1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT 9 Special Session 10 Wednesday, December 17, 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 December 17, 2014 2 PAGE 3 1.1 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action regarding contracts for TetraTech and GrantWorks 4 for Kerrville South Wastewater System, Phase 6, Texas Department of Agriculture (T.D.A.) Grant 5 #7214025 1 6 1.2 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on a budget amendment for emergency purposes pursuant 7 to Section 111.010(c), Local Government Code, for the Kerrville South Wastewater System 5 8 --- Adjourned 15 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 3 1 On Wednesday, December 17, 2014, at 9:00 a.m., a 2 special meeting of the Kerr County Commissioners Court was 3 held in 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: Okay. It's 9:04, it appears, a.m. 8 on December 17, 2014, and the special Commissioners Court 9 session is in session. This is a special meeting for the 10 consideration of the following: 1.1 is consider, discuss, 11 and take appropriate action for contracts for Tetra Tech and 12 Grantworks for Kerrville South Wastewater System, Phase 6, 13 Texas Department of Agriculture (T.D.A.) Grant 7214025. 14 Commissioners Baldwin and Moser. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay, thank you. Thank you, 16 Judge. This item is to approve the contracts with Tetra Tech 17 and Grantworks. We've received the contract from Grantworks. 18 It's being reviewed by the County Attorney; I believe she has 19 it. The one from Tetra Tech, there's some work that's being 20 added -- words are being added to that to make sure we got 21 everything in there according to T.D.A. And these contracts 22 are the same as the contracts we had on Phase 5. It's for a 23 percentage of the total. It's -- so it's a duplication of 24 what we have. So, I make a recommendation -- I move that we 25 approve, pending approval of the County Attorney, the 12-17-14 4 1 contract for -- contracts for Tetra Tech and Grantworks for 2 the Kerrville Wastewater System, Phase 6, and authorize the 3 Judge to sign. 4 JUDGE POLLARD: Is there a second? 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I second it. 6 JUDGE POLLARD: Been moved and seconded. Is there 7 any further discussion? You acted as if you had some 8 comments. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No, I just can't see what I'm 10 looking at. 11 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Want me to hold it out like 12 that? 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is this the administrative -- 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yes, the administrative. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I just wanted to be clear, it 16 was the administrative. I thought there was two sets of 17 contracts. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: It's the administrative and 19 the systems engineering. 20 JUDGE POLLARD: I saw the movement down there, 21 and I -- 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: It's two contracts. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That clarifies it, thank you. 24 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. Any further discussion? 25 If not, those in favor of the motion, signify by raising your 12-17-14 5 1 right hand. 2 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 3 JUDGE POLLARD: Jody, did you have something? 4 MS. GRINSTEAD: Well, just what I handed you is 5 Grantworks, and Ilse has looked at it. 6 MS. BAILEY: I did look at the Grantworks one. I'm 7 okay with it. I don't think I've seen the Tetra Tech, have 8 I? 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's correct. 10 MS. GRINSTEAD: I don't know. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So, we include authorizing the 12 County Judge to sign. 13 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. That -- the vote was 14 unanimous, 4-0. All right. Item 1.2; consider, discuss, and 15 take appropriate action on budget amendment for emergency 16 purposes pursuant to Section 111.010(c) of the Local 17 Government Code for the Kerrville South Wastewater system. 18 Commissioner Moser. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Thank you, Judge. We 20 had an emergency situation at the lift station on Quail 21 Valley. It's -- there was a pump failure, or there was a -- 22 a power converter failure, or some combination thereof. 23 Anyway, the result of that, the City had to bring in a bypass 24 pump and -- to keep sewage from being dispersed illegally, 25 which would have been a big issue with T.C.E.Q., and to bring 12-17-14 6 1 in three-phase power quickly. So, when this emergency 2 situation occurred, the City moved aggressively toward 3 getting three-phase power there and the bypass pump. So, 4 what this does is this acknowledges that we will have to make 5 a budget amendment on this to be able to cover the cost of 6 it. It's -- and I'll let Jeannie talk about anything she 7 wants to add there about the necessity for the budget 8 amendment and where the funds will come from. 9 MS. HARGIS: We're just -- you know, this is just 10 for information purposes. We don't have a bill yet. We 11 don't really know what the cost is going to be. I mean, we 12 have an approximate cost, but we understand that they didn't 13 do all the work that they had intended to do, so I feel like 14 the cost is probably going to be a whole lot less than we 15 anticipated. But we just want to make sure that the Court is 16 aware, and that we've noted that the emergency did occur, and 17 that this was an unforeseen health hazard that we are going 18 to have to cover. And we're working on the warranty 19 situation as well as with Grantworks to see if we can get 20 funds from Phase 6, but, you know, we won't know that for a 21 while. