1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT 9 Regular Session 10 Monday, November 10, 2014 11 9:00 a.m. 12 Commissioners' Courtroom 13 Kerr County Courthouse 14 Kerrville, Texas 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 PRESENT: TOM POLLARD, Kerr County Judge H. A. "BUSTER" BALDWIN, Commissioner Pct. 1 24 TOM MOSER, Commissioner Pct. 2 JONATHAN LETZ, Commissioner Pct. 3 25 BOB REEVES, Commissioner Pct. 4 2 1 I N D E X November 10, 2014 2 PAGE --- Visitors' Input 5 3 --- Commissioners' Comments 7 4 1.1 Consider/discuss/take appropriate action on request to use courthouse grounds for Market Days in 2015 10 5 1.2 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on 6 request from Leadership Kerr County and Kerrville Area Chamber of Commerce to use Flat Rock Lake 7 Park and Hill Country Youth Event Center parking lot for EasterFest on April 3rd and 4th, 2015 14 8 1.3 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 9 approve contracts with Mountain Home VFD, Ingram VFD, and Center Point VFD; allow County 10 Judge to sign same 18 11 1.5 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to accept FY 2014 Chapter 59 Asset Forfeiture Report 12 by Kerr County Sheriff’s Office 19 13 1.7 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to approve contract No. 7214025 between Texas 14 Department of Agriculture and Kerr County for Kerrville South Wastewater Project, Phase 6 21 15 1.8 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 16 approve bond for Kerr County Attorney, Heather Stebbins 24 17 1.9 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action 18 regarding Kerr County Law Librarian designation 26 19 1.12 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action approving RFP/bids for naming rights at Hill 20 Country Youth Event Center 28 21 1.4 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to approve Economic Development Agreement with 22 James Avery Craftsman, Inc., pursuant to Chapter 381 of Local Government Code; authorize County 23 Judge to sign (Executive Session as needed) 37 24 1.6 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action regarding maintenance of property owned by Kerr 25 County located at 2310 Mesa Park, Kerrville (Tax Suit No. 11-530-A, Kerr County vs. Arcosa LLC) 72 3 1 I N D E X (Continued) November 10, 2014 2 PAGE 3 1.10 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on amendment to lease between Kerr County and Hill 4 Country District Junior Livestock Association 78 5 1.11 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to accept second payment of $250,000 from Hill 6 Country District Junior Livestock Association for the Hill Country Youth Event Center 79 7 1.17 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on 8 request to use Flat Rock Lake Park on November 22, 2014, for a Boy Scout event (Model Rocket Launch) 82 9 1.13 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action 10 regarding donor/dedication plaques at Hill Country Youth Event Center 83 11 1.14 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 12 approve Change Proposal #17 for concrete slab and plumbing for catering kitchen at Hill Country 13 Youth Event Center 88 14 1.15 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to ratify and confirm Change Order #3, which 15 includes Change Proposals 7R, 8, 9, 11, 14 & 15 91 16 1.16 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action regarding update of construction at Hill Country 17 Youth Event Center and related issues 92 18 1.18 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action regarding Memorandum of Understanding for 19 Information Technology Services between Kerr County and AgriLife Extension. (Executive 20 Session as needed) 100 21 4.1 Pay Bills 106 22 4.2 Budget Amendments --- 4.3 Late Bills --- 23 4.4 Approve and Accept Monthly Reports 107 24 5.1 Reports from Commissioners/Liaison Committee Assignments 107 25 5.2 Reports from Elected Officials/Department Heads --- 4 1 I N D E X (Continued) November 10, 2014 2 PAGE 3 1.19 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action regarding Kerr County Attorney’s office 4 personnel matter (Executive Session) --- 5 1.20 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on personnel matter in Road and Bridge Department 6 (Executive Session) --- 7 3.1 Action as may be required on matters discussed in Executive Session 109 8 --- Adjourned 112 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 5 1 On Monday, November 10, 2014, at 9:00 a.m., a regular 2 meeting of the Kerr County Commissioners Court was held in 3 the Commissioners' Courtroom, Kerr County Courthouse, 4 Kerrville, Texas, and the following proceedings were had in 5 open court: 6 P R O C E E D I N G S 7 JUDGE POLLARD: Well, the Commissioners have 8 informed me that the clock was incorrect, and so we have 9 declared it's now 9:02 a.m., and we're a little bit late. 10 And I apologize for being late. Let's all bow our heads in 11 prayer. 12 (Prayer and pledge of allegiance.) 13 JUDGE POLLARD: Comments? Visitors' input. 14 Anybody got something to say? This is the time. I saw your 15 son march out across the field. That's a big boy. 16 MS. BURLEW: Isn't it? 17 JUDGE POLLARD: He's taller than you are. Quite a 18 bit taller than you are. 19 MS. BURLEW: Yes, he is a big kid. 20 JUDGE POLLARD: How tall is he? 21 MS. BURLEW: I don't know, 6'2", 6'3". 22 JUDGE POLLARD: I was guessing 6'4". He looked 23 good out there, and so did you, by the way. He got to walk 24 across the field at halftime at the Tivy game, and that's 25 about the only part of the game I liked. (Laughter.) 11-10-14 6 1 Anybody got any comments from the public? About the Tivy 2 game or anything else. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: A & M game, Texas -- 4 JUDGE POLLARD: Oh, man, Texas came out pretty 5 good. The whole state came out pretty good over the weekend, 6 and A & M game was unbelievable. Gosh, they really pulled it 7 off. Really -- and thank God for that fumble right there at 8 the end where there was just a minute and a few seconds left, 9 huh, Leonard? 'Cause that was going to be a chip shot to tie 10 the game and go into overtime. And, boy, they had some 11 momentum built up, didn't they? Auburn did, didn't they? 12 Well, anyway, I'm happy for A & M. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Mayor's got something. 14 MAYOR PRATT: I just have one quick announcement. 15 I don't see any veterans here, but the veterans parade is 16 tomorrow at 5 p.m. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Oh, we're going to be there. 18 Are you going to be there? 19 MAYOR PRATT: Yes, sir. 20 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. 21 MAYOR PRATT: Might be through the parade before 22 the City Council meeting at 6 p.m. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 24 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. We'll be there, all of 25 us, and we're going to conclude here on the -- on the grounds 11-10-14 7 1 of the courthouse here. The parade concludes here. Any 2 other announcement? Sheriff? Are there any other community 3 events that we're not thinking about? Oh, I attended the one 4 for the rededication of the World War I -- 5 AUDIENCE: Lemos. 6 JUDGE POLLARD: Francisco Lemos. It was well 7 attended. That was really a nice ceremony, it really was. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: World War I? 9 JUDGE POLLARD: World War I veteran. And Rocky 10 Hernandez was the featured speaker. Rocky lives over in 11 Austin now, and he used to live here. He was of the 12 Hernandez family that started the Acapulco Restaurant, and he 13 was a really good athlete in high school for Tivy, and went 14 off and served in Vietnam and was a Special Forces Ranger, 15 officer, and was wounded in Vietnam. And it was very 16 appropriate that he came back and -- and was the featured 17 speaker for that. Anybody else have anything? All right. 18 Do you have something? 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Sir, I would like to make a 20 couple of comments. That, you know, in my past I worked for 21 the United States House of Representatives, and I've worked 22 with the Texas House of Representatives, but I don't know -- 23 none of those stand anywhere near as good as working for Kerr 24 County. And I just want to say you guys are an incredible 25 team, and I appreciate your integrity. And our staff out 11-10-14 8 1 there, the entire court, family system, there's just none 2 better, and I just wanted to say that. I don't say it 3 enough, and I appreciate all of you. 4 JUDGE POLLARD: Thank you. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And Tom is going to be in 6 the veteran's parade, and my son is going to be here with the 7 little team of his. You know, three weeks ago he did the 8 halftime show for the Cowboys and Giants, and it was kind of 9 neat; I finally got the video of it. But he's bringing the 10 team in because it's his hometown, and he wants to be here. 11 And it's his second year to do it. So, anyway, that's all. 12 Thank you. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I want to -- I don't think Ray 14 Garcia is here, but for the last, oh, probably six months, a 15 group of us meet in Center Point every -- first Wednesday of 16 every month, and identify properties that need some 17 attention. And so Ray and his guys -- and his folks, okay, 18 have been diligent in picking two properties every month, 19 with -- with the group of people we have in Center Point, and 20 making real progress in a lot of cleanup. So that with the 21 sewer system and with other things that are happening out 22 there, I think, you know, that that whole area is -- 23 JUDGE POLLARD: Going to be the cleanest part of 24 the county. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, it needs a lot of 11-10-14 9 1 improvement, but it's -- I'm -- I just need to compliment 2 Ray, Ray and the citizens down in Center Point that have 3 organized this. And every Wednesday morning -- first 4 Wednesday of each month, we meet and decide, okay, what two 5 properties are we going to work on now, and did we complete 6 the other two? So, anyway... 7 JUDGE POLLARD: Two a month? One a month? 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Two a month. 9 JUDGE POLLARD: So that's who's been twisting your 10 tail all the time up there. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Kudos to Ray. Okay, that's 12 all I had. 13 JUDGE POLLARD: You got something? 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think I have nothing. I have 15 a lot of items on the agenda; I'm sure I'll be talking enough 16 during the meeting. 17 JUDGE POLLARD: Bob? 18 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Just kind of playing off your 19 theme that you started about football, congratulations to 20 Ingram Tom Moore. 21 JUDGE POLLARD: Yeah. 22 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Made the playoffs for the 23 first time in 14 years. 24 JUDGE POLLARD: Yeah. 25 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I'm real excited for them. 11-10-14 10 1 Good luck this week. I believe it's in Giddings. They're 2 playing Hitchcock, I believe, in the first round. So -- so, 3 real excited for Ingram. And naturally, Tivy, and I believe 4 Comfort's in the playoffs too. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Comfort won. 6 JUDGE POLLARD: I think Tivy is going to be in 7 Division II, I believe, in the playoffs. And both Boerne and 8 Alamo Heights, I believe, will be in Division I, so I don't 9 know what effect that's going to have. Tivy always plays 10 somebody over in District 28. We're District 27, so they 11 always -- the playoffs always go to District 28 for the first 12 playoff team. But it's usually -- I think Tivy's the third 13 team in the district, so they play, I think, the first team 14 in District 28, whoever came in first, I believe is the way 15 it's going to be. And I don't know who that is yet; I 16 haven't been able to find that. But who's Ingram playing? 17 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Hitchcock. 18 JUDGE POLLARD: Hitchcock. 19 COMMISSIONER REEVES: In Giddings. 20 JUDGE POLLARD: In Giddings. 21 COMMISSIONER REEVES: It's a long trip. 22 JUDGE POLLARD: Yeah, it is. All right. Anything 23 else? All right. If not, then we'll go to Item 1.1 on the 24 agenda, and give Commissioner Letz his opportunity to -- to 25 expound. All right. Consider, discuss, and take appropriate 11-10-14 11 1 action on request to use courthouse grounds for Market Days 2 in 2015. LuAnn Anderson. Good morning, ma'am. 3 MS. ANDERSON: Good morning, Judge. 4 JUDGE POLLARD: Good to see you again. 5 MS. ANDERSON: Commissioners. Good to be here this 6 morning. Thank you for a little bit of your time here. I 7 always appreciate it. We always are a bit stunned by how 8 many years it's been, but we're here again to ask for 9 permission for our 14th season -- 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: God, you're kidding. 11 MS. ANDERSON: -- of Kerr County Market Days here 12 at the courthouse square. We've seen a lot of changes over 13 the years. We've made adjustments. We've tried to fine-tune 14 the operation and the schedule to the needs as we go from 15 year to year, and this year we're doing the same thing. For 16 the last two years, our summer markets have been very small, 17 very slow. Really, it's been kind of tough weather, and a 18 little bit hard on all of us, so we want to experiment a 19 little bit with the schedule and go to a spring -- spring and 20 fall schedule for the market, with three events in spring, 21 take the summer off, and come back strong in the fall with 22 three events. Both the spring schedule and the fall schedule 23 will conclude with the big two-day markets, first Memorial 24 Day in the spring schedule, and then Thanksgiving weekend in 25 the fall schedule. We hope to see a little bit of a 11-10-14 12 1 revitalization, both of our customer base and the number of 2 vendors that we have by concentrating on those markets that 3 are still strong with really good attendance. Other than 4 that, things have been going well. We continue to have a lot 5 of nonprofit organizations who use our event as an 6 opportunity to raise funds and distribute information. We've 7 had some new ones this year. We have several that have been 8 with us for many years. 9 I think in conclusion, I'll just say that we began 10 this with a commitment to be a market that brought only 11 homemade, homegrown products to our customers. We have held 12 true to that. We are recommitted to that for next year. 13 You'll never see imports or something bought on the internet, 14 not if I catch them first. And we renew our commitment to 15 respect and honor the privilege of using the courthouse 16 grounds. I'd like to conclude by saying that we commend the 17 staff of the county, as always. Every encounter I've every 18 had with a county employee or staff member has been 19 extraordinary, pleasant, friendly, positive in every way. We 20 give special thanks to Jody, to Tim, and to the Sheriff's 21 Department when they provide our security for our big two-day 22 markets. It's always a pleasure to work with them. They're 23 always there when we need them. They always take good care 24 of us. We thank them. We thank you. We ask for your 25 permission for 2015. 11-10-14 13 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I move for approval. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 3 JUDGE POLLARD: It's been moved and seconded for 4 approval of -- for their use of the courthouse grounds for 5 the Market Days. Any discussion at this time? 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Do you have another 14 years in 7 you? 8 MS. ANDERSON: I don't know about that. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: You don't have to answer. You 10 don't have to answer. Thank you, LuAnn. 11 JUDGE POLLARD: I would like to ask a question. Is 12 it -- have we ever done this with a contract or anything in 13 writing? Or has this just been verbal permission? 14 MS. ANDERSON: There have been a few years we've 15 had kind of a letter of agreement, but not for a long time. 16 It's just -- we just keep doing what we've been doing. 17 JUDGE POLLARD: You don't have any insurance -- 18 liability insurance? 19 (Ms. Anderson nodded.) 20 JUDGE POLLARD: You do? Okay. 21 MS. ANDERSON: Absolutely. 22 JUDGE POLLARD: Would -- would you mind talking to 23 your agent and asking them to name the county as an 24 additional insured -- 25 MS. ANDERSON: You are. 11-10-14 14 1 JUDGE POLLARD: -- on your policy? We are? All 2 right. 3 MS. ANDERSON: I'll be glad to provide you with a 4 copy. 5 JUDGE POLLARD: That's -- I would appreciate that, 6 thank you. All right. That's good enough for me, then. 7 Anybody else have anything else? 8 COMMISSIONER REEVES: No. 9 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. Those in favor of the 10 motion, signify by raising your right hand. 11 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 12 JUDGE POLLARD: It's 4-0, unanimous. Thank you, 13 ma'am. 14 MS. ANDERSON: Thank you very much. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Good job. 16 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Thank you. 17 MS. ANDERSON: Thanks. 18 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. Item Number 1.2; 19 consider, discuss, and take appropriate action on request 20 from Leadership Kerr County and the Kerr Area Chamber of 21 Commerce to use Flat Rock Lake and the Hill Country Youth 22 Event Center parking lot for EasterFest on April 3rd and 4th 23 of 2015. Justin Foster. 24 MR. FOSTER: Morning, Judge, County Commissioners. 25 JUDGE POLLARD: Morning, sir. 11-10-14 15 1 MR. FOSTER: My name is Justin Foster of Leadership 2 Kerr County, Class Number 30. This morning we have Tracy 3 Soldan as part of the class, and Harold Dean from the Chamber 4 of Commerce, here this morning to respectfully request the 5 use of Flat Rock Lake Park for the "Here's to Our Heroes" 6 annual EasterFest chili cook-off and barbecue, April 3rd, 7 4th, and 5th. One for setup, the actual event day, and then 8 the 5th for cleaning up, on Sunday. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: What did you say? Heroes? I 10 didn't -- 11 MR. FOSTER: Here's to Our Heros. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Here's to Our Heros, okay. 13 Say more about that. 14 MR. FOSTER: It was started by the American Legion, 15 and then I believe kind of in support -- what little I know 16 about it is that the American Legion had it, and the 17 Kerrville Chamber of Commerce took it over with the 18 Leadership class. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Oh, okay. 20 MR. FOSTER: And we -- we still stand for the same 21 things, do the same things. We just took it off their hands 22 as a project for the Leadership class to take on for the 23 community. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 25 JUDGE POLLARD: Has the participation increased the 11-10-14 16 1 last couple years? Two years ago, it looked to me, just as 2 an observer, that there was an increased participation. I 3 don't know about this past year; I didn't get out. Do you 4 have any facts or figures? 5 MR. FOSTER: Yes, sir. I believe last year, around 6 -- it was a little over 13 grand that they -- the class made. 7 They had the biggest attendance and the most profitable year. 8 And Harold Dean and I were speaking this morning; we couldn't 9 remember the exact number, but there were an inordinate 10 amount of children for the Easter egg hunt this past year. 11 And I know that's one of the biggest things that we've been 12 told that they like -- the community liked, and we're going 13 to have it again this year. 14 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. 15 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I think it's an excellent 16 function, and I move for approval. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 18 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. It's been moved and 19 seconded that we approve their use of Flat Rock Lake. Is 20 there any further discussion? I -- you know, we're -- I do 21 want to -- we want airplanes and model airplanes to use it. 22 We've got polo grounds wanting to use it. We got a lot of 23 people using Flat Rock Lake out there. Is there some plan 24 about how we can coordinate these things and make sure we 25 don't have conflicts between the activities? 11-10-14 17 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think Jody kind of keeps 2 track of it, what we're doing. But I think -- and my 3 recollection is that a lot of times we've reserved the dates 4 and set the agreement right now, and then we have some 5 policies about the -- you have to have security and 6 port-a-potties and all that. And all that's -- I can't 7 remember if it's an actual agreement that we have later on, 8 or -- I think there's an agreement we have. 9 MS. STEBBINS: We do have an agreement. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We have an agreement that sets 11 it out. But this is kind of reserving the date; saying, yes, 12 we're happy to go forward again at this point. 13 JUDGE POLLARD: I'd hate for the polo ponies to 14 step in the dog poop, and -- anyway... 15 MR. FOSTER: One last thing, Judge, I want to clear 16 up. Last year there was some talk of -- that the park was 17 not left in good condition. And that's for another matter, 18 but I wanted to let you know that Leadership this year is 19 planning on getting with Mr. Bollier and having it -- him 20 sign off after we've cleaned up, and make sure that it's met 21 the County's approval as far as cleaning -- its cleanliness 22 and that it's in the best shape possible, like it was before 23 we got there. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Good. 25 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. I think the motion's on 11-10-14 18 1 the floor. Those in favor of the motion, signify by raising 2 your right hand. 3 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 4 JUDGE POLLARD: It's 4-0, unanimous. Thank you 5 very much, sir. 1.3; consider, discuss, and take appropriate 6 action to approve the contract with Mountain Home Volunteer 7 Fire Department, the Ingram Volunteer Fire Department, and 8 the Center Point Volunteer Fire Department, and allow the 9 County Judge to sign same. It's that time of the year that 10 we need to renew these contracts with all of these fire 11 departments. Does any -- any of the Commissioners have any 12 comments about anything that -- about the fire -- volunteer 13 fire departments? 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move approval of the agenda 15 item. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 17 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. Any further discussion? 18 If not, those in favor of the motion, signify by raising your 19 right hand. 20 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 21 JUDGE POLLARD: It's 4-0, unanimous. I'll execute 22 all the contracts, then. I'll have to skip the next one 23 because it's not 9:30. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I can change the clock. 25 (Laughter.) 11-10-14 19 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I think Jonas is right outside 2 the door. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: He's ready to go, man. 4 JUDGE POLLARD: Do you want to go ahead? 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Do you want to go now? 6 MR. TITAS: We're figuring the I.T. issue here. 7 They're going to put a presentation on the screen. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay, nevermind. 9:30. 9 JUDGE POLLARD: We'll go to 1.5; consider, discuss, 10 and take appropriate action to accept the fiscal year 2014 11 Chapter 59 Asset Forfeiture Report by Kerr County Sheriff's 12 Office. Looks like the Sheriff himself is here instead. 13 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: This is just our yearly report 14 on our Chapter 59 seizure funds that we have to do each year 15 at this time of year, get y'all to approve it, and then we 16 send it to Austin. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So moved. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 19 JUDGE POLLARD: It's been moved and seconded that 20 we accept the forfeiture report from the Sheriff's Office, 21 Chapter 59 asset forfeitures. Those -- any further 22 discussion? 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I've got a question for the 24 Sheriff. 25 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. 11-10-14 20 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Rusty, the -- like, this 2 first page is filled out. Is that all that's required? What 3 about these other pages that talk about equipment and 4 overtime? 5 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Only if we've seized it and 6 had it during this last year, okay? If you look at the top 7 of the second page, that's our balance in there. And 8 anything that we've seized during this last year is all 9 reported that way; nothing else is required to be filled out. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay, thank you. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Rusty, what are these funds 12 used for, or available to be used for? 13 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Anything that's law 14 enforcement related is what they're available to be used for. 15 Now, I'll be honest; there are some things coming up, such as 16 there's some unexpected expenses that may come up with our 17 new radio system on getting some studies done of those tower 18 sites, getting things like that, which I may have to use some 19 of that for. We have purchased vehicles with them. Both of 20 the transport vehicles we have now that the warrants officer 21 is using have been purchased out of these funds, 'cause he 22 normally puts about 100,000 miles a year on a car, and so we 23 go through cars real quick. Most of the time we purchase 24 those out of these funds, things like that, that actually go 25 to help. 11-10-14 21 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay, thank you. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Judge, I move we accept the 3 fiscal year 2014 Chapter 59 Asset Forfeiture Report. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I think it's already been 5 moved. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Already moved. You seconded it 7 already. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I seconded it? 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's what I meant; I want 11 to second it. (Laughter.) 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Again. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Again. 14 JUDGE POLLARD: Those in favor of the motion, 15 signify by raising your right hand. 16 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 17 JUDGE POLLARD: It's 4-0. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Did you move it? 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. You stick with fixing 20 clocks; I'll take care of the other stuff. (Laughter.) 21 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. Let's go to 1.7; 22 consider, discuss, and take appropriate action to approve 23 Contract Number 7214025 between the Texas Department of 24 Agriculture and Kerr County for Kerrville South Wastewater 25 Project, Phase 6. Commissioners Baldwin and Moser. 11-10-14 22 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Do you want to start, or do 2 you want me to start? 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'll start. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Judge, this looks like -- 6 looks like a standard contract to me. You know, it includes 7 reporting requirements and contracts for performance and 8 those kinds of things. And, of course, it's slanted -- 9 slanted toward the state, and not us, but it's typical -- 10 looks like a typical contract. And, actually, it looks like 11 one that we've used every year. 12 JUDGE POLLARD: Has the County Attorney's office 13 approved it? 14 MS. STEBBINS: Yes, sir. 15 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, I think this is number 17 six out of -- already done five of the same type of thing. 18 MS. STEBBINS: I think you're correct. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So we'd like to, you know, do 20 that. I'd like to bring up something else here, too. We 21 talked in -- we did everything we could in Phase 5 to get 22 Phase 6 in position. Now we've got that approved by T.D.A., 23 and so what we want to do is move forward with Phase 6 so 24 that we could get the administration and the engineering work 25 under way so we could get the -- our obligation to the City 11-10-14 23 1 to get three-phase power to the lift station overall for 2 Quail Valley. And so with this same agenda item, let me ask 3 the attorney, can we -- can we proceed with this agenda item 4 to take action to -- to identifying and selecting an 5 administrator and engineer, and to move out with a Request 6 for Proposal for Phase 6? 7 MS. STEBBINS: Under that agenda item? 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. 9 MS. STEBBINS: I don't think so. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It's outside the contract. 11 MS. STEBBINS: Separate item. 12 JUDGE POLLARD: Well, we have a special 13 Commissioners meeting -- Commissioners Court meeting Friday. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Friday, okay. We'll put it on 15 this Friday. 16 MS. STEBBINS: Okay. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay, good enough. Okay. 18 JUDGE POLLARD: Anything else on that? 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Let's see. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Do we need any kind of -- 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Motion? 22 JUDGE POLLARD: Need a motion to approve. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Approve the contract? 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I move that we approve the 11-10-14 24 1 contract. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 3 JUDGE POLLARD: Been moved and seconded that we 4 approve the contract with the Texas Department of Agriculture 5 and Kerr County for the Kerrville South wastewater project, 6 all as more fully set forth in Item 1.7 of the agenda. Any 7 further discussion? 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And authorize County Judge to 9 sign. 10 JUDGE POLLARD: And authorize me to sign it. Any 11 further discussion on it? If not, those in favor of the 12 motion, signify by raising your right hand. 13 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 14 JUDGE POLLARD: It's 4-0, unanimous. We'll go to 15 1.8; consider, discuss, and take appropriate action to 16 approve bond for Kerr County Attorney, Heather Stebbins. I 17 don't know. Can she -- is she eligible to get a bond? Could 18 she pass the criminal record check? 19 MS. STEBBINS: I think so. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I think she needs two bonds, 21 just looking at her. 22 MS. STEBBINS: Well, this one will start -- 23 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I'll be more than happy to run 24 that check, Judge. (Laughter.) 25 MS. STEBBINS: I know he would. This one is -- I'm 11-10-14 25 1 just putting this on now; it's to start when my current bond 2 runs at the end of the year, and I'm just trying to take care 3 of some business that I may not think about after 4 December 17th or thereabouts. So, that's why I'm asking for 5 y'all to approve it. 6 JUDGE POLLARD: May have some other items a little 7 higher on your agenda, I understand. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move approval. 9 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Second. 10 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. Any further discussion? 11 If not, those in favor, signify by raising your right hand. 12 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 13 JUDGE POLLARD: By the way, did you check the form 14 of the bond? 15 MS. STEBBINS: Yes, sir, I did. 16 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. And it's acceptable? 17 MS. STEBBINS: Yes, sir. 18 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. All right, thank you. 1.6; 19 consider, discuss, and take appropriate -- 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's a 9:45 item. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Nine. 22 JUDGE POLLARD: 1.9 -- I was going to 1.8, I'm 23 sorry. 1.8 -- 24 MS. STEBBINS: We did that one. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Just did that. 11-10-14 26 1 MR. BOLLIER: You're on 1.9, Judge. 2 JUDGE POLLARD: 1.9; consider discuss, and take 3 appropriate action regarding Kerr County Law Librarian 4 designation. Something else you want to take care of before 5 then, too? 6 MS. STEBBINS: Well, I intended to take care of it 7 before October 1st, but it didn't happen. And so we talked 8 about this during the budget process, about designating 9 Robbin Burlew as the new Law Librarian, and budgeted for that 10 Law Librarian stipend, I believe is what it is. And then we 11 never brought it back to y'all for approval to designate her 12 as the Law Librarian, so I'm still the Law Librarian. If you 13 want to keep it that way, I'm more than happy to keep it. 14 However, we talked about it and budgeted for Robbin to take 15 it on come October 1st. 16 JUDGE POLLARD: Kind of burned a bridge there, 17 didn't you? 18 MS. STEBBINS: What's that? 19 JUDGE POLLARD: Well, kind of committed us if we 20 approved the budget, didn't we? For Robbin to do it, if it 21 was budgeted that way. 22 MS. STEBBINS: It was budgeted that way, but we -- 23 there was never an order changing it, and so it hasn't 24 been -- from what I understand, that hasn't been paid, 25 because she's not the librarian, and I am. 11-10-14 27 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I believe this came up because 2 there was some invoices that need to be paid. 3 MS. STEBBINS: There are invoices that need -- 4 well, they're coming through my office still. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So you're approving them? 6 MS. STEBBINS: Mm-hmm, we're still taking care of 7 business. 8 JUDGE POLLARD: Well, would it be appropriate, 9 then, to leave it like it is till we can get these bills 10 paid? 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, she can change it. I 12 think they've been paid. 13 MS. STEBBINS: They're getting paid, and they're 14 getting paid on time, and -- 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I haven't been -- I was not a 16 big fan of making the change, but we did agree to do it 17 during the budget, so I'll make a motion to approve this 18 change. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 20 JUDGE POLLARD: Any further discussion? There 21 being none, those in favor, signify by raising your right 22 hand. 23 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 24 JUDGE POLLARD: It's 4-0, unanimous. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So, we just got through 11-10-14 28 1 appointing Robbin officially? 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 3 MS. STEBBINS: Yes, sir. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You're no longer the 5 librarian. 6 MS. STEBBINS: I'm no longer the librarian. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Can you find a place to sit 8 down, please? (Laughter.) 9 MS. STEBBINS: Thank you, I can. 10 JUDGE POLLARD: Still not 9:30, is it, quite? 11 9:29. All right, we can't go to 1.10 or 11. 1.12; consider, 12 discuss, and take appropriate action approving request for 13 bids on naming rights at Hill Country Youth Event Center. 14 Mr. Letz and Mr. Reeves. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: As we discussed in some 16 previous meetings that we were going to go out for naming 17 rights, the purpose of this would primarily be to help cover 18 operations at the facility. During the -- here's a copy -- 19 past couple weeks, Bob and I have been working with Heather 20 and have come up with an RFP. It basically authorizes us to 21 go out for bids from any business, nonprofit, whatever, in 22 the area or not in the area. They're going to give us some 23 submittals back as to what they will pay for the naming 24 rights. It's a very open process. We're not saying how much 25 we want. We do say it has to be a minimum of a 10-year 11-10-14 29 1 period. We are giving the option of naming individual parts 2 of the facility or the entire facility, the individual parts 3 being the outdoor arena, indoor arena, event hall, show barn, 4 River Star, and then Meeting Room 1 in the event hall, 5 meeting room -- or the big event hall in the new -- the big 6 rooms in the new event hall. 7 There is a requirement that "youth" be retained in 8 portions of -- you know, I guess the entire facility has -- 9 it's required to use the word "youth" in it, or certain 10 portions of it. Like, if you were just doing, like, the show 11 barn, it could be the youth show barn, but it might not be 12 the youth outdoor arena. It's not a requirement that it has 13 to be used in everything. But if it's the entire facility, 14 it does have to be included. There's a lot of -- it's open. 15 It's pretty much to get people to submit their ideas, what 16 they're going to pay, and then the Court will negotiate with 17 those select ones that we want to talk with, and start 18 working with them and talking to them, see if we can get -- 19 come to an agreement. It really is an effort to see how much 20 interest is out there. And, you know -- 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So, are all those facilities 22 delineated in here? 