1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT 9 Regular Session 10 Monday, August 11, 2014 11 9:00 a.m. 12 Commissioners' Courtroom 13 Kerr County Courthouse 14 Kerrville, Texas 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 PRESENT: H. A. "BUSTER" BALDWIN, Commissioner Pct. 1 23 TOM MOSER, Commissioner Pct. 2 JONATHAN LETZ, Commissioner Pct. 3 24 BOB REEVES, Commissioner Pct. 4 25 ABSENT: TOM POLLARD, Kerr County Judge 2 1 I N D E X August 11, 2014 2 PAGE --- Visitors' Input 5 3 --- Commissioners' Comments 6 4 1.1 Recognize and present awards to top two individuals for Kerr County Wellness Program 5 Sonic Boom 8-week challenge 8 6 1.2 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to set public hearing on September 22, 2014, at 7 9 a.m. to consider a one-way street request for School Street in Hunt from Dutch to FM 1340 8 to facilitate safe and orderly transportation of students 10 9 1.3 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 10 approve holiday schedule for 2014-2015 fiscal year 15 11 1.4 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 12 approve payroll schedule for 2014-2015 fiscal year 23 13 1.5 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on 14 filling vacant positions at Juvenile Detention Facility to fill recent vacancies 23 15 1.6 Consider/discuss, approve the appointment of 16 election judges and alternates for term of one year in accordance with Texas Election Code 25 17 1.7 Consider/discuss, approve consolidating the 18 polling locations in accordance with Chapter 43, Texas Election Code, for November 2014 election 26, 19 57 1.8 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 20 approve Central Counting Station personnel pursuant to Chapter 27, Texas Election Code 28 21 1.9 Consider/discuss ordering the General Election 29 22 1.10 Consider/discuss, accept “Certification of 23 Unopposed Candidates” and order the unopposed candidates elected 32, 24 58 1.11 Presentation regarding summer activities of 25 4-H participants 34 3 1 I N D E X (Continued) August 11, 2014 2 PAGE 3 1.12 Public Hearing for District Clerk’s Written Archival Plan in accordance with Local 4 Government Code 41 5 1.13 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to approve District Clerk’s Written Archival 6 Plan as presented 41 7 1.14 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to appoint a committee for jail bond issue, and 8 to consider contracting for professional services of a consultant/architect for 9 preparation of jail bond issue 42 10 1.15 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action in regard to contract and update on Sheriff's 11 Office radio system 55 12 1.16 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to adopt Sheriffs' and Constables' Fees for 2015 56 13 1.17 Update regarding Kerr County War Memorial 58 14 1.18 Consider/discuss and take appropriate action on 15 resolution supporting hyperbaric oxygen therapy for veterans with brain injury 64 16 1.19 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action 17 regarding update of construction at Hill Country Youth Event Center and related issues 66 18 1.20 Consider/discuss, take record vote on proposed 19 2014 Kerr County tax rate, and set dates and times of first and second public hearings on said 20 tax rate. If tax rate proposed is the effective tax rate or below, no public hearings are required 67, 21 81 1.21 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to set 22 public hearing on proposed Kerr County Budget for FY 2014-15 at 9:45 a.m. August 25, 2014 71 23 1.22 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 24 authorize publication notice of consideration and adoption of proposed 2014 Kerr County tax rates on 25 August 25, 2014, at 10:15 a.m. (if needed) 74 4 1 I N D E X (Continued) August 11, 2014 2 PAGE 3 1.23 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to authorize publication notice of public hearing 4 on consideration and adoption of Kerr County Budget for FY 2014-15 on August 25, 2014, at 5 9:45 a.m. 74, 87 6 1.24 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to authorize publication notice of proposed salary 7 increases, expenses and allowances for elected county and precinct officials of Kerr County for 8 FY 2014-15 76 9 1.25 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to approve General Provisions for FY 2014-2015 76 10 4.1 Pay Bills 77 11 4.2 Budget Amendments 77 4.3 Late Bills 78 12 4.4 Approve and Accept Monthly Reports 79 13 5.1 Reports from Commissioners/Liaison Committee Assignments -- 14 5.2 Reports from Elected Officials/Department Heads 80 15 1.26 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on personnel matter (Executive Session) -- 16 1.27 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action 17 regarding bankruptcy, legal, leasing, financial and other related issues related to River Star 18 Arts and Events Park (Executive Session) -- 19 3.1 Action as may be required on matters discussed in Executive Session -- 20 --- Adjourned 89 21 22 23 24 25 5 1 On Monday, August 11, 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 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Good morning, ladies and 8 gentlemen. Welcome to the Kerr County Commissioners Court. 9 It is 9 a.m. on Monday, August the 11th, 2014. Let the 10 record reflect that the County Judge is absent today, gone to 11 school. And -- but all four commissioners are here and ready 12 to represent the taxpayers of this great county. Whose turn 13 is it? 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yours. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It's my turn. So, if you'll 16 please stand, let's have a word of prayer and the pledge of 17 allegiance. 18 (Prayer and pledge of allegiance.) 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you very much. You 20 may be seated. How does this prayer thing -- I do it one 21 week, and then a week later I do it again? 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The Judge did it last time. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So y'all don't participate? 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No, it goes 1, 2, 3, 4, Judge; 25 1, 2, 3, 4, Judge. 8-11-14 6 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'm not going to argue with 2 you. You're just -- you're just trying to pick a fight. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We always do it the same way. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. All right. If 5 there's any citizens that wish to speak on items that are not 6 on the agenda, just if you have something to report to the 7 Commissioners Court, you can please come to the podium at 8 this time and tell us what's on your mind. So, if anyone has 9 anything on their mind that's -- let me reword that. If 10 anyone has anything to say that's not on the agenda, please 11 come forward. Yes, ma'am? May we help you? 12 MS. BOLIN: Yes. I just wanted y'all to know one 13 of our employees who's been here 24 years will be retiring on 14 the 21st. We will be doing a retirement party in here from 15 2:00 to 4:00 that afternoon, just F.Y.I. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Twenty-four, 2:00 to 4:00. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Can we say who? Can't discuss 18 it, but do you have any idea which employee that is? 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I do. 20 MS. BOLIN: Her name is Lonnell Hanks; she's one of 21 my motor vehicle employees. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You slick son of a gun. 23 Those Houston boys. Any comments from Commissioners? Any 24 comments from the Commissioners? 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I don't. 8-11-14 7 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Commissioner 2? 3? 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Only comment I have is that I 3 think the burn ban's bans on in all precincts now. It's 4 gotten pretty dry pretty quick. And maybe we'll get a little 5 bit of rain, I hear. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Maybe this afternoon after 7 6:00. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We hope. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Number 4? 10 MR. REEVES: Just a couple things. One, just 11 remember to keep the late Commissioner Nicholson's family in 12 our prayers. I know you and I and several others were at the 13 services the other day. It's been a rough year for present 14 and past members of this Court, and let's keep them all in 15 our prayers. The other thing, I got up to Cowboy Camp 16 Meeting this past weekend. You know, that thing's been going 17 on 76 years; always got good food and a good message, and had 18 a good turnout. So, if y'all missed it this year, try to 19 make it next year, 'cause it's a good thing. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you. And always go on 21 Tuesday evening. They got the cutest little band you ever 22 seen in your life that plays up there every year on Tuesday. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Emphasis on "little." 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, I'm the little one. 25 (Laughter.) 8-11-14 8 1 MR. REEVES: That's all. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay, thank you very much. 3 Let's get into our agenda, if that's it. Item 1.1; recognize 4 and present awards to the top two individuals for the Kerr 5 County wellness program, Sonic Boom 8-week challenge. 6 Mrs. Lantz? 7 MS. LANTZ: Good morning, Commissioners. With our 8 Healthy County program, we had two individuals with Kerr 9 County who participated in the program -- we had a total of 10 48 employees that participated, and out of those 48, we got 11 38 of those that received certificates -- gift certificates 12 from TAC for anywhere's from $50 to $25, because they are 13 participating in the wellness. So, the top two recipients of 14 our Sonic Boom challenge this year, Lynn Whiten was first, 15 and he walked 451.2 miles. Come on up. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Hey, way to go, Lynn. 17 (Applause.) 18 MS. LANTZ: Congratulations. 19 MR. WHITEN: Thank you. 20 MS. LANTZ: And keep walking. And our second 21 recipient was Oliva Avila, and she walked 423.8 miles. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Oliva. 23 (Applause.) 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Congratulations. 25 MS. LANTZ: We'd like everybody to participate when 8-11-14 9 1 it comes back around, because it is a very helpful wellness 2 program. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And that was over what period 4 for that? 5 MS. LANTZ: Eight-week challenge was, I believe -- 6 do you remember, Tracy? 7 MS. SOLDAN: Well, it was over an 8-week period. 8 It just ended last month. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So, 400 miles in eight weeks? 10 MS. LANTZ: And just by wearing a little ped on 11 your foot. So, I know the Sheriff was involved. He made it 12 through. 13 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I haven't walked 400-something 14 miles. (Laughter.) Wasn't going to happen. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Going to have to pick it up, 16 Rusty. 17 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yeah. You and me both, 18 Buster. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. Hey, Lynn? 20 MR. WHITEN: Yes, sir? 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Tell us how much weight 22 you've lost. 23 MR. WHITEN: I've lost a total of approximately 24 155 pounds. (Applause.) 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's incredible. Don't 8-11-14 10 1 show off around here, okay? Some of us feel guilty about 2 this stuff. All right, very good. Thank you, ladies. That 3 was -- that's an excellent program, and I know everybody has 4 fun doing it. Item 1.2; consider, discuss, take appropriate 5 action for the Court to set a public hearing on 6 September 22nd, 2014, at 9 a.m. to consider a one-way street 7 request for School Street in Hunt from Dutch to 8 Farm-to-Market 1340 to facilitate the safe and orderly 9 transportation of students up in Precinct 4. Mr. Hastings 10 and Mr. Odom. Mr. Hastings? 11 MR. HASTINGS: Thank you. Road and Bridge received 12 a request from Dr. Crystal Dockery; she's the Hunt -- 13 principal of Hunt ISD, to designate School Lane as a one-way 14 from Dutch to F.M. 1340 to facilitate the safe and orderly 15 transportation of students. School Lane is a narrow two-way 16 street. The school comprises the majority of the frontage on 17 that street for this stretch that's being asked for. There 18 is residential property there as well that have two driveways 19 onto that section, and the request was that one-way traffic 20 would -- it would be only during school hours, from 7:00 to 21 9 a.m. in the morning, and 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. in the 22 afternoon. I visited with the Sheriff's Office, talked about 23 enforcement if that was the case, and both Road and Bridge 24 and the Sheriff's Office, from an enforcement standpoint, and 25 to avoid confusion, our preference and recommendation would 8-11-14 11 1 be if it's going to be made one-way, to make it one-way all 2 the time. Back in 1994, we had something kind of similar in 3 Center Point, where the school actually owned both sides of 4 the road, and they were able to actually close off the road 5 during school hours and put their own signs out there, but 6 the situation was different in that they owned both sides of 7 the road. And at this time, we're asking the Court to set a 8 public hearing for September 22nd, 2014, at 9 a.m., to 9 consider a one-way street request for School Lane in Hunt 10 from Dutch to F.M. 1340, Precinct 4. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Let me ask you a question 12 now. Is the public hearing going to address these -- this 13 hour issue? Or are you going to -- is it going to address 14 the Sheriff's issue? 15 MR. HASTINGS: This -- the public -- the 16 recommendation, if you stick with -- if the Court sticks with 17 the recommendation from the Sheriff's Office and from Road 18 and Bridge, then it would be one-way all the time. You could 19 entertain the other request -- 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. 21 MR. HASTINGS: -- at that time as well. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. Commissioner, do you 23 have a -- 24 MR. REEVES: I met with Mr. Hastings and 25 Dr. Dockery with this. It's something that definitely 8-11-14 12 1 appears to be needed because of ongoing construction. Some 2 backup on F.M. 1340, I will say a couple of the property 3 owners have contacted me when they heard about this, and they 4 were under some misunderstanding that perhaps Dutch Street 5 would also be one-way only. But when I explained to them, I 6 think they felt a little better, but I told them they could 7 always come to the public hearing in September. But I 8 believe it's going to have minimal impact on the property as 9 a whole, because the majority of the property is owned by 10 Hunt ISD. And so I'd like to make a motion to go ahead and 11 set the public hearing for September 22, 2014. