1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT 9 Regular Session 10 Monday, June 10, 2013 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 TOM MOSER, Commissioner Pct. 2 JONATHAN LETZ, Commissioner Pct. 3 25 BRUCE OEHLER, Commissioner Pct. 4 2 1 I N D E X June 10, 2013 2 PAGE --- Commissioners' Comments 5 3 1.1 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on 4 agreement with Friends of the Historical Commission regarding Union Church Building 7 5 1.2 Report from Friends of Historical Commission on 6 Historical Display Project they are doing at the building formerly occupied by Main Street Program 24 7 1.3 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action for 8 Court's approval to name private road Cain Lane East, Precinct 3 31 9 1.6 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 10 reappoint Steve King and Ed Livermore to the Kerrville/Kerr County Airport Board for another 11 two-year term 31 12 1.4 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to address possibility of prohibiting sale or use 13 of restricted fireworks (skyrockets with sticks and missiles with fins) in any portion of the 14 unincorporated area of Kerr County pursuant to Local Government Code for 4th of July holiday 33 15 1.5 Consider/discuss, take appropriate actions to 16 approve contract with Ricoh USA, Inc., for two copiers in County Clerk’s office subject to the 17 approval of County Attorney; approve bill of sale and assignment from Ricoh USA, Inc., to Kerr 18 County for microfilm reader/printer 34 19 1.7 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action if necessary on analysis of revenue-to-actual 20 through May 31, 2013, and revenue projection to year end, September 30, 2013 37 21 1.8 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 22 initiate process and/or steps to construct fire station on Ranchero Road on property owned by 23 Kerr County 54 24 1.9 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action regarding County Law Library, including 25 relocation 55 3 1 I N D E X (Continued) June 10, 2013 2 PAGE 3 1.10 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to approve and authorize execution of amendment 4 to master agreement with Ricoh USA, Inc. -- 5 1.11 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action regarding revisions on current county personnel 6 policies regarding Accident Reporting Policy 4.14 and Valid Driver’S License Policy 4.15. 73 7 4.1 Pay Bills 83 8 4.2 Budget Amendments 86 4.3 Late Bills 88 9 4.4 Approve and Accept Monthly Reports 90 10 5.1 Reports from Commissioners/Liaison Committee Assignments 92 11 5.2 Reports from Elected Officials/Department Heads 93 12 --- Adjourned 97 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 4 1 On Monday, June 10, 2013, at 9:00 a.m., a regular 2 meeting of the Kerr County Commissioners Court was held in 3 the Commissioners' Courtroom, Kerr County Courthouse, 4 Kerrville, Texas, and the following proceedings were had in 5 open court: 6 P R O C E E D I N G S 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. 8 Let me call to order this regularly scheduled meeting of the 9 Kerr County Commissioners Court posted and scheduled for this 10 date and time, Monday, June 10, 2013, at 9 a.m. It is that 11 time now. Commissioner Letz? 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: If everyone would please stand 13 for a moment of prayer, followed by the pledge. 14 (Prayer and pledge of allegiance.) 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you. Please be seated. At 16 this time, if there's any member of the public that wishes to 17 be heard on a matter which is not an agenda item, this is 18 your opportunity to come forward and be heard. If you wish 19 to be heard on an agenda item, we'd ask that you fill out a 20 participation form at the rear of the room. If we get to an 21 item and you have not filled out a participation form, why, 22 get my attention and I'll give you that opportunity, 23 notwithstanding that, if you haven't filled out the form. 24 But right now, if there's any member of the public that 25 wishes to be heard on a matter which is not a listed agenda 6-10-13 5 1 item, come forward and give us your name and address and tell 2 us what's on your mind. Seeing no one coming forward or 3 seeking recognition to be heard, we'll move forward. 4 Commissioner Letz, what do you have for us this morning? 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Just a couple things. One is, 6 I forgot to bring this up at our last meeting, but there was 7 a passing of a lady that touched a lot of lives in the area, 8 but a lot of people didn't really know her, Madeline 9 Spenrath. She was the head nurse at Peterson for years and 10 years and years, very interesting lady. Hard as nails, but 11 she had as much compassion as anyone you can imagine, and 12 really helped a lot of people through really tough times in 13 the final days at the hospital. So, I want to mention that. 14 And the other thing, a little different note, I've got three 15 kittens if anyone happens to want some kittens. (Laughter.) 16 Two of them are spoken for, and we've got three to go. 17 They're really cute. Let me know. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: No such thing as a kitten that's not 19 cute. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's right. Kind of like -- 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's it. 22 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Like little kids. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner Oehler? 24 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I'll just remind everybody 25 that the Divide Volunteer Fire Department is having their 6-10-13 6 1 annual steak dinner this coming Friday. Starts at 5:00, runs 2 till 9 o'clock, so if you're interested in going and 3 attending that, I'm sure they would appreciate it. And it's 4 always good, and usually a large crowd, and they do very well 5 out there. And I believe that Road and Bridge got their 6 parking lot -- I don't believe, I saw it; they got the 7 parking lot done, looks like, and so they're all ready for 8 their event. Won't be any dust around there this year, much. 9 Be a lot nicer. That's it. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner Baldwin? 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'm going to piggy-back on 12 Commissioner Oehler, that this coming Friday is the Divide -- 13 of all the parties and functions that we go to throughout the 14 year, that's -- that may be my favorite one. Ten bucks, and 15 you get a huge, really good steak that you choose, and watch 16 them cook -- and cook it yourself, I guess. And all those 17 sides and stuff, man it is a -- it's a fantastic thing. And 18 all the old ranch families coming in from different counties. 19 There's three or four different counties people come from to 20 attend that function, and it is just outstanding. I wouldn't 21 miss it. Can I borrow $10? (Laughter.) 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: You got it. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And I guess that's about it. 24 Really enjoyed the rain. I had another -- I was out on the 25 divide all day yesterday, and completely missed watching the 6-10-13 7 1 rain, but I got home and I'd had a little over an inch and a 2 half. Obviously, great rain, and all the little deer 3 sleeping in my yard this morning. It's -- life is good. 4 Thank you. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, let's see. I think 6 Commissioner Letz and I missed the rain, so if it's going to 7 flow downhill, we would appreciate that. The other thing I 8 would mention is, next Monday is the public hearing and town 9 hall meeting in Center Point. A number of us are going to be 10 there, including Kathy, for the Center Point wastewater 11 system. So, it's going to be a nuts-to-bolts, here's what's 12 happening, here's our plans. No issues to-date. As a matter 13 of fact, the County received approval for adding two 14 additional areas to the Center Point wastewater system, big 15 areas. One is a very large area with a lot of pipe, and to 16 let us use contingency funds for that. So, yea verily on 17 that, so that project is moving well. That's all I have. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Good, thank you. Let's get on with 19 our agenda. It's not very long, and hopefully we'll let 20 everybody go out and enjoy the nice weather that we have 21 today that benefited from the rain. The first item, a 9 a.m. 22 timed item, to consider, discuss, take appropriate action on 23 agreement with the Friends of the Historical Commission 24 regarding the Union Church building. Ms. Sue Dyke and, I 25 believe, the County Attorney have been involved in that. 6-10-13 8 1 MR. HENNEKE: Thank you, gentlemen. Ms. Dyke 2 offered to let me lead off, and she'll come clean it up here 3 in a moment. The direction of Commissioners Court has been 4 that before further improvements were made out there, that 5 the Court wanted to see the proposal and approve it ahead of 6 time. The project, as y'all remember, that was just finished 7 was the gate and the fence. And I passed out for each of you 8 at your desk the e-mails I got from Ms. Dyke with -- with 9 their budget and proposal for landscaping for the Union 10 Church, and the work to be done on the parking lot. The only 11 thing I'll say about that, and I'll turn it over to Sue to 12 discuss further, my advice had been very cautious up till now 13 about any kind of permanent improvements, you know, such as a 14 parking lot or anything at the Union Church, because we only 15 are on that property on a lease that expires here in about 10 16 years. And so before the County spends a lot of public money 17 to improve the property, if we don't have kind of a longer 18 term agreement with Schreiner, then we want to be careful 19 about putting too much money into that property. And 20 Schreiner has, up to this point, not wanted to really talk 21 about extending that lease any further than the current 22 expiration date, which I believe is in 2023 or 2025. 23 But that being said, it is a leased property, and, 24 you know, if there is a need for parking improvements, you 25 know, instead of contracting with a third-party vendor, we 6-10-13 9 1 could probably do it at the same cost or cheaper if the 2 Friends group wanted to donate that money for -- to the 3 County for, I think, just the grading and laying of gravel. 4 But these are the two proposals, and -- and I'll let Ms. Dyke 5 explain them more. And then if the Court approves one or 6 both of these projects, then I'll work that into an agreement 7 and get Schreiner -- Schreiner to sign it. I think they've 8 pretty much approved anything the Friends group wants to do, 9 and we can get that all confirmed and move forward on it. 10 Thank you. 11 MS. DYKE: Good morning. I want to carry on with 12 what our attorney said here with regard to our -- our project 13 at the Union Church. We are almost through, and we're almost 14 at the end of the line here, so we're somewhat celebrating a 15 little early, I think. But the -- we do have two remaining 16 projects in order to conclude everything, and that is the -- 17 some more work that needs to be done on the parking lot, and 18 then also, we have not undertaken anything with regard to the 19 landscaping. And I'd like to introduce Mary Lee Stewart, 20 who's chairman of the committee for the landscaping, and I'm 21 going to ask her to go ahead and present for that. 22 MS. STEWART: Well, we have the planting beds 23 outlined around the building that need to be redone, and the 24 cenizos that have been there for a long time were trimmed 25 earlier in the spring, and they're coming out, and then we're 6-10-13 10 1 going to add perennials and get rid of the weeds and those 2 problems with the flower beds. This work will be done by the 3 Kerr County Master Gardener organization, and we've already 4 purchased some of the perennials. The Master Gardeners will 5 donate some of them, and they'll do the labor. So, you know, 6 there's a box elder tree on one side of the -- the side where 7 the handicapped ramp is, and we need -- it needs to be pruned 8 severely. It's got two large dead limbs on it that I 9 consider a hazard, and it's hollow inside, so it really needs 10 to come down eventually, and that work needs to be done by 11 the County. There's a small redbud that was donated by Jim 12 Nugent's family, and it needs to be trimmed and mulched and 13 taken care of, so -- and we expect to do this for under $500, 14 which we're delighted about. So, we hope you all will 15 approve this proposal. 16 MS. DYKE: Thank you. That's wonderful. We have 17 received a donation of $500 for the landscaping, so that part 18 of the project is fully funded on that. So -- and with 19 regard to the box elder tree, it's kind of been an item of 20 discussion. I live on Jefferson Street right down here, and 21 we had a really a big blow in the middle of the -- with that 22 storm that came through, and I'm anxious to see what happened 23 to the box elder tree, because it was somewhat in the path. 24 I haven't been down there this morning, so we'll check on 25 that. We anticipate that this -- these projects will be 6-10-13 11 1 finished by August, the end of August. That will give us a 2 little more leeway here to get underway with the landscaping 3 and so forth. With regard to the parking lot, we had a -- a 4 situation come up that -- where there was a thin level of 5 dirt that was on the surface, and -- and according to what we 6 talked about with our contractor, that this would -- this 7 soil would eventually -- with some heavy rains, would go into 8 the -- the gravel that's beneath the surface, and it has done 9 that to a point. 10 But there is still a large bare area around it, and 11 we have put in for funding, because this project was new and 12 it was not in our budget, where a contractor could come in 13 and put down some crushed gravel, and then put his heavy 14 roller over it and mash it down into the dirt and make it a 15 very good walking surface. Should we have a rain on a night 16 of an event at the Union Church, we were thinking there might 17 be a mud problem. For a wedding, that wouldn't be too good. 18 And so we're going to look at this, and the amount is $1,900. 19 We did get two bids on this, and we chose the one that had 20 the big roller. That would be Lowrey Construction Company. 21 So, with your approval, we'll move forward on this, and we 22 plan to be finished by the end of August, and get through 23 with our landscaping and our parking lot. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I heard the County Attorney, 25 I think, say there's a possibility that -- of the County 6-10-13 12 1 doing the paving job. Did you say that? 2 MR. HENNEKE: Yes, sir, it could. I don't 3 recommend that we expend too much money into a facility that 4 we only lease, but, sure, it's -- it's -- you know, we can 5 keep up the parking area, and I'm sure Schreiner wouldn't 6 have an issue with it. I just have said consistently, 7 because we have an end point on this, we don't want to be 8 building -- expending a whole lot of money there. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. Leonard, do you have 10 a -- I would think maybe that you would have an issue with 11 some other company doing the base work, and then you coming 12 along and putting your good name on there as a -- as a paving 13 job on possibly shoddy work, or -- I don't know. I'm just -- 14 you know, as an example. 15 MR. ODOM: I would prefer to control it and just do 16 the whole thing. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I agree with you. 18 MS. DYKE: I might make one little point here, that 19 at the time when we started this project and we had an 20 initial discussion about the parking lot itself, and I 21 believe -- remember that we met out there -- 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yes, ma'am, I was there. 23 MS. DYKE: -- with Roads and Bridges, and then we 24 were discussing really what kind of topping we should put on 25 it. And in the aspect that this is an 1885 building and a 6-10-13 13 1 historical building, we wanted to keep the setting of the 2 building as close to that era as possible, and not put 3 asphalt down. So, we -- we kind of -- we did discuss crushed 4 granite, but that was extremely expensive, and so we kind of 5 dropped that one. But we feel like -- we feel like we've 6 made some headway here with it, with this project. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So that $1,900, that's not 8 applying a surface to it, that's just doing the base? 9 MS. DYKE: Well, you know, it is -- it's a very 10 reasonable price. