1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT 9 Special Session 10 Monday, September 24, 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 24, 2012 2 PAGE --- Commissioners' Comments 7 3 1.1 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 4 approve budget for Kerr 9-1-1 10 5 1.2 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action regarding requests from Christmas Lighting 6 Corporation, including, but not limited to, placing concrete pad on courthouse lawn for 7 new tree display and allowing them to store their holiday displays in a county facility 19 8 1.3 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 9 set public hearing concerning abandoning the private road name Luke Lane West, Precinct 4 38 10 1.4 Presentation on Hazardous Materials 11 Transportation Study 40 12 1.5 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on request by Hill Country Dispute Resolution 13 Center to renew contract with Kerr County to provide mediation services, and for funding 53 14 1.10 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 15 approve expenditure of funds by Kerr County Historical Commission to underwrite historic 16 plaques that will be placed on various buildings downtown 57 17 1.11 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 18 approve engagement letter for 2011-12 audit for the basic financial statement, supplementary 19 information audit, and single audit for period ending September 30, 2012 64 20 1.6 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 21 engage Bickerstaff Heath Delgado Acosta, LLP, to prepare a response to Texas Comptroller 22 regarding County’s SB 18 reporting obligation related to its eminent domain authority; 23 authorize expenditure of $300 66 24 1.7 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on request from Hill Country District Junior 25 Livestock Association to close Riverside Drive during 2013 stock show 68 3 1 I N D E X (Continued) September 24, 2012 2 PAGE 1.8 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on 3 request from Hill Country District Junior Livestock Association to put port-a-potties 4 at Flat Rock Lake Park during 2013 stock show 69 5 1.9 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on request from Hill Country District Junior 6 Livestock Association to use Flat Rock Park from Wednesday, 1-16-2013 to Friday, 1-18-2013 7 to park trailers and use as staging area for delivery of animals 72 8 1.16 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 9 accept local rules of procedure and rules of decorum for Justice of the Peace courts 72 10 1.12 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on 11 requests from appointed and elected officials to appoint clerks and assistants for their offices 12 pursuant to Local Government Code, Chapter 151 76 13 1.13 Consider/discuss, approve updated 2012 Kerr County Indigent Health Care Policy 77 14 1.14 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 15 approve updated Kerr County Investment Policy and broker/dealer list for Kerr County’s 16 Investment Policy in accordance with Public Funds Investment Act 79 17 1.15 Acknowledge receipt of quarterly investment 18 report from Patterson and Associates for quarter ending 6-30-2012 81 19 1.17 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 20 approve contract with Xerox Corporation (through Buy Board) for new copy machine 82 21 1.18 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action for 22 approval of CodeRED services agreement between Communications Network, LLC, and Kerr County 83 23 1.19 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 24 determine participation in Hog Out County grants program sponsored by Texas Department 25 of Agriculture 88 4 1 I N D E X (Continued) September 24, 2012 2 PAGE 1.20 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on 3 proposal from Peter Lewis Architect + Associates to provide schematic design services for proposed 4 event hall at Hill Country Youth Event Center 93, 123 5 1.21 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action regarding change from a 6” fire line to an 8” 6 fire line at Hill County Youth Event Center 96, 125 7 1.22 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to approve funding for restroom, slab, and plumbing 8 for 4-H Livestock Center 98 9 1.23 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to approve posting and hiring of a deputy clerk at 10 an entry level of 14/1 as approved in the 2012-13 budget and in the application for appointment of 11 deputies 108 12 1.24 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to appoint/reappoint members to Kerr County 13 Historical Commission and submit current membership list to Texas Historical Commission 110 14 1.25 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 15 determine rental fee for new Show Barn at Hill Country Youth Event Center 111 16 1.26 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 17 apply for Healthy County Reward of $2,400 to remodel and utilize area behind County Attorney’s 18 Office as an employee break area 114 19 1.27 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to approve various county job descriptions not 20 previously approved by Commissioners’ Court 119 21 1.28 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to finalize and determine Texas County and District 22 Retirement System rate for Kerr County for 2013 127 23 1.29 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to approve funding for addition of PR No. 5 to add 24 hairpin reinforcing steel for slab at Hill Country Youth Event Center show barn, in the 25 amount of $600 130 5 1 I N D E X (Continued) September 24, 2012 2 PAGE 1.30 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 3 approve “Agreed Final Judgment and Permanent Injunction” and related documents in the matter 4 of Kerr County vs. Arreola, Cause No. 11849A in 216th District Court, Kerr County, Texas 131 5 1.32 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on 6 right-of-way acquisition for Lazy Valley Bridge project, including possible condemnation 7 (Executive Session) 132 8 4.1 Pay Bills 135 4.2 Budget Amendments 139 9 4.3 Late Bills --- 4.4 Approve and Accept Monthly Reports 143 10 5.1 Reports from Commissioners/Liaison Committee 11 Assignments 144 5.2 Reports from Elected Officials/Department Heads 151 12 1.31 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 13 confer with County Attorney regarding transportation plan proposal involving 14 improvement and expansion of Lane Valley Road (Executive Session) --- 15 3.1 Action as may be required on matters discussed 16 in Executive Session --- 17 --- Adjourned 157 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 6 1 On Monday, September 24, 2012, at 9:00 a.m., a special 2 meeting of the Kerr County Commissioners Court was held in 3 the Commissioners' Courtroom, Kerr County Courthouse, 4 Kerrville, Texas, and the following proceedings were had in 5 open court: 6 P R O C E E D I N G S 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. 8 Let me call to order this regularly scheduled meeting of the 9 Kerr County Commissioners Court posted and scheduled for this 10 date and time, Monday, September 24th, 2012, at 9 a.m. It is 11 that time now. Commissioner Baldwin? 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yes, sir. Would you please 13 rise and we'll have a word of prayer and pledge of 14 allegiance. 15 (Prayer and pledge of allegiance.) 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: At this time, if there's any member 18 of the public or audience that wishes to be heard on a matter 19 which is not a listed agenda item, this is your opportunity 20 to come forward and tell us what's on your mind. If you wish 21 to be heard on an agenda item, we'd prefer that you fill out 22 a participation form. There should be some located at the 23 rear of the room. However, should you fail to do that and 24 wish to be heard on an agenda item, get my attention in some 25 manner when we get to that item, and I will give you the 9-24-12 7 1 opportunity to be heard. But right now, if there's any 2 member of the audience or public that wishes to be heard on 3 any matter which is not a listed agenda item, this is your 4 opportunity to come forward and tell us what's on your mind. 5 Seeing no one coming forward, we will move on. Commissioner 6 Baldwin? 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, Judge. I have just 8 one item that's kind of stuck in my craw. We -- you have 9 recently written another letter to Judge Wolff in San 10 Antonio, and I don't think that we've received an answer, or 11 at least I haven't seen one from him. And that is -- let's 12 see, two resolutions and two or three letters, and they 13 haven't even responded to us. And -- and I think it's -- I 14 think it's very important that they respond to this county in 15 regards to the Edwards Plateau Habitat Conservation Plan, and 16 taking us out of that. And so I think that Kerr County needs 17 to do whatever is necessary to at least get a letter from 18 Judge Wolff in answer to our request. Otherwise -- and do we 19 file suit or whatever? I don't know and don't care. 20 Something needs to be done, 'cause this is rolling along way 21 too long. And it's extremely serious to begin with, and it 22 just looks like that they're doing something behind, whether 23 we like it or not. That's what it appears to me to be. 24 That's all I have. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner Overby? 9-24-12 8 1 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Nothing today, Judge. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner Letz? 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Two things. One, the Cypress 4 Creek community had a -- weekend before last, a nice 5 get-together out at the pavilion. I don't know, probably 100 6 people showed up. Good time, good food. Lots of German home 7 cooking. And the other thing is, last week, just to update 8 the Court, I met with Ms. Egloff about Flat Rock Park. And I 9 agree with some of her concerns, and will be addressing some 10 of those, bringing it probably back before the Commissioners 11 Court. The other things I said are financial considerations 12 that we just don't have the money to do, but some of them 13 aren't very expensive, and things we can do that will make 14 some improvements. Anyway, I'll bring those up at the next 15 meeting or the one after that. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Is that it? 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's it. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner Oehler? 19 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yeah. This coming Wednesday 20 will be the next quarter of the pour on the show barn slab. 21 The following Monday or Tuesday will be the last. And that 22 way, all -- all the concrete will be poured. The building is 23 scheduled to be delivered on the 15th of October, with the 24 guy that's going to put it up to be on-site that day to start 25 doing it, and things will start moving, I think, pretty 9-24-12 9 1 quickly. We meet every Thursday -- every other Thursday with 2 the contractor to get kind of where we are and what's -- 3 where we're moving and what's going on and scheduled. But 4 their estimated target date is December the 10th. We hope 5 that works out. That will give us more time to do a punch 6 list and finish out whatever might need to be adjusted during 7 the time before December 31st. But all is going well. We 8 have a good contractor; we have good folks working out there, 9 our subcontractors. It's been a good experience so far. We 10 have some of that on the agenda today that we'll need to talk 11 about. But let me see. Had a really big fundraiser Saturday 12 night, had a great crowd, good food. Terrible sound system, 13 but we knew that. But, anyway, we'll hopefully do something 14 about that in the near future. Had a very nice letter that I 15 forwarded to you all about Animal Control catching some 16 llamas and finding a home for them. The lady that took them 17 was very complimentary of the way that it was handled and the 18 staff at Animal Control. That's it. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: It was a great fundraiser, good 20 event, lots of people. Probably, I don't know, 600 or more. 21 The place was pretty well packed to capacity. Everyone 22 seemingly had a good time, particularly those that ended up 23 winners. There was one absentee potential big winner, as I 24 recall, that ended up drawing the goose egg or something 25 similar or close to that. But -- 9-24-12 10 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Is that somebody I know? 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah, sure. Could have been -- I 3 think he was at Cypress Creek. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I see. Kendall County? 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. Yeah. Another item, 6 recently, as I'm sure most of you know, Partners in Ministry 7 has acted as a catalyst, an organizing arm in order to do a 8 number of things to promote and benefit children in the 9 community. They've got a program going called For Kids' 10 Sake, and recently they -- they honored a number of people 11 that were integral parts of that program in helping move that 12 thing along. One of the honorees was our Chief Juvenile 13 Probation Officer, Jason Davis, who was honored as the public 14 servant of the year by that organization for his work with 15 children. So -- 16 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: That's good. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: -- we've got a very, very active 18 Juvenile Probation Department, a number of very, very fine 19 officers, and a great chief, as you might well imagine, 20 getting an award such as that. But let's move on with the 21 agenda. Our first 9 o'clock timed item is Number 1; to 22 consider, discuss, and take appropriate action to approve the 23 budget for Kerr 911. Mr. Amerine? 24 MR. BOND: Oh. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: You're the second 9 o'clock. 9-24-12 11 1 MR. BOND: I see, two 9 o'clock items. 2 MR. AMERINE: Good morning, Judge, Commissioners. 3 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Morning. 4 MR. AMERINE: My name's Bill Amerine; I'm Executive 5 Director for Kerr Emergency 911 Network, and with me today is 6 Mark Del Toro, my assistant director for the district. In 7 accordance with the Health and Safety Code 772, Subchapter D, 8 the executive director will put a budget together and put it 9 to his board for approval, which was done on the 16th of 10 August, and then he will present that budget to the 11 jurisdictions which we serve. That was done for the City of 12 Ingram on the 4th of September and approved by them, City of 13 Kerrville on the 11th of September and approved by them, and 14 I'm here today for the same review and approval, hopefully. 15 This year's budget -- I'll just talk about the high points 16 and then answer any questions you might have. This year's 17 budget is about $6,775 less than last year's budget. And 18 that's in the revenue, and then in the expense. If I was to 19 put a reason for that revenue drop, I'd say it's a 20 combination of reduction in land line revenue that we receive 21 every year, as well as -- if you remember, last year we 22 dropped the business rate and the trunk rate taxes, and so I 23 think we've hit a plateau, and we'll see revenues running in 24 the hundred -- $380 to $390 range from here on out. 25 Let's see, there are some employee changes. Last 9-24-12 12 1 year's budget that we presented had two full-time positions 2 and a part-time position. We had a secretary/receptionist. 3 It was obvious, with the lack of phone calls that we were 4 receiving and walk-in traffic, that that was an unnecessary 5 position, and so for this year's budget, we've cut that 6 position. So, you'll see an overall employee decrease of 7 about 1.8 percent, or about $1,200. We restructured those 8 roles and responsibilities. Making signs, taking calls, 9 filing, those kind of things are being assumed by myself and 10 Mark. There are salary increases proposed; assistant 11 director's salary increase of about 3. -- I'm sorry, 4.17 12 percent, and the executive director has a salary increase 13 proposal of 3.45 percent. Overall, staff expenses increased 14 by about $3,261. That's not actually from those salary 15 increases, but actually from a rather significant increase we 16 saw in health care, which went from $29,000 to $33,000 this 17 year, a $4,000 increase. There's no change planned for 2013 18 in any of our tax revenue. Taxes will stay the same. And 19 just a quick review on what those are. We charge 34 cents 20 per land line per month for residential. 86 -- is it 86 21 cents? 86 cents for business lines up to the first 100 22 lines. $1.40 -- correct? 23 MR. DELTORO: Mm-hmm. 24 MR. AMERINE: My memory's killing me. $1.40 for 25 business trunk lines, and 50 cents for VOIP. That's the same 9-24-12 13 1 tax rates that we had last year. I think we did a pretty 2 good job in estimating those -- those revenues. Last year we 3 budgeted $390,000, and we're going to come in about $393,000, 4 so less than 1 percent delta on that. What's our vision for 5 next year? It doesn't seem like we've had our new call 6 center equipment for almost three years, but we have. We 7 installed that stuff in 2010, so next year we'll start the 8 market research, vendor demonstrations for a new call center 9 upgrade for the Sheriff's Department and Kerrville Police 10 Department for 2014. So, we've already made initial contact 11 with the vendors, and we'll start that process of costing out 12 what the new call center will -- how much that will cost us. 13 We're also looking at some upgrades for this next 14 coming year; there's a couple things we're looking at. One 15 of the things that would be useful is the ability to transmit 16 map data and call data directly from the call centers to the 17 officers in their vehicles. We're looking what the cost of 18 that will be. That would probably entail some costs from the 19 jurisdictions. Some of those vehicles are already so 20 equipped, but a lot of them are not. But we're still going 21 to look at what that would cost to do that. We always look 22 to upgrade our web content to reflect what we're doing and 23 how we're doing. We continue sign sales, even though they're 24 fairly small these days. Which is still not indicative of 25 how many residences we have out there that still have no 9-24-12 14 1 signage. And we continue to do public education on 911. I'm 2 happy to answer any questions. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Any questions for Mr. Amerine? 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I do. Volunteer fire 5 department pager service. Can you tell me about how many 6 pagers you have out there? 7 MR. AMERINE: Well, we pay for the service, so I 8 couldn't talk to the number of pagers. It's an all-call 9 system. We pay for a single all-call number through 10 Advantage Communications. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I see. 12 MR. AMERINE: For each department. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I see. 14 MR. AMERINE: They may have 10 or 40 pagers; I 15 wouldn't know. The pagers are actually the responsibility of 16 the volunteer fire department, but the service to -- to 17 communicate those pagers are -- we pay for that. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I remember now, and I 19 appreciate you -- appreciate y'all doing that. I know 20 they're servicing -- Letz and I were in a meeting recently, 21 another community service meeting, and of course you were 22 there, and y'all -- y'all do so many things, and I appreciate 23 that. You always have. How -- what is the latest with the 24 cell phone call-in service that -- for 911? 25 MR. AMERINE: I'm not sure I understand the context 9-24-12 15 1 of your question. 2 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Location. 3 MR. AMERINE: Location? Location, I'll back up and 4 give a real quick explanation. Cell phones are different 5 fundamentally from land lines. Land lines come through a 6 public phone switch, and when that call hits our call center, 7 there's a database that they do a quick lookup and they find 8 a physical address associated with that, and that displays 9 that address on a map, so it's hard-wired to give us an exact 10 location. Wireless technology is different, 'cause it's 11 mobile and can be anywhere, so it uses a combination of 12 network technology in the phone system, the wireless phone 13 system as well as handset technology to locate where that 14 call is originating from. Of the seven primary cell phone 15 companies in our county, six of them provide reasonably 16 accurate location, useful information to the dispatchers. 17 It's usually between tens of feet to maybe 100 feet, and 18 that's useful both in an urban environment and a rural 19 environment to find the location of that caller. And it's -- 20 that address is, by the way, not a physical address, but a 21 latitude and longitude, because it is mobile. 22 There is one carrier who we have on record; the 23 worst accuracy which we received is 12,500 feet, which is 24 useless, even in outer space. (Laughter.) And -- and an 25 average inaccuracy is in the 4,000 or 5,000 feet range, so 9-24-12 16 1 it's useless. And the dispatchers in both call centers are 2 aware of that; when we see a call come in that it's that 3 carrier, they ignore the information, 'cause it's misleading. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Can you tell us which carrier? 5 MR. AMERINE: We made our concerns about this -- 6 not only made our concerns about this to the wireless 7 provider, and they say they're working on that, but we've 8 also had phone conferences with the F.C.C. to complain. And 9 when you're what they call a third-tier carrier, rural 10 carrier, you're not a big company, they get waivers on that. 11 But I think it's misleading people to think, because they 12 have a wireless phone, that the 911 technology is going to be 13 able to pinpoint their location. We're not. And so it's 14 real important, and we always tell the dispatchers, and they 15 know that through their own protocols, you need to ask where 16 they're at. So -- 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Try it again, Jon. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Can you tell us which company 19 that is? 20 MR. AMERINE: I will not. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Can we meet after this and 22 you tell us? 23 MR. AMERINE: Yeah, sure. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: 'Cause I may want to change 25 my service. 9-24-12 17 1 MR. AMERINE: Yeah, sure. I don't want to be sued, 2 so -- so I'll just -- 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, but you don't want us 4 to die either. 5 MR. AMERINE: No, I don't. No, I don't, and if 6 somebody asks me as Bill Amerine, citizen, I'll be glad to 7 tell you. But not as director of 911. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Mr. Amerine? 9 MR. AMERINE: Yes, sir? 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Have there been any discussions in 11 the past year concerning joint dispatch? 12 MR. AMERINE: Have we had any discussion? 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Mm-hmm. 14 MR. AMERINE: I'm sure we have had some discussion 15 about that. I think I've made my position clear in the past, 16 and I don't mind restating it publicly, that the idea behind 17 combined dispatch makes all the sense in the world. It's 18 consolidating of services. Considering we have a community 19 of less than 50,000 people, and I'm talking county and 20 cities, the fact that we have probably, I would think, 21 between 10 and to 14 employees in each call center, county 22 and city, for the call volume -- we have about 33,000 calls a 23 year -- to have almost 35 employees covering calls over a 24 24 by 7, it seems like it's a little overkill. The problem, of 25 course, really comes down -- and when Commissioner Williams 9-24-12 18 1 would come over annually and talk to me about this, I'd tell 2 him my same concern is funding. Call center operations are 3 not, under the state law, a function of 911, and so typically 4 it ends up having to be something like an airport board, 5 giving you an example, where you come up with a kind of 6 separate entity where funds are not commingled between -- 7 'cause also state law says that 911 funds will be for 8 creating and maintaining call centers, not operating them. 9 So, there's -- the only underpinnings here in making this 10 work would be how do you fund it, who mans it, and who 11 manages it? But it makes, from a -- very clearly makes all 12 the sense in the world to have one call center for a 13 population like ours. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And just one last question, 15 Mr. Amerine. Can you tell us -- I mean, seems like the 16 number of employees at 911 has gone down substantially since 17 you've been at the helm there. Did there not used to be five 18 people? 19 MR. AMERINE: Seven. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Seven. There were seven 21 people. We've gone from seven to two? 22 MR. AMERINE: Well, if you remember, right when we 23 started, when I came here in January of 2003, we were 24 starting to build up to the rural addressing project for Kerr 25 County, and so we had several part-time employees at the 9-24-12 19 1 time. We had five full-time and anywhere between two and 2 three part-time -- we had five full-time and three part-time 3 folks taking calls and working with citizens on their address 4 changes. After that address effort was over, which was in 5 early 2005, we went down to four employees, and since then 6 we're down to two. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, I appreciate your 8 efficiency in running that operation. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Absolutely. 10 MR. AMERINE: Thank you. Appreciate it. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Any more questions? 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I move for approval, Judge. 13 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I'll second. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 15 approval of the agenda item. Question or discussion? All in 16 favor of that motion, signify by raising your right hand. 17 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 18 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 19 (No response.) 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion carries. Thank you very 21 much, Mr. Amerine. 22 MR. AMERINE: Thank you, Judge, Commissioners. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Let's go to our second 9 o'clock 24 timed item; consider discuss and take appropriate action 25 regarding request from the Christmas Lighting Corporation, 9-24-12 20 1 including, but not limited to, placing a concrete pad on the 2 courthouse lawn for a new tree display and allowing them to 3 store holiday displays in a county facility. Mr. Bond? 4 MR. BOND: Good morning, gentlemen. How's 5 everybody today? 