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, I have a motion. Is 13 there a second? 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I have a motion and a 16 second. Any further -- do you Hunt school ladies have 17 something? 18 DR. DOCKERY: I do. I'm just wondering if it would 19 be possible if, when we have the public hearing, we could 20 entertain the hours as well? Because some of the people, in 21 my opinion -- the neighbors that I spoke with I think would 22 be in favor during the hours that are currently posted. And 23 I selected those hours when I met with them basically because 24 it ties in directly to the posted cell phone usage and the 25 school zone hours, and those are currently posted with those 8-11-14 13 1 times on them, and I feel like the parents and the people who 2 tend to travel that are aware that those are the times that 3 they do have to drive the 20 miles per hour. So, I would 4 ask, in addition to the hearing, that we do address the hours 5 at that time. I appreciate both gentlemen's recommendation 6 for the all-day; I just feel like most parents know the 7 posted zone times, the cell phone times, and would be able to 8 comply with those same times for a one-way street. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Would you give your name for 10 the record? 11 DR. DOCKERY: I'm sorry. Dr. Crystal Dockery, and 12 I'm the superintendent at Hunt ISD. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You're too young to be a 14 doctor. 15 DR. DOCKERY: Oh, well, thank you. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Any issue with that that you 17 can see just right off? 18 MS. FRIEND: Not right now, but certainly we'll 19 take a look at that and be prepared for -- 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: There's no issue with having 21 the option at the pubic hearing? 22 MS. FRIEND: I think it's something that needs to 23 be fleshed out and discussed at your public hearing. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And the way that the public 25 hearing -- the way it's written is just to consider doing 8-11-14 14 1 one-way; it doesn't have a time limit, so it's either one. 2 Once you have the hearing on it, then we can make a decision 3 afterwards on another agenda item. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay, thank you. Thank you 5 very much. So, we have a motion and a -- oh, I'm sorry. 6 MS. LOWE: Hi. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Your name and address? 8 MS. LOWE: My name is Laurie Lowe, 1767 Highway 39 9 in Hunt, Texas; Hunt ISD School Board president. I'm not 10 here representing the school board right now, though. This 11 has come out so quickly, the school board has not, as you 12 say, fleshed out a lot of this, and we look forward to that 13 opportunity with the community members. I would like to 14 suggest that there is one other option if -- if this doesn't 15 work out, and that would be widening our road. It is way 16 narrow, and it's a -- there are no shoulders to the road. 17 The asphalt has begun to drop away, and it's difficult to get 18 school buses and folks through that roadway. And where the 19 money would come from, if you all can't come up with the 20 money, in another vein, perhaps there's an E.I.C. -- some 21 E.I.C. money available, since quality of life issues are 22 something that they feel strongly about. Nothing would 23 improve the quality of life of our students to have a little 24 bit more safe environment approaching school. That's all I 25 have, thank you. 8-11-14 15 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you very much. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Super. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: My daddy went to high school 4 there. I went to school there and served on the board there 5 for years. You're going to -- the only people that this is 6 going to affect is how it confuses us. So, I have a motion 7 and a second. All in favor, raise your right hand. 8 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Motion carries. Thank you. 10 Thank y'all. 11 DR. DOCKERY: Thank you. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You know, Hunt is the Hunt 13 Eagles. It's illegal to hunt eagles. 14 DR. DOCKERY: It is, and so we don't want any 15 confusion there either. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. Just throwing out a 17 little history there. 18 DR. DOCKERY: Have a great day. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: If I said any more, she'd 20 invite me out there to teach, but I'm not going to do it. 21 Item 1.3; consider, discuss, take appropriate action to 22 approve holiday schedule for the 2014 and 2015 fiscal year. 23 Mrs. Lantz? 24 MS. LANTZ: Once again, it's that time to approve 25 the holiday schedules for the next fiscal year. There should 8-11-14 16 1 have been two separate proposals provided to you in your 2 backup. The first proposal is how we currently have the 3 holiday schedule for this year, and then the second proposal 4 is eliminating Presidents' Day and putting in Texas 5 Independence Day, 'cause I know Commissioner Baldwin -- 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I do prefer that, but I'm 7 not going to fuss and fight about it. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: One of the issues in the past 9 has been to try to get it with school holidays, and it 10 appears to me that the schools have no regard for Monday 11 holidays at all any more, or very few. And there's no -- 12 K.I.S.D. and Comfort I know are different, and I don't think 13 there's any -- and I think -- I mean, it's kind of -- I don't 14 think that's a good reason any longer, because they seem to 15 -- the days that I think they shouldn't be in school, they 16 now have school. But that being said, has anyone looked at 17 the K.I.S.D. calendar to see how it works with this? 18 MS. LANTZ: I have not personally, no. I -- how 19 these holidays fall, the banks are closed, the post office is 20 closed. I know that's a major -- 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 22 MS. LANTZ: Making deposits, things like that. We 23 kind of follow the state and federal, is what it's geared 24 towards, and I think that was one of the recommendations -- 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 8-11-14 17 1 MS. LANTZ: -- the Tax Office had. And I don't 2 know about the Treasurer's office, 'cause they make daily 3 deposits as well. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, I'll make a motion that 5 we accept the Proposal 2, which has Texas Independence Day. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Motion. Is there a second? 7 MR. REEVES: I'll second. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We have a motion and second. 9 Any further discussion at the table? 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Question. That's -- the only 11 difference is that, the Texas Independence Day and 12 Presidents' Day? 13 MS. LANTZ: Yes, sir. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Is -- what would be the reason 15 to go to Texas Independence Day? And I understand Texas 16 independence, but as opposed to what most people do on 17 Presidents' Day? 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Because I like it. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Oh. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: My reason is that it used to be 21 trying to work with -- I mean, I understand the holiday -- 22 federal holidays issue to a degree, but to me, if we were 23 trying to work with the schools, the schools, you know, they 24 don't care about Presidents' Day any more. And Presidents' 25 Day is kind of a -- in my opinion, the way they've done it is 8-11-14 18 1 a stupid holiday. I mean, we had Washington's birthday; we 2 had Lincoln's birthday. That was good, we celebrated those 3 individual presidents. Now Presidents' Day -- well, I mean, 4 you know, why not have Governors' Day? You know, I mean, 5 it's just -- it's lost its meaning, to me, from a holiday 6 standpoint. And I think if it will promote Texas 7 Independence Day in our small little way, that's a good 8 thing, because it's an important date. 9 MR. REEVES: I believe Texas Independence Day is 10 already a state holiday, so -- 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So, we have a motion and 12 second for Proposal 2. Is there any further discussion? 13 MS. HARGIS: I have a question, just looking at 14 this. And employee-wise, we're going to have everybody come 15 back on a Friday? 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: On the Friday after Christmas? 17 MS. HARGIS: Mm-hmm. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. 19 MS. HARGIS: You know, we had this once before. We 20 gave that Friday instead of the -- you know, and half a day 21 on Wednesday. Remember, we did that extra holiday that year? 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The only way I'll support 23 doing -- making a change like that is if we cut a holiday. I 24 don't think we can give -- I think a three-day holiday is 25 pretty long. I mean, you know, we know we're not going to 8-11-14 19 1 work but half a day on Christmas Eve, which is -- I don't 2 have a problem with. That's -- 3 MS. LANTZ: We're off Christmas Eve. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Or New Year's Eve. 5 MS. LANTZ: New Year's Eve. 6 MS. HARGIS: Christmas Eve is on Wednesday, and 7 then the Friday, so -- 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right, yeah. I don't think we 9 can just add a holiday just because we think -- I think we 10 need to have a total number of days. I don't have a real 11 problem shifting it, but I think that kind of does add a 12 little bit of a -- 13 MS. LANTZ: Well, next year it will fall on a 14 Friday, so -- 15 MS. HARGIS: Well, I just don't -- you know, I 16 mean, it's going to be a problem in the offices. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, people can take, you 18 know -- well, they can take a holiday. That's up to the 19 department heads. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It's going to be a problem 21 for people to come to work on a work day? 22 MS. HARGIS: No, but it's -- people are out of town 23 then for Christmas, a lot of them. 24 MR. REEVES: Here in the private sector, you 25 probably go back to work the day after Christmas anyway. 8-11-14 20 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Dawn, is there -- do you have 2 any input from the employees at all on the preference of 3 Option 1 or Option 2? Have you heard anything? They 4 probably don't know about it. 5 MS. LANTZ: No. It's -- mainly, we try to work 6 around the -- especially the offices that bring money in, is 7 kind of why we stay open. But, you know, I know we've gotten 8 float days in the past where they can take it off, but that 9 didn't work well, because then keeping track of that was -- I 10 know in the Sheriff's Office, that's a nightmare for him. 11 So, I mean, we just try to stay consistent with the state. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Do you have an issue, Rusty? 13 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: The only thing I see is you're 14 going to have -- of course, here, 8:00 to 5:00, they don't 15 build up as much comp or things like that, vacation. But, 16 you know, that Friday, not having that off, people that do 17 travel and go out on a weekend, go out of town during that 18 would like to have, you know, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, 19 Saturday, Sunday, and come back. That can cause an issue for 20 a lot of employees. The other thing you're going to have is 21 every employee that can is going to put in for either 22 vacation or comp time to take that Friday off, and it's just 23 going to put your -- us elected officials in a position of, 24 you know, flat having to tell them, "No, sorry," period. But 25 you're going to be working the county on a skeleton crew, 8-11-14 21 1 probably, that -- 2 MS. HARGIS: How about switching Columbus Day for 3 this? Columbus Day's in October. But public-wise, you know, 4 the public probably would appreciate the courthouse not being 5 closed three days in a row. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So, what was Diane's comment? 7 MS. BOLIN: One of the things about Texas 8 Independence Day, why we go back and forth about it, is 9 because during a primary year, a lot of times primary 10 election day is on Texas Independence Day, so that's why we 11 go back and forth with that. Tracy has a calendar of 12 K.I.S.D., and they are closed on Presidents' Day. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Ah. 14 MS. SOLDAN: And on Columbus Day. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Columbus Day. Yes, Timmy? 16 MR. BOLLIER: Morning, Buster. How are you, sir? 17 Why can't we take -- why can't we work Christmas Eve and take 18 Thursday and Friday off? 19 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Only thing I'd recommend if 20 you did would be you'd have to work half a day Christmas Eve. 21 A lot of people do celebrate Christmas that evening. But 22 half a day Christmas Eve, but still -- you know, I -- I don't 23 care; we'll work with whatever the Court wishes. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What -- when is the 25 Christmas party, the county party? 8-11-14 22 1 MR. BOLLIER: Hasn't been decided, sir. 2 MS. LANTZ: Probably, what, the week before? 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Week before? Not Christmas 4 Eve? 5 MS. GRINSTEAD: We've never done it Christmas Eve. 6 But with Christmas Eve being on a Wednesday, we might do it 7 Monday. I mean, it will probably be that week, I imagine. 8 I'm guessing. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So, K.I.S.D. is taking off -- 10 Tracy, K.I.S.D. is taking off Presidents' day? 11 MS. SOLDAN: Yes, sir. 12 MS. LANTZ: And Columbus. 13 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: But not Texas Independence. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So, with that, I would go with 15 Option 1. 16 COMMISSIONER REEVES: We got a motion. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Got a motion for 2. And I'm 18 not going to get real upset; I'm not going to fisticuffs over 19 this one. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'm going to call for -- 21 MS. LANTZ: We have a lot of people asking. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'm going to call for a vote 23 on this thing, and then we'll start trying to do Option 1 if 24 that's what y'all want to do. So, we have a motion and a 25 second for Option 2. All in favor, please raise your right 8-11-14 23 1 hand. 2 (Commissioners Baldwin, Letz, and Reeves voted in favor of the motion.) 3 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: There's two, and three, and 5 it passed anyway. Option 2. 6 MS. LANTZ: Thank you. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: God bless Texas. 1.4; 8 consider, discuss, take appropriate action to approve payroll 9 schedule for 2014 and '15 fiscal year. Mrs. Lantz. 