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: No, but I'm saying -- just 12 talking about the process. Is that your understanding, 13 Leonard, that that would just be the base, not the surface? 14 MS. DYKE: What it is, what it -- as it is today, 15 there is a -- quite a bit of the area has been covered over 16 with grasses, natural grasses that have come up, but there's 17 a large area that's in front of the building, and then 18 immediately to the right and to the left, and that area is 19 the one that needs treatment. So -- and that -- because it 20 is dirt there. However, it is well packed, and you can 21 pretty well walk on it. We were just concerned about, like, 22 if they were having an event that night and then it rained, 23 then people were -- you know, it would not be a suitable 24 walking surface. So, $1,900 is a -- a quote that we have 25 from Lowrey Construction on putting the gravel down. It's, 6-10-13 14 1 like, four -- four loads of crushed gravel, and -- 2 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: All you're doing is just 3 putting a thin layer. They're going to roll it with a roller 4 and just kind of mash it down. 5 MS. DYKE: That's it. 6 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That's basically gravel, it's 7 not base. There will be some base to fill in the low areas, 8 from what I'm reading. 9 MS. DYKE: Right, mm-hmm. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think the -- 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Leonard's got something. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- the only, I guess, question 13 I have is long-term maintenance. I mean, the County's going 14 to be -- what you're putting out there certainly is going to 15 be better than nothing, but it's also going to have weeds 16 coming up through it right away. I mean, it's just the way 17 it's going to work. And then the County's going to have to 18 be either mowing it or putting Roundup on it. 19 MS. DYKE: I don't think it's going to be a problem 20 with that. There's some outer area around it, like, that 21 could use some mowing and, you know, some upkeep right now. 22 But also, I think Schreiner is also involved with this; that 23 they will, like, trim the outer edges, and it is not their 24 responsibility to do that. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I understand that. I'm saying 6-10-13 15 1 it's county, I guess -- you know, we've leased it, sort of. 2 MS. DYKE: Yeah. And one of the issues that had 3 come up about this was, well, the watering, and so that's why 4 we initially chose to do the native plants. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Let's stay on parking first. 6 Let's try to figure the parking out. I mean, I'm just -- you 7 know, I just know how stuff grows out here. If you have 8 gravel, then you're going to have grass and weeds growing in 9 it in time, and then you're going have a lawnmower go over 10 it, and you're going to have a lawnmower shooting gravel, 11 which I have a concern. I understand that you're trying to 12 go with a permanent -- you know, or to match the timing, but 13 not -- at your cost. But, you know, the County -- it's 14 just -- I'm just wondering, is it not a better thing to do a 15 permanent fix and put sealcoat on the parking lot right in 16 front of the building you're talking about? Which is like a 17 county road, you know, same terminology. It would be some 18 base material down there, and then put a double penetration 19 that Road and Bridge can do. You know, I would rather have a 20 permanent fix than a bandaid. 21 MS. DYKE: I certainly -- 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I understand y'all don't have 23 the money to do a permanent fix, but if you all bought the 24 materials, used your money for the materials, and let Road 25 and Bridge do the parking lot, I think we'd end up with a 6-10-13 16 1 better long-term solution. 2 MS. DYKE: Well, and, of course, the cost of what 3 we're talking about is not a cost to the County. We -- the 4 funds -- 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's not a cost to the County 6 now, but if we have to maintain it, it is a cost to the 7 County in the future. 8 MS. DYKE: Well, we think we've come up with one 9 that's -- 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: You're going to maintain it? 11 MS. DYKE: -- that we can do that is -- that's 12 satisfactory. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I think Commissioner Letz is 14 not against what you're doing. I agree with him. I think in 15 the long-term, over a -- some-year period, 10-year period, 16 whatever, the cost will be much less to everybody if -- if we 17 put in something that looks nice, but seal it, okay, so that 18 the grass and weeds do not come up through it, and there 19 isn't any mud or anything like that. I think -- and if you 20 had -- and I agree with Commissioner Letz. You know, if your 21 money were to go toward Road and Bridge for the material, and 22 let them do the labor and the work, I think it would be a 23 win-win. 24 MS. DYKE: What kind of surface are you actually -- 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It'd be like a county road. 6-10-13 17 1 But, I mean, your concern -- 2 MS. DYKE: When you say a "county road," does it 3 have some asphalt on it? 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No, it has oil. It has oil 5 with gravel put on top of it and rolled in. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: When it's finished, you can -- 7 you know, like any driveway, it looks like rock, okay? It 8 just looks like stone. So, you know, that eventually packs 9 in. And the oil comes up, but -- 10 MS. DYKE: Well -- 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: -- it wouldn't be used that 12 much, so it would stay looking like stone -- pebbles most of 13 the time. 14 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Well, if you use river 15 gravel. 16 MS. DYKE: Does it have a natural look to it? 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. You can use a -- 19 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Use the regular river-washed 20 gravel for that for sealcoat, rather than the trap lock like 21 you use on county roads. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 23 MS. DYKE: There was one thing that came up when we 24 visited out with Roads and Bridges when we were just 25 initially talking about this project, and what was -- what it 6-10-13 18 1 came up -- the final it came up to be, 'cause we were 2 thinking about Roads and Bridges, and -- but then we were -- 3 we learned that the County can't do work on property other 4 than Kerr County property. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: This is leased. The County 6 leases the property. 7 MS. DYKE: What's that? 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The County leases this 9 property. 10 MS. DYKE: Okay. So that would be -- that would be 11 the reason, okay. Well, that's fine. Okay. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's an idea on the pavement. 13 On the landscape part of it, there's two comments. If you'd 14 have your -- whoever's putting your plants together contact 15 me, I'll give you all the plants, everything -- entire list. 16 I'll give them to you. 17 MS. STEWART: You're on. You are on. (Laughter.) 18 MS. DYKE: That's really good. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Just call me and -- 20 MS. STEWART: My name is Mary Lee. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So just call me, and I'll have 22 you pick them up at our nursery in Comfort, but we'll give 23 you that. The other concern I have, and I just want to make 24 sure -- the timers and the hoses, you're hooking this up to 25 hose bibs? 6-10-13 19 1 MS. STEWART: Yes. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. I just want to make 3 sure, because this is in the city limits, and the City has 4 very strict rules about irrigation and how it's installed. 5 And if it's a manual hookup to a hose bib, you can probably 6 do it. If not, all of a sudden you've got to get a licensed 7 person to put it in in the city limits. 8 MS. STEWART: Oh, no, it's a lot simpler than that. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I saw the timers. I just 10 wanted to -- you just need to make sure we're not violating 11 any city ordinance when it comes to irrigation. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: It occurs to me that where we are 13 is, once a decision is made collectively about what you want 14 to do there in the way of improvements for parking and 15 landscaping and so forth, that as -- as our past experience 16 has indicated, we've got three parties involved. We got the 17 Friends, we got the County, and we got Schreiner University, 18 so we probably need to work up a little short agreement which 19 incorporates what they want to do for approval of all three 20 parties, just as we did in the past situation. Is that -- 21 MR. HENNEKE: Yes, sir. And I think I have the 22 direction of the Court, and with your -- y'all's permission, 23 before the next Commissioners Court meeting, I can -- I can 24 work this up. I can make sure of Sue's approval of it, and 25 then get Schreiner to approve it, and then have both those 6-10-13 20 1 parties on board before I bring it back for final approval, 2 if that's acceptable. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's good. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: One question, if I may. Once 5 we get all that in place, and it should be part of this 6 agreement, who will maintain this? 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The County. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: The County -- 9 JUDGE TINLEY: During the course -- 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: -- will maintain all the 11 landscaping and everything? Okay, that's what I thought. 12 So, that's good that it be done with that in mind. Okay, 13 good. 14 MS. DYKE: Okay. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: If you'll get -- see Jody, 17 she'll give you my phone number. Just give me a call; we can 18 donate all that stuff. 19 MS. STEWART: Thank you very, very much. That's a 20 great help. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Can I put some things on the list, 22 Commissioner? 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, you can put them on the 24 list. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So how do we close out with 6-10-13 21 1 them what the surface should look like, whether it's -- 2 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I think if you want it to 3 look more natural, you use river gravel instead of the trap 4 rock. It's cheaper, too. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right, and it looks very nice. 6 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yeah. 7 MS. DYKE: It does? 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. Oh, yeah. 9 MR. ODOM: The bad thing is that you have those 10 seams with that pea gravel, because you're going to have that 11 overlapping. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. 13 MR. ODOM: Maybe -- the old way to do things is to 14 use chipped rock, say granite. That's what we talked about 15 before, was that red granite, and you spread it out. That is 16 the old way they used to do things. People that had money 17 put that granite down around their places. The old 18 plantation places and stuff like that had crushed aggregate 19 around it; they didn't have asphalt. So, that's a thought if 20 you kept it that way. Otherwise, I suggest trap rock, 21 because you'll -- you'll hide the -- you're going to have 22 that seam showing in that pea gravel. I mean, you're going 23 to have the overlap. The question last time was, how much? 24 Because it kept growing from where the parking was, and you 25 need to delineate that so that we know where the base and -- 6-10-13 22 1 and, you know, where the limits of the sealcoat would be, or 2 the spreading the granite. 3 MS. DYKE: We probably need to talk about it, yeah. 4 MR. ODOM: I really think you ought to consider 5 about that over in Fredericksburg with that old red granite. 6 Looks nice. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: I -- the comment about using crushed 8 granite being out of the -- out of the price range 9 financially, this whole thing has morphed. You just got you 10 another $500 to work with, you'll recall. 11 MS. DYKE: No, that's landscaping. 12 MS. STEWART: That's for the gardening. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: For the landscaping. We're talking 14 about material costs from you folks now, not material and 15 labor to -- to put it down. You may be in a position where 16 you can consider crushed granite now, with -- with these 17 modifications to your financial situation. 18 MS. DYKE: I see. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: I'd -- I'd recommend that you take a 20 close look at that. If that -- if asphalt was considered to 21 be not timely for the -- 22 MS. DYKE: Exactly, not timely. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: -- for the location and the period 24 of the building, you know, you got to look at other options, 25 and that would be one of them. And your moneys have changed 6-10-13 23 1 now. 2 MS. DYKE: Okay. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: You got more to work with, so take a 4 look at it. 5 MS. DYKE: We'll do it, okay. And August is 6 acceptable? 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Sure. From my standpoint, yes. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. 9 MS. STEWART: And the landscaping? 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, whatever the 11 landscaping -- I mean, I don't have any problem with what 12 you're doing there. Long-term, I'd like to see a few trees 13 planted out there. And my -- you know, just because -- 14 MS. STEWART: We've had the offer of one tree from 15 one of the local garden clubs. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 17 MS. STEWART: And we thought it would be an oak, 18 and we want to put that in. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. So, I think there's -- 20 anyway, so I think, you know, that's going -- that's not -- 21 my wife and I drove by the other day and she says, "Who owns 22 that church?" And I said we do. She said, "Plant some 23 trees." (Laughter.) I said, "Okay." 24 MS. STEWART: We agree with her. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, I think that would be 6-10-13 24 1 something you could do. That's why I'm helping with some of 2 this stuff. Maybe you'll have a little bit left over to buy 3 another tree or something. 4 MR. HENNEKE: Sue, I will e-mail you the agreement 5 for y'all to sign. 6 MS. DYKE: Okay. 7 MR. HENNEKE: And bring it back to me. Once we get 8 all three parties -- y'all, Schreiner, and Commissioners 9 Court -- to sign it, then we'll be moving forward. 10 MS. DYKE: Okay, very good. Thank you. Okay. 11 Let's go to Item 2, which is also a 9 o'clock timed item, 12 which is a report from the Friends of the Historical 13 Commission on the project -- historical display project that 14 they are doing at the building which was formerly occupied by 15 the Main Street Program. It's downtown right next to the 16 Arcadia Theater. Yes, ma'am? 17 MS. GAUDIER: I'm Deborah Gaudier. I'm a member of 18 the Friends of Kerr County Historical Commission, and I'm 19 chairing a committee to create a historical display -- to 20 create some historical displays. Sue Dyke asked me to report 21 on the historical display project that the Friends are 22 planning for the space that was formerly occupied by the Main 23 Straight office, which is next to the Arcadia. The City of 24 Kerrville has offered the Historical Commission the use of 25 the space to set up historical displays, rather than have yet 6-10-13 25 1 another vacant downtown storefront. You may remember the 2 Daily Times reported back in March that the City was 3 considering letting the Historical Commission use the space 4 for a history museum. I want to clarify that we're not ready 5 to establish a museum. We have a 10-step program provided by 6 a museum planner that is an excellent guide to creating a 7 museum. We are not even at step one of the 10-step program. 