1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT 9 Regular Session 10 Monday, September 10, 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 September 10, 2012 2 PAGE --- Commissioners' Comments - 3 1.1 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action 4 regarding annual Courthouse Lighting Agreement between Kerrville Christmas Lighting Corporation 5 and Kerr County 7 6 1.2 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action regarding proposal to create a Kerr County 7 Veterans Services Officer position in Kerr County 10 8 1.4 Consider/discuss, accept “Certification of Unopposed Candidates” and issue an order that 9 the unopposed candidates are elected 65 10 1.7 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action regarding a funding agreement between City of 11 Kerrville’s EIC and Hill Country District Junior Livestock Association 66 12 1.8 Update regarding Alamo Colleges Greater 13 Kerrville Center 67 14 1.14 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on request to relocate offices of Kerr County 15 Constable, Precinct 2, from current location to Sheriff's Annex building 76 16 1.3 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 17 approve setting cost for a copy of FY 2012/13 budget 77 18 1.5 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 19 reserve outdoor arena, polo field, RV hookups, and concession areas at Hill Country Youth Events 20 Center May 13-19, 2013 for 3rd annual KerrFest 78 21 1.13 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on resolution to suspend further development of 22 the McCamey-Kendall-Gillespie CREZ line 86 23 1.6 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to declare two courthouse jeeps as surplus 95 24 1.9 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action 25 regarding cost of installation of restroom facilities at 4-H Livestock Center 98 3 1 I N D E X (Continued) September 10, 2012 2 PAGE 3 1.10 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action for approval of CodeRED Weather Warning Service 4 addendum between Kerr County and Emergency Communications Network, LLC 100 5 1.11 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 6 address and resolve water and wastewater issues with respect to show barn raised by City Engineer 102 7 1.19 Presentation of certificates to members of 8 Troop 60 Boy Scouts for their work on the Kerr County Historical Commission' Marker Restoration 9 project; one Eagle Scout will get his badge 104 10 1.12 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to approve PR No. 1 to delete skylights and replace 11 with PBR roof panel, and PR No. 2 to add Knox Box 3200 Series for show barn at Hill Country Youth 12 Event Center; allow County Judge to sign same 110 13 1.15 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to authorize Kerr County Maintenance Supervisor 14 to go out for bid for electrical/plumbing/HVAC/ pest control services 113 15 1.16 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 16 declare old equipment/parts/metal shelving as surplus, take to recycle center in Center Point 113 17 1.17 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 18 hire new maintenance position for FY 2012/13 114 19 1.18 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on requests from appointed and elected officials to 20 appoint clerks and assistants for their offices pursuant to Local Government Code, Chapter 151 115 21 1.20 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 22 accept for management and control, pursuant to Texas Local Government Code, public property; 23 specifically, legal papers formerly belonging to City of Center Point prior to abolishment, 24 and currently held by the law firm of Lloyd Gosselink Rochelle & Townsend, P.C. 117 25 4 1 I N D E X (Continued) September 10, 2012 2 PAGE 3 4.1 Pay Bills 119 4.2 Budget Amendments 121 4 4.3 Late Bills 123 4.4 Approve and Accept Monthly Reports 125 5 5.1 Reports from Commissioners/Liaison Committee 6 Assignments --- 5.2 Reports from Elected Officials/Department Heads 127 7 1.21 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action 8 regarding Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems (MERS) litigation (Executive session) --- 9 1.22 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action 10 regarding Kerr County v. Emily Behrens in 216th District Court, Kerr County, Texas 11 (Executive Session) --- 12 3.1 Action as may be required on matters discussed in Executive Session --- 13 --- Adjourned 129 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 5 1 On Monday, September 10, 2012, at 9:00 a.m., a regular 2 meeting of the Kerr County Commissioners Court was held in 3 the Commissioners' Courtroom, Kerr County Courthouse, 4 Kerrville, Texas, and the following proceedings were had in 5 open court: 6 P R O C E E D I N G S 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. 8 Let me call to order this regularly scheduled meeting of the 9 Kerr County Commissioners Court posted and scheduled for this 10 date and time, Monday, September 10, 2012, at 9 a.m. It is 11 that time now. If you would, please, if you'd stand and 12 uncover, please, and we'll offer a word of prayer and 13 followed by the pledge of allegiance to the flag of our 14 country. 15 (Prayer and pledge of allegiance.) 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you. Please be seated. Well, 17 it appears to me we're going to have some participation on at 18 least one item, aren't we? (Laughter.) At this time, if 19 there's any member of the audience or public that wants to be 20 heard on any matter which is not a listed agenda item, this 21 is your opportunity to come forward and tell us what's on 22 your mind. If you wish to be heard on an agenda item, we'd 23 prefer that you fill out a participation form. There should 24 be some located at the rear of the room. Now, having said 25 that, it's not essential. If we get to a particular agenda 9-10-12 6 1 item and you wish to be heard, just get my attention in some 2 fashion; I will give you the opportunity to be heard. But 3 right now, if there's any member of the public or audience 4 that wishes to be heard on any matter which is not a listed 5 agenda item, feel free come forward and tell us what's on 6 your mind. 7 (No response.) 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, that didn't thin the crowd out 9 any did it? (Laughter.) Seeing no one coming forward, we 10 will move on. Commissioner Baldwin, do you have anything for 11 us this morning? 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No, sir. I want to give up 13 my time for the good veterans to have their turn. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: All right, sir. Commissioner 15 Overby? 16 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I likewise. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner Letz? 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Nothing other than agenda 19 items. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner -- 21 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: No, sir. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: -- Oehler? 23 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: No, let it go. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Boy, this is a first. Let's move 25 right into our agenda, then, if we might; to consider, 9-10-12 7 1 discuss, and take appropriate action regarding the annual 2 courthouse lighting agreement between Kerrville Christmas 3 Lighting Corporation and Kerr County. Mr. Bond? 4 MR. BOND: Good morning, Commissioners and Judge. 5 It's that time of year again. Here we are getting ready to 6 decorate. It just feels like summer just got past, but we 7 did see some cooler weather out there, so that's nice. Every 8 year we come before the Court and ask for permission to set 9 up all the Christmas decorations. You should have a copy of 10 the agreement there. I think Robert -- or Rob always finds a 11 couple of typos there, and he found them again this year. 12 But it should be accurate as far as the timing to begin 13 decorating on October the 20th. We'll set up for four 14 weekends leading up to the lighting on November -- I believe 15 it's the 17th or 19th this year. It's the Saturday before 16 Thanksgiving. Then we come back after the holidays and take 17 everything down the week after New Year's. We always build 18 in an extra week, just in case we have a weather issue or 19 something like that, but the timing of it should be accurate 20 as far as the dates on your agreement there. 21 The only thing to -- to let you know about this 22 year, we're changing a little bit the way we're going to 23 decorate the annex. The annex, we usually have the wreaths 24 with the swags. This year we've changed it to add some LED 25 floodlights that are going to shine up to the parapet. It's 9-10-12 8 1 kind of a small picture for y'all to see from that far away, 2 but I think you'll be happy with the way it turns out. We're 3 real excited about how it's going to look this year as well, 4 now that the Kerrville Rotary Club is funding -- or working 5 on funding a new Kerrville Christmas tree to have out by the 6 front. We've got plans to build a pad out there. We're 7 going to present that to you guys in two weeks. I've got an 8 e-mail I think maybe the Judge has seen. Working with some 9 architects locally and some concrete companies to build a 10 permanent pad out there; be real decorative and nice. So, 11 we're very, very excited about that. It's 30 feet tall, so 12 almost as tall as the parking garage. It's a big tree, 13 beautiful, 18,000 lights. It will be a fixture for the 14 front. We're going to change the way we organize the 15 displays this year, so everything on that side will just be 16 the tree, and we'll move the -- the displays with the 17 animated displays around to the Earl Garrett side this year. 18 So, a couple new ideas, clean it up a little bit, keep it 19 tasteful, and be real pretty this year. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Mr. Bond, the -- the issue of the 21 tree and the improvements to be made over on the southwest 22 corner, it's probably going to have to be an issue for 23 another day. We don't have that on the agenda today. 24 MR. BOND: I understand, come back in two weeks. 25 That's just fine. It's a little time-sensitive, but I think 9-10-12 9 1 we'll be okay as long as y'all are okay. That's all I have 2 for today, unless anybody has any questions. I just need you 3 guys to approve us coming out and decorating. We're going to 4 be working with Rotary Club this year. That's one new 5 wrinkle. They've agreed to take the leadership of the 6 Christmas lighting going forward. We're partnering with them 7 this year to do that, and next year they'll be taking it over 8 full force. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Only thing that's changed as 10 far as the schedule's concerned is just some dates? I mean, 11 but -- 12 MR. BOND: Yeah. Normally -- yeah. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: A year ahead of time, and a 14 month later and all. 15 MR. BOND: The dates are slightly different, that's 16 all. The agreement's the same. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you. 18 MR. BOND: As long as Rob didn't have any issues 19 with it. 20 MR. HENNEKE: Same as last year. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I move approval. 22 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I'll second it. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 24 approval. Question or discussion? All in favor of the 25 motion, signify by raising your right hand. 9-10-12 10 1 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 2 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 3 (No response.) 4 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. Thank you, 5 Mr. Bond. 6 MR. BOND: Thank you. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: We're nearly on schedule. A 9:05 8 timed item, Item Number 2, is to consider, discuss, and take 9 appropriate action regarding proposal to create a Kerr County 10 Veterans Services Officer position in Kerr County. Mr. Lee 11 Burns? 12 MR. BURNS: Judge, Commissioners, I am Lee Burns. 13 I'm a veteran, served in the United States Navy during Desert 14 Shield/Desert Storm. I'm here today to ask you to create a 15 Kerr County Veterans Service Officer position here in Kerr 16 County. We don't have one of those. We do have service 17 officers that are volunteers. We do have claims 18 representatives that work for the T.V.C., but there have been 19 a lot of changes. There are more changes coming, and they 20 also, even if everything was going to stay the same as it was 21 at this time last year, are not county veterans service 22 officers. A county service officer would provide assistance 23 to veterans, including processing of claims, much as any 24 service officer who you may be familiar with now. They would 25 process that claim for veterans, their widows, their orphans. 9-10-12 11 1 It doesn't matter how you come to the service officer; 2 they're going to help you file that claim, including the 3 county service officer. 4 That's where a lot of the assistance stops. Those 5 claims provide veterans with their entitled benefits. They 6 earned these benefits by serving their country. That claim 7 assistance is generally provided right now by someone who 8 holds office hours and allows the veteran to come to them. 9 If the veteran doesn't know to go to them, if the veteran 10 doesn't know what a service officer is, they're not going to 11 get their entitled benefits, because they're not going to 12 have someone to help them file that claim. That's not to say 13 a veteran can't file a claim on their own. But that veteran 14 is only dealing with that veteran's issues, so the amount of 15 experience and knowledge gained in how to properly file a 16 claim, what needs to be included with the claim, these are 17 things you only get by doing this process. 18 For this position, I have created a job 19 description, and I'll be able to go over that with you in 20 detail as soon as I've completed telling you everything I'd 21 like you to know first. That job description has a lot of 22 information in it. Most of that information is the 23 difference between what we have today and what I would like 24 to see in this county. The first and primary difference is 25 that a county veterans service officer will be held 9-10-12 12 1 accountable to you, to the county at large, to provide 2 consistent, regulated levels of service to those veterans. 3 That county service officer will obtain regular training 4 required by law, including regulatory updates, changes, new 5 laws, so that they can provide the best possible service to 6 that veteran. They will also have the opportunity to achieve 7 accreditation. 8 There's three levels of service officer that files 9 a claim. Me, I'm the veterans service officer for Kerrville 10 Memorial Post 208 of the American Legion right here in 11 Kerrville. My level is, even though I've attended training, 12 I proceed no further. I help a veteran, I help him fill out 13 his claim. I make sure that he knows what he should include 14 with that claim. I put the proper address on it so it goes 15 to the right place, and I send it off. And since it's going 16 to the V.A., I pray. And that's about the limit of what I'm 17 really able to do. A county veterans service officer who 18 achieves accreditation can log onto the computer system that 19 processes that claim and follow that claim every step of the 20 way. They can tell what's happening with it, where it's 21 having a problem, where it's going to through fine. They 22 have direct access to that claim as it is processed. That's 23 a huge advantage. 24 Also, a county veterans service officer will act as 25 a representative for this county for veterans benefits. If 9-10-12 13 1 something's happening in the benefits world that you don't 2 like as a county, you've got someone who can address that. 3 He'll track it down. While you're still here taking care of 4 the business you need to be taking care of, they can be 5 taking care of the business they need to be taking care of. 6 They'll be a liaison with all the assistance organizations 7 throughout the county; the Legion, obviously, the V.F.W. 8 We've got AmVets; we've got everybody. There are other 9 organizations that help veterans as well. A veterans service 10 officer will check all of that information, bring all that 11 home, and interface with each and every one of those 12 organizations to make sure that veterans are covered. A 13 county veterans service officer will provide seminars, 14 education, awareness to veterans, veterans' families. These 15 are the benefits -- sorry -- these are the benefits you have 16 available. This is what you should be looking at. This is 17 what you should know so that you get what you have earned. 18 This will be the person responsible for updating 19 the County on the changes, benefits, regulations, whatever. 20 This person will make sure you are aware of everything that's 21 happening in the world of benefits and veterans. Perhaps 22 most importantly, this person will provide outreach service. 23 Most veterans come to us, as do volunteers. The county 24 officer will go looking for the veterans. They'll go to 25 nursing homes, they'll go to assisted living, they'll go to 9-10-12 14 1 retirement communities. They will seek out the veteran. 2 They'll provide specific targeting. Veterans and their 3 dependents may qualify for non-service connected benefits. 4 They're not going to be aware of that. That's what this 5 person will go out and do, part of the education, part of the 6 outreach. They will go find people. They will let them know 7 what their availability of benefits are. Part of that is 8 that the county veterans service officer will provide press 9 releases, not only to newspapers, but to health care and 10 their newsletters, updating changes, letting people know what 11 the regulations are, what new benefits might be coming along. 12 The county veterans service officer's primary 13 difference, the big job that they've got is to try to reach 14 every veteran in this county through any activity. Every 15 activity can be an outreach activity. They will be 16 constantly performing outreach to reach every veteran in this 17 county. And also, I know in a couple of days you've got a 18 meeting on the memorial. A county veterans service officer 19 would provide you with a Kerr County listing of veterans. 20 You would have information at your fingertips as to what 21 veterans are now and have been in this county, who passed in 22 this county, who came home to this county, who hopefully 23 didn't leave this county and never come back when they 24 joined. It's a long list; there's a lot of benefits. These 25 things are not currently available to our veterans right here 9-10-12 15 1 in Kerrville. 2 That brings me directly to the Texas Government 3 Code. Code 434 is the veterans service officer code for 4 Texas. .032(b) says that less than 2,000 people -- 200,000 5 people in the county means that it's not a requirement for 6 that county; however, it also says if the Commissioners Court 7 determines that the office is a public necessity to enable 8 county residents who are veterans to properly -- properly and 9 rightfully obtain the benefits to which they are entitled, 10 they can enact a county veterans service officer. As a 11 veteran, and I'm seeing a lot of veterans, I'm here to tell 12 you it is a necessity for our veterans, and we make up 17 13 percent of Kerr County's population. There are 17 percent of 14 our county not getting everything they should be getting, 15 that they have earned, that they deserve. We can fix that. 16 I've provided you with a packet. I'll, of course, 17 be able to answer any questions you have on that packet. I 18 also have invited Tami King, Gillespie County Veterans 19 Service Officer, to answer any real-world questions you have 20 about what's involved with setting up a county veterans 21 service officer, what's involved with benefiting the county 22 through the services of a veterans service officer. I think 23 that's everything. I'm perfectly willing to answer any 24 questions on the packet I've provided. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Mr. Burns, you answered one question 9-10-12 16 1 that I had, and that was the number or percentage of our 2 population that are veterans. By my calculation, that's over 3 8,400 people in this county -- 4 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Mm-hmm. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: -- are veterans. First, let me see 6 a show of hands of veterans out here. (Veterans raised their 7 hands.) Well, Mr. Burns told me he was going to bring some 8 bodies with him, and he wasn't -- he wasn't spoofing, was he? 9 MR. BURNS: Thank you. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: He wasn't spoofing. I had a 11 discussion with Mr. Burns here several weeks ago, and told 12 him if he wanted the Court to pursue this, that he was 13 welcome to put it on the agenda. He's done so, and said he 14 was going to -- he was going to bring a bunch of bodies. The 15 good news is, he's done his part. Now let me tell you some 16 bad news. The Commissioners Court approved, probably for the 17 first time in -- at least since I've been on the Court, the 18 budget and tax rate for this county -- well, it would be two 19 weeks ago now, wouldn't it? 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yes, sir. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: A full month ahead of when it's 22 normally approved. So, we've got our funding nailed down and 23 in place for the coming fiscal year beginning October 1 24 through next September 30. Mr. Burns has -- in the material 25 provided, he's done a very, very thorough job, and you're to 9-10-12 17 1 be commended for that. 2 MR. BURNS: Thank you. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: For all the materials you've 4 provided, including matters concerning a proposed budget for 5 a veterans service officer. And the numbers are such that in 6 order to -- in order to be able to go forward on this, at 7 least for the fiscal year 2012-13, that we're going to have 8 to go in and take a look at the budget and see what, if any, 9 amendments we can make. Let me tell you something. We -- we 10 wrestled with that budget pretty doggone strong, as we do 11 every year, and I think if you'll look at our budget for the 12 last several years, the expenditures have gone down, not up, 13 and they've gone down significantly. And so the issue's 14 going to be if we can find the avenue for funding the 15 position. I don't think there's any member of the Court up 16 here that is adverse to veterans. The last thing I want to 17 do is -- is to be adverse to veterans. 