1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT 9 Regular Session 10 Monday, July 14, 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 July 14, 2014 2 PAGE --- Commissioners' Comments 5 3 1.1 Public Hearing regarding revision of plat for 4 Lots 8, 9 and 10 of Kerrville Ranchettes, Pct. 4 17 5 1.2 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action for final approval regarding revision of plat for 6 Lots 8, 9 and 10 of Kerrville Ranchettes, Pct. 4 18 7 1.3 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action for a variance to Kerr County Subdivision Rules and 8 Regulations for Lot 70B and 73 of Ingram Hills Subdivision, Precinct 4 20 9 1.4 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on 10 request for funding from Kerr Economic Development Corporation 32 11 1.9 Public Hearing for the County Clerk's written 12 archival plan in accordance with Section 118.025 46 13 1.10 Consider/discuss, take appropriate actions to approve County Clerk's Written Archival Plan as 14 presented 46 15 1.13 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on request to use Flat Rock and/or River Star for 16 the “Bark for Life” event on October 18, 2014 47 17 1.14 Monthly update from 3H/Pathways Youth Ranch 52 18 1.15 Presentation of the Texas Historical Commission’s Distinguished Service Award to the Kerr County 19 Historical Commission 55 20 1.16 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on request to nominate Mary Overton as a member of 21 the Kerr County Historical Commission 56 22 1.17 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to award contract for Sheriff's Office radio system and to 23 begin the design/review phase 58 24 1.18 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to authorize Trott Communications Group to enter 25 Phase 3 of consulting agreement 62 3 1 I N D E X (Continued) July 14, 2014 2 PAGE 1.19 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action 3 regarding offering long-term care insurance from New York Life to Kerr County employee voluntary 4 benefits package for 2014-2015 64 5 1.20 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on approving final design and authorizing project 6 for Kerr County War Memorial 71 7 1.21 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on creating permanent committee to review nominees 8 for War Memorial and other issues related to War Memorial 80 9 1.22 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on 10 requests from Kerr County Fair Board Association, including, but not limited to, the use of Flat 11 Rock Park, River Star Arts & Events Park, and closure of Riverside Drive for Kerr County Fair 85 12 1.5 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on new 13 lease on two Xerox copiers for Kerr County District Clerk's office 92 14 1.6 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on 15 Suicide Prevention Plan for Kerr County Juvenile Detention Facility 94 16 1.7 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 17 amend the Local Rabies Control Authority, Court Order #33373 96 18 1.8 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 19 authorize Kerr County Environmental Health and Animal Services Director to fill budgeted vacant 20 positions in Animal Services Department 97, 149 21 1.11 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to appoint Brenda Hug as a member of the Kerr County 22 Child Services Board 101 23 1.12 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to close one block of Avenue C between China Street 24 & First Street in Center Point on August 9, 2014, for a back-to-school block party sponsored by 25 First Baptist Church of Center Point 101 4 1 I N D E X (Continued) July 14, 2014 2 PAGE 3 1.23 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action regarding 2015 Kerr Central Appraisal District 4 Budget 103, 114 5 1.24 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to ratify and confirm resolutions for participants 6 in the Kerr County Wounded Warrior Family Hill Country Adventure 104 7 1.26 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action 8 regarding update of construction at Hill Country Youth Event Center and related issues 105 9 1.25 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action 10 regarding the TxCDBG Proposed 2015 Action Plan 111 11 1.27 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to approve Kerr County group health renewal plan 12 for upcoming 2014-2015 plan year and have County Judge sign the same 116 13 4.1 Pay Bills 136 14 4.2 Budget Amendments 136 4.3 Late Bills 140 15 4.4 Approve and Accept Monthly Reports 141 16 5.1 Reports from Commissioners/Liaison Committee Assignments 142 17 5.2 Reports from Elected Officials/Department Heads 142 18 1.28 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action concerning possible Kerr County economic 19 development project (Executive Session) --- 20 --- Adjourned 149 21 22 23 24 25 5 1 On Monday, July 14, 2014, at 9:00 a.m., a regular 2 meeting of the Kerr County Commissioners Court was held in 3 the Commissioners' Courtroom, Kerr County Courthouse, 4 Kerrville, Texas, and the following proceedings were had in 5 open court: 6 P R O C E E D I N G S 7 JUDGE POLLARD: It's July the 14th, 2014, and it is 8 now, it looks like, about 9:02 a.m. And it's Commissioner 9 Baldwin's day for the prayer and the pledge. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. If you'll stand with 11 me, we'll have a word of prayer and pledge of allegiance to 12 our nation's flag. 13 (Prayer and pledge of allegiance.) 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you, Judge. 15 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. The first item on the agenda 16 is the visitors' input, citizens wishing to speak on items 17 not listed on the regular agenda. Is there anybody? 18 (No response.) 19 JUDGE POLLARD: Well, Jody tells me -- this next 20 one would be the Commissioners' comments, and Jody tells me 21 that this item can be discussed in Commissioners' comments. 22 This is a letter from the Comptroller of Public Accounts 23 addressed to me, and it's dated June 12, 2014. It says, "I 24 am pleased to inform you that Kerr County has earned a 2014 25 Platinum Leadership Circle Award. Your application scored 22 7-14-14 6 1 of 22 possible points on our ratings criteria to earn this 2 award. You're listed on our Texas transparency website; it 3 now displays the platinum seal to indicate that you received 4 this award, and enclosed is your copy of the leadership 5 circle award certificate. You will receive a digital seal 6 which you may post on your website. Congratulations on your 7 success in moving forward on financial transparency and 8 joining our leadership circle." Signed Susan Combs, 9 Comptroller of Public Accounts. And here's the nice 10 certificate that came with it. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Fantastic. 12 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. I guess we can probably 13 display that somewhere, for a while, anyway. Running out of 14 wall space, aren't we? 15 MS. HARGIS: Of the counties, there's only three 16 that got the platinum award. 17 JUDGE POLLARD: Only three counties? 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Wow. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Who are those other two? 20 MS. HARGIS: I don't know. 21 (Laughter.) 22 JUDGE POLLARD: Ought to ask who are the ones that 23 weren't. All right. Are there any other comments by 24 Commissioners, or reports? I was hoping Mr. Letz would -- 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Start down there with him. 7-14-14 7 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yes, sir, I do have a 2 comment to make. I see -- I have an article out of the 3 Kerrville Daily Times over the weekend, "Migrant Children 4 Temporarily Stayed in Kerr County." And I want to make some 5 comments about that. This said there were several hundred 6 that came in here, and the article talks about our Sheriff 7 not knowing anything about it, and how he contacted the Chief 8 of Police of Kerrville to find out that he didn't know 9 anything about it. And this is bad, in my opinion. And I'm 10 just -- I'm just speaking as a citizen that's madder than 11 hell right now about this. There -- I mean, this is not a 12 funny, cute little thing at all. These people that are 13 coming across the border, there's diseases, all kinds of 14 diseases. There's MS-13 people that are mingled in with 15 these groups. Those people will cut your head off. And 16 these camps -- camp or camps that house them should be 17 ashamed of themselves, and I'm going to tell you why. They 18 have not notified our law enforcement, and that makes me 19 madder than hell, I'm telling you. They need to apologize to 20 the citizens of this community, and never, ever let this 21 happen again. We rely on Rusty as the Sheriff of Kerr County 22 to protect us and our families, and he does an excellent job 23 of that. And he needs to know -- that's my bottom line, is 24 that these people need to notify our Sheriff of what -- 25 JUDGE POLLARD: And public health officials. 7-14-14 8 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Public health officials, 2 whatever. But I'm -- I want the guy with the gun protecting 3 me. That's all. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I want to echo what 5 Commissioner Baldwin said. I think it's an outrage that it 6 happened and that no one in this community knew about it, 7 either public health or public safety or whatever, and that 8 the camps refused to say anything about it. I think that's 9 very offensive, and not being a good member of this 10 community. On that subject, I had an opportunity Saturday, 11 with 11 other people, to meet with Senator Cruz, and there 12 was a lot of things talked about, health care and such. 13 Everybody had a little issue. But I brought up the subject 14 of border security, and -- and I am absolutely, 100 percent 15 convinced, in my technical background, that there is a -- 16 that border could be secured; if it's not 100 percent, 99 17 percent. No one would get through it. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I agree. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And it can be done for -- for, 20 you know, five to ten billion dollars for 2,000 miles. He 21 agreed with that. I said, "But the issue is, there's not a 22 will to do it. There's not a will by the Republicans. 23 There's not a will by the Democrats. There's not a will by 24 the administration nor the Congress in total." I said, until 25 there's a will, we're going to have this same kind of thing 7-14-14 9 1 that Commissioner Baldwin just spoke about. So, I felt very 2 passionate about that, and I think everybody at that very 3 good dialogue meeting with the senator, whether or not -- you 4 know, he can't do anything about it, but -- but I know that 5 somebody says put a man on the moon, and in a decade, you can 6 do it. Somebody says close that border permanently, and in a 7 couple years it could be done. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It could be. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: There's no doubt about it. 10 The only other thing I'd mention is that Center Point had a 11 big event this past Saturday with a parade and -- and 12 fundraisers and so forth. Good turnout for that. And this 13 is -- I forgot how many years they've been doing it, but it 14 was very successful and a good community activity. So, 15 that's it for now. Oh, and Jon -- I went to a thing that 16 Jonathan Letz was a big part of for Texas Wildlife 17 Association down in San Antonio, and I think he'll speak to 18 more of that, but it was a very, very good seminar on 19 property rights, and especially groundwater and -- 20 groundwater and surface water. Good attendance, and I think 21 that that's a strong organization to represent property 22 owners in rural areas. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I want to start by echoing what 24 both Commissioners have said about the border issue and 25 people coming into our community. And, you know, I'm not 7-14-14 10 1 sure if it does any good, but I think, you know, I'll make a 2 stab at getting some kind of resolution for our next meeting, 3 at least to put people on notice that we're upset by it. 4 Whether -- I don't think it will do much good, because I 5 think that people a lot higher up the chain than us have 6 complained, and they get pretty much stonewalled as well. 7 But still, I think it's worth doing. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I have a draft resolution for 9 that. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Good. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I'll share it or modify it, 12 okay. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The conference I was at was the 14 Texas Wildlife Association; I'm very involved with that 15 group. And their annual convention was in San Antonio; about 16 1,500 people, big turnout. But we focused a lot on water 17 issues, you know, and private property rights among other 18 things. But on the water issues, really interesting was we 19 spent a lot of time on what is known as Waters of the United 20 States, and how that rule change at E.P.A. and Army Corps of 21 Engineers may impact people -- probably impact people. And 22 it's -- it's truly scary, the overreach that we're about to 23 see from the federal government on the ability to control 24 private property nationwide. 25 Currently, the basic rule of thumb that the Army 7-14-14 11 1 Corps of Engineers is using is that if you're doing any kind 2 of work -- dirt work in a drainage or wetland or something 3 like that, and you're on a -- you know, a strong intermittent 4 stream, on down through major waterway, that, you know, they 5 have some authority there. There are some exemptions, ag 6 being the biggest one. But that if you, you know, go up into 7 the upper areas where -- most of our ranches do stock tanks, 8 things like that. They really don't have authority. Well, 9 this rule change is to expand their authority area all the 10 way up to what is called ephemeral drainages, and what that 11 means is that any ditch, crease, whatever you want to call 12 it, that has water in it after a heavy rainfall for any 13 period of time. Doesn't have to be -- you know, there's not 14 a length of time; maybe an hour, maybe 30 minutes. That will 15 be included under their authority. Well, with our terrain, 16 that basically takes in the entire county. 17 And they don't have the staff to try to go out and 18 try to enforce this, but the issue comes in that, you know, 19 with technology and Google Earth and all these things, if I 20 get mad at Bob and I want to pull up property that he has, 21 and I look and I see a little pond, I take a picture with my 22 iPhone, e-mail it to the Corps of Engineers, you've got a 23 problem, because then it's a case file and they have to come 24 and investigate. And they will come investigate it, and 25 that's how they find things. And there's a big local case 7-14-14 12 1 out in Junction or near Junction, Kimble County, that made a 2 lot of news earlier this year. That's how that person got in 3 trouble. There's also -- there's no grandfathering. He had 4 a storage tank that was put on that property perfectly 5 legally 100 years ago. It's still illegal. 6 There's an agricultural exemption that is critical 7 to keep, and that's what most of us, you know, operate under. 8 I can go build a stock tank on our property because of the 9 agricultural exemption, within limits. But -- this is a big 10 "but" -- it appears that under the definition of agriculture, 11 wildlife exemption doesn't qualify. So, any of these ranches 12 in Kerr County -- and Kerr County has more than probably any 13 other county in the state, people that have switched off of 14 livestock completely, that don't have any cattle on their 15 property, or minimal numbers. They're probably not going to 16 qualify under the federal definition of agriculture. And if 17 you don't qualify as that, if you cross a stream with a 18 vehicle, if you build any kind of a tank, you redo a tank, 19 you need a federal permit. Again, they're not going to check 20 until someone turns you in, and it can be for any reason. 21 You can cut someone off in traffic, make them mad; they can 22 go take an iPhone picture. And so it's critical. Anyway, 23 we're real involved in that. I'll probably bring some more 24 information about that forward. 25 The other thing that was really an eye-opening 7-14-14 13 1 event was more on the legislative side. And we have -- 2 occasionally we get involved with Austin; we kind of keep an 3 eye on it when they're in session. But this coming-up 4 session, the House of Representatives really isn't going to 5 be any change. There's new members. We have a new member, 6 Andy Murr. But philosophically, leadership-wise, it's going 7 to be the same. The Senate has nine new senators. Very 8 conservative. Nine new senators, which is good, but those 9 that know how our Legislature works, that's -- one-third of 10 the senators are new, and they're -- and then you take that, 11 and every statewide office is new this year, from the 12 governor on down to Ag Commissioner, Comptroller on down, 13 Attorney General, so you're going to have a whole lot of 14 people that are going to be in there throwing their weight 15 around. 16 They all have big egos; that's the only reason 17 they're in those -- I won't say the only reason. That's one 18 of the reasons they're in that office. (Laughter.) But 19 they're going to try to do things. And a lot -- and what 20 they want to do may impact, and probably will impact county 21 government. I think it's going to be a session that we 22 really need to be more vigilant than we often are on this, 23 just watching what they're doing. And hopefully they won't 24 get a whole lot accomplished, but you never can tell. Those 25 are the two big things that came away from that. 7-14-14 14 1 JUDGE POLLARD: Thank you. Commissioner Reeves? 2 COMMISSIONER REEVES: We've covered a couple 3 things; I won't rehash that. But on another note, and I 4 think most of the Court was able to, at least one time this 5 week -- this past week, have a chance to visit with some of 6 the Wounded Warriors that were here. We've got an item on 7 the agenda, but it just makes you feel good that we were able 8 to open up our county and meet some outstanding people that 9 sacrificed a lot to keep us free. The whole county came out 10 to support them in one way or another, even the children. I 11 had the opportunity to talk to a couple of the youngsters, 12 and the recreational activities that they got to experience 13 this past week, probably they never would have been able to 14 if it had not been for the generosity of the county. One 15 even indicated if he could figure a way, -- one of the 16 warriors -- he'd move to Kerrville, and he seriously wants to 17 move here. So, great -- great time that we had there, and we 18 just -- I was proud to meet these guys that defend our 19 country. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Hear, hear. 21 JUDGE POLLARD: It was very emotional. Finally got 22 around to talking to the Wounded Warriors themselves, and 23 interviewing them. That got to be pretty emotional. We had 24 -- there was one -- one of them in a wheelchair with just one 25 leg left, and told me that it was scheduled to take his other 7-14-14 15 1 leg off pretty soon too, so these guys were shot up pretty 2 badly. And one of them commented that it was really nice to 3 get away from doctors, nurses, and hospitals for a week 4 and -- and try to forget about it all. This, mind you, with 5 all of them suffering pain all the time. I mean, Tony 6 Roberts indicated that he observed all five of them were in a 7 lot of pain the whole week. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Tony Arnold. 9 JUDGE POLLARD: I'm sorry, Tony Arnold. Were in a 10 lot of pain all week. So, they had their families along with 11 them. The kids really enjoyed it. I think some of the kids 12 even went out to Camp Stewart. Some of those kids probably 13 would have never had a chance to go to camp like that, and it 14 was really a nice -- really a nice project, and it put a good 15 face on Kerr County. My compliments to everybody that was 16 involved in that. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: May I add one thing to that? 18 This was the second annual of those, and it'll be totally 19 paid for, all their hotels, their -- their wining, dining, 20 their nights out, the camps for the kids. So, it'll be again 21 next year, and Jeannie Hargis has been involved in this from 22 day one. So -- 23 JUDGE POLLARD: And her husband. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And her husband. He takes a 25 lot of pictures. And so it's a big thing for the community. 7-14-14 16 1 And -- and I think when Tony Arnold asked yesterday at the -- 2 at the departure luncheon, five of the wives -- four out of 3 five of the wives cried, you know, because it was very 4 meaningful. Jody was there. So it's -- it's a big -- we got 5 an award for the county earlier, so this is another -- 6 another award, I think, for the county from these guys that 7 they deserve all the credit. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I want to add just a tiny 9 bit to it, that there are a lot of Wounded Warrior programs 10 all over the country, and Tony does several outside of Kerr 11 County, that most of them are geared toward the warrior 12 himself. Sometimes they'll take the wives. But I think that 13 we're the only ones that do the entire family, take their 14 children, and -- and entertain the children while the husband 15 and wife go out and have a nice dinner, or the husband goes 16 out, and they provide them a machine gun, and, I mean, they 17 can get it all out of their system. But it's the whole 18 family thing that happens in Kerrville, and that's the neat 19 part about it, in my opinion. 20 JUDGE POLLARD: Just a note of interest. Of the 21 five of them that were here, two were from New York, 22 originally is where they were raised. Two from Oklahoma. 23 And I've forgotten -- 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: There was one from Texas. 25 MS. HARGIS: California. 7-14-14 17 1 JUDGE POLLARD: California. I know there was -- 2 none of them were originally from Texas. Now, the one that 3 was reporting that he's from Texas was a New Yorker. He's 4 bought a home in San Antonio. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I knew -- I knew we should 6 have hung him. (Laughter.) 7 JUDGE POLLARD: But he's bought a home in San 8 Antonio. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: They all said they wanted to 10 come back to Kerrville. 11 JUDGE POLLARD: I know, they did. And one, maybe 12 two of them, said they wanted to move here, because they -- 13 everybody was so friendly here. It was really a -- a very 14 successful project. Can't -- can't compliment anybody any 15 more than that; they just did a great job, the committee did, 16 Tony Arnold and all his people. Thank you. Okay. Anybody 17 else have anything? Let's get to Item 1.1 on the agenda. 18 This is a public hearing regarding the revision of plat for 19 Lots 8, 9, and 10 of the Kerrville Ranchettes, Volume 3, Page 20 79, Precinct 4 -- and that's in Precinct 4. Leonard Odom and 21 Charlie Hastings. 22 (The regular Commissioners Court meeting was closed at 9:20 a.m., and a public hearing was held in open 23 court, as follows:) 24 P U B L I C H E A R I N G 25 JUDGE POLLARD: I understand they talk about -- may 7-14-14 18 1 talk about this off and on. Does the Commissioner from 2 Precinct 4 want to talk? 3 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Well, this is the public 4 hearing, isn't it? 5 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. There's no presentation 6 at first? All right. Is there anyone that wishes to speak 7 to this issue in the public hearing this matter? All right, 8 there being none, we'll close the public hearing, then. 9 (The public hearing was concluded at 9:20 a.m., and the regular Commissioners Court meeting was 10 reopened.) 11 - - - - - - - - - - 12 JUDGE POLLARD: And proceed to Item 1.2; consider, 13 discuss, and take appropriate action for the Court's final 14 approval regarding the revision of a plat for Lots 8, 9, and 15 10 of Kerrville Ranchettes, Volume 3, Page 79, Precinct 4. 16 MR. HASTINGS: Thank you, Judge. We had a 17 preliminary plat on June 9th last month for these same lots. 18 Mr. James Rice owns Lots 8, 9, and 10 of Kerrville 19 Ranchettes, Volume 3, Page 79. He would like to combine 20 these three lots into two lots, Lots 8R and 9R, 5.01 and 21 10.17 acres respectively. At this time, we're asking the 22 Court for their final approval regarding the revision of plat 23 for Lots 8, 9, and 10 of Kerrville Ranchettes, Volume 3, Page 24 79, in Precinct 4. 25 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Move approval. 7-14-14 19 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 2 JUDGE POLLARD: It's been moved and seconded for 3 final approval of the replat of Lots 8, 9, and 10 of 4 Kerrville Ranchettes. Is there any further discussion, 5 comments or questions? 