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: There's an attachment that goes 24 with it. But they -- 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 11-10-14 30 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I believe they understand the 2 scope, too. Yeah. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: What -- and I know -- I think 6 I know the history of -- of it being the youth center, but 7 percentage wise, of time and days, to put that constraint on 8 it, do we limit the people that may want it to have to put 9 "youth" in there? Since, you know, I don't know that the 10 youth are the biggest users of that facility. I think 11 they're not. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think that it can always be 13 discussed later, but at this point, we felt it was 14 appropriate that -- that property was given to the county by 15 the U.S. government for the purpose of youth -- 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- activities. This Court has 18 always been very adamant that the primary uses, whether it be 19 the ball fields or other events, certainly other events are 20 used there, but youth has been an important part of it, and 21 we'd hate to lose that portion. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: The only reason I ask is, if 23 there's somebody that wants to make it, you know, "A-B-C 24 Company," you know, facility, or Kerr County Exhibit Center 25 or whatever, you know -- 11-10-14 31 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think, you know, the door is 2 open. I mean, Bob and I have talked a lot about this. There 3 -- you know, in my mind, there's some -- I wouldn't say 4 wiggle room, but there's some options that we could discuss 5 further. You could call it the youth show barn, the youth 6 event hall. "Youth" certainly has to be included, in my 7 mind, in some of the parts of it. And there has to be -- but 8 I don't see any reason to have River Star Youth -- River Star 9 Youth Park or something like that. I mean, so kind of look 10 at it. And it kind of depends; it's going to be a lot to do 11 with the individual entities that may want -- hopefully will 12 reply to this for the naming rights. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So, can the RFP say that 14 that's an option? Somebody may want to give, you know, a lot 15 more money if they can just name it what they want to, as 16 long as it's consistent with it's a Kerr County facility. 17 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I would like to see what it 18 says with the word "youth" in it. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I'm saying make it an option. 20 Give it an option. 21 COMMISSIONER REEVES: And I think the RFP will be 22 able to give us that option. I'm like Commissioner Letz; it 23 may not be the River Star Youth Park, but -- 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I would hope not. 25 JUDGE POLLARD: I'd like to see "youth" in it, too. 11-10-14 32 1 If you look back, I think it's on today's agenda to accept 2 another $250,000 from -- 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 4 JUDGE POLLARD: -- from the organization that has 5 really contributed -- other than the federal government, by 6 contributing the land, I guess that's the next biggest 7 contributor besides the county. And I -- I think it's 8 important, since the federal government had that purpose in 9 mind when they left us the land, I don't think we ever need 10 to forget what their original purpose was. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. 12 JUDGE POLLARD: Needs to be in there somewhere. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: All I was just saying is that 14 if it meant a -- could mean a lot more revenue to the County 15 to give somebody the option and let them, you know, 16 convince -- but I certainly agree, the bias ought to be 17 toward having "youth" in there. But not -- not close the 18 door on it. So, that's all I'm suggesting. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Letz, you have -- you can 20 negotiate with these partners. There's no such thing as a 21 low bidder or high bidder or anything of that kind of stuff 22 come into play. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's going to be real 24 interesting to see what bids we get in as to how we handle 25 them. I think it's contemplated that the bids are ranked, 11-10-14 33 1 but we -- it's really hard to know how -- what bids we're 2 going to receive and how we're going to accept them. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So we don't have a criteria by 4 which to select -- 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We have criteria to select 6 them, and it's in here. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What the requirements are. But 9 you just don't know; somebody may come up with a -- you know, 10 20,000 a year for 20 years. Somebody else may come up with 11 15,000 for 10. I mean, -- 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- if you get things like that, 14 it's -- and the other ones we have looked at, and this is 15 modeled after some other counties that have done similar 16 things on naming rights. They've left it very open, give a 17 lot of flexibility to the companies as to how they, you know, 18 want to proceed. We did break it out with a number of 19 smaller areas, like the outdoor arena, for example, trying to 20 encourage some of the smaller businesses to hopefully submit 21 bids as well. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 23 JUDGE POLLARD: I think that's a good idea. The 24 more participation from the businesses in the community, the 25 better it is. 11-10-14 34 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. But, for example, if -- 2 if James Avery Craftsman wants to do the entire facility, 3 well, then they could designate the name for each one. 4 MR. LEE: Wait till you see our numbers. 5 (Laughter.) 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But -- and so, I mean, if they 7 were an entity that wanted to name the whole thing, then they 8 could designate names. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Sure. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: For buildings as well. You can 11 kind of get a double bang. So -- 12 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I move for authorizing to go 13 out per the agenda item. 14 JUDGE POLLARD: As stated in the RF -- the proposed 15 RFP? 16 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Right. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll second, with a comment -- 18 change -- condition. 19 JUDGE POLLARD: All right, it's been moved and 20 seconded. What's your comment? 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The question is on the -- we 22 left the period to advertise open. I think we need to 23 designate that. I think we can go out, obviously, with the 24 form. The release date can be A.S.A.P. I don't have a real 25 good feel for how long we should leave it out there. The 11-10-14 35 1 ones that we've modeled this very closely after, I think 2 Potter County, they left it out for two weeks, which didn't 3 seem very long to me. 4 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Isn't there some statutory on 5 the advertising that we have to do? That's not normally -- 6 MS. STEBBINS: Minimum standards that we'll have to 7 do. But we -- I think that if we left it longer, I don't 8 think that we'd violate anything. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I would think we do it for a 10 month, and that seems like a reasonable amount of time to me, 11 especially going into this time of the year that we are. And 12 there are other -- there's another thing I need; it's in the 13 RFP. We need to clarify, so the Court knows. Because 14 public-backed bonds were used for construction of part of the 15 facility, there are limitations to the amount of money we can 16 receive for this purpose, and that's spelled out in the 17 agreement. You can't -- I guess the logic is that you 18 can't -- if the public was paying for the building through 19 tax-exempt bonds, a profit-making company can only put so 20 much on the table for the sake of naming rights. 21 MS. STEBBINS: I took that part out, because we 22 couldn't come up with the precise number. Yet it will be 23 better for us, as we pay some of the -- the bills that are 24 coming due, to know exactly what that number is that we can 25 break out into the -- 11-10-14 36 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Do we have language that 2 there -- is there a limitation? 3 MS. STEBBINS: No, but I can certainly go back and 4 put it in. And without a specific number, but just say that 5 there will be a requirement pursuant to the Internal Revenue 6 ruling. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think it would be better to 8 put that back into the agreement, that there will be a 9 limitation. 10 JUDGE POLLARD: Just to acknowledge that it exists. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 12 MS. STEBBINS: Okay. 13 JUDGE POLLARD: And we show -- if we violate it, at 14 least we show an intent to comply with it. Just before they 15 put us in jail. (Laughter.) Kind of mitigate that. All 16 right, is there any further discussion on the motion? There 17 being none, those in favor of the motion, signify by raising 18 your right hand. 19 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 20 JUDGE POLLARD: It's 4-0, unanimous. I think you 21 guys did a great job on that. Thank you very much. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I agree. It's going to be 23 interesting to watch that thing work through. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Very interesting. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I think a month is a good idea 11-10-14 37 1 too, 'cause I know there are companies thinking about it, and 2 it could be a big item for them, so they need -- 3 JUDGE POLLARD: Well, and it's a good time of the 4 year for this all to happen, and that's about just before the 5 first of the next year. I think it's a very good time. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think that the -- for the 7 Commissioners and anyone in the courthouse family, I think we 8 need to be very proactive in sending this to entities that we 9 can come up with. Some may not be locally based, such as 10 H.E.B. 11 JUDGE POLLARD: Edward Jones. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But, like, H.E.B. is an example 13 of -- you know, certainly has ties to the community. I'm 14 sure there's a lot of others that may -- may have an 15 interest. May not. One person recommended we ought to send 16 it to the U.S. Army, 'cause they name facilities. Sure, send 17 it to anybody. The more we can get back in, the better. 18 JUDGE POLLARD: All right, let's go back to Item 19 1.4 on the agenda, which is a timed item at 9:30. Consider, 20 discuss, and take appropriates action to approve economic 21 development agreement with James Avery Craftsman, Inc., 22 pursuant to Chapter 381 of the Local Government Code, and 23 authorize the County Judge to sign. And we have this 24 presentation, and then we may have to go into executive 25 session about it. This is Commissioner Moser's, I think. 11-10-14 38 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. Thank you, Judge. 2 JUDGE POLLARD: And Jonas Titas. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thank you, Judge. Let me just 4 say something before Jonas gives us a lot of detail on this. 5 This is another example of -- of what the K.E.D.C. and Jonas 6 in particular have done over a really fairly short period of 7 time, of seeing an opportunity and working with James Avery 8 very closely, and doing it very quietly. And I think it's 9 come to fruition that there's an opportunity here that 10 hopefully will benefit James Avery, and certainly benefit the 11 county and the city also, so -- with this facility they're 12 proposing. But some of this stuff, you know, has to be done 13 quietly, okay? Which it was done in this time, and it's now 14 time to bring it forward and make it public. So, Jonas? 15 MR. TITAS: Thank you. Well, I'll be very brief. 16 I just want to introduce George Lee and Paul Zipp 17 representing James Avery Craftsman. K.E.D.C. has been 18 working with representatives of the company for several 19 months now. Kerrville was originally one of three areas 20 considered for a potential expansion, and with that, I think 21 we're very close to having a nice substantial investment in 22 our community. So, with that, I'll turn it over. 23 MR. ZIPP: Commissioners, my name's Paul Zipp. I 24 am the C.F.O. for James Avery Craftsman, and I'm a recent 25 addition to the James Avery Craftsman family. I've been here 11-10-14 39 1 just a little over two years. George Lee, who is my cohort 2 over here, has been here about ten-fold on top of that, so a 3 little bit of a different perspective. But we're very 4 pleased this morning to -- and appreciate your time and 5 opportunity to present to you guys -- I don't know if y'all 6 can see the screens, if y'all can follow along up there. 7 I'll make reference to it, so hopefully we'll make some 8 sense. If you'll advance to the next slide, I'd appreciate 9 it. 10 I just want to take an opportunity, one, to thank 11 Jonas and the folks at K.E.D.C., as well as some of the other 12 representatives from the community that we've met with. And 13 hopefully this will give you a picture of where we're coming 14 from as a company. But as we -- as we consider what we're 15 asking the Commissioners to think about, I want to not 16 presuppose that you guys have an understanding of our 17 history. So, we've been around -- we actually celebrated our 18 60th anniversary this year; in August we went over 60 years. 19 And started in a two-car garage just off Harper Road up there 20 on the northwest side of town, and has grown into a fairly 21 sizable operation. Our first store, which we will actually 22 be decommissioning this week, was open in 1968, and we will 23 be opening a brand new store this Thursday, or probably -- 24 yeah, this Thursday, on the 14th. 25 Very excited about that and the opportunity that 11-10-14 40 1 presents, both for us as a company, as well as the community 2 as a whole. We started expanding in the Dallas area in the 3 early '70's, and then have since expanded -- you know, spread 4 out from our corporate headquarters located there on the 5 north side of town on about 40 acres, little over, to around 6 2,000 employees company-wide across 10 different states. And 7 as you guys know well, the Avery family has -- has owned and 8 operated and kind of managed and guided the company since its 9 inception, with Mr. Avery having handed the reins as to daily 10 operations and responsibilities over to his sons, Paul and 11 Chris. If you'd advance to the next slide? Very good. 12 Well, there's a whole lot that happens here in Kerr 13 County. We'd like to talk about being vertically integrated, 14 which is not just a retailer of our goods, but also the 15 conceptual design, the actual crafting and the making and the 16 forming and shaping of those pieces starts here in Kerr 17 County and Kerrville, and with our design studio. And our 18 product launch, product development operations are located 19 over there off Harper Road, and then gets spread amongst our 20 five manufacturing facilities that are spread across the hill 21 country; Fredericksburg, two in Comfort, Hondo, and as well 22 as our facility in Kerrville. In addition to that -- you may 23 not know this, and just one of those interesting tidbits 24 about how vertically integrated we are, our Kerrville-based 25 wood shop actually produces the majority of the cases and the 11-10-14 41 1 propping that goes into our 70-plus retail stores that are 2 spread across the country. If you'd move on to the next 3 slide, please? There we go. 4 We actually have 70 stores across 10 states 5 presently, as well as operating a call center just over off 6 Coronado on the west side of town. From there, we service 7 our phone-in customers, our catalog customers, as well as 8 answer any questions that may come up from consumers that are 9 reaching us through JamesAvery.com. We've seen a good bit of 10 expansion, and that has -- has started to push the need for 11 us to need to have more space. A lot of that, though, as you 12 think about it, is a funnel. Everything comes through from 13 our manufacturing facilities to our centralized distribution 14 point here in Kerrville, and then out to all of our 15 customers. So, from the standpoint of Kerrville touching the 16 hill country -- touching our customers in the hill country, 17 both from a design concept all the way to our customer 18 service and how we go about servicing those customers to make 19 them feel wanted and appreciated, to meet their needs, starts 20 here, and we're very proud. 21 Actually, earlier this past month, in October, we 22 entered into -- or kind of culminated an arrangement with 23 Dillard's Department Stores based out of Little Rock, 24 Arkansas, to start selling our product in 43 of their stores, 25 as well as their website, to give us some expanded 11-10-14 42 1 distribution to try and grow our brand, and for folks to come 2 in contact with our product. We're excited about that. We 3 think they present a great differentiator to get us into some 4 markets that we're not presently in, and we look forward to 5 growing with them as well. If you would move to the next 6 slide? The other thing -- I don't want to -- 7 JUDGE POLLARD: Does that mean that you can't have 8 an Avery store in the same shopping center with a Dillard's? 9 MR. ZIPP: No. No, it's more along the lines of 10 they have stores in states and areas that might not be as 11 easy for us to get traction in. So, they have a number of 12 stores, for instance, in Florida, 80-some-odd stores there, 13 and it's easier to leverage their investment already to see 14 if there's a ready market, and then the intent would be for 15 us to try and expand there later. 16 JUDGE POLLARD: Right. 17 MR. ZIPP: There's other markets that may not be as 18 desirable for us from a labor perspective that we might want 19 to avoid. 20 MR. LEE: That's actually our intent, is to be in 21 the same malls, 'cause there's many stores that have their 22 own store there in the mall, as well as inside another store. 23 When you look at Coach, Michael Kors, a lot of them have 24 their own stores, and that -- it runs kind of contradictory 25 to what you would think, but it really helps build the brand. 