8 Step one is a mission statement, okay? 9 What we want to do right now is use the space for 10 changing exhibits. We're planning to use only that area 11 that's at the front of the building. The part with the 12 windows in kind of the front, around the side, has lots of 13 visibility from the street, so viewing would be only from the 14 street. Several people in the small group that are planning 15 this, are working on it, have professional experience in 16 terms of various displays of various types. We have a 17 department store window designer, someone who's experienced 18 in art galleries. Small historical-themed exhibits, someone 19 else has experience in that. So, the intent is to have a 20 professional look to it. But by setting up these temporary 21 window displays, we can create something of interest 22 downtown, we hope, and test some of the exhibit ideas while 23 we're working toward the idea of eventually having a history 24 museum in Kerr County. So, essentially, that's just an 25 update on what we're doing. 6-10-13 26 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Sounds great. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Ma'am, is the City still leaving 3 that area open for public use of the restrooms they have in 4 there? 5 MS. GAUDIER: Yes. Yes. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Now, the access to those 7 restrooms is separate and apart from the area that you folks 8 would be using for your displays? 9 MS. GAUDIER: Right. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 11 MS. GAUDIER: Right. No one will be able to get 12 into that part of the building, 'cause it's locked. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I presume what you're 15 talking about on displays will be similar to what's out in 16 our -- out here in that -- behind that area? 17 MS. GAUDIER: Right out there? 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The shelf -- not the shelf, but 19 the -- 20 MS. GAUDIER: We'll have more area. Think of it 21 more like a department store display, which is deeper. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Oh, good. 23 MS. GAUDIER: So, for instance, if we were to do 24 one on shingle makers, we've got someone who would -- who's 25 got an antique shingle-making -- 6-10-13 27 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Machine. 2 MS. GAUDIER: -- bench, right. We could put that 3 in, some photographs, some descriptives like are out here, 4 that kind of thing. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think it's a great idea for 6 this area. A lot of traffic goes through there; be a good 7 way for y'all to get a lot of publicity and education. 8 MS. GAUDIER: It may take a while. It takes a 9 while to get this developed. One day you'll see something in 10 there. 11 MS. DYKE: What we're trying to do in the total -- 12 total perspective of all this is promote tourism. 13 "Historical Tourism" is the title, and that was passed to us 14 from the state Historical Commission. In other words, 15 they're trying to do this across Texas. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Good. 17 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Sounds great. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: At one time, there was a suggestion, 19 if I'm not mistaken, made by Dr. Rector -- 20 MS. DYKE: Yes. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: -- on some of these older buildings, 22 an idea he got when I think he and his wife were traveling up 23 in Montana or somewhere, which -- 24 MS. GAUDIER: That's happening. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: -- gave the history of a particular 6-10-13 28 1 building, and the family history, and is that still in 2 process? 3 MS. GAUDIER: It is. As a matter of fact, I'm 4 actually the one who's doing the research and writing on it, 5 and we've got three signs up. We put two up last year, and 6 then there was a bit of a break because there was some 7 discussion about the change in the style of the signs. So, 8 the signs have been restyled, redesigned, and we've put up 9 the first one of the new style two weeks ago, I guess. And 10 we have more that are in the works; they're ready to go. 11 We're just trying -- we're spreading it out a little bit. 12 So, yes, that was in progress. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: What kind of response are you 14 getting to that? 15 MS. STEWART: What kind of response? 16 JUDGE TINLEY: From members of the public 17 generally. Just comments? Or have we noticed a lot of 18 people that are stopping to look and read, and actually 19 trying to absorb that information? 20 MS. GAUDIER: I would say you probably need to ask 21 the property owners. I mean, honestly, I live out in the 22 county, so -- I come into Kerrville pretty frequently, but I 23 don't -- you know, I don't -- they're the ones who are down 24 there all the time. They would be better to speak to that. 25 I mean, we've had some -- I know there's been some positive 6-10-13 29 1 feedback, but I couldn't tell you. 2 MS. STEWART: There was a good article in the paper 3 a couple weeks ago about the one that was put up at the old 4 Fawcett Furniture Company. What do they call that building? 5 MS. GAUDIER: It's the Fawcett Furniture -- Sunrise 6 Antique Mall, but Fawcett Furniture. We're trying to make 7 them entertaining, and -- 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I can't tell you how many 9 people I've taken down there to show those to, and it is 10 fascinating, and it's interesting. As an example, Dr. 11 Rector's building itself, I think the first one that went up 12 talks about back in the olden days, you'd go around the back 13 of the building, go up the stairs and do a little gambling, 14 and -- and there's a photograph of the old wagons with their 15 wool mohair piled on it. And, I mean, it's really 16 fascinating. It's really neat stuff. I've taken a lot of 17 people down there. 18 MS. GAUDIER: Good. Well, glad you like it. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Oh, it's fantastic. 20 MS. GAUDIER: The Fawcett Furniture sign that just 21 went up talked about the mayor -- W.A. Fawcett was the mayor 22 of Kerrville at one point, and he had an ear bitten off. 23 There's a whole story about that, and that's included. When 24 his ear was reattached, it was said to be the first such 25 surgery in Kerrville, you know, to reattach -- 6-10-13 30 1 JUDGE TINLEY: He didn't get tangled up with Mike 2 Tyson, did he? 3 MS. GAUDIER: But, anyway, yeah, there's some great 4 stories. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, we appreciate that. Yes, 6 ma'am? 7 MS. OAKS: I can only just speak to family members 8 and friends that I know that knew Kerrville when we were 9 younger, and it's a reconnection for us with Kerrville to 10 come back. I mean, I remember some of these places, and to 11 reignite that. And I have a large family, and a lot of them 12 are in San Antonio, and they've commented on it. So -- 13 MS. GAUDIER: Good. 14 MS. OAKS: -- I think it's a very good thing. 15 MS. STEWART: Barbara Oaks also serves on this 16 committee. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: So, we're getting positive feedback 18 from that. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Good. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: So, we need more of them. 21 MS. GAUDIER: We're working on it. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Thank you very much. 23 Anything more on that item, gentlemen? Thank you for the 24 work that you do. 25 MS. DYKE: All right. 6-10-13 31 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Let's go to Item 3, a 9:05 timed 2 item; to consider, discuss, take appropriate action for the 3 Court's approval to name a private road Cain Lane East, the 4 same being located in Precinct 3. Mr. Odom? 5 MR. ODOM: Yes, sir. Mr. Barry Cain applied 6 through the 911 office on May the 30th, 2013, to name his 7 private road Cain Lane East. This road is privately 8 maintained and located in Precinct 3. Mr. Cain is the only 9 resident that has access to this road. So, at this time, we 10 ask the Court for their final approval naming a private road 11 Cain Lane East, Precinct 3. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So moved. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: We have a motion and a second for 15 approval of the agenda item. Question or discussion? All in 16 favor, 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 carried. Thank you, Mr. 21 Odom. 22 MR. ODOM: Yes, sir. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Let's go to our 9:30 timed item; 24 Item Number 6, to consider, discuss, and take appropriate 25 action to reappoint Steve King and Ed Livermore to the 6-10-13 32 1 Kerrville/Kerr County Airport Board for another two-year 2 term. Mr. McKenzie, good to see you this morning. 3 MR. McKENZIE: Good morning, Judge. Good to see 4 you, Commissioners. As it states in the agenda item, I'm 5 here to respectfully request that you reappoint Steve King 6 and Ed Livermore to serve on our Airport Board. They have 7 agreed to serve another term, and according to our interlocal 8 agreement, this must be brought to both owners for their 9 approval at such time, and it's just after June the 1st, so 10 it's time. And they've both agreed to serve another term on 11 the two-year -- 12 JUDGE TINLEY: And the board's recommending their 13 reappointment? 14 MR. McKENZIE: Yes, sir. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I move that we approve the 16 appointment for Steve King and Ed Livermore for the Airport 17 Board for another two-year period. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 20 approval of the agenda item. Question or discussion? 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I have a -- I don't know 22 Mr. Livermore, but I'm certainly going to vote for him. But 23 I'm a fan of Steve King, and I'm honored to vote in the 24 affirmative for him. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Good. 6-10-13 33 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: They've both done an 2 outstanding job. Steve is currently president? Yeah, he's 3 president right now of the board. 4 MR. McKENZIE: Yes, sir. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And he's a big reason why that 6 board's where it is today. So is Ed. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Any other comments? Questions? All 8 in favor of the 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: Motion carried. Thank you very 13 much, Mr. McKenzie. 14 MR. McKENZIE: Appreciate it. Thank y'all. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Let's go back to Item 4; to 16 consider, discuss, take appropriate action to address the 17 possibility of prohibiting the sale or use of restricted 18 fireworks, that being skyrockets with sticks and missiles 19 with fins, in any portion of the unincorporated area of Kerr 20 County pursuant to Local Government Code Section 352.051 for 21 the 4th of July holiday. I put this on the agenda to give 22 you gentlemen the opportunity to act or choose not to act. 23 It's up to you. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: On behalf the Commissioners, 25 we thank you. 6-10-13 34 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: But no thanks. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Any member of the Court have a 4 motion to offer in connection with the agenda item? 5 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: No. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: All right. Let's go forward to 7 Item 5; to consider, discuss, take appropriate action to 8 approve a contract with Ricoh U.S.A., Inc., for the two 9 copiers in the County Clerk's office, subject to the approval 10 of the County Attorney, and to approve a bill of sale and 11 assignment from Ricoh U.S.A., Inc., to Kerr County for the 12 Canon MS800 microfilm reader-printer, being Serial Number 13 BY300961. Ms. Pieper? 14 MS. PIEPER: Yes. I think the County Attorney's 15 been working on the contract. It's time to renew my two 16 Xerox copiers, and the last several years, I have been 17 renting a reader -- microfilm reader printer, and Ricoh is 18 going to give us that reader-printer, so that's what this 19 bill of sale is for. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: There's been a lease, and at the end 21 of a certain period of that lease, the agreement provides 22 that we can elect to, quote, purchase it for one dollar or 23 something? 24 MS. PIEPER: No, it's zero dollars. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Zero dollars, okay. 6-10-13 35 1 MR. HENNEKE: Gentlemen, I'm -- if y'all would 2 approve it subject to my review, I'm -- there's a later 3 agenda item that I'm not ready to proceed on today, but I'm 4 working with Ricoh on a couple changes to the overall master 5 agreement they have with the County, and I'm waiting for a 6 response from their legal, but I think we have it worked out. 7 And it's been their delay which has been the reason that we 8 haven't gotten -- I'm not ready to proceed today. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: What about the -- the approval of 10 the receipt of the microfilm reader-printer conveyance by 11 bill of sale? 12 MR. HENNEKE: That -- that part's fine, yes, sir. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. But with regard to any other 14 action, it be subject to your approval. 15 MR. HENNEKE: Thank you. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: In one of the pages back 17 here, it is handwritten, "includes staples." 18 MR. HENNEKE: Staples are important, Commissioner. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I understand that. But -- 20 MS. PIEPER: We just want to make sure that's -- 21 that's in there. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'm glad it's in there, 23 thrilled to death, but isn't somebody supposed to sign it 24 before we agree to it? 25 MS. PIEPER: Once y'all approve it and he approves 6-10-13 36 1 the contract, then it'll be sent to Ricoh for their signature 2 as well. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So, we got to vote for it to 4 see what's in it? It's one of those deals? I'm just -- I'm 5 just saying, it probably needs to be signed. It's not a big 6 deal. If he's happy with it, I'm happy with it. I notice 7 that yours and hers are -- the language is all different in 8 it, so whatever. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll make a motion that we 10 approve the bill of sale and assignment agreement for the 11 microfilm reader-printer. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Pending approval? 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No, that one's okay. We're 14 just -- I'm doing two motions. 15 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Second. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: We have a motion and second for 17 approval of the bill of sale and assignment as a portion of 18 that agenda item. Question or discussion? All in favor of 19 the motion, signify by raising your right hand. 20 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 21 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 22 (No response.) 23 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion carries. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Then I'll make a motion to 25 approve the lease agreement subject to the County Attorney's 6-10-13 37 1 approval to form. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: With Ricoh. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded as 6 indicated with respect to the remainder portion of the agenda 7 item. Question or discussion? All in favor, signify by 8 raising your right hand. 9 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 10 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 11 (No response.) 12 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. Let's move 13 to Item 7; to consider, discuss, and take appropriate action, 14 if necessary, on analysis of revenue to actual through May 15 31, 2013, and revenue projection to year end, September 30th, 16 2013. 17 MS. HARGIS: Good morning, Commissioners. I think 18 all of you received a copy of this earlier in the week in 19 your boxes, as well, and we have basically two projections, 20 and there were three questions. If I could, before we start 21 this, I'd like to answer those three questions that 22 Commissioner Letz asked me. Number one, he asked me to check 23 on whether or not we were getting sales tax from Fox Tank. 24 We are. Unfortunately, we lost the sales tax record, and so 25 I can't tell you exactly how much, but we are getting sales 6-10-13 38 1 tax from them. The other thing was, are they going to be on 2 the tax roll for 2013? The answer to that is no. They will 3 be on the tax roll for 2014. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: And there will be an abatement? 