1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT 9 Special Session 10 Monday, June 23, 2014 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: 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 June 23, 2014 2 PAGE 3 --- Commissioners' Comments 5 4 1.1 Swear in Mitzi French, Justice of the Peace #1 8 5 1.2 Public Hearing regarding revision of plat for Lots 34A and 34B of Falling Water Subdivision 10 6 1.3 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action for 7 final approval regarding revision of plat for Lots 34A and 34B of Falling Water Subdivision 10 8 1.4 Public Hearing regarding revision of plat for 9 Lots 5 and 6, Rio Retiro, and grant a cul-de-sac variance, Precinct 4 11 10 1.5 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action for 11 final approval regarding revision of plat for Lots 5 and 6, Rio Retiro, and grant a cul-de-sac 12 variance, Precinct 4 12 13 1.6 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to allow an aerial utility easement (approx. 25 feet) over 14 southwest corner of River Star Arts & Events Park 14 15 1.7 Presentation regarding Kerr County Texas A & M AgriLife Extension Interpretation 21 16 1.9 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action 17 regarding interlocal agreement with Kerr County Juvenile Board 26 18 1.8 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on 19 request from Kerrville-Kerr County Joint Airport Board to use $100,000 of Airport reserves to pay 20 consulting firm to to evaluate roofs at Mooney 29 21 1.10 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on approval of residential contract for Kerr County 22 Juvenile Detention Facility; authorize County Judge and facility administrator to sign same as needed 30 23 1.11 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on 24 amendment to organizational chart for Juvenile Detention Facility 35 25 3 1 I N D E X (Continued) June 23, 2014 2 PAGE 1.12 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on 3 approval of agreement with Kerrville Independent School District; authorize County Judge and 4 facility administrator to sign same as needed 37 5 1.13 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on approval of one additional full-time female 6 position at Juvenile Detention Facility -- 7 1.17 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action regarding thermostat settings and utility bills for courthouse 39 8 1.18 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 9 name Commissioners Court members to the Airport Planning Committee 43 10 1.20 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to set 11 public hearing for July 14, 2014 at 9:30 a.m. for County Clerk's written archival plan in accordance 12 with Section 118.025 44 13 1.22 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to authorize County Judge to sign Amendment 3 14 Agreement for Engineering Services between Kerr County and Tetra Tech, Inc., for Center Point 15 Wastewater Improvements per Court Order 33516 45 16 1.23 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to accept audit reports for Justices of the Peace 17 Precincts 1 and 2 46 18 1.24 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to finalize War Memorial project and go forward 19 with ordering granite 48 20 1.15 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to accept Business Associate Agreement between Alamo Insurance 21 Group and Kerr County; have County Judge sign same 50 22 1.16 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action regarding changes to Kerr County Employee Voluntary Benefits 23 package for 2014-2015 53 24 1.14 Presentation of 2013 Texas Association of Counties Gold Star Award for safety to Kerr County 60 25 4 1 I N D E X (Continued) June 23, 2014 2 PAGE 1.25 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on 3 creating permanent committee to review candidates for War Memorial and other issues related to 4 War Memorial 63 5 1.21 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action regarding resolution by Commissioners Court 6 recognizing the service and 90th birthday of former County Commissioner Ed Higgins 66 7 1.19 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on 8 approving 381 Agreement with Bending Branch Winery for partial county property tax abatement 69 9 1.26 Discussion regarding marketing and operations of 10 Hill Country Youth Event Center 84 11 1.27 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action regarding pool vehicle for courthouse 94 12 1.28 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on 13 pursuing interlocal agreement with Upper Guadalupe River Authority concerning East Kerr County Water 14 project 99 15 1.29 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to amend contract with Peter Lewis, Architect, 16 related to Hill Country Youth Event Center 101 17 4.1 Pay Bills 110 4.2 Budget Amendments 110 18 4.3 Late Bills 111 4.4 Approve and Accept Monthly Reports 112 19 5.1 Reports from Commissioners/Liaison Committee 20 Assignments 112 5.2 Reports from Elected Officials/Department Heads 113 21 1.30 Presentation regarding Affordable Health Care 22 Act and TAC Wellness Program and how they will affect the County; presentation on new coverage 23 option plans for 2015 which will be available as expanded coverage with TAC benefits pool 114 24 --- Adjourned 160 25 5 1 On Monday, June 23, 2014, at 9:00 a.m., a special 2 meeting of the Kerr County Commissioners Court was held in the 3 Commissioners' Courtroom, Kerr County Courthouse, Kerrville, 4 Texas, and the following proceedings were had in open court: 5 P R O C E E D I N G S 6 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. It's 9 a.m. on June 23rd, 7 2014, and the Kerr County Commissioners Court is in session. 8 This morning it's Commissioner Letz' turn for the prayer. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Everyone please stand and join 10 me in prayer and the pledge. 11 (Prayer and pledge of allegiance.) 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Hear, hear. 13 JUDGE POLLARD: You're the town crier? 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 15 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. We'll go to Item 1.1; swear 16 in Mitzi French, Justice of the Peace, Precinct Number 1. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Visitors forum. 18 JUDGE POLLARD: All right, we'll do the visitors' 19 part first. Anybody wishing to speak to the Commissioners 20 Court? 21 (No response.) 22 JUDGE POLLARD: Well, big crowd and nobody wanting 23 to talk. All right. Commissioners' comments? 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Thank you, Judge. I wanted to 25 introduce four young individuals that are here today. 6-23-14 6 1 They're the grandchildren of Sherry Cunningham. I think as 2 part of their summer education, they get to go to various 3 functions, and one of the things is that Sherry thought it 4 would be a good thing for them to come to Commissioners Court 5 and see what we do. So, if I could introduce Leah Beltrone, 6 Jackson Parham, Lydia Parham, and Cade Cunningham. Welcome, 7 y'all. Thank you for coming. 8 (Applause.) 9 JUDGE POLLARD: Any other Commissioners' comments? 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. The University of Texas 11 Longhorns suffered a tough defeat over the weekend, made it 12 up to third in the College World Series. Missed the finals 13 by a matter of inches. Coach Garrido said after the game, 14 "It's a cruel game." 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: A game of inches. 16 MR. ODOM: That's a matter of opinion. 17 (Laughter.) 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's all I have. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, I have one thing, Judge. 20 We -- as probably everybody knows, we're circulating a 21 petition in Precinct 2 to get enough signatures so we can put 22 on the ballot in November the option for Precinct 2 to no 23 longer be dry, sell alcoholic beverages and mixed drinks. 24 That has to be -- we have 60 days to get 1,800 signatures. 25 We have about 600, so it looks like we're not going to get 6-23-14 7 1 across the goal line. We've had a lot of people working 2 hard, but I think that, you know, I just mentioned that, so 3 if anybody knows of anybody that wants to sign the petition, 4 it's not for or against it; it's just simply to say -- it's 5 simply to give people the option to say yes or no. And Diane 6 Bolin's folks have been counting the votes and verifying the 7 signatures as we get them realtime, so we're pretty current 8 on exactly where we are. So, anyway, that's probably going 9 to -- not going to get there. And one other thing, I wanted 10 to thank Tim. The Little League fields, driving down Highway 11 27 from the road, have been cleaned out along the -- they 12 cleaned out some old trees and the ditch, and it looks 13 fantastic. It's a real -- not with a whole lot of expense, 14 but it really improved some of the county property. So, Tim 15 and his folks, and I think Jonathan initiated that, so it 16 looks really good. That's it. 17 JUDGE POLLARD: Anybody else? 18 COMMISSIONER REEVES: We had a good turnout at the 19 Divide. I know a lot of you here came out to the fire 20 department and had some good steaks. I think they approached 21 700 they served, so very successful. And out on the east end 22 of the county -- Commissioner Moser, it's the 12th for Center 23 Point? 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I believe that's correct. 25 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I'd encourage everybody to 6-23-14 8 1 come support Center Point Fire Department in a couple weeks. 2 And we probably won't be in session before that, so everybody 3 put that on your calendars so it's a very good turnout. 4 JUDGE POLLARD: Any comments? 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I have nothing, Judge. 6 Thank you very much for the offer, though. 7 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I think I'll probably have 9 some comments as we move through the budget today. 10 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. Let's go to Item 1.1, 11 swearing in Mitzi French, Justice of the Peace, Precinct 12 Number 1. Is Mitzi here? Would you step forward, Mitzi? 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Judge, do you want her up 14 here with you? 15 JUDGE POLLARD: Yeah, that would be good. Come on 16 around here. 17 MS. FRENCH: Can my son come up? He's going to 18 hold the Bible. 19 JUDGE POLLARD: Yeah, sure. Raise your right hand. 20 Repeat after me, "I, Mitzi French." 21 MS. FRENCH: I, Mitzi French. 22 JUDGE POLLARD: "Do solemnly swear or affirm." 23 MS. FRENCH: Do solemnly swear or affirm. 24 JUDGE POLLARD: "That I will faithfully execute the 25 duties of the office of Kerr County Justice of the Peace, 6-23-14 9 1 Precinct Number 1." 2 MS. FRENCH: That I will faithfully execute the 3 duties of the Kerr County office of the Justice of the Peace, 4 Precinct 1. 5 JUDGE POLLARD: "Of the State of Texas." 6 MS. FRENCH: Of the State of Texas. 7 JUDGE POLLARD: "And will, to the best of my 8 ability." 9 MS. FRENCH: And will, to the best of my ability. 10 JUDGE POLLARD: "Preserve, protect, and defend." 11 MS. FRENCH: Preserve, protect, and defend. 12 JUDGE POLLARD: "The Constitution and laws of the 13 United States." 14 MS. FRENCH: The Constitution and laws of the 15 United States. 16 JUDGE POLLARD: "And of this state." 17 MS. FRENCH: And of this state. 18 JUDGE POLLARD: "So help me God." 19 MS. FRENCH: So help me God. 20 JUDGE POLLARD: Congratulations. 21 JUDGE FRENCH: Thank you very much. 22 (Applause.) 23 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Congratulations. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Mitzi, it's not Precinct 25 Number 1 for just nothing. 6-23-14 10 1 JUDGE FRENCH: That's right. 2 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. Next for consideration 3 is 1.2; public hearing regarding the revision of plat for 4 Lots 34A and 34B of Falling Water Subdivision, Volume 7, 5 Pages 78-79, Precinct 3. Leonard Odom and Charlie Hastings. 6 Morning, Charlie. 7 MR. HASTINGS: Good morning. This part's the 8 public hearing, so waiting to see if anybody wants to speak 9 on it. 10 JUDGE POLLARD: Is there anybody that wishes to 11 speak on this? 12 (No response.) 13 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay, there's nobody that wishes to 14 speak, so we'll proceed to 1.3; consider, discuss, and take 15 appropriate action for the Court's final approval regarding 16 the revision of plat for Lots 34A and 34B of Falling Water 17 Subdivision, Volume 7, Pages 78 and 79, Precinct 3. 18 MR. HASTINGS: Yes, sir. This is combining two 19 lots, 3.93, and 2.65 acres, into a 6.5-acre tract. At this 20 time, we're asking the Court for their final approval 21 regarding the revision of plat for Lots 34A and B of Falling 22 Water, Volume 7, Page 78 through 79, Precinct 3. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move approval. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 25 JUDGE POLLARD: Been moved and seconded for 6-23-14 11 1 approval. Any further discussion? As I remember, this was 2 -- these people want to build something in the middle of the 3 lot, and they can't cross a lot line, so that's one of the 4 reasons they wanted to combine it; is that correct? 5 MR. HASTINGS: Yes, sir, they want to combine the 6 two. 7 MR. ODOM: That's correct. 8 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. 9 MR. HASTINGS: That's right. That's correct. 10 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. Any further discussion? If 11 not, those in favor, signify by raising your right hand. 12 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 13 JUDGE POLLARD: It's 4-0; it passes. Thank you. 14 Next is 1.4 -- 3 -- no, I did 3. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It's 4. 16 JUDGE POLLARD: 1.4; public hearing regarding the 17 revision of plat for Lots 5 and 6 of Rio Retiro, and grant a 18 cul-de-sac variance, Volume 4, Page 263, Precinct 4. Leonard 19 and Mr. Hastings. Obviously, you're not Leonard Odom. 20 MR. HASTINGS: Yes, sir. This is the public 21 hearing part. 22 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. Any comments? Anybody wish 23 to speak to this? 24 (No response.) 25 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. There being none, we can 6-23-14 12 1 proceed then to 1.5; consider, discuss, and take appropriate 2 action for the Court's final approval regarding the revision 3 of plat for Lots 5 and 6 of Rio Retiro and grant a cul-de-sac 4 variance, Volume 4, Page 263. Mr. Hastings? 5 MR. HASTINGS: Yes, sir. The purpose of the 6 cul-de-sac variance will be that there's a garage that has 7 been constructed that encroaches into the right-of-way. The 8 cul-de-sac variance would result in additional right-of-way 9 granted so that a vehicle could still turn around. The road 10 does not access adjoining property. You're taking a 0.63 -- 11 two tracts that are 0.63 acres a piece, approximately, which 12 is going to be combined into one lot that's about 1.27 acres. 13 And then we also would like to note, before you decide to 14 approve, that KPUB has not signed their signature portion, so 15 if you wish to pull that until that gets signed, that's fine. 16 Or if you wish to have it approved subject to it being 17 signed, Mr. Voelkel is here, and I believe that he -- he just 18 couldn't quite get the signature in time. Is that right? 19 MR. VOELKEL: If I can comment on this, that's 20 correct. We delivered the plat to KPUB, I guess it was last 21 Wednesday. Apparently, they only have one person designated 22 to sign a plat, who's not been available until today, so I 23 told him that we'd get it over there today. We'll do that. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge, I think signing subject 25 to KPUB approval is -- 6-23-14 13 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's fine. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- acceptable. That's a 3 motion. 4 COMMISSIONER REEVES: You made it? I'll second it. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 6 JUDGE POLLARD: It's been moved and seconded for 7 approval of it. Any further discussion? 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, I have one question. 9 MR. HASTINGS: Yes, sir? 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: When you get going down that 11 road and you get to this garage that's built out in the 12 county right-of-way, -- 13 MR. HASTINGS: Yes, sir. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: -- and that's a turnaround; 15 that's -- there's a cul-de-sac. 16 MR. HASTINGS: Currently. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Whatever, a cul-de-sac 18 there. 19 MR. HASTINGS: Yes, sir. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Is there any chance or hope 21 for that road to continue -- continue at some point? I mean, 22 can you -- 23 COMMISSIONER REEVES: This isn't actually a 24 County-maintained road. 25 MR. HASTINGS: It's not. It's not a 6-23-14 14 1 County-maintained road; it's not maintained by the County. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That doesn't matter; doesn't 3 have a damn thing to do with my question. Will -- will we 4 have the ability for that road to go and connect onto other 5 properties and developments later on? 6 MR. HASTINGS: Lee, can you -- 7 MR. VOELKEL: I can comment on that, yes, sir. The 8 right-of-way of the road adjoins or touches, or contiguous 9 with the adjoining property, yes. If the County wanted to 10 extend that into the adjoining property -- not if the County 11 wanted to; if the property owner adjoining wanted that, it 12 could still be done, because there's right-of-way to do that 13 with. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay, thank you. 15 JUDGE POLLARD: Any further discussion? Those in 16 favor of the motion, signify by raising your right hand. 17 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 18 JUDGE POLLARD: It's 4-0; that's approved. 1.6; 19 consider, discuss, and take appropriate action to allow an 20 aerial utility easement approximately 25 feet over the 21 southwest corner of River Star Arts and Events Park property. 22 Mr. Shotwell? I hope that's 25 feet in length, and not 23 width. 24 MR. SHOTWELL: No, sir, actually -- well, say that 25 I'm facing the river. The river runs this way. This is 6-23-14 15 1 the -- this is the easement going along Riverside Drive, and 2 this is the -- the thoroughfare going through the middle of 3 the lot. That 25 feet would actually be from the basic 4 corner of the lot to the point this way where the wire 5 actually hangs over it. 6 JUDGE POLLARD: So it's in length. 7 MR. SHOTWELL: Well -- 8 JUDGE POLLARD: 25 feet in length. 9 MR. SHOTWELL: No, sir, the pole is actually here, 10 and it will hang across it this way. It's a little -- it's 11 longer in this direction than it is from this direction, but 12 at any one point from the county property, it's about 25 feet 13 to where that wire would hang over. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: It's about 50 feet in length 15 from the wire running across. 16 MR. SHOTWELL: All the way across, yes. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Let me set this up, if I may. 18 I went -- Mr. Shotwell was not here at the last Commissioners 19 Court, and I think we had a schematic on that showing this. 20 It's cutting across the corner of -- of River Star Event 21 Park. It's a minimum of about 15 feet, I think, in height. 22 Starts at a lot higher than that. 23 MR. SHOTWELL: Yes, sir. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And so KPUB -- Mr. Shotwell 25 has an easement form from KPUB to do this, and he's setting 6-23-14 16 1 up a small business there, which he has rights on the 2 property. And with that, it's -- I went out and looked at it 3 with Mr. Shotwell. I don't see any issue there. There's 4 nothing -- no part of the -- that part of the facility that 5 will be used for anything. There's not going to be a gate 6 there or anything else. 7 MR. SHOTWELL: Yes, sir. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Just draping a line across one 9 corner of a property about 50 feet in length. 10 MR. SHOTWELL: Yes, sir. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Question. Where's the access 12 to this new building? Is it off Riverside? 13 MR. SHOTWELL: On both. Riverside is on one side, 14 and 27 is on the north, and they both run pretty much east. 15 And I'm closer to the Riverside Drive entrance, but there is 16 a thoroughfare just east of the Lazy Dog Saloon, which is on 17 the American Legion property, and people do come through 18 there. But it's private, but they do come across it. So, 19 they can come in from Junction Highway or Riverside. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: It'd probably be about 50 feet 21 off of Riverside once it's built. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The reason for my question is 23 we've talked in the past about the possibility of -- a master 24 plan of the property over there to close Riverside Drive. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Oh, okay. 6-23-14 17 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And it's just -- you know. 2 MR. SHOTWELL: Well, there is access, Your Honor, 3 then, from 27. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I don't think the easement 5 would preclude -- the easement wouldn't preclude that if 6 they'd come in from 27. It would still be the same thing, 7 so -- 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't have a problem with the 9 easement, just more of a -- 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. 11 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Has KPUB actually staked out 12 where the easement is, Commissioner? Did you see where it 13 would -- 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I've looked at it. 15 COMMISSIONER REEVES: -- actually be? So it's 16 definite where it will be? 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I have, right. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is it -- and I don't know; I'm 19 not really familiar with KPUB's easement. Is it very 20 specific to this 25 foot, or is it a -- like a lot of utility 21 easements; once you sign it, it's for the whole property? 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, here's what I'm going to 23 recommend, okay? I'm going to recommend, since we don't have 24 the easement here -- Mr. Shotwell has it. The attorney -- 25 County Attorney hasn't looked at it. I'm going to recommend 6-23-14 18 1 that we approve the easement contingent on the County 2 Attorney reviewing it and approving it. And, certainly, that 3 it's only for the section of -- 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Limited to this little corner. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 6 MR. SHOTWELL: My understanding is that should I 7 terminate the business in that area, it would also terminate 8 the right to the easement. And under the contract, and I 9 believe each of you gentlemen have a copy of the contract 10 with the American Legion, it sets out definite -- it can be 11 extended, but it sets out terms and things that terminate 12 with that. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 14 JUDGE POLLARD: That condition is going to be 15 included in the easement, that it will terminate upon your 16 cessation of business? 17 MR. SHOTWELL: I believe that's the suggestion of 18 Commissioner Moser, and that's fine with me. 19 JUDGE POLLARD: Have you had it surveyed yet so -- 20 so you have a metes and bounds description of that easement? 21 MR. SHOTWELL: No, sir, other than -- it's American 22 Legion property. It isn't really -- it isn't my property; I 23 just lease the property from them. 24 JUDGE POLLARD: Yeah, but we got to know where it's 25 located. 6-23-14 19 1 MR. SHOTWELL: Well, yes. 2 JUDGE POLLARD: There has to be a metes and bounds 3 description, and you have to have it surveyed. 4 MR. SHOTWELL: Well, I talked to Bob Keating, and 5 through -- before Commissioner Moser's recommendation, I went 6 over and got one of the -- the easement, the right-of-way 7 deals for the county. And I had word from Bob Keating 8 through Eric over there that Bob said he didn't really need 9 the metes and bounds at all. He understood exactly where it 10 was; he had come over there and looked at the property 11 himself several times. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, I don't have a problem 13 with approving it subject to a lot of those conditions. One 14 of them is the County Attorney looks at it, and that it -- it 15 is very -- it is limited to this corner as depicted here. 16 I'd be against doing a blanket easement to KPUB any more than 17 we've already got on that property, just because -- 18 JUDGE POLLARD: The County Attorney may recommend a 19 requirement for surveying and a metes and bounds description. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We got to -- 21 JUDGE POLLARD: I would certainly recommend it. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. So, I'll make -- I'll 23 make -- I'm sorry, Bob. 24 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I have one question for the 25 County Attorney. Will this affect anything with the ongoing 6-23-14 20 1 bankruptcy of River Star? Do we have the right to grant the 2 easement? 3 MS. STEBBINS: It shouldn't affect anything. I'll 4 confirm. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. I'll make a motion that 6 we grant an easement to Mr. Shotwell for the corner of the 7 property of River Star Event Center, and I'm going to attach 8 this to the motion as depicted in Exhibit A. 9 JUDGE POLLARD: An aerial easement. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: An aerial easement. And 11 consistent with KPUB's easement agreement and contingent on 12 being approved by the County Attorney, and with the 13 conditions that it not interfere, and not include all of the 14 River Star Event Park, just this area over for the aerial 15 easement. So, that's my motion. Very, very fine. Thank 16 you. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Commissioner, would you -- 18 are you -- where's the part about if he leaves, the easement 19 goes with him? As well as -- 20 JUDGE POLLARD: The easement terminates -- 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 22 JUDGE POLLARD: -- at the cessation of his 23 business. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: As well as the metes and 25 bounds. I'd leave that up to the County Attorney. 6-23-14 21 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I'll amend that motion to 2 include what you just said; that if this facility that he's 3 installing there leaves, then the easement goes away. 4 MR. SHOTWELL: Very good. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And it's -- and all this metes 6 and bounds, if necessary, as determined by the County 7 Commissioners -- or I mean by the County Attorney be 8 included. 9 MR. SHOTWELL: Very good, sir. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 11 JUDGE POLLARD: Is there a second? 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 13 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. It's been moved and 14 seconded. Any further discussion? Those in favor, signify 15 by raising your right hand. 16 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 17 JUDGE POLLARD: It passes 4-0. Thank you, sir. 18 MR. SHOTWELL: Thank you, sir. I want to thank all 19 of you for your consideration. Mr. Moser, thank you very 20 much. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thank you. 22 MR. SHOTWELL: And, Judge, thank you. 23 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. Item 1.7; that's a timed one 24 at 9:15, so we can proceed. Presentation regarding Kerr 25 County, Texas A & M AgriLife Extension interpretation. 6-23-14 22 1 JUDGE POLLARD: Morning. 2 MS. FIEDLER: Good morning. I know it said Roy 3 Walston, so I hope you're not too disappointed. 4 JUDGE POLLARD: Roy's looks have really improved. 5 MS. FIEDLER: Yeah. (Laughter.) Well, when you 6 hang out with somebody as much as we do, you start looking 7 alike, right? I'm hoping I'll start looking like her. This 8 is Amber Hoffman. I wanted to introduce y'all. I know some 9 of you have gotten to meet her, so she's our new and improved 10 Laurinda Boyd, so our 4-H Extension Agent, so we're very 11 happy about having her on board. We've already been on the 12 road quite a bit. Amber can contest that we've been on the 13 road for about two weeks since the beginning of June, and we 14 were fortunate to be able to take three teams to state 15 contest this year in College Station here early in June, and 16 that contest draws over 1,000 4-H'ers that converge at this 17 contest every year. It's held in College Station at Reed 18 Arena, and there's 50 different contests and workshops going 19 on. 20 One of our -- we had a mohair judging team that won 21 second place. And we hoped that we'd have some of those kids 22 here today, but we'll definitely have -- later in the summer, 23 we'll bring them all up here so y'all can see them and they 24 can give presentations. But we wanted to get in here and let 25 y'all know about it, but they did win second place, and that 6-23-14 23 1 team was Ross Potter, Anastasia Luck, Tori Rodgers, Allie 2 Rodgers, and -- I'm sorry, that's our -- that's our healthy 3 lifestyles team. And we had a high-point individual, Ross 4 Potter, who won statewide, so we were excited about that. 5 And that's the first time that this team has gone to state, 6 so... I also want to recognize Mary Beth Bauer; she was one 7 of my coaches that assisted this team, so -- and also our 8 mohair judging team was Sarah Muehlstein, Josh Muehlstein, 9 Haley Poole, and Brianna Fisher, and they won second place as 10 well. And, we had a high-point individual; that was Sarah 11 Muehlstein, statewide. 12 And then our range and pasture I.D. team won first 13 place, so we were extremely happy about that. And that -- 14 those team members were Richard Loveland, Morgan Ledder, Mary 15 Potter, and Ross Potter, and Richard was our high-point 16 individual. So, we did fantastic. We're very happy to be 17 able to represent Kerr County. Also, I want to recognize 18 Mary Beth Bauer; she was our healthy lifestyles coach. She 19 also helps with our grass I.D. team too. And then Fred Speck 20 was the one who coached our wool and mohair team, so -- and 21 they went on to nationals last week as well, so we're excited 22 about that. And then Amber's going to tell you a little bit 23 about our scholarships kids. 24 MS. HOFFMAN: We had four kids receive scholarships 25 this year for a total of $31,000. The 4-H Foundation gave 6-23-14 24 1 2.3 million dollars in scholarships this year, so that was 2 pretty exciting. Some of the kids that got them, Margaret 3 Pruitt received a $1,500 scholarship. Anastasia Luck, 4 $10,000. Ashley Walters received a $2,500 scholarship. And 5 Sarah Muehlstein, who is a member of the state 4-H Council 6 this year, received an $18,000 Houston Livestock Show 7 scholarship, so that's considerably good; they represented us 8 well. I also kind of wanted to speak about the upcoming -- 9 some of our upcoming events. This coming week, I guess on 10 Wednesday, we'll leave for leadership lab. We've got nine 11 kids going with us, and Josh Muehlstein will be running for 12 district office, so we'll see if we can get him an officer 13 position. And then we also have state congress; we have 10 14 kids going with that where we will participate in a week-long 15 mock session of Legislature up at the Capitol in Austin. 16 So -- 17 MS. FIEDLER: You might tell them about Mission 18 Possible, too. 19 MS. HOFFMAN: I'm not for sure on how many, but we 20 have a few kids volunteering to be a counselor at Mission 21 Possible, which is a summer camp for kids with disabilities, 22 and so they will go up there and get trained for a few days. 23 And then the campers will come in for about three days, and 24 they'll work with them one-on-one, and in a leadership 25 opportunity, and give them a chance to work with some of 6-23-14 25 1 those kids. So, that'll be a great experience for them too. 2 I believe we had a few go last year, so I'm sure we'll have 3 those same ones and a few more this year. 4 MS. FIEDLER: So we're excited. It's been very 5 busy, but we've been having fun, so we're glad to have a 6 young person on our team, so -- to keep up. So, thank y'all 7 for having us. 8 MS. HOFFMAN: Thank you. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Quick question. Who won the 10 wool and mohair judging? What county? 11 MS. FIEDLER: It was Tom Green County. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Tom Green. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Oh, those show-offs. 14 (Laughter.) 15 MS. FIEDLER: He had an all-girl team; he says 16 that's the best way to go. (Laughter.) So, Roy might be 17 thinking about that. 18 JUDGE POLLARD: Must have male judges. 19 COMMISSIONER REEVES: You mentioned Mary Beth Bauer 20 coaching. She also received a very special award. 21 MS. FIEDLER: She did. I'm sorry I did not -- I 22 did not mention that. 23 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I think it's very honorable. 24 MS. FIEDLER: She did receive an award at state -- 25 at our state contest this year, a superior service award for 6-23-14 26 1 her, so -- and she went and she was able to represent the 2 county there and receive that award there at College Station 3 as well. They had a nice dinner planned for those 4 individuals, so we're very proud of her. She puts in a lot 5 of time and effort. And as you know, her kids are already 6 grown and gone, and she still continues to work with our 7 kids. She loves it, so -- and we love having her as part of 8 our team. So, yeah. Thank y'all for having us today. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Thank you. 10 JUDGE POLLARD: Thank you. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you. 12 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. I see that 1.8 is a timed 13 one at 9:30, and we're just a bit early, so we'll go ahead 14 and do 1.9; consider, discuss, and take appropriate action 15 regarding interlocal agreement with Kerr County Juvenile 16 Board. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Bruce? 18 MR. McKENZIE: Sorry. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: He's chomping at the bit. 20 MR. DAVIS: Good morning, Your Honor, 21 Commissioners. This item is something that I've asked the 22 County Attorney to review and approve, which she has. I've 23 dumped a whole bunch on her at one time, and I appreciate her 24 getting those things through. This is an agreement that I'm 25 going to ask this Court to approve, and I'm also going to 6-23-14 27 1 take to the Juvenile Board. What this effectively does is 2 allow the sharing of resources between Kerr County and the 3 Kerr County Juvenile Board, the resources being such as 4 vehicle, cell phone, computer. Items belonging to the 5 Juvenile Board are underneath their control -- operational 6 control, I should say, and the Juvenile Board is responsible 7 for that, just as this Court's responsible for items that -- 8 operational control of County-operated computers, phones, 9 vehicles, that type of thing. This would allow this Court 10 and the Juvenile Board to share usage for the benefit of the 11 County and the board, basically, so we don't have to -- so I 12 don't have to have two cell phones, two computers, so I can 13 use resources back and forth for the benefit of the County 14 and the board. 15 JUDGE POLLARD: Is there any discussion about it? 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Where is the interlocal 17 agreement? 18 MR. DAVIS: The interlocal agreement, I believe, 19 was -- I have copies of it here. I thought y'all had it. I 20 apologize if you don't. 21 JUDGE POLLARD: Don't you have it in your -- 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No, sir, I don't think so. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I have a job description. 24 MS. GRINSTEAD: It was forwarded via e-mail. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Oh, I see. Thank you, 6-23-14 28 1 Jason. 2 MR. DAVIS: You're welcome. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Oh, that's correct. I've got 4 it. 5 MR. DAVIS: Anyone else? 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, if you've got another 7 one. Thank you. 8 MR. DAVIS: Thank you, Commissioner. 9 JUDGE POLLARD: I thought everybody had one, I'm 10 sorry. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. Well, she forwarded the 12 e-mail, that's correct. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Judge, I move for approval. 14 Were you through? 15 MR. DAVIS: With this item? Yes, sir. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. Oh, no, this is Jason 17 Davis Day, isn't it? In Commissioners Court. 18 MS. STEBBINS: That's the truth. 19 JUDGE POLLARD: Is there a second? 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 21 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay, it's been moved and seconded 22 for approval of the interlocal agreement between Kerr County 23 Juvenile Board and Kerr County. See here? I'd have a 24 conflict of interest if I was chairman of the Juvenile Board. 25 This will work out better. 6-23-14 29 1 MR. DAVIS: Definitely to your advantage, Your 2 Honor. 3 JUDGE POLLARD: He wanted me to be chairman of it. 4 Then I'd be signing contracts with myself. All right. Is 5 there any further discussion? There being none, those in 6 favor, signify by raising your right hand. 7 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 8 JUDGE POLLARD: It is 4-0; it passes. Thank you, 9 Jason. 10 MR. DAVIS: Yes, sir. 11 JUDGE POLLARD: And, by the way, here. 12 MR. DAVIS: Thank you, Your Honor. 13 JUDGE POLLARD: We still have one minute. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I think you're right on time. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's okay, you can do it. 16 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. Let's go back to 1.8; 17 consider, discuss, and take appropriate action on request 18 from the Kerrville/Kerr County Joint Airport Board to use 19 $100,000 of the airport reserves to pay the consulting firm 20 to be hired to evaluate the roof -- roofs of Mooney. Steve 21 King and Bruce McKenzie. There was some lady in the 22 newspaper that thought, well, we ought to spend all the money 23 locally here. I think -- 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: She didn't think Huser was a 25 local company on the Ag Barn. 6-23-14 30 1 JUDGE POLLARD: I guess. I don't know. I don't 2 know. Yes, sir? 3 MR. McKENZIE: Good morning, Judge, and good 4 morning, Commissioners. My name's Bruce McKenzie; I'm the 5 Airport Manager at the Kerrville/Kerr County Municipal 6 Airport at Louis Schreiner Field. And as the Judge just 7 mentioned, this is about hiring a consultant firm to evaluate 8 the roof situation at Mooney. Both entities have asked -- 9 "entities" being the owners, have asked the Airport Board to 10 move forward with that process and to pay for that out of our 11 reserves, and the board, of course, agreed to pay the 12 $100,000 out of our reserves. So, we're not here asking for 13 money; I'm just asking for your permission to move some money 14 out of our reserve account into a capital working account in 15 order to pay the consultant so we can move this process 16 forward. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So moved. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 19 JUDGE POLLARD: Any further discussion? If there's 20 not, those in favor, signify by raising your right hand. 21 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 22 JUDGE POLLARD: It's 4-0. That train went by. 23 MR. McKENZIE: Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. 24 JUDGE POLLARD: Yes, sir. 1.10; consider, discuss, 25 and take appropriate action on -- 6-23-14 31 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Jason Davis Day. 2 JUDGE POLLARD: -- on approval of the residential 3 contract for Kerr County Juvenile Detention Facility, and 4 authorize the County Judge and the facility administrator to 5 sign the same as needed. Mr. Davis again. 6 MR. DAVIS: Yes, sir. This is the residential 7 contract -- the contracts for services that we mail out to 8 the 14 counties that contract to place their children in our 9 building. After discussion before this Court previously -- 10 and I ask you to recall, I guess, going back a couple weeks. 11 Last time we were here, we noticed some deficiencies in the 12 contract, and I got the advice of T.J.J.D., our regulatory 13 agency, took some information to the County Attorney, and she 14 was able to rework an agreement that we believe is compliant 15 with the state standards and legally beneficial in protecting 16 the county. This will be the contract that we will mail out 17 upon approval from this Court. We would ask that the Court 18 also authorize the County Judge to sign the same contracts 19 when they are returned -- or actually when -- the time we 20 mail them out to the counties that contract with us. I would 21 ask that this Court approve the contract as presented. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Jason, is the $95 per day, 23 is that -- not the standard, but what we've been using for 24 how long? 25 MR. DAVIS: I know it's been that way for at least 6-23-14 32 1 three years. I'd have to go back historically before that. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I notice it says it 3 currently is $95. I was just wondering if maybe you -- is 4 that a hint that it needs to change at this time? 5 MR. DAVIS: Not at all, and I would ask that we 6 don't change that. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Move for approval. 8 JUDGE POLLARD: Is there a second? 9 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Second. 10 JUDGE POLLARD: Any further discussion? I would 11 like to ask Jason, is Cameron County the only one we contract 12 with? 13 MR. DAVIS: No, sir. Actually, Cameron is -- we 14 have a contract with Cameron, but we also -- because they 15 operate a facility, we've been an overflow for them. We have 16 -- and I don't have the list; I apologize. We have 14 17 counties, including Kerr County, so 13 additional counties 18 with which we contract. Cameron and Nueces Counties, we're 19 actually in their hurricane evacuation plan, so that if they 20 have to evacuate youth from their facilities, they can place 21 them up here. We don't normally get a kid out of Cameron or 22 Nueces County. I don't remember ever having a kid out of 23 Nueces County, but in the event that they need -- they have 24 need for that, we -- that's one of the reasons the contract 25 is in place with them. 6-23-14 33 1 JUDGE POLLARD: Cameron County's a long way from 2 there. What's the transportation issue there? Are they 3 obligated to transport them here? 4 MR. DAVIS: Yes, Your Honor, they are. They're 5 obligated to transport. 6 JUDGE POLLARD: Suppose a hurricane comes in on the 7 coast down there and all of those counties need to transfer 8 their juveniles up here? Do we have the facilities for all 9 of them? 10 MR. DAVIS: We don't, Your Honor. We have -- of 11 course, our facility is a 25-bed facility. T.J.J.D. has 12 actually approved, in the old building where our Probation 13 office is housed, some usage back there for a temporary 14 emergency. Now, I'd have to look; I'm not sure how many 15 rooms are in there. I want to say about 10. But, you know, 16 we would not have the ability to contract -- to place all of 17 the children. We -- basically, we could take them until the 18 house is full, and then they'd have to go somewhere else. 19 The next shot will probably be Ector County. 20 JUDGE POLLARD: Is that possible occurence 21 addressed in the contract? 22 MR. DAVIS: Is it -- I'm sorry, I don't think I 23 understand the question. 24 JUDGE POLLARD: If we can't take them, if we're 25 obligating ourselves to take them if we can't. 6-23-14 34 1 MR. DAVIS: It is, Your Honor. We are not under 2 any obligation to keep children. In 2009, we got into a 3 situation where Kerr County had 25 kids in the facility, just 4 that we were placing here, so we had to decline placements 5 from other counties. It hasn't happened since then, and 6 hopefully won't happen again. But we are set up for that, 7 and that should be covered in the contract. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: This just allows them to put -- 9 it allows Jason to accept them if he can. 10 JUDGE POLLARD: If he can, all right. Any further 11 discussion? There being none, those in favor, signify by 12 raising your right hand. 13 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 14 JUDGE POLLARD: It's 4-0, unanimous. Thank you, 15 Jason 16 MR. DAVIS: Thank you. 17 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. 18 MR. DAVIS: Few more. 19 JUDGE POLLARD: Once more, I'm going to hand it to 20 you. 21 MR. DAVIS: Thank you. 22 JUDGE POLLARD: There we go. 23 MR. DAVIS: Got it. 24 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay, you're up again, Jason. 25 MR. DAVIS: Yes, sir. 6-23-14 35 1 JUDGE POLLARD: 1.11; consider, discuss, and take 2 appropriate action on amendment to the organizational chart 3 for the Kerr County Juvenile Detention Facility. 4 MR. DAVIS: Thank you, Your Honor. I'm asking that 5 -- and presenting this, and if you all want me to make 6 changes, we'll definitely do that and bring it back. This is 7 kind of what we came up with between myself and the H.R. 8 Director. There were some changes that I am suggesting -- 9 suggesting being made to this chart. This is the chart that 10 obviously goes in the budget book. I believe you all have a 11 copy of this. If not, I have it. The current chart that 12 we're under right now has the top of the chart being the 13 facility administrator. That's the first change I made, is 14 the top. In my belief, it needs to be the Commissioners 15 Court, not the facility administrator, because I report to 16 you, and you are the authority-making body over that 17 facility. 18 The second change I made is, if you'll look to the 19 righthand side of the chart, the administrative assistant/ 20 juvenile detention officer, J.D.O., that position was 21 actually down below the shift supervisors. There was an 22 efficiency issue there, and I actually brought her up to be 23 under the facility administrator. The majority of her duties 24 are administrative; they are not supervision of juveniles. 25 For that reason, I didn't think that it was proper for her to 6-23-14 36 1 be down with the line level. And she's not a supervisor, but 2 at the same time, she's really not personnel in the back 3 watching the kids. She is more of an administrative-type 4 position, and I would ask that we approve this. 5 Also, if would you note, towards -- under the 6 departmental position detail, if you look at FY '15 under 7 Juvenile Detention Officer, that number is 10. We -- and I 8 believe from what Dawn tells me that the Court's already 9 approved this, but I'm just changing the chart to reflect 10 what the Court's current order is. We have control room 11 operators, and I believe five of those. I'm not sure; I'd 12 have to go back and look at it. We did away with the control 13 room operator position, because it's effectively the same 14 position, and we did away with that and just put it all under 15 a Juvenile Detention Officer. The overall number of 16 employees has stayed the same; we didn't add any employees. 17 We're still at 17 full-time employees. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Does have it any impact from a 19 step and grade issue on making those changes? 20 MR. DAVIS: No, sir, they were the same. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move approval. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 23 JUDGE POLLARD: It's been moved and seconded for 24 approval of this chart. Any further discussion? 25 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Ms. Lantz, does this meet 6-23-14 37 1 with your approval as far as H.R.? Do we need anything 2 different? 3 MS. LANTZ: No, Jason and I discussed it, and the 4 only change I had was the one with the control room 5 operators, because they are all actually juvenile detention 6 officers. 7 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Thank you. 8 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. Those in favor of the 9 motion, signify by raising your right hand. 10 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 11 JUDGE POLLARD: It is 4-0, unanimous. It passes. 12 Let's see, that was 1.11, right? 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 14 JUDGE POLLARD: 1.12; consider, discuss, and take 15 appropriate action on approval of an agreement with the 16 Kerrville Independent School District, and authorize the 17 County Judge and the facility administrator to sign the same 18 as needed. 19 MR. DAVIS: Your Honor, this is an agreement that 20 K.I.S.D. presents to us on an annual basis. We're -- this is 21 basically a renewal of this agreement. This has been 22 approved by the County Attorney's office as well, and I would 23 ask that this Court approve this. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So moved. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 6-23-14 38 1 MR. DAVIS: Thank you. 2 JUDGE POLLARD: It's been moved and seconded for 3 approval of this agreement. Any further discussion? There 4 being none, those in favor, signify by raising your right 5 hand. 6 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 7 JUDGE POLLARD: It is 4-0; that passes unanimously. 8 Who's going to sign this on behalf of the Kerr County 9 Juvenile Facilities -- that would be Judge Williams? 10 MR. DAVIS: You can, Your Honor. I'm not sure -- 11 they presented this document, and if we need to alter 12 signature lines, we can do that, but I would ask that the 13 County Judge sign any legal documents. 14 JUDGE POLLARD: Want me to sign on it behalf? 15 MR. DAVIS: Yes, sir, if you don't mind. 16 JUDGE POLLARD: Signed and delivered again. 17 MR. DAVIS: Thank you, Your Honor. 18 JUDGE POLLARD: Thank you. Next item is 1.13; 19 consider, discuss, and take appropriate action on approval of 20 one additional full-time female position at the Kerr County 21 Juvenile Detention Facility. Mr. Davis. 22 MR. DAVIS: Your Honor, I would like to withdraw 23 that request and scratch that agenda item at this time. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Let's argue with him about 25 that. 6-23-14 39 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Talking about hiring a female? 2 JUDGE POLLARD: I'm not going to argue with him. 3 All right, we'll just pass that, then, and go on with no 4 action. We'll go on to 1.14 -- 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's a timed item. 6 JUDGE POLLARD: Timed. 1.15 is timed, so is 1.16. 7 1.17; consider, discuss, and take appropriate action 8 regarding thermostat settings and utility bills for the 9 courthouse. Commissioner Letz. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I forgot -- 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'm glad our attorney is in 12 here for this one. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: This came up actually because I 14 was in the Veterans Service Officer's office, and it was -- 15 it was freezing. And I asked her a question about it. It 16 was -- anyway, because of where that thermostat is, I talked 17 to Tim about it. I said, "Tim, you know, it seems to me that 18 we often keep a lot of our thermostats very cold in here. 19 It's a waste of money, to me." And Tim said that he tries to 20 set them, but various people go and take them off or unlock 21 the boxes and change the settings. And I don't know if we 22 have a policy or not, but I really think that -- I mean, that 23 really annoyed me, that -- that people are going into our -- 24 you know, especially changing the settings. It is a waste of 25 money, and I don't -- you know, I probably like it warmer 6-23-14 40 1 than most people, but to me, I don't know why we should ever 2 have any thermostat set lower than, you know, to me, 73 3 degrees. 73 would be fine, but 73, 74, somewhere in there. 4 And I just think that -- I don't know if it's worthy of a 5 policy or not, necessarily. But it's just something that I 6 just -- I had a bee under my bonnet when I heard all this, 7 and I put it on the agenda. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: It is a waste of energy and 9 money. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. I mean, it's -- our 11 utility bills are huge. 12 JUDGE POLLARD: Yeah, but the question is, what 13 good would a -- would it work? Unless you have some kind of 14 lock on the thermostats. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's it. 16 JUDGE POLLARD: That's the real issue, isn't it? 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. Yeah, and I don't know 18 if some of them have locks or not. 19 (Mr. Bollier nodded.) 20 JUDGE POLLARD: They do have locks. All of them? 21 MR. BOLLIER: Not all of them. Some of them. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Some of them do. But the -- 23 the locks -- but they're taken off occasionally. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Probably no action is required 25 by the Court. Tim's got the authority -- 6-23-14 41 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, they -- 2 MR. BOLLIER: I'll do whatever this Court tells me 3 to do. You know, I have put plastic lockboxes on them, and 4 how they get them lids off, I do not know, but that has 5 honestly happened on several different occasions. 6 JUDGE POLLARD: I don't guess it hurts to have a 7 policy on it. It's just enforcement of it, is -- 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 9 MR. BOLLIER: I know that this -- 10 JUDGE POLLARD: -- is a problem. 11 MR. BOLLIER: I have brought this to the Court 12 several years ago. I'm not going to say we have a policy, 13 but I was almost sure we did. But I -- I'm not for sure; I'm 14 going to be honest. I do not know if we have a policy there 15 or not, but I do know that I did send out an e-mail that the 16 settings were to be at 72, and no higher than 74. And this 17 has been several years ago. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: 72? 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean, I don't really know 20 what to do. I just really put it on the agenda so we could 21 discuss it a little bit. And if -- 22 JUDGE POLLARD: Well, if he's not sure that we have 23 a policy, -- 24 MR. BOLLIER: I'm not sure. 25 JUDGE POLLARD: -- I don't suppose it would hurt to 6-23-14 42 1 have one. Yes, ma'am? 2 MS. BOLIN: In our office, it kind of depends on 3 the weather outside as to what the temperature needs to be 4 inside. A lot of times ours is set at 72, and it is so cold 5 in there that you can't function, so we up it to 74 or 75, 6 and that generally takes care of it. If it's 90 degrees 7 outside, it needs to be at 73. But I'm -- I don't see that 8 it needs to be at 72 ever, because it's just too cold in the 9 offices, because there's no circulation. 