1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT 9 Special Session 10 Monday, January 26, 2015 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 January 26, 2015 2 PAGE 3 --- Visitors' Input 5 --- Commissioners' Comments 7 4 1.1 Public Hearing regarding revision of plat for 5 Lots 5 and 6 of Saddlewood Estates, Pct. 1 10 6 1.2 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action for final approval regarding revision of plat for 7 Lots 5 and 6 of Saddlewood Estates, Pct. 1 11 8 1.3 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to accept preliminary revision of plat for Lot 41 9 of Spicer Ranch; set a public hearing, Pct. 1 12 10 1.4 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to set public hearing regarding naming of proposed 11 private road Buck-N B Ranch Rd. W., Pct. 4 13 12 1.5 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action regarding jail bond issue 16 13 1.6 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action 14 regarding order expressing official intent to reimburse costs incurred related to potential 15 improvements to the county jail 48 16 1.13 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on Recycling Center report from City of Kerrville 50 17 1.7 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 18 approve Change Proposal #25 at Hill Country Youth Event Center 54 19 1.8 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 20 ratify and confirm Change Proposals #23 and #24 for Event Hall at Hill Country Youth Event Center 56 21 1.9 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action 22 regarding lease with Kerrville Youth Baseball/ Softball Association 57 23 1.15 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action 24 regarding proposed tax abatement for the James Avery Company facility planned to be constructed 25 on Highway 27 64 3 1 I N D E X (Continued) January 26, 2015 2 PAGE 3 1.14 Consider/discuss and accept required Racial Profiling Report 71 4 1.10 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on 5 approval of grant submission to Alamo Area Council of Governments for Youth Averted from 6 Delinquency (YAD) Program; pass a resolution in support of same 72 7 1.11 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on 8 allocation or declaration as surplus of a 2001 Ford Taurus recently declared surplus by Kerr 9 County Juvenile Board and given to Kerr County 80 10 1.12 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on revision of Kerr County Juvenile Detention 11 Facility Policy and Procedure Manual 84 12 1.16 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action on implementation of the burn ban 85 13 1.17 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action 14 regarding the 2015 liaison appointments 86 15 1.18 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to reappoint Kenneth Edwards as a commissioner 16 on Kerr County ESD #2 Board for a 2-year term 89 17 1.19 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to appoint Jan Reeve as a commissioner on Kerr 18 County ESD #2 Board for a 2-year term 89 19 1.20 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to extend RFP for a Naming Rights Partnership with 20 Kerr County for Hill Country Youth Event Center deadline until March 6, 2015 at 4:30 p.m. 90 21 1.21 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action 22 regarding budget surplus for 2013 Kerr Central Appraisal District budget 92 23 1.22 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to go 24 out for rebid for flooring on 2nd floor of the courthouse 97 25 4 1 I N D E X (Continued) January 26, 2015 2 PAGE 3 1.23 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to approve Assistant Emergency Management Coordinator 4 job description and salary, and hire for position 99 5 1.24 Consider/discuss, and accept required Racial Profiling Report from Constable, Precinct 4 100 6 1.25 Consider/discuss, take appropriate action to 7 authorize Environmental Health/Animal Services Director to reduce registration fee to $1 during 8 annual rabies vaccination clinics Feb. 7-21, 2015 101 9 4.1 Pay Bills 103 4.2 Budget Amendments --- 10 4.3 Late Bills 103 4.4 Approve and Accept Monthly Reports 104 11 5.1 Reports from Commissioners/Liaison Committee 12 Assignments 105 5.2 Reports from Elected Officials/Department Heads 108 13 --- Adjourned 110 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 5 1 On Monday, January 26, 2015, at 9:00 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 JUDGE POLLARD: It's Monday, January the 26th, 8 2015, and the Sheriff says it's close enough to 9 a.m. The 9 Kerr County Commissioners are now in session, and I believe 10 we'll start -- I believe it's Baldwin is up today. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yes, sir. Would you please 12 rise, and let's have a word of prayer and then the pledge of 13 allegiance. 14 (Prayer and pledge of allegiance.) 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you. 16 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. The first thing on the 17 agenda is the visitors' input part. This is for people that 18 wish to speak to the Commissioners Court on items that are 19 not on the -- not on the regular agenda. I have a couple of 20 -- a couple of forms. Mr. MacDonald, I think you were one of 21 them? Mr. MacDonalds. 22 MR. MACDONALD: Thank you, Judge. I just want to 23 take this opportunity to thank the folks here at Kerr County, 24 especially Sheriff Hierholzer and his staff, Tommy Hall 25 particularly. We had a family tragedy a couple weeks ago, 1-26-15 6 1 and -- and their help and support was fantastic. Judge, I 2 want to thank you, too. If the rest of y'all don't know, we 3 had an incident with a dog at the house at the same time, and 4 got a little dog bite, and it has to be reported to Animal 5 Control. And -- and they were going to quarantine the dog 6 and everything in the middle of all this other stuff, and we 7 had to -- luckily, I calmed down enough to call the Judge, 8 and the Judge took care of the issue. I would like to say, 9 though, that lady I talked with at Animal Control, Sarah 10 Merritt, was -- was not the kind of person we want 11 representing Kerr County. She -- I told her about the 12 problem, and she -- she could have really cared less, and 13 told me she was going to quarantine the dog, so she ended up 14 sending the quarantine notice on to Houston, where the dog 15 lives, but we kept the dog here in accordance with the 16 agreement we had with Judge Pollard. And -- but we had to go 17 through a lot of rigmarole. She kind of went over the 18 Judge's head on that, and that's completely unnecessary. I 19 think the Court needs to know about that, 'cause we deserve 20 better in Kerr County than that. I'm really here speaking to 21 the folks that don't know you as well as I know all of y'all, 22 that wouldn't know to actually call the Judge, wouldn't know 23 to call Tom or Buster or Jonathan if it was in your precinct. 24 Mr. Reeves, I don't know you that well, sorry. But you may 25 think that's fortunate. (Laughter.) But -- but, seriously, 1-26-15 7 1 this sort of thing was a little out of control, and at the 2 very least, Ms. Merritt needs some sensitivity training or 3 something, 'cause it was a little out of control. But I am 4 proud to report, Judge, that the dog's doing fine. We're 5 going to send him home today. 6 JUDGE POLLARD: Great. 7 MR. MACDONALD: Thank you. 8 JUDGE POLLARD: Thank you very much. There was one 9 other person, but I think it was a conditional -- indicated a 10 conditional response, only if there was some opposition to 11 something on the agenda, I believe. And so -- I'm getting an 12 affirmative nod, okay. All right. We'll go on, then, to 13 Commissioners' comments, and I think -- I think we may have 14 quite a few of those, since we had a lot of activity last 15 week. We'll start with Commissioner 1. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Judge, I don't have 17 anything. If I were going to, I'd talk about the fantastic 18 stock show, but I've got a feeling there will be somebody 19 else at the table that knows more about it than I do. But it 20 was incredible. That's all. 21 JUDGE POLLARD: It was. A lot of people. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I want to second the 23 "incredible" part -- portion of it. It was superb, and I'm 24 sure that everybody else will talk about it, but I just 25 wanted to emphasize some of the ag mechanics stuff that was 1-26-15 8 1 there. I know that the Judge was there, and it's 2 unbelievable what these young folks have done with their -- 3 with their skills and the support of -- of the F.F.A. and so 4 forth, the ag teachers. So, I mean, they've taken old 5 tractors and completely renovated them; they look brand new. 6 Built trailers that you can't believe. So, it's great -- 7 great skills they're developing there. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: True. 9 JUDGE POLLARD: Lots of barbecue pits and Dutch 10 ovens and things that are near and dear to my heart. 11 (Laughter.) With a lot of really innovative ideas. Boy, 12 those kids, they're just something. Mr. Letz? 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll just make a few comments, 14 and probably let Mr. Reeves speak the most about it, but 15 yeah, it was a great event. A lot of animals, a lot of 16 compliments on the entire facility. A few glitches with some 17 plumbing, but we think we know where the problems are there 18 and how to fix them. And they're not big fixes; it doesn't 19 -- I don't think. But, anyway, great show, great sale, a lot 20 of people. And considering the weather we had on Friday, I 21 don't think anyone actually even got stuck in the mud. There 22 was a little bit of mud in the polo field. People kind of 23 used their ingenuity and parked anywhere they could find a 24 hard surface. I think TexDOT and Highway Patrol and Sheriff, 25 City, everyone was a little bit lenient considering the 1-26-15 9 1 situation. I appreciate that. I think it was a great event. 2 Bob? 3 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I've got to reaffirm 4 everybody else's comments. From Commissioner Moser's 5 comments regarding the ag mechanics, that's some of the best 6 projects you'll see. You know, these ag shops at our high 7 schools are probably better equipped than most of the 8 commercial fabrication shops, and those kids work long and 9 hard on that. I want to put out my thanks, first to 10 Maintenance, TexDOT, Road and Bridge, everything they did, 11 just with the rain and everything, and one way or another, we 12 got everybody in there. And then Saturday night, we ran out 13 of seating for the auction; we had to bring in more chairs, 14 expand the auction room. The money's still coming in, but 15 when we turned the computers off late Saturday night, it was 16 1,060,000 and some change. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. 18 COMMISSIONER REEVES: And, I mean, we still had 19 calls yesterday that they wanted to add to it, so I don't 20 know how high it will go, but I think all the kids were 21 well-taken care of. There was some great projects, and I 22 know the show appreciates all of the help that they got 23 putting it on. And great comments, like Commissioner Letz 24 said, about the new facilities. They just walked around 25 looking in the air, just staring and -- 1-26-15 10 1 JUDGE POLLARD: And oohing and aahing. 2 COMMISSIONER REEVES: -- oohing and aahing. And 3 then a lot of comments on can they bring this event here or 4 that event. The day after the ribbon cutting, the National 5 Cattle Show representative was in there walking around, 6 looking at it, and so I think there's going to be some great 7 benefits coming to Kerr County. 8 JUDGE POLLARD: Charlie McIlvain approached me and 9 told me that they had just booked the American Red Brangus 10 Association to come here, and they haven't been here since 11 the early -- about 1992. And so that's going to bring a lot 12 of people in, a lot of people to come spend money in our 13 community in the restaurants and hotels. We're going to get 14 a lot more of that kind of thing. It's really going to -- 15 it's really going to help the economy here, we hope. That's 16 the -- that's what we're trying to do. 17 COMMISSIONER REEVES: It'll be a major plus. But 18 that's all I have, Judge. 19 JUDGE POLLARD: All right, thank you. We'll go to, 20 then, Item 1 on the agenda. This is a public hearing 21 regarding the revision of plat for Lots 5 and 6, Saddlewood 22 Estates, Block 2, Volume 6, Page 319, Precinct 1. 23 Mr. Odom -- well, it's a public hearing. 24 (The regular Commissioners Court meeting was closed at 9:09 a.m., and a public hearing was held in open 25 court, as follows:) 1-26-15 11 1 P U B L I C H E A R I N G 2 JUDGE POLLARD: Anybody have anything to say about 3 this public hearing? I declare the public hearing open. 4 (No response.) 5 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. There being no comment, 6 we'll go to Item 1.2. 7 (The public hearing was concluded at 9:09 a.m., and the regular Commissioners Court meeting was 8 reopened.) 9 - - - - - - - - - - 10 JUDGE POLLARD: Consider, discuss, and take 11 appropriate action for the Court's final approval regarding 12 the revision of plat for Lots 5 and 6 of Saddlewood Estates, 13 Block 2, Volume 6, Page 319, Precinct 1. Mr. Hastings? 14 MR. HASTINGS: Thank you, Judge. This item has 15 come before the Court previously. There was an issue with 16 the public hearing in that the notification in the paper, 17 somehow there was a mistake in there. We set a new public 18 hearing for today. This would be the revision of plat for 19 Lots 5 and 6 of Saddlewood Estates, Block 2, Volume 6, Page 20 319. It is in Precinct 1, and this would revise the lot line 21 between 5 and 6. At this time, we're asking the Court for 22 their final approval regarding the revision of plat for Lots 23 5 and 6 of Saddlewood Estates, Block 2, Volume 6, Page 319. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I move for approval. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 1-26-15 12 1 JUDGE POLLARD: It's been moved and seconded for 2 approval of the -- regarding the revision of plat for Lots 5 3 and 6 of Saddlewood Estates Block 2, Volume 6, Page 319. Is 4 there any further discussion? I assume you do not want to 5 say anything, since there's no opposition. All right. Those 6 in favor, signify by raising your right hand. 7 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 8 JUDGE POLLARD: It's 4-0, unanimous. Thank y'all 9 very much. Now we'll go to Item 1.3; consider, discuss, and 10 take appropriate action for Commissioners Court to accept the 11 preliminary revision of the plat for Lot 41 of Spicer Ranch 12 and set a public hearing, Volume 3, Page 56, Precinct 1. 13 Mr. Hastings. 14 MR. HASTINGS: C.H. Quilliam, the manager of 15 Quilliam Management Services, L.L.C., is proposing to 16 subdivide Lot 41 of Spicer Ranch Subdivision, Volume 3, Page 17 56. The lot has been certified by a licensed surveyor to be 18 10.02 acres, actual acres on the ground. The replat would 19 result in two lots at 5.01 acres each. At this time, we ask 20 the Court to accept the preliminary revision of plat for Lot 21 41 of Spicer Ranch, Volume 3, Page 56, and set a public 22 hearing for Monday, March 9th, 2015, at 9 a.m. This is 23 Precinct 1. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I move for approval. 25 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Second. 1-26-15 13 1 JUDGE POLLARD: It's been moved and seconded for 2 approval of Item 1.3 on the agenda. Is there any further 3 discussion? 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Don, is it going to be 10 -- 5 Don. Sorry. I really owe you an apology, and I do. 6 MR. HASTINGS: Thank you. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Is it 10.1 or 10.2? 8 MR. HASTINGS: 10.02 acres is the actual 9 on-the-ground acres. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That -- 11 MR. HASTINGS: From the latest -- 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's what we'll deal with 13 at the public hearing -- 14 MR. HASTINGS: Yes, sir. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: -- in March? Okay, very 16 good. Thank you. 17 JUDGE POLLARD: Any further discussion? Those in 18 favor of the motion, signify by raising your right hand. 19 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 20 JUDGE POLLARD: It's 4-0, unanimous. Thank you, 21 Mr. Hastings. 1.4; consider, discuss, and take appropriate 22 action to set a public hearing regarding naming proposed 23 private road Buck-N Bee Ranch Road West, Precinct 4. 24 Mr. Hastings. 25 MR. HASTINGS: This is an unnamed road in Precinct 1-26-15 14 1 4 off of Houston Schumacher Road. Erin Buck applied to Kerr 2 911 -- the Bucks -- to have it renamed to Buck-N Bee Ranch 3 Road -- or to name it; it's never been named before. It 4 meets all of Kerr 911's guidelines. There's three other 5 properties that are affected by this, so in order for them to 6 have a chance to know what's going on, we'd like to set a 7 public hearing for Monday, March 9th, 2015, at 9:10 a.m., and 8 we're asking the Court to do that. 9 JUDGE POLLARD: I got a question. Charlie, is this 10 just the part where it hooks to the left on this plat you've 11 shown? 12 MR. HASTINGS: Yes, sir. 13 JUDGE POLLARD: That's the only part that's going 14 to be renamed? 15 MR. HASTINGS: Correct. 16 JUDGE POLLARD: And they're going to retain the 17 name Houston Schumacher Road West in front of it? 18 MR. HASTINGS: That's correct. 19 JUDGE POLLARD: What's the nearest public road that 20 I know anything about? 21 MR. HASTINGS: F.M. 1341. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: 1340. 23 MR. HASTINGS: 1340. 24 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. This is not the road that 25 goes to the Buck and Bull -- 1-26-15 15 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No. 2 JUDGE POLLARD: -- gun club? 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: This is in behind the 4 state -- 5 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Wildlife. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: -- wildlife management area. 7 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay, got you. 8 COMMISSIONER REEVES: You may could get to the 9 Buck and Bull if you kept on going across the pasture, but 10 it's not... 11 JUDGE POLLARD: Yeah. 12 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I move for approval to set 13 the public hearing. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 15 JUDGE POLLARD: Been moved and seconded for 16 approval to set the public hearing. Is there any further 17 discussion? There being none, those in favor, signify by 18 raising your right hand. 19 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 20 JUDGE POLLARD: It is 4-0, unanimous. Jimmy, are 21 we talking loud enough for you here today? 