1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT 9 Regular Session 10 Monday, September 9, 2013 11 9:00 a.m. 12 Commissioners' Courtroom 13 Kerr County Courthouse 14 Kerrville, Texas 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 PRESENT: PAT TINLEY, Kerr County Judge H. A. "BUSTER" BALDWIN, Commissioner Pct. 1 24 TOM MOSER, Commissioner Pct. 2 JONATHAN LETZ, Commissioner Pct. 3 25 BRUCE OEHLER, Commissioner Pct. 4 2 1 I N D E X September 9, 2013 2 PAGE 3 --- Commissioners' Comments 5 4 1.1 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on final approval regarding alternate plat for 5 Lots 14-16 of Block C, The Walker Addition 6 6 1.2 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on request by Hill Country Dispute Resolution Center 7 to renew contract to provide mediation services in Kerr County, and for funding 9 8 1.3 Presentation regarding Guadalupe-Blanco River 9 Authority Mid Basin Project in Gonzales County 14 10 1.5 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action regarding 2014 Kerr Central Appraisal District 11 budget 31 12 1.4 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to ratify and confirm VINE Maintenance Renewal 13 contract and SAVNS Maintenance Grant Contract with the Office of the Attorney General 36 14 1.6 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 15 approve authorization to begin bidding process for construction of Kerrville South Wastewater 16 System, Phase 5 38 17 1.7 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to approve and authorize financial documents and 18 agreements for the changeover/implementation to TexFile by Tyler Technologies, Inc., for e-filing 19 in County and District Clerks' office; authorize signatures of County Judge, County Auditor, and 20 District Clerk 39 21 1.8 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to approve Kerr County Investment Policy and 22 Broker/Dealer list for Kerr County’s Investment Policy in accordance with the Public Funds 23 Investment Act 45 24 1.9 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to approve Treasurer’s office Xerox copy machine 25 lease renewal; allow County Judge to sign same 46 3 1 I N D E X (Continued) September 9, 2013 2 PAGE 1.10 Conduct public hearing on District Clerk's 3 Written Archival Plan in accordance with Local Government Code 118.011 50 4 1.11 Presentation regarding previously discussed 5 matters with Hatari Safari -- 6 1.12 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to set a policy that all financial software be 7 approved by County Auditor, and that the Auditor be included in all discussions with the software 8 provider, including installation of software 51 9 1.13 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on approval of memorandum of understanding between 10 Hill Country Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse and the Kerr County Court 59 11 1.14 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on 12 requests from appointed and elected officials to appoint clerks and assistants for their offices 13 pursuant to Local Government Code Chapter 151 60 14 1.15 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action regarding approving agreement to have Catapult 15 Health facilitate flu shot clinic for Kerr County employees to be held October 17, 2013; have the 16 County Judge sign same 61 17 1.16 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on Environmental Health and Animal Control merger, 18 including, but not limited to, discussion regarding facility options and personnel matters 19 (Executive Session as needed) 62 20 4.1 Pay Bills 63 4.2 Budget Amendments 63 21 4.3 Late Bills 64 4.4 Approve and Accept Monthly Reports 65 22 5.1 Reports from Commissioners/Liaison Committee 23 Assignments 66 5.2 Reports from Elected Officials/Department Heads 68 24 3.1 Action on matters discussed in Executive Session 70 25 --- Adjourned 73 4 1 On Monday, September 9, 2013, at 9:00 a.m., a regular 2 meeting of the Kerr County Commissioners Court was held in 3 the Commissioners' Courtroom, Kerr County Courthouse, 4 Kerrville, Texas, and the following proceedings were had in 5 open court: 6 P R O C E E D I N G S 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. 8 Let me call to order this regularly scheduled meeting of the 9 Kerr County Commissioners Court posted and scheduled for this 10 date and time, Monday, September 9, 2013, at 9 a.m. It is 11 that time now. Commissioner Oehler? 12 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yes, please join me in a word 13 of prayer, and followed by the pledge. 14 (Prayer and pledge of allegiance.) 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you. Please be seated. At 16 this time, if there's any member of the public or audience 17 that wishes to be heard on any matter which is not a listed 18 agenda item, this is your opportunity to come forward and 19 tell us what's your mind. If you wish to be heard on an 20 agenda item, we'd prefer that you fill out a participation 21 form. There should be some located at the rear of the room. 22 That gives me notice that someone wishes to be heard on that 23 item. But when we get to an item, if you haven't filled out 24 a participation form and want to be heard anyway, get my 25 attention in some manner, and I'll give you that opportunity. 9-9-13 5 1 But right now, if there's any member of the public or 2 audience that wishes to be heard on any matter that is not a 3 listed agenda item, come forward and tell us what's on your 4 mind. Seeing no one seeking recognition or coming forward, 5 we'll move on. Commissioner Oehler? 6 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Nothing at this time, Judge. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner Baldwin? 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No, sir. Thank you. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner Moser? 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: A couple of things. We lost 11 one of the vibrant members of the community; Jr. Fritz died. 12 He -- he was instrumental in a lot of things, was very giving 13 to the entire community, so we will miss him. The other 14 thing is on -- I'll come back to the other thing after, one 15 of the liaisons on parks, so, that's it. Thanks. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner Letz? 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Just a couple quick things. I 18 had a good meeting -- I think I mentioned at the last meeting 19 we were headed to a small get-together with Commissioner Todd 20 Staples about the wine industry in Kerr County. Very good 21 meeting. I think he understands that that is an important 22 industry, not just a -- growing in Kerr County, but certainly 23 up in Gillespie County, Blanco County, and I think he is 24 working to help that, and understands it has a lot -- you 25 know, helps the economy. It's a big-ticket item for us. 9-9-13 6 1 I was in Austin last week for the TAC conference. 2 In my opinion, it was better than most, because I learned 3 some things that are really, I think, going to be very 4 beneficial to us coming forward, especially in the area of 5 the veterans service officer, and that was a good conference. 6 And then last week I had a very good meeting with G.B.R.A. 7 Part of that I'll go over a little bit later, but a lot of 8 that meeting was really centered on some of the other 9 projects that we're working on that they're involved with. 10 And it was a very productive meeting, and I think moved the 11 ball down the road between us and our relationship with them 12 and figuring out how we're going to get some water in Kerr 13 County. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Good. Thank you. Let's get on with 15 our agenda. The first item, a 9 o'clock timed item; 16 consider, discuss, and take appropriate action for the 17 Court's final approval regarding the alternate plat for Lots 18 14 through 16 of Block C of The Walker Addition located in 19 Precinct 2. Mr. Odom? 20 MR. ODOM: Yes, sir, thank you. I've enclosed -- 21 and hopefully you've had a chance to look at your packet. 22 It's pretty thick. But it -- what we have is a 1912 23 drawing -- or it actually is a 1904 sketch of The Walker 24 Addition. And I do not consider it to be an official plat, 25 so we feel that this should be able to go through the 9-9-13 7 1 alternate plat process. Rob Henneke has worked with us on 2 this plat, because the previous owner did an illegal 3 subdivision prior to selling it to the current owner. The 4 title company did not catch this when the property was closed 5 on. We feel that combining the lots is the best solution to 6 this problem. This proposed new lot will be larger than most 7 other lots in The Walker Addition. Also, at that time, to 8 verify at this point, we went to the County Surveyor, Lee 9 Voelkel, for his opinion, and as Lee says, "It is my opinion 10 that the subdivided tract should be platted." So, basically 11 we take this as this is unplatted property, and the alternate 12 plat process is what we ask for your approval for Lots 14 13 through 16, Block C of The Walker Addition, Precinct 2. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So, this is combining 14 15 through 16? 16 MR. ODOM: That's right. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: This, I believe, is the right 19 way to go, but my only question I have is, on the plat, it 20 says "revision of plat." I think it should just be "plat." 21 It's not a -- not a revision. 22 MR. ODOM: Okay. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean, there's never been a -- 24 there's a subdivision drawing, but there has never been a 25 plat filed with this development, so this is a new plat. 9-9-13 8 1 MR. ODOM: This is a new plat. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Not a revision. It's just a 3 plat. 4 MR. ODOM: Just a plat. We can get that fixed. 5 And then do we need to come back to the Court? 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't believe so. When you 7 come back through for final, you know, when you do the -- 8 MR. ODOM: Okay. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- approval, just have it 10 corrected at that point. But I think this is -- even though 11 the final lot is -- for the record, the final lot is smaller 12 than our rules, it is consistent with our policy, which has 13 been when we're combining small lots, that's better than it 14 was. 15 MR. ODOM: It's better than it was. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So, is this asking for final 17 approval? 18 MR. ODOM: No. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. It's just putting -- 20 MR. ODOM: Just accept this concept, and we'll go 21 from there. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Sure. Okay, good. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: The agenda item notes Court's "final 24 approval." 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 9-9-13 9 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Oh, it is? 2 MR. ODOM: It is. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. That's okay. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So, I move that we -- that's 5 what I thought it was. I move that we accept the 6 recommendation as presented by Mr. Odom. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: And approve the alternate plat with 9 the revision as indicated by Commissioner Letz? 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yes, I do. 11 MR. ODOM: Good. We'll get -- 12 JUDGE TINLEY: I've got a motion and a second. 13 Further question or comment? All in favor of the motion, 14 signify by raising your right hand. 15 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 16 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 17 (No response.) 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion carries. Thank you, Mr. 19 Odom. 20 MR. ODOM: Thank you. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Let's go to Item 2; to consider, 22 discuss, and take appropriate action on request by the Hill 23 Country Dispute Resolution Center to renew their contract 24 with Kerr County to provide mediation services in Kerr 25 County, and for funding. 9-9-13 10 1 MR. REAVES: Good morning. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Good morning, Mr. Reaves. 3 MR. REAVES: Commissioners. The Hill Country 4 Dispute Resolution Center is a nonprofit organization, 5 501(c)(3), and we provide mediation services for all levels 6 of courts in Kerr County, and individual disputes as well. 7 And in 2012, we had a total of 204 cases, which is a little 8 bit more than we've ever had before, and among those were 100 9 Kerr County cases, including some 57 family law cases, plus 10 26 Child Protective Service cases, 16 business cases, and one 11 probate case. And, you know, it varies from year to year. 12 Sometimes we have a lot more probate or other kinds of cases. 