1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT 9 Budget Workshop 10 Monday, June 1, 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 BOB REEVES, Commissioner Pct. 4 25 ABSENT: JONATHAN LETZ, Commissioner Pct. 3 2 1 I N D E X June 1, 2015 2 PAGE 3 Participate in Budget Workshops with county departments, including, but not limited to: 4 198th District Court 3 5 216th District Court 7 6 Sheriff's Department - main 18 7 County Court at Law 37 8 Sheriff's Department - jail, courthouse security 44 9 D.P.S. 60 10 City-County Operations (First Responders) 64 11 County Sponsored (Economic Development) 69 12 Road and Bridge 77 13 Adjourned 116 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 3 1 On Monday, June 1, 2015, at 9:00 a.m., a budget 2 workshop 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, June 1st, 2015, and 8 it's 9 a.m., and the Kerr County Commissioners Court is in 9 session for a budget workshop. The first item on the agenda 10 is -- I don't know; maybe we want to go through -- let's go 11 through -- we'll just go straight down to it. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. 13 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. The first item on the 14 agenda is the 216th District Court. 15 MR. ROBLES: They want to do the 198th, if that's 16 okay with you. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Who's in charge here? 18 JUDGE POLLARD: I'm just going by the -- 19 JUDGE EMERSON: If you don't mind, we would 20 appreciate it, Judge, because we are really -- 21 JUDGE POLLARD: I'll go to 198th, then. Go ahead. 22 JUDGE EMERSON: I'm liable to lose half my 23 defendants while I'm here. 24 JUDGE POLLARD: Good morning, Judge. 25 JUDGE EMERSON: Good morning. 6-1-15 bwk 4 1 JUDGE POLLARD: Anybody have any comments about the 2 198th, or questions? 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Just a second. I'm on 4 District Attorney yet; just hold on. I'm having a hard time, 5 Rex, finding it in the hymnal here. 6 JUDGE EMERSON: As long as it's there, we're good. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: No, I have some questions. 8 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: On the -- just looking -- and 10 I don't know; on the group insurance, the actual in 2014 was 11 $6,600, and now the budget is 11,000 budget request, so 12 that's -- that's a 75 percent increase. 13 JUDGE EMERSON: We have not added any -- 14 MS. HENDERSON: We don't do that; it comes from the 15 Auditor. 16 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Could that be from more 17 dependents getting on the county's policy? 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I don't know. That's my 19 question. 20 MR. ROBLES: As far as I know, we take the premium 21 and divide it by the amount of employees we have. Some 22 offices require more, some less. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: But that's a 75 percent 24 increase since -- not from last year's budget, but from the 25 previous year. So -- so you think that's a number of 6-1-15 bwk 5 1 employees increase? 2 JUDGE EMERSON: We have not had an employee 3 increase. 4 JUDGE POLLARD: Yes, ma'am? 5 MS. LANTZ: Your previous court -- 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I can't hear you, Dawn. 7 MS. LANTZ: It's dependent on employees. If he 8 hires a new employee, they could be adding their family onto 9 it, where the previous employee did not have their family 10 covered onto it, so that could be the difference. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. Maybe -- maybe -- could 12 you just give us a little bit of background on that? We 13 won't belabor that right now, but if you could just -- out of 14 curiosity, that's a big increase. 15 JUDGE POLLARD: It could be the premiums just went 16 up some, too. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: But 75 percent? 18 MS. LANTZ: No, sir, he had a previous employee 19 that just covered themselves. Now he's got an employee that 20 covers the entire family, so that's the difference. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's what it is for that 22 one? 23 MS. LANTZ: Yes, sir. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Okay, I accept that. 25 Thank you. Another question -- no, that's the wrong 6-1-15 bwk 6 1 question. Let's see. Rex, on conferences, the actual in 2 2014 was like $600, and your budget request, same as last 3 year, is $2,000. 4 JUDGE EMERSON: You can cut that if you'd like. I 5 don't anticipate it being over 1,000. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay, just make it 1,000. 7 Okay. Okay, good. Thank you, sir. That's all the questions 8 I have. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Court transcripts. The 10 actual is 2,250, and it's going to 16,000. Or is that -- 11 that's actually decreasing, isn't it? 12 JUDGE EMERSON: Yes, sir. And we usually end up 13 giving the money back, but I would prefer not to decrease it 14 at this time. We have quite a few sexual assault trials 15 lined up, and almost every one of those will be appealed. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I think that's what we see a 17 lot of, is when these numbers are -- when you haven't used 18 the money up, you still have schools to go to; you have 19 trials ahead of you and that kind of thing. So that's -- 20 that explains it to me. 21 JUDGE EMERSON: What else? 22 JUDGE POLLARD: Anything else? 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Did you catch any fish? 24 Nevermind. 25 JUDGE EMERSON: No, but there's six and a half feet 6-1-15 bwk 7 1 of water under the dock for the first time in four years. 2 Life is good. (Laughter.) 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: For the fish. 4 JUDGE POLLARD: Any further questions? 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I don't have any more. 6 JUDGE POLLARD: I don't have any. Do you have any, 7 Bob? 8 COMMISSIONER REEVES: No, sir. I notice the 9 overall budget, even before he's willing to drop his 10 conference part of it, looks like it's gone down slightly, so 11 I compliment you on that. 12 JUDGE EMERSON: Thank you. May I be excused? 13 JUDGE POLLARD: Yes, sir. Thank you very much. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Good to see you. 15 JUDGE EMERSON: Thank y'all. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thanks, Rex. 18 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. Now, which one do you want 19 us to go to, James? 20 MR. ROBLES: 216th. 21 JUDGE POLLARD: 216th? All right. Morning, Becky. 22 MS. HENDERSON: Good morning. 23 JUDGE POLLARD: Any questions, Number 1? 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Not at this moment. 25 JUDGE POLLARD: Oh? 6-1-15 bwk 8 1 MS. HENDERSON: I don't know what that means. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Stand by. 3 MS. HENDERSON: Okay. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I have a couple. Same 5 question on the conferences as for the 198th. From an actual 6 a couple years ago, 600 to 2,000. 7 MS. HENDERSON: We can probably do the same thing 8 with this one. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 10 MS. HENDERSON: He just told me to leave that in 11 there, but -- 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's a deal. 13 MS. HENDERSON: -- I bet we can cut it 1,000. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Special court reporter. What 15 I do is just -- I look at the actuals as opposed to what was 16 the budget request, just if I see a big change. 17 MS. HENDERSON: Mm-hmm. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So the actual on court 19 reporters in '14 was 3,200, and the request is 6,500, so a 20 100 percent increase. 21 MS. HENDERSON: Well, we've already used 3,300 for 22 the first five months. And what that is, is the court 23 reporter that Judge Williams has right now hasn't even used 24 up any of her vacation. That was all special trials. 25 Whenever we have a visiting judge that has to come in 'cause 6-1-15 bwk 9 1 we have a trial going on in another county, and it runs over 2 or something like that, we have to bring a special court 3 reporter in. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I see. 5 MS. HENDERSON: And that is what that's for. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. All right. Okay. 7 MS. HENDERSON: And that's why we left it, since 8 we'd already used -- 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So much this year. 10 MS. HENDERSON: -- that much already, yes, sir. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Oh, yeah. Okay, I got you. 12 Thank you. 13 MS. HENDERSON: But that's another one that we may 14 be able to give some back at the end. We may not use the 15 entire -- 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. But you wouldn't feel 17 comfortable doing that now? 18 MS. HENDERSON: No, sir. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. All right. Okay. And 20 probably the same thing on courts transcripts; it will 21 probably fall for the same reason, I would assume? 22 MS. HENDERSON: Yes, sir. Same thing as 198th. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And then the bottom line, 24 capital outlay, $2,000? 25 MS. HENDERSON: Yes, I was just talking to Judge 6-1-15 bwk 10 1 Emerson about that. That was part of our security, and I 2 think most of that has been taken care of. There's one more 3 thing they want to do, and that has to do with some glass at 4 the window where Mickey sits. I don't know a lot about that. 5 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: We have talked about making 6 that bullet-resistant glass where Mickey is, but there's a 7 lot more to do in that for the wall and everything else. If 8 you're going to do that, I don't know; it wouldn't be bad to 9 have that amount in there, but it's just whether or not -- 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, when we're tight, it's 11 good not to put things in there we don't need. 12 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Up to y'all. 13 MS. HENDERSON: I mean, you can take it out if you 14 want to, just because most everything that we've asked for as 15 far as the security is being done or has been done. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Why don't we address all those 17 other changes as they come up? So, if we can take that out, 18 that would be good for me. Okay, that's all the questions I 19 have. 20 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Mrs. Henderson, do you 21 foresee any major trials or appeals that we're going to have 22 to be watching out for this year that could -- could bust 23 this budget? 24 MS. HENDERSON: We have a couple murder trials that 25 are pending, and depending on what happens with them, if they 6-1-15 bwk 11 1 actually go to trial, they may well be appealed. Right now, 2 two of them, I think, are going to end up taking place. I'm 3 not real sure. So we could, yes. 4 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I don't want to cut their 5 budget too deep when we're going to maybe be faced with some 6 out of the ordinary expenses that we don't see on a 7 year-to-year basis. 8 JUDGE POLLARD: I agree. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. I was just looking at 10 those line items. 11 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I understand, but it's 12 sometimes best to leave that line item in. If we've got to 13 amend it, we can take it from that, and -- 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Why don't we put a contingency 15 in there, then, rather than put it in something that we don't 16 agree with? 17 COMMISSIONER REEVES: It's however we need to do 18 it, but I don't want to cut them too deep, just for that 19 reason. And that's both courts; is that correct? 20 MS. HENDERSON: That is correct. 21 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Thank you. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. Well, so, what I was 23 talking about is about a 1 percent, okay. That's the only 24 questions I have. 25 JUDGE POLLARD: I don't think we want to cut that. 6-1-15 bwk 12 1 Let's don't cut it. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: You don't want to cut 3 something that they said that's already been done for $2,000? 4 JUDGE POLLARD: Well, let's just see what happens 5 here, okay? 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Why don't we call it a 7 contingency, then? Rather than calling it a capital outlay. 8 JUDGE POLLARD: What do you feel better with, 9 Becky? 10 MS. HENDERSON: I'd really rather leave it in there 11 if possible, and then let me talk to Judge Williams again and 12 be sure that everything that he has -- he thinks everything's 13 been taken care of. I am real worried -- like Commissioner 14 Reeves said, I'm real worried about the murder trials we have 15 pending. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, I agree with that, but 17 let's don't call it capital outlay. That's my problem. 18 MS. HENDERSON: Whatever. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: If we've got something we're 20 trying to look at, I don't want to say, "Well, yeah, but we 21 may use it for something else." Let's be consistent and 22 rigorous in this thing. Otherwise -- 23 MS. HENDERSON: Whatever y'all -- 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Otherwise, it doesn't have 25 credibility, to me. 6-1-15 bwk 13 1 MS. HENDERSON: Whatever y'all want to do. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. And I'm not -- you 3 know, I agree with -- you know, let's be sure and have enough 4 money in there. But -- 5 JUDGE POLLARD: On the security item, are you 6 willing to take that out? 7 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I think the security items 8 fall under courthouse security. If you want to up it in 9 mine, that's where all this year's improvements are coming 10 out of. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 12 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: One thing the courts need to 13 have, whether it's contingency or whatever, is there's been a 14 lot of talk about having bailiffs where they're actually 15 hiring civilians to help with the bailiff duties. Not the 16 security duties, but the bailiff duties during trials, 'cause 17 I just don't have the manpower up there to do it. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So, is that a line item we 19 need to add? 20 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: If you're going to put some of 21 this other in contingency where it can be used for that on an 22 as-needed basis to help pay for some -- some bailiff-type 23 part-time duties, and that should -- that would apply to both 24 courts up there. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I'm just listening for 6-1-15 bwk 14 1 recommendations. 2 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I'm not -- I don't know where 3 it should go in his budget. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You leave it alone, and 5 remember this conversation and look at it further down. We 6 can adjust it up or down, whichever way you want to go, or 7 create a line item. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, let's create a line 9 item. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Create a line item at that 11 point. I mean, hell, don't create one today when you don't 12 need it; that's just as foolish. So, let's remember this 13 conversation in a couple of months. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: No, I don't want to say we 15 don't need capital outlay and then say we take it out, but 16 let's add it for something. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Make a motion. We're not 18 going to sit here and argue. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I make a motion that we take 20 out -- if that's the appropriate procedure in this. We make 21 a motion on everything we do? I don't think so. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No, you can't -- 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: We can't make a motion in a 24 workshop. 