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No. 23 JUDGE POLLARD: Can you hear me? 24 AUDIENCE: You can speak up a little louder. 25 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. We're trying. He's a 1-26-15 16 1 little hard-of-hearing, and as am I, so I understand the 2 problem. We need to try to speak up so the crowd can hear 3 us. 4 AUDIENCE: We're about the same age. 5 JUDGE POLLARD: Pardon? 6 AUDIENCE: I said we're about the same age. 7 JUDGE POLLARD: Really? Are you that old? Okay. 8 All right, 1.5; consider, discuss, and take appropriate 9 action regarding the jail bond issue. I imagine that's why a 10 lot of people are here today. Sheriff Hierholzer? 11 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Thank you, Judge. First off, 12 whoever in the audience did not get one of these little 13 brochures that would like one... 14 AUDIENCE: Thank you. 15 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Okay. All right. As we all 16 are aware of, this came up and has been coming up for quite 17 some time, but about the jail bond and about expanding the 18 jail. And, unfortunately, some of the e-mails that went 19 around to a lot of people in town kind of gave some very 20 drastic misinformation that I think we need to take some time 21 to straighten out, the biggest of which, in the e-mail that I 22 saw, said that the tax increase would be $1.75 per 100. I've 23 got news for you; if the tax increases $1.75 per 100, I'm 24 moving out of the county, okay? 'Cause I definitely cannot 25 afford it. It's one and three-fourths of a penny. It's a 1-26-15 17 1 little bit different than $1.75, so on a $100,000 value, it's 2 about $17.50. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Just a factor of 100. 4 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: That's the biggest 5 misinformation. Second biggest misinformation is that people 6 will -- over 65 will also see a tax increase over this. 7 That's totally wrong, okay? This tax increase of one and 8 three-fourths of a penny is only affecting county property 9 taxes, and that's those that are not frozen under the 10 over-65. So, if you're over 65, there is no tax increase. 11 It doesn't affect U.G.R.A., Headwaters Groundwater, lateral 12 roads. It's only property tax that the County collects. 13 Doesn't affect the school district or anything else. It's 14 only county property taxes on our property, those of us 15 younger than 65 that are not frozen. So I'll be paying it 16 too, okay? 17 A couple of things that -- in that that I really 18 wanted to get straightened out, and so what we've done is 19 that brochure -- and the County cannot pay and use county 20 funds to promote a bond issue. We can use county funds to 21 give facts about a bond issue, but we cannot use county 22 funds -- you're not going to see me spending county funds to 23 go out and buy signs that say "Vote Yes" or anything. All I 24 can do is report facts, and so that's what we're doing. If 25 we get to the point of actually wanting to go out and promote 1-26-15 18 1 it, I hope there will be a number of citizens step out and 2 donate some to that account. I have some money already 3 donated for that purpose, to where any promotion of this jail 4 expansion will be done with private funds and not county 5 funds. But for information purposes, I wanted to go through 6 some things, and also show what we've done. 7 If you'll go back to the Sheriff's Office website, 8 John, anybody can go onto -- go to the main page, if you will 9 -- there it is. Anybody can go onto kerrcountysheriff.org or 10 just put in "Kerr County Sheriff" on Google, and it will pull 11 up a selection to where you can select the Kerr County 12 Sheriff's Office website. Scrolling down into the middle of 13 that page, you'll see there where it says "Jail Expansion 14 Facts." What that is -- did you do that, or did I? You did 15 that, okay. What that is, is everything that we've talked 16 about is in there. You can actually go -- because I did a 17 letter, kind of like an editorial letter to the newspaper 18 that they published talking about how long this has been 19 going on and our overcrowdedness and everything else, and 20 where we are. And that letter, which is right there, it's in 21 that website. It says a lot of facts about this jail bond 22 issue and where we are, and what we need to look at. It's 23 all on our website. You can click on it. Anything referred 24 to in that letter, like the 2002 long-range planning 25 committee, the 2005-6 study that was done thinking about 1-26-15 19 1 using the juvenile facility, all those studies and everything 2 have been posted in their entirety on that website. 3 Now, the other thing, if you will go over to -- in 4 the letter that I submitted, I also talked about what our 5 current jail population was as of the day that I wrote that 6 letter and submitted it. I wanted people to actually be able 7 to see, because a lot of people think we have just minor 8 people that don't need to be in jail -- in our jail. So, if 9 you go over to that and click on that tab on that website, 10 you will see the actual jail census for January the 20th, 11 2015. That's the day that letter was written, and it will 12 give you the inmate's name; it will give you -- mine doesn't 13 work that far away -- gives you the inmate's name up at the 14 top, how many days he's been in jail, and what his charges 15 are. That on that one page you're looking at right there is 16 one inmate, and he's got all those charges, okay? And you 17 can scroll down through 20 pages of that and see all the 18 inmates that are currently in the Kerr County jail, and what 19 their charges are. 20 Now, in looking at that, one thing I would ask 21 people to think about or to look at is the ones that say VOP 22 or VOPA, "VOP" is violation of probation; "VOPA" is violation 23 of parole. These people can't be released even if I wanted 24 to; they've already had their chances. They've had to come 25 back to jail, violated their parole. Some people just don't 1-26-15 20 1 want to abide by their parole, so it comes back. But a few 2 other things in the brochure, and they're all -- this 3 brochure, everything in the brochure is also on that website, 4 in those same things that you can go and look at. You can 5 look at the full table of tax costs of what a jail expansion 6 will cost. And the other key one is, what will it cost if we 7 don't do anything? And what I'm talking about is, this jail 8 expansion is to last for the next 20 years. It's adding 144 9 beds to our jail, okay? Minus eight, because we had to do 10 some remodeling and expand the medical area, but you're 11 adding essentially 144 beds. If we don't do it and I get 12 overcrowded, okay, which have I been numerous times -- I'm 13 not housing any other inmates in our jail; we house only our 14 own. We don't house federal inmates. We don't house other 15 counties' inmates. We did that years ago, then we started 16 getting too crowded. 17 So, what we are doing is, we are at the max of what 18 we can house, because you can only use 80 percent of your bed 19 space. And people will say, "Well, you got 192 beds; you got 20 150 inmates, or 153. Use all your beds." You still have to 21 be able to separate these inmates in classifications, and 22 that classification is low, medium, and maximum. And what 23 that is, you can't put a 17-year-old drug offender in with a 24 capital murderer. You can't put a Texas Syndicate gang 25 member in with a Mexican Mafia gang member; you'll have an 1-26-15 21 1 instant fight, and likely a killing, okay? And a lot of 2 people say, "Well, let them kill each other, it doesn't 3 matter." Sometimes I might agree with you, except that the 4 law says the Sheriff shall safely keep anybody committed to 5 their custody. That doesn't give me a choice. We're liable 6 if they hurt each other. That's the law. We shall safely 7 keep anybody committed to our custody, okay? 8 Then you get -- so you get into this and you think, 9 "Well, let's not build; let's just ship them out of county," 10 the overflow. If you ship out -- the cost of no expansion. 11 If you ship out 50 inmates, and the going cost right now for 12 housing an inmate in another jail -- and we're using Burnet 13 County, 'cause they're the closest one available that we 14 could house inmates in right now, 'cause they've got a large 15 private jail that went defunct and they took back over, so 16 they've got bed space, and they sent me letters about it. 17 It's $50 a day per inmate. If I house 50 inmates in their 18 jail, 365 days a year, that's $912,000. That's not counting 19 any medical, and we're totally liable for all the medical 20 from Burnet County. If you -- if they get seriously injured 21 or they get seriously sick, guess where they go? They get 22 ambulanced to Austin. We're liable. We're liable for the 23 ambulance cost. We're liable for the inmate in the hospital 24 in Austin, okay? 25 So, the average medical cost in this, based on what 1-26-15 22 1 I'm spending right now on medical for inmates we currently 2 have, and if you take that per inmate and multiply it times 3 50, you get $141,000 extra that you're going to pay on 4 medical in that other county, too. So, you got to add that 5 to the 912,000. Transportation costs, that's not even on a 6 year; that's on 240 days, okay, of hauling inmates back and 7 forth, 'cause these are inmates that still have court days 8 here. These are inmates that will have court here, and have 9 to be brought back and forth. So, transportation costs, if 10 you just figure in the government cost of what they pay for 11 mileage, that's another 24,600. Two deputies to be hired to 12 do it -- 'cause right now, if everything's perfect, I have 13 five working the entire county for patrol, five deputies for 14 1,100 square miles. I can't pull two of those off to do 15 transports, or none of us are going to be protected. So, I 16 would have to hire two deputies to do it. That's 89,000 a 17 year, for a total cost of 1.167 million a year to house 50 18 inmates out of county. 19 That's not counting what the defense attorneys that 20 are Court-appointed, most of them, are also going to charge 21 the county for the mileage of them having to go back and 22 forth to see their clients. They're not going to drive over 23 there for free and not charge us for that. The County pays 24 that defense attorney cost. We're going to pay for that, so 25 that would be a low minimum cost, okay. If you look at the 1-26-15 23 1 total debt, and the shaded area on that piece alone, if you 2 look at that total debt and maintenance, you come up with 3 .0464. What that -- or .0467. What that is is the one and 4 three-fourths pennies for the tax increase for building a 5 facility, and then it's another 880,000, we figure, for 6 staffing to hire the additional jailers and all the rest that 7 we have to hire with this addition of 144 beds. 8 See, the State requires I have so many jail staff 9 on duty by the number of inmates that I have. You have to 10 have -- so that part wouldn't come into effect until about 11 2018, 'cause the building wouldn't be completed until then, 12 so we wouldn't start adding the personnel until then. But 13 the total at the worst deal is a .0467 tax increase. That's 14 4.67 pennies. If we do nothing, just the tax increase to 15 have to house these inmates out of county, okay, is going to 16 be .0390, so three and -- 3.9 pennies, increase it. That 17 gives you less than a penny difference; .0077, okay, 18 difference in whether we build our own and keep our 19 liabilities and everything at home, or whether we house out 20 of county. But that's our choices, okay? We're either going 21 to house out of county or we're going expand the jail. 22 All right, I hear a lot of talk about, "Well, we 23 don't need to be housing pretrial inmates; let them out on 24 bond. We don't need that many people in our jails." Those 25 pretrials -- in this, I've given the answers to most of those 1-26-15 24 1 type questions that I've seen come across, and the first one 2 is, "Should pretrial detainees be in jail?" There are 3 currently over 1,200 pretrial detainees released on bond 4 awaiting trial in this county. There's also 29 inmates in 5 jail who were pretrial detainees released on bond, but 6 reoffended and are now in jail for new offenses and bond 7 forfeitures or off bond. Kerr County also currently holds 8 2,162 active arrest warrants for people that have committed 9 crimes in our county. These are people that are not in jail, 10 but that we hold arrest warrants for. 11 JUDGE POLLARD: Looking for them. 12 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Of those arrest warrants, 494 13 are felonies, 1,668 are misdemeanor, and 123 are off bonds or 14 bond forfeitures. And I've been asked, well, people who 15 commit victimless crimes should not be in jail. Well, my 16 answer to that one is, what are victimless crimes? Drug 17 abusers that get addicted will normally lose their jobs, but 18 not their habit, which is very expensive, and in turn, they 19 commit thefts, burglary, forgery, robberies, scams. All 20 these have victims, and all of them have an effect on our 21 insurance rates. Say DWI's. DWI's have victims, whether 22 they have a crash and kill somebody, or whether you and I pay 23 for it because of our insurance rates. There is no 24 victimless crime, not in my mind. 25 Is Kerr County Sheriff's Office using the maximum 1-26-15 25 1 good time allowable by the Sheriff to give to inmates? This 2 is kind of controversial, but for the last number of years, 3 Kerr County Sheriff is giving, and has been for years, the 4 maximum amount of good time allowable by law to inmates that 5 are sentenced to county jail time. This is normally only 6 available to misdemeanor inmates, due to the fact felony 7 inmates that are sentenced to prison, their good time is 8 totally controlled by the prison system, not by the county 9 jail. I have no say-so in theirs. Then I have had one guy 10 call me the other day saying felons shouldn't be in our jail; 11 our jail should just be for the misdemeanors and DWI's. Very 12 true concern, but everybody has the right to due process. 13 The prison system has to accept anybody that has been 14 sentenced to prison, and all paperwork is completed within 45 15 days, or they have to start paying us, so we don't have 16 those. These aren't people in this jail waiting to go to 17 prison. These are people in this jail waiting to go to trial 18 or serving out jail time. The first one you saw on there, 19 technically he's a pretrial detainee. He's got 20 some-odd 20 offenses, but he's a pretrial detainee. One of those is 21 injury to the elderly. I don't think that we need him 22 walking the streets. But a person arrested for a felony that 23 either cannot make bond, or for other reasons is not allowed 24 to make bond, must still have their day in court. 25 JUDGE POLLARD: The man back there in the back, 1-26-15 26 1 there's some vacant seats up here. 2 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: For the prosecutor or defense 3 attorney, or even the Judge to allow a case to move forward 4 in a criminal case, all lab results, DNA results, and drug 5 analysis reports must be completed. There was a law passed 6 in our Legislature a few years ago called the Michael Morton 7 Act which says that even if that defendant -- if we arrest 8 somebody tonight for a drug offense, he's caught with 9 methamphetamines and he comes to jail and he can't make bond, 10 okay, and we keep him in jail, and he tells me tomorrow 11 morning, "I'm guilty. I did it. It's meth. I want to plead 12 guilty and go to the penitentiary for the rest of my life." 13 He can't do it. By law, he cannot do it. A number of years 14 ago, it happened out of New Braunfels, I believe, or 15 Williamson County. 16 JUDGE POLLARD: Georgetown. 17 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Georgetown. A man was 18 convicted for rape, and he was sentenced to life in the 19 penitentiary. And the D.A. knew about some evidence that 20 would have acquitted him, and didn't show it at trial. Well, 21 the D.A. got convicted too, okay? But out of the 22 Legislature, this is what happened. So now, before anybody 23 can plead guilty, all those lab results, everything has to 24 come in, and the D.A. has to swear and file an affidavit with 25 the Judge that he's turned all that over to the defense 1-26-15 27 1 attorney, and then the defense attorney has to swear -- or 2 file an affidavit with the Judge that he's gone over all 3 those results with his client. After that, his client can 4 plead guilty. Until then, he cannot. And the other thing 5 is, this isn't NCIS, okay? It takes -- right now, to get a 6 drug analysis back from the D.P.S. lab is six months. For 7 DNA or fingerprints, it's one year. 8 JUDGE POLLARD: So what does that mean in terms of 9 how long -- 10 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: That means they're going to 11 sit in jail that long if they cannot make bond, until those 12 analyses come back to where they can be pled guilty or -- or 13 go to trial. 14 JUDGE POLLARD: There's no choice. 15 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: That's a backlog. That's a 16 major backlog. Like I said in the very first, there's over 17 1,200 pretrial detainees right now out on bond in this 18 county. 1,200. We're hoping this Legislature would deal 19 with some of that, but what they've done is they've created 20 something that our defense attorneys aren't going to be able 21 to get around, because right now, if the defense attorney 22 doesn't do all that, then he can be filed on for ineffective 23 counsel by the client. So now, even if the Legislature 24 corrects it, it's going to cause a nightmare for defense 25 attorneys, 'cause the first time they still don't wait for 1-26-15 28 1 everything to get it all back, their client's going to file 2 an ineffective counsel after he gets to become a jailhouse 3 lawyer down at prison, and we're all going to pay for it. 4 MR. TURNER: This backlog is just caused from lack 5 of technicians to process this DNA and prints? 6 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I think it's caused from lack 7 of the State wanting to fund a lot of things, and putting it 8 back on local. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Rusty, can we get the name? 10 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Anybody that responds to me, 11 the court reporter needs your name. 12 MR. TURNER: Bill Turner. 13 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Okay. All right. The other 14 thing is, this jail expansion, as I stated, is a 144-bed 15 addition. It is not a new jail, as I have heard. The jail 16 that we have, a bond issue went out in 1993. We opened in 17 '95-'96. It's 192 beds, but it was built so we can go 18 straight out the back and add on, okay? We have the acreage 19 there. We already own it. It's already going straight out 20 the back of this jail. It's not buying new acreage or any of 21 that kind of stuff. It's going to be built on-site where it 22 is and be part of this. This is a good thing, okay? 