 7 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I'd like to say just, again, 8 on behalf of -- my comments are just, again, appreciate the 9 Chamber's involvement in this project. These are the kind of 10 projects that this facility can host a lot. And, again, the 11 need to -- to get this facility down the road and renovated 12 and moving forward, I applaud you for coming forward. I 13 agree with Commissioner Letz' comments about -- you know, 14 about we had talked about having these lights in place. We 15 don't have them in place. I support this right here because 16 we need to make sure events like this -- it's your annual 17 kickoff, but the potential of this event on an annual basis 18 could be significant, not only for this facility, but for our 19 community. And I -- I appreciate you sticking it out there 20 and getting folks involved. I know there are other entities 21 that are going to be looking at doing security and things 22 like that, and parking, that are going to be putting a lot of 23 time -- hours and those type of commitments in, and I 24 appreciate those commitments. And so I appreciate what 25 you're doing, and I will support this. 7-11-11 54 1 MR. FOSTER: Well, and just to add a little bit to 2 that, Commissioner Overby, is we really want this, in the 3 next year or two, to become a destination event; people to 4 come spend the night, go to -- you know, add onto the events, 5 add a dance, add things that encompass Flat Rock Lake Park 6 down there. And having 90 days to put this together has been 7 a challenge, but now we're going to have 12 months to really 8 focus and try to grow it, and over the next couple years, I 9 really see this to be a destination event for Kerrville. 10 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: All right. 11 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I move we approve the 12 expenditure of 1,861.59 for seven light towers for Sunbelt 13 Rentals for KerrFest 2011. 14 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I'll second that. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded as 16 indicated. 17 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: The funds to come from our 18 Parks line item. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Further question or discussion on 20 that motion? All in favor of the motion, signify by raising 21 your right hand. 22 (Commissioners Overby, Letz, and Oehler voted in favor of the motion.) 23 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed? 24 (Commissioner Baldwin voted against the motion.) 25 7-11-11 55 1 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. Let's go to 2 Item 7; consider, discuss, take appropriate action to waive 3 rental fees for tables and chairs for KerrFest to be held at 4 Hill Country Youth Exhibit Center on August 5-6, 2011. 5 Ms. Craddock? 6 MS. CRADDOCK: Yes, sir. This request is 7 basically, may we use the chairs and tables out there? If we 8 put them where we need them and put them back like we found 9 them? 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I have no problem with that. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is that a motion? 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I move for approval. 13 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I'll second that. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 15 approval. Question or discussion? All in favor, signify by 16 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 carries. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Y'all are setting those up, 22 right? 23 MR. FOSTER: Yes, we'll take care of them. 24 (Low-voice discussion off the record.) 25 MS. CARLSON: He's going to try to introduce me 7-11-11 56 1 again. I just want to thank you, and from experience, this 2 is -- it's nice to see, to see everybody coming together for 3 one event. And, like you said, it's -- it's a great 4 opportunity for all of to us work together and to be -- and 5 to establish a destination event. This is a way get people 6 here and see what our town has to offer and what our county 7 has to offer, so I'm really excited about it. I can't 8 believe y'all put this together in this short amount of time, 9 so I too applaud your staff, of course, and our volunteers 10 that we have. And I appreciate everybody. And, like I said, 11 I look forward to events like this. I really do. And this 12 is going to be a great event, so thank you very much for your 13 support. We appreciate it. 14 MR. FOSTER: Thank y'all. We appreciate it. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you. We have a 10 o'clock 16 timed item; consider, discuss, take appropriate action 17 regarding City of Ingram offer to purchase real property. I 18 think that is appropriately an executive session item, is it 19 not? 20 MR. HENNEKE: Well, you gentlemen could -- could 21 just discuss it internally, not with Ms. Bailey 22 participating. I'm confused by the question, Judge. The 23 Court can go into executive session to discuss deliberations 24 involving purchase of real property, but that wouldn't be a 25 discussion that Ms. Bailey, as representative for the City of 7-11-11 57 1 Ingram, would participate in. So, she could make her 2 presentation, -- 3 JUDGE TINLEY: She can make the presentation. 4 MR. HENNEKE: -- and if y'all would like to discuss 5 it, then you could go into executive session. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Ms. Bailey? 