25 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I agree with Number 1. Let's 6-1-15 bwk 15 1 red-flag it, put a yellow sticky by it to do whatever we 2 want. When we get down to cutting the budget, -- 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 4 COMMISSIONER REEVES: -- adding and subtracting, 5 then let's remember this. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 7 COMMISSIONER REEVES: And then come back to it and 8 decide what we need to do, please. Okay? 9 MS. HENDERSON: And I'll talk to Judge Williams 10 about this and see if -- if he's okay with everything that's 11 been done. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thanks. 13 MS. HENDERSON: Okay. Is that it? 14 JUDGE POLLARD: Any other questions? 15 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I don't have any, Judge. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Not for me, no. That's all I 17 have. 18 JUDGE POLLARD: Mr. Baldwin? 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No, sir, thank you. 20 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. Thank you, Becky. 21 MS. HENDERSON: Thank you. 22 JUDGE POLLARD: If you'll let us hear about Judge 23 Williams on that? 24 MS. HENDERSON: I will. I will check with him on 25 that. Thank you. 6-1-15 bwk 16 1 JUDGE POLLARD: 216th District Attorney? 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I want to recuse myself for 3 this. 4 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. 5 (Commissioner Moser left the courtroom.) 6 JUDGE POLLARD: How are you today? 7 MR. CURRY: I'm doing well. How are you doing? 8 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. Do you have any 9 questions? 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: None whatsoever. 11 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. Do you have any? 12 COMMISSIONER REEVES: No, sir. 13 JUDGE POLLARD: I don't either. Thank you very 14 much. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Nice to see you. 16 MR. CURRY: Thank you very much. 17 MR. WADSWORTH: Thank you, gentlemen. 18 JUDGE POLLARD: County Court at Law? 19 (Commissioner Moser returned to court.) 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Judge. What happened to 21 198th D.A.? 22 MR. ROBLES: They're on the June 23rd -- 23 (Cell phone rang.) 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Way to go, Jonas. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Was that him or his 6-1-15 bwk 17 1 recorder? 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That was his recorder. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So we moved 198th D.A.? 4 MR. ROBLES: That's when they were available. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. So they're not on 6 here, okay. 7 COMMISSIONER REEVES: When did we move it to? 8 MR. ROBLES: They're on June 23rd. 9 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Okay. 10 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. The County Court at 11 Law? 12 (No response.) 13 JUDGE POLLARD: Any questions, Mr. Baldwin? 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No. I think maybe -- is no 15 one here from County Court at Law? 16 MS. LANTZ: Want me to go see? 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We could cut it to the bone, 18 see if we couldn't get them down here. 19 JUDGE POLLARD: Let's get our chance to talk to 20 them. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Shall we come back -- go to 22 something else and come back to it? 23 JUDGE POLLARD: Yeah, let's go to -- well, we'll 24 skip everything related to the -- to that and the 25 Court-appointed civil attorney. I guess that's probably 6-1-15 bwk 18 1 County Court at Law too. We'll go to the Sheriff's 2 Department. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I'd better turn my cell phone 4 off. 5 JUDGE POLLARD: Anybody have -- Mr. Baldwin, do you 6 have questions about this? 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No, none, other than -- 8 Rusty, do you have any large items like, you know, the last 9 couple of years we've had radios and -- and those kinds of 10 things, large-dollar -- 11 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: No, that's all in the process, 12 and already budgeted. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So you don't have anything 14 new coming on the horizon? 15 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: The only thing from the 16 Sheriff's Office, I'd say, is really going to relate back to 17 more personnel when y'all get to that. I don't know, with 18 the -- with the passage of the bond, if y'all want to start 19 incrementally hiring employees, or wait until the -- the 20 building is complete, or however y'all want to do that, you 21 know, to keep from having another large tax increase at the 22 end. And then the only other thing that has been talked 23 about a lot is whether or not y'all want to add a position 24 for the emergency management-slash-fire marshal or whatever 25 for the county, and I have some figures on some of that type 6-1-15 bwk 19 1 cost. But I think that probably needs to wait until y'all 2 get into -- 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Personnel. 4 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: -- personnel and salaries. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Wasn't there some bodies in 6 the bond issue? 7 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Not in the -- in what was 8 passed. Now, what was -- what was told to the public and 9 explained was that there would be another tax increase of 10 about 2.9 cents -- yeah, a little over 2 cents, okay, to add 11 personnel for the M & O, for the maintenance and operations. 12 But whether -- whether the Court wants to do that -- and 13 there's several different options. That was for 10 jailers, 14 four deputies, a dispatcher, and a jail clerk. And whether 15 this Court wants to do that gradually, a little bit, you 16 know, for the next couple years to where we get it up and you 17 don't have that big a tax increase at the end once the jail 18 opens, or whether you want to not house out-of-county in that 19 expanded area in two years when it opens, and just gradually 20 do it as the natural jail population goes up, or whether you 21 want to try and just do it incrementally from now till then, 22 and that's all personnel. And every bit of it's personnel 23 and salaries, so it doesn't -- 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So you're talking about 25 adding two or three or something like that in this budget? 6-1-15 bwk 20 1 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: And that's up to this Court, 2 but yes. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I understand. What do you 4 want, though? 5 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I think we should start 6 adding on the officers end of it. I think we should 7 gradually add so there's not such a large tax increase at 8 the end of that -- 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Probably makes sense. 10 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: -- construction. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well -- 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We could run the numbers and 13 find out what he's -- you know, the bottom line. 14 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Part of it -- I didn't ask, 15 but part of it is that, you know, of course, the courthouse 16 always would like to have more court security. We've had a 17 number of discussions. I have two officers assigned to the 18 courthouse. I'm not willing to put more officers at the 19 courthouse until we add more officers on the street, because 20 95 percent of the time right now, we have four officers on 21 the street, and I think that's way below what we need. But 22 that's stuff this Court has to do. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, back to the jail thing, 24 'cause I remember in some of the public sessions, it said 25 that increase in personnel wouldn't occur until the jail was 6-1-15 bwk 21 1 there. So, my preference would be in this year's budget, 2 don't add something looking to the future like that of 3 putting them in, 'cause we're going to have a tight budget 4 this year, okay? And I'd just as soon not put something 5 that's going to happen a couple years from now incrementally 6 in this year's budget, but wait till then. 7 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Well, I'm just -- 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Because you don't know what 9 else -- what things we're going to be facing at that time. 10 So, if we're committing the funds -- let me finish. If we're 11 committing the funds in the budget process now, I wouldn't be 12 in favor of that. 13 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I -- the only issue I have 14 with that is, I don't know, after we raise taxes because of 15 the bond of that 1.75 cents, okay, and then we come back the 16 following year and raise it another 2.90 cents, I don't have 17 any idea whether that's going to put you in rollback rate or 18 what's going to happen in the future. But what I am saying 19 is once it opens and once we get the inmates up, you'll have 20 to have those employees. And I don't know if it would make 21 more sense -- and it's not my call; it's y'all's. I'm just 22 bringing it to your attention, whether we should start adding 23 now, okay, if we can in this year's budget add some, or wait, 24 all right? I am telling you, though, that four officers on 25 the street for 1,100 square miles, with the call ratio and 6-1-15 bwk 22 1 the type of calls and everything we're having, is not 2 adequate in this county. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's a different subject. 4 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: No, it's all part of police 5 and personnel. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: But if you need more 7 employees, why don't you list it here as more employees 8 needed? 9 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I'm telling you that. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Is it in this budget? 11 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: No. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No, but -- 13 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: We're not allowed to put 14 personnel in the budget. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: -- I think it would be a 16 good idea, though, to ask the Auditor to work up the numbers 17 if you want two new employees or three, and let's just plug 18 it in here to take a look at it and see what it will be. 19 JUDGE POLLARD: I think that's a good idea. 20 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Sheriff, if we added some 21 employees, do you foresee overtime going down because you've 22 got more manpower? 23 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: No, I do not, okay? Our 24 overtime is -- is scraping the bottom. We run -- I have a 25 $30,000 overtime budget, and if you want -- I know this Court 6-1-15 bwk 23 1 doesn't like comparisons, but that is compared to the over 2 $100,000 that the city officers have for overtime budget. My 3 issue is we're trying to force our employees to take it off 4 at different times, okay, or take their comp time at 5 different times. And where we're running into serious issues 6 is when you have an employee leave, they've got too much 7 vacation time because they've been burning their comp time, 8 and then the County's not going to pay them for all their 9 vacation because it's over the 160, and so they lose it, 10 okay? We're not doing right by any of our employees, either 11 by limiting it to 160 or not paying them or not having a 12 larger budget where we can. Because coming out of this 13 budget -- overtime budget is all the holiday pay, and my 14 department operates 24 hours a day; we don't get holidays 15 off. 16 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Right. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Rusty, since you're on 18 overtime, I had questions on overtime. In 2013, the actual 19 was a little over 10,000 in overtime. In 2014 it was a 20 little over 7,000. So, this last year the request was for 21 30,000; this year the request is 30,000, so that's a 300 22 percent increase and a 400 percent increase. 23 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: It's the same explanation. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So, what's the thinking on 25 that policy? 6-1-15 bwk 24 1 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I need to pay these people 2 instead of having them lose it. And instead of making them 3 take off all their holidays and all that -- that is overtime 4 work -- we need to start paying them, because then they have 5 too much vacation, okay? Because we've been making them take 6 off all this other, they don't need to burn their vacation. 7 Then they lose their vacation if they leave. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So, in '13 and '14, you had 9 employees that lost a lot of vacation? 10 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yes. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay, I see. Okay. 12 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: And it's not right for the 13 employees. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 15 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: So we need to start doing a 16 better job of letting them have that time off. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Okay. 18 JUDGE POLLARD: Is there an issue to address about 19 a cap, a maximum? Did this thing pass the Legislature with 20 that cap? What was it, a 4 percent cap? 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I think it did. I'm not 22 sure, though. 23 COMMISSIONER REEVES: The last I heard, they were 24 arguing about the increments. 25 JUDGE POLLARD: So there's something to maybe doing 6-1-15 bwk 25 1 a little increase -- you see what I'm talking about? -- so we 2 don't run into the cap later on. 3 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Are you talking about rollback 4 rate or tax rate, or what are you talking about? 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It's a rollback issue. 6 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Rollback issue? That is one 7 of my concerns. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I'm not knowledgeable enough 9 about that to comment. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I just think that we need 11 to just add a couple of guys in there. You know, and when 12 you're adding two guys, you add two guns and 14 bullets, 13 and -- 14 JUDGE POLLARD: Yeah. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: -- insurance policy. 16 JUDGE POLLARD: You're talking about two patrolmen? 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Two patrolmen. 18 JUDGE POLLARD: He's been asking for additional 19 employees. Last year he asked for four; we gave him none. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 21 JUDGE POLLARD: And I think he was asking -- 22 historically was asking for -- for more before that too, 23 weren't you? How many years have you been asking? 24 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Just about every year, I've 25 been -- 6-1-15 bwk 26 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. I think -- 2 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: We ask for more. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And I agree with that 4 personally, because I think you needed four -- how many did 5 you need to add one to the four that you have? 6 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: It takes five full-time 7 employees -- 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Five. 9 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: -- to add one 24-hour. When 10 you figure in vacation and holiday, that's what it takes. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. Right. So, we -- 12 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: For me to actually add one per 13 shift, which we work shifts, okay, is four employees. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Four employees, right. But 15 when we add the other stuff, it's five? 16 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Really, to add one deputy, you 17 know, some -- a lot of times, like right now, if it was -- if 18 nobody was off, nobody on vacation, no nothing, I have five 19 per shift. 90 percent of the time, 95 percent of the time, 20 somebody's off or sick or on vacation or comp or something 21 else, so you end up with four, okay? So if you give me four 22 deputies, -- 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I see. 24 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: -- then what I'm going to end 25 up with is five 90 percent of the time, and some of the 6-1-15 bwk 27 1 perfect times, six. Which I'd love having six all the time, 2 but that's just feasibly impossible with this county's 3 budget, -- 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 5 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: -- the way things have been 6 working. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So if we were to add those 8 four in there now, okay, then that helps to ease into the 9 thing that -- the added staff for the jail? 10 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yeah. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, okay. 12 COMMISSIONER REEVES: What about vehicle-wise? 13 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Vehicle-wise, current year we 14 have ordered vehicles. They should come in within the next 15 month. They came -- they will be coming out of the last C.O. 16 y'all had done, okay, but that is the last money there. So, 17 I'm okay this coming year. The following budget, we are 18 going to have to add at least, you know, four or five or six 19 vehicles, and that's going to be a large increase. 20 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I'm asking, though, if we 21 were to increase your staff by four or five, do we need that 22 many more vehicles? Is that true? Or could you -- 23 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yes and no. What we would try 24 and do is not use some of these that we currently have as 25 trade-ins -- as trade-ins this current year, okay? Get some 6-1-15 bwk 28 1 of those back. If we go a little bit higher mileage on 2 them -- which is a risk, but they're well maintained 3 vehicles. I don't like doing that, but it would increase it. 4 Next year, no matter what, we're -- 5 JUDGE POLLARD: Is that cost-effective, Sheriff? I 6 mean, your maintenance cost goes up. 7 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: It's one of those you weigh up 8 both sides, okay? I mean, I don't like putting patrol 9 vehicles on the road that have in excess of 100,000 miles. I 10 think that's wrong, and I think that's a liability risk, 11 okay? If we don't trade in any vehicles this year, I will 12 have about three that will probably be in excess of 100,000 13 miles. 14 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I'd like to look at what it 15 would cost, maybe on a per-officer basis, but, you know, see 16 whether maybe it's more effective to go ahead and get all 17 five right now, just because of quantity. 18 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Right. 19 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Economics. 20 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Now, on vehicles, what we did 21 years ago, until they started going -- Buster can recall 22 this. Until they started going to C.O.'s and purchasing them 23 all, we did the lease program where we leased six a year, and 24 you pay the lease out for three years, and the fourth year 25 you paid them one dollar and you purchased the car. And then 6-1-15 bwk 29 1 we used them as trade-ins, and we kept that going, and every 2 year it rotated through six cars. Now, I think it would -- 3 without having the C.O. money, it may be cheaper and more 4 advantageous to look at doing that program again. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Mm-hmm. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I agree. 7 JUDGE POLLARD: If I remember correctly, last year 8 you indicated, for at least patrol officers, that you had to 9 -- last year you were estimating $108,000 including 10 everything? 11 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: A starting patrol deputy with 12 training, retirement, medical insurance, worker's comp, 13 everything else, at the starting level, the Step 1, is 60,318 14 right now, okay? That's just for the officer. That's not 15 counting the -- the uniforms or the additional training or -- 16 but it's going to be close to that 100,000. 17 JUDGE POLLARD: Is that another vehicle? 18 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yeah, a vehicle. Like I said, 19 we could try and get by -- 20 JUDGE POLLARD: Is that correct about the 108,000 21 last year? 22 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: That's pretty close. 23 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. 24 COMMISSIONER REEVES: You're talking $540,000 25 or $550,000 to staff an additional officer per shift. It's 6-1-15 bwk 30 1 going to be -- 2 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: This year it could probably 3 get by with a little less if we kept those vehicles a little 4 longer, but yes, that's about -- in the long run, that's 5 about what you add. 6 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I'd like to see the numbers 7 on it. 8 JUDGE POLLARD: I would too. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. 10 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Y'all are going to have other 11 personnel, I think is when all this ought to really come up 12 too, unless you want me to figure the equipment as part of 13 personnel, or figure in the equipment separately. 14 COMMISSIONER REEVES: It's going to cost us money 15 either way, so we might as well look at it all. 16 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Okay. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, come back and look at 18 that and personnel and what the delta will be. 19 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Right. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And you're going to take a 22 look at the lease program again? 23 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I can look at the lease 24 program again. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I've got another question. 6-1-15 bwk 31 1 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: On operating expense, Rusty, 3 in '14 it was 6,000, and it jumped to 10,000, and 10,000 4 requested this year. What is that? 5 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: That covers all of my -- 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: It just said operating 7 expense, no change, so -- but still, big increase from the 8 year before. 9 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Right. But what it covers is 10 notary commission book, batteries for car video cameras, 11 microphones, also batteries for tape recorders, digital 12 cameras, et cetera. This is also where we're paying for the 13 publication expenses on execution of sales, stolen property 14 notices and any other newspaper expenses. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: But it -- have things been 16 added to that to cause a big increase? 17 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Just more of everything, 18 increase in doing business. I'm sorry, Commissioner, but 19 that's what it is. I have to look at how it goes up. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: A 50 percent increase in one 21 year is a lot, Rusty. 22 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: No, sir, right. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: From '14 to '15, that was a 24 50 percent increase. 25 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Right. Now, projected end of 6-1-15 bwk 32 1 year, if you look at it, is over 6,000. I'm asking for 2 10,000. The thing you have to remember, when these were 3 printed and we were required to turn in these budgets was 4 back in April, or -- yeah, in April, okay? You're only 5 talking four months into the budget when these were printed. 6 You can't go back and say 50 percent increase; you're only 7 looking at four months of the budget. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: You're not listening to my 9 question. Let me try again. In 2014, actual, okay, it was 10 $6,000. 11 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Mm-hmm. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: The budget request in 2015 was 13 10,000. 14 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Mm-hmm. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's a 50 -- more than a 16 50 percent increase. So my question to you is, what was the 17 cause for the 50 percent increase? 18 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Everything going up and more 19 business, period. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: 50 percent? 21 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Everything going up and more 22 of it, Commissioner. My business doesn't stay stagnant. We 23 get more civil papers, more publications, more everything, 24 okay? You can ask anybody in this courthouse. It's more of 25 what we do. And I can't help it that you can't see that. 6-1-15 bwk 33 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: A 50 percent increase is a big 2 increase for one year. 3 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yes. What did I ask for last 4 year? 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I'm talking about '14 to '15, 6 okay? And '15's the same for this year. 7 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yeah. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay? 50 percent increase in 9 one year is a lot. 10 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yeah, it is. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What kind of population 12 growth have we had in the last year? 13 MR. TITAS: We've had moderate growth. A couple 14 hundred people moved into the county. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Couple hundred? Must have 16 been a bunch of criminals. 17 MR. TITAS: Couple hundred. 18 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: They're all criminals. 20 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Sometimes I wonder. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay, we're not going to go 22 any further on that. Another question, radio tower lease. 23 In '14, it was 33,000, then it jumped 30 percent to 41,000, 24 and now 46,000. So, is that -- is that an additional tower? 25 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: That's an additional tower, 6-1-15 bwk 34 1 and the increase of equipment on each of those towers -- 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 3 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: -- has increased our monthly 4 cost. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I remember that from the -- 6 all right, that answered that. Thank you. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I just want to remind you, 8 when we started the automobile rotation thing is, like, two 9 Sheriffs ago before Rusty, and some of those cars -- and he 10 wouldn't buy a new car -- the Sheriff wouldn't buy a new car, 11 and his cars were hand-me-downs from D.P.S. You know, some 12 of those things had 250,000 miles on them. They wouldn't 13 start, they wouldn't run, and they'd go down the road like 14 that. And so we've come a long, long ways with that program, 15 and -- 16 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: We have. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We really have. And, I 18 mean, you stop and think about the safety of the people, as 19 well as the officers, and it's just incredible, so we've got 20 to continue that. Don't have any choice. 21 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: When I took office, one of our 22 patrol cars pulled out of our parking lot, made a left-hand 23 turn, and the wheel fell off. That's pretty bad on a patrol 24 car. This county has come a long ways on that, I agree. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We need to continue the 6-1-15 bwk 35 1 program. Whether it's lease or purchase, it doesn't matter. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I was questioning a lot of the 3 details, but I commend you on the -- the current budget to 4 this year's budget being about the same, so good balance. 5 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I tried to keep them the same, 6 even though there was a major jump in the tower leases. That 7 is a major increase. Of course, I don't have salaries; that 8 will be an increase I hope this Court still tries to look at. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Anyway, good job on that. 10 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: These numbers you're 11 interested in, Commissioner Reeves, we have those. Is it 12 possible -- I'm asking staff to -- can we have those numbers 13 ready for the next Commissioners Court session? 14 COMMISSIONER REEVES: By the next workshop. 15 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Next workshop is what I mean, 16 yeah. As far as that, to be honest, I'll be gone most of the 17 rest of this month, I hope, on a vacation, so I won't be able 18 to come back. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It's hard to get good help 20 to hang in there and work with you. 21 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yeah. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So, we're talking about -- 23 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: After the -- 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: -- talking about four? 25 JUDGE POLLARD: Yeah. 6-1-15 bwk 36 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Four employees. All right, 2 let's look at it. 3 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: You want to do it the next 4 Commissioners Court meeting? I will be here for that. But I 5 intend -- 6 JUDGE POLLARD: I had thought about maybe adding 7 two this time and two next year or something, but there's 8 something to what Commissioner Reeves has to say about that. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Sure. Sure, take a look at 10 it. 11 JUDGE POLLARD: Let's take a look at it. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And you do not have to be 13 here for us to take a look at it. 14 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: No, I'm just letting y'all 15 know. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: As a matter of fact, it 17 would be a lot easier on us. (Laughter.) 18 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: That's probably true, 19 Commissioner. 20 JUDGE POLLARD: Any other questions? Do you have 21 any? 22 COMMISSIONER REEVES: No questions. 23 JUDGE POLLARD: I don't have anything further. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's all I have. 25 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. Thank you, Sheriff. 6-1-15 bwk 37 1 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: You going to do jail next? 2 JUDGE POLLARD: Next, Sheriff's Department/County 3 Jail. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Or do you want to go back to 5 the County Court at Law? 6 JUDGE POLLARD: Yeah, let's go back to the County 7 Court at Law. 8 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Okay. 9 JUDGE HARRIS: Morning. I apologize for being 10 late. We had a setting at 9:00. 11 JUDGE POLLARD: That's okay. Did you get to finish 12 it? 13 MR. HARRISON: We did, thank you. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Good deal. 15 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. Any questions about 16 County Court at Law on County Fund 427? 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It's actually gone down, 18 looks like to me. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: $50. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. That'll pay the bar 21 tab for tonight. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I don't have any. 23 JUDGE POLLARD: I don't either. 24 MR. ROBLES: Are y'all looking at 427 or 426? 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: 426. 6-1-15 bwk 38 1 MR. ROBLES: Try the one on 427. 2 COMMISSIONER REEVES: 427's the -- Judge Pollard's 3 court, isn't it? 4 MR. ROBLES: Yes, it is. 5 COMMISSIONER REEVES: The first one's Judge 6 Pollard's court. It went down $50. The next one will be 7 Judge Harris'. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Oh, I see. I see. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Now, I do have some questions 11 on that. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Oh, man, is she in for it 13 now. 14 MR. ROBLES: Sorry. 15 JUDGE HARRIS: Thanks, James. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Still came down. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Mm-hmm. 18 JUDGE POLLARD: Any questions? 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I do. Want me to go ahead, 20 Buster? 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Sure. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. On -- on employee 23 training, just looking at the trend, okay, from '13, it was 24 800, then it jumped up to 1,600, and now it's 2,400. So -- 25 JUDGE POLLARD: She's got a brand-new clerk. 6-1-15 bwk 39 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: -- a 50 percent increase in -- 2 no, a 100 percent increase in one year, and then a 50 percent 3 increase, so -- over 3 years. So, what's the deal? 4 JUDGE HARRIS: I can't speak to what happened in 5 the past. That I don't know. Alicia is brand new and needs 6 training. And I know Kathy had, I believe, 10 years in that 7 position and went to one seminar, I think, every year. 8 That's what makes our court effective, is we have employees 9 that know what they're doing. And I want -- 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So you think you need 2,400? 11 JUDGE HARRIS: Well, we've got -- Kelly has her 12 regular training, and then Alicia's going to be going to some 13 extra training too, to catch up. I think November -- we just 14 checked, and that's the soonest we can get her in for 15 training. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And those are State-required 17 hours? 18 JUDGE HARRIS: Right. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So we don't have -- 20 JUDGE HARRIS: And we've checked with Becky 21 Henderson on what Alicia needs to make sure she's up to 22 speed. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's just something you 24 can't argue with. If it's required by the law, you do it and 25 go on. 6-1-15 bwk 40 1 COMMISSIONER REEVES: When you have a change of 2 employees, they're going to need some additional training. 3 JUDGE POLLARD: Right. 4 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I have no problem. It's 5 $800. I mean, and I -- and I've got no problem. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Another question. 7 JUDGE HARRIS: Yes, sir? 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: On conferences, from 1,200 to 9 3,000? 10 JUDGE HARRIS: That's me. Right, James? 11 MR. ROBLES: Yes, it is. 12 JUDGE HARRIS: That's a new judge that needs -- 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's a new judge? 14 JUDGE HARRIS: That's for me; that's my training. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Okay, yes. 16 JUDGE HARRIS: Probate, mental health, juveniles. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 18 JUDGE HARRIS: That's me. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It should drop back down 20 next year. 21 JUDGE POLLARD: Familiar subjects. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's all the questions I 23 have. 24 JUDGE HARRIS: Thank you. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's it for me. 6-1-15 bwk 41 1 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay, I don't have any. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I don't have any. 3 JUDGE POLLARD: Do you have any? 4 COMMISSIONER REEVES: No. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 6 JUDGE POLLARD: That's it. Thank you very much. 7 JUDGE HARRIS: Thank you very much. 8 MR. ROBLES: You still got one more. 9 JUDGE HARRIS: One more? 10 JUDGE POLLARD: All right, yeah. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Jury. 12 JUDGE POLLARD: Is that County Court at Law, HB66, 13 Account 428? Is that what we're talking about now? Okay. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: What's the number, James? 15 MR. ROBLES: Department 428. 16 JUDGE POLLARD: 428, yeah. 428. I don't have 17 anything. No questions? 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I don't have any. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Let's see. I have kind of 20 an off-the-wall question here about -- I see y'all's salaries 21 are tied to the District Judges, and they're tied to 22 somebody, and they're tied to somebody, and it all goes back 23 to Legislature. And now the County Judge is going to be tied 24 to you, I think. Isn't that the new law? 25 JUDGE POLLARD: I don't know. 6-1-15 bwk 42 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I think so. 2 JUDGE POLLARD: It passed? 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, I think so. 4 JUDGE POLLARD: I wasn't aware of it. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. I don't have any 6 questions about this budget. 7 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. Do you have any, 8 Commissioner Reeves? 9 COMMISSIONER REEVES: No, sir. 10 JUDGE POLLARD: All right, thank you. 11 JUDGE HARRIS: Thank you. Appreciate it. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thank you. 13 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. The next one is 14 civil -- Court-appointed civil attorney. Who responds to 15 that? 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Let's see, that's not on here. 17 That's not on the sheet here, is it? 18 JUDGE POLLARD: It's on this agenda. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Which is the right agenda? 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Road and Bridge. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I think Road and Bridge. 22 James, we got conflicts here. We got this agenda and we got 23 the other one -- we got this here. Which one are we 24 following? 25 MR. ROBLES: I've never seen that one. 6-1-15 bwk 43 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. That's a hint, then. 2 JUDGE POLLARD: How did this one get prepared? Do 3 we know that? 4 MR. ROBLES: That's the one that was -- that's the 5 original one. Is that the one that Jody did? 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I don't know. 7 MS. GRINSTEAD: No, I posted the agenda off the 8 original one, and James wasn't here last week, so I did send 9 an e-mail to let me know when things change. I went off 10 the -- the second original, I guess. 11 JUDGE POLLARD: Well, I guess we'll use this -- 12 this notice, I guess. 13 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Which one? 14 MS. GRINSTEAD: We're covered either way, because 15 the agenda says "included, but not limited to." 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Not limited to. 17 MS. GRINSTEAD: So we're covered either way. But I 18 only knew that the 216th was going to be added because Becky 19 called. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay, we got some wiggle room 21 there. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: If there's ever an issue, 23 you always blame the Auditor's office. You know, whether 24 they need it or not. 25 JUDGE POLLARD: Well, are we going to add it or 6-1-15 bwk 44 1 not? 2 MR. ROBLES: Might as well if we're here. 3 COMMISSIONER REEVES: And it's okay, Ms. County 4 Attorney? 5 MS. STEBBINS: Yes, sir. 6 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Let's get it out of the way. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Which one is it again, Judge? 8 JUDGE POLLARD: I guess it's this one right here. 9 MR. ROBLES: 407. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Court-appointed civil 11 attorney, 407. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: This is a tough one. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: There we go, okay. I have no 14 questions. 15 JUDGE POLLARD: Do you have any questions? 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No, sir, I don't. Thank you 17 for asking. 18 JUDGE POLLARD: I don't have any. Do you have any, 19 Mr. Reeves? 20 COMMISSIONER REEVES: No, sir. 21 JUDGE POLLARD: Well, we addressed it. That was 22 tough, wasn't it? All right. Let's go to next department of 23 the Sheriff's; that's the account number 512. 24 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: The jail? 25 MS. DOSS: Yes. 6-1-15 bwk 45 1 JUDGE POLLARD: Yes. 2 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: This is -- well, I'll let 3 y'all ask first. 4 JUDGE POLLARD: Law enforcement costs us a lot of 5 money, doesn't it? 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It does. Costs everybody a 7 lot of money. 8 JUDGE POLLARD: Mm-hmm. 9 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: If you will go down to 10 contracted medical, that's 340, I had put in 459,567. We 11 need to increase that another 30,000, to 489,567. That's the 12 new contract; we didn't have those numbers by the time we had 13 to get this turned in. And what that does is changes to the 14 current contract upgrades, the EMT hours to LVN hours. 15 Health service administrator will at least be an LVN. 16 Increase LVN hours from 80 to 110 per week, increase 17 mid-level provider hours from 2 to 4 hours per week. All 18 psychiatric hours will be provided by teleconference. The 19 price on the -- proposed price, which includes the above 20 changes, is for the next two years. '15-'16 and '16-'17 will 21 remain at the same current cost, 2014-15, of the 459,567. 22 What makes it go up is that, as y'all know, and I know the 23 Auditor's office knows, we have a cap on -- our off-site cap 24 and our prescription cap and the over-the-counter cap of -- 25 of expenses where they only pay so much of those, and that 6-1-15 bwk 46 1 cap's been set at 56,000 for the off-site, 14,000 for the 2 pharmacy. 3 Unfortunately, each year for the last two or three 4 years, we've been going over that cap to about the tune of 5 60,000 and 70,000, okay, for off-site, and about 20,000 and 6 30,000 for pharmacy. Which means it comes -- it's always 7 been coming out of the other one, the 35,000, I think we have 8 in other medical expenses, another line item in there that we 9 do. And it's never been enough, and the Auditor's been 10 having to make budget adjustments, so this year I asked them 11 to up that cap. So they are upping that cap from the 56 to 12 70 -- or raised the cap amount from 70, which is the total 13 combined, and we're just combining it under one umbrella to 14 100,000, and it will cost us another 30,000. Now, that is a 15 cap. That's what we pay, okay? But if it does not hit that 16 cap, then we get reimbursed. And as you remember, the first 17 few years we had this contract, we were able to do that, but 18 then it kind of flipped upside down 'cause we never raised 19 the cap in the last five years. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So that's pretty good. It's a 21 cap, but if it's less than that, you get -- 22 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: We get it back. We still have 23 to pay it. It's still figured in our monthly payments, but 24 then at the end of the year, we get it back if we don't go 25 over that cap. 6-1-15 bwk 47 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Mm-hmm. You mentioned that's 2 using LVN's rather than EMT's? 3 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Right. that's pretty well been 4 the way it's been. We haven't used EMT's in a long time, 5 even though it's in the contract. They've been providing us 6 LVN's, and none of that other is costing us in addition, 7 okay? They've already done that on their own. We're just 8 clarifying it all in the contract itself, and making sure 9 that they don't go back to EMT's. Okay. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 11 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Sheriff, refresh my memory. 12 What did you say it used to cost this county before we -- 13 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Before we contracted, we were 14 paying anywhere from 600,000 to 700,000 a year in medical. 15 Now, because of the contract and pharmacy and that, we're 16 getting all that, you know, at their cost wholesale, which 17 they have jails all across the U.S., so it makes a lot of 18 that cost go down. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That was a good move. 20 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yeah, that one was a good move 21 on contracting that out. Plus they carry a $5 million 22 insurance policy also. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Let me ask you another 24 question, Rusty. On insurance for buildings and jail, in 25 '14, it was 16,000, and it jumped up to 41,000. Is -- 6-1-15 bwk 48 1 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Part of that is also going to 2 be liability insurance, I think, on the towers that they've 3 added. I don't do the insurance stuff on those. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. So -- 5 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: We just -- so the appraised 6 values of the towers and that, the liability's -- 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Is included in there? 8 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yes. Because the equipment on 9 those towers is so much more we just did. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. All right. 11 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: All that comes out of that 12 budget, even though it's jail. I think a lot of that's 13 insurance; isn't that right? 14 MS. DOSS: Mm-hmm. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Another big increase is 16 in prisoner supplies. In '14, it was like 20,000 -- no, I 17 think I see my -- I answered my own question. Nevermind. 18 Prisoner transfers. In '14, 30,000; jumped up to -- jumped 19 up 50 percent the next year and this year, to 50,000 -- 20 52,000. 21 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: That's the cost of going and 22 getting inmates in other counties and that are arrested 23 somewhere else in other states, and that has jumped 24 drastically with warrants, and it's just costing -- a lot of 25 times, you know, we're having to contract, 'cause we've 6-1-15 bwk 49 1 already got people on the road doing it by car. And we'll 2 have another one, and you're under time limits to get those 3 inmates, and we're having to use contract companies to bring 4 them back. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So, just more of it? 6 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Just more of it. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Okay. Another 8 question. Training. In '14, it was $1,000. Then it jumped 9 to 10,000. 10 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yep. This is a legislative 11 year, and there's more and more training required, and I've 12 got to start sending officers through more and more training. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Good god, that's a huge -- 14 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Correction officers, we just 15 aren't -- we haven't been having to send them. We've had 16 some that we're sending, but every two years they've got to 17 have a certain amount, and there's more and more training 18 liability-wise that we need to start sending them to. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So that year it jumped -- last 20 year it jumped? 21 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I think it was more than 1,000 22 this last -- 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: It was -- the previous year 24 was $1,000 -- $1,078, and then it's jumped to 10,000. 