5 MS. HARGIS: There will be an abatement for that 6 for a three-year period, as you will recall. The other 7 question was whether or not the power lines would be on for 8 2013, and the answer to that is no. They will be on for 9 2014. They're in the process. I guess they hire a company 10 to actually do that appraising, and because it's not finished 11 yet, they're waiting until January of next year to put them 12 on. So, that's what the Appraisal District informed me on 13 those particular matters. They wouldn't even give me an 14 estimate of the value of those lines, so I can't do that 15 either. I do know that some of the turbine generator-type 16 poles are about a million dollars a pop, so these have got to 17 be somewhere in that range. So -- probably not, because they 18 don't have the electrical and that in them, but they're still 19 going to be pretty expensive. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, right. 21 MS. HARGIS: You basically, in front of you for the 22 revenue, have two different analyses, one through the 31st, 23 which is actual. And I think you can see basically, the main 24 areas, this one doesn't look really bad. We're not that far 25 off. The sales tax is a little bit ahead, which is kind of 6-10-13 39 1 compensating for some of the others. We put the funds -- the 2 areas in yellow that have the decreases, and on these 3 particular ones -- this one just gives you a snapshot of the 4 actual revenue through -- 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: These decreases -- and 6 there's numerous of them. There's more decreases -- well, 7 there's lots of them. These alarm you? 8 MS. HARGIS: Yes, it does. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Does it? Okay. You're 10 going to talk about that just for a second? 11 MS. HARGIS: Yes. I would rather do that on the -- 12 the projection versus the other. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Some of these things are, I 14 mean, just not far under 1,000 percent. 15 MS. HARGIS: Some of them we have no control over, 16 and some of them we do. And there's been -- and when I look 17 at these every year -- I think I've mentioned to y'all over 18 the -- over the past few years that, you know, when the clerk 19 fees started going down, I became very alarmed and tried to 20 track it down. And, basically, what we come to there -- and 21 they've stabilized over the last two or three years. The 22 clerks' have stabilized, but they're not going anywhere. 23 They're just, you know, holding. Now, the County Clerk is 24 going up a little bit, but still within the budget amount 25 that I had for last year. The District Clerk is the same. 6-10-13 40 1 You know, the County Clerk, when I first came here, we were 2 collecting $600,000. We're only collecting 300 -- 300, 335; 3 that's a tremendous decrease. The clerk was -- the District 4 Clerk was the same. We were right about 300,000; now we're 5 at 140. 6 Part of that is due -- the clerk's, we think, is 7 due to, you know, the housing market is still not back. You 8 know, when you -- when people close on their houses, they pay 9 $100, and they used to get stacks of those from the title 10 company. We don't get those any more. But it's pretty much 11 across the country; all the county clerk fees are down across 12 the state of Texas, so it's not like it's an anomaly just to 13 us, but we've kind of stabilized with that over the last 14 couple of years. But the J.P. fees are the ones that alarm 15 me the most, because they have -- they have dropped, and 16 they're continuing to drop. And they were kind of a source 17 of holding up the other side of the clerk fees, and now 18 they're falling. I'm not a court person, so I can't really 19 tell you why they're decreasing. I don't know whether 20 they're just not taking as many cases to court. I don't 21 know. I mean, I -- I'm going to have to -- 22 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: The barrier in the middle of 23 the median. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What? 25 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: D.P.S. and them are not 6-10-13 41 1 writing near the traffic citations due to the barrier down 2 the middle of the median. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Oh, yeah. 4 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Hard to get turned around. 5 MS. HARGIS: That's part of it, but all their fees 6 are down. If it was just the traffic tickets, it would be 7 okay, but their civil fees are down and their criminal fees 8 are down, and you can say almost 40 percent in some of them; 9 40, 45 percent. J.P. 4 is not as far behind. The reason is 10 that they hired a collection company, and so they're still 11 collecting all their back money, where 1 and 2 and 3 had 12 already taken that action several years ago. So, the 13 difference there is just because they're collecting 14 delinquencies, so that's not really a boon; that's just old 15 fees coming in. And I don't think we have a huge delinquency 16 backlog in these -- in these areas. It's just -- and the 17 courts are busy. But, you know, we don't get as much of the 18 ticket as everybody thinks. You know, we can get maybe 10 or 19 15 percent of a ticket, so it's -- you know, it's not that 20 big of a boon to us. And it is to the state of Texas, but 21 not to the county. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Let me ask you a question, 23 just to make sure that I'm seeing things correctly here. On 24 Page 2, you have the J.P. fines, and J.P. 1 fines is 61.99 25 percent. That's 61 -- 62 percent less than it was last year. 6-10-13 42 1 Is that what I'm reading? 2 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Where is that? 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Close to the top. 4 MS. HARGIS: Okay, now, which one are you looking 5 at? 6 JUDGE TINLEY: The May 31. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'm sorry. May 31, yes. 8 MS. HARGIS: I was looking at the other one; it 9 didn't -- 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'm sorry. 11 MS. HARGIS: Looks like I'm missing a page on that 12 one. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Oh, that's an old trick. 14 MS. HARGIS: No. (Laughter.) 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Ain't going to work here, 16 lady. 17 MS. HARGIS: Not an old trick. Hang on just a 18 second. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: You used to use it a lot until 20 everybody figured it out. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 22 MS. HARGIS: Yes. That -- I mean, we have checked 23 and doublechecked all these percentages. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: But -- so these numbers out 25 here on the right that -- that y'all have yellowed, 62 6-10-13 43 1 percent less right now -- or the end of May, than it was last 2 year? 3 MS. HARGIS: At this time, yes. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That is a huge number. 5 MS. HARGIS: Well, it is a huge number. We started 6 noticing this trend probably November or December, and we -- 7 and in November and December -- October, November, and 8 December tends to be a little lower, but then it didn't -- 9 and it usually recoups in January, but we're not recouping. 10 And that's why we went back and -- and we took about a month 11 to relook at a lot of these. And I know that the County 12 Attorney had said we got more money, but that's not what our 13 books are showing. And, you know, we -- we run about a month 14 behind as far as -- as these numbers. Like, when I say 15 through May 31st, that's only the April revenue. Keep in 16 mind, the clerks -- they don't turn their fees in till the 17 first week of the following month afterwards, so we don't 18 have May's. May's come in in the first week of -- first week 19 of June, second week of June, so we couldn't really wait that 20 long to present it to you today. So -- but, I mean, you look 21 at what they're coming in. I mean, they used to be doing 22 like $5,000 a month. They're doing $2,000 a month. I mean, 23 it's just there, and it's -- it's a constant. It's not -- it 24 doesn't vary. It's just 2,000, 1,900, 1,800. I mean, they 25 don't take in big amounts to get up to 80-something thousand 6-10-13 44 1 a year. But if you look back in the prior years, it's 5,000 2 a month, 6,000 a month, and now it's not coming in. So, I 3 don't -- I don't know. I have not sat through those -- you 4 know, through their -- their -- you know, they just say some 5 of their cases are getting thrown out. I don't know. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: But their caseloads are -- 7 MS. HARGIS: The caseloads are up. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Are up, right. 9 MS. HARGIS: But their fines -- 10 MR. HENNEKE: I don't know about that. No, that's 11 not true. I mean, as Rusty said, we had a huge drop-off two 12 years ago when they built that barrier, and I wouldn't say -- 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. I wasn't just talking 14 about the barrier. 15 MR. HENNEKE: The criminal cases? Talking about 16 the criminal Class C misdemeanors, I don't think those are 17 up, at least not on the ones that we're prosecuting. 18 MS. HARGIS: You know, I don't -- I just don't 19 know. I think that's something that we need to ask, you 20 know, maybe -- perhaps the J.P.'s, and -- and to look at, and 21 maybe have them come in. I mean, I can't -- you get a 22 different answer from -- depending on which one you're 23 talking to. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, I would never think 25 that a J.P. -- one our J.P.'s -- 6-10-13 45 1 MS. HARGIS: But their caseloads are all different. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, I understand. 3 MS. HARGIS: So, that's what I'm saying. Each one 4 of them has a different reason. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: The criminal court, you 6 know, 125 percent less. That is -- that's huge. 7 MS. PIEPER: I think some of that stems from a 8 couple years ago, O.C.A. determined that once a -- or I don't 9 know that O.C.A. did it, but it was some kind of message on 10 the listserv that said once a person's probation has expired, 11 that anything that they owe, you cannot collect that any 12 more. So, we've had to write a lot of stuff off. 13 MS. HARGIS: I don't -- I don't think their 14 collections were that far behind, Jannett, 'cause they've 15 been using the collection companies, all of them, for a 16 while. The only one that that would really affect would be 17 four, and since they hired that collection, their revenue's 18 way up, as far as that is concerned, 'cause of the past 19 collections. But -- 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Anyway, that seemed to be 21 way behind. 22 MS. HARGIS: I haven't had a chance to meet with 23 them collectively, so maybe I would request a meeting, or 24 maybe we should have -- work together with them. You know, I 25 can't be in all those courts. I mean -- 6-10-13 46 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'd recommend on that one that 2 we -- during the budget workshops, Judge, that we have all 3 the J.P.'s here to go over some of the -- what they -- you 4 know, kind of why it's down, and do they see it continuing or 5 not. I mean, it'd be helpful if we can get all four of them 6 here, which is difficult at times. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I would certainly never 8 think that they are doing things like that on purpose. 9 MS. HARGIS: No, no, no. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's not the issue. 11 There's got to be a reason. And I agree with Letz that it 12 would be really neat for all of to us hear what that reason 13 is. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: What you're going to see, 15 Commissioner, is one of the reasons is obviously this barrier 16 that's been put up, and the officers themselves will tell you 17 that their ability to work that traffic on Interstate 10 with 18 that barrier has been significantly hampered. But once that 19 drop occurs, then you're probably going to see it leveling 20 off, hopefully. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But -- 22 JUDGE TINLEY: So that the following year, there's 23 no further decline. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge, I can see that for 25 Precincts 3 and 4, because they pretty much control almost -- 6-10-13 47 1 almost all the interstate that's not in the city limits. But 2 I don't -- but 1 and 2 have very little on the interstate, 3 and so I don't -- you know, I don't see that as a reason for 4 those two precincts. And I think we also had that barrier 5 up -- this isn't the first year we had the barrier. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No, it was up last year. We 7 talked about the same thing last year, and that's what's 8 alarming to me, is that even -- you know, that thing was in 9 place, and we threw rocks at the state for putting the 10 barrier up, and we're -- and now we're another 125 percent 11 even less than last year. That just -- 12 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Actually, they came back in 13 this last year and added a few more cross-overs, put one 14 about every 2 miles, but it's still difficult. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Maybe I ought to get my old 16 buddies, start drinking again and take that thing up. 17 MS. HARGIS: That -- but the J.P. fines and fees 18 are the biggest. Some of these others are quarterly fees -- 19 I mean, they're not quarterly, but they come in every four 20 years or every two years. And so this is something we just 21 really hadn't, you know, looked at. But the sales tax is 22 running pretty constant at about a 7.2 percent increase. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: 7.2? 24 MS. HARGIS: Right, and that's what we have. And 25 I'm very cautious with this, because even in the budget 6-10-13 48 1 process, I'm not using that full amount, because you remember 2 this is a volatile area that can fall very quickly, so we 3 don't want to depend on those funds. So -- you know, and 4 you'll see in -- in the revenue that I'm putting in the 5 budget, I want to be real careful with that. If nothing 6 else, when I first got into working on this side of the 7 fence, I learned that was one of the areas you don't mess 8 with too much. You can -- you tend to be most conservative 9 in that area, because it goes up and down with the fall of 10 the economy. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: This time last year, what was 12 that number? 13 MS. HARGIS: Five. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Five? 15 MS. HARGIS: Mm-hmm. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And did it come out at the end 17 of the year as 5 percent? 18 MS. HARGIS: It came out a little bit under what I 19 projected, but not much. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. How is -- do you have 21 any idea how it is in Gillespie County, Bandera County, their 22 sales tax? 23 MS. HARGIS: I haven't -- you know, I've been over 24 in Gillespie, and I can't -- but when I was visiting with him 25 in October, he said that their sales taxes were not what they 6-10-13 49 1 had been the year before. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Oh, is that right? 3 MS. HARGIS: They were still running a little bit 4 lower, but I think that's probably picked up in the last six 5 months. But that was, again, for his last fiscal year. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, okay. 7 MS. HARGIS: So I think, you know, things are 8 getting better in that particular area. It's these other 9 fees that I don't have any way of necessarily knowing exactly 10 why they're there. But I did want you to see them, because 11 we've been watching them very consistently over the last 12 three months, and they haven't changed. They're continuing 13 to be very low, so we just need to be aware of it, and then 14 talk about it. I don't think it's anything to panic over, 15 but, you know, just something we need to find out. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So, the bottom line looks 17 like we're maybe a million bucks behind? 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Quarter of a million is what I see. 19 MS. HARGIS: Yeah. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Projection. 