7 MS. BAILEY: Thank you, Your Honor. Good morning, 8 gentlemen. For the record, I'm Ilse Bailey, City Attorney 9 for the City of Ingram. We've come here today -- I know I 10 spoke to Judge Tinley about this issue, and he's familiar 11 with the background, but for maybe those of you who don't 12 know, apparently the City of Ingram and Kerr County entered 13 into a lease agreement back in the 1980's whereby the city 14 would lease property that's located out in Ingram, but 15 belonging to Kerr County, for some storage. And we have some 16 of our equipment there, and we were to pay $99 a year, and we 17 were to have the opportunity to re-up after the -- the term 18 of the lease expired. And it kind of fell through the 19 cracks, and so I believe that we owe you 25 -- 25 years worth 20 of rent for $99 a year. 21 However, the reason that this did come up is that 22 we noticed in the newspaper that Kerr County was proposing to 23 have that same property bid out for sale. It's identified as 24 Lots 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 in Block 1 of the Ingram Loop 25 Subdivision. Since it is being offered for sale, the City of 7-11-11 58 1 Ingram has asked me to approach the County about whether or 2 not you would be willing to sell it to -- to the City of 3 Ingram under the terms that I discussed with Judge Tinley 4 that he can talk to you about in executive session, rather 5 than to continue forward with the bid process to sell it to 6 the public. So, that's what our presentation is today. I'd 7 also like to introduce our new city administrator, Mr. Neuse, 8 Stan Neuse. He's here if you have any questions for him, and 9 we're very fortunate to have his able assistance to get 10 things like this moving along. I think the city is really in 11 the process of developing. Now that we have our wastewater 12 system up and started, I think Ingram is going to be a really 13 big force in the area. Do you have any questions? 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Thank you. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, ma'am. Let's go to Item 17 12; consider, discuss, take appropriate action to reconsider 18 Court Order Number 32202 which approved personnel position 19 changes/vacancies, replacement, and compensation in the 20 County Clerk's office. Commissioner Letz? 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: This was an agenda item in our 22 last meeting that I think I made the motion; I think 23 Commissioner Oehler seconded that motion, and it did pass, to 24 basically move the 14's to 15's in the County Clerk's office. 25 And then as part of that, there was a reduction of staff of 7-11-11 59 1 two in there, of two vacancies that were not going to be 2 filled going forward. Since then, I have talked to a number 3 of other elected officials and thought about that decision, 4 and I think I -- while conceptually I agree with it, I think 5 it really should be done more through the budget process so 6 we can look at all the departments at the same time, look at 7 all the 14's. And so, for that reason, I put this back on 8 the agenda. I talked to Jannett about it previously, and she 9 was aware that I was going to put it on the agenda -- or, 10 actually, she called me when she saw it on the agenda. And 11 this has not been implemented yet; I think it was to be 12 implemented the 15th of this month. So, I just will make a 13 motion that we rescind that previous court order, and we'll 14 address this starting tomorrow during our budget process and 15 then decide how to move forward. 16 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I think we did the right 17 thing. And we did -- you know, if you want to go back, Linda 18 basically did a similar thing right after -- 19 MS. UECKER: No, she didn't. 20 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Pretty much so. You moved -- 21 you moved people around. You -- you took one down; you 22 increased some. Yeah, you did, pretty much the same thing. 23 I think it's documented. 24 MS. UECKER: Then why did you vote against mine and 25 for theirs? 7-11-11 60 1 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Well, I probably should have 2 voted for yours, but I didn't. But -- 3 MS. UECKER: Thank you. 4 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: But, anyway, it's the same 5 thing, and I don't think there's anything wrong in it. 6 Actually, we netted out some money, because -- and we're 7 going to net out even more, so we know kind of where we're 8 starting for next year. I think we need to look at some of 9 the other -- there are other people, workers in other offices 10 that can be justified to be moved to 15's. We ought to look 11 at doing that. But I don't think that -- I don't think it 12 was the wrong move. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner Letz, I too have heard 14 from any number of department heads or elected officials 15 concerning the action which we took with regard to County 16 Clerk's office under that court order, and those -- those 17 folks didn't really have the opportunity to be fully heard 18 when we -- when we took that action at our last regular 19 meeting. And I'll take responsibility for that, because 20 there was no backup on the agenda item. The -- the proposal 21 which came before us was handed out at the meeting, and had I 22 been diligent in the requirements that we impose requiring 23 backup for agenda items, there would have been backup so that 24 not only would this Court have been able to thoroughly 25 digest, but everyone else out there could have taken a look 7-11-11 61 1 at it and had an opportunity to -- to have their input on it. 2 So, that's my failing, and I'll take responsibility for that. 3 But I'm -- I'm serving notice that if you want an item on the 4 agenda, you better have some backup, or it ain't going to get 5 on there. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: There you go. Good. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Because you end up with situations 8 like this where you get things at the 11th hour; you get 9 blindsided, you don't get the opportunity to fully evaluate, 10 digest, and other folks get the opportunity to -- to have 11 their input on it. So, I support your action, because I 12 think it truly is an agenda item for the budget, and I -- I'd 13 already instructed the auditor's office to work up some 14 numbers on moving the 14's to 15's. And we got those 15 numbers, and I'm going to present them at the workshop 16 tomorrow. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think the -- I mean, whether 18 or not we did -- what Linda's office did or not is -- to me, 19 is irrelevant. We shouldn't have done it then either. I 20 think we need to do these kind of decisions during the budget 21 process, 'cause it does have -- even though we frequently get 22 told that there are -- there's no budget impact, and it's 23 usually said in soft words after that, "for this year," 24 there's always a budget impact the following year, good or 25 bad. And I think that's the reason we need to look at it in 7-11-11 62 1 the budget process. And, like I said, I agree with 2 conceptually what we talked about. That's why I made the 3 motion. I did the wrong thing, in my mind, by moving forward 4 with it. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You didn't have to say that, 6 see, now that we've established that it's all the Judge's 7 fault. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: We can do that. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I think Hillary Clinton had 10 something to do with it, too. (Laughter.) But, you know, now 11 that we got that established there, you're 100 percent 12 correct. Any time that we're dealing -- I think any time 13 that we're dealing with the steps and grades, that has -- 14 that needs to be a central conversation; i.e., in the budget 15 process, and deal with everybody as a whole. That's not a 16 little thing to deal with. So, I think it should be done 17 in -- I agree, it needs to be done in the budget process. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I made a motion earlier. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'll second. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: We have a motion and a second to 21 rescind the order. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The sheriff wants to talk. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You're kidding. 24 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: There's the one we did for 25 Linda in October. 7-11-11 63 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Sheriff? 2 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: And I agree with what Buster 3 said about when you start changing step and grades. I think 4 the Court remembers, most of them, what all we went through a 5 few years ago on changing that step and grade, and this would 6 have come back up in budget. I'm not asking for anything 7 now, but I have a number of 14's at our office, and I have 8 five positions that I would like to deal with during that, 9 that we have left open most of this year without trying to do 10 this until budget time to talk. So all I'm saying is, yeah, 11 there's -- there's going to have to be some future discussion 12 on it. I appreciate Judge Tinley saying about backup and 13 that on these things. The only thing I would ask -- and Jody 14 may kill me for this -- is that we, as elected officials, 15 also get that backup. We don't get anything. We get an 16 e-mail of what the agenda items are, and that's it, so we're 17 hit blindsided every -- every meeting. 18 MS. GRINSTEAD: It's on the web site. The entire 19 agenda is on the web site. 20 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: With the backups? 21 MS. GRINSTEAD: With the backups. 22 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: What I get is just your 23 e-mail. 24 MS. GRINSTEAD: I can't send out the backup 'cause 25 it's too large. I can show you how, but it's been on the web 7-11-11 64 1 site for at least a year and a half. 2 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: As long as we have access to 3 the backup. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah, you need access to it. 5 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Appreciate it. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Rusty, I want you to repeat 7 that first part of how you agree with me. (Laughter.) 8 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Once a year, Buster. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Did you get that? Did 10 you -- okay, we got it. That's all right. 11 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I agree. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'll be making copies of 13 that report for everybody. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner, I didn't hear him 15 agree that I was at fault, though. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You still have a shot. 17 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Wrong time of year to blame 18 the Judge. (Laughter.) 19 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Wise man. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Any further question or discussion 21 on this matter? All in favor of the motion, signify by 22 raising your right hand. 23 (Commissioners Baldwin, Overby, and Letz voted in favor of the motion.) 24 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed? 25 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I'm going to be opposed. 7-11-11 65 1 (Commissioner Oehler voted against the motion.) 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion does carry. We'll go to Item 3 13; to consider, discuss, take appropriate action to approve 4 the adjustment of compensation to Dawn Lantz from an 18-1 to 5 an 18-3 effective July 1, 2011. Increase to reflect 6 additional duties of screening indigent defense applications 7 since September 1, 2010, and worker's comp per Commissioners 8 Court order in June 2011. Ms. Lavender? 9 MS. LAVENDER: In light of the recent discussion, 10 I'm going to withdraw this agenda item. (Laughter.) And -- 11 but I would like to say that I'd like for you, in our budget 12 discussions, to look at situations like this, where it's -- 13 this is not an absorbing position in a department where you 14 have multiple people that are cross-trained to handle, like 15 you have in the County Clerk and the District Clerk and other 16 departments where have you larger numbers. This is actually 17 additional responsibilities for someone. And so I'd like for 18 us, when we -- when we look at it in the budget process, to 19 look at this. And I did provide the backup information for 20 you. Thank you. 21 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Thank you. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Yes, you did, and I thank you for 23 that. Okay. Let's go to Item 14; to consider, discuss, take 24 appropriate action to solicit additional bids with 25 alternative specifications for lighting at the outdoor arena, 7-11-11 66 1 Hill Country Youth Exhibit Center, or award bid to lowest 2 bidder from previously submitted bids. I put this on the 3 agenda. We had some bids under certain specifications that 4 were submitted. We considered them in a special meeting as 5 to the Phase 3 specs that were put into place. The issue 6 came up while that bid period was outstanding that maybe we 7 need to look at other alternatives, specifically one of them 8 being single-phase electricity. And so the Court's action at 9 that special meeting was to accept the bids and to not take 10 any action on the bids under the three-phase specs, and to 11 rebid with other alternates, or possibly rebid with other 12 alternates. Mr. Lewis, what do you have for us today in that 13 regard? 