25 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Just a minute. 6-1-15 bwk 50 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I'm just looking at the 2 numbers here, so that's a 1,000 percent increase. 3 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Right. Current budget is 4 10,000, and next year is 10,000. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, right. 6 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: We've been trying to do a lot 7 in-house, but I need to send these people to other places. I 8 just don't have the ability to train five and six people. 9 JUDGE POLLARD: Do you have training for your 10 officers handling mental health people? 11 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: More and more of that. I just 12 sent some to it last week. We've -- I've got a lot more -- 13 JUDGE POLLARD: A lot of publicity about that 14 recently. 15 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yeah. 16 JUDGE POLLARD: And it seems to me that the officer 17 on the street is -- holy smokes, he's got to be trained in so 18 many different areas now. 19 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: And this is for the jailers 20 inside the jail, and that's where you're getting more and 21 more liability coming on how they're dealing with them inside 22 a jail. Because what we're seeing, until the state and 23 courts do something about it, you know, you take a mentally 24 unstable person, and I normally -- my normal weekly count of 25 inmates with serious mental disabilities inside that jail is 6-1-15 bwk 51 1 over 20 all the time. When you take those -- 2 JUDGE POLLARD: Over 20 percent? 3 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Twenty inmates. 4 JUDGE POLLARD: Oh, 20. 5 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Okay, at one time. And when 6 you take those people and get them in a court process and it 7 takes another six, eight months to find them incompetent, and 8 what you've done -- and I can show you some video which is 9 totally a shame, 'cause it's the way the state's doing it. 10 They don't have the funding to address it for mental health, 11 so those people are ending up in jails. You stick an inmate 12 like that in a concrete block cell, it does not improve. It 13 gets worse and worse, and by the time you get them to a 14 mental facility when they've been declared incompetent, once 15 they've been declared, you're talking another six-month 16 waiting list. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So, Rusty, what I'm looking 18 at, though, is just the trend. You know, it's -- 19 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Right, I agree. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: -- gone from 1,800 to 2,500 to 21 1,000 to 10,000. 22 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yes. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So, you know, it just raises a 24 question, what in the world's going on? 25 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Some of the best training is 6-1-15 bwk 52 1 at Sam Houston State, okay, on some of the jail conferences 2 and that there. If you look, I don't have any conference 3 line items, not in my budget, or not in the Sheriff's office 4 budget or the jail. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I'm just looking for the big 6 increase. 7 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: The big increase is due to the 8 amount of training and where we need to send them for 9 training. And I know that's an increase, but I've got 40 10 employees in that jail, okay? And if you divide 10,000 by 40 11 employees, that's not very much per employee for training. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I agree. I'm just looking for 13 the change -- the rationale for the change. 14 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: That's the change; we need to 15 send more to training. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I just have a hard time 17 explaining that to anybody. You know, if they ask me, "My 18 goodness, why has the jail gone up from 1,000 to 10,000 in 19 one year?" -- 20 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Very simple. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: -- I don't think I can answer 22 that. 23 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I can answer it real quick. 24 You got 40 employees, and how much are you going to spend a 25 year on training for each employee? 6-1-15 bwk 53 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: But you had 40 the year 2 before. 3 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: That's right. I didn't send 4 them to training. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: You weren't training them? 6 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I wasn't training like we do. 7 We tried to do more and more in-house. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So you didn't train for the 9 previous three years? 10 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I haven't trained much in that 11 jail; we try and do it in-house, okay? We do our own suicide 12 and our own -- suicide is the main -- suicide classification 13 every year are in-house, all right? I'm having a harder and 14 harder time of doing all that training. Hopefully -- and I 15 need to be able to send one or two, and if you send one male 16 and -- 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So you've gone over to formal 18 training at Sam Houston State rather than trying to do all -- 19 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: If you send one male and one 20 female, that's two hotel rooms. That's two everything. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. All right, you answered 22 my -- I still don't understand, but okay. I just don't 23 understand going from 1,000 to 10,000, with no real change in 24 the number of personnel or anything else. But -- 25 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Right. 6-1-15 bwk 54 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: -- I don't think I'm going to 2 get that answer. Okay, thank you. That's the only questions 3 I have. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: As you move along, Rusty, 5 and require more and more training, and the growth of the 6 mental health thing is -- looks like is exploding, and 7 needing more training there, does TAC not move along with 8 you? Or not -- not with you, but with that -- that issue of 9 providing training and providing instructors and -- 10 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Oh, if I would -- if I'd 11 follow some of the TAC guidelines and send people to all 12 their training, there would be a whole lot more than what I'm 13 budgeting. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We want them to come down 15 here. You have an ex-sheriff over there. 16 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: They try and spread it out 17 throughout the state. But some of your best training is 18 actually at Sam Houston. I like their training and all that. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I do too. There's a trainer 20 sitting in the back of the room. But I think they're -- 21 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I think he can -- 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: He takes care of himself. 23 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: The best investment we can 24 make, period, on employees is training. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, I agree. I agree, 6-1-15 bwk 55 1 education. 2 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. Any other questions? 3 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I have none. 4 JUDGE POLLARD: Thank you. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Judge -- 6 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I got one more. 7 JUDGE POLLARD: Two more. Want a break? 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No. No, I was going to say 9 we have a D.P.S. officer and a firefighter/ambulance person 10 in the room. They really need to get back to work, probably. 11 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. 12 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Skip the other two until you 13 get through with those? 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Including Rusty. 15 JUDGE POLLARD: Yeah. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Courthouse -- Rusty had two 17 others. They'll be real quick, looks like. 18 JUDGE POLLARD: All right, let's finish Rusty. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, courthouse security 20 and -- 21 JUDGE POLLARD: Sheriff's annex. Let's address the 22 Sheriff's annex first. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: What number is that? 24 MR. ROBLES: 564. 25 JUDGE POLLARD: 564. 6-1-15 bwk 56 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Is that under miscellaneous, 2 James, or where is that? 3 MR. ROBLES: It's 564; should be under the 4 Sheriff's tab. 5 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Are you going to do the annex 6 first? 7 MR. ROBLES: Yes. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I got it, thank you. I don't 9 have any questions. 10 JUDGE POLLARD: No questions? 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No questions. 12 JUDGE POLLARD: I don't have any. 13 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I'm fine. 14 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. Let's move on, then, to 15 Sheriff's Department Fund 29, courthouse security. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: 636. 17 JUDGE POLLARD: Yeah. Does that include the 18 bailiffs? 19 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: No -- that includes my two 20 officers here, yes. 21 JUDGE POLLARD: Yeah. 22 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: But not the -- not any 23 civilian-type bailiffs. Number one, we don't -- elected 24 officials don't get to add that to our budget requests. 25 That's something you'll do later, so we don't add it -- add 6-1-15 bwk 57 1 those. 2 JUDGE POLLARD: I've noticed it in my court, boy, 3 we're getting a lot of additional officers from your 4 department. You're having a lot of trouble keeping all the 5 courts furnished with bailiffs. 6 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Well, you have -- you know, 7 technically, we don't use them in Commissioners Court, but we 8 do at times in probate court, juvenile court, County Court at 9 Law, 198th court, 216th court, A.G. court, and there's 10 several other ones that -- C.P.S. court. And it is getting 11 very hard to have armed officers in those courtrooms at all 12 times, okay? I don't think my officers should be in that 13 courtroom just to get a judge his cup of coffee when he wants 14 it. I don't think that's what we need to be paying armed 15 officers for. I think we need to look at possibly hiring a 16 couple people that are civilians that are more of the 17 bailiff, and not the security, for the judge -- to do what 18 the judge wants them to do, or be in charge of the jury while 19 they're out or things like that. An armed officer, like I 20 said earlier, even a Step 1 is about 60,000 a year, and I 21 think it's something the courts need to look at as a whole so 22 that my security people can be security people. 23 JUDGE POLLARD: I remember one juvenile session 24 when we had a change of bailiffs, four of them -- 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 6-1-15 bwk 58 1 JUDGE POLLARD: -- in the same session. I had four 2 different bailiffs coming in. 3 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: If you want armed officers, 4 then -- then it's -- you know, you're talking adding more 5 officers to the staff, which is -- I just don't think it's 6 right to have more officers in this courthouse working than 7 it is on the streets in the county. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Rusty, the only question I 9 have on courthouse security is -- is under maintenance 10 contracts. 11 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: That's going to -- all our 12 maintenance contracts are under one umbrella; that's Odyssey. 13 That's all my new radio stuff. That's a lot of different 14 things that go under that. A lot of it is -- the biggest 15 jump this year is not the new radio stuff. That will kick in 16 in the following one, but it's the Guardian, the cameras, 17 the -- the panic buttons that we have. We've added more 18 cameras. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: You've got a 40 percent 20 increase, so -- 21 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yeah. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So that's what? Additional 23 what? 24 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: That's all the -- this 25 equipment's getting older. The maintenance contracts is 6-1-15 bwk 59 1 going up higher on it; nothing I can do. This security 2 equipment in the courthouse. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So it's the same equipment, so 4 a 40 percent increase -- 5 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: No, we've had to replace a lot 6 of it this year, okay? And with them replacing it, the 7 contract has gone up also. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. All right. So 9 different equipment, so maintenance contract went up. 10 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yes. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. All right. All right. 12 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: The unextended warranty 13 maintenance contract for Guardian alone for this next year is 14 $49,992. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. You answered my 16 question, thank you. That's the only thing I had. 17 JUDGE POLLARD: Mr. Reeves? 18 COMMISSIONER REEVES: That answered mine. 19 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. 20 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: We did cut 25,000 out, 'cause 21 we've done the doors, and this other security -- you know, if 22 they want to do more with Mickey's window and that part, 23 that's something this Court needs to look at. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay, thank you. 25 JUDGE POLLARD: No other questions? 6-1-15 bwk 60 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: None for me. 2 JUDGE POLLARD: Mr. Baldwin? 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No, sir. 4 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. Thank you, Sheriff. 5 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Thank you, sir. 6 JUDGE POLLARD: You can get back to work. I think 7 that finishes yours. 8 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: We'll see. 9 JUDGE POLLARD: I know that you always have 10 opinions on everybody else's. 11 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Need to make sure they don't 12 steal part of what I need. 13 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. Let's go to these ones 14 and try to get these officers out. Which ones would that be? 15 MR. ROBLES: D.P.S., 580. 16 JUDGE POLLARD: D.P.S., 580. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Where is that in the book? 18 MR. ROBLES: Should be under the miscellaneous. 19 JUDGE POLLARD: The first miscellaneous. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: First miscellaneous. 21 JUDGE POLLARD: This is it. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay, got it. Thank you. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We don't do much together 24 any more, actually. Not like you used to be. 25 TROOPER SALAZ: Yeah, it's a good thing. 6-1-15 bwk 61 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: $500. Can you cut that to 2 490? Just kidding. 3 TROOPER SALAZ: I'll run that through my 4 supervisor, yeah. 500 is an equipment expense. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: No, just -- I don't have any 6 questions. 7 JUDGE POLLARD: Any questions? 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What is the 500 for? 9 TROOPER SALAZ: We use it for some additional 10 equipment that the State is not buying us. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: The breathalyzer -- is that 12 the breathalyzer machine? 13 TROOPER SALAZ: You mean the roadside one? 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, or whatever it is. 15 TROOPER SALAZ: No. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We used to pay for that. 17 TROOPER SALAZ: The State buys us roadside 18 breathalyzers. We're buying extra equipment the State's not 19 buying. What we used it -- this past year, just to give you 20 all some insight, what we used this past session, I don't 21 believe we even used the full 500, is we purchased some 22 bail-out bags for each trooper, additional .223 magazines and 23 .357 magazines. The State obviously buys us all the ammo we 24 need, but we're only allowed a certain number of magazines 25 per trooper, and so with an incident that we ran into on 16 6-1-15 bwk 62 1 south -- it was Trooper Moorman. He actually had a shooting 2 that he chased down two individuals with the assistance of a 3 couple deputies, and apprehended him out on 16 South on 4 Madrona, threw his bail-out bag on, and had plenty of ammo 5 for the -- for the ordeal, should it ever come down to -- to 6 firepower. With what we're -- since we operate on a one-man 7 unit situation, we can never go into the brush with enough 8 ammo, so we felt it necessary to buy an equipment style 9 bail-out bag that I found at a place called Cheaper Than Dirt 10 online. It's up in Dallas, if you've ever been -- 11 JUDGE POLLARD: I've dealt with those folks. 12 TROOPER SALAZ: Yes. 13 JUDGE POLLARD: And their prices are great. Their 14 shipping costs are outrageous. 15 TROOPER SALAZ: They were. They were. And so I 16 went ahead and purchased those, and actually, they reimbursed 17 me downstairs with the receipt later. So -- 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: You've even reduced that line 19 item over the years, so good. 20 TROOPER SALAZ: Yes, sir. 21 JUDGE POLLARD: I'm just curious if you go into the 22 brush with the magazines the state authorizes you, what do 23 you got, two magazines, -- 24 TROOPER SALAZ: Well, it's -- 25 JUDGE POLLARD: -- .223, and two for your sidearm? 6-1-15 bwk 63 1 TROOPER SALAZ: And without a bail-out bag, you 2 really have whatever's in the rifle and what you can fit in 3 your pockets and maybe a tac vest. A lot of times, you know, 4 with bail-out bags, it really becomes efficient; we can jump 5 in the brush. If it becomes an armed hostage standoff, we 6 have granola bars in there, water bottles in there, a first 7 aid kit, tourniquet, that also if we do shoot an assailant, 8 we have first aid -- you know, can render first aid to the 9 subject that was trying to, you know, cause harm to us. So, 10 you know, we kind of got to flip our switches pretty quickly. 11 JUDGE POLLARD: The extra magazines in there, how 12 many do you have, extra magazines in that? 13 TROOPER SALAZ: I have five extra .223 magazines, 14 and I have six extra -- 15 JUDGE POLLARD: Most of those you personally 16 furnished? 17 TROOPER SALAZ: I used to buy my own, yes, sir. 18 Yes, sir. 19 JUDGE POLLARD: And you need five, I would say -- I 20 would think. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I don't have any questions, 23 but that's good. 24 JUDGE POLLARD: Sure. That's going to cover 25 everything, is what I'm getting at. 6-1-15 bwk 64 1 TROOPER SALAZ: We're just fine with what the Court 2 allows us. We appreciate the expense for us. 3 JUDGE POLLARD: Thank you. 4 TROOPER SALAZ: Yes, sir. 5 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Thank you for your service. 6 TROOPER SALAZ: Thank you. 7 JUDGE POLLARD: Yes, sir. That's it. I believe 8 you can go. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Write those tickets. 10 JUDGE POLLARD: Yeah. Okay, the other one -- the 11 other officer that would be miscellaneous, that would be 12 which one? 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Is that the county -- 14 JUDGE POLLARD: City/County operations. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: City/County, probably. Is 16 that what you're doing? 17 MR. MALONEY: First Responders. 18 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Looks like it's the next 19 page, Commissioner, on Health and Emergency Services. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, 610 -- 630. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 22 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, First Responders. Let's 24 see, is that First Responders expense? Is that what that is, 25 Eric? 6-1-15 bwk 65 1 MR. MALONEY: Yes, sir. This is for the Kerr 2 County First Responders for next year, proposing 34,240. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 4 MR. MALONEY: And the intention on that for this -- 5 I didn't send a breakdown for that -- is adding an additional 6 five First Responders, budgeting in there at $3,400 a piece. 7 The online C.E. program is not a new program. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Online what, Eric? 9 MR. MALONEY: Sorry? 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Online what? 11 MR. MALONEY: Online continuing education program. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Oh, continuing education. 13 MR. MALONEY: That will -- and we're required by 14 the state to renew our certification with the Department of 15 State Health Services. In the past, it has cost us $50 for 16 two years. Unfortunately, that company that we were 17 utilizing is no longer in business. Therefore, we do need to 18 transfer to a new company out there, and the cost is double 19 for that, so it will be $100 as opposed to $50. There are 19 20 First Responders that would need that continuing education 21 program on there, so a total of $1,900 a year. That is not 22 -- this is actually probably on the high side, because we 23 don't keep it turned on every year as they request. If they 24 want to do some, then we make sure we turn it on and they go 25 through and knock out -- they complete the appropriate C.E. 6-1-15 bwk 66 1 for that. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So, how many total First 3 Responders? 19? Is that what we have? 4 JUDGE POLLARD: Nineteen that are non-Kerrville 5 Fire Department. Kerrville Fire Department already funds 6 ours. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, I know. Non -- 8 MR. MALONEY: Yes. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay, thank you. 10 MR. MALONEY: Yes, sir. So, reprogramming of our 11 portable radios, that's $10 a piece for 34 radios, 34 First 12 Responder out there, for $340. There's some new radio 13 changes that are coming for all of us, and that's relatively 14 cheap. I do have that in the budget. And then the final one 15 was the stipend for the mileage. That is the $15,000 which 16 has been continued for that one. And I've worked with 17 Jeannie and I have worked on a form for the stipend 18 reimbursement for -- and I believe it's ready for y'all's 19 approval. We have enough checks and balances to make sure 20 that the individual that is submitting the form was not 21 only -- was on the call, as far as we can verify. Now, that 22 would be between the Court and the individual, not the EMS 23 Coordinator, although I would verify that there was a call at 24 that address, but that would be it. I do have some of the 25 forms if y'all want those. 6-1-15 bwk 67 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's a good check and 2 balance you have on that. 3 MR. MALONEY: Yes, sir. I think it's -- Jeannie 4 and I both feel that will be sufficient. I do have those, 5 Commissioner Baldwin. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Have you met the new 7 Auditor? 8 MR. MALONEY: No, I'm sorry. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's a Jeannie look-alike, 10 Brenda Doss. 11 MR. MALONEY: I did not know that. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: She's cool. You'll enjoy 13 working with her. 14 MR. MALONEY: Okay, great. Then we will -- 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We couldn't run the staff 16 off. 17 MR. MALONEY: And we'll get together just to make 18 sure that she is also -- 19 JUDGE POLLARD: Well, I don't know. We did run one 20 off. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, that's true. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I don't have any questions. 23 Eric, you do a good job. Thank you, buddy. 24 MR. MALONEY: And I'll send that to her just to 25 verify that we're still with that -- 6-1-15 bwk 68 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: One of the things he's 2 talking about there is the reimbursement, is that for years, 3 up until two years ago, we are asking volunteers to get up in 4 the middle of the night and drive from Hunt to out on the 5 interstate to do their thing at a traffic accident until the 6 ambulance got there, and not charge. They were doing it 7 free, their own gasoline. We finally got a stipend program 8 put in, and what he's saying is they finally figured out how 9 to operate that thing, you know. You know, that's fine. 10 Thank you. Medical -- so we finally got that thing put in 11 place, and now we're paying at least gas -- sorry, mileage. 12 MR. MALONEY: Yes, sir. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Mileage for them to go to 14 serve the community. It's incredible what it takes sometimes 15 to get these things done, but -- 16 JUDGE POLLARD: Mileage is all they get, huh? 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Mileage is all they get. 18 And Eric works really hard. He gets grants and -- to buy 19 defibrillators, clothing to -- like if somebody reaches in 20 through a broken window or something and an arm is cut. But 21 he gets grants, and he always has done that. He's been a 22 great servant to our community, I tell you. Great leader. 23 So -- 24 MR. MALONEY: Thank you. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thank you. 6-1-15 bwk 69 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I guess that's it, buddy. 2 JUDGE POLLARD: Thank you very much. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you for your service, 4 Eric. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Break? 6 JUDGE POLLARD: Yeah, let's have a 10-minute break. 7 I have -- my time is what, about 13 after? 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: 13 after. 9 (Recess taken from 10:13 a.m. to 10:25 a.m.) 10 - - - - - - - - - - 11 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay, we're back in session after 12 the break. Let's go ahead and call some of these other ones, 13 the small ones right quick to get them out of the way before 14 we do Road and Bridge. Which ones -- 15 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Jonas is here for economic 16 development. 17 JUDGE POLLARD: Let's do that one. 18 COMMISSIONER REEVES: County-sponsored activity. I 19 can't see the fund, though, James. 20 MR. ROBLES: 660. It's under the miscellaneous 21 tab. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: 660. 23 MR. TITAS: Good morning. I apologize, I don't 24 have all my information with me today. I was just planning 25 on making a presentation in normal court session next month, 6-1-15 bwk 70 1 but you do have a draft here. I made a copy for you, and 2 this will be -- the K.E.D.C. board will vote on this at our 3 meeting a week from Thursday. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: We have a budget request here. 5 MR. TITAS: It's penciled in based on last year's 6 figure, correct, but I have not -- I have not submitted 7 anything to the County at this point. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Oh. 9 MR. TITAS: This still constitutes a 5 percent 10 decrease from what we have -- what we have termed our 11 baseline funding levels, 25,000. K.E.D.C., as you know, we 12 cut the budget by about 100,000 when I came on staff, and we 13 also had a period between when I was hired and the previous 14 director left, so there was some unspent money. So, there 15 was an improved fund balance, so we have embarked on a 16 strategy of underfunding the organization for the last 17 several years to eat away at that fund balance that we have 18 so that K.E.D.C. just did not have more -- more resources 19 than we deemed necessary, especially when we're talking about 20 public moneys. But as you see, we still are underfunding the 21 organization by about $10,000 this year. We're projecting to 22 still have a small fund balance of between $40,000 and 23 $50,000, and that -- we derive that number as our -- as our 24 carry-over, kind of safety net to fund two months of 25 operations if, for whatever reason, we are -- don't get our 6-1-15 bwk 71 1 checks in time, whatever; various, I think, scenarios with 2 that regard. But as you see before you, this past year, I 3 think we had a phenomenal year. We worked on three projects 4 that created 650 jobs, $30 million of capital investments, 5 $20 million of wages. And I can break out the -- we have run 6 a lot of economic impact analyses, and I can't break out the 7 county numbers, and I will have those when I come again to 8 speak to you, but it is well and above the $23,000. 9 JUDGE POLLARD: What are you going to do for an 10 encore now? (Laughter.) 11 MR. TITAS: Well, that -- 12 JUDGE POLLARD: You just set a high standard, man. 13 MR. TITAS: That was a great year, and I like to 14 say that that will fuel the growth for Kerr County for the 15 next 10 years. That goes with that job creation for the past 16 year with the James Avery and Mooney International. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, it's -- you know, 'cause 18 Jonas does a good job -- Jonas does a good job especially 19 cutting each year, and to do a negative -- negative planning 20 on that. I commend you for that. 21 MR. TITAS: Thank you. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I don't have any questions. 23 JUDGE POLLARD: I don't either. Do you have any? 24 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Good job, Jonas. We 25 appreciate all you're doing. 6-1-15 bwk 72 1 MR. TITAS: I'm sorry my phone went off earlier. 2 I'm usually the first one to turn it off, but Monday morning, 3 I guess I just -- I can't apologize enough. 4 JUDGE POLLARD: I can't hear anything anyway. 5 MR. TITAS: Thank you. 6 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. The next one, then -- 7 which one do y'all want to hear next? 8 MR. ROBLES: Is there anything else in 660 y'all 9 want to look at? 10 JUDGE POLLARD: All right, on 660? 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Oh, I have a question on -- on 12 660-447, Water Development, 30,000. Is that the -- James, is 13 that the study with Tetra Tech? 14 MR. ROBLES: As far as I know, that's something 15 y'all wanted to do last year. I left it in, not knowing. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I think that's what it -- I 17 think that was 60,000, and we were doing it with U.G.R.A., so 18 I'm going to assume that's what that was, looking at 19 additional fresh water resources. If you could just verify 20 for me that that's what that is? Okay. 21 MS. DOSS: Tetra Tech? 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. It's a small study that 23 Tetra Tech was performing, so I think that's what that is. 24 That was my only question. 25 JUDGE POLLARD: Mr. Reeves? 6-1-15 bwk 73 1 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Looking at them, they're all 2 needed ones. I don't have any questions. 3 JUDGE POLLARD: Commissioner Baldwin? 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I don't have any questions, 5 thank you. 6 JUDGE POLLARD: I don't either. Okay, let's go to 7 595 now, miscellaneous City/County operations. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Let me find that. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Judge, I would like to ask a 10 question right quick while he's looking for it. These 11 numbers that are in here, are those requested by the 12 departments, or is that the County Judge's numbers? 