11-10-14 43 1 MR. ZIPP: Yeah. The opportunity's there as people 2 who are not familiar with James Avery as a brand come across 3 us in a brand they are familiar with, and in this case, 4 Dillard's. They come across the brand, they start 5 experiencing the jewelry, and they like it, and find out, 6 guess what? If you want the full assortment, it's a few 7 doors down in the other end of the mall, or maybe across the 8 parking lot in an adjacent facility. So, it's a neat 9 opportunity from that perspective, and actually does kind of 10 get back to our roots. We kind of started out in the 11 wholesale arrangement when Mr. Avery first got started, 12 teaming the with local distributors, local jewelers. Then we 13 moved towards our own retail stores, and now we're going back 14 into the wholesale model to help us expand. And then the 15 intent is to then grow our retail footprint, continue to grow 16 that. 17 I also want to just bring to the Commissioners' 18 attention, there is a certain amount of payback and 19 commitment we have, certainly, to the community. And there's 20 some examples that are on the screen right now that just 21 demonstrate our long-term commitment across the broad 22 spectrum of different areas of -- of positive impact, we 23 believe. And where we have focused our attention primarily 24 is certainly arts and culture, education, health care, 25 disaster relief, faith-based organizations, then also taking 11-10-14 44 1 care of the environment and encouraging that, and making sure 2 we act in an environmentally friendly manner, and that our 3 packaging follows suit. And I know that many of you guys are 4 aware, it wasn't actually in Kerr County; our most recent 5 expansion, though, is with the Boys and Girls Club for 6 Comfort, expanding their facilities there. So, a desire and 7 a -- if you will, an ethics. We believe we want to effect 8 positive change in the communities where we work and where we 9 live so that we have an opportunity to benefit a greater 10 populous from that standpoint. 11 Looking up here, I just want to give you guys some 12 perspective on the size here, and Kerrville actually 13 represents a pretty good chunk of our total employee head 14 count, as far as those that are working here. Certainly, 15 some of these folks could be commuting to some of the other 16 facilities. But as you look at the payroll up there, it 17 shows a pretty good investment that the company makes into 18 the local community, with a little over 40 percent of our 19 total payroll average coming into Kerrville specifically. If 20 you start looking at Kerr County, it actually expands a 21 little bit. But I want to give that perspective to see the 22 investment that the company has made. And, certainly, there 23 would be a little bit different landscape here if Mr. Avery 24 hadn't taken his designs and his ideas and started the 25 investment that he did in the local community 60 years ago. 11-10-14 45 1 And we're all, as members of the James Avery family, very 2 thankful that he took that step, and stepped out there, and 3 that his designs were so well received. We've been able to 4 make a sizable investment in the community, as well as in the 5 lives of the employees that have worked with us for so long. 6 But if you'll notice there, our total -- back one 7 slide, please. If you'll look at the total there, our 8 Kerrville manufacturing square footage is actually only about 9 15 percent of the total. And Mr. Lee will be talking to you 10 here in just a little bit. We're needing to expand on that. 11 But there are some other benefits, seasonal hiring and 12 whatnot that we get to experience, and Kerrville and Kerr 13 County gets the benefit of having some seasonal employment 14 for its residents. The recent expansion we talked about 15 already. The retail store, that new retail store and 16 visitors center that we believe is going to be a destination 17 spot for many who are coming into the Hill Country. If you 18 haven't had a chance to drive by the campus recently, I'd 19 encourage you to do so. The actual facility will be open, 20 like I said, later this week on the 14th. And there is 21 almost a museum quality visitors center there to kind of help 22 folks come in contact with our origins and kind of where we 23 started from. 24 And it also is going to reflect our newer store 25 concepts, some of the new ideas in presentation of the 11-10-14 46 1 products. We believe this will be an attraction for many of 2 the tourists that come through the Hill Country, as well as 3 many opportunities for folks who are unfamiliar with the 4 brand to be drawn here by folks when they come to visit, 5 those who would come here and travel to the Hill Country 6 area, specifically in the Kerrville area. So, we see a lot 7 of opportunities there. We are expanding from an overall 8 process standpoint into expanding our human resources 9 building, which doesn't sound like an exciting opportunity, 10 but it demonstrates that we have a need to meet the needs of 11 our employees, and we are going to continue to expand that. 12 So, I want to just give you guys some flavor of some of the 13 expansion projects that we've already embarked on of our own 14 accord. There's some numbers up there for you guys to see 15 the level of investment just over the past three years that 16 we have completed on our own. With that, I'll hand it over 17 to George to talk a little bit about the specifics of 18 expansion. 19 MR. LEE: Good morning. I'm George Lee. I'm 20 Senior Vice President over manufacturing and strategic 21 planning for the company. And like Paul said, I've been with 22 the company for 22 years, lived here, raised my kids here, 23 and so I love Kerrville and Kerr County, and same with the 24 company. We -- we have not been here before asking for this, 25 but, you know, we've been in the community 60 years, and 11-10-14 47 1 helping provide -- and so we're proud of that. And so this 2 is our hometown. So -- but we do have a business issue 3 sitting in front of us with what we need to do. As Paul 4 alluded to, we have almost doubled our production in the last 5 four years. Most people do not realize how fast we've -- 6 we've grown, and we are about to reach our capacity. We have 7 five different production facilities. And so, obviously, we 8 would like to expand here in Kerrville. And so you can just 9 see that on the chart, how -- how fast we've been going these 10 last few years. We've been growing, both our own stores -- 11 and most of that growth has been within our own stores. We 12 hope, going out into the future, the Dillard's thing does 13 real well, but just our organic growth and our store growth 14 has been tremendous, so we're very thankful and blessed for 15 that. 16 JUDGE POLLARD: Any observations, George, on why 17 the expansion was chosen to be in Kerr County rather than 18 somewhere else? 19 MR. LEE: Yes. Actually, we have our distribution 20 center -- all of our jewelry comes into one distribution 21 center, okay? This is going to be, by far, our largest 22 facility, and so to pair that up in proximity, to get it 23 close, it just makes sense to do that. And also, where we 24 look to put it, we -- if we outgrow our distribution center, 25 then we also have some acreage to -- to build on, to expand 11-10-14 48 1 our distribution center. So, it's trying to pair those two 2 up. And, also, we have -- right now, Kerrville, we have 3 wonderful employees here. One of the issues is we are in six 4 different buildings, okay? From a manufacturing efficiency 5 standpoint, that's not good, okay. You -- you're trying to 6 manage and get product flow within different facilities, and 7 that creates a problem. So, what we'd like to do is -- is to 8 re-purpose those six buildings that we currently have on our 9 campus for the other purposes, and I'll show you that in a 10 minute. But getting it all under one roof makes sense. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Mm-hmm. 12 MR. LEE: So, that's really the driving force 13 behind it. It's not that we couldn't go someplace else, but 14 we would rather -- rather be here, here at home. So, okay, 15 here's -- here's the painful part. This is an estimated cost 16 of almost $15 million for this building. As you can see, the 17 building itself is about 7.8 million. We have site 18 development of 1.92 million, and equipment purchases of about 19 4 million. So, it is a -- in the history of our company, the 20 largest investment we'll have ever done. So, it's -- it is 21 very big for us, okay. But over six years, we plan to add -- 22 this is incremental -- about 360 jobs here, here at home, and 23 that's about 31 million in payroll a year. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So, you're currently at 2,000, 25 and so that would be an increase of 359 over your current 11-10-14 49 1 2,000; is that -- is that correct? 2 MR. LEE: Yes, but -- 3 JUDGE POLLARD: That's a big percentage increase. 4 MR. LEE: But that 2,000 includes corporate retail 5 stores. 6 JUDGE POLLARD: Yeah, I understand. 7 MR. LEE: Everything in terms of manufacturing, 8 it's -- it's -- 9 JUDGE POLLARD: Probably about another -- more than 10 a third. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 12 MR. LEE: Okay. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Wow. Okay. 14 MR. LEE: Yeah. And as you see down there in the 15 green, we expect to triple the production here in Kerrville 16 of what they can currently do, okay? And we're going to 17 expand the square footage to 53,600 square feet. So -- but 18 we need it. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Good. 20 MR. LEE: Yeah. Next slide, please. There's a 21 picture of kind of the front side. Just to give you an idea 22 how large that is, that -- that center portion going through 23 there is the size of a football field. 24 MR. ZIPP: Including the end zones. 25 MR. LEE: Yeah, including the end zones. So, it is 11-10-14 50 1 big. And, you know, it's one of those things, when you 2 expand that big, we're spending a lot of time on -- on making 3 sure it's a place that people want to work, you know, and 4 making it look nice. If you've been out to our campus, it's 5 a very nice, esthetically pleasing place to work. We're 6 putting a lot of effort to make sure that we maintain that 7 here, because that's part of who we are and what we do. So, 8 if you can go to the next one, this is from the back. You 9 can see where employees will be able to come out and have 10 breaks and lunches, and -- and a nice walking area around -- 11 around the facility. And not just where you see the white, 12 but actually going back will be trails and that sort of 13 stuff. Go ahead -- back. Back. Trying to get natural 14 lighting in. You can see across the top, you know, with the 15 expansion of the roof, trying to pull in natural lighting 16 through there. 17 Okay, here's kind of where it sits on the piece of 18 property. We are looking at them across from the airport. 19 You can -- the black line going around it's kind of offset. 20 You need to scoot that over to the right a little bit. 21 But -- so when you -- you drive by on Highway 27, you know, 22 it will be sitting off to the back. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. Where's Highway 27 on 24 that, just in general? 25 MR. LEE: Right here. 11-10-14 51 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay, got you. 2 MR. LEE: So the airport's over here. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, okay. 4 MR. LEE: You got the river -- see the river going 5 on the other side? 6 JUDGE POLLARD: You're going to have maybe a 7 quarter mile of highway frontage there? 8 MR. LEE: Probably. TexDOT's giving us one in and 9 out, because it's a 55 mile-an-hour -- or because of the 10 speed limit, we got one in and out, which we have to deal 11 with it. But -- so we've been working with TexDOT to -- part 12 of the cost is actually building a slow -- I forgot what they 13 technically call it, the lane to slow down, but actually -- 14 MR. ZIPP: Deceleration. 15 MR. LEE: Deceleration, there you go. Off to the 16 side, so that people coming in can make a turn, that sort of 17 thing. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Where is the property in 19 relation to the other buildings that are across from there? 20 MR. LEE: You know where Fox Tank is, to the right? 21 If you're standing on 27, Fox Tank is on the right. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: To the east -- 23 MR. ZIPP: West of -- 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: West of Fox Tank. 25 JUDGE POLLARD: There's a few locations of Fox 11-10-14 52 1 Tank. Which one are you talking about? 2 MR. TITAS: The new one. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: You got the airport right 4 behind you, Fox Tank in front of you. 5 MR. TITAS: There's a big Centennial Bank sign -- 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Towards the old central. 7 MR. LEE: We've looked at places. You know, this 8 -- this design and layout is portable. It's one of the 9 things we looked at in different properties, but this is 10 our -- this is our front runner. 11 JUDGE POLLARD: Well, and it's also on a main 12 access highway into -- into the city of Kerrville. It's 13 going to have a lot of exposure there. That's a great 14 location for you. 15 MR. LEE: That's what we hope. So -- 16 JUDGE POLLARD: Yeah. 17 MR. ZIPP: Kind of counting on that. 18 MR. LEE: We're putting lots on it. One of the big 19 things is whether we think -- does Kerrville have the labor? 20 360 people is a lot of people, and we don't plan on, the day 21 we open up, having 360. We have to train everyone, and it 22 takes us a while to get that going, but we hope in a couple 23 years that we have it fully up and running. And right now, 24 we are maxed out in our capacity of our other plants. Every 25 nook and cranny and bench we can get in there, we have going. 11-10-14 53 1 So -- so, anyways, we're looking forward to that. Here's the 2 inside of the building. It probably doesn't mean a lot; 3 looks like a bunch of squiggles from where you're sitting, 4 but to us in manufacturing, it's a big deal. So, it's -- the 5 product flows from left to right. What's interesting about 6 this is we've taken our other plants, and this should be our 7 most efficient plant that we have. We'd like to go back and 8 retro some of our other plants. 9 We've learned a lot, what we do in terms of putting 10 up walls and that sort of thing. You can see this is a kind 11 of an open air system in there. We want to have some -- some 12 visual breaks to make it esthetically pleasing inside, but 13 basically for production, it should flow very nicely. So, 14 okay. Like I said, room to grow. The property we're looking 15 at is 29, almost 30 acres. There's a potential for expanded 16 distribution and shipping centers, as I mentioned, or other 17 operations that we may need to put up there. If you saw it 18 on the property, there's still a lot of property up on the 19 front side that we may be able to build. And -- 20 JUDGE POLLARD: A portion of that property is in 21 the city right along the highway, and the rest of it's just 22 out in the county; is that right? 23 MR. ZIPP: Yes, sir. We're in the process of 24 working with the City on an annexation agreement to be able 25 to bring the entire property into the city. 11-10-14 54 1 MR. LEE: Yeah. The purpose is for reuse of the 2 six buildings that we have, 'cause it's -- the impact on the 3 county is not going to be just the facilities there. We -- 4 we plan on taking those six buildings that we have, and we're 5 going to expand our product development area. That's part of 6 our manufacturing process, and we need to -- we're going to 7 have a mini production facility out there just for product 8 development, testing and all those types of things, working 9 with our designers. Also, a corporate training center to be 10 able to work on training people in the company, relocation of 11 manufacturing technology. We have a whole technology 12 division in manufacturing, and we need to -- we want to put 13 them with our product development people. So, right now it's 14 located in Comfort, and we'd like to move that up in one of 15 the buildings. Relocation of technical maintenance; that's 16 currently in Comfort as well. We would like to move that up 17 into Kerrville. They need more space; they're out of room. 18 Relocation of chain making, expand distribution center, 19 moving within Kerrville from Coronado. We have some offices. 20 I don't know that, as you go down the page, except for the 21 last one, those last two or three, I'm not sure if we'll do 22 those or not, but we're looking at that right now, 'cause I'm 23 not sure of the full footprint of the product development and 24 technology that's going to be coming over there. So, we also 25 look at doing a vocational jewelry-making for students from 11-10-14 55 1 Kerrville, to be able to work with them and show them a 2 career path with us, and so we would love to do that. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Are you currently doing -- 4 have a program in that? 5 MR. LEE: No, we don't. We don't currently. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's fantastic. 7 MR. LEE: Yeah. But we would -- it's something 8 that we feel strongly about. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Great. 10 MR. LEE: He's the money part; I'll give it back to 11 Paul. 12 MR. ZIPP: I think -- hopefully, you guys have -- 13 have caught a feel for the vision of what we're hoping to 14 accomplish with this expansion. Through the 381 process, we 15 are asking for the County to consider entering into an 16 abatement -- tax abatement agreement for this investment over 17 a five-year period from when we kind of open the doors, 18 'cause it's about a -- a 24-month build. Construction time 19 frame is -- what we understand is, we're hoping that around 20 July-August of 2016, we'll have -- be open for business at 21 the new location. But working with Jonas, and the folks at 22 E.D.C. have worked through the process, we just ask you guys 23 to please consider that. We think it's a positive investment 24 in the overall scheme of the county and the community. 25 Certainly, James Avery, we feel, can look back at the 11-10-14 56 1 heritage that we've been given and the stewardship. We're 2 responsible for carrying forward Mr. Avery's -- kind of his 3 vision for how he wanted to do things, and we believe that 4 this is a -- an assist for us, certainly, in the process. We 5 believe that there's a significant impact that we already 6 make in a positive way to the community. Just want to thank 7 you guys for the opportunity to come and present to you this 8 morning. We're very excited about the possibilities for the 9 Kerrville area, and specifically for the jobs that will be 10 created in addition to the tax revenue and whatnot, but 11 really to present some opportunities for folks here in the 12 community to have a long-term career with a great job. 13 That's what I know I'm looking forward to, personally. So, 14 thank you guys for your time. I don't know if there are any 15 questions. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I have one. How many 17 employees -- new employees? 18 MR. LEE: 356 -- or 59. 19 MR. ZIPP: 59. About 360. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Is it 59 or 56? 21 MR. ZIPP: 59. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'm kidding. 23 MR. LEE: We are -- you haven't seen our jewelry 24 being made, but we use a lot of labor. We have craftsmen, 25 and that's why we spend a lot in training of our employees. 11-10-14 57 1 And, I mean, that's what we do. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Not many robots. 3 MR. LEE: We have no robots. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: What's your status on the land 5 itself, the purchase thereof? 6 MR. ZIPP: On the purchase of the land, we are -- 7 have just about completed our feasibility study that we've 8 been conducting in conjunction with the current owners, and 9 we have a board meeting later this week that is set to 10 approve the purchase of that land. Which is really one of 11 the final hurdles we have. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 13 MR. ZIPP: We look to have that secured. I don't 14 want to be too -- too presumptuous with the holidays coming 15 on, but I'd like to get some of this laid down before we get 16 -- get into December, just so we can nail that piece down, 17 and gives us flexibility, and we can work through the rest of 18 that internally. Hopefully over the next couple weeks, we'll 19 have that wrapped up. 20 MR. TITAS: Can I add something real quick? We 21 also forwarded in the packet last -- late last week an 22 economic impact report that was conducted by a third party, 23 and demonstrated the profound impact that a project like this 24 could have. The Kerrville/Kerr County estimated revenues 25 over 10 years to the county are about $1.3 million when you 11-10-14 58 1 add in a lot of indirect activities associated with new 2 employees moving to the area; increased shopping, so forth. 3 So, it could have a profound impact on the county. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. I think you mentioned, 5 Jonas, that it was like 1.3; then when you look at -- 6 MR. TITAS: 1.2 or 3. 7 JUDGE POLLARD: Comes out 1.2 net. 8 MR. TITAS: Correct. That was based on -- 9 actually, over the weekend, the capital investment in 10 machinery went up about three-quarters of a million dollars, 11 based on just internal, I think, computations that company 12 did, so that all would be factored -- factored in. Yeah, and 13 gas line extensions. You know, so there's more things being 14 added to the project as we go through -- as we go through the 15 process. So -- and that will only increase the value of -- 16 of the investments in the area. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: This abatement request is for 19 100 percent of the property tax for those five years? 20 MR. ZIPP: Yes. 21 MR. TITAS: Yes. It's same as what we did with 22 Bending Branch. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I didn't catch that. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The property tax abatement is 25 100 percent of the new property tax value that they'll be 11-10-14 59 1 bringing in. 2 MR. TITAS: Only on new -- new improvements to 3 property. Can't take the land or anything that's presently 4 on the tax rolls off the tax rolls. It's only -- 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And for how long? 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Five years. 7 MR. LEE: Five years. 8 MR. ZIPP: The number that's up there does 9 contemplate the full site work. We realize -- Jonas and I 10 have talked about it. We're so preliminary right now, 11 there's going to be elements of that that will be less than 12 what we pulled out of the bucket, but I wanted to present -- 13 MR. TITAS: Things like landscaping and parking 14 improvements. Some of these do apply; some of those do not, 15 for example. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And, Jonas, go back to your 17 1.3 million. That's over what period? 18 MR. TITAS: That's over 10 years. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Ten years. And the tax 20 abatement -- 21 MR. TITAS: Would be five. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: -- for five years. And what 23 would that total tax abatement be? 24 MR. TITAS: It's 277 base, but some of that may -- 25 that's -- 11-10-14 60 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's just the -- 2 MR. TITAS: Some of that will not be eligible. A 3 large portion of it will. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. So -- so, about 1.3 5 million gross to the -- to the county. Tax abatement 6 somewhere in the neighborhood of 280,000, just rounded, okay, 7 over -- over that same period. 8 MR. TITAS: Correct. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's over five years? 10 MR. TITAS: Correct. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And you're not requesting any 13 abatement on the additional -- current campus on any of the 14 work that's been done? 15 MR. ZIPP: No, sir. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Only on the new facility. 17 MR. ZIPP: We're not asking at the present time, 18 unless you're offering it. 19 MR. LEE: We will take it. 20 MR. ZIPP: No, sir, we're only contemplating the 21 expansion component. 22 MR. LEE: That's -- you know, you think about it. 23 Over five years, I mean, there -- with this investment of 24 ours, it's not going to be up and profitable for us -- by the 25 time we get the employees in training, it's going to be a 11-10-14 61 1 period of time before we actually start -- 2 JUDGE POLLARD: Probably close to the five years. 3 MR. ZIPP: Hopefully it goes quickly. We plan on 4 that. This is an investment in the future, and so -- but 5 yeah, just from a practical standpoint -- 6 JUDGE POLLARD: Not only for the company, but for 7 Kerr County. 8 MR. ZIPP: Absolutely. Well, and I will say that, 9 you know, what's opening on the 14th is -- is something, as 10 an example, where we -- we haven't come and asked for that 11 kind of assistance, certainly, 'cause we look at that one as 12 already kind of established. But I would say that is going 13 to help pay for some of this as well, as we -- we're through, 14 not only the property tax, but some of the indirect benefits 15 that will be brought in from outside money, if you will. 16 Outside -- the folks outside of Kerr County coming to visit. 17 So, we're excited for that. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So, if it's -- so, bottom 19 line, net 1.2 million over 10 years; tax abatement of 280,000 20 over five years, and it's all for the 381. Counselor, that's 21 all within our capability to proceed with that? 22 MS. STEBBINS: Sure. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, okay. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think it's a -- I mean, it's 25 fantastic that James Avery is making this new investment into 11-10-14 62 1 Kerrville and Kerr County. I think they've been a model 2 citizen forever, and I go back to probably when I was -- 3 first became a Commissioner way, way back when. I'll never 4 forget when Mr. Avery made the comment to me at some function 5 on economic development; he goes, "It's great that y'all are 6 trying to bring in new businesses, but remember to take care 7 of those that make Kerrville Kerrville." Such as Mooney, 8 such as L.D. Brinkman Corporation, such as James Avery. And 9 over all the years, that's the first time I believe you've 10 come for any kind of assistance, through all the investments 11 you've made, so I think it's fantastic. I certainly support 12 it. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: One other thing, too, that 14 just the brand of James Avery; I can talk to people all over 15 the United States, you know, that has James Avery jewelry, 16 and they know about Kerrville from that, and the type of 17 industry that you're in and the type of employees that you 18 have. 19 MR. ZIPP: Yes, sir. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: It's to be commended. 21 MR. LEE: Thank you. 22 MR. ZIPP: We'll accept your gratitude on behalf of 23 those who've actually made it happen. And there's a whole 24 lot of folks from -- like we said, from the design concept 25 all the way to the execution, and many -- there's many hands 11-10-14 63 1 that touch it. And that's one of the, I guess, fun parts 2 where we get a chance to impart that meaning to somebody 3 else. But it starts with a great idea, and I'll tell you 4 that the Kerrville area and the Hill Country have had a lot 5 of inspiration of many of the pieces over the years. 6 MR. LEE: It shows up in our product. People see 7 it. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So, let me ask you another 9 question. So you hope to have the land deal this month, 10 okay. I know you've been to E.I.C. I don't know what -- 11 just exactly where you are with E.I.C. and the City and so 12 forth. So, it -- help me understand what your schedule is. 13 And let's just say that the County says, "Yea, verily." What 14 are the next steps, and we get across the goal line? 15 MR. LEE: To jump way to the end, -- 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. 17 MR. LEE: -- we hope the have the thing open 18 May-June of '16. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 20 MR. LEE: Okay. So, it's going to be a year and a 21 half. We probably won't break ground for five or six months 22 from now, and we still -- we still have some challenges here 23 in front of us. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So, what are the hurdles? 25 What other commitments do you have to have made to say, 11-10-14 64 1 "We're good to go"? 2 MR. ZIPP: We're in the process right now of 3 working with the City on the permitting and zoning and things 4 of that nature. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 6 MR. ZIPP: From that standpoint, there's public 7 hearings and whatnot, readings that have to be done in order 8 for the annexation/rezoning to move forward. We believe 9 those will be wrapped up in the January time frame. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Mm-hmm. 11 MR. ZIPP: And then beyond that, the remainder of 12 the time that George was alluding to have to do with taking 13 that concept drawing and creating what would be a functional, 14 if you will, build detail to then submit for an RFP for 15 construction companies to come back and tell us -- respond. 16 Our architects are kind of telling us three to four months 17 total, and that puts us about in the March time frame before 18 we would actually be able to award that contract and begin to 19 physically break ground on the site. 20 MR. TITAS: And also, we're going to have a local 21 architectural firm here. 22 MR. ZIPP: Right, the A3 Studio here in Kerrville. 23 MR. LEE: But another big piece in that, we have a 24 board meeting this week where we're going to -- where we're 25 going to walk through the project, and just -- to be honest, 11-10-14 65 1 we're kind of counting on this when we put a pencil to the 2 cost of this thing. You can imagine, this is the biggest 3 project we've done. And we presented it to them back in 4 July, that we were going to do it, but we weren't expecting 5 something of this magnitude. What drove it to this magnitude 6 was the labor availability. We were concerned that there 7 would not be the labor in this area to be able to function, 8 so we're stepping out -- 9 JUDGE POLLARD: Glad you're addressing that. That 10 was one of my concerns. 11 MR. LEE: Yeah. We're stepping out in this, that 12 the labor's going to be here. So, we're going to have to 13 prove that along with convincing the board that it's worth 14 $15 million to be able to do that. So, we're -- 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I know that Jonas has some 16 pretty good statistics on labor availability. 17 MR. LEE: He's been key in getting that done. He's 18 been walking us through the process. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 20 MR. LEE: If we're going to put any kind of money 21 into it, that the people will come. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 23 MR. LEE: And so that's really helped us, and we 24 appreciate his help in that. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So -- so, with that, as -- you 11-10-14 66 1 know, you have to convince yourself that that's true. So, if 2 the County says "Yea, verily" on this tax abatement, do we 3 need to go into executive session to -- 4 COMMISSIONER REEVES: We may need to, but I do have 5 a question. I don't know which one may could answer. What 6 did you say, roughly 360 new employees? 7 MR. LEE: Correct. 8 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Substantial increase to the 9 annual payroll. What does that equate to in an hour -- a 10 monthly wage that the new employees would be making? 11 MR. TITAS: $15 an hour. 12 MR. ZIPP: On average. 13 MR. LEE: And in that calculation, it's not moving 14 our technology department or any -- our technical maintenance 15 and those guys. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Into Kerr County? 17 MR. LEE: Which would -- that's our plans. Or 18 anything having to do with the re-purposing of the six 19 buildings out there. 20 MR. ZIPP: There is some of that that would 21 potentially increase. I mean, just -- we have to respond to 22 market conditions from a labor perspective, so that's based 23 on what we know today. Certainly, those numbers could 24 adjust, and they're not going to be lower. So, I would 25 expect them to move higher as we go forward. 11-10-14 67 1 MR. LEE: And that figure does not include the 2 benefits that we provide, which we've always been proud of 3 our benefits to our employees. 4 MR. ZIPP: There should have been a summary of the 5 benefits that are available in the package that was provided. 6 As George alluded to, we feel -- put it this way; that is one 7 of the main focuses us of our board meeting on Thursday, and 8 we feel very confident that we offer a not -- not 9 competitive, but a compelling benefit offering to those who 10 come to work for us. 11 JUDGE POLLARD: I'd like to address a question, 12 then, to the County Attorney, if I could. We're obviously in 13 a situation where it's not final yet. 14 MS. STEBBINS: Oh, no. 15 JUDGE POLLARD: So, if anything is passed today by 16 the Commissioners Court, it's going to have to be contingent 17 upon that plan that -- Avery's plan going into effect. 18 MS. STEBBINS: I didn't draft an agreement. I got 19 this at the same time you guys did last week, so there hasn't 20 been time to draft an agreement. 21 MR. TITAS: There's some detail work to be done, 22 and I think what everyone is asking today is just for 23 approval to move forward with the contract and bring it back 24 to you in approximately a month or so. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So, I'll make a motion that we 11-10-14 68 1 entertain a proposal from James Avery for the plans as 2 they've delineated here today, and that once we receive that, 3 then the County Attorney can take a look at that and 4 Commissioners Court can take appropriate action. So, that's 5 my motion. 6 JUDGE POLLARD: Is there a second? 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll second, but I -- I mean, 8 generally, these type of things, I prefer to go into 9 executive session to discuss it a little bit. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: You know, before we take a vote 12 on it. But I think -- yeah, I mean, conceptually, I'm very 13 much in favor of the project. The numbers look reasonable, 14 abatement looks reasonable. But it's hard to -- I don't want 15 to get too far -- I know y'all need something from us, or 16 would like something from us, firm. But at the same time, 17 it's hard to give something real firm when we don't have a 18 lot of detail. 19 JUDGE POLLARD: The finality of the transaction. 20 MR. TITAS: Right. 21 MR. LEE: Right. And what we're trying do is get 22 to the final cost on this project. So, probably one -- as we 23 go forward and discussing it, we're going to go as if knowing 24 that you're not bound by it, but to -- to put it into our 25 proposals that we show, thinking that once it's there, seeing 11-10-14 69 1 you-all's agreement with it in concept is going to -- 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I think you just said the key 3 word. We're in a -- conceptually, you could look at us being 4 in the concept phase, Phase 2, so two concepts together, 5 okay? 6 MR. LEE: You know, we didn't think we were walking 7 out with a check, so don't worry about that. 8 MR. ZIPP: No, not by far. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 10 JUDGE POLLARD: I think you've had an expression 11 from a number of the Commissioners here, and I'd like to also 12 express my -- my opinion on it. I think it's a -- a great 13 project, and I'd like to go back and say that Mr. Avery has 14 -- and his family and the Avery Company have always been very 15 civic-minded and very loyal to this community. They've 16 always -- Mr. Avery and his family's always been there when 17 there's some kind of a charitable thing that they need to 18 contribute to, and they've always -- always been there for 19 us. I'd also like to say that practicing law for 47 years in 20 this community, I've had a lot of contact with people that 21 worked for James Avery, and everybody loves it. I mean, they 22 have break periods for their employees. They treat the 23 employees right. They have good retirement programs. They 24 have a good insurance program. It's a great place to work, 25 and people fight over trying to work there. I mean, it's 11-10-14 70 1 competitive. That's a great thing to have. That's a great 2 reputation to have, and -- and I appreciate it. And I'm very 3 much in favor of approving this when the time comes, as soon 4 as we get all these little things out of the way. 5 MR. LEE: I appreciate that, and I'll carry your 6 sentiments back. 7 MR. ZIPP: Thank you. 8 JUDGE POLLARD: Especially say hello to Mr. Jim. 9 MR. LEE: I'll do that. 10 JUDGE POLLARD: By the way, 60 years ago when he 11 first started this. He's getting up in years now. 12 MR. LEE: He is, but he's still -- he's still 13 coming in and -- 14 JUDGE POLLARD: I know. He's a health and fitness 15 nut. He works out a lot. 16 MR. LEE: Yeah. 17 JUDGE POLLARD: He's a great guy. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I was going to say exactly 19 the same thing, but it's just like a lawyer to steal your 20 speech. (Laughter.) The -- you know, I remember -- almost 21 remember day one with James Avery in Kerrville, and how he -- 22 I'd run around with his family and all that. And I hope 23 everybody makes gazillions of dollars out of this, and -- but 24 the thing is, Tommy was just talking about the employees out 25 there. I have a lot of friends that work there, and I 11-10-14 71 1 guarantee you, every one of them would say, "We won't work 2 anywhere else." It's just absolutely fantastic. And that's 3 -- and that reflects back on our community and you and 4 everything else. And thank y'all for your time, bye. 5 MR. LEE: We get to sit down? 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: He needs a break. 7 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. We're going to delay 8 the vote on that motion, then? All right. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: We had a motion; is that 10 right? 11 JUDGE POLLARD: I know, but we can table it until 12 after we go on. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay, sure. 14 JUDGE POLLARD: Thank you. 15 MR. LEE: Thank you. Appreciate it. 16 JUDGE POLLARD: We've had a special request from 17 Commissioner Baldwin for a break. We're going to have about 18 a 10-minute break. 19 (Recess taken from 10:25 a.m. to 10:35 a.m.) 20 - - - - - - - - - - 21 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. It's time to go back 22 into session. Thank you guys from Avery's. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Where's Clay? 24 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Well, I guess I'd have to say 25 he's working. 11-10-14 72 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Is he out there? 2 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yeah. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay, enough said. 4 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. According to our 5 adjusted clock, it's now 10:35 a.m., and we're back in 6 session. Let's go to Item 1.6; consider, discuss, and take 7 appropriate action regarding maintenance of the property 8 owned by Kerr County located at 2310 Mesa Park, Kerrville. 9 This is in Tax Suit Number 11-530-A, Kerr County versus -- 10 looks like Arcosa, L.L.C. Commissioner Letz. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I put this on the agenda for -- 12 I think it was about two weeks ago or so, a request came from 13 Diane Bolin for Maintenance to go out and mow the property, 14 but it came through from a request from the City for us to 15 mow it because we were responsible for it. I told them, I 16 said, "Let's talk about this here first," mainly 'cause I 17 didn't know anything about it. Since then, I have met with 18 our tax attorney and Diane Bolin, and understand the 19 situation a lot more as to why we are the -- even though the 20 city taxes are also owed on this property, we are the 21 trustee, and it's our responsibility as a trustee to -- we're 22 representing both the City and the school district and the 23 County on the maintenance of this property for the time 24 being. It was offered for sale. No bids were received. 25 They're -- under our arrangement that we, I guess, ratified 11-10-14 73 1 earlier this year, it's at the discretion of our tax attorney 2 and Diane Bolin, the Tax Assessor, to sell the property for 3 whatever price they see fit. It will not come back to us for 4 approval at this point. And they're actively trying to get 5 this property sold. 6 JUDGE POLLARD: At what price, by the way? 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The appraised value is at 8 15,000, and that's what they, you know are starting at. The 9 amount of taxes that are owed is about -- I want to say it's 10 3,600, I believe. Out of that, I think $900 in court cases. 11 There's also a $665 lien that the City of Kerrville has 12 placed on the property, so that will get paid and is to come 13 out of the revenue amount as well. And that lien was based 14 on -- they mowed the property one time, and that's what they 15 billed the -- 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Where is that? 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Over there near Singing Wind. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's what I thought. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's a vacant lot. There's two 20 vacant lots, a vacant lot on each side of this property. 21 Anyway, so it's something that we need to do. We need to 22 instruct, in my mind, Tim to keep track of the hourly rate 23 and time. We will reimburse this fund from the sale, and we 24 would actually be the first reimbursed, as the trustee gets 25 reimbursed first, so we would be reimbursed. Then the court 11-10-14 74 1 cost, as I understand it, then the lien from the City, and 2 then the tax -- the taxing entities get what's left over. It 3 will be divided up pro rata, but we -- our portion for 4 maintaining the property in the interim is the first thing 5 paid after the sale. Hopefully -- and Jerry seems pretty 6 confident that everyone should probably come pretty close to 7 being whole when the property is sold. 8 JUDGE POLLARD: "Jerry" being Jerry Shiever, the 9 tax attorney? 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Jerry Shiever, the tax 11 attorney. So, anyway, I'll make a motion to authorize the 12 Maintenance Department to clean up the property and do basic 13 maintenance. 14 MS. LANTZ: I was requested to put insurance on the 15 property, and I contacted TAC, and because there is no 16 fixtures there, they don't feel like that property will be 17 covered under our insurance. 18 MS. HARGIS: Even the liability? 19 MS. LANTZ: Yes, but I have to submit pictures, 20 because it's in a tax-type thing. They're really kind of 21 iffy on putting it on our insurance. 22 MS. HARGIS: So our people working over there would 23 be -- 24 MS. LANTZ: Would be strictly worker's comp. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, I think -- 11-10-14 75 1 JUDGE POLLARD: There's no -- are you saying 2 there's no liability insurance on it? 3 MS. LANTZ: Currently, now, there's no liability 4 insurance on it. 5 JUDGE POLLARD: That means if somebody's hurt on 6 that pile of bricks on it or something like that, sues the 7 County over it, we don't have insurance on that. 8 MS. LANTZ: I'm supposed to get photos to them, and 9 they're going to see if they're able to put that on our 10 insurance until the property is sold. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think that needs to be done. 12 I think that would be, you know, something for Heather to 13 check on. 14 JUDGE POLLARD: That cost ought to also be 15 reimbursed. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It ought to be rolled into the 17 trustees' expenses for maintaining the property. And I think 18 that it's for protection of all three entities -- or 19 actually, I guess five entities are owed taxes off this 20 property. 21 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Let's take it a step further 23 with our cleanup over there, though. I understand that 24 there's some bricks or rocks or something, and a pile of sand 25 and gravel and stuff like that. It's in my mind that if -- 11-10-14 76 1 if you clean those things up as well, it would enhance the 2 sale. I mean, it would looks like a real, live lot sitting 3 there, mowed and pretty, instead of having -- 4 JUDGE POLLARD: Anybody know the dimensions of this 5 lot? 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 80 by 100? 7 MR. BOLLIER: It's not real big. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Not very big. 80 -- 9 COMMISSIONER REEVES: 80 by 117. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 117. But the effect of my 11 motion that I'm making -- I still will make a motion that we 12 authorize our Maintenance Department to clean up the lot, mow 13 the lot, after we get insurance. I think we do need to make 14 sure that we're insured before we send employees over there. 15 If someone hurts their back or something, that's just another 16 whole problem. And as soon as that's done, and maintain it 17 to the level that you feel, you know, in your discretion, 18 will keep it in good shape. Do not mow the other two lots; 19 mow the lot in the center. This is -- 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Lot 20. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, Lot 20. The other two 22 lots, hopefully the City can -- 'cause I understand they're 23 pretty unkempt as well, and get those owners to -- 24 MR. BOLLIER: Right in the middle? In the middle 25 of that? 11-10-14 77 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: In the middle. 2 MR. BOLLIER: In this area? 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Lot 20, yes. 4 MR. BOLLIER: Okay. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's in the middle. There's 6 three lots there. You've got a lot -- 7 MR. BOLLIER: There should be some property pins 8 there, right? 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: You can figure it out. 10 MR. BOLLIER: Okay. 11 JUDGE POLLARD: Charlie Hastings can help you with 12 that. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: He can locate it. Anyway, 14 that's my motion, to authorize him to do it, but authorize 15 insurance as well. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 17 JUDGE POLLARD: Been moved and seconded that we 18 clean up the lot. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And -- 20 JUDGE POLLARD: Any further discussion? I mean, 21 that's -- 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's the bottom line, 24 isn't it? 25 JUDGE POLLARD: That's the bottom line. Any 11-10-14 78 1 further discussion? If there's not, then those in favor, 2 signify by raising your right hand. 3 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 4 JUDGE POLLARD: It's 4-0, unanimous. All right, 5 let's go to -- what's the next one? -- 1.10; consider, 6 discuss, and take appropriate action on amendment to lease 7 between Kerr County and Hill Country District Junior 8 Livestock Association. Commissioner Letz. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: A while back, we -- I'm not 10 sure; I think it probably came before the Court as well, but 11 I know there was some discussion about that with the Stock 12 Show Association providing quite a bit of -- substantial 13 amount of funding recently to that facility, and over the 14 years that we thought it would be a good idea to amend our 15 lease so that they -- if, for some reason, we terminate the 16 lease, they should be able to recoup their investment back 17 out of that that they're putting into this most recently. 18 And the way we did it is, basically, it's $25,000 of the 19 total amount of 750,000 towards permanent improvements at the 20 Hill Country Youth Event Center. The tenant -- 21 landlord/tenant agrees that if landlord terminates the lease 22 of tenant for any reason on or before the termination date of 23 the lease, landlord shall reimburse tenant lump sum in the 24 amount equivalent to 25,000 per year for the remaining term 25 of the lease. So, if there's 10 years left on the lease, 11-10-14 79 1 they get $250,000. It's a -- I think there's some other 2 changes I may need to look at with the lease as things change 3 out there, but this is something that I think we need to 4 handle -- take care of now. I'll make a motion to recommend 5 approval. 6 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I'll second. 7 JUDGE POLLARD: Any further discussion? There 8 being none, those in favor, signify by raising your right 9 hand. 10 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 11 JUDGE POLLARD: It's 4-0, unanimous. All right. 12 Let's go to -- what's the next one? 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: 11. 14 JUDGE POLLARD: 1.11; consider, discuss, and take 15 appropriate action to accept the second payment of $250,000 16 from the Hill Country District Junior Livestock Association 17 for the Hill Country Youth Exhibit -- Event Center. 18 Mr. Bauer. 19 MR. BAUER: Good morning, Judge, Commissioners. 20 JUDGE POLLARD: Howdy. 21 MR. BAUER: Thank you. On behalf of the Hill 22 Country District Junior Livestock Show, as president, I'm 23 here this morning to present to you the last installment of 24 our commitment financially to the improvements that have been 25 going on out there. We're excited. We've watched it go up, 11-10-14 80 1 and I've brought you a check this morning for, like you said, 2 our balance of $250,000, which completes our commitment 3 financially. 4 JUDGE POLLARD: Looking good, isn't it? 5 MR. BAUER: It is looking good. We're moving on. 6 We're starting to make plans already for January. But on 7 behalf the association, and the partnership that we've had 8 with Kerr County over many years, look forward to that 9 continuing. I'd like to present y'all with a check. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Y'all do a photo op of some 11 sort. Seriously. Seriously, she's out there. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Come on up here, Steve. 13 MR. BAUER: All right. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Hold the check up. Usually 15 it's one of these big checks. Irene? 16 MS. VAN WINKLE: I was going to say... 17 JUDGE POLLARD: All the way up. 18 MS. ARNOLD: All right. You guys ready? 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay, very good. 20 JUDGE POLLARD: Irene, did you get yours? Okay. 21 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Thank you, Steve. 22 MR. BAUER: Thank y'all. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Thank you, Steve. I make a 24 motion that we accept the check in the amount of $250,000 25 from the Hill Country -- 11-10-14 81 1 JUDGE POLLARD: Is there a second? 2 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Second. 3 JUDGE POLLARD: Any further discussion? Those in 4 favor, signify by raising your right hands. 5 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 6 JUDGE POLLARD: It is unanimous. Check goes to -- 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Jeannie. 8 JUDGE POLLARD: She's already got her hand out, I 9 saw. Thanks, Jeannie. 10 MS. HARGIS: Uh-huh. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Judge, you said -- just now 12 you said, "Those in favor, raise your right hands." I only 13 have one right hand. Are you speaking collectively? Or 14 individually? 15 JUDGE POLLARD: Collectively. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. Just wanted to be 17 clear here. 18 JUDGE POLLARD: Yeah, it's collectively. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you. 20 JUDGE POLLARD: It is -- well, I think there are 21 four of you. Isn't that right? 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yes, sir. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I knew you had two left feet. 24 (Laughter.) 25 JUDGE POLLARD: Are you suggesting that you might 11-10-14 82 1 come up with another right hand? 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I am making that suggestion. 3 JUDGE POLLARD: Oh. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It's actually a 5 recommendation. 6 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. Let's go to 1.13; consider, 7 discuss -- 8 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Judge, we got -- 1.17 is a 9 10:30 item. 10 JUDGE POLLARD: Oh, okay. All right; consider, 11 discuss, and take appropriate action on request to use -- to 12 the use of, I guess, Flat Rock Lake Park on November 22nd, 13 2014, for a Boy Scout event, model rocket launch. Andrew 14 Chapline. Is that right? 15 (No response.) 16 JUDGE POLLARD: Well, here we go. Now we got dogs 17 and we got polo, and -- 18 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Let's pass on it. 19 JUDGE POLLARD: Do we want to pass that, really? 20 Or let's just -- let's approve it and get it over with. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I agree. I move for 22 approval. 23 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 25 JUDGE POLLARD: Any further discussion on it? If 11-10-14 83 1 not, those -- 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: My son was real active in 3 Boy Scouts, and we did these rockets. And I still go down -- 4 I mean, it takes nothing to put a little package together, 5 and it's more fun than anything I do. 6 JUDGE POLLARD: Yeah. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Almost. 8 JUDGE POLLARD: Any further discussion? There 9 being none, those in favor, signify by raising your right 10 hand. 11 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 12 JUDGE POLLARD: 4-0, unanimous. All right. Now 13 let's go back to -- what was it, 1.13? 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: 1.13. 15 JUDGE POLLARD: 1.13, consider, discuss, and take 16 appropriate action regarding donor/dedication plaques at the 17 Hill Country Youth Event Center. Commissioners Letz and 18 Reeves. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'm handing out right now a 20 kind of a sketch, and if you're looking at it -- if you're 21 looking inside the vestibule entrance for the new event hall, 22 those doors you see are the doors that go into the big -- 23 into the big room -- big hall. That rectangular -- larger 24 rectangle in the very center is proposed where the door that 25 Bruce Oehler made with the brands on it would go. That 11-10-14 84 1 little red square just to the right of that would bear a 2 plaque -- county plaque. We'll get to that in a minute. On 3 the left side would be a plaque that would be put together by 4 the Stock Show Association that would recognize their large 5 donors for -- you know, primarily I think for this project, 6 whether it be the show barn and the event hall, and however 7 they want to style it. That's kind of their plaque. On the 8 far left, there's a smaller -- or another area, and the 9 thought would be that on that one, we would take all of the 10 plaques off of the columns in the current indoor arena and 11 remount those into that area. Those would be Schreiner Bank, 12 First National Bank, L.D. Brinkman, Bobby Shelton and others. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Here? 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes, there. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Is that the arena here? 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No, that's where the arena -- 17 the names would go when we take them out of the arena, put 18 them there -- yes, on that plaque. And then on the far 19 right, there's another one, and the Stock Show Association 20 has some other plaques that they have that have not been put 21 up, and some that may have been put up that we'll move over 22 there. So, basically, we're trying to get all of the names 23 of the contributors to this facility into one spot with a 24 kind of showcase. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's great. 11-10-14 85 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: In the backup, there is a -- 2 two drawings that Jody's put together for the county -- 3 county plaque. One would be the Hill Country Youth Event 4 Center naming -- it says County Judges Pat Tinley and Tom 5 Pollard, and Commissioners Buster Baldwin, Bill Williams, Guy 6 Overby, Tom Moser, Jonathan Letz, Bruce Oehler, and Bob 7 Reeves. It's done in two formats. The first format, which 8 is the one I prefer, has the precinct next to it. There's 9 another one that just has listed all the Commissioners kind 10 of together. But, you know, we can pass on that, kind of, 11 and look at that a little bit longer. We mainly want to get 12 moving on this as time goes on. Of course, then we would put 13 on either one of those plaques the Show Barn 2012, architect 14 is Peter Lewis; contractor, Journeyman Construction. The 15 Event Hall 2014, architect is Peter Lewis, and then 16 contractor will be Huser Construction. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I like the second one. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: You like the second one? 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I do too. 20 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I like the second one. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: More balanced. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. Well -- 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Could you take my name and 24 make it a little bit larger letters? 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Bold your name? 11-10-14 86 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, bold. Bold and about 2 a half inch bigger than the rest of them. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Would you put on the -- if you 4 go with the second one, would you move Bob Reeves into the 5 center to keep it more symmetrical? 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's fine, sure. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's good. 8 JUDGE POLLARD: Could you also, after each name, 9 put precinct whatever? 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, we'll just do all the 11 commissioners in one group. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, that's what I think. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 14 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And then County Judge, and Pat 16 Tinley and Tom Pollard. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay, good. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The -- the existing signs that 19 are out there at the arena are kind of on brushed aluminum 20 with black. I think they should all kind of match, so these 21 would be -- the plaques would be brushed aluminum with -- 22 we'll check with Peter Lewis. I don't know if Peter -- if it 23 was Peter Lewis Architects or how they -- 24 JUDGE POLLARD: Where would they get all this? 25 Down here on Broadway? 11-10-14 87 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think we'll probably go out, 2 let Jody contact a couple of them, see what it costs. I 3 think this is something that's pretty standard as part of the 4 cost of a building, so I don't think it's a huge amount. 5 Maintenance would mount it. And they -- where all these 6 little things on this drawing, the reason this drawing was 7 done is that there's wood mounted behind the sheetrock here 8 to mount these things; that's so they'll be sturdy. More 9 plywood back behind there. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Let me ask you a question. 11 As an example, when you come in the front door -- I'm back on 12 the drawing. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: When you come in the front 15 door, you have the large area right in the middle. Then on 16 the left, that one right next to the -- for the stock show -- 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Mm-hmm. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What's -- what does that 19 look like? 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It will be one plaque, same 21 size as this one. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Just sticking up out of the 23 floor? Or -- 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No, it's on the wall. 25 COMMISSIONER REEVES: They're all wall-mounted. 11-10-14 88 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay, I see what you're 2 doing. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: They're all mounted on the 4 wall. 5 JUDGE POLLARD: Looks good. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. I don't know; do we need 7 a motion on something like this? Do we just tell Jody to do 8 it? 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Y'all go do it. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Just go do it. Okay, Jody? 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 12 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. Let's go to, then, 13 1.14; consider, discuss, and take appropriate action to 14 approve Change Proposal Number 17 for the concrete slab and 15 plumbing for the catering kitchen at the Hill Country Youth 16 Event Center. Commissioners Letz and Reeves. 17 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I'm talked out. This is the 18 first portion of the enclosure of the existing storage room 19 in the new show barn, as well as the connecting structure 20 between the indoor arena, the new show barn, and the event 21 center that is currently under construction. And this part 22 will be for the -- to go ahead and have the slab and the 23 plumbing placed in for the concession area. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: One -- the reason this is being 25 broken up this way, they did not have the roofing portion of 11-10-14 89 1 this and some of the finish-out or the other work ready, and 2 we wanted to mainly get this part done, get it moving. They 3 need to get -- the slab has to be poured first, and the 4 plumbing has to be done first. Then the other part would 5 come in. The overall guess on this whole change order is 6 going to be a magnitude of $70,000. But just to get it 7 moving at this point to get -- what happens right now that 8 we're in a little bit of a wetter period, one that's 9 critical, every time there's a rain, there's a pond, and 10 water's seeping into the new building, so we need to do 11 something there. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Do we need a reconciliation of 13 when we went for the C.O. and how much we had in there, and 14 for all the other things? 'Cause we keep adding. And I know 15 it's always within the C.O., but to just to look at -- you 16 know, I know we had to back off when the bids came in; we 17 said, "Oops, we can't do that," so there was -- we took out a 18 bunch of stuff. So, just a reconciliation of what we had 19 initially, Jeannie, in the original C.O., and where we are 20 today? 21 MR. HASTINGS: Tom, we can bring that on Friday for 22 your special meeting. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I'm asking Jeannie for the 24 whole C.O., okay? Yeah. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think we're -- before this 11-10-14 90 1 one, we were -- 80,000 -- what's the number we had? We've 2 had some adds and some subtracts. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, right. It just -- it 4 all sounds reasonable, but I'd just like to see where we 5 started and where we are, and what we took from where and so 6 forth, yeah. 7 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: And if I can, in that same 8 deal, because it's all part of the same C.O., there are going 9 to probably be some expenses with the new radio system that 10 I've said I can try and cover some with -- with our seizure 11 fund, but there's going to be some that I probably will not 12 be able to cover with that seizure fund that's going to still 13 have to be above where we are on that, too. And I don't know 14 what they are. New leases -- 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So, it's going to be a good 16 time to take a look at what you're saying. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Oh, yeah. That's what I'm 18 saying, taking a look at the whole thing. 19 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I agree. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And it's not -- you know, 21 'cause things evolve as things develop, so, you know, that's 22 fine. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Sure. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. So, Jeannie, if you 25 could do that, that would be great. Thank you. 11-10-14 91 1 JUDGE POLLARD: So that will be on the agenda for 2 Friday, Jody. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Reconciliation of C.O. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, right. 5 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. Any action to take on 6 that? 7 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I'll make a motion to approve 8 Change Proposal 17 for the concrete slab and plumbing for the 9 catering kitchen at Hill Country Youth Event Center. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: In the amount of 61,144. 11 Second. 12 JUDGE POLLARD: Any further discussion? If not, 13 those in favor, raise your collective right hands. 14 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 15 JUDGE POLLARD: 4-0, unanimous. All right, let's 16 go to 1.15; consider, discuss, and take appropriate action to 17 ratify and confirm Change Order Number 3. That includes 18 Change Proposals 7R, 8, 9, 11, 14, and 15. Commissioners 19 Letz and Reeves. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: This is just the final action 21 on these. We've already approved all these individually. 22 This is just to get them into a final contract form and 23 authorize the County Judge to sign same. I think he's 24 probably signed the individual ones already. So, I move 25 approval. 11-10-14 92 1 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Second. 2 JUDGE POLLARD: Any further discussion? If not, 3 those in favor, signify by raising your right hands. 4 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 5 JUDGE POLLARD: Collectively, of course. 4-0, 6 unanimous. 1.18; consider, discuss, and take appropriate 7 action regarding Memorandum of Understanding -- 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: What about 1.16? 9 MR. BOLLIER: 16. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: 1.16. 11 JUDGE POLLARD: Consider, discuss -- all right, 12 1.16; consider, discuss -- I already had it checked. 13 Consider, discuss, and take appropriate action regarding 14 update of construction at Hill Country Youth Event Center and 15 related issues. Commissioners Letz and Reeves. I don't know 16 why I had it checked. 17 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Well, you knew we'd go ahead 18 and discuss it, I guess. It's moving along. They have the 19 east and west side -- they were finishing painting it last 20 Wednesday, the two sides of that. The restroom fixtures were 21 being placed inside that. I believe -- was it the week of 22 Thanksgiving? I think they'll seal the floors in that area, 23 and pretty well punch list that. Sheetrock's going up in the 24 main room, and sound system has been -- construction has been 25 started on that. The grids on the ceilings will be right 11-10-14 93 1 after Thanksgiving; is that right? 2 MR. BOLLIER: Yes, sir. 3 COMMISSIONER REEVES: When we're going to start on 4 that, so they're moving along pretty well on schedule on 5 that. 6 JUDGE POLLARD: All the chains hanging down? 7 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Those -- 8 MR. HASTINGS: They go in at the same time. 9 COMMISSIONER REEVES: We'll be doing that at the 10 same time. 11 MR. HASTINGS: The grid. 12 COMMISSIONER REEVES: With the grids, as well as 13 the sound system. All of that has to be coordinated 14 together. I believe tomorrow they will be doing some of the 15 electrical. 16 MR. BOLLIER: Tomorrow they're going to shut down 17 the -- they're going to do a power outage and go ahead and 18 start connecting some of the power to the -- 19 COMMISSIONER REEVES: To the main boxes and 20 everything. They figured they'd do it tomorrow, since the 21 county offices would be closed. And then also, November 22 20th, which is a week from Thursday, the Chamber of Commerce 23 will have their monthly mixer. It's being sponsored by the 24 Livestock Show, and they'll at least be able to look through 25 the doors. They may be doing some of the sealing on the 11-10-14 94 1 floors, so we won't be able to walk through it, but the 2 Chamber will be having their mixer out there. And -- 3 JUDGE POLLARD: The mixer will be held where? 4 COMMISSIONER REEVES: In the show barn. 5 JUDGE POLLARD: Show barn? 6 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Yeah. So we'll be having 7 that there. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But people will be able to see 9 that, and it will be a -- 10 COMMISSIONER REEVES: See the construction progress 11 going on, on those issues of it as well. What else? 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Two weeks ago, Huser was 13 nervous. They're a lot less nervous as of last week, on 14 meeting their -- the deadlines. They got a lot -- they're 15 trying to pull a lot of different contractors together right 16 now, and they've been very successful in getting a lot 17 accomplished in the last couple weeks, so they're feeling 18 pretty good about the completion date. They're going to 19 start testing at the end of the month, I believe, right after 20 Thanksgiving; all of the fire systems, the water, the -- all 21 the electronics, the H.V.A.C. It takes some time to get all 22 that. Everything's going to be powered up by the end of this 23 month. They'll be starting to really work on things to get 24 everything operational. I'm sure Charlie will be there quite 25 a bit. Road and Bridge has finished most of the parking lot. 11-10-14 95 1 The front of it drained great during the recent rains. I 2 think the sidewalks around the front are going in this week. 3 MR. HASTINGS: This week. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: This week, and then Road and 5 Bridge will finish up a little bit of paving right in front 6 of there. 7 JUDGE POLLARD: The front -- all the masonry on the 8 front really looks good. Makes the front of the old arena 9 look kind of -- 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 11 JUDGE POLLARD: -- kind of bad now. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. But Charlie and I met 13 with Jake Walther, who's doing the landscape plan and 14 overseeing that installation last week, and he was -- he 15 thinks there will be enough of the old courthouse stone to 16 pretty much do all of the three flower bed planters, raised 17 beds, which is kind of neat to have those out there. We're 18 looking at trying to place -- tree placement things. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Where are they going to be? 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: They're going to be on each 21 front side of the vestibule. If you're looking at the front, 22 the entrance is in the middle. 23 JUDGE POLLARD: The beds or the trees? 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, as you're looking at the 25 front, you know, on the right side, the middle of that area 11-10-14 96 1 is -- 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's left. You said on 3 the right side. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But I meant left. On the left 5 side -- 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I see. Okay, yeah. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's why I went this way. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Of course. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I wanted to see if you were 10 paying attention, Buster. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I wouldn't have it any other 12 way. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: On the left side in the center 14 is a flagpole. And then -- 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's Comfort's finest, 16 folks. (Laughter.) 17 MR. BOLLIER: There's also one of those rocks, and 18 I request -- those rocks back there, there's one that has the 19 date of the courthouse of 1903 on it, or 19 -- whatever it 20 is, that the masons laid in the northeast corner. And it's 21 in that pile, and I would like to make sure that we do not 22 cut that rock or destroy that rock at all. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: They're not going to destroy 24 those rocks; they're going to use all of them. 25 MR. BOLLIER: Just like they did -- 11-10-14 97 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: They're not going to break 2 them. They'll be as-is. 3 JUDGE POLLARD: Is that going to be a 4 misrepresentation, having "1903" on a building that's being 5 built today? 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think we'll just put some 7 sort of a plaque there to explain what -- why these rocks are 8 here. 9 MR. BOLLIER: Yes. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Anyway, the flagpole in the 11 center, and there will be two raised beds on each side of 12 that, on that side. Then in front -- well, on the other side 13 of the vestibule, on the right side, trees will probably -- a 14 couple of trees hopefully will fit there. We have to see how 15 they -- once the sidewalk's in, how it all lays out. There's 16 also a -- a fire line, a big water line goes through, and 17 Charlie won't let him plant a tree on that, so we have to 18 work around that a little bit, and it may be that one or two 19 of the trees may be on the actual -- the outside of the 20 sidewalk. We might lose a couple parking spots, but I don't 21 think that's -- I think esthetics is more important than two 22 parking spots. So -- but anyway, they're working on this 23 plan, and Jake will put something together, come back before 24 that's done. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Now, are we going to have a 11-10-14 98 1 fight over where these trees are going to go? I mean, like, 2 the Bruce Oehler tree, is that going to go inside the 1912 3 courthouse rock thing? Or is it to the left of whatever? 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean, I'm not having a fight 5 over which tree goes where. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, where's the Bruce 7 Oehler tree going to go? 