21 MS. HARGIS: But I think the sales tax is going to 22 make up the difference, so we're probably going to come out 23 level. And you'll see that again on the -- the other one. 24 Again, some of these come in in the latter part of the year. 25 Now, we're one of the only counties, too, with a tax revenue 6-10-13 50 1 that does the double -- you have the opportunity to pay twice 2 a year, where most counties don't have that, so you have to 3 look at your ad valorem is going to take a big pop again in 4 July, and -- and her commissions along with that as well. 5 Some of the billings in some of the departments have not been 6 done timely, so that's also affecting. The mixed beverage 7 tax was not done, and neither was the occupational tax until 8 just last month, so therefore -- therefore, we haven't gotten 9 any money there. We know the billing went out, but now we 10 have to wait on it. It should have been out -- and that was 11 for the first part of the year. We haven't even done the 12 second half. I think it was only done through February. So, 13 we need to encourage our departments to do their billing in a 14 timely manner if possible, because that really affects our 15 bottom line. 16 Then, on the -- your annual projections, it doesn't 17 look as bad. But, you know, we've got 19 million to 18, and 18 if our sales tax comes in -- and, again, I didn't necessarily 19 project it out on this particular one, the full 7 percent, 20 because I didn't want to do that, because sometimes it'll go 21 to 5; sometimes it'll be 6, so -- you know, but at the end of 22 the day, I think we're going to be okay. The sales tax will 23 pick up the difference. But it's not something we 24 necessarily want to depend on in the future. The loss of the 25 city of Kerrville has not been that dramatic. Keep in mind 6-10-13 51 1 that the sales tax revenue off the vehicles, remember, is -- 2 we changed the way that was done, and in 2013 the Tax 3 Assessor will get 80 percent of that. Now, what happens is, 4 it's going to the general fund, and I have a copy of that law 5 specifically that says the money goes to the general fund. 6 What's happening is, we're getting a little bit more; Road 7 and Bridge gets less. Because in the prior two -- I think it 8 was -- that is a 10-year -- 15-year -- no, 10-year deal, and 9 I think it was about the time I came on, it changed to where 10 they -- the State didn't just give you a commission on those 11 that you put in Road and Bridge. Now you get a sales tax 12 commission that -- for doing it, and that, you know, goes in 13 the general fund. 14 So, in 2015, Leonard will be at zero for any of the 15 money coming in from there, so we have to think about that. 16 I believe I talked to y'all about that last year. You may 17 want to think about edging his tax rate up just a little bit, 18 because he's going to lose money there. That's a separate 19 taxing entity, Road and Bridge, so they should be able to be 20 self-sufficient. Leonard does a great job; don't me get me 21 wrong. He watches his money, but he has no control over the 22 fact that he's losing those moneys. So, where we was getting 23 600,000 two years ago, this year it's 440. So, within three 24 years, that will have dissipated to zero. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: But when the total of the two 6-10-13 52 1 between Road and Bridge and general fund is at -- 2 MS. HARGIS: It was a different calculation, and so 3 I don't know yet, because we haven't gotten it for this year. 4 It's not a great amount. It's less than we were getting 5 before, much less. Last year we got 217,000 or 218,000. And 6 we're supposed -- that was based on a 70 percent. This year 7 it's based on 80 percent. I don't know until -- because it's 8 based on the 2012 calendar year. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Oh. 10 MS. HARGIS: It's based on the last calendar year, 11 so that's why we get 2012 in 2013, and so that's why the 10 12 years will last until 2015, 'cause you're kind of running a 13 year behind. So, we're expecting that any time. Last year 14 we got it in May. This year, it's supposed to come in in 15 June. So, I just -- I don't know till we get it. It just 16 depends on the sales that went through here, and -- and that 17 fluctuates depending on, you know, where people buy their 18 cars. But that's -- I think car sales in general have picked 19 up here, from what I can tell. But her revenues is staying 20 pretty constant and pretty high, so, you know, it's a 21 snapshot. That's really all I can do. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Your revenue projection for sales 23 tax is just under 1 percent. 24 MS. HARGIS: Yes. I didn't -- I didn't do -- I 25 didn't do the 7 percent. 6-10-13 53 1 JUDGE TINLEY: I understand. You're showing, based 2 upon your total analysis, about a quarter million dollars 3 less revenue projection than -- than is indicated in the 4 current budget. If the sales tax alone were to be the number 5 you gave us, the 7.9 -- 6 MS. HARGIS: 7.2. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: -- 7.2, that'll pick up the majority 8 of that? 9 MS. HARGIS: Yes, it will. It will. And, you 10 know, I'm -- I'm excited to say, though, that over the last 11 two years, if you look back, when you see your budget, when I 12 open it up, that, you know, the -- two years ago, we saved 13 $1,400,000. Last year it was a million, five. So, we had 14 rebuilt our fund balance from -- remember, it got down to a 15 million, five, and now I'm hoping to project $5 million 16 coming in end of this year, so we have really recouped a lot 17 of money. Now we hope to be at 25 percent or a little 18 bitter. So, I think Mr. Oehler -- which my instructions, I 19 think the first year I got here, was to make that fund 20 balance come back up. I think we're there. I think a lot of 21 it goes to the credit of our departments, who have done a 22 great job in keeping their budgets to just what they needed. 23 Even though they asked for a little bit more, if they can do 24 with less, they do, and I think they need to be commended for 25 that. That's been a real asset to the whole working process. 6-10-13 54 1 I think the teamwork that they provide and the frugalness 2 that they provide has just been outstanding. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Any more questions for Ms. Hargis on 4 this? 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Hmm-mm. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Appreciate it. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you. Let's go to the next 8 item, Number 8; consider, discuss, take appropriate action to 9 initiate the process and other steps to construct fire 10 station on Ranchero Road on property owned by Kerr County. I 11 put this on the agenda, again, in hopes that we might have 12 our drainage study, and that is in process, that the Court 13 authorized. Looks like that thing is about to get 14 accomplished, but we don't have it yet, so we're going to 15 pass on that for now, and we'll bring it back as soon as 16 we've got that to see which direction we go with it. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I appreciate you hanging in 18 there with that. I think it's important. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, I think it's part of our 20 overall process of trying to become independent on the 21 services that we provide to our citizens. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Correct. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Let's go to Item Number 9; to 24 consider, discuss, take appropriate action regarding the 25 County Law Library, including relocation. Mr. Henneke? 6-10-13 55 1 MR. HENNEKE: Gentlemen, good morning again. 2 Several months ago, when Ms. Uecker went off to greener 3 pastures -- 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Oh. 5 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Oh. 6 MR. HENNEKE: -- brighter sunsets, you appointed me 7 the Law Librarian. And it's taken a lot of work in -- in 8 trying to get up to speed on the institutional memory that we 9 lost when Linda left. She'd been there for 20 or 30 years as 10 Law Librarian. And what I anticipate doing is coming back to 11 you with some steps of -- of proposals of mine on what I 12 suggest for the library moving forward, and -- and depending 13 on how the Court wants to proceed will direct me on my next 14 step. One of the things that I noticed in looking at this, 15 and that I've looked at, is having a county law library is a 16 very important public service. It provides access to legal 17 resources for members of the public who may not be able to 18 afford an attorney or may want to look for information for 19 themselves, and we are the only location in Kerr County that 20 has those type of resources. Those type of resources are 21 different than what you would find at the Butt-Holdsworth or 22 what you would find at Schreiner University. 23 Specifically, part of the service is that we 24 provide access to the online legal research program, Westlaw, 25 that is universally used by the lawyers, by law firms and the 6-10-13 56 1 legal community, and we have a partnership with Westlaw where 2 we can provide that to the public for use. In addition, it 3 provides a very good research tool for the local Bar 4 Association, so it's important to have, but it's -- and my 5 goal is wanting to maximize its usage and minimize the cost. 6 Right now, the Law Library is there, but it's dark most of 7 the time. It's not used that often. There's not many 8 resources checked out. I put out a survey back in the spring 9 to all the members of the Bar Association asking about their 10 usage of the materials. I listed out everything that we had 11 in the library and asked them if, you know, each individual 12 item was, you know, not important at all, important but they 13 never use it, you know, important but they would always use 14 it, or -- and so on and so forth. So, I've kind of 15 categorized periodicals, and I'm looking and making 16 purchasing decisions in the future on trying to steer what we 17 buy towards what will actually be used and what is important 18 to have. 19 Last year -- part of the problems we're facing is 20 last year, the Law Library outspent its budget by $20,000, 21 and -- and the revenues stayed about the same. The revenue 22 for the Law Library is generated by filing fees, a separate 23 filing fee in the District Clerk's Office that can only be 24 used for county law library purposes. So, that money can't 25 go somewhere else, but we still can't be spending more than 6-10-13 57 1 we make. You know, fortunately, over the history of the 2 library, there's been a fund balance built up, but we'll 3 exhaust that very quickly if we continue to spend at the 4 current pace. One of the things that I was looking at is 5 best and use -- best use of space. And as I alluded to 6 earlier, we do have people that use the Law Library. We have 7 private citizens, we have attorneys, but it's not a great 8 number of hours during the week or during the month, and a 9 lot of times it's just dark, and it may be dark for a couple 10 of days. 11 A couple things have come into my thinking for the 12 proposal that I'm bringing to the Court today, one of which 13 is, you know, a library is prime real estate in a courthouse. 14 It's in the main courthouse, it's got windows, it's a 15 beautiful area of the courthouse. So, for a space that's 16 only being used maybe a couple hours a week, it doesn't make 17 sense to have that prime real estate used for that purpose. 18 To me, it doesn't. It doesn't. You know, a library doesn't 19 need to have great views and big windows. And the idea that 20 I have had -- and I've already spoken with Ms. Soldan, the 21 Treasurer, and she's completely on board, with your 22 approval -- is recognizing that Tracy is the only County-wide 23 elected official besides myself that's in the basement of the 24 courthouse. And I have no interest in moving. And the space 25 that she currently has downstairs is pretty equivalent in 6-10-13 58 1 square footage to what the footprint of the library upstairs 2 is. So, I've asked Ms. Soldan if -- if she'd be interested 3 in moving her office and switching spaces with where the 4 library is now, and she is -- she's very interested. She'd 5 like to get out of the basement. She'd like to have that 6 space. And -- and I've spoken with her. She's out of town 7 right now, but she supports this proposal and is willing to 8 discuss it with any of you. 9 It's not just for her convenience, though. I can 10 see a lot of benefit in moving the library down to where the 11 Treasurer's office currently is. First of all, I think it's 12 a better use of that space, a better use of having the 13 library down there than upstairs in more of a prime location. 14 The way her office -- my goal for the library is not just to 15 have legal materials. I also want it to be a work space, to 16 set up where people can meet there, where people can do work 17 in there, where it's a -- maybe we can even have small 18 trainings or departmental meetings in there, with a lot more 19 seating, tables and chairs and places where people can sit 20 and discuss. We don't really have that upstairs, and part of 21 that is all the bookshelves that are in there. And the other 22 thing is that that room is very rectangular; it's long and 23 drawn out, so that it would be difficult to have a 10-person 24 meeting or, you know, a 15-person meeting or something like 25 that. The Treasurer's office downstairs is very square, and 6-10-13 59 1 so I think it would be easier if you had tables and chairs, 2 and to have a space where not only could you sit, and you 3 could take your laptop or you could take your books and go 4 down and work, but if there needed to be a training or 5 meeting, or let's say the outside auditors that we hire need 6 a place to work out of, then there would be a -- a location 7 that would be useful for them to have. 8 In addition, Ms. Soldan has her own isolated 9 office. You know, she's got a door; she can close that off. 10 I think it would be very beneficial in our Law Library to 11 have a private conference room that could be closed off, to 12 where attorneys could reserve it for depositions or people 13 could go in and have private meetings. We could have a 14 sign-in sheet where you could reserve it. Otherwise, it 15 would be on a first-come, first-served basis. Someplace 16 where you could come to the courthouse and sit down. I know 17 in my experience in private practice, when I would have to 18 take a deposition in another county, the first thing I would 19 do is I'd call the courthouse and ask, "Is there someplace 20 that I can do this?" Right now, we do -- they call Becky 21 Henderson, but what we're using are the jury rooms back 22 behind the district courtrooms, and that's not really that 23 efficient, because those are in a secure area, so it requires 24 the use of a bailiff to let somebody in and let somebody out, 25 and we're letting the persons that are going back there for 6-10-13 60 1 meetings or depositions have access to that secure area. 2 It's the only space we currently have, and if we set up the 3 office down in the Treasurer's space as a meeting room, then 4 that would provide another option that could be used. 5 A couple more reasons why I think this is a good 6 idea. We now have the courtroom downstairs where we're 7 holding juvenile court hearings, and it's well set up for 8 juvenile court. But, you know, for example, when we have a 9 large docket, we have a lot of parents waiting for their case 10 to be heard. Of course, they can sit in the courtroom and 11 wait, and there's a couple chairs in the foyer. But, you 12 know, some days we have 8 or 10 cases on the docket; that's, 13 you know, 8 to 20 parents potentially that are there waiting 14 for their case to be heard. That might give them a space to 15 sit and wait instead of having to stand out in the hall. And 16 also, when we do mediations in the courtroom -- you know, 17 when you do mediation, you require two stand-alone places for 18 each party to go, and then the mediator goes back and forth. 19 Other than the District Court jury rooms upstairs, we don't 20 have that, and for the same reasons why it's inefficient 21 because that's behind a secure area to do depositions, the 22 same thing goes for mediations. But if we had a conference 23 room in the library downstairs, it would be across the hall 24 from the jury room in that courtroom, and I think that space 25 could be used a lot more for mediations with it being able to 6-10-13 61 1 access the spaces just across the hall from each other. 2 So, my proposal today for the Court is for this 3 Court to approve and give permission to proceeding forward 4 with swapping the spaces between the Treasurer and -- and the 5 library. I believe Ms. Soldan has gotten some initial 6 estimates of what the cost would be to finish out the library 7 upstairs to make it suitable for her purposes. And, Judge, 8 correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that came out to about 9 12,000 to 15,000 to finish out that space. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Fourteen and change, as I recall. 11 MR. HENNEKE: Okay. And part of that involved some 12 money that's already set aside for her office, because she 13 was going to have a wall built down there in the Treasurer's 14 office, and she's held off on that, you know, waiting to see 15 what was going to happen on this. So, she's already got some 16 money budgeted. She'd need the rest of that to do that 17 space. As far as setting up the library downstairs, there's 18 a current fund balance in the Law Library account of about 19 $85,000. So, it's not currently budgeted, but I've asked for 20 it to be included in next year's budget. When that money is 21 available, then that would be more than -- I mean, a lot more 22 money than what would be needed to buy the -- the furnishings 23 and -- and get the downstairs set up for a library instead of 24 for a treasurer's office. Please let me know what you think. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I've got a couple of 6-10-13 62 1 comments, and then a question. You spoke about mediation. I 2 think that's one of the -- one of the neatest things that 3 happens in this community, because of the -- the taking away 4 of the usage of the courtrooms, and just -- you know, you sit 5 down like -- like neighbors are supposed to and work out 6 issues. I really like that program, and I would hope you 7 would be able to commit to us that mediation is on the big 8 list of things that that could -- that could be used for. 9 And then the client-lawyer issue of being able to sit down -- 10 I mean, to walk down this hallway sometimes and see those 11 guys standing there talking to their clients, and there's 100 12 people walking around them, it's amazing to me, and it's kind 13 of embarrassing. I'm -- I'm not a fan of lawyers, but they 14 need a place to sit down with their clients and discuss those 15 issues. And I just -- it just blows me away to see it out 16 there in the hall like I do. Those two things. And my 17 question goes to the questionnaire that you sent out to your 18 -- to the lawyers about their usage of the Law Library. Did 19 you have a good response? Or, you know, did 10 percent of 20 the lawyers respond back? And whatever that number might be, 21 what was their recommendation? What are their concerns about 22 a Law Library? 23 MR. HENNEKE: I think we have about 50 active or 24 semi-active members of the Bar Association here in Kerr 25 County, and it's my recollection that we got about 20 surveys 6-10-13 63 1 back, which is a good response rate for this community. The 2 overwhelming item that's used by attorneys is they also use 3 the online legal research tools that we provide. That's very 4 expensive to have if you're a private practitioner, and a lot 5 of them use the computers to do legal research. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: But some of them do have all 7 of that in their own office. 8 MR. HENNEKE: Some do, and some did respond and 9 say, "I've got it." You know, "I don't need it." But the 10 ones that responded really -- there's some -- Dorsaneo's 11 Transactional Litigation Guides, which are treatises on 12 transactional matters and civil litigation matters, is 13 overwhelmingly the most popular publication that we have 14 outside. It's checked out frequently by attorneys, and it 15 was ranked the highest. But there were several -- several 16 responders that were in favor of -- "If there was a meeting 17 space available, would you use it?" They said yes, and -- 18 and said they'd be in support of that. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Is -- 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Now, are we -- just one more 21 question and I'm through. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Are we required by law to 24 have, as an example, a set of Black Statutes, and then you 25 add the pocket parts as you go along? 6-10-13 64 1 MR. HENNEKE: No, sir. We have been -- and that's 2 part of what I've been looking at, at the budget. We already 3 provide, through the computer terminals upstairs, pretty much 4 all of the legal research materials, and more than what are 5 on the shelves. It's kind of duplicative. We've always 6 ordered a number of books, and we've continued to order 7 those, but the law does not require that -- that we have the 8 Black Statutes. I think it's expected that in a courthouse, 9 you would have a set of Vernon's. We do have that also 10 available online, but there's no requirement at all about 11 anything specific that a county law library is required to 12 have. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay, thanks. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: You said that the law 15 library's used probably a few hours per week, something like 16 that. Is the County required to have a law library? 17 MR. HENNEKE: No. And -- and we could -- we could 18 not -- I guess we could cancel the fee that funds the law 19 library. The County may have a law library, and that's 20 provided for, but I don't -- there's no mandatory requirement 21 that we do so. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. So, do you have any 23 idea what, like, an average traffic count would be for use of 24 the library? 25 MR. HENNEKE: No. I can -- you know, I can tell 6-10-13 65 1 you that the -- because we don't have a sign-in or sign-out 2 sheet. It's just open when the courthouse is open. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Mm-hmm. 4 MR. HENNEKE: There's a handful of -- only 5 attorneys are allowed to check materials out of the library, 6 and there are about a half dozen attorneys who do so with any 7 kind of frequency. And I can tell you that the research 8 computer terminals upstairs collectively are used about 17 9 hours a month. But as far as persons that go into there to 10 meet with clients or to pull books off of a shelf, there's no 11 way for us to track that. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. One other question. Is 13 it possible -- would it be possible -- sounds like it's not 14 right now -- for an attorney to access the computer system 15 from not in the -- not in the courthouse, but remotely? 16 MR. HENNEKE: No, sir. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: If they have some sort of 18 pass-protected system? 19 MR. HENNEKE: It's -- it's -- no. Our deal with 20 Westlaw specifically limits it to this physical terminal. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I see. 22 MR. HENNEKE: Otherwise, they'd -- if it was 23 available online, -- 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. 25 MR. HENNEKE: -- they'd be giving away for free 6-10-13 66 1 what people pay for. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Even though somebody would 3 have to sign up and have a pass-protected -- 4 MR. HENNEKE: They won't do that. They want you 5 to -- 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay, I got you. 7 MR. HENNEKE: -- come here in person to use it. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I see. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Rob, right now, the Law Library 10 is funded by a designated fee? 11 MR. HENNEKE: $15 a case. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, it's not a taxpayer cost. 13 MR. HENNEKE: Correct. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's just a -- it's, you 15 know, -- 16 MR. HENNEKE: And it generates -- 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- a user fee. 18 MR. HENNEKE: It generates $35,000 to $55,000 a 19 year in those library fees. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. If, for some reason, we 21 decide we don't want a library any more, we just abolished 22 it, would there be an increased cost to your office, the 23 Judge's office, the District -- you know, District Attorney's 24 or the District Judges because we're -- they're using it 25 right now for information that's currently being paid for 6-10-13 67 1 based by user fee? Does that make sense? 2 MR. HENNEKE: Yes. The -- in addition to the 3 resources directly available in the library, the Law Library 4 budget pays for legal research materials, books that are used 5 by the County Attorney's office, Judge Tinley, the District 6 Judges, -- 7 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: All the deputies. 8 MS. PIEPER: My office. 9 MR. HENNEKE: -- Penal Codes for the Sheriff's 10 Office. There's a good -- a good amount of money. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So without the Law Library, it 12 would be a budget -- negative budget impact, as opposed to a 13 positive. 14 MR. HENNEKE: Correct. And since I've come on as 15 County Attorney, Linda was great, and I shifted most of my 16 legal research purchases over to the library budget, and have 17 decreased those from my budget every year. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So it's a savings to the 19 taxpayers, essentially. Okay, that's what I -- I thought 20 that was right. I just wanted to make sure I was on the 21 right page. Thank you. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: The -- the cost to make the library 23 -- the upstairs library premises renovation occur, 14 and 24 change, that was based on the premise that -- that all of 25 those -- all the work be done by an outside third-party 6-10-13 68 1 contractor. Now, there's a -- based on what our Maintenance 2 people have been able to do, there's a lot of that work they 3 could do, number one. And number two, one of the larger 4 items in that was for carpet, and if that -- if that center 5 island of bookcases comes up, and -- and we've got a complete 6 carpet surface going all the way under that, we could 7 probably delete the carpeting requirement, according to the 8 best information I've got from both the Treasurer and 9 Mr. Bollier. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, I'm in favor of moving 11 the Treasurer up to that space and moving the Law Library 12 downstairs. I think it -- to me, they make better sense for 13 both. 14 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Is that a motion? 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Do we need a motion at this 16 point? 17 MR. HENNEKE: Well, we'll need a motion -- yeah, 18 we'll need approval from the Court, since you gentlemen 19 control the courthouse facility on changing the usage of 20 those two spaces, and there would also need to be an 21 appropriation not to exceed a certain amount to renovate the 22 library space to make it suitable for the Treasurer's office. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Can the library -- Law Library 24 funds be used for that work? 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Not for the Treasurer. 6-10-13 69 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Not for the Treasurer, but for 2 the Law Library? 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Yes. 4 MR. HENNEKE: Yes. The Law Library budget can pay 5 to move -- 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The library. 7 MR. HENNEKE: -- the library down. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But it can't pay -- 9 MR. HENNEKE: Exactly. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: But Tracy has that in her 11 budget, did you say? 12 MR. HENNEKE: No, sir. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: She has some -- 14 MR. HENNEKE: She had arranged with the Maintenance 15 a little bit to build a wall or to do some construction that 16 she's held off on, and then -- but she doesn't have a budget 17 for this. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I see. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't mind making a motion, 20 but it will be subject to budget -- 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- approval, which we don't 23 know yet right now. So, I mean -- 24 MR. HENNEKE: Well, if we could -- my preference -- 25 or my suggestion is, summers being in a lot of ways less busy 6-10-13 70 1 times in the courthouse, if we could make the move and get 2 her set up over the summer, then hopefully by that point in 3 time, we've got the budget approved and -- and I can start 4 making a decision on the library downstairs. But if -- if 5 there's available -- I know she's had discussions with 6 Ms. Hargis. If there's available revenue to go ahead and get 7 her moved and set up and -- and situated, we can -- we can 8 start doing that now. 9 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Surely that can be done for 10 $5,000, maybe $6,000. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, I don't know that we can get 12 it done for that amount. But, Ms. Hargis, there was some 13 funds, I believe, originally back in the '08 item for 14 courthouse improvements. That's part of what we've been 15 using downstairs on the courtroom. 16 MS. HARGIS: Yes, sir. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Those funds. What funds are 18 remaining in that category? 19 MS. HARGIS: About 20,000. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: About 20,000? 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That was going to used for 22 what, now? 23 MS. HARGIS: It was funds that were remaining from 24 the window renovation. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Oh. 6-10-13 71 1 MS. HARGIS: And so then we -- but it was 2 designated for renovation of the courthouse, so it has to be 3 used for those. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah, courthouse improvements. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 7 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: You think not to exceed 10? 8 Get it done in-house with our Maintenance staff? 9 JUDGE TINLEY: If you're going to use Maintenance 10 staff for everything. And if you exclude carpet, I would say 11 yes. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I hate to -- 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Carpet's a big item in there. If -- 14 if you've got a big cutout in the middle of that thing where 15 that -- that big island sits, you -- you've effectively got 16 to recarpet. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We don't know if it's carpeted 18 under the island or not? 19 JUDGE TINLEY: We don't know at this point. I 20 don't know. 21 MR. HENNEKE: It's too heavy for me to lift, Judge. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Is this a deal-breaker if we 24 put this off two weeks and give Tim time to come back and say 25 yes carpet, no carpet? Or I can do the whole job? 6-10-13 72 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Or how much. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Or how much? I mean, 3 just -- instead of us firing a shot at 5,000 and 10,000. 4 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That's right. We can put it 5 off two weeks. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Get some kind of a real 7 number. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I agree. 10 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yeah. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think it's a good plan. We 12 just need to -- 13 MR. HENNEKE: I'll bring it back. Thank you, 14 gentlemen. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I really like the plan. I 16 do. I think that Law Library up there is kind of lost land. 17 I mean, you have to be really wandering around to find that 18 thing. 19 MR. HENNEKE: Well, I did get a reaction from 20 several attorneys in response to my survey who said, "We have 21 a law library?" 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. See there? That's 23 those attorneys. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: I see that's something that you'd 25 like, Buster. 6-10-13 73 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, absolutely. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Okay. Are you ready to keep 3 going, Kathy, for a little bit? Okay. Let's go to Item 10; 4 to consider, discuss, take appropriate action to approve and 5 authorize execution of amendment to master agreement with 6 Ricoh U.S.A., Inc. 7 MR. HENNEKE: Would you pass on that, Judge? 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. That's the one that you're 9 working on with them? 10 MR. HENNEKE: Yes, sir. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: All right. Let's go to Item 11; to 12 consider, discuss, take appropriate regarding revisions on 13 current County Personnel Policy regarding accident reporting, 14 Policy 4.14, and valid driver's license, Policy 4.15. 