18 You know, I'm -- I'm one of your comrades in arms, 19 and I've been pretty vocal about how I'm just really confused 20 and bamboozled by how our federal government seems to figure 21 out a way to get adverse to its veterans, but seemingly it 22 does. And then the fight is on, and after all the smoke 23 clears and a bunch of money is spent that could have been 24 better spent, the veterans convince the Congress that, yeah, 25 you do have liability for what happened at Yucca Flats, what 9-10-12 18 1 happened in Vietnam, the Agent Orange and some of those other 2 things, but it was only after an extensive fight. And I 3 think that's deplorable that the federal government gets 4 adverse to its own veterans. But the issue that we have 5 right now is how we can make that happen from an economic 6 standpoint. 7 MR. BURNS: I understand. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: And as usual, it comes down to -- 9 it's all about the money. 10 MR. BURNS: I understand. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: And it's not about whether or not we 12 want something to happen or don't want something to happen. 13 I think there's a -- we owe it to our veterans, and we need 14 to do anything we can to help them, starting from the local 15 level all way up to -- to the congressional area on the 16 federal level. Any member of the Court have any other 17 thoughts? 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yes, sir. I -- Mr. Burns, I 19 agree with what the Judge is saying, of course, that we've 20 adopted the budget, and it's -- we'd get strung up if we go 21 back and tinker with that thing. But I wanted to take a look 22 at your budget outline here, and it's very interesting and 23 very detailed, so much so that I'm not sure what I'm seeing. 24 If you would be -- 25 MR. BURNS: I can explain that to you. 9-10-12 19 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: If you'd be nice enough to 2 do that, I'd appreciate it. 3 MR. BURNS: First -- 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Let me finish my question. 5 MR. BURNS: Okay. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Please. There's three 7 segments here, and one is just titled "Proposed Budget." And 8 the second one is for Certified V.S.O., and I'm assuming 9 that's what you are today? 10 MR. BURNS: I have met all the requirements to be a 11 certified, but since I am not working for a county, and since 12 the Legion does not work quite the same way as the County 13 does, I'm not currently certified, though I have -- 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. But that's kind of 15 what -- it's kind of a level that you're on somewhere? 16 MR. BURNS: Sure. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And then the third part is 18 Accredited V.S.O. Would you -- would you tell us what the 19 difference is in those three? 20 MR. BURNS: Certainly. To address the overall 21 issue of the budget, I would like to point out that on your 22 copies at the top of all of the money, it's 2013 to 2014, so 23 I can talk about that in a minute if would you like me to. 24 To directly answer the question, the top of the budget is a 25 basic entry-level budget. The primary item that's going to 9-10-12 20 1 change for any employee is going to be the salary, and in the 2 case of a county service officer, the primary item on the 3 budget is going to be the salary. It's a fairly typical 4 entry-level salary for that top block, and at that rate with 5 those figures, that total proposed county veterans service 6 officer entry-level budget is the total expenditure. 7 Obviously, the County Treasurer is going to have to go 8 through there, you know, make sure everything is correct and 9 proper. However, as that entry-level person gains 10 experience, knowledge, awareness, and advances their 11 regulatory knowledge through training and through testing and 12 through actual job experience, they will be able to become a 13 certified service officer. At that level, they're better 14 than they were; they know more than they did. It's sensible 15 to have that be a step up to recognize that advancement. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Now, that's the individual that 17 would have access through the computer system directly -- 18 MR. BURNS: Not yet. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: No? 20 MR. BURNS: Not yet. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 22 MR. BURNS: That's the individual who, when the 23 claim goes through a review, they're not necessarily 24 expecting it to be as full of as many mistakes as it would 25 have been otherwise. That basically tells people that they 9-10-12 21 1 at least know what they're doing, even if they really haven't 2 done it that long or know it that well. It's not a truly 3 significant step, although compared to the average person 4 who's never had any training, and probably only filed two 5 claims a year, depending on the service organization they 6 work for, it's a fairly large step. It includes real 7 training. It has real testing standards, and the state of 8 Texas now says, you know, what you're doing as a service 9 officer. The accredited position is -- the best -- the best 10 description I've heard of that is that it is a specialized 11 lawyer. When you are accredited, you are -- you have proven 12 that you are familiar with the law governing claims and 13 benefits, the CFR 38 book about yea thick. What is that, 14 about 2 and a half, 3 inches? And it is nothing but legalese 15 on filing a claim and paying out a benefit. It goes through 16 very non-intuitive mathematical tables about how 60 plus 20 17 equals 62. I'm sure many of the veterans in the room can 18 tell you that that's not going to make a lot of sense. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's a lawyer. 20 MR. BURNS: You bet. If they have achieved 21 accreditation, the service officer has proven that they are 22 conversant in this one small segment of the law. They are a 23 very specialized lawyer. Even though they didn't pass the 24 bar, they did pass this. They became accredited, so their 25 salary is going to be commensurately somewhat higher. 9-10-12 22 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Is that the one then that has access 2 through the computer system -- 3 MR. BURNS: That is the one. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: -- into the master V.A. claims? 5 MR. BURNS: Yes, that is the one that looks at 6 claims files through the process, finds out what's going on 7 as it's going on. And that, quite frankly, is what I would 8 want my county service officer to strive to achieve. I would 9 expect the individual who fulfills this position to work -- 10 because it's likely going to be held by a veteran, and it's 11 going to be serving veterans. And, personally, I consider 12 that a fairly high calling, and I would expect the same from 13 the county service officer. 14 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Mr. Burns, I've got to ask 15 you some questions. First of all, it's good to see all the 16 men and women here who've served in our military. Of course, 17 my dad was 26 years in the Air Force. I had a brother that 18 was 26 years in the Air Force as a copilot. In fact, I was 19 born on an Air Force base myself, and so I know what I'm 20 talking about with military, and very proud of our V.A. 21 facilities. And when we talk about 17 percent of our 22 population are veterans in this community, we're very proud 23 of that. I've got a couple of questions, 'cause you've 24 raised some concerns to me. Basically, it kind of goes 25 back -- I was in the funeral business for 22 years, and I 9-10-12 23 1 knew that when a veteran passed away, I was able to help 2 families get in contact with benefits service counseling at 3 the V.A. Hospital. And also, I know that when my -- my 4 father went through the Alzheimer's unit and passed away, my 5 mother received a lot of benefit assistance from the 6 Kerrville V.A. Hospital. I know a lot of folks as well have 7 been receiving benefit assistance on helping them -- helping 8 that situation. I guess my question is, I -- and, again, 9 I'm -- we're talking about there's no telling what the 10 government's cutting back today; we know there's a lot. 11 MR. BURNS: Yes, sir. 12 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: But are these services not 13 being provided at our current V.A. Hospital with folks right 14 now, as far as if a veteran comes in -- I mean, are we -- are 15 we doing the best we can do with the current facility right 16 now, or is this something -- 17 MR. BURNS: No. 18 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: -- that we need to really 19 step up and improve? 20 MR. BURNS: That's part of the current changes that 21 have occurred. Again, as I said earlier, what I've talked to 22 you about today are primarily the services that no one 23 provides in this county right now, or have ever on any sort 24 of consistent or accountable basis. At the V.A. facility, 25 until very recently, there was a five-day-a-week, full-time 9-10-12 24 1 T.V.C. claims representative, Steve Monroe. He retired at 2 the end of August, and he has recently passed away, which -- 3 tremendous loss of experience and knowledge in the area. But 4 even when Steve was there, he provided the claims benefit 5 service. He processed claims, and that was it. That was his 6 task. He fulfilled his job function and duties and 7 responsibilities by filling out and following a claim. He 8 was an accredited service officer. He was able to follow it 9 any time he needed to, but as he was not a county service 10 officer, he did not provide anything else I talked about to 11 you today. 12 In addition to that, once he retired, they 13 currently have one T.V.C. claims representative coming up to 14 the V.A. facility one day a week, Wednesday. I have heard 15 many stories about which way it's going to go, whether or not 16 someone's coming in full-time, whether they're not. Since I 17 don't know, I am not going to put my representation on the 18 line by making any statements on that account. What I know 19 is that right now, today, we have one T.V.C. claims rep 20 coming in on Wednesday. As far as that's concerned, I have 21 two things to say about that. We've got a lot of vets that 22 come through and come to this V.A. facility every day of the 23 week, and when they show up on a Monday expecting to stop by 24 and talk about their claim, their needs are not being met. 25 However, secondarily to the veterans that need to file a 9-10-12 25 1 claim, primarily to the county's interest, not every vet that 2 goes through that V.A. facility is a resident of Kerr County. 3 The residents of Kerr County have never been the primary area 4 of responsibility for that position. Steve Monroe was not 5 responsible for Kerr County veterans. Steve Monroe was 6 responsible for any veteran that walked into the V.A. 7 facility. 8 Several of the sheets I've provided have breakouts 9 of numbers. Two of those, the first two, service-connected 10 disability rating status and veterans status, give you a 11 picture that out of all the veterans in this county, roughly 12 1,100 have a service-connected disability as far as the V.A. 13 is aware; 5,300 have no service-connected disability. 14 They're probably not going through the V.A, so they're not 15 even going to get a claim awareness out of whatever's going 16 on at the V.A. There's another 1,000 or so that the V.A. has 17 no idea even exist in this county, so those are veterans who 18 aren't being reached by anyone. If the V.A. doesn't know 19 about them, there's not somebody harassing them to go down 20 and sign up for the V.A. health care. There's not -- they're 21 probably not a member of a service organization. If you're a 22 member of the V.F.W. and you're not a member of the American 23 Legion, does that mean I, in my current status, won't help 24 you? No, it does not. I will help you. I will help you 25 fill out and file your claim. That's about all the help I 9-10-12 26 1 can honestly give you in my current position. However, if 2 you're not a member of the V.F.W. or the Legion or the 3 AmVets, if you're a veteran who's not a member of an 4 organization, you don't even know they exist, don't even know 5 to go to them and ask them, "Hey, what can I do?" But that 6 needs to be addressed. That's what the Government Code says 7 the County can take care of. 8 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: How would you go about 9 securing somebody to do this job? Are you interested in 10 doing this? Is this something that you're -- 11 MR. BURNS: Well, first, I think it's important for 12 me to point out I am not standing here today asking the 13 County for a job. That is not my purpose. I am pointing out 14 that we have a shortage, a need that needs to be addressed. 15 I am not averse to taking on the position. It's not -- every 16 veteran in this room is going to know and be able to tell 17 you, this is a frustrating and sometimes very painful job. 18 You do what you can to help a veteran. You're -- you're 19 offering that help sometimes with, sometimes against the V.A. 20 When -- when a veteran has seen the commercial on TV that 21 says that the V.A. will remodel your home, the commercial 22 does not include that that's 100 percent disability and the 23 veteran whose home is going to be remodeled no longer has 24 legs. When that veteran comes forward, having seen that 25 commercial on TV, to the service officer they know about, 9-10-12 27 1 says, "I want my house remodeled," and you tell that veteran, 2 "I'm sorry, sir, but you walked in here under your own power; 3 that's not going to happen," that's not the answer he wanted. 4 That's not a pleasant conversation from that point forward. 5 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Well, let me ask another 6 question. How long -- how long does it take to get 7 accredited to be a county service officer? 8 MR. BURNS: If you get a hard charger who's really 9 pushing, I'd say a year and a half. Is that about right? 10 MS. KING: The accreditation process, from the time 11 you start, it takes at least one year. And you have to be 12 serving at least -- probably two years as a certified county 13 service officer first, and then from the time you're 14 accredited, it takes almost another year to go through all 15 the additional training for the V.A. access to their computer 16 system. So, you're talking four years to be totally up and 17 running at the highest level of accreditation. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Let me get your name for the record, 19 please, ma'am. 20 MS. KING: My name is Tami King. I'm the Gillespie 21 County Veterans Service Officer, located in Fredericksburg. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. And what level in this whole 23 process -- where are you in that? 24 MS. KING: I'm accredited, and I have access to the 25 highest level. 9-10-12 28 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. So, how long have you been at 2 this game? 3 MS. KING: Five and a half years. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. And how long did it take you 5 to get your accreditation and access into the V.A. computer 6 system? 7 MS. KING: I was accredited at probably about the 8 three and a half year mark. Four and a half years it took to 9 get into the computer system access. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: So you were a fast-tracker, then? 11 MS. KING: I did push it, yes, sir. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Okay. 13 MS. KING: But it's the -- it's what you do want to 14 strive for for your county, because you can assist veterans 15 so much better. And, you know, there's a number of other 16 things that, when Lee is done, I'd like to make a couple of 17 additional points on some of the things for a county service 18 officer that I'd just like you to know about. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: You're who I want to talk to 20 next. 21 MS. KING: Okay. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Lee, I think you've just been 23 replaced temporarily. 24 MR. BURNS: Before I so happily sit myself down, 25 are there any final questions for me? 9-10-12 29 1 JUDGE TINLEY: We may have some. We'll get back to 2 you, okay? 3 MR. BURNS: All right. Well, then I'll just leave 4 you with the fact that regardless of this year's budget, the 5 sooner we start, the sooner we'll be ready for next year. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: I apologize. I failed to note that 7 your proposed budget does say 2013-14. 8 MR. BURNS: I understand there is a process, and I 9 think every veteran in this room does as well. I think any 10 veteran in this room would be happy to help with that process 11 if we can get this enacted and make this a reality in this 12 county. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Let me first -- you act as a 14 volunteer claims rep of sorts for the American Legion? 15 MR. BURNS: Yes, sir. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: There are a number of other 17 veterans' organizations represented here, and let me see a 18 show of hands of other veterans that act as a volunteer 19 claims rep for their organization or organizations. How many 20 have we got in here? Looks like we got a couple, okay. Now, 21 also, we had -- don't we have periodically a volunteer 22 veterans service officer out at the V.A. on a volunteer 23 basis? 24 MS. KING: Alan Hill. 25 MR. HILL: And my cohort who's just been recently 9-10-12 30 1 certified, Art Modgling. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: And you are there Tuesday through -- 3 MR. HILL: Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursdays, 10:00 4 to 4:00 is my minimal hours there, yes, sir. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 6 MR. HILL: I've been with the -- working with the 7 V.A. and certified by the V.A. for the past four years. I 8 have filed approximately 600 some-odd claims, and have 9 settled almost half of them, to the tune of $5 million-plus 10 in that four-year time frame. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. And Art has just recently 12 become -- 13 MR. HILL: He has just recently become certified in 14 the last about three months. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Okay, thank you. Appreciate 16 that. 17 MR. BURNS: That's it for me? 18 JUDGE TINLEY: For now. 19 MR. BURNS: Thank you. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, sir. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you. 22 MS. KING: I am a veteran; I served in the United 23 States Navy. I'm also retired from the navy. I've been in 24 the job five and a half years. I have grown to love my job. 25 I love working with all the veterans, and I have always felt 9-10-12 31 1 that Kerr County needed the same type of position. I've been 2 working with Lee and many of the other organizations here to 3 help them with their proposal, their budget, et cetera, based 4 on actually mine. I have very a supportive Commissioners 5 Court in Gillespie County, and they have been absolutely 6 wonderful. If you look at your -- at the amount of money 7 that's coming into your county right now, you're receiving a 8 huge amount of money that comes in for compensation and 9 pension; almost $22 million from the V.A. That's just for 10 compensation and pensions. There are other services that are 11 -- that the V.A. is paying for. A total of over $53 million 12 comes in from the V.A. for your county alone. By having a 13 paid county service officer, that -- those amounts are going 14 to increase significantly. 15 Those moneys, your veterans -- and it's not just 16 veterans we're talking about, because one of the things I 17 have concentrated on in my county are the surviving spouses. 18 When a veteran passes away, there are potentially moneys that 19 they can receive for either service-connected deaths or for 20 the death pension for those surviving spouses. And the 21 numbers that you're -- that Lee has referenced really do not 22 -- those are only numbers that the V.A. accounts for veterans 23 receiving moneys or services. You have a huge retired 24 military population here, and it does not include your 25 surviving spouses. I have about 800 surviving spouses in 9-10-12 32 1 Gillespie County. You have significantly more. They are 2 totally underserved. They need to -- you have to do outreach 3 to find them. I do outreach with nursing homes. I do 4 seminars so that they -- and it's not just that surviving 5 spouse. I work with a huge number of children of them, 6 because most of them are elderly when they are at that point, 7 and that's who you really work with also. 8 I work with a huge number of children of veterans 9 and surviving spouses, and their parent doesn't even live in 10 my county, but they are my client. I help them apply for 11 these benefits, and it makes such a drastic difference in 12 their lives, by possibly getting anywhere from $1,100 a 13 month, tax free, or for a married veteran, potentially up to 14 $1,700 a month. And these are for pensions. And that is one 15 of the things that is a -- county service officers work 16 differently, because we maintain files on all of our 17 veterans. Texas Veterans Commission reps, they process the 18 claims; they do a great job. They do not keep detailed 19 claims files on their veterans. For me, it is critical, 20 because you have a good track record on that veteran or 21 surviving spouse. You know exactly what's done. Quite 22 frequently, whether it's volunteers or the Texas Veterans 23 Commission, if you don't have the entire history of that 24 veteran, you file an incorrect claim. Instead of a new 25 claim, it should have been a reopened claim, or it should 9-10-12 33 1 have been an increase claim. But veterans forget what they 2 did 40 years ago, 50 years ago, and it's critical for -- to 3 provide the best service for them. So, I -- I have a huge 4 number of claims in my office. 