10 MS. LANTZ: Again, you should you have received a 11 backup. This is how our payroll will follow -- or follow 12 through the fiscal year, so I just need approval of that. 13 MR. REEVES: So moved. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I second. We have a motion 15 and a second to approve, and any discussion? All in favor, 16 raise your right hand. Number 4? 17 MR. REEVES: Oh. 18 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you. Motion carries. 20 MS. LANTZ: Thank you. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Number 5; consider, discuss, 22 take appropriate action on filling vacant positions at the 23 Juvenile Detention Facility to fill recent vacancies. These 24 are budgeted positions. We have Jason P. Davis down, but 25 Mr. Davis is out somewhere, and Mr. Whiten is here. 8-11-14 24 1 MR. WHITEN: Yes, sir. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Whiting? 3 MR. WHITEN: Whiten. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Whiten, excuse me. 5 MS. LANTZ: Jason had called and asked me to 6 present this to the Court. Basically, they are filling open 7 positions that are budgeted. He's going to be moving two 8 full -- excuse me, two part-time positions into two full-time 9 positions that just came open, which leaves two more 10 part-time positions that need to be filled. So, currently, 11 we have two open ones that we're trying to fill, and that'll 12 leave two more, so a total of four part-time positions. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: It's all in the budget? 14 MS. LANTZ: Yes, sir. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So that's why the verbiage 16 is wide enough, filling -- filling vacant positions, period, 17 not talking about full-time, part-time. So we -- we can 18 actually authorize him to go ahead and do all four? 19 MS. LANTZ: Last Commissioners Court, you approved 20 two part-time positions to be filled. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Uh-huh. 22 MS. LANTZ: And that has not been done yet, so 23 those are still open. And with moving two part-timers into 24 the full-time position, that leaves those two part-time, so 25 he's just asking that the Court approve another two. 8-11-14 25 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So moved. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We have a motion. Is there 3 a second? 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. Any further 6 discussion? All in favor, raise your right hand. 7 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Motion carries, thank you. 9 Thank you, Mr. Whiten. 10 MR. WHITEN: Thank you. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Let's see, 1.6; consider, 12 discuss, approve the appointment of election judges and 13 alternates for the term of one year in accordance with the 14 Texas Election Code, Section 32. Ms. Alford is not with us 15 today, so the honorable Tax Assessor/Collector herself is 16 here to -- so that we can gaze upon her beauty. 17 MS. BOLIN: In your backup, you should have gotten 18 the precinct election judges and alternate judge schedule. 19 If you want me to read them, I will. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I don't. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move approval. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We have a motion, and is 23 there a second? 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Any further discussion? All 8-11-14 26 1 in favor, raise your right hand. 2 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Motion carries. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Thank them for us please. All 5 of them. 6 MS. BOLIN: Pardon? 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Make sure you thank them all. 8 MS. BOLIN: Oh, absolutely, we do. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: 1.7; consider, discuss, 10 approve consolidating the polling locations in accordance 11 with Chapter 43 of the Texas Election Code for the 12 November 2014 election. Mrs. Alford. 13 MS. BOLIN: 2014 election. We have backup on that 14 as well. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So, is there any change here? 16 MS. BOLIN: No. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: There are not? 18 MS. BOLIN: No. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We -- I mean -- 20 MS. GRINSTEAD: Real quick, the addendum item, 21 Number 28, is the exact same wording. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Correct. 23 MS. GRINSTEAD: Because on the first one, the 24 backup information was wrong, evidently. 25 MS. BOLIN: Right. 8-11-14 27 1 MS. GRINSTEAD: So, just kind of look at the backup 2 for Item 28, and that's what you -- 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I think it's in Number 7 4 too, though. 5 MS. GRINSTEAD: Nadene just called; that's why we 6 had to do the addendum with the same exact wording. 7 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Do we need to call Item 1.28? 8 MS. GRINSTEAD: Yeah. 9 MS. PIEPER: Either that or skip over Item 1.7. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: They are different -- very, 11 very different. One's consolidated, and one's not 12 consolidated. 13 MS. BOLIN: Right. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Let's call them both, so we 15 have -- we called 7; 7's on the table. And 28 is consider, 16 discuss, and approve consolidating the polling locations in 17 accordance with Chapter 43 of the Texas Election Code for 18 November 2014 election. Okay, so both of these things and 19 all information are laying on the table. What do you want to 20 do? I don't have a problem with Precinct 1. That's a smart 21 thing, what they're doing with Precinct 1. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Let me see that. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Consolidating them. That's 24 the same thing. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Same thing for 2? 8-11-14 28 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, I mean, Option 1 -- one 2 option has them consolidated; one doesn't have them 3 consolidated. 4 MS. BOLIN: But they need to be consolidated for -- 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: The agenda item calls for 6 consolidating, and -- doesn't it? Yep. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, but the -- it's 8 consolidated for early -- I'm confused. 9 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Yeah. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Tell us what you want. 11 MS. BOLIN: I don't know, because Nadene did this. 12 I will call her on the break and -- 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Call her and have her tell 14 you on the break, or we can try it again in two weeks. 15 MS. BOLIN: It has to be done today. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, you better get busy. 17 MS. BOLIN: So, if we can pass this, and I will 18 call her on the break. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, it's on hold. 20 MS. BOLIN: Okay, then I'll call her. I apologize. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Item 1. -- is there anything 22 else on that particular one? 23 MS. BOLIN: No, not -- 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: 1.8; consider discuss, and 25 take appropriate action to approve the central counting 8-11-14 29 1 station personnel pursuant to Chapter 27, Texas Election 2 Code. Now, should I read those -- all these names? 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. Presiding manager, 5 Michelle Schneider; judge, Nadene Alford; alternate judge, 6 Rick Ertel; tabulating supervisor, Eva Washburn; clerk, Mimi 7 Valverde; clerk, Linda Hott; clerk, Cindy -- help me. 8 MS. BOLIN: Guardiola. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Guardiola. Clerk, Patty 10 Thompson; and calls to S.O.S. and website, John Trolinger. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move approval. 12 MR. REEVES: Second. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: There's a motion and a 14 second. Any further discussion? All in favor, raise your 15 right hand. 16 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you. 1.9; 18 consider/discuss ordering the general election. It's yours. 19 Do you want us to order a general election? 20 MS. BOLIN: Yes, please, for October the 24th -- if 21 you'll look on your backup, we do have early voting October 22 the 20th through 24th from 8:00 to 5:00. October 25th, which 23 is a Saturday, 7:00 to 7:00. October 26th, which is a 24 Sunday, 10:00 to 3:00. October 27th through October 31st is 25 7:00 to 7:00. 8-11-14 30 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. 2 MS. BOLIN: And Election Day is November 4th. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: November 4th? 4 MS. BOLIN: November 4th. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Have we historically been open 6 on Sunday? 7 MS. BOLIN: No. We got a petition signed by 30 8 people requesting us to be open Saturday and Sunday. By law, 9 we have to be open 12 hours on Saturday, five hours on 10 Sunday. Got a second request from the same people to have it 11 open 7:00 to 7:00 the whole last week of early voting. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thirty people says we have to 13 do that? 14 MS. BOLIN: It only takes 15 by law. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Wow. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Would you provide that list 18 to the Commissioners Court? 19 MS. BOLIN: The list of -- 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Those 30 people? 21 MS. BOLIN: Sure. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you. Okay. So -- 23 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Biggest impact that's going to 24 have is on my overtime. 25 MS. BOLIN: Yes, 'cause the courthouse has to be 8-11-14 31 1 open, as well as both polling places. 2 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: For officers to be here. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Your overtime, your staff. 4 MS. BOLIN: Right. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You know, the whole thing. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I just don't think it should be 7 open on Sunday, but -- 8 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I don't either. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But if we have to, the law says 10 we have to. 11 MS. BOLIN: I contacted the Secretary of State as 12 soon as I got the petitions, and they said by law -- they 13 quoted the section of the code, which I didn't bring with me, 14 but they did say that we are obligated to be open because we 15 did get that request. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Wow. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Mrs. Tax Assessor/Collector? 18 MS. BOLIN: Yes, sir? 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We're going to order a 20 general election, and should we add the date in there of 21 November 4th? 22 MS. BOLIN: I believe so, mm-hmm. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'd entertain a motion. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So moved, for November 4th. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: November 4th. 8-11-14 32 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: 2014. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: General election. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. And that's basically 4 ordering the election as presented on all the backup stuff, 5 all those times. 6 MS. BOLIN: Correct. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Mm-hmm. Okay, anything 8 further? All in favor, raise your right hand. 9 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you. Item 1.10; 11 consider, discuss, and accept certificate -- certificates of 12 the unopposed candidates and issue an order the unopposed 13 candidates elected. Y'all remember if somebody's unopposed, 14 we can just bypass them being on the ballot, and you get on 15 down the road, which -- 16 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Don't you have to wait until 17 after the write-in filing period? 18 MS. BOLIN: Hmm-mm. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'm just reading it, buddy. 20 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I know that there's -- 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: He's ready to put you in jail. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, handcuffs. 23 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I know there's at least one 24 that's not going to be on it, and it's for a precinct deal 25 that's going to run as a write-in. 8-11-14 33 1 MS. BOLIN: Do you know which precinct? 2 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: From what I've seen, it's 3 going to be Precinct 1. 4 MS. BOLIN: Precinct 1? For -- 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Justice of the Peace. 6 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Justice of the Peace, Precinct 7 1, is going to at least -- 8 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Do we have to approve this 9 today, Ms. Bolin? 10 MS. BOLIN: To my knowledge, yes. But I will 11 doublecheck, because we're unaware of any write-ins. 12 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I think in the past, it always 13 had to be past that write-in filing deadline. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That seems logical to me. 15 MS. BOLIN: Yeah, it does. 16 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I don't know, okay, for sure, 17 but that's what -- 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We can't declare them a victor 19 if they've got a candidate against them. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So when is the -- 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Let's hold this one again as 22 well, and we'll come back. 23 MS. BOLIN: I'll check on that as well, 'cause my 24 understanding was all of these had to be done today. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay, we're going to put 8-11-14 34 1 that one on hold as well, and the County Attorney's going to 2 check on it. Item 1.11; presentation regarding summer 3 activities of the 4-H participants. Amber Halfmann. We have 4 three Amber Halfmanns? Four Amber Halfmanns. 5 MS. HALFMANN: I'm Amber Halfmann. These are my 6 4-H'ers, and they'll introduce themselves, and they're going 7 to tell you a few of the things about what they've been doing 8 over the summer. 9 MS. POTTER: Hi, my name is Mary Katherine, and I'm 10 going to be a sophomore this year. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: What's your last name? 12 MS. POTTER: Oh, Potter. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 14 MS. POTTER: Okay, sorry. Anyway, so some of the 15 things that we've done this summer so far is our Leader Lab, 16 Mission Possible, and Fishing Derby. And for Fishing Derby, 17 we basically take some of the kids from -- some of them are 18 underprivileged, but then some of them aren't. And we take 19 them and we go take a day for fishing, and so it's really fun 20 to see them, like, catch their first fish. I had two little 21 boys this year; they both caught fish. And, anyway, it was 22 like, "Well, you have to do this." And anyway, it was so 23 cute to watch them just say, "Well, this is my first fish." 24 And -- but anyway, and then we had Leader Lab this year, and 25 that was training for us, and we basically learned a bunch of 8-11-14 35 1 new leadership skills, and to help us go out into the 2 community and present ourselves, and hopefully get more 3 members in 4-H. 4 And then we also had this other one, Mission 5 Possible, and that was where we took special needs kids. 6 And, anyway, the special needs kids, it really fun to see 7 them, like, open up to people, because a lot of them are 8 really shy. And I had this little girl, and she had Down's, 9 and she was really sweet. And it basically gives them a time 10 to be normal, because a lot of them don't get to go to camp, 11 and it's really sad to see them, like, not have the 12 experiences that we get to. So, basically, for like half a 13 week, we take them and we give them the opportunity to have a 14 regular camp experience where they get to go swimming, which 15 is what they really love to do. I think we spent, like, 16 three-quarters of our time in the pool. That's really 17 exhausting. And then, anyway, then we get to go climb a rock 18 wall, and we go do archery and air rifle, and it's just 19 really fun to get to see them, like, open up to people and 20 make new friends. And so, anyway -- 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: On the leadership skill 22 training, what were some of the subjects? 23 MS. POTTER: Well, we worked on teamwork and 24 talking to others. We also worked with, like, communications 25 skills, and I don't know; we just worked on a bunch of stuff. 8-11-14 36 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: A bunch of stuff. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Okay, thank you. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you, ma'am. 4 MS. POOLE: Okay, I'm Haley Poole; I'm going to be 5 a senior at Tivy High School, and I am the first vice 6 president of our county club, our shooting sports club, and 7 I'm senior ambassador for leadership team. And I'm going to 8 talk to you about three of the things I did this summer. And 9 our first one is we hosted our annual Shotgun Shoot the 1st 10 of June. We had 250-plus people, and they -- they were -- 11 there was sporting clays, five stand, and then international/ 12 American trap and skeet, and we had sponsors donate to us to 13 help us put that on, and so that was really -- that was a 14 really good turnout. 15 And the next thing I did, I went to the Texas 16 Livestock Ambassador training at Texas Tech, and so I'm now 17 Texas Livestock Ambassador, and there we kind of learned 18 about, like, agriculture politics and how to, like, answer 19 questions and explain, like, the whole agriculture process 20 and everything that happens to, like, PETA, and -- and then 21 we got to go to a bunch of packing plants and tour packing 22 plants, and we got to watch, like, the whole butchering 23 process and what happens there and, like, how they clean the 24 animal and the carcass and everything. And then the next day 25 we got to actually, like, cut the pieces of meat and, like, 8-11-14 37 1 how -- and weigh it and go through that whole process. And 2 so that was real interesting to kind of learn how everything 3 works that way. And we went through, we had speakers come 4 and talk to us about how to answer, like, the agriculture 5 politic questions, and so it was really interesting. And 6 then the next thing we did -- or this was the first thing, 7 actually. We went to Sonora for a national wool mohair 8 contest, and we spent three days there and we judged wool 9 mohair, and that was about it. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: You said agriculture politics? 11 MS. POOLE: Mm-hmm. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: You mentioned PETA. What are 13 some of the -- 14 MS. POOLE: Kind of like they don't -- they don't 15 understand why we -- when they see us as the stock show, they 16 think it's cruel that we have a muzzle on our lamb. But they 17 don't understand why, so we have to explain to them it's for 18 the lamb's safety, so they don't -- like, they don't eat 19 shavings that will hurt them, or they don't eat something 20 that's going to hurt them, kind of like -- 21 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: This is Jimmy's daughter, so 22 that tells everybody she can put up with anything. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, that's what I was 24 going to say. Sends her off, teaching her how to butcher and 25 cut meat up. Jimmy's going to have her dressing deer from 8-11-14 38 1 now on. 2 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: That's all he'll do. 3 MR. POTTER: I'm Ross Potter. That's my crazy 4 sister back there. (Laughter.) And I'm president of our 5 county club, and I'm president of the senior ambassadors. 6 I'm going to talk to y'all about Any Baby Can. We have a 7 winter event that we work with every year, and we've started 8 doing a summer event with them. And Any Baby Can is an 9 organization that helps to work with underprivileged children 10 or children that might have disabilities or come from homes 11 that might not necessarily be able to provide everything for 12 them. And so we helped with a charity event they hosted in 13 Boerne this summer, and what we did is, for the evening, they 14 have a dinner and they have different Hill Country 15 restaurants and different companies sponsor different tables 16 and booths and stuff. And they have a silent auction, a live 17 auction, and all the 4-H'ers in Kerr County -- we had, I 18 think it was, like four or five of us; we all got together 19 with Amber and we basically went around and just helped to 20 sell raffle tickets and to move stuff around and help with 21 the live and silent auction items. And they ended up raising 22 several thousand dollars, and it was just a good overall 23 benefit, not only for Any Baby Can, but for all of the Hill 24 Country, because it does impact kids that we're working with 25 throughout the rest of the year. 8-11-14 39 1 Our next event we had, we had national -- or State 2 Congress. State Congress, and then afterwards you can go to 3 national in the fall, which I'll be attending, and Haley has 4 already attended. And the State Congress is basically just a 5 week for everybody from across the state in 4-H to get a shot 6 to learn the legislative process, whether you be in the House 7 or the Senate, or some of the state officers even get a 8 position such as Governor, or you can get into different 9 things, like you can be on the tech team and help with 10 distribution of information, or you can get into, like, the 11 publicity side of it and work on that angle. And they're -- 12 like, they publish a newspaper, and you'll read that. And so 13 I was assigned two bills, and they both failed. I didn't 14 necessarily write these bills, but from the way they were 15 written, they were very vague. And so you're able to see, 16 because you sponsor two -- one or two bills, depending on 17 whether you're in the House or the Senate, and then you take 18 those bills and you just -- you study them as best as you 19 can, because they're written by people from all over the 20 state, and then hopefully you can find them and then figure 21 out what they were trying to say. 22 And then you -- you go and you just talk it to the 23 best of your ability. And we talked to major topics this 24 summer that we thought were kind of controversial. We had 25 one on homosexual marriage, and we've had others on rights 8-11-14 40 1 and privileges for people that are on welfare, and how that 2 should be regulated. And so we discussed all the different 3 ins and outs of the bills and how they could better impact 4 the state. And, then our last little bit there was things 5 coming up. We do have our awards banquet that we have every 6 summer, and that's this Thursday, and y'all are invited to 7 come to be a part of that. And then in September, we've got 8 our big bash, and that's where everybody from all the 9 different clubs get together, and we have it -- we host a bit 10 of it at the Ag Barn to try to promote 4-H, get more involved 11 in all the different clubs and programs. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Excellent. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Great. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Thank you. 15 MS. HALFMANN: Like Ross said, our awards banquet 16 is Thursday at 6 o'clock at the Kerrville Church of Christ on 17 the loop, so if you haven't received an invitation for that, 18 I just want to make sure you do know that you're invited to 19 attend. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you, Amber. That's 21 fantastic. 22 MR. REEVES: 4-H is dear to my heart, and it's -- 23 it teaches a lot more than what the average person thinks 24 that it does about farming or something. It teaches how to 25 be responsible, and I applaud all of y'all's work. 8-11-14 41 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I agree. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I agree. 1.12; public 3 hearing for the District Clerk's Written Archival Plan in 4 accordance with Section 118.011 of the Local Government Code. 5 Mrs. Burlew? Robbin Burlew. 6 MR. BURLEW: That's just a public hearing. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: This is a public hearing. I 8 deeply apologize; I read these two words. Let's see, 9:30, 9 we're late on that. So, we'll recess the Commissioners Court 10 and open up the public hearing for the District Clerk's 11 written archival plan in accordance with Section 118.011 of 12 the Local Government Code. 13 (The regular Commissioners Court meeting was closed at 9:46 a.m., and a public hearing was held in open 14 court, as follows:) 15 P U B L I C H E A R I N G 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Is there anyone here to 17 speak about the District Clerk's written archival plan? 18 Seeing no one coming forward, we'll close the public hearing 19 and go back to Commissioners Court. 20 (The public hearing was concluded at 9:46 a.m., and the regular Commissioners Court meeting was 21 reopened.) 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It is now 9:46, and we'll go 23 to Item 1.13; consider, discuss, take appropriate action to 24 approve the District Clerk's written archival plan as 25 presented. Mrs. Burlew? 8-11-14 42 1 MR. BURLEW: Yes, sir. This is just an approval as 2 far as the yearly archive plan to -- to preserve all the 3 records, and then collect the fee of $10. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Same plan as previous? 5 MS. BURLEW: Yes, sir. Every year, we have to get 6 this plan approved. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So moved. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We have a motion. Is there 9 a second? 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Motion and a second. Any 12 further discussion? All in favor, please raise your right 13 hand. 14 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Motion carries, thank you. 16 1.14; consider, discuss, take appropriate action to appoint a 17 committee for jail bond issue, and to consider contracting 18 for professional services of a consultant/architect for 19 preparation of jail bond issue. Sheriff Rusty -- how do you 20 say that? 21 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Careful, Buster. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Hierholzer. 23 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: First off, just so you are 24 aware, I did visit with Judge Pollard about this last week 25 before he left town for his training, and he was in agreement 8-11-14 43 1 with what I'm about to tell the Court. What I'm asking is, 2 we are past the point of being able to effectively house 3 the inmates that we need to house in our county. Our jail, 4 as y'all know, the first time that I brought up jail 5 overcrowding was in 2002, and it's been brought up yearly 6 since then. I feel this Court, my department, District 7 Courts have tried a lot of different options, whether it be 8 type of sentencing, whether it be on the Legislature and 9 combining our districts, and all kinds of different things 10 have been tried to eliminate our -- and keep our housing and 11 our inmate population down. 12 Across the state, female inmate population is 13 growing in every county in the state. It's a topic we've all 14 had to discuss at our conventions and that, and amongst all 15 the sheriffs. Mental health populations are expanding 16 rapidly. Jails are becoming that. But also, as you have 17 seen, probably, and we see a lot here, is I see headlines 18 where some guy's arrested for the 40th time, or some guy's 19 arrested for 30-something times, or he's been put on 20 probation five or six times. Part of that reason is when we 21 first built this jail in '95, we had a lot of extra space. 22 We used some of it for housing out-of-county inmates, at the 23 tune of -- when I took office in 2001, I believe, we brought 24 in a little over half a million dollars that year on housing 25 other counties' inmates in our jail. 8-11-14 44 1 But part of the other advantage you have is, you 2 have a better control over inmates that are on probation, 3 because the Probation office would have the authority, and 4 the judge has the authority that when an inmate's on 5 probation, when they violate it in any term, they can 6 actually be sentenced to jail for a specific -- for a number 7 of days, whatever the judge feels, and then let back out and 8 they're still on that probation. But right now, what we're 9 doing is kind of like taking our kids -- when we all raised 10 kids, you set rules in your house, and you set rules that you 11 expected your kids to abide by. And when they did not abide 12 by those rules, did you say, "Oh, well, we'll let them 13 violate it five more times before we do anything"? Or did 14 you take action against those kids at that time? Most of us 15 took action against them at the time they violated our rules 16 so that it got their attention, they didn't continue. That's 17 kind of a -- you know, just an example of how probation, I 18 feel, is supposed to work. 19 This morning, I'll give you an example, and this is 20 the way we've been running for the last several months, and 21 most of the time, last several years. We have 192 beds in 22 our facility, total bed space. That's the total number. 160 23 of those are males and 34 of those are females. Now, 18 of 24 the males are for separation. They're individual cells. 25 They're the ones that are supposed to help us be able to put 8-11-14 45 1 inmates in if they need to be separated from the rest of the 2 population or if they are a disciplinary problem, okay? I'm 3 having to house regular inmates in those cells. I'm housing 4 trustees in those cells, because I have no other place to put 5 them. And I'm having more assaults in the jail; I'm having 6 more jailers injured because of it, and more charges we're 7 having to file. And the females -- so what you really need 8 to do is be able to take out those 18 male beds that are 9 individual cells, so that drops my male population maximum to 10 142. All of my females, it drops it to 32. 