13 And the overall settlement rate for our Kerr County cases was 14 79 percent. 79 out of the 100 cases resulted in a 15 settlement. And that goes up from -- from year to year, it 16 varies some. And we have over 100 volunteer mediators; 17 people, you know, like Tom Pollard, who's also our board vice 18 president, who pro bono will act as a mediator. In fact, 19 most of the top for-fee mediators are also our volunteer 20 mediators once or twice a year. And we have had a contract 21 with Kerr County since 2002, and we'd very much like to 22 continue the relationship with Kerr County. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Let me ask a question, Mr. 24 Reaves. 25 MR. REAVES: Yes, sir? 9-9-13 11 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Do other counties have such a 2 center as this resolution center? 3 MR. REAVES: The bigger ones do. There are also a 4 few, like Lubbock, which cover a number of counties. I think 5 Lubbock and Kerrville have the most counties covered. We 6 cover a total of nine counties currently, and -- and do take 7 cases from other counties with an additional out-of-area fee. 8 But we have normally a single D.R.C., dispute resolution 9 center, per metropolitan area, like San Antonio or in 10 Houston, and there's about a total of almost 20 dispute 11 resolution centers in the -- in the state. Unfortunately, 12 lots of the rural areas are not covered by -- they aren't 13 serviced by D.R.C.'s. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: You mentioned that you cover nine 15 counties. I believe effective September 1, that -- that 16 changed. 17 MR. REAVES: It does. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: You're going to be confined to the 19 198th and 216th District? 20 MR. REAVES: Yes, sir. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: As well as the various Kerr County 22 activities. 23 MR. REAVES: Yes, so we'll go down on our official 24 coverage. But I anticipate that we will continue to do Child 25 Protective Service cases in the other counties. I've spoken 9-9-13 12 1 to Judge Hoffman about putting us on as, you know, a for-fee 2 basis, like everyone else participating in C.P.S. cases, 3 through the out-of-county, out-of-area cases, so we can keep 4 the lights on. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: To service the new 452nd, I believe? 6 MR. REAVES: Yes. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. The contract that you have 8 presented, as far as I know, is essentially the same one that 9 we've had in past years, with the exception of the term, of 10 course. The current amount of funding, based on my 11 recollection, of $14,000 is the same that -- that we have 12 traditionally provided, which, of course, comes from a -- a 13 dedicated court cost deposit fund specifically for this 14 purpose. And we have those funds available in the account, 15 do we not, Ms. Hargis? 16 MS. HARGIS: Yes. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I just want to reiterate that 19 this is not coming out of our general fund. This is coming 20 out of that dedicated fund. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Sure. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move approval of the contract. 23 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Second. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 9-9-13 13 1 approval. Question or discussion? 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'd like to make a comment. 3 Even if it came out of the general fund, it would be well 4 worth the money. It -- to me, that's one of the best 5 investments we make because of the idea of not clogging up 6 our courtrooms, taking the load off of our courtrooms and 7 causing people to sit down across the table and look 8 eye-to-eye and work out their differences without being -- 9 without a bunch of lawyers and judges and spending a lot of 10 money. And I like that. I think that's the way we're 11 supposed to do things. I talked to Mr. Pollard about his 12 involvement in your program, and I haven't seen him that 13 excited in 50 years, I guess. He absolutely loves what he's 14 doing there. 15 MR. REAVES: He's an incredible mediator. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Oh, yeah. 17 MR. REAVES: He has the skill set to go from a 18 teddy bear to a grizzly bear in a heartbeat. (Laughter.) 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you, Ed. 20 MR. REAVES: Thank you, sir. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Has -- has it caused Mr. Pollard's 22 patience level to be modified somewhat? 23 MR. REAVES: It -- he is incredibly kind, in 24 situations that would challenge the most patient individual. 25 I have been so incredibly impressed with his skills. 9-9-13 14 1 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That's good. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Any other question or comment on the 3 motion? All in favor of the motion, signify by raising your 4 right hand. 5 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 6 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 7 (No response.) 8 MR. REAVES: Thank you. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion carries. Thank you, Mr. 10 Reaves. Let's go to Item 3; a presentation regarding the 11 Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority Mid Basin project in 12 Gonzales County. I'm going to pass this to Commissioner Letz 13 and let him introduce it. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, Bill West is here, who's, 15 I guess, General Manager -- "General Manager" I guess is the 16 proper term -- of Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority, to make a 17 brief comment that obviously he's aware, and the Court's 18 aware and the public's aware that Kerr County filed for a 19 contested hearing on their current permit for this project. 20 That's the Mid Basin project that they have. We did meet 21 with representatives of G.B.R.A. last week; we discussed 22 this. This wasn't really the prime focus of that meeting, 23 but we did discuss it, and I think that, you know, they 24 understand our concerns. We're not really tying to be 25 adversarial in this, but -- even though you are a little bit, 9-9-13 15 1 just by the nature of it. But based on our meeting, I'm 2 quite confident, you know, we will work through our 3 differences and our clarifications we requested, and look 4 forward to hearing Mr. West's kind of overview of that 5 project. But I believe -- Bill, welcome. Thank you for 6 coming. 7 MR. WEST: Thank you, Judge, Commissioners. Thank 8 you for the opportunity to address the Court. I am Bill 9 West, General Manager of the G.B.R.A., and I certainly 10 understand the action that was taken on the 26th. I'll be 11 brief and to the point. Two things; the availability, and 12 clean water is becoming a crucial issue for this planet, for 13 the world, for this country, for this state, and for the 14 Guadalupe Basin. There's just no question about it. 15 Available clean water is becoming a major issue worldwide, 16 and on a local basis. G.B.R.A. is fighting, one, to keep its 17 existing water rights. You'll probably find that somewhat 18 questionable. And then two, we're fighting to develop new 19 water supplies. 20 In the area of fighting to keep our water rights, 21 we have spent over six million dollars to defend our water 22 rights in the lower basin on an endangered species case 23 that's attempting to reallocate the water on the Guadalupe 24 Basin just for the benefit of the whooping cranes. Now, I'm 25 all for the whooping cranes. G.B.R.A.'s spent a lot of time 9-9-13 16 1 and money trying to protect those magnificent birds. But 2 this case is a poster child for those that have many agendas, 3 ranging from environmental to simply wanting to stop economic 4 growth. G.B.R.A.'s got to consider the needs of the entire 5 basin, not just the needs of one particular interest group. 6 Again, we've spent a lot of time trying to keep our water 7 rights. And if you'll watch the water struggles across the 8 country, that sort of thing is going on nationwide, trying to 9 reallocate existing water rights. 10 The second point, we have borrowed 4.4 million from 11 the Water Development Board to develop a water supply project 12 we're going to talk about here in a second, to meet our 13 demands in the middle of the basin. This is a copy of the 14 report that will be finalized in October. We have looked at 15 the technical, environmental, legal, financial aspects of the 16 project, and it's very important. So, as to the specifics of 17 the topic today in front of you, you have a handout, and I 18 have extra handouts for the public if they'd like. There's a 19 handout that looks like this, and the first page -- the first 20 page, Page 2, is simply a page that reflects the growth, and 21 that is the U.S. census data in the counties in the middle of 22 the watershed. Of course, our watershed, y'all are up at the 23 top, but the watershed is basically between the two giants, 24 the San Antonio and Austin metropolitan areas. And with 25 that, you see Caldwell County, 42 percent increase. Comal, 9-9-13 17 1 38 percent. Guadalupe, 29. Hays, 70 percent. Kendall, 50 2 percent. We don't see any reason to think that that sort of 3 growth won't continue to happen. 4 Page 3 is a map that shows the general area of 5 Austin up at the top of the page, San Antonio down toward 6 bottom left side of the page, the I-35 corridor, and then the 7 new toll road, Toll Road 130 you see that comes out of 8 Georgetown and comes around Austin and ties back into -- to 9 Highway 10. The significance of this chart, the colored 10 areas are water supply corporations that supply water in the 11 rural parts of Comal and Hays, Guadalupe Counties. You see 12 Canyon Lake Reservoir right there to the left, dead center. 13 It's our firm supply. Unfortunately, it's 100 percent 14 committed to entities like San Marcos, New Braunfels. 15 There's a commitment upstream up here. All the -- the permit 16 from the State is totally allocated. And if you draw -- if 17 you follow the I-35 corridor, there's not any groundwater 18 east of the 35 corridor. So, everywhere you see these little 19 water supply corporations, there is no available groundwater. 20 And with Canyon totally committed, the continued growth of 21 that region between Austin and San Antonio is dependent on a 22 new supply of water. 23 Page 4 is just a schematic of the project. Lower 24 bottom, you see a blue box that says "Intake Pump Station." 25 That is the permit that we are talking about today, the right 9-9-13 18 1 to divert water out of the Guadalupe River at Gonzales, which 2 is below the confluence of the San Marcos and the Guadalupe 3 River. Combined with groundwater, you see the blue box to 4 right side of the page represents the groundwater. And then 5 A.S.R., aquifer storage and recovery, proposing to reinject 6 treated water into the aquifer when we have excess water. 7 And then the transmission, the treatment plant in the area of 8 the city of Luling, and then the transmission line associated 9 with moving that water from Gonzales up to the I-35 corridor. 10 Now, there's already a water treatment plant at San Marcos 11 that's fed from the Guadalupe. The Luling and Lockhart 12 cities are tied together with water, and it comes from the 13 San Marcos. And so the project is proposed to serve that 14 growing demand there in between. 15 Page 5 is simply a timeline. We started this 16 effort back in '04, and it's a $400 million project. We've 17 got our placeholder, we hope -- well, we will be competing 18 with other entities across the state trying to attract some 19 state dollars, assuming the November 4th election passes and 20 there's money made available for the financing of these type 21 of projects. Now we shift gears to the specifics of the 22 permit. T.C.E.Q. evaluates and determines the water 23 availability of unappropriated water -- excuse me -- by using 24 a computer model known as the W.A.M., water availability 25 model. That's an acronym from the T.C.E.Q. They have a 9-9-13 19 1 model for every watershed in the state that they -- it takes 2 into account all of the senior water rights and so forth 3 necessary to run those availability models. The W.A.M. on 4 the Guadalupe River below the confluence of the San Marcos 5 and the Guadalupe indicates that there is water available for 6 appropriation after all the senior water rights have been 7 honored. Very key component to that -- that study. After 8 all senior water rights have been honored. 