1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT 9 Special Session 10 Monday, May 19, 2014 11 1:00 p.m. 12 Commissioners' Courtroom 13 Kerr County Courthouse 14 Kerrville, Texas 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 PRESENT: TOM POLLARD, Kerr County Judge H. A. "BUSTER" BALDWIN, Commissioner Pct. 1 24 TOM MOSER, Commissioner Pct. 2 JONATHAN LETZ, Commissioner Pct. 3 25 BOB REEVES, Commissioner Pct. 4 2 1 I N D E X May 19, 2014 2 PAGE 3 1.1 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to approve contract with Huser Construction for 4 Exhibit Hall at the Hill Country Youth Event Center 3 5 --- Adjourned 11 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 3 1 On Monday, May 19, 2014, at 1:00 p.m., a special 2 meeting of the Kerr County Commissioners Court was held in 3 the Commissioners' Courtroom, Kerr County Courthouse, 4 Kerrville, Texas, and the following proceedings were had in 5 open court: 6 P R O C E E D I N G S 7 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. Commissioners Court on 8 Monday, May 19th, at 1 p.m. is in session. You're up on the 9 invocation. 10 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Could we please rise? 11 (Prayer and pledge of allegiance.) 12 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay, we have two agenda matters. 13 You want to first consider the one having to do with Item 1 14 having to do with the -- consider, discuss, and take 15 appropriate action to approve contract with Huser 16 Construction for Exhibit Hall at the Hill Country Youth 17 Exhibit Center? 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: As long as the County 19 Attorney's not going to be gone very long. 20 JUDGE POLLARD: Oh, she's not here? 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: She was here a minute ago. 22 MS. GRINSTEAD: She had to go downstairs real 23 quick. 24 MS. HARGIS: She said she'd be right back. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We can go ahead and probably 5-19-14 4 1 start on it; she'll be back by the time we get into it. 2 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. Commissioner Letz? 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's -- oh, good, the County 4 Attorney's here. 5 MS. STEBBINS: Sorry. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I was working last week with 7 Huser Construction; Steve Huser and Scott are here in the 8 room if we have further detail questions for them. But we've 9 gone through the -- the list of items that I brought before 10 the Court at our last meeting, and have the actual cost of 11 items. And I've gone through it, and some of them, I 12 think -- these are my personal feelings; I thought we should 13 include back in. And I have done that, and everybody has the 14 four of them, the letter from Huser Construction on the 15 second page, which has some -- the savings by deleting 16 certain items. And the total amount of of the savings was 17 $245,940, and there was a $75,000 increase due to basically 18 expediting the metal building, and that will make the total 19 contract cost of $3,127,060. So, that's kind of where we are 20 on the dollars. 21 I also gave the Court a handout that kind of goes 22 over, again, the funding. You know, the top part of that is 23 the 2014 Certificate of Obligation, of which 2.4 million of 24 that was designated for this facility, or the Hill Country 25 Youth Event Center. If you total up the numbers, it's 5-19-14 5 1 2,400,000 from the 2014 C.O.; the previous C.O. was another 2 400,000, and then funding from the Hill Country District 3 Junior Livestock Show was 250,000 that we've received 4 in-hand. That's 3,050,000, and then there's another 250,000 5 that we have a letter from the Stock Show Association that 6 they will provide that 250,000 basically October 1st, 2014, 7 so that gives us a total of available funds of 3.3 million. 8 Below that, it breaks it down; $3,127,060 for the new event 9 hall, and then 172,940 for the upgrades to the arena, if we 10 so choose to pursue those. 11 One of the things I do want to make a comment here 12 is that it is my fault for -- I think at our last meeting, 13 I -- you now, the numbers are higher than we anticipated, 14 clearly. But the amount of the overage was -- I think it was 15 in the paper. I think I may have even said a million 16 dollars. That was not a correct number. The amount of 17 overage is about 300,000. The bids came in about $300,000 18 higher than money we had budgeted. We had 2.4 million out of 19 this C.O. We had 400,000 from a previous C.O. That was 20 2.8 million right there. And then we also add Stock Show's 21 500,000 that we knew was coming in. So, depending on how you 22 look at that, 450,000 at one point was designated for the 23 arena. But, anyway, it came in higher than we thought, but 24 we do have the funds for it. I want to get a little guidance 25 from the County Attorney here. My understanding is that 5-19-14 6 1 because we are -- 'cause we did do a little bit of reducing 2 the scope slightly on reducing some cosmetic items, that the 3 best way to proceed is for us to do a finding of fact that 4 these reductions are in the best interests of the county. 5 MS. STEBBINS: Yes, sir, and that they don't 6 substantially modify the plans as they were bid originally. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I make a motion that the 8 reduction does not substantially modify the plan, and they 9 are in the best interests of Kerr County to make these 10 deductions of -- that are itemized here. 11 JUDGE POLLARD: So, I guess the motion is that -- 12 is that it's in the best interest of the county -- 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And -- 14 JUDGE POLLARD: -- that we have a finding to that 15 effect, and that it does not substantially change -- what is 16 the wording? 17 MS. STEBBINS: The original specifications as they 18 were bid. 19 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. I think that's the proper 20 form of the motion. Is that correct? 