1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT 9 Special Session 10 Monday, July 23, 2012 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 23, 2012 2 PAGE --- Commissioners' Comments 5 3 1.1 Public Hearing concerning final revision of 4 plat for Lots 43 and 44 of The Reserve at Falling Waters, Precinct 3 11 5 1.2 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action for 6 approval concerning final revision of plat for Lots 43 and 44 of The Reserve at Falling Waters 12 7 1.3 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 8 open, read, and award the bids on 2 supervisors' trucks with utility beds & 1 Road Administrator’s 9 pickup truck 13 10 1.4 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action regarding 2013 Kerr Central Appraisal District 11 budget 16 12 1.5 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to approve 2013 Sheriff's and Constable's fees as 13 required under Texas Local Government Code 18 14 1.6 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on imposition of optional motor vehicle fees charged 15 by Kerr County for calendar year 2013 19 16 1.9 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to designate elected official(s) as responsible 17 official for posting, publication, or any other method of notice as may be required under state 18 or federal statures or regulations as a result of any actions or orders of Kerr County Commissioners 19 Court 20 20 1.7 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on renewal of MOU between Indigent Healthcare 21 Solutions and Kerr County 24 22 1.10 Consider/discuss, take action to authorize funding for road base and drainage for parking lot at Hill 23 Country Youth Exhibit Center out of bond proceeds 26 24 1.11 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to approve and issue Request for Proposal for 25 industrial fan/air circulation system for show barn at Hill Country Youth Exhibit Center 31 3 1 I N D E X (Continued) July 23, 2012 2 PAGE 1.12 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to enter 3 into agreement with Pro Tech Signs & Graphixx for design, manufacture & installation (including 4 obtaining necessary permits) of commercial signage next to Highway 27 at Hill Country Youth Exhibit 5 Center, including appropriation of funds -- 6 1.13 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to approve professional services proposal from 7 Peter Lewis, Architect, for services related to rebidding the show barn at Hill Country Youth 8 Exhibit Center 34 9 1.8 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on agreement for services with BCFS for Kerr County 10 Juvenile Probation Department 38 11 1.14 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action regarding concept plan on revision of plat for 12 property located on Doris Drive 42 13 1.15 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to authorize changes in employee benefit package 14 plan and/or contract with TAC 51 15 1.16 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action regarding preparation for events at Hill 16 Country Youth Exhibit Center 54 17 1.17 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on interpretation of personnel policy provisions 18 as it relates to individual employee 58 19 4.1 Pay Bills 74 4.2 Budget Amendments 74 20 4.3 Late Bills -- 4.4 Approve and Accept Monthly Reports 78 21 5.1 Reports from Commissioners/Liaison Committee 22 Assignments 79 5.2 Reports from Elected Officials/Department Heads 84 23 --- Adjourned 92 24 25 4 1 On Monday, July 23, 2012, at 9:00 a.m., a special 2 meeting of the Kerr County Commissioners Court was held in 3 the Commissioners' Courtroom, Kerr County Courthouse, 4 Kerrville, Texas, and the following proceedings were had in 5 open court: 6 P R O C E E D I N G S 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. 8 Let me call to order this regularly scheduled meeting of the 9 Kerr County Commissioners Court posted and scheduled for this 10 date and time, Monday, July 23rd, 2012, at 9 a.m. It is that 11 time now. Commissioner Overby? 12 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Stand for a word of prayer. 13 (Prayer and pledge of allegiance.) 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you. At this time, if there's 15 any member of the audience or public that wishes to be heard 16 on any matter which is not a listed agenda item, this is your 17 opportunity to come forward and tell us what's on your mind. 18 If you wish to be heard on an agenda item, we ask that you 19 fill out a participation form. There should be some located 20 at the rear of the room. If there should not be any there, 21 or if you fail to fill one out and wish to be heard on an 22 agenda item, when we get to that item, get my attention in 23 some manner; I'll give you the opportunity to be heard. But 24 right now, if there's any member of the audience or public 25 that wishes to be heard on any matter which is not a listed 7-23-12 5 1 agenda item, this is your opportunity to come forward and 2 tell us what's on your mind. Seeing no one coming forward, 3 we'll move on. Commissioner Overby? 4 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Judge, I've got a few things 5 I'd just kind of like to update the Court on today, let you 6 know kind of a few things that will be coming, and some 7 notices how we can help our community. We will be hearing a 8 presentation later in August about updates on our mass 9 notification system. As you know, we've been using the Code 10 Red system here for the last three years. I want you to know 11 that we have extensively looked at it over the last six 12 weeks, of looking at different presentations on our mass 13 notification systems in Kerr County. Sheriff Hierholzer and 14 a lot of other folks have been participating in that, our 15 school districts, Kerrville -- City of Kerrville, City of 16 Kerrville EMS, our different technology departments in our 17 community, Road and Bridge, TexDOT. We're going to be coming 18 back, giving you some updates on that, but the main thing 19 about this system is making sure that we enhance it, and it's 20 an opportunity to do so, and I think it should be real 21 interesting on hearing that report as it comes to you in 22 August. Sheriff, appreciate everything as far as helping on 23 those presentations. We had lots of groups come in to make 24 sure that we reviewed that, and we'll be giving that update 25 here later on this month. 7-23-12 6 1 A couple other things I would like to bring 2 attention to the Court. Last Wednesday, we have started also 3 in our community the food supply networking group in our 4 community. This is a -- a deal about our food supply, about 5 our insecurities in our community as far as food and feeding 6 our population. I'm -- I'm pleased to say that we have lots 7 of organizations in our community who are participating in 8 this networking, how we can help -- help the people and the 9 hunger in Kerr County. That was led by our AACOG 10 representation, as far as they were here. Of course, I'm the 11 Kerr County representative that was there in that meeting. 12 Other organizations that participated in this opportunity was 13 Team Up here in Kerrville, Salvation Army, CAM, the AgriLife 14 Extension program, the Dietert Center, St. Vincent de Paul, 15 the City of Kerrville, and the San Antonio Food Bank. 16 What we need to realize in Kerr County today that 17 is 15.4 percent of our population, or 7,280 people that live 18 in Kerr County today are food insecure during their week and 19 how they're going to get their meals and what's going on. 20 So, we have a very big problem in Kerr County, and it was 21 good to sit there and talk with our different organizations 22 about how we can help meet those needs to feed people, and 23 look at the long-term goal of how we might help get food 24 distributions in our community to help those people. You'll 25 be looking forward to hearing a lot of those coming up. 7-23-12 7 1 I want to say on Wednesday, July 25th, this 2 Wednesday, from 8 o'clock to 8:00 at H.E.B., Hal Peterson 3 Middle School -- if you remember, that was the group that got 4 the award from the San Antonio Spurs on their project that 5 they did here this past year. This Wednesday, they will be 6 doing -- receiving donations in the H.E.B. parking lot, and 7 their student volunteers will be out there collecting 8 donations from the different -- for helping the local food 9 pantry vehicles. Items that they need include canned food, 10 dried potatoes, rice, cereal, canned meat, pasta, jelly, 11 peanut butter, canned vegetables, tomato soup, meatballs and 12 spaghetti. So, we want to remember Wednesday, the 25th, if 13 you're out driving around, go by H.E.B. on Wednesday and take 14 a couple of cans of food to help stock our pantries here in 15 the middle of July. That's a good program. 16 And then one last thing, Judge. I don't want to 17 take a lot of time here. We had a greet Center Point 18 Volunteer Fire Department barbecue on the 14th, good parade 19 out there. The community of Center Point thoroughly enjoyed 20 that day. They typically serve about 1,100 people on that 21 barbecue that day, and we had about the same type of numbers 22 that we had this year. And so a lot of things happening, so 23 I just appreciate those updates for Precinct 2. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you. Commissioner Letz? 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Boy, I don't have near that 7-23-12 8 1 much to say. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Who does? 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: All I can say is it's getting 4 dry again, at least in my part of the county. We need some 5 rain. That's about it. We have a good agenda today, and 6 budget -- we're in the middle of budget. That's it. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner Oehler? 8 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Well, not a whole lot. We do 9 have a big rodeo coming to town Friday-Saturday. I went and 10 met some of the folks last week at the Y.O. for a little 11 social time, and hope that everybody will support that event. 12 And it's a big thing to come to Kerrville, and I know that 13 things are getting done out at the center in preparation for 14 that, and we look forward to having them, and hope they'll 15 come back every year. And I hope the community will get 16 behind it and support it. And it is getting dry again. Been 17 pretty fortunate, but looks like the forecast is not real 18 good for rain this week, so we'll see what happens, but I 19 would imagine it won't be long before we put the burn ban 20 back on. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Mm-hmm. 22 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That's it. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Commissioner Baldwin? 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yes, sir, thank you. 25 Probably a matter of hours before the burn ban goes back on 7-23-12 9 1 in my precinct. But one thing, I've been making observation 2 of some of these communities, and a couple of them large 3 cities out in California going bankrupt, and that's a scary 4 deal. And then I see in today's -- on the front page of 5 today's Kerrville Daily Times about the unemployment numbers 6 going up here in Kerr County. That is a concern, and it 7 should be a concern to all of us. So, I'm just putting you 8 on notice that if this little trend continues here locally, 9 I'm going to be really, really difficult to get along with 10 when it comes to salary increases and -- or increases of any 11 sort in this county. So, that's all I had to say. That's my 12 good news for the day. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you. The P.R.C.A. rodeo that 14 will be coming here, I was with Commissioner Oehler at the -- 15 kind of the kickoff gathering down at the Y.O. Those folks 16 are planning that to be an annual event, and I would hope 17 that the support from this community will justify them making 18 that an annual event. The importance of it to the 19 participants in that rodeo is pretty significant, in that 20 those cowboys are trying to get enough points -- and points 21 is money -- so that they can qualify to participate in the 22 national finals rodeo that takes place I think in December, 23 if I'm not mistaken. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Mm-hmm. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: And it's getting late in the year 7-23-12 10 1 for those cowboys to climb that ladder to make the cut to be 2 able to participate in the -- in the national finals. So, 3 you're going to see some top-notch cowboys there. There's 4 some real experienced and capable cowboys doing what they do 5 best. The other thing I think that most folks may not 6 understand is that there are going be to be two separate 7 rodeos; be one Friday night, be one Saturday night. So, this 8 is going to be a double-barreled opportunity for those 9 cowboys to gain even more points. So, there may be some that 10 participate both Friday and Saturday, or only Friday, and 11 then a different group on Saturday, but you're going to see 12 top-notch -- top-notch performers at that event. The stock 13 contractor is widely known, nationally known; has furnished 14 stock from time to time at the national finals rodeo. I 15 think they had the horse of the year here a few -- few years 16 ago as one of the bucking broncs. 17 But we're just real fortunate to have those folks 18 coming to Kerrville with this event, provide this 19 entertainment and the opportunity for those cowboys to -- to 20 do their thing and to show us their skills. So, I'd urge you 21 to support them, and have your friends and neighbors do 22 likewise. It's going to be a good event. Now, this is not 23 in any manner meant to take away anything from KerrFest. 24 It's going to be a couple weeks later. That's going to be 25 more local and area cowboys, folks that you know and -- and 7-23-12 11 1 see frequently, and that'll give you an opportunity for them 2 to demonstrate their skills to you. So, that'll be another 3 opportunity to have a good time, and we want you to 4 participate in that one also. So, there -- one's not meant 5 to replace the other by any means. It's -- it's going to 6 both be good entertainment opportunities. 7 I want to let the Court know that both Commissioner 8 Overby and I have a commitment at 11:30 for the Alamo 9 Colleges Advisory Board, so hopefully we can get through the 10 agenda by that time. If not, why, we'll be recessing for 11 lunch early to come back a little bit after 1:00 to finish 12 up, so just so everybody can be aware of that. Let's get on 13 with what we've got to do here. The first item; at this 14 time, I will recess the Commissioners Court meeting and I 15 will convene a public hearing concerning the final revision 16 of plat for Lots 43 and 44 of The Reserve at Falling Waters 17 located in Precinct 3. 18 (The regular Commissioners Court meeting was closed at 9:15 a.m., and a public hearing was held in open 19 court, as follows:) 20 P U B L I C H E A R I N G 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Is there any member of the public or 22 audience that wishes to be heard with respect to the final 23 revision of plat for Lots 43 and 44 of The Reserve at Falling 24 Waters? 25 (No response.) 7-23-12 12 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Seeing no one seeking to be 2 recognized or coming forward, I will close the public hearing 3 concerning the final revision of plat for Lots 43 and 44 of 4 The Reserve at Falling Waters located in Precinct 3. 5 (The public hearing was concluded at 9:15 a.m., and the regular Commissioners Court meeting was 6 reopened.) 7 - - - - - - - - - - 8 JUDGE TINLEY: And I will call item -- I will 9 reconvene the Commissioners Court meeting and call Item 2, 10 which is to consider, discuss, and take appropriate action 11 for the approval concerning the final revision of plat for 12 Lots 43 and 44 of The Reserve at Falling Waters located in 13 Precinct 3. Mr. Odom? 14 MR. ODOM: Good morning, Judge. For a start, I 15 just want to make a comment that the Voelkels have guaranteed 16 everybody a ticket for the rodeo. Right? 17 MR. VOELKEL: Is that what we did? 