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It's always a good thing to 7 see smaller pieces of property come together as a larger 8 piece, and Precinct 4 Commissioner knows that, and certainly 9 supported this, and I'm proud of him for doing that. 10 JUDGE POLLARD: I noted -- Charlie, maybe you can 11 answer this question. Sometimes when you do that, the 12 previous plat granted easements along the lot lines for 13 utilities, probably, in most cases. 14 MR. HASTINGS: Yes, sir. 15 JUDGE POLLARD: Were there any utilities placed 16 along the old lot lines, the common boundary lines? 17 MR. HASTINGS: This is Mr. Domingues; he's the 18 surveyor for this. 19 JUDGE POLLARD: Good morning, Charles. 20 MR. DOMINGUES: Morning, Judge. Charles Domingues. 21 In the platting of this, if there's any easements along the 22 original lot lines, there's a note on there that voids out 23 those easements and makes new easements along the new 24 property lines. 25 JUDGE POLLARD: I noticed your notation under 7-14-14 20 1 easement notices, that it indicates there were some 2 easements, but it says this doesn't -- doesn't affect them? 3 Is that what you mean by that? That they're voided, and new 4 easements are replacing them? 5 MR. DOMINGUES: Yes, sir. 6 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. All right. And the new 7 easements don't -- don't affect any improvements? 8 MR. DOMINGUES: No, sir. 9 JUDGE POLLARD: They're not straddling any of the 10 old boundary lines? 11 MR. DOMINGUES: No. 12 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. All right, thank you. Any 13 further discussion or questions? If not, those in favor, 14 signify by raising your right hand. 15 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 16 JUDGE POLLARD: It is four-zero, unanimous. Thank 17 you. 18 MR. HASTINGS: Thank you. 19 JUDGE POLLARD: I'm not good at folding -- 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: You aren't good at Christmas? 21 JUDGE POLLARD: Aren't good at that stuff, so thank 22 you. All right. 1.3; consider, discuss, and take 23 appropriate action for a variance -- I was looking at the 24 time to make sure we're on time -- for a variance for Section 25 -- Section 6.04 of the Kerr County Subdivision Rules and 7-14-14 21 1 Regulations regarding the revision of plats existing in 2 recorded subdivisions for Lot 70B and 73 of Ingram Hills 3 Subdivision, Volume 3, Pages 149A dash 149D; this is in 4 Precinct 4. 5 MR. HASTINGS: Yes, sir. Judge, Road and Bridge 6 was notified of a possible illegal subdivision with Lot 73 7 and 70B of Ingram Hills Subdivision, as you just read. In 8 2007, the previous owners, Lindberg and Berry, altered the 9 common lot line, and they filed it at the courthouse through 10 an attorney. That should have been revised by a plat per 11 Section 6.04 of the subdivision regulations. It wasn't. 12 They didn't know any better. We now have new owners, Piver 13 and Price, and they cannot -- neither one of them can get a 14 septic or floodplain permit until they come into compliance 15 with the subdivision regulations per Court Orders 29223 and 16 29224. Those were passed back in 2005, prior to any of this 17 action happening. We believe there's an undue hardship from 18 the strict compliance of the subdivision regulations, or a 19 possible undue hardship. At this time, we do ask the Court 20 to grant a variance for Lot 73 and 70B of Ingram Hills 21 Subdivision, Volume 3, Pages 149A through 149D, under Section 22 6.04, revision of plat of an existing recorded subdivision 23 process, and require that 2014 survey plat that you have in 24 your files here to be filed along with the court order 25 granting this variance to 6.04 with the August 24, 2007 7-14-14 22 1 Boundary Line Agreement Deed. This is in Precinct 4. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: The violation of the Kerr 3 County Subdivision Rules and Regulations was what? 4 MR. HASTINGS: That results in a -- you cannot get 5 a septic permit or a floodplain permit per court orders that 6 were passed in 2005 if you are not in compliance with the 7 Kerrville -- 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: What was the violation of the 9 regulations? That's what I'm asking. 10 MR. HASTINGS: It was an illegal subdivision. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Oh, I see. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Should have been platted. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 14 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Should have been platted. 15 They just filed a metes and bounds -- 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay, I see. 17 COMMISSIONER REEVES: -- of a small part of another 18 lot. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I see. 20 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Unbeknownst to buyers, title 21 company or anything, it had been filed. Subsequent owners 22 now have acquired the property, and desire to put an 23 on-site -- 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Got you. 25 COMMISSIONER REEVES: -- sanitary facility on it. 7-14-14 23 1 To go through the replatting process, while I don't believe 2 we should be granting variances carte blanche, this is one of 3 the cases I think it would create such an undue hardship on 4 the property owners who bought it in good faith, wanting to 5 develop the property, put a residence, septic system on it. 6 We've discussed it with Ms. Stebbins, and she feels that this 7 would fall under the variance. Is that correct, Ms. 8 Stebbins? 9 MS. STEBBINS: It can apply to a variance. It can 10 apply. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So, they just didn't replat. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I strongly disagree. I 13 disagree totally with giving a variance. To me, this is 14 setting a precedent that if we allow this, then we're just 15 saying people no longer have to do revision of plats. I 16 understand the financial situation, but our rules clearly say 17 financial hardship is not a reason for a variance. I 18 understand these people -- and I don't mind waiving fees or 19 doing everything we can to help them for the financial 20 hardship. I don't have a problem with doing nothing and 21 letting them get a septic permit, but giving a variance from 22 our rules is wrong. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I agree. You know, I've 24 heard the word "hardship" several times, and you used 25 "financial hardship." Is that the hardship we're dealing 7-14-14 24 1 with? 2 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I feel the hardship is buying 3 a piece of property in good faith, getting a title policy, 4 thinking they can go in and go ahead and put their septic 5 system on it. Now they've found out because of a transfer 6 five -- seven years ago, they would have to go through the 7 whole replatting process -- 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 9 COMMISSIONER REEVES: -- to get a septic system put 10 in. And I think the ultimate goal, they want to be able to 11 put a septic system in. Is that correct? The realtor 12 involved is here in the deal, and the ultimate goal is to be 13 -- whether it's a variance or a court order to allow this 14 septic system, they just want to get the septic system in. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I'm with Commissioner Letz on 16 this. Let them put the septic system in. We'll give them 17 that permission, waive the fees, eliminate the hardship, but 18 don't violate the -- 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Rules. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: -- rules. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Even if they give -- we give 22 them five years to do it. As I understand it, this was done 23 after our subdivision rules were in place. It was done by a 24 transaction that these people are not a party to. And these 25 people are innocent people; I totally agree with that part of 7-14-14 25 1 it. The person that did the thing had an attorney do it, and 2 it was filed of record, and if the title company didn't find 3 that and know that it was wrong, to me, it's the -- these 4 people should go to the title company. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Title company's problem. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean, it clearly was filed of 7 record, and it's clearly -- the title company was on notice 8 that there was an illegal subdivision. Now, if they don't 9 want to police it, that's the title company's decision, but 10 it's not for us to give a variance. You know, I would -- you 11 know, I don't mind -- my preference would be here to -- 12 because of the financial situation, as I understand it, or 13 hardship circumstances, is to give them -- let them get their 14 septic permits, and give them five years to get it worked 15 out, comply, or some period of time to bring it into 16 compliance. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: What we're doing is giving a 18 variance to the title company. I mean, not literally. 19 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I disagree on that. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Letting the title company off. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Pass. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So that's just -- you know -- 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: To pass. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I feel sorry for the 7-14-14 26 1 people, but if we give a variance here for this reason, I 2 don't see what prevents everybody else from doing the same 3 thing, just quit -- not doing it any more. We'd set a 4 precedent, and we've been very hardcore about not setting a 5 precedent. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And he's exactly right, and 7 it's -- it's true that this thing could snowball real easily. 8 Let's work out this septic tank thing. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't mind doing nothing. I 10 mean, we're on notice that it's an illegal subdivision, but 11 we're not doing anything about it; I can live with that. But 12 I just don't want to give a variance. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: How do you want to handle 14 that, Commissioner? Do you want to -- 15 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Their ultimate goal -- could 16 you come up and -- for the record, and so the Court knows, 17 and state your name? 18 MS. DAVENPORT: Sherry Davenport, Key Hill Country 19 Real Estate. 20 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Their ultimate goal is to be 21 able to put a septic tank on a property. 22 MS. DAVENPORT: And a residence. 23 COMMISSIONER REEVES: And a residence. And if the 24 variance is not granted, but if we gave them Court authority 25 to put the septic tank in, would that satisfy your client? 7-14-14 27 1 MS. DAVENPORT: As long as it doesn't affect also 2 installing a well. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No. 4 COMMISSIONER REEVES: It wouldn't affect anything. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's a Headwaters decision; 6 we have no authority over that, but I don't have a problem 7 telling Headwaters that we support a permit. 8 MS. DAVENPORT: Thank you, yes. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Do you have a problem, Ray? 10 MR. GARCIA: Well, as long as the Court gives 11 authority. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I think, you know, rather 13 than put a time period on it, if we put at the next real 14 estate transaction, this needs to be fixed at some point. 15 And I don't know how we track it, but -- 16 MS. DAVENPORT: Okay. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- but that's something that, 18 you know, I guess we can put a note in the plat file that, 19 you know, at some point, this needs to be fixed. 20 MS. DAVENPORT: This is our surveyor, 21 Mr. Domingues. 22 JUDGE POLLARD: Is Charles still here? 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, he's there. 24 JUDGE POLLARD: Charles, was that -- how big of a 25 change in the sliver off of one lot did that involve, in 7-14-14 28 1 terms of area? 2 MR. DOMINGUES: I can't remember. Seems like it 3 was a quarter of an acre. 4 MS. DAVENPORT: It is. 5 MR. DOMINGUES: A quarter of an acre, right at a 6 quarter of an acre. The main thing that they changed was to 7 move the property farther away from the house that was 8 existing, from what I understand. I didn't have anything to 9 do with the original work. But then also, the property line 10 of the original had very little frontage on the road, and the 11 front was moved over a good deal to give the vacant lot or 12 the new lot, the requested septic tank more frontage on the 13 road, and easier access on the road. 14 JUDGE POLLARD: So, are they going to sever 15 ownership of the -- between the two lots, have a different 16 owner? 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's been severed. 18 MR. DOMINGUES: It's been severed several years. 19 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. 20 MR. DOMINGUES: You know, and I think they did it 21 by metes and bounds for the major lot that the house was on, 22 and then a fence line agreement -- or a property line 23 agreement, excuse me, for the new lot. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think -- I believe the County 25 Attorney looked at whether you could do it as an amending 7-14-14 29 1 plat or a correction, but it didn't fit that, and that 2 doesn't -- plus it doesn't get it away from the cost of 3 having to do the platting. I mean, you can fix it through 4 maybe doing an amending plat, but the cost is still there to 5 do it that way. 6 JUDGE POLLARD: Charles, I'm trying to remember; 7 there was some kind of exception. I think it was in the area 8 of -- of lots where you -- when you needed to move a boundary 9 line or something like that, that were -- it was -- there was 10 an exception to the platting process if you just wanted to 11 get a sliver out of the next lot or something. Was there -- 12 wasn't there something like that? 13 MR. DOMINGUES: Well, you're thinking about city 14 subdivision regulations. 15 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. 16 MR. DOMINGUES: Because the city subdivision 17 regulations exempt this type of a change in property line 18 from subdivision regulations, as long as it does not create 19 an inferior lot. 20 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. 21 MR. DOMINGUES: It does not give them any right to 22 divide. 23 JUDGE POLLARD: I knew there was something like 24 that; I just didn't remember where it was. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: If this was over 10 acres, it 7-14-14 30 1 would be exempt from county rules too, but it's not over 10 2 acres. 3 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. Thanks, Charles. Any 4 further discussion? 5 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I still would like to move 6 for approval of the agenda item. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And what is that? 8 COMMISSIONER REEVES: To allow the variance. 9 JUDGE POLLARD: Is there a second? 10 (No response.) 11 JUDGE POLLARD: There being no second, the motion 12 fails. Okay. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Draft -- 14 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Then we will need to put a -- 15 at our next meeting, a court order to allow Environmental 16 Health to allow a septic system to be placed on there? 17 JUDGE POLLARD: Yeah. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: If the County Attorney's okay 19 with it, I don't know why we can't do that now. The issue of 20 the variance is the same issue that we're granting the -- you 21 know, not requiring platting and authorizing Environmental 22 Health -- 23 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Then I would move to allow a 24 septic system -- on-site sanitary sewer system be placed on 25 the lots in question, as noted in the agenda. 7-14-14 31 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 2 JUDGE POLLARD: That motion is not contingent upon 3 a period of time to correct the plat; is that correct? 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, next real estate -- I 5 mean, I don't know how we track it. I think we have no 6 mechanism to track something like that, so we just hope for 7 the best, to be honest. 8 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. So, the motion is to 9 allow the issuance of a certificate for -- to place a septic 10 tank on the property. 11 COMMISSIONER REEVES: That's correct. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Is there room with this 13 agenda item to waive fees? 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: For platting? 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't -- they're going to 16 have to do it anyway. Yeah, there is. I mean, to answer 17 your question, yes, there is room. 18 JUDGE POLLARD: There is a fee for getting a septic 19 tank that would be there either way. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. 21 JUDGE POLLARD: So -- 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I think we were talking about 23 waiving the fee for platting. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. But if we're not going 25 that route, if we're going to just -- we're just basically 7-14-14 32 1 going to -- 2 JUDGE POLLARD: I don't think it lets them have it. 3 COMMISSIONER REEVES: It will allow them to put 4 this septic system on the property without having it 5 replatted, is my motion. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 8 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. It's been moved and 9 seconded that they -- well, as stated by Commissioner -- by 10 Commissioner 4. Any further comment? There being none, 11 those in favor, signify by raising your right hand. 12 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 13 JUDGE POLLARD: It's unanimous, 4-0. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Good job, Commissioner. 15 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. 1.4; consider, discuss, and 16 take appropriate action on request for funding of Kerr 17 Economic Development Corporation. Jonas Titas. 18 MR. TITAS: Morning, Commissioners. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Morning, Jonas. 20 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Thanks. 21 MR. TITAS: Take one and pass it along, please. 22 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Yes, sir. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you. 24 MR. TITAS: Good morning, Commissioners. And I 25 would like to begin by thanking you all for your support of 7-14-14 33 1 Kerr Economic Development Corporation since our inception. 2 You're a vital partner of everything that we do, and we value 3 our relationship. Further, we have moved up our budget 4 calendar or budget cycle as we -- than what we have done in 5 previous years to make it easier for our stakeholders for 6 dialogue and planning. Before you, we've put together a kind 7 of one-page summary, and it shows what our mission statement 8 is, which is to retain existing jobs and create new job 9 opportunities in Kerrville and Kerr County. We've listed our 10 board members. It's a nine-member board. Each of our four 11 key stakeholders has -- has membership on the board as 12 appointed by their organization. We also have representation 13 from the Independent School District, the Chamber of 14 Commerce, and the C.V.B., because a lot of our initiatives 15 overlap. We also have two representatives of the business 16 community. 17 And what K.E.D.C. is, and what we've tried to 18 become is -- and strivingly working toward is we want to be a 19 vital resource for the county and all of our stakeholders. 20 We see facilitation of incentives to be just a small part of 21 what we do. We want to be a data house for businesses that 22 are both considering locating in this area and existing 23 businesses. We -- this past year, we've conducted a new 24 laborshed analysis. We constantly monitor our real estate 25 database. We update the traffic counts and make those 7-14-14 34 1 available for -- working with TexDOT for a lot of existing 2 businesses or businesses looking at our area. We update 3 demographics annually for the city and the county, and we 4 also work with mentoring new small business development. In 5 addition, we are a proactive recruiter, looking to market 6 Kerrville/Kerr County for business opportunities for people 7 outside of our region looking to come in and employ citizens 8 of Kerr County. 9 We have a robust retention program where we work 10 with existing businesses county-wide to show what resources 11 and what -- and also make -- become aware of any issues which 12 might be facing them. We work constantly to update our -- 13 our administration and policies, and this includes working 14 with you all on a potential new 381 policy. Also, we are 15 working with the Airport Board and putting together a new 16 site plan for potential development on property north of 17 Airport Road outside the airport fence for -- looking at that 18 as potential development as industrial property. We've 19 adopted target markets this past year, which are focused on 20 primarily industries, which is where our focus is, that those 21 are the -- the types of industries that we feel has the 22 greatest return, economic impact, by paying good wages and 23 exporting products outside of our region; therefore, bringing 24 new money, and those include airport/aviation, energy 25 projects, energy processes, small light manufacturing, craft 7-14-14 35 1 agriculture, and hotel conference center. 2 And then in the bullets, we listed some of our -- 3 our big accomplishments for the year. We worked with you all 4 on the provisions for a new tax abatement for Bending Branch, 5 and we'll be working to finalize that agreement in this next 6 month. We have a new 381 policy with the City. We're 7 working with Commissioner Moser on a bylaws committee, 8 updating a lot of our internal protocols. This -- in 9 February, we finalized our new labor study, which, when we 10 work with prospects, the first question that we get asked 11 is -- is not, "How much of a check can you write?" It is, 12 "Where are the people, and what skills do they have, and what 13 does it cost to employ them?" And so we did a fairly robust 14 labor analysis this past year, and it's a very -- very great 15 resource that -- and we've shared it with a lot of prospects. 16 We'll update that every couple of years. We adopted our new 17 mission statement. As I pointed out, we have new officers, 18 and we're working with also updating presented drafts of 19 380/381 policies. 20 We have four active prospects right now. One is an 21 adhesive sealant prospect that is moving from Mexico to 22 Center Point, and right now they are potentially looking at 23 warehousing and future production of equipment for a market 24 that would encompass the entire Americas, so a potential for 25 15 new employees at that operation. Working with two that 7-14-14 36 1 are -- we all know very well, which is Bending Branch and 2 Mooney International, and there's also an exciting new 3 prospect for a nursing call center, which could potentially 4 employ between 60 and 100 nurses in very high-paying jobs. 5 They're on-shoring that operation from the Philippines to the 6 United States, and we have -- we've made it through about 7 four or five rounds of elimination in their site selection 8 process, so we are on the short list. And that could be a 9 very exciting prospect for this community, because right now 10 a lot of our companies that are hiring and are doing quite 11 well are in male-dominated fields, and so they were really 12 responsive to our -- our packets, which demonstrated a lot. 13 Although we do have a tight labor market, a lot of people 14 want to live in the hill country, so this could create an 15 opportunity for there to be dual-income households in this 16 part of the state, and people to have -- make good wages and 17 have a living wage. 18 And moving on, we also have a copy of the budget 19 that K.E.D.C. approved. We are continuing to work on our -- 20 our methodology of eating into a -- a budget surplus that had 21 accrued before I came on staff due to us doing two things. 22 One, we were dormant for a period of about six months before 23 I came on staff. And number two, we've significantly 24 decreased the budget by about 100,000 since three years ago, 25 so we are anticipating a budget overage this -- or a surplus 7-14-14 37 1 this year, carryover balance of about a hundred and -- about 2 160,000. Excuse me. We ate into it by 60,000 last year, so 3 the strategy that we have employed with our stakeholders is 4 to under -- ask for less money than the budget that we are 5 adopting, so we're under -- underfunding ourselves for a 6 period of years to eat away at that carryover. So, what we 7 are presenting right now is basically a 5 percent decrease of 8 what we term our baseline funding levels. So, rather than 9 the 17,500, we are requesting 16,250 from you all. And so, 10 therefore, we are underfunding our organization by $27,000, 11 and that will give us a cushion of $30,000 going into next 12 budget cycle to -- and that would give us resources to 13 account for any unforeseen expenses. But we've eaten into 14 that. It was over 160,000 two years ago, and we've got it 15 down to just 30. So, with that, I'd entertain any questions. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Good work. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Let me -- 18 JUDGE POLLARD: Let me ask, how long is the short 19 list for the nurses? 20 MR. TITAS: Well, every -- every site selector is 21 different, so there's no telling. They try -- they keep that 22 information fairly close to the vest, but we would anticipate 23 that we're in a handful of communities being considered. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: There's -- let me comment on 25 something that Jonas said, too. There's sort of three R's 7-14-14 38 1 that this organization does. They retain, help with 2 retaining the businesses that are here, which is critically 3 important. 4 MR. TITAS: Yes. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Like with Mooney; he's worked 6 extensively with Mooney. Jonathan Letz and I have, likewise. 7 They are a resource for demographics, for people coming, and 8 when somebody comes in the area and they're looking for, 9 "What does this area have to offer?" it's K.E.D.C. that has 10 that, and it's amazing the data that Jonas has put together. 11 And then they recruit, and that is going down -- he was down 12 in South Texas a couple weeks ago recruiting people to come 13 to this area, so -- and then, Jonas, say something if you 14 will on the -- K.E.D.C. has a strategic plan by with which 15 they're looking at different types of business. Talk about 16 the primary focus, and then how that expands out to the -- 17 MR. TITAS: Yes. Our strategy is focusing on what 18 we -- what we define as primary employers, and these are any 19 type of enterprise that sells a majority of their product or 20 service outside of Kerr County, so therefore, they're 21 bringing new money to the community. If we get a new 22 retailer in the region, they more or less cut the pie in more 23 slices. We want to create an environment where we're growing 24 the economy, where you have a sphere of -- of activity within 25 what we call the primary sector, where there's people working 7-14-14 39 1 at Mooney, working at Nature Blinds, working at Vention, 2 working at James Avery, that are selling products that are 3 being exported out of our community, and these people make 4 good living wages, and therefore they have disposable income 5 where they might want to go see a movie, go out to dinner, so 6 that creates a -- a functioning economic sphere. And then 7 also ancillary to that, there are companies that sell 8 products to Mooney, James Avery, et cetera, so then the 9 suppliers also take note of the fact that we have primary 10 employers that are successful, that are selling products, and 11 they want to formalize a relationship with them selling their 12 products to them, and that may also entail them moving closer 13 to them and hiring residents of Kerrville and Kerr County. 14 So, now you have two functioning economic spheres based on 15 focusing our efforts on one, and therefore, that's creating 16 new wealth in the community, and that then grows the retail 17 service pie. So, therefore, there's more opportunities for 18 additional retailers to come to this region, because it is -- 19 it's a larger economy than what it was. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But at the same time, you know, 21 this is one -- one of the -- as you know and the Court knows, 22 the beef I've had with that approach is that because we don't 23 attract the retailers and the restaurants and that, we have 24 this new money here, and they all go to Boerne and San 25 Antonio to shop because we have nothing to shop here. And I 7-14-14 40 1 think there's a fallacy in that. I think Kerrville is a 2 regional -- and has been for years, a regional shopping area, 3 and that needs to be built as well. We have Home Depot, we 4 have Lowe's. We have people in Junction, Rocksprings, 5 Leakey, Fredericksburg; they all come here to shop, and 6 that's not local money that we're getting into our economy. 7 And I think -- 8 JUDGE POLLARD: A lot of medical complexes. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: A lot of medical. So, I think 10 there -- I don't disagree with what you have, but I have a 11 problem with the approach. And we don't need to address that 12 now, but I think -- you know, I think this Court needs to be 13 a lot more involved going forward. I'm looking at 14 Commissioner Moser as I'm saying this, 'cause he's our 15 representative. We need to bring the strategic plan to this 16 Court and look at it. 17 MR. TITAS: By all means. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Half the population in the 19 county lives outside of the city of Kerrville. I still think 20 there's a strong weight of the city of Kerrville on the board 21 of K.E.D.C. So, that being said, you know, I'm not -- I like 22 economic development; I'm very much in favor it. But I want 23 to make sure that we're involved more than I think we've been 24 involved in the past. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's the reason I asked 7-14-14 41 1 Jonas to mention that, because -- and I think probably next 2 Commissioners Court, or in the future shortly, we should 3 bring the strategic plan forward and review that with the 4 Court, because it's a well thought out -- 5 MR. TITAS: And we're working on updating that this 6 current year as well, and we've also engaged a facilitator 7 that is going to come back and visit with us. She came in 8 January, and she's coming back in November -- September to 9 help us with some of the issues internally within our board 10 working on a strategic plan. But I'd also like to comment on 11 -- on what you just said, Jonathan. We are open for 12 business, and we definitely work with retailers and do all 13 that we can to support them. But as far as strategically 14 deciding what resources do we have to go out and recruit, per 15 direction of the board, it was -- it was a strategic decision 16 to focus on what we -- the primary -- the higher-paying 17 industries. But that does not mean that we do not want 18 retail, and that we -- and when we -- and we work with 19 commercial and retail brokers throughout the region, and we 20 give them information on Kerrville and we help facilitate. 21 Anything that we can do, we market Kerrville in that regard. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'm not totally convinced. Go 24 ahead. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I want to get a question in 7-14-14 42 1 here that pertains to the agenda item, actually. Do you have 2 their $16,250 plugged into the budget? 3 MS. HARGIS: We have 17,5, because we had -- 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Would you change that to 5 16, -- 6 MS. HARGIS: Mm-hmm. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: -- 250? 8 JUDGE POLLARD: Yeah. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And question, Mr. Titas. I 11 have a grandson named Titus, only that's his first name. 12 MR. TITAS: Does he spell it correctly? 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yes, he does. (Laughter.) 14 He talks a little slower than you. I'm really curious of why 15 you've chosen the Commissioners Court and the agenda item to 16 request funding. Everyone else comes to the budget hearings 17 and does it through the budget process. 18 MR. TITAS: That's -- this was the process that I 19 am familiar with. I would be happy to -- to do -- to please 20 the Court and do it however. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's fine. I was just 22 curious about that, if there was some reason. 23 MR. TITAS: The first year I came on staff, this is 24 the process that -- 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. 7-14-14 43 1 MR. TITAS: -- was communicated to me. So, I'd be 2 -- if you'd prefer us to do it a different way, we're 3 definitely -- 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, just everything 5 everybody else does. Thank you very much. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: One question. I don't mean to 7 always beat up on you, Jonas, but I do this to everyone. 8 MR. TITAS: Not a problem. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I do this to everybody. I 10 notice on here your salary, 84,000. Is that -- and I also 11 see that salary line item's increasing. Do you have an 12 increase this year in salary? Or is it the fact that your 13 assistant -- 14 MR. TITAS: My assistant went from being part-time 15 to full-time, is what reflects in that line item. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. Okay. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I move that we accept the 18 budget as requested -- let me -- 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Wait a minute. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Let me say it differently. I 21 move that we allocate $16,250 to -- to the K.E.D.C. for the 22 year 2014-15. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I think that's been done. 24 She's going to put -- 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, it's in our budget? 7-14-14 44 1 MS. HARGIS: 17,5. We need to change it, yes. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. So, do I need -- do we 3 have to have a court order? Okay. So, I so move. 4 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I'll second. 5 JUDGE POLLARD: Been moved and seconded that the 6 budget item be amended, reduced to $16,250. Is that correct? 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Correct. 8 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. Any further discussion? 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: A comment. This is just a -- 10 again, you know, I support funding y'all this year, even 11 though I said I have questions about doing it. I think y'all 12 are a little bit on probation, in my mind. But -- and I'll 13 vote for this, but we don't individually vote for budget 14 items. Your amount will not be funded until we approve the 15 budget. 16 MR. TITAS: Sure. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We have not done that yet. 18 MR. TITAS: We won't submit our formal request or 19 invoice until the end of the fiscal year. We just wanted to 20 move up the cycle and just give you all time -- 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I have no problem. I 22 appreciate you coming. 23 JUDGE POLLARD: So, the motion should be amended to 24 say "subject to our budget process"? 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Mm-hmm. 7-14-14 45 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: See, because of that, this 2 whole damn thing is foolish. There is no reason to have a 3 court order to do that. It is done. She's already done it, 4 and as we come along and do the budget process later, we'll 5 either approve or disapprove it at that point. You know, 6 this is not necessary, to go through this. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: If we don't need a court 8 order, don't -- let's don't do it. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Absolutely not. 10 JUDGE POLLARD: Well, do you withdraw the motion, 11 then? 12 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Do we need a court order? 13 MS. STEBBINS: I don't think necessarily. You have 14 to come to our planning process like the rest of us. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Just like everybody else. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay, I withdraw the motion. 17 MR. TITAS: And next year, we'll definitely 18 amend -- 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I like it this way, to beat up 20 on you. (Laughter.) 21 MR. TITAS: Sure. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thanks, Jonas. 23 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. Thanks, Jonas. 24 MR. TITAS: Thank you. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Thank you, Jonas. 7-14-14 46 1 MR. TITAS: And we appreciate your support, too. 2 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. Item 1.5 -- 3 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Your Honor, we have some 4 timed items that we're probably over on right now. 5 JUDGE POLLARD: Which ones? 6 COMMISSIONER REEVES: 1.9, 13, 14. 7 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. Let's go to 1.9; 8 conduct a public hearing for the Kerr County Clerk's written 9 archival plan in accordance with Section 118.025. Jannett 10 Pieper. 11 (The regular Commissioners Court meeting was closed at 9:55 a.m., and a public hearing was held in open 12 court, as follows:) 13 P U B L I C H E A R I N G 14 JUDGE POLLARD: This is a public hearing. Is there 15 any comments on that? There being none, I'll close the open 16 hearing and go back to the regular session. 17 (The public hearing was concluded at 9:55 a.m., and the regular Commissioners Court meeting was 18 reopened.) 19 - - - - - - - - - - 20 JUDGE POLLARD: Then we'll go to -- I guess we can 21 take the action item after that on 1.10, right after that. 22 That goes with it. Consider, discuss, and take appropriate 23 action to approve the County Clerk's written archival plan as 24 presented. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So moved. 7-14-14 47 1 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Second. 2 JUDGE POLLARD: Been moved and seconded that the -- 3 that we approve the County Clerk's written archival plan. Is 4 there any further discussion? 5 MS. PIEPER: We need authorization for the Judge to 6 sign it. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's included in the motion. 8 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. All right. There being 9 no further discussion, those in favor, signify by raising 10 your right hand. 11 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 12 JUDGE POLLARD: It's four-zero; it's unanimous. 13 All right. Is there another timed item here? 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 13 and 14. 15 JUDGE POLLARD: 1.13; consider, discuss, and take 16 appropriate action on request to use Flat Rock and/or River 17 Star for the Bark for Life event on October 18th, 2014. 18 Alexis Hutcherson? 19 MS. HUTCHERSON: Good morning, Commissioners and 20 Judge. Thank you for having us. My name's Alexis 21 Hutcherson; I'm the 2014 chairperson for the Kerr County Bark 22 for Life. And this is Nicole Cody; she is our American 23 Cancer Society staff partner -- I'm sorry -- that we have for 24 Kerr County. We would like to see if we could use Flat Rock 25 Park on October 18th for our event, and see if you could do 7-14-14 48 1 an in-kind donation since we are a nonprofit organization. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: You mean an in-kind donation 3 for letting you use the park? 4 MS. HUTCHERSON: Yes, sir. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: There's no fee for the park. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Shhhh, just let her think 7 there is. (Laughter.) Great donation. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: What do you offer? 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'm just nice. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Make her think that we're 11 giving her something. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: You also included River Star? 13 JUDGE POLLARD: There is a fee for River Star. 14 MS. HUTCHERSON: Well, we've had it at River Star 15 the past five years. This will be our sixth annual one, and 16 since I've spoken with Jody, and since it's not actually, I 17 guess, all the way with y'all yet since the bankruptcy and 18 everything, -- 19 JUDGE POLLARD: Not totally available. 20 MS. HUTCHERSON: -- okay, we wanted to see if we 21 could use Flat Rock instead. 22 JUDGE POLLARD: And not River Star? 23 MS. HUTCHERSON: Yes, sir. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think we can use River Star 25 for this purpose, as long as you're -- you just can't use the 7-14-14 49 1 buildings in River Star. 2 MS. HUTCHERSON: Okay. 3 MS. STEBBINS: Which include the restrooms. 4 MS. HUTCHERSON: Yeah, that's kind of one of our 5 things that we like down there. So, we had out there. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, you can use the 7 pavilion, right? The covered pavilion. Just not the 8 building -- the closed -- 9 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Not the restrooms or the 10 offices, is my understanding. 11 MS. HUTCHERSON: Okay. Then on that, could we get 12 port-a-potties if we got them? 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. Somebody was there this 14 past weekend with that, yeah. 15 MS. HUTCHERSON: Were they? Could we use River 16 Star, then, for an in-kind donation? 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Now we have fees. (Laughter.) 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: How much is the fee to use 19 River Star? 20 MS. GRINSTEAD: We're charging $100, and then a 21 $200 cleanup deposit. Because they can't -- 22 JUDGE POLLARD: Cleanup fee. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Deposit. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Deposit. If it's not -- so, 25 it's $100, and then a deposit of $200 if it's not cleaned up. 7-14-14 50 1 MS. HUTCHERSON: Okay. We wanted to see if we 2 could do an in-kind donation for that, as we have the last 3 five years on this. We do have our own cleaning people that 4 come up and clean after, so it wouldn't be anything for the 5 county. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: For the $100? Is that what 7 you're -- 8 JUDGE POLLARD: For the $200. 9 MS. HUTCHERSON: Basically, for the fee of the 10 park. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: $200 is for the deposit, or is 12 that the for cleanup? 13 MS. GRINSTEAD: $200 cleaning deposit. If they 14 don't clean up, we'll keep that money. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't have a problem at this 16 point, whether they'd be happy using that facility a little 17 bit or have it totally over there. I don't mind personally 18 waiving the $100 fee, but the $200 cleanup deposit would be 19 required. But you'll get that back if you clean up. 20 MS. HUTCHERSON: Okay. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's a motion. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Do that again? 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: They have the -- they can use 25 Flat Rock and/or River Star. The $100 fee is waived. The 7-14-14 51 1 $200 cleaning deposit is not waived, but that is refunded if 2 they clean up the park. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And I second that. 4 JUDGE POLLARD: Been moved and seconded as stated. 5 Any further discussion? 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I just wanted to tell you 7 that my -- my little beagle, Daisy, was a Master of 8 Ceremonies there for a number of years. 9 MS. HUTCHERSON: She was. I'm so sorry to hear 10 about her passing. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you very much. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: But your new dog cannot be. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: My new dog cannot be, 'cause 14 she hasn't had cancer. 15 MS. HUTCHERSON: That's okay, her sister did. 16 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: The only other thing is if it 17 is Flat Rock, it is not closed to the public. It is still 18 open to the public. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Correct. 20 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: For everything else. There's 21 not an area that's closed off. 22 JUDGE POLLARD: That puts an unusual burden on you 23 for cleanup. Do you understand? 24 MS. HUTCHERSON: Yes, sir. 25 JUDGE POLLARD: You're going to -- you can't say, 7-14-14 52 1 "Well, this is your trash and that's the general public," so 2 you're going to have to clean it all up. 3 MS. HUTCHERSON: So, could we use River Star? 4 JUDGE POLLARD: Yeah. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Just stay up there at River 6 Star. 7 MS. HUTCHERSON: Okay, stay at River Star. 8 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. 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: Four-zero, unanimous. All right. 12 We're going to go to 1.14; monthly update from 3H Pathways 13 Youth Ranch. Commissioner Reeves. 14 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Thank you, Judge. As you 15 know, last month we passed a resolution asking for monthly 16 updates from the Youth Ranch as far as their progress on 17 addressing the problems that have been going on out there. 18 And I see Mr. Johnson is here. I appreciate you being here 19 today, and we look forward to hearing what you have to say. 20 MR. JOHNSON: Thank you, Commissioners. Thank you, 21 Judge. We've just -- you know, what we're doing is 22 continuing on our work, and that is our good busy work right 23 now. There's a -- I'm giving the Sheriff and y'all an 24 update. It's pretty much summarized. We have reached our 25 staffing ratio of four-to-one, which is one of our goals. 7-14-14 53 1 We've added additional night staff. Our current census is at 2 22, which is something we're keeping that way purposely 3 ourselves, so that we can train and develop before we begin 4 intake. We've finished our fence around our northern 35 5 acres on our property. Our ranch visiting -- there's 6 additional ranch area where we play, and there's a park area 7 on the other side of that land. That's on our northern 8 border that we're fencing, which is another 40 acres. We 9 finished our gates to that fenced area. Our pad for our 10 office location has been done, so that helps us move our 11 basic operations. 12 Our school's already moved into the back right 13 before the end of the school year, and our -- we finished the 14 pad to put the office there. We bought the office, and 15 that's being moved in as we speak. And there's additional 16 power lines and stuff like that. But mainly, the key point 17 to just talk about as you go down is we've brought in another 18 trainer, which puts, really, four master level trainers on 19 the grounds almost every day, all week and through the 20 weekend with staff, and we've been doing an additional 50 21 hours of training literally since we talked to you last time. 22 So, we're continuing to hire staff, we're continuing to 23 review staff, and we're beginning some enhancements to the 24 actual cabins that help us with our supervision. So, that's 25 pretty much where we are. Any questions? 7-14-14 54 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's a lot. 2 MR. JOHNSON: That's a lot. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's a bunch. 4 MR. JOHNSON: Yes, sir. We're well on our way to 5 having our operation run like we want it to. And right now, 6 the kids are in summer, and we're doing summer things and 7 summer fun, so that's always a good thing. School starts, 8 though, for us -- we run a year-round school with U.T., and 9 school will start the 21st, which is a little more of an 10 agitation attached to it with the kids. We expect more 11 acting out and things like that, but we're doing pretty well, 12 we feel. So, it's not without a kid getting mad, but -- 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: A lot of progress in a short 14 time. 15 MR. JOHNSON: Yes, sir, we've been aggressive. So, 16 we wanted to address it and solve the concerns that you had, 17 and operate to our own standards, bottom line. So -- 18 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Sheriff? You have anything 19 you'd like to add for comments? 20 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I'm pleased to say we haven't 21 had any more calls since you were in here last. I hope that 22 is, you know, very true and legitimate and stays that way. 23 The one question I would ask is, what's the nighttime staff 24 ratio? 25 MR. JOHNSON: It's 1-to-15, but we actually are 7-14-14 55 1 down to 1-to-8, and we are running two awake night staff, and 2 that will be maintained even as we grow up. 3 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: 'Cause that's where we're also 4 having concerns is the nighttime staff. But it's been 5 pleasantly quiet, hopefully for y'all too. 6 MR. JOHNSON: Yes, it has. 7 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Is there anybody from 8 Mountain Home that wanted to address this? Mr. Johnson, I 9 personally appreciate your efforts to look out for this 10 situation that could get serious, and it looks like you're 11 trying your best to rectify all the problems, and I 12 personally thank you for that. 13 MR. JOHNSON: Okay, thank you. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thank you very much. 15 MR. JOHNSON: Anything else? 16 JUDGE POLLARD: That's all. Thank you, sir. 17 MR. JOHNSON: I thank you. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Good job, Commissioner. 19 JUDGE POLLARD: There's another timed item, 1.15; 20 presentation of the Texas Historical Commission's 21 Distinguished Service Award to Kerr County Historical 22 Commission. There's a -- a letter we received dated June the 23 13th addressed to Judge Tinley, and this is from the 24 Governor's office -- Texas governor, enclosing a press 25 release and also a certificate. I'll read this. Here's the 7-14-14 56 1 nice certificate here, and I'll read it. "Texas Historical 2 Commission presents this 2013 Distinguished Service Award to 3 Kerr County Historical Commission." Is anyone here on behalf 4 of that Commission? 