'Cause 23 I've had some people say, "Well, why don't you just build 24 up?" Well, if you build up, you have to have a totally 25 separate staff for each floor you operate off of. Now you're 1-26-15 29 1 really talking staff increases, okay? 2 The other thing I get a lot of is people say, "Put 3 them in tents." If you look at that jail census, I have 13 4 in there that are for misdemeanors that I would consider 5 nonviolent. They're ones that didn't abide by their 6 probation or do whatever, and the Judge sentenced them to the 7 county jail for 30 days, or -- or some like that. Those are 8 nonviolent, but they've got a sentence to be in that county 9 jail, okay. Those could go into a tent, no doubt, but that's 10 13. That's very few out of my 150. There won't be enough to 11 solve our issues. We don't have enough classified that we 12 can put in tents. Plus when you put them in tents, I have -- 13 within half a mile, I have a university, I have an elementary 14 school, I have a day care center, I have a senior citizen 15 apartment complex, and I have another -- you know, kind of an 16 affordable apartment complex. That's all with -- and not 17 counting the other neighborhoods, but that's all within the 18 immediate area of our jail, you know, where our 17 acres is. 19 I would have to double my staff to guard the ones in the 20 tents, 'cause tents aren't secure. 21 Our building is a maximum security building. I 22 have to have that to be able to house the people we have. I 23 have four in there right now charged with either murder or 24 capital murder, okay? Unfortunately, Kerrville is not the 25 lazy little laid-back community; that a lot of what I deal 1-26-15 30 1 with, and law enforcement in this entire community deal with, 2 people don't see. People don't see that part of where we 3 are. And for me to pay $17.50 to make sure these suckers are 4 locked up and not running the street, I'll do it in a 5 heartbeat. That's the cost of me taking my wife out to eat 6 one time. I'll do it, several times. But I've been doing 7 this 35 years in the county; I know what's on the street. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Rusty, mention the liability 9 that the state of Arizona has, or that county has for 10 lawsuits. 11 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Well, one thing about Sheriff 12 Arpaio that they don't say, he's got 300 tent beds. He's got 13 3,000 beds that aren't in tents, because he can only house 14 the minimum security ones in those tents, okay? The other 15 issue is, Sheriff Arpaio up there does not have a state 16 commission on jail standards that sets the standards on how 17 inmates are treated and how you deal with them inside your 18 jail. They don't have a state agency, so he does pretty well 19 what he wants. But the problem with that is, if he ever has 20 to pay the civil rights lawsuits he's lost, I feel sorry for 21 Arizona, 'cause he owes over 100 million right now in 22 judgments against that Sheriff's Department. Can you imagine 23 what the citizens of this county would do to me if I ran a 24 jail that cost y'all $100 million in lost lawsuits? Okay. 25 The other thing is, we -- with him only having 300 1-26-15 31 1 in tents, his liability insurance, okay, his deductible for 2 every lawsuit that gets filed -- and believe me, it's a 3 lawsuit-happy world. I've been -- I've got two or three 4 pending now. Anybody that stubs their toe in a jail wants to 5 sue somebody; that's just part of it. I have a very strong 6 policy. We don't settle suits; we take them all the way, and 7 we haven't lost one yet, and I don't intend to. But his 8 deductible for every lawsuit that's filed is over $1 million. 9 Kerr County's is 10,000. I'll take that 10,000 any day. 10 Those are the issues that we're fighting. 11 You know, I agree; I wish we could have pretrial 12 detainees out on bond. All of them, okay? But if they're 13 not going to abide by the bond conditions, if my bond 14 forfeitures show they're going to reoffend when they're out 15 there, what are you going to do with them? Everybody says 16 use more and more probation. I agree; I think we should use 17 probation. But if they're not going to live, even when 18 they're on probation, by the same rules you and I do as law 19 abiding citizens, what are you going to do with them when 20 they violate? Right now, what we're seeing in this county is 21 people violate their probation five, six, seven times before 22 there's any consequence, 'cause there's no place for them. 23 The Hilton's full. We've got to do something. You know, I 24 just -- people that want to be rehabilitated, I agree, they 25 need to be rehabilitated. 1-26-15 32 1 Methamphetamine is an epidemic in our county. But 2 if you don't want rehabilitation, it ain't going to happen, 3 and they're going to keep reoffending and reoffending. How 4 many times have we seen in our local newspaper somebody's 5 name printed in there, and he's been arrested 37 times? And 6 then y'all want him locked up and throw away the key. Well, 7 where am I going to put him? I can get passionate about 8 this, because I see what we deal with. I see these victims 9 of sexual abuse. I see these victims of burglaries that 10 people don't think is much, but once you have somebody 11 burglarize your house, you've lost all security in your home. 12 And I just see more and more of us wanting to try and do 13 things that make it harder on the law-abiding citizens, when 14 what we should do is make it harder on the criminal. 15 And by "harder on the criminal," there needs to be 16 consequences to their crime. And we, as a county -- the 17 State's not going to do it. We have to take care of our 18 county, you know. Some people may have seen what I said in 19 that article the other day about the meth addicts, if you 20 want to, you know, go get rehab or start running, 'cause 21 we're going to come after you. And that's what we need to 22 do. I don't care if we chase them to Fredericksburg or 23 Boerne. Let's get them out of our county. (Laughter.) 24 Doesn't bother me one bit; I'm worried about this county. I 25 want them out of here. I hope in the real quick way I've 1-26-15 33 1 covered most things -- and if anybody has any questions, I'll 2 be more than happy to try and field some. 3 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. Please, let's try to 4 limit the questions and comments to three minutes now. 5 MR. CADWALLADER: My name is Cadwallader. I do 6 have a question. Why are you not putting in some kind of 7 public works? We could save the county on one side some 8 money, and on the other side -- 9 JUDGE POLLARD: Your name, sir? 10 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: John, I don't know if my 11 document has that program -- 12 JUDGE POLLARD: What's your name, sir? 13 MR. CADWALLADER: Cadwallader. 14 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. 15 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Look and see if that's in 16 there. It may not be, about B.J.'s crew. A video or slide 17 show is in there. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Rusty, could you repeat the 19 question? 20 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Okay. The question is, why 21 don't we have them out on public works and doing something to 22 make them give back? The answer is we do, okay? I have as 23 many as I can qualify to use outside, outside, okay? Like I 24 said, there's only 13 misdemeanors in there to begin with, 25 and some of them may be a misdemeanor, but with an assaultive 1-26-15 34 1 past. If they've got an assaultive past, even though it's a 2 misdemeanor, I cannot use them outside, okay? If they're a 3 violation of probation, I cannot use them outside. If they 4 haven't gone to trial yet, unless they volunteer, I cannot 5 use them outside. I can only force it on the ones that are 6 convicted. But we do have -- you can ask these 7 Commissioners; out at the stock show this weekend -- or our 8 Maintenance guy, I have one officer that does work inmates 9 outside. 10 I have a video that shows that. I don't think I 11 have it with me, the work that they do. They pick up the 12 trash at all the county parks. They pick up trash along the 13 highways. They do a lot of the maintenance at our old 14 cemeteries. They have to be so many years before they 15 qualify for me to use county inmates on them. We use them 16 out at the livestock show. We use them in all kinds of 17 different capacities around outside, and they get extra good 18 time for that off their sentence, okay? I have another 18 to 19 20 inside the jail; inmates do all the cleaning inside that 20 jail. They do all the mopping, the scrubbing the floors, 21 everything else. They get extra good time for that, so I get 22 them out sooner. And then inmates do all the cooking inside 23 the jail, okay? And they get extra -- they're supervised, 24 but they get extra good time for doing the cooking. They 25 cook their own meals. A meal inside that jail right now, our 1-26-15 35 1 cost per-meal of serving inmates is 83 cents a meal, is what 2 it costs us. We do our own cooking, okay? Next question? 3 MR. TURNER: Bill Turner. What is your average 4 input coming in the jail versus going out, say, weekly or 5 monthly? 6 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Well, yearly arrests are about 7 4,000 a year come into our jail. It averages a lot of times 8 about 10 a night, and some of that is -- it may be -- there 9 you go. Go ahead, you can play it. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Chain Gang. 11 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Go ahead and play it with the 12 sound. 13 (Video playing.) 14 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: These are inmates. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Turn it up, John. 16 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: It doesn't have external 17 speakers. 18 MR. TROLINGER: No, just internal. 19 JUDGE POLLARD: No dancing, please. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No dancing. 21 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: John, there's a -- well, 22 finish this one. We can go to the next one about the garden, 23 too. Those of you that don't know, the Sheriff's Office 24 currently has a garden behind our facility. Unfortunately, 25 some of it will be given up though this expansion, if it 1-26-15 36 1 passes and we have to add on, but we grow a lot of our own 2 vegetables. We also grow -- we give back, and I want the 3 inmates giving back to the Dietert Center, to CAM, to K'Star 4 that they use with their kids, and they grow vegetables and 5 donate those to all those facilities. 6 (Video playing.) 7 JUDGE POLLARD: You say you're going to have to 8 give up some of that now when you expand? 9 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yeah, we'll have to give up a 10 portion of that acreage, but I can expand it in another area 11 that I think we can still work it. But we will have to give 12 up some of it. And in reality, it works real well, because 13 you can ask him; at the livestock show, you know, they got a 14 whole lot of shavings out there that -- that make good 15 fertilizer, after all those pens had all the livestock in 16 them. So they can go out there with inmates, get a dump 17 truck load of those shavings, and that's where we dump them, 18 is in the soil in that garden, and use those for doing with 19 that. And we put in -- it's not paid for by taxpayer 20 dollars. Inmates have a commissary account -- what we call a 21 commissary; they can purchase things that we don't furnish, 22 okay, such as if they want a candy bar, a Coke or something 23 like that, they have to have their family donate money to 24 their accounts and they can purchase that, but we're not 25 giving it to them, okay? And it's just like their -- but the 1-26-15 37 1 pro -- well, let me get to the point of it. The proceeds in 2 that account, what I make off of them, what the County makes 3 has to by law be spent back on the inmates under 4 rehabilitation-type programs or things like that. 5 One thing about it people don't realize is, inmates 6 are required -- we're required to allow them access to news 7 media, okay? We tried newspapers; they stopped up every 8 toilet we've ever had. That didn't work. We tried 9 transistor radios, and they can tamper with those and take 10 them apart, okay, and make what we call stingers and 11 different things; you couldn't tell. So, we ended up going 12 with TV's. Yes, inmates have televisions in their cell 13 blocks, and they have basic cable, but you and I don't pay 14 for it. It's paid for out of the proceeds out of that 15 commissary. They pay for their own TV's. They pay for their 16 own cable bill, and if they destroy it, I can still charge 17 them with a criminal offense, okay, and it makes an excellent 18 tool to be able to deal with them. This that they're 19 building there -- some of y'all may be able to see. We've 20 had it in use now for quite some time. That's a 21 65,000-gallon rainwater catchment system. That system 22 catches water off the roof of the current facility, fills up 23 that 65,000-gallon tank, and it's used to help water that 24 garden, okay? You and I didn't pay for it; proceeds out of 25 that commissary account, the inmates paid for it themselves. 1-26-15 38 1 So, it's also a rehabilitation and teaching them something, 2 trying to rehabilitate, okay. Their G.E.D. classes are run 3 through that. We run church services seven days a week. We 4 try and rehabilitate those that will, but if they don't want 5 to rehabilitate, then I want to have a bed for them. Yes, 6 sir? 7 JUDGE POLLARD: Say your name, please. 8 MR. HAMMACK: John Hammack. More of a statement. 9 Whether you do it today or start it this year, you're going 10 to have people gripe about you for doing it. You can wait 10 11 years when it's really costing a lot of money and the jail's 12 falling down. You've got one that you built in '93; going to 13 have to do something with it. My question is, instead of 14 building 144 beds, why don't you build 154 beds? I don't 15 know where the break is for inmates and officers. 16 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Right. 17 MR. HAMMACK: I forgot that already. But say you 18 got 10 or 12 cells. You get -- I think 10 years ago, 19 Victoria was costing $55 to house them. Say you house 20 federal prisoners, 10 a day at $1,000 a day. When your jail 21 fills up, then you do away with your contract with them. But 22 -- and another thing. If your architect says it's going to 23 cost you 15 million, I've never seen anything come in -- it 24 will come in at 15 million, but it's going to cost you 10, 25 15 percent override on it. So, you know, go for what it's 1-26-15 39 1 going to cost you. 2 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Well, that's what we have 3 truly tried to do. The 15 million is the high side of what 4 we feel it will truly cost us, because we are adding on. And 5 the jail -- and the current jail we have -- and this County 6 built it. They built a very good jail, all right? And some 7 of y'all that were here then can remember, although they said 8 the rocks were crumbling and going to melt, and there was all 9 kinds of stuff, all right, but the reality is it's a very 10 good jail, and it's built to be expanded. And that's where 11 we're going to save some. Now, yes, if we could have done 12 this, okay, a few years ago, the average cost per bed -- to 13 add a bed to a jail, the average construction cost is 80,000 14 a bed, okay? Because it's a lot of concrete and it's a lot 15 of steel, and that's just the cost. If we'd have done it 16 five years ago, it would have been about 60,000 a bed. 17 MR. HAMMACK: If you do it 10 years from now... 18 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: You're looking at more and 19 more. It does get very expensive, okay? But we have tried 20 everything we can try over the last 10 years, this Court has. 21 And you can ask them; I've given them heck in here for 10 22 years off and on over, "What are we going to do?" But we're 23 at the point where I think we have met with judges; we have 24 met with all our judges and gone over bonding procedures, 25 gone over pretrial procedures. We -- a few years ago, our 1-26-15 40 1 two district courts were in an overlapping county, served 10 2 counties, so we weren't getting hardly any court time at all. 3 But that takes the State to change that, not us. But our 4 judges here, everybody in those other counties got together. 5 We did go to the Legislature, and about three years ago, they 6 changed that to now where our two district courts are only 7 serving five counties. It has helped us, and will help us 8 get more and more people through the court system. But you 9 have to remember, these courts aren't only for criminals. 10 Our two district courts also take care of all the lawsuits, 11 divorces, anything like that. Civil, you know, whatever it 12 takes, they have to deal with it. That's part of our courts 13 too, and so they have to give them the same equal timeframe. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Rusty, you might add, too, 15 that in response to the question, several months ago, the 16 Judge and the Sheriff and myself tried to state what we 17 thought we would need 20 years from now, and that's where the 18 144 came from. We looked at what we thought the population 19 would be, but we also looked at what the crime rate has been 20 in the past and extrapolated to what we thought it may be 21 then. And then you look at segments of the jail and how you 22 add. You can't just add a bed at a time, so that's where the 23 144 -- we felt fairly confident. We brought it back to 24 Commissioners Court that it looked like 144 additional was -- 25 was the right thing to do for the next 20 years. So, we did 1-26-15 41 1 it -- you know, it probably wasn't perfect, but we did the 2 best job we could. 3 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Now, when I took office -- to 4 continue on your statement, when I took office in 2000, we 5 had some bed space, okay? And at that time, we did invite 6 other counties, such as -- really, it was Bandera and 7 Gillespie back then, okay, and some out of Kendall, Mason, 8 Menard, McCullough, all those, a few that were having 9 overcrowding problems, and so we were housing theirs, their 10 overflow. And we were bringing in -- the Auditor's here; she 11 can tell us. It was close to half a million dollars a year 12 income into our jail, and it went into our county coffers for 13 housing these other counties' inmates. I will not house 14 federal inmates. Federal inmates are a nightmare. The feds 15 want us to transport them back and forth to the Federal 16 Courthouse in San Antonio. I don't have the manpower to do 17 that. Plus federal inmates have a habit of tearing up county 18 jails. I won't house feds. Let them deal with their own. 19 But I will house our surrounding counties' inmates overflow, 20 whether it's Rocksprings, you know, Junction, Menard, Mason, 21 McCullough. 