9 The permit calls for a maximum diversion of 500 10 C.F.S.; that's a lot of water. That's several big pumps, and 11 it's a -- a scalping operation. You'll -- basically, when 12 the water -- when the river's full and there's excess water, 13 you'll be able to pump. When the river's normal or below, 14 you won't be able to pump. And so you're talking about a 15 large pump, a total ability to divert 75,000 acre-feet of 16 water a year, if there's that much water available, in 17 off-channel reservoirs of the total capacity of 125,000 18 acre-feet. Now, people down there want to know, where's the 19 -- where are they? Well, we don't know. We've got a couple 20 of -- we've got three or four sites that look available, but 21 it's going to be a willing seller, willing buyer type 22 situation. We're not going to go condemn land for 23 off-channel reservoirs. That's just the world we live in 24 today. When you run the water availability model, honor all 25 the senior water rights, there's 50,000 acre-feet a year 9-9-13 20 1 available that can be diverted at that site. Then when you 2 put the new -- 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: May I interrupt and ask you a 4 question? 5 MR. WEST: Yes, sir. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: 50,000 acre-feet, that's based 7 on some average or something like that available? 8 MR. WEST: That's based on the historical flow of 9 the river. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Historical over what 11 period of time? 12 MR. WEST: The -- our records go back to the 13 1890's. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So it's over that period? 15 MR. WEST: Over that period. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So that's a long time, and -- 17 MR. WEST: If you honor all the senior water 18 rights, there's 50,000 available. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: One other question. 20 MR. WEST: Okay. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: What's -- what constitutes a 22 senior water right? 23 MR. WEST: Any water right that's in effect today 24 is a senior water right. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 9-9-13 21 1 MR. WEST: Okay? 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: All right. 3 MR. WEST: Any water right in effect today -- 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: All right, thank you. 5 MR. WEST: -- is a senior water right. The next 6 step is -- and I'm sure you've heard the last several years, 7 the state has been going through an environmental flows 8 process, spent a lot of time, watershed by watershed by 9 watershed, establishing minimum flow criteria for the health 10 and well-being of the river system and the bay and estuary. 11 Well, then when you take that W.A.M. and you have 50,000 12 acre-feet available, then you put the environmental flow 13 criteria on top of that, that's reduced down to 24,000. So, 14 when you honor all the senior water rights, put in the new 15 environmental flow criteria, that capability is reduced down 16 to 24,000. That's another reason you've got to have big 17 pumps. That's got to be a scalping-type operation, because 18 normal flow -- normal base flow or flow, you're not ever 19 going to be able to operate. But, again, that's the -- the 20 concept between the conjunctive use project between 21 groundwater and surface water, where you try to minimize the 22 impact on both the ground and the surface water. If we got 23 excess surface water, you pump it, treat it, and put it in 24 the ground. When the river's low, then you've got to rely on 25 the groundwater. So, it's a classic conjunctive use project. 9-9-13 22 1 If y'all didn't have the A.S.R. up here, Kerrville would be 2 in a world of hurt. The world is learning that A.S.R.'s are 3 wonderful tools of operation for water supply. 4 Now, moving on, there's a special condition that's 5 caught a lot of people's attention. "Permit may store in and 6 divert from the off-channel reservoir other water from the 7 Guadalupe River Basin authorized by surface water rights, so 8 long as the underlying surface water right authorizes storage 9 in the off-channel reservoir." What that really means is 10 that there are some downstream senior water rights that are 11 on the market. Anything has a price, and there's some folks 12 that have senior water rights that are willing to sell those 13 water rights. If we're able to negotiate the acquisition of 14 those senior water rights, and then go to the commission and 15 get those water rights amended, authorizing them to be used 16 in that off-channel reservoir, that's the -- the purpose for 17 that Section 6.N. I know that's got folks concerned in 18 regards to the implication of that. 19 In response to Senator Fraser's request for 20 clarification, T.C.E.Q. issued a statement -- Isaac Jackson 21 issued a statement for T.C.E.Q. In G.B.R.A.'s draft permit 22 for the Mid Basin off-channel reservoir, Special Condition 23 6.l authorizes G.B.R.A. to impound other surface water in the 24 off-channel reservoir from the storage as authorized in the 25 underlying surface water right. At this time, the only water 9-9-13 23 1 that could be stored in the off-channel reservoir is water 2 that would be authorized under the permit, should the permit 3 be issued. If G.B.R.A. wants to store water authorized under 4 other water rights in the off-channel reservoir, including 5 water authorized under Certificate 18-2074 for Canyon 6 Reservoir, those water rights would need to be amended to add 7 to that authorization. Very important interpretation of that 8 section. Also, there's a qualifier in the draft permit. The 9 water use permit is subject to all senior and superior water 10 rights on the Guadalupe. 11 Now, I know the concern is relative to Canyon 12 Reservoir, and as I mentioned earlier, unfortunately, Canyon 13 is 100 percent committed to users like New Braunfels, San 14 Marcos, as well as water that's been earmarked for use up 15 here. Fortunately, the users are only using about 65 percent 16 of that total amount, and therefore, Canyon is about 78 17 percent full compared to many reservoirs west of 35. Canyon 18 was built because of the drought of the '50's, and the river 19 right now is in the same state as it was in the '50's, but 20 we've got Canyon. Had we not had Canyon today, the folks up 21 and down the river would really be in a world of hurt. But 22 with the fact that it's 100 percent committed, we can't 23 release out of Canyon for that project, even if we wanted to. 24 Even if we went to the commission and tried to get it 25 amended, it's all committed. And -- and in the Stacy case I 9-9-13 24 1 was involved with several years ago, the state Supreme Court 2 said to the state, "You cannot double-appropriate water 3 rights." You can't take the same water and appropriate to it 4 to more than one person, and so that's just not going to 5 happen. 6 So, I thank you for your time. I hope I've kind of 7 set the stage for the discussion. The develop -- protection 8 of existing water supplies and the development of new water 9 supplies is a major challenge in front of, as I said earlier, 10 this country, this state, and the Guadalupe Basin. So with 11 that, I'd be more than happy to respond to any questions. I 12 know I've thrown out a lot of stuff at you this morning, but 13 shoot. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So, let me ask you a question. 15 So the -- all the water is allocated out of Canyon Lake. 16 MR. WEST: Yes, sir. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. It's there. Big 18 developments south of there, all along the corridor -- I-35 19 corridor that you mentioned. And so if I look at Kerr 20 County, where all the water comes from, or a lot of it comes 21 from, we're hurting really bad up here. Okay. I think the 22 river's flowing -- before these rains this weekend, a half a 23 cubic -- 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Half a second. 25 MR. WEST: Yeah. 9-9-13 25 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Half -- a 5 acre -- cubic feet 2 per second -- I think it's 5, something like that. But 3 extremely -- extremely -- so, you know, water's been an 4 issue, and will be an issue. It just -- you know, and I 5 think one of the reasons we looked at the permit as being 6 requested, we see these off-channel reservoirs down there 7 taking water when it's available, and, you know, we'd like to 8 have off-channel reservoirs up here too. We got a lot of big 9 gravel pits out here that would make -- they're already dug, 10 okay? They would be wonderful for off-channel reservoirs. 11 MR. WEST: We looked at that several times. Is 12 there a bottom to them? You know, that's the key element. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, it -- some engineering 14 will have to be done. They'd have to be sealed some way. 15 MR. WEST: And the Commissioner made reference to 16 the fact that we're working together trying to find the way 17 to -- when there's excess water up here, -- 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 19 MR. WEST: -- is there some way we can scalp it and 20 put it in an A.S.R. for the benefit of the upper part of the 21 region. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: A.S.R., off-channel 23 reservoirs. You know, when I drive down between here and 24 Comfort and look at all those big, deep gravel pits that are 25 going to be not used for anything pretty soon -- 9-9-13 26 1 MR. WEST: If you've got water in the creek, you 2 ought to find a way to put it in those pits. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. Well, I agree. So, 4 that's the point I want to make, is I don't want to forget 5 off-channel reservoirs up this way too as we look at this. 6 MR. WEST: A lot of folks are spending a lot of 7 time trying to figure out what to put in the bottom of those 8 things, bentonite or whatever else you put in the bottom of 9 them to make them hold. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Absolutely, yeah. 11 MR. WEST: And so if you -- if you can find a 12 gravel pit that had a clay base 3 or 4 feet underneath the 13 pit -- you know, when they run out of gravel, well, then they 14 stop. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Sure. 16 MR. WEST: Well, if there's clay underneath that 17 gravel pit, man, that's the ticket. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's good. Okay. Well, 19 thank you. 20 MR. WEST: Yes, sir. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: You answered my questions. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Mr. West, this application that you 23 made, in what particular manner will that benefit Kerr 24 County, if granted? 25 MR. WEST: It will not have a negative impact on 9-9-13 27 1 Kerr County. I can't stand here and tell you that Kerr 2 County will benefit from that project. But the way it's 3 structured, the intent of the permit and everything is 4 structured such that it protects Kerr County, it protects 5 Kendall County, protects Comal County, protects Hays County. 6 The existing water rights are protected and honored. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think -- let me take a stab 8 at it, and I appreciate your being forthright on that point. 9 It doesn't, but what it could do -- and you have to start 10 looking at water on a much more regional basis. If they go 11 forward with this project and it gets built, it may take 12 pressure off of the upper areas of groundwater, whatever. I 13 mean, it's -- it's a mechanism to provide that corridor up in 14 between San Antonio and Austin. So, it's not going to 15 directly impact us, but it's -- it may provide a source there 16 so people may not look up here. You know, so it's kind of an 17 indirect potential benefit. The other thing I just want to 18 emphasize again, we've talked -- Bill said it, but slightly 19 different. The M.O.U. that we have with G.B.R.A. is included 20 in the 100 percent allocation of Canyon Lake; that is part of 21 that. That is fully recognized by G.B.R.A. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And is -- you know, that is 24 a -- a part of their allocation. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: How many acre-feet is that? 9-9-13 28 1 MR. WEST: 6,000. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 6,000. 