5 MS. COLLINS: Yes, we've got some here and some in 6 the back here. Do y'all want to come up? No? 7 JUDGE POLLARD: Hi. 8 MS. COLLINS: I'll represent them, then. 9 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. Presented to Kerr County 10 Historical Commission in recognition of its active and well 11 balanced preservation program. Signed Mark Wolfe, Executive 12 Director. And I'll present this to you, then. How are you 13 today? 14 MS. COLLINS: I'm good, thank you. This represents 15 4,600 hours -- volunteer hours from our commission, and we 16 were one of 80 commissions that received this out of 240, so 17 I think we did a good job. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Fantastic. 19 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Congratulations. 20 JUDGE POLLARD: Thank you very much. 21 (Applause.) 22 JUDGE POLLARD: Another timed item, 1.16; consider, 23 discuss, and take appropriate action on request to nominate 24 Mary Overton as a member of the Kerr County Historical 25 Commission. Commissioner Baldwin is going to take care of 7-14-14 57 1 that. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yes. It's just exactly what 3 it says to do, Mrs. Overton to be a member of the Historical 4 Commission. And as you see in your backup, she has an 5 undergraduate degree in history and has been a board member 6 of the Genealogy Society since 2008, and she lives in 7 Precinct Number 1. She's a smart lady. And so I move that 8 we -- 9 JUDGE POLLARD: Like most of the people in 10 Precinct 1. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Absolutely, thank you. I'm 12 glad you're catching on. (Laughter.) 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: There's one exception. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is that a motion, Commissioner? 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, that is a motion. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 17 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. It's been -- the motion 18 has been made to appoint Mary Overton as a member of the Kerr 19 County Historical Commission, and it's been seconded. Is 20 there any further discussion on it? If not, then those in 21 favor of it, signify by raising your right hand. 22 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 23 JUDGE POLLARD: It's four-zero, unanimous. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you very much. 25 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. Another timed item, 7-14-14 58 1 1.17; consider, discuss, and take appropriate action to award 2 contract for Sheriff's office radio system, and to begin the 3 design/review phase that outlines the approach adopted by 4 vendor, its cost elements, its project management needs, 5 resources utilized, and other needs. This review will 6 identify any concerns or conflicts that may impact project's 7 cost, quality, or timeline. Sheriff Hierholzer. 8 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: As y'all well know, you know, 9 several weeks ago we did receive the bids in -- one, from 10 Motorola. The bid was then -- the proposal was then sent to 11 Trott Communications, who reviewed it, went through it 12 step-by-step. Overall, they scored that bid very well, very 13 high. There are a few things that I think we all need to 14 discuss. And in Trott Communication's deal, with it being 15 the only bid, what I would recommend is that we do accept the 16 award, okay, award the bid to Motorola, and then we go into 17 what we call our next phase, which is the design/review where 18 we can actually have a local team. And I would hope the 19 Court would appoint somebody where we can sit down with 20 Motorola and discuss the financial part of it as to how it's 21 going to be paid. I know there's been a lot of different 22 comments on that. And with Trott Communications and Motorola 23 representatives, go through the final designs and get our 24 best and final offer before we sign any kind of contract, and 25 get the County Attorney involved to do that contract. But as 7-14-14 59 1 far as I can tell what the steps in that process, is first to 2 award it, and then we go through it, and if that fell through 3 in the best and final offer, then we can always end up 4 canceling that and going back. There are a couple 5 representatives here today from Motorola. They're going to 6 be working with us. I don't have any problems with their 7 bid. There are some -- some things that do need to be 8 discussed. The continuing maintenance after the first year I 9 think can be discussed and worked, and the payment plan they 10 have offered in their proposal, payment plan or just on the 11 other, and then some about the options. But I would like to 12 have the team either be the County Judge and the Auditor or 13 whoever, and myself and Trott, and then Motorola, where we 14 can start either having conference calls together once we get 15 them set up in time, or actual one-on-one meetings. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Who's your liaison now? 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Me. 18 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Mr. Moser. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I'll be happy to do that. 20 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: But it needs to be somebody -- 21 and I don't know how we did it on the -- I know y'all talked 22 about the funding and where -- I don't know if Jeannie would 23 be the best one, or we're going to bring it back to the Court 24 during all that type of process, or how y'all want to do all 25 that. 7-14-14 60 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Either way. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: She can be on that committee. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll be glad to do it, or if 4 you want her on it from the funding side, it doesn't make any 5 difference to me. 6 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I would like to -- love to 7 have two, if we can just get everybody together so we can 8 truly discuss it. 9 JUDGE POLLARD: The more you get, the more trouble 10 you get. 11 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: And with the Auditor present, 12 because I think that's going to be the biggest thing that we 13 have to -- to all come to terms with and agree on how it's 14 done. Okay. But there are some things in Trott's review of 15 the entire project that we'll talk about during all that 16 final. Motorola has this document where Trott reviewed it. 17 I haven't heard any issues with any of that, but it's mainly 18 getting down to the -- 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: As long as we've got Jeannie, 20 it's good to be able to move forward and be able to sit down 21 with the detailed design and agreement and have the 22 capability to modify it as necessary, and see if we can reach 23 an agreement. 24 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yeah, coming up with the best 25 and final offer. 7-14-14 61 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Why don't you say -- why don't 2 you recommend who you'd like on the committee? The number. 3 One Commissioner, two Commissioners, Auditor, County -- what 4 do you want? 5 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I would like to have two 6 Commissioners, the County Attorney, and the Auditor, along 7 with myself, Trott's representatives, and whoever Motorola 8 feels they need to be present. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Good. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Two and three. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's fine, Moser and I. 13 JUDGE POLLARD: Motion? 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I move that we nominate 15 Number 2 and Number 3 Commissioner, the County Attorney, the 16 County Auditor -- you need a partridge in a pear tree? 17 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: That would be good, too. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The Sheriff and Trott. 19 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: The Sheriff or my designee. 20 Clay's probably going to be involved in a lot of this. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Congratulations, Clay. And 22 yeah, that's my motion. 23 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. Any further discussion? 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 25 JUDGE POLLARD: There being none, those in favor, 7-14-14 62 1 signify by raising your right hand. 2 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 3 JUDGE POLLARD: It is four-zero, unanimous. All 4 right. 5 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: So, we are awarding it -- not 6 just that motion to do that, but we're awarding it to 7 Motorola, and we're stepping into the next phase. 8 JUDGE POLLARD: Yeah. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yes. I move that we award 10 this contract to Motorola for further negotiations and 11 discussions. 12 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Best and final offer. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Best and final offer. 14 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I'll second. 15 JUDGE POLLARD: Been moved and seconded that it be 16 awarded -- that this bid be awarded to Motorola. Any further 17 discussions? There being none, those in favor, signify by 18 raising your right hand. 19 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 20 JUDGE POLLARD: All right, that passes four-zero, 21 unanimous. All right. Timed -- let's see. Well, we got a 22 lot of timed ones here. Consider, discuss, and take 23 appropriate action to authorize Trott Communications Group to 24 enter Phase 3 of consulting agreement. Sheriff Hierholzer. 25 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: This is just that phase, okay. 7-14-14 63 1 We've gone through -- they had it divided up. They're our 2 consultants that were hired by the County to do it. They had 3 it divided up into three phases. The first phase was helping 4 us get the design and what we felt we needed and what they 5 felt we needed. Second phase was them doing the RFP and 6 getting all that put together and sent out and that. And the 7 third phase is the design/review where we actually start the 8 final negotiation, get the best and final offer, and that's 9 what I've just recommended, that we go into Phase 3 with 10 Trott. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So, we need to have a court 12 order to go into Phase 3? 13 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I think it's broken into three 14 phases. We've done -- we authorized Trott to do Phase 1. We 15 authorized Trott to do Phase 2, so yes, I would think we need 16 another court order to authorize Trott to go into Phase 3. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I make a motion that we 18 authorize Trott to go in Phase 3 for the Sheriff's 19 communication system. 20 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I'll second. 21 JUDGE POLLARD: Been moved and seconded as -- the 22 motion as stated. Any further discussion? If not, those in 23 favor, signify by raising your right hand. 24 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 25 JUDGE POLLARD: It's four-zero, unanimous. All 7-14-14 64 1 right, 1.19; consider, discuss, and take appropriate action 2 regarding offering long-term care insurance from New York 3 Life to Kerr County employee voluntary benefits package for 4 2014 and '15. Dawn? 5 MS. LANTZ: Morning, Judge. Good morning, 6 Commissioners. I'm going to turn this presentation over to 7 Ron Vick, who's approached us in H.R. about offering this 8 product to our Kerr County employees. I've had several Kerr 9 County employees approach me about seeing if we can get the 10 long-term. Alamo Insurance does not offer the product; 11 however, Mr. Vick's company does through New York Life. So, 12 with that being said, I'm going to let Mr. Vick come up and 13 address the Court about the product. 14 MR. VICK: Thank you, Dawn. Good morning, and 15 appreciate the opportunity to be here to present before you. 16 As Ms. Lantz said, I am here to propose offering a long-term 17 care product issued by New York Life Insurance Company as 18 part of the employee voluntary benefits. These plans are 19 written on an individual basis. They are fully underwritten 20 and are flexible, offering all of the benefits that New York 21 Life would offer on an individual product, including a choice 22 of waiting periods, maximum daily benefits ranging from $50 23 to $400 a day, home health care benefits, informal care, 24 shared care, which is a pool that's offered for spouses. It 25 is 100 percent portable, meaning it's individually owned. It 7-14-14 65 1 can be purchased through payroll deduction. It also allows 2 for family members to purchase long-term care insurance -- 3 family members of employees. That would include a spouse, a 4 parent, adult children, even aunts and uncles, and it does 5 include a 10 percent discount off of New York Life's standard 6 rates. There's also a spousal discount of additional 15 7 percent. So -- 8 JUDGE POLLARD: 10 percent discount. Does that 9 mean that they can -- this is offered as a group through -- 10 through the county employees, and as opposed to just going 11 out and buying a long-term care insurance policy, this would 12 be a 10 percent cost savings benefit to them? 13 MR. VICK: Yes, sir. And it's -- the discount 14 stays with them even if they leave, if the employees leave 15 here. The -- there are four tiers of ratings. There's a 16 preferred risk, standard risk, and then there are two 17 substandard ratings. The 10 percent discount is based on 18 standard rating. We can't offer anything less than a 19 preferred risk. So, if somebody, based on your medical 20 criteria, qualifies for a standard risk, then they'll get the 21 preferred risk discount. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: But you said that if an 23 employee leaves the county, they can continue this -- 24 MR. VICK: Yes, sir. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: -- coverage, this long-term 7-14-14 66 1 health care? 2 MR. VICK: Correct. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Another question. Does the 4 long-term health care -- 5 JUDGE POLLARD: At the discounted rate. 6 MR. VICK: At the discounted rate. The rates do 7 not change. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I think I heard -- yeah, okay. 9 Does this include coverage for in-home long-term health care? 10 MR. VICK: Yes, sir. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: 'Cause I know some of them 12 just -- it's only in facilities, but other policies enable 13 people to have long-term health care in their home, as 14 opposed to just in a -- 15 MR. VICK: That's correct. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: -- facility. 17 MR. VICK: It does include home health care, 18 custodial care. It has an informal care benefit. It has a 19 benefit for -- kind of a respite care for -- that will 20 actually pay for family members to care for an individual in 21 the home as well. The -- whatever the employee selects on 22 the maximum daily benefit -- let's say you choose $150 a day 23 benefit. Then that $150 a day benefit includes at home care 24 for custodial or skilled nursing care. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay, very good. That's 7-14-14 67 1 flexible. As I say, some policies do not have that 2 flexibility. And that, I think, is critically important. 3 Does the county have a -- this is going to be a question I 4 ought to know the answer to, but I don't. Do we currently 5 have long-term health care? 6 MS. LANTZ: No, sir. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is the -- I guess the reason 9 you're here is this will be handled through a payroll 10 deduction or on paychecks as opposed to just someone coming 11 through your office? 12 MR. VICK: That's correct. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 14 COMMISSIONER REEVES: And is there -- Mr. Vick, is 15 there a minimum number of enrollees from the county to get 16 the rates here as shown, or just one? 17 MR. VICK: No, sir, we will -- 18 JUDGE POLLARD: One or all. 19 MR. VICK: One employee, yeah. Now, it's not a 20 group plan. It's an individually underwritten and issued 21 plan. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Let me go back to the thing 23 that you also said about the condition of the person 24 enrolling in this. You talked about three different 25 categories, and I'm not sure I understood. Do you have to 7-14-14 68 1 have a physical to establish what the -- 2 MR. VICK: It's based -- 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: -- state of health is? 4 MR. VICK: It's based on a health questionnaire. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 6 MR. VICK: Part of the independent underwriting, 7 depending -- I mean, you know, it could be that somebody that 8 is in relatively good health -- 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Mm-hmm. 10 MR. VICK: -- would just answer the medical 11 questions. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Mm-hmm. 13 MR. VICK: On the application. And that may be all 14 that they do. Depending on the age of the individual, there 15 could be a telephone interview conducted as well. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 17 MR. VICK: There's not an exam or -- medical exam 18 that's conducted. No -- no lab work, no paramedic exam. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And what -- and if we say 20 "Yea, verily," when would this go into effect? 21 MS. LANTZ: With our new benefit enrollees, which 22 we'll be starting in August with our new plan year, October. 23 To go into effect October 1st. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Say again? 25 MS. LANTZ: October 1st, if approved. 7-14-14 69 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: October 1st, go into effect. 2 MR. VICK: The underwriting part of this could last 3 from -- I mean, it could take a week; it could take up to six 4 weeks, depending on medical history of an individual. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I think at least we should 7 at least provide the opportunity for our employees to 8 participate in it. 9 JUDGE POLLARD: Is this something that we should 10 have got -- should have gotten competitive bidding on? 11 MS. LANTZ: No, because the County doesn't provide 12 any funding. It's strictly employee payroll deductions. 13 They're paying for it themselves. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean, I think that -- I mean, 15 to answer that question, if somebody else wants to do it, 16 we've been reluctant to give exclusive rights to other 17 insurance companies. I mean, I think if there's a down side, 18 it's that if -- whoever comes in, probably let them do the 19 same thing, as long as they can work with our system. 20 JUDGE POLLARD: But they haven't come in. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 22 JUDGE POLLARD: And so -- yeah, okay. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So, we need to have a motion? 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I move for approval. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 7-14-14 70 1 JUDGE POLLARD: Been moved and seconded for 2 approval of Mr. Vick's plan for long-term health care 3 insurance through the county by -- from -- by employee 4 deductions from payroll. Is there any further discussion? 5 There being none, those in favor, signify by raising your 6 right hand. 7 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 8 JUDGE POLLARD: It's four-zero, unanimous. Thank 9 you, Mr. Vick. 10 MR. VICK: Thank you. 11 JUDGE POLLARD: One last question. How are your 12 kids doing in sports? 13 MR. VICK: Thank you, appreciate that. Doing well. 14 JUDGE POLLARD: They're all doing well in sports? 15 MR. VICK: Yeah, all doing well. All of them 16 are -- well, just about all of them are out of college now. 17 JUDGE POLLARD: They're out of college? 18 MR. VICK: My son's playing baseball every day. 19 JUDGE POLLARD: Did he play any pro ball? 20 MR. VICK: He's playing right now. He's in North 21 Carolina playing A-ball, chasing his dream. 22 JUDGE POLLARD: That's great. 23 MR. VICK: Thank you for asking. 24 JUDGE POLLARD: Yes, sir. They're all good 25 athletes. 7-14-14 71 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Break? 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, let's do. 3 JUDGE POLLARD: Yeah. Five-minute break, folks. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Smoke 'em if you got 'em. 5 (Recess taken from 10:28 a.m. to 10:37 a.m.) 6 - - - - - - - - - - 7 JUDGE POLLARD: All right, it appears that it's 8 about 10:37, a.m., and we're going to resume the regular 9 session of the Commissioners Court. We're absent one 10 Commissioner, Number 3, for the moment. I'll announce when 11 he comes in. The first item to consider now is 1.20; 12 consider, discuss, and take appropriate action on approving 13 final design and authorizing project for Kerr County War 14 Memorial. And Commissioner Letz, -- 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Sorry I'm late. 16 JUDGE POLLARD: -- who just came into the 17 courtroom, is in charge of that, and Maggie Baker. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Let me hand out to the Court 19 the final design. Then I'll turn it over to Maggie. 20 MS. BAKER: Good morning. I believe the first one 21 is about the -- the war memorial monument, and you -- you 22 each have a -- 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, we all got them. 24 MS. BAKER: Y'all have the attachments, okay. And 25 this drawing is from Mr. Zirkle from Hill Country Monuments, 7-14-14 72 1 and this drawing is from the recommendation from the last 2 Commissioners Court. And the wording -- the new wording will 3 either appear on the right panel, and the left would remain 4 empty except for the county seal, or we would put the seal 5 and other wording on the left panel, and the right would 6 remain empty except for the county seal. And we also have 7 the option of having an etching of either a flag, a rose, a 8 ribbon, or another item on the panel that is left empty. Of 9 course, this would cost an approximate addition of $600. And 10 the final say, of course, is up to Judge Pollard and the 11 Commissioners. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Maggie, would you -- I'm 13 sorry, I was in a coma there for a couple of minutes. Would 14 you do that again? The white is the column that we're 15 looking at? 16 MS. BAKER: No, the white columns are the gray ones 17 that are sitting out here already. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Where are we talking about? 19 MS. BAKER: Either the left one or the right one. 20 And all the wording would either appear on the right one, and 21 the left would be remaining empty, or the wording and the 22 seal would be on the left side, and the right one would 23 remain empty. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The two outside black panels 7-14-14 73 1 are the new ones. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Do they already have the 3 county seal? 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: They don't. They're not -- 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: There's nothing -- 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: There's nothing; they're at the 7 factory still. So we can -- this is our final time to make 8 an adjustment. I mean, the middle part, these three are 9 currently there. We're adding the two outside panels. And I 10 like it the way it is. I mean, I think that looks -- I mean, 11 I don't know that it makes a difference for the right or the 12 left. 13 JUDGE POLLARD: I've got a question. 14 MS. BAKER: Okay. 15 JUDGE POLLARD: What if we have another one -- 16 another name to add to the far right; somebody else is killed 17 over in Afghanistan? What -- what's the process? You get a 18 router and somebody goes out there? Or do they have to take 19 it down and -- 20 MS. BAKER: No, they actually come over and they 21 will inscribe it right there where it's standing. 22 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. Of course, everything 23 that's going to be put on them now is going to be put on them 24 before they put them up. 25 MS. BAKER: Yes. 7-14-14 74 1 JUDGE POLLARD: That's the reason I asked that 2 question. 3 MS. BAKER: It goes through a machine. It takes 4 the entire panel and puts it through a machine. 5 JUDGE POLLARD: And so this machine is portable and 6 can come out to the site later on? Is that correct? 7 MS. BAKER: I don't think that -- I just think 8 they'll come out with whatever tools they have, some kind of 9 a small portable engraving machine. I'm not sure. 10 COMMISSIONER REEVES: But they can do it on-site? 11 MS. BAKER: Yes. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: One other comment. I'm sorry, 13 are you through? 14 JUDGE POLLARD: Go ahead. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: On the panel on the right is 16 "Global War on Terrorism," and I remember us discussing that. 17 And then we have underneath that "Operation Enduring Freedom" 18 and then "Operation Iraq Freedom." 19 MS. BAKER: Right. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So those are specific. 