6 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Good. 7 MR. BOND: Good? As the Judge just read, I sent an 8 e-mail over to Jody a couple weeks ago with some drawings 9 that have been put together by David Martin, a local 10 architect. And as most of you probably know, we're working 11 with the Rotary Club to purchase a new community Christmas 12 tree to be displayed this year for Christmas. This tree will 13 be approximately 30 feet tall. It will have close to 20,000 14 lights on it. It will be the tallest tree in the hill 15 country, and it will be the only one of its kind outside of a 16 major city. Kerrville is now on the Hill Country Holiday 17 Lighting Trail, which is a document that's put together by 18 the Fredericksburg Chamber of Commerce, and it shows the 19 whole -- all the small towns up and down Highway 16 where you 20 can -- people can travel to see Christmas lights. This new 21 tree, I think, will be a nice draw for Kerrville. It'll be 22 -- it will put us on that map significantly. It will be 23 something I think people will want to come see. 24 And in that light, we wanted to create something on 25 the courthouse lawn, a special place to put the tree during 9-24-12 21 1 the holiday season. Obviously, this is an artificial tree. 2 It will go up during the holidays and come back down during 3 the off-season, so obviously, that pad needed to be something 4 that would be usable by the community during the off season. 5 You guys have the drawing in your packet of this. 6 Essentially, what this is going to look like, it's a 28-foot 7 diameter pad with permanent stone benches. For those that 8 are in the room, I can show you guys kind of what it looks 9 like. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That is beautiful. 11 Absolutely beautiful. 12 MR. BOND: It's really nice. The Rotary Club is 13 funding it completely, so there's no tax dollars associated 14 with it, which is a nice thing. We're using -- the Rotary 15 Club -- I'm wearing two hats here, 'cause I'm in the Rotary 16 Club as well. The Rotary Club is using money from its Casino 17 Night and other fundraisers to help fund this. They're also 18 largely funding the tree, so it's an awfully nice gift from 19 them to the community to have there. But what I wanted to do 20 was discuss with you guys today if you had any concerns or 21 issues with this. It would be adjacent to the existing 22 gazebo and an extension from that, and it would be in that 23 front right corner, so the Main and Sidney Baker corner of 24 the inside of the courthouse lawn. There is electrical there 25 existing, and we believe it will suit the purpose of this 9-24-12 22 1 tree. There will be anchors built into the pad that will 2 help to sustain the tree during the season so that it's safe. 3 The thing weighs about 2,000 pounds, so it's a significant 4 structure. KPUB is going to erect the tree each year for us. 5 So, it's a significant undertaking, and it's something that 6 we're really excited about. I just wanted to kind of present 7 it to you for your consideration. Obviously, there's some 8 improvements necessary to the courthouse lawn in order for us 9 to get this done. And if you have any questions, I'll try to 10 answer them. George Eychner is here as well; he spearheaded 11 this project from the Rotary Club. We appreciate his 12 efforts. He's done an excellent job on that. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I have one question. 14 MR. BOND: Sure. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I see in your notes back 16 here these bricks are considered brick pavers. 17 MR. BOND: Uh-huh. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And I've seen around the 19 countryside different places where people can purchase -- pay 20 for those, purchase one. As an example, when they built the 21 new capitol in Austin, the underground capitol between the 22 old capitol and new capitol, there's a paver of Kerr County. 23 MR. BOND: And on Main Street here too as well. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And there's one -- all that, 25 but Kerr County has one over at the capitol, by the way. And 9-24-12 23 1 I want to buy one in memory of my dog. 2 MR. BOND: Rotary Club has already discussed that, 3 and so it's good -- 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Are you going to go with it? 5 MR. EYCHNER: That's an excellent idea. 6 MR. BOND: Sell you a whole strip there, Buster. 7 (Laughter.) 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's what I thought. No, 9 I think it's a great idea, unless it's just too much trouble, 10 and you guys are loaded and -- 11 MR. EYCHNER: We can work that in. 12 MR. BOND: We're looking at that as an option, and 13 those pavers can be taken in and replaced as people want to 14 buy them over the years, use them as a fundraising idea to 15 get your name out there, or somebody you want this in memory 16 of. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: The only thing that would be 18 better is for you guys to pay for one in memory of my dog. 19 MR. BOND: Would you like to make a motion to that 20 effect? 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Them to pay for my dog? 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The location, it's just about 23 where the -- the big tree was taken down? 24 MR. BOND: Pretty much, yes. And the reason, 25 obviously, is that we're spending about $30,000 on this tree. 9-24-12 24 1 That location is where we'd like to see it going forward. 2 And so this pad does two things. Number one, it saves our 3 space in case the Commissioners Court decided to plant a new 4 tree out there at some point; we'd lose our tree spot. But 5 most importantly, it's going to be a nice gathering place, I 6 think, for, you know, Veterans Day and things of that nature, 7 even picnics on the lawn, things like that. So, it's -- it's 8 going to do a nice job out there, I think. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Would it be possible for y'all 10 to stake that location or have Maintenance just put something 11 so we can see exactly where it is? 12 MR. BOND: Uh-huh. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We've placed so many things on 14 this lawn over the years, I think it's really -- 15 MR. BOND: Do y'all have access to this document as 16 well? 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, I have it. 18 MR. BOND: It shows a little bit better visual as 19 to what it would look like, and then also the mock-up that 20 the architect had done with the tree actually on-site there 21 with the gazebo in back. It's kind of hard to judge the 22 scale on this drawing. But on the architectural drawing, it 23 does a pretty good job. I'm absolutely happy to go out there 24 with Tim and stake it out. I think that's probably not a -- 25 that would be done, obviously, as part of the process. 9-24-12 25 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. Just make sure that -- 2 I mean, it looks like you're trying to have it -- or the 3 architect's designing it so it's kind of linear with the -- 4 MR. BOND: Right. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- sidewalks that are existing. 6 MR. BOND: It's not right at the center of that arc 7 of that driveway; it's just -- just off center, just to 8 continue that drawing. The sidewalk that leads to the 9 gazebo, an extension would be added to connect to this pad as 10 well. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Commissioner, is this a deal 13 breaker for you if it -- if it does -- I mean, I'm assuming 14 that we're going to approve this today. Or not? 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think that the location -- I 16 mean, I think wherever we place things, we just have had a 17 tendency, in my mind, to not look at a master plan. We don't 18 have a master plan of the courthouse. I think it's important 19 that we put things where -- that we think long-term about 20 where we're putting it. I have no problem with the general 21 area, but it's kind of -- you know, I probably have no 22 problem with that location. It's just that it's hard for me 23 to look at the drawing. 24 MR. BOND: I don't think we have an issue where 25 exactly it sits in there. I mean, obviously, just for 9-24-12 26 1 esthetics, we would like to see that sidewalk be a direct 2 extension, but if we need to angle that slightly to get it 3 placed right where it needs to go, the tree needs to be where 4 it needs to be, 'cause once we build it, obviously, it's 5 going to be there for a long time. We'll make sure it's 6 right. 7 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: This will be replacing one of 8 those trees that we talked about a while back on the corners. 9 If we're not, then that's not a problem. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, no. I mean, I don't -- 11 obviously, one of them -- this corner wouldn't get one. And 12 I think we really need to look at the -- the whole courthouse 13 yard before we put any more trees out there. I've been kind 14 of an advocate for a long time that we need to kind of be 15 careful where we put things; that we've had a tendency to 16 just plant things and do things, and then we come back and 17 want to change them, and it's kind of -- you know, we have a 18 beautiful courthouse square. We need to keep it beautiful 19 and uncluttered, and I just want to make sure that we're 20 thinking kind of -- you know, I have no problem with this. I 21 just would like to look at it. 22 MR. BOND: Sure, I understand. 23 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Do you want to be the one to 24 go look at it and decide what's the best location? 25 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I'd just like to say that I 9-24-12 27 1 like the Rotary emblem wheel. You know, we got the Rotary -- 2 of course, I've been a longtime Rotarian for 20 years myself. 3 But, you know, the Rotary motto is "Service Above Self," and 4 I think that's a motto that our community can see with this. 5 MR. BOND: Yeah. 6 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: And what it exemplifies in 7 our community. And I think it's a very nice touch, and I 8 think finding that location that works out there, like a plan 9 we could look at, would be very welcome in our community, and 10 I applaud the club for leaping forward on this. Thanks. 11 Appreciate it. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is the logo -- I notice the -- 13 my computer just went away. But in the center, does it have 14 the Rotary seal -- 15 MR. BOND: Yes. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- as well? 17 MR. BOND: That is a -- as a Rotary gathering, you 18 know, donated by them, that's why that will be done. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is there any problem with 20 putting a seal of a private organization on the courthouse 21 lawn? 22 JUDGE TINLEY: That was a point I was going to 23 raise, Commissioner, that -- you know, not meaning to look a 24 gift horse in the mouth, of course. If -- if this matter is 25 approved in the way it's presented, certainly down the road, 9-24-12 28 1 if there are other nonprofits or organizations that came 2 before us that wanted to do some improvement to county 3 facilities or property, why, we -- we've got this as a 4 precedent that certainly we're going to have to be prepared 5 to live with it. I think it's very tasteful. The question, 6 though, is what kind of precedent does that create for the 7 future, and is there some sort of even indirect legal 8 prohibition from -- from doing that? 9 MR. HENNEKE: I don't think -- I mean, I find this 10 akin to, you know, the naming of a public building, for 11 example, which could be done. It's something we've talked 12 about in connection with the -- the event center facility. 13 We actually discussed, you know, possible sponsorship of the 14 sign that was going to go out there. And it is a precedent 15 and a threshold issue. And if, you know, the -- you know, 16 the value that -- to put in for this, you know, what happens 17 when something else comes along later down the road? I think 18 it's something the Court needs to, you know, consider, 19 especially now, when we're in a capital effort for raising 20 the money for the exhibit hall. It's a condition of the 21 gift. I think it's -- certainly, the Court would have, in 22 the future, discretion on future gifts, to reject or -- just 23 because you accept one thing wouldn't make you bound -- for 24 example, you know, if Anheuser Busch wanted to do something 25 that the Court may, you know, object to. But -- but you're 9-24-12 29 1 still setting that precedent. 2 And as far as I'm aware, there is no County-owned 3 property or public building that is currently named for 4 somebody, or has the -- you know, has an emblem on it. But I 5 think -- you know, I think the first time we discussed that, 6 Judge, was when the County accepted a gift for the fire 7 station of land, you know, that was given by the woman's 8 estate, I believe. And so maybe at some point down the line, 9 that discussion's already going to happen. I don't think 10 that anything -- my discussion with Kyle on this was before 11 any time or labor was put into moving this project forward, 12 to get, you know, some direction from the Court, certainly as 13 far as location or other issues that would have to be brought 14 back, because we need to have specific agreements in place as 15 far as the conditions of acceptance of the gift, and also 16 agreements with the architect and the general contractor to 17 make sure that it's built according to city, state, and 18 federal regulations and is properly engineered, and so on and 19 so forth. So, I don't see that anything that the Court would 20 do today would bind it, other than giving direction to -- to 21 Mr. Bond in moving forward. But that is a very good point 22 there, and I think that it's something the Court needs 23 to consider. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: On that point -- maybe I'll get 25 the thing back up -- but the drawing with the wheel, I mean, 9-24-12 30 1 I think it's clearly identifiable, and I think you almost 2 accomplish the same thing without having "Rotary" written in 3 the middle. It's my feeling. You know, I don't know how 4 y'all feel about that. 5 MR. BOND: I'm sure Rotary Club's going to feel 6 differently. The idea here, obviously, is not to detract 7 from the county in any sort of way at all. This is intended 8 to be -- the Rotary Club has taken on the Christmas lighting 9 as a whole moving forward after this year, so the Christmas 10 lighting of the county's court area -- the courthouse area, 11 as well as the downtown buildings, are all going to be 12 spearheaded by the Rotary Club from this day until the 13 foreseeable future. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 15 MR. BOND: With that being said, I mean, during the 16 off season, this thing will be visible, and it will be 17 emblazoned with the Rotary Club also. 18 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: How about you leave the logo 19 out of the middle, and just put a plaque somewhere that 20 states that it was given to Kerr County by the Rotary Club 21 and paid for, or something like that? Rather than having the 22 seal of that in the center. Would that make a difference at 23 all? I mean, at least that gives recognition to who gave it. 24 I mean, I think we have some trees around here that are -- 25 MR. HENNEKE: Well, and you also have -- at the 9-24-12 31 1 indoor arena, you have the plaques up there. 2 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yeah, we have plaques. 3 MR. HENNEKE: Shelton Ranch, First National Bank, 4 so on and so forth, for -- that have little plaques on the 5 steel girders there. 6 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I think a plaque could be 7 built into the thing around the edge somewhere, or someplace 8 where it could be seen. 9 MR. BOND: That may be done as well as part of the 10 project. I don't know that -- I don't know if the Rotary 11 Club is going to see it -- I mean, having that logo there is 12 something that they would be proud of. 13 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Sure. Well, I would be too. 14 MR. BOND: And so if -- you know, if they're going 15 to donate a $25,000 improvement, to have that be known as the 16 Rotary improvement, is there some negative association with 17 that? I guess I'm missing -- I don't know -- 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's a precedent. Nothing 19 negative about Rotary at all. 20 MR. BOND: No. Yeah, I guess that -- 21 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: The Methodist Encampment 22 Road -- in 1993, we put a $20,000 picnic area at Methodist 23 Encampment that we donated as a project for city of 24 Kerrville. There is a Rotary emblem in the plaque. 25 MR. BOND: Okay. 9-24-12 32 1 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: That was donated to the City 2 of Kerrville, and that was a -- again, a very nice project 3 that was donated to this community. 4 MR. BOND: Sure. 5 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I think this is very well in 6 line with what we're talking about. 7 MR. BOND: Similar. 8 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: The design itself pretty well 9 says it, but without actually putting the seal right in the 10 middle. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I actually don't have an 12 issue with it. I don't see the -- I don't see the problem, 13 because the next one coming down the line, we -- I don't have 14 an issue saying no. 15 MR. BOND: Case-by-case. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We can say no. To give you 17 a little history, when we were starting to remodel this new 18 building here, down underneath there used to be a parking 19 lot, and we had -- I won't name names, but we had a former 20 sheriff that had her name put on the wall of the building, 21 and that was a "no," and it was removed that day. But I 22 don't -- I don't see -- I don't see -- 23 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I don't see the negative 24 either. It's a nonprofit; they're not advertising. 25 MR. BOND: Yeah. It's not -- 9-24-12 33 1 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: They're not gaining, you 2 know, any kind of business. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean, it's not -- that issue 4 isn't as important to me as the location of it. I mean, 5 it's -- you know, I would probably rather not have it, just 6 because I see a precedent down the road. But, I mean, it's 7 not the -- 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I actually kind of like the 9 location, too. It -- to me, it eliminates us having to do 10 this gigantic -- planting this gigantic tree thing. You 11 know, we'd had an offer from someone out of Dallas or 12 something to send us this giant tree and plant it and all 13 that stuff, and it just eliminates that, in my opinion. 14 We'll have something permanent here for the community to use. 15 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I just think the location -- 16 I think Jon ought to be in charge of meeting with them and 17 deciding what the proper location is, and then we can ratify 18 it at the next meeting. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Can they go out and do it 20 while we're doing the rest of this meeting? (Laughter.) 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Might get through quicker. 22 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Probably do it on break. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Probably. 24 MR. BOND: Well, I would say as a condition of any 25 motion you make, the Rotary Club will be happy to work with 9-24-12 34 1 you on location, make sure it's exactly right. 2 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I'll make a motion to 3 approve. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 5 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Very good. Appreciate you 6 doing that. 7 MR. BOND: Excited to do it. Glad to do it. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Your motion is for approval of the 9 agenda item? 10 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: It is. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: We have a motion and a second for 12 approval of the agenda item. Is there any further question 13 or discussion? 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What's the agenda item? The 15 reason I'm saying that is 'cause the County Attorney said 16 this has to come back to us before we can really do anything. 17 MR. HENNEKE: I guess the agenda -- the action item 18 will be approval of further negotiation and proceeding 19 forward with the project to be brought back later for final 20 approval by the Court. Or -- 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Agreement in principle? Final 22 details to come back for approval. 23 MR. BOND: Essentially, we just need your order so 24 we can get -- 25 MR. HENNEKE: Put Commissioner Letz on the 9-24-12 35 1 committee, and -- 2 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Concept plan, maybe. 3 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: For exact location. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Send him outside. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I guess he was saying we have 6 to approve an agreement. We don't have an agreement to 7 approve yet. We can't approve an agreement as -- 8 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: 'Cause an agreement's not 9 there. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Approval of the concept. 11 MR. HENNEKE: Approval of the concept. They can 12 get the architect to start expending funds and actually 13 design and -- 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 15 MR. HENNEKE: -- work with you, Commissioner Letz. 16 MR. BOND: I just don't want to come back and you 17 say, "Oh, no, we decided y'all can't do it at all." 18 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Is two weeks too late from 19 now to do the agreement? 20 MR. BOND: We can probably have something by then, 21 I would think. From this head nod today, we will get the 22 ball rolling. And, obviously, we've got about seven weeks 23 until we need to have the thing up and ready to go, so it's 24 not a lot of time. Not very long. 25 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: My motion, then, will be to 9-24-12 36 1 approve the concept of the Christmas Lighting Corporation 2 project. 3 MR. BOND: Okay. 4 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Okay? 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And my second, and I agree. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: All right. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's what I meant in the 8 first place. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, with the clear understanding 10 of the motion, any further question or discussion on that 11 motion? All 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: Thank you. 16 MR. BOND: Thank you, gentlemen. The only other 17 thing listed on the agenda item is a quick discussion about 18 we're looking -- in search of a new storage facility for all 19 the Christmas decorations. We, in the past, had storage down 20 below in the bottom back down here. We've moved it over to 21 the Harper street fire station, and have been there for the 22 last five years, I believe, or four years. It's come to my 23 attention that the City is looking to sell that building, and 24 we may need to find a new location to store all of the 25 decorations each year. In a conversation I've had in town 9-24-12 37 1 somewhere, I've kind of been notified that maybe there might 2 be room at the old juvenile detention facility on the loop. 3 I don't know if that's true or not, but I just wanted to 4 bring that to your attention. If you think that might be an 5 option, I'd like to at least explore that. Is there any room 6 out there that we might be able to use that would be secure? 7 JUDGE TINLEY: How much room are you talking about, 8 8-by-10? 9 MR. BOND: Right now, it's in the half -- it's in 10 half of the bay, which is, I believe, 15-by-40. 15 feet by 11 40 feet. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: So you're talking by 8-by-20? 13 MR. BOND: No, that won't work. 8-by-20 won't 14 work. We need -- we do need something that has a tall garage 15 door, 'cause the 11-foot trees that we bring in to line the 16 outer rim are 11 feet tall. It has to be tall enough to get 17 them in and stand them up. 18 MR. BOLLIER: There's room out there. We still 19 have a whole dorm, a couple -- a dorm there, completely. 20 MR. HENNEKE: How many jail cells do you need? 21 MR. BOND: Yeah, there you go. 22 MR. BOLLIER: Yeah. There's some of those little 23 rooms -- 24 MR. BOND: Something that's somewhat accessible, a 25 loading dock style. I can work with Tim to go out and look 9-24-12 38 1 at it, see if it would work for us. If it meets with y'all's 2 approval, we can come back with that. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I would go with Tim and see if 4 it works. 5 MR. BOND: Yeah, I'll work with Tim. I don't need 6 a motion on that. That's all I have. Thanks, gentlemen. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you. Let's go to our third 8 9 o'clock timed item; to consider, discuss, take appropriate 9 action to set a public hearing concerning abandoning the 10 private road name "Luke Lane West" located in Precinct 4. 11 MR. ODOM: Okay. I'm sorry, Judge. We had brought 12 this public hearing to the Court -- not the public hearing, 13 but the agenda on August 27th, 2012, to set the public 14 hearing. We set it for Monday, October the 8th, 2012, at 15 9 a.m. This was prior to the holiday schedule being 16 approved, so we are starting this process all over. We ask 17 the Court to set the public hearing for Tuesday, November the 18 13th, 2012, at 9 a.m. Monday, November the 12th, 2012, is a 19 holiday; that's Veterans Day, so we moved it to the Tuesday. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second -- or first. 21 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Second. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded to set a 23 public hearing on the matter to November 13, 2012, at 9 a.m. 24 Question or discussion? 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I just -- I do have a 9-24-12 39 1 question. It's kind of off in the ditch a little bit, but it 2 looks like by the little map here, that Mrs. Chapman is in 3 control of this area. Does she -- I mean, does anyone talk 4 with her? Does she realize the importance of having a named 5 street there? 6 MR. ODOM: Well, from our understanding, we asked 7 that question, but 911 didn't seem to have a problem with it, 8 Commissioner. And I'm in the process of following through 9 with 911-recommended -- 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Are you familiar with that 11 exact -- they really need to have a name on this thing, 12 'cause there's numerous homes. 13 MR. ODOM: We questioned that too, and that was one 14 we put forward to 911, but they said do it. So, we're 15 putting it to the Court. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So there just won't be a name 18 for it; it'll be unnamed. 19 MR. ODOM: As it stands right now, it's not, but 20 maybe -- hopefully we get that -- abandon it, and maybe 21 rational thinking may come forward. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Just one of those things. I 23 mean, it's just a point. I'm not that familiar with this 24 area, but I -- for some reason, I was driving through Bandera 25 County yesterday, and they have taken our lead and are doing 9-24-12 40 1 the same thing of naming every driveway, just about. Which 2 is -- 3 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That's what this is, is a 4 driveway. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I think -- especially with 6 those who serve multiple residences, I think it's a good 7 idea. I hate to see us going the other direction, but -- 8 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I'll talk to them about it 9 later, after we do this. 10 MR. ODOM: Maybe there's something we want to put 11 in the rules and modify our subdivision rules that it has to 12 be named. As it stands right now, I don't have the authority 13 to mandate that. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. It's something we can 15 look at. 16 MR. ODOM: Okay. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Any further question or discussion 18 on the motion? 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 carries. Let's go to our 24 9:15 timed item, Item 4, a presentation on Hazardous 25 Materials Transportation Study. We have Ms. Debbie Jasek 9-24-12 41 1 with us here. If you'd be kind enough to introduce yourself 2 and tell us what you got? 3 MS. JASEK: I've got -- my name is Debbie Jasek, 4 and I am with the -- let me get this right -- the Texas A & M 5 University Transportation Institute. We have, after 75 6 years, had a name change. T.T.I., as we're known for most 7 people, is the official research agency for the state of 8 Texas. We are a -- for years have been separate, but equal, 9 one of the agencies in the Texas A & M system, and starting 10 September 1, we took the name Texas A & M University 11 Transportation System, kind of as a part along with, you 12 know, the Forest Service is the Texas A & M University System 13 Forest Service, just to give a recognition and a nod to the 14 fact that we are all part of the Texas A & M family. I've 15 been a researcher there for 20 years, and my specialty is 16 hazardous materials transportation. Where we get our funding 17 for most of our studies is through the Texas Department of 18 Emergency Management, okay? And it is -- they get their 19 money from the pipeline and hazardous safety materials. 20 Where this money comes from is, it comes from some 21 of the Tier II money, the industries that have hazardous 22 materials, as well as some of the fines when something goes 23 wrong and a company is fined. The law is very, very specific 24 as to what that money can be used for, and one of the things 25 that it is used for is commodity flow studies. And so we did 9-24-12 42 1 a commodity flow study on the I-10 corridor. A hazardous 2 material commodity flow study looks at -- very simply, it 3 looks at when, where, how, and what kinds of hazardous 4 materials are transported up and down a road or in and out of 5 a specific jurisdiction. Why is this important? Well, it's 6 not intended to be the answer to all things, but what it does 7 is it gives you a snapshot that you can use for a range of 8 things like training; you can do more realistic training. 9 You can figure out what you need to train -- equip your 10 firemen and First Responders with. It also helps the 11 community in transportation planning activities. For 12 example, if you decide you wanted to designate a state road 13 as a hazardous materials route, when you, as a jurisdiction, 14 go to TexDOT, the first thing that TexDOT does before they 15 approve it is say, "Have you done a hazardous materials 16 commodity flow study? If so, where's the data? If not, go 17 do one." So, it works for a variety of things. 18 For the first time this year, we did a regional 19 commodity flow study. And this is something -- probably 20 about six years ago, myself and my partner, David Bierling, 21 who is also with T.T.I., did a national study of what was 22 going on with local emergency planning committees. And I 23 became well acquainted with the state emergency coordinator 24 from Arizona, and I was very intrigued, having lived in 25 Arizona when I was in the military, of how Arizona conducted 9-24-12 43 1 its hazardous material commodity flow studies for rural 2 counties. Because one of the things that happens when you 3 want to have one of these studies done and you put in for a 4 grant is you have to have a 20 percent local match, okay? 5 That's a lot of money sometimes, especially for a rural 6 county. And we understand this and we know it. And even 7 though it can be done in in-kind contributions, like 8 volunteering or whatever, that still -- it's a lot of money 9 to be put on -- put on the button for. So, what Arizona was 10 doing was grouping together through corridors a group of 11 counties, and coming up with a match. 12 So, in talking to D.P.S. and talking to the state 13 emergency planning committee, we decided to try one of these, 14 and this is what we did with I-10. Basically, we looked at 15 I-10 from right here at Kerrville area. Actually, we started 16 out just a little bit north of here at the 290/I-10 junction, 17 and went all the way to Anthony, New Mexico, okay? The 18 really, really good news, that goes through 13 counties, 19 almost all of which are very rural, except for El Paso 20 County. The really good news with this was, because of the 21 way we did this study, we were able to get funding through 22 another grant, to where none of the counties had to put in 23 any money at all, or any kind of in-kind contribution for the 24 20 percent. So, basically, you guys got a study for free. 25 And once we finish the study, we looked at rail and we looked 9-24-12 44 1 at highway truck transport, and we looked at pipeline. You 2 will be getting electronic copies of this study to let you 3 know what's going on up and down I-10. 4 What I want to present today -- and this was quite 5 apropos. We were out looking for sites and happened upon 6 this incident that's shown right there. That is a hazardous 7 materials tank truck that had an incident with this pickup 8 truck. There were seven people in the pickup truck, a lot of 9 whom were kids in this accident. Luckily, no one was hurt 10 and there was no spill. But what we did was we went up and 11 down I-10. Here are the corridor results that are here. As 12 you can see, the numbers are kind of tiny, but the -- in the 13 western part around El Paso, we counted about 2,800 trucks a 14 day, and -- or 2,800 trucks in a daytime period, and that 15 averaged out to, once you do the statistics, about 6,000 16 trucks a day going in both directions. As we got farther 17 toward the I-20 junction, which is between Van Horn and Fort 18 Stockton, it dropped significantly, and then it picked up a 19 little bit once we got to Ozona and Sonora. 20 There's a lot of reasons for this, and you'll see 21 the same thing with the hazardous materials. To keep in mind 22 on this, the national average for hazardous materials is 23 right at 5 percent of the truck traffic is hazmat. That was 24 pretty true on this corridor, except for the Ozona-Fort 25 Stockton, and just -- it went down once we got to Junction. 9-24-12 45 1 The reason it's -- it's higher in Ozona-Fort Stockton is 2 because there's a lot of oil field production going on right 3 now. In fact, you know, it's -- it's a boom there. You 4 cannot get a hotel room in Ozona, okay? I -- I will tell you 5 that. I could not get a hotel room, because I will be 6 briefing Ozona a little bit later on it, and I'm going to 7 have to drive in from Sonora, because I could not get a hotel 8 room. So, that's where that's coming from, and we know that. 9 It was actually a lot less truck traffic than we thought on 10 I-10, especially going eastbound. There's more truck traffic 11 going westbound. And we think that has a lot to do with the 12 economy and what's going on, okay? 13 There -- there seems to be a break at 750 miles. 14 Once there's more than 750 miles involved in a shipment, it's 15 cheaper to go by rail, okay, than it is by truck. So, that's 16 why we think there's fewer amounts of shipments going 17 eastbound than westbound. Westbound, there's actually a lot 18 more coming in from the Dallas area than there is from the 19 Houston area, going toward El Paso. Now, the other thing 20 that we have noticed in the last three years that we have 21 been doing these is there has been a marked decrease in truck 22 traffic over the last three years, about 20 percent. And 23 that has to do with the economy and the price of fuel. 24 There's a lot more consolidation of loads, and when you start 25 looking at hazardous materials, rather than seeing individual 9-24-12 46 1 placards of one shipment of, say, batteries or paint, you now 2 see consolidated loads, and it'll have a generic placard, 3 Class 3 Flammable, or Class 8 Corrosive, or Class 3 Flammable 4 and Class 8 Corrosive. What they're doing is they're making 5 sure that truck is full before they go on the road because of 6 the price of diesel. It's basically an economy of scale. 7 How did we do this? Well, we actually did this. 8 We sat out on the side of the road. This is one of the few 9 types of studies that technology does not work, okay? 10 Everybody else can get very fancy and put out road tubes and 11 put out cameras and everything else. When it comes to 12 looking at those placards, there is no set place on a truck 13 that a placard has to be. The law says it has to be visibly 14 displayed. It doesn't say where it has to be displayed. 15 When trucks are going 70 and 80 miles an hour, it is 16 technologically impossible for the cameras, even the good 17 ones that we have today, to be able to read those numbers on 18 the side of the truck. So, myself, my partner, and three 19 grad students spent a lot of time sitting out on the side of 20 I-10 looking at trucks. These are some of the pure numbers 21 that we saw for the -- for the area closest to you, which was 22 just east of Junction, right -- not too far from that 290 23 turnoff. 24 We counted over 3,900 trucks, almost 4,000 trucks. 25 The vast majority of them, 3,500, were tractor-trailers. 9-24-12 47 1 There were a few multi-trailers. That's where you've got 2 your double, where you've got a truck and a tractor-trailer, 3 and another trailer following it. There were -- 8.3 percent 4 of those trucks were carrying hazardous materials, or 329 5 observations of hazardous materials. As we call it, you 6 know, following David Letterman, here's our top 10, and this 7 is pretty much what you see in Texas. The top one was crude 8 oil, 1267. The second one was gasoline, and then 1993 is 9 called combustible liquid, not otherwise specified. In 10 actuality, most of the time it's diesel, okay. It's either 11 diesel or fuel oil, or some sort of -- could be kerosene, 12 that type of thing. 3257 hot, fancy name for hot mix or 13 asphalt. Okay. Corrosive Class 8, that is usually something 14 like batteries. You see that marking batteries a lot of 15 times, or something that's mildly acidic. 1268 is your 16 petroleum distillates. That, once again, could be something 17 like kerosene or some sort of petroleum byproduct. 18 Class 3 unspecified, that could be -- oh, gosh, 19 just about anything. Anything that would be considered a 20 flammable liquid, okay, is a Class 3. And then you've got 21 your flammable red placard. When we couldn't see what it 22 was, we just put it down as red. 1075 is LPG, and then 23 otherwise, Class 8. Nothing really, really scary in the top 24 10. We did see two scary -- or actually -- yeah, two scary 25 placards. One was styrene monomer, and the other one's 9-24-12 48 1 acrylic acid, stabilized. Both of those are what -- are what 2 we refer to as PEAs. And what that means is if that liquid 3 -- if there was an incident where that tank ruptured, the 4 fluid inside could be subject to violent polymerization. 5 Basically, what it means is if it mixes with air or possibly 6 water or some foreign substance, you will have a chemical 7 reaction where you can have an explosion, okay? So, there 8 were two things that were -- and that's really good, 9 actually, when you consider we're counting almost 4,000 10 trucks, and there were only two of them that were really, 11 really bad things, you know. 12 When I -- when I sat up here last year at about 13 this time, I was briefing the City Council at Deer Park, and 14 trust me, this list was much, much longer for those guys. 15 There were probably 200 or 300 of their trucks had something 16 that were really, really scary things. So, it's just 17 something that you need to know about. There are other 18 things that you can do with this, and I have added and will 19 leave also my card. If you've got any questions once you get 20 the study, if you want to know what you can do with it, if 21 you want to know where you can go farther with this, we will 22 be happy to answer any of those questions, and we'll always 23 be happy to come visit with you if -- if you've got more 24 questions. And I'd be happy to entertain any questions now. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Any questions? 9-24-12 49 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Just one quick question. A 2 copy of the data, does it go to the head of our emergency 3 response service? 4 MS. JASEK: Yes, it does. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: In this case, it's going to be 6 the Fire Chief, isn't it? 7 MAYOR PRATT: Fire Chief. 8 MS. JASEK: I think that's probably who we've got. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 'Cause that's -- to me, that's 10 the one -- that's the -- 11 MS. JASEK: And like I said, what I've given you 12 today is just the -- the overview of the truck traffic. We 13 will also be giving you an overview of the rail, and we will 14 also be giving you an overview of the pipelines that run 15 along the I-10 corridor area. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But, anyway, you answered the 17 question. So the data goes to -- 18 MS. JASEK: Yes. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- the head of emergency 20 response, which in this case is the City of Kerrville. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Emergency Management Coordinator, 22 yeah. Mr. Mayor, you had a question? 23 MAYOR PRATT: I do. Does it also go to AACOG? 24 MS. JASEK: I'm not sure. But if you can -- I'll 25 leave you my card, and if you send me an e-mail, we can make 9-24-12 50 1 sure it gets to them. 2 MAYOR PRATT: Okay. 'Cause they're really the 3 overall emergency planning... 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Ms. Jasek, we've got some feeder 5 highways that come -- 6 MS. JASEK: Yes. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: -- in the I-10 corridor. For 8 example, I've had concerns expressed to me by citizens that 9 live along Highway 173, which, at least for some distance, 10 follows the highway. 11 MS. JASEK: Okay. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: And are concerned about hazardous 13 materials traveling on that road, so they're possibly coming 14 from the west going south to the Eagle Ford shale -- 15 MS. JASEK: Right. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: -- area. In order to avoid going 17 through San Antonio traffic, they're cutting off, going down 18 173 to catch 35 or 181 or whatever. And does it include 19 those feeder -- 20 MS. JASEK: No, we did not include those feeders in 21 this study. However, if you were interested in that and 22 concerned about that, we can certainly work with you, your 23 county, and perhaps join -- I know that Kimble County, who -- 24 I'm actually briefing the judge this afternoon at Kimble 25 County. I know Kimble County is very concerned about the 9-24-12 51 1 same thing, and perhaps the two counties can go together. 2 And what can happen with that 20 percent match, if you were 3 concerned about funding, is if you -- if we can work with 4 volunteers from the county, we can train them to do some of 5 the data collection. And those hours that they work -- 6 JUDGE TINLEY: In-kind? 7 MS. JASEK: -- in-kind totally pays for the 20 8 percent. And because we are a state agency, we actually kick 9 in 6 percent of that 20 percent for you. So, by cutting our 10 overhead, because we are a state agency working for the 11 state, we can cut that, so in actuality, you're only coming 12 up with 14 percent. We can certainly help you put together a 13 grant proposal for that. We can work with the State in 14 helping you get that going if -- if that's something you're 15 interested in. We know that, in fact, our study for this 16 next year deals with the Eagle Ford shale from Beeville, 17 Texas, to Gonzales. We're looking at that strip that goes up 18 through Kenedy and Karnes City and into Gonzales. Next year 19 we are projecting looking at the I-35 down towards Del Rio 20 and Eagle Pass, part of the Eagle Ford shale, because there 21 is so much concern about that increase in truck traffic on -- 22 on those county roads. People don't know exactly what's 23 going to happen. 24 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Going to count a lot of 25 trucks. 9-24-12 52 1 MS. JASEK: Oh, yeah, I know. And we're also going 2 to have to figure out where we're going to be staying when 3 we're doing this. In fact, I was saying that I've got a 4 brother-in-law that's got a deer camp; that that just may 5 wind up being our place of residence while we're doing this 6 study. (Laughter.) Because, once again, you get into that. 7 But we can certainly do that for you if you're interested in 8 that, and we can detail that study any way you would like. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay, thank you. 10 MS. JASEK: All right. Thank you. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Any more questions? Mr. Mayor? 12 MR. PRATT: Yeah, I do have one. Are you working 13 on any legislation to require chips on those hazardous 14 material placards so that you don't have to go through the 15 manual; you can do the satellite? 16 MS. JASEK: There haven't -- there's been talk of 17 that. And, actually, we're not talking about -- the talk 18 that's coming out of that, believe it or not, is not 19 legislation. It's industry that's talking about doing it on 20 its own, through Chemtrec, Transcaer. And which Transcaer is 21 another -- another group that is really good at helping. 22 That is a volunteer organization of industry. Guys like 23 Baker Hughes, Haliburton, all those guys belong to Transcaer. 24 And what they do is, they get together and they help train 25 and help counties deal with, you know, chemicals and 9-24-12 53 1 hazardous materials education. They work a whole lot with 2 Union Pacific, as well as BNSF in doing training on how to 3 deal with, say, a derailment of a tank car, that type of 4 thing. And I do know that Transcaer and Chemtrec -- excuse 5 me -- are both looking at how to do this, and they feel that 6 they can be most effective if they do it within the industry, 7 and it not be a mandate coming down from the government. 8 They think they can get a better product. They think they 9 can make it more efficient, as well as making it more 10 palatable to the industry accepting it. So, that's -- that's 11 one thing that is being worked on, and it's, I know, being 12 talked about on a regular basis. 13 MR. PRATT: Okay. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, sir. Anything else? 15 Thank you very much. 16 MS. JASEK: All right. Thank you. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Appreciate you being here with us 18 today. We have a 9:30 timed item, Item Number 5; to 19 consider, discuss, take appropriate action on a request by 20 the Hill Country Dispute Resolution Center to renew the 21 contract with Kerr County to provide mediation services in 22 Kerr County, and for funding. Mr. Ed Reaves. 23 MR. REAVES: Good morning, Judge Tinley. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Good to have you here, sir. 25 MR. REAVES: Commissioners. My name is Ed Reaves. 9-24-12 54 1 And the Hill Country Dispute Resolution Center is a 501(c)(3) 2 nonprofit organization -- pardon me -- that serves nine 3 counties in the Texas Hill Country. We're a creature of the 4 Bar Association here locally, and of the district courts. 5 Originally created not long after the Dispute Resolution Act 6 was passed about 30 years ago, was dormant for a while, and 7 then was revived in 2002. In 2010, we had a great year. We 8 had 177 cases. We had an 86 percent settlement rate, and we 9 thought that was really fine. That was a record number of 10 cases. And then last year, we had 201 cases, and 175 of 11 those settled, for an 87 percent settlement rate. Now, 12 among -- among our 201 cases were 91 Kerr County cases, and 13 81 of those settled, and that was an 89 percent settlement 14 rate. Now, that was an unusually good year. Some of these 15 are really tough cases, and our -- our volunteer, unpaid 16 mediators just do a terrific job. 17 It's like one gentleman told me, someone who was a 18 retired H.R. executive from a big petroleum company. He 19 said, "Ed, I like to play golf, but I don't want to play golf 20 every day." He wanted to give something back to the 21 community, and just -- it was a great fit. So, we have 22 people from all kinds of backgrounds that -- that help us 23 out. To give you an idea of the kind of cases covered, in 24 Kerr County cases last year, we had 50 family law cases. 25 That would be divorces and suits affecting the parent-child 9-24-12 55 1 relationship. We had 29 Child Protective Services cases, 2 nine business cases, two probate, and one guardianship case, 3 if I counted correctly. And we have in our current form been 4 providing mediation services for the residents of Kerr County 5 since 2002, and we would like the opportunity to continue 6 with the contract for this coming fiscal year. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: The funding for these -- that he's 8 requesting under the contract, that comes from a separate fee 9 that's assessed with each case that's filed. And that fund 10 builds up and it's a dedicated fund for alternative dispute 11 resolution. And the amount, if my memory serves me 12 correctly, $14,000 is the same amount that has been requested 13 probably in at least the last two or three years. 14 MR. REAVES: Yes, sir. I believe everybody pays a 15 $15 fee as part of the filing fee for every civil case filed 16 in Kerr County, and that's where those funds come -- come 17 from. So, we're requesting an allocation in that amount. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge, I move approval of the 19 contract -- we renew the contract. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: I have a motion. 21 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Second. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: And a second. Question or 23 discussion on the motion? 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I just want to make a 25 comment. Mr. Reaves, it's one of my favorite things in 9-24-12 56 1 Kerrville because of two things. One is that you -- you give 2 relief to these courtrooms. When you have 201 mediations 3 going on, that is a lot of courtroom space that is freed up 4 for other things, and an 87 percent agreement rate I think is 5 just phenomenal. But my favorite things is, it's causing 6 people to sit down across the table from each other and look 7 each other in the eye and work through issues. That's the 8 best thing going on in America. 9 MR. REAVES: Yes, sir. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And I appreciate that very 11 much. Thank you. 12 MR. REAVES: Thank you, Commissioner. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Shame we can't get that in 14 Washington, isn't it? 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Commissioners Court's a 16 combat sport, okay? So, we like to see people work through 17 issues. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Exactly. Any other questions or 19 comments? All in favor of the motion, signify by raising 20 your right hand. 21 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 22 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 23 (No response.) 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion does carry. Thank you very 25 much, Mr. Reaves. Let's go to our 10 o'clock timed item -- 9-24-12 57 1 we're catching up little by little here, aren't we? -- to 2 consider, discuss, take appropriate action to approve 3 expenditure of funds on the Kerr County Historical Commission 4 to underwrite historic plaques that will be placed on various 5 buildings downtown. 6 DR. RECTOR: Yes. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Dr. Rector, good to see you this 8 morning. 9 DR. RECTOR: Thank you, sir. Thank you. Honorable 10 Judge Tinley and honorable Commissioners, we thank you for 11 the privilege of appearing before the Court this morning. 12 Deborah Gaudier and I are here today to talk with you about 13 the plaquing program that the Kerr County Historical 14 Commission initiated this past summer. The purpose of the 15 program is to identify buildings of interest and to identify 16 the history of those buildings, such as prior owners, prior 17 businesses, when it was built, and stories of interest about 18 those buildings. The purpose of the program is to promote 19 heritage tourism, and make visits to our downtown more 20 interesting, more exciting and educational. Other 21 communities that have adopted these programs have seen the 22 foot traffic in their downtowns increase. They've seen their 23 sales tax revenues increase, their sales in shops, motels, 24 hotels, bars increase. So, it's good for everybody. 25 And we use the term "downtowns" because, although 9-24-12 58 1 we're wanting -- we have initiated the program in Kerrville, 2 which is our county seat, we initially see expanding it to 3 Center Point, to Ingram, and to Hunt. We now have two 4 plaques on downtown buildings on Water Street. The cost of 5 these plaques -- and I want to tell you that all of the work 6 is done locally in Kerr County -- is about $150. These 7 plaques in downtown Kerrville complement a walking tour of 8 historical buildings in downtown Kerrville that was designed 9 by Dayton Baublit of Baublit Printers. These brochures are 10 available at the Chamber of Commerce, the Downtown Visitors' 11 Center. They're available in hotels and motels and other 12 places in town. Mr. Baublit paid for this brochure out of 13 his own pocket. And this program will complement and expand 14 this program that currently exists. 15 We are here today before you because we'd like to 16 use a portion of our budgeted funds for Kerr County 17 Historical Commission for 2012 to further promote this 18 program and to help other businesses put plaques on -- on 19 their buildings. I'd now like to introduce Deborah Gaudier, 20 who's done the lion's share of the work in this program. She 21 has with her a draft of the first plaque that was put up in 22 Kerrville, and I'd also additionally like to thank 23 Commissioner Baldwin and Commissioner Overby for being 24 present at the unveiling ceremony, and particularly 25 Commissioner Overby, who was there representing the county 9-24-12 59 1 government in the unveiling ceremony. Deborah? 2 MS. GAUDIER: Thank you -- excuse me. Thank you, 3 Bill. Good morning, Judge Tinley. Good morning, gentlemen. 4 I'm a fairly new resident of the county. I moved here first 5 because I just loved the natural beauty -- I'm sorry, I lost 6 my -- I just love the natural beauty, but the longer we live 7 here, the more I have come to appreciate the many historic 8 buildings that we have. As you may have heard, I have a 9 Master's degree in historic preservation, so I know that we 10 have wonderful history to share. A little over a year ago, I 11 began expanding on Dayton Baublit's research, which you have 12 a copy of, on the history of downtowns in downtown 13 Kerrville -- I'm sorry, research on the history of the 14 buildings in downtown Kerrville. Did you know that there are 15 at least 15 buildings more than 100 years old downtown? 