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That is correct. And the 22 amount of that reduction is $245,940. Just from an 23 informational standpoint, this change can be up to 18 24 percent, and we're -- 25 MS. STEBBINS: It's just under seven and a half. 5-19-14 7 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We're at seven and a half 2 percent, so we're nowhere near the cap set by law. 3 JUDGE POLLARD: Is that the line that would 4 determine whether or not it's a substantial change? Whether 5 or not it's in excess of 18 percent? 6 MS. STEBBINS: That's one of the factors to 7 consider. But the 18 percent, we have to go back to the 8 contractor and get his permission -- or get their permission 9 in order to change if it was more than 18. 10 JUDGE POLLARD: What are the items? 11 MS. STEBBINS: Well, some -- there's not too much 12 case law about it, and some of them were, you know, the 13 number of changes to be made. The -- the modifications 14 were -- basically would require an entire rebid for it. 15 JUDGE POLLARD: I see. 16 MS. STEBBINS: There's not much case law that 17 directed us. 18 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. 19 MS. STEBBINS: It just says it must be 20 substantially similar to the original bid. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And the architect has looked at 22 these; I believe Huser has too. These are -- and Huser was 23 very much involved. They were very aware of this, and they 24 were concerned about one of the changes we talked about being 25 a substantial change, and they were kind of really 5-19-14 8 1 recommending -- said it's not a good idea; that's getting 2 too -- from their standpoint, too close to the line, which we 3 backed off the whole changing the finish of the interior. 4 The changes that we're talking about here are -- it's 5 deleting some pendant light fixtures, going from LED lighting 6 to conventional lighting, deleting dehumidifiers from the 7 H.V.A. system, deleting carpet and replacing with concrete 8 floors that Maintenance requested; they didn't want carpet 9 anywhere, and then delete an accordion partition wall in the 10 classrooms. Those were the changes, and they are -- 11 JUDGE POLLARD: Minor changes. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- pretty minor. Not changing 13 anything that's going to change the use of the building. 14 JUDGE POLLARD: Is there a second to that motion? 15 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I will second. 16 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. It's been moved and 17 seconded -- and I'm not going to restate the motion again; 18 it's in the record. Is there any further discussion? 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, I'll just restate what I 20 said last time. I wish we would look at -- at the advantage 21 of downsizing this facility. It's something about half of 22 what is needed. All the indications are that would be 23 sufficient, and that would reduce the cost significantly. 24 And we have some other things that, even though we can't use 25 those funds for it, we got some emergencies that are going to 5-19-14 9 1 require us to come up with $500,000 or $600,000. So -- and I 2 know that it's desirable to get it finished by January, but 3 it's costing us another $75,000 to do that, and I know we can 4 rent a big tent to cover that for $75,000, and possibly 5 descope it. So, I just want to make that comment one more 6 time. 7 JUDGE POLLARD: For the record. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: For the record. Thank you. 9 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. Any further discussion? 10 All right. Those in favor of the motion as stated, so 11 signify by raising your right hand. 12 (Commissioners Baldwin, Letz, and Reeves voted in favor of the motion.) 13 JUDGE POLLARD: Those opposed, like sign? 14 (Commissioner Moser voted against the motion.) 15 16 JUDGE POLLARD: It's three to one; the motion 17 passes. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And, Judge, the next step would 19 be -- I believe the County Attorney reviewed the contract, 20 and -- 21 MS. STEBBINS: Yes, sir. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- the contract given to the 23 County Clerk is -- meets your approval? 24 MS. STEBBINS: Yes, sir. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I make a motion we approve the 5-19-14 10 1 contract with Huser Construction for construction of the 2 building, in the amount of -- the Event Hall, in the amount 3 of -- hopefully, the amount that I read earlier, $3,127,060. 4 Yeah, they're nodding. It's correct; that is the amount. 5 And authorize County Judge to sign same. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 7 JUDGE POLLARD: It's been moved and seconded. Any 8 further discussion? There being none, those in favor of that 9 motion, signify by raising your right hand. 10 (Commissioners Baldwin, Letz, and Reeves voted in favor of the motion.) 11 JUDGE POLLARD: Those opposed, like sign? 12 (Commissioner Moser voted against the motion.) 13 14 JUDGE POLLARD: Three to one; it passes. Okay. 15 Does that take care of everything on that agenda item? 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Get to work, Steve. 17 MR. HUSER: Yes, sir. I'm behind already. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Mr. Odom? 19 MR. ODOM: Yes. You tell me, can we start over 20 there with this project? 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. I see two nods. 22 MR. ODOM: Two nods, so I can start the excavation 23 in there to get that base in, right? 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 25 MR. ODOM: Good enough. Thank you. 5-19-14 11 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: My understanding is, Mr. Odom, 2 you've got the drawings and you know what needs to be done 3 based on the specifications, correct? 4 MR. ODOM: Correct. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay, thank you. 6 (Commissioners Court adjourned at 1:14 p.m.) 7 - - - - - - - - - - 8 9 STATE OF TEXAS | 10 COUNTY OF KERR | 11 The above and foregoing is a true and complete 12 transcription of my stenotype notes taken in my capacity as 13 official reporter for the Commissioners Court of Kerr County, 14 Texas, at the time and place heretofore set forth. 15 DATED at Kerrville, Texas, this 20th day of May, 2014. 16 17 JANNETT PIEPER, Kerr County Clerk 18 BY: _________________________________ Kathy Banik, Deputy County Clerk 19 Certified Shorthand Reporter 20 21 22 23 24 25 5-19-14