15 Ms. Lantz? 16 MS. LANTZ: Good morning, Judge, Commissioners. 17 The reason why I've put this on the agenda is TAC has 18 notified Kerr County that they will no longer be running our 19 driver's license checks for us. So, with that being said, 20 it's going to be upon the County's responsibility to make 21 sure all of our drivers are eligible to drive vehicles for 22 the county. So, that being said, we're going to have to 23 monitor at least employment. We'll check their driving 24 records, and then currently how it was done by TAC, they ran 25 it once a year, and TAC let us know those that were excluded, 6-10-13 74 1 and we notified the department heads that they were no longer 2 able to drive our vehicles until they had that situation 3 cleared. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: How many of those were 5 there? 6 MS. LANTZ: Last year we had two. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. 8 MS. LANTZ: However, they did not drive county 9 vehicles on a regular basis, but we still have to be 10 notified, because if they ever do county business, there 11 could be repercussions to us. So, basically, these two 12 policies were modified, indicating that when an employee's 13 involved in an accident, we do need to know, because that can 14 make that rating go up, even if they're in their own personal 15 vehicle. And that would be the first policy of the accident 16 reporting when they're in their personal vehicles doing 17 county business. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: If I'm in my personal 19 vehicle and I have a traffic accident, I've got to respond to 20 you? 21 MS. LANTZ: Just -- 22 JUDGE TINLEY: If -- if you're in the process of 23 conducting county business. 24 MS. LANTZ: County business. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Oh, okay. 6-10-13 75 1 MS. LANTZ: Yes. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, that makes sense. 3 MS. LANTZ: The Treasurer is the actual office that 4 holds the vehicle liability, so at that point, her office 5 needs to be notified, as far as that goes. 6 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Okay. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I don't have any problem 8 with that. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Ms. Hargis? 10 MS. HARGIS: She has the property; I have the 11 liability. 12 MS. LANTZ: Sorry. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What did she just say? 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: She said she had the property; 15 Tracy has the liability. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I see. She's got the 17 casualty on county property. Liability issues are handled by 18 your office? 19 MS. HARGIS: She's been doing the claims for me 20 when she went down there, because she was familiar with the 21 process. But the liability -- 22 JUDGE TINLEY: That's as a result of her having 23 done them while she was in your office? 24 MS. HARGIS: That's correct. And she took the 25 casualty down, again, because she had worked with the 6-10-13 76 1 appraisers and was familiar with the values. So we thought 2 that having the values with her and having the knowledge that 3 she's had over the last five years of the changes of values 4 and so forth, it was easier for her, because we have to fill 5 out a huge form on all of that. The liability still remains 6 the policy. We review that; we go over that, check for the 7 vehicles, so forth and so on, and we actually hand out the 8 cards. So, I think we give some to H.R., and then we keep 9 cards in our office. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. So -- 11 MS. HARGIS: So, it's kind of a combination. 12 She's -- 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay, let me just see that I've got 14 this... The auditor's office is the liability risk manager. 15 MS. HARGIS: Mm-hmm. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: The Treasurer's office is the 17 property casualty risk manager. 18 MS. HARGIS: (Nodded.) 19 JUDGE TINLEY: And that's the way you believe it 20 ought to stay? 21 MS. HARGIS: Well, for right now, because the 22 automobiles go through the process. One of the reasons I 23 asked for it is because I had a turnover of my complete 24 office, as you may recall, and had no experience in that 25 area, and so I wanted to be sure that that was stable. I 6-10-13 77 1 mean, we could take back the property now, because my staff 2 is up -- is knowledgeable of their jobs at this point. But 3 they have not gone out with the appraiser like Tracy has done 4 for over three years. Every year -- every three years, the 5 appraisers come out from TAC and offer us a free service of 6 appraising our property, and she's actually driven with them 7 to do those things. So -- and she was also familiar with the 8 claims process, and was doing that in my office, and agreed 9 to do it. So, it was kind of one of those things where she 10 took those things with her as -- as a help to my office, 11 because of where I was. And we've kind of talked about 12 bringing it back, and -- you know, and unfortunately, the law 13 does say that I'm responsible for property. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. I was going to get to that. 15 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That's what we're trying to 16 get to. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Statutorily, you have the burden of 18 being risk manager for both property casualty and liability? 19 MS. HARGIS: That's correct. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Now -- 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's where it needs to be, 22 then. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Does your office have the present 24 capability of handling both of those functions? 25 MS. HARGIS: I think we do now. 6-10-13 78 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Right now? 2 MS. HARGIS: Yes. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 4 MS. LANTZ: So, then what I'll need to do is -- is 5 pass on both of these, because then it needs to go back under 6 the Auditor, as well as another policy that we had changed in 7 February which indicated that all accidents would be reported 8 to the Treasurer. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: And I think what we need to do is do 10 a redesignation -- 11 MS. LANTZ: Yes, sir. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: -- of risk manager, property 13 casualty and liability risk manager, if it's going to both go 14 through the Auditor's office. The second one that you're 15 dealing with, 4.15, some of that language needs a lot of 16 cleaning up, and that needs to be done also. 17 MS. LANTZ: Mm-hmm. This -- 18 JUDGE TINLEY: And I realize this is something that 19 came on the agenda late, -- 20 MS. LANTZ: Yes. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: -- and you wanted to get it before 22 the Court. 23 MS. LANTZ: And my concern was -- is right now, we 24 can't run any driving records unless they're new employees, 25 and at that point, that's when the Treasurer brought it to my 6-10-13 79 1 attention that the annual is going to need to be run in July. 2 MS. HARGIS: No, the annual needs to be run in 3 September. 4 MS. LANTZ: Okay. Well, I'm just going by -- 5 MS. HARGIS: According -- the property casualty 6 policy does not cover our automobiles. The liability policy 7 covers our -- and that comes due in September. 8 MS. LANTZ: Well, at this point, I guess I'll wait 9 until the Auditor and the Treasurer work this out, -- 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Mm-hmm. 11 MS. LANTZ: -- and then I'll bring back the policy 12 to the Court at that point. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: I think that's a wonderful idea. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I do too. Let me ask you a 15 question, though, right quick. 16 MS. LANTZ: Yes, sir. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: This 4.14 and 4.15, those 18 are already established policies? 19 MS. LANTZ: Yes, sir. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Just going to change some 21 verbiage around to make it fit what we're talking about? 22 MS. LANTZ: Basically. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Or are they brand-new? 24 MS. LANTZ: No, they're the verbiage. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I see, okay. 6-10-13 80 1 MS. LANTZ: I just amended them. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Question I have, I guess, on 3 the -- it's on 4.14. And these -- if you're -- an employee 4 is in a personal vehicle on county business, is there any 5 guidelines as to what is covered by that? And that's Part A. 6 And Part B is, are elected officials in this situation 7 considered employees? 8 MS. HARGIS: Yes. If I could address that, I want 9 to address that. Anyone who drives their personal automobile 10 on county business is not covered by our policy, period, 11 exclamation point. 'Cause you're driving -- remember, we 12 talked about this. We've talked about it for several years. 13 Bill Williams had his own policy, as you recall. So, when 14 people are driving their own vehicles to the bank or to make 15 deliveries, or to go to a conference, they're on their own. 16 Now, in your cases, if you decided you wanted to use rental 17 vehicles to go to a conference, the rental vehicle is 18 covered, but not your personal vehicle. So, that's -- you 19 know, we've talked about that several times, about having, 20 you know, administrative cars and things of that nature, and 21 it's expensive. So, I just want everybody to be aware of 22 that. If you're driving your personal vehicle, it is not 23 covered. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I guess that's what I thought 25 the policy was, and then I'm -- I look at this one. Why does 6-10-13 81 1 the County -- and I'll argue with you. Why does the County 2 want to know if Buster has a fender-bender in San Antonio? 3 MS. HARGIS: Well, when we got the background 4 checks from -- when they started giving them to us when I 5 first got here, the purpose of it was so that TAC knew how 6 many people had accidents, because that's how they based our 7 premium, like any other car insurance company would do. 8 Because the driving record of that person, whether it be in 9 their personal car or in ours, makes a difference to our 10 premium. So -- 11 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I don't know why it does, 12 because I pay my own premium, and the County doesn't pay one 13 cent of my premium. And if I have an increase, the County 14 doesn't pay a cent of it. 15 MS. HARGIS: No. But what TAC -- not -- not your 16 premium, but your driving record. If you -- if you have an 17 accident and you have two or three accidents on your own, 18 then that's going to make a difference as to what TAC ends up 19 having to pay -- possibly having to pay to that party. 20 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: How are you going to do that? 21 That doesn't have any liability on me and my own personal 22 vehicles, and I'm paying the premium. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But I guess what the -- and the 24 reason for that is that you could drive a Road and Bridge 25 vehicle if you wanted to. 6-10-13 82 1 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I could, but I don't. But I 2 don't. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I know, but that was how it 4 could affect the county policy. 5 MS. HARGIS: Yeah. It doesn't affect your personal 6 vehicle; it is if you drive one of our vehicles. And so -- 7 and she -- I don't know. I am not familiar; I didn't get to 8 see the letter this last year, so I don't know who those two 9 people were, but I've had people who -- you know, since I've 10 been here that -- that, you know, when I do, if they're 11 elected officials, which we've had, you know, I contact them 12 and let them clean up whatever it is. Sometimes it's as 13 simple a thing as you didn't renew your driver's license, or 14 you didn't renew your car insurance, or you -- or they don't 15 have a record of it. So, it's -- it's not necessarily that 16 they -- you know, they turned in stuff that was just a 17 violation of driving, but it does affect the premium. And it 18 could affect -- and it's -- to me, it's a little bit of a 19 stretch, but if they had a bad driving record and they had an 20 accident, it -- it might affect what Rob would have to do in 21 the courthouse. Now, I don't know. I'm not -- 22 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That's enough. You're 23 wearing me out. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: You're going to bring it back, huh? 25 MS. LANTZ: I'll let the Treasurer and Auditor 6-10-13 83 1 discuss it. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Good. 3 MS. LANTZ: And we'll clean up the language. 4 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Thank you. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay, let's go to Section 4. 6 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I move we pay the bills. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'll second that motion. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded that we pay 9 the bills. Any question or discussion? 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I do have a couple of 11 questions, Judge. Thank you. On Page 1, the Information 12 Technology, what is fund -- the 569? What is that? 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Cables? 14 MS. HARGIS: It's called Operating Equipment. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. And so -- well, let's 16 go to the top one first. Information Technology, Hill 17 Country Telephone Co-op. 18 MS. HARGIS: He pays all the phone bills for the 19 entire -- for everyone. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So, that $329 is the 21 telephone bill for Ingram? 22 MS. HARGIS: Mm-hmm. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay, thank you. And then 24 these -- what is all these -- the cables and batteries and -- 25 and all that? 6-10-13 84 1 MS. HARGIS: That's -- to him, it's operating 2 equipment to make some of our computers run, like if some of 3 the cables go bad or stuff that he has to replace. He would 4 put any computers in 570, but small stuff like plugs, and 5 replacing -- for instance, in my office, a plug went bad on a 6 cable and he had to replace that. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So, just everyday 8 maintenance kind of things, okay. Okay, thank you. The next 9 one down, I'm hesitant to ask about this, 'cause I sound 10 insensitive sometimes, but I'm -- I'm really not. I'm -- I 11 have a county commissioner question. The middle one, 12 what's -- 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What number? 14 MS. HARGIS: Under nondepartmental? 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yes, nondepartmental. 16 MS. HARGIS: To the funeral home? 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's correct. 18 MS. HARGIS: They drove -- we paid so much in an 19 autopsy for the funeral home to drive. And in this 20 particular case, it's a different funeral home than we 21 normally use was asked to drive, because I think they are 22 located in -- they drove them to the place where we have the 23 autopsies done. And they couldn't pick them up, so they -- 24 they got the other funeral home to drive, and it was for two 25 times. 6-10-13 85 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So, we have a resident of 2 Gillespie County that passed away in Gillespie County, and we 3 pay for all that? 4 MS. HARGIS: Well, they actually passed away in 5 Kerr County. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Oh, he did? 8 JUDGE TINLEY: The autopsy was ordered by the J.P. 9 in Kerr County, because the death occurred in Kerr County. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Oh, I see. I didn't realize 11 that; I thought it was Gillespie County. 12 MS. HARGIS: Yeah, when I saw it, I did the same 13 thing. And -- and I actually had to hunt down who -- 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Is this based on indigency? 15 MS. HARGIS: No, it's just an autopsy. We have to 16 pay for it; it's part of -- remember, we pay for both 17 transporting the body and the actual autopsy, so they cost us 18 about $2,700 a pop. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, I understand. I 20 understand that. Okay, thank you. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Any other questions? Comments? 