21 MS. BAKER: Yes. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Could we make the Global War 23 on Terrorism stand out a little bit further or move it 24 further up so it's -- 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Little bigger. 7-14-14 75 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yes, a little bigger, and it's 2 the title of the entire panel? 3 MS. BAKER: Yes, you can. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Because otherwise, it looks 5 like it's part of the first one. 6 MS. BAKER: These sizes aren't set yet. It's 7 whatever -- 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I'm just saying it makes it 9 distinguish that's what that panel is about. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: If you underline it -- 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Or underline it or something. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But move it up. 13 JUDGE POLLARD: I think make the letters a little 14 taller. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And move and separate, put a 16 space between. 17 JUDGE POLLARD: A little space, and make the 18 letters a little taller. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 20 JUDGE POLLARD: Maybe a half inch taller or 21 something like that. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 23 MS. BAKER: Okay, we can do that. 24 JUDGE POLLARD: Capitalized looking. One last 25 question. This -- these panels are going to have to be put 7-14-14 76 1 in with a crane, I think, aren't they? 2 MS. BAKER: Yes. 3 JUDGE POLLARD: We're going to have to have a crane 4 out here on the site. 5 MS. BAKER: Yes. 6 JUDGE POLLARD: There's been some discussion about 7 maybe turning these panels around, the existing three panels; 8 turn them around so that they face the courthouse, or the 9 front yard of the courthouse out here, because of the fact 10 that when they have their activities out there, they're 11 pretty well relegated to standing mostly in the parking lot 12 that goes by there, which may or may not have cars in it. 13 And I've seen them when they do it; they've even got them 14 stacked up against the curb out there on Sidney Baker Street, 15 with traffic going by. It seems to me that's kind of a 16 dangerous situation. And there's been some discussion about 17 just turning the panels around so that they can face here, 18 face back towards the courthouse. They can utilize that 19 covered thing out there, and also -- 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Gazebo. 21 JUDGE POLLARD: Gazebo. All of the grassy areas 22 are a lot more area, and be safer. If we're going to have 23 the equipment there to do it all and put in the panels, it 24 seems to me that's the time to turn it around where it 25 faces -- 7-14-14 77 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge, on that item, if we wait 2 till the next agenda item, I think we can add that to the 3 charge to the committee we're about to appoint. 4 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And we have a committee on -- 6 on the grounds of the whole thing. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right, but this is a little bit 8 different. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: This is a very specific -- 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Organization. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Veterans. I think it's -- and 13 also because the original monument was given by three 14 individuals -- two individuals? I know Mr. Avery, 15 Mr. Brinkman, and Mr. Griffin. Three individuals. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, I think we need to make 18 sure -- 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: We've had other volunteers to 20 pay for it. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. But the only other 22 thing -- and I certainly hope we don't add any additional 23 names, but it looks like there's probably room for two other 24 names under Operation Enduring Freedom, and then I think 25 that's enough. But -- 7-14-14 78 1 JUDGE POLLARD: Is that the -- Iraq? 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's Afghanistan, I believe. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Afghanistan. 4 JUDGE POLLARD: See, that's the one that will grow. 5 Well, I don't know. The way things are going over there, who 6 knows? 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean, you know, that's one of 8 those things you want to certainly have -- 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Space. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- enough space to add if we 11 need to. So, I might increase the space slightly between the 12 two. 13 JUDGE POLLARD: I think that's appropriate. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. 15 MS. BAKER: That can be done, yeah. 16 JUDGE POLLARD: Drop the bottom one down probably 17 several inches. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 19 JUDGE POLLARD: So it gives room. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. But other than that, 21 with those changes -- and then on the second page is the 22 cost. The agreement is 21,000. And we have the funding, 23 correct? 24 MS. BAKER: Yes, sir. 25 JUDGE POLLARD: We got the money for that? 7-14-14 79 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll make a motion that we 2 approve the design as modified slightly today, and the amount 3 of funding, 21,000, to come from the fund dedicated for this 4 purpose. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 6 JUDGE POLLARD: How much is in that fund? 7 MS. HARGIS: We haven't spent that much -- any 8 money yet. We haven't paid for anything yet, so -- I haven't 9 looked lately, so I -- 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's over that amount? 11 MS. HARGIS: Yeah. I mean, we had 18 in there, and 12 then we got the rest of the money, so we should have more 13 than enough. 14 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. All right. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: If we get into other 16 construction, though, like turning the thing around, you 17 know, you got to talk about that. 18 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. Well, I can -- when we 19 get to the next part, I can comment about that, too. All 20 right. It's been moved and seconded -- is that the case? 21 All right. That we approve, with the changes indicated, and 22 award it at $21,000. Any further discussion? There being 23 none, those in favor of the motion, signify by raising your 24 right hand. 25 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 7-14-14 80 1 JUDGE POLLARD: It is four-zero, unanimous. All 2 right. Let's go to 1.20; consider and take appropriate 3 action on approving final design and authorizing project for 4 Kerr County War Memorial. 5 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Didn't we just do that? 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: 1.21. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 21. 8 JUDGE POLLARD: 1.21, then. Consider, discuss, and 9 take appropriate action on creating permanent committee to 10 review nominees for war memorial and other issues relating to 11 the war memorial. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: At our last meeting, Judge, we 13 discussed this, and I think the basic charge was for Maggie 14 to find two representatives that would be willing to serve on 15 this committee. And I think we had a term of -- maybe we 16 didn't say, but we should set a term of two years, probably, 17 just so we can keep track of this thing. And Ms. Baker was 18 supposed to be one of the members. The other two members are 19 Jack Stevens and Gary Noller, and that's who she recommends, 20 and I think they'll be outstanding individuals to have on the 21 committee. So, to start with -- well, I guess first, the 22 other thing is the charge -- the clear charge. The real 23 reason, I think, was to vet nominees, you know, if they -- 24 when they come forward. But my idea was also to -- really, 25 to kind of look at the war memorial and kind of give us 7-14-14 81 1 guidance from the veterans community as to improvements that 2 can be made. That's right in line with what you're talking 3 about, Judge, about is the current orientation the best 4 orientation, because now is the time to make an adjustment if 5 need be. So, that would be the only -- the other charge that 6 I would like to ask them to look at. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I just want to make one 8 quick comment, and it's in support of the Judge's 9 recommendation. I have always felt like the -- the memorial 10 is a beautiful instrument sitting out there, and it's facing 11 -- it's kind of squared up with the building and the lawn and 12 all that stuff. And then, when we have those functions out 13 there, everybody's sitting sideways to it. You turn that 14 thing around, and that covered thing, as Tom called it -- 15 it's a gazebo. 16 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay? And probably going to 18 lose -- 19 JUDGE POLLARD: Covered hut, to me. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: This Tom. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, this Tom here. 23 Actually, that's kind of where we're wanting to put our 24 cannon so we can point it at the City Hall. 25 JUDGE POLLARD: Careful. 7-14-14 82 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'm just saying. 2 JUDGE POLLARD: Let's not put that in the record. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We got to come up with some 4 netting and stuff to hide it. But anyway -- and probably 5 going to lose our only peach tree that provides peaches, but 6 it just makes more sense to have that thing out there and 7 people be out on the lawn under those beautiful pecan trees, 8 and to have our functions out there, I would think. So -- 9 JUDGE POLLARD: I'm still going to call it a 10 covered hut. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: The covered hut. 12 JUDGE POLLARD: Yeah. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And it just -- so I would 14 like to see the committee at least take a look at that and 15 see what -- see what that entails. 16 JUDGE POLLARD: But it needs to be done. We've 17 awarded the contract now at $21,000. I hope we can delay 18 that enough for the committee to have some input so that we 19 can -- I don't want to go out here and spend the 21, get it 20 all done, then turn around and have to bring the equipment 21 back in and turn the thing around as a separate incident. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right, I agree with that. But 23 we need to approve the contract, 'cause until we approve the 24 contract, we can't order the -- get the panels made, and it's 25 not going to change the panels. And, really, I think the 7-14-14 83 1 goal is to get this done by Veterans Day. 2 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So if we can move forward on 4 it, and then we have until that time. And it clearly will 5 take additional funds. And, you know, on that part of it, 6 you know -- and I'm sure we can probably raise the additional 7 funds, but I don't have any problem at all at raising county 8 funds. It's part of our courthouse, the public's courthouse, 9 and do the best, or adjusting that -- 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: On the funding, I think we had 11 three other people that wanted to contribute to the funding 12 that was necessary for the memorial, so I think we could go 13 back to those people if we have what it costs. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 15 JUDGE POLLARD: One of them has already told me, 16 the one that contacted me -- 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 18 JUDGE POLLARD: -- from Center Point. He's -- he 19 said keep him in mind. He wants to do it. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Good. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 22 COMMISSIONER REEVES: So, Commissioner, your 23 nominees again were? 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Jack Stevens and Gary Noller. 25 If y'all don't know them -- do you want to stand up? Jack 7-14-14 84 1 Stevens and Gary Noller. They've been very involved all 2 along with this whole process on this project, and been very, 3 very involved with the whole veterans of Kerr County. 4 They've been great members, and I'll make a motion to appoint 5 them, along with Maggie Baker, as a committee, and the term 6 of that committee is -- just so we can get it on a calendar, 7 will start two years from -- let's go January 1st of -- 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: 2015? 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, commence January 1st, 10 2014. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That way we'll know when it 13 ends; we can track it when we need to. 14 COMMISSIONER REEVES: So, when will it end? 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: January 1, 2016. 16 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Works for me. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And as part of that same 18 motion, to have them also make a recommendation on 19 orientation and the cost associated with relocating or 20 reconfiguring -- 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes, and any other issues that 22 they deem we should look at related to that monument. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 24 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. It's been moved and 25 seconded. Any further discussion on that motion? There 7-14-14 85 1 being none, those in favor, signify by raising your right 2 hand. 3 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 4 JUDGE POLLARD: It is four-zero, unanimous. 5 Congratulations, gentlemen. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you, guys. 7 MS. BAKER: Thank you. 8 JUDGE POLLARD: Thank you, Maggie. All right, 9 1.22; consider, discuss, and take appropriate action on 10 request from Kerr County Fair Board Association, including, 11 but not limited to, the use of Flat Rock Park, River Star 12 Arts and Events Parks, and closure of Riverside Drive for 13 Kerr County Fair. Commissioner Reeves. 14 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Thank you. We have the 15 president of the Kerr County Fair Association, Mrs. Kim 16 Rogers is here today. But I'll -- if you'll look at y'all's 17 backup material, this is similar to what the livestock show 18 requests each year as far as use of facilities and closures, 19 and they would like to close Riverside Drive from -- it would 20 be basically the south -- the southwest corner of River Star 21 Park all the way to the southeast corner of the event center. 22 We'll close that to vehicular traffic from Friday, October 23 24, 2014, beginning at 10 a.m., and it would remain closed 24 till Sunday, October 26th, at 11:59 p.m. They'd also like to 25 allow overnight access and use of Flat Rock Park for parking 7-14-14 86 1 of trailers and overflow parking of fair visitors for the 2 same time period. They realize that the park would be open 3 to pedestrian traffic just as it always has been for the 4 livestock show or the fairs in the past. And also, they'd 5 like to use River Star Park if it's available for their 6 cook-off event, which will be held during the Kerr County 7 Fair. They would like the use of the park beginning 8 Thursday, October 23rd, 2014, at 9 a.m., and running through 9 the conclusion of the fair, Sunday, October 26th, 2014, at 10 11:59 p.m. They understand that it will only be the grounds 11 and pavilion at River Star Park, and the buildings currently 12 that are on the location will not be available at that time. 13 I'd like to move for approval of those agenda items. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So, it's basically the same 15 thing as last year; is that correct? Except for the River 16 Star? 17 COMMISSIONER REEVES: That's correct. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And is there -- I noticed this 19 past weekend -- and I think we can put this same agenda -- 20 there was parking on the grounds of River Star whenever they 21 had -- whoever had that event. And I probably shouldn't 22 bring it up here, but we need to look at where people are 23 parked all over the grounds. 24 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I don't think y'all are 25 asking for parking, are you? 7-14-14 87 1 MS. ROGERS: No, sir. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Let's just say no parking in 3 River Star, then, with this same thing. 4 MS. ROGERS: Yes, sir. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That way we can look at it 6 long term. 7 JUDGE POLLARD: See, that might conflict with the 8 cook-off, because the cook-off -- I'm a barbecuer, and 9 they're going to pull their trailers in there with vehicles, 10 and got to park their barbecue pits -- portable barbecue pits 11 and all, so to say no parking or even driving there, that 12 concerns me too. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Let's make that a separate -- 14 I'll look at that separately with Tim, of what we might do to 15 -- where people work in River Star, and whether or not we 16 could put a gate from there into the parking area of the ag 17 facility or something like that. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We need to be careful of 19 parking at River Star, because there's electrical all 20 throughout it, and there's water lines all throughout it. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: They were parked everywhere 22 this past weekend, I noticed. 23 JUDGE POLLARD: Most of these guys that cook like 24 that, they have a trailer that they stay in, too. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 7-14-14 88 1 JUDGE POLLARD: Little camper trailer that they may 2 have, and they got to have their vehicles, usually a big old 3 Ford or Dodge truck that's full of all kind of barbecue 4 equipment and stuff like that. It's got to be close to the 5 pit. 6 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I'll withdraw the total 7 motion, then, and let's take one at a time. Closure of 8 Riverside Drive, I'll make a motion to approve that as in our 9 backup materials, 10 a.m. Friday, October 24th, through 11:59 10 p.m. Sunday, October 26th. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 12 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. As to that motion, is there 13 any further discussion? There being none, those in favor, 14 signify by raising your right hand. 15 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 16 JUDGE POLLARD: It's four-zero, unanimous. 17 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Then I would make a motion on 18 overnight access and use of Flat Rock Park for parking of 19 trailers and overflow parking for fair visitors beginning 20 Thursday, October 23, at 10 a.m., to Sunday, October 26, at 21 11:59 p.m. I'll make a motion for that approval, with the 22 understanding that pedestrian traffic is still allowed at 23 Flat Rock Park. 24 JUDGE POLLARD: How about fees? 25 COMMISSIONER REEVES: We've never -- 7-14-14 89 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: No fee on Flat Rock Park. 2 JUDGE POLLARD: No cleanup? 3 COMMISSIONER REEVES: The fair is one of the 4 organizations that -- just like the stock show. 5 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. 6 COMMISSIONER REEVES: That takes care. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 8 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. Those in favor of that 9 motion, signify by raising your right hand. 10 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 11 JUDGE POLLARD: That's four-zero, unanimous. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Let me ask you a question 13 about that right quick. Overnight access. Everybody all 14 right with that? 15 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Trailers coming in with 16 animals for early morning arrival is mainly what you'll have. 17 Just -- they'll come in there during the -- 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Are they going to be camping 19 out there? 20 COMMISSIONER REEVES: No, sir. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Tents and all that? 22 COMMISSIONER REEVES: No, sir. Just to get in with 23 their trailers to be staged. And as far as the use of the 24 cook-off event, if Commissioner Moser and I -- we could work 25 with the fair, Ms. Rogers, and come up with a suitable means 7-14-14 90 1 to hold that. 2 MS. ROGERS: Yes, sir. 3 COMMISSIONER REEVES: And see if it's workable. 4 Then we'll bring it back to the Court at another date. Would 5 that be okay with you? 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. 7 JUDGE POLLARD: One other thing. Water's a big 8 issue with barbecue. They need water out there, and is there 9 any available over there on River Star? 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's one of the problems; 11 there's lots of pipes everywhere. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, there's water. 13 JUDGE POLLARD: Is there a faucet? 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: There's a water cachement 15 system for rainwater. 16 JUDGE POLLARD: Which is not hooked up. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Huh? 18 JUDGE POLLARD: Which Tim tells me was not hooked 19 up. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: There's water. 21 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Tim said he had to fix a 22 broken pipe there the other day, so there's water with 23 faucets and stuff. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: There is water. 25 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Commissioner Moser and I can 7-14-14 91 1 work and try to figure out something on that, and then we'll 2 come back with it. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And we also have 130,000 4 gallons at the ag facility for water; just a matter of 5 getting it over there. 6 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. 7 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Ms. Rogers, we don't bite, so 8 you can call me. 9 MS. ROGERS: Thank you, gentlemen, for your time. 10 JUDGE POLLARD: Thank you, ma'am. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'd like to make a comment. 12 Commissioner Reeves, I really like your notes. I take my 13 packet over home over the weekend, and I knew what you were 14 going to do today. 15 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Thank you. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I was prepared to vote when 17 I came in here because of these notes, and I thank you for 18 that. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Are you saying that I didn't do 20 that? 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'm saying you never do it. 22 (Laughter.) 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Never is a strong word, 24 Commissioner. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Never, ever. 7-14-14 92 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think about doing it. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: We will remember that next 3 time he brings something up. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's why you never see my 5 stuff on there, do you? 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I know. 7 JUDGE POLLARD: All right, that gets past all the 8 timed ones. Now let's get back to where we were. Which one 9 was up next? 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Number 5. 11 JUDGE POLLARD: 1.5; consider, discuss, and take 12 appropriate action on new lease on two Xerox copiers for Kerr 13 County District Clerk's Office. Robbin Burlew. 14 MS. BURLEW: Morning. 15 JUDGE POLLARD: Morning. 16 MS. BURLEW: This is -- you know, I have a contract 17 with Xerox, but he presented a new lease contract where it's 18 going to be less money. 19 JUDGE POLLARD: Yeah, looks good. 20 MS. BURLEW: So I like that. So, when -- anytime 21 there's less money, then I figure we might as well go on 22 board with less money per year. 23 JUDGE POLLARD: Mm-hmm. 24 MS. BURLEW: So, I don't have any problems with the 25 equipment I have now, but it -- the contract will probably be 7-14-14 93 1 up anyway within probably a year, so -- and I figured if we 2 pay less money per month, then that was the way to go. 3 JUDGE POLLARD: This gives you a color option, too. 4 This new equipment has photocopies in color. 5 MS. BURLEW: Right. But, you know, we don't use 6 much color, but -- 7 JUDGE POLLARD: Never can tell. 8 MS. BURLEW: Right. 9 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Only thing you have to be 10 careful of is the number of copies, 'cause if you go over 11 their limits, then you pay per copy, if they lowered your 12 limits or -- or kept them the same. But that can change the 13 monthly price real quick. 14 JUDGE POLLARD: Yeah. 15 MS. BURLEW: Yeah, okay. 16 JUDGE POLLARD: And with a color copier, you got to 17 watch out for counterfeiters. 18 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yeah. 19 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. I think it looks good, 20 Robbin. 21 MS. BURLEW: Okay. 22 JUDGE POLLARD: I'll entertain a motion. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So moved. 24 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Second. 