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Yes, sir. Everybody in the area -- 19 in the audience here, just ask Lee. Mr. and Mrs. Die own 20 Lots 43 and 44 of The Reserve at Falling Waters. The Dies 21 would like to combine Lot 43 and Lot 44, making Lot 43R, a 22 total of 8.920 acres. At this time, we ask the Court for 23 their final approval concerning the revision of plat for Lots 24 43 and 44 of The Reserve at Falling Waters, located in 25 Precinct 3. 7-23-12 13 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move approval. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 4 approval of the agenda item. Question or discussion? All in 5 favor of the motion, signify by raising your right hand. 6 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 7 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 8 (No response.) 9 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. We'll go to 10 Item 3; consider, discuss, and take appropriate action to 11 open, read, and award bids on two supervisor trucks with 12 utility beds and one Road Administrator's pickup truck. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: One bid. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: We have only one bid, huh? The bid 15 is from -- 16 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Is there a card on the 17 bottom? 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It's a big decision. I 19 think we better fast and pray for a few days. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Looks like I'm finally able to get 21 there. It comes from Ken Stoepel Ford. 22 MR. ODOM: Must be free, Judge. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Free. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Huh? 25 MR. ODOM: Must be free. 7-23-12 14 1 JUDGE TINLEY: I seriously doubt that. The 2 supervisor's trucks, 40,356.78 each. 3 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That's the one with the 4 utility bed, right? 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Yes. The supervisor's -- Road 7 Administrator's truck, I suppose is what we call that, F-350 8 4-by-4 crew, 38,797.63. Do I hear a motion to accept the 9 bids and refer to Road and Bridge for review and 10 recommendation, and possibly later award? 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move we accept the bids. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And everything else you said. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: All right, motion made and seconded. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I was just wondering why we 16 don't go ahead and award it. I know we're not getting 17 anything cheaper than that. That's a whole lot less than I 18 just paid. 19 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: That's pretty good. 20 MR. ODOM: That's real good. That's about 14,000 21 up under list and all, just from that truck for me. Every 22 truck we have is over 200,000 miles. Mine's 205,000 on mine. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The funds are -- 24 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: We're designating and 25 authorizing the -- 7-23-12 15 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, we have a motion and a second 2 to accept the bids and -- 3 MR. ODOM: Award them? 4 JUDGE TINLEY: -- and review. Let's go ahead and 5 knock that out of the way, and then we'll get to the 6 second -- 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: -- aspect of that. All in favor of 9 that motion, signify by raising your right hand. 10 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 11 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 12 (No response.) 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion does carry. Mr. Odom, based 14 upon the numbers you just heard, are you recommending that 15 the Court award the bid as indicated to Ken Stoepel Ford for 16 all three vehicles? 17 MR. ODOM: Yes, sir, I do. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: All right. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So moved. 20 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Second. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: I hear a motion and a second to 22 award the bid for all three vehicles and accept that bid to 23 Ken Stoepel Ford. Questions? Suggestions? 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll make a comment, that those 25 are extremely low prices, and I appreciate Ken Stoepel. I 7-23-12 16 1 don't know what -- I don't know how they're doing it, but I 2 appreciate them really working with the County on vehicles 3 and coming in with, I mean, -- 4 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Fabulous price. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- substantially discounted 6 prices. 7 MR. ODOM: Right. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Any other comments? All in favor of 9 the motion, signify by raising your right hand. 10 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 11 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 12 (No response.) 13 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. Okay. Let's 14 go to Item 4; to consider, discuss, take appropriate action 15 regarding the 2013 Kerr Central Appraisal District budget. I 16 put this on the agenda. The Kerr Central Appraisal District 17 adopted their budget on July 12th of this year, and we have 18 30 days from that date -- each of the taxing units has 30 19 days from that date to disapprove or disallow that budget. 20 And only if the budget is disallowed by a majority of the 21 taxing agencies, weighted, of course, to the amount of tax 22 revenue, I believe is the way they do it, will -- will the 23 budget be disapproved. If we take no action, the budget is 24 -- it's an automatic approval of it. So, I put it on the 25 agenda so as to allow the Commissioners an opportunity, if 7-23-12 17 1 they chose, to disapprove that budget. Do I hear a motion 2 from any member of the Court with respect to disapproval? 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge, it probably won't do any 4 good, but I just think that the -- you know, their history of 5 giving COLA's higher than we have been giving for years, and 6 I suspect they're doing it again this year, and I just think 7 that they should live under the same parameters that we live 8 under when it comes to raises. And I'll make a motion to 9 disapprove the budget based on the salary increases. 10 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Mm-hmm. 11 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Second. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded to 13 disapprove the Appraisal District budget for fiscal 2012-13. 14 Any question or discussion on this motion? 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I have a question. Is -- is 16 the increase this 3.81 I see? 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's how I took it. 18 Commissioner, I'm not -- I mean, I'm presuming that's 19 correct. It's 3.8 -- 20 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Well, if you go down to the 21 bottom line also, that -- if you take that 3.81 and look at 22 the overall, it's actually 4.2 overall increase in their 23 budget. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Significant increase in software 25 support, medical insurance. 7-23-12 18 1 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: 3 percent total. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I will make a note that I stand 3 corrected on a comment I just made. Based on their note, 4 they said they did not give a COLA last year. I thought they 5 did, but it says in their footnote they did not, so I presume 6 they didn't. But still, I just think that they're -- you 7 know, they need to keep their salary increases in line with 8 ours. It's the taxpayers' money that's funding that same 9 bunch. 10 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I agree. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Any further question or comments on 12 the motion? All in favor of the motion, signify by raising 13 your right hand. 14 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 15 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 16 (No response.) 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion does carry. Let's go to 18 Item 5; to consider, discuss, take appropriate action to 19 approve 2013 sheriff's and constable's fees as required under 20 Texas Local Government Code Section 118.131. Ms. Pieper? 21 And we have the Sheriff here also to weigh in on that. 22 MS. PIEPER: Well, I've heard from the Sheriff, and 23 I know he doesn't want to raise any of his fees. And I've 24 heard from Constable, Precinct 1, that he doesn't. I haven't 25 heard from the other ones. 7-23-12 19 1 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: We adjusted a lot of the fees 2 last year, getting them back in line, and I just think we're 3 in line with most other average counties and that, and that 4 we shouldn't adjust our fees in any way, shape, or form this 5 year. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: I think over a period of a couple 7 years, we -- 8 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yeah. The last two years, 9 we -- 10 JUDGE TINLEY: -- we kind of worked them. 11 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: -- adjusted. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Per the recommendation of 13 the Sheriff, I move that we approve this schedule as -- as 14 written. 15 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I'll second. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded to approve 17 the schedule of existing fees for sheriffs and constables. 18 Question or discussion? All in favor, signify by raising 19 your right hand. 20 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 21 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 22 (No response.) 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion carries. Let's go to Item 6; 24 consider, discuss, take appropriate action on imposition of 25 optional motor vehicle fees charged by Kerr County for 7-23-12 20 1 calendar year 2013. This is that annual thing, gentlemen, 2 that I put on every year. The only additional optional fee 3 that we would have would be the so-called child safety fee, 4 which can be not less than 50 cents or more than $1.50 per 5 registration. The money would be dedicated to provide school 6 crossing guard services or programs to enhance child safety, 7 health, or nutrition, including child abuse intervention and 8 prevention and drug and alcohol abuse programs. I present 9 this annually to you gentlemen, and so far you've declined to 10 add that child safety fee, but here's your opportunity for 11 the coming year. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, I'm not going to 13 change mine, and the reason is I think this is a school 14 district issue. It's not a county issue. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Any other questions? Comments? Any 16 member of the Court wish to offer a motion? We'll move on to 17 Item 9; consider, discuss, and take appropriate action to 18 designate the elected officials as the responsible official 19 for the posting, publication, or any other method of notice 20 as may be required under state or federal statutes or 21 regulations as a result of any actions or orders of the Kerr 22 County Commissioners Court. I put this on the agenda so that 23 there would be a clear understanding of the elected official 24 or officials who might be responsible for publishing or 25 giving other notice as may be required by any action the 7-23-12 21 1 Court takes. My thinking was generally that, with the 2 exception of tax matters that the Tax Assessor is required to 3 do in connection with publication of the effective tax rate, 4 rollback rate, notices of hearings on the tax rate, matters 5 strictly relating to the tax rate, that any other notices 6 should -- my thinking is should be the responsibility of the 7 County Clerk, inasmuch as the County Clerk is the primary 8 records keeper for this Court. But I'll leave it to you 9 gentlemen. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I agree with you. 11 Conversation over, far as I'm concerned. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is that a motion, Commissioner? 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I move that we -- what? -- 14 designate the County Clerk as the appropriate elected 15 official responsible for posting, publication, or any other 16 method of notice as required under the state and federal 17 statutes or regulations. 18 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I'll second that. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I -- my only question -- 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Are you excluding the tax things? 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yes, I am. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Of course I am. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: With the exception of matters 25 involving the tax, which are the responsibility of the Tax 7-23-12 22 1 Assessor/Collector. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And some of the laws even 3 mention the Sheriff doing the -- 4 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: We do a lot of the 5 foreclosures, -- 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: -- posting. 7 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: -- suits, things like that. 8 That doesn't come through this court, though. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. 10 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: You're talking about orders of 11 the Court. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: As a result of actions of this 13 Commissioners Court. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Correct. 15 MR. HENNEKE: As I understand it, though, 16 gentlemen, the -- part of the policy change of that will be 17 that, for example, the -- the truck RFP that we just opened 18 and awarded earlier this morning -- and, you know, when 19 there's RFP's that are coming through the Court, in that 20 instance, Road and Bridge did their own publication in the 21 newspaper. They took care of that, and that's attached to 22 the backup. But from this point forward, I understand the 23 Court's saying that all RFP's and so on and so forth will be 24 routed through the clerk's office, and not be handled by the 25 individual departments; is that correct? 7-23-12 23 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's the way I think. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. 3 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Just makes it clearer. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean, I heard -- I mean, my 5 review of that is that they're responsible for it. If they 6 want to make sure Road and Bridge does it, I don't have a 7 problem with Road and Bridge doing it, but I think they're 8 responsible for it. They need to make sure it happens. 9 That's the way I look at it. I don't care who actually does 10 it, but someone needs to make sure it's done, and I think 11 it's the clerk's responsibility to make sure the orders of 12 the Court are followed, which -- and I'd leave it up to the 13 County Clerk as to if they'd rather do it all themselves, or, 14 you know, make sure that it gets done. Doesn't make that 15 much difference to me. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: But the ultimate responsibility 17 would be with the County Clerk. If they want to coordinate 18 with, for example, Road and Bridge and see that Road and 19 Bridge gets it done, why, that's fine and dandy, but the 20 ultimate responsibility will be with the County Clerk. 21 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: If she needs assistance on 22 the wording and the publication notice, the County Attorney's 23 available. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Or the department head -- 25 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Or department head. 7-23-12 24 1 JUDGE TINLEY: -- that's directly involved in 2 whatever it is. 3 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Correct. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. 5 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I'll second your motion. I 6 don't think you had one. 7 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Yeah, second over here. 8 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Oh, you already did? I 9 didn't hear you. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay, we have a motion and a second. 11 Further question or discussion? All in favor, signify by 12 raising your right hand. 13 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 14 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 15 (No response.) 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion carried. Let's go to Item 17 Number 7, a 9:30 timed item; consider, discuss, and take 18 appropriate action on renewal of Memorandum of Understanding 19 between Indigent Health Care Solutions and Kerr County. I 20 put this on the agenda as a result of Indigent Health Care 21 Solutions presenting us with another annual renewal, in 22 essence, of the contract. I think we've had extraordinarily 23 good luck using their software program. In fact, my 24 understanding is for indigent health, it is the software 25 program, conforms with all the state and federal 7-23-12 25 1 requirements. As most of you know, by bringing that indigent 2 health care -- handling it totally in-house a few years ago, 3 there have been significant savings gained. Prior to 4 bringing it in-house, that -- that budget was over a million 5 dollars at one point in time. In a matter of a few years, 6 Ms. Lantz and Ms. Lavender, and now Ms. Ayala have been very 7 instrumental in bringing that thing down to where we get a 8 report every year -- I mean, not every year; every month from 9 the state as to what those indigent health care costs are by 10 county. And I was rather surprised here -- I believe it was 11 just last month, they showed us as a negative. I think it 12 was a calculation error on their part, but -- but -- 13 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I don't think that could be. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: I don't think they were sending us 15 money, but -- but that's how much good they've done in 16 bringing that thing down and keeping it under control. We're 17 in full compliance with all the -- all the statutory 18 requirements, but we've -- we've really gained total control 19 over that. So, I put this on the agenda for the purpose of 20 renewing that M.O.U. that we've had in place for Indigent 21 Health Care Solutions. Actually, that's probably our largest 22 expenditure for that department now. 23 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: That's good. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, I move for approval. 25 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I'll second that. 7-23-12 26 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 2 approval of the agenda item. Question or discussion? All in 3 favor of the motion, signify by raising your right hand. 4 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 5 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 6 (No response.) 7 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. Let's go to 8 Item 10; to consider, discuss, and take action to authorize 9 funding for road base and drainage for parking lot at Hill 10 Country Youth Exhibit Center out of bond proceeds. 11 Commissioner Oehler? 12 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Well, you know, as we 13 progress though this building project, and the time frame for 14 getting things done in preparation for it being used, you 15 know, after -- I guess after the building is done, the 16 parking lot area is one thing that we -- you know, we're a 17 little limited on parking anyway, and we don't want to get to 18 the point where we don't have a place for people to park, you 19 know, and not -- and get stuck in case it does rain. And so, 20 suggesting that we authorize Road and Bridge to go ahead 21 and -- and base that area out, and be ready; let it just sit 22 there, no -- no sealcoat. Just get our drainage right, base 23 it out so that whenever it needs to be used -- which it'll 24 need to be used during the construction part, and as they 25 have time to do it, let them do it. And when they're not 7-23-12 27 1 interfering with any of the construction group deal -- part 2 of that building project, that they can work on it as they 3 have time. I talked with Len and Kelly a while ago. Also, 4 the Auditor gave me the number that we have left in the funds 5 that we reallocated from 2008, 2010, and that amount is 6 103,401. I guess -- I assume that's very close to the actual 7 amount? 8 (Ms. Hargis nodded.) 9 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: And in order to get this 10 done, I believe -- Len, what was the figure you gave me a 11 while ago? 12 MR. ODOM: 63,000. 13 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: 63,000 to go ahead and get 14 this work done, and worry about sealcoat somewhere down the 15 road. After all the building is complete out there, it would 16 be the time to do that. But at least we would have a hard 17 surface parking lot, so that we would have that additional 18 parking during the time of not only construction, but also, 19 you know, during stock show for the coming 2013 show. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: And it would resolve some drainage 21 issues also? 22 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: It's resolving -- they 23 already have shot all the grades, and they're going to -- 24 we're ready to do all of that. Got it figured out, where to 25 funnel the water so it doesn't go where it's been going. 7-23-12 28 1 Going to go more straight to Riverside, and take out those 2 two old hackberry trees out there that are in the middle of 3 the parking lot, which just makes more -- you know, makes 4 something for people to run into, or it also creates a 5 problem with just doing the parking lot and getting 6 everything, you know, nice and graded. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: You're talking about the area 8 on the west side? 9 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: The west side of the 10 building, and also wrap around some to the south -- the south 11 end as well. But they've already -- I think you've got most 12 of the sides already done, Len? Did he get most of that last 13 week? 14 MR. ODOM: We have with that pit run, and I wanted 15 to top that with about three inches of crushed limestone. 16 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: They've already gone around 17 and re -- actually broke up a bunch of material that was 18 concrete that was dug out of that -- that alleyway, and they 19 crushed it up with the rollers and whatever and used that 20 underneath where the slope's going to be away from the 21 building. And, you know, he's now put some of the same 22 material that he used on the pad, but now he needs to go put 23 base on it so we have something nice, all that sort of thing. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, the area is pretty much for 25 more of the -- the road -- or actually road that goes through 7-23-12 29 1 just on the south side of the Extension Office all the way to 2 the Riverside fence? 3 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Well, it's actually what's 4 inside the fence right now. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Inside that fence? 6 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Got to do the site work next 7 year on that -- you know, the exhibit hall, and so you really 8 don't want to monkey with that until after that time, and 9 he'd make -- you know, he'll make concessions for that to 10 make sure that that all blends together where it drains away; 11 we don't have a bunch of big water holes. But this is kind 12 of the first step. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Everything back of -- of the exhibit 14 hall going towards Riverside, all the way over to the west 15 fence there at River Star Park? 16 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yeah. Most of that area on 17 the south side is just going to be sloped. 18 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Down to the -- 19 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: And, you know, kind of a way 20 to go all the way around two sides of that building, and then 21 south of that road we just need to leave it alone, because 22 that's where the rainwater catchment system's going. There's 23 going to be a lot of digging done in there, so we don't 24 really need to monkey with that too much. It's mainly the 25 west side and a little bit of the south where it wraps around 7-23-12 30 1 the building. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: But your proposal today is to 3 authorize the funding for that purpose out of the accumulated 4 funds in those prior debt -- debt issues that we did that 5 still remain for the Youth Exhibit Center? 6 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yes. And that figure was 63; 7 is that right, Len? 8 MR. ODOM: 63. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: That's just an estimate, I 10 understand, but -- 11 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That's a good estimate. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: But there's about 103 remaining -- 13 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Still leaves 40. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: -- within the Ag Barn account out of 15 those prior debt issues. 16 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I really think that's a good 17 use of those funds to get ahead of the -- you know, ahead of 18 the program on this deal. We don't want to get -- 19 everything's going to have to fall just so to make this all 20 come together whenever the building is finished, and I think 21 this is important to go ahead and get that done. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll make a motion to authorize 23 expenditure of up to 65,000 for Road and Bridge Department 24 to -- for their expenses for the parking on the west and 25 somewhat on the south side of the Youth Exhibit Center 7-23-12 31 1 construction. 2 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I'll second that. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: That funding to come from the 4 remaining balances in the Youth Exhibit Center portion of the 5 prior debt issues prior to 2012; is that correct? 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: All right. Motion made and seconded 8 as indicated. Further question or discussion? All in favor, 9 signify by raising your right hand. 10 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 11 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 12 (No response.) 13 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. Let's go to 14 Item 11; to consider, discuss, take appropriate action to 15 approve and issue Request for Proposal for industrial fan/air 16 circulation system for the show barn, Hill Country Youth 17 Exhibit Center. Commissioner Oehler? 18 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I put this on. This is 19 another one of those things that we need to get started on, 20 and to authorize -- or request proposals for those industrial 21 fans that are going to be placed inside the new show barn. 22 And I think that Rob has written up pretty much an agenda 23 item where he feels like we need to authorize. Is that 24 right, Mr. Henneke? 25 MR. HENNEKE: Yes, sir. 7-23-12 32 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Mr. Lewis, this thing was designed 2 for some big fan type of -- 3 MR. LEWIS: Yes, sir. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: -- air circulation to move air 5 through the building, and -- 6 MR. LEWIS: The building was -- the structure was 7 designed to support it. Electrical service is designed to 8 handle it as well, and it was just -- it was -- by decision, 9 was not included in the base bid. What we have today is a 10 bid package that would be bid on by, we believe, electrical 11 contractors. We are issuing for bids to be received on 12 Friday, August the 10th, and to be opened publicly on Monday, 13 August the 13th, 2012, at 10 a.m. And I have a bid package 14 here to submit to the court, and the County -- Mr. Henneke 15 has reviewed this. Bids will be on a stipulated sum basis. 16 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I know those fans are huge 17 that we're putting in there. How many, Bruce? 18 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Six. 19 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: There's six in there that 20 we're looking at? 21 MR. LEWIS: We have five -- 22 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: They're great. 23 MR. LEWIS: In the specification, we have five 24 approved suppliers, providers for that. And, of course, we 25 would entertain others if they meet the qualifications and 7-23-12 33 1 specifications. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Or equivalent. 3 MR. LEWIS: Yes. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah, okay. 5 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: It's just another one of 6 those deals, kind of like the parking lot. It's part of the 7 process, but I -- the reason they weren't included in the 8 original bid was because in my past experience, whenever you 9 include those kinds of things that you pretty well know the 10 price for, that the contractor's going to add 15 percent to 11 it, and I don't think we ought -- there's not really any 12 reason for that, as far as I'm concerned. 13 MR. LEWIS: There is a stipulation in here that the 14 successful contractor would coordinate with other contractors 15 and other trades. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 17 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: 'Cause all the electrical for 18 these is already specified in the plans. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Sure. Do I hear a motion for 20 approval of the agenda item? 21 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Motion to approve. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 24 approval of the agenda item to issue the Request for 25 Proposals as indicated. Further question or discussion? All 7-23-12 34 1 in favor of the motion, 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 carried. Item 12. I 6 believe, Commissioner Oehler, you want to pass that for now? 7 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yes, I'd like to place it 8 back on the special meeting for Monday, -- 9 JUDGE TINLEY: All right. 10 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: -- the 30th, when we have the 11 bid opening. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Item Number 13; consider, discuss, 13 take appropriate action to approve professional services 14 proposal from Peter Lewis, Architect, for services related to 15 rebidding the show barn at the Hill Country Youth Exhibit 16 Center. 17 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Where'd Mr. Lewis go? 18 MR. LEWIS: I'm here. 19 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Oh, there he is. 20 MR. LEWIS: I haven't left; I was just... 21 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I think he needs to get up 22 and explain the reason for this. I put it on so that he 23 could come and make his presentation. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 25 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: And explain why that we need 7-23-12 35 1 to consider this. 2 MR. LEWIS: There's a considerable amount of work 3 that we do during the bid phase; we respond to inquires, we 4 issue clarifications, we consult with our clients. And we 5 have incurred those costs initially on the original bid, and 6 when the -- it was found that the project needed to be rebid, 7 we have already begun to incur additional time associated 8 with that that was outside of our basic service contract. We 9 don't expect it to be a lot, because -- 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Estimate? 