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: All in favor of the motion, signify 24 by raising your right hand. 25 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 6-10-13 86 1 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 2 (No response.) 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion carries. Budget amendments. 4 We've got looks like three of them under the Budget Amendment 5 Request Summary sheet for today's date. 6 MS. HARGIS: Right. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I've got a question on 8 Number 3. As I'm seeing it, we're taking money out of the 9 216th District Attorney's secretary salary line and putting 10 it in office rent. 11 MS. HARGIS: That's correct. This is -- 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Where's the office? 13 MS. HARGIS: He moved his office, as you'll recall, 14 over to the Schreiner One -- I mean over to the Schreiner 15 store. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Oh. 17 MS. HARGIS: And he had not hired that secretary. 18 Keep in mind, this is his whole budget. We only pay a fourth 19 of it, but I wanted the Court to see that we were moving this 20 money and get approval for it. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Is this going to be a 22 monthly thing? 23 MS. HARGIS: No, this is the total amount that 24 he'll need for the rest of -- through September 30th. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. Now, we have never -- 6-10-13 87 1 we've never -- yes, we do. We've always budgeted rent for 2 his office. 3 MS. HARGIS: Yes, sir, we have. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I understand that. But it's 5 obviously going to be a considerable increase, and so we're 6 just going to add that into the budget, and -- 7 MS. HARGIS: We will add that into his budget. 8 That's part of it. He'll come back with our share of that. 9 The rent's 2,253 a month. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: 2,253 a month? 11 MS. HARGIS: And when he was in his facility, it 12 was $400 a month. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Wow. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I went over and took the 15 tour, and I could see the difference. 16 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That will be a big -- 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: $1,500 difference. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. But you can see the 19 difference. 20 MS. HARGIS: You don't see through the floor. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, you could actually 22 walk through there. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Do I hear a motion for approval of 24 the budget amendment requests as shown by the summary sheet 25 of this date? 6-10-13 88 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So moved. 2 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Second. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: You have a second? 4 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Mm-hmm. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: I have a motion and a second to 6 approve the budget amendment requests. Question or 7 discussion? All in favor, signify by raising your right 8 hand. 9 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 10 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 11 (No response.) 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion carries. Do we have any late 13 bills? 14 MS. HARGIS: One. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 16 MS. HARGIS: I think you have one. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Uh-oh, I didn't make it in 18 here with one. I don't remember seeing it. Tell me about 19 it. 20 MS. HARGIS: It was supposed to come in. It was 21 for a lawnmower. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: A lawnmower? 23 JUDGE TINLEY: There's a whole bunch of them. 24 MS. HARGIS: Oh, did they add to it? 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah, this audit report. 6-10-13 89 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Oh, audit report. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Allen Printing, Judge Robert Barton, 3 Cartridge World, Greenwalt Court Reporting, Herring Printing, 4 Ingram VFD, and Secor Equipment. That's the one you're 5 talking about? 6 MS. HARGIS: Yes. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. I thought that was part of 8 the -- 9 MS. HARGIS: It was. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: -- bills that we approved along with 11 the other packet. 12 MS. HARGIS: No, those are actually late bills. 13 That's why you have a separate report on them. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay, these are late bills. All 15 right. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Since we talked about it, I'll 17 make a motion we approve paying late bills. 18 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Second. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded to pay the 20 late bills. Question or discussion? 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. What -- on the Ingram 22 Volunteer Fire Department, that's for what? 23 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Annual allocation of the 24 funds we budget. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 6-10-13 90 1 MS. HARGIS: But they have to bring us the bills. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's the annual deal. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Question or discussion? All in 4 favor, signify by 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. I've been presented 9 with monthly reports from County Clerk; Constable, Precinct 10 4; Constable, Precinct 1; J.P. -- Justice of the Peace, 11 Precinct 3; audit report of Sheriff's Department Evidence 12 Room, audit report of the Office of County Attorney, audit 13 report of Kerr County Tax Assessor's office; Environmental 14 Health; Justice of the Peace, Precinct 2; Justice of the 15 Peace, Precinct 1; and Kerr County payroll. Do I hear a 16 motion that the indicated reports be approved as presented? 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I move for approval. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded that the 20 indicated reports be approved as presented. Question or 21 discussion? 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Question. On these -- on 23 these audit reports, was there -- oh, there you are. Was 24 there any negatives that we need to know about, without me 25 reading all 850 of them? 6-10-13 91 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Read the recommendation. 2 MS. HARGIS: There are a few adjustments in the Tax 3 Assessor's office that we would like to see. Those are -- 4 some of them have been addressed; some of them they're 5 working on, but I would like for y'all to be aware of them. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Do you audit your own 7 office? 8 MS. HARGIS: Pretty much on a constant basis. Yes, 9 I do. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So -- 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Not officially. 12 MS. HARGIS: Not officially. But, I mean, we do -- 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Everybody else gets an 14 official audit but you? 15 MS. HARGIS: We get an internal audit, yes. And 16 the purpose of an internal audit is to make sure that we stay 17 in compliance with both accounting rules -- rules and regs, 18 but also to help productivity and to make sure that 19 everything is okay for the external auditors to keep us in 20 line. So, you know, we are required by law to do these, and 21 this was our first one in the evidence room. We didn't pass 22 out, but almost. So, Rusty was kind enough to let us go 23 through. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What-all's in there? All 25 those guns and dope and everything? Is that that same -- 6-10-13 92 1 that deal? 2 MS. HARGIS: Mm-hmm. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I like going through there. 4 I'd like to get my hands on some of those guns. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Any other questions or comments? 6 All in favor of the motion, signify by raising your right 7 hand. 8 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 9 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 10 (No response.) 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion does carry. Reports from 12 Commissioners in connection with their liaison assignments? 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I don't have anything 14 either. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner Letz? 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Only thing, really, is that the 17 -- or two things. The grant for the water -- regional water 18 stuff, all that, is pretty much in, waiting for their 19 blessing. After they've blessed it, then the contract will 20 come back before the Judge to sign. That's on the regional 21 water planning grant. And, of course, Commissioner Moser 22 mentioned earlier the wastewater grant is working. Both he 23 and I are working on that as needed. And the other thing is 24 that we talked about, on subdivision rules, going through and 25 making some modifications on that. I was going to do a 6-10-13 93 1 workshop on that. I've talked with Road and Bridge, and I 2 don't know if I've talked to Rob about it or not, but I 3 think -- really, I think it'd be better just to do a -- an 4 internal group that's not really a public meeting, kind of 5 get a working document, and then have a public meeting to get 6 the community in on it, rather than have kind of a 7 free-for-all that's hard to manage with a document as big as 8 that. So, I think it'll probably start with a smaller group 9 initially, and try to do that later this month. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay, good. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner Oehler? 12 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Not at this time, Judge. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner Baldwin? 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No, sir, thank you. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Nothing here. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner Moser? 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: No, sir, not a thing. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Reports from elected 19 officials or department heads? 20 MS. PIEPER: No, sir. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Ms. Lantz? 22 MS. LANTZ: Our survey starts this week. We're 23 having orientation for our job surveys and the 24 questionnaires, so I'm hoping all the departments get their 25 employees to do that orientation, 'cause that's going to be a 6-10-13 94 1 major factor in how we get this up and going. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And we're -- and the elected 3 officials, department heads are tomorrow morning? 4 MS. LANTZ: 9 o'clock. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: At the Sheriff's office? 6 MS. LANTZ: At the annex. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: At the annex, okay. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Ms. Burlew? 9 MS. BURLEW: Nothing. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Sheriff? 11 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Jail population this morning 12 was 115, 99 males and 16 females. We've cut our females in 13 half. It's been real good; the courts are moving them, and 14 hopefully if the bill stays on track like it is, and there 15 isn't a veto, things will change drastically come September, 16 and we won't have to worry about a jail. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: County Attorney? 18 MR. HENNEKE: Yes, sir. Interesting note: It's my 19 understanding that the Water Development Board restructuring 20 bill did pass through, and instead of an appointed volunteer 21 board like it has been, it's going to be a three-member -- a 22 permanent employee appointed board, like TexDOT or like the 23 P.U.C. With all of the work that we have with Water 24 Development Board, one of the things that I understand is the 25 direction to the new board members -- and the reason for the 6-10-13 95 1 change was dissatisfaction with the current system -- is for 2 them to be a lot more hands-on and a lot more actively 3 participating in the projects. And I know that the people 4 are applying for those appointments, and that that process is 5 starting, but I would suggest that as soon as those decisions 6 are made, we reach out and try to get one or all three of 7 those members to come here so we can see -- show them what 8 we're doing, what we've accomplished, you know, to keep the 9 priorities of our project on track. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge, if I can make a comment 11 on that same note, I totally agree with what the County 12 Attorney just said. We had an extraordinary relationship 13 with the upper echelon at Water Development Board for the 14 past years. I received an e-mail from Carolyn Britton, who 15 is kind of chief legal, big supporter of Kerr County's 16 projects, and kind of a person that I went through many times 17 over the years to find out, "Hey, what's the holdup? Can you 18 help move something here or there?" Anyway, I received a -- 19 the day that bill was signed by the governor, I received an 20 e-mail from her stating that she resigned effective 21 immediately, and here's her personal contact information. 22 So, I suspect there's going to be a lot of new people there. 23 Not necessarily that it's bad, but I think there's some 24 relationships that we're going to really have to try to 25 cultivate up there, and in addition, to invite them here. I 6-10-13 96 1 would anticipate we will need to make several trips to Austin 2 after they get settled in as to who's running the show up 3 there. Hopefully, Robert Mason will stay in a key leadership 4 position. He's been very -- you know, we have a good 5 relationship with him. Melanie Callahan, we have a good 6 relationship with her. She's gone. She was the executive -- 7 interim executive director. She may not be gone, but she 8 certainly will not have her current post, so there will be -- 9 on the legal side, I don't think there's going to be any 10 changes between Joe Reynolds and -- Peterson. But, anyway, I 11 think it is very important that we keep that, 'cause we do 12 have an awful lot going with the Water Development Board. I 13 think we need to keep these avenues open. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Good point. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Would you remind us that we 16 have a workshop at 1:30? 17 JUDGE TINLEY: I had that next item up. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. I'll just shut up, 19 then. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: All right. At Commissioner 21 Baldwin's request, we have scheduled two different workshops 22 for this afternoon at 1:30. They deal with -- let me find 23 them here somewhere. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Cemeteries and First 25 Responders. 6-10-13 97 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Tell us what they deal with, 2 Commissioner Baldwin. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Upper Turtle Creek Cemetery 4 and School property, trying to figure out exactly what the 5 right and proper thing for us to do with that. And the other 6 one is the First Responders program that's been -- we've had 7 some recommendations, and want to know -- I just want to make 8 sure this full Court is involved in all of that, and we start 9 making decisions about it. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: We'll discuss that at 1:30 this 11 afternoon in a workshop. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Looking forward to that. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you very much. Anything else 14 to come before the Court on this agenda? We're adjourned. 15 (Commissioners Court adjourned at 10:59 a.m.) 16 - - - - - - - - - - 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 6-10-13 98 1 STATE OF TEXAS | 2 COUNTY OF KERR | 3 The above and foregoing is a true and complete 4 transcription of my stenotype notes taken in my capacity as 5 official reporter for the Commissioners Court of Kerr County, 6 Texas, at the time and place heretofore set forth. 7 DATED at Kerrville, Texas, this 12th day of June, 2013. 8 9 JANNETT PIEPER, Kerr County Clerk 10 BY: _________________________________ Kathy Banik, Deputy County Clerk 11 Certified Shorthand Reporter 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 6-10-13