1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT 9 Special Session 10 Monday, July 22, 2013 11 9:00 a.m. 12 Commissioners' Courtroom 13 Kerr County Courthouse 14 Kerrville, Texas 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 PRESENT: PAT TINLEY, Kerr County Judge 23 TOM MOSER, Commissioner Pct. 2 JONATHAN LETZ, Commissioner Pct. 3 24 BRUCE OEHLER, Commissioner Pct. 4 25 ABSENT: H. A. "BUSTER" BALDWIN, Commissioner Pct. 1 2 1 I N D E X July 22, 2013 2 PAGE --- Commissioners' Comments 5 3 1.1 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on 4 resolution to approve and fund new T-hangars 6 5 1.2 Consider/discuss, take appropriate actions to approve and revise Kerr County Subdivision Rules 6 and Regulations to increase records management and records archival fee to $10 each, and to add 7 publication fee as authorized by S.B. 552 -- 8 1.3 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on imposition of optional motor vehicle fees charged 9 by Kerr County for calendar year 2014 15 10 1.4 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to approve professional services agreement with 11 Tetra Tech, Inc., for engineering services related to East Kerr water planning project 17 12 1.7 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action 13 regarding temporary easement agreements and letters of notification to property owners 14 pertaining to Kerrville South wastewater services 20 15 1.8 Recognize and present awards to top two 16 individuals for Kerr County Wellness Program Sonic Boom 8-week challenge 21 17 1.10 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 18 approve purchase of a truck for Animal Control, a commuter vehicle for courthouse, and a vehicle 19 for Juvenile Detention 22 20 1.5 Presentation by Zack Barrett with Coast-2-Coast Rx regarding their prescription medication program 28 21 1.6 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action 22 regarding mitigation of trash and pollution in Guadalupe River at Brinks Crossing 45 23 1.9 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on 24 Kerr County’s breach of settlement agreement and request to accept Hatari Safari as a 25 sanctuary/shelter 54 3 1 I N D E X (Continued) July 22, 2013 2 PAGE 3 1.11 Acknowledge resignation of Kerr County Attorney and consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 4 solicit or obtain applications or other expressions of interest from persons seeking appointment by 5 Kerr County Commissioners Court to fill vacancy of Kerr County Attorney 67 6 1.12 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on 7 contractor's application for payment on 198th District Attorney’s office project 76 8 1.13 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 9 authorize County Auditor to do audit for ESD #2 77 10 1.15 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to open responses to Request for Qualifications for 11 consultant for Emergency Medical Services and refer responses to representative(s) of 12 Commissioners Court for review/recommendation 79 13 4.1 Pay Bills 83 4.2 Budget Amendments 83 14 4.3 Late Bills 84 4.4 Approve and Accept Monthly Reports 85 15 5.1 Reports from Commissioners/Liaison Committee 16 Assignments 86 5.2 Reports from Elected Officials/Department Heads 86 17 1.14 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on 18 renewal and/or changes to 2013-2014 Texas Association of Counties' Health and Employee 19 Benefits Pool (TAC HEBP) insurance(s); authorize County Judge to sign same 87 20 --- Adjourned 88 21 22 23 24 25 4 1 On Monday, July 22, 2013, at 9:00 a.m., a special 2 meeting of the Kerr County Commissioners Court was held in 3 the Commissioners' Courtroom, Kerr County Courthouse, 4 Kerrville, Texas, and the following proceedings were had in 5 open court: 6 P R O C E E D I N G S 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. 8 Let me call to order this regularly scheduled meeting of the 9 Kerr County Commissioners Court posted for this date, Monday, 10 July the 22nd, 2013, at 9 a.m. It is that time now. 11 Commissioner Moser? 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thank you. If you'd please 13 rise, and we'll have the blessing and then the pledge of 14 allegiance. 15 (Prayer and pledge of allegiance.) 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you. Please be seated. At 17 this time, if there's any member of the public or audience 18 that wishes to be heard on a matter which is not a listed 19 agenda item, this is your opportunity to come forward and 20 tell us what's on your mind. If you wish to be heard on an 21 agenda item, we'd prefer that you fill out a participation 22 form. There should be some located at the rear of the room. 23 If you've not filled out the participation form and you wish 24 to be heard on an agenda item, get my attention in some 25 manner and I'll give you that opportunity. But right now, if 7-22-13 5 1 there's any member of the audience or public that wishes to 2 be heard on a matter which is not one of the listed agenda 3 items, this is your opportunity to come forward and give us 4 your name and address and tell us what's on your mind. 5 Seeing no one seeking recognition or otherwise coming 6 forward, we'll move on. Commissioner Moser? 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thank you, Judge. Couple 8 things. This past week, two big events, and I think probably 9 everybody read about it; it's been covered a lot in the 10 paper. But the Kerr County Hill Country Wounded Warriors 11 event had five families here, 28 people, for five days. It 12 was absolutely fantastic. Tony Arnold and Cynthia Arnold 13 pulled this thing together, had a committee of about 20 14 people, and everybody worked very hard, but no one worked 15 harder than Bruce in having a dinner for one of the events. 16 I think there were five dinners, so that was just an example 17 of a lot of the very, very hard and good work that went on. 18 I think two of the families think they're going to come back 19 to Kerrville area when they get out of the military. So, 20 anyway, it was -- it was good. It's going to happen again 21 next year, bigger and better. The other thing is, Center 22 Point had a big parade, lots of people. Volunteer fire 23 department had their fundraiser; had like 1,000 people there, 24 so that -- that worked well. So, it's happening on both ends 25 of the county. That's all I got. 7-22-13 6 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner Letz? 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't believe I have 3 anything, Judge. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Commissioner Oehler? 5 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: No, sir. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: I was advised this morning that the 7 grant application that we made -- it was a SECO grant dealing 8 with solar panels for the new show barn which we did sometime 9 back, in cooperation with KPUB. That -- that we were not 10 successful in being approved for that grant. The -- the 11 intermediary organization, Meridian -- I don't know the full 12 name, but Meridian was the intermediary organization. 13 Apparently, none of the grant applications submitted through 14 them were approved. So, no solar panels, at least for now, 15 on the -- on the big new show barn. I think that's all I got 16 this morning. Let's move on with our agenda. First item on 17 the agenda, a 9 a.m. timed item, is to consider, discuss, and 18 take appropriate action on resolution to approve and fund new 19 T-hangars. Mr. McKenzie? Mr. King? 20 MR. KING: I'll do it. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: We got the big man here today. 22 MR. KING: Yeah, whatever. Steven King, Airport 23 Board -- Kerrville/Kerr County Airport Board. We come before 24 you today; we need a resolution from the County and the City 25 to take to TexDOT, to take to the Transportation Commission 7-22-13 7 1 and have them approve it on September 26th for the -- the 2 T-hangar project that we're proposing at the airport. 3 They've approved $640,000, of which they're going to pay 576, 4 and they would like for us to put in 64,000 to make up the 5 640. We -- we're going to do this on a -- on a -- what do 6 you call it, Bruce? A bid design -- 7 MR. McKENZIE: Build design. 8 MR. KING: Build design. A build design proposal. 9 And we feel like we can come in under that; we should be able 10 to. Part of the project is going to require -- this project 11 is being taken on by TexDOT, by the Aviation Department 12 through TexDOT, to try to build some T-hangars or hangars on 13 the airports in the state with the help of the county and the 14 city putting in part of the project, to see -- and the main 15 reason is to let their money go as far as it can. So, we're 16 going to be asking -- included in this project, we're going 17 to ask that the County help out on the excavation of the site 18 and build a pad, which y'all are really good at, I've seen. 19 Y'all do great work building pads, so to do that. And in 20 return, I think we've -- we've agreed to pay for consumables, 21 any consumables that you guys may have; fuel, whatever, other 22 stuff that goes with that. The City, we're going to ask the 23 City to do the paving. They have a good paving machine. And 24 hopefully in concert, we can get that done and get it under 25 the budget that we've talked about. 7-22-13 8 1 We're not -- we're not really committing to 2 building 8, 10, or 12 T-hangars. What we'll do is we'll let 3 our build design -- we'll put it out for -- put an RFP out, 4 let these guys come up with a design, and we'll see how far 5 the money will go. We think we can build at least 10; should 6 be able to build 10. There's a little bit of a space 7 constraint going back further. The more T-hangars you build, 8 the farther back in that little deal you go, so that will 9 require more excavation. So -- but we're going to basically, 10 just on the -- on the total grant of 640,000, we should -- 11 surely we can get that. We're not asking for any money from 12 you guys. We're going to take this out of our cash reserves. 13 So, 64,000 would be our contribution, plus the consumables, 14 everything. Even if we put in another 30,000, at 94,000, I 15 think 10 T-hangars would gross about 2,900 a month, 35,000 a 16 year. You have very few pens on this thing, so it would 17 still be a two-year payout, two and a half-year payout at the 18 most. We do -- we look -- we appreciate you guys' help in 19 the project, and we appreciate your consideration on this 20 resolution. Any questions? And thank you, Tom. I want to 21 thank Tom. Tom and Jonathan both have been at our meetings 22 and helped out on this project, and we appreciate y'all's 23 help. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I'd just like to add one 25 thing. This -- this is not a knee-jerk on these T-hangars. 7-22-13 9 1 It's been looked at for over two years. We've looked at 2 various ways of doing it, and various locations. This 3 location is really good; it works that the dirt that has to 4 be removed kind of has -- fills in at the front, so there's 5 probably, net-wise, no additional soil or base material 6 needed, eyeballing that. And the other thing is, it's 7 probably a good thing we didn't move out too early, because 8 several years ago, it looked like we would get 10 percent 9 from TexDOT Aviation. The way it is now, we get a 90 percent 10 grant, so that's working extremely well. And as Steve says, 11 one- to two-year pay-out on this is-that's really good return 12 on investment. And I think it's leading us to where there's 13 no funds that will be needed from the public pretty soon in 14 operating that airport, which is -- which is the goal. And 15 this is a beta project that TexDOT is doing. It's the first 16 time they've done it. They said, "Here, Airport Board, you 17 be the manager; you take care of it. You owners participate 18 in this," like Steve delineated. So, I think it's really a 19 good thing. So -- 20 MR. KING: The project will be handled completely 21 locally. It won't -- we'll just send the bills to TexDOT. 22 But they put us in charge of the project, and that's a little 23 outside their thinking. Normally, they like to handle 24 everything from Austin, so it should be a -- you know, it's 25 going to be a -- they really went to bat on it. They really 7-22-13 10 1 stepped up for us on this project to get us -- to get it 2 approved. And the reasoning behind it was they wanted to see 3 how it will work, you know, if they can throw a little more 4 -- throw the responsibility to the local side and let us, you 5 know, do all the hiring, hiring the contractors. You know, 6 we'll hire an engineering firm to watch over -- to watch over 7 it and then, you know, let the County and the City help out 8 on the project with some of their labor and equipment. 9 And -- and then hopefully they can take this to another 10 level, go to some other -- but any time you're getting 90/10 11 money on something, I just don't see how you can pass it up. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So, I make a motion that we 13 pass the resolution, which would show support from the 14 County; they'll ask for the same thing from the City, and 15 that we move forward to get this grant approved September the 16 26th. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded as 19 indicated. Question or discussion? 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think one additional comment, 21 kind of the -- like Steve and Tom both mentioned a little 22 bit, but the -- it's hard to understand, unless you go to a 23 lot of the Airport Board meetings, how much time the Airport 24 Board has spent on this. It has been a consuming concept for 25 three years, and probably -- I bet y'all have spent more time 7-22-13 11 1 on this than any other single item. We've looked at, I mean, 2 multiple locations over by Mooney, different -- I mean, it's 3 just -- it's looking everywhere to try to come up with it. 4 And to finally narrow on this is great, but being able to do 5 it with 90/10 money was absolutely unheard of a while back. 6 And, you know, hats off to the -- to Bruce; he did a lot of 7 the, you know, running around, and the Airport Board for the 8 vision to just pursue this. And this will be a step towards 9 making the airport more self-sufficient, which is, I think, 10 the goal of the Board and the County and City. 11 MR. KING: Thank you. I think you have to 12 understand, the relationship that we have with TexDOT is what 13 makes these things possible, because there's -- every other 14 airport in the state of Texas is asking for the same thing 15 all the time. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: We've been very, very fortunate in 17 the past several years to obtain a lot of that TexDOT grant 18 money dealing with our drainage issue out there and the 19 taxiways and all of that over the past year, really capturing 20 a large portion of their grant funds for capital 21 improvements. And I think the result of that was culminated 22 in last year's designation of this airport as General 23 Aviation Airport of the Year. And now, with this new pilot 24 project that they're doing, that shows further confidence 25 that TexDOT has in -- in the board; you, Mr. King, and the 7-22-13 12 1 other members of the board, and -- and the manager, 2 Mr. McKenzie, recognizing what a fine job you guys have done 3 out there and -- and the confidence that they have in you. 4 And using you for this pilot project with 90 percent funding, 5 which is -- like you say, it's something you can't pass up. 6 MR. KING: Yeah. And, Judge, I want to point out 7 that, you know, the project -- the ditch project, that ditch 8 project that came up after we spent $9 million out there at 9 the airport, it was estimated by TexDOT to be a $200,000 10 project to complete it. Which we were going to have to put 11 up a big chunk of that. Most of it, in fact. They were not 12 going to help pay for anything. We ended up completing that 13 project, with your help and the City's help, for $35,000 or 14 something like that. And I think it's those kind projects 15 that make TexDOT look up. And, you know, we just -- you 16 know, we're trying to save money out there. We're trying to 17 do all we can, and it's those projects like that where we 18 have the City and County both pitching in to figure out a 19 different way to do it. And I think that's the main thing, 20 is trying to -- like Jonathan said, we've looked at this 21 thing more than 15 times. I mean, we were told we were going 22 to have to go borrow money. We've looked at every option to 23 spend -- you know, to try to do it in the most advantageous 24 way to get a return on our investment, and this thing -- you 25 know, it's just a win-win deal for everybody. So, we thank 7-22-13 13 1 y'all for your help on the project. 2 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Well, it's kind of an 3 in-kind -- 4 MR. KING: It is. 5 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: It is. What it amounts to is 6 you take more of the in-kind and you wrestle the cost, and -- 7 MR. KING: Exactly. 8 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: -- it makes a big difference. 9 MR. KING: Sure does. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And just -- I see Mark 11 Armstrong back there. I mean, we get beat up quite a bit for 12 not working with the City, and I think the airport's an area 13 that we work great with the City. You know, several projects 14 now. This is probably, what, the third or fourth that we've 15 done where we do part of the work, they do part of the work. 16 We use, you know, the best of each entity. 17 MR. KING: True. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And, you know, we have great 19 cooperation. 20 MR. KING: And this project here will be -- we've 21 talked to one of the contractors we know will be bidding on 22 the project, and -- and this happened -- this has happened, 23 you know, recently in several other airports where this -- 24 where the contractors will step aside and allow the -- you 25 know, the County and the City to do the paving or the dirt 7-22-13 14 1 work and stuff, and then he steps right back in. And -- you 2 know, and for him, it's a win-win deal because, you know, 3 it's -- the project is being done cheaper, so I think we 4 really appreciate it. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't want to get in trouble; 6 I need to recognize Irene and Bonnie over there, make sure I 7 get all three papers. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Zeke's back there too. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And Zeke. Four. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: I'm glad we have the interest. 11 That's wonderful. Thank you for everything you and the Board 12 and -- 13 MR. KING: Thank you. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: -- and Bruce McKenzie have done out 15 there. All in favor of the motion, signify by raising your 16 right hand. 17 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 18 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 19 (No response.) 20 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. Let's move 21 to the next agenda item. Item 2 is to consider, discuss, and 22 take appropriate action to approve and revise the Kerr County 23 Subdivision Rules and Regulations to increase the Records 24 Management and Records Archival fee to $10 each, and add the 25 publication fee as authorized by Senate Bill 552, amending 7-22-13 15 1 section -- Section 232.041 of the Local Government Code. 2 Ms. Pieper? 3 MS. PIEPER: Judge, I want to pull this item for 4 now and bring it back at a later date. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: All right. 6 MS. PIEPER: There's some other things in the 7 subdivision rules and regulations that we're going to work 8 on. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Thank you, ma'am. Let's go 10 to Item 3; to consider, discuss, take appropriate action on 11 imposition of optional motor vehicle fees charged by Kerr 12 County for the calendar year 2014. This is an election that 13 we make each year. We are now charging the $10 fee, and have 14 been forever and ever, I guess. But there is an optional 15 child safety fee of -- I believe it's up to $1.50 per 16 registration. In past years, we've opted not to -- to put 17 that in effect, but we've got a new year coming up, and I 18 want to know what the Court's pleasure is with regard to 19 that. They're asking for our response to be submitted no 20 later than Friday, August the 8th -- August the 16th of this 21 year. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Let's see. These -- these 23 fees for the -- will be used for child safety and more; 24 specifically, fund school crossing guard services, and then 25 the remaining funds for programs to enhance child safety, 7-22-13 16 1 health and nutrition, et cetera, et cetera. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah, there will be a specific -- 3 they'd have to be utilized for specific purposes related to 4 child safety. That's correct. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think one of the issues in 6 the past has been that we don't have a good mechanism to 7 implement how to spend the money. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: We don't have a child -- a school 9 crossing program, for example. 10 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: No, schools take care of all 11 that stuff. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: For us to charge the fee, then 13 we'd almost have to create a position to spend the money. 14 And it was kind of like, that didn't seem like it was -- 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: For a bucket in which to pour 16 the money. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. And it's being taken 18 care of, the school crossings -- or school zones, anyway, by 19 the Sheriff's Department and constables and schools and their 20 crossings. That's pretty much covered. So, I think that 21 logic was why we've never implemented this fee. 22 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: We don't need a motion to 23 take no action on it, do we? 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, yeah, we -- we do need to take 25 formal action if we want to charge the same fee as we've 7-22-13 17 1 charged in this current year. A motion to that effect 2 would -- would solve the problem. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I make a motion that we charge 4 the same fees we have in the past, the $10, but not pursue 5 the additional dollar and a half for the child safety. 6 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Second. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded as 8 indicated. Further question or discussion? All in favor, 9 signify by raising your right hand. 10 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 11 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 12 (No response.) 13 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. Let's go to 14 Item 4; consider, discuss, take appropriate action to approve 15 professional services agreement with Tetra Tech, Inc., for 16 engineering services related to the East Kerr water planning 17 project. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Want me to talk about it? 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: It's your item. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: I'm sorry. That's your item, Mr. 22 Letz. I apologize. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: This is a regional facilities 24 planning grant, contract with Tetra Tech, that we approved 25 the grant with Water Development Board previously, and this 7-22-13 18 1 is just the subcontract -- or the contractor agreement. 2 There's a fair amount of work that, if you read the 3 agreement, says it's being done by others, which is a lot of 4 the state data collection that's being done by the other 5 seven or six other entities; seven including Kerr County. 6 All are committing in-kind work, and that's what a lot of 7 that data collection will come from. So, I will move 8 approval of the agreement. 9 MR. HENNEKE: Gentlemen, the only thing I'd point 10 out, same thing with the last Tetra Tech contract that we 11 did. You know, it includes the limitation on liability 12 provision to where Tetra Tech is insisting that their -- 13 their liability be capped at the amount of fee to be paid to 14 them. And we discussed that the last time we did a contract 15 with Tetra Tech, but I just wanted to make sure that the 16 Court was aware of that. And that's not a condition that 17 we're willing to negotiate on. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I think -- you know, thank 19 you for bringing that up, Rob, but I think we really need to 20 get -- address that again with Tetra Tech when it comes to 21 future grants where construction is involved. This is a -- a 22 study. There's really no -- you know, I don't see how they 23 have any liability, other than doing bad engineering or 24 something, or bad analysis. You know, it's a real gray area. 25 But this is, you know, really just a feasibility study, 7-22-13 19 1 gathering data and combining that, relooking at it, so I 2 don't think it's a big concern. But on some of the other 3 grants we have going forward, I have a problem with that 4 requirement. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Limitation of liability? 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Oh, yeah. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: On some of the construction 9 of -- 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- sewer lines, you know. So, 12 I think we need to really look at that again with Tetra Tech 13 people. Some of these can be really big items coming in. 14 So -- 15 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Could be something like 16 errors and omissions. You know, if they don't do their job 17 right, then we have all this other stuff, and they don't want 18 to be liable. No, I agree with you. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But on this one, I understand 20 that. I think we're okay. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: We do have a motion and a second. 22 Any further question or discussion on the motion? All in 23 favor of the motion, signify by raising your right hand. 24 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 25 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 7-22-13 20 1 (No response.) 2 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. Let's go to 3 Item 7; to consider, discuss, and take appropriate action 4 regarding temporary easement agreements and letters of 5 notification to property owners pertaining to Kerrville South 6 wastewater system services. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I'll take that, Judge. Thank 8 you. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: All right. Excuse me, I'm having a 10 little lapse here. I'm looking at all these -- 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: You're signing documents and 12 all that stuff. The Kerrville South is -- is in Phase 5; 13 Phase 6 is left to be done, and this is addressing Phase 5, 14 which we have 90 percent of the engineering complete. 15 There's about 20 connections that need to be made in this -- 16 this phase that's planned. And what this agenda item is, is 17 to -- is to authorize us to send letters to the residents 18 that can be affected by this, offering them the opportunity 19 to connect to this system, a one-time offer. And if they 20 don't choose to do that, then they'll have to be responsible 21 for it themselves. And the other -- the other thing that's 22 part of this is to -- is to have a temporary construction 23 easement and authorize the Judge to sign it. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Those that -- 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yes. 7-22-13 21 1 JUDGE TINLEY: -- approve? 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, right. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is that a motion? 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's a motion. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: We have a motion and a second for 7 approval of the agenda item. Further question or discussion? 8 All in favor, signify by raising your right hand. 9 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 10 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 11 (No response.) 12 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. Let's go to 13 Item 8; to recognize and present awards to the top two 14 individuals for the Kerr County wellness program Sonic Boom 15 8-week challenge. Ms. Lantz? Ms. Soldan? 16 MS. LANTZ: Good morning, Commissioners, Judge. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Morning. 18 MS. LANTZ: This has been a program we've had 19 intact for the past year. We've had several challenges so 20 far, and each year Texas Association of Counties does a 21 challenge as far as trying to promote activity, healthy 22 eating and so forth, and this last challenge was an 8-week 23 challenge that was done between 123 Texas counties. We had a 24 total of 4,000 participants. Kerr County had 53 of those 25 participants who did complete the challenge. And with that 7-22-13 22 1 being said, we had two within the county that had a total of 2 663,457 and 486,184, and we'd like to present those two 3 individuals with a certificate for completing the challenge 4 on behalf of Kerr County. They were recognized throughout 5 the other counties. And that is Oliva Avila and Kelly 6 Hoffer. (Applause.) And Oliva was the one who had 663,000 7 steps, and Kelly Hoffer, 486,000. So, congratulations to 8 y'all. 9 MS. AVILA: Thank you. 10 MS. LANTZ: Thank you for being healthy. 11 MS. SOLDAN: And buy some new shoes. We gave them 12 Nike gift cards so they could buy some new shoes after all 13 that walking. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Let's go to Item 10; to 15 consider, discuss, and take appropriate action to approve 16 purchase of truck for Animal Control, commuter vehicle for 17 the courthouse, and a vehicle for Juvenile Detention. We 18 have a specification for the vehicles attached. The funding 19 would be from the proceeds from the insurance claim and the 20 capital funds, 2012 certificates. Ms. Hargis? 