10 MR. BOLLIER: Now, there's other people that feel 11 totally different. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I agree. I mean, I don't 13 -- to me, I don't have an upper limit. I still think it 14 should be -- you know, 72 is -- is pretty cold for me, but 15 anyway, that's fine; I don't mind 72. I just don't think it 16 should be set for 60. 17 MS. BOLIN: Ours was never at 60, anything at 60. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: All right. I'll make a motion 19 that we set a policy that thermostats -- that air 20 conditioning should not be set lower than 72 degrees. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: In the summer. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, any time, really. 23 COMMISSIONER REEVES: You said air conditioning? 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, air conditioning. The 25 air conditioning. 6-23-14 43 1 MR. BOLLIER: I think that the thermostat setting 2 should never change, during the -- during the summertime 3 above 72, or in the wintertime -- in the summertime above 72, 4 or the wintertime 72. Well, we retracted that. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Providing that's not in 6 conflict with perhaps an existing policy, which we don't know 7 whether it exists or not. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll withdraw my motion, and 9 I'll let Jody see if we have a policy. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Research and see. 11 JUDGE POLLARD: Let's see if we have a policy, and 12 then we can send that policy out to all department heads. 13 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. So, we're going to pass 14 that for the moment. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 16 JUDGE POLLARD: 1.18; consider, discuss, and take 17 appropriate action to name the Commissioners Court members to 18 the Airport Planning Committee. Commissioner Moser. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thank you, Judge. There is -- 20 the interlocal agreement between the City and the County for 21 the airport operations calls for a planning committee to be 22 comprised of three people from the county, not to exceed two 23 members of Commissioners Court; three people from the City, 24 not to -- two of which should not be -- no more than two of 25 which are City Councilmen; and then two from the Airport 6-23-14 44 1 Board. And it says that these members shall be designated by 2 the appropriate bodies. So, we -- this Court has not named 3 who should be on that Airport Board -- I mean on that 4 planning committee. I think Commissioner Letz was in there 5 from a previous term, so this is just to clean up some 6 paperwork. So, I'll make a motion that Commissioner Letz and 7 myself be on the planning committee for the Airport -- 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Is it not three? 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: -- Board. There's only two 10 County Commissioners, and then the other one can be the 11 County Auditor or County Attorney, whatever is needed at that 12 time. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Do you want a name in that? 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: No. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'll second the motion. 16 JUDGE POLLARD: Any further discussion? 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Letz, did you want to have 18 your name on there as a second? 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. 21 JUDGE POLLARD: Any further discussion? Those in 22 favor, signify by raising your right hand. 23 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 24 JUDGE POLLARD: It's 4-0, unanimous. Okay, let's 25 go to 1.20; consider, discuss, and take appropriate action to 6-23-14 45 1 set a public hearing for July 14th of this year at 9:30 a.m. 2 for the County Clerk -- Clerk's written archival plan, in 3 accordance with Section 118.025 -- of some code. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move approval. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 6 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. Is there any discussion? 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: This is one of those things we 8 have to do on an annual basis. 9 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. There being no further 10 discussion, those in favor, signify by raising your right 11 hand. 12 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 13 JUDGE POLLARD: It's 4-0, unanimous. All right. 14 1.21 -- 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Judge, I'd like to postpone 16 that for a bit since the people that are interested in this 17 are not here; probably won't be here till about 10:30. 18 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay, we'll skip that one and go to 19 1.22; consider discuss, and take appropriate action to 20 authorize County Judge to sign Amendment 3 Agreement for 21 Engineering Services between Kerr County as the owner and 22 Tetra Tech, Inc., as the engineer for Center Point wastewater 23 improvements per Court Order 33516. Commissioner Moser and 24 Commissioner Letz. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I can handle this real quick. 6-23-14 46 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Go ahead. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We approved this amendment, but 3 we didn't give authority to you to sign it. This amendment 4 has come in since this is with Water Development Board, and 5 you know, we thought it would be appropriate just to put on 6 it the agenda to authorize the County Judge to sign the 7 amendment that we approved previously. I'll make such a 8 motion. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 10 JUDGE POLLARD: Any further discussion? If not, 11 those in favor, signify by raising your right hand. 12 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 13 JUDGE POLLARD: It's 4-0, unanimous. And I will 14 sign that so you don't have to wait on that. 1.23; consider, 15 discuss, and take appropriate action to accept the audit 16 report for Justices of the Peace, Precincts 1 and 2. Yes, 17 ma'am? 18 MS. DOSS: Good morning, gentlemen. 19 JUDGE POLLARD: Morning. 20 MS. DOSS: I'm here to share with you the audit 21 review for the Justices of the Peace for Precincts 1 and 2. 22 I placed copies of these in your boxes on Friday, but I have 23 extra copies if you need them. Everybody have it? These 24 audits were performed due to Judge Billeiter's retirement for 25 Precinct 1, and the departure of Mitzi French from Precinct 2 6-23-14 47 1 for her to take over the J.P. position in Precinct 1. The 2 scope of this audit was for the period ending May 31st, 2014. 3 One of the objectives of this audit was to verify that the 4 ending balance of their fines and fees software program in 5 Odyssey balanced back to the general ledger, and in both 6 cases, they balanced to the penny, so we're good there. I 7 also needed to determine the timeliness of the deposits of 8 these offices' daily receipts, and again, in both cases these 9 deposits were made on a daily basis. The Auditor's office 10 recommends that they do so to mitigate risk. I spoke with 11 Elsa Galvan in Precinct 1, Mitzi French in Precinct 2, and 12 also Misty Cass, who was there doing training. I asked them 13 if they had any concerns regarding the transition, and they 14 both stated that their offices ran very smoothly and they 15 felt very confident that it would continue to do so. So, 16 there were no findings or deficiencies found in the scope of 17 this audit. I would like to extend my gratitude to all these 18 ladies for their cooperation and commend them on a job well 19 done. 20 JUDGE POLLARD: Very well. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Judge, I move that we accept 22 the audit report for Precincts -- J.P. Precinct 1 and -- 23 three, is it? 24 MS. DOSS: Two. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Two, excuse me. 6-23-14 48 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 2 JUDGE POLLARD: Any further discussion? There 3 being none, those in favor, signify by raising your right 4 hand. 5 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 6 JUDGE POLLARD: 4-0, unanimous. Thank you. 7 MS. DOSS: Thank you. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you, Ms. Doss. 9 JUDGE POLLARD: 1.24; consider, discuss, and take 10 appropriate action to finalize war memorial project and go 11 forward with ordering granite. Commissioner Letz. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I put this on the agenda. 13 Ms. Baker just walked in, so I'll probably turn it over to 14 her right away. I know we went out for some different bids. 15 I know we were having some difficulty in receiving them, or 16 getting -- having interest in it. And I -- but I think we 17 just need to move forward. If we only have one bid, so be 18 it. Maggie, can you kind of update us on where we are with 19 that? 20 MS. BAKER: Good morning. I did send off for two 21 extra bids along with the one that we do have for Mr. Zirkle 22 from Hill Country Monuments, and as of right now, I don't 23 have any other information, just the one from Mr. Zirkle. 24 And he did say that if we were going to do the extra seal and 25 everything on top of the -- excuse me, the black granite, it 6-23-14 49 1 would be an extra $400, and we did get that. So, I went in 2 and I talked with the American Legion. They said no problem, 3 they would give that. So, we've got all the money to go 4 through. And Mr. Zirkle said that if we got everything ready 5 to go by the second week of July, he could order everything; 6 everything could be here, and it would be ready to go by 7 Veterans Day. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And it's been at least two to 9 three weeks since we've gone out and requested these other 10 bids, maybe more than that. 11 MS. BAKER: Yes. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, with that being said, I'll 13 make a motion that we authorize the agreement with Mr. 14 Zirkle, and authorize Ms. Baker to advise him to proceed with 15 ordering the granite. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I'll second. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And the installation. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I second that. 19 JUDGE POLLARD: It's been moved and seconded that 20 we accept the bids from Mr. Zirkle and proceed -- 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What's the total -- excuse me. 22 JUDGE POLLARD: Go ahead. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What's the total? Do you 24 recall? 25 MS. BAKER: I think it's right about $21,000 or 6-23-14 50 1 $22,000. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Approximately $22,000. 3 JUDGE POLLARD: Yeah. Any further discussion? 4 There being none, those in favor, signify by raising your 5 right hand. 6 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 7 JUDGE POLLARD: It's unanimous, 4-0. Thank you, 8 ma'am. I want to declare about a five-minute recess, okay? 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. All right. 10 (Recess taken from 9:56 to 10:02 a.m.) 11 - - - - - - - - - - 12 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. It's about, what, two or 13 three minutes after 10:00, and the recess is over. The 14 Commissioners Court is back in session. We'll consider at 15 this time 1.14, presentation on the 2013 Texas Association of 16 Counties' Gold Star Award for Safety in Kerr County. Larry 17 Boccaccio. Am I pronouncing that right? 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: He stepped across the hall, 19 Judge. 20 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I mean, he should -- well, 22 I'm going to shut up. He should be back within the hour. 23 (Laughter.) That's not him. 24 JUDGE POLLARD: Well, we'll go ahead and go to 25 1.15, then we'll come back to him. Consider, discuss, take 6-23-14 51 1 appropriate action to accept business association -- 2 associate agreement between Alamo Insurance Group and Kerr 3 County, and have the County Judge sign the same. Dawn Lantz. 4 MS. LANTZ: Good morning, Judge Pollard, 5 Commissioners. 6 JUDGE POLLARD: Morning. 7 MS. LANTZ: This is something we do yearly with 8 Alamo Insurance, because they do handle our ancillary 9 products for the county employees. So, basically, the 10 agreement was sent to the County Attorney for her review. 11 She did make a few corrections. Those were made and such, as 12 presented to the Court this morning. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What are the changes -- or 14 recommended changes? 15 MS. STEBBINS: Just in the indemnification 16 paragraph, the change there is that it's subject to the 17 extent of indemnification permitted by law. That was it. 18 Which is -- which is none. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay, thank you. 20 MS. LANTZ: And today I have with me Gary Looney, 21 who is overseeing our business agreement. He's who we do all 22 of our correspondence back and forth with at his office in 23 San Antonio for our ancillary products. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What was that last name? 25 (Laughter.) 6-23-14 52 1 MR. LOONEY: Judge, Commissioners, what the 2 business associate agreement does is give you the background 3 that, as insurance agents, when we are in the receipt of 4 private healthcare information, or P.H.I., or however you 5 want to title what P.H.I. is, we can help your employees with 6 claims. We help families with claims, that any information 7 we gather from them is protected. And it's protected under 8 law by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability 9 Act, which requires us to have a business associate agreement 10 with you so that we can share that information with your 11 employees when it comes time for us to service the account. 12 It's a fairly standard generic contract, and as -- as your 13 legal counsel has said, the purpose of the additional wording 14 is to allow it to comply with accounting regulations. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Dawn, is this the process by 16 which the little issue that I had got resolved? 17 MS. LANTZ: Yes, sir. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Little personal issue, 19 some misunderstanding, and -- in a policy, and I think they 20 stepped in and clarified it very quickly, and good job. So, 21 it was good service. 22 MR. LOONEY: So we need your signature, Judge, on 23 that. And then -- 24 JUDGE POLLARD: Well, I got to have a motion. 25 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I move for approval of the 6-23-14 53 1 item. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 3 JUDGE POLLARD: Been moved and seconded that I be 4 authorized to execute the agreement with Alamo Services -- 5 Alamo Insurance Group. Is there any further discussion? 6 There being none, those in favor, signify by raising your 7 right hand. 8 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 9 JUDGE POLLARD: It's 4-0, unanimous. I've now 10 signed it, and herewith submit it for further circulation. 11 MS. LANTZ: Thank you. 12 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. What's next here? 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: 16. 14 JUDGE POLLARD: 1.16; consider, discuss, and take 15 appropriate action regarding changes to Kerr County employee 16 voluntary benefits package for 2014 and '15. Dawn Lantz. 17 MS. LANTZ: Basically, what we're implementing or 18 requesting the Court, Gary Looney is here to speak to the 19 Court about changing one of our providers that we do offer 20 the employees, and that's Allstate Insurance. We're looking 21 at possibly changing to Guardian for our cancer and accident 22 policies. We've been given a better policy, according to 23 what Mr. Looney has found out, better benefits. So, I'm 24 going to turn it over to him to explain it. You should have 25 the backup information as far as what Guardian is going to 6-23-14 54 1 provide to Kerr County. 2 JUDGE POLLARD: One question. Are you kin to Doug 3 Looney? 4 MR. LOONEY: No, sir. No, sir. 5 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. Do you know him? 6 MR. LOONEY: Joe Don. No, didn't know him either. 7 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. 8 JUDGE POLLARD: I know who he is too; I remember. 9 MR. LOONEY: Unfortunately, I was not kin to Looney 10 Tunes either. If I'd been that, I'd have been retired long 11 before Buster and I hanging out together. I was going to ask 12 Buster to introduce me to the Court, but I was afraid of what 13 he might say. 14 JUDGE POLLARD: That's a genuine fear, I can tell 15 you. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: All right. All right. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Your credibility just went up. 18 (Laughter.) 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Are you going to step in as 20 my attorney or not? 21 MS. STEBBINS: You might deserve it, Buster. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. 23 MR. LOONEY: I don't think that's slanderous yet. 24 We've worked with the County and the county employees for a 25 number of years, and we've always tried to make sure we had 6-23-14 55 1 the best product in front of the employees for the optional 2 purposes. These are all voluntary products. We dealt with 3 the Allstate company for a number of years, and we had them 4 as a carrier here for a while. One of the problems is not so 5 much the contractual agreement or the claims functions, but 6 their administrative procedures have become just intolerable 7 for your staff and for our staff to deal with. The 8 communication link with Allstate has sadly developed into a 9 noncommunication process. We've been trying to repair it for 10 at least 18 months now. We've given them every opportunity 11 to comply with what we needed as far as services were 12 concerned, and they weren't able to do so. So, about 12 or 13 15 months ago -- 14 JUDGE POLLARD: Oops. 15 MR. LOONEY: So, oops, they made a mistake. Not 16 only did they make a mistake with your-all's contract, but 17 they made a mistake. We were the largest underwriter for 18 Allstate in the state of Texas three years ago, so they're 19 not going to -- they're not going to be happy with all the 20 changes we're going to be making, but we gave them every 21 opportunity to correct and adjust. We took the contract 22 language and information to the Guardian underwriters. One 23 of the Guardian underwriters, I brought him with me just to, 24 you know, swear by everything I say, or if I make a mistake, 25 he can stand up and say, "Wait a minute." 6-23-14 56 1 JUDGE POLLARD: And it's a real person and a real 2 entity. 3 MR. LOONEY: Real person, real entity. And next to 4 him is the gentleman that's going to be responsible to Dawn 5 and me and everybody else for services. So, Rusty and Jerry 6 are both here, and they're with Guardian, so if you have any 7 additional questions of me that I can't answer, then I have 8 the backup. We spent a number of hours with Dawn going over 9 each -- the level of coverage. It's lined out; I think that 10 you all, in your packets, have the comparisons that were 11 given to you. You see they're pretty comprehensive as far as 12 the evaluations were concerned. We took every element of the 13 benefits and compared it to any -- matched or improved on 14 those benefits. We have about 88 people now, I believe, on 15 the accident policy, and close to 87, 88 that are 16 participating in the cancer policy. 17 The changeover -- the turnover, there will be no 18 restrictions on any coverage that anyone currently has in 19 force. Any claims, anything that's in process, will be 20 handled by the new carrier, so that there's no preexisting 21 condition clauses. Upon enrollment, which we've got 22 scheduled, there will be no insurance eligibility questions 23 asked. Full-time employees or any new employees, there's not 24 any -- it's all guaranteed issue, and it will be guaranteed 25 issue from this point forward. Guaranteed issue means an 6-23-14 57 1 individual can apply for coverage and receive benefits. 2 There is one clause that applies to preexisting conditions. 3 They can have the policy. If they have cancer when they 4 apply for the policy -- of course, Buster, with accidents, 5 we've got to make sure we get him covered for the accident 6 coverage. But if they have cancer when they apply for the 7 policy, they have to wait a full year before they can receive 8 any benefits under the contract. So, that's the only 9 restriction on the guaranteed issue portion of it. Our 10 recommendation is to -- to move to the Guardian products at 11 this renewal period. We will be requesting each individual 12 to complete new applications, and anyone that wishes to 13 enroll will have their chance to enroll in the new voluntary 14 products. 15 JUDGE POLLARD: That they have cancer means that 16 it's been diagnosed? 17 MR. LOONEY: If they've been diagnosed. 18 JUDGE POLLARD: I hear people suddenly diagnosed as 19 having cancer, but they -- it's pretty -- you know, they've 20 had it for a year and didn't know it. 21 MR. LOONEY: It has to have been diagnosed. 22 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. 23 MR. LOONEY: There has to be some positive 24 identification by a medical facility or a physician. 25 JUDGE POLLARD: An example is Coy LeMeilleur. I 6-23-14 58 1 just went to his funeral Saturday. He was diagnosed with 2 cancer and died within two weeks, and he'd apparently had it 3 for many, many months before that and didn't know it. Okay, 4 thank you. 5 MR. LOONEY: Yes, sir. Any other questions? 6 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. Does anybody have a 7 motion? 8 MS. LANTZ: Just so the Court is aware, they are 9 honoring our current prices. Our prices will not be going 10 up; they will be staying the same. So, what -- what the 11 employees pay for Allstate right now, Guardian has accepted 12 that same premium rate for both policies. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And this is just the accident 14 coverage? 15 MS. LANTZ: Just the accident and cancer coverage. 16 MR. LOONEY: Correct. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And you're asking us to 18 allow Mr. Looney to move us from Allstate to Guardian Group 19 Cancer Plan? 20 MS. LANTZ: And accident. 21 MR. LOONEY: On the anniversary date. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, that's all I see, is 23 cancer plan here. 24 MR. LOONEY: It's on the second page. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. Okay. You don't have 6-23-14 59 1 to get pushy. 2 MS. LANTZ: With our open enrollment starting 3 October 1st. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: But that's this issue with 5 moving from Allstate to Guardian. 6 MS. LANTZ: Like we did last year moving our life 7 insurance. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move approval. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'll second it. 10 JUDGE POLLARD: It's been moved and seconded that 11 we move from Allstate to Guardian Insurance. Any further 12 discussion? 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll just make a comment about 14 Guardian. My wife previously had Guardian for her primary 15 insurance, and they were outstanding. They were -- had 16 excellent relations and did everything, so I think from 17 everything I know about Guardian, they're a very good 18 company. So, it's a good move. 19 MR. LOONEY: Thank you, Judge. 20 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. If there's no further 21 discussion, those in favor of the motion, signify by raising 22 your right hand. 23 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 24 JUDGE POLLARD: It's 4-0, unanimous. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank y'all. 6-23-14 60 1 MS. LANTZ: Thank you. 2 JUDGE POLLARD: I think the next one will be 1.19? 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: 14. 4 JUDGE POLLARD: 14, oh, yeah. Presentation of the 5 2013 Texas Association of Counties' Gold Star Award for 6 Safety to Kerr County. Larry Boccaccio, is that right? 7 MR. BOCCACCIO: Yes, Judge. 8 JUDGE POLLARD: Did I pronounce that name 9 correctly? 10 MR. BOCCACCIO: Boccaccio. 11 JUDGE POLLARD: Boccaccio. 12 MR. BOCCACCIO: It's been pronounced every which 13 way imaginable, so I just kind of go, "Yep, that's me." Come 14 on, Dawn. I just wanted to take a few minutes, and the 15 actual award was presented at C.M.I. back in -- we do it 16 April? May? Early May. And the County has earned a Gold 17 Star Safety Award. And as far as the Gold Star Awards, there 18 are only nine of those awarded statewide. To be eligible for 19 it, you have to have an outstanding safety record, and it has 20 to be over a three-year period. So, it's not something that 21 just happens, folks. It's something that -- that she's 22 worked hard at to get you guys there. And just briefly, the 23 actual brochure that went out, this states, This is Kerr 24 County's second consecutive Gold Star Award. All departments 25 have bought into the safety and health policy. The Road and 6-23-14 61 1 Bridge Department continues to motivate new ways to provide 2 -- or to prevent both vehicular and workers compensation 3 injuries. So, I would like to present it to you and get a 4 picture, and you have a spot to hang it on the wall? 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Come on up here. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Come on up here. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Dawn? 8 MS. LANTZ: This is the county. This is the 9 Court's. 10 COMMISSIONER REEVES: But you worked hard to get 11 it; come up here. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Buster, get over here. 13 MS. LAVENDER: We got a plan. You're all going to 14 get in the middle, and somebody's going to block the two 15 lights. You can -- 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Buster and I have been 17 designated. You're in the middle. 18 MS. LAVENDER: So, Judge -- yeah. Judge, get under 19 the star. There we go. Move in this way a little bit. 20 MR. BOCCACCIO: Everybody inhale. 21 MS. LAVENDER: All right. Ready? 22 MR. BOCCACCIO: I wasn't looking right. All right, 23 got it? 24 JUDGE POLLARD: Thank you very much. 25 MR. BOCCACCIO: You're welcome. Thank you. 6-23-14 62 1 (Applause.) 2 MR. BOCCACCIO: On with the meeting. Okay. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Thank you, Larry. 4 MS. LANTZ: I would like to say one thing; that 5 without all the Kerr County employees participating and doing 6 what they need to do, this is how we earn it. It's not just 7 my office, or Cindy. It's the entire county, from Road and 8 Bridge to Maintenance to everyone, thinking about safety, 9 which saved us a lot of money. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: How many other counties have 11 received this twice? 12 MR. BOCCACCIO: Out of my territory, maybe three. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Oh, really? 14 MR. BOCCACCIO: I have -- my territory goes from El 15 Paso all the way over to Brazoria down to Brownsville. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: How many counties? 17 MR. BOCCACCIO: About 82 counties is what I deal 18 with. So, out of those, multiple winners consecutively, 19 maybe two to three. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: All right. 21 MR. BOCCACCIO: Yeah. It's a good achievement, 22 folks, and keep it up. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you very much, Larry. 24 MR. BOCCACCIO: You're welcome. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Good to see you. 6-23-14 63 1 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. I think -- did we do 1.19? 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 10:30. 3 JUDGE POLLARD: 10:30 is right. Did we do 1.21? 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: No, we're waiting for 10:30 on 5 that too, for the people to get here. 6 MR. TITAS: We're ready at 10:30. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We can't do it early. It's 8 timed. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: It's been posted. 10 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. That's on 1.21? 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 1.19. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: 1.19. 13 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. Consider, discuss, and -- 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No, we can't do it until 10:30. 15 MR. BOLLIER: Got to go to 25. 16 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. Which one can we go to? 17 1.21? 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 25. 19 JUDGE POLLARD: 25. Consider, discuss, and take 20 appropriate action on creating permanent committee to review 21 candidates for war memorial and other issues related to war 22 memorial. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I put this on the agenda 24 because in talking with Ms. Baker, there is some, I guess, 25 question whether the group that we appointed originally are 6-23-14 64 1 -- in that we appointed them basically to go through the 2 initial screening, vet the individuals, see if they're 3 qualified to be on the war memorial, but we didn't have any 4 process to continue. And so I talked with Ms. Baker. We 5 thought we ought to put it on the agenda as to if we're going 6 to -- how are we going to handle that going forward now if 7 someone else -- the name comes forward, so we have a system 8 or process in place as how to have it. And -- 9 JUDGE POLLARD: You mean when we have additional 10 deaths? 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Or there may be a death that 12 just hasn't been vetted yet, maybe someone from Vietnam that 13 just, for whatever reason, wasn't ever vetted. So, we need 14 to have a -- a mechanism just as to how to do that, just so 15 we -- you know, we can do it case by case, or even with how 16 we -- the process works. So I just put it on the agenda for 17 us to discuss if we want to appoint the committee or wait 18 till names comes forward. 19 JUDGE POLLARD: Well, I think it's appropriate, 20 especially since what's going on over in Iraq now again. 21 We're going to end up getting a hit, looks like. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, do you have a 23 recommended list, or should we each -- each Commissioner 24 choose someone from the precinct, or how do you want to do 25 it? 6-23-14 65 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I was going to find out the 2 interest, how do we want to go. Then we can ask Ms. Baker if 3 she can come up with some names and bring it back at our next 4 meeting. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I think that's -- 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Let her talk to the people, 7 make sure they want to serve, and go from there. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Let's do that. 9 JUDGE POLLARD: In any event, I think the Veterans 10 Service Officer, whoever it is at the time, ought to be one 11 of the committee members. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay, I agree. That's fine. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We'll turn it back to 15 Ms. Baker; she can come up with a list of -- of her plus 16 four -- or the Veterans Service Officer plus four 17 individuals? Five? Or we could even do two. It's not -- 18 you know, we'll -- 19 JUDGE POLLARD: I think two. Make it not -- don't 20 make it cumbersome. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. Okay, we'll make it a 22 three-member committee. The Veterans Service Officer will be 23 one, and come up with two other names, bring it back at our 24 next meeting. Okay, that's all we needed. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: We can go to 1.21; they're 6-23-14 66 1 here. 2 JUDGE POLLARD: They're here now? 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yep. 4 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. We'll consider 1.21 5 now; consider, discuss, and take appropriate action regarding 6 a resolution by the Commissioners Court recognizing the 7 service and 90th birthday of former County Commissioner Ed 8 Higgins. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thank you, Judge. I'd like to 10 -- to propose a resolution; I want to read it into the 11 record, if I could. Resolution of Kerr County Commissioners 12 Court congratulating Edward Higgins on his 90th birthday and 13 thanking him for his service to the United States of America 14 and Kerr County. The resolution reads, Whereas, Edward has 15 been a valuable member of the community for over 40 years, 16 serving as Kerr County Precinct 2 Commissioner from 1983 to 17 1986; and whereas, Edward Higgins is celebrating his 90th 18 birthday, being born in Eliasville, Texas, on June 11th, 19 1924; and, whereas, Edward served his country in the United 20 States Air Force for 28 years, starting with 35 flights over 21 Germany in a B-17 during World War II, and as a C-130 pilot 22 during the Vietnam War. He was a member of Project Gemini at 23 Cape Canaveral, which earned him a Pioneers in Space Award 24 for Technical Achievement from the United Daughters of the 25 Confederacy in 2011, and Texas Division of the United 6-23-14 67 1 Daughters of the Confederacy in 2012. He was awarded the -- 2 awarded the Daughters of American Revolution Medal of Honor 3 for having displayed leadership, trustworthiness, service, 4 and patriotism; and whereas, Edward has devoted -- has been a 5 devoted and loving husband to Margaret, who is here, his wife 6 of 67 years, -- 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Wow. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: -- an exceptional father to 9 his four children, Thomas, Randy, Patricia, who is here -- 10 therefore, be it resolved that on on this 23rd day of June, 11 2014, Kerr County Commissioners Court does hereby 12 congratulate Edward Higgins on his 90th birthday and thank 13 him for his service to the United States of America and Kerr 14 County. 15 (Applause.) 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So, we will sign that. We'll 17 get a picture of -- come on, Judge. Come out here. 18 JUDGE POLLARD: Yeah, we'll go to him. 19 MR. HIGGINS: Up front? 20 JUDGE POLLARD: Let's get it signed so we can hand 21 it to him. 22 MS. LAVENDER: They're going to come down here. 23 MR. HIGGINS: Where do you want me? 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Right there. 25 MS. LAVENDER: You stay right there; they're going 6-23-14 68 1 to come to you. 2 MR. HIGGINS: Okay. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Actually, you can get 4 anywhere you want to. 5 MS. BOLIN: Lean on me. 6 MR. HIGGINS: They're going to move that little 7 stand. 8 MS. LAVENDER: Y'all come down. 9 JUDGE POLLARD: Come on down. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: All the Commissioners get with 11 him. 12 MS. LAVENDER: Y'all just kind of get a round him 13 and stand around. 14 MS. BOLIN: You're in the middle, Ed. 15 MS. LAVENDER: This will work right here. 16 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. I'll present this to you. 17 Congratulations. Thank you very much for your service. 18 MR. HIGGINS: Thank you. 19 MS. LAVENDER: Let me get everybody in here. Bob, 20 you're going to have to move this way some. Okay. 21 (Discussion off the record.) 22 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Commissioner, that was a motion 24 you made, I presume. Correct? 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's correct. 6-23-14 69 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 2 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. Those in favor of that 3 motion, signify by raising your right hand. 4 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 5 JUDGE POLLARD: It's 4-0, unanimous. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thank you. 7 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. I think it's close 8 enough to 10:30. Everybody's here for 1.19. I think we can 9 go ahead and consider that one. Consider, discuss, and take 10 appropriate action on approving the 381 agreement with 11 Bending Branch Winery for partial county property tax 12 abatement. Commissioner Letz and Jonas Titas. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Just a comment before I turn it 14 over to Jonas and Mr. Young. Bending Branch is a -- a winery 15 outside of Comfort in Kerr County off Hermann Sons Road, and 16 they're -- they've done something -- I mean, they have taken 17 a true leadership role in the winery -- and we've talkd a lot 18 about it before on the Court and economic development, of 19 trying to really, I think, raise the wine industry in Kerr 20 County, and they have taken a huge, you know, I guess, 21 leadership position in doing that. Last year they had an 22 agricultural sector -- or Commissioner Todd Staples down for 23 kind of a get-together at the winery. Their investment into 24 the county has been -- is substantial, as you can see by the 25 information that's been presented. And, you know, it's one 6-23-14 70 1 of these things that from an economic development standpoint, 2 I support what they're doing. I support the abatement. It's 3 only a partial abatement for some of the new investments 4 they're hoping to make in the future. But, anyway, I want to 5 turn it over to Jonas and Mr. Young now to kind of go over 6 the details of what they were requesting and what the winery 7 is all about. 8 MR. TITAS: Thank you, Commissioner Letz. We have 9 sent y'all some information early last week that had the 10 application process -- or the application that was submitted. 11 We also put together a little Power Point; we just presented 12 a handout. I apologize, on the first page there's a little 13 typo. That should say 381; it says 380. But you see that 14 Bending Branch has a 56-acre estate with about 20 acres 15 planted here on the Kerr County side there right off of 16 Hermann Sons Road, right on the Kerr County side of the 17 Kendall County line. The -- 18 JUDGE POLLARD: Just the 20 acres is on the Kerr 19 County side? 20 MR. TITAS: All 56. Yeah, it's all -- it's all 21 contiguous, but there's just 20 -- 20 of the 56 are growing 22 grapes. The rest is production, distribution facilities, 23 tasting room, et cetera. Let's see, the current operations, 24 they have 12 full-time employees. Their payroll is about 25 $41,000 a month. They've invested $3.1 million to-date in 6-23-14 71 1 their operation. Their annual sales are 860 -- are over 2 $866,000, and that's -- that figure has tripled over the last 3 three years. And that's a year-to-date number right now, so 4 that's actually 80 percent above last year's number for 5 this -- 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And that's before the 7 improvements that we're talking about? 8 MR. TITAS: Yes, sir. Yes, sir. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's incredible. That's 10 the number that jumped off the page at me. 11 MR. TITAS: Yes. They have about 100 visitors per 12 day, and they expect that number to significantly increase 13 with the excess tasting room and -- and space to allow for 14 more people to attend the winery and spend money in Kerr 15 County. They also opened a new tasting room recently in 16 Comfort. But they're looking at a new project right now that 17 will encompass a new tasting room, a new manufacturing 18 production and distribution facility, and a pavilion area. 19 This will be constructed in two phases. There will be about 20 23,000 square feet of new facilities, and create five new 21 jobs. The total project cost for this phase of development 22 is about 3.6 million dollars, and it's broken down exactly 23 what that will entail. And if the County wishes to consider 24 an abatement on these -- this new production and distribution 25 facilities and tasting room, that'll amount to about 14,835 6-23-14 72 1 thousand dollars per year, is the value of the abatement. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: One more time? 3 MR. TITAS: $14,835 per year. And that won't be 4 money given to Bending Branch; that will just be property and 5 rendition taxes abated for a period of time. And if that 6 abatement were to last for five years, the total value of 7 that abatement would be $74,178, and then once that abatement 8 expires, that $3.6 million of new value will be added to the 9 county tax rolls, and this will spur the development of this 10 new investment in Kerr County. 11 JUDGE POLLARD: And the abatement is for a period 12 of? 13 MR. TITAS: We're recommending five years. This 14 would be consistent with the draft of the new policy that 15 we're working with the County Attorney on. So, with that, a 16 lot of the details and the technical aspects of the project, 17 I'd like to turn it over to Bob Young, who's one of the 18 owners of the winery. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: One question as he's coming 20 up, Jonas. What was the length of the abatement on Fox Tank? 21 It was like five years also, as I recall? 22 MR. TITAS: It was 24 months, I believe. I'd have 23 to verify that, but yes. 24 MS. HARGIS: It's 24 months on the sales tax, and 25 five years on the property taxes. 6-23-14 73 1 MR. TITAS: I stand corrected. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thank you, Jeannie. 3 MR. YOUNG: Judge Pollard, Commissioners, my name 4 is Bob Young, part owner and one of the winemakers of Bending 5 Branch in Comfort. Thank you very much for taking the time 6 to hear our proposal today. Jonas has gone over some of the 7 basics here of -- of the proposal. I might add in a few 8 other things. One of the things that we have been doing at 9 Bending Branch is we have established a leadership position 10 in researching grape growing and winemaking in Texas, and 11 I'll just give you a few examples about that. We started out 12 by trying to find grapes that would specifically grow in Kerr 13 County and this part of the state, so we didn't go with some 14 of the typical grapes that are -- that are out there that are 15 in California and other areas. So, we have come up with 16 16 different varietals that we're researching on the property. 17 Already, one of them has really taken off; it's called 18 Tennat. We call the wine Texas Tennat, and actually, this 19 wine received an award. The very first red wine we made from 20 the estate for right here in Kerr County won the best Texas 21 wine at the Houston Rodeo, and one bottle of that -- 22 actually, a magnum, which is two bottles put together, was 23 auctioned off in Houston for charity, and sold for $100,000. 24 JUDGE POLLARD: I can't afford any new wine. 25 MR. YOUNG: Well, we sell it much cheaper than 6-23-14 74 1 that. So, I won't go into all the different varieties, but 2 we're researching varieties that will work here in Texas, and 3 specifically in our region here in Kerr County. Secondly, 4 we're researching different ways of growing grapes, because 5 this is a new wine region; hopefully it's going to explode 6 here in this area. And we have three different growing 7 methods that we're researching on the property. We also are 8 concerned about water, as I know you are, and we have already 9 installed a 50,000 capacity rainwater collection. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: 50,000? 11 MR. YOUNG: 50,000 gallons, yes. And we intend to 12 do more. So, we collect it off of -- off of the current 13 smaller winery we have on-site. We also collect it off of 14 our house, and we will do more in the future. The projection 15 of five employees is conservative. I -- my daughter and my 16 son-in-law put this together, and I said let's have a 17 conservative proposal. Let's not -- I personally think, you 18 know, we're going to probably get 10 or 12 new employees over 19 this time. We already have hired one new one since the 20 proposal, and we've got one scheduled to come in next -- next 21 year. The production capacity, our current -- one of our 22 current problems is that -- some people would say this is a 23 good problem -- is we're concerned about running out of wine, 24 so we need to expand capacity. 25 Our current building will only go up to 4,000 case 6-23-14 75 1 production per year. And this new project will allow us, 2 over time -- not immediately, but over time, to go up as high 3 as 20,000 cases of wine per year, so it will five-fold 4 increase capacity. The new tasting room facility will be a 5 state-of-the-art facility. It'll handle five times as many 6 people as are currently coming out to the property. Our 7 sales methodology is direct. We don't use distributors, and 8 almost all of our sales are directly out of our tasting room 9 facility on-site, about 85 percent. About 15 percent is now 10 out of the location in downtown Comfort. And so that's kind 11 of our model, is to go direct, direct to the consumer. So, 12 as we sell more and more wine, there will be more and more 13 people coming out here. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Can I ask you a question on 15 that? 16 MR. YOUNG: Yes, sir. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Does the fact that the -- or 18 the fact that Precinct 2 is dry, does that limit you in your 19 sales from your tasting room? 20 MR. YOUNG: No, sir, we don't have any -- any 21 limitation. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I think wineries are 23 exceptions. Huh? 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't know about wine, but 25 he's in 3, so it's -- 6-23-14 76 1 MR. TITAS: They're in a different precinct. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay, that's true. 3 MR. TITAS: And Texas agricultural products are 4 exempt. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. Say again? 6 MR. TITAS: Texas agricultural products are exempt 7 from wet/dry laws. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. That's what I was 9 thinking, yeah. 10 MR. YOUNG: Also, we've already seen it happen, and 11 we hope and think more will happen, is that there will be 12 spinoff vineyards. Bruce and Jana Colgate in Center Point 13 are now growing grapes specifically for us to make into wine. 14 We work with them, train them and so forth, and we hope to 15 find more people that -- that will do that over time, because 16 having access to enough grapes in this area is a big problem. 17 In Texas in general, we produce only about 50 percent of the 18 grapes that there is the demand for in the industry. 19 JUDGE POLLARD: So you need a lot more growers, 20 then? 21 MR. YOUNG: We need a lot more growers. We do. We 22 have plenty of buyers. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And recently, some of the -- a 24 lot of the old town Kerrville names, you know, John Hollimon 25 is putting in a vinyard right now. It's actually going to be 6-23-14 77 1 in Gillespie County, but growing grapes primarily for Bending 2 Branch. I think he planted about 4,000 grapes this year. 3 MR. TITAS: And the major grape growing area in the 4 state is the panhandle, and they have also -- they've been -- 5 they've had terrible luck with the weather in the recent 6 years, so they've had a lot of late freezes that have 7 consequently hindered the grape production. So that -- as 8 bad as that is for the panhandle, that benefits and spurs 9 more development and interest in growing grapes in this 10 region of the state. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Jonas, while you're there on 12 this subject, talk a little bit about soil samples and all, 13 from Bending Branch all the way back up to Camp Verde and up 14 Highway 173. 15 MR. TITAS: Well, I think this is why Bending 16 Branch is a true leader in pursuing new technologies and 17 new -- new types of grapes that grow well in this region. 18 They're not trying to necessarily force Cabernet Sauvignon or 19 Chardonnay in Kerr County just because they have a name brand 20 and it's synonomous. They're experimenting with types of 21 grapes that make good wine, and also can flourish in this 22 area. So, the industry in Texas is -- and, John, please 23 correct -- or Bob, please correct me if I'm wrong -- is in 24 its infancy, and it's been compared to California in the 25 '80's or early '90's. Right now, people are finding their 6-23-14 78 1 niche and learning what works well, and learning how to be 2 more successful in -- in what they're doing. But, yes, 3 the -- the soil and the amount of rain that -- that we 4 receive can bear fruit. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And I think something, too, 6 that I -- that I recall -- correct me if I'm wrong, that the 7 micro-climate around that area from Bending Branch on, and to 8 the west along 173, appeared to be even better than that 9 around Stonewall or in Fredericksburg, of which there are how 10 many wineries over there now? 11 MR. TITAS: There are in the mid-30's. Thirties 12 right now, and they're projecting to have over 70 within a 13 couple of years. 14 MR. YOUNG: So, very quickly, I'll mention that we 15 have taken a leadership position also in researching wine 16 production techniques, and just a couple -- there was a slide 17 that I -- one slide that I took out of an hour-and-a-half 18 presentation that I gave about a month ago to a bunch of 19 grape growers and winemakers up in the high plains. If 20 you'll bear with me just a second, I'll give you a two-minute 21 chemistry lesson on wine-making. To make robust red wines, 22 you need three major components. There are others, but you 23 need lots of tannins, need lots of color compounds or 24 anthocyanins, and plenty of fruit. So, if you take a typical 25 grape that you ferment -- and most people, when they do the 6-23-14 79 1 fermentation, they only extract 25 to 40 percent of those 2 important compounds, so we started some research to see how 3 we could extract more of those components. And we've done 4 this now since 2010, and I've presented some of the data at 5 this meeting. 6 We came up with a method called cryomaceration, 7 which in simple terms is freezing grapes for a while, and 8 then you -- then you let them thaw out, and then you ferment 9 them. By doing this, and I kept all the chemistry through 10 this, we were able to extract 50 percent more tannins and 11 about 20 percent more color compounds. The first wine that 12 we made with this technique won the best Texas wine. So, 13 this -- this new technique is substantial, and improves 14 winemaking incredibly. The next technique is called flash 15 détente, and we are getting the first machine of this type 16 outside of California. That will be delivered here for us to 17 start assembling sometime -- actually, it's coming in on June 18 the 30th. This machine does the opposite of the freezing. 19 It heats the grapes very rapidly, and then it takes them over 20 to a vacuum chamber and they burst open -- the cells do, and 21 it leaches all of these good compounds, the same ones I just 22 mentioned to you, out. It extracts almost 100 percent out of 23 the skins. It's a revolutionary technology in winemaking. 24 We've already made headlines. I passed out an 25 article that was just published in this magazine here, Wine 6-23-14 80 1 Business Monthly, which is the national journal of winemaking 2 and grape growing in the country, and it was in this month's 3 issue about what we're doing. This will be used not only by 4 us, but -- but by other growers in the area, and then in the 5 state, where they'll bring their fruit in and we'll process 6 it so that they can make better -- better wines. There is a 7 picture -- I guess kind of small, maybe -- in your -- your 8 printout of this machine. We had this specifically built for 9 us in Italy. It will be the first totally automatic -- 10 automated piece of equipment like it in the world, and it 11 will be right here in Kerr County. With that, the last -- 12 the last picture is my son-in-law, my wife, and I, you know, 13 getting our hand-tooled saddle there in Houston for the best 14 Texas wine. So, I'll be glad to answer any questions. 15 JUDGE POLLARD: I'm curious why you located where 16 you did. 17 MR. YOUNG: Well, there were several factors. One 18 is -- it had to do with family. My daughter and son-in-law, 19 when we came here, were living in Helotes, and we wanted to 20 find a place where they would be, you know, close by, so we 21 started looking out in this area within driving distance of 22 San Antonio. Eventually, you know, my son-in-law John said, 23 Hey, you know, if you want to do this, we'll -- you know, 24 would you take me? We'll do this together. So, we made it a 25 family operation, and so we started -- we spent over a year 6-23-14 81 1 researching land out this direction up I-10, and this was 2 just the perfect spot. It had the right elevation, it had 3 the right lay of the land, it had the right soil, it had the 4 right water, and it was -- you know, it had the right slope. 5 It was just perfect. It had everything that we were looking 6 for. So -- 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And it was in Precinct 3. 8 (Laughter.) 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Moving toward 2. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Dr. Young, isn't it? 11 MR. YOUNG: Yes, sir. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I am really excited about 13 this, and I'm excited for you. I hope you make billions of 14 dollars out of this thing, and you do very successful at it. 15 But my only request is, please don't let me ever into the 16 tasting room. I don't do well in those settings. 17 MR. YOUNG: Is that right? Okay, we'll just let 18 you help us pick grapes. How's that? 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, that be would be fine; 20 I can do that. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: This 381 proposal -- proposed 22 abatement, Jonas, does it have a number of employees tied to 23 it or anything? 24 MR. TITAS: It's up to the discretion of the Court. 25 They have proposed five new employees. We did not tie it to 6-23-14 82 1 employees, because we wanted to look at -- the way that we've 2 created the first draft of the 381 policy that we're working 3 with the County Attorney on looked at more closely tied to 4 capital investment rather than job creation. Because a lot 5 of the employees can be seasonal; they can be -- 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Sure. 7 MR. TITAS: They can be lower wage. So, we thought 8 that to demonstrate the -- the real economic impact, or to 9 look at what exactly investments are being undertaken within 10 the county. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: My recommendation would be that 13 we approve the concept of the 381 today, and then authorize 14 myself and you, Tom, and Jonas to get together and bring an 15 agreement -- actual agreement back to the Court. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Because we obviously don't have 18 it today. I don't want to vote on something we don't have 19 before us. And the County Attorney obviously hasn't looked 20 at it, 'cause it's not written yet. So, I'll make a motion 21 that we approve the -- I guess the concept of a property tax 22 abatement for the improvements to be made as proposed. And 23 the details of the 381 agreement will be worked out with 24 Commissioner Moser and myself and Bending Branch Winery, and 25 be brought back to the Court at a future date. 6-23-14 83 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 2 JUDGE POLLARD: Is that for a five-year abatement 3 period? 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. 5 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. It's been moved and 6 seconded that -- 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I second. 8 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. Moved and seconded that 9 the concept be approved for a five-year abatement period, 10 and -- and that the two Commissioners, Letz and Moser, will 11 come back with -- after consultation with the County 12 Attorney, with an agreement for an abatement of five years. 13 All right. Is there any further discussion? 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Does the County Auditor have 15 anything -- any comments or anything? Okay, thank you. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: My only question is, is 17 there a new roof involved in any of this? (Laughter.) 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: There will be a new roof, but 19 it's going to be -- we don't have -- 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It's going to be his. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's his roof. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: His roof. It's going to 23 collect water. 24 JUDGE POLLARD: Not a flat roof, I hope. 25 MR. YOUNG: No, sir. 6-23-14 84 1 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. All right. There being no 2 further discussion, those in favor, signify by raising your 3 right hand. 4 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 5 JUDGE POLLARD: It's 4-0. Thank you very much, 6 sir. 7 MR. TITAS: Thank you very much. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Thank you, Bob. 9 MR. YOUNG: Thank you, Jonathan. 10 JUDGE POLLARD: My goodness, that's pretty exciting 11 about a new direction for an industry in our area. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It is exciting, very. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's great. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Plus I got me a job after I 15 retire now, picking grapes. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Stomping them. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Stomping them. This is 18 going to be fun. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Picking them is delicate. 20 Stomping them. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Stomping. 22 JUDGE POLLARD: We're back on -- should be 1.26 23 now; discussion regarding marketing and operations of the 24 Hill Country Youth Event Center. Commissioner Letz. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I put this on the agenda. 6-23-14 85 1 Really, Commissioner Reeves and I did it together as a kind 2 of a general discussion item. We both believe that, you 3 know, we need to start working on the marketing -- a 4 marketing plan, and probably individuals to work with the 5 county on the new event center when it's -- it will be 6 finished the end of this year. My feeling is that, you know, 7 we're not the best at doing that internally as a county. 8 We're going to need to hire someone or contract with someone 9 to help us with this endeavor. And we have had some 10 preliminary conversations with Convention and Visitors 11 Bureau -- Charlie, just about, you know, could he help? And 12 basically he said, yes, he's glad to help. The other thing 13 related, though, is the marketing side, and over time, we're 14 going to have increased operational costs out there, 15 hopefully increased revenue. But one of the tools for 16 additional revenue could be signage, naming rights, ad 17 boards, things of that nature. And I asked the County 18 Attorney to look into this a little bit as to how far we 19 could go. And a lot of it really is -- isn't to make a 20 decision today. It's to bring it before the Court and say if 21 you want Bob and I to pursue these -- both these avenues as 22 to how we're going to get the marketing plan, whether it's 23 Convention and Visitors Bureau or somebody else. Charlie has 24 some experience in doing it, and whether it's best suited 25 that way. Other things we're looking at is operations 6-23-14 86 1 things, such as concessions. You know, are we going to be 2 better off -- at some point, hopefully we'll have a catering 3 kitchen or something, but to contract with a company to 4 operate all the concessions year-round in the facility? Or 5 do it the way we've been doing it? There's lots of things 6 that we really need to start looking at related to that 7 facility, and this is kind of bringing it up; kind of give 8 a -- hopefully a nod from the rest of the Court for us to 9 start going forward and coming back with a -- 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Something. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Action items as they come up. 12 But on naming -- 13 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Before the County Attorney -- 14 some of this was discussed in our trips, the late 15 Commissioner Oehler, and as we looked at facilities many 16 years ago, how they were doing it, how they were offsetting 17 increased maintenance costs with signage, ads and everything, 18 and it's pretty -- worked very well with the expansion of the 19 facilities in San Angelo; namely, they're comparable size and 20 everything, and facilities, so it's a -- it's an avenue I 21 think we definitely need to look into. I'm sure there's some 22 caveats we've got to watch out for, so -- 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Let me bring one other thing 24 into the discussion too, and I think it just complements what 25 these two commissioners have said. When Schreiner 6-23-14 87 1 University, with their marketing department, looked at the ag 2 facility size, but they spent most of their time with eight 3 senior students and two faculty members looking at the 4 marketing -- What's been done in the past? What hasn't been 5 done? -- and came up with a really fine list, which this 6 Court hasn't seen yet, of recommended marketing things. So, 7 what I'd -- and it's -- you know, it's exactly compatible 8 with what you guys are saying. So, what I think we should do 9 too -- and I know the faculty and the students are anxious -- 10 is we ask them when they can come in and present to the Court 11 their findings on this, just for consideration. But they 12 have some -- Charlie McIlvain and I looked at it as a draft, 13 and -- and it's -- it would go a long ways in helping 14 identify what procedures and what options there are, and -- 15 and I think relative to what the County Attorney's getting 16 ready to talk about. So, with that, I'll -- I'll ask them 17 when they can come in, and -- 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Sure. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: -- present that to the Court. 20 It's, you know, a 15-minute presentation. Really good, 21 though. Okay. 22 MS. STEBBINS: I talked about this with Jonathan 23 and Bob, and we -- there were a couple of issues that came 24 up. One of them was the sale of advertising space, and then 25 another was naming rights. And I don't know if it's really 6-23-14 88 1 the sale of naming rights, or kind of a tribute to people who 2 have donated above a certain amount of money toward 3 facilities. I think that's something you guys will want to 4 work out. But we, as a county, are permitted to sell 5 advertising on buildings, cars, literature we send out, you 6 know, our letterhead. We just have to -- as Commissioners, 7 y'all have to adopt a procedure that suits you. And you said 8 that San Angelo had a pretty good procedure, so we can 9 certainly look at other similarly situated counties and -- 10 and types of facilities. But we'll have to look at 11 procedures and bring that back to y'all to adopt before we 12 can go out and advertise that, or advertise that we want 13 people to come and -- and advertise particular spots. We'll 14 have to be very particular about what we do; sizes of the -- 15 of signs, location of signs, things like that. 16 Another consideration is that the I.R.S. has a 17 ruling on the limitation of a sale of naming rights, and I'm 18 looking into whether or not that applies specifically to us. 19 I think it was a very limited ruling, but we'll -- I'll kind 20 of flesh that out a little bit more. And it may be that 21 we're limited in the sale of naming rights up to 10 percent 22 of the value of the property and the debt, so I'll have a 23 look at that. But we're certainly permitted to do this, and 24 if you'll just give me direction, I can track down a 25 procedure. 6-23-14 89 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: One -- 2 COMMISSIONER REEVES: It's -- it's to do with the 3 tax-free bond part of it. 4 MS. STEBBINS: That's right, the size of the bond. 5 COMMISSIONER REEVES: So, some of the facility with 6 no bonds might be available over and above that. 7 MS. STEBBINS: That limitation, correct. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: A general statement. 9 Personally, I'm not in favor of selling naming rights to the 10 entire facility; I think it needs to stay the Hill Country 11 Youth Event Center. But we have an indoor arena, we have an 12 outdoor arena, we have a show barn, we have an event hall, 13 and I think it's going to be better to name them, 'cause it 14 gets already confusing as to what's what. There's going to 15 be -- there's classrooms. There's two sections of the event 16 hall. Hopefully at some point, we'll get the partition 17 included which we had to pull off because of cost reasons 18 right now. But I think that there's -- you know, you're 19 going to -- it just makes sense to name them something, 20 rather than try to say, you know, the big portion of the 21 event hall. Why not call it "Jim Raymond Hall," for example? 22 Not that Jim Raymond's offered, but -- or a name. I mean, I 23 think the classrooms, you know, you can name them the 24 Bluebonnet Room, the Live Oak Room, or you can name them 25 after individuals. And how we pick that, I think financial 6-23-14 90 1 consideration should be considered. So -- 2 COMMISSIONER REEVES: And I think as far as 3 commercial advertising, certainly, we would want to make sure 4 we can reserve the right to reject anything that might be 5 offensive or -- 6 MS. STEBBINS: The rule says that you can. That's 7 the last -- 8 COMMISSIONER REEVES: -- not be in the best 9 interest of what we're wanting to do. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, anyway, again, it's really 11 not a -- no specific action item today, but just really to 12 bring it back to the Court and make sure that we're not going 13 into areas that we shouldn't be going. We're trying to get 14 some feedback from the rest of the members of the Court. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 16 JUDGE POLLARD: Sounds good. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 18 MS. STEBBINS: Would you like for me to move 19 forward and look at a procedure? Maybe we can visit if 20 you've found something. 21 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I'd be glad to. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 23 MS. STEBBINS: Okay. Maybe next time we can bring 24 back a procedure for the naming and for signage, and we'll 25 also come back with some sort of a proposal; maybe the Judge 6-23-14 91 1 can -- what Commissioner Moser has related to marketing. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What do we call the place? 3 What is it? Is it an ag barn, or is it a convention center? 4 Does it -- does it -- do the rules change if you call it a 5 convention center? 6 MS. STEBBINS: I don't think so. It's our 7 property, so whatever you call it, we get to do what the rule 8 says we can do as far as advertising and marketing. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's good. That's fair. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Anyway, we can hash out all 11 that stuff. 12 MS. STEBBINS: And just so that y'all can think 13 about this, there will be a difference if we decide we want 14 to say, you donate "X" dollars and we'll name the hall after 15 you, or the classroom or whatever part of the facility, or we 16 just take into consideration the people who have donated 17 money and we make the choice to name after them. That way, 18 we wouldn't be limited by that I.R.S. ruling, even if it does 19 apply in this particular circumstance. There will be a 20 difference. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think the other thing, there 22 are some things that were deleted because of the cost of the 23 building going in, one being the catering kitchen. Also, 24 we -- there's a -- the wall that divides the event hall was 25 deleted. It's a retractable wall. The structure's there to 6-23-14 92 1 handle it, but it's, I believe, an $84,000 item. 2 JUDGE POLLARD: Are you going to pay the 84,000 and 3 name it the Letz wall? 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, Letz wall. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: The Letz divider. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Divider. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: The Letz divider, yeah. I 8 like it. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: You know, so I think we need to 10 get the word out in the community that, you know, we're still 11 looking at donations. The stock show, they're tapped out. 12 They've done everything we've asked and more. 13 JUDGE POLLARD: By the way, what is -- what's the 14 cost on that kitchen? 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's estimated -- well, we've 16 actually -- we've looked at it, and Tim was out there with 17 the architect. There's -- the location where it will likely 18 go, you know, would be -- there's a -- right where the old 19 concession stand used to be, which was in the end of the 20 alleyway, and as it turns out, we have a storage room already 21 built in the show barn right there, and that storage room 22 is -- it's really more of an office space by the size now. 23 You can convert that and build the piece out in the alleyway, 24 and you would have access to all three buildings. There's 25 rollup doors already present there. It's -- and you can 6-23-14 93 1 already do it, so it's kind of -- that looks like the 2 location. The cost, we haven't asked the architect to look 3 at it, but the old one that we took out was 254,000, and that 4 was a full kitchen. And there was a lot of cost because of 5 the location of it being, you know, in the middle, having to 6 go in part of the show barn. So I guess cost, somewhere in 7 the neighborhood of 100,000 to 150,000. And the -- where 8 this new location would be is also right in -- you know, 9 almost adjacent to or catty-corner to the classrooms, so for 10 a catering function, you could do the prep work and the setup 11 in the catering kitchen, and then the serving and all that 12 can be done in the classroom area or in the hallway or 13 wherever. So, I mean, it fits pretty good right there. And 14 we'll discuss that a little bit more when it gets to the -- 15 Item 1.29 a little bit on some of that. 16 COMMISSIONER REEVES: But it is a facility used as 17 storage now, which once the new building is complete, there 18 won't be a need for storage, so we can convert it very 19 easily. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 21 JUDGE POLLARD: Well, I certainly think it's 22 advisable to start getting something done on all this 23 marketing thing now so that when the hall's complete, we can 24 get the funding. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's our plan. 6-23-14 94 1 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. Let's go to 1.27; consider, 2 discuss, and take appropriate action regarding pool vehicle 3 for the courthouse. Commissioner Reeves? 4 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Yes, I put this on the 5 agenda. If you'll recall, at our last meeting we voted and 6 approved for the pickup from Juvenile Detention, to give that 7 to Road and Bridge once we found a vehicle suitable for the 8 needs of the pool vehicle here at the courthouse. I think 9 we've all probably looked at a couple vehicles at one time or 10 another, what was available. But I was going through old 11 minutes trying to catch myself up with everything. Back 12 about the first of April, I noticed where the Court had 13 approved $40,000 for Road and Bridge to buy a vehicle for 14 this specific purpose, and I wanted to make sure, before we 15 gave this one, bought another pool vehicle, that Road and 16 Bridge has not purchased any new vehicles with that money as 17 approved by court order. And so I just wanted to doublecheck 18 on that before we proceeded. 19 MS. HARGIS: I can't speak today to that. I have 20 to look, 'cause they bought -- vehicles was part of the bond 21 allocation, so I'd have to see if there was a difference. 22 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Well, that was just my 23 concern. I didn't want to suddenly have more vehicles than 24 we needed. And prior to my time getting on here, the Court 25 had approved $40,000 for Mr. Hastings for a new vehicle, and 6-23-14 95 1 suddenly I didn't want to have too many vehicles, so I'd like 2 to look into that before we proceed any further. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And if we did -- well, if that 4 is not needed, we need to cancel that court order, or that 5 portion of that court order, and reallocate those funds. 6 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Exactly. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Good work. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. 9 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And -- but while we're on that 11 topic, I know there was a bit of discussion last week or two 12 weeks ago about what the vehicle -- the courthouse vehicle 13 should be. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I think what we did is 15 authorize the Auditor to go purchase one. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But then I think she looked at 17 one vehicle, and I know that -- you know, it was a van, a 18 minivan or something. Anyway, then the question of whether 19 that suits the needs or we wanted a minivan, or whether it 20 should be a Tahoe, more that type of vehicle. So, you know, 21 I think we probably should give direction to the Auditor as 22 to what vehicle -- whether we want a four-door vehicle, what 23 it should be. 24 COMMISSIONER REEVES: That's kind of -- I didn't 25 like the minivan for a few safety issues. I felt it was -- 6-23-14 96 1 while it may have been economical, I was kind of concerned on 2 some safety issues on it compared to a larger one. And the 3 Auditor asked me to look for some while she was gone, and I 4 started doing that, and then I found this court order, and so 5 I kind of stopped myself till we knew what was going on. 6 And -- 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So, what you're -- Jonathan, 8 what you're recommending is give some guidance. My only 9 guidance would be that it not be a pickup truck. Or get 10 something that's got some reasonable gas mileage with it, and 11 -- and can be able to accommodate "X" number of people. I 12 don't know if that's four or five or six, or -- 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't have a strong 14 preference. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I don't either. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't -- I tend to use my own 17 personal vehicle most of the time for county work. But 18 whether it should be a, you know, car -- I think first, a car 19 or S.U.V. type. And S.U.V. -- I mean, it depends a lot on 20 who's going to be using it, in my mind. And if it's an 21 S.U.V. type, you know, seat four, have four doors, and -- I 22 don't think it needs to be four-wheel drive, certainly. 23 Two-wheel drive is -- 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It should have some doors on 25 it. 6-23-14 97 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Should have some doors. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I look at the thing, I just 3 -- when I think of a vehicle, I think of Tom and I. You 4 know, how do we get in and how do we get out? 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That Tom. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, this Tom here. And 7 so, you know, we're up into the huge vehicles immediately. 8 (Laughter.) 9 JUDGE POLLARD: Who -- what's the use for the pool 10 vehicle here at the courthouse? I mean, for example, you've 11 been talking about your people going to conferences 12 sometimes. 13 MS. BOLIN: They usually use the Suburban from Road 14 and Bridge. 15 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. And how many folks do you -- 16 go with you when you do that? 17 MS. BOLIN: Usually four. 18 JUDGE POLLARD: Four. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Suburban from Road and 20 Bridge? 21 MS. HARGIS: Tahoe. 22 MS. BOLIN: Tahoe. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Tahoe. 24 MS. LANTZ: I was just conferring with Larry; he is 25 our safety person from TAC, and he had some good 6-23-14 98 1 recommendations possibly for the County for a vehicle to 2 transport more than three or four people. What did you say, 3 transfers or something? 4 MR. BOCCACCIO: TAC actually has probably half a 5 dozen of the cross-overs; the Chevy Traverse, the GMC Acadia. 6 It's easily accessible as far as stuff that's in the rear of 7 it. The Traverse actually is a nine-passenger vehicle. I 8 drove one for probably, I want to say, a couple hundred 9 thousand miles. Runs great, easily accessible. A lot of leg 10 room too; you can move the seats up and back. Not a plug for 11 Chevy, but they're good vehicles. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Nine-passenger? 13 MR. BOCCACCIO: Yeah, it is a nine-passenger. It's 14 got the option to do that. Of course, you have to be 15 a contortionist to get to the rear two seats, but yeah, it'll 16 easily hold five, you know, in the front two rows. Plus it's 17 got a great crash rating, like a five-star. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Great. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Anyway, so I just think we need 20 to, you know, figure -- need to figure out what we need. We 21 don't have to do it today; we just kind of need to figure out 22 what kind of vehicle we need. 23 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Let's see what vehicles we 24 still have. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right, see what we have. Okay. 6-23-14 99 1 JUDGE POLLARD: All right, take no action on that 2 for now, waiting for further investigation. All right. 3 We'll go to 1.28; consider, discuss, and take appropriate 4 action on pursuing interlocal agreement with Upper Guadalupe 5 River Authority concerning east Kerr County water project. 6 Commissioner Letz. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I put this on the agenda after 8 visiting with Ray Buck at U.G.R.A., and they are looking at 9 allocating some funds towards this project and -- and moving 10 forward with it. And they would, you know, I guess, like to 11 get a more formalized deal that we're doing this together. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Mm-hmm. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And so no agreement's been 14 written, but they haven't -- don't have a draft yet that I'm 15 aware of. I don't have a draft. But I just wanted to put it 16 on our agenda. They're going to deal with it at their board 17 meeting this week, I believe. So, I just put it on our 18 agenda to make sure that -- if we're in agreement to do this. 19 To me, it makes sense. We've been partners on these projects 20 all along, and this would just kind of be a very broad 21 agreement. It would be -- how I envision it, it wouldn't be 22 obligating any funds. It's just that Kerr County and 23 U.G.R.A. are working together to, you know, analyze the water 24 needs of east Kerr County. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Now, did we budget funds 6-23-14 100 1 toward it? 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We have budgeted funds -- 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We have. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- for this project. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So we've made the 6 commitment, and in my opinion, that's a pretty good 7 commitment. So, it's their turn now just to have a formal 8 agreement to -- 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And they're going to -- and I 10 think the agreement will also memorialize it in their budget 11 process more, so they will dedicate more funds to it. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's a good idea. Second. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: You made a motion? 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I made a motion, and he made a 15 second. We'll pursue it. I will bring that back to the 16 Court. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: What is the motion? That we 18 just cooperate with them? 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Cooperate on drafting an 20 interlocal agreement with Upper Guadalupe River Authority 21 concerning East Kerr County water projects. 22 JUDGE POLLARD: You seconded it? 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yes, sir, I did. 24 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It's an honor. 6-23-14 101 1 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. Is there any further 2 discussion on it? If not, those in favor of the motion, 3 signify by raising your right hand. 4 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 5 JUDGE POLLARD: It's 4-0, unanimous. Thank you. 6 1.29; consider, discuss, and take appropriate action to amend 7 the contract with Peter Lewis -- excuse me, Peter W. Lewis 8 Architect + Associates, P.L.L.C., related to the Hill Country 9 Youth Event Center. Commissioner Letz. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge, here's a handout as 11 well. What this is, is that last week, Mr. Reeves, myself, 12 Maintenance, and I.T. met out there to look at some things 13 out at the Ag Barn. But -- and one of the other things that 14 had -- that we also discussed that wasn't originally planned 15 was the sewer line issue, and this is really more pertinent. 16 The sewer line that we were paying to hook up to was so 17 level, it was a concern that it wouldn't -- it wasn't a 18 proper fallout; it wouldn't work properly. And then there 19 was also -- a line was in a different location than we 20 anticipated, and it went under the corner of the new 21 building, out from the Extension Office and then curved and 22 went back. So, those two things caused them to need to 23 re-engineer and come up with a new alternative with the sewer 24 line, and they are working on that, although that didn't come 25 through as a formal change order. 6-23-14 102 1 The new sewer line will also accommodate a 2 potential catering kitchen, which is just a coincidence. 