25 MS. BURLEW: Thank you. 7-14-14 94 1 JUDGE POLLARD: Been moved and seconded that the 2 request be granted as to the District Clerk's request about 3 Xerox copiers as stated. Those in favor, signify by raising 4 your right hand. 5 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 6 JUDGE POLLARD: Four-zero, unanimous. Thank you, 7 Robbin. 8 MS. BURLEW: Thank you. 9 JUDGE POLLARD: Consider, discuss, and take 10 appropriate action on suicide prevention plan for Kerr County 11 Juvenile Detention Facility. Mr. Davis. 12 MR. DAVIS: Good morning, Your Honor, 13 Commissioners. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Jason, is this -- is this -- 15 excuse me for interrupting you. 16 MR. DAVIS: Yes, sir. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Is this required by law? 18 MR. DAVIS: It is, actually, yes. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. 20 MR. DAVIS: In fact, this is the -- 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'll take your word for it. 22 MR. DAVIS: These are the standards out of the 23 Administrative Code. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Very good. Thank you. 25 MR. DAVIS: Yes, sir. This is the annual renewal 7-14-14 95 1 of the suicide prevention plan as required by T.J.J.D. 2 through standards. I bring this before -- before the Court. 3 JUDGE POLLARD: We didn't have standards before? 4 MR. DAVIS: No, we had, but we just -- we bring it 5 back every year. 6 JUDGE POLLARD: This is just updating? 7 MR. DAVIS: This is an agreement we have with 8 M.H.D.D., and I would like to ask the Court to authorize 9 either myself or the Judge to sign this document. It was set 10 up for my signature, but we can change it if the Court would 11 prefer the Judge to sign it. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Is this the same one as last 13 year? 14 MR. DAVIS: Yes, sir. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So moved. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 17 JUDGE POLLARD: Any further discussion? 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, he had just asked a 19 question. You want to leave it like it is, or you want the 20 Judge to sign it? 21 JUDGE POLLARD: It doesn't make any difference. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Doesn't matter to me. 23 JUDGE POLLARD: Leave it like it is. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 25 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. Any further discussion? 7-14-14 96 1 Those in favor, signify by raising your right hand. 2 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 3 JUDGE POLLARD: It is unanimous, 4-0. Thank you. 4 MR. DAVIS: Thank you all. 5 JUDGE POLLARD: 1.7; consider, discuss, and take 6 appropriate action to amend the local rabies control 7 authority, Court Order Number 33373, to read, “Approve 8 designating the Kerr County Environmental Health and Animal 9 Services Director, Ray Garcia, as the local Rabies Control 10 Authority and allow him to designate certified Animal Control 11 officers as alternates.” Mr. Garcia. 12 MR. GARCIA: Good morning. 13 JUDGE POLLARD: Only thing I don't like about that 14 is it's got your name on it. It ought to say -- 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I agree. 16 JUDGE POLLARD: -- just whoever the head of the 17 Environmental Health -- 18 MR. GARCIA: And that's what I was just going to 19 also correct. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: The position. 21 MR. GARCIA: And because of that, just take the 22 names off. And previously, we had named personnel there, so 23 just -- 24 JUDGE POLLARD: No reflection on you. It's just 25 that we'd have to change the court order if we got a new 7-14-14 97 1 director. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I agree with you. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move approval. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And we cancel Court Order 6 33373. 7 JUDGE POLLARD: And that's been moved and seconded. 8 Any further discussion? There being none, those in favor, 9 signify by raising your right hand. 10 (The motion carried by unanimous vote 4-0.) 11 JUDGE POLLARD: It is four-zero, unanimous. 12 Thanks, Ray. 13 MR. GARCIA: Thank you. 14 JUDGE POLLARD: 1.8; consider, discuss, and take 15 appropriate action to authorize the Kerr County Environmental 16 Health and Animal Services Director to fill budgeted vacant 17 positions in the Animal Services Department. Commissioner 18 Letz. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I put this on the agenda. 20 There are two vacancies out there, and I told, you know, 21 Mr. Garcia to go ahead and post those right away. Generally 22 these come to Court for us to approve filling the position, 23 but because of the critical nature of keeping that department 24 staffed, I said go ahead, but I wanted to put it on our 25 agenda to make sure everybody -- everyone's on board there. 7-14-14 98 1 And I'll move approval of the agenda item. 2 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I'll second. 3 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. Is there any further 4 discussion? 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Does the salary start at the 6 one, or where? Wherever who left -- 7 MS. LANTZ: Yes. 8 MR. GARCIA: I'm sorry? 9 MS. LANTZ: The starting salaries. 10 MR. GARCIA: Oh. 14.1, and then pick up on the -- 11 I have a certified Animal Control officer already trained up, 12 and for him to pick up on the -- where the other one just 13 left off, the other Animal Control officer. 14 JUDGE POLLARD: That's within your budget? 15 MR. GARCIA: Yeah, that's already budgeted. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Ray, do you want to -- would 17 you like to, either this meeting or next meeting, to go in 18 executive session about part of the reason for the turnover? 19 MR. GARCIA: Yes. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Today? Can we go in executive 21 session on this item? We can still vote on this. 22 MS. STEBBINS: Yes. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. I think it's important. 24 JUDGE POLLARD: Did we vote on it? 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's not going to -- the 7-14-14 99 1 discussion is not relevant to the vote, but it's very 2 relevant to the reason for the vacancies. 3 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I agree. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So, one is going to start at 5 the Level 1. 6 MR. GARCIA: 14.1. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And the other one is going 8 to start somewhere else? 9 MR. GARCIA: The other one's going to start -- that 10 person is already an Animal Control officer, and it will pick 11 up on the 15.5, where the other one left off. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Should go in as a 15.1. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Doesn't the policy say you 14 start at the one? 15 MS. LANTZ: Different departments do different 16 things. Yes, sir, it should. However, this person's 17 certified, and I know law enforcement, sometimes they bring 18 them in at a higher level. 19 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Well, those are some set 20 policies on longevity and educational. If they're already at 21 a certain level, it bumps it -- 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 23 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: -- a step. That's normal. 24 But the longevity's the main one that does come into play. 25 If they have no certifications and no longevity, they all 7-14-14 100 1 have to start at a one. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 3 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: If they have a certification, 4 that is one of our qualified ones to move them up. As this 5 Court has passed in previous court orders, then that moves 6 them up, and if they're moving from one position to the 7 other, they do not lose their longevity they've already 8 earned. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Is it okay with you that we 11 approve the agenda request? 12 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: They were -- I don't care what 13 do you, Buster. (Laughter.) 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: As long as its meets within our 15 policy, I'm fine with it. Okay. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 17 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. We have a motion on the 18 floor. Those in favor of that motion, signify by raising 19 your right hand. 20 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 21 JUDGE POLLARD: It's four-zero, unanimous. Okay, 22 let's see. I think we've done 1.9, 1.10, and 1.11, haven't 23 we? 24 MS. STEBBINS: Not 11. 25 JUDGE POLLARD: Haven't done 11 yet? Consider, 7-14-14 101 1 discuss, and take appropriate action to appoint Brenda Hug as 2 a member of the Kerr County Child Services Board. 3 Commissioner Baldwin. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you, sir. There's a 5 backup notation on Ms. Hug, and she is -- she's in Precinct 6 2, by the way. And she's a good person, and it's an honor 7 and a pleasure to be able to nominate her as a member of the 8 Kerr County Child Services Board. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 10 JUDGE POLLARD: Been moved and seconded that Brenda 11 Hug be nominated -- be appointed to, I guess -- 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yes, sir. 13 JUDGE POLLARD: -- that board. Those in favor -- 14 is there any further discussion? There being none, those in 15 favor of the motion, signify by raising your right hand. 16 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 17 JUDGE POLLARD: It is four-zero, unanimous. All 18 right. Consider, discuss -- 1.12; consider, discuss, and 19 take appropriate action to close one block of Avenue C 20 between China Street and First Street in Center Point on 21 Saturday, August the 9th of this year, from 9 a.m. to 12 noon 22 for the purpose of distributing free school supplies at a 23 back-to-school block party sponsored by the First Baptist 24 Church of Center Point. The way that's worded, I guess 25 Kerrville K.I.S.D. students could go get free school supplies 7-14-14 102 1 too. All right. Commissioner Moser? 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thank you, Judge. And just 3 for the record, I want Commissioner Baldwin to note, I didn't 4 give you a separate thing to take home here; I just put it in 5 the -- in the agenda item so you could read it. But anyway, 6 seriously, this has been going on, I think, for six or seven 7 years. It's the same thing. They put up the barriers, work 8 with the -- the Sheriff to do this. So, I make a motion that 9 we so approve this. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 11 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Just have to authorize Road 12 and Bridge to put up the barriers; they're the ones that do 13 it. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Same procedures we've done in 15 the past. 16 JUDGE POLLARD: You make the motion? 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I make the motion. 18 JUDGE POLLARD: Is there a second? 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yes, sir. 20 JUDGE POLLARD: It's been moved and seconded. Is 21 there any further discussion? There being none, those in 22 favor of the motion, signify by raising your right hand. 23 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 24 JUDGE POLLARD: It is four-zero, unanimous. All 25 right. Let's go to -- let's see. We did everything else on 7-14-14 103 1 that page, I think, all the way over down through 1.22. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: 1.23. 3 MS. HARGIS: 23. 4 JUDGE POLLARD: Yeah, 1.23 is next. I said 5 "through." 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Oh, excuse me. 7 JUDGE POLLARD: 1.23; consider, discuss, and take 8 appropriate action regarding the 2015 Kerr Central Appraisal 9 District budget, and that's mine. All right. And Item 3 -- 10 if you look at the backup materials in there, you'll see what 11 their budget is presently. Anybody have any questions about 12 it or comments on it? 13 MS. HARGIS: Could I get a copy of it? 14 JUDGE POLLARD: Pardon? 15 MS. HARGIS: I need get a copy, 'cause I need to 16 see. 17 JUDGE POLLARD: You don't have one? 18 MS. HARGIS: No, it comes to you. 19 JUDGE POLLARD: Would you like a minute to look it 20 over? 21 MS. HARGIS: Just a second. 22 JUDGE POLLARD: I'd sure feel better about it after 23 you've had a chance to look at it. 24 MS. HARGIS: Yeah, I would. Just a second. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Let's just come back to her. 7-14-14 104 1 JUDGE POLLARD: That's a good idea. Okay, we'll 2 skip that for a minute and come back to you. Let's go to 3 1.24; consider, discuss, and take appropriate action to 4 ratify and confirm resolution for participants in the Kerr 5 County Wounded Warrior Family Hill Country Adventure. I want 6 you to know that everybody signed that -- that proclamation 7 of the County Commissioners court. We hand-delivered those 8 to the Wounded Warriors yesterday at the First United 9 Methodist Church. We've talked about how good a program that 10 was. It was very well received, so what we're doing here is 11 just kind of ratifying that we all -- what we all signed, and 12 that resolution that was given to them. 13 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Move for approval. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 16 JUDGE POLLARD: It's been moved and seconded. Is 17 there any further discussion? There being none, those in 18 favor, signify by raising your right hand. 19 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 20 JUDGE POLLARD: It is four-zero, unanimous. 21 1.25 -- looks like the Auditor left the room. She's serious 22 about looking at it. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, she is. 24 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. All right, let's go to 1.25; 25 consider, discuss, and take appropriate action regarding the 7-14-14 105 1 Texas C.D.B.G. proposed 2015 Action Plan. Commissioner 2 Moser. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Let me propose that we wait 4 till the Auditor comes back. She may have some comments on 5 this. We'll go to next agenda item, if we could. 6 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. 1.26; consider, 7 discuss, and take appropriate action regarding update of 8 construction at Hill Country Youth Event Center and related 9 issues. Commissioner Letz. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I put this on the agenda 11 just -- Jody, we might keep this on every agenda for -- 12 through the end of the year, just so we can talk about this 13 project. It is a sizable project. Mainly, from an update 14 standpoint, there -- the Change Order 1 and 2 got us a little 15 bit behind schedule. They're hustling as quick as they can. 16 Going to pour concrete Wednesday, they're hoping. They're 17 trying to adjust the mix with the engineers, the testing 18 company's approval, to get it hardened quicker. There will 19 be a change order that we're aware of related to that. But 20 anyway, they're going in as fast as they can trying to get 21 that slab poured, because then they need to let it cure. The 22 building is coming on -- August 12th? 23 COMMISSIONER REEVES: No. No, July -- 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 28th? 25 COMMISSIONER REEVES: -- 24th or 25th. 7-14-14 106 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The building's going to be here 2 pretty quick. There are some discussions that we're going to 3 have to look at on -- I guess the biggest one, really, we 4 probably need to talk about a little bit right now is the 5 rock on the front. There was an alternate to add rock in the 6 front entry area, vestibule, and we deleted that. And 7 they're pouring the rock ledge, but it's causing a little bit 8 of an issue as to how they put in windows and things, because 9 if we add the rock in the future, it causes some problems. 10 We don't need to make a decision on that now. They gave us 11 until about the 1st of September till we had to do something 12 with that. 13 JUDGE POLLARD: What does that additional cost? 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's $30,000 to add rock. 15 JUDGE POLLARD: For rock? 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right, for the rock, and to 17 have it installed. You see the block -- C.M.U. block is 18 going up either way. 19 JUDGE POLLARD: We could save money by making a 20 decision about that before we put the windows and stuff in. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. But we -- I think we 22 need to -- 23 COMMISSIONER REEVES: We don't have to do it now. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We don't have to do it now. We 25 have to do that before September; we have to decide. And at 7-14-14 107 1 that point, if we don't put the rock on, there will be a 2 slight change order to make some adjustments on the roofing, 3 so it may be just as cheap to put the rock on at that point, 4 and I just wanted to let y'all know that. Everything else -- 5 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Everything's -- I mean, 6 they're trying to catch up from the delay with the sewer 7 line. 8 JUDGE POLLARD: I'm in favor of putting -- making 9 the decision now about the rock. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We need to get a cost. 11 COMMISSIONER REEVES: You need look at it both ways 12 before we can do that. So, they're moving along. They were 13 tying steel this weekend. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The whole -- the east side is 15 tied. 16 COMMISSIONER REEVES: And I believe they're going 17 to pour it -- the outside third on each side will be poured 18 first, and then the inside. So, they're supposed to pour, I 19 believe, Wednesday if all goes right. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: They're going fast on that. 21 The other thing, just to bring up to the Court, there are a 22 multitude of minor decisions that are pretty important, 23 everything from the color of stain on the doors to the color 24 of tiles in the bathroom to, you know, color of roof here and 25 there. And, you know, the first round of going through some 7-14-14 108 1 of this stuff, nothing's been decided yet. You know, Bob and 2 I referred primarily to the architects and said, you know, 3 "Keep us from going awry here." But, you know, here's some 4 guidance on what we thought. You know, that's just kind of 5 how it was going. I don't think the Court wants to get -- 6 certainly, we can't afford to hold up the project while we 7 decide all that. So, the process we're using is that the -- 8 Charlie Hastings is there, the two of us, the architects, and 9 there's an allowance in the budget, and we're picking kind of 10 the colors that make sense. We're matching -- the C.M.U. 11 block, for example, is going to match exactly to the all the 12 show barn, and trying to keep everything the same as much as 13 we can. But with different vendors and -- 14 JUDGE POLLARD: These are decisions that don't cost 15 more money, just the choices -- 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The colors. 17 JUDGE POLLARD: -- of colors? 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Do we have anybody with taste? 19 JUDGE POLLARD: I don't think we ought to have 20 these two guys making decisions. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Do we have anybody with taste? 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's what I said; I don't 23 want -- 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I can't believe you're 25 trying to do that without a female. That's a mistake. 7-14-14 109 1 (Laughter.) Jody, would you just go out there and watch 2 them? 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Do you want to come to the 4 meeting, Jody? 5 MS. GRINSTEAD: Okay. 6 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Every other Wednesday. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, anyway, that's how we're 8 doing things, and there's -- gosh, there's so much. I mean, 9 it -- light fixtures, and I think they specify dollars and 10 allowances. A lot of this stuff is -- you know, but 11 anyway -- 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Get a female on it. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Do we need to authorize 14 y'all to do that without coming back in here with every 15 little nail and screw? 16 JUDGE POLLARD: That's what I'd recommend. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Probably so. I mean, I don't 18 know that it's necessary, but, I mean, we technically -- 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You're doing it anyway. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We don't have authority -- 21 that's the reason it's on the agenda, is that we don't have 22 authority to do it, and we want to make sure you don't -- you 23 know, it would probably be better to have permission. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You'd be better off with a 25 court order in your hip pocket. 7-14-14 110 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So you don't come after me when 2 we pick pink tile for the bathrooms. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. Listen, I love pink. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But it's interesting things 5 that -- you know, we certainly didn't look at the details. I 6 mean, the bid specs we have from the architects, all the 7 doors are wood going in there. Nice. I mean, it's pretty 8 nice. It's -- particularly the stain, trying to pick the 9 stain. We thought the darkish color looked closely like 10 cedar, I thought. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Jody, you go out there, keep 12 an eye on this thing. 13 JUDGE POLLARD: I'll entertain a motion. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I move for approval. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Including Jody. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Jody's welcome to come. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I want Jody included. 18 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I think we need Jody. 19 JUDGE POLLARD: A motion that Commissioner Letz and 20 -- well, Commissioners 3 and 4 and Jody are on this committee 21 to make those decisions. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yes. Believe me -- 23 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. Motion, and second? 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I second. 25 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. Any further discussion? 7-14-14 111 1 Those in favor, signify by raising your right hand. 2 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 3 JUDGE POLLARD: It is unanimous, four-zero. 4 Actually, five. You are in favor of it, aren't you? 5 MS. GRINSTEAD: Oh, sure. 6 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay, let's go back to 1.25; 7 consider, discuss, and take appropriate action regarding the 8 TxCDBG proposed 2015 Action Plan. Commissioner Moser. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thank you, Judge. This has to 10 do with proposed changes in the plans for -- for T.D.A. And 11 the reason this is important to us, this is the funding that 12 we use in Kerrville South primarily for this. And the 13 changes that they propose are -- have a direct impact on 14 small counties, and it has a direct impact on Kerr County. 15 They propose to change from a biannual to annual application 16 cycle, and that's going to cost additional money to do that 17 every year, as opposed to every other year. They propose the 18 scoring criteria change, that they -- that the small 19 counties -- that all counties have preliminary engineering 20 and environmental review before they apply for the grants, 21 and they propose that they have the counties -- the 22 applicants have local comprehensive plans, which a lot of 23 small counties do not have it. So, with that, I have 24 prepared -- or have a draft, with the help of -- 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Can I make just a comment? 7-14-14 112 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Sure you may. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: When you're talking about 3 smaller counties and communities -- 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Mm-hmm. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: -- and causing them to do 6 these studies, they -- they lay their money out there, and 7 then for some reason, if the thing falls apart for one reason 8 or another, they lose their funding. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: They lose it, right. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It's over with. So -- so I 11 don't think that we should put that burden on them, counties. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, that's what I'm going to 13 propose. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I understand. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So, with that, there's a 16 proposed letter to be signed by the -- by the Judge, and I'll 17 read it for the record, if I may. It's -- this is to the 18 Texas Department of Agriculture. Thank you for the 19 opportunity to provide comments and concerns about several 20 proposed changes to the 2015 Texas C.D.B.G. certification 21 plan. Number one, the biannual funding cycle has been 22 successful for many years, and should not be changed, period. 