11 MR. LEWIS: I don't have an estimate. It's just 12 open-ended, because we get inquires, we get new bidders. We 13 did have a pre-bid meeting last week on-site. A couple -- 14 local bidder and another from out of town showed up for that. 15 We have had still good interest in the project, and we expect 16 to receive bids on schedule. So -- and we will be judicial 17 in our use of our time. I have instructed my staff to 18 service the project as need be, but be cautious about use of 19 our time. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: You say you can't issue an estimate, 21 but you don't think it's going to be a great deal. Would you 22 say it would be under 5,000? 23 MR. LEWIS: Yes, I do. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: This is not something that's 7-23-12 36 1 outside your scope, but just redoing because of the -- 2 MR. LEWIS: Exactly. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: -- the bobble that we've 4 caused? 5 MR. LEWIS: It is within the scope of our project. 6 We did it for the original bid, and then again we'll incur 7 additional costs to do it a second time. 8 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I can understand the expense, 9 and -- of the misfortune of us having that situation, but I 10 know that you have those additional expenses. Appreciate all 11 your work you're doing. 12 MR. LEWIS: Thank you. And, again, we will be 13 judicial in our use of our time and your money, and the 14 taxpayers' money. 15 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Can we cap it at 2,500? 16 (Laughter.) 17 MR. LEWIS: The Judge has already moved 5,000. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: No, I -- that was just a question. 19 That wasn't a cap. We're playing poker now, Peter. 20 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Do I hear three? 21 MR. LEWIS: We can cap it at three. 22 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: All right. I move that we 23 authorize a maximum of $3,000 to be paid to Peter Lewis 24 for -- 25 MR. LEWIS: You bring the chips and soda, though. 7-23-12 37 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Pardon? 2 MR. LEWIS: You bring the chips and soda to the 3 game. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 5 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I'll second that motion. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Motion made and seconded to 7 approve the agenda item, with a cap of $3,000. Further 8 question or discussion? 9 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I don't think I finished my 10 motion. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Oh, I'm sorry. 12 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: You got all excited. That 13 we allocate up to a cap of $3,000 for expenses related to 14 the rebid of the Hill Country Youth Exhibition Center show 15 barn -- 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 17 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: -- project. 18 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Second. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: All right. We got a motion and a 20 second. Further question or discussion? All in favor, 21 signify by raising your right hand. 22 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 23 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 24 (No response.) 25 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. We've got a 7-23-12 38 1 9:45 timed item, so let's go back to that. Item 8 is to 2 consider, discuss, take appropriate action on agreement for 3 services with Baptist Child and Family Services for the Kerr 4 County Juvenile Probation Department. Mr. Jason Davis, Chief 5 Juvenile Probation Officer. 6 MR. DAVIS: Good morning, Your Honor, 7 Commissioners. Appreciate your time this morning. There's a 8 program that we have partnered with with B.C.F.S., Baptist 9 Child and Family Services, for the past few years. We were 10 the grant partner; the grant recipient was B.C.F.S. This 11 program was called the Youth Averted from Delinquency, or YAD 12 program. Basically, what that does is that partners up an 13 employee of B.C.F.S. with the probation officer, and they 14 work with our kids. They also serve the J.P. and municipal 15 courts in the county, the four J.P. courts, the municipal 16 courts, City of Kerrville, City of Ingram. And this 17 individual that is employed by B.C.F.S. basically works with 18 the family, works with the children, provides services to our 19 kids that are on probation, at no cost to the family or to 20 the child. 21 When AACOG changed -- or when the governor's office 22 changed the requirements that nonprofits could no longer 23 become grant recipients through the COG, we spoke with 24 B.C.F.S. and decided that this program was very, very 25 important to us. This program locally has been a role model 7-23-12 39 1 to the state. Since we have begun the program here, it's 2 been copied in other counties and other areas. B.C.F.S. 3 would like to continue the program, as would we. I went 4 before the -- B.C.F.S. actually wrote the grant. They had 5 one of their grant writers put it together. I went in front 6 of AACOG and applied for it, and the priority ranking, we 7 ranked second only behind Bexar County for a similar program 8 that's operated in Bexar County now. We would like to 9 continue to operate this program with Kerr County being the 10 grant recipient, and then we would then pass through the 11 funds to B.C.F.S. They have the structure in place. They 12 have the H.R. As of today, the program is being operated by 13 B.C.F.S. As of September 1st, it will be operated by them, 14 but we would like to contract with B.C.F.S. to provide those 15 services so that, one, we can continue the program, and two, 16 there would be no burden in funding or staff or services 17 other than the Auditor's office on continuation of the 18 program. 19 What I'm asking today, Commissioners, is that the 20 County approve a user agreement or a contract for 21 nonresidential services with B.C.F.S. so we can continue this 22 program. With that being said, I'm open for questions. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Is this the same agreement 24 that was used last year? 25 MR. DAVIS: No, sir, this is a new agreement. We 7-23-12 40 1 did not have an agreement last year because of the fact that 2 last year, and currently for F.Y. '12, B.C.F.S. is the grant 3 recipient, so they received the funding from the COG, and 4 they just provided them to us without -- without an 5 agreement. 6 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: This year, Kerr County will 7 be the grant recipient. 8 MR. DAVIS: For FY '13, yes, sir, Kerr County would 9 be. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: The sole reason that he's here is 11 because of the legal requirements. Like he said, previously 12 it went directly to B.C.F.S. They've changed the 13 requirements. Nonprofits can no longer be direct recipients 14 of grants, so it has to go through the county. So, the 15 County now, as the grant recipient, needs to contract with 16 B.C.F.S. to operate the same program they've been operating. 17 I found it amazing that we came out second to Bexar County at 18 the AACOG funding. I just can't imagine that happening. 19 MR. DAVIS: Even a blind squirrel every now and 20 then, Judge. 21 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: How many years, again, has 22 the program been working with B.C.F.S.? 23 MR. DAVIS: This specific program, three. 24 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Three years? 25 MR. DAVIS: Yes, sir. 7-23-12 41 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It looks like to me this is 2 another service to every citizen of Kerr County, including 3 inside the city, as well as outside. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Mm-hmm, yeah. 5 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: That's right. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Do you want a motion, or do 7 you want me to swear at you, or what happens here? 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, I'd -- I would ask that you 9 approve the agreement for services with B.C.F.S. for Kerr 10 County Juvenile Probation. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's exactly what I want 12 to do. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: And that's a motion, right? 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It is. 15 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I'll second that. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: We have a motion and a second. Do I 17 hear further questions or discussion? All in favor, signify 18 by raising your right hand. 19 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 20 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 21 (No response.) 22 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion carries. Thank you, Mr. 23 Davis. 24 MR. DAVIS: Thank you, gentlemen. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, ma'am. 7-23-12 42 1 MS. FALKINBURG: Thank you, sir. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. We will now go to Item 14; 3 consider, discuss, take appropriate action regarding concept 4 plan on revision of plat for property located on Doris Drive. 5 Who's going to set this up, Commissioner Oehler -- 6 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Well, I -- 7 JUDGE TINLEY: -- or Mr. Voelkel? 8 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I'll start it off, and 9 Mr. Voelkel can come, and Jason can present his case to the 10 Court. This is a concept plan on a revision of plat. The 11 property not approved by Kerr County in the subdivision 12 rules, but there is a -- I think Mr. McCormick has an idea 13 that he wants to purchase some property out of an existing 14 lot. So, I'll allow him to come present his concept plan, 15 and we'll start from there. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 17 MR. McCORMICK: All right. Good morning. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Morning. 19 MR. McCORMICK: There's two 5-acre tracts on Doris 20 Drive, and what we're trying do is subdivide 2.5 acres off 21 and make the other tract 7.5, which would -- as Mr. Voelkel 22 has done, would only allow two wells to go onto that existing 23 property. I'm aware that there's a 5.01-acre rule in 24 existence, but I'm hoping that I can get a variance to do 25 this, 'cause there is a well and a septic on the 2.5 acres. 7-23-12 43 1 Other than that, I -- I have some copies of what Mr. Voelkel 2 has done, and if y'all haven't seen them yet, I have them. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: I've had some discussion with 4 Mr. McCormick, and essentially what has happened is that the 5 current owner acquired this property in one deed, two 6 separate tracts. That's in your materials. Two separate 7 5-acre tracts. One of the tracts, which has been roughly 8 described as two and a half acres, which would be probably in 9 the southwest corner of the 10 acres, has an existing well, 10 has an existing septic system. And there was a house which 11 was in really rough condition at the time that Mr. McCormick 12 worked on striking a bargain with the current owner. 13 Mr. McCormick tells me he has expended $20,000 to $25,000 to 14 make that house habitable for he and his family. I don't 15 think that includes anything for your labor, or for maybe 16 other members of your family that have helped you. 17 MR. McCORMICK: Strictly material. There's no 18 labor involved. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. So, actually, the amount 20 expended in terms of real cost is -- is considerably higher 21 than that. He now finds himself in a position where he said 22 he'd be happy to buy 5 acres from -- from the current owner, 23 but the current owner won't sell him 5 acres. The most he'll 24 sell him is that two and a half. He hopes that down the 25 road, that he can acquire more land, at least 5 acres, maybe 7-23-12 44 1 eventually the entire 10 acres. I think it's his hope, if 2 it's available, but he's in a position where he's expended 3 all this money on this structure. He's got the existing well 4 and got the septic system, and now he finds himself in a 5 predicament of -- he wants to take title of the property, and 6 here we are. We've got the subdivision rules to comply with. 7 So, that's his reason for asking that there be a variance. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Are you -- is there a fence? 9 This is one of the -- I mean, I talked to Lee. Is it a 10 family? Is this the family partition one? No? 11 MR. VOELKEL: No, sir. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean, the problem is it also 13 violates the -- whatever we call those things -- Water 14 Development Board, right, the model subdivision rules. They 15 prohibit us from doing it. I don't know that we can grant a 16 waiver without going -- getting them to approve the waiver, 17 'cause, I mean, we can't -- we're prohibited. 18 MR. McCORMICK: That would be the Water Development 19 Board? 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. We can't -- I mean, it's 21 just a direct violation of our -- of that portion of the 22 rules. 23 MR. McCORMICK: I've actually gone and spoken to -- 24 what's his name? 25 MR. VOELKEL: Gene Williams. 7-23-12 45 1 MR. McCORMICK: Gene Williams, and pretty much he 2 has already told me that he cannot do that without me going 3 in front of the board. And he more or less told me that it 4 wasn't their decision; it was County Commissioners. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, yeah, but we have -- 6 we're not talking about that. It's Texas Water Development 7 Board in Austin. 8 MR. McCORMICK: Oh. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We have adopted portions of 10 their rules, model subdivision rules, and that prohibits us 11 from going less than five point -- or less than 5 acres. We 12 -- the only time that we have modified that is when we're 13 combining lots, and lots still are less than 5 acres, or 14 adjusting two smaller lots, and they're still -- they're 15 already below 5 acres. I don't -- I don't know that we can 16 do that. 17 MR. HENNEKE: I'll talk to Joe Reynolds about it, 18 but I agree with you, Commissioner Letz. This is, I think, 19 exactly the scenario that the rules were intended to 20 prohibit. There's the existing well, but what happens if 21 that well failed and, you know, you wouldn't have a big 22 enough acreage to do a new well, so then potentially you'd 23 have a residential lot that didn't have access to water. I'm 24 happy to talk to Joe, our you can. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Who is Joe? 7-23-12 46 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Attorney at Water Development 2 Board. 3 MR. HENNEKE: The general counsel that we've asked 4 some of these questions about the interpretation of their 5 model subdivision rules. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: So, it appears that Mr. McCormick's 7 resource essentially is to convince the current owner to sell 8 him at least 5 acres. 9 MR. HENNEKE: That would be -- 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. That's -- I mean, 11 that -- 12 MR. VOELKEL: Just a question, sir, about -- I'm 13 thinking of options here for Jason. The 5-acre -- the 5-acre 14 rule is to satisfy water availability issues that the Court 15 has established. If he does a water availability study by an 16 engineer, by rule, I think in the subdivision rules, would 17 that not allow him to be less than 5 acres if that study 18 proves positive? 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But that still doesn't get you 20 around the model subdivision rules, and that's a -- you have 21 to get a -- I think to get -- I don't want to try to read 22 Mr. Reynolds' mind at Water Development Board, but I've dealt 23 with him quite a bit. The purpose of the rules is to make 24 sure you have potable water. I mean, that's why the whole 25 model subdivision rules came into play. If Headwaters isn't 7-23-12 47 1 willing to give a well permit, he can't get potable water. 