3 Where they're going to put it was right next to where that -- 4 the location we talked about a little bit earlier. But Peter 5 Lewis called me and said that our agreement with Peter Lewis 6 and Associates started in February of 2012, and there has 7 been a change in their hourly structure for additional 8 services, and he asked that we amend that agreement. And I 9 only have one copy here, if anyone wants to look at it, of 10 what it covers. This was actually before we built the show 11 barn, was the agreement. But to amend the hourly fee 12 structure for additional services, and insert the second page 13 of attachments. Here's the actual contract we have with 14 Peter Lewis, if you want to look at that. 15 And so I put it on the agenda so we could do that. 16 It's increasing the hourly rate for some of these quite a 17 bit. You know, I was -- the original contract was broken 18 into two phases. Phase 1 was the show barn which was built, 19 and it was -- the drawings for all that was 90 -- somewhere 20 -- it's 97,000, plus or minus, for all that construction 21 documents and contract administration. And Phase 2, which is 22 the building which is currently being built, was 68,000, 23 about, and that's the agreement that we're currently under. 24 He asked that we amend the hourly fees for additional 25 services. And these services -- really not a cap on them; 6-23-14 103 1 it's just whenever something is requested for them to redo, 2 it would be considered under this. 3 JUDGE POLLARD: Has the County Attorney looked at 4 it and approved it? 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: She has not. Well, the County 6 Attorney looked at the contract. All we're doing is changing 7 the fee structure of the contract. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So, how much did the fee 9 structure increase, ballpark? 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It was -- 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Percentage. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I didn't look at a percentage 13 amount, but I can give you the hourly rates. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You're going to go down the 15 list, go down each line? 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I will go down each line; just 17 a second. The principal went from 135 to 150. Project 18 architect/manager was at 110; went to 125. Professional 19 intern, Level 1, from 75 to 90. Professional intern, Level 20 2, from 60 to 75, and then admin/clerical stayed the same at 21 35. And -- 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So, when was the other -- what 23 was the date of the -- 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It was February 26th of 2012. 25 And I also will make a comment that -- and, you know, they 6-23-14 104 1 have probably done quite a few more redraws and redos of the 2 event hall than they actually anticipated, and have done -- 3 and have not asked for any -- I think they asked for one -- I 4 don't know if it was a flat rate increase or up to a certain 5 amount. This is just the hourly rate. And I'll make a 6 motion to approve this hourly rate, and then we'll get on to 7 the first page of the agreement. 8 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I'll second. 9 JUDGE POLLARD: Any further discussion? 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And this is just for 11 additional services. It's after -- after we think that we 12 have a -- a program outlined and drawn up and agreed upon, 13 and then these are addendums and additions, and that's -- and 14 how far -- how much difference is there from the regular 15 fees, as an example, the principal, the 150? 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: They were not broken out 17 originally. There was a flat amount; there was a fixed 18 contract amount -- 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Oh, yeah. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- for -- for these drawings, 21 and then for the administration, and those totaled -- those 22 two together were like 68,000. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And this list on the front 24 is additional services? 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes and no. Parts of it are. 6-23-14 105 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yes and no? 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes and no. Some of them -- 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I know what you're talking 4 about, right. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So -- 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The additional services, what 8 brought this forward really was the -- and some of the list 9 on the front -- well, we can go down the front as well right 10 now. We can go through it. We met with I.T. and Maintenance 11 out there. There were some -- we made some changes to the 12 building. There were some conduits that were -- I don't 13 believe they were known how they ran originally, so we looked 14 at some of these items with I.T. and Maintenance last week, 15 Bob and I did, and with Gary Hatch with Peter Lewis. There 16 was a -- the first item is reroute underfloor communication 17 conduit to new phone board locations. They were shifted. 18 The current -- the location where they were, it was better to 19 put them over near the electrical panel that -- so that whole 20 area can be secured, so we shifted those. They're in a 21 storage building about probably 15, 20 feet over, so they'd 22 be located in a little bit better spot, reduce the office 23 space. 109, that's an office that was originally planned to 24 really be a Maintenance office over on the west side of the 25 building. In talking with Mr. Trolinger, he really -- he's 6-23-14 106 1 going to need more space than originally thought for some of 2 his stuff. And the 8-by-8 building -- so that's going to 3 be -- that office was going to be for Maintenance; it's now 4 going to be redesignated a little bit smaller for I.T., some 5 of their equipment. That's the way that he's running his -- 6 all of his I.T. stuff. I don't need to go into all the 7 details. Shift double doors, provide lockable I.T. closet 8 within east storage room 130, secure phone board, sound 9 system equipment. That goes with Number 1. They mentioned 10 shifting all that together and putting it in an area where it 11 can all be locked up. Sound system equipment console 12 requires dedicated 20-amp circuit. That doesn't cost 13 anything; that's just really a note that that sound system 14 needs to be on a separate 20-amp circuit, and it's another 15 reason to put it with all that electrical stuff together. 16 All non-public area power panels to be surface-mounted to 17 allow for easy addition of future circuits. Probably -- you 18 know, there may be a slight reduction there; they were going 19 to be flush-mounted. We talked about it; it'd be better to 20 have them -- for I.T. and Maintenance, to have them -- have 21 them sticking out so that if you need to -- you don't have to 22 tear into the wall if you need to add a circuit for some 23 reason. Office 127 becomes Maintenance office. That's just 24 designating -- that was kind of an undesignated office we 25 talked about for various functions, and it's -- as I say, 6-23-14 107 1 that will be Maintenance offices up towards the front of the 2 building. Storage 108 and storage 130 to receive 5/8th's 3 plywood, 8 foot high. Originally, those walls were going to 4 have sheetrock on them. Probably not going to be any cost 5 difference here, or very minimal if there is, but the 6 Maintenance Department requested that these are plywood. 7 It's a lot more durable than having sheetrock there. It's 8 going to be -- 9 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Less damage. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Less damage. Also, one of 11 those buildings -- actually, the next one, storage 130 to 12 remove lay-in ceiling to expose PEMB above. I saw no 13 reason -- this is a reduction here -- no reason to have a 14 finished ceiling in that storage room. Delete show barn and 15 catering from plans. It's obviously done, because we deleted 16 it from the project. Provide under-floor sanitary sewer line 17 to future concessions just north of show barn wall. That's 18 the part we talked about a little bit earlier, about having 19 to relocate that sewer line, and we had to relocate -- that 20 was the easy part -- to extend out for where the catering 21 kitchen would be in the future. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: What is the "san sewer"? 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Sanitary. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Oh, sanitary. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: In response to RFI #9, abandon 6-23-14 108 1 existing interior S.S. lines north of building and connect 2 Event Center lines to existing -- 3 COMMISSIONER REEVES: That's the problem. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's sanitary sewer. 5 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Sanitary sewer on the north 6 side of the building connected to the Event Center lines on 7 the east side of the building. Now, the easement we were 8 getting -- the easement problem, what we were running into 9 was some of the old lines, and when the fire department 10 connects lines, you have to be so far off of the -- that area 11 of it. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. It's a fire -- the 13 easement we're talking about is a fire line easement for the 14 city of Kerrville, and it's very important that we stay a 15 certain amount, and the sewer issues caused that to -- 16 dictated how you had to redo the sewer. Then 12 is add a 17 faucet to both mop sinks. 18 JUDGE POLLARD: High faucet. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, high faucet. And then 13 20 was add two tamperproof faucets in each -- that's a request 21 from Maintenance, from a cleanup standpoint, to have faucets 22 in the restrooms. So, these items -- you know, some of these 23 will require, you know, change orders, 'cause everything's 24 got to be detailed exactly right and things like this. The 25 only one of, I'd say, substantial cost being -- you know, 6-23-14 109 1 will be the sanitary sewer issue. That was just an 2 unforeseen situation. The rest of them are pretty minor, but 3 they do need to be formalized. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. Letz made the motion 5 for, and I believe you seconded? 6 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I seconded. 7 JUDGE POLLARD: Yeah, there's a motion on the 8 floor. Is there any further discussion? 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And that is to adopt this 10 fee schedule? 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And this list? 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Any of the change orders will 16 come through as actual change orders in the future. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. 18 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. If there's no further 19 discussion, those in favor, signify by raising your right 20 hand. 21 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 22 JUDGE POLLARD: It's 4-0, unanimous. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I move we pay the bills. 24 God, I hope we don't starve to death sitting in here. 25 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. It's moved that we pay the 6-23-14 110 1 bills. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 3 JUDGE POLLARD: Second? Any further discussion? 4 Everybody look the bills over? Want a minute to look them 5 over or what? 6 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I'm good. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Look good. 8 JUDGE POLLARD: If there's no further discussion, 9 then those in favor of that motion, raise your right hand. 10 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 11 JUDGE POLLARD: It is 4-0, unanimous. Any budget 12 amendments? 13 MS. HARGIS: Yes, sir, there are. The Road and 14 Bridge budget amendments are the ones to allow for the new 15 position, the engineer that we just hadn't done yet. So, 16 those are the ones that we had already agreed upon when we 17 hired the engineer. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Oh, yeah. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 20 MS. HARGIS: Then the rest of them are minor 21 issues, 8, 9, and then we also have the second page on the 22 Juvenile Detention Center. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What is federal audit? 24 MS. HARGIS: They have to pay for that audit that 25 comes in for the -- from the feds on the system. 6-23-14 111 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is that a financial audit? 2 MS. HARGIS: No, I think it's more of a compliance 3 audit. The one that we have at the end of the year that they 4 have to -- they have to have. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Move that we approve the 6 budget amendments. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 8 JUDGE POLLARD: Any further discussion? If not, 9 those in favor of the motion, signify by raising your right 10 hand. 11 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 12 JUDGE POLLARD: It's 4-0, unanimous. Any late 13 bills? 14 MS. HARGIS: Yes, sir, we do have several late 15 bills. 16 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. 17 MS. HARGIS: One of them is our credit card, and we 18 had it as a late bill waiting to get all of the different 19 departments to approve their bills. And then there's a few 20 others that we -- because we'll have quite a distance between 21 now and the next court date. We try to get all the bills in. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I don't think I've ever seen 23 a stack quite like this. 24 MS. HARGIS: Well, it's mostly the credit card. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I understand. 6-23-14 112 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move we approve the late bills. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 3 JUDGE POLLARD: Any further discussion? Questions? 4 There being none, those in favor, signify by raising your 5 right hand. 6 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 7 JUDGE POLLARD: It's 4-0, unanimous. Approve and 8 accept any monthly reports. Anyone have monthly reports? 9 COMMISSIONER REEVES: The clerk has just given 10 me -- looks like J.P., Precinct 1; Constable, Precinct 4; and 11 County Treasurer. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move we accept the monthly 13 reports. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 15 JUDGE POLLARD: Any further discussion? There 16 being none, those in favor, signify by raising your right 17 hand. 18 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 19 JUDGE POLLARD: It's 4-0, unanimous. Reports from 20 Commissioners, liaison/committee assignments? 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Nothing here sir. 22 JUDGE POLLARD: Anybody? 23 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Nothing. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: No. 25 JUDGE POLLARD: Reports from elected 6-23-14 113 1 officials/department heads? Anybody? Department heads? 2 MS. LAVENDER: Only thing I have, I have a 3 concern -- Friday afternoon late, we got our budgets sent to 4 us, and I have some real concerns about the cuts that were 5 made in the Indigent Health budget, and so I'd like for us to 6 discuss that at some point. 7 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. 8 MS. LAVENDER: Not today, but -- 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We'll definitely have another 10 budget workshop. 11 MS. LAVENDER: Okay. 'Cause when you cut $100,000 12 out of a $300,000 budget, it's a pretty significant amount of 13 money. 14 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I think we definitely need at 15 least one, if not more, workshops to finalize everything. 16 JUDGE POLLARD: Any -- let's see -- reports from 17 boards, commissions, or committees? Anybody? City/County 18 joint projects or operations reports? Any other kind of 19 reports or comments? If not, I guess we'll recess until 20 1:30. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: 1:30 is the presentation for 22 the Affordable -- Obamacare. I'm not supposed to say that. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Right. 24 (Recess taken from 11:29 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.) 25 - - - - - - - - - - 6-23-14 114 1 JUDGE POLLARD: All right, I'm going to call it 2 1:30. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: It is by definition. 4 JUDGE POLLARD: Don't you think it's 1:30? 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I think it is. 6 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay, on June 23rd -- 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Independent of what Letz says. 8 JUDGE POLLARD: Yeah. On June 23rd, 2014. It's 9 1:30 p.m., and the recess is terminated; we're back in 10 regular session with the Kerr County Commissioners Court. 11 And we have a presentation at this time, as I understand. 12 Gentlemen? 13 MR. MARTINEZ: Yes, sir. I'm Ernesto Martinez; I'm 14 with the Texas Association of Counties. I am Kerr County's 15 employee benefits consultant. Thank you, sir. Anything that 16 pertains to the county's benefit plan, the County will come 17 to me. I'm here with Mark Zollitsch; he is the wellness 18 consultant that is designated to Kerr County as well. 19 There's been some changes at TAC. Health care reform has 20 really, really kind of changed the way employers are doing 21 business, okay? So with that said, we have kind of beefed up 22 our staff, and we only had two benefits consultants at first; 23 now there's four. And at the same time, we only had three 24 wellness; now there's four of us now, too. So, Mark and I do 25 have the southwest region of Texas, all the way from El Paso, 6-23-14 115 1 Midland, all the way straight down to Starr County. That's 2 pretty much our region, so we're able to come out here to the 3 county more often than we did in the past. So, we're real 4 excited. Any time the County has any questions, feel free to 5 e-mail me, call us; we'll be able to be out here for y'all. 6 MR. ZOLLITSCH: So, while he's getting our 7 technical issues sorted out, we're going to share with you 8 essentially three presentations in one today. And we've been 9 instructed we have 30 to 35 minutes, so we're going to really 10 just skin the surface of each, and if you wish to go deeper, 11 feel free to ask questions. We could probably spend, you 12 know, an hour and a half on each presentation. And the three 13 areas we're going to address are health care reform, some 14 strategies to control costs, and then our new private 15 exchange, which is a way to change the plan design, which in 16 the long run potentially could save some money. So, we want 17 to bring you up to speed on that, as it may be something you 18 want to explore further. It's not necessarily right for all 19 counties, but it could be something you want to consider, and 20 we want you to have all the information. So, we're going to 21 touch on each of those three areas, kind of a 30,000-foot 22 overview, but time permitting, we will go as deep as you need 23 into any one of those areas. So, the first area, as soon as 24 we get this up -- first area that we're going to start 25 with -- all right, it's there -- is health care reform, so 6-23-14 116 1 I'll turn it back over to Ernesto. 2 MR. MARTINEZ: Yes. We're here to discuss the 3 health care reform or the Affordable Care Act today. We're 4 -- I'm here just to kind of touch on the highlights on how 5 the Affordable Care Act can or may affect the county starting 6 in 2014 going forward. We're going to have some information 7 all the way up to 2018, to pretty much -- right now, that's 8 pretty much where the excise tax -- or you might have heard 9 in the news, it's called the Cadillac tax. We're going to 10 just go over very briefly and tell you how it may affect the 11 county in 2018, so I'm just going to touch base here. This 12 is a simple timeline that I kind of put together. When you 13 look at your handouts -- you can refer to them whenever you 14 want to. I'm just going to point out the things that may 15 affect the county starting in 2014. 16 And in 2014, the County will have to provide a 17 summary of benefits -- look at that third bullet right 18 there -- and a uniform glossary. We've been handling this 19 information for the County since 2012. But it wasn't 20 mandatory for the County to hand out, but we wanted to make 21 sure the County is -- is getting used to the fact that, hey, 22 they're going to have to do this starting in 2014. So, 2014, 23 it's going to be required for the County to hand these out to 24 all of their employees. The main purpose of this summary of 25 benefits is just so an employee -- if an employee wants to go 6-23-14 117 1 out to the private exchange, they have the uniform glossary, 2 summary of benefits to compare what's available out in the 3 private exchange out there, or the public exchanges. The 4 other thing that may affect the County is the maximum 90-day 5 waiting period. The federal government is saying that you 6 can't have no more than a 90-day waiting period. But with 7 the -- the waiting period that the County has right now, 8 you're in compliance; you have a 60-day waiting period, so 9 the County does not have to worry about changing that right 10 now. 11 The other thing that you'll have is the notice of 12 preexisting conditions exclusion. Starting on your 13 anniversary date, October 1st, the preexisting condition 14 exclusions are not going to exist. So, in other words, if a 15 claim has been affected by preexisting conditions in the 16 past, it's gone. It's no longer going to be affecting 17 anyone's claim if there is a preexisting condition. The 18 County is a non-grand -- has a non-grandfathered plan right 19 now. The one thing they're going to have to do, or what the 20 government is saying is that the plan has a comprehensive 21 out-of-pocket maximum. Basically, what that means, with 22 grandfathered plans, you -- you don't have a -- like, an 23 aggregate out-of-pocket amount that comes for your plan. In 24 other words, these co-pays, deductibles, everything is going 25 to go towards your out-of-pocket, okay? So, with your 6-23-14 118 1 out-of-pocket, I believe you have a -- I can't -- what is the 2 out-of-pocket? Dawn, what's your out-of-pocket? 3 MS. LANTZ: 1,500. 4 MR. MARTINEZ: 1,500 -- no, that's deductible. 5 What's your out-of-pocket? 6 MS. LANTZ: I think for an individual -- 7 MR. MARTINEZ: Is it 3,000? Same. So your 8 co-pays, anything that you pay out of your coinsurance, goes 9 toward that out-of-pocket maximum. With grandfathered plans, 10 you weren't able to do that. There is a transition 11 reinsurance fee that's going to apply to the County. I have 12 another slide that will go into a little more detail than 13 this. I'm just going to tell you in 2015, the employer 14 mandate, when it's going to be effective. It goes into -- in 15 2016, there's another employee mandate that goes into effect 16 for employers with 50-plus employees. And -- and as can you 17 can see, in 2018, we have it highlighted in yellow; it's the 18 Affordable -- it's the excise tax I'll go into in a little 19 bit more detail. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Ernesto, did you just say 21 that in 2015, employer mandates may go into effect? 22 MR. MARTINEZ: It will -- I apologize. It will. 23 What I mean by "may," if employers have 100-plus employees. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I see. 25 MR. MARTINEZ: Yes, sir. 6-23-14 119 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We need to fire a bunch of 2 people. (Laughter.) 3 MR. MARTINEZ: Real quick, this is the health care 4 reform fees that are coming into effect starting in 2014. 5 For this year, it is $63. $63. The board has -- your health 6 pool board has, in fact, voted to pay that fee for the county 7 once again on behalf of all the pool members, all the 8 counties that are in our pool. So, counties are not going to 9 have to worry about paying that reinsurance fee of $63, which 10 is per-employee, so that can be a high number. So, our board 11 members decided we're going to pay that on your behalf. Same 12 thing with the patient-centered outcome research fee; that 13 also is going to be paid on behalf of the County as well. 14 The excise tax, that's the 40 percent tax that the federal 15 government could charge you -- the counties if they go over a 16 certain threshold. I have another slide on that; we'll go 17 into more details. 18 Grandfathered versus non-grandfathered. You're -- 19 the County's already a non-grandfathered plan. Basically, 20 what that means is that as a non-grandfathered plan, your 21 plan has to cover certain services that are required under 22 the Affordable Care Act. An example is, like, health 23 services -- preventive health services, screenings, and those 24 have to be covered under your plan with no co-pay and/or no 25 deductible. There is a website -- a link that we put there, 6-23-14 120 1 a website. If you want to go look at those services that 2 have to be covered with no co-pay, that's where you find it. 3 And in addition, women's contraceptives have to be covered 4 with no co-pays or deductibles. And we went over the 5 comprehensive out-of-pocket limits. What the County needs to 6 know under that, there could be external reviews of appeals 7 that have to be turned around, and in a much quicker fashion. 8 But it could be that since it's external review, that you 9 could be out some out-of-pocket cost for the county if it 10 goes to that appeal level, okay? So keep that in mind. 11 That's pretty much what the grandfathered plan is, so if the 12 County made any changes since March -- March 25th, 2010 -- 13 and you made changes since then; that's the reason why you're 14 considered non-grandsfathered status. Any questions? 15 Okay, since the County has 100-plus employees, the 16 employer mandate is going to apply to the county starting in 17 2015. So, what does that mean? The County has to classify 18 their part-time employees. If they work work more than 30 19 hours a week on average, they are considered a full-time 20 employee. So, if they do work that 30 hours, the County does 21 have to offer them coverage. In addition, the -- the County 22 has to offer at least 70 percent of their employees coverage. 23 The plan that they have now, come 2015, they have to at least 24 offer. That doesn't mean all employees have to take the 25 coverage to avoid the penalty. It's just saying the County 6-23-14 121 1 has to offer coverage to all -- to at least 70 percent of 2 their employees. Okay. Determine -- in 2015, the County 3 determines whether the health plan meets the affordability 4 standard and the minimum value, or risk paying a penalty. 