23 A single-year funding cycle will place a greater 24 administrative and financial burden on our community without 25 improving our chances of funding. A single-year application 7-14-14 113 1 cycle will double the number of expensive notices, public 2 hearings and meetings, engineering estimates, mapping, income 3 surveys, and application writing work for hundreds of Texas 4 counties, including us. That is, Kerr County. 5 Number two, the proposal to award points to the 6 applicants that have completed preliminary engineering and/or 7 environmental review is not affordable for our community. We 8 would have to procure an engineer and/or grant administrator 9 to prepare these items, and estimate these costs to be 10 upwards of $25,000. If we are not funded, those 11 out-of-pocket expenses would be further wasted, since we 12 cannot afford to implement our projects without the grant 13 award. This also reinforces the need to maintain the 14 biannual funding cycle. 15 Number three, T.D.A. has proposed that points be 16 awarded to projects included in a comprehensive plan. 17 Planning studies of any kind and regular updates to them are 18 expensive, and not often funded by grants. We believe the 19 Community Needs Assessment and our application adequately 20 describes the priorities of our community. We can 21 demonstrate this by including the community needs in the 22 resolution that authorizes the Texas C.D.B.G. application, 23 thereby taking official action demonstrating we have 24 considered our project priorities and have informed the 25 public. 7-14-14 114 1 I appreciate your consideration of these comments 2 prior to the release of the draft action plan. We rely on 3 the Texas C.D.B.G. program to improve our community, and are 4 deeply concerned that making these changes will undermine the 5 T D.A.'s goal to develop viable communities principally for 6 persons of low to moderate income. Sincerely, signed the 7 Judge. So, I move that we take that action. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 9 JUDGE POLLARD: Any further -- it's been moved and 10 seconded. Any further discussion? There being none, those 11 in favor, signify by raising your right hand. 12 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 13 JUDGE POLLARD: It is four-zero, unanimous. All 14 right. Let's go to 1.23; consider, discuss, and take 15 appropriate action regarding the 2015 Kerr Central Appraisal 16 District budget. Have you had a chance to look at that? 17 MS. HARGIS: Yes, sir, I have. They do have a 1.5 18 percent COLA and a small merit raise of $12,000, which I 19 don't think is out of the norm. Our cost does go up. We're 20 currently at 204,505. We'll be going to 213,297, so that's 21 an increase of 8,792, and that's based on our levy. Our levy 22 went up, so our cost went up. So, that's the way they 23 figured these, is on the levy. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'd like to -- and I haven't 25 done this in -- I've voted against this budget many times 7-14-14 115 1 because of -- because of the COLA issue, largely. And I'm -- 2 JUDGE POLLARD: Because of what issue? 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The COLA issue. They have 4 historically given a COLA larger than the County gives our 5 employees. And I -- and they're not the only entity that 6 does that, but it always bothers me that we give our people 7 two and a half percent, and they give three percent when 8 we're funding their budget. But this year, they're coming in 9 very -- with a very conservative COLA compared with what they 10 have in the past. I think it's good. I want to commend 11 Fourth Coates and that group out there, their board, for 12 coming in with a low COLA and keeping the budget very much in 13 line. I mean, they -- there's an increase, but it's -- 14 it's -- they held the line on their spending pretty close. 15 So, I appreciate what they've done. 16 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I've got to agree with you. 17 When I looked over the backup material to this, 1.5 percent 18 cost-of-living is not much. The 12,000 potential merit, we 19 also understand longevity and everything here at the county. 20 Everything else as far as their budget, I -- I think they've 21 tried the best they could to hold the line on it. 22 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. Is there any further 23 discussion? 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll make a motion to approve 25 the budget as presented by the Appraisal District. 7-14-14 116 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 2 JUDGE POLLARD: Any further discussion? Those in 3 favor of the motion, signify by raising your right hand. 4 (Commissioners Moser, Letz, and Reeves voted in favor of the motion.) 5 6 JUDGE POLLARD: Those opposed, raise your right 7 hand. 8 (Commissioner Baldwin voted against the motion.) 9 JUDGE POLLARD: It's three-to-one. Passes 10 three-to-one. All right. Next is, I believe, 1.27. Am I 11 right about that? 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Mm-hmm. 13 JUDGE POLLARD: Consider, discuss, and take 14 appropriate action to approve Kerr County group health 15 renewal plan for upcoming 2014 and '15 plan year, and have 16 the County Judge sign the same. Dawn? 17 MS. LANTZ: You should have received some 18 documentation in your boxes on our medical insurance rates. 19 The County did take a 9.9 percent increase overall for our 20 medical benefits. Our dental did go down. And I'm just 21 needing direction from the Court if they want to stay with 22 our current employee contributions to the plan, or how you'd 23 like us to go from here on our plan. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What's the budget impact of 25 this increase? 7-14-14 117 1 MS. HARGIS: $27,500. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is that 27,000 more than we 3 thought? More than we had planned for, the $27,000 increase? 4 MS. HARGIS: It's an increase. It needs to be an 5 increase. 6 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Have we been thinking it was 7 going to be that much, or is it over and above what they were 8 thinking it was going to increase? 9 MS. HARGIS: It's a little bit above what we 10 thought, which is -- you know, we were -- we've been -- when 11 we increased the deductible last year, we took up some of 12 that -- that slack that I had in the premium. But by and 13 large, I think we can stay with the premium, which it's about 14 $100 a head, is what it is. The 27 does give me a little bit 15 of flexibility for people coming and going. So, you know, 16 it's really about a $150,000 increase. The 27 gives us that 17 flexibility of the employees leaving and coming in, just in 18 case, or changing what they're doing. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So, this is in the draft 20 budget that we -- 21 MS. HARGIS: It was not. If you approve it, I will 22 put it in. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So it's not there? 24 JUDGE POLLARD: How much of an increase will that 25 be over what was budgeted? 7-14-14 118 1 MS. HARGIS: 27,500. 2 JUDGE POLLARD: 27,000. 3 MS. HARGIS: Considering the size of this budget, 4 that's very minimal. 5 MS. LANTZ: Now, there are a couple of things that 6 we can do to help offset this, and one of the things is like 7 TAC had recommended, we do implement a non-tobacco user 8 discount program, where those that are using tobacco products 9 will be charged $25 a month. Even though the County's paying 10 a portion of the employee's -- I mean, that would offset some 11 of it, and it also helps our premiums. They will give us a 12 rate increase -- or decrease next year by us doing that. 13 They've done, like, a 1 percent. So, those are ways for us 14 to get our rates down in a positive way. I know it's not 15 positive to the employee, but health standing wise, it can 16 be. The other thing is -- 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Can you explain -- go over that 18 again, please, if you would, Dawn, about -- the $25 increase, 19 who pays it? 20 MS. LANTZ: The employee. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Employee pays it. 22 MS. LANTZ: Even though the County covers the 23 employee's portion at 100 percent, if they use tobacco 24 products, they will be charged $25 a month. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's any kind of product? 7-14-14 119 1 MS. LANTZ: Any kind of tobacco products. 2 JUDGE POLLARD: And that's a month? 3 MS. LANTZ: A month. 4 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: The only -- y'all know I fell 5 off the wagon, so I smoke again. The only issue I have -- 6 you have with some employees, such as the -- the smokeless 7 tobacco, that are using it, but it's not true tobacco either. 8 So, how is it going to be governed? Or somebody like me that 9 was smoking for six, eight months, fell off the wagon, am I 10 going to report then, "Oh, I fell off the wagon; start 11 charging"? 12 MS. LANTZ: Well, with this, we would implement it 13 on a slow process. We give them 30 days, and then they'd 14 sign an affidavit. You know, it's the honesty thing. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's it. 16 MS. LANTZ: I mean -- 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That includes smokeless tobacco 18 as well? 19 MS. LANTZ: Yes, sir, everything. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: People that smoke cigarettes, 21 there's a lot of -- 22 MS. LANTZ: It will make our rates go down. That's 23 the only positive thing. 24 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I agree it's the healthiest 25 thing to do. It's just governing it could be hard. 7-14-14 120 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: It's just an honor -- 2 MS. LANTZ: It's an honor system. We're not going 3 to patrol you. We know those that smoke outside and those 4 that don't. 5 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Have to put up with certain 6 people. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: They are weak. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I think the next thing to do 9 is put them in jail if they violate. 10 MS. LANTZ: That is something -- 11 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I've already spent most of my 12 life there. 13 MS. LANTZ: It's something that will help offset 14 the cost. Those that are wanting to continue will pay it, 15 and those that don't... But that could -- 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I like the idea of the $25 per 17 month premium. 18 COMMISSIONER REEVES: We're looking at -- what did 19 you say additional to our budget that we hadn't planned for? 20 MS. HARGIS: 27,500. 21 COMMISSIONER REEVES: And, Ms. Lantz, we need to 22 approve this, at least accepting the changes, but can we -- 23 do we also have to designate how much we -- at this time, we 24 may implement, like, the tobacco fee? 25 MS. LANTZ: No. 7-14-14 121 1 COMMISSIONER REEVES: We need to accept the 2 increase, and then when we have a budget workshop, we could 3 discuss the implications of the dollar amount. 4 MS. LANTZ: Yes. 5 COMMISSIONER REEVES: What's the time constraint 6 now of saying yes, we're going to accept it, or no, we're 7 not? 8 MS. LANTZ: If we're going to change what the 9 employee contribution is going to be, and for employee 10 spouse, employee children, or employee family, if you're 11 wanting to leave it at those denominations that we had set 12 for last year, those are the only things that are pertinent 13 to the renewal of the plan. If you're wanting to -- 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And what -- excuse me, go 15 ahead. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: My question was, do we have to 17 make this decision right now? We have a couple of new 18 members on the Court. Can we go -- can we defer this to our 19 next meeting and have a review of our plan, or do we need to 20 approve it right now? 21 MS. LANTZ: I have to have it back in their office 22 by August 1st. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And one other question that I 24 have on this is, are there other options on -- on reducing 25 that $27,000? I mean, like, larger employee contributions? 7-14-14 122 1 MS. LANTZ: Yes, sir. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: 'Cause I know other counties 3 and organizations are looking at that in light of all these 4 increases in this type of insurance. 5 MS. LANTZ: With the new health care plan that's 6 gone into effect, a lot of people are providing 100 percent 7 for their employees, and they're starting to encourage the 8 employees' dependents to go out in the health market to 9 apply. But it's strictly by department -- or by county, how 10 they're enforcing that. You know, there's different -- 11 JUDGE POLLARD: Is there a way for the employees' 12 across-the-board contribution to be increased substantially, 13 less than $25, and void this $25 penalty tax thing? I regard 14 that as just chingling the employees. I just -- I'm not -- 15 I'm a non-tobacco user, okay? 16 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Well, you also have -- 17 JUDGE POLLARD: I just -- 18 MS. LANTZ: It's the incentive to get them to quit, 19 because a lot of the health care issues stem around certain 20 things, and that's just their -- 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think my feeling is I'd 22 rather go ahead and leave it the way it is right now. I'm 23 not a big fan of coercive things, you know, like of charging 24 penalties for people who do things that are bad. I'd much 25 rather try to figure out a thing -- try to get them to do 7-14-14 123 1 something healthy, give them a discount, a positive approach. 2 MS. LANTZ: There's another one that we can also 3 do, and that's rewarding for the wellness program. And what 4 that is, is with our health care plan that we do, is every 5 employee that gets a wellness check once a year free of 6 charge through your insurance, counties have implemented 7 where they give a one-day, eight hours of leave. They 8 provide their documentation that they've had it done, and 9 then they get -- and that also encourages them to find any 10 risk factors, you know, to go to the doctor and check your 11 health. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But that's -- but that could 13 cost us money. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, it costs, as opposed to 15 saving. Let's look at more as what TAC would give us a 16 discount for. 17 MS. LANTZ: Well, that's what they will do, is if 18 we implement certain programs, we'll get a percentage off. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So if we do the wellness 20 check, -- 21 MS. LANTZ: Wellness and tobacco. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: -- we get a reduction for 23 wellness check? 24 MS. LANTZ: Mm-hmm. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: How much reduction do we get? 7-14-14 124 1 MS. LANTZ: Well, they're doing anywhere from 1 to 2 2 percent off of the -- if we implement it, then next year, 3 if we have a high increase, they may go back and see we've 4 implemented some programs, and then discount our rate where 5 we can -- 6 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Don't we already have a 7 wellness program? 8 MS. LANTZ: We do, but these are extra things. 9 Well, the wellness, we've got 380 employees, 390, and maybe 10 50 are doing it. So, this is a way to get -- 11 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: But if they -- like now, if 12 they do it now, they do get a $25 gift certificate, something 13 like that, directly from TAC if you do it. TAC pays for it. 14 Will this do away with that? 15 MS. LANTZ: No, they're going to keep that intact. 16 But this is just a different way to encourage employees to go 17 and check, you know, for health problems. 18 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: TAC's done pretty good, 'cause 19 they do the physical once a year that they pay for and that, 20 and it -- we just -- I think we need to just publicize a 21 whole lot of the things that are there that a lot of 22 employees aren't totally aware of. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That is -- that's true. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll make a motion that we 25 approve the group renewal plan as we received from it TAC. 7-14-14 125 1 And then, during the year, we'll talk with H.R. Department 2 about other things we can implement to improve our rates in 3 the future. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So, does that say we're going 5 to add the $27,000? 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. 7 JUDGE POLLARD: I think it does. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. I would rather leave the 9 same -- if we have an adjustment to make, make it off the 10 COLA. 11 MS. HARGIS: This is the first adjustment on our 12 health insurance plan in five years, so that's pretty good. 13 JUDGE POLLARD: Say that -- I couldn't hear you. 14 MS. HARGIS: This is the first adjustment we've 15 made on our health insurance plan now in five years. 16 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I've got a question on that, 17 if I may. Right now for the employees, if it's costing us, 18 what, 503.90 per employee -- 19 MS. HARGIS: That's the premium itself. 20 COMMISSIONER REEVES: -- and then -- then with the 21 increase, it's going to be another -- might as well say $50 22 per employee, which we're going to pay anyway. The rest of 23 that increase is coming from dependent coverage? Right 24 now -- and we pay what? 'Cause I'm new to this, so forgive 25 me. We pay, if I'm reading right, $250 -- 7-14-14 126 1 MS. HARGIS: No, they pay 250. 2 COMMISSIONER REEVES: They pay 250, and the County 3 pays the difference? 4 MS. HARGIS: The County pays the difference. And, 5 of course, the employees is included in that piece as well. 6 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Okay. Okay. 7 MS. HARGIS: So you kind of have to, you know, take 8 the premium of the employee, and then add the difference for 9 the family and deduct what they pay. 10 COMMISSIONER REEVES: So that's where the 27,5 11 increase is. Just not -- because it's 10 percent across the 12 board. Or not -- 13 MS. HARGIS: Right. 14 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Excuse me, 9.9. 15 MS. LANTZ: It's the children, spouse, and family 16 that took the biggest hit to our plan. 17 MS. HARGIS: Which -- 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And we've gone, as a Court -- 19 just a little background. We've gone round and round on that 20 a little bit. We have felt pretty adamant as a Court to pay 21 100 percent of employees' health insurance. 22 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Exactly. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And when it comes to spouses or 24 family plans, you know, we've made some adjustments there, 25 but we're trying to keep it as good as possible to the -- to 7-14-14 127 1 our employees that have that. I mean, 'cause reality is most 2 of those spouses or families that are on our plan, they're 3 covered under another employer's plan. And so, you know, 4 that's just the approach we've taken philosophically in the 5 past. Take care of our employees first, and do what we can 6 to help them help their families and their spouses. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And let the -- and let them 8 become a part of the program where, you know, they have some 9 skin in the game, in other words. So, take care -- I see it 10 as a positive side to people taking care of -- better care of 11 their health and family members. 12 JUDGE POLLARD: I support that philosophy. I think 13 it's good. 14 MS. LANTZ: Now, on a positive note, our dental 15 premiums went down, so -- 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yippie-skidoo. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Can I get a second to my 18 motion? 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 20 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. It's been moved and 21 seconded. Is there any further discussion? I'm not sure 22 what we moved. What did we move? 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We moved that we're going to 24 approve the plan. 25 JUDGE POLLARD: The second was the 27,5 increase in 7-14-14 128 1 cost? 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: With TAC, yeah. Renewal of our 3 plan as -- 4 JUDGE POLLARD: Is there any further discussion? 5 MS. LANTZ: One more thing. 6 JUDGE POLLARD: Being none -- yes, ma'am? 7 MS. LANTZ: We also need to discuss the retirees on 8 this plan. Currently, just so you're aware, retirees are 9 under our plan, and they pay 100 percent of the cost. 10 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: That's wrong. 11 MS. LANTZ: Do you still want to include retirees 12 on our plan? 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's just so wrong, isn't 14 it, Rusty? 15 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Mm-hmm. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: County ought to pay 100 17 percent of the retirees, bless their hearts. 18 MS. LANTZ: And this has to be renewed every year 19 with our medical as well. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes, I think we should continue 21 that. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Sure. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's part of the motion. 24 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. Do we agree that the 25 motion's been so modified or amended to so reflect? 7-14-14 129 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yes, sir. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Mm-hmm. 3 JUDGE POLLARD: Any further discussion on that 4 motion? There being none, those in favor, signify by raising 5 your right hand. 6 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 7 JUDGE POLLARD: It is four-zero, unanimous. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Judge, could we go back to 9 the Commissioners' comments? I mean, I have a -- I have a 10 question. 11 JUDGE POLLARD: We can go back to anything you 12 would like, Buster. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. Start with 14 hamburgers. 15 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No, I just wanted to -- we 17 went to the meeting over at the U.G.R.A. building regarding 18 the taxing issue -- appraisal issue, and I'm kind of 19 questioning where that puts us as far as our budget process, 20 what we can do and what we can't do, or can we do anything, 21 et cetera? And -- because I'd like to -- I'd like for us to 22 have a budget workshop pretty soon. But if everything's 23 still out there in limbo and we don't know anything, it would 24 be a waste of time to have a budget workshop. But could we 25 talk about that just for a moment? 7-14-14 130 1 JUDGE POLLARD: Sure. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: There is an expert in the 3 room. Do you think that -- could you kind of tell us where 4 we are, and -- 5 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Nobody was looking behind me. 6 So, from what I've gathered after the meeting, the review 7 board meeting of last Friday -- 8 JUDGE POLLARD: By the way, the vote was three to 9 two; is that right? 10 COMMISSIONER REEVES: The vote was three to two 11 denying the City's challenge. With that denial, they are 12 currently at 94 percent undisputed value county-wide, of 13 which -- you know, we've been talking about this for weeks. 14 You need to be at 95 percent -- 15 JUDGE POLLARD: In order to certify the tax roll. 16 COMMISSIONER REEVES: -- in order to certify the 17 tax roll. 18 JUDGE POLLARD: Which gets us going. 19 COMMISSIONER REEVES: So, they -- as of Friday, at 20 whatever time we walked out of there, they were 1 percent 21 shy. The litigation, it was left up to the City to decide if 22 they're going to challenge the A.R.B.'s determination or not. 23 My feeling, as far as what -- the way I understand it, they 24 can go ahead and certify the roll. It's just like any other 25 A.R.B. challenge, that if somebody disputes it, it could go 7-14-14 131 1 to district court. But what the Appraisal District staff 2 told me, their understanding was that you could go ahead and 3 certify the roll, but it still could be a -- a -- 4 JUDGE POLLARD: Providing you get another 1 5 percent. 6 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Provided you get another 1 7 percent. 8 JUDGE POLLARD: Right. 9 COMMISSIONER REEVES: But it still could be a 10 challenge in district court. And I know if an individual 11 taxpayer is challenging an A.R.B.'s decision, there's certain 12 time frames -- I believe 30 days -- where you at least have 13 to place a notice of intending to file suit. I'm not sure 14 when it's a taxing entity challenge, what that time frame is, 15 or how -- how it goes about. With an individual, you send a 16 letter that you're intending to file suit -- and Judge 17 Pollard may can help on that. You send a letter, and then so 18 many days later, you must you have filed suit in district 19 court, or other avenues of appeal like that. So, I feel like 20 that within the specified time that we were worried about, 21 being July 25, that we should have our rolls; not only us, 22 but the other taxing entities in the county, and then we can 23 move forward with knowing our anticipated amount of income 24 and how we need to look at that. 25 JUDGE POLLARD: Am I correct in assuming that the 7-14-14 132 1 A.R.B. is having further hearings? Many people have filed 2 protests other than the 16 downtown businesses. 