2 So, I think that you still have to get the Water Development 3 Board to sign off on it, or should be able to demonstrate 4 where you're going to get your water if your well goes out. 5 That's just kind of the -- I think the logic that goes into 6 -- into it. Now, I mean, you know, they have -- I won't say 7 they will. They've approved things like rainwater catchment 8 as an option, but that's a little bit risky with the weather 9 we've had the past few years. But I think that -- I think 10 we're precluded from doing it without the Water Development 11 Board's blessing on it, or approval of a -- you know, in 12 writing of a waiver to it because of the situation, something 13 like that. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Our -- our adoption of the uniform 15 subdivision rules is a prerequisite to all of this East Kerr 16 project, as I recall. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Correct. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: And to bail out on that would 19 prejudice that whole program. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: That's what I'm understanding. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. So, it's a -- so, you 23 know, it's nothing that -- I don't think this Court has the 24 ability to grant a waiver at this point, until -- and if 25 Mr. Henneke says he'll talk to the Water Development Board 7-23-12 48 1 and discuss the situation with them. If they're willing to 2 grant a waiver, then it can come back to us, and then I think 3 they still need to work out a little bit with -- you know, 4 with Headwaters from the standpoint of either water 5 availability, or figure out what -- I think the first step 6 is, you know, to let the County Attorney probably deal with 7 the chief counsel at the Water Development Board. That's 8 step one. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: The other resource, of course, would 10 be to convince the owner to sell you 5 acres, or 5-point 11 something. 12 MR. McCORMICK: Yeah. 13 MR. HENNEKE: That's probably the -- 14 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Solution. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: The predicament you're in. 16 MR. McCORMICK: Right, okay. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Len, you had something? 18 MR. ODOM: Question for Mr. Voelkel. That's an 19 easement on that. Are you talking to the center of the 20 roadway? Did you consider that? If it is, did you consider 21 that in the amount of land? 22 MR. VOELKEL: I haven't done a survey of it, Len. 23 I'm going on a survey that was done before, but it looks like 24 it was not deeded to the center of the road; that it's not 25 right-of-way. It's not -- does not include road 7-23-12 49 1 right-of-way. 2 MR. ODOM: But if that was the case, then this 3 would be greater than 5 acres, if it is an easement. 4 MR. VOELKEL: Correct. 5 MR. ODOM: And you would exceed. Then that's -- 6 and probably Headwaters might give that -- 7 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Only thing is, it's a very 8 narrow -- it's a narrow lot. I don't think you're going to 9 pick up that much land by including the roadway if it is -- 10 if it is deeded to the center of the road. 11 MR. VOELKEL: It wouldn't be enough to bring the 12 two and a half up to five. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: It wouldn't get you that far. 14 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Wouldn't even get you a half 15 acre. 16 MR. VOELKEL: No, correct. 17 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: No, I -- I feel for this -- 18 for Jason and the predicament he's in. I don't know why the 19 owner won't consider selling him a little bit more. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, I think -- I think now that 21 he's been before us, he's in a position to talk to that owner 22 and, you know, explain to him, you know, there is -- I tried 23 to do something that conforms with what you want to sell me, 24 and -- but it's not going to happen. And maybe -- maybe that 25 owner will relent, and -- 7-23-12 50 1 MR. VOELKEL: Right. 2 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Well, I hope so. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: 'Cause that would be the first thing 4 I'd pursue if I were you, Jason, is to -- 5 MR. McCORMICK: Okay. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: -- just tell him our hands are tied 7 unless the Texas Water Development Board issues a waiver, or 8 is willing to. But at this point, you also got Headwaters 9 that -- that you're -- 10 MR. McCORMICK: They've already said no. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: -- butting your head against. 12 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: They've already -- you know, 13 I've talked to Gene -- I guess it was Friday, and also Gordon 14 Morgan called me about this issue too, and he said man, you 15 know, we've got to maintain our rules. If not, then 16 Headwaters is going to have to have their own set of rules, 17 and not parallel what we have. And so it's -- it's really 18 kind of a bad situation. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Kind of where you are, Jason. 20 MR. McCORMICK: Huh? 21 JUDGE TINLEY: I said that's kind of where you are. 22 MR. McCORMICK: Oh. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Good luck and godspeed. 24 MR. McCORMICK: All right. Thank you. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Okay, let's move to Item 15; 7-23-12 51 1 to consider, discuss, take appropriate action to authorize 2 changes in employee benefit package plan and/or contract with 3 the Texas Association of Counties. This was placed on the 4 agenda today for the sole purpose of -- of having our 5 contract year end September 30 to coincide with our -- with 6 our fiscal year. As I'm sure everybody recalls, our current 7 contract year is a calendar year, January 1 to December 31, 8 for our employee health benefits. And as part of the TAC 9 program, and probably if we decide to go elsewhere, insofar 10 as financial planning, we're probably better off having it 11 conform to our fiscal year, 'cause that way we're dealing 12 within the year that we're -- that we're allocating funding 13 for. So, that was the only reason for doing that. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And the other benefit is that 15 it gives us a lot more accurate renewal basis, because 16 we're -- 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Claims history. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Claims history. Rather than 19 having to do a year in advance with only six months history, 20 we'll get nine months history, which should give us a lot 21 more accuracy in our -- and more accuracy is less risk for 22 them, which hopefully will be good. 23 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Didn't we talk about this 24 starting in 2013? 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. Well -- 7-23-12 52 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, so that the 2013-14 -- 2 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Right. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: -- full year would be October 1 to 4 September 30. But in order to do that, we've got to approve 5 our employee benefits contract year for this coming year. 6 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Right. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: To end September 30th, 2013. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We do a nine-month. And, Dawn, 9 as I read from your memo, if we do -- if we make this change, 10 go to a nine-month year, there's no increase? 11 MS. LANTZ: That's the last correspondence I got. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Actually be a little bit of a 13 savings to us. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, they've got to interpolate 15 these -- these three months of our current year -- current 16 calendar year that will go into that. And that, of course, 17 they can't increase that because it wasn't bid that way. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. So -- but the -- I 19 mean, with that issue, I'm certainly in favor of doing 20 this -- making this change. It makes -- 21 JUDGE TINLEY: That's a motion? 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes, that's a motion. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll make a motion to make that 25 change with a calendar-year change to make the 2013 policy 7-23-12 53 1 end September 30th, 2013. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. I have a motion. Do I hear a 3 second? 4 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Second. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: I have a motion and a second. Now, 6 further discussion? 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: How does this impact -- or I 8 know it doesn't impact making this change. We still are up 9 in the air about the dental; is that correct? 10 (Ms. Lantz nodded.) 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah, we'll -- we'll have that 13 report -- should have that report finalized at our -- August 14 6th? 15 MS. LANTZ: 6th. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 17 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Okay. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: We should be able to finalize all of 19 that on August 6th. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And that kind of -- that makes 21 it a whole lot easier, 'cause we're getting rid of one of the 22 big variables, so if we can kind of get -- narrow it down a 23 whole lot. Okay, great. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Further question or 25 discussion? All in favor, signify by raising your right 7-23-12 54 1 hand. 2 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 3 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 4 (No response.) 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion carries. Okay, let's go to 6 Item 16; consider, discuss, take appropriate action regarding 7 preparation for events at the Hill Country Youth Exhibit 8 Center. Mr. Bollier? 9 MR. BOLLIER: Yes, sir. As we all know, we have a 10 big rodeo coming to town this weekend, and I have been asked 11 if they could turn the livestock loose in the polo field, and 12 I told them I was not for sure about that, because that's 13 just a practice that we've never done out there. I really 14 don't see an issue with it, but the only issue that I have 15 standing right now is that the west -- the east end of that 16 polo field has a fence. It's not very good. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Fence is laying on the ground. 18 MR. BOLLIER: Fence is laying on the ground. 19 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: It's no longer fenced. 20 MR. BOLLIER: Yeah, it's not. But there's a brush 21 line there that's pretty thick, and that fence is inside of 22 there. And I talked to Bruce Oehler about this before -- 23 Commissioner Oehler, and what I'd like to do is bring that 24 fence forward in front of this brush line a little bit, and 25 leave enough room there to mow back there and pick up brush, 7-23-12 55 1 and put a gate in that fence and everything. And I just need 2 the Court's approval to build a fence, and then I need the 3 Court's approval to turn livestock loose in that polo field, 4 because that's what these P.R.C.A. rodeo people are wanting 5 me to do, is to let them turn them loose, but I can't with 6 the security issue that I have there. And they -- they have 7 offered to pay for part of the fence. But it's like I told 8 them; it's a little late in the game. I don't know that I 9 can get that fence built before Friday. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 11 MR. BOLLIER: I would love to accommodate them. I 12 just don't know if I can do it. I mean, you know, it's not 13 but 711 feet, but there's still -- you know, that's not a lot 14 of work, but it's enough. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Tim, the west side of that area 16 is just a pipe rail, isn't it? 17 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: East side, we're talking 18 about. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I know that's talking about the 20 east side, but the east side is just a pipe rail? 21 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: No, it's got -- 22 MR. BOLLIER: It's got -- it's fenced. The pipe 23 rail has fencing. 24 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: It's at the east side. 25 MR. BOLLIER: Yes, sir. 7-23-12 56 1 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I fenced it. 2 MR. BOLLIER: The only -- 3 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: You know, right? 4 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I know. 5 MR. BOLLIER: The only other part there that needs 6 to be secure would be over there by what used to be the old 7 horse stall, where my -- where the shop is and the fair has 8 their stuff. And then you have Adult Probation and you have 9 Roy's building there; you have a little piece there. It 10 wouldn't be hard to fix, because all I'd have to do is put 11 some panels up, some cattle panels. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'm not in favor of doing it. 13 I don't see why we need to do this, personally. 14 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I really think that this is 15 pushing it too close to the time. And when we fence that, we 16 need to clear that, put it on the property line and build a 17 -- build a taller fence. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean, I don't -- I don't know 19 why we need to jump through hoops so they can let their 20 livestock graze on our pasture. I mean, it doesn't make -- 21 that doesn't -- doesn't make sense to me. 22 MR. BOLLIER: I mean, it -- I kind of figured this 23 is where we were going to go with this, but I would like, in 24 the future, to build that fence back there, because that is a 25 security problem, and with all the stuff that we have back 7-23-12 57 1 there, it -- in that southeast corner, we need that -- we 2 need that field secure. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I agree with that. I think you 4 need to work that into your schedule. 5 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: But we also need to clear 6 that, put it on the property line, and not -- not be setting 7 it in and creating another -- another, you know, 8 inconvenience for Maintenance. You'd have to go behind the 9 fence and try to trim and mow, and that's -- let's just do it 10 right when we get ready to do it. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right, I agree. No. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: I guess the answer is no, Tim. 14 MR. BOLLIER: Okay. I tried. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: You got the rest of the week to work 16 on other stuff. 17 MR. BOLLIER: Do I still -- I mean, but later on in 18 the future, do I have permission to build that fence? Later 19 on, when I -- 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, we can't do it with this 21 agenda item. 22 MR. BOLLIER: Sir? 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Can't do it with this agenda item. 24 But you consider that as a maintenance item? 25 MR. BOLLIER: I do. 7-23-12 58 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: You can do it if you have money 2 in your budget. Just don't ask for any extra money. 3 MR. BOLLIER: Okay, sir. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Let's go to Item 17; to consider, 5 discuss, take appropriate action on interpretation of 6 personnel policy provision as it relates to an individual 7 employee. This is a policy interpretation, is what it is, 8 but as far as we know, it's only been raised by one employee. 9 Give us the take-off on this thing, Ms. Lantz. 10 MS. LANTZ: Basically, it was brought to my 11 attention by an employee who's been here for approximately 11 12 years. Break in service happened for about a month, and our 13 old policy indicates any time there's a break of service, 14 that any longevity that you do have is not counted when you 15 come back to work for the county. However, our new policy 16 interprets that any break in service within 365 days, you are 17 allowed to get back your years of service. So, an employee 18 left and came back within 30 days in this break; however, she 19 has been with Kerr County about 11 years. So, the question 20 was within that policy interpretation, vacation benefits. 