14 MR. LEWIS: Commissioners, Judge, in the last week 15 we've put together an alternate bid package that responds to 16 the directive out of your special meeting of last Friday. I 17 have been in conversation with representatives from Musco 18 Lighting, and so this is another proprietary system. The 19 original system was also proprietary; it was three-phase. It 20 required extension of service across the parking lot to the 21 -- to the field, and then to the rodeo arena. This system is 22 designed to take advantage of the existing single-phase 23 service that is inside of the fenced enclosure and that 24 currently serves the announcer's stand. And I have -- was in 25 communication with the County Attorney on Friday and sent 7-11-11 67 1 electronically a copy of the revised bid specs. I have two 2 copies and an original of those here today if the Court 3 wishes to continue to entertain those. I've -- I will 4 also -- if you do wish to put this alternative package out to 5 bid, we will have an addendum from our electrical engineer, 6 who was unable, in the four days that we had last week, to 7 put together a narrative that would help -- that would guide 8 the bidders. But if you wish to move forward, we have a bid 9 package ready to issue at this time. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Would that also include just a 11 general spec for single-phase electricity? 12 MR. LEWIS: It is using the existing service that's 13 there, which is single-phase. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. So there would be at least 15 two alternates that would be -- 16 MR. LEWIS: With two options to select from. 17 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Two options to consider, 18 which I think is the fair way to do it, and I think we ought 19 to do it. It's -- we bid that underground service and put it 20 in for that very reason, so that it would handle single-phase 21 lighting, and had no idea that the three-phase was going to 22 be what was spec'd. So, I move that we solicit additional 23 bids on the alternate specifications for lighting for the 24 Hill Country Youth Exhibit Center outdoor arena. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: I have a motion. Do I hear a 7-11-11 68 1 second? 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I second it. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: I have a motion and a second. 4 Question or discussion? 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: But it's for the purpose of 6 obtaining information only. When -- when we -- that doesn't 7 mean that I'm going to vote for it once it -- 8 JUDGE TINLEY: I understand. That's just -- 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I think it's good to have 10 this information. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: -- a request for additional bids. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Any further question or discussion? 14 All in favor of the motion, signify by raising your right 15 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. Thank you. 20 MR. LEWIS: You're welcome. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Appreciate it, Mr. Lewis. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You are a nice young man. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Why don't we take us about a 15-, 24 20-minute recess. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Can we go back to the executive 7-11-11 69 1 session item? If we could open that, I could just explain. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Hold up. 3 (Low-voice discussion off the record.) 4 JUDGE TINLEY: We're in recess. 5 (Recess taken from 10:27 a.m. to 10:50 a.m.) 6 - - - - - - - - - - 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay, let's come back to order. 8 Looks like we've got all the agenda items, with the exception 9 of executive session, out of the way, so let's go to Section 10 4 of the agenda, payment of the bills. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Why don't we pay the bills? 12 That's my question. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Oh, I thought you were going to say 14 that was your motion. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It is. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Oh, okay. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: We have a motion and a second to pay 19 the bills. Question or discussion? Under election services, 20 HAVA compliance, is there any reimbursement on that? 21 MS. HARGIS: On the HAVA? 22 MS. BOLIN: Yes. 23 MS. HARGIS: Yes. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 25 MS. HARGIS: Yeah. I believe we've gotten 224,000 7-11-11 70 1 so far from HAVA. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Let's go to Page 4, under Tax 3 Assessor. No, this isn't my day to pick on you, Diane. 4 MS. BOLIN: That's okay. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: We got software maintenance, 6 apparently, for Ingram ISD package. Will we get 7 reimbursement on that? 8 MS. BOLIN: We already have. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. That's covered by the 10 contract? 11 MS. BOLIN: Yes, sir. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay, that's all I got. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Do we fine people for having 14 a cell phone ring? 15 JUDGE TINLEY: No, we just take them and keep them. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's fine with me. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Any other questions or discussion? 18 MS. HARGIS: There is one of the bills to the -- 19 the Hill Country -- hang on just -- Kerr County Child Service 20 Board. They're going to pull that one and request a lesser 21 amount. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Take me to that. 23 MS. HARGIS: Page 6, middle of the page, where it 24 says Health and Emergency Services. First line. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Mm-hmm. 7-11-11 71 1 MS. HARGIS: Kerr County Child Service Board. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Uh-huh. 3 MS. HARGIS: They requested 2,500. They're going 4 to pull that and -- and request a lesser amount, because we 5 don't have quite enough money for birthday money to the end 6 of the year, so they decided to pull it back so they would 7 have enough money for birthday money. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. With that adjustment, any 10 further question or discussion? All in favor of the motion, 11 signify by raising your right hand. 12 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 13 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 14 (No response.) 15 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. Budget 16 amendments. We have a summary sheet, Budget Amendment 17 Request Numbers 1 through -- 18 MS. HARGIS: 20. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Actually, 18. We've got some other 20 adjustments under 19 and 20 that I'll let the Auditor explain 21 separately. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, I'm here and ready to 23 hear it. 24 MS. HARGIS: On 19 and 20? 19 and 20 is grant 25 revenue that we received from AACOG for this radio equipment, 7-11-11 72 1 so we're recognizing the grant revenue coming in, and then 2 recognizing the expense. That's all we're doing. Those were 3 non-budgeted items, but we did get grant money for them, and 4 so we just need to recognize those expenses. The others are 5 -- are basically just moving around for line item shortage. 6 The out-of-county court costs on this particular line item, 7 we're using a little bit of money, because when we set this 8 department up separately so we can track it, we neglected to 9 budget the FICA and retirement costs, and so that's basically 10 what we're doing with -- 11 JUDGE TINLEY: That's the mental health? 12 MS. HARGIS: Mental health. And we've taken that 13 into account for next year. This was our first year to have 14 this department, and we're accustomed to paying it 1099, so 15 we had to reevaluate this system. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Just for funsies here, tell 17 me, who is it that we pay FICA on? 18 MS. HARGIS: We have -- as you recall, we had the 19 I.R.S. audit about three years ago. They said that we 20 couldn't pay them on a 1099. Which is -- 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Is that Court-appointed 22 attorneys? 23 MS. HARGIS: No, it's the judges that we pay, and 24 then we get reimbursed from the other counties for those 25 costs. 7-11-11 73 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. 2 MS. HARGIS: So it's not something we pay out, but 3 we had to just shift the way we pay it and do it through 4 payroll. And we just didn't -- we just didn't allocate all 5 the line items when we did that. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. 7 MS. HARGIS: So each one of the J.P.'s cover those 8 courts on a quarterly basis, and I think they switch. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And we're talking about Kerr 10 County employees only, aren't we? 11 MS. HARGIS: Just J.P.'s, yes. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. No outside Kerr 13 County's? 14 MS. HARGIS: No, not in this line item. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay, thank you. 16 MS. HARGIS: That's just the four J.P.'s. The 17 judge is not included in that. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is there a motion to approve 19 those? 20 JUDGE TINLEY: No, not yet. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move approval. 22 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Second. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: I have a motion and a second to 24 approve the budget amendments as shown by Requests 1 through, 25 actually, 20. Further question or discussion? All in favor, 7-11-11 74 1 signify by raising your right hand. 2 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 3 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 4 (No response.) 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion does carry. Do we have any 6 late bills? 7 MS. HARGIS: Not that I'm aware of. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Reports. I've been presented 9 with monthly reports; Kerr County payroll for June 2011; 10 Constable, Precinct 4; Constable, Precinct 1; Justice of the 11 Peace, Precinct 3; County Clerk; Environmental Health; and 12 Justice of the Peace, Precinct 4. Do I hear a motion that -- 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So moved. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: -- the indicated reports be approved 15 as presented? 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So moved. 17 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Second. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 19 approval of the indicated reports. Further question or 20 discussion? All in favor of the motion, signify by raising 21 your right hand. 22 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 23 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 24 (No response.) 25 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. Let's go to 7-11-11 75 1 Section 5 of the agenda, reports from Commissioners in 2 connection with their liaison or other assignments. 3 Commissioner Overby? 4 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Judge, just two things real 5 quick. Tomorrow -- I'm going to be meeting tomorrow, having 6 a meeting tomorrow morning with the new Workforce Development 7 chairman, Patrick Newman. He's going around and seeing the 8 different areas, and he'll be looking at our facility here in 9 Kerr County tomorrow, but he'll be up and I'll visit with him 10 tomorrow. And also I know that tomorrow, on our workshop 11 tomorrow, we'll be discussing the ag facility. I just wanted 12 to let you -- the Commissioners and the Court know that, 13 again, we'll be making a presentation, a follow-up. We've 14 answered a litany of questions that they still requested as 15 far as our application on behalf of the ag facility, that we 16 have answered in detail. We will meet with the initial 17 response team this week, who's with that -- connected with 18 E.I.C. to answer any other questions they have, but we will 19 further make our request to them next Monday at 4 o'clock. I 20 know that we'll have further discussion tomorrow on the ag 21 facility, but I did want the Court to be made aware of that, 22 that we've answered all those questions, and I believe 23 everybody has a copy of that as well. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Is that it? 25 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Yes, sir. 7-11-11 76 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner Letz? 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Just a little bit on our -- the 3 East Kerr County wastewater project. There's -- I've been 4 communicating quite a bit with Water Development Board. They 5 had some layoffs with the -- as a result of the state budget, 6 and two of the engineers that were working with us are no 7 longer at the Water Development Board, which has caused a 8 little bit of a -- of a delay. There's also some issues 9 about -- I think at our last court meeting or the one before 10 that, possibly, we re -- or allocated some of our in-kind 11 contribution to do an archeological study. It was primarily 12 in our -- U.G.R.A.'s contract. Now they're going to be 13 looking at this. They're not sure that we can do that or 14 they're going to give us credit on it, because they are two 15 separate contracts, even though they're the ones that came up 16 with us doing it this way originally. So, we're back looking 17 at how that gets done and completed. And currently, you 18 know, I've been, I guess, largely visiting with Ray Buck and 19 trying to coordinate with U.G.R.A. part, and Rob and Jeannie, 20 and we're kind of keeping informed through e-mail, so we're 21 working on it. We're trying to get ours through. Well, I'm 22 glad to say that Tetra Tech and Keller Drozdick, who's 23 working on this project with us and doing a good job keeping 24 us informed, he's working closely with the Water Development 25 Board in trying to finalize things, so he's been a big help. 7-11-11 77 1 I think we'll finally get through it, but we're just not 2 quite there yet. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Is that it? 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's it. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner Oehler? 6 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Nope, not this time. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner Baldwin? 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No, sir, thank you. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Reports from elected 10 officials or department heads? Sheriff? Let's get you out 11 of the way. 12 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Couple of things. I'm glad 13 Jeannie stuck around here. First, jail population is staying 14 in the low 160's. I'm a little bit concerned over that. My 15 biggest concern is our females. We are overpopulated with 16 females; we're running anywhere from 27 to 30, 31. I only 17 have 32 beds, which means we're out of compliance with 18 females, because we cannot classify them correctly. We've 19 tried moving them as quick as we can, but, gentlemen, I think 20 we're at a -- what's going to be a critical stage with female 21 housing. I've looked at trying to re -- rearrange the inside 22 of the jail. I don't know of a way to do it with the female 23 housing, because I still have to keep them somewhat out of 24 sight and sound. And if I take up male housing spots right 25 now for females, then I'm over on the males, because I don't 7-11-11 78 1 have the bed space for them. I don't know when the Jail 2 Commission will be here for inspection this year. I expect 3 it will be at least another, hopefully, month away. They'll 4 show up when they want to, but with the Sheriff's convention 5 coming up and that, I don't expect them to be here real soon. 6 But I do expect us to start getting some issues 7 with the Jail Commission on our female housing, and that 8 could get very expensive. That either means we need to build 9 a minimum of a -- like, a 48-bed minimum security that we can 10 move some females into out there, or we're going to have to 11 start housing females out of county. And female beds are not 12 easy to come by in other counties. I don't know what 13 Bandera's got available, but you still don't get rid of any 14 of the liability. Regardless of whether another agency has 15 them and something happens to them in their facility or 16 yours, we're still liable for them, and a lot of that cost is 17 getting up around 50 a day. So I know the Ag Barn's a big 18 talk and everything, but I think we seriously need to look at 19 a crucial part on housing at least females. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Can we put them in the Ag 21 Barn? 22 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I don't think so. (Laughter.) 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You know what, though? We 24 talk about this almost every month. It rolls around; you 25 come up here and give us that report. What do you want us to 7-11-11 79 1 do? Let's start putting a plan together of the answer to the 2 issue. 3 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: To me, the only viable answer 4 you got is to look at -- and actually go out and look at 5 building a minimum security, 48-bed, at least, female unit 6 back behind that jail. That way the medium -- or minimum 7 classification females, I can move out into there, which will 8 open up the -- the inside of the jail part for -- for our 9 other females. But the drawback on that is, now you're going 10 to add to the employee cost of having to have more female 11 officers out there in that facility 24 hours a day. And, 12 true, the Jail Commission says 1 to 48 is what you have to 13 have, but if you're going to have one person with 48, if you 14 end up with that many or whatever, 48 inmates out there and 15 one employee with them I think is not a safe situation. I 16 think you have to have two out there in that facility, and 17 that's two employees around the clock. Two employees, 24 18 hours a day, seven days a week, normally equates out, if you 19 use what the State uses, to just about 10 employees. I'm 20 not -- you know, I mean, it -- it adds up. And this is a -- 21 a cost that's going to -- to get us one way or another, 22 sooner or later. So, I think we really need to start looking 23 at this. I don't see any way around it. I was just talking 24 with the Ingram new city manager, and they want a copy of the 25 contract that we're working on with the city, but they said 7-11-11 80 1 they expect arrests in Ingram to go up drastically. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Sure. 3 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Because they're changing, you 4 know. We've got some internal investigations going with them 5 that my office is conducting right now, but it's going to 6 change the way a lot of that happens with Ingram. And I 7 don't see it going down. I think we've -- I think the courts 8 have done everything they can do. I think the jail's done 9 everything they can do, and I think we're at the point where 10 we're going to have to take action on a facility. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: How many do we have waiting to 12 go to T.D.C.? 13 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Females? I don't -- 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Both. I mean, just total. 15 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: T.D.C.'s not our problem yet. 16 It's probably going to become a problem, but right now 17 they're averaging about 40, 45 days; they're running their 18 max to get them in there. But it's not just T.D.C. It's 19 SAFP; all the waiting lists are backing up more and more. We 20 are housing more and more of those. But as I said in one of 21 the agenda meetings, our court process is slowing down. 22 Not -- not by any blame of D.A.'s or judges. We're having -- 23 you look at this year alone, look at the civil trials we've 24 been having. That takes up a lot of the court space and a 25 lot of the court time. You know, we got one up here now that 7-11-11 81 1 was expected to be three weeks; we're into the second week 2 now. And that's just civil process, and that does draw down 3 on what we can move, okay. We've been even hauling inmates 4 over to Boerne when they have court, just to get them in and 5 get some stuff done, and then bring them back. But we're 6 going to be at a crucial point, and I think the Jail 7 Commission's going to start seriously paying attention to it 8 on compliance, you know. 9 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Sheriff, let me ask you a 10 question. On a 48-bed unit like that, what is -- I'm just 11 asking, you know, square footage on that. What's the cost 12 estimation? I know you're not -- you know, just -- 13 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Well, everything, square 14 footage, just -- you know, you have to have so much for the 15 first inmate and so much for all those after that. As I had 16 talked to the Judge in the past, I think it was Bastrop that 17 did one of those, built a 96-bed minimum security housing, 18 okay. That's -- that's not much. Within the last two years, 19 and I think they came online for between 300,000 and 400,000 20 for a 96-bed -- 21 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: It's mostly dorm space, 22 right? Not individuals? 23 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: It's dorm space. It's only 24 minimum. It's sheetrock walls; it's tin siding. It's -- but 25 now that we do have a fence around the perimeter and that, I 7-11-11 82 1 think we can -- we can do that, okay. 2 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: It's not like building a 3 full-blown jail. 4 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: No, you don't want to get into 5 that. A full-blown jail is running probably 60,000 to 70,000 6 a bed right now. 7 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Yeah. It's -- 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So you don't -- 9 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Don't want any part of that. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You don't deal with this 11 lighting issue. 12 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: You have a lot of that, but in 13 a minimum security facility, it's not near what you have -- 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I see. 15 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: It's built more like this 16 room. It's built more of the regular housing type 17 construction cost. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, I think it's probably a 19 good idea to put this, either during budget workshops to 20 handle it, or put it on the agenda to discuss a little bit 21 more. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: I think what you suggested is two 23 48-bed pods, one male and one female, minimum security. 24 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: That would be if you want 25 them. Overall recommendation to help with everything that 7-11-11 83 1 we're at, that's exactly what I would recommend, is -- is two 2 48-bed, one male, one female, towards the back of the jail, 3 so we can move all the -- 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Put one in the carrots and 5 one in the lettuce? 6 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: You got it. You know, 7 seriously, you do have it. I would recommend we work them as 8 much as we can out in the garden, give them good time. We're 9 talking about the minimum security, and keep our maximum 10 security jail for exactly what it should be meant for, but 11 move some of these smaller ones out in the least expensive. 12 The only additional cost is manpower. 13 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Manpower is where your money 14 is. 15 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: But a lot of these are -- the 16 one in Bastrop, I think is what it was, you know, they have 17 washer and dryers in the back part of that minimum security 18 facility, and the inmates do their own laundry. I think 19 that's an excellent idea. Let them do that, you know, 20 instead of having to have it separate inside our main jail. 21 We don't have to add onto our kitchen area. We would do just 22 like we're doing with the juveniles at this time; we would 23 transport it around over to that -- you know, that facility 24 at lunchtime and handle that. The only addition the Jail 25 Commission required is the negative pressure cell which is 7-11-11 84 1 for, like, TB and that. Once you go over that 200, you're 2 required to have one of those. We already have one of those; 3 we meet that requirement, so we don't have any additional 4 expense there. Biggest additional long-term expense is going 5 to be on employees, and there's nothing I can do about that, 6 but I'm concerned with that. The other issue I have is I 7 noticed last week in some of our budget stuff that we're 8 working on right now, due to electrical costs, I think you're 9 going to see some budget amendments have to come across that. 10 We're going to be short between now and the end of this 11 budget on electrical costs for that jail. And I notice that 12 we were way short on property insurance for some reason. 