5 So, what does that mean? The affordability test is that the 6 employee's out-of-pocket premium, just for employee only, if 7 it exceeds more than 9.5 percent of their household income, 8 the County could be subject to a penalty. And in addition, 9 the plan must cover at least 60 percent of the total cost of 10 covered care. 11 Now, what I want to tell to the County is that 12 those two tests, the County already meets those standards, so 13 the County wouldn't have to be at risk of -- of a penalty for 14 those reasons, the reason being because the County does pay 15 100 percent of the employee-only premium. So, that -- that 16 meets the affordability test, and your plan right now exceeds 17 the 60 percent of the total costs of the covered care that 18 you have. I'll go over this with H.R. Since the County's 19 going to pay -- play, excuse me -- is going to play, I just 20 went over the three -- the two things that the County would 21 have to meet to avoid the penalty. We have a county in south 22 Texas that's going to pay -- is going to actually pay and not 23 offer coverage to their employees because of budget reasons. 24 That is a more affordable route for them to go. So, it's not 25 good news, but just to let you know that there's a county 6-23-14 122 1 that is going to pay the penalty this year, and they do not 2 want to play, 'cause they can't afford it. It's no longer 3 sustainable in their budget. 4 Real quick, the excise tax, the Cadillac tax is 5 coming in 2018. If your county medical plan total costs for 6 employee or family exceeds a certain cost -- cost level 7 determined by the federal government, of course, the 8 government -- the government's going to tax you the 9 difference that you go over the threshold by 40 -- tax you 40 10 percent, and then multiplied by the number of employees that 11 you have. So, let me give you a quick example. Right now, 12 the County is paying around -- about $500 premium -- monthly 13 premium for employee-only. The threshold for the monthly 14 premium is 850, so you're quite a ways from that, and we want 15 to keep you from reaching that threshold so you will avoid 16 the excise tax. 17 So, basically, what this is saying is that if a -- 18 if a county pays such amount for their -- for their coverage, 19 if you -- if they go over that, they're going to be penalized 20 for it, okay? Keep in mind that this threshold will be 21 changing throughout -- after 2018; it will be set by the 22 Consumer Price Index. Any questions on that? Okay. Let me 23 turn it over -- this just kind of paints a picture of what 24 the government's saying. The government wants you to be in 25 between, right here in the middle. In 2014, if you have a 6-23-14 123 1 plan that doesn't meet minimum requirements, you're going to 2 be penalized. In 2018, if you have a too-rich plan and 3 you're paying too much for it, you'll be penalized as well. 4 Let me -- 5 MR. ZOLLITSCH: Please don't shoot the messengers. 6 MR. MARTINEZ: Yeah, we're just relaying the 7 message. This could change, okay? This is constantly 8 changing. This is what we know so far that's going to 9 affect. We have an election period coming up pretty soon, so 10 just stay tuned. But will it change? Will it be all 11 repealed? We don't know, but we'll have to wait and see. 12 But as of right now, you need to know this is what's in 13 effect right now. Sir, I'll turn it over to you. 14 MR. ZOLLITSCH: Thank you, Ernesto. So, my job now 15 is to provide some potential strategies and cost-savings, 16 cost control, because that's really my job. We call it 17 wellness, but wellness is not some happy, feel-good, make 18 everybody upbeat kind of thing. Wellness is a serious cost 19 control strategy. I've spent -- I've been in the business 20 for over 15 years; I've spent quite some time working with 21 Wells Fargo Insurance Services, with companies of all shapes 22 and sizes all over the country, and all the serious ones, you 23 know, take wellness very seriously, because health care costs 24 are typically the biggest single cost aside from raw 25 materials out the door for most employers. So, how can we 6-23-14 124 1 mitigate that? And essentially, there's three ways to 2 control costs. One, and the most obvious one that we all 3 initially think of, is changing the plan design. And whether 4 it's moving to the private exchange or moving to a different 5 plan that raises the deductible, there's many ways to skin 6 the cat. 7 But the point is, what that always does is it 8 transfers more of the cost to the employees, and that's not 9 always a good thing. That can come back and bite you in two 10 ways. Number one, we all know that, you know, county 11 salaries are perhaps not the highest. Private sector might 12 have higher salaries, but typically counties have more 13 benefits, so a good employee retention tool. The other part 14 of it is, let's say you raise the deductible too much higher. 15 What happens then is employees start going -- they start 16 putting stuff off 'cause they can't afford the deductible. 17 Now instead of a $40,000 claim with a $1,500 deductible, you 18 raise it another 1,000, and -- and they're going to put it 19 off for two years, and so now it becomes a $200,000 claim 20 because they put it off for two years. You get the idea. 21 So -- so, our recommendation is to kind of take the 22 plan changes gradually, or save them for the last resort, and 23 let's do everything that we can in these two other buckets 24 first. And those two other buckets are lowering the cost of 25 medical care when medical care is needed; essentially, that 6-23-14 125 1 means becoming a wiser consumer and helping all of your 2 employees become wiser consumers as well. Because in 3 reality, we -- we can't actually comparison shop when we need 4 medical care, and it can save a lot of money. I'll show you 5 more details about that in a minute. But the third piece of 6 the puzzle is lowering usage, which is the traditional 7 wellness -- in other words, making healthier lifestyle 8 changes so less medical care is needed in the first place. 9 So, why should your County be taking wellness to 10 the next level? And what we mean by taking it to the next 11 level is implementing a wraparound or umbrella incentive 12 plan. Because, really, the key to effective wellness is 13 engagement, right? I mean, these ladies are doing a great 14 job of promoting and bringing to you healthy -- and 15 implementing our healthy county wellness program, but 16 typically throughout the year, you're going to have 10, maybe 17 15 percent of your employees participating, and those are 18 often the ones that are -- are interested in that anyway. 19 What we need to do is reach the people who are -- who have 20 multiple health risks and have an impending, you know, threat 21 coming up in the next couple years. And the way to do that 22 is through incentives. 23 Essentially, people -- I mean, it's human behavior. 24 People are willing to take action when there's something at 25 stake. And you'd think, you know, an impending health 6-23-14 126 1 disaster would be enough, but typically it's not. So, 2 really, it comes down to this, dollars and cents. And when 3 they have some -- when employees have skin in the game, then 4 they're willing to do something different. So, we're going 5 to talk about more incentives in just a moment. I do want to 6 say that wellness incentives are -- are a big thing. About 7 80 percent of employers nationwide have a wellness program 8 with a wellness incentive attached, and the average incentive 9 is $529 per employee, per year. I'm going to show you a way 10 that you can create an incentive value of that or more, but 11 do it in a way that is absolutely cost-neutral, so it doesn't 12 have to come out of the county budget. 13 So -- so, going back to the final here, let's talk 14 cost savings when medical care is needed first. We have four 15 tools available to you right now that not all of your 16 employees are aware of or using. First off, we have an 17 employee empowerment presentation that we encourage you to 18 invite us back to share with your employees, and I'll talk 19 more about it in a minute. But the point is to help 20 employees to connect the dots, that their actions today, 21 whether it's lifestyle or medical care, is going to impact 22 not only their pocketbook, but the ability of you, as their 23 employer, to offer the same benefits at the same cost in the 24 future, right? We have a benefits value adviser. That is a 25 telephonic program where employees can actually comparison 6-23-14 127 1 shop. It's provided by Blue Cross. TAC pays for it on your 2 behalf. 3 We have our 24/7 nurse line which your employees 4 may or may not be aware of or using, but it's also a valuable 5 cost savings tool, because many, many medical costs are just 6 simply going to the doctor because you've got a bad cold or 7 the flu or anything like that. Well, the doctor really can't 8 do much, and so a nurse line is real valid. I use it for 9 myself; I use it for my kids. You know, and they'll give me 10 guidelines and feedback for when I should go in to see the 11 doctor or when I should bring my kids in. And then condition 12 management is -- is really the fourth key in this, because 13 when a person has one or several health conditions -- doesn't 14 have to be a disease, just a risk like high blood pressure or 15 high cholesterol. We know that the costs of care are higher 16 if -- if that condition is not well managed, and so a 17 condition management coach will work with a person to help 18 them better control that condition. And they've actually 19 done enough research where they have costs laid out for -- 20 for dozens of different conditions or multiple conditions, 21 and they can show you the difference between a well-managed 22 condition and a poorly-managed condition. It's quite 23 significant. So, we want to encourage and incent your 24 employees to participate in condition management. 25 All right, I'm going to need the Court's 6-23-14 128 1 participation for just a minute. What is the cost of a major 2 joint replacement? Anybody want to take a guess? 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: 91. 4 COMMISSIONER REEVES: 98. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: 98. 6 MR. ZOLLITSCH: Well, the correct answer is all of 7 the above. This was taken from a survey done on hospital 8 charge master lists just in the greater Dallas-Fort Worth 9 area, and this was the spread of costs. It's a little bit 10 surprising, but that's the point, is that most of us are not 11 aware of just how varied medical costs are. But that creates 12 an opportunity for savings, because if we can get the same 13 quality of care at a lower cost, it's going to save money for 14 the employees out of pocket in terms of their deductible and 15 their coinsurance, and it's going to save money for the -- 16 for the County, the employer, out of the total plan. And 17 this applies to every procedure; something as simple as a 18 mammogram or an MRI to a, you know, mid-range surgery, to a 19 serious or big surgery like a hip replacement. So, our tool 20 for that is called benefits value adviser. You can go beyond 21 cost comparison shopping to helping set up the appointment 22 with a doctor, providing information, et cetera. It's a 23 great tool. But if your employees aren't aware of it and -- 24 and don't understand the benefit of it, it's not going to 25 help. So, we want to educate your employees on how to start 6-23-14 129 1 using this and how it will benefit them. 2 And -- and then finally, the empowered employee 3 workshops, and as I said, this is to help employees connect 4 the dots. And you'll see a couple quotes down here at the 5 bottom. You know, we've done it in quite a few counties 6 already, and it's really making an impact. And even the 7 people you'd expect to be least impacted by it -- you know, 8 not to grossly generalize, but for example, the Road and 9 Bridge crew tend to be a little bit rough around the edges; 10 you know, "I don't want to deal with that," right? But, you 11 know, we're getting 15 or 20 minutes worth of questions from 12 the Road and Bridge guys, so it's really getting everybody 13 thinking about how their benefits work. And we even talk 14 about -- we share how much you're spending on their behalf, 15 because most employees have no idea how much you're spending 16 on their employee benefits, and when we share the cycle you 17 go through every year in deciding, are we going to renew our 18 benefits -- the same benefits, or are we going to change the 19 plan, all of those things, and they start understanding 20 how -- how their choices will impact their care in the 21 future. 22 All right. We're going to shift gears to lowering 23 usage. I'm just going to skim these real quickly. So this 24 slide, essentially -- initially, more than 80 percent of all 25 medical costs are caused by chronic conditions. The 20 6-23-14 130 1 percent is accidents and infectious diseases, but most of it 2 is chronic conditions that built up over time. Well, this is 3 the percent that lifestyle is the cause of these conditions, 4 okay? If lifestyle causes 91 percent of diabetes -- that's 5 Type 2, obviously -- then that means lifestyle can prevent 6 it. Lifestyle can manage it. And depending on how far it's 7 progressed, lifestyle can reverse it. So, lifestyle and 8 wellness is actually a very, very powerful tool. Heart 9 disease is still a number-one killer in America for both men 10 and women. Long-term studies, 16 years, over 120,000 people, 11 I mean, that's huge for a study. What they've found was 12 that -- that having these five lifestyle traits lowered the 13 risk of heart disease by 92 percent. That's huge. Just 14 another demonstration of how effective lifestyle is. 15 See, doctors are trained to -- to perform surgeries 16 and procedures and to prescribe medications, but that won't 17 work very well on a condition that is caused by lifestyle. 18 Lifestyle is far more powerful in affecting those conditions. 19 Now, don't get me wrong; if I'm in an accident, the emergency 20 room is the first place I'm going to go. But for a lot of 21 these things there that are long-term, lifestyle is really 22 the answer. This one looks at physical activity and health. 23 As you increase the activity, the risk of these diseases and 24 many more that aren't on here go down. If there's a single 25 thing that people could do to improve their health, it would 6-23-14 131 1 be the active lifestyle. Exercise isn't a modern scientific 2 invention; it's something we've done for thousands of years 3 as human beings, and because of the radical changes in our 4 modern lifestyle just in the last 100 years, now we have to 5 reintegrate it almost in an artificial manner. We used to 6 have to do it every day just to survive; to wash clothes, to 7 gather food, et cetera. All right. 8 So, let's talk about the keys to successful 9 motivation. We have external motivation and internal 10 motivation. External motivation is something from the 11 outside, and that's where we're talking about incentives. 12 And what we need to do, we need high-value incentives that 13 target key activities, because if you -- if you incent an 14 employee to do things that aren't very effective, it's not 15 going to make a hill of beans of difference. And what we're 16 talking about here is moving the needle, right? The other 17 component is internal motivation, and the employee 18 presentations are specifically designed to get your employees 19 to start making some wiser choices on their own. But when 20 you combine the two, it helps people get over that initial 21 hurdle of change. 22 So, when it comes to incentives, there's three 23 decisions that have to be made. How are you going to 24 structure the incentive? Is it going to be related to your 25 benefits plan? Are you going to make it a premium 6-23-14 132 1 differential, or are you going to give an extra day of paid 2 time off? Are you going to hand them a wad of cash at the 3 end of the year? How are you going to do it? Then comes the 4 question of how much, and -- and what the studies show is 5 it's a pretty linear relationship between the amount of the 6 incentive and the amount -- percent of engagement of your 7 employees, all the way up to about $1,200 to $1,500 a year. 8 In other words, the more -- the more the incentive is worth, 9 the higher the level of engagement. And the final question 10 is, what does it require? What are you going to incent? 11 Right? I mean, like, some employees -- or some employers 12 incent a blood drive. Well, that's good. It's a good, 13 specific thing to do, but it's not going to move the bottom 14 line on the health of your employees. 15 So, what key things do we want to target? So here 16 are our basic, just brief 30,000-foot overview 17 recommendations. We have two of them. This one would be if 18 you stay with your current plan, and essentially what you'll 19 be saying to your employees is, you know, we have health care 20 reform coming down the road at us, and we're going to ask you 21 for a little something in return this year. We're going to 22 ask to you do X, Y, and Z, two or three things. And in 23 return for that, you get to stay at your current premium 24 level. Which is zero, correct? 25 MR. MARTINEZ: Correct. 6-23-14 133 1 MR. ZOLLITSCH: So you get to stay at zero premium. 2 You're free not to participate, but if you choose not to 3 participate, you will be required to pay a small premium, and 4 I put $50 to $75 on here. It could be $100 a month. It 5 could be $20 a month. It's entirely up to you. But, again, 6 as I said, that relationship between engagement and amount is 7 linear, so somewhere in the $50 to $75 range would be ideal. 8 Your requirements are over here on the right-hand side. 9 Annual physical is great. Why? Because it catches large 10 claims when they're still small claims. And as a guy, I can 11 say that I'm kind of guilty of that. A lot of us guys, we 12 tend to take less care of ourselves, and it's our wife going, 13 "Honey, you need to go in," you know, nudge us in the ribs. 14 But if we let it go four or five years without an annual 15 physical, something can build up over time, and then we catch 16 it when it's either not survivable any more, or very high 17 cost. And so if we encourage an annual physical, that's a 18 high value target right there. 19 An annual health assessment is great, because it 20 builds awareness in the employee of what their risks are, as 21 well as what lifestyle things they can improve, and it 22 provides information for you and for us in aggregate form for 23 planning the -- both the benefits plan and the wellness plan 24 in the future. Condition management I mentioned; you already 25 have that in place. But I didn't have a chance to check, but 6-23-14 134 1 probably only 2 or 3 percent of your employees are using 2 that, and probably 60 percent of your employees could. And 3 that would save a lot of money, so we're recommending -- we 4 recommend including that as a requirement. And finally -- 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Are you saying requirements or 6 incentives? 7 MR. ZOLLITSCH: Well, it's a requirement to receive 8 the incentive. And, again -- 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Incentive is a carrot, and a 10 requirement is a must. I'm having a hard time connecting 11 those. 12 MR. ZOLLITSCH: Okay, maybe I need different 13 terminology. It would be an "if that." If -- if you do 14 this, then you get that. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 16 MR. ZOLLITSCH: The fourth requirement -- I'm not 17 suggesting you do all of these, all four requirements at once 18 the first year. But as I said, activity is really key to the 19 human body; it's like changing the oil in your car. If 20 you're not moving, your body's going to break down. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: What kind of incentive -- you 22 know, if you're a safe driver, you get an incentive on your 23 premium. 24 MR. ZOLLITSCH: Mm-hmm. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: A reduction. 6-23-14 135 1 MR. ZOLLITSCH: Right. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So how does incentive here, 3 being active three times a week or whatever that is, how does 4 that reflect in some benefit to the employee? 5 JUDGE POLLARD: If he doesn't do it, he has to pay 6 $50 to $75 of his insurance premium. 7 MR. ZOLLITSCH: Exactly. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So is that the way -- 9 MR. ZOLLITSCH: That's one way it could be set up. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 11 MR. ZOLLITSCH: I mean, if you have the money and 12 want to hand it out, you could give them $75 a month in cash. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: You could reduce their amount 14 of the premium if they do something, any one of your four or 15 five things you're recommending. 16 MR. ZOLLITSCH: No, we're recommending that they 17 have to do two or three of them lumped together. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 19 MR. ZOLLITSCH: To get one incentive. It just 20 makes the tracking and the paperwork much easier. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: If they do that, then they get 22 rewarded? 23 MR. ZOLLITSCH: Yes, or they keep from having a 24 penalty imposed on them. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Okay, got you. 6-23-14 136 1 JUDGE POLLARD: Like training mice; you shock them. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 3 MR. ZOLLITSCH: Yeah. Well, now it boils down to 4 bottom line, you have to me make decisions as a county that 5 affects your bottom line. Employees have to make decisions 6 that affect their bottom line, right? And -- and we make 7 changes when the pain of one thing outweighs the pain of 8 something else. And that's where incentives come in, and 9 they really do work. All right. We have an additional 10 recommendation. If you decide to go with a private exchange, 11 which Ernesto is going to present on in a minute, and 12 essentially it's almost the same. But rather than a premium 13 differential, because within the exchange, there will be 10 14 different plans with different premiums; you simply deduct an 15 amount from payroll based on whether an employee completes X, 16 Y, and Z, or not. I'll be happy to go into much more detail 17 with you, research all your specific facts and figures if you 18 want to move in the direction of implementing an incentive. 19 But it is where everybody's going. You don't have to go in 20 this direction if you choose not to, but it is our 21 recommendation -- and remember, 80 percent of companies out 22 there have a wellness incentive in place, because it -- 23 because it is a factor. And you could do absolutely nothing, 24 but the problem is in four or five years, you're going to hit 25 a place where something major has to give. That will mean 6-23-14 137 1 changing the plan design again, probably with a higher 2 something. And I guarantee you, your employees would rather 3 do two or three requirements for wellness than to get hit 4 with another $1,000 added to their deductible. That is far 5 more painful than this recommendation is 6 JUDGE POLLARD: So everybody's doing it? 7 MR. ZOLLITSCH: So -- yeah. I hate to say it, but 8 they are, mm-hmm. I worked in the private sector for quite 9 some time, and almost everybody's got a wellness program. 10 Even companies with 30, 40 employees have a wellness program 11 in place, and an incentive. So, next step would be to invite 12 us back for employee workshops, seriously consider an 13 incentive program. And I can work with whoever you'd like me 14 to work with specifically to come up with a very specific 15 plan and -- and specific recommendations that are -- 16 JUDGE POLLARD: Somebody that looks healthy. 17 MR. ZOLLITSCH: I'm sorry? 18 JUDGE POLLARD: Somebody that looks healthy. 19 MR. ZOLLITSCH: There you go. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Instead of going to all the 21 multiple counties that you do and presenting this, do you 22 plan to have a video or something online where people can get 23 all this information, and in a very condensed thing? "If you 24 do this, this is what you get" kind of thing, as opposed to 25 going through all the -- 6-23-14 138 1 MR. ZOLLITSCH: Yeah. At this point, we don't, 2 because typically people have a lot of questions. And it's 3 difficult -- it's much easier to answer those questions in 4 person. And every county is different. The politics are 5 different, the people are different, their plan design is 6 different, so it's very difficult to -- to present one thing 7 for everybody. The final point, a lot of counties and the 8 majority of employers out there are also moving in the 9 direction of a tobacco surcharge, but separately from the 10 wellness incentive. Because somebody who is a tobacco user 11 who chooses to continue using tobacco will be healthier if 12 they're doing some other physical activities, if they're 13 getting their annual physical, et cetera, and if you lump 14 them together, typically the tobacco user will go, "I don't 15 want any part of it," and they'll just pay the difference. 16 And we don't want that, okay? Any questions? All right, 17 thank you. We're going to move on to the private exchange 18 presentation. 19 MR. MARTINEZ: I know that's a lot of information 20 to take in. And the county visits that we've gone to, you 21 know, they don't -- they don't like change. And I don't like 22 change either. But with this private exchange that TAC is 23 having available as an option for -- for our members, it's 24 another thing that's changing out there, and we have to kind 25 of go with it pretty much, so that way we can -- we can stay 6-23-14 139 1 on top of it, and that way the County actually has -- has 2 options in case they need to go a certain direction. With 3 that said, I'm going to briefly -- I know we're kind of short 4 on time, but I'm just going to briefly discuss this TAC-HEBP 5 private exchange. I do have a handout in there that you can 6 refer to. But if you look at the screen up here, this is our 7 -- this is another alternative that the County can provide 8 for their employees as an alternative. Right now, the County 9 does have a single traditional PPO plan right now. If the 10 County would decide to go into this private exchange that 11 we're offering, they would lose that traditional PPO plan and 12 move into the private exchange that has choices for their 13 employees. Real quick, what -- this is kind of what I kind 14 of touched on, this private exchange. Basically, employers 15 purchase health care coverage through the exchange for their 16 employees, where the employees can actually choose a health 17 plan from a menu, and a menu's going to have 10 different 18 plans that they can choose from. 19 JUDGE POLLARD: What's the difference in cost 20 between the plan we have now and if we elect to do one of 21 these? 22 MR. MARTINEZ: I'm going to show you a slide that's 23 going to compare your current rates with what the private 24 exchange rates would look like with your current rates. I'm 25 going to get to that. Good question. And if we can, this is 6-23-14 140 1 another thing that we can -- we can have a good discussion, 2 but it may take a while. I just want to kind of briefly go 3 over it. This is powered by Blue Directions, which is 4 directly through Blue Cross/Blue Shield Texas. In the 5 county, all the programs that are available for your program 6 now, you'll have the same type of programs available in the 7 private exchange. Nothing will be lost regarding those 8 programs. 