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Let me ask you a question. 23 What -- what you're saying, I think, is that we have an 24 emergency, and it rises to the level of declaring an 25 emergency so that we can go into reserves and get money out. 12-17-14 7 1 MS. HARGIS: That's correct. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That sounds like a lot to 3 me, but -- and if we -- we're going to take out a certain 4 amount to cover everything, and then we're going to have some 5 left over, possibly. What happens then? Or would it -- 6 would it be better to wait until we get an actual bill? 7 MS. HARGIS: Yes, sir. This is just information; 8 we don't want to take any action today. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. So, you're going to 10 recommend that we wait till we get the bill? 11 MS. HARGIS: Yes. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And get the correct, exact 13 amount out, okay. 14 MS. HARGIS: Yes, sir. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And have you -- is it an 16 emergency? 17 MS. BAILEY: I believe so. When we actually do the 18 budget amendment, I think it would be appropriate to read 19 into the record the criteria listed in that section of the 20 Local Government Code. And I don't remember exactly what the 21 words are, but you have to find that it's an extraordinary 22 emergency and so forth. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 24 MS. BAILEY: So we'll just do that at that time. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I agree. 12-17-14 8 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Question. This is only on the 2 three-phase power. Is the -- the cost to get the power 3 there, do we know if there's going to be any overtime, 4 emergency cost above and beyond what we knew -- thought it 5 was going to cost? 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yes. That's -- it was -- it 7 was presented to us by the City that they would have KPUB 8 there working all last weekend, which they did. I went out 9 there Monday morning; they had the three-phase power to 10 the -- to the lift station and to the bypass pump, and it was 11 working. So, they worked -- they worked all weekend, and so 12 there was overtime and emergency cost associated with it. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I guess that's my -- and 14 I'll probably go along 'cause I'm such a nice person, but 15 I've got -- (Laughter.) 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Good lord. Merry Christmas. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But I have a bit -- unless our 18 engineers tell us that the pump -- that the electrical setup 19 would not work, I have a problem with rushing -- with paying 20 an overtime charge to KPUB because the City felt that was a 21 problem, when I haven't seen any engineering to say that that 22 was the case. So, someone needs to give us engineering that 23 said those three-phase -- the converters were not working, 24 would not work, and for that reason we had to get three-phase 25 there as an emergency, you know, with overtime and all that. 12-17-14 9 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And I agree with you 2 100 percent. There's the three-phase and the converter and 3 the pump itself, so I think we need -- 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: We need to sort out exactly 6 what the technical issues were, and -- and what the options 7 were in fixing that. I agree with you 100 percent. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Thank you. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 10 COMMISSIONER REEVES: If I may, this was what we 11 talked about right at the end of the last fiscal year, when 12 we were trying to -- I think we said that we might have to 13 spend 83,000 right now to keep from spending 500,000 or 14 something by losing the grant. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Correct. 16 COMMISSIONER REEVES: And engineers said that this 17 system -- this way, which I think Jonathan said as well, is a 18 common thing with some of the pumps in the rural communities 19 on water pumps; it's a converting system. And the engineers 20 were okay with this; is that correct? 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That is absolutely correct. 22 As a matter of fact, when that issue came up, we pulled -- 23 cited cases and applications of where this exact 24 configuration had been used successfully a number of times, 25 for a number of years, so that is correct. 12-17-14 10 1 COMMISSIONER REEVES: So, was -- and it's been -- 2 the pump has failed, so was there an engineering problem? 3 Was there -- was there a problem with the manufacturer of the 4 pump? What? 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: To be determined. 6 COMMISSIONER REEVES: We don't know what caused the 7 problem? 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: We do not know. We do not 9 know. It's been alleged that the pumps were not configured 10 properly, didn't have the cutters with them, and therefore 11 they overloaded the pump. And if you overload the pump, you 12 overload the power to the pump and the current, and then you 13 fail the pump, and you perhaps even have some back impact on 14 the converters. So, that's all to be determined. So, in the 15 meantime, we had a potential spill and environmental hazard. 16 We said stop, fix that, okay, and then we'll sort out whether 17 it's -- whether it's power or -- or converter or pump. 18 JUDGE POLLARD: It could be that the wrong pumps 19 were furnished to the location without cutters. 20 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Well -- and, I mean, to 21 me, -- 22 JUDGE POLLARD: That may be the cause. But it may 23 not be. 24 COMMISSIONER REEVES: -- this is an emergency. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 12-17-14 11 1 COMMISSIONER REEVES: And it's got to be rectified. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Mm-hmm. 3 COMMISSIONER REEVES: But it was installed and 4 everything according to engineering standards and stuff. I 5 feel we should find out the cost, but I'm not sure if we 6 should, in the long run, have to pay all that cost. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I think everybody is unanimous 8 in agreement with that. Yes, absolutely. 9 JUDGE POLLARD: Let's make it clear that once we 10 determine what the -- what the real cause of this problem is, 11 and we think it may be -- who knows? Something from either 12 the design, or from the supplier or an installer, any of 13 those, there may be a problem in there, and whatever it is, 14 if it -- if we can -- if we do determine that the fault lies 15 with somebody involved in that, it's -- it should be our 16 intention to seek reimbursement from them, and any cost 17 incidental to this thing. We may have to front some of this, 18 you know, because of an emergency, but any cost incidental 19 with that we should seek reimbursement from. 20 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I totally agree. We've got 21 to get it fixed. 22 JUDGE POLLARD: Got to find out -- 23 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I'm wondering at what 24 point -- 25 JUDGE POLLARD: At this point, we don't know what 12-17-14 12 1 happened. 2 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Okay, that's good. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: In the meantime, we need to 4 make sure that we -- I sound like an attorney here -- get all 5 the evidence, and preserve the evidence so we can determine 6 the cause. 7 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Totally agree. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So, no action is required; 9 this is for information. 10 JUDGE POLLARD: Initially, there was a figure 11 thrown around of a little over 100,000 it may run. Who 12 knows, though? It may be less. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The cost of the three-phase 14 which we were going to have to pay at some point, wasn't it 15 like 60,000 or -- 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: It was -- yeah, it was, I 17 think, 83,000 total. Charlie's got the number. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, I mean, the -- if it's 19 100,000, considering the whole thing, that's pretty 20 reasonable, it seems to me, 'cause we were going to at some 21 point have to do it, and as long as the 83 is coming out of 22 the grant -- 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, the other thing is, when 24 I went out Monday, when we looked at the 83,000, I believe it 25 was to replace all of the utility poles, which were 12-17-14 13 1 Windstream poles, but they were not of a sufficient strength 2 to take that, but they only had to replace one. So, I think, 3 you know, we'll sort out what the costs are and who's liable, 4 responsible for what part of it. So -- 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Good discussion. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. And that was all I had. 9 JUDGE POLLARD: I suggest, Ilse, if you wouldn't 10 mind, work up a draft in advance of -- with these findings in 11 it, declaring the emergency in accordance with the Government 12 Code. 13 MS. BAILEY: I'll do it. 14 JUDGE POLLARD: Kind of have that worked up and 15 ready for us -- 16 MS. BAILEY: I'll do it. 17 JUDGE POLLARD: -- so we can make the resolution in 18 accordance with the law, okay? 19 MS. BAILEY: Yes. 20 JUDGE POLLARD: Any other discussion? Is there 21 anything else for this -- for consideration today? 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Let the rain come. 23 JUDGE POLLARD: Let the rains come. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Friday's the party. 25 JUDGE POLLARD: Yes, I got you some sausage on the 12-17-14 14 1 way. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Oh, he's a good man. That's 3 a good man right there. 4 MR. BOLLIER: Deer sausage? 5 JUDGE POLLARD: Huh? 6 MR. BOLLIER: Is it deer sausage? 7 JUDGE POLLARD: No, pork sausage. 8 MR. BOLLIER: That'll work. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 10 JUDGE POLLARD: It's coming from -- 11 MS. BAILEY: You got to beat me there first, buddy. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I can do that. 13 JUDGE POLLARD: -- that place behind the police 14 station. They have some good sausage that's good for 15 barbecue there. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Mm-hmm. 17 JUDGE POLLARD: Coming from there. We went and 18 picked up seven turkeys last night, about 13, 14 pounds, from 19 H.E.B. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: You put them in jail? 21 JUDGE POLLARD: Yes, sir. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: The Sheriff picks up turkeys 23 all the time. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We're still on the record. 25 JUDGE POLLARD: Oh, okay. All right. Anybody want 12-17-14 15 1 to make a motion for adjournment? 2 COMMISSIONER REEVES: So moved. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 4 JUDGE POLLARD: It's -- those in favor, signify by 5 raising your right hand. 6 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 7 JUDGE POLLARD: We're adjourned. 8 (Commissioners Court adjourned at 9:17 a.m.) 9 - - - - - - - - - - 10 11 12 STATE OF TEXAS | 13 COUNTY OF KERR | 14 The above and foregoing is a true and complete 15 transcription of my stenotype notes taken in my capacity as 16 official reporter for the Commissioners Court of Kerr County, 17 Texas, at the time and place heretofore set forth. 18 DATED at Kerrville, Texas, this 17th day of December, 19 2014. 20 21 JANNETT PIEPER, Kerr County Clerk 22 BY: _________________________________ Kathy Banik, Deputy County Clerk 23 Certified Shorthand Reporter 24 25 12-17-14