11 Now, if you stay with the 80 percent that our state 12 recommends that we stay at, so when we classify the rest of 13 the inmates, you don't want a first-time offender in with a 14 murderer or somebody that's been to the penitentiary a number 15 of times, so you're supposed to have 80 percent. So, when 16 you take 80 percent off the 142 males, you drop the male 17 population beds available to 113, and you drop the females to 18 25. Now, once I get over the 25, really, but we've been 19 staying with over the 32 females, then I have to open up two 20 of our male tanks to put females in, 'cause I have absolutely 21 no beds. And when I do that, I lose 16 male beds, so -- as 22 we speak, okay? You take the 113 male beds that you can 23 have; now you take 16 male beds off of that, because you're 24 using them for females any time you're over 32. That drops 25 my male beds, to classify correctly, to 97. 8-11-14 46 1 This morning, I have 122 males and 39 females. I 2 can't run a jail efficiently in that manner, and it's 3 something we've all tried. I think we've, you know, 4 succeeded for 12 years, but it's at the point we have to take 5 action with our jail. We have gone out twice in the past for 6 qualifications from architects to get -- to see where we need 7 to go. And what I would recommend today that we do, based on 8 professional services and on the qualifications that we have, 9 I would recommend that this Court approve hiring a 10 consultant/architect, being DRG Architects, a company that 11 we've dealt with in the past, this Court has dealt with in 12 the past. It's a company that responded to both those 13 requests for qualifications, and it's a company that most of 14 y'all know the president is Wayne Gondeck, who was Deputy 15 Director of the State Jail Commission, and has worked with 16 this county a number of times on projects. 17 The contract with that, what I would recommend that 18 we do, the first part of it is the consulting part, which 19 would get us to the point of the bond issue, which should go 20 to the public. It would help you decide, along with the 21 committee I'm fixing to ask you to appoint, the exact size of 22 the expansion, the cost of the expansion, all the different 23 things that should be taken into consideration with the 24 expansion, and the public awareness and helping the public 25 decide on whether or not this jail should be expanded. That 8-11-14 47 1 first part of that cost is $30,000 to get us up to the point 2 of the bond election. I have that in my budget in a fund 3 that's called SCAAP funding that we get for housing -- not 4 necessarily aliens, but -- illegal aliens, but aliens. It's 5 a reimbursement deal. We have -- currently in that fund, I 6 have $27,000. There are very specific, specific things it 7 can be used for. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Reimbursement by the federal 9 government? 10 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: It's reimbursement by the 11 federal government. There's very specific things it can be 12 used for. Building jails and that is part of it, and 13 expanding; that's one of the things. The 27,000 in there I 14 have now, we normally get our check from them in November. 15 This is -- would be over a nine-month period, so there would 16 be plenty of money in that account specifically for the 17 $30,000 of the consulting and getting us the conceptual 18 designs and everything else. After that, the remainder of 19 the architectural fees would be -- would be covered in the 20 bond election, if the bond election were successful. The -- 21 I have a rough draft of the contract that the architectural 22 firm used, and what I would ask that this Court do is approve 23 hiring DRG Architects, Wayne Gondeck, President, as our 24 consultant/architect, pending the final approval of the -- 25 and negotiation of the contract by the County Attorney's 8-11-14 48 1 office and myself. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I met with Rusty -- 3 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Part -- that's part one. Go 4 ahead, and we'll get with the committee part of this agenda 5 item next. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Why don't you go ahead now? 7 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: The committee I think that 8 should be put in place for this section of it, getting us to 9 this point -- now, I will ask later for a committee for the 10 publicity part of it and the public education part of it, but 11 the committee right now is to decide the scope of it and what 12 all it's going to cover. I would ask that Judge Pollard be 13 on that committee, my liaison be on that committee -- Court 14 liaison, and myself. Of course, our consultant, Wayne 15 Gondeck, and I would ask for a representative from the 16 District Courts and from the County Court at Law, and 17 hopefully those would also be able to be judges. I have not 18 approached them, so I'm saying a representative from both of 19 those courts. I think those courts, my office, the Judge, 20 and my liaison on this, and our consultants will help us get 21 there. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Five? 23 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Two, three, four -- five, 24 yeah. And then myself, of course, would make that -- 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Oh, you have to be in 8-11-14 49 1 everything. 2 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yeah. Not by choice on this. 3 You know, one thing people don't realize, there is a lot of 4 truth to the saying that most sheriffs that have been in 5 office any time will tell you, regardless of what people say, 6 the last thing a sheriff wants is more employees and more 7 inmates. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, I can imagine. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I was going to say a while 10 ago, I met with Rusty this past week and went through this, 11 and I think it's clear. You know, we've been talking -- or 12 Rusty's been talking about this issue for some time. We're 13 approaching that drop off the cliff with having a real issue, 14 and we can't put our head in the sand on the thing. And I 15 think what Rusty's asking for here, using the funds that he 16 has, is not to take the action to do anything about the jail, 17 but to clearly look at what the scope of this thing should 18 be, hire a professional, which I think is the same gentleman 19 that was in here two years ago and did a fabulous job of 20 laying out what the issues are in the state and how it reflex 21 all the way down to Kerr County and what the options are for 22 fixing the problem. So, I think he's got a good suggestion 23 here and a good recommendation, so I would move for approval 24 of selecting the committee -- naming the committee of those 25 people that he delineated, and to move forward with the 8-11-14 50 1 professional services as DRJ -- 2 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: DRG. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: DRG. 4 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Architects. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, DRG Architects, to scope 6 out what the issues are and what the options are, and moving 7 forward with the concept and the framework for a bond. 8 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I'm asking that we do contract 9 with them pending the final negotiations of this draft 10 contract I have. The thing that we're looking at is the bond 11 election can be held either May of 2015; that's in the -- May 12 in the odd-numbered years, or November of 2015. And I think 13 that committee should help decide on which ballot we put that 14 election on, but I do believe it needs to be put on that 15 election. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll -- 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Let's see if we can get a 18 motion. Is that a motion? 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, that was a motion. A 20 motion to -- 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: With this list that he 22 provided? 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Correct. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. Can we get a second? 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I second it. Then I want to 8-11-14 51 1 adjust it, maybe. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. So, we have a second. 3 Now, further discussion? 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The adjustment, to me -- 5 there's no problem, certainly, with DRG. The question I have 6 is I think the -- the contract needs to be negotiated and 7 come back for us to approve it again. 8 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Oh, I agree with that. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I just want to say we're not 10 approving that contract. 11 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: And I left out one other 12 thing. On the contract, I think it needs to be negotiated 13 and approved by the County Attorney and our County Judge, 14 Judge Pollard. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, it -- 16 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Then presented back to this 17 Court for the final approval. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's good. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's fine. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. Anything further? 21 MR. REEVES: You covered what I was going to ask. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, I couldn't agree with 23 you more, to move -- take this giant step, and this step's 24 way late, in my opinion. I've always approved it. To me, 25 this whole issue is a simple issue of do you want to have bad 8-11-14 52 1 people locked up, or do you want them running loose in our -- 2 in our community? I'm here to tell you, I want them locked 3 up. I don't want them coming around my house. 4 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I have a little thing sitting 5 underneath a piece of glass on my table that's sat there -- 6 and I had it even before I became Sheriff of this county, and 7 all it says -- it came out of a newspaper years and years 8 ago. It says, "Criminals deserve to be locked in prison. 9 Citizens don't deserve to be locked in their homes." 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, exactly. 11 MR. REEVES: Sheriff, how many -- a lot of the 12 surrounding counties are also facing this right now, and they 13 have built or are completing jails, aren't they? 14 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Gillespie County, 96-bed jail 15 is scheduled to open in December. I am hoping that we can 16 hold off from having to house out-of-county until they open. 17 I would rather house over there on our females. I'm just 18 not -- I don't have any confidence I'm going to make that. 19 If I have to house before then, it's going be a long trip and 20 very expensive on our county. 21 COMMISSIONER REEVES: That can lead into money as 22 well. 23 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yes. Now, a lot of our other 24 smaller counties to the west, you know, Rocksprings, Mason, 25 Menard, you know, all those, we have always been a facility 8-11-14 53 1 that when they needed to house somewhere -- 'cause these 2 counties, you know, if you take a 3,000 population county 3 that's all ag-exempt, I can't see how they can even imagine, 4 you know, adding on. But we have always been able to work 5 with those neighboring counties and house their overflow, and 6 that's been over for years now, and I think we need to be 7 able to do that. 8 COMMISSIONER REEVES: It's time we did it. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I visited with Rusty last week 10 as well, and so I fully support what he wants to do here. 11 But I think we really need to emphasize to the public that 12 the cost of not doing this is huge. It'll -- you know, I 13 think Rusty's gone back to some of the old records before 14 this jail was built, and if you start looking at the 15 additional manpower and cost to move prisoners to -- or to 16 house them out of county, not to mention the cost of us 17 actually housing, just the additional cost, it's cheaper to 18 build the jail. 19 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: And part of that cost that 20 most people never think about is, you're not having to house 21 people just waiting to go to prison or something. Those days 22 -- years ago we used to, but most of that's been taken care 23 of. You're housing people out of county, you know, however 24 far away, that still have court days in this county, so when 25 their attorney goes to visit them, especially if they're 8-11-14 54 1 Court-appointed, you're paying for the hours of the attorney, 2 plus all the mileage of the attorney, plus the housing, plus 3 full medical. But everything -- and the $50 a day that it 4 would cost us to pay that jail is a drop in the bucket 5 compared to everything else. Plus the biggest factor of that 6 is, the Sheriff of this county, and this County are totally 7 liable for anybody that's committed to our custody. The law 8 actually reads, "You shall" -- not should -- "safely keep 9 anybody committed to your custody." You know, when you start 10 shipping them out to jails that they hire their own 11 personnel, they may not hire the same type people I hire. 12 Not saying they do or don't, but that liability never shifts. 13 If that inmate gets injured in a jail, or anything happens to 14 them in that jail, which you have no control over, I am and 15 you are and this County is liable for all that, and that's 16 what really gets expensive. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And any issues they have where 18 they would file suit against actions being taken in any other 19 jail, then, would still -- 20 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: We're still culpable and 21 liable for it also. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We have a motion and second 23 to appoint the committee, which is Judge Pollard, 24 Commissioner 2, the Sheriff, which I refer to as K-1, 25 district -- a representative from District Court, and a 8-11-14 55 1 representative from County Court at Law, as well as 2 contracting with professional services of the 3 consultant/architect for preparation of jail bond issue. 4 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Pending final negotiation of 5 the contract and it being approved by the Court after that. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Correct. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Any further discussion? 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And the firm is DRG. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: DRG. Mr. Gondeck has been a 11 great friend of this county for a long time. 12 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Very knowledgeable. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: All in favor, raise your 14 right hand. 15 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Motion carries. Can we 17 swing through these next two things real fast? 18 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yes. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Item 1.15; consider, 20 discuss, take appropriate action in regard to a contract and 21 update on Sheriff's Office radio system. Mr. Hierholzer. 22 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Just to let the Court know, we 23 did meet with Jonathan, our representatives that were on this 24 committee. Motorola is moving forward. They're having to do 25 tests in the next week with our floor noise, which just makes 8-11-14 56 1 sure they can meet what I've required in the contract and the 2 agreement on coverage, whether it's 95 or 98 percent. That's 3 what they're testing for right now. That should be over in 4 the next few weeks. Once that's over, at that point they 5 will be able to actually write the contract and put the 6 coverage in that contract for this Court to approve when it 7 comes back. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Super. 9 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Financial has been talked 10 about with them and with the -- the Auditor, and financial 11 has been approved by them with the way we're going to do it 12 all. And I think it will work great, and we'll get -- 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I think Jonathan and I met 14 with the Motorola folks. Very -- very impressive group of 15 professionals to look at this thing. Very high standards on 16 the coverage, so, it's a challenge. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Is that it? 18 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: That's it. No action taken. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Item 1.16; consider, 20 discuss, take appropriate action to adopt Sheriffs' and 21 Constables' fees for 2015. Sheriff Hierholzer. 22 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: And the backup is in there, 23 and there are no -- I'm not recommending any changes for this 24 coming year. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I move for approval. 8-11-14 57 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We have a motion and a 3 second. All in favor, raise your right hand. 4 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 5 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Quick enough, Buster? 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's pretty darned quick. 7 Now let's take a quick break, and then we're going to come 8 back to Item 1.9, I think. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: 1.10. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: 1.10 for sure. But wasn't 11 there -- 12 MS. BOLIN: 1.7. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: 1.7? 14 MS. BOLIN: And 1.28. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So, after our break, we're 16 coming back to 1.7 and 1.10; is that correct? 17 MS. BOLIN: Yes, sir. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. Let's have a short 19 break. 20 (Recess taken from 10:08 a.m. to 10:23 a.m.) 21 - - - - - - - - - - 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: All right, Commissioners 23 Court's back in session. It's 10:23, and we're going to go 24 back and revisit a couple of items. 1.7, consolidating the 25 polling locations. Ms. Tax Assessor/Collector, do you have a 8-11-14 58 1 comment to make on that? 2 MS. BOLIN: I do. I spoke to Nadene, and she said 3 that it can be tabled until the next meeting, so that's what 4 I would like to do. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay, we're going to the 6 next one, then, which was -- I can't remember -- Item 1.10? 7 MS. BOLIN: 10. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Accept certification of 9 unopposed candidates. 10 MS. BOLIN: That's also going to be tabled until 11 the next meeting. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We'll go to Item 1.17, 13 update regarding the Kerr County War Memorial. Ms. Baker? 14 Good morning to you. 15 MS. BAKER: Good morning. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Welcome to your court. 17 MS. BAKER: Thank you. Okay, I met with our 18 committee again, Mr. Noller and Mr. Jack Stevens, and also 19 with Mr. Zirkle. We do have the final drawings that Mr. 20 Zirkle has given us, and so I sent those on to Jody, and 21 she's given you all copies of that. And I believe from the 22 last meeting that we had, that we would have -- on the left 23 panel, it shows "Global War on Terrorism" followed by 24 "Operation Enduring Freedom," and the third line would be 25 "Jacob Leicht." And then we'd skip down two spaces and have, 8-11-14 59 1 "Operation Iraqi Freedom." The next line Lawrence, and then 2 the next line would be Cody. On the right panel, we'd only 3 have the Kerr County seal at the top. We received a 4 statement of billing; it's a total $21,000, and Mr. Zirkle 5 said that he will accept half of the payment before the work 6 is -- begins, and the other half at the completion. And he's 7 also needing a signature of the purchaser on the contract. 8 And then we've had some veterans' organizations, 9 individual veterans who have come to us about the dedication. 10 Some are saying okay, that they will go ahead with the 11 dedication, with the approval of Commissioners Court, on 12 Veterans Day, and some are wanting to wait till Memorial Day, 13 because they're saying that with Veterans Day, it's a time to 14 celebrate the living. Memorial Day is a time for the fallen. 15 We've talked with some of the individuals of Kerr County as 16 well, and they are all of mixed decisions. So, we'd have to 17 get the approval -- 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What do you think? 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: What do you recommend? 20 MS. BAKER: Okay, we've had a lot of veterans, 21 veterans' organizations and individuals of Kerr County; 22 there's mixed opinions about having the -- if the panels are 23 up and ready to go by Veterans Day, to go ahead and have the 24 dedication on Veterans Day. Some are thinking that because 25 it's not a time for the fallen veterans, to wait till 8-11-14 60 1 Memorial Day. But whatever the Court decides, then that's 2 what we're going to do. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What do you think? 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: What do you recommend? 5 MS. BAKER: Okay, you're asking me. (Laughter.) 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's four times now. 7 MS. BAKER: I'm sorry. Well, I think as soon as we 8 get the panels, I think that we should go ahead with the 9 dedication. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. 11 MS. BAKER: Because we have, you know, the donors, 12 and then, of course, the family members who have waited for a 13 couple of years now to have this done. And I think that 14 that's what they're wanting, and so I agree with that. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. So -- 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I have a question. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Go ahead. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: No, go ahead. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I was just going to say, the 20 agenda item appears that it doesn't require any kind of 21 action at this time, so I would think maybe -- I mean, we 22 could probably, but I think it would be best to wait -- 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We've already -- we've 24 approved -- 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Memorial Day? 8-11-14 61 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No, we've approved the contract 2 and the money and the design. This is just an update on 3 that. And I agree with you that I think we need to come back 4 to pick the dedication day, but I really think we need to pin 5 Mr. Zirkle down as to when we're going to get it, because I 6 hate to have a -- us to schedule a dedication unless we're 7 certain it's here, and I don't know where he is on it. But 8 it's -- I have my doubts that it'll be ready in two and a 9 half months. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What's two and a half 11 months? Which one is that? 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's Veterans Day. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Veterans Day. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, I tend to agree with 15 the memorial aspect of it, too. I mean, that's -- that's 16 what we're talking about; we're talking about the fallen 17 soldier and -- and the memory of that. So, I'm going to vote 18 for the -- I can tell you how I'm going to vote now. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Why don't you, if you would, 20 Maggie, visit with Mr. Zirkle and see, I mean, for certain 21 when it's going to be here. And if you can do that -- and if 22 he can't tell us exactly when it's going to be ready, that 23 will tell me it's probably not going to be Veterans Day. 24 MS. BAKER: He did say that the black granite 25 panels are in -- are in the United States, and they have been 8-11-14 62 1 for over a year. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 3 MS. BAKER: But he did not know that until after he 4 placed a call to them, and they said that they are here. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. Well, we can go ahead 6 and get the contract signed and that part done, and then move 7 forward, and we can come back with the date. I mean, but -- 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Would you do that? 9 MS. BAKER: Okay, yes. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I have a curiosity question. 12 I know we went through it, but on the -- the names -- the 13 space for names under "Operation Enduring Freedom," it looks 14 like you can probably get about -- 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Two more, I think. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: -- two more, something like 17 that. I forgot the rationale for -- 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Just in case there's someone 19 else. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, but -- 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is that enough? 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. Yeah, that would be the 23 question. And if it -- if it were not to be enough, then 24 what would we do? 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean, I think -- I think it's 8-11-14 63 1 probably -- my thought would be it's probably enough. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And maybe three there. But if 4 not, I thought about that. I guess you could you add -- 5 duplicate it on the other panel, put another name. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, that's true. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Put "Global War on Terrorism" 8 on another panel. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's a good option. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: If you put you too much of a 11 space there, it starts looking odd, too. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: It does, right. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, I like the way it looks. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 15 MS. HARGIS: Jonathan, I need an invoice from him 16 so that we -- because he's asking for half payment with the 17 contract. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We have a -- a proposal with a 19 contract. It's a contract that you sign on the bottom, and 20 it says -- 21 MS. HARGIS: I'd rather have an invoice. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay, we can get an invoice 23 from him. Maggie? 24 MS. BAKER: I can do that. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Have to wait for Judge Pollard 8-11-14 64 1 to get back to sign anyway, before we get it -- I mean, 2 quickly. We can turn that around, okay. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. 4 MS. BAKER: Yes, sir. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thank you. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Moving on to Item 1.18; 7 consider, discuss, take appropriate action on resolution 8 supporting hyperbaric oxygen therapy for veterans with brain 9 injuries. Ms. Maggie Baker, please. 10 MS. BAKER: I have looked at the list of the 11 counties that Mr. Owen had said that he has talked with, and 12 I talked with some of the counties. I contacted Bastrop 13 County; they're supporting the resolution. And what this 14 resolution is, it just wants to -- he wants to take this 15 resolution that he has, that's signed in these counties, and 16 take them to the state or the federal government to get 17 funding for our veterans for T.B.I., for gangrene injuries, 18 for anything that they need a lot of -- it's a lot of oxygen. 19 They use it for, like, when they've got the -- these scuba 20 divers, and they get bends. That's -- that's originally what 21 it was used for. And then the V.A. Hospitals in the past 22 have had this, but because of the funding, they -- they 23 weren't able to use it because they weren't getting any 24 funding from the government. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Maggie, let me ask you, who's 8-11-14 65 1 Mr. Owen? 2 MS. BAKER: Mr. Owen is the grandfather of a 3 veteran. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Oh, I got it; I 5 remember. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. I mean, I think, you 7 know, the question last time was, you know, is this something 8 that's supported by medicine, something that would be -- and 9 based on the backup you submitted, I mean, the Mayo Clinic 10 recommends using it based on doctors' -- I mean, I have no 11 problem supporting the resolution. I'll make a motion to 12 approve the resolution. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay, we have a motion. And 14 a second? 15 MR. REEVES: Second. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I have -- I see in the 17 notes -- background notes here that says Mr. Peña says there 18 are no county funds for this, but they want to support the 19 resolution itself. Do we need to say that? Anybody? Okay. 20 MS. BAKER: I guess you can go ahead and add that 21 in. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well -- 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: We'd have to approve it if it 24 were. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So we have a motion, and you 8-11-14 66 1 want to -- is this the one -- the resolution that's in the 2 packet? 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So we have a motion and a 5 second. Any further discussion? All in favor, please raise 6 your right hand. 7 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Unopposed. Thank you. 9 MS. BAKER: Thank you. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: 1.19; consider, discuss, 11 take appropriate action regarding update of construction at 12 the Hill Country Youth Event Center and related issues. 13 Commissioner Letz and Commissioner Reeves. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Really, this is just kind of a 15 continuing item. The only update is if you go out there, it 16 looks like a big building's under construction, on schedule. 17 We've picked -- we were, I guess, two weeks ago, about a 18 week, 10 days behind schedule, and they've been able to 19 basically be right on schedule; maybe a day behind, maybe a 20 day ahead. It kind of depends on who you talk to. 21 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Concrete block was going up 22 this morning. Looked like all of the metal framing is 23 complete. The roof will start going on sometime this week. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I guess the other update 25 is, Commissioner Reeves and myself have spent some time in 8-11-14 67 1 the arena with some others getting input, and we'll probably 2 be coming at our next meeting or the meeting after that with 3 a list of the items that we're recommending to go forward 4 with in the arena as part of those upgrades. Probably be on 5 our next meeting. We're looking at the funds available and 6 getting the cost of everything from lighting to electrical to 7 concession stand stuff, restrooms over there, additional 8 restrooms, if possible. So, anyway, a lot of the different 9 things we're looking at, figuring out the best way to use the 10 funds that we do have available over there. And then there 11 was a change order Charlie has approved under his authority, 12 and I think we all had copies of that. He's here, if anybody 13 had a question on that. That was just from moving some block 14 around. That's it. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Charlie's report is just 17 simply a report, isn't it? 18 MR. HASTINGS: Yes, sir, that's correct. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So no further conversation 20 on Item 1.19? 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No, sir. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay, very good. Thank you 23 very much. 1.20; consider, discuss, and take record vote on 24 proposed 2014 Kerr County tax rate, and set dates and times 25 of the first and second public hearings on said tax rate. If 8-11-14 68 1 tax rate proposed is the effective tax rate or below, no 2 public hearings are required. Ms. Bolin? 3 MS. BOLIN: I've been in discussion with the 4 Auditor, and it looks like the proposed rate that she would 5 like to do is .4120, which is the same rate as this year. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Point one -- 7 MS. BOLIN: .4120. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Same as this year? 9 MS. BOLIN: Yes, sir. But it is above the 10 effective rate, so we will have to have the two public 11 hearings. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: On that, define "effective 14 rate" for me again, Jeannie? 15 MS. HARGIS: The effective rate is the rate that it 16 would take to bring in the same dollars as you produced last 17 year. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. So if it's above the 19 effective rate, then we have to have a public hearing? 20 MS. HARGIS: Yes. Even though it's the same tax 21 rate, if it's above -- because we got some increase in value. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 23 MS. HARGIS: If your value goes up, then your 24 dollars go up. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thank you. 8-11-14 69 1 MS. BOLIN: There is one change to the law that 2 will affect us this year. I do not have to publish the 3 effective tax rate in the newspaper, which was a quarter-page 4 ad that had to go out first before we do this. There's only 5 one publication required, and it will have to have the vote, 6 it will have to have the proposed rate, and the -- both 7 hearing dates on it, and the date for the tax adoption. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Can I ask you a question? 9 MS. BOLIN: Absolutely. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Who is your third grade 11 teacher? No, I'm kidding. I'm kidding. The -- when we vote 12 right now, we're setting the tax rate. Are we -- 13 MS. BOLIN: You're setting the proposed tax rate 14 and the public hearing. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And public hearing? 16 MS. BOLIN: Yes, sir. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So, do we have dates for the 18 public hearings? 19 MS. BOLIN: Proposed dates are August the 18th at 20 11 a.m., which is next Monday. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: August 18th at 11:00? 22 MS. BOLIN: Yes, sir. And August 22nd, which is 23 that following Friday, at 9 a.m. for the second public 24 hearing. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. 8-11-14 70 1 MS. BOLIN: Then your next Commissioners Court 2 meeting on the 25th to adopt the tax rate and budget. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And when we vote here in 4 just a moment, we're going to vote on the 25th as well, so 5 those three dates -- 6 MS. BOLIN: Yes. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: -- are going to be in this 8 court order coming up? 9 MS. BOLIN: Yes, sir. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I just want to be clear. 11 So, I guess we need to have a motion to set those dates and 12 this proposed tax rate. 13 MS. BOLIN: Yes, sir. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Does Item 1.21 set the -- 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It was the budget. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay, excuse me. All right. 17 That's just on the -- okay, right. Okay, got you. Sorry. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll make a motion to approve 19 the -- set the tax rate at .4120, which is the same as 20 current year, and set the date for the public hearings 21 August 18th at 11 a.m., August 22nd at 9 a.m., and then a 22 hearing to -- or then, I guess, a meeting on August 25th -- 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: To adopt. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- to adopt the tax rate. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 8-11-14 71 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. So, we have a 2 motion and a second, and we're going to take a record vote. 3 Commissioner 1 votes aye. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Commissioner 2 votes aye. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Three votes aye. 6 MR. REEVES: Commissioner 4, aye. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: All -- that's everybody. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's unanimous. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Unanimous. It is that, and 10 so it's a done deal. Anything left there? 11 MS. BOLIN: No. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Item 1.21; consider, 13 discuss, take appropriate action to set public hearing on 14 proposed Kerr County budget for FY 2014-15 at 9:45 a.m. on 15 August 25th, 2014. I move that we set the public hearing on 16 the proposed Kerr County budget on Monday, August the 25th, 17 at 9:45. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We have a motion and a 20 second. 21 MS. HARGIS: May I ask a question, please? 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No, ma'am. Yes, I'm 23 kidding. I'm kidding. 24 MS. HARGIS: The only reason that I'm -- I might 25 suggest you back that public hearing up in case you wanted to 8-11-14 72 1 change the budget. If you're going to adopt the rate, we 2 have to approve the budget on that day. If y'all are okay 3 with that, I'm okay with that. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Say that again? 5 MS. HARGIS: If you wanted the public hearing on -- 6 like, on the 18th so we could discuss any changes or anything 7 else that you want to make, because the public hearing 8 usually is prior to the adoption. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right, but you could -- we 10 could have a public hearing, hear input, and then at a 11 meeting later, adopt. 12 MS. HARGIS: Well, you -- we planned to adopt the 13 tax rate on the 25th, so we have to adopt the budget first. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: But we may not -- 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: You may be planning to, but I 16 may not be planning to. 17 MS. HARGIS: We can't adopt the tax rate on the 18 25th if you don't adopt the budget. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 20 MS. HARGIS: It's the law. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I thought we did in the past. 22 MS. HARGIS: No. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So, let's see. 24 COMMISSIONER REEVES: We have a public hearing on 25 the 18th. 8-11-14 73 1 MS. HARGIS: Yeah, I would suggest you have a 2 public hearing. That gives you -- gives you a week, and then 3 you've got another meeting on the 22nd, so that if there were 4 changes, it could all take place. You have two opportunities 5 to make changes. 6 COMMISSIONER REEVES: In this instance, which comes 7 first, the chicken or the egg? The tax rate or the budget? 8 MS. HARGIS: The budget comes first, and then the 9 tax rate. 10 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Okay. So, we'll need to have 11 the public hearing on the budget prior to 11 a.m. on the 12 18th, is what you're saying? 13 MS. HARGIS: On the public hearing, you don't have 14 to, but on the -- 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: You can do it at the same time. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Same time. 17 MS. HARGIS: So, Commissioners 1 and 2, will y'all 18 amend your motion to set the public hearing on the 18th at 19 11 a.m.? 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I will, of course. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Will Number 2? 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Mm-hmm. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So that's -- that's the 24 motion. Any further discussion? All in favor, raise your 25 right hand. 8-11-14 74 1 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you very much. So, 3 we're going to have a public hearing on the budget -- 4 proposed budget at 11 a.m. on August 18th, the same time as 5 we have the public hearing on the proposed tax rate. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay, good. Item 1.22; 8 consider, discuss, take appropriate action to authorize 9 publication, notice of consideration and adoption of proposed 10 2014 Kerr County tax rates on August 25, 2014, at 10:15 a.m., 11 if needed. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's your item, Buster. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, I know it. 14 MS. BOLIN: I will take care of the publication. 15 That's part of what -- 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Mrs. Auditor, is this yours? 17 MS. HARGIS: No, sir. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We're going to discuss it 19 and go on, then. 20 MS. HARGIS: Yeah. You did it in 20, so we're 21 okay. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Item 23; consider, discuss, 23 take appropriate action to authorize publication notice of 24 public hearing on consideration and adoption of the Kerr 25 County budget for fiscal year 2014 and '15 on August 25th, 8-11-14 75 1 2014, at 9:45 a.m. Same thing? 2 MS. HARGIS: We need to make that the 18th at 3 11:00. And we do need to do that. We do need to publish 4 that. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: August 18th at 11:00? 6 MR. REEVES: I'll make a motion to consider, 7 discuss, and take appropriate action to authorize publication 8 notice of public hearing on consideration and adoption of 9 Kerr County budget for year 2014-15 on August 18, 2014, at 10 11 a.m. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: There's a motion; is there a 12 second? I second it. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Any discussion? 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: If it -- I'm confused. It 16 seems like we're doing the same thing over and over. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I know it. 18 MS. HARGIS: They're separate. They -- 19 MS. BOLIN: One's the tax rate, one's the budget. 20 That's the difference. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: All in favor -- 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second -- yeah. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: 21 and 23 is the same thing. 24 Any further discussion? All in favor, please raise your 25 right hand. 8-11-14 76 1 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Unanimous. Item 1.24; 3 consider, discuss, take appropriate action to authorize 4 publication notice of proposed salary increases, expenses, 5 and allowances for elected county and precinct officials of 6 Kerr County for fiscal year 2014-15. Mrs. Auditor? 7 MS. HARGIS: Yes, sir. I think we have already 8 published this; this is a ratification. We wanted to give 9 them a full 30 days notice of it so there wouldn't any 10 problems. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move approval. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So we're ratifying it? 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Ratifying. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We have a motion and a 16 second. All in favor, raise your right hand. 17 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Item 1.25; consider, 19 discuss, take appropriate action to approve general 20 provisions for 2014 and 2015. I move that we approve the 21 general provisions for fiscal year 2014-15. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: What are general provisions? 23 MS. HARGIS: The general provisions are in our 24 budget book that tell you how we go about our budget process. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 8-11-14 77 1 MS. HARGIS: The calendar and so forth. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Got you. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We have a motion and a 5 second. Any further discussion? All in favor, raise your 6 right hand. 7 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you. Let's see here. 9 Is 27 executive session too? 10 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Yes, River Star bankruptcy. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. Let's pay our bills, 12 et cetera. We're going to section 4, I think is what it's 13 called -- yeah, Section 4, approval agenda. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Move we pay the bills. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: 4.1, pay the bills. We have 16 a motion. Is there a second? 17 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Second. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: There's a second. Any 19 discussion? All in favor, raise your right hand. 20 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Budget amendments, 22 Mrs. Auditor? 