6,000 acre-feet. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Annual allocation. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's not free water, but it's 5 an allocation. 6 MR. WEST: If it were a perfect world, some of the 7 demands at Canyon that are met downstream, like San Marcos, 8 New Braunfels, some of these water supply corporations, if we 9 can transition those demands to the lower -- to the Mid Basin 10 project, that would release capacity in Canyon. Now, I'm not 11 standing up here saying that that's going to happen, but 12 that's part of the game plan. But everything takes money. 13 They're currently buying water out of Canyon, $125 an 14 acre-foot that, converted to -- from raw water to treated 15 water, runs around $2.00, 2.50 a thousand. When you turn the 16 pipe on at the house and you pay your local meter, about 2.50 17 a thousand. Some cities are more; some cities are less. We 18 hope, with the state helping finance this project, that we 19 can bring it online at $5 out. 20 You say, "My goodness, that's expensive water." If 21 you start looking at new water supplies across the state, 22 that's fairly reasonable. But that's a challenge that we all 23 have in bringing on new water supplies. The easy water 24 supplies have been developed, and the new water supplies are 25 going to be expensive. And just like we, as a nation, had to 9-9-13 29 1 adjust our family budget when power costs all of a sudden 2 went up, gasoline went up, fuel oil, propane, the family 3 budget had to adjust for that -- that change in energy costs, 4 the same sort of change is going to happen associated with 5 new water supplies. And so the folks that have commitments 6 out of old supplies are going to want to hang onto them. And 7 everybody in our system that are on Canyon are saying, 8 "Great, go develop that new project, but we want to keep 9 getting water out of Canyon, and we ain't going to pay 10 anything toward those new customers. Those new customers are 11 going to pay for that new project." And that's 12 understandable. But our -- in order to do that, the State's 13 going to have to help us a little bit. On loan, not on 14 grant. On a loan basis. 15 It's basically like a balloon note, when you go to 16 the bank and borrow some money for a project, and you finance 17 it out over a period of years, and then at the end of that 18 you've got a balloon note that comes due, right? That's the 19 same kind of philosophy that we're talking about from the 20 state financing these projects, where the state will carry up 21 to 15 percent -- 20 percent of the cost -- capital costs of 22 the project. Then after you get your customers online and 23 you have a revenue stream, then you pay the state back. The 24 last project the state was involved in there was Lake Texana. 25 Lavaca-Navidad River Authority was the local sponsor, just 9-9-13 30 1 like G.B.R.A. was the local sponsor on Canyon, built that 2 reservoir. The bureau was the federal project, the 3 Lavaca-Navidad River Authority was the local sponsor, and the 4 state Water Development Board was the third participant in 5 the project. Once they got it built and the city of Corpus 6 started buying water out of Lake Texana, then the River 7 Authority bought the bureau out of the project. Then as 8 Corpus kept buying more water, taking more water, then the 9 River Authority bought the state out, paid the state back for 10 its part of it, and now the River Authority operates the 11 reservoir, operating cost. The state quit doing that, and 12 Texana was the last project that the state participated in. 13 What the November election is all about is authorization to 14 use some of the rainy-day fund for that type of loan program. 15 Not a grant, but a loan, okay? So, you -- you got me wound 16 up when you asked that question. I'm sorry. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Talking to Senator Fraser, huh? 18 MR. WEST: Oh, a bunch. A bunch. So -- and this 19 project has been used as kind of a guinea pig for both the 20 House and the Senate as to the type of regional projects that 21 are needed in the state, and why those regional projects need 22 the state's support. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Thank you for coming, from my 24 standpoint. 25 MR. WEST: Well, thank you. I appreciate the 9-9-13 31 1 opportunity. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Appreciate it. We'll be 3 meeting with you shortly. 4 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Thank you, Mr. West. 5 MR. WEST: Yes, sir. Thank you. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Let's go to our 9:30 timed item; 7 we're a bit past that now. Item 5, to consider, discuss, and 8 take appropriate action regarding the 2014 Kerr Central 9 Appraisal District budget. Mr. Lewis? 10 MR. LEWIS: Yes, sir. Morning. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Good to see you. 12 MR. LEWIS: Good morning. Good to see you all. I 13 understand there's some questions about the Kerr County 14 Appraisal District budget. There's been additional 15 correspondence since the last Commissioners Court meeting, I 16 believe, and I want to see if I can answer any other 17 questions. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. I have a question, and 19 I think I asked it the other day. And thank you for coming. 20 MR. LEWIS: Yes, sir. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Just looking at your -- at 22 your budget, there were some fairly large increases. 23 MR. LEWIS: Yes, sir. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Like consultants increased, 25 last year to this year, 233 percent. 9-9-13 32 1 MR. LEWIS: Right. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I talked to "Fourth" Coates on 3 this the other day. He gave me, you know, a pretty good 4 feeling of how it's being used for commercial properties, but 5 just expand that, if you would. That's -- that's what's 6 going on there to cause such a big budget increase? 7 MR. LEWIS: Okay. The -- we lost an appraiser, 8 R.P.A., Registered Professional Appraiser, to another county 9 who was, you know, offered a better job, higher pay and a 10 promotion. And it's a good career move for him; he should 11 have done it. What the board decided to do is, instead of 12 hiring another appraiser and going through the training 13 process -- and it takes five years to get to the R.P.A. 14 status -- we'd better use that money and have a fresh look at 15 commercial properties, which are very difficult to appraise 16 appropriately. It needs special skills. So, we issued a 17 contract to do commercial properties. It has nothing to do 18 with industrial properties, which are like power lines, 19 antennas, railroads, if we had one, things of that nature. 20 Pipelines. So, that is also a standard we have done for a 21 couple decades with a firm from Austin due to industrial 22 properties. That is nothing new. It's the same cost each 23 year, at least for the years I've been involved. The new one 24 is commercials, and instead of hiring a new appraiser, we're 25 using the same money to do a professional appraisal system. 9-9-13 33 1 It actually will save us some money on salaries and training. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So you don't plan on filling 3 that vacancy, then; you plan on filling that need with this 4 consultant? 5 MR. LEWIS: We feel we need a fresh look at 6 commercial properties. That's correct, sir. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, that didn't answer my 8 question. 9 MR. LEWIS: Oh, I'm sorry. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: What I said is, you're not 11 planning on filling that vacancy? 12 MR. LEWIS: No, sir. Not at present, no, sir. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay, you're just going to use 14 the consultant in lieu of that, so your bottom line was a 15 very small change. 16 MR. LEWIS: Exactly. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: When you really get down to 18 the bottom line. 19 MR. LEWIS: Exactly. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. All right, thank you. 21 MR. LEWIS: Yes, sir. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I understand. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Any more questions for Mr. Lewis? 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Good to see you, sir. 25 MR. LEWIS: Good to see you, sir. 9-9-13 34 1 JUDGE TINLEY: How long have you been out there 2 with the Appraisal District now, Mr. Lewis? I remember when 3 it happened, but it's been so long ago, I can't remember when 4 it happened. 5 MR. LEWIS: 2003 or '4. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Something like that. 7 MR. LEWIS: You had me busy doing other things 8 prior to that. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah, I know we did, 911 and -- 10 MR. LEWIS: Yes, sir. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 12 MR. LEWIS: But, yeah, since about that time. Yes, 13 sir. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 15 MR. LEWIS: I have an excellent board -- board of 16 directors. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: We appreciate it, your service there 18 and the work that you've done. I know you've been -- I think 19 he's classified as the County's representative, if I'm not 20 mistaken. 21 MR. LEWIS: Yes, sir. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: On that board. 23 MR. LEWIS: Thank you. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: And now the chairman. Appreciate 25 your working out there. 9-9-13 35 1 MR. LEWIS: You bet. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Any more questions? 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move we approve the budget. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded to approve 6 the agenda item and the 2014 Kerr Central Appraisal District 7 budget. Question or discussion on the motion? 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Just a comment. This is one of 9 the few years that we've actually approved the budget, I 10 believe. And we have voted against it, but it's largely 11 because of the cost of the increase -- salary increases, and 12 this year it's very much in line. We appreciate you keeping 13 it low, and in kind of the same general area as the -- as 14 ours, anyway, and I believe the other entities. 15 MR. LEWIS: Thank you. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Thank you. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Any other question or comments? All 18 in favor of the motion, signify by raising your right hand. 19 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 20 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 21 (No response.) 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thank you. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion does carry. Thank you, Mr. 24 Lewis. 25 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Thank you. 9-9-13 36 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Let's go back to Item 4; to 2 consider, discuss, take appropriate action to ratify and 3 confirm the VINE Maintenance Renewal Contract and the SAVNS 4 Maintenance Grant Contract between the Office of the Attorney 5 General and Kerr County. Sheriff? 6 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: What this is is our VINE 7 contract that we've had for a number of years, and what that 8 amounts to is, to explain it in short, is victims of crime, 9 if the suspect or anybody is in jail or in prison or anything 10 like that, they can call a number, sign up automatically for 11 this, and it will notify them automatically on cell phone, 12 home phone, whatever, if there's any change in status with 13 that defendant, whether he's being transferred to T.D.C., 14 whether he's in T.D.C., getting ready for, you know, parole, 15 or whether he's got a court date and any of that. And 16 it's -- the only change in the contract from this year to 17 last year, it's run through the state Attorney General; 18 doesn't cost Kerr County a dime, but used to, we would pay it 19 up front and get reimbursed. Now SAVNS, which is the kind of 20 subcontractor that takes care of the deal for the Attorney 21 General's office, they bill the A.G.'s office directly. 22 We're still part of it, but we don't have to get reimbursed. 23 The money goes straight between them and not between us, 24 okay? 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So this doesn't cost the 9-9-13 37 1 county anything? 