22 Fredericksburg is fixing to open their new jail 23 this month, okay, probably within the next few weeks, but 24 it's a 96-bed jail. Personally, I think they built way too 25 small, okay? That's just my opinion, 'cause they were 1-26-15 42 1 housing 50-something out of county before they built it. 2 Bandera opened a new jail several months -- several years ago 3 now, about three years ago, I guess, four years ago. That's 4 also a 96-bed jail, but they're getting full already. This 5 bond's going to cost us, all those of us that are under 65, 6 for the next 20 years. The last thing anybody wants to do 7 is, 10 years into it, say, "Oh, we didn't build it big 8 enough; now we need to do it again." That's why we sat back 9 and we looked at -- and the 144 is broken down into 48 10 increments, okay, and that's for staffing purposes. Now, the 11 architect -- I notice he did come in -- is sitting here. A 12 lot of this stuff is his -- his doing over the meetings and 13 architectural drawings. If there's questions, I think 14 Mr. Wayne Gondeck would have a -- would be more than happy -- 15 he's the architect the County's hired on this. Mr. Gondeck 16 also understands a lot of it, because at one time he was one 17 of the assistant directors for the State Commission on Jail 18 Standards. So, I think we're very fortunate, and he's worked 19 with this county for a number of years over jail issues. Any 20 other questions? 21 MR. TURNER: I've got a couple. I want to follow 22 up on that question a while ago. 23 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Okay. 24 MR. TURNER: When we we're getting 4,000 average a 25 year, we're not releasing near that many, how is 120 beds 1-26-15 43 1 going to help us? 2 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: We are releasing near that 3 many. 4 MR. TURNER: Okay. 5 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: We're releasing the maximum 6 that we can really do, and that's why I said pretrial -- you 7 know, the deal about pretrial detainees should not be in 8 jail. We're releasing a bunch on bonds when they come in. 9 If people are arrested for, you know, some traffic offenses, 10 public intoxication, any Class C misdemeanor, the next day 11 they are automatically released from jail. They do not even 12 count in our population. They do count in the arrest 13 numbers, but they do not count in the jail population, 'cause 14 they never stay in the jail or go into the housing. And it 15 does cause problems, because you'll get somebody arrested for 16 public intoxication; he automatically gets out on a $500 P.R. 17 bond on his own word, okay. Then he doesn't show up, then he 18 gets an F.T.A., then he gets a bond forfeiture. It's still a 19 Class C. He's still released from jail. If he gets another 20 P.I., you'll have them out on bail with 13, 14 P.I.'s and 21 never come to jail. They ought to be spending some time in 22 jail, working on the roads, but we don't have a place to put 23 them, and they don't. 24 MR. TURNER: One final last question on this 25 housing. Do you -- from the overflow from another county, if 1-26-15 44 1 we need that bed, are they sent back and we use our bed? 2 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. That's 3 the way we did it then. Yeah, if we were housing somebody 4 else's, okay, if we had empty beds and we could house 5 somebody else's, yes, and that's the way we did it. As we 6 got more and more population of our own inmates, then we 7 started sending those other inmates back to their counties. 8 That's their responsibility, okay? But the -- the biggest 9 thing you have to remember, this county -- me and this 10 county -- as I said, the Sheriff is liable for the safe -- 11 shall safely keep anybody committed to their custody, okay? 12 So it doesn't matter where they're housed; this county's 13 liable for it, okay? I know and I control what kind of staff 14 we employ, and I know how those inmates are treated inside 15 our jail, okay? I can't say that about another jail, if I'm 16 housing over there. 17 JUDGE POLLARD: How can that affect the taxpayer? 18 Why should they be concerned about that, Rusty? Explain it 19 to them. 20 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Because if that inmate's over 21 there and he gets killed in a fight or something, or gets 22 seriously injured in that jail, then his family turns around 23 and sues for $10 million. Guess who's going to pay it? 24 We're the ones liable. Then guess what our insurance rates 25 and everything else is going to do? It's a no-win situation. 1-26-15 45 1 Nobody wants a tax increase, myself included, to build jails, 2 okay? And I'll be honest; I've been doing this 35 years. I 3 am the last person in this county that wants more inmates or 4 more staff, because those are the two biggest pains I deal 5 with. I would rather finish out the rest of my career with 6 less inmates and less staff. But I also have 10 grandkids 7 and a wife, and a lot of other people that live in this 8 community, so that's where we're at. 9 JUDGE POLLARD: Rusty, Ilse has a comment. 10 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yes, ma'am? 11 MS. BAILEY: I was pretty involved in the process 12 of the jail being built in the first place, and it was said 13 over and over and over again at that time, in 1995, that this 14 jail was going to be for 15 years in the future. We've gone 15 five years past that, so I think that we've proven that we're 16 being as fiscally responsible as we can be with the 17 taxpayers' funds. 18 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Right. I don't think there's 19 any doubt about that. We've extended this jail for as far as 20 we can extend it. Now, to be honest, you can walk in -- and 21 I'll give anybody a tour of it if they want, okay? This jail 22 looks inside like the day it was built, because one thing my 23 mom always said, and I've got a jail administrator that 24 believes the same way, is it doesn't cost a lot of money to 25 stay clean. And I got all the free labor in there I want. 1-26-15 46 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Rusty, repeat that, that they 2 can go see the jail? Why don't you do something, 'cause that 3 jail looks like it's brand-new, the one that's there. Is 4 there some way you can accommodate -- 5 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: We can set that up. The only 6 thing -- and in our citizens academy where people go through 7 it, we do do it. I do set up tours. The only thing I have 8 to be careful with, I cannot put inmates on display. It's a 9 violation of their constitutional rights, okay? You can't do 10 like they're in a cage and displaying them, so we have to set 11 it up before we just walk in there. And I do have a lot of 12 security deals in there, too. But it -- we do run a maximum 13 security facility in this county. And I have seen out at 14 that jail two escapes, and both occurred at the same exact 15 time. Two inmates escaped together, and it was within a week 16 of that jail opening, and it was a design flaw in it. We 17 should have put one more door, and we didn't. We caught them 18 within a week. We corrected the door situation. Knock on 19 wood, never had another escape out of that facility. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Rusty, one other thing that I 21 might bring up a little bit is that over -- since you 22 mentioned how it looks brand-new, and it does, we have 23 funded -- you know, there's a maintenance staff member 24 assigned to the jail full-time. We've replaced -- you know, 25 we've replaced air-conditioners, we've done boilers. We have 1-26-15 47 1 been very much on top of keeping that jail in first-class 2 shape. So, that's why it is a good jail and in good shape, 3 and we have expended I don't know how many hundreds of 4 thousands of dollars. 5 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: The only issue we do have, 6 which the architect has taken into consideration, that jail 7 has a flat gravel roof, and it's 20 years old, okay? So you 8 can imagine what I'm dealing with. So in that 15 million, 9 part of it is an upgrade to fix that roof too, as well as 10 expand. We've tried to look at where our deficiencies are in 11 what we have and make sure we can take care of those at the 12 same time that we do this -- this expansion. Any other 13 questions? 14 JUDGE POLLARD: Once again, I'd like to emphasize, 15 people that are over 65 are not going to pay for this jail 16 increase on their county taxes. 17 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Sometimes I wish they would; 18 my taxes wouldn't go up as high. But -- 19 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. I wanted to emphasize 20 that. 21 MR. HAMMACK: I'd like to ask the Sheriff where him 22 and his wife eat for $17 a meal. (Laughter.) 23 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: It's not easy. It's not easy. 24 But I do appreciate it, okay. Those are -- what I'm giving 25 y'all are the facts of what we have. This is where we are 1-26-15 48 1 and what the situation is, okay? And I would invite anybody 2 to check those facts out any time, any way you want. Give me 3 a call. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Rusty, you might also 5 mention -- I don't know if you've planned in detail of having 6 some town hall type meetings on this. 7 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yes, I already have several 8 scheduled, and I do -- I've got several speeches I have to go 9 give. But anybody that's got groups or knows of groups that 10 think people need to hear what we're dealing with, I'd be 11 more than happy to come out and tell them. I know our 12 architect has even signed on to help do that. And I hope 13 that once an election gets called, if that's what this Court 14 does, at that point, we will try and set up some town hall 15 meetings with some -- some good information and facts out 16 there. We'll try and do one up around Mountain Home, Hunt, 17 Ingram, you know, Kerrville, Center Point, try and give 18 everybody a chance to ask the questions that need to be 19 asked, and that they want to. Thank y'all. 20 JUDGE POLLARD: Thank you very much. Okay, let's 21 go to Item 1.6 on the agenda; consider, discuss, and take 22 appropriate action regarding order expressing official intent 23 to reimburse costs incurred related to potential improvements 24 to the county Jail. Ms. Hargis. Boy, that's a mouthful, a 25 lot of words. 1-26-15 49 1 MS. HARGIS: Whenever we anticipate either having 2 bonds or a note of some sort, we pass a resolution so that we 3 can reimburse ourselves for any costs that we might incur 4 during that time frame. There won't be anything paid out on 5 this because of it being a bond election until after it's 6 approved, but this means that between the time we receive the 7 money and the bonds are approved, we do have the availability 8 of paying ourselves back for money we advance. And -- and we 9 do have it for 15 million, which is a little larger than the 10 issue, but that will cover everything. It's a general 11 estimate. So, I request that the Court approves that so it's 12 in place. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Should we wait until we call 14 for the election? 15 MS. HARGIS: No, we need to have it now, prior to 16 -- to anything, 'cause there's costs involved with that as 17 well. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: She's right. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move approval. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 21 JUDGE POLLARD: Any further discussion? If not, 22 those in favor, signify by raising your right hand. 23 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 24 JUDGE POLLARD: It's 4-0, unanimous. 25 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Real quick, Your Honor, just 1-26-15 50 1 so everybody understands, one thing we found out -- we were 2 expecting y'all to call for the election today. We found out 3 from the bond attorneys, the Auditor and I, that the election 4 for this cannot be called farther out than 90 days, or closer 5 than 70 days. So, anybody that has any input into it, it 6 will be at the February 9th Commissioners Court meeting, is 7 when the Court will have to make the decision whether to put 8 this on the ballot or not. It can't be done today. 9 JUDGE POLLARD: Thank you, sir. Okay. Well, 10 there's a timed thing on the agenda here at 9:30 a.m., Item 11 1.13 on the agenda; consider, discuss, and take appropriate 12 action on Recycling Center report from the City of Kerrville. 13 Is there a Stuart Barron here from the City? 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I don't think Stuart's here. 15 MR. HASTINGS: I don't think he's here. 16 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. Since he's not here, we'll 17 pass over that, then. 18 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I'd just like to make one 19 comment on it. I'd definitely like to get him in here. 20 We're seeing with our agreement with the City and their 21 lease, they've had a mobile recycling station out in Hunt, 22 and I understand they're shutting that down because of cost 23 considerations. And y'all may have got calls from other 24 ones; I don't know. But I'd like to find out what is going 25 on and how we can insure that the citizens of Kerr County 1-26-15 51 1 that live outside the city of Kerrville is getting the same 2 consideration. 3 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. 4 MS. HAMMACK: Judge? 5 JUDGE POLLARD: Yes? 6 MS. HAMMACK: I didn't turn this in. May I make a 7 comment on the recycling? 8 JUDGE POLLARD: Yes, ma'am. Could you please limit 9 it to three minutes? 10 MS. HAMMACK: It won't take me that long. My name 11 is Cathy Hammack. I live between Ingram and Hunt, and I go 12 to church in Hunt. And I just -- I'm retired from Victoria 13 County, and I understand the budget constraints that you 14 face. This seems pretty insignificant after listening to the 15 Sheriff's presentation, but I just want you to know how much 16 that recycling bin means to the citizens of Hunt and the 17 people in that part of west Kerr County. I've never recycled 18 anything in my life, and I can't believe how much it means 19 just -- I only recycle plastic. And sometimes if I wait till 20 Thursday to go out there, there's absolutely no room in that 21 recycle trailer. So if you could help us by seeing that we 22 have a recycling trailer out there, everyone out -- 23 especially at the Hunt Methodist Church, I can tell you, and 24 others would certainly appreciate your help in keeping that 25 trailer for us. Thank you. Do you want this? 1-26-15 52 1 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Thanks. 2 JUDGE POLLARD: Pardon? 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: This lady wants to be heard. 4 JUDGE POLLARD: Yes, you have -- 5 MS. ANDREWS: If it's appropriate, could we just -- 6 JUDGE POLLARD: Give your name, please. 7 MS. ANDREWS: Cheryl Andrews. Just let you know 8 how many of us are here today in support of what Mrs. Hammack 9 said about the -- 10 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay, yes. Raise your hands, those 11 in support of that. 12 (Numerous people raised their hands.) 13 JUDGE POLLARD: Oh my goodness. One, two, three -- 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Put me in there, too. 15 JUDGE POLLARD: A bunch, okay. Thank you so 16 much -- 17 MS. ANDREWS: Thank you. 18 JUDGE POLLARD: -- for expressing yourselves. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge, I think on this, I know 20 that the -- someone didn't want to come over here from the 21 City and make the presentation, for whatever reason. I think 22 it's important that they do. We do have an agreement with 23 the City. It is county property. It was a very loosely 24 written agreement originally. It says the City is 25 responsible for the operations, and it doesn't quantify what 1-26-15 53 1 these operations are, but clearly, the intent is to serve the 2 citizens of Kerr County. And, you know, I think that the -- 3 the City owes it to the public, and to certainly this 4 Commissioners Court, to explain to us what their plans are 5 for that recycling center. You know, I'm sure there are 6 budget constraints, budget concerns, and that's fine. I 7 understand that. But I think that they need to be up front 8 with the public and to us as to what their intent is, and if 9 they don't intend to service the county, I think we need to 10 look at the agreement, because while the agreement is very 11 loose, the intent clearly was at the time to serve, you know, 12 the residents of Kerr County and the city of Kerrville. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I want to add one thing to 14 that. We'd have to have a larger courtroom, because the east 15 end of the county doesn't have a trailer, and they need a 16 trailer too, okay? And -- and everybody wants to recycle. I 17 mean, I've had a lot of calls; I'm sure all the other 18 Commissioners have, about wanting to recycle. They hate to 19 take it to the landfill. I have a lot of recycling material 20 I've collected that I'm just refusing to take to the landfill 21 until we can find a solution to it. So, I think it's -- it's 22 a subject that's -- I agree with Commissioners Letz and 23 Reeves. We need to have this and see what we can do together 24 with the City, because it's for the welfare of everybody to 25 have recycling capability. So -- 1-26-15 54 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I want to weigh in. The -- 2 I agree with everything y'all have said, and I've gotten all 3 the phone calls as well. This agenda item didn't just appear 4 there. It's because we invited them to come over, and -- and 5 it's a simple -- this is a simple report we're asking for to 6 let us know and let the citizens know what is going on with 7 the recycling center, and I'm extremely disappointed that the 8 City is not responding. It's a simple thing to come give a 9 report. I don't get it, and I'm really disappointed in it. 10 That's all. 11 JUDGE POLLARD: Anything else on that? All right, 12 let's move on to -- what's next, 1.7? 13 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Before you get to it, I would 14 like to thank everybody that did come here to show their 15 support, and I think we all want to continue to work to get 16 something taken care of. 17 JUDGE POLLARD: Thank y'all very much. 18 MS. ANDREWS: Thank you. 19 JUDGE POLLARD: 1.7? 