23 MS. HARGIS: Yes, sir, we do have budget 24 amendments. It's that time of the year where we -- 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No kidding. How many's 8-11-14 78 1 here? 2 MS. HARGIS: We have actually 12. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's not so bad. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Not too bad. They're pretty 5 small. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 7 MS. HARGIS: We're still doing pretty well. These 8 are just small changes. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move approval. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We have a motion -- 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: -- and a second to pay the 13 budget amendments. All in favor, raise your right hand. 14 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Houston boy here raised his 16 left hand. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, but I corrected it. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Rusty, get your handcuffs. 19 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I'm full. (Laughter.) 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Oh, that's right. We have 21 to build a jail before we get rid of this guy. Okay. Late 22 bills? 23 MS. HARGIS: We have one late bill, and that's the 24 payment -- payment number two on the ag facility. I think 25 y'all have a copy of it. 8-11-14 79 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move approval. 2 MR. REEVES: Second. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Motion and second. All in 4 favor, raise your right hand. 5 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Monthly reports? 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Do we have any? 8 MS. PIEPER: Yes, I have them. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It's coming. And they are 10 Environmental Health, Environmental Health/Animal Services, 11 District Clerk, J.P. 3, J.P. 3, and Treasurer's payroll. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move we accept monthly reports 13 as written -- or as submitted. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: As presented. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Presented. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We have a motion. Second? 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And all in favor, raise your 19 right hand. 20 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We'll get to that in just a 22 second. Okay, let's see. Do we have any reports from the 23 Commissioners on your liaison duties? Neither do I. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: No. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Reports from elected 8-11-14 80 1 officials/department heads? 2 MS. LANTZ: Open enrollment, those that have not 3 turned in their insurance benefit forms need to do that 4 before the end of the week. So, elected officials, 5 department heads, make sure all your employees have completed 6 that. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: What's been the -- the 8 response for the long-term health care? Has it been -- 9 MS. LANTZ: We have quite a few that have signed up 10 for it. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Just curious, since 12 that's a new one. Okay. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Tax Assessor? Kerrville 14 Daily Times? (Laughter.) Bonnie? Ingram? 15 MS. BURLEW: No, sir. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay, very good. Reports 17 from elected officials and department heads? We don't have 18 boards and commissions and committees. Don't like them; 19 don't like people that even do that, so that settled that 20 deal. Okay, we'll recess the Commissioners Court. We'll go 21 into executive session on Items 26 and 27, personnel matters, 22 and looks like probably some contract issues, leasing, 23 financial, blah, blah, blah. 24 (The open session was closed at 10:50 a.m., and an executive session was held, the transcript of which 25 is contained in a separate document.) - - - - - - - - - - 8-11-14 81 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Commissioners Court is back 2 in session at 11:50. We're going to go back and revisit 3 Item 1.20; consider, discuss, take record -- record vote to 4 vote on the county tax rate, and set dates and times of the 5 first and second public hearing. Is that this issue? 6 MS. BOLIN: Yes, sir, it is. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We need to change that one. On 8 that one, the motion should read, "set a tax rate of .4443." 9 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Rather than .4120? 10 MS. BOLIN: Correct. 11 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Do we need to vote on both 12 lateral and -- 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We need to combine it. 14 MS. BOLIN: Right. For the publication, it has to 15 be combined. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And for the record, that is 17 the same tax rate -- combined tax rate for both of them. 18 MS. BOLIN: For last year, yes, sir. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So we -- I don't know. We can 20 make a new motion, or we can go change our old motion. 21 Probably easier to change the old one. 22 MS. PIEPER: Change the old one. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What else? She had 24 something else, a time -- 25 MS. BOLIN: The time on the adoption of the tax 8-11-14 82 1 rate. But if you're looking at changing that date, then you 2 might want to do that first, 'cause right now I have a public 3 hearing on the 18th, a public hearing on the 22nd, adoption 4 of tax rate and budget on the 25th -- 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Right. 6 MS. BOLIN: -- of August. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What do you want to change 8 about that? 9 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Well, call Item 1.20 so I'm 10 on the right one. Excuse me. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It's been recalled. We're 12 sitting here dealing with it right now. 13 MS. BOLIN: If Commissioner Letz was going to make 14 a budget amendment in September, then we cannot adopt the 15 budget and the tax rate in August. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't know that I'm going to, 17 but I may. We did it last year. 18 MS. HARGIS: What? 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But, I mean, I don't want to -- 20 I don't think we need to tie -- to me, 1.20 is setting the 21 public hearings, so get them out of the way, and we should 22 not include the 8/25 to adopt the budget in there, or the tax 23 rates. 24 MS. BOLIN: Okay. But on the new publication that 25 I have to do, I have to put both public hearings and the date 8-11-14 83 1 to set tax rates. 2 MS. HARGIS: Okay, -- 3 MS. BOLIN: And the time. 4 MS. HARGIS: -- can I back up? Why don't you want 5 to have -- finish the budget on the 25th? We need 30 days to 6 get that book ready. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We haven't had -- we made 8 changes last year in September. The only -- there's one I 9 know, Law Library, that I want to revisit. 10 MS. HARGIS: We can have that during that week of 11 the -- of the 18th through the 22nd. That's why I'm opening 12 up for that. We didn't make any amendments after you adopted 13 the budget last year. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I didn't remember. 15 MS. HARGIS: No, we didn't. 16 MS. GRINSTEAD: The last few years, we've adopted 17 the budget in August. 18 MS. HARGIS: Yes. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's the only one that I know 20 that I have a note on. 21 MS. HARGIS: That's why I want you to have the 18th 22 and 22nd, so that you have two separate dates if you wanted 23 to discuss the budget. After the public hearing, you had the 24 18th to discuss it, and again on the 22nd. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So we'd have -- we'll have a 8-11-14 84 1 special meeting, then, after the -- between the 18th and 2 25th? 3 MS. HARGIS: Right. I would suggest that. That's 4 the reason why -- 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. I'm okay with that. 6 Then the motion is just to change the tax rate to be the 7 combined county and Road and Bridge tax rate of .4443. 8 MS. BOLIN: Yes, sir. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 10 MS. BOLIN: And to set a time for adoption on the 11 25th of the tax rate. 12 MS. HARGIS: We usually put 10 o'clock. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: At 10 o'clock. 14 MS. BOLIN: Okay. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Is that what you want, 16 Diane? 17 MS. BOLIN: Yes, sir, that is. Thank you very 18 much. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Was that a motion? 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, it amended the previous 23 motion. 24 MS. BOLIN: Right. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I second that. 8-11-14 85 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. And we have a second, 2 and is there any further discussion? We're all riding the 3 same horse here? Okay. All in favor of that change, raise 4 your right hand. 5 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 6 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Do we need a record on the 7 tax rate again? 8 MS. BOLIN: I don't think so, 'cause we already had 9 the one. 10 MR. REEVES: Okay. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We could have a record vote, 12 just to make sure. 13 MS. BOLIN: That will be fine. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay, we're going to do a 15 record vote here. Precinct 1 votes aye. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Precinct 2, aye. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Three, aye. 18 MR. REEVES: Four, aye. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's all of us, guys. 20 Nobody else can vote. Anything else? 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes -- well, not on that item. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Item 22? Anything we need 23 to bring up? 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: No, I thought there wasn't 25 anything there. 8-11-14 86 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Wasn't anything there. 2 MS. GRINSTEAD: Did you want to set the times of 3 those workshops now so that you're all here and can decide on 4 the time for the workshops on the budget? 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That would make it way too 6 easy. 7 MS. GRINSTEAD: That's the way I like it. We have 8 the public hearing on the 18th, you set for 11:00. Then the 9 public hearing on the 22nd, you set for 9:00. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Right. Adoption at 10:00 on 11 the 25th. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Which do we do first, the 13 budget or the -- 14 MS. HARGIS: Well, we only have to have one 15 public -- budget public hearing. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'm looking at our time we set 17 the -- 18 MS. HARGIS: We set it at 11:00 for both of them. 19 But we need -- 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We're -- it says here we're 21 going to adopt a budget at 11:00. 22 MS. HARGIS: No, we're going to have the public 23 hearing at 11:00. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No. 25 MS. HARGIS: Yes. 8-11-14 87 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: On the 18th? 2 MS. HARGIS: On the 18th. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: "Public hearing on 4 consideration and adoption." 5 MS. HARGIS: Well, we won't adopt it on the 18th. 6 It's just a public hearing. And then I would say we'd have a 7 workshop on the budget. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We -- Commissioner, will you 9 call 1.23, please? 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, we'll call Item 1.23; 11 consider, discuss, take appropriate action to authorize 12 publication notice of public hearing on consideration and 13 adoption of Kerr County budget FY 2014-15 on August 18th at 14 11 o'clock. 15 MS. HARGIS: The reason is the agenda item calls 16 for adoption. I only requested you have a public hearing. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So we need to modify that. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So it should be considered -- 19 it shouldn't authorize publication notice of public hearing 20 on consideration and adoption -- 21 MS. HARGIS: Just a public hearing on consideration 22 of Kerr County budget. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Not a problem. 25 MS. HARGIS: The adoption won't occur until the 8-11-14 88 1 25th. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. Got that? 3 MS. PIEPER: Got it. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I make a motion to amend this 5 accordingly. 6 MS. HARGIS: And that's the only public hearing we 7 have to have on the budget. Now, we can have other 8 workshops, but we only have to have one public hearing. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: The change is eliminating the 10 word "adoption"? 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The words, "and adoption." 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So we have a motion to do 13 that. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And second. Any further 16 discussion? All in favor, raise your right hand. 17 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Unanimous. What else? 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's it. 20 MS. GRINSTEAD: Go back to when do you want the 21 workshop? 22 MS. HARGIS: Right afterwards, I would assume, on 23 the -- 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What day of the week is it, a 25 Monday? 8-11-14 89 1 MS. HARGIS: It's a Monday, right after airport. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, we can always do it -- do 3 it afterwards, and then if we wanted to, we can recess it if 4 we wanted to do anything. 5 MS. GRINSTEAD: So I'll post it for 11:00, because 6 the public -- I mean, you could just go right into it after 7 the public hearing. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 9 MS. HARGIS: I did put in your boxes a new budget 10 summary. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yay. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: All right. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: All right. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Move to adjourn. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Is that it, guys? Anything 17 else? We're adjourned. 18 (Commissioners Court adjourned at 11:58 a.m.) 19 - - - - - - - - - - 20 21 22 23 24 25 8-11-14 90 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 13th day of August, 2014. 8 9 10 JANNETT PIEPER, Kerr County Clerk 11 BY:_______________________________ Kathy Banik, Deputy County Clerk 12 Certified Shorthand Reporter 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 8-11-14