2 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Doesn't cost the county. It's 3 totally a service for victims. The one thing I would like to 4 do is, my office has been handling it ever since we created 5 it. What's it been, Judge, 10 years? Something like that. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Pretty good while. 7 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: And now that the Crime Victims 8 Coordinator is a County-paid employee, and since this is a 9 grant-type issue and a crime victims issue, I would like to 10 transfer the program down to Crime Victims to get them out, 11 'cause there are monthly tests you have to run, you know, on 12 the computer and all that kind of stuff. It does take a lot 13 of time. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Have you talked to Ms. Lavender 15 about this? 16 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: No, I haven't seen her to talk 17 to her about it. I just feel -- 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Probably a good idea, don't you 19 think? 20 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I think it's more adequate in 21 her office, period. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I agree with you. 23 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: That's what it's over. It's a 24 grant, and it's crime victims. But other than that, that's 25 it. And we're just renewing. We had -- they sent it to us 9-9-13 38 1 by e-mail and gave us two days to get it back to them, so I 2 did not have time -- Rob did look at it. Standard state 3 contract type deal. And we did send it back to them signed, 4 but we said that technically, that it would have to be 5 approved and ratified today in Commissioners Court, and that 6 was all attached with the e-mail back. So, that's what I'm 7 here doing. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: You got it on, like, a Wednesday, 9 and it had to be back by Friday, I think? 10 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yeah. Yeah. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move approval of the agenda 12 item. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 15 approval of the agenda item. Further question or discussion? 16 All in favor, signify by raising your right hand. 17 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 18 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 19 (No response.) 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion carries. Let's go to Item 6; 21 consider, discuss, and take appropriate action to approve 22 authorization to begin the bidding process for construction 23 of the Kerrville South wastewater system, Phase 5. 24 Commissioner Moser? 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thank you, Judge. This is on 9-9-13 39 1 the agenda to authorize the ad in the paper for getting a 2 contractor to do Phase 5 of the Kerrville wastewater system. 3 It's -- we're moving along very quickly on this project, and 4 this has got a short fuse that we have to -- in order to get 5 the commitment or the money that we have, we have to have a 6 contractor on board, and so this advertisement enables that. 7 The -- the design has been complete. We worked with the City 8 over a period. We've had some issues there; we've got all 9 those things revolved. The -- we approved the design on 10 August the 5th, the Commissioners Court did, so this is the 11 next step in that process. So, I move that with this, that 12 we authorize advertisement for this beginning in two days. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded. Question 15 or discussion? All in favor of the motion, signify by 16 raising your right hand. 17 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 18 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 19 (No response.) 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion does carry. Let's go to 21 Item 7; to consider, discuss, and take appropriate action to 22 approve and authorize the financial documents and agreements 23 for the change-over and implementation to TexFile by Tyler 24 Technology, Inc., for e-filing in the County and District 25 Clerks' office and authorize the signatures of the County 9-9-13 40 1 Judge, County Auditor, and District Clerk. Ms. Pieper? 2 MS. PIEPER: Gentlemen, this is the financial forms 3 that once a document is e-filed in the file here, they pay 4 their filing fees, then the money will be directly deposited 5 into the accounts. But in order for Tyler Technologies to do 6 all this, they have to have the financial forms approved. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What documents does e-file 8 cover? 9 MS. PIEPER: It's going to be all civil-related 10 matters. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Just limited to civil actions? 12 Okay. 13 MS. PIEPER: Yes. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And it's something that we 15 do every year? Do we do this every year? 16 MS. PIEPER: This is now being mandatory by the 17 state. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: This is our first time? 19 MS. PIEPER: It is -- 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: This is exciting, to be the 21 first time. 22 MS. PIEPER: Yeah. Any attorney that wants to file 23 suit will get -- 24 MR. TROLINGER: We went ahead and started e-filing 25 civil cases about three years ago. We were early, and as 9-9-13 41 1 soon as it became available, we started doing it. So, if 2 someone wants to file a civil case in Kerr County 3 electronically, they can go to a website, file their case. 4 Now the State is mandating this. Kerr County has to do it by 5 2015, I think; we're mandated to do it. But Tyler 6 Technologies took over the program. They've gotten way 7 ahead, and since we were already online, they're just 8 converting us over. So, we've done this for a long time, but 9 we're switching providers from -- from one state vendor to 10 Tyler Technology, who's our vendor for the courts. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: There's a phase-in for e-filing 13 in the metropolitan areas, January 1, 2014, and then 14 semi-annually it kicks in. We're either late 2015 or 15 January 1, 2016. 16 MS. PIEPER: Correct. However, the company that 17 we're using now is no longer going to be doing it, so Tyler 18 is going ahead and doing their thing, updating us. 19 MR. HENNEKE: We need to terminate the agreement 20 with the current entity that we're doing it through? 21 MR. TROLINGER: That's a good question. I -- it 22 didn't come up. 23 MS. PIEPER: I don't know, because they're not -- 24 because -- 25 MS. THOMPSON: At the time that we switch over to 9-9-13 42 1 TexFile, when we're ready to switch over, then they're ready 2 to go. They have a notice ready -- or prepared that will be 3 reviewed by you that we will send to Tex.gov to cancel that 4 contract, and that'll be done right before the implementation 5 by TexFile. 6 MR. HENNEKE: Okay. 7 MS. THOMPSON: There's -- all the processes are set 8 out. They're just not ready for that notice to take place 9 yet. 10 MR. HENNEKE: And I assume the current vendor knows 11 that they're getting replaced by this whole state system? 12 MR. TROLINGER: Yes. The State actually said, 13 "Tyler Technologies, you're now our new provider." And the 14 old provider's no more on November 30th, I think. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Ms. Hargis, are you in the loop on 16 this? 17 MS. HARGIS: Nope. I don't really know too much 18 about it. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Pardon? 20 MS. HARGIS: I don't know anything about it. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: My question is, we're going 23 to authorize the financial documents, and those -- what are 24 the financial documents? All civil documents? Is that -- 25 MS. PIEPER: Well -- 9-9-13 43 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: -- what you're speaking 2 about? 3 MS. PIEPER: Any filing fees that come through this 4 e-filing will automatically be drafted into the appropriate 5 accounts based on the G.L. codes that have been set up 6 forever. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It's getting worse. 8 MR. TROLINGER: All this is in place. What's 9 changing is the bank account that the money's coming from and 10 being deposited to Kerr County. The vendor's changing the 11 bank from one bank to another, and these are the financial 12 documents that are being sought. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The state does this type of 14 thing on a pretty regular basis; they change vendors, and 15 you've got to change -- 16 MR. TROLINGER: That's essentially it, bottom line. 17 The vendor's changing. 18 MS. PIEPER: That is correct. And because we are 19 changing over a little early, we also have to have the state 20 -- the Supreme Court approval, so I have a document up in the 21 District Judges' office being approved by them. Then I'll 22 get it approved by the County Judges, and then I will bring 23 it to y'all, and then I'll send it for approval to the 24 Supreme Court. 25 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Is there any cost associated 9-9-13 44 1 with this for Kerr County? Any additional? 2 MR. TROLINGER: Yes. 3 MS. PIEPER: Kind of. For the implementation 4 from -- and you can probably -- there's a $2 transaction fee. 5 Every time somebody e-files, that money's going into a 6 dedicated line item, and it will pay for -- 7 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: So that pays the cost of what 8 you're proposing to do? 9 MR. TROLINGER: And there's also a -- yes. And 10 there's a $10 fee that's been added starting this year that 11 covers the cost of the computer hardware and the I.T. 12 services that we have. 13 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: So it's a wash; it's not a 14 cost -- it's not a budgetary cost to Kerr County. 15 MR. TROLINGER: That's correct; it pays for itself. 16 And it really does. I ran the numbers on it. 17 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Okay. I move approval of the 18 agenda item. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 21 approval of the agenda item. Question or discussion? All in 22 favor, signify by raising your right hand. 23 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 24 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 25 (No response.) 9-9-13 45 1 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. Let's go to 2 Item 8; to consider, discuss, and take appropriate action to 3 approve Kerr County investment policy pursuant to Texas 4 Government Code Texas Government Code Section 2256.005(e), 5 and broker/dealer list for Kerr County's investment policy in 6 accordance with the Public Funds Investment Act. Ms. Soldan? 7 MS. SOLDAN: Good morning. This -- the investment 8 policy remains unchanged from last year. The only change was 9 made to the last page on the broker/dealer list. There was a 10 sentence that said something to the effect of Patterson and 11 Associates would maintain our broker/dealer list, but since 12 we have canceled -- or suspended our contract with them, the 13 County Attorney and I talked about just putting in a line 14 that says Patterson and Associates will assist the County on 15 an as-needed basis. And that's the only change. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And that's an agreement we 17 have with Patterson? 18 MS. SOLDAN: Yes. They've since sent me a letter 19 as well saying that they are available whenever we need them. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Judge, I move for approval. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 23 approval. Question or discussion? All in favor, signify by 24 raising your right hand. 25 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 9-9-13 46 1 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 2 (No response.) 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion does carry. Let's go to 4 Item 9; to consider, discuss, and take appropriate action to 5 approve Treasurer's office Xerox copy machine lease renewal 6 and allow the County Judge to sign same. Ms. Soldan? 7 MS. SOLDAN: This current -- this contract that I'm 8 asking you all to approve is actually going to reduce my 9 monthly cost by almost $19 a month. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move approval. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded. Question 13 or discussion? 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Just -- County Attorney's 15 looked at it? 16 MS. SOLDAN: Yes, he has. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: You say this reduces your cost. 18 You're not getting clipped on extra copies, though? I mean, 19 you got the same number -- 20 MS. SOLDAN: No, it's the same number of copies, 21 same price per copy if we go over. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I have a question. Is there 23 anything county-wide that lets us look at all these 24 reproduction machines, Xerox machines, et cetera, so we would 25 have a better deal if we dealt with one contract on all this? 9-9-13 47 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We've talked about it. 2 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yeah, for years. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Sorry to bring up on old 4 subject, but it's just something that -- 5 MR. TROLINGER: On the Xerox in particular, the 6 deal is for each one of these contracts, it could be another 7 six months or a year before it comes up, so typically we get 8 a quote, you know, "Here's how much it is." The price in 9 this case is lower a little bit. We've got another vendor 10 with Ricoh that's a competitor, so we've got competition. 11 And from Xerox in particular, I ask the representative, you 12 know, "What's the best price? Can we get a better deal?" 13 And they -- the answer is, "This is best rate you can get." 14 This is the -- I hate to say "government rate," because that 15 doesn't necessarily mean good things. But this is the best 16 and lowest price that we can get for this Xerox machine. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: My question is, can we get a 18 fleet price, rather than going, buying one -- one here and 19 one there, and every six months or whatever the term of the 20 contract is? Seems like there could be a better deal if you 21 said, "We want a contract for 'X' number of these things," 22 rather than one. 23 MR. TROLINGER: From -- from what I recall, and 24 it's been a little while since I asked that question, was 25 that if we ordered 10 of these today, the price would be the 9-9-13 48 1 same per as if we ordered one today. Because that -- that 2 rate that we're getting the machines, the way that we're 3 ordering them through the G.S.A. schedule, that is the best 4 available price. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: All right. 7 MR. TROLINGER: And it is -- it is very 8 complicated. The whole pricing scheme that they put in these 9 copiers is really -- 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: It just doesn't pass the 11 "sound right" criteria, but okay. 12 MR. TROLINGER: It is a difficult thing to -- to 13 pin them down on, you know, is this really the lowest price? 14 Because they'll throw in, you know, the per-copy and the 15 exceeds numbers and lots of factors. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So you have a set of 17 requirements, and you submit a request for proposal to 18 multiple providers. If you have a good set of requirements, 19 you ought to be able to get a -- find out if you can do it 20 for cheaper. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: One of the challenges -- I 22 believe we have talked about this many times. One of the 23 challenges has been each elected official is somewhat 24 independent, and they have special needs for their office, 25 and they want a machine that fits their needs. They don't 9-9-13 49 1 care if -- like, Jannett couldn't care less what the County 2 Attorney needs. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: All comes down to budget. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It comes down to budget. So, 5 it's -- 6 MS. PIEPER: Budget and service. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. And they like the 8 service they get; they have a good relationship. So, I gave 9 this up a while back. 10 MR. TROLINGER: That's a very good summary. From 11 the I.T. perspective, if I was able to say, "Here's what 12 we're doing," we'd have one or two probably per floor, the 13 way a big business does. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I wasn't going there. 15 MR. TROLINGER: That's a can of worms that, boy, 16 I'd be a -- yeah, pitchforks, run out of business. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I wasn't suggesting that. I 18 was just suggesting the copiers that we have, couldn't you -- 19 you know, there's got to be a number -- large number of them. 20 Couldn't there be a contract for all of them to be continued 21 at a future date? 22 MR. TROLINGER: Thank you. It's good to keep 23 looking at that, 'cause it is a -- it's a recurring expense. 24 And, you know, anything we can do to chisel a little bit off, 25 and the Treasurer's done that. 9-9-13 50 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Any other -- you have two providers 2 now that you are kind of pitting one against the other, 3 trying to get the best deal. 4 MR. TROLINGER: We do, and we do exactly that. 5 Because when Xerox comes in and says, "Hey, you know, our 6 price is a little bit lower," then we benefit every time. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Good. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Any other questions or comments on 9 the motion? 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: This particular Xerox 11 company has a local manager that we can get our hands on. 12 MS. SOLDAN: Yes. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: All in favor, signify by raising 14 your right hand. 15 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 16 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 17 (No response.) 18 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. At this 19 time, I will recess the Commissioners Court meeting, and I 20 will convene a public hearing on the District Clerk Written 21 Archival Plan in accordance with Local Government Code 22 Section 118.011. 23 (The regular Commissioners Court meeting was closed at 10:02 a.m., and a public hearing was held in 24 open court, as follows:) 25 P U B L I C H E A R I N G 9-9-13 51 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Is there any member of the public 2 that wishes to be heard with respect to the District Clerk 3 Written Archival Plan in accordance with Local Government 4 Code Section 118.011? Seeing no one coming forward or 5 otherwise seeking recognition, I will close the public 6 hearing on the District Clerk Written Archival Plan in 7 accordance with Local Government Code Section 118.111. 8 (The public hearing was concluded at 10:02 a.m., and the regular Commissioners Court meeting was 9 reopened.) 10 - - - - - - - - - - 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Judge, I was really 12 expecting them to bus people in here on this one. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, that's why I gave it a few 14 extra minutes past the scheduled time. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I noticed that. I 16 appreciate you doing it, too. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: I will reconvene the Commissioners 18 Court meeting. Item 11, we were requested that this item be 19 passed. We'll go to Item 12, an additional 10 o'clock timed 20 item; to consider, discuss, and take appropriate action to 21 set a policy that all financial software be approved by the 22 County Auditor, and that the County Auditor be included with 23 all discussions with the software provider, including 24 installation of the software. Ms. Hargis? 25 MS. HARGIS: I think I provided y'all some data on 9-9-13 52 1 some problems that we've been having with this particular 2 situation. People have requested software be added without 3 contacting me, and then we have problems. Not only do we 4 have problems with the system going down or something of that 5 nature, but also mistakes happen in the general ledger that I 6 have to correct. And it's -- it's much easier if we 7 coordinate on the front side rather than on the back side. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'm not following. Let me 9 apologize up front, 'cause I know I'm going to be rude to 10 you, or it's going to sound that way. I don't mean to be 11 that way, but I don't know any other way to ask a question 12 other than ask a question. What is -- where is your role in 13 some other office's purchase of software? 14 MS. HARGIS: It's only financial software that I'm 15 talking about. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I see. Okay. 17 MS. HARGIS: The Local Government Code gives me the 18 authority to prescribe financial software. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yes, ma'am, I understand 20 that. 21 MS. HARGIS: So any components to that financial 22 software should be discussed with me and approved by me so 23 that we know that they coordinate with the financial software 24 package. What's happening is, people want to add to that, 25 and when they do, I'm not consulted, and then the system goes 9-9-13 53 1 down. Or they implement the system and it causes other 2 problems within the total financial system, which cause 3 additional problems. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And we've actually 5 experienced -- 6 MS. HARGIS: We experienced this -- 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: -- some things like this. 8 MS. HARGIS: -- twice in this last year. And the 9 biggest one that happened is about three weeks ago, when we 10 were working on the -- the budget. We had an airport budget 11 meeting that morning. We had an 11 o'clock budget hearing, 12 then we had a Juvenile Board in the afternoon. And some 13 software was installed to give paycheck stubs, which 14 wouldn't -- you wouldn't think would affect anything else, 15 because it's just for pay stubs. But what happened was, it 16 affected our pay -- it affected the purchase order system. 17 Not only could we not get in the purchase order system, but 18 we had a default that was going to -- any vendor that had an 19 e-mail was going to automatically get a copy of a P.O. 20 Now, because we have offices everywhere doing 21 purchase orders, we couldn't determine if that vendor 22 automatically got it. Now, we were told this at 8 o'clock in 23 the morning, or 8:15, and I was in an Airport Board meeting, 24 so I was unable to do anything about it; didn't know about it 25 till I actually got here that day. Not only did it throw 9-9-13 54 1 that system off, we couldn't print any reports for anybody. 2 So, when we were at the airport meeting and the Airport Board 3 was asking for a report, I couldn't pull it up because the 4 system was frozen. And this type of an installation should 5 have happened in the afternoon, and certainly not during 6 budget time, because it's not critical that we give out pay 7 stubs via the website right during budget, right when we need 8 the G.L. system. We couldn't get any reports off of there. 9 You would try to pull a report, and it would just take you 10 back to the system. It took pretty much till 3 o'clock that 11 afternoon, barely in time for the Juvenile Board. We did 12 have to have some reports for them. Fortunately, I had 13 pulled them on Friday, but otherwise we could not get in the 14 system. So, it was a big day for the G.L. system to be down. 15 It affected the G.L. system. 16 And the problem is, you know, I'm older than dirt 17 and I've been around a long time, and I understand all of the 18 components that work with the general ledger system, and I 19 need to be consulted as to whether or not, number one, can we 20 go down today because we have something going on? Number 21 two, if I were able to talk to the provider, I could have 22 asked the questions about what other systems this would 23 affect, but I wasn't consulted. I was just sent a note on 24 Friday that we were going to do some system changes, nothing 25 to the effect that it was going to affect any G.L. or 9-9-13 55 1 anything else. Now, they were fixed, but there was a lot of 2 confusion and a lot of commotion that went on that could have 3 been avoided. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So, Jeannie -- may I ask a 5 question now? 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, just be careful. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. So, really, what you're 8 looking for, for all the financial software systems that talk 9 to one another, -- 10 MS. HARGIS: Mm-hmm. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: -- you're looking to assure 12 that there's compatibility. 13 MS. HARGIS: I am looking, yes. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: You want compatibility so that 15 these various software systems talk to one another, so 16 they're not -- they're not degrading or contaminating the 17 system so that it doesn't function properly. So, 18 compatibility is the key word. So, if there's going to be 19 compatibility, there has to be -- from what I'm hearing you 20 say, there has to be a focus to assure compatibility. 