3 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Well, the -- 4 JUDGE POLLARD: And we should be able to get that 5 other 1 percent. 6 COMMISSIONER REEVES: They were having those 7 hearings regardless. If it was not in the category -- the 8 way I understand it, the category of commercial property 9 within the city limits of the city of Kerrville, they were 10 continuing to have hearings. All commercial property 11 protests, regardless of where in the city of Kerrville, were 12 placed on hold until the entity challenge was over. And the 13 way I guess it's going to happen now, they have to send out 14 notices of hearings, which requires a 14-day, you know, 15 notice that we're going to have the hearing and everything 16 like that. So, the commercial property challenges may not be 17 settled for several more weeks, just because of the time 18 element required to protest. But the other protests that are 19 pending, perhaps you can -- 20 JUDGE POLLARD: Non-commercial properties. 21 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Non-commercial. 22 JUDGE POLLARD: Just residential, yeah. 23 COMMISSIONER REEVES: That you can find the 1 24 percent. 25 JUDGE POLLARD: Yeah. So, we're probably going to 7-14-14 133 1 get to that 1 percent, is what he's saying, pretty soon, 2 which should allow us to get a certification of the rolls. 3 And that frees up the money to start coming to us when -- 4 when we need it. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: When -- 6 JUDGE POLLARD: Tax rolls. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: When will that be? When do 8 you think that we'll receive the -- the rolls? 9 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I think by law, it's July 25, 10 so sometime -- 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: 14th. 12 COMMISSIONER REEVES: -- in the next two weeks. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So, you know, can these 15 individual business property owners, can they also file a 16 protest? Even though the City has done it in their behalf? 17 COMMISSIONER REEVES: If they already had their 18 protest filed prior to the deadline, just like -- 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. 20 COMMISSIONER REEVES: -- you individually or myself 21 individually. I think it was June 13, sometime in there. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I see. 23 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Yes. If they timely filed, 24 that protest didn't go away. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 7-14-14 134 1 COMMISSIONER REEVES: They still have their right 2 of appeal to the review -- review board individually. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Got you. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So, there's a good chance 5 of -- two weeks from today, of having a certified roll. 6 JUDGE POLLARD: Certified roll. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Certified roll, and a budget 8 workshop. 9 COMMISSIONER REEVES: The individual -- I mean, the 10 entity challenge and findings did not -- the way I understood 11 it, did not take away from that, from that property owner's 12 right to individually fight his or her property appeal with 13 the Appraisal Review Board. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Commissioner, do you want to 15 put a budget workshop on the 28th after -- in the afternoon 16 after our Commissioners Court meeting? 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, that's what I was 18 going to ask, if it's -- afternoon is better. I mean, I 19 never know about the Judge and his juvenile courts and things 20 like that. What's best for him? What's best for her? It's 21 all about you. 22 JUDGE POLLARD: She's knows when and where I have 23 to be. 24 MS. GRINSTEAD: We can just have his juveniles set 25 late that day. 7-14-14 135 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So if we came back in here 2 from -- 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 1:30. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: At 1:30? 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That would be good. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That would be good with you? 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Mm-hmm. 8 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Fine with me. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Let's do that. And I have 10 no idea what -- we'll figure out some kind of an agenda 11 between now and then. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 13 JUDGE POLLARD: 1.28 -- did we do 1.23? Let's see. 14 MS. HARGIS: Yes. 15 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge, if we could go back to 17 1.8 and have Ray Garcia come in to discuss in executive 18 session about that item before we go into that other, then he 19 could leave. 20 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: They're both executive session. 22 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Do you want to pay the bills 24 before we go into executive session? 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We can do that. We can clear 7-14-14 136 1 that up. That's a good idea. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Just clean all that up. 3 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay, we'll skip over to 4.1, to 4 paying the bills. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I move we pay the bills. 6 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Second. 7 JUDGE POLLARD: Been moved and seconded that we pay 8 the bills. Any further discussion? There being none, those 9 in favor, signify by raising your right hand. 10 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 11 JUDGE POLLARD: It is four-zero, unanimous. 4.2, 12 budget amendments. Anybody -- any budget amendments? 13 MS. HARGIS: Yes, we do have some. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move we approve the budget 15 amendments. We have nine -- ten of them? 16 MS. HARGIS: Mm-hmm. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Ten of them. 18 MS. HARGIS: There's one on the second page that 19 came in, so there's two pages, a total of 10. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: They're fine. 21 MS. HARGIS: It's mostly moving around medical 22 expenses. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, prisoner medical. 24 What's -- what's the issue with that? 25 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: The problem is we have a cap 7-14-14 137 1 that the contract pays, which is 60,000 for prescription 2 drugs. And because of a lot of the mental and other health 3 issues, mainly mental, we are over our cap in the contract, 4 so -- and we may -- since it's always behind, May's bill over 5 the 60,000 cap was 11,000. So, now we're going to face June, 6 July, August, September, that are probably going to be 7 $11,000, $12,000 a month bills over the cap that we're going 8 to have to pay. And normally at budget, we normally budget 9 about 30,000, 35,000 in a different line item for anything 10 that comes over the cap or the last months, 'cause you always 11 get medical bills late going into the next budget. But I 12 think we've already used up that portion, too. So, nothing I 13 can do about it. 14 JUDGE POLLARD: Well, maybe you can instruct your 15 deputies not to arrest crazy people, and refer them to 16 M.H.D.D instead? (Laughter.) 17 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Well, I think what the problem 18 is, I think I have turned into the largest state hospital in 19 this area. 20 JUDGE POLLARD: I think so. 21 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Is what's unfortunate. 22 JUDGE POLLARD: Yeah, he's -- 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And this is where you have the 24 guy from San Antonio? He's the -- 25 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: The psychiatrist that we have, 7-14-14 138 1 and we've added more hours to his in next year's contract. 2 And it's just -- it's getting out of control, and there's 3 nothing any of us can do about it. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Is that the same experience 5 other counties are having? 6 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Every jail in the state's 7 facing it, unless you're in, like, a hospital district or 8 something like that, where they -- you don't have the medical 9 bills. It's a hospital -- county hospital district. 10 JUDGE POLLARD: So, if you get sick and need some 11 medical care and you can't afford to pay for it yourself, 12 just get arrested and go in jail and let us pay for it, huh? 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: But this is primarily 14 psychiatric? 15 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: It's both. A lot of it is. I 16 mean, you know, the addiction to methamphetamine, things like 17 that -- 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And that's the -- 19 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: -- is pushing a lot of it. 20 And a lot of it is -- and we go back to the Michael Morton 21 Act. We go back to the -- the state hospitals that are 22 available, okay, that once a person's found incompetent, 23 they're full, so I go on a waiting list. So, what's 24 happening is you're keeping these people months and months 25 and months longer than what we used to have to, okay? I've 7-14-14 139 1 got one individual in there that's definitely in this group 2 that you're asking about, psychiatric. You know, he's been 3 found incompetent. That individual has been there 180 days 4 before the incompetency finding, and now they're telling us 5 it's going to be at least a minimum of another four to six 6 weeks before -- even though we have the paperwork, before we 7 can transfer that person to an appropriate mental facility. 8 So, it's just -- I don't know what to do. In my report 9 later, you'll hear what our population is. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Let me ask another question 11 about that. Is -- is there any ambulance usage in that? 12 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: There could be some, yes. I 13 won't say there -- I mean, most of the ambulance use isn't in 14 our cap for the prescriptions. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, I understand that. 16 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Okay? So, a lot of that just 17 goes with our overall -- 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Just transfer of funds is 19 what I'm -- 20 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yeah. Most of that is still 21 in our regular part of it, and I don't think we're over on 22 that part yet. But mainly this is medications. 23 (Commissioner Moser left the courtroom.) 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. 25 JUDGE POLLARD: Any further questions on it? Or 7-14-14 140 1 discussion? Yes, ma'am? 2 MS. HARGIS: I just need approval of the 3 amendments. 4 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Do we have a second? 5 MS. PIEPER: We have a motion, but no second. 6 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I'll second. 7 JUDGE POLLARD: It's been moved and seconded that 8 we pay the bills. 9 MS. HARGIS: Amendments. 10 JUDGE POLLARD: Or budget amendments, rather. Any 11 further discussion? There being none, those in favor, 12 signify by raising your right hand. 13 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 3-0.) 14 JUDGE POLLARD: It's three-zero; it passes. 15 Commissioner Moser has stepped out for a moment. He'll be 16 back. All right, late bills. 17 MS. HARGIS: Yes. We do have four of those. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move we pay late bills. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 20 JUDGE POLLARD: Been moved and seconded that we pay 21 the late bills. Any further discussion? 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I do have a question, but I 23 can't seem to find it down here. It's -- there's only two 24 bills -- oh, Rock Engineering. Now, is that -- is that a 25 company name? 7-14-14 141 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's a company name. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Or are we engineering rock? 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's a company name, and they 4 do the testing on the soils and concrete at the Ag Barn, at 5 the facility. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. 7 JUDGE POLLARD: We get, I don't know, two or three 8 reports a week from them, it seems like. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Lots of testing. 10 JUDGE POLLARD: Yeah. All right, any further 11 discussion? 12 (Commissioner Moser entered the courtroom.) 13 JUDGE POLLARD: There being none, those in favor of 14 the motion, signify by raising your right hand. 15 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 16 JUDGE POLLARD: Did you raise your right hand, Tom? 17 Paying late bills. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Oh. Yes. 19 JUDGE POLLARD: All right, it's four-zero, 20 unanimous. All right. Approve and accept monthly reports. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Here they are. 22 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move we approve the monthly 24 reports as presented. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 7-14-14 142 1 JUDGE POLLARD: Any further discussion? Those in 2 favor, signify by raising your right hand. 3 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 4 JUDGE POLLARD: It is four-zero, unanimous. All 5 right. Reports from Commissioners, liaison/committee 6 assignments? 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No, sir. 8 JUDGE POLLARD: Any reports from elected officials? 9 Department heads? Yes, sir? 10 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Two things. Of course, 11 everybody's aware we did have the bomb threat last week at 12 the courthouse. We evacuated for a short period of time. I 13 want to thank everybody for their cooperation in that, and 14 the investigation is continuing, and will continue for a 15 while. We do have some leads, but it's taken some twists 16 that I didn't expect, so it's just a little bit different. 17 But that investigation is continuing, okay. Secondly is the 18 jail situation, and everyone's aware we have 192 beds. I 19 currently have 37 females. We only have 32 female beds. To 20 find the space for the females, we had to open up two more 21 cells, because they have a common safety vestibule, which 22 took up 16 beds, which gives me a capacity of 48 females, 23 okay, and those 16 beds do it. That leaves me 144 total beds 24 in the jail. As of this morning at 7 o'clock, I had 134 25 males. I'm at my extent, so I'm going to have to contract 7-14-14 143 1 with some other county to start housing our overflow. I'm 2 afraid we just don't have much choice at this point. I 3 cannot -- I met with the D.A., met with the courts. We've 4 pushed a lot of issues trying to move people, and we just 5 can't get them moved. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: You mentioned earlier the state 7 hospital issue, Sheriff, or that basically you were becoming 8 a state hospital, or are a state hospital. Is it -- how do 9 we solve that? I mean, that's almost like a harder thing to 10 tackle. What do we do there? 11 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I don't know. I'll be honest. 12 Sheriffs Association, we've all fought this for years and 13 years, okay? And a lot of the state hospitals privatized, or 14 all of them went forensic. That helped us some. But that's 15 helping more serious felons that, you know, are going to be 16 there and have to be found mentally incompetent. But the 17 other ones that -- you know, that need a local C.S.U. type 18 deal, our C.S.U. stays full. A lot of them can't get in 19 there; they won't take them. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: What is C.S.U.? 21 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: It's the community one that we 22 have here. 23 MS. STEBBINS: Crisis Stabilization Unit. 24 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Crisis Stabilization Unit. 25 You know, I'll be honest -- 7-14-14 144 1 JUDGE POLLARD: Non-forensic. 2 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: We had one last week that even 3 assaulted one of my jail staff. That charge will be coming. 4 We didn't file it at the time, okay, because the C.S.U. 5 agreed to take them. They -- M.H.D.D. came over, evaluated 6 that individual; they committed them to C.S.U.; 24 hours 7 later they're back in jail. Same thing again. Okay, I 8 don't -- 9 JUDGE POLLARD: Well, if you charge them, then 10 they'll end up at M.H.D.D. eventually, if they're found 11 incompetent. 12 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: If they're found incompetent. 13 But, you know, it's taking forever, and that's when you got 14 that. But if you're trying to get them into a local one, 15 okay, number one, they probably won't take them if charges 16 are pending, unless the bond's lowered. And it's just a -- 17 it's a vicious circle. If they do take them, 24, 72 hours 18 later, they're back on the street. Have we protected society 19 by getting them off the street? No, 'cause they stabilized 20 them and had to turn them loose due to their rules. Not 21 knocking them, but -- 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What percent of our jail 23 population do you think falls in the category of mental 24 issues? 25 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Well, if I brought -- 7-14-14 145 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Roughly. 2 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I've got over -- last one I 3 looked at last week, I had three pages of inmates that have 4 mental disabilities or mental issues and are seeing a 5 psychiatrist because of it, so you're talking -- you're 6 talking at least probably 25 individuals. I'm back up to 7 over 25 individuals that have been in that jail for well over 8 100 days, okay. The court system has bogged down because of 9 all this other stuff. And we're -- 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And it's increasing just 11 because of the drug stuff. 12 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Because of the drugs, we're 13 increasing. 14 JUDGE POLLARD: You're primarily increasing because 15 the Supreme Court of the United States issues these opinions 16 that say they have to protect the rights of these -- these 17 people, and it's -- and put a lot more protective things in 18 there, and it takes longer to get these people to trial then. 19 That's why they have to stay in jail. 20 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: And that's what we're -- we're 21 facing some serious issues that, you know, I would recommend, 22 probably on the next agenda, that we go ahead and develop a 23 committee to start looking at the expansion bond issue that 24 we've talked about, and let's start getting down to the 25 nitty-gritty and getting that worded, so whatever election 7-14-14 146 1 that decides to go on, we're prepared to get it on it. 2 Because the way -- if it -- if something does not change, I 3 foresee that before the end of this budget year, and 4 definitely -- definitely in the next several, we're going to 5 spend a lot of Kerr County money housing inmates somewhere 6 else. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The -- and that election -- 8 bond election for that needs to be on, what, two days a year? 9 We have the option of the November election and -- 10 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yeah. 11 MS. HARGIS: I think it's only the November one. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Only November? 13 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I'm not positive on either 14 one. But, you know, there comes a -- we have to let the 15 public know, I mean, what's going on, because it can 16 seriously -- 17 MS. HARGIS: Used to be able to do it on two, but 18 now we can only do it on one, I think, but I'm not real sure. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: We need to bring that study 20 back that you did. 21 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Well, I think we need to have 22 a committee that sits and looks at all this, Commissioner, 23 and not just my bringing a study, 'cause there's a lot of 24 points in this I don't understand. Now, I talked to the 25 neighboring Sheriff, Mr. Mills -- Sheriff Mills over in 7-14-14 147 1 Gillespie County. They're waiting to, you know, get their 2 new jail open, okay? It's a 96-bed jail. He's got over 60 3 inmates now that he's housing. That jail is not going to be 4 able to house out-of-county inmates very long at all. We're 5 going to have to go -- the closest one I can find is over 80 6 miles one way. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Closest one you're comfortable 8 using? 9 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: No, I'm not comfortable using 10 that one, okay. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: You still have to pay medical. 12 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yeah, we have to pay medical 13 separate on all that. And then we're going to have 14 officers -- which I'm already limited to the number of 15 officers, you know. Y'all know that in our budget, and it's 16 just -- I'm not blaming, but it is a situation that's going 17 to have to be addressed, and it's going to draw down on our 18 department and on this community, and at a time when crime's 19 rising. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: He didn't finish that 21 thought. You got to have deputies to run over and get the 22 prisoner and bring them back to the courtroom, and then -- 23 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yeah. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: -- take them back over 25 there. 7-14-14 148 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Come back, get them over here; 2 then they have a continuance. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It gets insane. 4 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: And when we had it years ago 5 before the current facility was built and we were 6 overcrowded, it was because the prison system was overcrowded 7 and they wouldn't take inmates. And remember, we were 8 working buses and everything, but you had to get in line and 9 make reservations. Those were a lot easier to house out of 10 county, because you weren't bringing them back and forth for 11 court, okay? If we go to housing out of county now, we're 12 going to be having to bring these people back and forth for 13 court. And the Court-appointed attorney's fees are going to 14 go up drastically, because if it's not on a court day, then 15 those attorneys are going to have to go back and forth to 16 these other counties, wherever it is we're housing, to see 17 their clients, and this County's going to be paying for all 18 that. So, it's just a drastic thing. So, anyhow, that's my 19 lovely report. 20 JUDGE POLLARD: Thanks. 21 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: You're welcome. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Good night, Mrs. Calabash. 23 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. Reports from boards, 24 commissions, and committees. City/County joint projects or 25 operation reports. Anything? Or any other reports of any 7-14-14 149 1 kind? All right. We need to go into closed session now -- 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 1.8. 3 JUDGE POLLARD: -- on Item 1.8. Consider Kerr 4 County Environmental Health/Animal Services Director to fill 5 budgeted vacant positions in Animal Services Department. 6 We're going to declare that we're going into closed session, 7 and we will go into closed session under Sections 551.071, 8 551.072, 551.073, 551.074, 551.078, .0785 -- let's see, 9 551.076, and 551.087. Chapter 551 of the Texas Government 10 Code. 11 (The open session was closed at 12:00 p.m., and an executive session was held, the transcript of which 12 is contained in a separate document.) 13 - - - - - - - - - - 14 JUDGE POLLARD: I'll reopen it, and now we'll 15 adjourn the open session. Okay? 16 (Commissioners Court adjourned at 12:55 p.m.) 17 - - - - - - - - - - 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 7-14-14 150 1 STATE OF TEXAS | 2 COUNTY OF KERR | 3 The above and foregoing is a true and complete 4 transcription of my stenotype notes taken in my capacity as 5 official reporter for the Commissioners Court of Kerr County, 6 Texas, at the time and place heretofore set forth. 7 DATED at Kerrville, Texas, this 18th day of July, 2014. 8 9 JANNETT PIEPER, Kerr County Clerk 10 BY: _________________________________ Kathy Banik, Deputy County Clerk 11 Certified Shorthand Reporter 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 7-14-14