9 Like I said, this is a new option. It is not 10 required or mandatory to do. This is just a simple option 11 that the County may want to go into a new direction. All 12 private exchange plans are non-grandfathered, so you wouldn't 13 have to worry about losing your grandfathered status; you're 14 already non-grandfathered. Renewal rates for your current 15 plan will be mailed to you after -- about by the 4th of July, 16 so you should be getting them sometime Monday that next 17 following week. Keep in mind, single alternative plans are 18 available if the County does need to make some changes. If 19 you want to increase the deductible, if you want to lower 20 your deductible just to see how it looks, we can do that as 21 well. So, just keep in mind, this is not just the sole 22 alternative that the County can go to. We can actually show 23 you different alternatives, single plans, if the County wants 24 to look at those as well. 25 Considerations, just real quick. If you want to -- 6-23-14 141 1 what the County wants to consider going to the private 2 exchange, the goal is to maintain benefits, try to help 3 control rates so that the government can continue their 4 benefits and provide them to the employees. Plan changes may 5 be needed, as we've been discussing, because of PPACA. PPACA 6 is the Affordable Care Act. So, employers may have to change 7 their plan due to the Affordable Care Act, as we -- as we 8 discussed earlier. Employees are given some control over 9 their health benefit plan by going to the private exchange, 10 'cause they're able to choose which plan will -- they believe 11 will suit them for their needs. So, basically they're trying 12 -- we're trying -- they will be becoming more -- better 13 consumers, or hopefully they can make that decision what 14 better suits their -- their conditions. 15 The initial cost will be higher than the current 16 plan. Keep that in mind. Cost shifting may adversely impact 17 employees. The reason why it's initially higher is because 18 administrative fees have to be put into effect. We also have 19 to consider adverse selection, if you're familiar with what 20 that term, "adverse selection," is. And within that 21 exchange, you'll have a plan ranging from a very generous 22 plan to a very -- lower plan, from -- to an SHA plan that 23 they can choose from, okay? So employees who may have a 24 condition, they may want to buy up to that higher plan. So 25 you may have some in the higher plans, and then those who 6-23-14 142 1 don't have a condition or are young, they don't need 2 anything; they can opt to buy down to that plan, okay? All 3 right. So here's some pros and cons. 4 Some pros: Health benefits still stay part of your 5 compensation package. Greater predictability and cost 6 control for budgeting. Employee satisfaction often improves 7 if they have a given choice, the choice of what plan they 8 want. Encourage employees to better understand their 9 benefits and try to become better health care consumers. And 10 with the tools that Mark had explained earlier, they can 11 still use those tools within the private exchange. 12 Some of the cons: The grandfather status does not 13 apply. Fundamental change in benefit. There's time and 14 resources that will be required to educate the employees that 15 you no longer have that single plan, that you have a choice 16 from all these different type of plans. You may have to 17 update your payroll process as well, because everyone -- if 18 you do go to this plan, payroll dedeductions may be 19 everywhere, you know, so depending on where they -- if they 20 buy up or if they buy down. So, it can be -- may be a -- 21 JUDGE POLLARD: More complicated. 22 MR. MARTINEZ: Yes, sir, it could be. It could 23 cause some headaches at first, so just keep that in mind. 24 The transitioning from that to the private exchange could 25 cause some headaches and some extra load to the benefits 6-23-14 143 1 staff. Okay. And keep in mind possible transfer of more 2 costs to the employees. That all depends on what type of 3 plan they do choose, and I'll -- we're going to show you some 4 examples and what they look like. Okay. Defining 5 contribution budget for long-term. Counties may want to see 6 this as a suitable approach to limiting the budgetary impact 7 of their health benefits, so this is things that they may 8 want to consider when looking into this. 9 (Commissioner Moser left the meeting.) 10 MR. MARTINEZ: This is the the 10 plans that are 11 available. I know it doesn't look too big, but you can look 12 at it on your handout. As you can see, the most generous 13 plan for their deductible is the $250 deductible. And once 14 you go down, it starts increasing to -- to $500, $750, 15 $1,000. And you also have the SHA plans, where the highest 16 deductible is $4,000, okay? Within the private exchange, we 17 do have voluntary dental plans that are available as well. 18 We have with or without orthodontics, so they can choose if 19 they want to elect the dental. Now, I haven't talked about 20 it yet; it's defined contribution. The County will have to 21 set a defined contribution if they want to participate in the 22 exchange. So, what does that mean? Pretty much the County 23 is paying -- let's say the County wants to pay $600 towards 24 each -- for each tier that they have. Depending on what the 25 -- what the rate is for the tier that they choose and the 6-23-14 144 1 plan that they choose, they may not have any out-of-pocket 2 for them. 3 So, let me -- this is an example of what I'm 4 talking about. These are your current rates with plan 2013, 5 okay? If you go down here, this is currently what the County 6 is contributing, or this is the out-of-pocket for the 7 employees right now. So, if you go to Step 6, and in this 8 box, as you can see, you have Plan 1300-NG. The one that 9 closely -- gets close to that -- to your plan in the private 10 exchange is this 1300-NGS right here. So, as you can see, if 11 you -- if you went to the private exchange and an employee 12 chooses a plan that almost mirrors the one they have now, 13 they're going to be paying 92 -- 92 cents out of their pocket 14 for that plan. So, if they choose to buy down and increase 15 their deductible, as you can see, there's no cost for the 16 employee. But if they do decide to buy up to a plan that has 17 a $250 deductible, which is 300 and 600-NG, as you can see, 18 there is some out-of-pocket cost for the -- for the 19 employee-only rate. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Does the employee -- if they go 21 to the higher deductible, does the employee get a rebate? If 22 the County's paying 100 percent of the cost right now, and 23 you go to the 1500-NGS, would the employee get a $35 rebate? 24 MR. MARTINEZ: In other words -- 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Refund? 6-23-14 145 1 MR. MARTINEZ: There's going to be some amount in 2 credit, right. They can use that amount to pay for the 3 voluntary dental if they want. If they want to get family 4 coverage for the dental, they can use that. Well, if you 5 have -- still have money left over after purchasing the 6 voluntary dental, whatever remains stays with the county. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. The money stays with 8 the county, but not the employee. 9 MR. MARTINEZ: Correct. That is correct. So, as 10 of right now, I just want to kind of paint a picture just to 11 kind of give you an idea what it would look like with our 12 current -- with your current rates right now. 13 MR. ZOLLITSCH: Although if the County selected an 14 HSA plan, you as the County could choose to put that 15 differential into their HSA plan. 16 MR. MARTINEZ: If they choose -- they have to 17 choose an SHA. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Didn't we just get rid of the 19 -- get out of the HSA, Dawn? It didn't work real well for 20 us. 21 MR. MARTINEZ: This is just a sample report that -- 22 or tool that kind of generates; it's just -- it's predicting 23 what the migration would be, and what the County would be 24 looking at with the private exchange next year. If you look 25 at the -- where I'm pointing at right here, the private 6-23-14 146 1 exchange results for next year, the employer subsidy, the 2 cost. Is there a saving or is there a cost? It looks like 3 the County could be saving. It will have a saving of $168. 4 As you can see, it kind of -- the employee would have a $49 5 savings, okay? But if you go to the -- to the aggregate for 6 everyone, the -- the distribution with the defined 7 contribution, possibly there could be some savings for an 8 aggregate for the employer with a defined contribution. You 9 can see there could be a savings. You know, that's three 10 years down the line, is what I'm saying. They could see a 11 savings, but if you look at the employee contribution, if I 12 can get this to work right here, the cost goes to the -- to 13 the employee. There could be more costs coming out of their 14 pocket. That also depends on what they're choosing -- what 15 plan they are choosing within the private exchange. 16 So, real quick, I know you have other business. As 17 a conclusion, there's no one-size-fits-all solution. 18 Circumstances as they come would dictate, you know, what the 19 County's approach is on what they want to set as the defined 20 contribution. So, just consider the ranges of pros and cons 21 to this. But as I mentioned, this is -- is not required or 22 anything; it's just another option that the County may want 23 to consider if they want to go into this new direction. And 24 I've also included -- this is some samples of what the -- if 25 the County decides to go to the private exchange, this is 6-23-14 147 1 what it would look like. The employee would sign onto 2 www.benefits -- Mark? 3 MR. ZOLLITSCH: I don't have it memorized. 4 MR. MARTINEZ: There's a link that we'll give out. 5 They'll do everything online; there will be no paperwork. 6 They may have to do paperwork within the H.R. Department, but 7 all they have to do is go online or call Blue Cross, and they 8 can sign up for the -- the private exchange and pick 9 whichever plan they want to do. So, like I said, this is 10 just a survey that they would take. This is an example of 11 what it would look like. They'll show all the plans. 12 They'll tell you what they choose; they'll tell them what the 13 price is and everything, so it's pretty much -- pretty 14 self-explanatory. But it just -- this is just an idea to 15 show you what the employees would look at, what it would look 16 like when they go online to sign up for these plans. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you, guys. 18 JUDGE POLLARD: Appreciate it. 19 MR. MARTINEZ: Yes, sir. Thank you very much. 20 JUDGE POLLARD: I know y'all were uncomfortable 21 with a condensed presentation like this. 22 MR. MARTINEZ: Well, we just want to make sure -- I 23 know you have other business to tend to and everything, but 24 if we need to come back for a workshop and sit down and 25 discuss it in more detail, call us and we'll be here, and 6-23-14 148 1 we'll do that for you. 2 JUDGE POLLARD: Most of all, we just appreciate 3 TAC. 4 MR. MARTINEZ: Thank you, we appreciate that. You 5 let us know if y'all need anything. Thank you. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you very much. Harry, 7 do you appreciate them? 8 MR. SCHNEIDER: I do. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. 10 JUDGE POLLARD: Harry's here for a juvenile 11 hearing. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Hey, Clay, you going to go 13 out and commit suicide now or what? Can I go with you? 14 DEPUTY BARTON: Thank you for inviting me. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, I'm sorry. 16 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Are we adjourned, Your Honor? 17 JUDGE POLLARD: We are adjourned. Thank you very 18 much. 19 (Discussion off the record.) 20 JUDGE POLLARD: Technically, we need a motion. 21 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I so move. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 23 JUDGE POLLARD: It's been moved and seconded. Any 24 discussion? If not, those in favor, signify by raising your 25 right hand. 6-23-14 149 1 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 3-0.) 2 JUDGE POLLARD: It's unanimous. We're done. 3 MS. HARGIS: Judge, could I -- before you leave, 4 there seems to be some confusion on the budget, and the -- 5 and the list that we gave you early on. You all know you 6 have access to the computer. You all know that the D.R. 7 requested budget is -- was never touched. The A.R. budget 8 reflects the changes. The list that we gave you was only a 9 page and a half long. It was just the cuts. Those were the 10 major cuts that we suggested to you. We've never really 11 given you a list of all the cuts. That's pages and pages. 12 If that's what you want, we will do it, but we have never 13 done that in the past. We have handwritten notes on what we 14 did. We can go through and make those, but it's going to be 15 a lot of pages, because we did something on every single 16 department. This was just a snapshot of what you could do, 17 and we didn't make a lot of these changes. 18 DEPUTY BARTON: So that's not set in stone? 19 MS. HARGIS: This was suggested cuts early on. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That was some of the suggested 21 cuts. 22 MS. HARGIS: Some of the suggested cuts, and then 23 you made cuts yourselves in court. And then we made some 24 later; some people came and volunteered them. We -- we will 25 do what you want. It's just going to take us a lot of time 6-23-14 150 1 to get the other sheet done. We've never done it before. We 2 never did this before, except we had a different procedure 3 this year, and we weren't moving very fast, so we thought if 4 we suggested some things to you, that that would help you. 5 You can look at the D.R. bottom line and the D.R. -- and the 6 A.R. and see the differences pretty quickly. Most of the 7 budgets were not cut very much, some of them as little as, 8 you know $100 or $50; it just depended on the department. 9 Some of the people came and gave -- Ray and Tim -- Tim 10 actually gave more than the 3 percent. Ray gave me 3 11 percent. A lot of the other departments gave me -- you know 12 e-mailed me that were in the room that day that you suggested 13 it. Unfortunately, we didn't have everybody, or we probably 14 would have gotten more response from the other department 15 heads. But -- 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge, you sent out an e-mail 17 to all departments, didn't you? 18 MS. HARGIS: No, he didn't send one, 'cause we 19 basically -- 20 JUDGE POLLARD: Never got around to it. I tell 21 you, from the day we had the meeting in here, we were talking 22 about sending a letter out to them -- or an e-mail, we never 23 had to. It spread like wildfire. I mean -- 24 MS. HARGIS: But there's been a complaint made to 25 my District Judge that I'm not cooperating with y'all, and so 6-23-14 151 1 that is not the case. Never has been the case. We haven't 2 done anything differently than we've ever done in the past. 3 We've never prepared a list of all the cuts, ever. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Can you prepare a -- a summary 5 of the departments, of the D.A. -- the D.A., whatever you 6 call it, the requested to where we are now for each 7 department? 8 MS. HARGIS: Yes. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Without running a whole budget? 10 So we can then know where there were cuts made, and in which 11 departments, rather than going page by page through the 12 budget. 13 MS. HARGIS: Would that be sufficient? 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Why are you looking at me? 15 MS. HARGIS: I'm asking all of you. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: For me, it would be helpful. 17 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I think it's a good starting 18 point. 19 MS. HARGIS: I'm trying to please you. I mean, I 20 don't know what else to do. I mean, if I'd have known -- if 21 I'd have been here, you know, as far as -- I know most of the 22 changes where the people came in and gave it to us. The rest 23 of them that they made were little. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: If we can have -- yeah, I think 25 what's Bob's saying, yeah, that would be helpful. 6-23-14 152 1 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Be a good starting point so 2 we know where we're at. 3 MS. HARGIS: Right. But you know that -- you all 4 know that you have access to that now. You can go to the 5 A.R. -- I mean to the budget, put 10 in, change it to the 6 A.R., and you can see the differences automatically, page by 7 page, if you pull that up. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: You can do it page by page, but 9 I'm trying to avoid going through every page of the budget. 10 MS. HARGIS: But you do know you have access, and 11 we're not holding those things back from you. Thank you. 12 Okay. Then let me do a summary; I'll have that to you guys 13 as soon as we can put it together. And other than my 14 handwritten document, which you're welcome to look at at any 15 time -- it's on my desk. Other than the changes you made, 16 the handwritten document is on my desk, so you're welcome to 17 see that at any time. Anybody is. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We're going to have -- when do 19 we get the -- well -- 20 MS. HARGIS: Right now, we're at 25.99 percent. 21 Now, the one thing I do need to ask, I didn't hear clear this 22 morning. Bruce requested the 50,000. Do I need to put that 23 50,000 back in to pay them back for the consultant, or do we 24 do it out of this year's? If we do it out of this year's, it 25 would be much better. 6-23-14 153 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No, it's coming out of their 2 own budget. 3 MS. HARGIS: But he wants to be reimbursed 50,000. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I thought it came out of the 5 reserves. 6 MS. HARGIS: It did, but I think he wants to be 7 reimbursed. 8 JUDGE POLLARD: Bruce -- 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: He didn't say anything about 10 being reimbursed. 11 COMMISSIONER REEVES: He asked to take it out of 12 his reserves, I thought. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 14 MS. HARGIS: He is taking it out of his reserves, 15 but they're going to come back and ask us to re -- to put 16 that back. And they may not, so I just need to know that. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'd say not yet, no. 18 MS. HARGIS: But if they need it, you know, it 19 would be better to take it out of the current year's budget 20 if we could. So, we'll make a list; we'll get it to you as 21 quickly as possible. If you have any questions, you want to 22 see my handwritten stuff, it's on my desk. And basically the 23 Judge and I agreed; he said if anybody had any questions, 24 they were to come to him, and that's what we -- that's what 25 my staff was told when I left, and that's what they did. And 6-23-14 154 1 I'm sorry if it offended any of you. We certainly don't want 2 to keep you from getting anything that you need. But that 3 seems to me -- 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, you keep going back to 5 it, so I'm going to speak to it. You're not going to get off 6 the hook like this. I simply asked your office -- looking 7 for you, and you weren't here. I simply asked your office 8 for what cuts have been made, total. And the answer was, 9 "I'm not allowed to give that you information. You need to 10 go talk to the County Judge." And I'm not talking to him 11 about a damn thing if I don't want to. I'm asking you. And 12 -- and so -- 13 MS. HARGIS: And in their defense -- 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No. So you -- you denied me 15 information that I asked you for. You're damn right, I'm 16 going to raise hell about it. 17 MS. HARGIS: We didn't have -- 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Don't ever deny any of these 19 people anything. 20 MS. HARGIS: I didn't have a number to give you. 21 They didn't. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You were on South Padre 23 Island. 24 MS. HARGIS: They didn't have a number to give you, 25 per department. They -- we had -- all we did is make the 6-23-14 155 1 changes. We didn't go through and add up what it was on the 2 bottom line. 3 (Commissioner Baldwin left the meeting.) 4 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I think it was just the 5 appearance that -- that your office was not going to give 6 this Court any information, whether it was intentional or 7 not. That's not good protocol to say, "No, you can't get 8 this information." 9 MS. HARGIS: I think she said that -- that I told 10 them to say that because that's what the Judge had told us, 11 and so that's what we -- that's what I left with, because I 12 knew you had access -- you're the only five that have access 13 to the program right now. The only five. 14 COMMISSIONER REEVES: But some of us do not use the 15 computer as well as other ones, so that could have been the 16 misunderstanding, or the flat denial, whichever way it is, 17 that, "No, you can't have this information." And that -- 18 that just -- 19 MS. HARGIS: They didn't have anything to give him 20 physically. They didn't have anything. 21 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Sure they do. If you cut it, 22 there was someplace you could show where they were cutting. 23 MS. HARGIS: We did -- we printed the report. 24 That's the only thing we used, and we printed -- and she got 25 the report to him that day. That's all we have. 6-23-14 156 1 COMMISSIONER REEVES: And I'm just saying that 2 maybe -- I know Jonathan uses the computer regularly. I use 3 it. Some of the other ones don't use it as regular, so they 4 depend on walking down to ask for information in order to 5 follow it. A lot of times I don't want to go through the 6 computer; I want to walk down and ask questions too. But 7 just to say, "No, you can't have it" -- 8 MS. HARGIS: It's -- 9 COMMISSIONER REEVES: -- was offensive. 10 MS. HARGIS: Okay. I apologize for that, but we 11 have never ever not given this Court what they've asked for, 12 and I -- the bottom line is, all we had, we have 13 hen-scratching on some paper. We -- it took three of us to 14 do it, so each one of us has a different sheet. But we 15 didn't go through and add it up. We always look at the 16 bottom line. And I have never -- in your defense, you've not 17 been here before. We've never even given, in the last three 18 years, the copies that you have in front of you. This is the 19 first year we have printed this many pages before the end of 20 the budget. We have depended on the computer, and Jonathan 21 can tell you that. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think -- I mean, the question 23 I have -- we don't need to belabor this too long, but I find 24 it hard to imagine that there's not a list. 25 MS. HARGIS: We don't -- 6-23-14 157 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And -- well, I know, but you 2 use -- you don't just arbitrarily go in and take $35 here, 3 $10 here, $100 here, 100,000 here. I mean, you had to have 4 some kind of -- 5 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Compilation of a list. 6 MS. HARGIS: I have the sheets that you have, that 7 you can pull down. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 9 MS. HARGIS: With amounts written on the side of 10 it, and that's it. We just finished on Friday before I left. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: All right. 12 MS. HARGIS: That's all we have. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Question. 14 MS. HARGIS: We can do the summary. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We probably ought to do another 16 workshop sometime in -- 17 COMMISSIONER REEVES: 'Cause we're not even -- this 18 isn't even on the agenda right now. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But my question is, when we do 20 the workshop -- when that will be, I don't know, but I'm 21 concerned about the -- the article in the paper about the 22 City basically challenging the Appraisal District values for 23 all commercial. That's a big, big concern of mine. I mean, 24 if they're going to -- I mean, that could have a huge impact. 25 MS. HARGIS: And I agree, it could. And we had 6-23-14 158 1 already talked about the impact in Hunt before that, and I 2 pulled back $250,000 off of the revenue amount that we 3 thought we might get early on. And that's what's caused us 4 to go up higher. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. But, I mean, is that 6 accurate from what you know? Have you -- 7 MS. HARGIS: Yes. Diane has a letter that I asked 8 her -- 9 MS. BOLIN: Yeah. Fourth e-mailed me last week and 10 said that we wouldn't be getting our certified roll by July 11 the 25th because of the petition that the -- that the City 12 had made to them to reevaluate all of the downtown commercial 13 properties. They can't pick certain businesses, but they can 14 do it as a whole, and that's what they've done. He's 15 supposed to call me this afternoon after he talks to Peter 16 Lowe, who's the attorney for the Appraisal District, because 17 he's not sure the petition is legal since it wasn't on the 18 agenda. Because it was never voted on, because it was just 19 done on people coming up and complaining at the beginning of 20 the meeting. But it is 9 percent of the tax roll, and he has 21 to get within 5 percent before he can certify it. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 'Cause I'm concerned about 23 that. I mean, I'm concerned about -- I mean, they can do 24 what they want across the street, but that seems bizarre to 25 me. 6-23-14 159 1 MS. BOLIN: It will impact us. 2 MS. HARGIS: Yes. If we do not get the roll, it 3 will impact us, yes. And it may impact us because of the 4 value, just as -- as the Hunt situation could, yes. And 5 that's one of the reasons why that we kind of closed down, 6 because until we have that number, we don't really know how 7 much more we may have to cut. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is the City -- I mean, is the 9 City going to go to the hearings and represent each business 10 now? 11 MS. HARGIS: I don't know that. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 13 MS. HARGIS: Well, I will do a summary and get that 14 to y'all. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: All right. 16 MS. HARGIS: That was not our intent, and it never 17 has been. My door has always been open. But we did not have 18 a list to provide. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 20 JUDGE POLLARD: I think the request made was that 21 he wanted a copy of the cut list, and there wasn't one. And 22 I think that's what he was told, but I'm not sure. Anyway -- 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 24 (Discussion off the record.) 25 MS. LANTZ: Our insurance rates are only going to 6-23-14 160 1 be a one-digit increase. We don't know if it's going to be a 2 1 or a 9 percent. 3 MR. MARTINEZ: Well under the national trend, so 4 the pool is doing very well. So, on average, the whole pool 5 is going to -- has a one -- a one-digit increase, just to let 6 you know that the pool's doing well. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Good. Thank you. 8 (Commissioners Court was adjourned at 2:33 p.m.) 9 - - - - - - - - - - 10 11 STATE OF TEXAS | 12 COUNTY OF KERR | 13 The above and foregoing is a true and complete 14 transcription of my stenotype notes taken in my capacity as 15 official reporter for the Commissioners Court of Kerr County, 16 Texas, at the time and place heretofore set forth. 17 DATED at Kerrville, Texas, this 27th day of June, 2014. 18 19 JANNETT PIEPER, Kerr County Clerk 20 BY: _________________________________ Kathy Banik, Deputy County Clerk 21 Certified Shorthand Reporter 22 23 24 25 6-23-14