13 AUDIENCE: Because of the value. 14 MS. HARGIS: We raised the value. 15 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Okay. Which went about 10,000 16 above what I had budgeted for property insurance. So, 17 there's going to have to be a lot of adjustments between now 18 and the end of this budget year. It's going to be extremely 19 tight shuffling money around. We're going to have to go into 20 some of the other funds somewhere, emergency funds or 21 whatever. 22 (Commissioner Baldwin left the meeting.) 23 JUDGE TINLEY: I guess you'll have to tell us where 24 your hidey-holes are. 25 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I don't have any, Judge. 7-11-11 85 1 We've already used them this year, believe me. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: I bet you can find them. 3 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: The biggest hidey-hole I got 4 is a commissary account which we can use for -- as you well 5 know, and as the County Attorney knows, we're trying to get 6 some Attorney General opinions on -- on using it to help 7 offset some other costs long-term, and I hope it works. But 8 there's going to be some -- some serious issues this year and 9 in the next year. Thank you. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Other elected officials? 11 Yes, ma'am? 12 MS. BOLIN: I have two things. We're at 97 percent 13 as of today. We were at 96.54, so we're still maintaining an 14 upward trend. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: This time last year, we were at 16 96.54? 17 MS. BOLIN: Yes, sir. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: So we're about a half percent 19 better. 20 MS. BOLIN: Mm-hmm. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 22 MS. BOLIN: And Tuesday, the 19th, my office will 23 be closed from 10:30 to 3:30 for off-site training for all 24 departments. We have a meeting that we've arranged to have 25 here in Kerr County, and it will involve everyone in the 7-11-11 86 1 office, so both offices will be closed. And we'll be open 2 from 8:30 to 10:30, and 3:30 to 4:30. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Anybody else? Okay. It is 11:11, 4 and we will go out of public or open session. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Can I make a comment on that 6 item before we go into executive session? 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Just to kind of -- I just want 9 to -- one member of the public is here concerning that. Did 10 you call the agenda item? 11 JUDGE TINLEY: The agenda item is Number 15, to 12 have consultation with the County Attorney concerning 13 possibility of litigation concerning the floodplain 14 violations at 7261 Highway 27 in Comfort. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What this situation is, is 16 there's a -- there's a rodeo arena right at Wilson Creek, and 17 we became aware earlier this year that there was some solid 18 waste violations. That got it started, and then it came 19 into -- their O.S.S.F. violations turned into floodplain 20 violations, and Environmental Health Department has been 21 working with that with the owner of that property, 22 Mr. Arreola, and John Hewitt's been very much involved. 23 They've had some engineering studies done. We're at a point 24 that I wanted to bring it to the Court, along with the County 25 Attorney, to discuss with the Court as to where we need to go 7-11-11 87 1 from here. I think we have all the information from the 2 property owner that we need, and we need to get some guidance 3 from the Court. But it will be -- because of potential 4 litigation on this, it will be a -- a requested executive 5 session item, but I wanted to put it on the record as to what 6 this is about. And then, you know, there may be action 7 coming out of executive session, but I don't think it's going 8 to be anything definitive at this point for resolution of the 9 matter. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. So, it is 11:13, and we will 11 close public or open session for the purpose of going into 12 executive session. 13 (The open session was closed at 11:13 a.m., and an executive session was held, the transcript of which 14 is contained in a separate document.) 15 - - - - - - - - - - 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. It is 11:38, and we are back 17 into open or public session. Does any member of the Court 18 have anything to offer in connection with -- let's first take 19 Item Number 9, to consider, discuss, and take appropriate 20 action regarding City of Ingram offer to purchase real 21 property? Hearing no response, any member of the Court have 22 anything to offer with regard to Item 15, consultation with 23 County Attorney concerning possible litigation concerning 24 floodplain violations at 7261 Highway 27 in Comfort, Texas? 25 Hearing nothing, I assume not. Anything more to come before 7-11-11 88 1 the meeting here this morning? We'll be adjourned. 2 (Commissioners Court adjourned at 11:38 a.m.) 3 - - - - - - - - - - 4 5 6 STATE OF TEXAS | 7 COUNTY OF KERR | 8 The above and foregoing is a true and complete 9 transcription of my stenotype notes taken in my capacity as 10 official reporter for the Commissioners Court of Kerr County, 11 Texas, at the time and place heretofore set forth. 12 DATED at Kerrville, Texas, this 14th day of July, 2011. 13 14 JANNETT PIEPER, Kerr County Clerk 15 BY: _________________________________ Kathy Banik, Deputy County Clerk 16 Certified Shorthand Reporter 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 7-11-11