21 MS. HARGIS: That's correct. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And that's what you're asking 23 for, to make sure -- and you're suggesting to do that; that 24 you have the authority and the responsibility for doing it, 25 so you're making sure that you're in the loop for that 9-9-13 56 1 compatibility. 2 MS. HARGIS: That's right. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Not just the compatibility of the 5 software, but also coordination of installation of it. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well -- 7 JUDGE TINLEY: So it doesn't impact other things 8 that are going on. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: When I say "compatibility," I 10 mean software and hardware, so that input here, that you're 11 getting the right output there. The entire system is 12 working. 13 MS. HARGIS: Let me give you an example. When -- 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Your examples were good. 15 MS. HARGIS: Well, Tyler Technology came in, was 16 doing the tax software, and in March our Tax Assessor changed 17 to a different provider. I was allowed to be in there with 18 the discussions with the programmers, and they specifically 19 had a lot of questions about the general ledger system that 20 they were installing, and would it be adequate, and what did 21 we need? I was able to answer those questions, because 22 that's my job. And it made it a whole lot easier for them, 23 and they were very appreciative, and we ended up with a 24 system that works well for the Tax Assessor's office. So, 25 I'm not trying to -- to keep people from buying what they 9-9-13 57 1 need or what they want. I just need to be in the loop when 2 they are doing it. And it -- and we really need to be 3 careful as to when we're installing some of these ancillary 4 products, that it's not being done right in the middle of a 5 big project. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Jeannie, one more question, if 7 I may. If you're not here, and somebody -- some other 8 department or office has a need, before they can move 9 forward, if we agree with this and say your office has to 10 approve it, essentially, to make sure that it's compatible, 11 then do you have that capability if you're on vacation or 12 something? 13 MS. HARGIS: Well, since I have never really taken 14 a vacation for more than two or three days at a time, I'm 15 sure, and I am clued into the e-mail. Most of these things 16 take a long time. There's a long process in front of them. 17 This particular process that was installed on that particular 18 Monday had been in the works for about six months. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. So, there's -- you 20 don't see an issue with putting this -- this constraint on 21 the system? And -- okay. 22 MS. HARGIS: Because there's a timeline that you 23 have to go through, because the provider has to get the 24 software ready and so forth. 25 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: It sounds to me like there 9-9-13 58 1 just needs to be cooperation between the departments and you, 2 without having to pass a court order. That just doesn't seem 3 -- that's kind of like beating somebody over the head for no 4 good reason. I mean, cooperation and asking for that to 5 happen is a whole lot better, and I believe you'll get more 6 compliance that way than you will with us ordering it. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Unless you're asking for 8 authority. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Just a question. I mean, the 10 I.T. Manager, Mr. Trolinger, I presume is always involved? 11 MS. HARGIS: He is. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Mr. Trolinger, make sure the 13 Auditor's involved. 14 MR. TROLINGER: Yes, sir. 15 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Is that a problem? 16 MR. TROLINGER: It's not a problem, and I 17 overlooked that. And I explained -- I apologized in person, 18 and also wrote a letter and said -- to the Commissioners 19 stating that. I had overlooked the Auditor, because the 20 Treasurer and H.R. were working together and cooperating on 21 this so well together that it looked like it was going so 22 smoothly, I didn't even think to do anything other than 23 notify the Auditor's office, "Hey, Monday we're putting it 24 in." I overlooked it. And in this particular case -- 25 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Now it won't happen again. 9-9-13 59 1 MR. TROLINGER: And we did have several hours of 2 down time when we could not print or pull up reports, and as 3 quickly as possible, we put it back online. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Ms. Hargis? For your 5 information, I agree with you. 6 MS. HARGIS: Thank you. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You're welcome. Sit down 8 and leave us alone. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: You need a transcript of that 10 portion of the record, Ms. Hargis? 11 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yeah. 12 MS. HARGIS: Yes, I do. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Let's go to Item 13; to consider, 14 discuss, and take appropriate action on approval of the 15 memorandum of understanding between the Hill Country Council 16 on Alcohol and Drug Abuse, Inc., and Kerr County Court. I 17 put this on the agenda at the request of the Hill Country 18 Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse, Inc. It is an annual 19 M.O.U. that we've had with those folks for -- forever. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Are they going to start 21 treating people for these issues now? 22 JUDGE TINLEY: It doesn't expose Kerr County to any 23 financial obligations, just makes the information of their 24 services available, which they continue to be made available 25 through our courts and so forth. 9-9-13 60 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move approval. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 4 approval. Question or discussion? All in favor, signify by 5 raising your right hand. 6 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 7 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 8 (No response.) 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Let's go to Item 14; to consider, 10 discuss, and take appropriate action on a request from 11 appointed and elected officials to appoint clerks and 12 assistants for their offices pursuant to Local Government 13 Code Chapter 151. As most of you recall, this is an annual 14 requirement for elected officials and appointed officials. 15 And we have -- 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: A bunch. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: -- that type of request from Adult 18 Probation -- well, wait a minute. Let me just make sure I've 19 got the highlighted ones. Agricultural Extension, Animal 20 Control, Auditor, Constable Precinct 1, County Attorney, 21 County Clerk, County Court at Law, Crime Victims Services, 22 District Attorney, District Clerk -- the District Attorney 23 was 216th -- Environmental Health, Human Resources, 24 Information Technology, J.P. 1, J.P. 2, J.P. 3, J.P. 4, 25 Juvenile Detention, Juvenile Probation, Maintenance, Road and 9-9-13 61 1 Bridge, Sheriff, Tax Assessor, and Treasurer. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I don't believe we got J.P. 2. 3 MS. GRINSTEAD: We did. We got J.P. 2 late. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Came in late. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: We got it. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move approval. 8 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Second. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 10 approval. Question or discussion? All in favor, signify by 11 raising your right hand. 12 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 13 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 14 (No response.) 15 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. Let's go to 16 Item 15; to consider, discuss, take appropriate action 17 regarding approving agreement to have Catapult Health 18 facilitate flu shot clinic for Kerr County employees under 19 current health care plan, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, to be held 20 on October 17th, 2013; have County Judge to sign the same. 21 MS. LANTZ: This is basically our yearly flu shot 22 clinic. TAC last year put it on for us with H.E.B. However, 23 they have changed vendors, how to give us our shots, 'cause 24 we do have to have someone that is licensed to give us our 25 flu shots here. I did give the agreement to the County 9-9-13 62 1 Attorney to review. He did make some corrections, and they 2 did correct those things on the agreement for us to go ahead 3 and have them come in and -- and administer our shots, for 4 those who would like to have them. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: When this will be? Do we know 6 yet? 7 MS. LANTZ: Pardon me? 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: When will this be? 9 MS. LANTZ: October 17th. It's a Thursday. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: October 17th. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Does that include spouses? 12 MS. LANTZ: Anybody on the Blue Cross/Blue Shield 13 plan. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move approval. 15 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Second. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 18 approval. Question or discussion? All in favor, signify by 19 raising your right hand. 20 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 21 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 22 (No response.) 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion does carry. Let's go to Item 24 16; to consider, discuss, take appropriate action on 25 Environmental Health and Animal Control merger, including, 9-9-13 63 1 but not limited to, discussion regarding facility options and 2 personnel matters. Mr. Garcia, I know you've provided the 3 Court with a preliminary assessment and/or report. Do you 4 wish to bring anything else before the Court at this time on 5 that matter? 6 MR. GARCIA: Yes. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Are you going to require 8 executive session? 9 MR. GARCIA: Yes, sir. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Is a portion of yours such 11 that it can be done in open session? 12 MR. GARCIA: No, not -- not at this time. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: No. Okay. Let's defer, then, on 14 Item 16, and let's go to Section 4 of the agenda, if we 15 could, payment of the bills. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move we pay the bills. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded to pay the 19 bills. Question or discussion? All in favor, signify by 20 raising your right hand. 21 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 22 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 23 (No response.) 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion carries. Budget amendments. 25 I've been presented with budget amendment requests Numbers 1 9-9-13 64 1 through -- 2 MS. HARGIS: 18. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: -- 18. 1 through 18 on two pages, 4 and then 1 through 3 on a third page. Do I hear a motion 5 that the budget amendments as requested, 1 through 18 on 6 Pages 1 and 2, and 1 through 3 on the third page of the 7 summary, be approved as presented? 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move approval. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 11 approval. Question or discussion? All in favor, signify by 12 raising your right hand. 13 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 14 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 15 (No response.) 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion carries. I've been presented 17 with late bills. Looks like there's three of them. One is 18 to David Brooks in the amount of $100, County Attorney's 19 office. One to Cindy Huggins in the amount of $845. I 20 believe that's out of one of the District Court budgets, is 21 it not? 22 MS. HARGIS: No, that's her -- it's her expenses, 23 yes. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Pardon? 25 MS. HARGIS: It's her expenses. 