21 MS. HARGIS: Good morning. We just want to 22 consider two this morning. We're going to take the Juvenile 23 Detention one off. They -- they requested that we look for 24 something else; they weren't sure that vehicle was going to 25 be substantial enough for their -- for their needs. So, we 7-22-13 23 1 are looking at a new truck. It'll be a 2014, to replace the 2 one that was totaled in Animal Control. The original bids we 3 had on there were 45,000, 35,000. This one is 26,000. We do 4 believe this is sufficient to -- it will have the tow 5 package, and it will be a 2014, be coming under a fleet 6 discount. The other vehicle is a little commuter vehicle, 7 and we've looked at one before, and that one was around 8 $10,000. This one is $6,900. It's a little Ford Taurus. I 9 think it will be a good vehicle for us to have here at the 10 courthouse, for the elected officials who need to go back and 11 forth doing different functions that they need to do, and 12 also for some of them to take to it school. And I think this 13 is -- you know, we've talked about this. Insurance-wise, 14 this is probably cheaper than -- than what we've done. But 15 that's up to the Court as to what they want to do, but this 16 is the cheapest vehicle we've looked at. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, the commuter vehicle is 18 basically replacing the Jeeps? 19 MS. HARGIS: The Jeeps. I believe we got close to 20 $4,000 for the Jeeps. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And how much is the Taurus? 22 MS. HARGIS: The Taurus is 6,900. 23 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: 6,900. The pickup -- new 24 pickup is 26,350. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So, the County has always had 7-22-13 24 1 a commuter vehicle like this? 2 MS. HARGIS: Well, we -- when I came here, we had 3 these two Jeeps that were given to us by U.G.R.A. And they 4 became a problem for the Environmental department to use 5 because they broke down a lot. And then we decided to keep 6 them just for going back and forth to the bank and things of 7 that nature. And we did it for a long time, and they began 8 to be an expense because they were very old. So, we put them 9 on the governmental website and sold them about a year ago, I 10 think. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, something like that. 12 MS. HARGIS: And so a lot of people would prefer to 13 use the -- a vehicle owned by the County because of the 14 automobile insurance benefits there. Otherwise, they're 15 using their own insurance. So, we do have people that go to 16 schools in San Antonio for the day, and it we would actually 17 come out cheaper if we were able to put four people in that 18 car and take them down versus paying mileage. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: At one point in time, we -- we 20 budgeted for individual elected officials to obtain 21 additional coverage paid for by the county when driving a 22 non-owned vehicle. My recollection is that each elected 23 official -- for each one, it was like $250 a year or 24 something along that line. 25 MS. HARGIS: It was before my time. 7-22-13 25 1 JUDGE TINLEY: That 250 sounds about in the 2 ballpark, and that was just for one elected official -- 3 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Mm-hmm. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: -- to be able to drive it and have 5 coverage. So, that deal didn't work out too well. 6 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: No. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: And so we've got an issue of -- of 8 whether or not there's county coverage when we're driving our 9 own vehicles. So -- 10 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I think it's a good idea. 11 This is -- this is an inexpensive vehicle, and it's not going 12 to get that many miles put on it. But on the other vehicle, 13 I've been working with both Jeannie and Animal Control on 14 getting a vehicle that would adequately pull the big trailer 15 that we bought. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. 17 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Safely. Because, you know, 18 we have fairly young staff out there, and -- and it's a big 19 safety concern, number one. And if they have something -- 20 they haul cattle and horses and donkeys and all kinds of 21 things to auction all the time for estrays, and so I -- they 22 started out with a whole lot more money, and I kind of worked 23 with them to make a suggestion of what maybe they ought to be 24 looking at rather than some of the others that were more 25 expensive, and that's what they've come up with. I think 7-22-13 26 1 it's a really good -- it's a good buy. And -- 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I have no problem with the 3 truck at all; I think it's needed out there, certainly since 4 they totaled the other truck. But I do -- and I'm not sure 5 how -- I want to think this out, but you mentioned young 6 staff out there. I'm wondering if we should require a 7 commercial driver's license, because -- I mean, I know the 8 law doesn't require it, but I think that we are open to a 9 huge liability if we have people pulling a stock trailer, a 10 pretty big truck, that aren't -- haven't been trained to do 11 it. 12 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: What's going to happen is 13 they're going to go through Road and Bridge training shortly. 14 That's what's going to be the offset to that. They're going 15 through some driver training on pulling the trailer. Same -- 16 and Road and Bridge is going to do it for that very reason. 17 MR. ODOM: Road and Bridge will trade off dog 18 picking up. I have a truck for you. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: What was that? 20 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: He wants to have the County 21 pick up all the dogs -- dead animals on the side of the road 22 if they do the training. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I want to make sure that -- 24 H.R. -- Ms. Lantz? 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Ms. Lantz? 7-22-13 27 1 MS. LANTZ: I'm sorry. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I want to make sure that TAC is 3 comfortable with Road and Bridge training with that truck and 4 trailer, 'cause you're getting very close to a commercial 5 weight. 6 MS. LANTZ: I need to -- 7 MR. ODOM: 10,000. 8 MS. LANTZ: -- get ahold of -- Larry Bocaccio is 9 our safety risk coordinator, to make sure, 'cause he does all 10 of our driver safety. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. We just need to make 12 sure. I mean, it's -- I just don't want to get us in a 13 situation of somebody having an accident pulling the trailer, 14 and then, you know, we end up with some -- a liability 15 because we didn't properly train them. What's in the back of 16 my mind -- I don't know why it popped in my head. I was 17 thinking about -- 18 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That's already been taken 19 care of. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- some recent lawsuits. We 21 just need to make sure we're covered by our insurance. I 22 mean, I know you're talking with Road and Bridge, but I want 23 to make sure that our carrier is comfortable with that, as 24 opposed to having a commercial driver's license. We need to 25 have that in writing from TAC. 7-22-13 28 1 MR. ODOM: We're negotiable. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move approval of the purchase 4 of the two vehicles, one for Animal Control and one a 5 commuter vehicle for the courthouse. 6 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Second. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded as 8 indicated. Any further question or discussion on the motion? 9 All in favor of the motion, signify by raising your right 10 hand. 11 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 12 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 13 (No response.) 14 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. 15 MS. HARGIS: May I make one other comment? This 16 truck will be about six weeks coming in, because it is a 17 brand-new one, so that will give them time to have their 18 training. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Let's go back to our first 21 9:30 timed item; Item Number 5, a presentation by Zack 22 Barrett with Coast-2-Coast Rx regarding their prescription 23 medication program. Mr. Barrett? 24 MR. BARRETT: Good morning, gentlemen. How are 25 y'all doing? 7-22-13 29 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Fine, sir. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Good. 3 MR. BARRETT: Who do I hand these to? 4 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Hand them up here; we'll pass 5 them out. I need one extra for the clerk. 6 MR. BARRETT: There's five of them. 7 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Okay. 8 MR. BARRETT: Thanks again for inviting me down 9 here this morning for y'all's Commissioners Court agenda. I 10 come to you from Red Oak, Texas, in Ellis County just south 11 of Dallas. And I had e-mailed Judge Tinley a few weeks back, 12 and shortly thereafter, I got a return message from Jody to 13 pick a day to come down here. So, the 22nd worked out pretty 14 well for me. I represent Coast-2-Coast Rx. We're an 15 organization that works with county governments all over the 16 country, and I specifically work with Texas counties. And 17 the reason I had reached out to Kerr County is because we're 18 always looking for new counties in Texas to endorse our 19 prescription program for the county as a whole. This is for 20 any individual that lives in Kerr County who needs 21 assistance. By obtaining our prescription card, they go to 22 the pharmacy of their choice and get a discount on their 23 prescriptions. This is a no-cost program to the county. It 24 will never cost you a dollar, and it's no cost to your 25 citizens as well, other than the discounts that they receive 7-22-13 30 1 at the pharmacy. 2 I know it sounds too good to be true, but it's not. 3 We have a P.B.M., which stands for Pharmacy Benefit Manager, 4 that works with all the major chain pharmacies nationwide. 5 Specifically, right here in Kerrville, you have CVS; you have 6 a couple H.E.B.'s, Walmart, a Walgreen's. Those are major 7 chain pharmacies. They accept our prescription card all over 8 the country; not just here in Kerrville, but all over. And 9 so I'm coming to y'all today to ask for y'all's approval, or 10 y'all to consider bringing -- allowing us to come into 11 Kerrville, Kerr County, and help your citizens. We have 12 great savings with our card. Our card averages about 55 to 13 60 percent on average nationwide, and it would probably be 14 about the same here in Kerr County as well. For a lot of 15 folks who don't have insurance or underinsured, you know, for 16 a lot of folks, that's -- going to the pharmacy is a burden, 17 and not only for themselves, but for the whole family. And 18 when they can go to the pharmacy and get a savings, you know, 19 a pretty good discount on their prescriptions, that 20 difference in price can be a difference in making their 21 mortgage, rent, car payment, just whatever. 22 And so the reason why these big chain pharmacies 23 like C.V.S., Walgreen's, places like that accept our program 24 is because they obviously realize that there's a lot of folks 25 across the country that don't have insurance or are 7-22-13 31 1 underinsured, and so a lot of those folks are foregoing 2 prescriptions altogether, so it's a way of getting them into 3 the doors and giving these prescriptions out at some cost, 4 and then with, in turn, the savings that they have achieved, 5 they have more money in their pocket to buy shampoo, 6 deodorant, bread, milk, whatever the case is. So, it's a -- 7 it's an economic stimulus for -- not only for the store, but 8 for the individual. And the card can be used any time, 9 anywhere. You would not only be held to a Kerr County 10 pharmacist. So, if you have citizens using the card, they 11 can use it up in Fredericksburg, use it down in Bexar County. 12 They can use it anywhere in the country, and in turn, every 13 time a prescription is used -- or filled, we can track that 14 utilization, and we can give back to Kerr County -- or would 15 give back to Kerr County $1.25 that y'all -- y'all's 16 Commissioners Court can decide where you think is appropriate 17 for those royalties to go to. 18 All the counties that we work with in Texas, every 19 county's different as far as what they use the royalty 20 towards. A lot of them use it for indigent care. Some use 21 it towards a senior health care program, some sort of program 22 such as that. It all varies. Meals on Wheels. In Ellis 23 County where I live, that's what they use it towards. So, 24 it's a win-win situation. Like I said, this never costs the 25 county a single penny, or time. We do all the marketing and 7-22-13 32 1 distribution. We visit all the pharmacies in the county. We 2 put the card out in libraries, all the government entities -- 3 buildings. We visit doctors' offices. So, with putting it 4 in so many places, it increases the utilization. That's why 5 we're so successful. And I think you see in your -- in your 6 packet there, there's a list of counties in Texas that -- 7 that endorse us. You know, close by, Bexar County, they came 8 on with us last year. 9 So, we got some big counties; Dallas County, Bexar 10 County, the city of Houston, to small counties like Milam 11 about, you know, three hours from here. And so we're -- you 12 know, Kerr County would be just another county, like a lot 13 of -- many others, and we feel that Kerr County has good 14 demographics where -- population, that the card could be 15 successful. And -- and all we ask is that you just sign, you 16 know, an agreement with us. I gave a copy to Commissioner 17 Oehler here, the county -- the agreement. All that agreement 18 states is that you will endorse us. We will give you back 19 $1.25 for every prescription that's paid toward us, and that 20 we can use your county name and seal on our prescription 21 card. As you see with the examples of the prescription cards 22 that I've given you -- I think you got one of Bexar County, 23 Brazoria, Nueces up there. They all look the same except for 24 the county name on there. 25 Also, the card can be used for more than just 7-22-13 33 1 prescriptions, so it's a well-rounded program. You can use 2 it for dental services, vision, hearing, imaging and lab 3 tests. Now, that doesn't mean you can just show up to any 4 dentist and get a teeth cleaning or root canal. You have to 5 go to the website that's listed on there or call the 1-800 6 number and give a -- give them your zip code or city, and 7 they will give you a list of who's available within that area 8 and a radius of how far you're willing to travel. So -- and 9 those discounts can be pretty significant as well, like the 10 prescription discounts. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Question. 12 MR. BARRETT: Yes, sir? 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Let's see. The individuals 14 that are participating in this, they save a lot of money at 15 the pharmacy? 16 MR. BARRETT: Yes, sir. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: The County doesn't have any 18 obligation other than an endorsement? 19 MR. BARRETT: Yes, sir, that's correct. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So, Coast-2-Coast must be 21 making some money. 22 MR. BARRETT: We are. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Help me connect those dots. 24 Sorry, I don't understand. 25 MR. BARRETT: I'll explain that to you. 7-22-13 34 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Who's paying for this? 2 MR. BARRETT: We are a for-profit company. This is 3 what I do for a living. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: But how is the cash flow -- 5 MR. BARRETT: Well, like I said, the P.B.M., 6 Pharmacy Benefit Manager, is called WellDyne Rx. You'll see 7 them on our prescription cards. They're like a broker in 8 between the pharmaceutical manufacturers and the pharmacies, 9 and they work negotiation month-to-month on how much 10 discounts are going to be taken off for all the drugs that 11 the F.D.A. approves. This card covers over 60,000 12 medications. For example, let's just say Cymbalta. They'll 13 come up with a -- a discount for the month of July on how 14 much Cymbalta will be taken off on using our prescription 15 card. Well, that may change in August and go lower, or it 16 may go higher. So, hopefully you understand what I'm -- my 17 example that I just used. And so it's like gasoline. The 18 prices vary, but always there's a discount. Now, how we get 19 paid, the pharmacies, the major chain pharmacies pay to be 20 part of the network that we're in. So, with their dues that 21 they pay to WellDyne Rx, our P.B.M., that's how we're paid 22 and how we make a living. They realize that the dues that 23 they pay out will be far less than the savings that they can 24 provide a customer. And in turn, like I said earlier, the 25 money that the customer has saved will hopefully go back into 7-22-13 35 1 that store's hands. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So, the pharmacy can purchase 3 medication or drugs at a reduced rate because they're 4 participating in -- 5 MR. BARRETT: Well, they -- pharmacies get a pretty 6 good -- 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, I would think so. 8 MR. BARRETT: -- discount, 'cause they buy in 9 volume from the pharmaceutical manufacturers, so they're 10 already getting a discount just from buying it from the 11 manufacturers. And so when they turn around and sell it to 12 the consumer, they're making a huge profit. I mean, like 200 13 percent, probably. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So, in this process, what is 15 the value added by Coast-2-Coast? 16 MR. BARRETT: What do we bring to the table? 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. 18 MR. BARRETT: We -- well, we do the marketing and 19 distribution. You know, with us going out and putting them 20 in doctors' offices and other various areas, that gives y'all 21 the opportunity for the card to be maximized and utilized. 22 So, the more places where the card is at, the more 23 opportunity for -- for an individual to receive the card to 24 be able to use it. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And why does the County need 7-22-13 36 1 to endorse it? 2 MR. BARRETT: Well, because we -- we like working 3 with counties, because the county name brings a little bit 4 more appealing -- what's the word I want to say? 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Credibility? 6 MR. BARRETT: Credibility. Credibility to the -- 7 to the person that's using the card. There's a lot of 8 prescription cards out there, and -- but we go far beyond 9 what most others do. And we work with government entities. 10 And you know, having that county name on there, everybody 11 lives in a county in some sort of way or another, and so by 12 having that county name that they live in, like you said, 13 gives them more credibility to the -- to the consumer. It 14 reaches a broader audience. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: The County Attorney has not looked 16 at the marketing agreement. Of course, that would be 17 something that we would want to occur prior to making a 18 decision, or a decision would be contingent upon approval -- 19 MR. BARRETT: Yes, sir. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: -- by the County Attorney, as you 21 might well imagine. 22 MR. BARRETT: Like I said, the agreement is good 23 for up to a year -- automatically is good for a year, unless 24 30 days written notice. You can exit out of the contract at 25 any time, no penalty. We've never had a county leave us 7-22-13 37 1 before, but you do have that option, though, if you would 2 like to leave. No cost. And -- and the rest of the 3 agreement just mentions that, you know, we can use your 4 county name, and you get back a royalty of 1.25, which can 5 add up to a lot of money; we send you a check every month. 6 It's -- you know, you address it to your County Treasurer or 7 whoever the royalties would specifically go -- be going 8 toward. And, you know, a county this size, it could -- it 9 could do some -- it could be a pretty good amount of money. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: $1.25 per what? 11 MR. BARRETT: Per prescription. So, when 12 everybody's using this card at C.V.S., Walgreen's, H.E.B. 13 here, Walmart, and even, like I said, outside of the county, 14 that can add up very quickly. Obviously, every county's 15 different. Based upon size -- population alone is the main 16 reason, and plus demographics as well. But let's just -- 17 like, in Dallas County, they were the first county to endorse 18 this here in Texas back in 2009. And I'm comparing apples 19 and oranges, but I'll show you the highs and lows. Dallas 20 County does the most of any of the counties here in Texas. 21 They do about 2,000 to 3,000 prescriptions a week, so that 22 can be, you know, about 9,000 a month, times $1.25; that's 23 how much Dallas County is receiving back. They get about 24 $80,000 back a year from us. And that -- and we don't have 25 to pay royalty; we do it because that's our appreciation for 7-22-13 38 1 the county working with us. And Dallas County uses their 2 royalty for, I think, Parkland Hospital, their county 3 hospital there. Then some county that's a lot smaller -- 4 let's say Hood County, Granbury. They do -- 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Hood is an equivalent county to us 6 in population and budget and so forth. 7 MR. BARRETT: Yes, sir. They do about -- probably 8 about 100 a week typically, so that's 400 a month. I mean, 9 that's a little more than $400 back to the county. So, you 10 know, is that going to just make -- set the world on fire, 11 that extra 400-something dollars? No, by no means, but 12 still, it's money that you're receiving at no cost, and no 13 time that any county personnel or employee's having to take 14 out of their time. It's not even in their job description to 15 go put these cards out in places, 'cause we do all that. 16 Some other counties, you know, who have prescription card 17 services already, you know, the company just sends them to 18 them, and they have to go put it out on their own. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Sorry I'm so dense on this 20 thing, but it just seems like it's -- you know, matter can't 21 either be created or destroyed. Sounds like money can't be 22 created or destroyed. I'm not understanding still the cash 23 flow on this. So, the advantage is -- let's say the County 24 endorses it. 25 MR. BARRETT: Yes, sir. 7-22-13 39 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: A citizen becomes a member, 2 has the card. And so the incentive for Walgreen's or a big 3 organization like that is to have all these 20,000 or 50,000 4 people that live in the county go to that pharmacy? 5 MR. BARRETT: Yes, sir. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So, what's some small pharmacy 7 that's not a Walgreen's or C.V.S. or something -- do they 8 accept these cards also? 9 MR. BARRETT: Yes and no. We don't -- we don't 10 market to the individual -- individually owned pharmacies. 11 Some will accept it. Some don't. That's why -- because 12 they're not part of the network that our people -- from our 13 P.B.M. And so that's why we mostly work with the big chain 14 pharmacies. We always -- you know, there's independently 15 owned pharmacies in -- in towns that people will, you know, 16 over time take the card there, and it's just up to the 17 manager there or the owner of the pharmacy, if he or she 18 wants to accept the card. By no means are they held -- have 19 to accept the card by the -- by the consumer. I get asked 20 that question almost every single time. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I guess the question I have is, 22 how do people sign up? Say we go ahead and approve this. 23 We're not going to be able to approve it today, 'cause the 24 County Attorney needs to look at contracts. But do they sign 25 up online? Or do they just -- 7-22-13 40 1 MR. BARRETT: No, sir. The card is ready to go 2 right now. That card -- you could use that card right now. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: How does -- how does, say, 4 someone living out in Ingram know about this and get a card? 5 MR. BARRETT: Well, we do -- if you -- if Kerr 6 County is going to endorse us, we do initially like to put it 7 in the paper, into your local newspaper, have a little -- you 8 know, a press conference if y'all would like, and so we get 9 the word out that way. Plus, you know, we just also -- 10 again, that's why we put it in so many places where people 11 have the opportunity to find it pretty accessible -- easily. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, like, a little rack with 13 cards would be at C.V.S.? 14 MR. BARRETT: Yes, sir, absolutely. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: My other question, based on 16 what you said earlier, I'm presuming that the rates vary, 17 like you just said Cymbalta. So, one month it may be one 18 price; next time you go it would be -- could be a different 19 price? 20 MR. BARRETT: Yes, sir. That -- that fluctuates. 21 Say, for example, you went today to get X-Y-Z medication; it 22 was 30 percent off. You go back a month later for a refill. 23 It may be 40 percent off or it may be down to 18 percent. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 25 MR. BARRETT: That's the -- that's the way it goes. 7-22-13 41 1 But if you have no insurance -- 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 3 MR. BARRETT: -- or you're -- you have a drug 4 that's not going to be covered at that particular time by 5 your insurance, it's better to pay a discount of some sort 6 than having to pay the full retail price. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Somebody could -- you know, 8 basically, if somebody doesn't have insurance, this certainly 9 helps. If they have insurance for -- 10 MR. BARRETT: Absolutely. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- prescriptions, they might 12 present this and say, "Which way am I getting the better 13 deal?" 14 MR. BARRETT: And notice on the -- I think on the 15 very last, or second-to-last sheet, it's our statistics for 16 the state of Texas for 2012. And, you know, I'm pretty proud 17 of what we do; I'm not going to lie. And I like showing 18 this, because we make a difference in people's lives here all 19 over the country, and specifically Texas. As you can see, 20 last year we had a year-to-date savings of 59.60 percent. 21 So, if you take all the counties in Texas that you see on 22 your list there, and combined all that, the savings was 59 23 percent. So, on average, people here using our card are 24 saving 59 percent. That's a -- that's a lot of money to be 25 saving. You know, I hear sometimes where people -- you know, 7-22-13 42 1 it's going to cost them $300 for a prescription. And -- but 2 with our card, they got it down to $100. I mean, that's -- 3 you know, that's pretty good, $200 savings. That -- I mean, 4 even -- you know, for a lot of us, $200 is -- you know, who 5 wouldn't want to have an extra 200 bucks in their pocket? 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is there -- one more question, 7 if I could. 8 MR. BARRETT: Sure. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is there a website where, like, 10 someone could look online? "The discount in your county 11 is...", I mean, kind of so you can shop before you go to the 12 pharmacy? 13 MR. BARRETT: Well, we do have a website, 14 coast2coastrx.com, that gives you a listing of -- you can 15 print out a card on the website as well as listing all the 16 counties and cities and governments that we -- that use our 17 card. As far as actually finding out what the discount -- 18 you cannot do that. You have to go to the pharmacy along 19 with your prescription. But beforehand, you can't do that. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 21 MR. BARRETT: 'Cause you do, on our website, find 22 out what pharmacies accept it, which, again, all the major 23 chain pharmacies do. And -- and also on this website, you 24 can get a listing of, like, the dental services and vision, 25 hearing and imaging and lab tests. 7-22-13 43 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, I recommend that we 2 forward it to the County Attorney, put it on our next agenda 3 for a yea or nay. You probably don't need to come back, 4 unless you just want to come to Kerrville. 5 MR. BARRETT: Okay. And, you know, back on that 6 statistics sheet, not only the savings, the 59 percent. You 7 know, last year we saved $14.4 million off of 8 prescriptions -- if you take all the prescription discounts 9 across the state of Texas and combine them, 14.4 million. 10 So, again, you know, I'll emphasize we are making a 11 difference in people's lives. And I know it's great as a 12 county to have that extra little money come in. There's -- 13 you know, we're not going to make any bones about that. But 14 for your citizens who struggle, or people who just need a 15 little extra savings, and they can go to the pharmacy and -- 16 and get a -- you know, a decent amount of savings on a 17 prescription for themselves or their family, makes a lot of 18 people feel better and -- and get by better, so keep that in 19 mind, you know. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: One other question. 21 MR. BARRETT: Yes, sir? 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Who pays Coast-2-Coast? Where 23 does your money come from? 24 MR. BARRETT: Our money comes from WellDyne Rx. 25 They give us a -- a check every month. 7-22-13 44 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: But where's -- how do they get 2 their money? 3 MR. BARRETT: They get their money from the 4 pharmacies, from those dues that all the large chain -- 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: In other words, you get your 6 money from the dues that Walgreen's and everybody else pays 7 to you? 8 MR. BARRETT: Yes, sir. 9 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: To give discounts on the 10 drugs. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay, got you. 12 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Compared to wholesaling. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: It's carved out of the middle. 14 MR. BARRETT: Yes, sir. It's just like how the 15 insurance companies get their money from the pharmacies. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I was just having a hard time 17 understanding where you got your money. It's dues from the 18 pharmacies. 19 MR. BARRETT: We work similar to how an insurance 20 company -- 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Got you. 22 MR. BARRETT: -- collects their money from -- from 23 the pharmacies. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Got you. 25 MR. BARRETT: But we're not an insurance company. 7-22-13 45 1 So -- 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Any more questions for Mr. Barrett? 3 Thank you, sir. We appreciate you being here. 4 MR. BARRETT: Thank you very much. Okay, y'all 5 have a great day. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: County Attorney will review the 7 contract, and we'll see where we go on that. 8 MS. PIEPER: Do we have a second on that, Judge? 9 MR. HENNEKE: There wasn't a motion. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: We don't have a motion, no. 11 MS. PIEPER: Commissioner Letz made a motion to 12 bring it back. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: No, a suggestion. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: A suggestion. 15 MS. PIEPER: Oh, a suggestion. Okay. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Let's go to Item 6, another 17 9:30 timed item; to consider, discuss, take appropriate 18 action regarding the mitigation of trash and pollution in the 19 Guadalupe River at Brinks Crossing. Commissioner Moser? 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thank you, Judge. Let me pass 21 out some backup information here. Brinks Crossing is -- is 22 between here and Center Point on the Guadalupe River. 23 It's -- let me describe a situation, and then I'll talk about 24 a problem and a potential solution. The situation is, this 25 is a low-water crossing that's a navigable stream. It's 7-22-13 46 1 accessible by the public from the -- from the road. People 2 use this a lot. The other -- it's typical for as many as 60 3 cars to be parked along that crossing at any time. That's 4 what it was a week ago this past Saturday; I drove down and 5 looked at it and counted 60 cars. So, say there were a 6 couple of people, two and a half people or so per car; 7 probably 150 people somewhere in the river associated with 8 that -- that crossing. 9 The other situation is, there is a lot of trash as 10 a result of all the people being there. There's a lot of 11 pollution. One citizen took it upon herself not long ago to 12 help clean up that area; picked up 40 diapers, eight bags of 13 trash and had it removed. The -- the problem is with that 14 trash and that pollution, it's policed and trash is picked up 15 by U.G.R.A. They have a contractor that covers a lot of the 16 -- the crossings along the Guadalupe. They drive past and 17 they pick up trash in the right-of-way, but that's the extent 18 to which they do it. So, the -- we had a workshop about a 19 week ago that included Environmental Health, Road and Bridge, 20 Maintenance, U.G.R.A., and the public, so we tried to 21 determine what -- what we might do to remedy this situation 22 or meet the -- mitigate it. We're not going to solve it. 23 So, one thing we did is -- is looked at the thing 24 like it's used out at the west end of the county at 25 Schumacher Crossing, and to install trash barrels. Len Odom 7-22-13 47 1 and I went out to look at where these trash barrels could be 2 located. They'd have to be in the right-of-way if we put 3 them out there. We think that there would be three good 4 locations in which to place the trash barrels. So, there's 5 some -- there's some pros and cons on putting trash barrels 6 in there. I think the trash barrels, as you see in your 7 backup, are the type that you can put trash in, but you can't 8 put household garbage in it. It has a lid that's small 9 enough, the same type that's used out at Schumacher Crossing. 10 The problem is, if you put a trash barrel there, it could be 11 a magnet for people to bring household garbage in, so that's 12 the down side. The upside is we think that the people will 13 use this to some extent. It'll mitigate some of the trash. 14 So, what I'm asking for, and a motion I'd like to 15 make, is that -- is that we authorize Road and Bridge to 16 purchase the lids for trash barrels; the City will provide 17 the trash barrels. That they'll be placed on posts with 18 break-away attachments so that if a car were to hit them, 19 since they'll be in the right-of-way -- but it's as far away 20 from the road as we can. It's not a safety issue, or that's 21 minimized. And that we purchase the lids for six of these 22 trash barrels, and to have Road and Bridge install them. So, 23 it'll be -- and I'd like to limit the cost on this. The 24 recommendation is to limit the total cost to not to exceed 25 $4,000. 7-22-13 48 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: You mentioned six cans, but you 2 have three locations. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. We thought while we're 4 buying them -- they have to be made, so we thought we'd buy 5 three additional ones in case they're lost in a flood, or if 6 we find that they're so effective, we maybe can use them at 7 other locations. So it takes a while to get the lids, so we 8 thought that would be good to have some spares. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean, I have, you know, a 10 concern whether it's a good idea or not. You know, it's -- I 11 don't mind going along with it. I think we just get three, 12 though. I don't see any reason to get extras that we may or 13 may not use. And as I understand, U.G.R.A.'s going to be 14 responsible for emptying the trash. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's a good point. U.G.R.A. 16 said that they would pick it up twice a week. And thank you 17 for bringing that up. And we hope that -- or we recommend 18 that -- that Maintenance pick it up one time a week; as 19 they're going down to Center Point to empty the trash barrels 20 at Lions Park, they swing by and empty these three trash 21 barrels at Brinks Crossing. So, it would be three times a 22 week pickup, like Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What kind of trash barrels do 24 we have at Lions Park? 25 MR. BOLLIER: 55-gallon drums, just plain old 7-22-13 49 1 barrels. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: How much household waste goes 3 in there? 4 MR. BOLLIER: There's always household waste in 5 them. There's household waste basically every time you go 6 down there to empty them. Same way down at Flat Rock Park; 7 they're always full of household garbage. You're not going 8 to stop it. I mean, it's always there. Ray can tell you 9 that. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I wondered if going with this 11 type of a lid would be a -- a wise move, if it would help 12 limit household waste. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: It would. And that would be 14 the other reason to buy the other three to go -- if we see 15 that they're effective, and -- and it's trash that people 16 generate there as opposed to household trash, and it works 17 good, then we'd have them for Lions Park or Flat Rock Park or 18 wherever. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: What's the lead time to get these 20 lids fabricated? 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Do you remember that? 22 MS. HOFFER: Thirty days. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thirty days. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: This is someone who does this 7-22-13 50 1 for TexDOT? 2 MS. HOFFER: A man out of Bonham, Texas. He did 3 them for -- all around the state of Texas for TexDOT. 4 MR. ODOM: And the barrels are going to be free. 5 The City's going to give us those barrels. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. I'm just -- 7 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Don't we have some community 8 service that could build lids? 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I -- basically, I was wondering 10 if a local welding shop, if someone shows them the 11 pictures -- 12 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Maintenance can do it. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, this is a steel -- 14 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: It's awful expensive for a 15 lid. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And I checked the internet. 17 That was my first reaction, so I went to the internet and 18 looked at lids for 55-gallon drums, and they're -- the thin 19 sheet metal, stamped, are like about 200 bucks, something 20 like that. These look like they're probably quarter-inch 21 steel rings, welded, galvanized tops, hinged. So, the cost 22 looked reasonable. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: To me, I don't mind getting -- 24 again, going back to the three, see how it works, but I think 25 if we -- if we think this is a good thing for all our trash 7-22-13 51 1 cans around the county, I think we probably can go locally, 2 put it out for bid. I bet we can get them made. But this 3 way, you've got one you can kind of look at. 4 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: If we can't, we can build 5 them ourselves. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. But -- 7 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Not hard to bend a piece of 8 metal around a form and weld -- tack weld a half a lid, and 9 use the other half, put two hinges on it and a handle on it. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. But the locations -- 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: The locations, if we put -- 12 the no-parking signs are probably up 150, 200 feet from the 13 crossing to keep people off the narrow bridge. If we put one 14 at each -- at each side of the crossing and one close to the 15 crossing. So, the first time a, you know, major flood comes 16 along, we may lose that barrel; we'll have to pick it up. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But I guess -- I'm looking at 18 your map, and I don't know if you get into details as to 19 where we put the trash cans right here, but it looks like 20 there's two real close to the river. Wouldn't it make sense 21 to put one further up towards -- on the bedrock side? Kind 22 of up there where a lot of the cars park, and there's a 23 fairly wide right-of-way up in there. Seems like the trash 24 cans almost need to be next to the cars, one near the river 25 and two on both sides of the -- 7-22-13 52 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's where they are, one 2 near the river and two back where the cars park. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But on each side? 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, right. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I guess -- you mentioned 6 Road and Bridge was going to buy the lids. Isn't this 7 something that should come out of the Parks budget? 8 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yeah. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Probably. 10 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Doesn't need to come out of 11 Road and Bridge. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Do you have $1,000 in your 14 Parks budget? 15 MR. BOLLIER: I really don't. 16 MS. HARGIS: No. 17 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: You do not have it in the 18 Parks budget? 19 MS. HARGIS: No. In the regular Parks budget. 20 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That's what I'm talking 21 about. 22 MS. HARGIS: Not his Parks budget. 23 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I'm talking about -- 24 MS. HARGIS: In the regular one, we do. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 7-22-13 53 1 JUDGE TINLEY: So, your proposal is to go with 2 three of them out of the Parks budget? 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'm not going to make a motion. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I made a motion. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Oh, you already made it? 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, I made a motion. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Is that for three? 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That was for six, so -- 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll second the motion and 10 offer an amendment to only buy -- purchase three at this 11 time. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Do I hear a second to the amendment? 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: That effectively negates your 16 motion, so we're going with three, okay? 17 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: All right. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: All right. So, the motion that we 19 have is to do three now and see where it goes out of the 20 Parks budget. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Any further question or discussion? 23 All in favor, signify by raising your right hand. 24 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 25 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 7-22-13 54 1 (No response.) 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion carries. Okay, we've got 3 that one out of the way. Let's now go to a 10 o'clock timed 4 item, which is Item 9; to consider, discuss, and take 5 appropriate action on Kerr County's breach of settlement 6 agreement and request to accept Hatari Safari as a sanctuary 7 or shelter. Ms. Amy Tuma, you asked that this item be placed 8 on the agenda. Come up and give us your address, please. 9 MS. TUMA: Hello again. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: What's your address? 11 MS. TUMA: As of June 11th of 2010, I filed all the 12 proper paperwork to become an incorporated animal sanctuary. 13 We all know that then our County Attorney came to you on the 14 14th and said that he didn't believe me and that I wasn't 15 really a sanctuary, and asked you guys' permission to come 16 after me. We did this for a while. This was -- we all know 17 all the stuff that went on, and over and over. We kept 18 moving in the courts all the way through the 4th Court of 19 Appeals that I was following the letter of the law; I was 20 doing exactly what the law says, and I was acting 21 accordingly. We come to December, and we decided to speed 22 things up and to make an agreement that y'all would let me 23 act as a sanctuary, but I made some conditions with you guys 24 that I would still register, even though according to the 25 law, as an incorporated sanctuary, I don't have to. But I 7-22-13 55 1 made that agreement with y'all to get this done so that I 2 could open the park to the kids. 3 It didn't stop. The malicious prosecution and the 4 harassment by the County Attorney after we made an agreement 5 continued. He tried to change the state law; he kept coming 6 after me for paperwork harassment. It never stopped. I'm 7 acting as a sanctuary, taking in animals, finding them new 8 homes. As part of the condition, I'm allowed a two-week 9 period to take in animals and to find them a new home before 10 I have to register them. In -- I believe it was 11 approximately November, I did just this. There was some 12 mountain lions that were moving from the state of California; 13 they were being transferred to another facility. The 14 gentleman had to make another stop in another state, and I 15 told him his mountain lions could have sanctuary and shelter 16 at my facility so they didn't have to make the long journey. 17 They didn't have to stay on the trailer. They didn't have to 18 suffer; they could be comfortable and well-taken care of at 19 my facility till the new owner could come and pick them up 20 and give them their new home. 21 They left the county. They are not in the county. 22 They're not a county animal any more. I'm being charged with 23 selling those animals. They didn't even register. I was 24 given some paperwork that said from Kerr County Animal 25 Control, who's -- the only people I should be working with is 7-22-13 56 1 Animal Control. We don't have an issue. We had -- I had a 2 drunk driver run through my fence, collapsed my 8-foot-high 3 fence. I immediately called Animal Control the next day, let 4 them know what was going on; told them, "I want to keep you 5 guys in the loop. I want to work with you." That's what 6 it's all about. Didn't have an issue, got it all taken care 7 of. Came to you guys and said I got the e-mail that says Rob 8 says that I have to submit all my paperwork in advance. 