21 Because once you've been here over a certain length of time, 22 currently from one year to five -- or, excuse me, ten years, 23 you get 6.67 hours of vacation benefits to you. After that, 24 once you hit your 11th year, you get 10 hours. So, that is 25 where this policy interpretation has been brought to my 7-23-12 59 1 attention. And the employee would like to know if they are 2 entitled to their vacation benefits according to the new 3 policy. And I brought this up to the County Attorney's 4 attention, and we both -- the way the interpretation is with 5 our current policy, the employee is entitled. However, we 6 wanted the Court's opinion as far as the interpretation. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: At the time -- at the time 8 the employee left employment with the county and did this 9 horrible thing that we're talking about, the policy says 10 what? 11 MS. LANTZ: Any break in service, you're not 12 entitled -- any continuous service with the county forfeits 13 any benefits, including seniority, accrued prior to the 14 break. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Why would we question that? 16 If that -- if that was the policy at the time of the issue, 17 then what -- 18 MS. LANTZ: When we rewrote -- when the new policy 19 was adopted by the Court, that changed the old policy. That 20 old policy is considered null and void. Is that correct? 21 MR. HENNEKE: Well, it's eight or nine years ago, 22 Commissioner, when -- when that break in service occurred, 23 and the Commissioners Court has since then revised its 24 policies and adopted new policies, where under the -- you 25 know, the current policy, that break in service would not be 7-23-12 60 1 a penalty to the employee. My position on this is, for good 2 or bad, when we update our policy manual, that the new and 3 current versions of those policies apply from that point 4 forward to all employees. Now, there's no grandfathered -- 5 there shouldn't be any -- when it comes to our policy manual, 6 there shouldn't be any kind of grandfathered status where, 7 you know, if you were hired 12 years ago, then the new rules 8 don't apply to you just 'cause you've been here longer. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Of course, I agree with you 10 on that, but that verbiage is not in place -- wasn't in place 11 at that time, right? I mean, the grandfather issue. If 12 we -- if we said that the new policy applies to the old 13 action, I mean, that's grandfathered. So, do we have a 14 grandfather clause in there? Have we had a grandfather 15 clause in there, or -- I mean, why would we apply a new 16 policy to an old action? 17 MR. HENNEKE: Well, it's not -- the way that I see 18 it, Commissioner, is that the -- the eligibility of the 19 employee to get this senior status at 10 years, to where then 20 you would accrue additional vacation each month, that 21 occurred under the current policy. So, under the current 22 policy, a -- a gap in employment for less than 300 days, you 23 don't lose your seniority. And once you hit 10 years, 11 24 years, then you get additional vacation hours per month. So, 25 if you look at her history of employment under the policy as 7-23-12 61 1 it currently stands, then that break back in -- 10 years ago, 2 nine years, eight years, isn't an issue. And so it's when 3 you -- you know, with this person, and with any other county 4 employees, 'cause we have county employees that have been 5 here, you know, almost half as long as Rusty has. 6 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Watch it. 7 MR. HENNEKE: So you will have -- when the County 8 updates its policy, you'll have people that overlap, you 9 know, that have -- you know, I'm sure there's some folks here 10 that have been here for many policy revisions. So, my point 11 is that when you're looking at somebody's employment history 12 and trying to figure out what to do, that the current rules 13 should be the ones that you look at, and to -- whether it's, 14 you know, good or bad, just -- we just say that universally. 15 We'll tell Dawn, the H.R. Director, you know, whatever the 16 current rules are that are adopted by the Court, those apply 17 to any employee, regardless of their -- you know, how long 18 they've been here or -- 19 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: The past history. 20 MR. HENNEKE: Exactly. 21 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: If you keep it the same way, 22 there aren't any rules that apply to me, 'cause there wasn't 23 any policies when I started. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But I guess -- 25 MR. HENNEKE: See, that's why you need to go under 7-23-12 62 1 the current policies. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean, but the departure and 3 the return was under an old policy, correct? 4 MR. HENNEKE: Correct. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: If you go back and change 6 this -- and I'm just going to make up a scenario. If 7 somebody was here for five years under that -- during that 8 period, was here for, you know, five years and then left and 9 then came back, you know, and then all of a sudden, they end 10 up with a 10-year service, we didn't give them their extra 11 week vacation when they got 10 years, could they come back 12 now and say, "Well, under your current policy, you owe us 13 another week of vacation you never paid me back in the past." 14 MR. HENNEKE: I think it's -- I think it's 15 unlikely. I think it's a bridge we would have to cross -- 16 you know, if somebody leaves three, four years ago and comes 17 back to us now, but I guess maybe the -- why this makes sense 18 to me is -- I'll take a different example. You know, 19 recently the Commissioners Court updated its policy manual 20 with regard to the mileage reimbursement -- per diem or 21 mileage reimbursement, updating to the federal standards. 22 So, it would not make sense to me that anyone that was 23 already employed here prior to that change would be still 24 stuck under the old amount, and that the new amount would 25 only apply to new hires moving forward. You know, when you 7-23-12 63 1 change the policy, everybody has to follow those rules, and I 2 think that the Court should have to follow those rules, even 3 if it -- you know, to be fair. And in this instance, you 4 know, it, you know, provides a benefit, I guess you could 5 say, but it's not one that nobody else is entitled to. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: I can see another advantage to 7 prescribing that whatever the action is, to use the current 8 policy. Insofar as being able to determine uniformity at the 9 time that the decision is made, it puts Ms. Lantz or the 10 Court or anybody else in a position of each time there's a -- 11 there's a decision to be made, if there is any relation to 12 prior employment, you got to go back and do a search to 13 determine what the policy or policies were that were in 14 effect at that time, if any, and administratively, it's real 15 difficult for personnel administration to do that. If you 16 merely look at the existing policy at the time the issue 17 arises, and the decision needs to be made, follow that 18 policy, make a decision accordingly, and move on down the 19 road. And it -- it may be good news; it may be bad news, but 20 the news is the same. It's current policy. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. I definitely would -- 22 will rule or vote -- am I going to vote on this? 23 MS. LANTZ: Yes, sir, I need some type of a 24 decision. Basically, if I can -- 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Let me finish my statement. 7-23-12 64 1 MS. LANTZ: Okay. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'm definitely going to vote 3 in favor of the employee. However, I would think that we 4 would need some kind of new language in our -- in our 5 document that says something to do with grandfather clauses 6 or, you know, if there's something happened back then, then 7 it comes under today's rules, or, you know, the decisions. 8 MR. HENNEKE: It would be -- we could, I think, as 9 part of this, maybe add a certain provision that said that, 10 you know, the current policy applies to all employees 11 regardless of -- 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Something like that. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Interpreting actions to be taken are 14 taken irrespective or without regard to prior employment 15 history or existing policies at the time of those employee 16 activities. Something to that effect on the interpretation 17 basis. 18 MR. HENNEKE: Sure. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean, can you -- I just have 20 a problem of -- of what -- I'm not sure what this may open up 21 from the past. We've done lots of -- you know, I won't say 22 lots, but there are some employees that have come and gone 23 throughout history, and trying to go back and calculate or 24 have them come back and say, "Well, you owe us some money 25 because of your current policy," I don't -- you know. 7-23-12 65 1 MR. HENNEKE: But I don't think -- I think we can 2 deal with that. I don't think it will be that much of a 3 problem. I don't think that you, by not taking this action, 4 would want to say that any employee that has any kind of 5 vested rights in a past policy to where you couldn't change 6 those policies in the future and have that affect them. I 7 mean, think about the opposite. If the Commissioners Court, 8 for whatever reason, several years down the road said, you 9 know, "We just can't afford that much vacation time for 10 employees, so we're going to have to -- instead of eight 11 hours a month, we're going to have to make it six hours a 12 month." You know, you wouldn't want to, you know, take the 13 position that everybody that was already here doesn't have to 14 follow those rules. So, I think Judge Tinley said it very 15 well, and I think the simplest way to resolve this is just to 16 give Dawn the direction or the vote or whatever to say the 17 current policy adopted by the Court applies to all employees. 18 And if you're worried about somebody that left 10 years ago 19 coming back, you know, then we can handle that and figure 20 that out then, but I don't -- I don't see that as being very 21 likely. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think it -- I mean, I think 23 it needs to be handled now, though, is my point. I mean, we 24 know the number, and maybe some language needs to go in, a 25 clarification in our policy that it only covers current 7-23-12 66 1 employees. That would at least limit some of it. I don't 2 want the employee that we had back -- you know, a while back 3 all of a sudden come up and say we owe them vacation time, 4 and they haven't worked here in five years, because of our 5 current policy. So, I think we need to limit it at least 6 there. That -- it's just I don't like the unknown. 7 MR. HENNEKE: I don't see that being much of an 8 issue, Commissioner. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'll be willing to bet you a 10 quarter -- I understand what you're saying, but I bet you a 11 quarter that these lawyers can figure out how to do that. 12 Want to bet? You know, take me as an example. I worked here 13 a long time ago, and I laid out, I think, six years and came 14 back. I think the darned county owes me something. I 15 haven't figured out what it is yet. I think it's vacation. 16 (Laughter.) 17 JUDGE TINLEY: You had that last week, 18 Commissioner. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, I had some. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: You don't get vacation, 21 Commissioner. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I don't get vacation? Okay, 23 it was health benefits, then. But -- 24 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I am kind of concerned on some 25 of these. Like Jon says, I've got a number of employees that 7-23-12 67 1 left and came back after different times years ago. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What is the number? How 3 many is that, Rusty? 4 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I've probably got six or eight 5 employees that -- 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: They need to make up their 7 minds where they want to work, don't they? 8 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Okay? Well, including, like, 9 my chief deputy. You know, he worked here a long time, then 10 left, then came back. Now he's got -- 11 MS. LANTZ: Were they gone over a year? 'Cause our 12 policy does specify, the current policy, 365 days. If you -- 13 if you were here and you left for three years and you came 14 back, you're not entitled. You only have 365 days. 15 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: But if you were here and 16 left -- you know, maybe this happened eight, nine, ten years 17 ago, and left and came back within a year. It would apply. 18 MS. LANTZ: The way the policy reads now, yes. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What's the sense of that? 20 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: What I'm curious about, say -- 21 say, then, five years ago, if the policy would apply, they 22 came back five years ago; they hit one of the thresholds 23 where they jump up, you know, in vacation time, so are we 24 going to have to go back five years and add on vacation time 25 all the way up through the current date? 7-23-12 68 1 MS. LANTZ: And that would have to be the Court's 2 discretion, from that day forward, no retro. 3 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Then do you -- you know, and 4 that could apply. I'd have to look at it and see. I can see 5 that -- 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Don't go to any trouble just 7 for us. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. 9 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Believe me, it will be pointed 10 out to me first. 11 MS. PIEPER: Well, I have a scenario too that will 12 probably come up in the future, then. If Rusty has an 13 employee working for him for a year, and then that employee 14 leaves for a month or two months, and then gets employed in 15 my office, I start a new -- I start a new date as an employee 16 date for the longevity. So, do I go back -- 17 MS. LANTZ: They're still county employees. 18 They're doing a transfer. 19 MS. PIEPER: No, no, no. No, not a transfer. 20 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: They quit. 21 MS. PIEPER: They quit in his office for a month or 22 two months, and then I hire them. 23 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I think that's happened, too. 24 MS. PIEPER: So then, you know, not only do we have 25 to deal with the vacation issue; then we have to deal with 7-23-12 69 1 the longevity issue. I mean, I can see that scenario coming 2 up as well. 3 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: You could be opening Pandora's 4 box. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: It appears to me that we've got a 6 lot of ideas working around here, and maybe the County 7 Attorney should come up with some -- some options on some 8 specific language to -- 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: -- lay before us. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think I'd like to see -- 12 MR. HENNEKE: Judge, I'd be glad to. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'd like to see some limiting 14 language as to how this is going to apply, and how far back 15 it goes. I mean, if we can just change policy, I'd kind of 16 like to know what -- at least limit it a little bit. The 17 other thing is, you know, what -- what is the logic that 18 we're supposed to use that if you quit for less than a year, 19 it's okay; if you quit for more than a year, it's not okay? 20 That doesn't make any sense to me. I mean, -- 21 MR. HENNEKE: We've deferred -- 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- we're trying to -- I mean, I 23 don't see the difference there. 