5 That would be something that we would hope the 6 County would support that for -- for a county service 7 officer. Lee has basically, you know, covered -- the 8 outreach is probably one of the critical things that other 9 service officers are just not able to do that are volunteers, 10 or Texas Veterans Commission. But it provides the outreach 11 to your other smaller communities, so it's not just 12 Kerrville; it's the entire county. I do frequent seminars in 13 my smaller towns, Harper and Stonewall, Willow City. I do 14 presentations at all local communities, because every time 15 you do something of an outreach nature, whether -- and a 16 presentation, whether it be to the Rotary Club or wherever, 17 you have just identified additional veterans, or you've found 18 a child of an elderly veteran, and they go, "I didn't know 19 that was available." So, it's a continual outreach that you 20 need to do. 21 The other thing is that I pulled your proposed 22 budget, and I looked at your indigent budget. Potentially, 23 there are a lot of the veterans. Everyone's under the 24 assumption that you can just go to the V.A. Hospital and 25 receive services. Well, a lot of veterans can't. If they 9-10-12 34 1 don't have service-connected disabilities, Purple Hearts, 2 prisoners of war, exposed to Agent Orange, et cetera, you 3 can't just automatically get in. You have to meet the 4 financial criteria. Many of your indigent population, a 5 fairly good-sized budget that you pay for, are potentially 6 veterans. A county service officer can identify and help 7 these veterans potentially get approved for service-connected 8 disabilities or a pension that will then allow them to get 9 into the V.A. health system. This will remove them from your 10 indigent population, possibly helping -- so that may be a 11 place you can offset some of the budget to help fund this 12 position. 13 The other thing is coordination with funeral homes. 14 You mentioned the funeral homes. My funeral homes -- I have 15 three in Gillespie County. Every veteran that passes away, 16 they send me a fax so that I can do outreach. I send letters 17 to every surviving spouse asking them to come in for an 18 evaluation. I work very closely with the funeral homes and 19 the nursing homes. Every nursing home -- I have trained them 20 so that they refer surviving spouses and veterans to me, and 21 so that we can do that outreach. So, I would just encourage 22 you to please -- you know, and I know how the budget system 23 works, being a county employee, but if you can -- even if you 24 have to phase it in, you know, this next fiscal year, perhaps 25 phase it in as a part-time position; make it full-time the 9-10-12 35 1 next fiscal year. They need a foot in the door. It's not 2 something that, when they start, they're going to hit the 3 ground totally running. 4 Veterans, legal -- the benefits and everything are 5 very complicated. It's on an individual basis, and you 6 really have to sit down with a veteran and talk to them and 7 evaluate what is the best course of benefits to apply for 8 them. And it takes a while to get a veterans service officer 9 up and running. It's not overnight. I -- I would say at 10 least a year before they are truly comfortable in the job and 11 are able to -- otherwise, they're going to be calling. I am 12 a resource. County service officers have a state 13 organization and a national organization, plus we have the 14 resource of the Texas Veterans Commission. We help each 15 other, and so I am -- would be a resource for your -- your 16 new county service officer that I'm hoping you will actually 17 approve. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Ma'am, let me ask you -- 19 MS. KING: Yes, sir? 20 JUDGE TINLEY: The budget that -- proposed budget 21 format that we've been presented here, you indicated that you 22 provided assistance to Mr. Burns? 23 MS. KING: Yes, sir. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Essentially, what we are looking at 25 is the format of your budget as you have progressed -- 9-10-12 36 1 MS. KING: Yes, sir. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: -- through the experience and 3 accreditation system, and the other figures are essentially 4 as they currently exist through the Gillespie County budget? 5 Is that what I'm hearing from you? 6 MS. KING: Yes, sir. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. The alternative was, I was 8 going to ask you if you'd be kind enough to furnish a copy of 9 your budget so that we could study that, but really we're 10 looking at it; is that correct? 11 MS. KING: I believe so. I believe -- I have not 12 seen the final input of -- or of that particular budget, so I 13 can't tell you it's exactly like mine. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Well, would you be kind 15 enough to furnish us a copy of -- 16 MS. KING: I have that. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: -- what you are currently -- 18 MS. KING: I do have that with me. If I could just 19 make a copy of it, I'll be able to do that. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: She can handle that. I appreciate 21 that. Thank you very much. 22 MS. KING: Okay. Any questions for me? 23 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: You had a question? 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: You answered most of them. I 25 think the -- you know, one of the things you said is what -- 9-10-12 37 1 where I was kind of going, maybe have the ability to set up 2 some kind of a part-time position and kind of work into it, 3 see how it's working. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Mm-hmm. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's probably doable. We 6 have to look at the budget and see where -- you know. So, 7 that's kind of -- I'm glad you said that. And as a 8 recommendation, I think that's probably a -- 9 MS. KING: Now, accreditation level cannot be 10 achieved as a part-time position. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Oh, that -- 12 MS. KING: So -- 13 JUDGE TINLEY: -- that's understandable. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But can they start -- 15 MS. KING: There are a specific number of hours 16 that have to be worked, because if -- and that's part of the 17 problem with many of the surrounding counties. There's a 18 number of counties that have someone one day a week, two days 19 a week. Those veterans service officers are never going to 20 learn the job. They don't see enough volume. And as great a 21 person as they are, and as well-meaning as they are, you 22 never see enough claims to really get good at it, and so 23 that's why -- and you have enough -- large enough population 24 here, you really need a full-time position. Eventually. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Can you start the accreditation 9-10-12 38 1 process as part-time, or do you have to be full-time to even 2 start it? 3 MS. KING: No, you need to have a certain number of 4 hours per month to even be eligible for that. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 6 MS. KING: But in a certain length of time also on 7 the job. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 9 MS. KING: Certification has to be achieved first. 10 And actually, by state law, you have to retain your 11 certification every year, or you should not be a veterans 12 service officer. The Commissioners Court is notified every 13 year that that county service officer has passed the annual 14 written test. And then accreditation, there is also an 15 additional test every year, plus there is an internship you 16 have to do at the Houston regional office. There's -- it's 17 quite -- actually complicated for accreditation. It takes a 18 long time, and it takes a lot of your own time after hours to 19 do it, because there's a lot of online courses you have to do 20 with the V.A. And -- you know, so it's -- 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Sounds pretty structured. 22 MS. KING: It is. It's very structured. And 23 they've become more stringent, because they want to make 24 sure -- if they're saying you're accredited, they want to 25 make sure you really do know your job. Otherwise, you can 9-10-12 39 1 really mess up a veteran's application, and it can be almost 2 irreversible at times, what someone has done to a veteran's 3 claim. 4 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Yeah. 5 MS. KING: And it's just too bad. 6 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: How does the process work for 7 selecting somebody for a job like you have? 8 MS. KING: Well, I'm sure each county, you know, 9 has their own human resources requirements on -- on job 10 selection. When I was selected, there were 15 applicants. 11 They interviewed each individual. You know, I would highly 12 recommend that not only do you have your county people, a 13 couple of commissioners, at least, or the Judge, but also 14 maybe some of the commanders of some of the posts locally to 15 sit in on that selection. Because what you don't want is 16 someone who's a good-old-boy or girl who's going to sit on 17 their butt and talk to everyone, and not do the job. And I 18 know lots of them. There are county service officers that 19 are like that. You have to have someone who is 20 technology-savvy, because everything's online. You have to 21 -- you know, they have to know computers. They have to be 22 able to -- and you have to be able to do 15 things at one 23 time, because you're basically it. I'm a one-person office. 24 I'm my secretary; I'm my social worker. I'm my everything. 25 So, really -- yes, sir? 9-10-12 40 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You're a county employee? 2 MS. KING: Yes, sir. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And is there any requirement 4 by law that you report to the Commissioners Court in any way? 5 MS. KING: I report directly to the Commissioners 6 Court. I have five bosses. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Monthly? Quarterly? 8 MS. KING: Well, my Commissioners Court, they -- 9 they don't really make me report on a monthly basis. I give 10 them an annual summary of all the clients I've seen, the 11 claims I've submitted, the amount of money that has come into 12 the county from the V.A. We get those reports on an annual 13 basis from the V.A., and for the most part, I report to them 14 as I'm presenting my budget, normally the first of June. And 15 that's when I give them my summary and if I'm asking for 16 anything new or things like that. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Even though your 18 Commissioners Court is our heroes -- we love those guys over 19 there, and have for many, many years -- we still have some 20 homes for sale if you'd like to move over here. (Laughter.) 21 MS. KING: Well, thank you. I appreciate that. 22 But -- but I live in Gillespie County, and I like it right 23 there. 24 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Two quick questions. Just -- 25 just curious. How many veterans -- we talked about 17 9-10-12 41 1 percent in Kerr County. What is the Gillespie County 2 percentage? 3 MS. KING: I'm at about 16 percent. 4 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: It's high? 5 MS. KING: I have 3,200 veterans. 6 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Okay. 7 MS. KING: By V.A. statistics, it's higher than 8 average, because there's a lot of retired military that don't 9 do -- use V.A. services, and there's a lot that come and go 10 and move in and out. 11 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: And the other follow-up 12 question, Gillespie County is part of our Alamo Area Council 13 of Governments regional area with Kerr County. I'm curious 14 about -- are there any other counties a round that have 15 V.S.O. officers like Gillespie has that are within our region 16 or other neighboring counties that you could tell us about? 17 MS. KING: Kendall County has one, but he's a 18 full-time county employee, and it's an extra -- 19 additional-duties job for him, so they are -- they are not 20 being properly served. Bandera has -- I think she's either 21 one or two days a week. I think they are being underserved. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Do you know what the percentage of 23 population in Bandera and Kendall is? 24 MS. KING: Not off the top of my head. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 9-10-12 42 1 MS. KING: Those -- all of those reports are 2 actually viewable online, or I think actually I've sent it to 3 Lee and they have those reports, 'cause we get those reports 4 by county for the state of Texas. Texas Veterans Commission 5 provides us with that. Now, Mason County does not have 6 anyone. They have a fairly low population of veterans. 7 Johnson City, whatever -- 8 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Blanco. 9 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: A lot of places are 10 underserved. 11 MS. KING: Blanco does not have a county services 12 officer. There's a lot of them that do not, and -- but you 13 have a viable veteran community. You have a lot of veterans 14 service organizations here that will help support that 15 person, and that person can hopefully help tie in a lot of 16 the services and -- and bring them in to assist with helping 17 to provide services for your county also. 18 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Seems to me that the 19 person -- whoever this person is needs to have some military 20 experience. 21 MS. KING: Well, by state law, they have to be a 22 veteran. 23 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Okay. 24 MS. KING: Or a Gold Star Mother, or wife -- or 25 spouse, I should say. That was recently added into the 9-10-12 43 1 legislation a couple years ago. 2 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Good. That only makes sense. 3 MS. KING: But, yes, ideally, it -- you know, it 4 does need -- it has to be a veteran. Veterans know how to 5 talk to veterans. They know their backgrounds. They know 6 what questions to ask. Even if they didn't serve in that 7 particular branch of service, they're on the same level. 8 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Well, I would suggest that 9 the Judge and the commanders kind of form a committee and 10 move this thing forward, is what I would suggest, and come 11 back, you know, with a recommendation of what -- how to move 12 forward. You know, it seems to me like you're going to have 13 to get somebody started with training. I mean, I think we 14 could probably come up with some funding for some training to 15 get the thing moving, because you don't want to start at 16 ground zero, and all of a sudden just -- boom, you have one. 17 I guess. But it seems to me like we're not going to be able 18 to do that this year, but we might be able to come up with 19 some funding to start the process. What do you think? 20 JUDGE TINLEY: You know, I'd be tickled to death to 21 work with leaders of the veterans organizations here locally. 22 In fact, we've probably got a good bunch of them going to be 23 showing up in a couple days, as I recall. They're going to 24 be right here, as I recall, to give input with regard to the 25 war memorial. But I'd be tickled to death to sit down with 9-10-12 44 1 them and try and figure out a way where we might start 2 working our way into it, which is, I think, what you're 3 saying. 4 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That's exactly what I'm 5 suggesting. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: I don't -- now, we'd have to see if 7 that is a viable and feasible way. The step beyond that, of 8 course, would be part-time, and -- and to work into it that 9 way. Tami, we appreciate you coming. 10 MS. KING: Thank you. If I can be of any other 11 assistance... 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you for your work on behalf of 13 veterans. 14 MS. KING: Thank you. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: I've got a participation form here 16 from Mr. James Price. 17 MR. PRICE: Yes, sir. I'm not representing any of 18 the veterans organizations here. I'm representing a 19 nonprofit who has a grant through the V.A. to help veterans. 20 I've been doing it for a year. We've got our grant extended 21 for another year, and what I'm here to tell you is, on a 22 daily basis, I'm dealing with veterans that do not know what 23 they can do and what they need to do. I can commend Tami, 24 because I've worked with her. I have five counties out of 25 our 11-county grant that I deal with. I can also say that 9-10-12 45 1 she is right, that the other counties are underserved. The 2 veterans service officers there do not do anything to compare 3 to what they should be doing, or even close to what she does. 4 We did have Steve Monroe out at the V.A. Of course, he is 5 now deceased. They will replace him, I'm sure. It's going 6 to take a while. But that doesn't fill the bill for Kerr 7 County. I've got about 15,000 known veterans in my five 8 counties that I deal with. I've researched Kerr County and 9 dealt with over 100 veterans out of Kerr County so far in my 10 grant program. It is to serve low-income and very-low-income 11 veterans. We're here to try to stabilize them in housing. 12 And I know the word is not very popular around here, but to 13 take homeless veterans and get them into housing, or keep 14 them in housing when they're struggling. 15 71-plus percent of the veterans in Kerr County, by 16 government statistics, are less than 50 percent of the 17 average median income. That means they make less than 18 $18,700 a year. That's just to give you an idea. There's a 19 lot of people that need help. Most of the veterans I deal 20 with make between $600 and $1,200 a month. They have to pay 21 rent, and the cheapest rent is $450 to $550 a month, and it's 22 very inadequate in a lot of cases. This is just some of the 23 things. And I fully support a veterans service officer. We 24 need somebody here. We need somebody certified. I try to be 25 a networker, and I work with Alan and Art and Tami and, you 9-10-12 46 1 know, everybody, the ones in Kendall County and Bandera 2 County, Medina County, but I don't get a whole lot out of 3 those part-time. We need a full-timer here. I just wanted 4 to make that statement. Thank you. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, Jim. Any questions for 6 Mr. Price? Thank you, sir. We appreciate your input. 7 Anything further from you, Lee? 8 MR. BURNS: I would -- I would just like to 9 reiterate what I've already said. I believe that the reason 10 I'm standing here, and the reason all these veterans have 11 appeared in this room today is that we believe that this 12 position is a necessity. And, personally, I feel that that 13 brings into action Texas Government Code 434.032(b). If I 14 can convince you, and if these people present have convinced 15 you that this is a necessity, it's within your power to fix 16 that for this county, the 17 percent of its population that 17 are veterans, and the additional percent that are the 18 families of those veterans. These people are not being 19 served. They're not having their needs met, and we can fix 20 that today by simply stepping foot on the path that enacts a 21 Kerr County veterans service officer by this time next year. 22 Whether it's part-time, full-time, we need to start the 23 process and get the ball rolling. The sooner we start, the 24 sooner every veteran in this room, every veteran in this 25 county will be having their needs met. That's everything 9-10-12 47 1 I've got. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Let me -- let me throw out something 3 here. And this may be something that you can decide 4 informally here in a little bit after we get through with 5 this agenda item, or maybe at the gathering that's going to 6 be taking place here in a few days. Each of the veterans 7 organizations maybe select a representative. We'll get 8 together, we'll have a sit-down, and we'll brainstorm how we 9 can start thinking about how we can move this thing forward 10 into reality. And -- 'cause it's going to take the 11 cooperation of all the organizations. And I think I saw the 12 Assistant Auditor back there. I think she's been very meek 13 in this process, 'cause -- yeah. Yeah. She doesn't -- she 14 doesn't have any money available, but she's looking at the 15 budget. 16 MS. MABRY: No, I don't. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: But, you know, unfortunately, it is 18 all about the money. But we'll figure out a way to try and 19 get there by stepping out on the left foot. So, if -- if 20 Commander Cantrell and the rest of you guys and gals can get 21 together and select a representative of your organization, 22 we'll work with Jody and we'll -- we'll get us a time we can 23 sit down and talk together and start moving this thing 24 forward. I appreciate -- appreciate you coming in, 25 Mr. Burns. You're a man that's true to his word. You said 9-10-12 48 1 you were going to bring bodies; you've got them here. 2 They've told us the need is there, and so we're going to keep 3 -- we're going to keep trying to move this thing forward. 4 MR. BURNS: Thank you for your time and your 5 consideration, gentlemen. 6 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Thank you. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Appreciate the veterans, all of the 8 service of all of you veterans, and -- yes, sir? 9 MR. DOUGLAS: Could I speak? 10 JUDGE TINLEY: You certainly may. Come forward. 11 Tell us your name and address, and tell us what you've got to 12 say on this. 13 MR. DOUGLAS: I'm Frank Douglas; I live here in 14 Kerrville and I'm a World War II veteran. Here a number of 15 years ago, a friend of mine who was in the service -- or out 16 of the service, retired, told me about a disability that he 17 had that was service-connected, and I asked him how he went 18 about it. He said, "Go to the V.A." Because I've got a 19 service-connected disability. I was in the Navy Air Corps, 20 where I was a turret gunner on a torpedo bomber. I had a 21 50-caliber machine gun right here by my ear. Long -- not too 22 long after I got out of the service, I began to have hearing 23 aid problems, so, of course, I went to the audiologist. He 24 tested. I've got a bad disability in my left ear, which was 25 next to that 50-caliber, so I went to the V.A. He, of 9-10-12 49 1 course, put me with a hearing aid, so I've been wearing a 2 hearing aid for most of the time I've -- since I've been out 3 of the navy. I went out to the V.A. and told them my 4 problem, and they told me what I have to do. And I says, "Is 5 there anybody here that can help me apply for a disability?" 