1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT 9 Special Session 10 Friday, January 16, 2015 11 8:30 a.m. 12 Commissioners' Courtroom 13 Kerr County Courthouse 14 Kerrville, Texas 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 PRESENT: H. A. "BUSTER" BALDWIN, Commissioner Pct. 1 23 JONATHAN LETZ, Commissioner Pct. 3 BOB REEVES, Commissioner Pct. 4 24 ABSENT: TOM POLLARD, Kerr County Judge 25 TOM MOSER, Commissioner Pct. 2 2 1 I N D E X January 16, 2015 2 PAGE 3 1.1 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action regarding vacant 4-H Coordinator position 4 at Kerr County Agrilife Extension Office (Executive Session as needed) 3 5 1.2 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 6 award contract to install flooring on second floor of courthouse 3 7 1.3 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 8 retain the services of outside counsel to represent Kerr County on various water-related 9 issues 6 10 3.1 Action as may be required on matters discussed in Executive Session 12 11 --- Adjourned 15 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 3 1 On Friday, January 16, 2015, at 8:30 a.m., a special 2 meeting of the Kerr County Commissioners Court was held in 3 the Commissioners' Courtroom, Kerr County Courthouse, 4 Kerrville, Texas, and the following proceedings were had in 5 open court: 6 P R O C E E D I N G S 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Good morning, ladies and 8 gentlemen. Welcome to Kerr County Commissioners Court. It 9 is 8:30 a.m. Friday, January 16th, 2015. Commissioners 1, 3, 10 and 4 are present, and the County Judge and Commissioner 11 Number 2 are absent today. We have three items on the 12 agenda, and we're going to dive right into it right now. 13 Item 1.1; consider, discuss, take appropriate action 14 regarding vacant 4-H Coordinator position at the Kerr County 15 AgriLife Extension Office. Is this an Executive Session 16 item? 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think it's going to be 18 executive session, yes. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It is, yes. Okay, we'll 20 hold that, then, to the end. Item 1.2; consider, discuss, 21 take appropriate action to award contract to install floors 22 on the second floor of the courthouse. Mr. Bollier. 23 MR. BOLLIER: Yes, sir. I think it was over money. 24 We were waiting on Jeannie to see if we had the money to do 25 so. 1-16-15 4 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think we need to rebid it. I 2 think that the -- that that amount is -- I talked with the 3 Auditor; it's going to be hard to find that money. We 4 received one bid. I'd like to go out and make sure that we 5 get every local company that can do that project, and if we 6 need to, as an alternate, change the materials, then change 7 the materials. 8 MR. BOLLIER: Okay. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think the -- and I'll leave 10 this up to you. The carpet -- we were trying to get rid of 11 the carpet in those hallways 'cause it didn't last. But it 12 lasted 14 years. 13 MR. BOLLIER: Right. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Which is better than any 15 household carpet lasts, so if we can get another 14 years, 16 I'm fine with going back to carpeting. The hallways that run 17 by the elevator where people walk, that might be more 18 expensive flooring. If it is more expensive, I don't know, 19 you know, which one. Obviously, the courtrooms need to be 20 carpeted, but I would do it as a -- I recommend we go with an 21 alternate with the same material that we bid, and make sure 22 we get more bids, and maybe just go to some people in San 23 Antonio to specify the materials we want to use, and then 24 specify the carpet grade we need to use, or type, whatever. 25 Whatever we need to do so it looks the same. But it just 1-16-15 5 1 seems like that bid came in a lot higher than it was from the 2 same company previously. 3 MR. BOLLIER: Previously. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And that's why -- something 5 isn't right. So, I think we just ought to rebid it, and -- 6 MR. BOLLIER: Okay. And I guess maybe the thing 7 that threw that off was because in the -- in the specs, we 8 put in the specs for them to move the furniture and all of 9 that, so -- you know, in the offices; that they would have to 10 move it in and out to add that. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's pretty standard with 12 carpet-layers. I mean, I -- I think. 13 MR. BOLLIER: I don't think so. But I'm going to 14 bet you that they -- 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 16 MR. BOLLIER: -- they added something for it. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. Well, either way, I 18 think we ought to rebid it. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So you're going to bring it 20 back when you're comfortable? 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We probably need to bring it 22 back at our next meeting to authorize to go bid again. 23 MS. HARGIS: I'll help you with it. 24 MR. BOLLIER: Okay. So we're just going to wait 25 till next meeting to come back to get authorization from the 1-16-15 6 1 Court to rebid it? I'll wait till the next meeting, then. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you Tim. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Thank you. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Is the water issue executive 5 session? 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't think it needs to be. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Item 1.3; consider, discuss, 8 take appropriate action to retain the services of outside 9 counsel to represent Kerr County on various water-related 10 issues. Mr. Letz -- excuse me, Commissioner Letz. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Oh, thank you, sir. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: The actual winner of the 13 toss -- cow toss. But Number 4 is the new guy. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'm the -- I'm the has-been. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No longer can throw the bull. 17 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I guess I'm the rookie of the 18 year or something like that. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I meant to send this letter 20 out; I apologize. This is the engagement letter received 21 from the Jackson, Sjoberg, McCarthy & Townsend law firm, 22 where we have been in contact with Ed McCarthy, who's one of 23 their partners, to represent us on some water issues. Ilse's 24 looked at the letter. She has, I think, no problems with it. 25 It's pretty standard. The -- the billing amount, which is 1-16-15 7 1 the critical part from a budget standpoint, his standard rate 2 is $450 an hour, but he will lower it for working for the 3 County to $350 an hour. And then there's a discount of 4 5 percent if you pay real quickly, and some other things, you 5 know, if paralegals are doing it. The maximum he will charge 6 per day is eight hours per day, so if he has to come to Kerr 7 County and ends up working a -- being out of the office for a 8 12-hour day or whatever, he only will charge for eight. 9 Except when he's out at -- representing us at a hearing, if 10 that happens, and that could be a maximum of a 10-hour day 11 then. The issue initially he's working on with us is the 12 protest we filed to -- against the Guadalupe-Blanco River 13 Authority's mid-basin project. And Ilse's been in contact 14 with him about this, and he has all the documentation. He's 15 ready to go forward. 16 MS. BAILEY: And just so you know, that that 17 particular issue is ongoing right now. The T.C.E.Q. is in 18 the middle of accepting testimony for that contested hearing, 19 so we really need to get him on board. He's actually been 20 looking at stuff already for me, but -- so we need to get him 21 on board. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I think -- and I'd 23 recommend -- I'll make a motion that we -- well, first ask a 24 question to Ilse. I talked to Mr. McCarthy when I first 25 talked to him about how much this might cost, and we talked 1-16-15 8 1 about a -- you know, preliminarily -- or preliminary figure 2 of around 5,000. Should we -- and I don't want to run up a 3 huge legal bill until we get him, probably, down here to meet 4 with us as a Court to kind of go over some of these things. 5 Is that a reasonable figure to cap it at initially? 6 MS. BAILEY: I think so. The status of the 7 hearing -- or the contested hearing right now is that, oh, 8 six or eight, maybe even nine or ten entities have filed 9 requests with the T.C.E.Q. for a contested hearing on 10 G.B.R.A.'s application. The Office of Public Interest 11 Counsel has filed a brief saying, yes, all of us should be 12 able to participate in that hearing. The Executive Director 13 yesterday filed a brief saying, "These five should be able 14 to, and these other five should not be able to participate," 15 and Kerr County was one of the ones that the Executive 16 Director said we should not be able to participate. If that 17 decision stands, then it's going to be real limited 18 participation by Ed, 'cause he'll have to file something that 19 says, yeah, we should be able to. And if they go with the 20 Executive Director's opinion, then we're pretty much out of 21 it. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I don't know anybody more 23 affected by this issue than us, or us up river. 24 MS. BAILEY: Yes. But the Executive Director feels 25 differently. And I've spoken to Ed McCarthy about it, and he 1-16-15 9 1 and I both think that the Executive Director's opinion is 2 erroneous, but he'll have to make that argument. And that's 3 -- doing that part certainly shouldn't take $5,000. But if 4 he actually has to go to hearings and create testimony, then 5 it could cost a good bit more. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But the first -- well, I mean, 7 that's -- February 6th is the initial -- 8 MS. BAILEY: Something like that. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Or second -- first week in 10 February, as I recall. But this will be enough to get us -- 11 MS. BAILEY: There. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- there, and then we can bring 13 it back to the Court and see. And we do have money in the 14 budget under the category, I think, for water planning, which 15 this should go under that category. I'll make a motion that 16 we authorize -- or engage Ed McCarthy as outside counsel for 17 some limited water issues, and pursuant to the engagement 18 letter he sent. 19 MS. BAILEY: And to authorize who to sign it? 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Authorize Commissioner Baldwin, 21 since he's here today. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We're going to sign it 23 today, this agreement? Is that what you're talking about, 24 signing the agreement today? 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. I mean, can we -- I 1-16-15 10 1 mean -- 2 MS. BAILEY: Or we could have the County Judge 3 authorized to sign it, and then just have him sign it. Is he 4 not here today at all? 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: He's upstairs in court. 6 MS. BAILEY: Oh. 7 MS. HARGIS: He can probably sign. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I bet you can get him -- 9 MS. BAILEY: I'll get him to sign it. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: All right. Okay, authorize the 11 County Judge to sign. 12 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I second that. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We have a motion and a 14 second. Is there any further discussion? Help me remember; 15 how much do -- did we set aside? 16 MS. HARGIS: I think 25 or -- I think at least 17 25,000. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 25,000 or 30,000. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Good lord. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 'Cause that was -- part of that 21 was more for engineering that they were hoping, but this 22 certainly is part of that as well. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And there's still some in 24 the water planning line? Or is that -- 25 MS. HARGIS: That is what we put it in. 1-16-15 11 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's -- that is what we're 2 talking about? 3 MS. HARGIS: We especially budgeted for this 4 purpose. 