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. 21 JUDGE POLLARD: 1.7; consider, discuss, and take 22 appropriate action to approve Change Proposal Number 25 at 23 Hill Country Youth Event Center. Commissioners Letz and 24 Reeves. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll turn it over to Charlie. 1-26-15 55 1 MR. HASTINGS: Thank you, Commissioner. Change 2 Proposal Number 25 in the amount of $4,109 is for rain 3 cachement capacity improvements coming off the roof, the 4 audio electrical -- you need some proper grounding for the 5 audio electrical to cut down on any kind of noise in the 6 sound system, and getting the water closets, two of them, to 7 A.D.A. requirements. 8 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Okay. Which one is 25, 9 Charlie? 10 MR. HASTINGS: Change Proposal number 25? All 11 three of those are Number 25. 12 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Okay. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And the amount of that is 14 4,000 -- 15 MR. HASTINGS: $4,109. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The backup we have said 4,682. 17 MR. HASTINGS: I had -- I worked out a deal with 18 them on Friday. I thought I had got that forwarded. I 19 apologize. You might have something else in your agenda that 20 got added late Friday. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. So, this is a -- 22 MR. HASTINGS: I thought that amount was too high, 23 and I worked a deal with them where it would be less, not to 24 exceed this amount. It still may come in less than this. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, I make a motion to approve 1-26-15 56 1 Change Order 25 in the amount of 4,109? 2 MR. HASTINGS: Yes, sir. 3 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Second. 4 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. And where does that 5 money come from? 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: From the capital -- 7 JUDGE POLLARD: Capital improvements? 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Capital improvement funds. 9 MR. HASTINGS: Yes. 10 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And that's all within the 12 C.O.? 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Within the C.O., yes. 14 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. It's been moved and 15 seconded that we approve Change Proposal Number 25. Those -- 16 those in favor, signify by raising your right hand. 17 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 18 JUDGE POLLARD: It's 4-0, unanimous. Now let's go 19 to 1.8 -- thank you, Charlie. 20 MR. HASTINGS: You're welcome. 21 JUDGE POLLARD: Consider, discuss, and take 22 appropriate action to ratify and confirm Change Proposals 23 23 and 24 for the Event Hall at the Hill Country Youth Event 24 Center. Commissioners Letz and Reeves. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Charlie? 1-26-15 57 1 MR. HASTINGS: Change Proposal Number 23 in the 2 amount of $780 added some electrical -- separate independent 3 electrical outlets for the audio system, and to make sure 4 that the audio system has the -- otherwise, your warranty 5 goes void on those if you don't do that. They need their own 6 separate system. And Change Proposal Number 24 is $639. 7 That was to add a switch so that the -- the night lights 8 could be turned off. It was drawing a lot of power to keep 9 those lights on all the time. This gives us the ability to 10 turn those off. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And these two, you had the 12 authority to approve. You're just bringing it back for us -- 13 MR. HASTINGS: Yes, sir. Yes, sir, I had the 14 authority to approve both of these, and I did. I believe I 15 notified you all I did that. This was several weeks ago. 16 But this ratifies this. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll make a motion to ratify 18 Change Proposals 23 and 24 as submitted. 19 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Second. 20 JUDGE POLLARD: Any further discussion? There 21 being none, those in favor of the motion, signify by raising 22 your right hand. 23 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 24 JUDGE POLLARD: It's 4-0, unanimous. All right, 25 1.9; consider, discuss, and take appropriate action regarding 1-26-15 58 1 lease with Kerrville Youth Baseball/Softball Association. 2 Mr. Letz? 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I put this on the agenda kind 4 of just to get some guidance from the Court, more than 5 anything else. I know I see Mr. Baroody's in the audience, 6 probably representing the Kerrville Youth Baseball/Softball 7 Association, but the -- it's really not to take action today. 8 I think everyone is aware that there is a pending plan to 9 build a new athletic complex jointly with the Cailloux 10 Foundation and the City of Kerrville. I think it's a great 11 idea, personally. And, you know, I think -- I think there's 12 a lot of unknowns with it to the public. I hope they explain 13 this a lot more. My understanding is that this facility will 14 be operated by a for-profit company, and that will help defer 15 expenses to the taxpayers, at least on the operational side. 16 But it also opens up a whole lot of other questions. I'm not 17 sure fee structures, who's going to use the fields, how it's 18 going to be used and all that, so I hope the City and 19 Cailloux Foundation explain that to the public, because I 20 think it will have an impact on what we do with the current 21 property where the youth baseball fields are. 22 The season is getting started. I think they -- 23 Little League completed their registration this past weekend. 24 We are currently operating sort of under, I guess, the old 25 agreement we had, and the question is -- and it's kind of to 1-26-15 59 1 the Court, and probably the County Attorney. My 2 understanding is the current facility will be used at a 3 minimum -- if the new facility gets built, will be used for 4 at least two more years from the Little League standpoint, 5 and from the other select teams. It's about a two-year 6 construction project on the new fields. Do we want to enter 7 into a new agreement that's a lot clearer as to what Little 8 League does and what they can't do, just for a two-year 9 period? There's a draft agreement that I worked on a little 10 bit more over the weekend, tweaked on some things, some 11 comments that came back. I sent it to Blake Caraway, who's 12 their president, and he may have sent it to George or not, 13 but either way, I don't think we need to take action. I 14 think these guys need to decide, do we need to finalize an 15 agreement for the next two years, or just let it go? 16 My feeling is it's probably better to do an 17 agreement, and one of the reasons would be -- and I'd like to 18 hear from Mr. Baroody on this -- is that the old agreement 19 says they can't sublease the property, and that's how you 20 interpret that. That's a little bit vague. But other youth 21 baseball organizations, primarily the Kerrville Indians, use 22 that facility. And they felt that they -- you know, so 23 that's been a bone of contention on everyone paying their 24 fair share to use the fields. I firmly believe that Little 25 League should be able to charge these other groups to use it 1-26-15 60 1 to help offset the cost that they're spending. But they 2 felt, I think, in the past that they didn't have that 3 ability. So, I think that something needs to be clear as to 4 how it should be run. The other thing is, there are things 5 that need to be done out there from a maintenance standpoint, 6 and I think we need to be clear what's going to be done. I 7 don't think we want the property to become rundown, so that 8 needs to be looked at. And it's -- and our Maintenance 9 Department is currently maintaining everything outside the 10 fields, just mowing it basically, and then Little League, the 11 volunteers -- really, almost one volunteer, but anyway, 12 volunteers are mowing the fields and doing that. 13 So, anyway, it's just kind of a little guidance 14 to -- for a two-year period, and it could be longer; who 15 knows? Mr. Cailloux told me it's a three-year construction 16 project. Others say it's two years. And then we -- likely, 17 you know, I think my recommendation would be to keep those 18 fields going long-term, because there is a need for -- I 19 think, for free fields in this community. On Sunday -- well, 20 I happened to drive by fields. Six of the fields were being 21 used, three of them by Kerrville Indians teams and three of 22 them by dads with their kids out there working and playing 23 baseball. So I think there is a need to keep, you know, 24 something like this available. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, is there anything that 1-26-15 61 1 we need to do -- because the proposed fields by the City may 2 or may not happen, so can we do something that says, yeah, we 3 do it for two years? Or is there -- what's the time 4 constraint on that? Should we -- because the other thing may 5 not happen. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The other -- the agreement that 7 I sent to Blake, and I don't know if George has seen it, is 8 it put in for a 10-year term. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I see. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: With two renewals. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And it gave them a provision 13 that I added that said, basically, they can terminate the 14 lease -- 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- at their option. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That was my question. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's their agreement, so it's 19 not tying them -- if this happens, they can go out. We're 20 not in full agreement, probably, on this agreement yet. 21 We're a lot closer, I think, than we have been at any other 22 time, but anyway, so it's kind of -- Ilse and myself need to 23 get with Little League or Kerrville Youth Baseball/Softball 24 and finalize something to bring back to the Court. Or just 25 let it go and do nothing. I mean, and I think it's better to 1-26-15 62 1 do some sort of an agreement. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I think so too. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't hear otherwise; I guess 4 we'll do that. George, do you have any comments? 5 MR. BAROODY: No. I mean, it -- it's a valid 6 question. I'm not sure I think an agreement's good. I 7 wouldn't -- I don't know that it's beneficial to rush to do 8 one right now at this current stage of what they're trying to 9 do with the new complex, only because I think it kind of 10 changes what we'd be looking for in an agreement. And if 11 everybody was okay with it being left alone for right now, I 12 would prefer to see it that way. I'm not speaking for Little 13 League on that; that's just my -- 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, the other thing we could 15 do, I think, is we could go forward with a new agreement, and 16 just take out -- address things like subleasing, paying fair 17 share, address insurance requirements, liability, some of 18 that stuff, but -- and refer to a maintenance agreement as a 19 separate document. 20 MS. BAILEY: Do it as an addendum to what we've got 21 in place, and that way we don't have to redo the whole thing. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. The agreement we're 23 looking at is a license agreement based after the McAllister 24 Little League in San Antonio. That way -- rather than -- 25 that kind of seemed like it fit best. 1-26-15 63 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, Commissioner, I think 2 that you need to -- we need to keep it open, keep an 3 agreement going with them. Who knows what's going to happen 4 with the City? You know, they may open a recycling center up 5 there, and we need to provide a facility for the kids to play 6 baseball. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And so keep that open. I 9 mean, you know, again, I'm disappointed that they're even 10 considering leaving, but that's what -- that's the name of 11 the game in this town, and -- and so there's no reason to 12 have hard feelings about that. It's just the way things are 13 and the way it's going to be. But on the other hand also, we 14 have that really quality piece of property that we may want 15 to do something with over there. If no one's going to use it 16 as a baseball facility, you know, there may be something that 17 we need to coordinate with the -- the new facility across the 18 road. And -- and I -- you know, we need -- and if that's the 19 case, then we need to move forward with that. You know, we 20 don't want to sit around too long. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I think we need some sort of 22 agreement. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. Well, I'll get with -- 24 you know, we'll reactivate it. It's been on the back burner 25 for a long time. It shouldn't take too long to get something 1-26-15 64 1 to the Court. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay, that's all we need. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you for keeping up 5 with that, Jon. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Take a break? 7 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay, 10-minute break. 8 (Recess taken from 10:22 a.m. to 10:33 a.m.) 9 JUDGE POLLARD: All right, it's time to resume. 10 It's 10:33 a.m., and it's time to resume the Commissioners 11 Court meeting after a 10-minute -- really, about a 13-minute 12 recess. I've had a request to move up to Item 1.15, because 13 Ilse has a court appearance she's got to be at, and needs to 14 be involved in this, so we'll skip to that one for right now. 15 1.15 on the agenda; consider, discuss, and take appropriate 16 action regarding the proposed tax abatement for the James 17 Avery Company facility planned to be constructed on Highway 18 27 across from the airport. Commissioner Moser, Ilse Bailey, 19 and Jonas Titas. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. In lieu of Jonas here, 21 Leah is here. And the only issue I think that we have that 22 we've been discussing with K.E.D.C. and with James Avery 23 Craftsman is how to count the employees -- new employees out 24 at the new facility. 25 MS. DIXON: Correct. 1-26-15 65 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And I think that we'll get 2 Leah to explain that for us. 3 MS. DIXON: Yeah. The only problem that James 4 Avery wants to know is that the 297, that that can be counted 5 towards new or transferred employees from other facilities. 6 'Cause they are looking at a possible transfer of some 7 employees from their Comfort location for a period of time 8 while they update their facilities over there. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So that's -- very simply, that 10 those numbers that they transfer here into Kerr -- 11 MS. DIXON: Correct. They want to know if that's 12 going to count towards the 297. 13 JUDGE POLLARD: Let me make sure I understand this. 14 While they update that facility out there? 15 MS. DIXON: In Comfort. 16 JUDGE POLLARD: Talking about the Comfort location? 17 MS. DIXON: In Comfort, yes. But once the new 18 facility out by the airport is complete, they are looking at 19 a possible transfer of employees from Comfort to Kerrville 20 while they update the Comfort plant. 21 JUDGE POLLARD: But they're planning to send them 22 back? 23 MS. DIXON: Possibly. They really don't know. I 24 don't think they've quite decided yet. 25 MS. BAILEY: But it's within the five years. They 1-26-15 66 1 still have to meet their -- those basic numbers, so I don't 2 think it really makes any difference. And then it was just a 3 question of whether or not we need to add a sentence to what 4 you've already -- I think there's one copy of it up there 5 anyway -- add a sentence on Page 4 that clarifies that so 6 that we don't have a disagreement about it. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: It's still -- bottom line, 8 it's still employees at the facility across from the airport. 9 MS. DIXON: Correct. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Whether they're transferred 11 temporarily. But they still, in the accounting, have to 12 still have the total number of new employees -- of employees 13 added at that facility. 14 MS. DIXON: Yes. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think the -- 16 JUDGE POLLARD: Yeah, but -- 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean, the intent is new 18 employees, to me. 19 MS. DIXON: Right. And I don't have a number for 20 that. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So you don't have a -- 22 MS. BAILEY: Jonathan, the reason it doesn't 23 concern me is if, in year one, they add 50, and 25 of those 24 are from the Comfort facility, and then in year two they have 25 another larger obligation. If they send those 25 back to 1-26-15 67 1 Comfort, they're going to have to replace them with new new 2 employees to keep up their obligations for that second year 3 that has a larger number. Does that make sense? 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right, that -- 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Go ahead. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That part makes sense. But 7 what I heard also was that it's unknown whether they would 8 all go back -- all of those transfers would go back to 9 Comfort. 10 MS. DIXON: I would assume that they are, 'cause, I 11 mean, that's what we've been told, but I don't want to say 12 for sure one way or the other. But that's what -- that's 13 what my understanding is, that they'll go back. But -- 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, we want to clarify; want 15 Ilse to add that sentence in there, -- 16 MS. DIXON: Correct. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: -- clearly, that those 18 employees have to be -- the total number of employees have to 19 be at the new facility across from the airport. 20 MS. DIXON: Correct. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. And then when they 22 count them for the period, they have to be at that facility, 23 whether they're new employees or transferred in, you know. 24 But they're -- they just want the clarification, when they 25 said new employees, -- 1-26-15 68 1 MS. DIXON: Yes. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: -- that it didn't mean new 3 employees for the whole company. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I understand that, but I just 5 think it needs to be clear that the intent is 297 new 6 employees at the end of the -- ultimately. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Or employees at that facility. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well -- 9 MS. BAILEY: I don't think that the facility -- 10 they'll be new there. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Be new at that facility. But, 12 I mean, if you -- whether it's Comfort or another facility is 13 irrelevant, but if they're in Comfort -- you know, I mean, 14 whether people make a living in Kerrville and go to Comfort, 15 the idea is to get new jobs. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: New jobs, not relocated jobs. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So -- and what I'm hearing is 20 that the ultimate amount of new employees will be 297. 21 MS. DIXON: Correct. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Just as long as it's clear that 23 the ultimate number is 297, they can -- as they're moving 24 around, it's -- I have no problem with that, certainly. 25 MS. DIXON: Okay. 1-26-15 69 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So, I would -- I move that we 2 approve the 381 contingent on the clarification by Ilse, 3 okay, exactly the way we're discussing it here, is it's 297 4 new employees. Okay. 5 MS. BAILEY: I've come up with some language that's 6 agreeable to them and to Avery and to me. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. And we could bring this 8 back, too, you know, just to make sure we see the exact 9 wording. 'Cause -- so I'm going to -- I'm going to say let's 10 don't take action on this today. Let's get the wording 11 right, make sure that we're in full agreement on this so 12 that -- we don't want to have any confusion. 13 JUDGE POLLARD: Do you know what the wording needs 14 to be now? 15 MS. BAILEY: Well, I don't actually have the copy 16 in front of me. Is it -- Jody, do you know who's got it? 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Here's a copy. 18 MS. GRINSTEAD: I made a copy for all of them. 19 MS. BAILEY: Okay, I can get that one. 20 MS. GRINSTEAD: The Judge has the original one. 21 MS. BAILEY: I felt like we had clarified it 22 sufficiently originally, but it may need more wording. What 23 it says now is the company must increase the net number of 24 new full-time employees employed by the company at its new 25 property on the effective date of this agreement as follows. 1-26-15 70 1 And I felt like putting in "at its new property" clarified 2 that the net number had to be there, not overall. If you 3 think that's sufficient, we can call it done and approve it 4 today. If you think it needs a tweak, then I can go back and 5 work on it. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I think that's clear to me. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's fine. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. I move that we approve 9 the 381 agreement with James Avery Craftsman Company, with 10 the changes that -- proposed by the County Attorney, and just 11 delineated. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 13 JUDGE POLLARD: It's been moved that the -- that 14 the agreement be approved with James Avery as discussed -- as 15 presented. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: As presented. 17 JUDGE POLLARD: In the agenda package. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: As presented and modified. 19 JUDGE POLLARD: And modified, okay. 20 MS. BAILEY: And authorize the Judge to sign same? 21 JUDGE POLLARD: Pardon? 22 MS. BAILEY: And authorize the Judge to sign same? 23 JUDGE POLLARD: Right, okay. And authorize the 24 County Judge to execute the same. Any further discussion? 25 If not, those in favor, signify by raising your right hand. 1-26-15 71 1 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 2 JUDGE POLLARD: It's 4-0, unanimous. All right. 3 Thank you, Ilse. 4 MS. BAILEY: Thank you for moving that up. 5 JUDGE POLLARD: Now we'll go back to 1.14; 6 consider, discuss, and take -- accept required Racial 7 Profiling Report. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I think you got some back 9 here. 1.10. 10 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: You can do this one real 11 quick. All the Racial Profiling Report is, it's required by 12 the State that we file it with Commissioners Court. There's 13 no action. It's just that y'all have to accept it. It's 14 done each year. I have to do one, and each constable's 15 office will have to do one prior to January -- or prior to 16 March 1st, I think. So, it's been submitted, and I would 17 just ask that you accept it. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move we accept the report. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. Two seconds. 21 JUDGE POLLARD: Moved and seconded that we accept 22 the report. Those in favor, signify by raising your right 23 hand. 24 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 25 JUDGE POLLARD: It's 4-0, unanimous. All right. 1-26-15 72 1 We need to go back to 1.10; consider, discuss, and take 2 appropriate action on approval of a grant submission to Alamo 3 Area Council of Governments for the Youth Averted from 4 Delinquency program, and pass a resolution in support of 5 same. Jason Davis. 6 MR. DAVIS: Morning, Your Honor. Commissioners. 7 JUDGE POLLARD: Morning. 8 MR. DAVIS: This is the grant that's been in 9 existence for four years, I believe, previously. It's 10 currently operational. It's a partnership that we have. 11 Juvenile Board normally applies for the grant. The 12 Governor's office has flip-flopped back and forth over the 13 past few years as to who should submit the grant. One year 14 it will be the Commissioners Court; the next year it will say 15 the Juvenile Board. The current F.Y.'15 year, the 16 Commissioners Court is submitting this grant. The grant is 17 operated by the Juvenile Probation Department. It is a 18 pass-through grant. We receive -- we apply for the grant, 19 "we" being Juvenile Probation Department, applies for it. If 20 we receive the funding, then we contract with B.C.F.S., the 21 local nonprofit, and they provide social services through -- 22 including caseworkers, to Juvenile Probation Department, the 23 four J.P. courts, and the two area municipal courts, and 24 these social workers and counselors and staff provide 25 services to at-risk youth within the county, strictly Kerr 1-26-15 73 1 County. There are -- there are no matching funds required 2 for this AACOG grant, nor have there ever been. I would ask 3 that this Commissioners Court approve the resolution and 4 authorize the designated official to sign the same. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move approval, with two 6 questions. 7 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. Is there a second? 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second, with two questions. 10 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. It's been moved and 11 seconded, with two questions. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: First question -- 13 JUDGE POLLARD: For approval. All right. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Who's the designated official? 15 MR. DAVIS: That's for this Commissioners Court to 16 decide. Traditionally, I know it had been the Judge. I know 17 that there's been some discussion about Commissioner Baldwin. 18 It is this Court's decision. Not -- I would not be the 19 designee; it would be the authorized grant official. And -- 20 and Rosa can maybe jump in and help me with that. I'm not 21 sure. 22 JUDGE POLLARD: What's the second question? 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The second question is on the 24 third "whereas." The first line, it goes, "In the event of 25 loss or misuse..." I understand misuse. How do you lose? 1-26-15 74 1 It's just language they want you to put in there? 2 MR. DAVIS: Yes, sir, that's correct. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Explain to me briefly -- 5 MR. DAVIS: Yes, sir. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: -- what B.C.F.S. does for 7 you. 8 MR. DAVIS: B.C.F.S. in this county, they have a 9 number of services they provide. Specifically to this grant, 10 we contract with them and they provide two full-time case 11 workers that work with at-risk youth, primarily about 12 60 percent probation, 40 percent other courts within the 13 county. Meet with them, provide guidance, life skills, 14 mentoring, counseling services. They work with the families, 15 parenting classes, educational assistance. They do a lot of 16 things that -- the beauty of this grant is that it allows the 17 probation officer to do the probation officer's job, and the 18 social worker to do the social worker's job without Probation 19 staff having to wear two hats. They provide a lot of 20 services that would not be appropriate for county -- probably 21 not appropriate for use of county tax dollars. This grant 22 can provide that, and B.C.F.S. does. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Are they a state agency? 24 MR. DAVIS: No, sir, it's a nonprofit. The head 25 agency is actually based out of San Antonio. They have grown 1-26-15 75 1 now to where they provide a lot of humanitarian services, 2 primarily in the state of Texas, but throughout the country. 3 Including, for instance, they have the contract for the 4 Governor's office; they coordinate all the disaster relief in 5 the state of Texas currently. That's one of the their hats 6 that they've put on in the last few years. But primarily 7 at-risk youth is one of their major focuses, and that is the 8 major focus of B.C.F.S. here in Kerr County. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Which includes illegal 10 aliens? 11 MR. DAVIS: That has been something that they have 12 done that I'm unaware of, but I've heard that they have done 13 something -- have some kind of federal contract. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I just thought I'd ask that. 15 MR. DAVIS: I'm not aware of the specifics, 16 Commissioner. I'm not going to vouch for them on any of 17 that. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you. 19 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. Any further questions? Then 20 I'll call for a vote on the question. Those in favor of 21 the -- 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Who's going to sign this 23 thing? 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: County Judge. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You are? 1-26-15 76 1 JUDGE POLLARD: Doesn't make any difference. Do 2 you want to be the designated official? 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I think Mr. Letz might. He 4 has -- for three years in a row now, he's brought this up. 5 What the hell is your deal? Do you want to be the guy to 6 sign this stuff? 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No, I don't want to sign it; I 8 just want to know who the designee is. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Why are you worried about 10 it? 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Because there's a blank, and we 12 got to pick someone. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: This is the third time 14 you've brought this up. 15 JUDGE POLLARD: All right, somebody amend this 16 motion and stick a name in there. 17 MS. LAVENDER: We've got a problem here. 18 MS. HARGIS: Yeah, we do. 19 MS. LAVENDER: Because, actually, the funds don't 20 come through AACOG; they come from the Criminal Justice 21 Division of the Governor's office. And the wording of this 22 is not -- we got a problem with the wording of it. So -- 23 JUDGE POLLARD: So substitute "Criminal Justice 24 Division" for Alamo Area Council of Governments? 25 MR. DAVIS: What I would suggest, Judge, is pending 1-26-15 77 1 review and approval of the County Attorney. 2 MS. LAVENDER: Yeah. 3 JUDGE POLLARD: Pass on this? 4 MS. LAVENDER: It's the same as any grant that 5 comes through. 6 JUDGE POLLARD: Put it on the next agenda? Because 7 we've got to get that right. 8 MR. DAVIS: We're under a time crunch. 9 MS. HARGIS: We have to -- 10 MS. LAVENDER: It has to be done by the 2nd of 11 February. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So what proposed changes do 13 you want? 14 JUDGE POLLARD: Well, is the posting valid with 15 this wrong stuff in it? 16 MS. HARGIS: Yes. 17 MS. LAVENDER: Sorry? 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What is the problem? 19 MR. DAVIS: According to Ms. Lavender, the problem 20 is that we need to have specifically listed in here the 21 Criminal Justice Division of the Governor's office, because 22 the funding is provided through that office to the Council of 23 Governments. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, it says that here, the 25 very first -- last line. 1-26-15 78 1 MS. LAVENDER: See, I haven't seen -- I didn't see 2 the resolution. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think the resolution -- I 4 think if it goes through Alamo Area Council of Governments, I 5 think the agenda is correct, and I think we can act on it. 6 If y'all need to change the wording on the resolution a 7 little bit to clarify it -- 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Doesn't that fit what you 9 need when you have the Governor's name in it? 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Council of Governments. 11 MS. LAVENDER: That is just to be returned to. It 12 doesn't specify anywhere where the funds come from, is the 13 problem. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: In the resolution. 15 MS. LAVENDER: It's just a wording issue that we've 16 got here. You can approve it, and let us clean up the 17 wording on it and then we'll bring it back up and let you 18 sign it, the cleaned up version of it. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll amend my motion that the 20 resolution be approved subject to County Attorney. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 22 JUDGE POLLARD: All right, whose name are you 23 filling in on the blank? 24 MS. HARGIS: Could I -- 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yours. 1-26-15 79 1 MS. HARGIS: It's a really hard thing to change the 2 name. I know it doesn't seem like it is, but it's a major 3 thing, so if this year we could just leave it alone, and 4 we'll change it afterwards, that'll be much better. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So whose name is on it? 6 MS. HARGIS: Buster's. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. I want Buster to sign 8 it. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What if I don't want to? 10 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. You made the motion. 11 Do you agree to that amendment? 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes, sir. 13 JUDGE POLLARD: Who was -- you were the second? 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 15 JUDGE POLLARD: Do you agree to that amendment? 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yes, sir, I do. 17 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. Is there any further 18 discussion on the motion? There being none, those in favor, 19 signify by raising your right hand. 20 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 21 JUDGE POLLARD: It's 4-0, unanimous. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That'll teach you to wait 23 till the last minute. 24 MR. DAVIS: That's right. 25 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. Let's go to 1.11; 1-26-15 80 1 consider, discuss, and take appropriate action on allocation 2 or declaration as surplus of a 2001 Ford Taurus recently 3 declared surplus by the Kerr County Juvenile Board and given 4 to Kerr County. Mr. Davis? 5 MR. DAVIS: Thank you, sir. This is a -- a vehicle 6 that was previously a Kerr County vehicle operated by the 7 J.D.C., Juvenile Detention Center. A number of years ago, it 8 was transferred over to us, over to Juvenile Probation. We 9 used the car for a number of years. This year we purchased a 10 new vehicle. We'd like -- the Juvenile Board authorized 11 transfer back to Kerr County to use as the County saw fit. I 12 can tell you this vehicle has about 108,000 miles on it, 13 which does not sound like a lot, but at the same time, I've 14 had this vehicle assigned to two of our probation officers at 15 different times. It is not a vehicle that I would recommend 16 using out of -- for out-of-county use. We can transport 17 children in it; it does have a cage. It does not have a 18 camera. I still think it's a good vehicle with some miles on 19 it, some potential use. It's not something, again, as I 20 said, I would feel comfortable assigning for use for travel 21 outside of the county. Even though we have some vehicles 22 that have higher mileage that absolutely I feel safe in, this 23 one is not. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Has this one been maintained 25 properly? Why would it -- 1-26-15 81 1 MR. DAVIS: I believe so. I'm not sure. And to 2 tell you the truth, I haven't been in the vehicle probably in 3 a year. It's been quite a while since I've actually been in 4 this vehicle. I just know that the two officers that have 5 driven it were not -- that drove the vehicle that were 6 assigned were not real comfortable, for whatever reason. I 7 know that we put new tires on it within the last year, so the 8 rubber on it's good. I still think it's a good vehicle. But 9 the County -- this is for you all to determine or think about 10 it at some future date, what you would like to do with it. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, Juvenile Probation does not 12 need it? 13 MR. DAVIS: Correct. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: You don't need it? 15 MR. DAVIS: Detention could use it, but if the 16 County has a greater use -- we don't have a need for it. It 17 would be nice. It's a luxury, not a need. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So it's not the condition of 19 it; you just don't need that vehicle. Is that what you're 20 saying? 21 MS. HARGIS: Both. 22 MR. DAVIS: Both. We couldn't use -- the best 23 place Detention could use the vehicle would be for 24 out-of-county travel. This is not a vehicle that I could -- 25 I would feel comfortable doing that. We do have a vehicle 1-26-15 82 1 that we can use. It's just a matter of shifting resources. 2 If we were to keep the vehicle, we could shift the vehicles 3 around and make it work, but it's not a necessity that we do 4 that. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, let me rephrase it. Will 6 this defer you buying another vehicle if you get this 7 vehicle? 8 MR. DAVIS: I don't see, on the detention side, 9 that we would need to buy another vehicle anywhere in the 10 near future. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So this one -- so you don't 12 think savings are valid if you get this one or don't get it? 13 MR. DAVIS: Correct. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Let's just take it and trade 15 it in or whatever, on my new helicopter. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I would say we declare it 17 surplus if you don't need it. 18 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I'd want to wait and look at 19 it. I've got some high-mileage investigator vehicles. Y'all 20 could just take it back from them and see it, and then let 21 other departments look at it. It may be something one of us 22 can use, yeah, before it's declared surplus. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I'd rather do that. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Just turn it back over to -- 1-26-15 83 1 MR. DAVIS: Yes, sir, just giving it back to you. 2 And it's -- the keys are at our office. Let me know to whom 3 I should give them, and -- 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Do you need any action? 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: We need no action. I don't 6 think so. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I would imagine to transfer 8 a vehicle -- 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: From -- I guess assets from one 10 department to another. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I make a motion that we 13 authorize transferring the 2001 Ford Taurus to Commissioners 14 Court to -- 15 JUDGE POLLARD: Accept the transfer? 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Accept the transfer. 17 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: And if they want to get it out 18 of their parking lot, they're more than welcome to bring it 19 over and park it. 20 JUDGE POLLARD: Any further discussion on this 21 motion? There being none, those in favor, signify by raising 22 your right hand. 23 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 24 JUDGE POLLARD: It's 4-0, unanimous. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And request the Auditor to kind 1-26-15 84 1 of make sure we don't just keep it sitting up here, once it 2 gets here, and forget about it. 3 MS. HARGIS: No, we won't. 4 JUDGE POLLARD: 1.12; consider, discuss, and take 5 appropriate action on revision of the Kerr County Juvenile 6 Detention Facility Policy and Procedures Manual. Mr. Davis. 7 MR. DAVIS: Yes, sir, my last item of the day. I 8 have approximately -- this is why you do not have this. 9 There are approximately 90 pages of additions to this manual 10 that I have here, and that are highlighted. They weren't 11 finished until actually Friday afternoon. These are changes 12 that are mandated by Texas Juvenile Justice Department 13 standards. They are not subject to any change by myself, or 14 any recommendation. I would ask -- and I'll go into further 15 discussion afterwards, but I what I'm asking for is the 16 Commissioners Court approve these changes pending approval of 17 the County Attorney. The County Attorney has not approved 18 them yet, and I don't want to put that out to the Court. She 19 does have a copy of them on a flash drive. I would be happy 20 to get each and every one of you copies of this, in this 21 format or on flash drive, if you would like to have them. I 22 will say again -- reiterate the fact these are mandated 23 standards. They are not standards that -- that I'm 24 recommending; it's what the State's telling us we have to put 25 in per our financial assistance contract from Texas Juvenile 1-26-15 85 1 Justice Department. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So moved, pending approval by 3 County Attorney. 4 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Second. 5 JUDGE POLLARD: Any further discussion? There 6 being none, those in favor of the motion, signify by raising 7 your right hand. 8 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 9 JUDGE POLLARD: 4-0, unanimous. All right. 10 MR. DAVIS: Thank you. 11 JUDGE POLLARD: That brings us back to -- going 12 down to 1.16, I believe; is that right? 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Correct. 14 JUDGE POLLARD: Consider, discuss, and take 15 appropriate action on implementation of the burn ban. Do we 16 need -- in view of the recent rains, do we need to make any 17 changes about that? 18 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I thought we had to put it on 19 every so often, and then the Commissioners can decide for 20 their precinct. But we have to -- 21 JUDGE POLLARD: Reaffirm it, put it on again. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. I move we implement the 23 burn ban, and under the same policies as currently 24 implemented. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 1-26-15 86 1 JUDGE POLLARD: Any further discussion? There 2 being none, those in favor, signify by raising your right 3 hand. 4 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 5 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. 1.17; consider, 6 discuss, and take appropriate action regarding the 2015 7 liaison appointments. Commissioner Moser, Precinct 2. And 8 there's a list of them in the agenda package. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. I think there was some 10 discussion at the last Commissioners Court that I made a 11 motion that I be added to the -- let me get the exact words 12 here -- law enforcement/jail with Commissioner Reeves. Just 13 in light of the fact that that's a very large item for the 14 County, $15 million. Been working on that with the Sheriff 15 for some time, and so that would be my motion. And there was 16 some discussion about why do we need two? And, you know, 17 when you look at it, there's 15 out of 21 of these liaison 18 things that have two commissioners on there. So -- 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll second. It makes no 20 difference to me. 21 JUDGE POLLARD: What? 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I said second; it makes no 23 difference. 24 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: The only issue -- the only 25 concern I have is, it is a lot, and I do need a lot of help 1-26-15 87 1 with the issue, and I want a lot of help. But I hate to get 2 in a position to be accused of violating the Open Meetings, 3 or anything like that, Act because I've dealt with one or 4 two, and then another commissioner asks me about it, because 5 I've had two on this as this liaison. I'm not saying either 6 way. I just don't want any of us to end up in a situation 7 where I have a problem. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I think that can be true on 9 any liaison. 10 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: It could be. I'm not -- 11 JUDGE POLLARD: I don't see that this makes that 12 any worse. You've got the same problem either way. 13 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yeah, except normally a 14 liaison, I've been dealing with just one. Then I don't have 15 a problem when somebody else asks me. If I'm dealing with 16 two -- 17 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Do you feel this would -- 18 could be helpful with the bond coming up and the sensitivity 19 of it? 20 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I think it could be 21 advantageous, and I think it could be a disadvantage. I'm 22 not -- I can see both sides. You know, I like all the help I 23 can get. I like all the opinions that we can -- we can have. 24 I like -- more than will take place in open court 25 discussions. But I -- you know, whatever y'all want. 1-26-15 88 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: My only comment is that I think 2 it's very important for all liaisons to remember that they 3 have no authority to do anything. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: They are -- it's not a 6 decision-making effort. It's just a matter of -- 7 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Phone call and efforts to 8 what's going on. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. Just kind of -- it's a 10 sounding board, and to figure out when things need to be on 11 the agenda more than anything else. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So -- 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And you can talk to as many 15 commissioners as you want; that's not a violation of the law. 16 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I have to be careful. 17 JUDGE POLLARD: Yeah. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: We've got a motion and second. 19 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. Is there any further 20 discussion on the motion? If not, then those in favor, 21 signify by raising your right hand. 22 (Commissioners Moser and Letz voted in favor of the motion.) 23 JUDGE POLLARD: It's two. And are those opposed? 24 (Commissioners Baldwin and Reeves voted against the 25 motion.) 1-26-15 89 1 JUDGE POLLARD: Two. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Guess what, Judge? 3 JUDGE POLLARD: I vote affirmative on the motion. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thank you. 5 JUDGE POLLARD: So it passes 3 to 2. All right. 6 1.17; consider, discuss, and take appropriate action 7 regarding -- that was it. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That was it. 9 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. 1.18; consider, 10 discuss, and take appropriate action to reappoint Kenneth 11 Edwards as a commissioner on Kerr County Emergency Services 12 District Number 2 Board for a two-year term. Commissioner 13 Reeves. 14 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Just as it reads. Move for 15 approval. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 18 JUDGE POLLARD: Been moved and seconded for 19 approval of appointing Kenneth Edwards as a commissioner. 20 Any further discussion? Those in favor, signify by raising 21 your right hand. 22 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 23 JUDGE POLLARD: It's 4-0, unanimous. 1.19; 24 consider, discuss, and take appropriate action to appoint Jan 25 Reeve as a commissioner on Kerr County Emergency Services 1-26-15 90 1 District Number 2 Board for a two-year term. 2 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I would, just as it is 3 written, move for approval. I will note that the last name 4 does not have an "s," no relation to me. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 7 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. Any further discussion? 8 There being none, those in favor of that motion, signify by 9 raising your right hand. 10 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 11 JUDGE POLLARD: It's 4-0, unanimous. All right, 12 1.20; consider, discuss, and take appropriate action to 13 extend the RFP for a Naming Rights Partnership with Kerr 14 County for the Hill Country Youth Exhibit Center deadline 15 until March 6th, 2015, at 4:30 p.m. Commissioners Letz and 16 Reeves. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I put this on the agenda 18 primarily because, with the stock show and trying to get the 19 building complete, I've done nothing on this. (Laughter.) 20 Other than the RFP out there. And I think this takes a fair 21 amount of work on who to contact, trying to solicit these, 22 and I don't -- I mean, I don't think we've had enough time to 23 do that. 24 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. I agree. All right. Any -- 25 is that the motion? 1-26-15 91 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 3 MS. GRINSTEAD: I just have a question about 4 publishing. Do we need to republish? I mean, I was hoping 5 Ilse would be here so we could ask her, but I don't know, 6 'cause it's been published. We -- I think we put it in the 7 San Antonio Express News; I think we put it in a lot of them. 8 Do we need to redo that? 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I defer to ask Ilse. I mean, 10 if we're extending it, you know, I hate to spend a lot of 11 money on doing it. If we do extend it, I think if we have to 12 post it, I'd rather we post it in the most economical manner 13 possible. 14 JUDGE POLLARD: Did we get much response to all 15 that publishing? 16 COMMISSIONER REEVES: The deadline hasn't got here 17 yet. Like most bids, they wait till the night before it's 18 due. But -- so I don't have an answer to that question. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Don't know. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I agree with publishing in the 21 most economical way possible to extend it to March 6th. 22 MS. GRINSTEAD: So just do the legal requirements 23 for publishing? 24 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Yes. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 1-26-15 92 1 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. Any further discussion? 2 All right. Those in favor of that motion, signify by raising 3 your right hand. 4 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 5 JUDGE POLLARD: It's 4-0, unanimous. 1.21; 6 consider, discuss, and take appropriate action regarding 7 budget surplus for the 2013 Kerr Central Appraisal District 8 budget. Commissioner Reeves. 9 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Yes. I put this on the 10 agenda just simply because of a time constraint that's coming 11 up on it. The KCAD has a budget surplus for the year 2013. 12 If we take no action or vote affirmatively, the money 13 would -- provided that the rest of the entities vote in the 14 same manner -- would remain with the Appraisal District in 15 the amount of 57,822 for their building reserve. If the 16 majority of the entities vetoed this item, Kerr County would 17 receive approximately 22.8 percent, or 13,187. I do see Mr. 18 Coates in the audience, and I'm glad he's here to explain 19 where he would like to put this money in more detail, and 20 also kind of fill in what happens on one of these budget 21 amendments, 'cause we don't -- if we don't approve it -- I 22 mean, if we don't veto it, it's like a positive vote. 23 MR. COATES: Correct. 24 COMMISSIONER REEVES: If we take no action. 25 MR. COATES: Correct. 1-26-15 93 1 COMMISSIONER REEVES: But could you fill us in on 2 what you're wanting to do with this money, Fourth? 3 JUDGE POLLARD: Does this relate to that article 4 that was in the paper over the weekend? 5 MR. COATES: Yes. 6 JUDGE POLLARD: Your new -- anticipating a new 7 facility? 8 MR. COATES: Yes. Your representative on the board 9 is here, Charles Lewis, and he may want to have some input as 10 well, since y'all hired him, paid that big salary and 11 everything. Mr. Lewis? 12 MR. LEWIS: What's the question? What happens? 13 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Well, what happens, and I was 14 more interested in where the money was going as well with the 15 building reserves. I found that very interesting, very 16 positive that you're trying to build up the reserves. 17 MR. LEWIS: That's right. That's an accounting 18 entry that the Auditor says we have to put into it. If we 19 get to keep the money, that's where it has to go, and that's 20 what it has to be used for. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What's the planned timeline for 22 doing something with the current facility, either -- 23 MR. LEWIS: That's ongoing right now. The -- we 24 started talking about this last year. We're having now 25 monthly meetings rather than once a quarter, and this is -- 1-26-15 94 1 I've got a subcommittee that is working on this that reports 2 to the rest of the board, and we take action as that happens. 3 We all bring in information. Every board member has a duty 4 right now to proceed with information that we can do 5 something about -- something about this situation. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So you anticipate by a year 7 from now to have a concrete plan? 8 MR. LEWIS: Hopefully, we would like to be there. 9 We want to be there. That's where we would like to be a year 10 from now, with a firm plan going somewhere, or already there. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So if we leave the money -- we 13 have -- let me understand. If we veto it, the money -- 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Comes back. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: -- comes back? 16 MR. LEWIS: No, it takes -- all of the entities 17 have a say-so. 18 MR. COATES: Majority. 19 MR. LEWIS: Majority. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: A majority. 21 COMMISSIONER REEVES: But if we take no action or 22 we veto -- 23 MR. LEWIS: No action on something like this is 24 a -- is taken as an assent. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 1-26-15 95 1 MR. COATES: According to the Tax Code, you 2 actually don't approve. You veto or take no action. But we 3 love to hear an approval vote; it makes us look good. 4 JUDGE POLLARD: Are these weighted votes, or are 5 they just each entity? 6 COMMISSIONER REEVES: This one isn't weighted, is 7 it? 8 MR. COATES: No, one vote per entity. 9 COMMISSIONER REEVES: There's other things that are 10 weighted, but -- 11 MR. COATES: It's -- the selection of the board of 12 directors is based on the levy. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: My feeling is, you know, I 14 don't go out there a whole lot, but I have been out there 15 recently, and it's an old building. It either needs -- it's 16 going to need significant repairs, possible expansion, or 17 they need to go to a new place. So, either way, they're 18 going to need a balance to address the problems they have. 19 I'm in favor of, and make a motion to approve the request of 20 the Kerr CAD Board of Directors. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 22 MR. LEWIS: The surplus comes -- we try very hard 23 to have surplus, and we always have to notify the entities 24 that this money is there. Do they want it back, or can we 25 put it in a building fund? And that's what we do from year 1-26-15 96 1 to year. 2 JUDGE POLLARD: So, this is a motion to 3 affirmatively say they can put it in a building fund? 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And I second that motion. 6 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. Is there any further 7 discussion about that motion? 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: None, other than our 9 representative, Mr. Lewis, if he says it's going to go in 10 that fund, it's going in that fund. He's a man of integrity 11 and a man of his word, and -- 12 JUDGE POLLARD: Well, subject to the other parties 13 voting differently, and it may come back forcefully then. 14 COMMISSIONER REEVES: There's no choice to where it 15 goes, is there, Fourth? It has to go -- 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Has to stay there. 17 MR. COATES: We've had one veto. 18 JUDGE POLLARD: You've had one veto already? 19 MR. COATES: Yes, sir. Everyone else is either no 20 action, or not even put it on the agenda, except for one ISD; 21 I believe they meet this year. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Who vetoed? 23 MR. COATES: Who vetoed? Guess. 24 JUDGE POLLARD: City of Kerrville? 25 (Mr. Coates nodded affirmatively.) 1-26-15 97 1 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. Any further discussion 2 on the motion? 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Judge, I was right in the 4 middle of a sentence. (Laughter.) I'd like to at least 5 finish that sentence. 6 JUDGE POLLARD: Sorry. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That is that this is an 8 ongoing operation, and we need to assist any way we can, so I 9 think this is a good move. 10 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. Any further comments or 11 discussion? There being none, those in favor of the motion, 12 signify by raising your right hand. 13 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 14 JUDGE POLLARD: It's 4-0, unanimous. 15 MR. COATES: Thank you very much. 16 MR. LEWIS: Thank you. 17 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. 1.22; consider, 18 discuss, and take appropriate action to go out for rebid for 19 the flooring on the second floor of the Kerr County 20 Courthouse. Tim? 21 MR. BOLLIER: Yes, sir. I'm bringing this back for 22 order of the Court. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move approval. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 1-26-15 98 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And make sure we get it to all 2 the local flooring companies. I don't want to rely on them 3 seeing it in the paper; I want to make sure they get copies 4 of this so that we can -- 5 MR. BOLLIER: I can do that. 6 MS. HARGIS: Yes. I'd be glad to help him with 7 that. 8 MR. BOLLIER: Do we want to leave it like it is, 9 Commissioner? 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Oh, that's right, there was a 11 question on that. 12 MR. BOLLIER: Thank you. About changing the -- 13 MS. HARGIS: Two different ways of -- 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. I think when we talked 15 about it when we rejected them, one option would be to go 16 with the laminate in the hallways and the foyer area, and 17 carpet in the courtroom. The other one would be to go back 18 with carpeting the hallways and courtroom area, and laminate 19 only in the foyer upstairs. I think that's a good -- because 20 as high as they came in last time, we need to figure out -- 21 which evidently carpet's cheaper than laminate. And if we 22 get 15 years, that's worth it to me, 'cause we did out of the 23 last carpet; we got 15 years. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay, that's good. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So I would -- I think it's -- 1-26-15 99 1 however you want to do it. 2 JUDGE POLLARD: Want to make a motion? 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Make a motion that we have 4 those two alternatives in the RFP. 5 JUDGE POLLARD: To bid it both ways? 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. 7 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 9 JUDGE POLLARD: Is there a second? 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 11 JUDGE POLLARD: It's been moved and seconded that 12 we have both alternatives -- go back out for an RFP with both 13 alternatives. Is there any further discussion? There being 14 none, those in favor, signify by raising your right hand. 15 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 16 JUDGE POLLARD: It's 4-0, unanimous. 1.23; discuss 17 and take appropriate action to approve Assistant Emergency 18 Management Coordinator job description, salary, and hire for 19 position. Commissioner Moser. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Want to pass on this, Judge. 21 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. All right. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is the backup worth reading? 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Pardon? 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is the backup worth reading? 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. I think there's just 1-26-15 100 1 more work to be done on -- on looking at the job description, 2 so we'll bring that back at the next Commissioners Court. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 4 JUDGE POLLARD: 1.24; consider, discuss, and take 5 -- accept required Racial Profiling Report from Constable, 6 Precinct 4. 7 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Constable Huffaker asked me 8 to present this. He could not be here this morning, but this 9 is very similar to what Sheriff Hierholzer presented, and if 10 I understand, we just make a note that we accept it. 11 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: It's one of those very strange 12 laws. Y'all don't have to do anything with it. You don't 13 have to approve it; it just has to be submitted to the 14 Commissioners Court. 15 COMMISSIONER REEVES: So, acknowledge and move to 16 accept. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 18 JUDGE POLLARD: Been moved and accepted that we 19 accept the report as submitted. Those in favor, signify by 20 raising your right hand. 21 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 22 JUDGE POLLARD: It's 4-0, unanimous. All right. 23 1.25, I think, is for this afternoon. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No. 25 JUDGE POLLARD: No, that's this morning too. All 1-26-15 101 1 right. Consider, discuss, and take appropriate action to 2 authorize the Environmental Health/Animal Services Director 3 to reduce the registration fee to $1 during the annual rabies 4 vaccination clinics being held February 7 through February 21 5 of this year. Mr. Garcia. What's the regular rate? 6 MR. GARCIA: Regular rate is $5. 7 JUDGE POLLARD: So it's reducing from $5 to $1. 8 MR. GARCIA: It's also -- Judge, it's also $10. 9 It's $5 for an altered animal, and it's $10 for an unaltered 10 animal. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Altered? 12 MR. GARCIA: Spayed or neutered. 13 JUDGE POLLARD: What? 14 MR. GARCIA: Spayed or neutered. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Reproduction. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Altered. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Reproduction capability 18 altered. 19 MR. GARCIA: So this is the annual rabies drive 20 that Dr. Leifeste heads up, and the County joins in. And Dr. 21 Leifeste's been doing it for a number of years now, 22 coordinating this. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And so what -- what would be 24 the impact -- financial impact of doing it this way? 25 Estimated. 1-26-15 102 1 MR. GARCIA: We usually -- what -- the impact here 2 is to get the animals -- 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, I understand. 4 MR. GARCIA: -- vaccinated. The financial impact 5 is, again -- 6 JUDGE POLLARD: How much money do we lose by doing 7 this, is what he's asking. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's what I'm asking. 9 MR. GARCIA: Lose? Well, $168 was the total of 10 last year. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 12 JUDGE POLLARD: So, 168 times $4 is what we'd be 13 losing. 14 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Don't the vets offer a 15 reduced -- 16 MR. GARCIA: The vets do their own reducing. 17 COMMISSIONER REEVES: They reduce rates, and we get 18 a lot more animals vaccinated with these reduced rates. 19 MR. GARCIA: Right. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: The more, the better. 21 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Move for approval. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 24 JUDGE POLLARD: Any further discussion? There 25 being none, those in favor of the motion, signify by raising 1-26-15 103 1 your right hand. 2 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 3 JUDGE POLLARD: It's 4-0, unanimous. I don't know 4 of anything to go into closed session about today. Is there 5 anything? 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No. 7 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. We got the bills to 8 pay. Are there bills to pay? 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move we pay the bills. 10 JUDGE POLLARD: Any questions about them? You 11 moved to pay them? 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes, sir. 13 JUDGE POLLARD: Is there a second? 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 15 JUDGE POLLARD: It's been moved and seconded that 16 the bills as submitted be paid. Any further discussion? 17 There being none, those in favor, signify by raising your 18 right hand. 19 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 20 JUDGE POLLARD: It's 4-0, unanimous. Budget 21 amendments. Any? 22 MS. HARGIS: None. No budget amendments. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: No late bills? I'm sorry. 24 MS. HARGIS: No budget amendments. 25 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. Late bills? 1-26-15 104 1 MS. HARGIS: Yes, we do have late bills. We are -- 2 as we -- I explained to you before, we're running the 3 insurance bills through, so you have an insurance bill and a 4 licensing fee, and then we received the funds on our grant 5 for Center Point, on the last page, to pay the bill for Tetra 6 Tech. Those funds came in Friday, so we like to get those 7 bills moved out, 'cause we wait a long time for those grants 8 to come in. We are also, in the bills, paying the last 9 estimate on the Phase 5 of Kerrville South, but we have not 10 received that money, so we're going to hold the check. 11 Therefore, if we get the moneys, which we should get this 12 week, we can release the check, but we will hold that one. 13 But the one for Center Point, the money is here. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Authorize payment of the late 15 bills. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, second. 17 JUDGE POLLARD: Been moved and seconded that the 18 late bills be paid -- authorized to be paid. Any further 19 discussion? There being none, those in favor, signify by 20 raising your right hand. 21 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 22 JUDGE POLLARD: 4-0, unanimous. Approve and accept 23 monthly reports. Mr. Reeves? 24 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Robbin Burlew, District 25 Clerk, December 2014; Mitzi French, Fines, Judgments, and 1-26-15 105 1 Jury Fees collected in Justice Court for the month ending 2 December 2014; Constable, Precinct 3, Kerr County monthly 3 report, December 2014; Constable, Precinct 3, Kerr County 4 monthly report, November 2014; and Constable, Precinct 4, 5 monthly report for December 2014; as well as the Investment 6 and Portfolio Summary for period October 1 through 7 December 31, 2014. Move to approve the reports as presented. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 9 JUDGE POLLARD: Been moved and seconded that we 10 approve those reports as submitted. Any further discussion? 11 There being none, those in favor, signify by raising your 12 right hand. 13 (The motion carried by unanimous vote, 4-0.) 14 JUDGE POLLARD: It's 4-0, unanimous. All right. 15 Reports from Commissioners and liaison/committee assignments. 16 Anybody have anything? Starting with right over here, 17 Commissioner 1? 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No, sir. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: No. 20 JUDGE POLLARD: Two? I have nothing. Do you have 21 anything? 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes, I do, Judge. I just 23 wanted to go back to a comment I made earlier about the 24 plumbing issues out at the event center. It appears -- and 25 I've talked to Steve Huser about it; I know -- I've talked to 1-26-15 106 1 him quite a bit about it, and others. The -- the -- we think 2 the biggest part of the problem -- and the problem was that 3 the toilets, especially in the women's bathrooms, were not 4 flushing properly. There may be a sensor adjustment problem, 5 but probably the bigger part of the problem is we never 6 looked at the -- the pump sizing at the rainwater catchment 7 system originally, and we just -- I mean, no one thought -- 8 JUDGE POLLARD: Pressure. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- no one thought to do it. 10 It's a pressure problem. So we really probably need to look 11 at this system. It may require bringing a 4-inch line from 12 the water -- the storage tanks up to the building instead of 13 the 2-inch line that's there, and it may be able to be 14 handled by modifying the type of pump. In my mind, it would 15 be a good idea to do a cross-connection to the city as 16 backup, and/or put in a second pump. Currently, if we have a 17 pump go out, we're in trouble. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, right. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, I think Tim's looking at 20 all these options, and it's something we can come back to the 21 Court with. But we're pretty sure it's more of a pressure 22 problem on our side than anything else, except that there may 23 be a few adjustments needed on some of the sensors as well. 24 COMMISSIONER REEVES: And I think it was kind of a 25 perfect storm, if you will, to experience it, because this 1-26-15 107 1 was one of the few events that you have all of the restrooms 2 being used, as well as the amount of water coming from 3 collection to the wash rack, so it's taken a lot of water. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And all that's a 2-inch line? 5 Whoa. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: A good test. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 8 COMMISSIONER REEVES: It was a good test, yeah. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's -- 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean, the maximum you should 11 be flowing is about 60 gallons a minute. We were probably 12 way above that. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So it's not -- you know, it's 15 something that we need to fix and address. It's not a huge 16 problem. Certainly, it doesn't appear to be a design 17 problem. It's just something that -- 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: In all the tests that we did, 20 we weren't -- we didn't simulate the quantity of usage. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Correct. Sure be hard to 22 simulate. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, anyway -- but that's -- 24 that's working. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 1-26-15 108 1 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I would like to say, I 2 appreciate, once again, all the help this past weekend. And 3 we'll probably talk more this afternoon, but you'll notice 4 there was a lot of county employees out there, but a lot of 5 them were on the stock show end, and Mrs. Lantz and Tim and I 6 worked together to insure minimal overtime was paid to our 7 people, with the stock show picking up -- 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Good. 9 COMMISSIONER REEVES: -- other costs of it. And it 10 worked very good. And I compliment everybody that was out 11 there. I think the staff, plus the ones that were on -- 12 working for the stock show, kept that new building as clean 13 as you could get it, and I think everything worked real good. 14 So, thank you, Tim. 15 MR. BOLLIER: You're welcome, sir. 16 JUDGE POLLARD: Any further reports or comments 17 from elected officials or department heads? Did anybody get 18 any suggestions from all them clients or whatever out there 19 about any suggested changes or modifications? I got good 20 reports about the facility. One person -- lady said that she 21 didn't like having to be snowed on and rained on while she 22 was washing her -- her animals out there, and she wants a 23 roof over that little -- between there. That's the only 24 suggestion I had. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Move that we have no more 1-26-15 109 1 snow. 2 MR. BOLLIER: Maybe she ought to get out of the 3 stock show business. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I didn't hear any. I thought 5 it was -- you know, everything was very positive. The only 6 thing we need to look at, I think, is there's the roll-up 7 door that connects the arena to where the restrooms are. We 8 need to figure out how to get doors there. That's -- and we 9 looked at it earlier. It was kind of a cost thing, "Hey, 10 let's not do anything." We were tying to keep more of these 11 kind of more maintenance numbers we build into our budget. 12 That was the only issue I heard. I know as soon as we did 13 open the door, a sheep and a goat were -- two sheep were in 14 that hallway where it was warm. 15 MR. BOLLIER: I was actually very surprised -- even 16 during all the wet weather that we had, I was very surprised 17 that we kept the floor the way we did. It mean, it wasn't 18 perfect, but, I mean, we kept it pretty clean. So -- 19 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I think the sound system 20 worked very good. 21 MR. BOLLIER: Oh, yeah. 22 JUDGE POLLARD: Sure did. 23 COMMISSIONER REEVES: And -- 24 MR. BOLLIER: Sure did. 25 COMMISSIONER REEVES: And, Commissioner 1, did you 1-26-15 110 1 get to try any of the good food that was in there? You 2 missed some real good -- 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'm always the last to know. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think Sam camped out in 5 there. 6 COMMISSIONER REEVES: They should have had a baking 7 contest for all of the baked goods that the ladies brought 8 in. We could have had a contest right there, and I think 9 Number 3 found a few of those, too. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 11 MR. BOLLIER: It was good. 12 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. Any reports from 13 boards, commissions, committees? City/County joint projects 14 or operations reports? Any other reports? All right. There 15 being none, then I think we'll recess until this afternoon. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: No. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's a workshop. 18 JUDGE POLLARD: A separate one with separate -- all 19 right, then, we'll adjourn. Thank you. 20 (Commissioners Court adjourned at 11:25 p.m.) 21 - - - - - - - - - - 22 23 24 25 1-26-15 111 1 STATE OF TEXAS | 2 COUNTY OF KERR | 3 The above and foregoing is a true and complete 4 transcription of my stenotype notes taken in my capacity as 5 official reporter for the Commissioners Court of Kerr County, 6 Texas, at the time and place heretofore set forth. 7 DATED at Kerrville, Texas, this 29th day of January, 8 2015. 9 10 REBECCA BOLIN, Kerr County Clerk 11 BY: _________________________________ Kathy Banik, Deputy County Clerk 12 Certified Shorthand Reporter 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 1-26-15