9 That's not in the statutes. That's not in the laws. That's 10 just stuff that, once again, he's making up and that he's 11 trying to enforce. Because he's not about having the animals 12 here; he just wants me to move out or to run out of town so 13 that I can't be here any more, and to get rid of my animals. 14 That's all this is. 15 All you have to do is look at the harassment over 16 and over and over, from when he gave the newspaper my court 17 charges before I was even served to when he turned around and 18 went to the State and tried to change the laws right after we 19 signed the settlement. So, I went to Animal Control to 20 register all my animals after we left here, and I told you 21 guys we were having issues. You all instructed me to go up 22 there and just register, so I did that. My vet had been at 23 my facility on January 21st, so my vet was actually out at my 24 facility inspecting the animals a week before I even came to 25 Commissioners Court. Unfortunately, my vet was out of town. 7-22-13 57 1 They had switched the DSL lines. There was a bunch of 2 different reasons, but the vet's secretary was unable to fax 3 his letter saying that he had been to my -- excuse me -- to 4 my facility in the proper amount of time. 5 And Charity and I -- Charity is Animal Control -- 6 stayed in contact the whole time. She was like, "Hey, we're 7 still missing this." I was like, "Hey, I called the vet." 8 The vet's office even called Charity and said, "We're trying 9 to get it to you. This new fax line isn't working." And it 10 turned out that I was going to drive up to the vet just to go 11 get the piece of paperwork, and my vet had a call next door, 12 so he came and actually personally delivered the letter. I 13 turned it in. Charity was like, "Great." We issued all the 14 permits again. I thought everything was good to go. Now, 15 once again, the County Attorney is charging me with harboring 16 the animals, and I've got almost $3,500 in fines for 17 paperwork. But, you know, if we look back to the years 18 prior, after we made the settlement agreement, I had turned 19 in all my paperwork. The County didn't give my me permits 20 for over 60 days. So, it's okay for the County not to have 21 to follow through and do their paperwork on time, but yet 22 when I'm only missing one piece of paperwork that was dated 23 before dates were even in question, I'm being charged again. 24 So, I'm asking you guys to act upon this. I am an 25 incorporated animal sanctuary. We should not have had to go 7-22-13 58 1 through any of this in the beginning. If the County Attorney 2 had even bothered to come to my facility, do any homework, or 3 I believe even present you guys the actual facts of the case 4 back on January 14th, 2010, we wouldn't have never been in 5 this situation in the first place. This has never been about 6 a safety issue. This has never been about anything besides 7 the fact that he wants to get rid of me and my animals. And 8 I want you guys help me take care of this once and for all. 9 I am an incorporated animal sanctuary, and according to 822, 10 I am not subject to his prosecution, or any of this B.S. 11 that's been trying to go on. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Ms. Tuma, you're asking us to 13 recognize your status. I think before this Court can 14 recognize your status as you're requesting, that it behooves 15 us to have all of your regulatory filings, be that Secretary 16 of State or the State of Texas -- 17 MS. TUMA: Right. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: -- or Department of Agriculture or 19 whomever -- 20 MS. TUMA: Okay. Would you like a copy of that 21 right now? 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Let me finish, please. 23 MS. TUMA: Okay. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Reviewed by -- by counsel in order 25 to advise us whether or not you, in fact, based upon the 7-22-13 59 1 appropriate documents, are, in fact, or do, in fact, have 2 that status. Now, -- 3 MS. TUMA: On that note, may I -- 4 JUDGE TINLEY: -- having said that -- having said 5 that, where that puts us then is in a position of -- our 6 usual position would be, well, in order to answer the 7 question as to your status, we want you to provide all of 8 that documentation or registration or regulatory filings or 9 whatever it may be to our County Attorney in order for him to 10 review and advise this Court as to his evaluation from a 11 legal standpoint of what that status is. Now, obviously, you 12 -- from your vantage point, -- 13 MS. TUMA: There's a conflict of interest. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: -- that probably is not something 15 that you would trust. 16 MS. TUMA: That's correct. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: So that puts us in a position of 18 possibly looking at obtaining outside counsel to do this in 19 order to advise the Court. The Court is not in a position at 20 this point to -- to say you are or you are not a qualified 21 animal sanctuary or shelter, and -- and I'm not sure that 22 this Court, individually or collectively, could come to that 23 determination without some review by competent legal counsel. 24 So, your request today is not something that we can obviously 25 act upon, finalize it today. If you -- if you specifically 7-22-13 60 1 want that matter reviewed, what I would suggest that you do 2 is to provide your documentation, your regulatory filings and 3 so forth -- 4 MS. TUMA: Okay. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: -- to your own counsel, and ask that 6 counsel to write an opinion based upon that documentation or 7 whatever it may be that -- that you, in fact, have the status 8 that you're requesting. And upon that being furnished, then 9 the ball will be in our court to obtain our review, and we 10 can take it from there. I think that's the simplest way to 11 go about it. 12 MS. TUMA: Well, unfortunately, I will not be able 13 to retain any counsel, because since this has all started, I 14 have spent over $225,000 in legal fees, and I honestly cannot 15 afford it. I've almost got two mortgages on my property, and 16 I have never done anything wrong. I have always been 17 attacked. I have always been maliciously prosecuted, and it 18 is just going down through the line, and it's like how many 19 times do I have to be this County's punching bag? When all 20 I'm trying to do is make something for the county and make 21 something for our kids. If I have to retain counsel, it will 22 be counsel to sue the County for breach of settlement, and 23 for all my attorney fees from when this all started, because 24 I did everything according to the laws of the state of Texas. 25 Every other animal sanctuary from Wylie to Kendalia has 7-22-13 61 1 tigers, lions, leopards; they don't register. They don't 2 register with the state. They don't register with the 3 county. Any facility that is run by A.Z.A. doesn't have to 4 register. All the zoos don't have to register. They have no 5 one to hold them accountable. 6 But because the County Attorney wanted to get rid 7 of me, he came after me. I am no different than anyone else. 8 I am running the same; I have the same animals. It is unfair 9 that I am set to all these expectations, and then the County 10 doesn't even hold up its own words. The County said I could 11 do A, B, and C in the agreement that y'all signed, and then 12 the County Attorney turns around and says, "Oh, no, you 13 can't; I'm going to come after you anyways." I -- my court 14 date is set for August 30th, and if we don't get this 15 resolved with y'all before August 30th, like I said, my only 16 choice is to possibly go after -- go to the District 17 Attorney, go to the Attorney General for the state, and come 18 after the County. And I don't want to take away from the 19 county. That's not my intent. I want to give to the people 20 of the county, not take away. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I have two questions on this. 22 First -- well, one thing, if the County Attorney has filed -- 23 whatever they've done, that's a pending legal matter. That 24 has nothing to do with us. I mean, we're a Commissioners 25 Court. All those were J.P. court or District Court, wherever 7-22-13 62 1 they are, so we have nothing to say about any of that stuff. 2 MS. TUMA: But you gave him permission originally 3 to come after me. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But the -- and then the other 5 question is, I don't recall us ever being in a position to -- 6 to -- I guess, to recognize, or where we have authority to 7 recognize an animal sanctuary. I thought that was something 8 that was done by the Department of Agriculture -- State 9 Department of Agriculture, or the State. I don't see that 10 that involves us either. 11 MS. TUMA: Well, it did involve you, because you 12 all said from the beginning -- 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But from the standpoint -- 14 MS. TUMA: -- that it wasn't -- 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Let me finish. From the 16 standpoint of working with our Animal Control, yes, that 17 involves us. And there was a settlement agreement that we 18 approved a while back that involves us. But aside from those 19 two very specific items, I don't see how this -- that we have 20 anything to do with this stuff. That's just my feeling. 21 MS. TUMA: I just don't understand -- if you all 22 weren't involved and had nothing to do with it, how did you 23 have the power to give him the power to come after me in the 24 first place? 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We don't give him the power. 7-22-13 63 1 He's an independent elected official. 2 MS. TUMA: He came to the Commissioners Court on 3 January 14th -- he came to the Commissioners to ask the 4 Commissioners to come after me, and you all gave him 5 permission to come after me and sue me. So, yes, you do have 6 the power, apparently, because you did it already. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: That -- that particular civil 8 action, this Court did authorize. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And that was to confirm 11 incorporation, or what was that for? 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That was -- 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Have to go back and look at the 14 specifc items. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Basically, a -- we negotiated a 16 settlement between the facility that operates -- 17 MS. TUMA: This was beginning on, like I said, 18 January 14th, 2010. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 'Cause there was 20 noncompliance, keeping wild -- big animals, tigers and 21 things, without proper permits, was the original issue. 22 Might have been -- I think there was a bear involved, and 23 some other large animals. Anyway, but my feeling -- and I 24 believe what you said, we can't take any -- we can't take any 25 action today. 7-22-13 64 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Not on her request that she be 2 recognized as either a sanctuary or a shelter. 3 MS. TUMA: That really isn't the issue. It's -- 4 the law says incorporated shelter. I can give you a piece of 5 paper right now from the Secretary of State that says Hatari 6 Safari has filed a corporation. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Then we don't need to recognize 8 it; Secretary of State's already recognized it. I mean, 9 that's what I'm saying. We don't recognize shelters or 10 whatever it's called -- sanctuaries. That's done by a state 11 entity other than us. 12 MS. TUMA: But you cannot recognize them? Do you 13 see how we have a chicken and egg situation? You can say, 14 "Oh, no, she's not; you can sue her criminally," but you 15 can't turn around and say, "Oh, we were wrong; yes, she is"? 16 That really doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The current thing you're 18 concerned about was not -- was an action by the County 19 Attorney's office, not by the Commissioners Court. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: I don't think there's anything this 21 Court can do, Ms. Tuma, at this juncture in connection with 22 what you're asking. 23 MS. TUMA: So, as far as -- 24 JUDGE TINLEY: We -- 25 MS. TUMA: -- the settlement action goes, -- 7-22-13 65 1 JUDGE TINLEY: We've heard -- we've heard your 2 concerns. Certainly, with respect to what you've told us 3 today, if you have any copies of any documents you wish to 4 provide, we'll be happy to have those for review. But this 5 Court doesn't have the ability, either individually or 6 collectively, to -- to come to -- come to any conclusion 7 without the assistance of outside help. And -- 8 MS. TUMA: Does taking -- 9 JUDGE TINLEY: -- if seeking outside help is 10 something that -- that would not be acceptable to you -- and 11 we understand the circumstances, but -- 12 MS. TUMA: So, how does that pertain to the 13 settlement that you all made? How do I get you to stand by 14 your word and do what you said in the settlement? 15 JUDGE TINLEY: As far as I'm concerned, Kerr County 16 will abide by any agreement it has made. And if -- if we are 17 in particular breach of -- of any settlement that Kerr County 18 -- that this Court has made, if -- if notice is served on us 19 that, because of specific facts or circumstances, we are in 20 breach of that agreement, I assure you that we will review 21 those facts and circumstances. We'll investigate, and in the 22 event we believe that Kerr County may not be abiding by its 23 agreement, we'll take the appropriate action to make sure 24 that we are in compliance with that agreement, because we 25 entered into that agreement in good faith on behalf of the 7-22-13 66 1 County. And as far as I'm concerned, and I believe every 2 member of this Court is concerned, we want to abide by any 3 agreements that we've made, be they 10 years old or 10 days 4 old; doesn't make any difference. 5 MS. TUMA: So, when I -- 6 JUDGE TINLEY: If they're alive and in being, we're 7 obligated by them. But we need to be placed on notice of 8 specific particular facts -- 9 MS. TUMA: Okay. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: -- which might indicate that we're 11 not in compliance with the agreement. Give us an opportunity 12 to investigate those facts and take the appropriate action. 13 As I say, if, in fact, the investigation reveals that -- that 14 Kerr County may not be in compliance, we will want to take 15 the appropriate action, because we want the public to have 16 confidence in -- in this county government and this Court, 17 that when we make a trade, we stick to it. That simple. 18 MS. TUMA: So, when I submit my corporation 19 paperwork and things -- I already e-mailed y'all a copy of 20 the settlement, I believe, when I scheduled this on the 21 agenda. Would you like the discovery that the counsel has 22 presented, or the charges against me? Or what -- or all of 23 the above? 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Just notice of what particular facts 25 you assert that Kerr County is not abiding by an agreement 7-22-13 67 1 that was approved by the Court. 2 MS. TUMA: Okay. And who should I submit that to? 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Submit to it me. 4 MS. TUMA: Okay. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. All right. 