6 "You have to do it on your own, but we can give you the name, 7 the address and so forth where you need to go to." So, I 8 started writing letters. Approximately four and a half years 9 later, after a lot of correspondence back and forth proving 10 that I've had the hearing disability since the service, so 11 forth, I finally got some reaction out of it. So, since I 12 didn't get any help out there, this organization seems like 13 to me the place to go to. But I ended up, thank the Lord, 14 with a 30 percent disability. They do -- they do furnish me 15 with hearing aids in both ears. Thank you. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, sir. We appreciate your 17 input. 18 MR. DOUGLAS: Anything? Okay. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Anybody else wish to -- Sherrell? 20 MR. ECKSTEIN: I wish -- 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Give us your name and address for 22 the record. 23 MR. ECKSTEIN: My name is Sherrell Eckstein. I'm 24 the Commander of American Legion Post 13; it's the Earl 25 Garrett/Sidney Baker post. We're the original veterans' 9-10-12 50 1 organization of Kerr County. We go back to 1920, '21, 2 somewhere along in that area. They're not for sure because 3 they lose records and everything else. And Guy can tell you, 4 I got his father going into getting his disabilities. And as 5 far as Garrett Baker Post 13, we're 100 percent behind this. 6 Because the veterans not only -- you got to remember one 7 thing, that having the service officer and getting this 8 disability, that brings in more income to them people, and 9 more money to the county also. You got to remember that. 10 That's increased tremendously. Which the Texas Veterans 11 Commission has helped a lot, but we need the service officer. 12 We truly believe it, and we're behind it 100 percent. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, Sherrell. Appreciate it. 14 Alan? 15 MR. HILL: My name is Alan Hill; I'm a veterans 16 service officer at the Kerrville V.A. I am a certified 17 veterans service officer with the Department of Veterans 18 Affairs. I can get no higher in my level, because I am a 19 volunteer. Like I said before, I have filed many hundreds of 20 claims with the V.A., and have been fairly successful in 21 getting results, but I have a hard time finding out -- I have 22 veterans all the time coming up, "Alan, where's my claim at?" 23 I can't tell you, because I do not have computer access. 24 Although the V.A. has promised that to me, because I'm a 25 former V.A. nurse, employed here at the Kerrville V.A. 9-10-12 51 1 Hospital, I still cannot because I'm a volunteer. I have 2 veterans coming up to me all the time going, "I didn't know 3 we had anybody here that could help us file the claim." They 4 didn't know about Steve Monroe up on the third floor until 5 some of the clinics and doctors pointed him out. They didn't 6 know about myself and Art until the doctors and the clinics 7 refer them down to us. My biggest referral agency right now 8 happens to be the mental health unit up at the Kerrville 9 V.A., along with a couple of the team doctors. One happened 10 to specifically be my team doctor. 11 So, yes, this is a very well-needed item in Kerr 12 County, because we have a lot of veterans going, "Where can 13 we find out this information?" They come in my office all 14 the time asking questions, and I'm able to answer those 15 questions most of the time. If I cannot, I have been able to 16 call Tami; I've been able to call the Texas Veterans 17 Commission education people that I have. I even have 18 contacts with the assistant manager of the Houston regional 19 office. I can call Ken up and I can ask him questions, and 20 he very well helps me out. I do not have computer access, 21 and this is where your person that would be the Kerr County 22 service officer would have. Plus they can travel out and 23 help the veterans. I do not get reimbursed for anything I do 24 except for by our own veterans organization, so we have to be 25 very limited in what we spend money on, and it's usually just 9-10-12 52 1 for office supplies. We have a hard time. I am able to get 2 some funding back for when I take veterans to the Veterans 3 Board of Appeals at Frank Tejeda Outpatient Clinic in San 4 Antonio, but that, again, is on a very limited basis. This 5 is something that's very well needed for Kerr County. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, Alan. We appreciate it. 7 MR. HILL: Thank you. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Ma'am? 9 MS. MARSH: Thank you, Judge. I'm Colonel Vicki 10 Marsh, U.S. Marine Corps, Retired, and vice-commander of our 11 Women Veterans Coalition. It was just formed this past 12 January. We choose to support having a county veterans 13 officer, but I'd like to explain some reasons why. We 14 support top-notch health care for all veterans, with a 15 special emphasis on quality evidence-based health care for 16 women in our V.A. hospitals and clinics. Women are the 17 fastest growing population within the V.A. Texas has the 18 second largest number of women vets in the nation. 19 California's in the lead, and Florida trails. 6.1 percent of 20 Kerr County veterans are women. The Department of Defense 21 recently provided a very chilling statistic. A military 22 woman is more likely to be raped than killed by enemy fire. 23 When screened, one in five women who have served in 24 Iraq or Afghanistan reported military sexual trauma. It's 25 estimated that 80 percent do not report assaults against 9-10-12 53 1 them. Fewer than 10 percent of the assault claims are 2 actually prosecuted, because in military courts, women are 3 often judged by their perpetrators or allies of their 4 perpetrators. Their scars are invisible, but no less real. 5 Increasing veterans enrollment at the Kerrville V.A. drives 6 allocation of resources, which helps veterans services at all 7 levels. Locally, we're concerned about the diminishing 8 services over there, and the lack of transparency in which 9 they're being done. To help boost enrollment of veterans, 10 we're conducting our first enrollment drive at the Kerr 11 County Fair the last weekend in October. Seventy percent of 12 our women veterans need health care, but only 14 percent 13 apply due to fragmented care, inadequate child support, 14 insufficient OB/GYN services, and the perception that V.A. 15 health care is geared towards men. Since women veterans earn 16 $10,000 less than male veterans, and 11 percent of women 17 veterans are single mothers, getting veterans with low income 18 and no or little health insurance in the V.A.'s health care 19 system would reduce dollars expended locally on indigent 20 medical care, as Tami explained. 21 For these reasons, a county veterans service 22 officer would be a boon for all veterans, but especially 23 women vets, because the C.V.S.O. would be held accountable by 24 the Judge and the Court for his or her conduct towards all. 25 Women would feel safer and more comfortable coming here to 9-10-12 54 1 see their C.V.S.O. where all residents come to conduct 2 routine business, so others would not know the purpose of 3 their visit. With so many women veterans having a history of 4 military sexual trauma, some do not want to join another 5 predominantly male organization, such as our service 6 organizations here. I didn't join one till after I'd been 7 retired for 12 years, and that's -- they'll be the primary 8 source of getting help in getting a claim submitted. Lastly, 9 speaking as a spouse and a caretaker for my husband, who also 10 served 26 years in the Marine Corps and fought in Vietnam, I 11 believe that spouses and their dependents would prefer coming 12 to see a C.V.S.O. for the same reason that women veterans 13 would. Visiting a veterans service organization without a 14 spouse or a sponsor can be intimidating, as can dealing 15 directly with a huge bureaucracy like the V.A. Plus, as 16 county residents, they have a sense of kinship and belonging, 17 thus they would feel they have a right to be seen and heard 18 by their C.V.S.O. Thank you. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, Colonel. Anyone else? 20 Yes, sir, back here in the back. 21 MR. NOLLER: Good morning. By name is Gary Noller, 22 and I'm here as spokesman for the Hill Country Veterans 23 Alliance, which is a recently formed organization of veterans 24 organization representatives. So much of the -- of what 25 you're talking about, trying to get people together to 9-10-12 55 1 discuss ideas like this, is -- is needed, and hopefully the 2 Alliance can help with that. What I'd like to speak about 3 specifically is the idea of money. We heard it's all about 4 money. Where do we get the money? And as we start looking 5 at this, a few months ago I kind of come to the conclusion, 6 well, the money's already there. It's sort of like, where's 7 the service at? What are the veterans getting for the money? 8 We know that Kerr County has more than double the percentage 9 of veterans that are in the state of Texas. The state of 10 Texas -- and nationally, there's about 6 percent veterans, 11 whereas Kerr County has 14, 15, 16 percent, depending upon 12 what figures you look at. Gillespie County also has a double 13 than average percentage of veterans. Bandera County has 14 double the average number of veterans, percentage-wise. 15 Bexar County doesn't; it has about the national average. 16 Veterans come to this area for a reason. They like 17 coming to Kerr County and the surrounding areas, mainly 18 because this V.A. Hospital sits out here. We can go there 19 for our health care; we don't have to make that hour drive 20 down to Audie Murphy and that circus, mainly I-10, I-410, all 21 that stuff. But I'd like to leave you with one idea about 22 money. Veterans typically have two sources of income that 23 non-veterans don't have. One of them's going to be military 24 retirement pay, and you have to be in typically 20 years to 25 get military retirement pay. You can get out earlier because 9-10-12 56 1 of medical. But that doesn't go away. You can't get fired 2 from your military retirement pay. Veterans who have 3 disability pay, they can't get fired from their disability 4 pay. So you need to sit down and figure out, what is the 5 base of money that comes into this county that's basically 6 always going to be there no matter what the economic downturn 7 is? If I lose my job tomorrow, I don't have that money. But 8 on top of what I earn, I get $7,000 a year V.A. disability 9 pay. 10 And it would be interesting to go around this room 11 in here right now with a calculator and add up how much money 12 is in this room that is coming in to the veterans just in 13 this room, either through the military retirement pay or 14 through their V.A. disability pay. It would be lots of 15 money, I think. So, what we're asking is -- is when you take 16 a look at this money issue a little bit -- you know, Tami 17 came up with the figure that over $50 million probably right 18 now comes into this county through health care benefits to 19 veterans and their dependents, or to disability and other 20 compensation, pension. Fifty million dollars. We'd like to 21 have Tami move to Gillespie County and be -- to Kerr County 22 to be the Kerr County officer, because she is very good, and 23 I think she got a very high award last year, like -- County 24 Officer of the Year? Is that right? 25 (Ms. King nodded.) 9-10-12 57 1 (Applause.) 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Good for you. 3 MR. NOLLER: So we'll turn that around. What would 4 it to be Kerr County if every veteran in Kerr County moved to 5 Gillespie County? (Laughter.) And that money went with 6 them, okay? 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Good point. 8 MR. NOLLER: Okay. So, that's a little bit of the 9 money issues that I wish you'd consider. Thank you very 10 much. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you. When you mentioned the 12 term "circus" in San Antonio, you were being charitable, 13 based upon the stories I've heard. (Laughter.) 14 MR. HILL: Yes, sir, he was. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Yes, ma'am? 16 MS. RAMOS: Morning, gentlemen. Most of what I was 17 going to say has already been said, so -- 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Could we have your name and address 19 for the record? 20 MS. RAMOS: I beg your pardon. Alison Ramos. I 21 live in Ingram. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 23 MS. RAMOS: One of Mr. Oehler's loyal supporters. 24 As I said, most of what I was going to say has been said, but 25 I came here as being on the receiving end of what I hope will 9-10-12 58 1 be something that will keep me ticking along for the last few 2 years of my life. My husband died at the end of July. He 3 was a World War II veteran, and he had amazing care from the 4 V.A. all around, medical and otherwise. Of course, I 5 immediately called Steve Monroe, whom I knew, and said, "What 6 do I do?" So he advised me, and I wrote letters and I got 7 the forms, and I filled out the forms, because I'm a fairly 8 good form filler-upper. (Laughter.) But -- and I took them 9 in, because I don't like to make mistakes on forms, so 10 therefore I wanted someone to look it over and say, "Yeah, 11 you did a good job," or you didn't. So, I saw a delightful 12 gentleman who was coming up on the Wednesdays to the Texas 13 Veterans office, and he told me a lot of other things that I 14 could have added to the forms, which I promptly did, and they 15 were submitted. 16 But in the meantime, my -- I came here to kind of 17 wheedle you all into approving that position, which I 18 obviously don't have to do. But my point is that due to this 19 hangup there at the V.A., things are taking even longer than 20 they might otherwise take to get your forms approved and all 21 that hoo-haw. So, I cannot stress highly enough how 22 important I feel it is to have somebody to whom you can spill 23 out the beans, so to speak; sit across the desk, and they 24 will listen to you, and they will give you advice and take 25 you on your way. I'm anticipating I'm going to wait maybe a 9-10-12 59 1 year or so before I get that wonderful check in the mail or 2 whatever. But that's really my point of being here, that I 3 think -- I've seen so many disappointed faces there on 4 Wednesdays already from gentlemen who had come, and they're 5 old and they're confused. I hope I'm not confused, but maybe 6 I am. But it's so important. It really is, gentlemen. And 7 if you can work out any way to phase this in or whatever -- 8 I've got lots of ideas listening -- that you will be 9 appreciated for the job have you done. Thank you so much. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, Ms. Ramos. Yes, sir? We 11 need to try and wind this up here pretty quick. 12 MR. RUSSELL: I'll be short. I'm Jerry Russell. 13 I'm a past commander of American Legion Post 208, and I'm a 14 lifetime member of the V.F.W. also, and the Legion. I would 15 just like to say two years ago, approximately, I talked Lee 16 into taking this position, and he was elected to it. And I 17 just want you to know, he does an outstanding job. And he 18 went to school; we sent him to school, and he's come back, 19 and he's a little more trained than what he's saying. And I 20 think with the help of the lady from Fredericksburg, he's 21 doing a tremendous job. And I'd also like to commend you 22 people for paying attention to what we're trying to ask for. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: That's our job, sir. 24 MR. RUSSELL: Thank you, and we appreciate that. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: You bet. Thank you, sir. 9-10-12 60 1 Commander? 2 MR. CANTRELL: Everybody knows me here. Bill 3 Cantrell, post commander of the AmVets Post 1000. I just 4 wanted to add that Alison Ramos' husband Alex was one of the 5 charter members of our AmVets post, and a good friend. 6 Couple of things I wanted to point out. You all got my 7 letter. You know that I represent all of our post members in 8 support of the county veterans officer. But a couple of 9 things to remember. Tomorrow will be the 11th anniversary of 10 9/11. One of the longest wars we've had going on is in 11 Afghanistan. We have a lot of veterans from Iraq and 12 Afghanistan that will be coming in timely to the V.A., but a 13 lot of them also won't be coming in. Like, it was 20 years 14 after I retired -- I'm retired navy. Twenty years after I 15 retired before I joined my first veterans organization. I'm 16 now a life member of the V.F.W., Vietnam Veterans of America, 17 AmVets, member of the American Legion. So, 20 years before I 18 joined my first one. 19 What you'll find is combat veterans are not really 20 too eager to talk about their time in combat or around 21 combat, unless they're around other combat veterans. Then 22 they can kind of open up, 'cause they -- I think what it is, 23 they feel -- we feel that they understand how we feel. The 24 thing is, reluctance to talk -- it wasn't until I joined my 25 first veterans organization, AmVets up in Michigan, that I 9-10-12 61 1 came in contact with a county veterans service officer. And 2 I was reluctant to talk to him, but everybody pushed me, and 3 so I talked to him, and he -- he knew all the questions to 4 ask, which I answered. And I was stuck in a number of rocket 5 and mortar attacks, and I -- he said, "Well, you ever have 6 any ringing in your ears?" I said, "Yeah, sure." And turns 7 out he got me a 10 percent disability for tinnitus. I didn't 8 even know how to spell it, didn't much less know what it was. 9 But I probably never would have gotten anything unless it had 10 started that way, through a county veterans service officer. 11 So, a lot of the people -- a lot of these veterans are not 12 going to be showing up until maybe a decade later or longer. 13 So -- and having a service officer in place will be ahead of 14 the game. Thank you. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, Commander. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge? 17 JUDGE TINLEY: I think we've wrung the thing out 18 pretty good, haven't we, folks? You had a comment, 19 Commissioner? 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, Judge, it seems to me 21 that there's -- I know you're going to meet with the heads of 22 some of the various veterans groups. I think that's a good 23 idea to get that part of it going. But it also seems that if 24 we're going to -- you know, we can direct H.R. department, 25 basically our Technology, Auditor, and probably Maintenance 9-10-12 62 1 to look at what we need and, you know, where we -- if we have 2 office space, where we have office space. I know, I already 3 have ideas too. But what's it going to cost to get that 4 office space up to speed, computer technology in there? So 5 at least we can come back at a -- in the next meeting or 6 meeting after that and have a -- be able to, you know, just 7 get moving on the whole issue and come up with a -- 'cause 8 those things I think we can do. Then we can come up with a 9 part-time person that maybe we can pay; maybe we can't pay. 10 We're not -- have to look at the budget on that. But we 11 might as well be looking at those things at the same time as 12 visiting with the organizations, it seems to me. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Here's I.T. here. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, I knew he was around here 15 somewhere. 16 MR. TROLINGER: Yes, sir. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: H.R.'s here. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I was looking aground the room. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Auditor's there. Who are we 20 missing? Maintenance? 21 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: He just went out. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think those are the groups 23 that I think we need to kind of -- 24 JUDGE TINLEY: I agree with you, Commissioner. We 25 can start looking at the physical facilities and what goes 9-10-12 63 1 with it, seeing about a spot, and I think that's a great 2 idea. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And that will also -- 4 JUDGE TINLEY: And we'll do that as part of the 5 process. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: All right. 7 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: There isn't money in AACOG to 8 maybe fund this? 9 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: That's why I asked about the 10 regional deal within the area, how many are participating. I 11 mean, Gillespie is all I've heard. I know Bexar County's got 12 it. But Kendall, Bandera, I mean, none of those -- I bet 13 most of the ones that are south of Bexar County -- I know 14 they're not doing it, so that's something that needs to be 15 explored. 16 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I want to move this thing 17 forward and figure out what -- you know, where it can be -- 18 how -- you know, what's the quickest way to implement it, and 19 then figure out how to pay for it. 20 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Definitely a need. 21 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: There could be some local 22 grant money for that. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: I think we're all on the same page 24 here, folks. We'll get a group of representatives from all 25 the major veterans organizations put together. We'll figure 9-10-12 64 1 out a time and place to sit down, and -- you've already got 2 it figured out, Alan? 3 MR. HILL: Well, no, but Commissioner Oehler did 4 present something. There are possibly grants available to 5 apply besides to AACOG, so you may want to look at 6 something -- some of the different organizations around that 7 are providing grants. Also, if you are running short of 8 building space, and if we can ever get into our new building, 9 we might be able to lease a spot there for you also. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: I'm hopeful we can find a spot here. 11 If it's a county employee, we'd -- the preference would be 12 that -- 13 MR. HILL: Oh, yes. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: -- they be right here. And I don't 15 know what thoughts are going through the heads of the other 16 members of the Court, but I've got something in mind; I know 17 Commissioner Letz does too, and we're going to see if we 18 can't see what it's going to take to flesh it out. We 19 appreciate all your participation today. And as you've 20 heard, very strong consensus we're going to move this thing 21 forward. We thank you. 22 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Thank you. 23 (Applause.) 24 (Discussion off the record.) 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Excuse me, if you folks that are 9-10-12 65 1 going to need to visit would get on out in the hall, please. 2 Mr. Burns? If y'all need to visit, if y'all would get on out 3 in the hall, please. 4 MR. BURNS: Sir? 5 JUDGE TINLEY: If y'all are going to visit, why, 6 get on out in the hall so we can move on. 7 MR. BURNS: Just letting them clear out. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: There you go. You can be the 9 sergeant at arms. 10 MR. BURNS: Thank you for your time. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: You bet you. We appreciate it. 12 Okay, let's get back to our agenda. We have several timed 13 items that -- that we need to work on here. The first one 14 being Item 4; to consider, discuss, and accept the 15 Certification of Unopposed Candidates and issue an order that 16 those unopposed candidates are elected. The elections people 17 have certified them in your backup material. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Judge, I move for approval. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 21 approval of the agenda item, and certification of the 22 unopposed candidates as being elected. Question or 23 discussion on the motion? All in favor of the motion, 24 signify by raising your right hand. 25 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 9-10-12 66 1 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 2 (No response.) 3 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. Let's go to 4 Item 7, which is a 9:45 timed item; to consider, discuss, and 5 take appropriate action regarding a funding agreement between 6 the City of Kerrville's Economic Improvement Corporation and 7 the Hill Country District Junior Livestock Association. 8 Ms. Wendele? Almost had a collision back there. 9 MS. WENDELE: Almost had a collision back there. 10 Honorable Judge and Commissioners, thank you for hearing us 11 today. I'm Mindy Wendele, Director of Business Programs for 12 the City of Kerrville, and before you, you have a funding 13 agreement that our Economic Improvement Corporation has 14 passed, and we'd love for you to consider. This is an 15 agreement with the Hill Country District Junior Livestock 16 Association, a $150,000 matching grant for equipment for the 17 new facility -- soon to be renovated new facility at the 18 Youth Exhibition Center. The reason I'm here is because by 19 Government Code, we have to ask your permission to spend this 20 money in Kerr County, and I am doing just that. May we spend 21 $150,000 with the -- with the Livestock Association for their 22 equipment to be matched with their -- with their other funds? 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We'd better do a study of 24 this thing. (Laughter.) 25 MS. WENDELE: You know, Commissioner, I knew you 9-10-12 67 1 would, so I'm prepared for that. I do have a study, if you'd 2 like to look at it. 3 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I move approval. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 6 approval. Question or discussion? All in favor, signify by 7 raising your right hand. 8 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 9 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 10 (No response.) 11 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. Thank you, 12 Ms. Wendele. 13 MS. WENDELE: Thank you, Judge. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Appreciate you being here. Let's go 15 to Item 8, a 10 o'clock timed item; an update regarding Alamo 16 Colleges Greater Kerrville Center. Ms. Fahrenthold? 17 MS. FAHRENTHOLD: Morning. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: You indicated you were going to be 19 brief? 20 MS. FAHRENTHOLD: I will be brief. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 22 MS. FAHRENTHOLD: I'm going to make this as short 23 as I can for you guys, 'cause I know you have other items to 24 discuss. I just wanted to give you a quick update of what 25 we're doing, where we're at, where we're going. As most of 9-10-12 68 1 you know, we got a grant from the Texas Workforce Commission 2 to do welding training for Fox Tank Company. We are very 3 close. We started remodeling on Friday, so we've started. 4 There are some items that have to be done prior to doing the 5 training. We're hoping that we're going to get training 6 started in about two to three weeks. Fingers crossed. 7 Really, we've got the -- thanks to you guys, thanks to all of 8 you for what you've done to make it work for us, we have the 9 -- we have the leases in place. We have the -- the bathrooms 10 are being worked on as we speak. Then we have three welders 11 there, we have a forklift there, we have some vises, some 12 cabinets. We're going to order more equipment this week. 13 Just trying to order slowly so that we don't get any 14 interference with the people who are remodeling. Very 15 excited. Fox Tank -- I think we're hopeful that the building 16 -- their building is going to be ready about the same time 17 that our building's going to be ready, so we'll be able to 18 train and they'll go right into work for them. So, we're 19 hopeful on that. 20 Fall enrollment numbers in our arts and sciences, 21 we actually went down five enrollments from last spring, 22 which is not a surprise to me in some ways, because our 23 tuition is now triple what they pay in Bexar County, and so 24 financial aid doesn't always cover what students need. I'm 25 okay. I'm happy with that number. I expected it to be a lot 9-10-12 69 1 lower than the five, but -- but I'm happy with the 510 in 2 arts and sciences. However, we have increased in other 3 areas, so our number of total enrollments doesn't -- it's 4 going to be bigger than it was in the '11 school year. In 5 the '11 school, year we had 2,101 enrollments. And today, 6 with arts and sciences, dual credits, C.E., the academy class 7 and the technical class, which is the LVN to RN's, today 8 we're at 1,003. That's for one semester, so we still have 9 fall and summer to go. And plus now we're going to have all 10 these enrollments when we start the welding class, because 11 that's going to be -- you know, depending on how many of the 12 students or the employees there go through safety training, 13 which we have done with Fox Tank right now; we've trained 14 about 50 to 55 of their employees on safety, and they all 15 have certificates that they completed safety training. But 16 some of these are going to be -- some of these will go 17 through welding training. And then, of course, we'll have 18 all the new employees, and that's going to make our numbers 19 increase by a lot. 20 Another thing that I was -- I'm really, really 21 excited about for fall, our scholarships for just students in 22 the Kerrville center was $22,300, and that's amazing. 23 That's -- we've gotten scholarships, of course, from the Neil 24 and Elaine Griffin Foundation. We have gotten scholarships 25 from Medina School, Ingram School, an automotive club. Those 9-10-12 70 1 are -- there's just -- James Avery. I've seen probably three 2 or four scholarships come through from them, so we're very 3 excited that students just in the Kerrville center -- and 4 when I say "enrollment," that's the number of classes. 5 That's total. It's not a -- it's a duplicated number. So, 6 unduplicated, we have about 200 -- 240 unduplicated students, 7 so $22,000 in scholarships is pretty good for that, and we're 8 very proud of that. We had five students who completed -- 9 took a CNA, a certified nurses class, completed, passed, and 10 are now certified and working in our community in local 11 nursing homes. 12 We have just started on, last week -- we're doing a 13 CDA, which is a Child Development Associates, and we have 18 14 women who are providing care for our children in this 15 community who are going to train and to get a certificate. 16 Not only does it help them if they -- it's a national 17 certificate. When they're done, they can move anywhere in 18 the United States and have a certificate to work. But 19 they're also the people who are caring for our children in 20 this community, and they're going to be trained how to care 21 for those children. And it also helps the day care center 22 that they work for getting more grant funding to supply -- 23 you know, for supplies, playground equipment or things like 24 that. We -- so we have 18 students in that. 25 The last thing I'm going to talk about quickly is 9-10-12 71 1 our LVN academy, and that's our three girls that are doing 2 dual credit who are in their senior year, and this is their 3 second year of taking dual credit courses. And at the end of 4 their senior year -- they have to go through the summer, but 5 this time next year, they will be able to sit for their NCLEX 6 and LVN. And these girls are on time. Bless their hearts, 7 they have to be there at 7 o'clock in the morning this year. 8 They -- last year they did afternoons. This year it's 9 7 o'clock. I get there at 7 o'clock, and they're there. One 10 of them's a young mother, and is very excited to have a 11 career when she gets out of high school so that she can 12 support herself and her child. They did internships this 13 summer at Peterson Regional Medical Center, and Alamo 14 Colleges paid for a percentage of their -- their internship 15 there. We wanted them to have the experience of caring for 16 patients during their summer, 'cause they didn't have 17 classes. So, we're moving forward. We're getting there. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: On the academy, -- 19 MS. FAHRENTHOLD: Yes, sir? 20 JUDGE TINLEY: -- you've got an angel, don't you? 21 MS. FAHRENTHOLD: Yes. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: A mentor. 23 MS. FAHRENTHOLD: Yes. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Tell us about that individual. 25 MS. FAHRENTHOLD: Laura Langston. Fabulous. 9-10-12 72 1 She -- we applied for and got a grant from the Hal and 2 Charlie Peterson Foundation that's paying her salary. She's 3 not their instructor; she is there to mentor them, and she 4 tutors them. She spends every day, five days a week with 5 them in the morning. She's there to help. She helps them 6 with clinical things. Last week I went into the nursing lab, 7 and they were learning to give shots on bananas and oranges. 8 She's innovative. She teaches them when they can't use live 9 patients. Yes, we have mannequins, but if all the programs 10 that are in our center that do nursing poke our mannequins, 11 pretty soon they're going to be, you know, torn up. So -- 12 so, she's teaching. She's done great. She teaches these 13 girls outside of class. If they have a test coming up and 14 she doesn't think they're prepared, they meet at her house. 15 They've met at H.E.B., done all kinds of things to make -- to 16 make sure that these girls succeed. And they -- so I just 17 can't -- I can't say enough about how appreciative these 18 girls are of that. And they're enthusiastic, and they're on 19 time, and they're in class. And, you know, they come through 20 my office, because they have laptops that they use to do some 21 simulation stuff, and they have to come into my office to get 22 them. They'll come and visit with me about things that 23 they've learned or things that they've done, and they're just 24 very excited. And I think it's going to be a fabulous thing 25 for these three girls. 9-10-12 73 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Wonderful program. 2 MS. FAHRENTHOLD: It is. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Tell us about what other vocational 4 type programs you've got going on. 5 MS. FAHRENTHOLD: We're going to start another 6 Certified Nurses Aide as soon as we -- we get enough students 7 who are interested, and then with the CDA and then the 8 welding, that's kind of a full plate right now. I mean, 9 that's, you know, getting the most -- you know, the CDA got 10 started, and so the next thing that has to get started is the 11 wedding. That's kind of my priority right now. That's where 12 I'm spending the majority of my time, to make sure that the 13 building is ready, the lease was ready, that -- that things 14 are moving forward so that we can start training when they 15 need us to train. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: What amount of interest are you 17 having in these welder training positions? Actually, I think 18 it's coming through Workforce primarily? 19 MS. FAHRENTHOLD: Yes. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 21 MS. FAHRENTHOLD: They go through Workforce. We're 22 getting -- we get calls at our office, and we have -- and I'm 23 going to introduce her in just a second. We've been getting 24 calls even from the businesses, where people are coming in 25 and they've heard about the welding training, and they want 9-10-12 74 1 to know how to get in. And, you know, we're telling them 2 we're going to do this; we're going to do this. We're going 3 to advertise when we do this. I just don't want to get them 4 excited that it's going to start tomorrow, when it actually 5 is going to be two to three weeks. So, I'm going to let 6 Dayna, who's taking my picture back here -- we hired her 7 on -- when did we hire you? 8 MS. DE HOYOS: About four weeks ago. 9 MS. FAHRENTHOLD: Yeah, on August 8th, I believe, 10 she came to me, and she was hired to manage the grant for Fox 11 Tank. And it has helped me out immensely. She's kind of 12 taking over -- they had training on Friday, and she made sure 13 that the equipment was there, and she -- she got them set up. 14 And she's having to write reports, and she reports to me, and 15 it's just -- it's helped me for her to do that so I can work 16 on things like CDA, CNA kind of things. So, we're glad to 17 have her. She's been a big help so far to me. 18 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Now, Judge, the Alamo 19 Colleges facility next February, y'all will be celebrating, I 20 think, your fourth year, I think, in this facility? I think 21 it was in February '09? 22 MS. FAHRENTHOLD: It will be -- 23 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Or '10? 24 MS. FAHRENTHOLD: It will be our third year. 25 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: February '10 was your first 9-10-12 75 1 year, so it'll be your third year next year. But if you look 2 at the years before, it was in the interim -- interim mode 3 over at Sidney Baker for a couple years, and just to see 4 where it's evolved, how large it's growing, you guys have 5 done a fabulous job. 6 MS. FAHRENTHOLD: Thank you. From 132 our first 7 semester to 510. 8 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Fantastic. 9 MS. FAHRENTHOLD: That's a great accomplishment for 10 us, and I see us growing. You know, I think that we'll jump 11 the hurdle of the tuition increase, which I think, you know, 12 was of some hurt to us this year, this semester, but I think 13 we'll get past that and move forward. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, this is the second major 15 tuition increase -- 16 MS. FAHRENTHOLD: Mm-hmm. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: -- that has occurred. 18 MS. FAHRENTHOLD: Yes. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: But in spite of that, number one, 20 when you look at community colleges and you look at what your 21 major universities are doing with their tuition, -- 22 MS. FAHRENTHOLD: And there was a decrease in 23 enrollments across the board with Alamo Colleges. And I 24 talked -- I spoke with Dr. Tucker last week, and she was 25 trying to get the percentage that they had dropped across the 9-10-12 76 1 board at the five main campuses in San Antonio, and we don't 2 have that information yet, but there has been some decrease 3 there, so it's expected for us. It's going to be there too. 4 But if we can fill these spots with C.E., welding, CNA, CDA, 5 then getting people into the job force, then I'm happy with 6 it. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: And improve skills into the job 8 force. 9 MS. FAHRENTHOLD: That's exactly -- exactly. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: I thank you for what you're doing. 11 MS. FAHRENTHOLD: Thank you. Appreciate it, guys. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Any more questions for Shawna? 13 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Thanks for the update. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Appreciate it. Thank you. Why 15 don't we take about a 15-minute break now, and we're going to 16 have a lightning agenda round when we get back. 17 (Recess taken from 10:47 a.m. to 11:01 a.m.) 18 - - - - - - - - - - 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay, let's come back to order, if 20 we might. We have a 10:50 timed item, Item 14; to consider, 21 discuss, take appropriates action on request to relocate 22 office of Kerr County Constable, Precinct 2, from current 23 location to Sheriff's Annex building. Sheriff, you got any 24 problem with that? 25 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: No. 9-10-12 77 1 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Make a motion to approve. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 4 approval. Question or discussion? 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I don't know of a better 6 move than this one right here. I don't know if y'all have 7 ever been through that maze of stuff near the old courtroom; 8 stumble over everybody trying to get in and out of there. 9 It's crazy. This is good. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Further question or discussion? All 11 in favor, signify by raising your right hand. 12 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 13 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 14 (No response.) 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion does carry. Let's get back 16 to -- 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Luckenbach. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, item -- Item Number 3; to 19 consider, discuss, take appropriate action to approve setting 20 the cost for a copy of the fiscal year 2012-13 budget. We've 21 traditionally, as opposed to the per-page cost, just set a 22 cost for the entire budget. I think it was last $25? 23 MS. PIEPER: 50. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: $50? 25 MS. PIEPER: $50 for the whole book, or $1 per page 9-10-12 78 1 if they just want a couple of pages. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Oh. 3 MS. PIEPER: However, most people just go to the 4 internet and print it off for free, which is fine. But if 5 they come in our office -- 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I can't imagine spending 50 7 bucks on that. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: So, what we're doing up here is 9 really just kind of going through the motions, huh? 10 MS. PIEPER: That's correct. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So moved. 13 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Second. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: That was for $50? 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yes, sir, the 16 recommendation. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded. Question 18 or discussion? All in favor, signify by raising your right 19 hand. 20 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 21 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 22 (No response.) 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion carried. Item 5; to 24 consider, discuss, take appropriate action to reserve the 25 outdoor arena, polo field, R.V. hookups, and concession areas 9-10-12 79 1 at the Hill Country Youth Events Center -- I like the word 2 "Events" Center -- for May 13 through 19, 2013, waive rental 3 fees for the third annual KerrFest. 4 MR. FOSTER: Yes, sir. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Mr. Foster. 6 MS. CRADDOCK: Good morning. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Morning. 8 MS. CRADDOCK: Kristan Craddock with Kerrville Area 9 Chamber of Commerce. Thank you for having us this morning. 10 We would like to see about moving KerrFest to the third 11 weekend in May, for several different reasons, number one 12 being the heat. It's about 17 degrees cooler the third 13 weekend in May than it is the second weekend of August. I 14 will tell you that at the second annual KerrFest, after we 15 ran our numbers, ran our gate, we figured out we had at least 16 1,500 people there that weekend, so I can't even imagine how 17 much bigger that event can grow moving it to the third 18 weekend in May when it's cooler. Plus, we would like to take 19 advantage of the kids being in school. So, our request is to 20 have the polo field, the outdoor arena, access to the 21 concession stands, parking, and, of course, all of the 22 tremendous help that Kerr County Maintenance staff provides 23 to put on KerrFest this next year. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Any problem with the booking date? 25 MS. GRINSTEAD: No, those dates are available. 9-10-12 80 1 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: What do you mean by 2 concession areas? Is that the one inside the building, 3 indoor arena? 4 MS. CRADDOCK: Yes, sir. We use the cooler area 5 right there just to store stuff. 6 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Oh. 7 MS. CRADDOCK: As it comes in until we need it. 8 We've done that for the past two years, and it's worked out 9 really great. 10 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I don't have a problem with 11 that. Just clarifying that. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I guess my only -- I guess it 13 doesn't affect that, but, you know, there still may be -- 14 there may be a construction project underway at the time. 15 Could be in either event. But, I mean, may or may not. We 16 just don't know yet. But -- 17 MR. FOSTER: We're aware of that, and we just know 18 that we're going to have to be flexible to whatever 19 construction is going on at the time, so we'll just have to 20 arrange or rearrange based upon the activities that are going 21 on there at the time. 22 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: And those coolers may be 23 relocated. 