5 MS. BAILEY: Now, another thing that we talked 6 about, and, Jonathan, you and I talked about, is that there 7 are two or three other water-related issues that I think this 8 engagement letter could cover, so that once we've engaged 9 him, then I don't think we have to come back to the Court to 10 get authorization to have him work on some of those other 11 things, if there are things that the Court has already 12 decided that that's something we want to do. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 14 MS. BAILEY: I just don't remember what those 15 particular issues are. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think we need to come back 17 probably to the Court, but I think this would cover the 18 engagement. It's just whether the Court wants to authorize 19 him to enter into some of those things, and those are 20 executive session items. 21 MS. BAILEY: Yeah. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: A motion and a second to 23 approve Item 1.3, which is to sign an agreement with the 24 attorney in Austin, and have the County Judge to sign the 25 agreement. All in favor, raise your right hand. 1-16-15 12 1 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 3-0.) 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Motion carries. Thank you. 3 We'll recess now and go into executive session to deal with 4 Item 1.1, and we'll come out and possibly take action, so 5 y'all don't go off too far. 6 (The open session was closed at 8:43 a.m., and an executive session was held, the transcript of which 7 is contained in a separate document.) 8 - - - - - - - - - - 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Commissioners Court's back 10 in session at this time, and it is now 9:05. Back in open 11 session, and we're dealing with Item 1.1. Waiting on the 12 Auditor to provide us with some numbers right quick, so 13 everybody -- we're on hold. In neutral, as they say in 14 California. 15 (Ms. Hargis entered the courtroom.) 16 MS. HARGIS: Sorry, I was working on another 17 assignment. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I know where that came from. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Mrs. Auditor, we're talking 20 about the budget of the -- for the 4-H Coordinator in the 21 AgriLife Extension Office, and you have stated that there -- 22 you could round up money out of his budget to meet the needs 23 for this position that we're looking at, and would you tell 24 us about that? 25 MS. HARGIS: When Roy first approached me, we 1-16-15 13 1 looked in the regular salary line item, which has been 2 vacant, so there's funds there. Then there's going to be 3 funds in the Group Insurance line item, because the person 4 has been absent, as well as they won't be eligible for 60 5 days. There is money in the FICA and the medical line item. 6 So, he needed about $3,500 to get him through the end of the 7 year, because this is not, you know, a 12-month position, so 8 there was enough money there in those line items to cover 9 that. 10 COMMISSIONER REEVES: And it won't run, 11 Mr. Walston, on the future 4-H Coordinator's position, travel 12 or anything that would affect any of the programs that they 13 do? We're not going to be taking money from the 4-H program 14 or anything like that? 15 MS. HARGIS: No, it's all coming out of the 16 existing salary line items because of the vacancy, and the 17 fact the that they're not eligible for certain products until 18 -- so you've got about three months, four months worth of 19 group insurance, which is, you know, the equivalent to -- the 20 pure cost is about 553; is that right? Or five-something, 21 but we actually have about 650. I know that the annual 22 amount's $7,960, so we have three or four months of that, 23 which is almost enough to cover the shortfall. 24 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Just so it doesn't affect his 25 program. 1-16-15 14 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. What do we want to do 2 now? 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll make a motion to authorize 4 the -- Roy to go to a 19.4 to offer to the candidate we 5 discussed in executive session. 6 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Subject to approval of all 7 Kerr County H.R. policies? 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Sure. Sure. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay, we have a motion. Is 10 there a second? 11 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I'll second that. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We have a motion and a 13 second. Any further discussion? Are you okay with that, 14 Roy, doing it that way? 15 MR. WALSTON: Sounds fine with me. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It looks good. All in 17 favor, raise your right hand. 18 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 3-0.) 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Any further actions to come 20 before this Court? So, I'll entertain a motion that we -- 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move we adjourn. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We have a motion to adjourn. 23 Is there a second? I'm not hearing a second; we can't go. 24 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I'll second, then. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second the motion. Any 1-16-15 15 1 further discussion? So, we have a motion to adjourn and a 2 second to adjourn. Are you going to vote to adjourn? 3 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I believe I'll abstain. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Abstain from voting? I vote 5 no. So, the chair declares this meeting over. (Laughter.) 6 (Commissioners Court adjourned at 9:10 a.m.) 7 - - - - - - - - - - 8 9 10 STATE OF TEXAS | 11 COUNTY OF KERR | 12 The above and foregoing is a true and complete 13 transcription of my stenotype notes taken in my capacity as 14 official reporter for the Commissioners Court of Kerr County, 15 Texas, at the time and place heretofore set forth. 16 DATED at Kerrville, Texas, this 20th day of January, 17 2015. 18 19 REBECCA BOLIN, Kerr County Clerk 20 BY: _________________________________ Kathy Banik, Deputy County Clerk 21 Certified Shorthand Reporter 22 23 24 25 1-16-15