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The trees are going to be 9 placed where they can fit. And -- and, you know, there's -- 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. So the -- the 11 courthouse rock things are for some -- I thought that was the 12 tree. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No, those are raised beds, 14 which will have shrubs, maybe. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Shrubs in them. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Maybe some flowers in 18 season? 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. Like, you know, 20 xeriscape type plants. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: What size tree did you discuss 22 before? 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Looking at about probably 24 45 gallons. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: 45-gallon. 11-10-14 99 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: For -- and it's probably three 2 trees. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: 'Cause I didn't contact Bill 4 Williams' -- Ms. Williams yet. Okay, 45-gallon. Okay. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 45-gallon. 6 JUDGE POLLARD: Didn't you estimate that the cost 7 of each tree would probably be something in the neighborhood 8 of $300? 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's planting and 12 everything, though. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, or delivery up here, 14 anyway. I think Maintenance is going to plant them, our 15 expense. 16 MR. BOLLIER: We can handle it. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 18 JUDGE POLLARD: And the Tinley family has cleared 19 it on behalf of Judge Tinley. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Looking at -- because of the 21 area, I've talked with Roy Walston a fair amount about it, 22 and Jake and I talked. Lacy oaks are likely going to be at 23 least two of the trees, because -- 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: They're good. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- they just don't get real, 11-10-14 100 1 real big. We just can't have a huge tree right next to the 2 building. If we have one on the outside of the sidewalk, 3 we'll probably go with a cedar elm. So, those are the two 4 trees, because we just can't have a tree right there that's 5 going to get a 30-foot canopy across there. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right, okay. I have a big 7 lacy oak on my property that's huge. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: They get pretty big, but 9 they're slow-growing. So, anyway, that's kind of the update. 10 Things look good. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. All right. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: At our next meeting, we ought 13 to really maybe -- or not this Friday's meeting, but the 14 following meeting in November, maybe we should run out there 15 after the meeting. 16 JUDGE POLLARD: That's a good idea. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Another walk-through, let the 18 press come along. 19 JUDGE POLLARD: I'd like that very much. Okay. 20 All right, let's go to 1.18 next, guys. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What time is the Friday 22 meeting? I'm sorry, Judge. 9:00? 23 JUDGE POLLARD: I believe it is 9:00. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: 9 o'clock. 25 JUDGE POLLARD: 1.18; consider, discuss, and take 11-10-14 101 1 appropriate action regarding Memorandum of Understanding for 2 Information Technology services between Kerr County and 3 AgriLife Extension. I think that's part of A & M -- Texas 4 A & M, if I remember correctly. I just want to mention that. 5 Roy? 6 MR. WALSTON: You need me to help clarify that a 7 little? (Laughter.) Hopefully y'all got an email I sent 8 last Friday. I don't know if you did or not. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I don't think I did. 10 MR. WALSTON: Okay. I sent one with a copy of the 11 memorandum. Y'all all get one. And this is one that I asked 12 them to pull up, and basically, from my visiting with John, I 13 had originally asked him to -- we've had a memorandum of 14 understanding with Kerr County for as long as I've been here 15 and as long as, I think, they've -- Extension's been part of 16 the county. But we were wanting to make some changes -- or 17 he was wanting to make some changes to it. And so, you know, 18 basically it was going to be that Kerr County would be 19 furnishing the telephone, internet, and then computers as 20 well. Or, you know, we would get computers from whatever 21 source that we acquire computers from. So -- but this is 22 basically the understanding. It's not a contract. It's -- 23 it can be changed. It's just basically an understanding as 24 to who will furnish what part of the information technology 25 software and hardware that we use in our office and that we 11-10-14 102 1 operate with. 2 JUDGE POLLARD: Basically, the change is with 3 reference to the computer and I.T. and County furnishing 4 certain things? 5 MR. WALSTON: Yes. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Has John seen this? 7 MR. WALSTON: I sent it to him last Friday, too. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I think he needs to take a 9 look at it before we take any action. 10 MR. WALSTON: Yeah, and I don't know if he has. I 11 mean, I gave him one originally. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I think you need to take a 13 look at it, too. 14 MS. STEBBINS: I looked at the old one that I got 15 from Jody, but I haven't looked at this one. 16 MR. WALSTON: Yeah. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So we can't any take any 18 action right now. 19 MR. WALSTON: Okay. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 21 MR. WALSTON: Well, if -- and if you need me to 22 come back, you know, for anything, just let me know, or 23 however y'all want to take action on it. 24 JUDGE POLLARD: You need to put it on Friday's 25 agenda? 11-10-14 103 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Put it on Friday's agenda. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. 3 JUDGE POLLARD: Well, Jody's not here. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Roy, does this take care of all 5 the problems that you and I have discussed? 6 MR. WALSTON: It -- it should. I mean, it's -- you 7 know, as far as it basically explains just as to who's 8 responsible for what as far as the -- the internet and the 9 networking. And it -- it should put it pretty much where 10 Kerr County is responsible. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, I think there have been 12 some issues in the past, 'cause you -- what's her name? I 13 forgot her name. It's not -- 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Angela? 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, had a different computer 16 that was creating some problems, and John didn't have any 17 control over that. And so that's the reason I said John. 18 MR. WALSTON: Well, he has control over it. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: John has to take -- if he's 20 going to be responsible, he's got to have some authority. 21 MR. WALSTON: It gives him the ability to work on 22 any and all of our computers, regardless. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: He can say what type, what you 24 can use? 25 MR. WALSTON: Well, yeah, I think so. I mean -- 11-10-14 104 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, okay. Well, I don't 2 want to belabor it here. Just so long as John has a -- 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's an important issue, 'cause 4 their computer system -- software is the issue. They need to 5 have access into the county system, but I think they also 6 need to have access into the A & M system. And because of 7 security, there has been reluctance to allow -- 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And that access, it needs to be 10 worked on, because it doesn't make sense to -- 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: When you connect them, that's 12 an issue, okay? 13 JUDGE POLLARD: And security's a big issue with me. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Absolutely. 15 JUDGE POLLARD: That makes -- putting us in the 16 A & M system makes us -- gives us a lot more possible 17 problems. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: If you want a very good book 19 to read, read the book America the Vulnerable on what that 20 means about cyber -- 21 MR. WALSTON: I don't know that I want to know. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. It will scare the 23 bejesus out of you. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: There he is. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. All right. Okay, thank 11-10-14 105 1 you. 2 MR. WALSTON: All-righty. Thank you. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: John, the M.O.U. is going to be 4 on Friday's agenda. If you haven't looked at the newest one, 5 we'll discuss it then. 6 MR. TROLINGER: Okay. Thank you, sir. 7 MR. WALSTON: I sent that to you Friday. 8 JUDGE POLLARD: Have you seen it, John? The memo 9 from Friday? 10 MR. TROLINGER: I did, yes. 11 JUDGE POLLARD: The memorandum of understanding. 12 Well, are you prepared to discuss it now, or you want to do 13 it on Friday? 14 MR. TROLINGER: I think we should wait. There's 15 some things to talk about off-line that I feel it would just 16 take a lot of time in the courtroom to discuss. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Yeah, that's good. 18 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. We'll pass that, then, 19 and put it on the -- take it up again on the Friday -- 20 Friday's agenda. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Jody? Friday's agenda. 22 JUDGE POLLARD: You don't have to remind her. She 23 reminds us of everything. She keeps us straight. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's true. Did she know 25 A & M won? 11-10-14 106 1 MR. BOLLIER: No. 2 MS. GRINSTEAD: Didn't care. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Next items are executive 4 session. 5 JUDGE POLLARD: The next one? 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The next two. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We can pay the bills, 8 though. Let's pay bills and do all of that, then come back 9 to it. 10 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. Items 1.19 and 1.20 11 will be reserved for discussion in executive session. We'll 12 go ahead and pay the bills and all that kind of stuff here. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Judge, I move we pay the 14 bills. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 16 JUDGE POLLARD: It's been -- any further 17 discussion? If not, those in favor, signify by raising your 18 right hand. 19 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 20 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. Any budget amendments? 21 MS. HARGIS: No, sir. 22 JUDGE POLLARD: No? 23 MS. HARGIS: Not this early. I hope not. 24 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. And -- all right. Late 25 bills? None. Approve and accept monthly reports. You got 11-10-14 107 1 them, Bob? 2 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Yes, sir. Monthly reports. 3 County Clerk, Trust Reconciliation and Statement of Financial 4 Income for October 2014; District Clerk, October 2014; 5 Constable, Precinct 1, October 2014; J.P. Precinct 2, 6 October 2014; Constable, Precinct 2, October 2014; J.P., 7 Precinct 3, October 2014; Environmental Health Department, 8 Monthly Activity Report for the month of October; Animal 9 Services, Monthly Activity Report for the month of October; 10 County Treasurer, revised Page 2, and August monthly report, 11 September 2014, Quarterly Investment Report, and payroll for 12 August 2014. Move to approve and sign as needed. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 14 JUDGE POLLARD: Been moved and seconded that we 15 accept all the reports just dictated into the record by 16 Commissioner Reeves. Any further discussion? There being 17 none, those in favor, signify by raising your right hand. 18 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 19 JUDGE POLLARD: It's 4-0, unanimous. Okay, reports 20 from Commissioners and liaison/committee assignments. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No, sir. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: None. 23 JUDGE POLLARD: None. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No. 25 COMMISSIONER REEVES: None. 11-10-14 108 1 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Unless anybody wants to go to 3 Del Rio on Thursday. Jody and I are going down for Region J. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's the sickest bunch of 5 people. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I didn't hear a whole lot of 7 interest. 8 JUDGE POLLARD: Reports from elected officials and 9 department heads. Anybody? 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What day are you going to 11 Del Rio? 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Thursday. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Friday's Commissioners Court. 14 I thought you said Friday. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Thursday. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 17 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. Then we go to reports 18 from boards, commissions, and committees, City/County joint 19 projects, other. Nobody's jumping up and down, raising their 20 hands. All right. With that, we'll then go into executive 21 session, and this reserves the right to adjourn into 22 executive session at any time to discuss any of the above 23 matters as permitted by law, including, if it meets the 24 qualifications, Section 551.071, consultation with attorney; 25 Section 551.072, deliberation regarding real property; 11-10-14 109 1 551.073, deliberation regarding gifts; 551.074, personnel 2 matters; 551.078 and .0785, deliberations involving 3 individuals' medical or psychiatric records. Hmm, of the 4 Commissioners, maybe. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What? I heard that. 6 JUDGE POLLARD: Did you? Okay. 551.076, 7 deliberation regarding security devices; 551.087, 8 deliberation regarding economic development negotiations, of 9 Chapter 551 of the Texas Government Code, including the 10 following matters: Consultation with attorney and all 11 pending/possible litigation per Section 551.071; personnel 12 matters as per Section 551.074, Government Code; and 13 deliberations regarding economic development negotiations as 14 per Section 551.087, Government Code; and deliberation for 15 any real property as per Section 551.072, Government Code. I 16 hereby declare the closed session open. 17 (The open session was closed at 11:17 a.m., and an executive session was held, the transcript of which 18 is contained in a separate document.) 19 - - - - - - - - - - 20 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. We're back in open 21 session. It's now at looks like 12:03 p.m., I guess it is 22 now. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: It is. 24 JUDGE POLLARD: On this date. And do you have a 25 motion? 11-10-14 110 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I do, Judge. Thank you. This 2 is in regard to the proposal by James Avery to locate in Kerr 3 County a distribution center. And I think, just to reiterate 4 how some of us feel, we feel extremely positive about this, 5 and recognize the importance of James Avery to the entire 6 Kerr County and larger Hill Country community, what they've 7 done. So, I make a motion that we accept a proposal -- look 8 forward to accepting a proposal from James Avery Company for 9 a tax abatement, as they indicated in their concept, of five 10 years or 100 percent on the property, and that we ask the 11 County Attorney to take that proposal and enter into a -- 12 draft a contract for us to consider at the appropriate time 13 at a future Commissioners Court. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 15 JUDGE POLLARD: Any further discussion on that long 16 motion? 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And a comment. Commissioner, 18 that replaces the previous motion made, correct? 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's correct. Yes, thank 20 you. 21 JUDGE POLLARD: So -- all right. There was a 22 motion made and seconded previously, and so we withdraw that 23 motion and substitute this one in lieu thereof. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Correct. 11-10-14 111 1 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. Any further discussion 2 on this motion? 3 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I just think it's an 4 excellent economic benefit for Kerr County. 5 JUDGE POLLARD: I do too. 6 COMMISSIONER REEVES: And for everybody, and 7 knowing the background of this business. 8 JUDGE POLLARD: They do what they say they're going 9 to do. 10 COMMISSIONER REEVES: They take care of it. 11 They're great civic citizens, and -- 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It's an honor and a pleasure 13 to be able to vote for something like this. 14 JUDGE POLLARD: It is. I think all of us feel that 15 way. All right, let's call for a vote on it. Those in favor 16 of that motion, signify by raising your right hand. 17 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Aye. 19 JUDGE POLLARD: Unanimous. All right, is there 20 anything further that we need to discuss in open session? 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Do you need to call Jack 22 Splatt and find out if that was good enough? Or do we -- 23 JUDGE POLLARD: I'm not. Do you want to? 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No, sir. He didn't approach 25 me with anything. 11-10-14 112 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: See y'all tomorrow. 2 JUDGE POLLARD: All right, we are adjourned. Is 3 everybody in agreement with that? 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. 5 (Commissioners Court was adjourned at 12:06 p.m.) 6 - - - - - - - - - - 7 8 9 STATE OF TEXAS | 10 COUNTY OF KERR | 11 The above and foregoing is a true and complete 12 transcription of my stenotype notes taken in my capacity as 13 official reporter for the Commissioners Court of Kerr County, 14 Texas, at the time and place heretofore set forth. 15 DATED at Kerrville, Texas, this 14th day of November, 16 2014. 17 18 JANNETT PIEPER, Kerr County Clerk 19 BY: _________________________________ Kathy Banik, Deputy County Clerk 20 Certified Shorthand Reporter 21 22 23 24 25 11-10-14