6 MS. TUMA: Thank you. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you. Okay, let's now go to 8 Item 11; acknowledge resignation of Kerr County Attorney and 9 consider, discuss, and take appropriate action to solicit or 10 obtain applications or other expressions of interest from 11 persons seeking appointment by Kerr County Commissioners 12 Court to fill the vacancy of Kerr County Attorney. I put 13 this on the agenda because of -- of recent occurrences. As 14 I'm sure most of you know, our County Attorney has made 15 formal announcement that he is a candidate, subject to the 16 Republican primary action, for State Representative, District 17 53, I believe it is. 18 MR. HENNEKE: Yes, sir. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Of the State of Texas, to the Texas 20 Legislature. And as he very specifically pointed out in -- 21 in his communication to the Court, after making that 22 announcement, we have in Texas what's called a "resign to 23 run" law. And, actually, it's a constitutional amendment 24 that was approved by the voters of this state, and by virtue 25 of making that announcement, as -- as he's indicated in his 7-22-13 68 1 communication to this Court, that automatically triggers his 2 resignation of the current office which he holds, which is 3 Kerr County Attorney. And by virtue of the constitutional 4 provision, that creates a vacancy in that -- in that 5 particular office. I'm not sure a lot of folks understand 6 that, because there was no official resignation or some sort 7 of letter or notification published or communicated, but 8 that's the net effect, and that is what the County Attorney 9 specifically pointed out to us in his communication. 10 The second prong is, where do we go from here, 11 gentlemen? The -- the provisions of the Local Government 12 Code for filling vacancies -- I believe it's Chapter 87, I 13 believe it is, Subchapter D, provides that for a vacancy in 14 the office of, among others, the Kerr County Attorney, the 15 Court may fill that vacancy by a majority vote of the 16 Commissioners Court voting on that particular item. So, it 17 occurs to me that one of the -- one of the normal methods of 18 proceeding would be to solicit or obtain applications or 19 other expressions of interest from persons seeking 20 appointment to that vacancy, and for that reason, I put it on 21 the agenda. And what's the Court's pleasure? 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think, Judge -- I think, as I 23 understand the position in the statute, and also, I think, 24 what we've done previously with our -- certainly the last 25 County Attorney, Mr. Emerson, that we've pretty much held -- 7-22-13 69 1 I mean, the County Attorney can continue to serve until we 2 replace him, so there's not -- there's also in the statute 3 that there's no void of us having a County Attorney. 4 Historically, after the Republican primary, if there's not a 5 Democratic opponent, maybe sometimes even if there has been, 6 at that point we have appointed that person who's elected 7 successor to that job. That, to me, makes sense, even though 8 the -- you know, it's seven months away when that'll take 9 place. As long as the County Attorney is able to do his job 10 in that interim, I'd prefer to, you know, not make a change. 11 And my reason is -- or at least until we know how many 12 candidates may be running for that office. 13 I don't want to get in a position where we appoint 14 a County Attorney for seven months, and then we're, all of a 15 sudden, pretty certain we're going to have a different County 16 Attorney based on the primary. At the moment, there's one 17 person that has publicly announced that she plans to run for 18 the County Attorney office, Ms. Stebbins. I think she'd be, 19 you know, a great County Attorney, and if she's the only one 20 who signs up, you know, I would have no problem in making 21 that appointment like that if that's what the rest of the 22 Court wants. But in the interim, until we know that, I'm not 23 even sure what the -- when the deadline for signing up for 24 that office is. I know it's late fall or first of the year, 25 something like that. I hate to make a change. I'd just hate 7-22-13 70 1 for us to have to go through two changes with County 2 Attorneys when we have things that I'm involved with that are 3 way too important to try to be in limbo for a long period of 4 time. And I don't believe -- and the County Attorney can 5 answer this; I don't believe either of his assistants 6 qualify, 'cause I don't believe either one of them live in 7 the county. So, in which case, that kind of takes that off 8 the table as to using one of them. And I don't know that 9 that would be a good option either. I mean, that's somewhat 10 irrelevant from the standpoint if they're not going to run 11 for office, we're still in the same thing of having a whole 12 bunch of transitions affecting personnel and things of that 13 nature. 14 Final thing I would say on this topic would be at 15 some point, when a person is selected by this Court to fill 16 that position, I would really like to figure out some sort of 17 a transition to make the -- you know, try to keep both of 18 them, the current County Attorney and the appointed County 19 Attorney, have some overlap somehow. I'm not sure the budget 20 impact of that. Maybe the County Attorney would take a pay 21 cut for the transition, during that period, or voluntarily -- 22 not a pay cut, but voluntarily give up some of his salary to 23 help bring someone on board a little bit, some sort of -- at 24 least a month or two to get someone up to speed on some of 25 our things, because it seems to me we have more things on the 7-22-13 71 1 table right now than usual in Commissioners Court, and I 2 don't think that's going to change in the next year. So, I'm 3 just concerned that we have a good continuity. That's kind 4 of my general statement. As to going out for requesting 5 interested -- you know, people interested, I think it's 6 premature at this point, mainly because I think we really 7 kind of need to see who's running for the office. And all of 8 this is contingent on the County Attorney -- County Attorney 9 continuing to be able to do everything that we require of his 10 office. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, I think on the -- you 12 know, there's -- the statute says automatic resignation, but 13 he doesn't have to step down if the Commissioners Court so 14 chooses. I don't see anything wrong with looking at options. 15 I'm, of course, a person that believes if you've got 16 something -- a decision to make, then you ought to look at 17 all the options that are available. So, I think to ask for a 18 letter from people that may be interested in the position, 19 and seeing what's out there, I don't see that that's -- that 20 that's a negative. It's not a negative against the County 21 Attorney. It's just looking at the responsibility of the 22 Court that those options, you know, might proceed. I 23 certainly understand what Commissioner Letz said about the 24 transition and turmoil and so forth with that. But it puts 25 us one step ahead if -- if the County Attorney decides 7-22-13 72 1 campaigning in 12 counties is more than can be handled, then 2 I think that -- I think that would be a good thing to have. 3 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Well, I disagree. You might 4 guess, but I'm a big believer that people that are interested 5 in office should sign up and run for it, and I think they 6 should be duly elected to serve. I don't think -- I do know 7 that it does give people an advantage if we make an 8 appointment, or in some cases, maybe not. But I am a very 9 firm believer if you're interested and you want the job bad 10 enough, you need to run for it. You need to be elected, and 11 you need to serve. It's that simple. And I don't think that 12 at this point in time, like -- like Jon says -- and there's 13 more than just your things that you're interested in. There 14 are other things that are going on in other departments in 15 this county that -- that are involved in a lot of things, 16 that it would be real hard to get a new person up to speed on 17 where they could just transition into that quickly. And I 18 do -- I do think Rob would be willing to do that, to 19 transition whoever gets elected into a job and bring them up 20 to speed on things that are going on. But I am a firm 21 believer in elected -- the appointment thing I do not agree 22 with, unless it's absolutely necessary. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, you would expect that anybody 24 who expresses an interest for appointment would be someone 25 who would commit to -- or should commit -- 7-22-13 73 1 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yeah. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: -- to actively campaigning to seek 3 election to the office. But -- 4 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Well, I agree with that, 5 Judge. But on the other hand, that also gives that person an 6 advantage in some situations. It could be a disadvantage, as 7 we've seen in the past. But I think that -- that it's more 8 of what people think about some elected officials, and 9 especially Commissioners Court, the "good old boy" system. 10 And this takes care of the "good old boy" system. Nobody 11 could even question it, because it's going to be done by the 12 voters, and that's the way -- that's just the way I feel 13 about it. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, should it become necessary to 15 make the appointment for any reason, -- 16 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yeah. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: -- as suggested by Commissioner 18 Moser, it would be good to have the information. We may get 19 the information and not do anything with it, unless and until 20 it comes to a point in time that we need to. But whatever 21 the Court's pleasure is, why, that's -- 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, I think the -- I guess 23 you could go out and solicit requests, but since one person 24 has publicly said she's going to run for the office, I mean, 25 in my mind, if that's the only person, that person has kind 7-22-13 74 1 of a -- I'd just go out and contact her. I don't -- I don't 2 know that we need to solicit -- I can go out and say, 3 "Ms. Stebbins, are you interested in appointment?" It's 4 going to take some time for us to do it. I don't know that 5 we need to rush to get -- I think it gives an indication that 6 we're getting ready to make an appointment, and I don't -- I 7 don't want to right now. And, you know, I don't know the 8 real benefit of having a couple of people's names in a file, 9 how that's going to really impact it, because if it happens 10 six months from now or seven months from now when a 11 transition is made, I don't want to go out again, 'cause I 12 wouldn't want to rely on -- just because someone didn't want 13 it in July, that doesn't mean they don't -- may not want it 14 in January. So, I think once the -- you know, and it's a 15 relatively short -- we can turn that around within two or 16 three weeks. We can, you know, make -- call a special 17 meeting if we need to, to say we're soliciting information, 18 and we can make the determination relatively quickly, I 19 think. 20 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I agree. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, I'll make a motion the 22 way it's presented here in the agenda item, that we do show 23 a -- solicit interest from individuals that may be interested 24 in this, and submit their letters of interest or application 25 to the Court. 7-22-13 75 1 JUDGE TINLEY: I have a motion. Do I hear a 2 second? 3 (No response.) 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Hearing no second, the motion dies 5 for lack of a second. Any more action to be submitted by -- 6 taken by members of the Court? 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The agenda item states 8 acknowledge resignation. Do we need to acknowledge it, or is 9 it just a matter of -- 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: It's automatic. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's automatic? 12 JUDGE TINLEY: I think it's just a matter -- 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Matter of law. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: -- of transparency, that that has 15 occurred. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 17 MR. HENNEKE: Gentlemen, yeah, under Article 41, 18 Section 65 of the Constitution, basically, I'm ineligible to, 19 you know, finish out the term. But under the holdover 20 provisions under Article 41, Section 17, you know, the office 21 is not vacant, and if I continue to serve in the role of 22 County Attorney, as I've been elected and it's my commitment 23 to do so -- fulfill, I've told each of you this privately, 24 but I want to make sure it's publicly said. It's my first 25 commitment to uphold all the duties and responsibilities of 7-22-13 76 1 this office and to meet all the legal needs of Kerr County, 2 as well as to run the County Attorney's office. And what I 3 do after hours on my own time, I wanted to make sure that you 4 all know that my commitment is fully to this office. You 5 know, I -- I guess through two babies, you know, different -- 6 different transitions with having a new baby at home, I don't 7 think any of y'all ever noticed a hiccup in the road, and 8 that'll be the case here today. There's a lot of things that 9 we're working on. It's been -- not in the past tense, it is 10 my privilege to continue working with y'all, and I look 11 forward to doing so. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Good luck. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you. Why don't we take about 14 a 15-minute recess? We'll come back, finish up this agenda, 15 and then we'll roll into our workshop. 16 (Recess taken from 10:40 a.m. to 10:58 a.m.) 17 - - - - - - - - - - 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay, let's come back to order, if 19 we might, to finish up our Commissioners Court agenda. We'll 20 go to Item 12; to consider, discuss, and take appropriate 21 action on contractor's application for payment on the 198th 22 District Attorney's office project. The contractor has 23 submitted application for payment on that project, and it has 24 been signed off on by the architect, so we're ready to move 25 forward on that. The amount specified for payment is 7-22-13 77 1 $66,686.73. It appears that after that payment, the only 2 balance remaining is the statutory retainage of $12,369.60. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It has been signed off by the 4 architect, I believe? 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Yes, it has. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move we authorize payment of 7 the amount stated. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded to approve 10 the application and certification for payment, and pay the 11 indicated amount, $66,686.73. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Question. The 10 percent held 13 back, that is until what? 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Thirty days after completion. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: It's a statutory retainage. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay, got you, 30 days. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Other questions or comments? All in 19 favor of 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: That motion does carry. Let's go to 24 Item 13; to consider, discuss, take appropriate action to 25 authorize County Auditor to do audit for ESD Number 2. 7-22-13 78 1 Commissioner Oehler? 2 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: I move approval. This is to 3 authorize the County Auditor to do that ESD audit for 4 2012-13. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 7 approval of the agenda item. Any question or discussion? 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Question. For the Auditor to 9 do this, is the ESD, since they are a taxing authority -- 10 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yes. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So, should they just get 12 their -- hire their own auditor to do this? Or -- 13 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: This is a way to save them 14 money so they don't have to go out and hire an outside 15 auditor. They've been doing it for quite a while. 16 Otherwise, they've got to go hire somebody, and it's a real 17 simple audit. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So, this has been the same in 19 the past? The County Auditor's -- 20 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yes. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: All right, got you. Thank 22 you. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: She complains sometimes, but 24 she does it. 25 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Not as much as when it first 7-22-13 79 1 started. There's no compliant; I haven't heard one in a 2 while. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: We've plowed that ground previously, 4 Commissioner. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay, good. Just wanted to 6 make sure that all the furrows -- 7 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: It's been plowed deep. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Any other questions or comments? 10 All in favor of the motion, signify by raising your right 11 hand. 12 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 13 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 14 (No response.) 15 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion carries. I want to defer 16 action on Item 14. We'll take a look at that in our -- in 17 our workshop, and then my thinking is we'll come back and 18 take formal action by the Court. Let's go to Item 15; to 19 consider, discuss, and take appropriate action to open 20 responses to the Requests for Qualifications for consultant 21 for emergency medical services and refer responses to 22 representatives of Commissioners Court for review and 23 recommendation. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Here's the first one, Judge. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: The first one that I have is Burns, 7-22-13 80 1 Anderson, Jury, and Brenner out of Austin, Texas. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: They didn't want you to get 3 into that. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: The other is from the Polaris Group, 5 looks like out of Southern Shores, North Carolina. Is that 6 all of them? 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes, sir. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Those are the only two. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge, I'll make a motion -- 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Where's the first one from? 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Austin. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll make a motion that we 13 accept both proposals and refer them to the committee -- is 14 there a committee on this? 15 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: (Indicated.) And the County 16 Attorney. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And the County Attorney for 18 review and recommendation to this Court. 19 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Second. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And the committee is 21 Commissioner Baldwin and Commissioner -- and Judge Tinley -- 22 I almost demoted the Judge. 23 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: And the County Attorney. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And the County Attorney. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah, okay. 7-22-13 81 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Let's see. And so this is a 2 request for qualifications, so that's what -- so this is 3 qualifications, and they are to prepare a request for 4 proposals, if I'm not mistaken. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: That's one of the things that we 6 were -- for actual service providers. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. Right. And so when 8 they prepare -- so the interaction -- what will be the 9 interaction with the one that we choose to generate these 10 requirements for an RFP? 11 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Well, they have -- they have 12 the knowledge of what the -- what you want, and you give them 13 what you think you want in it. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 15 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: They prepare it that way so 16 we don't leave out something we want in the -- 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Sure. 18 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: -- proposal. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And so I'd like to be part of 20 the process, to work with them on -- and Baldwin and yourself 21 and the County Attorney. 22 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Can't do it; it's an illegal 23 meeting. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I didn't say to do it 25 simultaneously. 7-22-13 82 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think -- 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Since I'm a liaison with EMS 3 and fire, I would like to do that. I just want to see 4 what -- 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think we need to handle that, 6 I mean, probably at a Court level, a workshop. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. If you do that, that's 8 good, as long as there's some chance to see it before we say, 9 "Yea, verily, let's go with this." And that's all I'm 10 asking. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And -- and so we can figure 12 out -- I understand your concern, and I have the same 13 concern. We don't want to get too much down the road without 14 the full Court on board. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, right. I think 16 establishing requirements, and I think for them do it is a 17 good start, but there's always room to question and 18 understand before the RFP's released. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Sure. Well, the RFP 20 definitely -- that's -- the RFP's going to come back to the 21 Court before it goes, anyway. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay, that's all I'm saying. 23 Just get a chance to look at that before. Okay, cool. I 24 don't have a problem. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Question or comments? All in favor 7-22-13 83 1 of the motion, signify by raising your right hand. 2 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 3 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 4 (No response.) 5 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. Let's go to 6 Section 4 of the agenda, payment of the bills. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move we pay the bills, Judge. 8 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Second. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay, I have a motion and second to 10 pay the bills. Question or discussion? All in favor, 11 signify by raising your right hand. 12 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 13 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 14 (No response.) 15 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. Budget 16 amendments. We have a budget amendment request summary, 17 Items 1 through 14 for various budget amendments from various 18 departments. Any particular questions with regard to 19 individual amendments? If not, do I hear a motion that the 20 budget amendments as set forth in the budget amendment 21 request summary dated July 22, 2013, be approved as 22 presented? 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So moved. 24 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Second. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded that the 7-22-13 84 1 budget amendment requests set forth in the budget amendment 2 request summary be approved as presented. Question or 3 discussion? 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Just a question. Why do we 5 have a -- appears to be an excess in group insurance? 6 MS. HARGIS: Because we don't have as many 7 employees in the Sheriff's line item. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay, that's why he's using it 9 as a -- 10 MS. HARGIS: They come and go, and there's a 90-day 11 waiting period. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: All right. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Other questions? Comments? All in 14 favor of the motion, signify by raising your right hand. 15 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 16 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 17 (No response.) 18 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. Do we have 19 any late bills? 20 MS. HARGIS: We have one. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. I believe that had to do with 22 the -- 23 MS. HARGIS: The study that we're doing. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Our consultant, MGT of America? 25 MS. HARGIS: That's correct. 7-22-13 85 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Late bill to MGT of America in the 2 amount of $4,880, correct? 3 MS. HARGIS: That's correct. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Is that the only one? 5 MS. HARGIS: Only one. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Do I hear a motion that the late 7 bill as stated be approved? 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So moved. 9 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Second. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded that the 11 late bill to MGT of America in the amount of $4,880 be 12 approved. All in favor, signify by raising your right hand. 13 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 14 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 15 (No response.) 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion does carry. I've been 17 presented with monthly reports for June 2013 from Justice of 18 the Peace, Precinct 4; Justice of the Peace, Precinct 1; 19 Justice of the Peace, Precinct 1, as amended; Constable, 20 Precinct 4; Justice of the Peace, Precinct 2; Justice of the 21 Peace, Precinct 3; District Clerk; Environmental Health; 22 Environmental Health quarterly report, April through June 23 2013; and Kerr County Treasurer. Do I hear a motion that the 24 indicated reports be approved as presented? 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So moved. 7-22-13 86 1 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Second. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded that the 3 indicated reports be approved as presented. Question or 4 discussion? All in favor, signify by raising your right 5 hand. 6 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 7 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 8 (No response.) 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion carries. Okay. Reports from 10 Commissioners in connection with their liaison or committee 11 assignments. Commissioner Moser? 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Nothing. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner Letz? 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Just continuing to work on lots 15 of grants. And Commissioner Moser's doing that, even though 16 he didn't say he was. That's about it. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner Oehler? 18 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: No, sir, thank you. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Any reports from elected officials 20 or department heads? We're going to start over here. 21 MR. BOLLIER: No. 22 MS. PIEPER: No. 23 MS. BURLEW: No, sir. 24 MS. SOLDAN: No. 25 MS. HARGIS: No. 7-22-13 87 1 MR. HENNEKE: Just briefly, we're -- we're starting 2 to pack up the library. We've got most of the books packed 3 and stacked to provide room for the workers to renovate 4 Tracy's space, and we've put them downstairs in the basement 5 outside of Tim's office, in the corner, out of the way, 6 neatly stacked, until moving forward on that. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay, anybody else? Elected 8 officials? Department heads? Okay, I will recess the 9 Commissioners Court meeting, subject to being reconvened, 10 primarily for consideration of Item Number 14, but for any 11 other business that may be appropriate under that agenda. 12 (The regular session was closed at 11:10 a.m., and a budget workshop was held, the transcript of which 13 is contained in a separate document.) 14 - - - - - - - - - - 15 JUDGE TINLEY: I will adjourn the workshop, and I 16 will reconvene the Commissioners Court meeting, and 17 specifically call Item 14; to consider, discuss, and take 18 appropriate action on renewal and and/or changes to the 19 2013--14 Texas Association of Counties health and employee 20 benefits pool insurance, and authorize County Judge to sign 21 same. TAC is asking us to make our election and return that 22 to them by August the 6th, I believe. And -- 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge, I make a motion that we 24 renew our health insurance benefits program with TAC, and 25 with a change being that we go to Plan 1300. 7-22-13 88 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Which reduces the deductible by 2 $500? 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Correct. 4 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Second. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: From $2,000 to $1,500. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: And authorize me to sign that 7 election? 8 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yes. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: All right. 11 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Second. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: You have a second? 13 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yes, sir. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: I have a motion and a second. 15 Further question or on the motion? All in favor of the 16 motion, signify by raising your right hand. 17 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 18 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 19 (No response.) 20 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. Any further 21 business to come before the Court on this particular agenda? 22 Hearing none, we will be adjourned. 23 (Commissioners Court was adjourned at 11:48 a.m.) 24 - - - - - - - - - - 25 7-22-13 89 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 25th day of July, 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 7-22-13