24 MR. HENNEKE: That was under the profound wisdom of 25 the Commissioners Court when y'all adopted that policy. 7-23-12 70 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's right. That's why we 2 need to get this right this time. 3 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Who said that? 4 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I think the new policy doesn't 5 say that. Does it? That's the new one? 6 MS. LANTZ: The old one said no matter what, you 7 got -- you did not receive any service, so the new one gave 8 leniency. Because a lot of people probably did -- I don't 9 know, came and left, and -- 10 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I thought back when we were 11 discussing the policy, when Eva was working on it and that, 12 it was any departure over 30 days, you lost your right to 13 everything. You came back as a brand-new employee, I 14 thought. Maybe I'm wrong. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's not what it says here. 16 Okay. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What about the present 18 employee that has brought this to light? What is the issue 19 with that? Is it some it vacation, or what is it? 20 MS. LANTZ: Basically, it was years of service that 21 would help -- I mean, would put them in that bracket to 22 receive their vacation. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: More vacation? 24 MS. LANTZ: Yes. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: An additional week's vacation, I 7-23-12 71 1 believe. 2 MS. LANTZ: Yes. There was no other -- 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Still not as much vacation as Rusty, 4 of course. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's true. 6 MS. KELLER: I'm the employee. I am the employee. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: The secret one? 8 MS. KELLER: My name is Ana Keller. I'm at 1468 9 Harper Road, Kerrville, Texas. And, yes, I'm interested in 10 my -- 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Can you come up? We can hear you 12 better, I think, Ana. 13 MS. KELLER: Yes, sir. I'm interested in my 14 vacation. I was employed in 2002 by the Tax Assessor, Paula 15 Rector, at the time, and I left in December of 2004 and was 16 rehired in Jannett's office in January of 2005, and so I'm 17 talking about days -- well, a month or so. And, yes, I 18 brought up the issue because I never did understand -- I 19 never did understand the policy, the first policy that I was 20 part of, or this new policy. And, yes, it would -- it would 21 really help to clarify that. I have been here 10 years. The 22 Texas retirement sees that as 10 years, one month. And I've 23 now been a -- except for the time that I -- and I do regret 24 that, believe me. I did leave -- just so that y'all know, I 25 did leave the Tax Assessor's office with another person on 7-23-12 72 1 that day, angry and confused, and walked out without giving 2 notice. Since then, Ms. Rector and I have become friends and 3 have talked about that, and I have talked to Ms. Bolin about 4 it also. 5 Thank God, Jannett hired me and gave me the 6 opportunity to still be a Kerr County employee, which I love. 7 I love this job, working for the County. And, yes, I'm 8 interested in my vacation. Ten years is a long tenure. I've 9 done -- I've done extra -- like, worked elections. I've done 10 everything Jannett has asked me to do, extracurricular stuff 11 for the county. I stood up with the Sheriff asking for a 12 raise. I have earned merit awards, have been demoted. I'm 13 not the perfect employee, but I have been here ten years, and 14 I would greatly appreciate the consideration to any employee 15 that has dedicated their time to the county. And I do 16 appreciate Rob's time, and Dawn. And, of course, Jannett and 17 all of you. 18 MR. HENNEKE: And whatever -- this will not only 19 apply to one employee. I mean, that's not what we're talking 20 about. It just has to be a decision on -- 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. 22 MR. HENNEKE: -- how to handle this. Rusty may 23 have -- 24 JUDGE TINLEY: It's a policy decision now. 25 MR. HENNEKE: Rusty may have a half dozen, so -- 7-23-12 73 1 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I just don't know. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't -- I'm not trying to 3 not do it. I just want to make sure I know what we're doing 4 on the policy change, what the ramifications are. And maybe 5 there's a way to limit it. That's why I said if Rob -- 6 MR. HENNEKE: Looks like the ramification is under 7 the current policy as it is -- 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And maybe look at -- I mean, I 9 still don't really understand the 365 days. Why not, you 10 know, 366 days? Why not six months? I mean, you know, it's 11 an arbitrary number, and if we're trying to encourage people 12 to, you know, have experience in Kerr County, maybe you don't 13 have any kind of cutoff date. Anyway, I just think you need 14 to look at it a little bit more. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Dawn, Rob, y'all put your heads 16 together and come up with some options, I guess, and bring 17 them back to us. 18 MR. HENNEKE: Be glad to. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Nail down something specific that 20 answers all of these concerns. 21 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: At least draws a conclusion. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 'Cause I'm getting stared at. 24 MR. HENNEKE: Glad to. We'll bring that back next 25 Commissioners Court meeting. 7-23-12 74 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Anything else on that item, 2 gentlemen? Okay. Let's take about a 15-minute recess. And 3 thank you, Ana. 4 MS. KELLER: Thank you. Thank you all. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Thank you. 6 (Recess taken from 10:35 a.m. to 10:50 a.m.) 7 - - - - - - - - - - 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Let's come back to order, if we 9 might, from our recess. Let's go to Section 4 of the agenda, 10 payment of the bills. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move we pay the bills. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded to pay the 14 bills. Any question or discussion? All in favor, signify by 15 raising your right hand. 16 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 17 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed -- 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: See, I've got to do 19 everything. I've got to come in here to do this. It's 20 unbelievable. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 22 (No response.) 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion carries. We've got some -- I 24 think we've got a few budget amendments, as shown by the 25 Budget Amendment Summary dated 23 July this year. There are 7-23-12 75 1 10 items there. Any questions on any of these items for the 2 Auditor? 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, let's see. Now, if I 4 was -- if I was just a fellow off the street and walked in 5 here and saw this, I would think, well, why didn't they 6 budget properly in the first place? Why are they having to 7 shift money around all the time now? 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, for this time of year, 10 is 9 not too bad, frankly. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No, it's not. I've seen 40 11 and 50. 12 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Several sheets of this. 13 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: And a lot earlier. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Ms. Hargis, under Item 6, -- 16 MS. HARGIS: Yes? 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: -- what are special 18 services? 19 MS. HARGIS: That's the contract with Lubbock that 20 we approved after the budget, as you may recall. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 22 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Oh, that's -- 23 MS. HARGIS: That's that murder trial thing. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah, okay. 25 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Capital defense. 7-23-12 76 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Item 7, we've got a revenue 2 item. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Good shot. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: A reimbursement. 5 MS. HARGIS: When we have a new client, so to 6 speak, or a new person ask us to do their taxes, there's a 7 $6,600 charge. Those entities are responsible for paying 8 that, so this is Ingram paying their 6,600, and then we then 9 turn around and pay it back out, and so it's an in-and-out 10 situation. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. That has to do with the 12 contract for the collection for the Ingram district? 13 MS. HARGIS: That's correct. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Okay. Do I hear a motion for 15 the approval of budget amendment requests, Items 1 through 16 10, as shown by the 23 July 2012 summary? 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So moved. 18 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Second. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 20 approval. Question or discussion? All in favor, signify by 21 raising your right hand. 22 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 23 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 24 (No response.) 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion carried. You have a late 7-23-12 77 1 bill? 2 MS. HARGIS: No, I don't have any late bills. But 3 could we add an item on the agenda for the 30th for any 4 bills, since this is a long month? In case there's some 5 utility bills and things that may have -- need to be paid? 6 JUDGE TINLEY: She's got it. It'll be there. 7 MS. HARGIS: Thank you. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Wait a minute, what was the 9 question? What was the question just now? 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, we've got a special meeting on 11 the 30th, initially to open the bids for the -- the new bids 12 on the -- 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Oh, I see. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: -- show barn. And we're already 15 going to add the sign thing. 16 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: And I've got one. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Oh, I'm sure it's going to 18 be a full-blown meeting. Never fails. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: But the Auditor wants to add payment 20 of the bills -- 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Absolutely. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: -- also. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Absolutely. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: And Ms. Bolin, she's making mental 25 notes of those, and she'll get it done. 7-23-12 78 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Now, I have the piece of 2 paper here that talks about, I think, next Monday, 3 10 o'clock. 4 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That's the bid opening. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Commissioners Court. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Mm-hmm. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: That's what we're talking about. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'll do my best to hold onto 10 that, get in a little early. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: I've been presented with monthly 12 reports from Justice of the Peace, Precinct 2, for June 2012; 13 Justice of the Peace, Precinct 3, for June 2012; Justice of 14 the Peace, Precinct 4, for 2012; Constable, Precinct 4, for 15 2012; District Clerk, June 2012; Road and Bridge, 2012; 16 County Treasurer for June 2012. Do I hear a motion that the 17 indicated reports be approved as presented? 18 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Motion to approve. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 21 approval of the indicated reports. Question or discussion? 22 All in favor of the motion, signify by raising your right 23 hand. 24 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 25 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 7-23-12 79 1 (No response.) 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion carries. Okay. We will go 3 on to Item -- excuse me, Section 5 of the agenda, reports 4 from Commissioners in connection with their liaison or 5 committee assignments. Commissioner Overby? 6 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Only one being AACOG on 7 Wednesday, all day on Wednesday for meeting, so I'll be down 8 there for that report -- those meetings. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Is that it? 10 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Yep. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner Letz? 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Sort of a liaison position. I 13 think Region J is going to be meeting during August, so I 14 just wanted y'all to mark your calendars, be ready for it. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Oh, man, where are you 16 going? Camp Wood? 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'm not sure where we are. Not 18 sure, but we'll be going somewhere, probably towards the end 19 of August. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Barksdale, maybe. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No, not going to Barksdale. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: He goes to those places you 23 can't even get to. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I think that's it, Judge. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Commissioner Oehler, you got 7-23-12 80 1 anything for us? 2 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I'm going to be -- I was 3 asked to come to the executive board meeting of U.G.R.A. on 4 Wednesday afternoon to answer questions and give a 5 presentation of what we know so far about the rainwater 6 catchment system, which they, I believe, are intending to 7 help fund some of that. And they have requested that I come 8 talk to them about it, so I will be there at 3:30 on 9 Wednesday afternoon. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Good. 11 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Looking forward to the bid 12 opening and getting started on this building project. I 13 think if there's anything that -- good that has come out of 14 the delay, it gave Road and Bridge a little more time to do a 15 little more site preparation around the building, and then 16 remove concrete from the area where -- away from where we 17 have to dig all the lines for not only the wastewater for 18 the -- the wash rack, but also both rainwater catchment 19 lines. And we actually got relocated, with Road and Bridge's 20 help, the water line that feeds the concession area and the 21 restrooms in the old part. Actually, you know, directly in, 22 and we buried that line deep enough so that whenever we do 23 the rainwater lines coming across from the existing indoor 24 arena, they will be above, and we won't be cutting that line 25 for about the third or fourth time. And all that plumbing 7-23-12 81 1 has been relocated to a good -- but we don't have to mess 2 with it any more. And the drains have been salvaged, the 3 ones that run down the middle of that thing for whatever 4 catchment is there. 5 I did get -- I have had to have one more pole 6 removed. It was an electrical pole that was a service pole 7 that was right at the southeast corner of the old hog barn, 8 because it was right next to where the slab was going to be, 9 and it's going to be in the way, too close to the building, 10 so it had -- that was removed, and that power will be brought 11 back in later. It's only used for the outdoor lights in that 12 back set of holding pens and a couple of plugs; that's all it 13 was feeding. So, that's going to be redone later on, after 14 all this other stuff is done. And it also was going to 15 interfere with the digging of the ditch for the lines going 16 to the rainwater catchment system, so that is all -- the 17 concrete's all been removed; it's all set and ready to go for 18 construction. Road and Bridge, as usual, did one heck of a 19 nice job on all of that. And I tell you what, we're real 20 fortunate to have the kind of people we have working for us. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: No lack of talent over there, is 22 there? 23 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: No. And the amount of money 24 that we've spent on that project so far, and what we've 25 gotten for the buck is pretty unbelievable. 7-23-12 82 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: True. 2 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: So, anyway, that's enough of 3 that. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Is that it? 5 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Mm-hmm. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner Baldwin? 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, I have one issue I 8 wanted to tell y'all about. The Upper Turtle Creek 9 schoolhouse, with your blessings, we have been doing a lot of 10 work out there, putting in new floors, new screens on the 11 windows, paint job. Took the -- we found an old outhouse out 12 there in the brush, and we wired it together and hauled it to 13 downtown and rebuilt it, put a coat of paint on it, and it's 14 ready to sit back up. It's a two-seater or two-holer. And 15 Turtle Creek -- 16 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Is it going over here across 17 the street? 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No, it's going out by Turtle 19 Creek School. 20 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Okay. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And so we're fixing the 22 thing up. And I didn't have -- didn't have an opening date 23 in my mind until Saturday night; I was at a dance over in 24 Harper, Texas, and I run into Clarabelle Snodgrass. And I 25 was informed that October the 13th, she'll be 99 years old, 7-23-12 83 1 and we're going to have a birthday part for her in that old 2 school building. She's the last one left of that -- 3 JUDGE TINLEY: That was educated there? 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That was educated there. 5 And so we're going to have the thing open and shined up, and 6 maybe a little music, and who knows what happens out there. 7 So, y'all put it on your calendar. I see Jon's already 8 putting it on his calendar. He doesn't have a clue what I'm 9 talking about, but -- 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: You're talking about Clarabelle 11 having a birthday party. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Don't yell at me; I'm very 13 tender today. And -- 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Making these -- 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: -- so, anyway, that's -- I 16 just wanted to bring y'all up to that. And the place is 17 really, really looking kind of cute. We may want to put that 18 on our rental. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Do you have any idea who might be 20 providing the music out there for that event? 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No, I don't yet. I'm sure 22 we'll hire somebody from Austin. Ha ha ha. You know, there 23 could be some old rednecks or something. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: I see. Fellows that some of us 25 might recognize? 7-23-12 84 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, you may recognize some 2 of them. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: But that's all. Thank you. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Reports from elected 6 officials/department heads? 7 MS. PIEPER: I have none. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: I might have known. 9 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Of course. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Remember, I gave you notice we're 11 going to be leaving here in a minute. 12 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Bruce -- I know Bruce hasn't 13 seen it; you have. They have installed our rainwater 14 catchment tank. They'll work on the lines and the 15 electricity and that this week, but if you want -- I think 16 y'all's are supposed to be about 65,000-gallon tanks? 17 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Two of them. 18 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Two of them. You can see 19 exactly what one looks like; it's installed. 20 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Not very tall. 21 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: They're about 7 foot tall. 22 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: They're awesome looking. 23 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: 39 feet in diameter, I think, 24 or something across -- radius. But that's been going real 25 well. That was installed, and it's neat how they put them 7-23-12 85 1 up. They come on a pallet no bigger than this table, and 2 they deliver them, and then they're put together with an 3 inside bladder. But that's worked real well. We have now 4 given Meals on Wheels, Dietert Center, well over 1,000 pounds 5 of produce, and the other ones several hundred pounds each. 6 Still going -- going excellent there. But Code Red is -- and 7 we had to activate it again the other day in the city of 8 Kerrville. Walked away, and within 20 minutes of activating 9 it, received a call from a Code Red recipient, somebody that 10 signed up, and did get him put back out to where he belonged, 11 and I thought that was very good. So, we need to continue to 12 build that up, and I'm proud of that program. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And the follow-up call 14 saying that it had been -- 15 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yes. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: -- had been caught and put 17 back. 18 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Right. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I think that is super 20 important. I can see how some of these little old people 21 worry. 22 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: They do. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Fear. 24 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: They do. And there are -- as 25 the commissioner said, there are some new features in there. 7-23-12 86 1 They now have an app that you can put on your phone to where 2 any time you're riding through any county that uses Code Red, 3 or coming in, since it's done by geographical, your phone 4 will go off, whether you're signed up for that county's Code 5 Red or not. So, it makes it a lot better for people 6 traveling through, and that's a free app. And other than 7 that, things are just percolating along. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: What's your population? 9 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: This morning, unfortunately, 10 we were a lot higher than what I thought. We were at 119. 11 We've been running about 106, but this morning when I went 12 in, there was 13 in the holding tanks. So, I don't know what 13 happened this weekend, but either the City or us or whoever, 14 quite a few arrests made yesterday. The one thing we do 15 have, I know -- and I appreciate the papers putting it in 16 this morning. We had been getting hit with daytime 17 burglaries pretty bad, and it's really in all areas of the 18 county, okay. We checked with Fredericksburg Friday, and 19 they've got 16 on the northern end of theirs. Kendall 20 County's getting them, daytime burglaries when those people 21 are at work. So, we're really encouraging people to start 22 reporting any kind of suspicious activity. We need to get 23 these people caught. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: My understanding -- I know one 25 of the people in Gillespie County that got hit, and it's -- 7-23-12 87 1 you know, they think it's a knock on the door; if there's no 2 answer, well, they throw something through a window. 3 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: They've been either busting 4 through windows or kicking in the door. It's strange, 5 because some of them, they -- one we had where there was four 6 $100 bills on top of the dresser, and they took the four $100 7 bills, looked at them, took two, and left two. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Robin Hood. 9 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: There's -- I don't know what 10 the deal is, but there are some strange aspects of these. 11 But we really need the public's assistance in that. A lot of 12 it's jewelry, big jewelry stuff and that, and then some cash. 13 But anything we can get would help. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: You had mentioned that there's quite 15 a bit of that the tail end of last week. I put my puppy dog 16 there this morning, and she said she was going to lay real 17 still, real quiet by the front door. 18 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Catch them? 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. 20 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I used to know somebody that 21 had a great big German shepherd. He would let anybody in the 22 world inside the house, but you weren't getting out. 23 (Laughter.) And several of y'all people would know that man; 24 he was a constable here for a long time in Precinct 1, and 25 his name was Don McClure. 7-23-12 88 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Well -- 2 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: That German shepherd he had 3 was the friendliest dog to any stranger; he'd let you in the 4 house, but you could not get back out unless they okayed it. 5 But thank you, gentlemen. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Any of you folks that have not been 7 out to see the garden, it's quite a sight. 8 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: It is. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Quite a sight. He says it's 1 acre. 10 It sure looks bigger than 1 acre, with everything he's got 11 growing out there, I'll tell you for sure. 12 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: And, you know, one -- one 13 group I have not commented on that has really been a big 14 assistance in that garden is the Plant Haus. They have 15 donated expired seeds or too big of plants, things they 16 can't -- and they have really helped us. The local Plant 17 Haus, those people are fabulous. 18 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I'll tell you one last thing, 19 Rusty. I mentioned when we started off today on the food 20 deal, Tina Wood at Dietert has just raving reviews about the 21 food distribution that you guys have given to them, and just 22 how it is awesome to see what -- you know, what can be done, 23 that whole program. But it is an awesome sight to go look at 24 the -- that acre of field out there, what's producing out 25 there. It's amazing. 7-23-12 89 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: A lot of money. It's a big 2 savings. 3 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: That little Power Point that 4 we showed y'all last Commissioners Court, the Mayor, since he 5 was in here that time, it is on the agenda. He wanted that 6 Power Point shown to the City Council tomorrow night, so 7 it's -- you know, maybe it will help some things to let 8 people realize what they do. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: What about the food bank program for 10 excess -- the excess vegetables that you grow out there that 11 maybe can't be utilized -- 12 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Actually, the Dietert Center 13 and Meals on Wheels, they go through over 60 pounds of 14 vegetables a day, so they're able to take anything extra that 15 we have. We haven't had any -- any issues with them. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. So you haven't any peak 17 production or -- 18 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: No. They're more than happy 19 to -- to, you know, latch onto anything and everything we 20 get. You know, we kind of -- kind of slow down and watch a 21 little bit with the women's shelter and K'Star, just 'cause 22 of the number of families and women they're helping at that 23 time. You don't want the produce to go bad. But the Dietert 24 Center and Meals on Wheels, with the number of meals they're 25 -- they're, you know, putting out a day -- 7-23-12 90 1 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I think it's 270. 2 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: It's a lot. And the other 3 thing they've -- they've got their little group now they call 4 the snappers for the green beans, you know, a group of little 5 older people that have volunteered to come in. And they come 6 in -- we let them know a day ahead before the green beans get 7 to them, and their volunteers show up, and they snap green 8 beans for a day. It's really turned out to be a -- a very -- 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's a lot of money. You can 10 figure easily a dollar a pound for any kind of fresh produce, 11 probably more like two dollars a pound, but $60 a day. 12 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Week before last -- week 13 before last alone, we gave the Dietert Center 180 pounds of 14 tomatoes in one week. It's -- 15 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: And this has been a -- you 16 know, it's a fabulous deal, because, you know, Road and 17 Bridge helped us get in the garden. They did that. Tim's 18 group, you know, helps bring over the -- the shavings and 19 everything left out of the Ag Barn with 4-H and all that. It 20 works. It's just been -- been everything that's really made 21 it work this year, and the good Lord's blessing with some 22 rain that we've had has helped, and hopefully we'll get the 23 catchment system in. And none of this is costing taxpayers a 24 dime. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: One other thing, Rusty. You 7-23-12 91 1 might increase your patrols by the airport. Someone took out 2 the fence for the second time in a week, overnight. 3 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: That highway right there is 4 city of Kerrville. You can call the P.D. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's all propped up with 6 poles. 7 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: On the 27 side? 8 MS. HARGIS: They hit it again? 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think the last one was fixed. 10 This one's all -- yeah. 11 MS. HARGIS: We just propped it up. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay, it's not fixed. I 13 thought we fixed it. 14 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Okay. 15 MS. HARGIS: I started to say, he hasn't called me 16 with another claim. No, it isn't fixed yet. They had to 17 order the -- the wire, but they had to prop it up because of 18 the deer. 19 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I got a lot of razor wire left 20 over. If you put it around there, they won't get out. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Ms. Lantz, you got anything for us? 22 MS. LANTZ: No, sir. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Ms. Hargis? Rob? 24 MR. HENNEKE: No, thank you. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Kathy? Okay. We got anything else, 7-23-12 92 1 gentlemen? We're adjourned. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: See you Monday. 3 (Commissioners Court adjourned at 11:11 a.m.) 4 - - - - - - - - - - 5 6 7 STATE OF TEXAS | 8 COUNTY OF KERR | 9 The above and foregoing is a true and complete 10 transcription of my stenotype notes taken in my capacity as 11 official reporter for the Commissioners Court of Kerr County, 12 Texas, at the time and place heretofore set forth. 13 DATED at Kerrville, Texas, this 26th day of July, 2012. 14 15 JANNETT PIEPER, Kerr County Clerk 16 BY: _________________________________ Kathy Banik, Deputy County Clerk 17 Certified Shorthand Reporter 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 7-23-12