9-9-13 65 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah. And then we have one to 2 Xerox, $240.74; that's also out of the County Attorney's 3 office. Question or discussion on any of those? 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Move for approval. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 7 approval of the late bills. Any further question or 8 discussion? All in favor, signify by raising your right 9 hand. 10 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 11 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 12 (No response.) 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Did you vote? 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, I did. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Did you vote in favor? 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yes. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. I've been presented with 18 monthly reports for August 2013 from Kerr County Payroll; 19 Kerr County Clerk; Constable, Precinct 1; Constable, Precinct 20 4; Justice of the Peace, Precinct 3; Animal Control; 21 Environmental Health; and Justice of the Peace, Precinct 2. 22 Do I hear a motion that the indicated reports be approved as 23 presented? 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So moved. 25 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Second. 9-9-13 66 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded that the 2 indicated reports be approved as presented. Question or 3 discussion? All in favor, signify by raising your right 4 hand. 5 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 6 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 7 (No response.) 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion does carry. Reports from 9 Commissioners in connection with their liaison or 10 assignments. Commissioner Oehler? 11 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Not at this time, Judge. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner Baldwin? 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No, thank you. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner Moser? 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yes. Subject, parks. The 16 trash barrels, not in a park, but along Brinks Crossing, have 17 been installed. I took a look at those this weekend. 18 Everything down there looked perfectly clean. And then I 19 want to compliment Tim on the way the parks look, both the 20 Flat Rock Park and then Center Point. Can't see a piece of 21 trash around anyplace, so everything seems to be working very 22 well. And Tim put additional trash barrels down at Center 23 Point for the Memorial Day -- I mean Labor Day weekend. So, 24 that's all I have. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Commissioner Letz? 9-9-13 67 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Just one brief item, Little 2 League. And our agreement with Little League, the use of the 3 facility out there, I'm still visiting with them, working 4 with them, talking to them. Kind of where we are, they -- I 5 thought we were pretty close to a deal, and all of a sudden, 6 I got a whole bunch of new conditions in. And I let them 7 know that we're -- you know, I think I'm -- right now, with 8 the help of Jody, we have a license agreement for McAllister 9 Park. Little League uses their fields, which they're in the 10 city park just north of the airport, and that agreement is 11 with both Bexar County and the City of San Antonio, kind of a 12 joint three-way. So, we're looking at that; it's a pretty 13 good agreement. They have a very similar setup, have lots of 14 different outfits using that, so we're looking at that 15 agreement, and we're also looking at what Boerne's doing. 16 They're the other model, where the City of Boerne owns the 17 facility and charges users. And we're kind of looking at 18 those rather than going back and forth with the -- trying to 19 rewrite an agreement. We're looking at two existing 20 agreements that work, and we're going to try to come up with 21 a -- you know, pick which one of those two is the best model. 22 It's a -- I mean, we're -- it's not that far apart. And I 23 think it's a -- you know, the big concern is that there's an 24 open access to youth groups, youth -- you know, whatever they 25 may be. And, you know -- anyway, so I think that, you know, 9-9-13 68 1 we're getting there. I've, you know, assured Blake Caraway 2 that, you know, they're -- they're going to be using those 3 facilities. Those fields are dedicated for youth baseball, 4 and we'll get there, but we're -- it's a lot easier to look 5 at the two other agreements and see how they're doing it 6 rather than going back and forth. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Don't reinvent the wheel. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Seems to be working at Boerne, 9 and seems to be working at McAllister Park. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Anything else? 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's it. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Reports from elected officials or 13 department heads? 14 MS. BURLEW: No, sir, nothing at this time. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Ray, anything at this point? 16 MR. GARCIA: No. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: John? 18 MR. TROLINGER: No, thank you. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Ms. Pieper? 20 MS. PIEPER: No, sir. 21 MS. LANTZ: Just to give the Court an update, we're 22 in the final process of trying to get the job descriptions 23 revised. There's still some that are outstanding that do 24 need to go back for clarification to a couple of the elected 25 officials. They've done some corrections, but I just want to 9-9-13 69 1 make sure that they're done correctly, especially with the 2 Sheriff. I believe we got the County Clerk's redone, and -- 3 but I'm waiting on the rest of those this week, and hopefully 4 I'll get them out for them to look at and make sure that 5 they're all correct. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you. Sheriff? Population? 7 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Overcrowded on females. We're 8 at 26 this morning. We've been back up to 30 at times. 9 We're down on males; we're at 92 this morning, but I don't 10 know what we're going to do about the females. And the way 11 that jail's designed, we're going to have to take some kind 12 of action on it sooner or later. We've been overcrowded for 13 over a year now on females. 14 MR. HENNEKE: No, thank you. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Let's -- let's go into recess 16 for 15, 20 minutes. We'll come back and go into -- after we 17 open up, we'll go into executive session for matters under 18 agenda Item Number 16. 19 (Recess taken from 10:25 a.m. to 10:45 a.m.) 20 - - - - - - - - - - 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay, let's come back to order, if 22 we might. At this time, we will go out of public or open 23 session for the purposes of going into executive session. It 24 is now 10:47. 25 / 9-9-13 70 1 (The open session was closed at 10:47 a.m., and an executive session was held, the transcript of which 2 is contained in a separate document.) 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay, we are back in open or public 4 session. It is 11:11. Any member of the Court have anything 5 to offer with respect to matters discussed in executive 6 session? 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes, I guess kind of a 8 comment -- question to the rest of the Court. The Big Fix -- 9 Commissioner Moser, I'm not sure if he's familiar with it or 10 not. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I am. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But it's an organization that 13 promotes cat colonies in the wild. My recollection is that 14 they came to the Court a while back and we kind of said we'll 15 give y'all a trial, and -- unofficially, anyway. I'm getting 16 more and more complaints from members of the public about 17 that that trial is not working. I talked with Ray. I don't 18 think it's working. And I don't know if we should, you know, 19 inform Ray to -- a feral cat's a feral cat. Or should we 20 invite the group in and tell them it's not working; we are no 21 longer going to allow these cat colonies in the county? 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I think it would be good to 23 have them come back in and see sort of a status of going back 24 to where we were before and what's happening. And I -- they 25 may be -- I don't know if they're still as active as they 9-9-13 71 1 used to be. I know they had some funding issues. So -- 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, maybe they have, you 3 know. But I think that's kind of -- I would lean that way 4 too. Invite them. I know there is a member in the 5 community. I can't think of her name, who promotes it. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Dr. Pam Warner, who came before us 7 initially several years ago, was very, very active and 8 spearheaded that organization. And I say "recently." It's 9 probably a couple of years ago now, she lost her husband, and 10 she's had to be distracted from the Big Fix issues, and I 11 think things have kind of fallen into disarray, so to speak. 12 And I think maybe it would be a good idea to get whoever's 13 heading up that organization to come in and tell us what 14 they're doing, how they're doing it, and -- 15 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Well, another thing that 16 happened too, was one of the veterinarians that was doing all 17 that moved to San Antonio. She's no longer in the area on a 18 daily basis. She was taking a whole day out of every week to 19 do that. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, I know another lady 21 who's very active in it. Her health doesn't let her 22 continue, so -- 23 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Well, it's just a matter -- I 24 think if they abided by a lot of the rules that were set 25 forth to make that program work, the general public is not 9-9-13 72 1 abiding by some of those things that cause that to work, is 2 the problem, more so than not. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That could be. But, I mean, I 4 understand that -- I know that some of these, quote, colonies 5 that I'm being told about, anyway -- I don't go out and look 6 for them, but the cats are being fed. They're not supposed 7 to be fed. 8 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: That's what I'm talking 9 about. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And so I think that it's a -- 11 it's creating more of a health problem than anything else, 12 and it's putting Ray's people in a difficult situation, 13 because we sort of have a handshake-type agreement with them, 14 and we need to let everyone know we're on the same page. 15 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Well, we just had the problem 16 at the show barn recently with the lady starting a cat colony 17 without even telling anybody she was doing it. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The cat colony is, I think, 20 very close to the Ag Barn still. 21 COMMISSIONER OEHLER: Yeah. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Ray, you've -- you have contact with 23 the Big Fix people? 24 MR. GARCIA: No. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 9-9-13 73 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I have some -- 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: You might visit with Tim. Tim 3 had some -- or Charity may have a contact. I know Tim -- 4 Charity I know has a contact. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Charity did. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 8 MR. GARCIA: Okay. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And I think Roy. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, Roy. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: He knows who they are. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Anything else for Ray? Thank 13 you, sir. Anything else to come before the Court on this 14 agenda? We're adjourned. 15 (Commissioners Court adjourned at 11:15 a.m.) 16 - - - - - - - - - - 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 9-9-13 74 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 11th day of September, 8 2013. 9 10 JANNETT PIEPER, Kerr County Clerk 11 BY: _________________________________ Kathy Banik, Deputy County Clerk 12 Certified Shorthand Reporter 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 9-9-13