16 Fifteen. Who would have thought? Really. 17 In the past, others had talked about creating this 18 walking tour, but it never came about. Last year we decided 19 to try again. Heritage tourism's a growing component of 20 travel. In the absence of a history museum, we need to find 21 some other ways to get folks who like history to visit Kerr 22 County. We propose putting up locally-produced historic 23 plaques on any historic building that doesn't already have a 24 state or national marker. There are wonderful stories that 25 should be shared. I do have a blog where I'm sharing some of 9-24-12 60 1 my research, but as -- but we will reach a different and 2 larger audience with historic signage that tells the stories 3 of the -- of the buildings to passers-by. This is a rough 4 draft. Actually, we've already put two up, and this one is 5 really a rough draft, but this is what they look like. I 6 have it if you want to pass it around. 7 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Thank you. 8 MS. GAUDIER: They have historic photographs on 9 them. They have easy-to-read font. Originally, the project 10 was under the direction of the former Kerrville Downtown 11 Business Association. Now the Kerr County Historical 12 Commission took it on as a project. We're beginning with 13 Kerrville, but as Dr. Rector told you, we plan to eventually 14 expand it to other parts of the county. The building and 15 business owners have endorsed the project and are really 16 cooperating with it. The Historical Commission has control 17 over the content, making sure that it is accurate. We want 18 to be sure that it's something the Commission can be proud 19 of. Unfortunately, as you know, many of the businesses are 20 struggling, and much as they would like to have the markers, 21 for some of them, even the low cost of these markers is a 22 little bit out of their reach, so we'd like to help them. We 23 would need your authorization to use the funds the Historic 24 Commission already has budgeted to help the business owners 25 pay for these signs. And, again, I just want to say the 9-24-12 61 1 money has already been budgeted. We're just asking for your 2 permission to use that money in this way to help underwrite 3 those plaques. Thank you, gentlemen. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Essentially, what you're asking is 6 that funds which you currently have in the Historical 7 Commission budget be authorized for use by the Court to go 8 forward with this program? 9 MS. GAUDIER: Yes, sir. 10 DR. RECTOR: Yes, sir, that's correct. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move approval. 12 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Second. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 14 approval. Question or discussion? 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I have a question. So 16 there's two -- two that's already been done. 17 MS. GAUDIER: Right. 18 DR. RECTOR: Yes, sir. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Do you own both of those 20 buildings? 21 DR. RECTOR: No, sir, I do not. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Do you own either one of 23 them? 24 DR. RECTOR: I own one of them. The other one is 25 owned by the City of Kerrville. 9-24-12 62 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You own the one -- this one 2 here? 3 DR. RECTOR: Yes, sir. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. I'm not going to tell 5 the story; they need to go downtown to read -- 6 DR. RECTOR: That's right. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: -- read the story on their 8 own. But -- 9 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: It's nice. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: If you haven't done this, go 11 down there to particularly this building and read the plaque 12 that he's talking -- they're talking about purchasing. It 13 gives a history of what that building was about. And you're 14 going to be surprised that old Rector's been in the 15 businesses he's been in. (Laughter.) In the last 150 years. 16 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: He might have been making 17 liquor and selling something that might not -- 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Something like that. 19 DR. RECTOR: I would have retired a long time ago 20 if I'd been doing that. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Not into something that's more 22 remunerative, huh? 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: But, Dr. Rector, thank you 24 for your leadership. This is a super deal. 25 DR. RECTOR: Thank you. 9-24-12 63 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: As usual, you and your 2 family have been leading in Kerrville for many years. 3 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Always have. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And a couple of generations, 5 actually. And thank you very much for that. 6 DR. RECTOR: We thank you, Commissioners, for your 7 service to the community. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: This is neat. I really like that. 10 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That's more informative than 11 anything I've seen. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't know if -- I got an 13 e-mail from Mr. Rector; I presume y'all probably did too, 14 about a blog that Ms. -- Gaudier? 15 MS. GAUDIER: Deborah Gaudier. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Gaudier. The blog you have is 17 phenomenal. You ought to really -- I mean, I'll just 18 announce to the Court that the information you have there, 19 which is, I guess, a detail of each of these, is -- is 20 phenomenal and very well done. I want to compliment you for 21 that. Thank you. 22 MS. GAUDIER: Thank you. 23 DR. RECTOR: We have some reporters in the room, 24 and hopefully that word will be passed to other people. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. It's really very 9-24-12 64 1 interesting. 2 MS. GAUDIER: Thank you. 3 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Thank you. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Good stuff. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: We have a motion and a second for 6 approval of the agenda item. Question or discussion? All in 7 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: The motion does carry. Thank you 12 very much. 13 DR. RECTOR: Thank you. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Appreciate you being here. Our 15 second 10 o'clock timed item is Item 11; to consider, 16 discuss, take appropriate action to approve the engagement 17 letter for the 2011-12 audit for the basic financial 18 statement, supplementary information audit, and the single 19 audit for the period ending September 30, 2012. Ms. Hargis? 20 MS. HARGIS: Yes. This is the regular engagement 21 letter. The fee has not changed. We've had this form now 22 for three years. They're remaining with the same fee, even 23 though there's additional requirements that have come out in 24 the last three years. So, I recommend we stay with them. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: We're now required to do a single 9-24-12 65 1 audit on our grant funds? 2 MS. HARGIS: We haven't -- we're going to review it 3 to make sure that we have gone over the $500,000 threshold. 4 I don't think we have this year, but rather than not put it 5 in there, we did. And so if a single audit is not required, 6 it will not be done. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So, just this very second 8 you handed this to me, so I'm assuming that you expect me to 9 vote on it. And so my question would be, is there any 10 changes? 11 MS. HARGIS: No, sir, there's no change. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: None whatsoever? 13 MS. HARGIS: No. These are pretty much boilerplate 14 letters that come out of the A.I.C.P.A. The fee is 30,000; 15 that's what we've been paying. And if there is no single 16 audit, they will probably make a reduction on that. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Make a motion to approve the 18 engagement letter for 2011-2012. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded to approve 21 the agenda item. The fee conforms to what we have budgeted 22 for that purpose? 23 MS. HARGIS: Yes, sir, it does. Actually a little 24 less than what we have. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Any further question or discussion 9-24-12 66 1 on the motion? All in favor of the motion, signify by 2 raising your right hand. 3 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 4 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 5 (No response.) 6 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. Let's go 7 back to Item 6; to consider, discuss, take appropriate action 8 to engage Bickerstaff Heath Delgado Acosta, LLP, to prepare a 9 response to Texas Comptroller regarding the County's Senate 10 Bill 18 reporting obligation related to eminent domain 11 authority and authorize expenditure of $300. Mr. Henneke? 12 MR. HENNEKE: Thank you, Judge, Commissioners. The 13 last legislative session, the Legislature, in its continuing 14 infinite wisdom, passed a mandate that said that any 15 governmental entity which has eminent domain authority, by 16 the end of this year, must file a letter with the 17 Comptroller's office listing each and every basis for which 18 it claims to have eminent domain authority, or otherwise 19 would forfeit that authority. And I've been trying for some 20 time to figure out how to go about doing that. The County 21 derives its eminent domain authority from a lot of different 22 areas, plus nobody's really sure how to deal with future 23 areas. For example, if the county surpasses 50,000 people, 24 then we may, you know, have new authority that we wouldn't 25 have right now. So, the good folks at Bickerstaff Heath -- 9-24-12 67 1 I've been talking with TAC. They've been working on this, 2 but Bickerstaff represents many counties, and probably at a 3 profit loss for them, but as a service to their clients, have 4 offered for $300 to do all the work for us, and are 5 researching for other counties. So, I highly recommend 6 engaging them to figure this out, put together this letter, 7 and assume the risk of making sure that it's right and 8 complying with that requirement by the Legislature. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That sounds like a great deal. 10 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Yeah. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Good law firm that understands 12 how to do this type of thing. I would make -- I move 13 approval of the agenda item. 14 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Second. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 16 approval. Question or discussion? 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: The -- 18 JUDGE TINLEY: What a bargain. 19 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: It is. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No kidding. 21 MR. HENNEKE: For one hour of attorney time. 22 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: It's a necessary expenditure. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: The gentleman -- the lawyer 24 that signed the letter, Mr. Kimbrough, is a former employee 25 of Kerr County. 9-24-12 68 1 MR. HENNEKE: No, it's a different Kimbrough. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: This is a different one? 3 MR. HENNEKE: Yes, sir. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Chuck Kimbrough of this law firm. 5 The other one is Jay Kimbrough, who has served in various 6 interim tenures at various state agencies in the past several 7 years. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, okay. Fantastic. 9 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: It is. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Any other question or discussion on 11 the motion? All in favor of the motion, signify by raising 12 your right 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 7; to consider, discuss, take appropriate action on 18 request from the Hill Country District Junior Livestock 19 Association to close Riverside Drive during the 2013 stock 20 show. Commissioner Oehler? 21 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Well, this comes up every 22 year. We just thought we'd get a jump on it this year, not 23 wait till the last minute. The stock show folks requested 24 that this be on the agenda, and there it is. It's something 25 we do annually. I move approval. 9-24-12 69 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 3 approval. Question or discussion? All in favor, signify by 4 raising your right hand. 5 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 6 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 7 (No response.) 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion carries. Item 8; consider, 9 discuss, take appropriate action on request from Hill Country 10 District Junior Livestock Association to put port-a-potties 11 at Flat Rock Lake Park, the same to be reimbursed by the 12 Association during the 2013 stock show. Commissioner Oehler? 13 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Same deal. They -- they have 14 requested those again, and we -- we take care of it; they 15 reimburse us. That's the way it goes. I move approval. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 18 approval. Question or discussion? 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I just want to make a 20 comment, that they are -- they reimburse the County. That 21 facility's set up for the stock show, and they reimburse the 22 County. And we let the whole place be used free by other 23 agencies. I think that's a -- that's bad. I sure like this, 24 though. 25 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: We don't pay for 9-24-12 70 1 port-a-potties for anybody else, though. Except during the 2 summer. 3 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Yeah, that's it. 4 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Otherwise, if they have to 5 put their own port-a-potties up, they have to get a 6 floodplain permit, which we write ourselves. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, port-a-potties is not 8 the issue. The issue is that we charge -- we charge the 9 stock show people for use, and we let the Chamber of Commerce 10 go free. And the place was built for the stock show people. 11 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: What do they pay? 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Chamber does. I mean, the 13 stock show doesn't. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: They're paying -- we're 15 agreeing to this right here. 16 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Just reimbursing the 17 port-a-potty expense, but that's not paying for the facility. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No. No, it's not paying for 19 the facility, but they're paying something. 20 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Oh. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: The Chamber people pay 22 nothing. That's just a point. It's a -- it's stuck in my 23 craw, and we should not be doing that. 24 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I couldn't disagree. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: If anybody gets by free, 9-24-12 71 1 it's these folks. 2 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I understand. And they do, 3 except for port-a-potties. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I understand. I understand. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Any other question? 6 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Otherwise, we're going to be 7 paying for port-a-potties for everybody. 8 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Don't go there. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: A man's got to have a 10 port-a-potty; that's all I'm trying to say. 11 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Is that okay with you guys? 12 MR. REEVES: We don't mind paying for them. 13 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Appreciate you. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Is that what you've been doing the 15 last several years? 16 MR. REEVES: Yes, sir. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: I don't recall if you've raised that 18 issue previously, Commissioner. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No, I hadn't. I was just -- 20 I just got that thing stuck -- that freebie deal stuck in my 21 craw. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Burrs under your blanket? 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. And it's not going to 24 end here today, either. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: All right. Okay. If there's not 9-24-12 72 1 any other questions or comments, all in favor, signify by 2 raising your right hand. 3 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 4 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 5 (No response.) 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion carries. Item 9; consider, 7 discuss, take appropriate action on request from Hill Country 8 District Junior Livestock Association to use Flat Rock Lake 9 Park from Wednesday, January 16, 2013, at 12:01 a.m., to 10 Friday, January 18th, 2013, at 11:59 p.m., to park trailers 11 and use as staging area for delivery of animals. While it's 12 not stated, I assume that is at no cost? 13 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That is right. If there's a 14 cost, I don't know what it is. Move approval. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 17 approval. Question or discussion? All in favor of the 18 motion, 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: The motion does carry. It's 10:30. 23 Let's go with our 10:30 timed item, Item Number 16; to 24 consider, discuss, take appropriate action to accept local 25 rules of procedure and rules of decorum for the Justice of 9-24-12 73 1 the Peace courts. Judge Hoyne? 2 JUDGE HOYNE: Morning, gentlemen. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Pretty good timing. Do you 4 have any port-a-potties built in this thing? 5 JUDGE HOYNE: We can work on that. Gentlemen, I'm 6 here before you this morning in regards to House Bill 79 of 7 the most resent legislative session, and that's that the 8 Justices of the Peace have adopted local rules of procedure 9 and rules of decorum for the Justice of the Peace courts. I 10 did submit a copy to Jody, on paper anyway, to kind of give 11 y'all an idea of about what is involved in that. This does 12 not include any of the new rules of evidence that we're going 13 to be seeing in 2013 from the Supreme Court. But the justice 14 courts -- the Texas Justice Court Training Center has asked 15 that I just -- or suggested that I just bring these up to 16 your attention, that they be read into the minutes as 17 accepted by all four justices, and that's about all I wanted 18 to accomplish this morning with this. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: There is no requirement that this 20 Court approve either of those rules in order for them to be 21 effective within each of the respective J.P. courts of this 22 county. They have the authority to make whatever local 23 rules -- 24 JUDGE HOYNE: Yes, sir, that's correct. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: -- they wish to at any time, 9-24-12 74 1 actually; is that correct? 2 JUDGE HOYNE: It is. And, again, it was just at 3 the recommendation of the training center, to at least get 4 this out into the public. It's probably going to -- it will 5 probably be posted on the justice court's website, so if 6 folks want to access these new rules of procedure and 7 decorum, that they can look at them that way. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: So, your -- your purpose in being 9 here today is to provide them to us as an information item, 10 and for us to acknowledge accepting them? 11 JUDGE HOYNE: Please do, sir. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I think it's fantastic that 14 you're putting together some kind of guidelines for your 15 courtroom. 16 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Yeah, that's good. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Have you had any before? 18 Other than just your -- the judge's guidance? 19 JUDGE HOYNE: Well, it's -- as Judge Tinley 20 mentioned, it's all -- it's from court to court, and we've 21 all been pretty consistent. There's certain rules that are 22 suggested by the State of Texas, certain laws that we have to 23 follow. But this, again, is just something that, as a group 24 here in Kerr County -- it will be different in different 25 counties, depending on -- say, some mental health issues. We 9-24-12 75 1 deal a lot with mental health issues here in Kerr County. 2 Some counties do not, so we customize that to our local 3 needs. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Now, is one of the things in 5 here that you can't -- I can't come in there and chew tobacco 6 and spit on the floor? 7 JUDGE HOYNE: Unless there's a spittoon; then it's 8 okay. Yes, sir. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: I have one I can loan you, 10 Commissioner. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And then no audible cell 12 phones, so if you -- if I walk in and turn my cell phone down 13 to buzz or vibrate, it's okay to have that there? 14 JUDGE HOYNE: It would seem to be the 15 interpretation of that. And, again, it just depends on each 16 judge, and they may clarify some things, depending on the 17 circumstances for each day. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, this is good. Good 19 stuff. 20 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Good deal. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Do we take any action, Judge? 22 If it says -- we accept it, maybe? 23 JUDGE TINLEY: The acceptance is what's anticipated 24 by the agenda item. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, if we accept or do any 9-24-12 76 1 -- take any kind of action, is there any liability? 2 MR. HENNEKE: I don't think any action is -- is 3 required by the Court. You know, I think the agenda item's 4 been completed. I don't see a need for any action. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you, sir. 7 JUDGE HOYNE: All right, thank you. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you. 9 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Thank you. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Why don't we take about a 11 15-minute recess. 12 (Recess taken from 10:37 a.m. to 10:56 a.m.) 13 - - - - - - - - - - 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay, let's come back to order, if 15 we might, and go to Item 12; to consider, discuss, take 16 appropriate action on request from appointed and elected 17 officials to appoint the clerks and assistants for their 18 offices pursuant to Local Government Code, Chapter 151. The 19 items that I have are from Juvenile Probation and J.P. 4, 20 Judge Ragsdale. Are there any more that we've received? 21 MS. GRINSTEAD: No, sir. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Do I hear a motion for approval? 23 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Motion to approve. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 9-24-12 77 1 approval. Question or discussion? All in favor, signify by 2 raising your right hand. 3 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 4 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. Motion 5 carries. Item 13; to consider, discuss, and approve updated 6 2012 Kerr County Indigent Health Care Policy. Ms. Lavender? 7 MS. LAVENDER: Yes. The first one is based on 8 changes to Chapter 61 of Texas Health and Safety Code that 9 has to do with sponsored aliens that are here; that we now 10 need to ask for information about the sponsor, because they 11 are technically under the guidelines of being responsible for 12 that person that they're sponsoring, and that includes their 13 medical costs. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Necessary dependent of the sponsor. 15 MS. LAVENDER: Right. And we have had a couple of 16 those incidents where we've had people come in and apply who 17 were aliens, here living legally, but their sponsors are 18 actually responsible for them, not the County. The other 19 part of the update -- now that Peterson has opened their 20 community care clinic, we can designate to our clients where 21 they need to go if they don't have a primary care physician, 22 and that's what -- we've been out and visited with them, and 23 that's what we're going to be doing. And then the second one 24 under that has to do with the fact that we had -- we have 25 them that get on the program that kind of want to -- let's 9-24-12 78 1 fix it all. And if we've approved them to have a -- you 2 know, one kind of procedure, and then they go and get that 3 done and then they're on the program for a couple of months, 4 then they decide, well, maybe they need to have their knee 5 fixed. And we're going to say to them they have to be 6 referred by their primary care physician again to a 7 specialist, rather than them just going to a specialist 8 themselves. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: And all of these new additional 10 policies are permitted under the -- 11 MS. LAVENDER: Yes, sir. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: -- indigent health care legislation? 13 MS. LAVENDER: Yes, sir. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move approval. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 18 approval. Question or discussion? 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Is the first -- the first 20 time they come, are they required to be referred by their 21 physician? 22 MS. LAVENDER: To a specialist? 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 24 MS. LAVENDER: Well, normally you get a specialist 25 by either going to a clinic or the emergency room -- 9-24-12 79 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So that's -- 2 MS. LAVENDER: -- for something, and then they 3 would refer them to an orthopedic doctor or whatever, right. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Das gut. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Other questions or comments? All in 6 favor of the motion, signify by raising your right hand. 7 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 8 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 9 (No response.) 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion carries. Item 14; to 11 consider, discuss, take appropriate action to approve updated 12 Kerr County investment policy and broker/dealer list for Kerr 13 County investment policies in accordance with the Public 14 Funds Investment Act. Ms. Soldan? 15 MS. SOLDAN: The investment policy that you have 16 really is pretty much the same as last year's. There's some 17 grammatical changes and just some clarifications, but all in 18 all, it's the same. The broker/dealer list has changed the 19 most with removing some and adding others. And all these 20 changes were suggested by Patterson and Associates. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Our investment adviser? 22 MS. SOLDAN: Yes. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Is the investment officer -- 24 the way I understand it, the Commissioners Court appoints an 25 investment officer -- appoints? Authorizes. Authorizes the 9-24-12 80 1 County Treasurer. Are there others that the County 2 authorized as investment officers, or is it just the County 3 Treasurer? 4 MS. SOLDAN: I believe it's just the County 5 Treasurer. There is an investment committee that's made up 6 of the Judge and the Auditor and the Treasurer. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay, maybe that's what was 8 stuck in there, near the stick in my craw. Thank you. 9 MS. SOLDAN: Yes, sir. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Under the banks, it says Hill 11 Country Bank. Is that Hill Country State Bank or Hill 12 Country Bank? 13 MS. SOLDAN: On the broker/dealer list? 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. 15 MS. SOLDAN: Yes, it is Hill Country State Bank. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: A typo, then. 17 MS. SOLDAN: Mm-hmm. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: There's -- on the bank list, 19 how is that selected? I mean, 'cause there's other local 20 banks that aren't on that list. 21 MS. SOLDAN: Right. And they actually don't even 22 need to be on the broker/dealer list, because they're not 23 brokers and dealers. It's just on here for informational 24 purposes. We're not limited to those banks. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 9-24-12 81 1 JUDGE TINLEY: So, you're asking us to approve the 2 updated and revised investment policy? 3 MS. SOLDAN: Yes. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Do I hear a motion for approval? 5 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Motion to approve. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 8 approval of the agenda item and the updated policy. Question 9 or discussion? All in favor, signify by raising your right 10 hand. 11 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 12 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 13 (No response.) 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion carries. Item 15 is to 15 acknowledge receipt of the quarterly investment report from 16 Patterson and Associates for the quarter ending June 30th, 17 2012. Not a lot of earnings these days, is there? 18 MS. SOLDAN: No, there isn't. 19 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I made a comment to 20 Commissioner Baldwin over here; I like the comments here, 21 just kind of the commentary on the last paragraph on Page 3. 22 It says, "With election looming in four months, and no adult 23 supervision in Washington, there's little chance of change." 24 I like that. (Laughter.) 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's actually in the 9-24-12 82 1 report. 2 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Yeah, that's in the report, 3 and so I think they summed it up quite well. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: We're in the record of having 5 received the quarterly investment report. Do you need 6 further action by the Court? 7 MS. SOLDAN: No. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: All right. Anything further? 9 MS. SOLDAN: That's it. Thank you. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you. Let's go to Item 17; to 11 consider, discuss, take appropriate action to approve 12 contract with Xerox Corporation through the Buy Board for a 13 new copy machine. The current lease will end September 30 of 14 this year. The lease would be a savings of $51.38 per month, 15 total savings of $616.56 a year. 16 MS. HARGIS: I've had the copier now for five 17 years, and the lease is up. And I sent a copy of the lease 18 to the County Attorney's office. Xerox is now going through 19 Buy Board; that's why we're getting a better -- a better deal 20 with them. And I -- my machine is not working very well, so 21 it's starting to break down, so I would appreciate being able 22 to renew the lease. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I move for approval. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 9-24-12 83 1 approval. Question or discussion? All in favor, signify by 2 raising your right hand. 3 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 4 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 5 (No response.) 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion carries. Item 18; to 7 consider, discuss, and take appropriate action for approval 8 of CodeRED services agreement between Communications Network, 9 L.L.C., and Kerr County. Sheriff? 10 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I had originally told y'all 11 last time we'd bring this full agreement back in February, 12 but people with CodeRED would rather we have the agreement 13 now. It doesn't change anything. Only reason they were 14 pushing for it now -- Rob's even visited with them a little 15 bit -- was they changed their name to that Communications 16 Network. They're trying to get all their agreements the 17 same. Otherwise, the agreement is exactly what we have been. 18 The -- the weather we added as an addendum to it. It renews 19 the same time it does everything, same as what we've been 20 doing, same cost and everything else. I just ask that you 21 approve the renewal of the agreement with CodeRED, as I call 22 them. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Move for approval. 24 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I'll second, and I have a 25 comment also. 9-24-12 84 1 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Okay. 2 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I'd just like to say that 3 this is an excellent service for the county. They do a 4 fantastic job in providing the emergency contacts and 5 management of that with the services and the needs in our 6 community. We looked at several other -- other, just, 7 services that were out there in our area as well, and when we 8 looked at those, this one here was really one that -- that a 9 lot of counties particularly use and need. This is an 10 excellent program. There's a lot of benefits that -- that we 11 have, plus the amount is locked in for however long we want 12 to have it, and that is an excellent service that our county 13 has. And, anyway, I just would like to make that comment. 14 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: A little update. As you know, 15 last Wednesday we did an all-call throughout the county to 16 test it, which was the first time in three years that we 17 actually did a full test all-call, and to advise people of 18 the weather addition or addendum. During that all-call, 19 there are 24 incoming lines to the Sheriff's Office, and we 20 totally froze up our phone system and phone lines coming in; 21 we had that many calls, people calling in, wanting us to add 22 them. Since then, I've approved new additions to it and 23 people adding well over 3,000 to 4,000, okay, approvals that 24 I have had to approve on the computer. And they will get to 25 drop about 5,000 inactive numbers that you actually call, and 9-24-12 85 1 it says, you know, this number is no longer in service, since 2 we hadn't done one for them in three years. And it was kind 3 of astonishing that there are that many phone number changes, 4 that this number is no longer a valid number. 'Cause I got 5 the list and I, you know, just randomly picked through and 6 called those, and it's a very accurate -- 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Are they all land lines? 8 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: No. They're -- some are land 9 lines. Some are, like, your Cricket, your cell phones, 10 people moved or changed numbers, whatever. But it's -- it's 11 going to be a lot better. I don't know how happy the phone 12 companies are with me doing an all-call that quick, but I 13 think it's something we will probably have to do at least 14 once a year to really keep a good and accurate list of -- of 15 people in there. 16 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Sheriff, how many people are 17 actually registered and with CodeRED now? 18 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: At that time, whenever it -- 19 when we did the all-call, it made 25,600-something calls. 20 The first time it made a total of about 46,000 phone calls, 21 'cause it redials a little bit. But there was 25,000 22 initial -- in the first initial deal. There was over 9,000 23 that actually picked up, and then it did two more, you know, 24 after that. It ended up being about 14,000 that were active, 25 different numbers, okay. Not just -- you know, and that's 9-24-12 86 1 not counting the 25,000 in there. You have to remember, some 2 of that's e-mail; some of that's text. We didn't e-mail or 3 text; this was a call only on this -- on this initial one, so 4 it was, you know, 14 -- about 14,000 is what they actively 5 got out of those that are actively in the county, which is 6 good. You know, it's a good percentage of our county. We 7 still need a lot more to sign up. It can be a lot more 8 helpful to everybody. I think it's a good program, and I 9 thank y'all for supporting it and renewing it. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Speaking of sign-up, can 11 people sign up just any time, or is there a season? 12 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yes, sign up any time you 13 want. Update your information any time you want. If you're 14 not sure it's in there, just log onto the County's website, 15 click on the CodeRED emblem that's on there, the actual 16 banner that's on there, and just follow the instructions. It 17 takes about five minutes. But if you're not positive whether 18 your, you know, cell phone numbers are in there or whether 19 your new home number, your weather stuff is in there, just 20 sign back up. It doesn't matter if it's a duplicate; it just 21 drops out the other ones that are already in there. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: And for those of us that are not 23 technologically inclined, -- 24 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Like me? 25 JUDGE TINLEY: -- an option is to pick up the 9-24-12 87 1 phone, call 896-1216, and say, "I want to sign up," and 2 they'll take your information? 3 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yep. We keep the forms right 4 there with all our receptionist and dispatchers. If you just 5 want to do that and just call and sign up, we put it down. 6 We enter the information in, and you're automatically in 7 there that way. If, for some reason, you do not want to be 8 part of it any more, somebody got a call and they got -- you 9 know, didn't like it and don't want it -- I don't know why 10 anyone would do that, but there is a "do not call" form. You 11 know, they can call us, they can come by the office. We can 12 fill it out. They will have to come in or we'll have to take 13 it to them and let them sign that form, because that form is 14 kept, because if there were an emergency and they didn't get 15 called, and then they start hollering, we want to be able to 16 show why, 'cause they requested not to. But the -- the 17 weather one is great. And I don't think that -- I think 18 everybody in the county should be signed up. With all your 19 phone -- it can hold up to 15 phone numbers, okay, on your 20 one address, even though it only shows two. The other one 21 keeps going. So, your kid's cell phone, everybody else 22 should be part of that system. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Any other questions or comments? 24 All in favor, signify by raising your right hand. 25 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 9-24-12 88 1 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 2 (No response.) 3 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. Item 19 is 4 to consider, discuss, and take appropriate action to 5 determine participation in the Hog Out County Grants Program 6 sponsored by the Texas Department of Agriculture. I put this 7 on the agenda as another option that folks could, if they're 8 inclined to not want their hogs, -- 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Judge, I got a couple of 10 questions. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: I'm not sure I can answer them, but 12 go ahead. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's what I was going to 14 say. I don't -- I can't imagine you -- of course, you're 15 all-knowing and all-seeing. That's where we start. But on 16 -- on the letter from the Agriculture Department, it talks 17 about in here, counties will be required to document the 18 following results, and one of those things is the number of 19 feral hogs taken in your county. How in the world do you 20 know that? 21 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Well, a Trapper report. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So just use that? What 23 about the ones that you kill? 24 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I didn't kill one. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yes, you have. 9-24-12 89 1 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: But not recently. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Oh, all right. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think, Commissioner, that's 4 kind of the reason we didn't participate last year. It goes 5 into -- I look at it -- you know, I certainly support the 6 intent of getting rid of feral hogs, but I'm not sure that 7 this really enhances the getting rid of feral hogs. What it 8 does, if you're one of the -- you're scored based on the 9 number of hogs you kill during that period. There's some 10 other criteria, and if you are the high-scoring county, you 11 get up to -- first place gets 20,000, and then 15,000, then 12 10,000 to cover the county's administrative expenses to keep 13 track of the hogs you're killing. And I look that as -- 14 well, that means we're going to give more work to Animal 15 Control, 'cause they would be the department that gets it. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Absolutely. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So we have to -- 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Hire somebody new. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We have to have administration 20 for something that we may or may not get reimbursed for, and 21 then how do they collect the data that's real? 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean, most ranchers are going 24 to shoot every hog they see. And I think -- 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You and I are not going to 9-24-12 90 1 know about it. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. So maybe -- 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Roy's going to know about it. 4 MR. WALSTON: The way -- my understanding, and I'm 5 not sure about how certain counties are handling this, but I 6 think it's a targeted week, maybe, and it's an activity to 7 where they may have a county hog hunt. They may have teams 8 of three or four individuals go out, and they make a 9 competition out of it to where individuals go out and 10 compete, trying to bring in the most number of hogs. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Where in the world does it 12 say all this? 13 MR. WALSTON: Well, that's one of the ways in which 14 you can get the most number of hogs. You can -- you can 15 promote it as a -- as a "hog out" where different teams come 16 in and bring those hogs in. And so that's just the way to 17 promote it, and -- and from what I would understand, part of 18 that money can be used as prize money. I mean, we'd have to 19 check to make sure, but that's something else that other 20 counties -- I think the way they're handling it. So -- 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah, it's for one quarter, the last 22 quarter of this calendar year. And the three high-scoring 23 counties will get the grant money. I guess we could hire 24 some of those reality show folks to come in and manage it, 25 have a vigilante group go out there going after the hogs. 9-24-12 91 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We could involve Buzzie. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. Yeah. 3 MR. WALSTON: But that's what my understanding is. 4 How they're collecting that information on how many hogs 5 they're killing is -- it's a one-time deal. They -- maybe a 6 weekend, a Friday-Saturday-Sunday, they show up, you know, 7 and they bring them into certain -- 8 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: They bring them in. There's 9 the key word right there. Then what are you going to do with 10 them after they bring them in? 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Do you want to run this 12 thing? 13 MR. WALSTON: My plate's full at the moment. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean -- 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'm going to have to pass, 16 myself. 17 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I don't know if we have 18 enough landfill space yet. 19 MR. WALSTON: After they bring them in and you get 20 the head count, they don't care what you do with them. 21 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I know. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: One option would be to approve 23 the letter of intent to participate, which has to be in by 24 the 28th of the month, and then not go any further unless 25 someone comes up with a way to do it. 9-24-12 92 1 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yeah, a way that doesn't cost 2 a bunch of money. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. And that kind of is a 4 deferral thing. I think last year, we didn't ever take the 5 next step. Now, I think it's interesting; I was looking up 6 under the -- I want went to the Texas Department of 7 Agriculture website, looking up their actual rules. It 8 doesn't mention that you can't -- you can hire someone to run 9 it for you. But the problem is, if you offer prize money, to 10 me, you're risking county funds, so you may not get 11 reimbursed. If you knew you were going to get reimbursed, 12 and I -- I'd like to find out probably before we go forward, 13 certainly, what the winning county's number of hogs they got 14 last year. 15 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: What kind of -- 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What kind of competition we've 17 got. 18 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Well, I can tell you, some 19 neighboring ones may have a -- more population than we do. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Medina. 21 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: But -- 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: My personal feeling is, I'd let 23 this one pass too. I just don't see that -- it seems like 24 more work for not a whole lot of money, and I think people -- 25 I'd just encourage and hope Roy's encouraging every hunter, 9-24-12 93 1 every landowner to shoot every hog they see. 2 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: And we don't want them at the 3 courthouse. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And we don't want them brought 5 in. Leave them to feed the buzzards. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Give the buzzards something to eat. 7 There you go. 8 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: They got to eat too. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Anything else? Have we wrung that 10 one out? Let's go to Item 20; consider, discuss, take 11 appropriate action on proposal from Peter Lewis Architect and 12 Associates to provide schematic design services for proposed 13 event hall at the Hill Country Youth Event Center. 14 Commissioner Oehler? 15 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Well, I tell you what, we got 16 the man at the podium up here that's going to tell us all 17 about it. Mr. Lewis? 18 MR. LEWIS: Your Honor, Commissioners, good 19 morning. Thank you. 20 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Morning. 21 MR. LEWIS: We have visited with Commissioners 22 Oehler and Letz regarding the next phase of the improvements 23 out at the Hill Country Youth Event Center, and the next one 24 being an event hall -- indoor event hall, and to provide the 25 Commissioners -- and basically to provide Commissioners with 9-24-12 94 1 some graphics and kind of market collateral to promote the 2 project, to communicate to the public and private agencies 3 and to communicate with potential funding sources. We have 4 offered a letter of agreement that would allow us to develop 5 floor plans, site plan, and exterior image, and then be a -- 6 participate as requested by Commissioners in any kind of 7 public presentations, certainly presenting to Commissioners 8 Court, and that letter in front of it is an hourly agreement. 9 And we just don't know what the -- it is open-ended, but we 10 don't know what will be needed of us. We have actually had 11 several passes at a floor plan for that, and I think we're 12 headed in the right direction for what the event hall is 13 going to look like, at least at this phase. And then after 14 the successful campaign to raise funds for this, we will come 15 back with a fixed fee agreement to do technical documents and 16 construction documents. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I know it's -- is there a 18 not-to-exceed number that you're comfortable with? 19 MR. LEWIS: There is not a not-to-exceed number on 20 this. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But is there one that you're 22 comfortable with? 23 MR. LEWIS: I couldn't -- there might be. I just 24 don't know what it is right now. I'm thinking. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: If you were pressed to include one, 9-24-12 95 1 you'd have to, of course, be on the high side just to make 2 sure everything's covered, right? 3 MR. LEWIS: And I would need to take a little time, 4 and I'd need to come back to you at another session of court 5 to tell you what that number is. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean, I would hate to do 7 anything without having a number. 8 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Put a number on it, and if he 9 sees it's going to exceed that, he needs to come back and 10 visit with us. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And to me, the -- the next 12 thing is where the money comes from. And I think this is 13 probably eligible under the -- under the funds that we have 14 set aside for the construction of the project. This is part 15 of the design, so, I mean, that's -- it would come out of 16 the -- the 600,000 we set aside, whatever -- 17 MR. LEWIS: That's a good number. (Laughter.) 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I was thinking more in the line 19 of, you know, 3,000. 20 MR. LEWIS: I'm thinking, like, 5,000 to 7,500. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 5,000? 22 MR. LEWIS: Leave it at five. 23 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Not to exceed. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Not to exceed. 25 MR. LEWIS: If we hit that and we need to come 9-24-12 96 1 back, we'll come back. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Make a motion to approve an 3 agreement in -- not to exceed $5,000. Rob? 4 MR. LEWIS: I'll be happy to amend my agreement to 5 state that, and I'll get that back to the Judge this 6 afternoon. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And the County Attorney -- 8 you're comfortable with the agreement? 9 MR. HENNEKE: Yes. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes, okay. 11 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Second. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 13 approval of the item as stated. Question or discussion? All 14 in favor, signify by raising your right hand. 15 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 16 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 17 (No response.) 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion does carry. Item 21, to 19 consider, discuss, take appropriate action regarding a change 20 from a 6-inch fire line to an 8-inch fire line at Hill 21 Country Youth Exhibit Center. Commissioner Oehler? 22 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Did you get those documents, 23 Peter? 24 MR. LEWIS: I -- I was out Friday, and I got in 25 this morning and I saw some e-mail about them, but I don't 9-24-12 97 1 have -- the 6-inch to 8-inch was to enable to County to 2 extend additional domestic water service sometime in the 3 future, just to have the capacity there now. And there were 4 -- there's obviously an upgrade in the cost to do that now, 5 but great -- great savings as opposed to doing it sometime in 6 the future. 7 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That number that I got last 8 week was 6,500 and change. We actually did not get -- I was 9 hoping that they had sent that -- 10 MR. LEWIS: From Journeyman? 11 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: From Journeyman. They were 12 supposed to have sent the revised document that we would be 13 approving at this moment. I did not get it. 14 MR. LEWIS: I've not seen it. Gary and I spoke 15 briefly before I came down here to court this morning. He 16 just apprized me of these two items, of this and then the 17 structural foundation piece. 18 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I would say that we would 19 pass on this, and let you go and see if they got that 20 documentation sent to Gary, and then if you can send it over 21 here to Jody so we know exactly what we're approving. I know 22 that -- 23 MR. LEWIS: Absolutely. 24 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: -- it is a difference. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: We might -- we're obviously going to 9-24-12 98 1 be going past lunch here, or having to come back after lunch. 2 If we might be able to get that together between now and 3 then, we may -- 4 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I was hoping that he would 5 have it. And I normally get that stuff, but I did not. I 6 got -- I got one, but it was -- the document was wrong, and I 7 had them to revise it. Actually wanted to give us a credit 8 instead of an additional cost, and I said -- asked them if 9 they thought they really wanted to give us a credit. We'd 10 take it. But that's what the mistake was. So, I think that 11 we need to have a proper document before we approve it. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I agree with you, but I do 13 think we need to deal with this, 'cause it -- any time you 14 can, you know, do an upgrade like this where you can look 15 into the future, I think it's very wise to do. 16 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I tell you, I couldn't agree 17 more, but it's just that I think we need to -- when we 18 approve something, I think it ought to be the right thing. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We may have to borrow some 20 money from you to get it done. 21 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Well, get some from Wilson 22 Associates. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay, let's move on to 22, then. 24 MR. LEWIS: Thank you. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Consider, discuss, take appropriate 9-24-12 99 1 action to approve funding for the restroom, slab, and 2 plumbing for the 4-H livestock center. 3 MS. HARGIS: You're up again. 4 MR. LEWIS: I'm sorry. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: How'd you get in on this deal? 6 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: You're not in on this one. 7 MR. LEWIS: I'm not in on that one, no. That's why 8 I was sitting down. Do you want to take this? 9 MR. WALSTON: I'm afraid I may have something to do 10 with this. 11 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: We saved money on this one. 12 MR. LEWIS: That's why I'm not up there. 13 (Laughter.) 14 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Anyway, we have been working 15 on this. Roy has worked with -- with getting his numbers 16 together, and Tim has worked on getting some together for the 17 restroom that we intend to add out there, and I think we 18 finally have it all here. It's kind of -- kind of hard to 19 decipher some of Tim's scratching here, but I think we got it 20 figured out. In order to have that -- I think last meeting, 21 we approved the interceptor, and the -- 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Mm-hmm. 23 MR. WALSTON: And the trench. The trench for 24 the -- where we had to cut the concrete. 25 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yeah, the concrete trench and 9-24-12 100 1 the interceptor, but that was -- there was no installation 2 for that. 3 MR. WALSTON: No, no installation. 4 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: There was no lift station. 5 MR. WALSTON: Hmm-mm. 6 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: No tying onto the city sewer. 7 And at that point, there was no cost for restrooms that we 8 intend to build. So, what we have here, if I can go -- Roy, 9 you want to try it, or do you want me to -- 10 MR. WALSTON: I can go -- I can go through what we 11 haven't included. 12 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Okay. 13 MR. WALSTON: Like you mentioned. The installation 14 of the interceptor is $2,600. There's an electrical 15 notification emergency system on it; that's $1,100. It will 16 be included when it's installed. Back-filling is $400. The 17 lift station's $3,200. We were able to do some trading off 18 on the hauling off of the materials; we're not going to be 19 actually charged for that. And then the main to run from the 20 400 feet of 2-inch line from the lift station to the city 21 main would be $2,800, for a total cost of $10,460. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Does that include 360 for the 23 haul-off which we're not having to pay, right? 24 MR. WALSTON: Yes, you subtract -- 25 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: But what's happening with 9-24-12 101 1 that is, they're -- well, that number comes off. 2 MR. WALSTON: It comes off. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Mm-hmm. 4 MR. WALSTON: It gets added back on, but -- 5 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Well, it does, but it's 6 supposed to be -- it's a change-out. After meeting with Lane 7 the other day out there, we started thinking about what can 8 go down that restroom toilet? Without going into a lift 9 station, and there not being a tank or anything for anything 10 to settle out or be trapped, that it could cause problems 11 with our lift station. And so he agreed that he would put in 12 a tank -- a holding tank to catch all the solids or whatever 13 else before that water continues on to the lift station. And 14 that's a trade-off for the hauling off. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. So, the 360 comes back, then? 16 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Right. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. We're at 10,460. 18 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yeah, that's where we are, 19 that portion of it. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So, this other trade deal is 22 not a reality. 23 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: What's that? 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, it says Mr. Walston 25 agreed to provide the separator in the bathroom in exchange 9-24-12 102 1 for hauling off. 2 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Right. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's a -- 4 MR. WALSTON: That's what that is. That's what 5 he's talking about. 6 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Really, there's no cost 7 there, right? 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: The separator -- 9 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Is the tank. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: -- is the tank itself? 11 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: It's a separate tank that 12 would catch all the solids prior to going to the interceptor. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, okay. But 14 installing -- 15 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: It's probably best for them 16 to install that big -- this is for installing the big 17 interceptor. If that stuff is not properly set, and you 18 get -- you know, it's got to be compacted in the bottom, so 19 if that thing starts to settle, we have problems. And 20 they're liable. If we do the digging and we don't get it 21 just right, then we're stuck with it. And I'm not sure it's 22 not a good idea to go ahead and pay somebody that does it 23 every day to do that. I mean, that -- it's just one of those 24 things. I'd prefer that we do it, but this is a little bit 25 more critical than digging a ditch for a water line, and so 9-24-12 103 1 that's -- that's why that's in there. The other money that 2 will be added to that would be -- I got a price from Neal and 3 Neal that did the concrete work on the new trough for the -- 4 to do the washing down, and his price is to go ahead and pour 5 a slab in that area where we're going to have the restroom, 6 to cover the whole area, rather than just an 8-by-8. It just 7 -- it just needs to be done if we can possibly do it. That 8 cost is $4,262.50. And then you have Bosworth Company 9 Plumbing. They're going to do all the -- all the plumbing 10 work, and also get the permit from the City to do -- because 11 we're tying in, we got to have a permit, and operate under 12 one no matter who puts it in. Operating with his permit. 13 Anyway, that cost is -- if I'm not mistaken, is $3,500 to run 14 and do all the connecting of that plumbing to the city sewer, 15 and also connect up the restroom to -- to and out of that 16 primary tank coming out of the restroom. Anyway, that total 17 cost is $1,201 for building the restroom, but Tim has 18 submitted for the material cost. Bosworth -- does that 19 include all the -- 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Fixtures. 21 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: -- all the fixtures? 22 MR. BOLLIER: That's fixtures, everything. 23 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Fixtures and everything. 24 Because we're putting in -- I think we're mandated to put in 25 A.D.A. accessible fixtures, compliant fixtures, and so that's 9-24-12 104 1 why that figure is quite a bit more than you might expect. 2 Anyway, from what everything totals up here -- I think, Tim, 3 you got one number wrong, but I'm -- you have -- you say we 4 have $1,000, but you added 1,000 to the total rather than 5 taking it away. 6 MR. BOLLIER: I think you're right. 7 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: So the total amount needed to 8 do everything, turnkey, would be $21,222.50. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Read that again, please. 10 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: 22,000 -- 21,000 -- no, hang 11 on. I'll get it right here in a minute. $22,222.50. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Be a great poker hand, wouldn't it? 13 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Sure would. Five twos, I 14 don't know how you get that. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And the -- we had talked once 16 before that the -- or there's a question why that -- the 400 17 foot of 2-inch forced main couldn't be added onto at some 18 point if needed for restrooms at the outdoor arena. 19 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Right. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I wouldn't know why you 21 couldn't. I mean -- 22 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Well, you'd actually come 23 down and connect right into the -- you're more downhill, you 24 know. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right, just going downhill. 9-24-12 105 1 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: You wouldn't have to hook 2 into that; you could just hook directly. 3 MR. WALSTON: Go into the lift station. You'd go 4 into the lift station. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That way, you could -- I mean, 6 we're solving that piece of it. 7 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Because this -- this is 8 supposed to handle 1,500 gallons a day, if I'm not mistaken. 9 MR. WALSTON: I believe so, yeah. 10 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: So it would have capacity 11 for -- I think there's no way you're going to use 1,500 12 gallons each and every day at the project barn. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Put another holding tank up 14 there too. 15 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Anyway, you asked me to get 16 that together, and with the help of Roy and Tim, there it is. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And -- 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Funds? 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Ms. Auditor? This would come 20 out of the -- are there funds left in that -- whatever the 21 pot of money that we used? 22 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: '8 and '10 issue? I don't 23 think so. 24 MS. HARGIS: We've been using that first. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 9-24-12 106 1 MS. HARGIS: And so I'll have to look. Because I 2 didn't look after the disbursements for today, so I'll have 3 to look. We pretty much should be done with '8 -- '9 and '10 4 after today, I'm sure. We didn't have that much left. 5 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I think after the last 6 Journeyman draw, the very first draw for them, that -- that 7 cleaned it out. 8 MS. HARGIS: Took us through '12, this issue. So, 9 we're just now getting into the '12 issue. We should have 10 enough in the '12 issue to do it. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 12 MS. HARGIS: We've been very frugal with that other 13 money. We also combined other -- you rearranged all those, 14 so we should be good. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: This is something that really 16 needs to -- I mean, needs to be done. I mean, for a lot of 17 reasons, so I make a motion to approve $22,222.50 to complete 18 the restrooms, slab, and plumbing at the 4-H Livestock 19 Center, as discussed. 20 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Second. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: We have a motion and a second. 22 Question or discussion? 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: "As discussed" meaning where 24 it's coming from? 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Where it's coming from, and 9-24-12 107 1 that list -- the list that we have on here for the -- 2 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: The list has now been 3 presented. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And that's the 22,222.50? 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right, which includes the -- 6 the interceptor and the restrooms at that building, which is 7 sorely needed. 8 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: We already paid for the 9 interceptor in the last deal, and also -- 10 MR. WALSTON: The trenching. 11 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: What was it? 12 MR. WALSTON: The concrete trench. 13 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yeah, the concrete trough. 14 That was what was approved previously. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 16 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: This is in addition to that. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 18 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Looks good. 19 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: But I do think it's important 20 that kids have a place to go to the restroom. 21 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Helps you a little. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: They're going to go somewhere. 23 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That's the -- you know, that 24 project barn has gotten really busy, and it's full. And 25 right now, I think the hogs are starting to come in. 9-24-12 108 1 MR. WALSTON: They're in. They're starting to come 2 in. We're -- 3 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: So you're going to have a 4 whole mess of hogs in there pretty soon. Be nice to get it 5 done. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. Okay. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Other questions or comments? All in 8 favor, 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: Motion does carry. Gentlemen, we're 13 going to take an early lunch. We'll be in recess till 1:15. 14 (Recess taken from 11:34 a.m. to 1:20 p.m.) 15 - - - - - - - - - - 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay, let's come back to order, if 17 we might. Looks like we got Item 23; to consider, discuss, 18 take appropriate action to approve posting and hiring of 19 deputy clerk at an entry level 14/1 as approved in the 20 2012-13 budget and in the applications for appointment of 21 deputies. Ms. Pieper? 22 MS. PIEPER: Judge, that says it all. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: This is a new position that is 24 approved -- the entry level position that was approved in the 25 budget? 9-24-12 109 1 MS. PIEPER: Correct. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: And what you're seeking to do is 3 sometime after October 1, after posting and so forth, to fill 4 it? 5 MS. PIEPER: Right. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 7 MS. PIEPER: Probably fill it October 15th, would 8 be their first day. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I was hoping to have maybe some 11 of these coming a little bit later in the year. 12 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: You didn't designate that, 13 though, did you? 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Just mention it. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, it's in the budget for 16 beginning October 1. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And it's not going to be 18 filled till October 1? 19 JUDGE TINLEY: No, it won't be filled until -- 20 MS. PIEPER: Right, because it will be posted for 21 two weeks, and then we will go through the interview process. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And then October 1 is upon 23 us. Upon us. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. Right there. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's old English talk, 9-24-12 110 1 "upon us." 2 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I got it. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So, if it requires a court 4 order, I'm -- I'd be happy to make that motion to approve it. 5 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I'll second. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: I think she's got it there because 7 of the hiring freeze that she's respecting. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I respect her. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. I have a motion. Do I hear a 10 second? 11 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I'll second. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: We have a motion and a second. 13 Question or discussion? All in favor, signify by raising 14 your right hand. 15 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 16 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 17 (No response.) 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion carries. Okay, let's go to 19 Item 24; to consider, discuss, take appropriate action to 20 appoint or reappoint members of the Kerr County Historical 21 Commission and submit the current membership list to the 22 Texas Historical Commission. Commissioner Baldwin? 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yes, sir. I'm not totally 24 clear how that got on the agenda, but that's fine. We'll 25 deal with this. There is -- we're not going to take any 9-24-12 111 1 action today. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Because we have time to 4 think about if there is someone that we want to appoint from 5 this Court. Remember, we spent three or four months on that 6 last year, and did not appoint anybody. But we have that 7 time, and we have a little while, so I thought -- I thought, 8 like, maybe the next meeting in two weeks, I'll bring it 9 back, and then we can start -- start adopting these things. 10 We have a -- we have a list of their membership today, and 11 it's fairly large. And I had some notes on this, but anyway, 12 I guess what I'm saying to you guys, if I remember, Letz had 13 somebody he had on his mind last time that maybe we wanted to 14 appoint someone to the committee, and if that's the case, if 15 you'll kind of put it together, and we'll be back in a couple 16 weeks and we'll deal with everything at that point. Thank 17 you for your time. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Anything further on that one? 19 Let's go to Item 25; to consider, discuss, take appropriate 20 action to confirm the rental fee for the new show barn at the 21 Hill Country Youth Event Center. Commissioners Oehler and 22 Letz. 23 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Well, my feeling on this is 24 that Jody did call some of the places like I asked her to do, 25 and they have not returned her call. I think the rental 9-24-12 112 1 should be the same as it is for the inside -- exhibit hall 2 right now. Which is -- 3 MS. GRINSTEAD: 650, with setup and take-down. 4 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: -- 650. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What do you get for 650? 6 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: You get the building. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You don't get security? You 8 don't get -- 9 MS. GRINSTEAD: No, sir. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: -- slingshots or -- 11 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: If you'd like to lower that, 12 I'm game to do that as well. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Does this include any setup? 14 MS. GRINSTEAD: That includes the $300 15 setup/take-down fee, and then the rental fee is 350, so 16 combined, it's 650. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Ah, okay. See there? 18 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: See there? That's what I'm 19 talking about. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think it's a good starting 21 point. I mean, I -- you know, we definitely don't want to go 22 up from there. We could come down a little bit, because it 23 has no -- 24 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: No air conditioning. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And heating. 9-24-12 113 1 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: There is heating. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, heating, but no air 3 conditioning. 4 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: There will be heating, but 5 there won't be any air. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We have our Big Ass fan, so it 7 will be -- it will be pretty... (Laughter.) 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I don't think you can talk 9 like that in here. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: He's from off down there in Comfort. 11 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: It's just -- 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: They all talk like that all 13 the time, don't they? 14 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That Comfort logic. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think it's -- let's go to 16 300. 300 and 300. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: 300 and 300, so it will be 18 600 instead of 650. 19 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Second. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: We got a motion and second to set 21 the rental fee at $300, plus $300 setup and take-down fee. 22 That doesn't include take-down, does it? 23 MS. GRINSTEAD: 600 would include setup/take-down 24 and rental. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay, but it's 300 allocated to 9-24-12 114 1 each. Question or discussion on the motion? All in favor, 2 signify by raising your right hand. 3 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 4 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 5 (No response.) 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion carries. Item 26; to 7 consider, discuss, take appropriate action to apply for 8 Healthy County reward in the amount of $2,400 to remodel and 9 utilize area behind County Attorney's office as a Kerr County 10 Courthouse employee break area. Ms. Lantz? 11 MS. LANTZ: After talking with the County Attorney 12 and consulting with TAC, the rewards that we're eligible for, 13 we can use those funds to create a better environment for our 14 employees, which means it can be where they can leave their 15 work area to take a break or eat lunch when they're not 16 staying in their office or at their desk to eat their lunch. 17 I do realize we do have two separate areas within the 18 courthouse; one, I believe, is in the Clerk's office -- 19 County Clerk's office, and the other one's upstairs in the 20 District Clerk's office. However, there's no area in the 21 lower level for employees to utilize, other than in the 22 Maintenance Department. And I have spoken with the County 23 Attorney, and behind his office there's an area that all 24 employees can utilize to go to, like I said, eat lunch, where 25 they don't have to leave the building if they don't want to, 9-24-12 115 1 and take a break away from their desk. And there won't be 2 any so-called remodeling, other than just cosmetic, painting 3 it, and then using the funds to purchase possibly a few -- 4 refrigerator to put down there, and a table and chairs, and 5 maybe a little seating area. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Have you thought of putting a 7 TV down there? 8 MS. LANTZ: We can do that as well. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It always seems -- 10 MS. LANTZ: We can have internet access, they said. 11 We can -- we can make it a -- 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Why do you want a TV down 13 there? 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, I think that if you look 15 at, you know, private sector companies, many of them have 16 break rooms that are very conducive to relaxing. Peter, 17 we're not hiring you for this one. 18 MS. LANTZ: Well, and that was the other point that 19 they did say at Healthy County; it gets the employee away in 20 a stress -- less-stress environment, and they can sit, read a 21 book in the chair, or -- until they have to go back to work. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Leave off the TV, but just have 23 nicer chairs. I mean, get something that's comfortable. 24 MS. LANTZ: And that's part of it. 25 MR. HENNEKE: And just to be clear, too, the funds 9-24-12 116 1 on this, you know, the County participated in the Sonic Boom 2 Healthy Living Challenge, and signed up for another one of 3 the TAC rewards. And we're getting money from TAC as a 4 reward for the County's participation in this. This isn't 5 taxpayers' money to build the break room. And those funds 6 are limited to healthy living programs, but as far as direct 7 rebates to individual county employees who participated, the 8 funds are limited so you can only spend a very small 9 percentage on that. So, I met with Dawn on this, and instead 10 of a $3 key-chain to, you know, the folks that participated, 11 leaving us with 90 percent of the balance, we still wouldn't 12 be able -- you know, this is an idea to, you know, set up a 13 break room for the employees, and I'm certainly on board with 14 it. It's that space where the refrigerator and the little -- 15 behind the County Attorney's office. And I've never known if 16 that space was assigned to my office, but I certainly think 17 this is a great idea for all departments in the basement and 18 the whole courthouse to enjoy, to have a chance to get away 19 for a little bit. 20 MS. LANTZ: And every year -- we're eligible to 21 earn these rewards every year, so the more employees that we 22 do have participate, the greater the amount we can earn. So, 23 this was just our amount for this past year, so if we get 24 everybody to participate, we can get up to $13,000 for 25 healthy improvements and healthy living within different 9-24-12 117 1 facilities. It's just -- we just had this small amount that 2 we could use. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What's the square footage of 4 this area? 5 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Oh, I think it's where the 6 stairs used to go up to the jail, wasn't it? 7 MR. HENNEKE: 12-by-25, maybe? 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Pretty good size. 9 MS. LANTZ: And the access stays open all the time, 10 so it's not where it's closed off because of the fire exit. 11 And I know a lot of employees go out in the back area to take 12 breaks, so -- 13 MR. HENNEKE: We'd also talked about maybe putting 14 a water dispenser down there as well. 15 MS. LANTZ: Mm-hmm. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'm in favor of doing something 17 like that. I mean, that's fine. I mean, I think just see 18 how it goes, and what goes in there can be determined, you 19 know, by H.R. department during -- you know, as we have funds 20 available through this program. 21 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Is that a motion? 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What's the agenda item say? 23 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I'm working on it. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So, this is authorizing her 25 to go after this money, or what? 9-24-12 118 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No, authorizing -- do we have 2 to apply for the funds? 3 MS. LANTZ: Well, we have to give them our game 4 plan, what we plan on doing with the funds. And I've already 5 talked to Jennifer Rehme, who is in charge of this, and she 6 said that most other counties use it for a fitness room, but 7 since we have that at the jail already, I kind of suggested 8 this, and she said this would be an excellent type of -- of 9 area to start for the employees, 'cause no one else has ever 10 tried it. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: All right. I'll make a motion 12 to authorize the H.R. Director to apply for the Healthy 13 County reward in the amount of $2,400, and utilize the area 14 to make an employee break room in the office behind the 15 County Attorney's office. 16 MR. HENNEKE: So, once we receive the funds, the 17 motion also authorizes her to expend them to do that? 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. Paint and whatever we 19 need to do. Few chairs, whatever you have money to do. 20 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Second. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: We have a motion and second as 22 indicated. Question or discussion on the motion? All in 23 favor of that motion, signify by raising your right hand. 24 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 25 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 9-24-12 119 1 (No response.) 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion carries. Item 27; consider, 3 discuss, take appropriate action to approve various county 4 job descriptions not previously approved by Commissioners 5 Court. 6 MS. LANTZ: Basically, the County Clerk's office 7 has redone her job descriptions for her office, and she would 8 like to get approval for the chief deputy, clerks 9 administrator, and all her deputy clerks. And I believe 10 she's only going to have three different job descriptions 11 within that office, so... And then the other two, one is for 12 Tim's new maintenance position; that's going to be 13 maintenance/custodian. And then the final one is going to be 14 for the new Tax Assessor/Collector bookkeeper position, which 15 we have not had a job description; that's actually a new 16 position. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What will that bookkeeper 18 position be? What level? 19 MS. LANTZ: A 19-1 is what the Court approved that 20 at during the budget. And, specifically, that -- and I've 21 talked with Diane about that, and that particular position 22 will be an actual bookkeeping position. And then any 23 overflow or helping in other areas will also -- but the 24 primary duties will be bookkeeping. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And you've gone through all 9-24-12 120 1 these, I take it, and recommend it? 2 MS. LANTZ: Mm-hmm. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move approval. 4 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Second. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 6 approval of the agenda item. Question or discussion? 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: A little bit of discussion 8 here. The Clerk's deputy clerk -- Chief Deputy County Clerk, 9 it just seems to me that there should be some language in 10 there -- if you remember, when we created chief deputies, we 11 created them to be -- they should be able to do the function 12 of the head clerk in the absence of the clerk. And it just 13 -- you know, there's a whole lot of language that I don't 14 know if that covers all of it or not. I have no idea here, 15 but it just seems like to me, those kinds of words should be 16 involved, as well as -- as the chief deputy should be able to 17 do the clerk's duties in the absence of the clerk, something 18 like that. 19 MS. LANTZ: Are you meaning that when she's out, 20 that the deputy clerk needs to be in the office? 21 MS. PIEPER: For clarification on that -- I can 22 answer that, -- 23 MS. LANTZ: Okay. 24 MS. PIEPER: -- Buster. On the last page, it has 25 additional responsibilities. "Be prepared to perform other 9-24-12 121 1 duties as required by statute," and then it says, "See 2 attached list." However, I don't think that list got 3 attached. But I have 67 pages of statutes. In one of these 4 statutes, it says any deputy in my office can do any of -- 5 any performances if I'm out, and that's by statute. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, okay. 7 MS. PIEPER: So -- 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, it was just kind of an 9 agreement here at this table when -- 10 MS. PIEPER: Right. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: -- when we created the chief 12 deputy -- 13 MS. PIEPER: Right. If something should happen to 14 me and I end up in the hospital or whatever -- God forbid; I 15 hope that doesn't happen -- my chief deputy will take over. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 17 MS. PIEPER: That is her job. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. Okay. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Your point, Commissioner, is 20 well-taken, that any chief deputy or assistant department 21 head, as the case may be, should have the ability to perform 22 all the duties of either the elected official or the 23 department head in the absence of that elected official or 24 department head. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yes, sir. 9-24-12 122 1 JUDGE TINLEY: I mean, that's bottom line on where 2 you're coming from? 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yes, sir, it is. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Transition right in. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Mm-hmm. Okay. And then on 6 the maintenance/custodian, seems like to me on Page 2, the 7 knowledge of operation of various hand tools, and then two 8 down, it's operation of various hand tools. Do you have to 9 say that twice to custodians? Or -- I'm kidding about that. 10 That was not a very nice thing to say. It just seemed like 11 there was -- 12 MS. LANTZ: One says power tools; the other one 13 says hand tools and maintenance equipment. Is that -- 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, that's it. 15 MR. BOLLIER: One of them is more or less doing 16 maintenance with the maintenance hand tools, and the other 17 one is more or less doing buffers and stuff like that, vacuum 18 cleaners. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. 20 MR. BOLLIER: I guess maybe you don't need two. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's fine. If that's 22 meaningful to y'all, I'm thrilled to death. 23 MR. BOLLIER: Yes, sir. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Just seems like you said it 25 twice there. 9-24-12 123 1 MR. BOLLIER: Yes, sir. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Which you did. 3 MR. BOLLIER: Yes, sir. 4 MS. LANTZ: Two different ways, possibly. 5 MR. BOLLIER: I can change that to where it's just 6 one time, sir. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I don't care what you do. 8 The -- I was a little bit concerned about the clerk or 9 anybody else, any other office that -- because I remember, we 10 had a long, drawn-out argument and conversation -- debate 11 over creating a chief deputy's position. And that chief 12 deputy position was to have the knowledge to run that office 13 when the elected official themself is out. Simple as that. 14 So, thank you. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Any other questions or comments? 16 All in favor of the motion, signify by raising your right 17 hand. 18 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 19 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 20 (No response.) 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion carries. 22 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Judge, do you want to go back 23 to 21, if you don't mind? 24 JUDGE TINLEY: I'll be happy to, before we leave 25 that page. Let's recall Item 20; to consider, discuss, take 9-24-12 124 1 appropriate action on proposal from Peter Lewis Architect and 2 Associates to provide schematic design services for proposed 3 event hall at Hill Country Youth Event Center. I've been 4 presented with a revised proposal which caps it at a 5 guaranteed maximum amount of $5,000, the thinking being if 6 you -- if there's going to be more expended, you have to come 7 back to the Court for approval. 8 MR. LEWIS: Absolutely. And I have the signed -- 9 the original here. That was one that was e-mailed, so -- 10 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Let me have that one. 11 MR. LEWIS: And you want to do the Journeyman? 12 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yeah. 13 MR. LEWIS: I have just one copy of that. 14 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Okay. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Next item. 16 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I move for the -- to approve 17 the proposal by Peter Lewis Architect for the design of the 18 event hall -- what did you call it? 19 MR. LEWIS: Schematic design. 20 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Schematic design for the hall 21 at the Youth Event Center. And the copy -- 22 MR. LEWIS: Call it the event hall. 23 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: The event hall, okay. The 24 event hall. And authorize the Judge to sign. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 9-24-12 125 1 JUDGE TINLEY: I have a motion and second for 2 approval as indicated. Question or discussion? All in 3 favor, signify -- 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Just to clarify things, we kind 5 of voted on this before, so should we rescind our previous 6 order now that we have the actual agreement? So we don't 7 have two court orders floating out there about this? 8 THE CLERK: We did have a court order. 9 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: What was the number? 10 THE CLERK: 32837. That approved the proposal for 11 Peter Lewis to provide the schematic design for the proposed 12 event hall at the Hill Country Youth Event Center in an 13 amount not to exceed $5,000. 14 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: We won't need another motion. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: This is just formalization of the 16 agreement. 17 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I'll withdraw my motion. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Anybody else have any problem 19 with that? 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Hmm-mm. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Let's go to Item 21; 22 consider, discuss, and take appropriate action regarding 23 change from 6-inch fire line to an 8-inch fire line at the 24 Hill Country Youth Event Center. Do you need one of these? 25 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: No, I -- you can -- you can 9-24-12 126 1 tell the amount, if you don't mind. I don't have it in front 2 of me. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Totals out -- let me see, $6,521.36. 4 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: This is to go from a 6-inch 5 to an 8-inch main water line that will accommodate the fire 6 plugs, fire protection, and also allow for us to have 7 additional connections in the future if needed. 8 MR. LEWIS: And it is -- includes an up -- upsizing 9 of the service line, as well as reducers at the fire 10 hydrants. 11 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: That's good. 12 MR. LEWIS: Reduction valves to go back from -- 13 from 8 back to 6. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move for approval. 15 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I'll second. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 17 approval. Questions? Comments? 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So, you have to -- you have 19 to have 6-inch to connect onto a hydrant? 20 MR. LEWIS: Yeah. That is the connection, yes. 21 And 6 inches is what was originally specified, and then upon 22 some inquiry, decided that any future demands would be best 23 met by having an increased main size. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 25 MR. LEWIS: That means we don't have to increase 9-24-12 127 1 the hydrants. And I'm not the expert, but I suspect there 2 may be 8-inch hydrants as well, but that's not what we have. 3 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: They're going to reduce them 4 down, reduce the 8-inch back to 6 to the fire hydrants. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, this is a bargain to get 6 that up -- you know, a lot better to do it now than have to 7 re-dig that. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Oh, absolutely. 9 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Better to upgrade now. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I think I'll vote for this. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Do we have a motion? You can even 12 make the motion. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No, I think it's made. 14 THE CLERK: We have a motion and second. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay, good. Good. Any further 16 question or discussion on the motion? All in favor of the 17 motion, signify by raising your right hand. 18 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 19 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 20 (No response.) 21 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. 22 MR. LEWIS: Thank you. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Let's go to Item 28; to consider, 24 discuss, take appropriate action to finalize and determine 25 the Texas County and District Retirement System rate for Kerr 9-24-12 128 1 County for 2013. 2 MS. LANTZ: This is just a formality we need to do 3 every year about accessing our plan. I believe in the budget 4 process, it was budgeted for the amount within the agreement. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And how much is that? 6 MS. LANTZ: 11.64 percent -- 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. 8 MS. LANTZ: -- is my understanding. Correct? 9 MS. HARGIS: Plus the 30. 10 MS. LANTZ: Plus the insurance at .25 percent. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Wait a minute. Wait a 12 minute. Insurance? 13 MS. LANTZ: It's part of the term life program that 14 goes with our retirement. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. All right. Now -- 16 now that I understand that, would you mind giving me those 17 numbers again? Hold on, let me get to that page. Yeah. 18 11.64? 19 MS. LANTZ: Yes, sir. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And the insurance is how 21 much? 22 MS. LANTZ: Point -- 23 JUDGE TINLEY: .25. 24 MS. LANTZ: .25. It was .29, and we went down to 25 .25. 9-24-12 129 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Is that written in there 2 somewhere? 3 JUDGE TINLEY: It's the next page. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It's .25? I still don't see 5 it, but I guess so. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Does the next page you're looking at 7 indicate at the top, "Kerr County Group Term Life Program"? 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Sure it does. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Two pages back. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Oh. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It wasn't the next page. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: .29. Okay, I got it. Thank 15 you. Sorry about that. 16 MS. LANTZ: And I believe we just need the County 17 Judge to sign the same, if it's approved, so we can get it 18 submitted. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, are you sure you don't 20 want to increase this thing? This is the last chance I'm 21 going to give you this year. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: It's not budgeted. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And the Judge sign same. So 24 moved. 25 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I'll second. 9-24-12 130 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 2 approval as indicated. Question or discussion? All in 3 favor, signify by raising your right hand. 4 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 5 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 6 (No response.) 7 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. Okay. Item 8 29; to consider, discuss, take appropriate action to approve 9 funding for the addition of P.R. Number 5 to add hairpin 10 reinforcing steel as per Jim Maxwell's recommendation for 11 additional engineering requirement for the slab at the Hill 12 Country Youth Exhibit Center Show Barn, amount of $600. 13 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Judge, you should have that 14 document in front of you, as well as the other two. This was 15 required by our engineer when he discovered that the engineer 16 requirement for the slab would not meet the requirements for 17 this building from the lights. The ones that were used were 18 based on Mueller design, and so all it was, was they had to 19 add a few pieces of steel to the slab in order to meet the 20 requirements, and that's what this is, 600 bucks. And that's 21 been signed off by the engineer. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move approval. 23 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Second. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 25 approval. Question or discussion? All in favor, signify by 9-24-12 131 1 raising your right hand. 2 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 3 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. Motion does 4 carry. Item 30; consider, discuss, take appropriate action 5 to approve agreed final judgment and permanent injunction and 6 related documents in the matter of Kerr County vs. Arreola in 7 Cause Number 11-849-A in the 216th District Court of Kerr 8 County, Texas. 9 MR. HENNEKE: Gentlemen, this was the lawsuit that 10 Kerr County settled on the property on Highway 27, almost to 11 Comfort, that had constructed improvements in the floodplain 12 and floodway. The Court already approved the settlement 13 agreement. What I'm bringing back is the agreed -- the 14 original agreed final judgment for approval and authorization 15 for Judge Tinley to execute, and also as part of that 16 settlement agreement, the defendants have -- have done a 17 promissory note payable to the County. They're going to make 18 payments to pay off the amount that was agreed upon, and 19 that's secured by a deed of trust on the property securing 20 the promissory note. So, what I'm tendering to the Court is 21 the agreed final judgment and permanent injunction for the 22 Court to approve and authorize Judge Tinley to execute, and 23 then I'm tendering the promissory note and deed of trust to 24 be given to the clerk for recording and entry. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The Court will recall, this was 9-24-12 132 1 one that was in my precinct. We've been working on it for 2 some time, and this is the agreement we've come to with the 3 property owner. I move approval. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 6 approval of the agenda item. Further question or discussion? 7 All in favor of the motion, 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. Item 32 I've 13 been advised is no longer an executive session item, so I'll 14 call Item 32; to consider, discuss, take appropriate action 15 on right-of-way acquisition for Lazy Valley Bridge project, 16 including possible condemnation. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge -- 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Mr. Letz? 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We're all aware that there's a 20 Lazy Valley bridge project -- this is one of those out of 21 Commissioner Oehler's big deal, or big project he worked out, 22 one of the bridges. The bridge has been designed, the 23 contract has been let, and there's one property owner that 24 I've been talking with over a year, and we're just not 25 getting any closer. I thought we were, you know, getting 9-24-12 133 1 closer, and I sent them an e-mail two weeks ago with copies 2 of all the deeds and all that, and he just goes, "I don't 3 think we want to do this." So, it's -- what we're asking 4 from him -- or actually, it's from a gentleman and his 5 sister -- is increasing the width of the right-of-way 10 feet 6 to .06 acres. It's that simple. It's something we just have 7 to get; the bridge is going to be on this acreage, so we can 8 move forward. One other property we haven't signed up, but 9 they have verbally agreed, but it's -- in case a problem 10 develops with that and we have to come back to the Court, I 11 would include any properties related to that project. And 12 there's three pieces of property that we're acquiring. The 13 main piece, we've already got that right-of-way signed up. 14 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Do you have enough room to go 15 ahead with the bridge if you don't get the right-of-way? 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No, 'cause they have to 17 widen -- they have to offset it, redesign it. 18 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Not going to do that. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And the -- anyway, so it's -- 20 this is on the north side of the bridge. But it's something 21 we just need to move forward on, in my opinion. 22 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: So you're going to make 23 another run at them, and then if that doesn't work, you're 24 going to -- 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'd like to have -- with the 9-24-12 134 1 court order, I will forward the court order to him, say I'll 2 forward it to the County Attorney to pursue it. And he 3 usually responds fairly quickly. "No." But he lives in 4 North Carolina, and his sister lives in Canada, so they're 5 not -- they don't live in the area, though his family is from 6 the area. His family's -- well, still lives in the area. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Pretty easy for us to get 8 jurisdiction; it's an in rem proceeding. 9 MR. HENNEKE: Property's here. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Yep. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I talked with the County 12 Attorney. I think his preference would be to probably hire 13 outside counsel to handle this for us, to move it along. The 14 cost, you know, probably could be several thousand for the -- 15 his fees. 16 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: More than the property's 17 worth. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: More than the property's worth. 19 I just think we need to move forward on it. I will make one 20 more run at him, and I'll also get with Jody after court and 21 forward another set of the deeds and all that overnight to 22 him. So, we're moving forward. Hopefully he'll agree. 23 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: So -- 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, I'll make a motion to 25 authorize the County Attorney to pursue all remedies, 9-24-12 135 1 including condemnation, to obtain right-of-way for the Lazy 2 Valley Bridge project, and authorize hiring of outside 3 counsel -- we need to authorize that? And authorize County 4 Attorney to hire outside counsel for same. 5 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Second. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded as 7 indicated. Question or discussion? All in favor of the 8 motion, 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. Why don't 13 we go to -- other than the executive session item, I think 14 we're complete on the agenda. Let's go to Section 4, payment 15 of the bills. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge, I move we pay the bills. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded to pay the 19 bills. Question or discussion on the motion? 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: The -- the second -- what is 21 B.C.F.S.? 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Baptist Child and Family Services. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And -- 24 MS. HARGIS: It's a grant that we receive from 25 AACOG for 100,000; it's a pass-through. 9-24-12 136 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I see. Okay. So, it's -- 2 MS. HARGIS: They had to get the grant from us this 3 year instead of themselves. That's an AACOG requirement now. 4 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Right. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It's the same group that we 6 had -- Bruce and I had lunch with the other day? 7 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: It is. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That are asking for money. 9 And we're sending them 8,300 bucks. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Previously, they got the grant funds 11 directly to them for that Youth Averted from Delinquency 12 program. The rules were changed on who was eligible to apply 13 for a grant; nonprofits are no longer eligible. The County 14 applied for the grant through the Juvenile Probation 15 Department. Then we turn around and contract with them to do 16 essentially the same thing. It's simply because that -- the 17 grant funds have to flow through the county, because B.C.F.S. 18 cannot directly apply for it. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. 20 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That's a good line item; they 21 are have having some success. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: They've been around here for a 23 number of years now, and they're trying to expand their 24 scope. Did we ever discover why we're paying the D.A.'s 25 office rent through our nondepartmental account? 9-24-12 137 1 MS. HARGIS: It's for next year, and so it's really 2 a prepaid expense. It's just the way that the printout came. 3 It's actually shown as prepaid rent, is what it is. 103, 4 it's actually in the asset part of the statement. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Okay. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Translate that. 7 MS. HARGIS: When the rent is -- we send out the 8 rental bills for the 1st of October for the October rent, and 9 in order to receive the money, we -- because we're on a full 10 accrual basis, we have to show that rent as prepaid revenue, 11 and then -- and then when we close out the books, then we'll 12 transfer it to revenue, and it will show up in the revenue 13 line item. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I see. 15 MS. HARGIS: That will be a receivable, in essence, 16 from the District Attorney's office, and we'll get reimbursed 17 for it. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So it just shows up here one 19 time? 20 MS. HARGIS: Right. You have two sets of bills 21 here. You have -- you have juvenile and -- paying out of 22 their grant money, the new year and the old year. And you 23 have some of ours being -- still should be in the old year, 24 but if they're things that are happening in the future -- you 25 know, we had some folks sign up for conferences and things in 9-24-12 138 1 the future. Those need to go in next year's budget. If I 2 don't pull them back down, the auditors will pull them back, 3 so that's -- you know, when you went to modified accrual, you 4 don't have to do as much, but full accrual, which is what 5 we're required to do, requires that you put them in the 6 proper year, and they're date-sensitive. So, most everybody 7 is listening to us now and getting them in on time, so we're 8 good. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Anything else, Commissioner? 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No, sir, thank you. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Page 3. 12 MS. HARGIS: All right. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: The $4,400 to Bickerstaff. You're 14 showing litigation. Is that in connection with 15 redistricting? Or -- 16 MR. HENNEKE: No, sir, that's actually in 17 connection with the agenda item that we have for executive 18 session. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 20 MR. HENNEKE: That's what that line item -- it's 21 just called out of my budget, but it's outside. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay, I'm with you. 23 MR. HENNEKE: That's just -- 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Any other questions? Comments? All 25 in favor of the motion, signify by raising your right hand. 9-24-12 139 1 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 2 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 3 (No response.) 4 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. Budget 5 amendments. We've got -- 6 MS. HARGIS: A lot. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Yes. And it's that time of year. 8 Looks like we've got a total of -- 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 52. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: -- 52. Bearing in mind that the 11 last page of what you initially received containing 49 12 through 52 has been replaced by a new page. 13 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Got it. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Whatever, of 49 through 52. 15 MS. HARGIS: Right. Inadvertently, the Fund 76 was 16 not -- was put in Fund 10 instead of 76, so those have been 17 changed. We did really well to only have 52, and they're 18 small. I think we did great. This is the last ones. 19 Anything else, you know, out of balance at the end of the 20 year, we'll just do as we always do. But by and large, when 21 I look page after page, most everybody -- not only did we 22 just have these few for line items, but everybody's under 23 budget. Everybody. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, that's good for our fund 25 balance. 9-24-12 140 1 MS. HARGIS: It is good for our fund balance. I'm 2 real excited about our fund balance. I hope we're going in 3 with a strong one. 4 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: That's good. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: A bean counter being excited, that's 6 something good to see. 7 MS. HARGIS: That means that when we -- 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Scary. 9 MS. HARGIS: -- don't receive tax money in the next 10 three months, we have money in the bank to pay the bills. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What about Number 4, the 12 out-of-county mileage? Is that AACOG travel? 13 MS. HARGIS: Yes. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And so, obviously, we have 15 run out of money there, and a month early. Did we fix that? 16 MS. HARGIS: Yes, sir, we did. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Next year? 18 JUDGE TINLEY: I think it's been increased. 19 MS. HARGIS: I think we did add some to that for 20 next year. Because of the -- 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And this man's been begging 22 us to do that for three months. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Court-appointed attorneys. How did 24 we do generally on Court-appointed attorneys and 25 Court-appointed services? That's something that's always 9-24-12 141 1 killed us. 2 MS. HARGIS: Thanks to Ms. Lavender again, as she 3 had done in Indigent Health services, we're doing excellent. 4 In fact, the 198th has used theirs, but the 216th has not 5 used anywhere near -- I mean, those costs are coming down 50 6 percent. I mean, it's amazing, and it's great. I don't 7 imagine we'll get as much grant money, but we were only 8 getting 29,000 for a million dollars, so I don't think we'll 9 worry about that. But, yeah, I would think we're probably 10 down. We had 350 in each one, and then we had 350 in the 11 other. We're probably close to half a million, 600, but 12 that's about 400 down. You know, we were borrowing from the 13 Sheriff and everything else when I first got here, and this 14 year we're taking from that and giving it to other 15 departments. So, that program has been a real -- in fact, 16 she's going to speak on that at my conference to teach all 17 the other auditors how to do it. Aren't you? 18 MS. LAVENDER: Sure. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: On Item 30, from contingencies 20 for fire -- nondepartmental fire protection for Hunt 21 Volunteer Fire Department, did we just neglect to budget that 22 15,000 for them? 23 MS. HARGIS: No, sir. That was the one that they 24 forgot to ask for their money, remember? 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Oh, that's that one. 9-24-12 142 1 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yeah. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Catching up. 3 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yeah. 4 MS. HARGIS: We have to be real careful this year. 5 We can't have any negative balances, and I would -- in Fund 6 14, because that's a special fund. We have to make sure it 7 has a positive balance. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Comfort get their final bill 9 in? 10 MS. HARGIS: Yes -- well, all but about $200, so 11 they're pretty good. 12 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Has everybody else gotten 13 their -- 14 MS. HARGIS: Yes, sir, they did. And I -- and I 15 think Ms. Jody has also called them all and reminded them, so 16 I appreciate that help as well. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We'll have the windows to do 18 on the new courthouse. 19 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Third one's going to be out, 20 I'm afraid. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: In fact, I think she's already 22 sending out the new contracts, aren't you? 23 MS. GRINSTEAD: Yeah, we got our first one back 24 today. 25 MS. HARGIS: It's -- in that particular fund, our 9-24-12 143 1 balance has kind of gone down, so we don't have any extra 2 money there to just absorb it like we had because of all the 3 extra money from the City, they were paying out. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. I move approval of the 5 budget amendments as presented. 6 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I'll second. 7 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Second. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 9 approval of the budget amendments as presented. Question or 10 discussion? All in favor, signify by raising your right 11 hand. 12 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 13 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 14 (No response.) 15 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. Late bills? 16 I didn't see any. 17 MS. HARGIS: No. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: I've been presented with monthly 19 reports for August 2012 from the Kerr County Treasurer; Kerr 20 County Payroll; Justice of the Peace, Precinct 1; Justice of 21 the Peace, Precinct 2; District Clerk; Constable, Precinct 3; 22 and Justice of the Peace, Precinct 4. Do I hear a motion 23 that the indicated reports be approved as presented? 24 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: Motion to approve. 25 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Second. 9-24-12 144 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 2 approval. Question or discussion? All in favor, indicate by 3 raising your right hand. 4 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 5 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 6 (No response.) 7 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. Reports from 8 Commissioners in connection with their liaison or other 9 assignments. Commissioner Baldwin? 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Just -- just this Historical 11 Commission stuff, I guess, is the only thing cooking. I 12 would like to make a comment about the ESD that we've all 13 worked on hard, but I wanted -- kept one eye on it. Let's 14 see. Tonight -- tonight, there's a meeting at Hunt School, 15 and Wednesday there's a meeting at Center Point school in 16 regards to the ESD, the presentation being made there. And 17 Commissioner Letz and I went to a briefing a few days ago to 18 see what the presentation's going to be like, and one of the 19 misconceptions, I think, and it's prevalent all through the 20 county, is that if the ESD passes and the board is set up, 21 that the ESD board takes total control of the EMS service, 22 and that's just the furthest thing from the truth. The Fire 23 Chief -- you know, I've tried to correct it by saying that 24 the Fire Chief still has total control over his department, 25 and the ESD board is simply a funding mechanism for the 9-24-12 145 1 program. So, it would be interesting to see what is 2 presented tonight and -- and Wednesday evening. But the -- 3 I've got to tell you, you know, I look at this thing as -- 4 as, you know, there's a difference between us leaders and the 5 noise I hear out there. And, you know, those noisy people 6 have never made a decision in their lives. And what we're 7 doing here is us big boys with big BVD's are taking a program 8 and trying to enhance the ambulance service for the citizens 9 of Kerr County, and the bottom line is, I mean, it's not 10 anything that we're building to have our name put on 11 anything. We're trying to save lives of our citizens out 12 there. That's all there is to this thing. People are out 13 there talking about -- you know, their whole thing is, "I'm 14 cooler than you. I'm neater than you. I'm more conservative 15 than you." We need to drop that crap and start taking care 16 of business. And us leaders, if -- if the ESD is voted down, 17 we simply pull up our boots and find another way to do it, 18 and you keep doing it. That's what you do. That's what we 19 do. So, you know, there's a huge dark line between us that 20 are out here working, rolling our sleeves up and getting this 21 thing done, and the people that are making noise out there. 22 And I know I'm sounding a little angry about it, and I am, 23 because they're lying, and it's just not right that they do 24 that and get away with it. But, nevertheless, ESD is -- is a 25 good program. I'm totally sold on it, and we just have to -- 9-24-12 146 1 I'm thankful that we can let the voters make those decisions 2 themselves, and that's the neat thing about it. So, I don't 3 know what you asked me, but -- (Laughter.) -- I'm through. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Well, that was actually the 5 answer I wanted to hear, that you didn't have anything else 6 you wanted to throw out. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I don't have anything to 8 say. Thank you. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: All right. Commissioner Overby? 10 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: AACOG meetings pretty much 11 all day on Wednesday, so we'll -- in that transition time, 12 still staying busy with that as we get ready to transition to 13 the last quarter of the year. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Is that it? 15 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: That's it. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner Letz? 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Two things. First, I want to 18 follow up a little bit on the ESD. And one of the 19 interesting things that I learned from going to some of those 20 ESD committee meetings or EMS, whatever you want to call that 21 group we put together, and it's something that I wish -- 22 hopefully it will be stressed tonight. But I guess one of 23 the most important things about the time issue and ambulance 24 and all that, there's a lot of -- they talk -- I think they 25 talk a lot about response time and how long -- it's 11.4 9-24-12 147 1 minutes, is the average response time in the county, and 5.6 2 minutes in the city limits and all that stuff. And then if 3 you go to -- you know, it takes 15 minutes to get an 4 ambulance to Camp Verde, and 17 minutes to Hermann Sons and 5 all that. But what's interesting is what the state standard 6 is to have adequate EMS coverage, and that standard, I 7 believe, is 11 minutes. So, while we're -- you know, we are 8 making that in the Kerrville South area, essentially, and 9 right around Kerrville and most of probably the ETJ, but when 10 you get -- you know, 15 minutes may sound like that's a good 11 response time to get to Camp Verde, but if somebody's having 12 a heart attack at Camp Verde, that person's probably going to 13 die. So I think, you know, minutes are critical when we get 14 to this -- these issues. And that's what the voters are 15 going to have to really -- what they're voting on, and I 16 think the committee sums it up, is that it costs money to 17 decrease that response time. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's correct. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And if the -- if the citizens 20 don't want to spend the money, we're not going to decrease 21 the response time, and then people will die. And if we do 22 want to -- even if they don't want to spend the money to save 23 more lives, you can't save them all. We'll never get to that 24 point. So, anyway, that was -- you know, I found that to be 25 very interesting and very -- very enlightening to me, just 9-24-12 148 1 that part of it, because you can really boil it down pretty 2 simply. The other thing I've been working on quite a bit is 3 water, working with U.G.R.A. quite a bit on the memorandum of 4 understanding for the East Kerr County water area. 5 Obviously, working on the wastewater project for east Kerr 6 County, and recently been working with some groups in -- 7 closer in Kerrville. I don't want to go into details of it 8 at this point, but trying to get water to some areas that 9 need it, cooperate with the City on some issues, at least on 10 the discussion area right now. So, anyway, lots going on in 11 the water area. Luckily, we got some rain. Hopefully people 12 will continue to work in these areas to try to get more 13 adequate water supplies in areas that need it. That's it. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner Oehler? 15 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Well, I'm going to go to the 16 meeting up in Hunt tonight just to listen to what the 17 committee has to say, and also, you know, be around the 18 people I serve. And we can all hear it together, and listen 19 to their responses to what the committee has come up with. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Is that it? 21 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I won't go Wednesday night. 22 Somebody else can do that one. Surely don't need to hear it 23 twice. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Is that it for you? 25 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That ought to be it for me. 9-24-12 149 1 I've done enough. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. You know, an inquiry's been 3 made of me of why -- why do we need a new agency to be in 4 charge of this for citizens that are outside the corporate 5 limits of the city of Kerrville? I told them very simply, it 6 all boils down to response time. If there's been an effort 7 to confuse the quality of service from Kerrville EMS, once it 8 gets there, that's not the issue. Never has been the issue. 9 The issue is the response time. All the resources that have 10 been allocated for the benefit of the citizens outside the 11 corporate limits of city of Kerrville are located within the 12 city of Kerrville, so necessarily the response time is 13 compromised when you go outside the city. Most of you were 14 probably at the meeting with the City. I asked Eric Maloney, 15 the Emergency Services Director, what that saying was about 16 that first few minutes. I was later told it's the platinum 17 10 minutes and the golden hour. The platinum 10 minutes 18 meaning that some sort of competent medical assistance gets 19 to the patient, the golden hour being the time by which the 20 patient is at a facility for comprehensive care. It's the 21 first one that we're talking about more than anything else, 22 but indirectly the second one. If you don't get there for 40 23 minutes, it's going to be real tough for you to get to a 24 facility within an hour. 25 It's plain, pure, and simple response time which is 9-24-12 150 1 deemed the most important element of emergency medical 2 service. We've been very, very fortunate in Kerr County for 3 many years to have a good group of First Responders out there 4 scattered throughout the county. Most of us don't know how 5 many calls they make, but it's amazing the number of calls 6 that those people make, and are there so quickly, it just 7 makes you wonder if they were just sitting on the ready 8 button to go, because they do a great, great job. But we 9 can't continue to rely upon those people. We may have to, at 10 least for the temporary time being, but the whole -- the 11 whole focus here is to improve that response time so that the 12 citizens outside the corporate limits of the city of 13 Kerrville can get the same level of emergency medical 14 service, to the extent that is possible, as those inside the 15 corporate limits of the city of Kerrville. That's -- as they 16 say, it ain't rocket science. But -- 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: -- it's all about that response time 19 at this time. So -- 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's true. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: -- we'll see -- we'll see what the 22 citizens have to say about their own -- their own destiny, 23 and they're in charge. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Mm-hmm. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: So, if they see the wisdom -- you're 9-24-12 151 1 always going to have naysayers, Commissioner. You know, if 2 you talking about giving away free money, there are going to 3 be naysayers. But those are the people that all they want to 4 do is say no and not do anything. And as I heard a fellow 5 say one time, no is not a plan. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Not a plan, yeah. I knew 7 him. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. Yeah, he was a friend of 9 yours, wasn't he? 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, sort of. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: He was a county judge here 13 at one time. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. I'll shut up at that. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: But I relate those naysayers 16 to mosquitoes. They're always kind of buzzing out there, you 17 know, and so you swat them every once in a while, but they're 18 always -- that's all it is, is buzzing. You know, they don't 19 accomplish anything. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: We'll let the voters decide their 21 destiny. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yes, sir. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Let's get to elected 24 officials and department heads. Anybody have something 25 meaningful to say? 9-24-12 152 1 MR. BOLLIER: I'm good, Judge. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Mark, you got anything you want to 3 throw in there? 4 MR. ARMSTRONG: I'm empty. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 6 MS. LANTZ: I do. We start our time entry October 7 1st, the training that whole week, so hopefully the employees 8 will all be on board. I've heard a little ruckus in the 9 rafters, but I think it'll all work out eventually. And 10 we're going to have a shot clinic October 25th. The morning 11 will be at Environmental Health, down in their conference 12 room, and then from 2:00 to 4:00 at the Sheriff's Annex, and 13 everybody that is covered under the health insurance is 14 eligible for the shots, and their dependents as well. And 15 they do take Medicare, the other insurances, and H.E.B. will 16 administer those. And then last, open enrollment for the new 17 medical will start October 31st. It will be the 31st, 1st 18 and 2nd of November, and it'll be here in the courthouse. 19 And we'll have one time over at the Sheriff's Annex, so one 20 of those days will be dedicated over there. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: And that's for coverage to begin 22 January 1? 23 MS. LANTZ: Yes, sir. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Starting October -- 25 MS. LANTZ: October 31st, which is a Wednesday. 9-24-12 153 1 And because we are -- this year, everybody who wants to keep 2 the same benefits will need to sign up, because we will no 3 longer have Benefits Connect. So, if you do not sign up, you 4 will not have benefits. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Good way to get people to sign 6 up. 7 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: You realize that -- did you 8 tell Buster that's the day he's supposed to wear his 9 Halloween costume? 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Uh-oh. That's the first 11 time I haven't paid attention all day long. What was it? 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Don't worry about it; you'll 13 find out later. 14 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: We'll tell you when the time 15 comes. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Trust us, Buster. Trust us. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 18 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yeah. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Right. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Is that it? 21 MS. LANTZ: That's it. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Ma'am? 23 MS. HARGIS: Since my voice doesn't carry, I'll 24 come up here. Hopefully tomorrow -- I mean the 25th, 25 tomorrow, we should close on our Center Point Wastewater 9-24-12 154 1 project. All fingers crossed, everything looks good. It's 2 been kind of a hairy week on this situation. The second 3 thing I wanted to make y'all aware of, and another consultant 4 we probably need to retain is, as you recall, we went over 5 $5 million when we sold our issue, the first issue that we 6 had, and now we're adding another $2 million, so we are going 7 to be under what the I.R.S. calls arbitrage law. And the 8 arbitrage law is real simple; you can't make more interest on 9 the money than you got it for. So, if our interest rate 10 is -- for instance, on these Texas Water Development Board, 11 we can't earn any money on that, because it's less than zero. 12 On the other issue, we got that at 3 percent, or 2.85, so we 13 can earn 2.85. In this environment, it's not too great. 14 But, unfortunately, this is a 20-year obligation, and so what 15 happens is, every five years you have an arbitrage 16 specialist -- there are several, and I happen to know one 17 who's very reasonable, and they're with one of the big firms. 18 And it's about $1,500 every time, once every five years. And 19 they do a computation on all of our funds, debt service 20 first, and then all of the money that's connected with the 21 capital. Then if we don't owe anything to I.R.S., then they 22 prepare a letter; we send that to I.R.S. We don't have to 23 fill out a form. If, during that time, the interest rates go 24 up and we make money -- and they encourage you -- even I.R.S. 25 says, "Make the money." Then you just give them the 9-24-12 155 1 difference. But you still have to do a tax return. So, this 2 is the first time we've been under that. We should be fine 3 if we start at the beginning. So, what I'd like to do is to 4 get some proposals for you to look at from several different 5 vendors. And this particular vendor, they're called the 6 Arbitrage Group that I have dealt with, and they're a Peat 7 Marwick spinoff. Actually, Peat Marwick and a lot of the 8 Big 8 firms, Big 4 firms, don't want to do arbitrage, because 9 it's a 20-year obligation to them as well. They have to have 10 a special attorney on board. I mean, we had an arbitrage 11 letter we paid $5,000 for. So, I just wanted to make y'all 12 aware of it so when I bring it up, that y'all will be aware 13 of it. So -- 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Let me see if I understand this 15 arbitrage game. The I.R.S. tells you you're not supposed to 16 do this; that is, make more money on interest than what it's 17 costing you on your debt issue. 18 MS. HARGIS: That's correct. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: That you're not supposed to do that. 20 But in truth and in fact, they really want you to hit it out 21 of the park, because everything in excess of what you're 22 paying on your issue that you earned, you send to I.R.S. 23 MS. HARGIS: That's true. But here's the good 24 part, too. Because it's a five-year program, you get to 25 average it over that five years. So, if you don't go over 9-24-12 156 1 the average in the five years -- so if the interest rate -- 2 let's say this first two years, we don't, and all of a sudden 3 interest rates go up, and our average is still under that. 4 Then we don't have to pay. So, there's a little bit of play 5 there. But the main thing is, we need to send the letter. 6 We need to do the tax return. And -- and the Court, for the 7 next 20 years, needs to remember -- because I will tell you, 8 when I went to the group down the street, who now are going 9 to move across the street, E.I.C. owed $100,000 because 10 nobody was aware of arbitrage in the city, and so when I got 11 there, I had to fix it. So, you don't want to get in that 12 position, because not only do you owe it -- I didn't -- I got 13 them out of the penalty; that's the money they owed. You 14 don't want to be in that position. It's a $10,000 penalty 15 right out of the box. So -- 16 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Wonderful. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you. Mr. Henneke? 18 MR. HENNEKE: No, sir. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. At this time, we'll go out of 20 closed -- I mean open or public session at 2:21, for the 21 purpose of going into executive session. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge, I'll excuse myself from 23 this agenda item, and I will see y'all later. 24 (The open session was closed at 2:21 p.m., and an executive session was held, the transcript of which 25 is contained in a separate document.) - - - - - - - - - - 9-24-12 157 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. It's 2:58, and we're back in 2 open or public session. Any member of the Court have 3 anything to offer in connection with matters considered in -- 4 in closed or executive session? Anything else to come before 5 the court today on this agenda? Hearing nothing further, we 6 will be adjourned. 7 (Commissioners Court adjourned at 2:58 p.m.) 8 - - - - - - - - - - 9 10 11 STATE OF TEXAS | 12 COUNTY OF KERR | 13 The above and foregoing is a true and complete 14 transcription of my stenotype notes taken in my capacity as 15 official reporter for the Commissioners Court of Kerr County, 16 Texas, at the time and place heretofore set forth. 17 DATED at Kerrville, Texas, this 28th day of September, 18 2012. 19 20 JANNETT PIEPER, Kerr County Clerk 21 BY: _________________________________ Kathy Banik, Deputy County Clerk 22 Certified Shorthand Reporter 23 24 25 9-24-12