24 MS. CRADDOCK: Sure. 25 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: We're just not sure yet. 9-10-12 81 1 That's going to start tomorrow. 2 MR. FOSTER: Tomorrow? 3 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Not moving the coolers, but 4 preparing for Phase II. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: This is your third year 6 coming up? 7 MS. CRADDOCK: Yes, sir. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Do you see anywhere here in the 9 future that you're going to start paying -- paying the fees? 10 MR. FOSTER: Well, I mean, everything's negotiable, 11 right? (Laughter.) 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Actually, no. 13 MR. FOSTER: We would -- right now, what we're 14 doing is we're giving you a sponsorship for -- for your 15 waiving the fees. We would love to continue that. We also 16 would like to continue to work with you guys on -- I guess 17 it's Phase IV is the outdoor arena part of that? 18 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: We're not even that far along 19 yet. 20 MR. FOSTER: Okay. But I've been working -- 21 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Love to be, but we're not 22 there yet. 23 MR. FOSTER: -- working with McCoy's behind the 24 scenes, trying to get some things donated there, and 25 hopefully it's a -- it's a relationship that goes above and 9-10-12 82 1 beyond what the -- what the rent would actually be out there. 2 So, we would love to have your sponsorship again. If not, 3 then we would -- 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, the proposal is basically, we 5 have four sponsors; Kerr County, City of Kerrville, the 6 Chamber, and C.V.B., right? 7 MR. FOSTER: Correct. 8 MS. CRADDOCK: Correct, four major sponsorships. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: For the last couple years, and 10 you're proposing to go forward on that? 11 MS. CRADDOCK: Yes, sir. 12 MR. FOSTER: Yes. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 14 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I would say the only thing 15 that I can think of that might come into play is if our 16 Maintenance staff -- I know there were several out there this 17 last time. If there's overtime that needs to be paid on 18 those folks, I would think that this might be -- the stock 19 show people do the same thing. They pay those -- pay their 20 overtime, so much for each one that are provided during that 21 time, and that might be an option. Stock show pays for 22 theirs. 23 MR. BOLLIER: Well, I thought there was something 24 in there where we weren't going to do that any more. 25 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Well, that's not true. 9-10-12 83 1 MR. BOLLIER: Okay. 2 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That is -- they -- it is done 3 differently, but they are still paying for the extra labor 4 that is necessary to put that show on from our Maintenance 5 people. So, that might come into play, but it won't be a big 6 amount of money. 7 MR. BOLLIER: Okay. 8 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: But if you're going to use 9 more than one person that's provided for an event, I think 10 that it needs to be considered as part of the -- 11 MR. FOSTER: Well, and hopefully -- we had 12 tremendous volunteers from the Juvenile Probation and Adult 13 Probation, things like that, and hopefully that -- that did 14 and will continue to minimize the amount of paid staff that 15 we need out there on an overtime basis. 16 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That would be the only thing 17 I could think of. And one of the things that is happening 18 that has not been told about up to this point is the fact 19 that McCoy's is trying to work with us to get us some other 20 equipment and panels and things that we need, at either very 21 reduced cost, or some of it might be donated. And that's 22 what we're working on behind the scenes. Nothing's been 23 finalized on it. That's why you haven't heard anything about 24 it. 25 MR. FOSTER: Well, it would be nice if those 9-10-12 84 1 things -- if they were donated and they were put up, at least 2 on a semi-permanent basis. It would allow the staff to not 3 have to spend so much time setting up and tearing down. 4 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That's correct. 5 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Good. 6 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Hopefully have more on that 7 in the near future, but I've just made contact -- a guy 8 contacted me, but I have not heard back from him on what 9 they're able to do. 10 MR. FOSTER: So you're waiting on a call back from 11 Cliff? 12 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I'm waiting. He told me he 13 would get back with me, and he has not so far. 14 MR. FOSTER: Okay. I will make a phone call today 15 and push from the other side. 16 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: He has not contacted me since 17 the -- what he does, he has a list of equipment that we need 18 out there that Tim prepared, and they're trying to figure out 19 what they can do. And I think that we'll have some other 20 help on that. I'll let you know when the time comes. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 22 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Not costing us anything. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Stand by, huh? 24 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Doesn't cost us anything to 25 try. 9-10-12 85 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Okay. With regard to Item 5, 2 I'm still lacking a motion. 3 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I move approval. 4 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I'll second. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 6 approval of the agenda item. Question or discussion? 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. I mean, it says waive 8 rental fee, but the rest of that is open a little bit. I 9 mean, I'm -- you know, I need to look at it a little bit 10 further as to what our other costs are out there. Waiving 11 the fees is one thing, but if we start -- you know, that's 12 just kind of -- we own the facility, but when we start having 13 to spend a munch of money on other employees, overtime, 14 things like that, we need to maybe come back and look at that 15 and figure out how much we're actually talking about, okay? 16 MR. HENNEKE: We entered into an agreement this 17 year for the first year that had the nuts and bolts of all 18 that. I'd recommend that we do the same thing next year, so 19 we can flush this out when the time's right. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: The agenda item is only for the 21 waiving of the rental fees. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. I was just bringing 23 that up for clarification. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Further question or 25 discussion? All in favor, signify by raising your right 9-10-12 86 1 hand. 2 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 3 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 4 (No response.) 5 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. Let's go -- 6 MS. CRADDOCK: Thank you so much. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you. Let's go over to Item 8 13; to consider, discuss, and take appropriate action on 9 resolution to suspend further development of the 10 McCamey-Kendall-Gillespie. That's the CREZ line that -- I 11 apologize for the maybe not-so-artful wording of the agenda 12 item. That's my fault. But I put this on the agenda at the 13 request of Mayor Pratt from the City of Kerrville. The City 14 had passed a resolution dealing with the suspension of the 15 construction of the CREZ line, and the -- in part, my 16 understanding is that their resolution was a follow-on to a 17 request from Representative Hilderbran with respect to the 18 suspension of the CREZ line based upon the elimination or 19 non-renewal, as the case may be, of the tax credits that 20 are -- that are provided by the federal government for those 21 wind generators. The -- the City, of course, passed a 22 resolution, and the mayor has requested that we take action 23 which in essence supports the City's resolution. As I say, I 24 apologize for the -- for the somewhat unartful language of 25 the agenda item, but I think it's -- it's sufficient to allow 9-10-12 87 1 us to consider the City's resolution at a minimum. Would 2 that be correct, Mr. Henneke? 3 MR. HENNEKE: On -- yeah, on any resolution. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is this -- what's in the packet 6 is the City's resolution? Or one that the City -- or is it 7 one that the City drafted and then modified it for the 8 County? 9 MAYOR PRATT: We did not modify it. It is the one 10 that City passed. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 12 MS. GRINSTEAD: No, it's basically a modification, 13 putting county in place of city. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 15 MS. GRINSTEAD: What you have, yeah. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: One of the, I guess, biggest 17 problems I have, I just -- I don't agree with "Whereas" one 18 and two. I mean, I don't support renewable energy, because I 19 think it's a waste of money. (Laughter.) So, I mean, 20 it's -- just to be blunt about it. And I don't think that 21 wind farms are a better solution than natural gas. The 22 resolution later on does talk about natural gas; I saw that, 23 but the fact that it says, you know, that, you know, we 24 support renewable energy sources, to me that's wind farms in 25 this context, and I don't support them. 9-10-12 88 1 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: That's right. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And on the -- I don't agree 3 with the State of Texas pursuing an aggressive strategy to 4 move towards renewable resources. I think we have -- I mean, 5 the State has probably more natural gas than any other -- or 6 as much as, if not more than any other state in the nation. 7 You know, that's what we need to be touting. And it does 8 tout that later on, so I appreciate that part of it, but I 9 don't like the first two whereas's just to start with. 10 MAYOR PRATT: Commissioner, I understand your 11 point. Jack Pratt, Mayor. I understand your point, but 12 renewable energy is a lot more than wind, and that's the 13 reason it's in there. 14 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Solar. 15 MAYOR PRATT: You got solar energy; you got all 16 kinds of other -- 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But that's not economic either. 18 I don't support -- I don't support anything that the 19 private -- 20 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Green. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Not necessarily green, to me. 22 I don't support anything that takes federal or tax subsidies 23 to make it even somewhat economic. And I think that, you 24 know, to me, the fact that they're -- anything that supports 25 renewable energy, it will come into its own if it's economic. 9-10-12 89 1 And the reason we're even talking about it is because it 2 doesn't -- it's not economic, and it's just, you know, a 3 waste of federal -- our tax dollars right now. So, you know, 4 if -- if somebody wants to put a solar panel on their house 5 and do stuff like that, or wind generator, more power to 6 them. I'm glad they're doing it, but I just don't -- I'm not 7 in favor of supporting it overall. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner, let me -- let me 9 suggest to you another option. It may or may not be one 10 which is palatable to you or anybody else. In considering 11 the -- and I've got a copy of the City's resolution here that 12 I can furnish to you, and the City has passed this. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Mm-hmm. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: And, you know, I think it would be 15 possible for the -- for the Court to -- as opposed to passing 16 our own resolution, to consider passing the -- or supporting 17 the objectives of the City's resolution. That's just another 18 option I throw out to you for your consideration, whereas we 19 would not -- we would not take any -- we would not take any 20 action by formal resolution of our own. See where I'm coming 21 from? 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Just a court order supporting 23 the City's -- I mean, that's fine too. I mean, I -- you 24 know, I understand what the City's doing, and I support what 25 they're -- you know, what they're trying to do, and that may 9-10-12 90 1 be a way to accomplish that. We've passed two resolutions 2 already against this power line. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: See, that's my point. 4 That's where I'm coming from. We're already on record as -- 5 as being against the further development of the CREZ line. I 6 mean, we're already on record, and two times. Why do another 7 one? 8 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: We've also been down the path 9 of -- of opposing it from -- through a lawsuit. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, absolutely. 11 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: And that all has been 12 resolved. That's the only thing that holds me -- stands in 13 my way a little bit, is I feel like that we have already 14 opposed this thing multiple times, and -- we did it, and then 15 we kind of -- it happened. P.U.C. ruled. They've already 16 cleared my brother's property two weeks ago for the line 17 they're building. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Is that what that is? I saw 19 that yesterday. 20 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: They're already building a 21 line. I mean, it may not have -- the towers may not be in 22 Kerr County, but I can tell you, they've already staked him 23 on his property as of last week. I drove down the line and 24 saw them. So, you know, I'm not sure -- I mean, I support 25 the -- I didn't want it to come through where it's coming 9-10-12 91 1 through. I mean, I hate that. But I'm not sure this is the 2 way to stop it. I don't mind supporting the City in their -- 3 in their endeavor, but I just don't see that it's going to 4 change anything. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Mr. Mayor? You have anything 6 further to offer? We'd be happy to listen to you, sir. Come 7 on forward. 8 MAYOR PRATT: You don't have to do a separate 9 resolution. 10 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Okay. 11 MAYOR PRATT: If you just come out publicly and say 12 you support the City's resolution, I'd be happy with that. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Or the City's objectives of the 14 resolution. 15 MAYOR PRATT: Or the City's objectives of the 16 resolution. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What are the City's 18 objectives to the resolution? 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay, I'll tell you right here. 20 MAYOR PRATT: I can summarize it for you. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I have -- 22 JUDGE TINLEY: The City opposes the continued 23 construction of the CREZ project and requests that the P.U.C. 24 suspend the project. That's the objective of it. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, that's like doing a 9-10-12 92 1 resolution, just one less word. 2 MAYOR PRATT: It even goes deeper. You have a tax 3 credit that's offered by the government to build windmills, 4 and there are -- Senator Cornyn came out publicly and said he 5 would not support extension of the tax credits. One of the 6 candidates for president has come out and said that he would 7 not support the extension of the tax credits. Well, if the 8 tax credits are going to stop, then why should we spend 9 citizens' dollars -- taxpayer dollars on building a -- 10 further building a line that's not going to be usable? And 11 that's the purpose. 12 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yeah, I understand. 13 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I understand that. 14 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Have you had any indication 15 from the P.U.C. that they would do -- consider this at all? 16 MAYOR PRATT: I have not. 17 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I know that the P.U.C. right 18 now is kind of addressing some other issues that have been 19 mandated on them by the governor. 20 MAYOR PRATT: Well, you know that I have been 21 fighting the location of the tower. 22 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I understand. I totally 23 support that. 24 MAYOR PRATT: And successful in -- you can go out 25 there and see the stakes now. But there is another tower -- 9-10-12 93 1 stake that is on the northwest corner of Harper Road and 2 I-10, which is in the middle of a lot that is prime real 3 estate, and I'm trying to get that moved at this moment. 4 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I think that is an effort 5 that needs to happen. You know, I think you'll have more 6 success in modifying that, where that is, a little bit more 7 than stopping the whole project. 8 MAYOR PRATT: Well, you know, all through my life 9 I've heard people say, "Well, I wish I'd have done that." 10 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yeah, I understand. 11 MAYOR PRATT: Okay. 12 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: If you don't do it, then you 13 wished you had tried. 14 MAYOR PRATT: So if you don't try, it's never going 15 to get done. Somebody has to step forward and take the ball, 16 and I'm willing to do that. 17 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Believe me, I understand. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: How much money did we spend 19 on this thing with the attorneys in Austin? 20 MR. HENNEKE: I think our -- you know, up to the 21 point that the litigation was over, I want to say 33, 35 -- 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. 23 MR. HENNEKE: -- out of pocket. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: $35,000? 25 MR. HENNEKE: Yes, sir. 9-10-12 94 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: There would be a nice little 2 raise for me. 3 MAYOR PRATT: Be a good raise for me if they stop 4 the project. 5 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Stop the process. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean, I'll make a motion that 7 we support the efforts of the City of Kerrville to suspend 8 construction of the CREZ project. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Now, are you -- is it -- is 10 the motion exactly the way you said it, or that we're going 11 to support some kind of -- 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No, that's it, exactly what I 13 said. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: All right. I'll second that 15 motion. 16 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Okay. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: All right. Motion made and seconded 18 as specifically indicated. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think that accomplishes it. 20 I mean -- 21 MAYOR PRATT: Thank you, Commissioners. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Any further question or discussion 23 on the motion? All in favor of that motion, signify by 24 raising your right hand. 25 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 9-10-12 95 1 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 2 (No response.) 3 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion carried unanimously. 4 Thank you, Mr. Mayor. 5 MAYOR PRATT: Thank you, gentlemen. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Now let's go back to Item 6; 7 to consider, discuss, take appropriate action to declare two 8 courthouse jeeps as surplus. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So moved. 10 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Second. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded as 12 indicated. Further question or discussion? 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I have a question. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Yes, sir? 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I saw last week a young lady 16 from the clerk's office come up and get the keys to one of 17 those vehicles to go to the bank on county business. What 18 does that person do this week? 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: She wouldn't drive those jeeps. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Is she going to hitchhike? 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean, the word that I got 22 from -- you know, was that the jeeps are basically in bad 23 shape, not safe, and are going to be more of a liability from 24 a repair standpoint if we keep them. If they're that bad, to 25 me, we need to surplus them, get rid of them. 9-10-12 96 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, I agree. But, you 2 know, what are we going to do? We have people traveling. 3 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I think you get something -- 4 after you get rid of those, you take and go buy you a -- 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Little vehicle. 6 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: -- good little used car. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I understand that, but you 8 have people going to the bank this week. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: They can drive their own car. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Drive their own car. I 11 thought the County Attorney you said couldn't do that. 12 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: No, that was an ex-employee. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Ex-employee? 14 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That was an ex-employee. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Tim could give them a ride, 16 maybe. I'm there, as long as we understand that -- 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think the -- 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: -- there are employees 19 traveling. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- the proceeds of this should 21 go to hopefully buy another -- you know, hopefully something 22 better than what we have. 23 MR. HENNEKE: But you -- 24 MR. BOLLIER: We can accommodate that. 25 MR. HENNEKE: And folks can drive their own 9-10-12 97 1 vehicles. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Sure. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Excuse me? 4 MR. HENNEKE: Folks can drive their own vehicles. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. 6 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Boy, I do. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: When did we change that? 8 MR. HENNEKE: My office does. 9 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I guess I don't count. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: All right. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Very good. I still think we 12 need to cut the top out of them and plant flowers in them, 13 though. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Well -- 15 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: You want to present one -- 16 JUDGE TINLEY: You want to make -- you want to 17 amend the motion to that effect? 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No, 'cause y'all won't go 19 for it. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: All right. Okay. 21 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Hey, Buster, do you want to 22 do that and do it as a gift to the City on their new City 23 Hall? 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Oh, the CREZ line? 25 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: The City Hall. 9-10-12 98 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: City Hall. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Now, now, let's don't be tacky. All 3 in 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: Motion carried. Let's go to Item 9; 8 to consider, discuss, take appropriate action regarding cost 9 of installation of restroom facility at 4-H livestock center. 10 Commissioner Oehler? 11 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Mr. Walston, did you get a -- 12 where'd he go? 13 MR. WALSTON: I'm here. 14 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: There you go. Are you asleep 15 back there? 16 MR. WALSTON: I'm snoozing. 17 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Did you get a price on the 18 concrete from -- from Alvin Neal? 19 MR. WALSTON: On concrete in that area? 20 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: For the concrete for that 21 area in that restroom. 22 MR. WALSTON: No. 23 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: He was supposed to give you 24 one. 25 MR. WALSTON: No, he hasn't. 9-10-12 99 1 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Well, then we're kind of 2 stuck in the middle. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Do we defer on this one, then? 4 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I think so. But Tim's got 5 some numbers. 6 MR. BOLLIER: I've got some numbers for the -- for 7 the plumbing, 3,500. But that's -- you got to have A.D.A. 8 compliance; everything's got to be that way. 9 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Well, we knew that going in. 10 But I think we'll need to defer till the next meeting. I'm 11 sorry, but I thought he was supposed to get with you. I 12 asked him to, but I guess he got busy and didn't do it. 13 MR. WALSTON: Yeah, he didn't say anything about 14 it. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: How many -- what's the square 16 footage of concrete we're talking about? 17 MR. BOLLIER: 8-by-8 slab. 18 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yeah, but we also talked 19 about some other things as part of -- maybe concrete that 20 area -- 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 22 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: -- over there, probably about 23 20-by-20. 24 MR. BOLLIER: Something like that. 25 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: And I think we ought to defer 9-10-12 100 1 on this. I put it on just thinking we'd be ready, but we're 2 really not. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. We sure can't consider it if 4 it's not on here. 5 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Well, let's don't just shoot 6 an arrow in the air and hope we hit it. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Okay. Let's move on to Item 8 10; to consider, discuss, take appropriate action for 9 approval of CodeRED Weather Warning Service addendum between 10 Kerr County and Emergency Communications Network. Sheriff? 11 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: You remember during our 12 negotiations this year, in talking with CodeRED, they have 13 offered the county the addendum of adding the weather warning 14 onto it. And we had a lot of discussion. That addendum is 15 not costing us anything extra on our contract at all. 16 They're just throwing that in for us. 17 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Does it cost anything? 18 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Not for us, no. And what it 19 does, it's not like what you get from the Weather Channel. 20 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Right. 21 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: It's only if you're actually 22 in the path of that storm, okay? It may be part of Kerr 23 County, not all of Kerr County. It's not like all of Kerr 24 County's under a flood warning; it's only if you're in the 25 path of what that is. So, it's a lot more specific than what 9-10-12 101 1 you see on the Weather Channel and what we get on the news. 2 And this actually -- talking to CodeRED, the weather service, 3 they get it directly from the same satellites and all that 4 that CodeRED's getting it, so we'll get it instantaneous if 5 it's here. Rob's looked at the addendum, doesn't have any 6 problem with it. In February we will be bringing back the 7 main part of the contract again, because part of what they 8 have added is a couple more passwords so that we can let the 9 City -- and added some mapping for the City and for Tierra 10 Linda, and then also added for, like, Center Point School, 11 where we can do those. That's the main part of the contract. 12 Since the contract's not up until February, we didn't want to 13 change all that, so we're just going to wait till February to 14 have that part technically added. But this will be good to 15 get added now, and then I think it's on the 18th of this 16 month, we will have a -- what's called an all-call that will 17 have to go out so everything can be updated, bad phone 18 numbers done. We'll have a meeting Wednesday with phone 19 companies and some of the players around the city and the 20 fire department and all those out of our office to get that 21 done so that we can update, and all of the citizens will get 22 an all-call about the 18th. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Basically, it's a free upgrade to 24 our existing contract. Free. 25 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Free upgrade to our existing 9-10-12 102 1 contract. 2 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I'll make a motion to 3 approve. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 6 approval. Question or discussion? All in favor, signify by 7 raising your right hand. 8 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 9 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 10 (No response.) 11 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. Let's move 12 to Item 11; consider, discuss, take appropriate action to 13 address and resolve water and wastewater issues with respect 14 to the show barn as raised by the City Engineer. 15 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I was contacted by our 16 architect, and that the City had given the -- I gave you each 17 one a copy of this request. What it amounts to is they want 18 confirmation from the Court that we are not intending to tie 19 on any of the waste lines to the drain line that runs between 20 the two buildings, which carries rainwater -- used to carry 21 rainwater to the river, and we also had it hooked to their 22 sewer for stock show time. Environmental Health has given 23 their blessing; we can unhook from that. The City doesn't 24 want anything to do with any more rainwater going into their 25 -- their wastewater system, because it overloads their system 9-10-12 103 1 and they have problems. And so this is just a request that 2 we can confirm that we are going to unhook, and not hook 3 anything else to it. And that's fine for that water to go on 4 down to the river. And the ditches have all been cleaned; 5 the pipe's been opened up, and they just -- I think we need 6 to authorize the Judge to issue a letter confirming that -- 7 what their request is, that we say that. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think we probably need to do 9 a court order saying that we're doing it, and then having 10 that court order go over there. That way, there's a record 11 of it. 12 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That's all they're wanting, 13 is they want a record saying that what is existing is 14 existing, and there will be nothing else tied on. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Could you make it a motion so 16 we get the right things tied in? 17 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: All right. I move that the 18 Court -- that the Court confirm there are no tie-ins to the 19 existing 16-inch storm sewer. Discharge is into the bar 20 ditch on the river side, other than the three known existing 21 connections to this storm drainpipe. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded as 24 indicated. I'm not sure I understand it, but I don't know 25 that I have to. Further question or discussion on the 9-10-12 104 1 motion? 2 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: It's just a matter of -- 3 where the existing things include a little, you know, 4 spillage that runs into it, or rainwater or, you know, 5 anything -- any kind of water that's in that area now will be 6 all going into the river. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Your motion tracks the -- the issue 8 in the request that they have? 9 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Exactly. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Good enough. Further question or 11 discussion? All in favor, signify by raising your right 12 hand. 13 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 14 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 15 (No response.) 16 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. Let's go to 17 Item 19, if we might; an 11:30 timed item. It is that time 18 now. Presentation of certificates to members of Troop 60 Boy 19 Scouts for their work on the Kerr County Historical 20 Commission's Marker Restoration Project. We also have one 21 Eagle Scout to be receiving his badge. We have Francelle 22 Collins and Julie Leonard here with us from the Kerr County 23 Historical Commission. Also, Commissioner Baldwin, who is 24 the liaison for the Historical Commission, and initially I'm 25 going to call on Commissioner Baldwin to make a presentation. 9-10-12 105 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yes, sir. Jarod Thurman? 2 Front and center, young man. Jarod, I'm Buster Baldwin, 3 County Commissioner. 4 MR. THURMAN: Nice to meet you. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Nice to meet you, sir. 6 Thank you. I've had some experience with this, and I know -- 7 or we all know how much hard work and hours that you put into 8 just obtaining the merit badges to work your way through, but 9 to reach the Eagle is a special, special place to be, and 10 you're amongst really good company there. President Reagan, 11 President Bush and on and on, some of the NASA people, on and 12 on. And so you've done a special thing, and we want to do a 13 special thing for you. So, this morning, this Commissioners 14 Court flew this flag over the Kerr County Courthouse in your 15 honor. And that's all there is to it, and we want to say 16 thank you very much for this. Thank you. 17 (Applause and standing ovation.) 18 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Good job. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Oh, yeah, the County 20 Attorney's an Eagle, too. 21 MR. HENNEKE: Good company. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: We also have some other 23 presentations to other members of Troop 60. I think I've got 24 this right; got different batches here. Okay. I'm going to 25 have to have some help here, because some of these are a 9-10-12 106 1 little bit different. 2 (Discussion off the record.) 3 MR. PARKS: I'll lend a hand. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, where's our roster, Paul? 5 Where's our roster? 6 MS. LEONARD: Is it here? Here's the roster. 7 MR. PARKS: No. 8 MS. LEONARD: Did I put it in here? 9 JUDGE TINLEY: No, these are -- oh, mercy. One of 10 these days we'll be organized. We're not like Eagle Scouts 11 that are always prepared and organized. 12 (Discussion off the record.) 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay, give us some help here. 14 MR. PARKS: All right. We'll start out with our 15 senior patrol leader, Mr. Zuber. Nolan Zuber. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Mr. Zuber, appreciate your 17 work on these projects. 18 (Applause.) 19 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Congratulations. 20 MR. PARKS: Jack Pautler. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Jack, thank you for your work. 22 (Applause.) 23 MR. PARKS: Come up here, Filipe. This young man 24 has just completed all the requirements for his Eagle, and 25 just needs to stand a board review. 9-10-12 107 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Good luck with your boards, 2 sir. Thank you for your work on this project. 3 (Applause.) 4 MR. PARKS: You two Wilkes want to come up here? 5 Brother and brother. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Brother and brother. 7 MR. PARKS: Yeah. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 9 MS. COLLINS: Not twins. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: There we go, Dylan and Joseph. 11 Thank you for your work on the projects. 12 (Applause.) 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, young man. We appreciate 14 your work. 15 (Applause.) 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay, who else we got present? 17 MR. PARKS: Oh, let's see. Who is this guy here? 18 I remember his name. Let me read that thing. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: You didn't put these in alphabetical 20 order, did you? 21 MR. PARKS: No, he didn't. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Huh? 23 MR. PARKS: No. I get up here and lose my place. 24 Gideon Luck, I'm sorry. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Gideon, thank you for your work on 9-10-12 108 1 the projects. 2 (Applause.) 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay, who else are we missing? 4 MR. PARKS: We have Jarod Thurman. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. He worked on this project? 6 MR. PARKS: Yes, sir, he did. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: And the rest of the guys couldn't be 8 with us today? 9 MR. PARKS: No. You have several that were 10 school-bound today. 11 MR. THURMAN: Thank you. 12 (Applause.) 13 JUDGE TINLEY: In addition to everything else, 14 appreciate that. 15 MR. PARKS: I want to say something about this 16 young man. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 18 MR. PARKS: When he graduates, he'll join the 19 finest branch of the United States military that exists; 20 that's the United States Marine Corps. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, there might be some that take 22 issue with that, but we'll allow you to have your opinion. 23 (Laughter.) You're going to be one of the proud, huh? 24 MR. THURMAN: Yes. You bet. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, best of luck to you. That's 9-10-12 109 1 honorable service, and we appreciate that. 2 MR. THURMAN: Thank you. 3 MS. LEONARD: Jarod refinished 10 historic markers 4 for us, so we're up to 77 markers in Kerr County. We 5 appreciate everything the Boy Scouts do for us. 6 MR. PARKS: We'll continue doing it. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you. Thank you. 8 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Thank you very much. 9 (Discussion off the record.) 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Try and gather everything up into 11 one spot here. 12 MR. PARKS: If I may just say one thing? 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Surely. 14 MR. PARKS: Gentlemen, thank you from the bottom of 15 my heart for what you do. 16 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Congratulations. 17 MR. PARKS: And this ceremony. You know, if you 18 were an alien and you came to this country, imagine what your 19 opinion would be of our teenage youth if you took from the 20 media, you know, what you hear and read every day. And this 21 is positive reinforcement. I can tell you, as a 64-year 22 veteran in scouting, that you've done a good thing. It'll 23 pay dividends one day, maybe in ways we'll never know, but 24 I'll guarantee you, it will happen. 25 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: No doubt about it. 9-10-12 110 1 MR. PARKS: Thank you. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, sir. Thank you. 3 (Applause.) 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Of course, scouting is only as good 5 as the leadership it has. You're mentors, all you scout 6 leaders. We appreciate what you do. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's true. 8 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: See y'all, Billy. Bye-bye. 9 (Discussion off the record.) 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Of course, that Thurman name 11 has been around here since -- well, probably Billy Schumacher 12 there going out the door fell off of Noah's ark. 13 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: You said he was an animal? 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay, let's get back to business 15 here, if we might. Item 12; consider, discuss, take 16 appropriate action to approve P.R. Number 1 to delete 17 skylights and replace with PBR roof panel, and P.R. Number 2 18 to add Knox Box, 3200 series, for show barn at the Hill 19 Country Youth Exhibit Center, and allow County Judge to sign 20 same. Commissioner Oehler? 21 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I believe I provided you with 22 those changes -- with the originals that we need to get -- 23 authorize these changes and pass them on to the contractor. 24 The main -- we wanted to have the skylight panels or the 25 light panels put in that roof, and it's a great thought in 9-10-12 111 1 one way, but what you gain in light, you lose in -- in 2 insulating value. And so you -- it doesn't cost much to run 3 fluorescent lighting. And this was the recommendation that 4 was made by the guy that was going to build the building. He 5 said he could save a lot of time, and it would save some 6 money. And I believe we'll wind up with a better building, 7 and it will be a lot quicker finished than it would have been 8 otherwise, and we don't have a lot of extra time. So, that 9 change, I believe, amounts to how much, Judge? Four thousand 10 and -- 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, the -- one is a credit for 12 4,400. The other is an addition for 405. 13 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yeah. The other thing, the 14 Number 2 was noticed by the contractor, and also it was 15 suggested by the Fire Chief that we have this Knox Box 16 installed in case there is a fire there sometime, and they 17 know where it's located so they can get the key and get into 18 the building if nobody else is around. That's all that 19 really is. It's just a -- it will be -- they will know where 20 the box is, and -- 21 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: All businesses know about the 22 Knox Box. 23 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That's right. So, the Knox 24 Box is on the way, as long as we approve this, and I move 25 that we authorize P.R. Number 1 and Number -- P.R. Number 2, 9-10-12 112 1 and that there will be another one on the way. But for these 2 two, I move approval. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 5 approval. Further question or discussion? 6 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: If you could, Judge, if you 7 would sign those today, and I will take copies of those to 8 the contractor. As soon as they see them, they can make 9 those changes to order in the roof panels instead of light 10 panels. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: My problem is, I see the sign-off 12 for the first one. I do not see a sign-off -- 13 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Okay, then we just have to 14 approve that. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: -- for the second. I'll -- I'll 16 just okay it. 17 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Okay. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: At the bottom of it. But -- 19 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I think that's enough. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: So we can keep this thing moving. 21 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That's right. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Bruce, I had a hard time 23 tracking your dollars and cents. Tell me -- I saw the 24 savings of taking the skylight out. 25 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yes. 9-10-12 113 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And what's the bottom line? 2 Do we gain any money, or are we spending -- 3 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: We got money back. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Gain about a little over $4,000. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'm all for it. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Further question or discussion? All 7 in favor, signify by raising your right hand. 8 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 9 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 10 (No response.) 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion does carry. Let's go to Item 12 15; consider, discuss, take appropriate action to authorize 13 Kerr County Maintenance Supervisor to go out for bid for 14 electrical, plumbing, HVAC, and pest control services. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So moved. 16 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Second. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded as 18 indicated. Further question or discussion? All in favor, 19 signify by raising your right hand. 20 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 21 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 22 (No response.) 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion does carry. Let's go to Item 24 16; to consider, discuss, take appropriate action to declare 25 old equipment, parts, metal shelving as surplus, and take 9-10-12 114 1 same to recycle center in Center Point. I assume to melt it 2 down for money, right? 3 MR. BOLLIER: Yes, sir. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So moved. 5 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Second. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded. Question 7 or discussion? All in favor, signify by raising your right 8 hand. 9 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 10 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 11 (No response.) 12 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. Item 17; to 13 consider, discuss, take appropriate action to hire a new 14 maintenance position for FY 12-13. That's a new position 15 that you were authorized under the new budget? 16 MR. BOLLIER: Yes, sir. I just wanted to go out 17 and advertise that position for now. Not -- I mean, I know 18 not to hire till October. 19 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Do not hire until after 20 October 1. 21 MR. BOLLIER: Yes, sir. Yes, sir. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Or later. 23 MR. BOLLIER: Or later. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Later would be good. 25 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Six months into it. 9-10-12 115 1 MR. BOLLIER: I'll do whatever you tell me. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll move approval. But the 3 longer you can hold off, the better. 4 MR. BOLLIER: Okay. 5 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I'll second. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded as 7 indicated. Further question or discussion? All in favor, 8 signify by raising your right hand. 9 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 10 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 11 (No response.) 12 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. Let's go to 13 Item 18; to consider, discuss, take appropriate action on 14 request from appointed and elected officials to appoint 15 clerks and assistants for their offices pursuant to Local 16 Government Code, Chapter 151. This is an annual requirement 17 for the department heads or elected officials to request the 18 Court to approve their hiring of the individuals that have 19 been approved for the position schedule within the budget. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move approval. 21 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Second. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded. Question 23 or discussion? 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Did everybody that's 25 required to do it, do it? 9-10-12 116 1 JUDGE TINLEY: That I've not checked. H.R., have 2 you checked those? 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I see 198th D.A., but I 4 don't see 216th D.A. But I don't know if they are required 5 or not. I don't have any idea. 6 MS. GRINSTEAD: Judge, there should be a list 7 behind yours that I typed out of who's -- 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Uh-huh, I have the secret 9 information. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, as usual. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah, there we go. My list reflects 12 the following: County Clerk, County Attorney, Environmental 13 Health, 198th D.A., Constable Precinct 1, Justice of the 14 Peace Precinct 1, Human Resources, Justice of the Peace 15 Precinct 3, Sheriff, Road and Bridge, 216th D.A., Juvenile 16 Detention, Auditor, Victims Services, Maintenance, County 17 Extension, County Court at Law, District Clerk, Justice of 18 the Peace Precinct 2, Treasurer, I.T. Department, and Tax 19 Assessor. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Not anywhere near that. 21 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: You got an early list. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Oh, I thought we were 23 approving something. 24 MS. GRINSTEAD: I got them in shifts. There was 25 about four different groups. 9-10-12 117 1 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I still didn't hear 2 Precinct 4. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Pardon? 4 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Didn't hear Precinct 4. I 5 didn't hear you call that, so there's still some that 6 haven't -- 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, the ones I've just read off 8 are the ones that Ms. Grinstead said were furnished in 9 connection with the agenda item. They're in the record. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I make a motion to approve the 11 requests that you read. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Motion made and seconded to 14 approve the indicated 151 forms from the departments as 15 indicated. Further question or discussion? 16 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: The rest of them need to get 17 them in here before the next meeting. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: That's correct. Any further 19 question or discussion? All in favor, signify by raising 20 your right hand. 21 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 22 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 23 (No response.) 24 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. Let's go to 25 Item 20; consider, discuss, and take appropriate action to 9-10-12 118 1 accept for management and control, pursuant to Texas Local 2 Government Code 62.123, the public property, specifically 3 being legal papers formerly belonging to the City of Center 4 Point prior to abolishment and currently held by the law firm 5 of Lloyd Gosselink, Rochelle, and Townsend. Mr. Henneke? 6 MR. HENNEKE: Gentlemen, y'all remember Georgia 7 Crump who assisted us last year in the L.C.R.A. litigation. 8 Well, her law firm contacted me. Apparently, back when there 9 was a city of Center Point, Lloyd Gosselink did some work for 10 them, and in clearing out their old files, they still have 11 some legal papers belonging to that representation. Of 12 course, there is no city of Center Point any more, and so the 13 firm has requested -- and the County would be authorized in 14 the Local Government Code to accept management and control 15 of -- of public property remaining when a city 16 disincorporates, and they've asked if the County -- I think 17 it's less than a box -- would take possession of those legal 18 papers. I've discussed it with Jannett. I think they'll be 19 housed at the clerk's office, and I wanted permission from 20 the Court so I could tell them to send them on over. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move approval. 22 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I'll second. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded as 24 indicated. Question or discussion? All in favor, signify by 25 raising your right hand. 9-10-12 119 1 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 2 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 3 (No response.) 4 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. The next 5 two items are executive session. I'm going to defer and go 6 to Section 4 of the agenda. First item is payment of the 7 bills. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I move that we pay the 9 bills. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded to pay the 12 bills. Question or discussion? I'm looking at various 13 payments to West Central Wireless, which is the successor to 14 Five Star, apparently. And -- 15 MR. TROLINGER: Yes, sir. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: -- I'm looking at some normal 9.95 17 add-ons. How -- I thought we got that thing boiled down 18 where we had one contract with those folks. Are we 19 resurrecting another chaotic problem over there, John? 20 MR. TROLINGER: Well, there is one contract, and 21 each individual phone is an addition to that. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: I understand. 23 MR. TROLINGER: Which in itself has a contract, 24 which I have been authorized by the Court -- you've 25 authorized myself to -- to sign those individual 9-10-12 120 1 subcontracts. The bottom line is, we've removed several DPS 2 phones and some other unused numbers, and we've added a few. 3 MS. MABRY: We have one master bill that comes in, 4 but we still have to split the individual line items, because 5 they have to be posted to each department. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, I understand that. But do we 7 -- are we paying one base master charge, and then all of the 8 $10 add-ons, but then what we're seeing is these blocks of 9 time that we've arranged so that if we exceed, why, we just 10 got another -- I don't know, 100-minute block or 500-minute 11 block? 12 MR. TROLINGER: That's correct. We still have the 13 block that applies to the air time, to the minutes, and the 14 individual 9.95 add-ons. Those are all in that same contract 15 that Tess was talking about. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. So when I see a number larger 17 than that, it's because there are four or five, six, eight, 18 nine phones over there? 19 MS. MABRY: Right. And, for example, Maintenance, 20 you know, has many. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. I'm good with it, then. I 22 just wanted to make sure we weren't embarking on another 23 chaotic adventure like we had with Five Star. We don't want 24 to go there. 25 MS. MABRY: No. And, actually, we've kind of just 9-10-12 121 1 set up a new thing in our office. We've discovered a 2 template for recurring charges in the computer, so we 3 actually -- instead of having to do an Excel spreadsheet and 4 import it into Excel, we actually can do it in Incode itself 5 and not have to split it out. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: And it automatically allocates it 7 for you? 8 MS. MABRY: Right. All I have to do is put the 9 dollar amount. The line items are already in there, and it 10 just goes straight into the accounts payable packets. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Good. Any other questions or 12 discussion? 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: That motion does carry. Budget 18 amendments. We have, frankly, for this time of year, not -- 19 not that many, only 18. 20 MS. MABRY: I'll go through and do a final run 21 before the next Commissioners Court so that I can be sure 22 that we've got all of them before the end of the year. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Any -- do I hear a motion to 24 approve the budget amendments, as shown by Requests Numbers 1 25 through 18, as set out -- 9-10-12 122 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So moved. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: -- in the requests, dated report of 3 9/10/2012? 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So moved. 5 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Second. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 7 approval as indicated. Further question or discussion? 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I have two questions. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Yes, sir? 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Number 15, retirement in the 11 jail court. 12 MS. MABRY: Mm-hmm. It's just -- it's moving $50 13 from one benefit to the other. We went over in -- went over 14 in group insurance by $50. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Oh, it's moving from 16 retirement to group insurance. 17 MS. MABRY: Right. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I see. I'm sorry. And then 19 the last one, Number 18, I see -- okay. I was looking at it 20 going the wrong way. 21 MS. MABRY: Okay. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Going up instead of down. 23 Thank you. 24 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That should never happen. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. Yeah, no kidding. I 9-10-12 123 1 was shocked when I saw that. That's all, thank you. 2 MS. MABRY: Mm-hmm. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: We're paying attention, Rusty. 4 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Is it one of mine? 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Aren't we paying attention, Buster? 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yes, we are. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Any other questions or comments? 8 All in favor of the motion, signify by raising your right 9 hand. 10 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 11 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 12 (No response.) 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion does carry. Late bills. 14 We've got a number of late bills. First off, we have a draw 15 to Journeyman Construction. I assume that's their -- their 16 first big draw. Has the architect signed off on that work? 17 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Architect's signed off on it, 18 and he presented it to the Auditor for payment. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay, good. The next group we have 20 are for Garrett Insurance, Kerrville Postmaster, David 21 Brooks, Hannah Security Investigation. Any questions on any 22 of those? 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Wait a minute. Just a 24 second, Judge. Oh, this is for the County Attorney's office, 25 okay. 9-10-12 124 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Mm-hmm. 2 MR. HENNEKE: I don't know why they were submitted 3 as late bills; there's nothing urgent about them. They're 4 pretty standard. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: I think she just wants to start 6 staying on top of things as we get towards the end of the 7 year so that we don't have to worry about encumbering as we 8 go forward. I think that may be the reason they're -- 9 MS. MABRY: We actually went ahead and ran them 10 through, because it has a postage -- there were several bills 11 brought to us in one packet, and they were a little bit late 12 for the regular packet, and we just were concerned that you 13 wouldn't have enough postage. So -- 14 MR. HENNEKE: Okay. 15 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Looks like the one for the 16 draw, they really -- they were running all the other bills 17 when I brought that one in, so it made it a late bill, even 18 though it wasn't late. It was just a matter of it came in 19 after their deadline for their regular bill paying. Is that 20 right? 21 MS. MABRY: That's correct. 22 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I'll be doggone, I got one 23 right. 24 MS. MABRY: Hey. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: You get a gold star with the Auditor 9-10-12 125 1 today. 2 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I wouldn't go that far. 3 MS. MABRY: Neither would we. (Laughter.) 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner Baldwin, you'll be 5 happy to know that the other late bills are to pay lawyers. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: I'm sure you'd want to be sure that 8 happened properly. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Absolutely. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Even they need to make a 12 living. That's a pretty good shot. 13 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: That's good. Make a motion 14 to approve late bills. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 17 approval of the late bills. Question or discussion? All in 18 favor, signify by raising your right hand. 19 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 20 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 21 (No response.) 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion carries. I have monthly 23 reports from Constable Precinct 1, Constable Precinct 4, Kerr 24 County Clerk, Justice of the Peace Precinct 3, Tax 25 Assessor/Collector, and Kerr County Environmental Health 9-10-12 126 1 Department. Do I hear a motion that the indicated bills be 2 approved as presented? Or reports, rather. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So moved. 4 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Second. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded that the 6 indicated reports be approved as presented. Question or 7 discussion? All in favor, signify by raising your right 8 hand. 9 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 10 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 11 (No response.) 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion does carry. Let's go to 13 Section 5 of the agenda, reports from Commissioners in 14 connection with their liaison or other assignments. 15 Commissioner Baldwin? 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Nothing today, sir. Thank 17 you. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner Overby? 19 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Not today, Judge. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner Letz? 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No, I'm fine. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner Oehler? 23 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I could, but I'll just let it 24 go. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: I see. I hate to do this with the 9-10-12 127 1 Sheriff present. Reports from some elected officials and 2 department heads. (Laughter.) Tim? 3 MR. BOLLIER: No, sir. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: John? 5 MR. TROLINGER: Thank you, Judge. The newspaper 6 article on Friday in the Daily Times, I wanted to be 7 available if you had any questions, or to listen to a couple 8 comments I had on the news article. I think the Daily Times 9 did a really good job. Sean spent a lot of time making sure 10 that he had the facts right, and the article's very accurate. 11 And the -- 12 JUDGE TINLEY: You act like you're surprised. 13 MR. TROLINGER: Well, you know, you look at a lot 14 of news stories, and some strange things pop into them. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: So -- 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You also act like that we 17 know what you're talking about. What news article? 18 MR. TROLINGER: The very tall headline was, "County 19 Phone System Hacked." 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Oh, I heard something about 21 that. 22 MR. TROLINGER: And the attention-grabbing headline 23 was -- was good. And then -- 24 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: No, it wasn't. 25 MR. TROLINGER: Well, it was good for the 9-10-12 128 1 newspaper. And then the end result was that we did stop it. 2 Bruce Motheral did alert me to the problem fairly quickly, 3 and probably the end result would be if we hadn't been paying 4 attention to the mistake they made on the router, we'd end up 5 with a $40,000 or greater liability in phone costs in the 6 long distance phone charges. So I'd like to, you know, thank 7 Bruce Motheral for that, make sure y'all know that that was 8 the situation. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Fantastic. Thank you. 10 MR. TROLINGER: Thanks. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 12 MR. HENNEKE: You'll hear enough from me in a 13 minute, I'm sure. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: H.R.? County Clerk? 15 MS. PIEPER: No, sir. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Sheriff? 17 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: No. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Hot dog. 19 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That's a first. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: What's your jail population? 21 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: See? I say nothing, and you 22 ask questions. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Just give me a number. That's all I 24 want. 25 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: 115. 9-10-12 129 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you. 2 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That's a good number. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. We will now go out of open or 4 public session for the purpose of going into executive 5 session to consider Items 21 and 22. 6 (The open session was closed at 12:00 noon, and an executive session was held, the transcript of which 7 is contained in a separate document.) 8 - - - - - - - - - - 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay, we're back in open or public 10 session. Any member of the Court have anything to offer for 11 matters discussed in closed or executive session? Anything 12 else to come before the Court on this agenda? We're 13 adjourned. 14 (Commissioners Court adjourned at 12:30 p.m.) 15 - - - - - - - - - - 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 9-10-12 130 1 STATE OF TEXAS | 2 COUNTY OF KERR | 3 The above and foregoing is a true and complete 4 transcription of my stenotype notes taken in my capacity as 5 official reporter for the Commissioners Court of Kerr County, 6 Texas, at the time and place heretofore set forth. 7 DATED at Kerrville, Texas, this 14th day of September, 8 2012. 9 10 JANNETT PIEPER, Kerr County Clerk 11 BY: _________________________________ Kathy Banik, Deputy County Clerk 12 Certified Shorthand Reporter 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 9-10-12