13 MR. ROBLES: All of these that we just went over, 14 they all sent me letters requesting 1,000 or 2,000. They're 15 all pretty much the same, except the only one that's 16 different is the Crisis Council. We haven't given them money 17 since 2005, and they requested 2,000 this year. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, I don't remember -- 19 let's see, four, five years ago, we had numerous agencies 20 like that that we funded, and the County Judge at that time 21 decided that we were going to not do that any longer, and 22 selected two or three, I think. I can't -- I'm just kind of 23 working off memory here, and I don't remember real well, but 24 -- so we have, like, Big Brothers and Big Sisters, I think, 25 that we fund, and now we're going to start adding those back 6-1-15 bwk 74 1 in? Is that what you're saying to me? Or -- 2 MR. ROBLES: As far as I know, they've been doing 3 it the same way since I've been here. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What was the one you said 5 that -- 6 MR. ROBLES: Crisis Council. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So it's the first time that 8 they've requested anything in -- 9 MR. ROBLES: In the last 10 years. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: -- 10 years, yeah. 11 MR. ROBLES: That's the only new one. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And -- boy, I tell you what, 13 there's a lot of those agencies out there. And they all need 14 help, and I understand that, but I'm not sure that it's the 15 County's -- 16 JUDGE POLLARD: The trend is what you're talking 17 about. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 19 JUDGE POLLARD: Setting a precedent. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And, boy, once you -- 21 because at one time, we had probably a dozen of those 22 agencies that we funded. We didn't fund much, but we did -- 23 one day decided that it really wasn't the County's place to 24 do that all the time, so -- I don't remember. 25 JUDGE POLLARD: Well, I appreciate that history. 6-1-15 bwk 75 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So you have the K'Star 2 coming back in now? 3 JUDGE POLLARD: Yeah. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Do we want to -- 5 COMMISSIONER REEVES: No, that's the Crisis 6 Council. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'm sorry, Crisis Council. 8 I don't know one from the other, their functions. But -- so 9 do you want to -- 10 JUDGE POLLARD: Crisis Council is for -- that's the 11 one that's mainly women -- battered women and so forth, I 12 think. Am I right about that? 13 MS. STEBBINS: Yes. 14 JUDGE POLLARD: They put them up while they're 15 hiding from their husband that beats them or something like 16 that. 17 COMMISSIONER REEVES: What I might suggest on a lot 18 of these, Commissioner, for now, let's leave it in, but as 19 with anything in this budget, we may need to come review it 20 as it -- 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Very good. 22 COMMISSIONER REEVES: As we see where we're at on 23 values and revenue. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Very well. 25 COMMISSIONER REEVES: And may have to come back to 6-1-15 bwk 76 1 look at a lot of these. 2 JUDGE POLLARD: I don't know. I'm concerned about 3 the precedent, too. You know, if we do that, then I think 4 there's going to be a flood. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, you'd have to open the 6 door for the rest of them, 'cause the rest of them have been 7 told no. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. How do you 9 discriminate? 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And they stayed out, so you 11 have to open it up somehow. And I -- I'm going to do 12 whatever y'all want to do, but I'm just trying to tell you 13 how we got to this point. 14 JUDGE POLLARD: Well, I think the previous Judge's 15 decision was a wise one. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I agree. 17 JUDGE POLLARD: I think we -- let's take that one 18 out, the Crisis Council out. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Now, do we notify them? 20 MR. ROBLES: Probably. 21 MS. DOSS: Yes, we'll have to. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yes, we will what? 23 MS. DOSS: We'll have to notify them. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Have to notify them, okay. 25 Are you going to do that? 6-1-15 bwk 77 1 MS. DOSS: Yes, sir. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. 3 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: You might check, 'cause they 4 did change their name a while back to Hill Country CARES, not 5 Crisis Council. I think they incorporated more stuff into 6 there. I don't know if they would make a presentation. 7 JUDGE POLLARD: By whatever name they are, we say 8 no, okay? 9 COMMISSIONER REEVES: There's a line item for both 10 of them. One's zero, and one's 2,000. 11 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: It's the same organization, 12 you know, Hill Country Crisis Council and Hill Country CARES. 13 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. Any other questions or 14 comments? I sure appreciate the history lesson there. I 15 wasn't aware of all that. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: If that angers anybody, 17 blame it on the Auditor. 18 MS. DOSS: Thank you. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Don't blame it on me. 20 JUDGE POLLARD: Just blame it on me. That's the -- 21 that's where it falls, okay? All right. Any other questions 22 or comments? If not, what do you want to do next? Which 23 one? I guess Road and Bridge now? 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: 440. 25 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. Road and Bridge, Fund 15. 6-1-15 bwk 78 1 MR. HASTINGS: I have some handouts. I wanted to 2 talk about revenues. I don't know if you want to go through 3 your questions first, or my questions. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Let's hear yours; we'll have 5 something to tear up. 6 MR. HASTINGS: Very good. What I've had -- our 7 staff has done a really good job, Vicky in particular. She's 8 put together some graphs for you that show -- 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Give them all to me. 10 MR. HASTINGS: That's the whole bunch there. Show 11 your revenues, revenue streams. And I wanted to spend a 12 little bit of time on that. I will need one of those, thank 13 you. And we looked at some trends from 2004 all the way to 14 present, and if you look at the overall Fund 15 revenues, 15 combine them all, it's pretty flat. I think in '04, we were 16 somewhere around 2.2 million, and now we're probably 2.8 or 17 2.9, right in that range overall. But if you started looking 18 at them individually, one of the things that really sticks 19 out is the auto registration. It was as high as $550,000, 20 but the trend has been going down through the years, while 21 the additional $10 fee, which is also related to registration 22 of vehicles, has steadily been going up. I don't have an 23 explanation for why it's trending down. I'm not qualified to 24 answer that question, but it caught our eye. This is 25 something that we -- we depend on to fund Road and Bridge. 6-1-15 bwk 79 1 JUDGE POLLARD: I guess the Tax Assessor's the only 2 one that can answer that, huh? 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Mm-hmm. 4 MR. HASTINGS: Our ad valorem taxes have steadily 5 gone up, and reimbursements; that's the court fines, et 6 cetera. There's a trend of going up. But if there's 7 anything that could be done to any of these to increase them, 8 to raise them, it's helping Road and Bridge. 9 JUDGE POLLARD: Would somebody step out and see if 10 the Tax Assessor's in and can come down? 11 MS. DOSS: She's not. 12 MS. GUARDIOLA: And I wasn't prepared for that 13 question, but I can get some answers for you. 14 MR. HASTINGS: Oh, very good. Thank you. 15 MR. TROLINGER: Judge, I'd like to add in on that, 16 I've been notified by the Tax Assessor that the computers 17 that they use that the state provides us right now -- and 18 they do all the maintenance updates, they provide the 19 hardware, they provide the connection back to Austin -- that 20 potentially, that's going to become Kerr County's unfunded 21 duty to maintain those. I don't have any idea what the cost 22 is yet. I've just been given the warning shot across the bow 23 that it's coming. So, in general, I'd add in what 24 Mr. Hastings said is, you know, the State's reducing their 25 funding to Kerr County for sure. 6-1-15 bwk 80 1 MR. ODOM: How much do you think it's going to 2 cost? 3 MR. TROLINGER: I don't have the number yet. 4 MR. ODOM: A ballpark. I'm sitting down. 5 MR. TROLINGER: Well, the computers are new, so for 6 the first year, it would be minimal. But I've got an 7 additional six workstations to maintain, and it's somewhere 8 on the order of -- I'm not -- I can't even estimate right 9 now, Judge. I just know it's coming. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: But is that an Auditor's 11 budget line item we ought to be talking about? As opposed to 12 Road and Bridge revenue? That's my question. Why are we 13 talking about that now? 14 MR. TROLINGER: Well, it impacts -- it impacts 15 I.T., and I know that the -- that Mr. Hastings is concerned 16 about the revenue coming -- going down, and we're being asked 17 to do more with less. 18 COMMISSIONER REEVES: But this is just Road and 19 Bridge revenue, isn't it, that you're talking about, -- 20 MR. HASTINGS: Yes, sir. 21 COMMISSIONER REEVES: -- Mr. Hastings? 22 MR. HASTINGS: Yes, sir. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I appreciate the fact that 24 expenses may go up, but this -- he's just saying the 25 revenue's going down. So why is the revenue going down? So, 6-1-15 bwk 81 1 John, I'm not sure I understand your connection with this 2 subject. 3 MR. TROLINGER: I think in general, the state's 4 just providing us with less and less every year. 5 JUDGE POLLARD: More unfunded mandates. 6 MR. HASTINGS: I think he's saying we're going to 7 see that trend in anything that we're working with the state 8 on. 9 JUDGE POLLARD: Yeah. 10 MR. HASTINGS: Not quantified, though. I also have 11 -- we put together a five-year forecast for our budget, going 12 off into the future. I'll give you the whole stack. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 14 MR. HASTINGS: We wanted you to have a glance, or 15 see where we're headed over the next five years, and make 16 sure that we're on the right track and that we're -- our 17 assumptions are the same as yours, and what you're looking 18 for. I will say, before we talk about expenses, and we're on 19 the cost of revenue, I want to assure you that one of the 20 things that Road and Bridge has been doing for decades now is 21 saving money. We participate in government bidding. We get 22 group savings whenever we purchase equipment. We watch the 23 oil and the fuel prices. We do expect them -- we've seen 24 them drop somewhat this year. We have looked for alternative 25 oils for paving. I think we're testing something out right 6-1-15 bwk 82 1 now, because there's some potential cost savings there. The 2 material we've been using for the chip seal program is trap 3 rock. It has a tremendous longevity. It adds five to seven 4 years of additional life over just using crushed limestone, 5 so you pay a little more now, but it pans out over the long 6 run for sure. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Skid-resistant. 8 MR. HASTINGS: Yes, sir. Yes, sir. We are 9 proactive with our vehicles and our equipment maintenance. 10 We do a great number of in-house projects, as you are well 11 aware of, which y'all have at least a 40 percent cost savings 12 over going outside. Our herbicide program -- which you're 13 going to see us always try to maintain what we're doing with 14 herbicide. If we don't, then we have to go out there and 15 manually remove vegetation, which costs more, so that's a 16 crucial part of our vegetation control. And then, of course, 17 through some of these professional organizations that we're 18 members of, we get free training for our personnel, and we'll 19 bring in professionals who will train a group all at once 20 instead of sending people out one at a time. And then, of 21 course, we -- when we're looking for equipment, we also look 22 for used equipment as well, and we keep our eyes open for 23 equipment that maybe KPUB has that they're going to retire, 24 if there's some usefulness to us. Then we -- we just keep an 25 eye on that, try to keep our finger on the pulse. So, 6-1-15 bwk 83 1 overall, we're doing what we can to save money, and we've 2 been doing it for years. This is something that Mr. Odom, 3 Kelly, Vicky, they've done a tremendous job through the years 4 of saving money. 5 In our five-year forecast, we're looking at -- 6 we're also looking at a way to save money and to increase our 7 efficiencies. One of the things that I'd like to do and talk 8 about it during this budget process is to reduce our force by 9 one by transferring someone to another department. We have a 10 position that's open right now. I know that there's been 11 discussions with Environmental Health in the past about dead 12 animal collection. They have some very obvious concerns 13 about mixing live animals and dead animals and the 14 collection. There's a liability involved there. I've had 15 discussions with Mr. Garcia about that. I've also talked 16 with Mr. Bollier over at Maintenance, and he sees some 17 benefit to that if he had an additional personnel that came 18 from our department. So our staff would go down by one; his 19 staff would go up by one. He could take on that dead animal 20 collection, and he would have that person available for other 21 things. 22 The reason that we are interested in that 23 efficiency right now, we've got -- we've got three-man crews, 24 and if we get a call out for a dead animal, we wait till a 25 good time to go pick it up that same day, but when we do it, 6-1-15 bwk 84 1 we send one or two men to go do that, and our crew -- what 2 they were doing as a group, that efficiency -- efficiency 3 just went out the window. So, we just have a very high 4 interest in making ourselves more efficient, and that's one 5 way that we see a possibility of being more efficient. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Is that a one-person job, to 7 pick up a -- 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Sometimes. 9 MR. HASTINGS: I believe it is, sir. I've done it 10 myself. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Sometimes two. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: But there's not a winch? 13 MR. HASTINGS: We also have equipment that would 14 go -- 15 JUDGE POLLARD: As long as it's not an elk. 16 MR. HASTINGS: We have equipment that would go with 17 it. We have a truck with a winch, and that equipment would 18 go with this position. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, okay. 20 MR. HASTINGS: To Mr. Bollier. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Boy, they really want to get 22 rid of that, don't they? 23 MR. HASTINGS: Yeah. Now, if there was a large 24 animal, say, if -- 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Cow. 6-1-15 bwk 85 1 MR. HASTINGS: -- if there was a cow, which it 2 happens occasionally, then Road and Bridge would go out there 3 with a front-end loader. We'd still get those. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 5 MR. HASTINGS: Yes, sir. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I got to tell you, though, 7 that if you wanted to transfer that over, I'd have a hard 8 time voting -- if and when I have the opportunity to vote on 9 something like that, I'd have a hard time voting to approve 10 it unless the other side agrees 100 percent. 11 MR. HASTINGS: Yes, sir. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You know, it needs to be a 13 good family agreement and understanding, or I won't support 14 it. 15 MR. HASTINGS: Understood. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Is that -- is what you're 17 talking about reflected in your budget that you submitted? 18 MR. HASTINGS: No, sir, it's not. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So that's just some other -- 20 MR. HASTINGS: This -- 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: -- thoughts about in the 22 future? 23 MR. HASTINGS: If it's okay with you, we'd like to 24 have those discussions now, and then I don't know if 25 Mr. Bollier -- if they've done their budget presentation yet. 6-1-15 bwk 86 1 It won't reflect in his, but he and I have agreed that -- 2 that if we're offering, he's taking. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Is it -- is it something -- 4 and I agree with Buster. Is that something to bring up under 5 personnel when we look at staffing? 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, it would be -- it 7 would affect this budget. 8 MR. HASTINGS: It would affect this budget. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You're reducing a person. 10 MR. HASTINGS: That's correct. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: He'd be gaining a person, 12 so -- 13 MR. HASTINGS: It's not reflected yet, is what I'm 14 saying. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: It's not reflected in here, 16 what we're talking about today. 17 MR. HASTINGS: Until I get direction. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So it'd be better if we hold 19 off on that discussion until the right time? 20 JUDGE POLLARD: Well, have you discussed it with 21 Tim? 22 MR. HASTINGS: Yes, I have. 23 JUDGE POLLARD: And he's agreeable? 24 MR. HASTINGS: Yes, sir. 25 JUDGE POLLARD: What's to discuss? 6-1-15 bwk 87 1 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Well, I'd like to see what 2 Tim has to say, but I see benefits to this. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I do too. 4 COMMISSIONER REEVES: But as you said, 5 Commissioner, we want to make sure the entire family is 6 happy. But we know Maintenance needs some help. This 7 wouldn't be just solely picking up -- 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 9 COMMISSIONER REEVES: -- the roadside animals, but 10 it could -- I could see, if we're going to have to add to 11 Maintenance, where it could have some potential benefits. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Sure. 13 COMMISSIONER REEVES: All the way around. And I 14 think the discussion should be held when all parties are 15 here. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I agree with that. 17 COMMISSIONER REEVES: But it sounds -- 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Sounds like a good idea. 19 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I like that. And what you're 20 saying, Mr. Hastings, would then -- would you eliminate one 21 position -- 22 MR. HASTINGS: That's correct. 23 COMMISSIONER REEVES: -- from the Road and Bridge 24 Department? 25 MR. HASTINGS: That's correct. 6-1-15 bwk 88 1 MR. ODOM: That's correct. 2 MR. HASTINGS: Yes, sir. 3 COMMISSIONER REEVES: And transfer a vehicle and 4 all of that. So you would be reducing your budget by -- I 5 don't know; would it be a transfer of an employee? Would you 6 take care of the employee through attrition? How would you 7 handle -- 8 MR. HASTINGS: We have an open position right now. 9 COMMISSIONER REEVES: So you'd eliminate that? 10 MR. HASTINGS: Yes, sir. 11 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I think it bears a lot of -- 12 of further study and discussion when Mr. Bollier can be here. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I agree, and it certainly has 14 some real merit. It's a good idea. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What I like about it, if Tom 16 and I get any bigger, we're going to need that winch to get 17 in and out of our truck and go somewhere. (Laughter.) 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I've tried to lose some 19 weight. You're talking about the other Tom? 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'm talking about the other 21 Tom. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: But good idea. But it's 23 not -- 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Great idea. 6-1-15 bwk 89 1 MR. HASTINGS: Yes, sir. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Now, if some percentage of 3 that person's time is picking up dead animals, then the other 4 is for maintenance -- 5 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Where needed. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Great idea. Okay. 7 MR. HASTINGS: The five-year forecast that you 8 have, it assumes that this year we would be getting a -- as 9 far as equipment goes, a dump truck for Precinct 1. Next 10 year, a tractor and a shredder to go with it for vegetation 11 control. The following year, replacement of some supervisor 12 trucks, two. The following year, a bucket truck to replace 13 one of the -- one of the three bucket trucks that we have. 14 The three bucket trucks are all nearing their -- the end of 15 their useful life. We -- we had them gone over this year to 16 make sure that everything was up to snuff, and so we're going 17 to get a few more years of life out of those three. And then 18 the year after that, another bucket truck. And we -- we are 19 keeping our finger on the pulse of KPUB; they have bucket 20 trucks. They use bucket trucks routinely. And I keep in 21 contact with Tracy McCuan over there to see if anything comes 22 up. That could be a considerable cost savings if we could 23 find something used. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So, are you saying within 25 five years, you're going to have -- you're going to want to 6-1-15 bwk 90 1 have two -- 2 MR. HASTINGS: I'd like to have two of the three 3 replaced. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What do you do with bucket 5 trucks? 6 MR. HASTINGS: That's for our vegetation control. 7 We use the bucket trucks to trim trees. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So, if I look at your 10 five-year forecast on the last page, and I look at over/under 11 revenue versus expenditures, so you're going from last year 12 of about 200,000 -- 220,000 negative to about 1. -- 13 1 million? 14 MR. HASTINGS: Yes, sir. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So that's -- that's just a 16 heads-up for us, is what it is? 17 MR. HASTINGS: It is. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So what you've done is great, 19 looking at this, so we can, you know, look at the -- you 20 know, where we may be in the future. 21 MR. HASTINGS: It is. And there's a way that you 22 can -- you can cut half of that very quickly. The automotive 23 registration revenue that we have been receiving for years -- 24 10 years ago, there was legislation put in place that said 25 this year Road and Bridge gets 100 percent when you collect 6-1-15 bwk 91 1 it, and then the next year Road and Bridge gets 90 percent, 2 and 10 percent goes to your general fund of the county, and 3 so forth until you get to the -- this year we're in the 90 -- 4 90 percent goes to your general fund and 10 percent goes to 5 Road and Bridge. And then next year, zero; 100 percent goes 6 to the county general fund. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Mm-hmm. 8 MR. HASTINGS: So, 100 percent of an item that, ten 9 years ago, was pulling in $500,000, $550,000, and this year 10 is going to pull about 420,000. I think 405 was the budget. 11 What we need from this Court is, you have the ability -- and 12 you did it last year. We just -- we just didn't want to 13 assume anything. We've assumed that -- that it goes to the 14 general fund and doesn't come to us. What we'd really like 15 to assume is that it will continue to be allocated to Road 16 and Bridge. I don't know that that's a discussion that we've 17 ever -- ever had. I think it's just been discussed every 18 year. I know when I was here last year, Jeannie said that's 19 going to go away. I think she told me she's been saying that 20 for the past few years. It's never left your possession, 21 that money, but what the legislation says is that this year, 22 whatever's being collected in 2015, when the state starts 23 cutting those checks in 2016, about February, you start 24 seeing this revenue come in. 100 percent is supposed to be 25 deposited in your general fund, and then if you decide to 6-1-15 bwk 92 1 allocate it to Road and Bridge, then that's fine and dandy. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So state law says it goes to 3 the general fund unless we don't want it to. 4 MR. HASTINGS: Right. 5 JUDGE POLLARD: But that's not a big deal, because 6 it's just -- it can come to us, and then we can still 7 allocate it to Road and Bridge. It's just -- 8 MR. ODOM: That's what you've been doing. 9 MR. HASTINGS: Yes, sir. The final part of the 10 discussion that I have, I think our reserves -- Road and 11 Bridge reserves right now are right around $300,000, which is 12 about 10 percent of our overall budget. I would feel 13 comfortable -- I would like to see it grow to 20 percent over 14 the next five years. I've not -- this is showing a negative 15 every year, and that's because the revenues that we rely on 16 that come in hard to us, they don't cover everything. I 17 believe the -- what the Court has been doing, and what I 18 understand from talking with Brenda Doss, our Auditor, that 19 most counties do is transfer from the general fund over to 20 Road and Bridge as a means to control taxes -- tax rates. 21 COMMISSIONER REEVES: And this year, Mr. Hastings, 22 this current fiscal year is not -- has not been as much 23 paving and everything; it was kind of your slow year in your 24 cycle. That's why you're having to increase some in your 25 budget, because you're getting back into your normal routine; 6-1-15 bwk 93 1 is that correct? 2 MR. HASTINGS: That's true. We -- we reduced our 3 budget by a quarter of a million dollars, so if you added 4 that back in for this year, that brings the deficit back up 5 to about a half. And then if you take into account the 6 400,000 for the revenue, you're -- instead of up to a 7 million, now you are -- you're really just looking at half a 8 million dollars a year. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: You know, what I'd like to do, 10 Charlie, if we can, is go through the book like we have it 11 here, okay, because, you know, we -- we have Line Item 15-600 12 -- or 600, right, which is administration, and then you have 13 the 611, Road and Bridge for expenditures. So, since we have 14 that in our book, is that okay with you if we go through it 15 like that? 16 MR. HASTINGS: That is just fine, yes, sir. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 'Cause that's what 18 we've been doing with everybody else, yeah. Okay. 19 JUDGE POLLARD: Good to have those overview 20 explanations, though. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Absolutely. And having a 22 five-year, that's fantastic. I don't know, Judge, if you 23 want to -- if you want to do the administration; I don't have 24 any questions on that. 25 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay, let's do that. Do you have 6-1-15 bwk 94 1 any? 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No, sir, I do not. Thank 3 you. 4 JUDGE POLLARD: Mr. Reeves? 5 COMMISSIONER REEVES: No, sir. 6 JUDGE POLLARD: I don't either. Okay, let's move 7 on. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Where do we go? 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I guess the next one would be 10 611, expenditures. 11 JUDGE POLLARD: Yeah. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: If I may, I have a couple of 13 questions for Charlie on that. 14 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Charlie, this is on 611-459, 16 flood damage and repairs. 17 MR. HASTINGS: Yes, sir. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: You're requesting $5,000? 19 MR. HASTINGS: Yes, sir. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: In light of -- in light of 21 what we've just been through, is that enough? 22 MR. HASTINGS: Well, we can always go back into 23 reserves. We like to have a line item there so that we have 24 a line item to charge to, and then we never know what's going 25 to happen -- 6-1-15 bwk 95 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 2 MR. HASTINGS: -- every year. We're -- we have not 3 calculated what the recent flood damage has done, 'cause 4 we're not complete by any stretch. We -- we plan on being 5 complete over the next few weeks, so we ought to have a 6 number for you of what this flood did. It's going to be over 7 $5,000, -- 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 9 MR. HASTINGS: -- I'm sure. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Which I was just wondering for 11 this budget, for the process, should we put more? 12 MR. HASTINGS: I wouldn't. I'd like to keep it at 13 5,000, and then that way if we need to do a budget amendment, 14 we can do that at that time. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Out of your contingency? 16 MR. HASTINGS: Yes, sir. 17 MR. ODOM: And if we get over 100,000, then we 18 get -- we can ask for funds at that point. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Ask for funds from where? 20 MR. ROBLES: FEMA. 21 MR. ODOM: From FEMA. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 23 MR. HASTINGS: If we get a big flood, that really 24 wipes us out, but that's the reason we say 500,000 is where 25 we'd like to be, quarter of a million, if we had to spend it. 6-1-15 bwk 96 1 We've done that over the last 25 years. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. 3 MR. ODOM: Up. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So you got that? 5 MR. ODOM: We got above it. But this 5,000 is just 6 for small stuff. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I tell you, the Judge and I 9 drove out Lane Valley a few days ago, and there's a pretty 10 good little meter running out there and lots of damage. 11 MR. HASTINGS: Lots of damage. 12 MR. ODOM: Lots of damage, just like '02. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Your people are out there 14 moving around some equipment, spending a lot of -- 15 MR. ODOM: We got it. It's -- 16 JUDGE POLLARD: Got some pavement that was washed 17 out. 18 MR. ODOM: Sir? 19 JUDGE POLLARD: Pavement that was washed out. 20 MR. ODOM: Oh, yes, sir. We'll get -- catch it in 21 the sealcoat program. That'll be part -- that's the sealcoat 22 right there, so it'll all wash out. 23 MR. HASTINGS: Tom, I also like to keep it down at 24 5,000 -- 25 JUDGE POLLARD: It will all work out. 6-1-15 bwk 97 1 MR. HASTINGS: -- so that it doesn't become a slush 2 fund every year. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 4 MR. HASTINGS: We want to have transparency and 5 everyone know what's we're doing. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: As long as you're comfortable 7 with it, that's good. Another question I have is on 8 concrete/cattle guards. It's -- in '14, it went from 25,000 9 to 35,000. The next year it's 20,000 there. Is that 10 primarily concrete, or is that -- 11 MR. HASTINGS: That's concrete from 100 and the 12 work we're doing over there. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay, so it's concrete? 14 MR. HASTINGS: For that bridge. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So it's not concrete cattle 16 guards; it's concrete. 17 MR. HASTINGS: It's concrete and cattle guards. 18 And we're using a lot of concrete this year. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 20 MR. HASTINGS: We had planned on that. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay, that answered my 22 question. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You've been reducing cattle 24 guards, I think. 25 MR. HASTINGS: That's right. 6-1-15 bwk 98 1 MR. ODOM: Yes. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Three, four, five years. 3 JUDGE POLLARD: It's that bridge on Spur 100? 4 MR. HASTINGS: Yes, sir. 5 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay, good. Glad we're doing that. 6 MR. ODOM: And then -- 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: On maintenance -- maintenance 8 facilities, in '14 it was 5,600, then it jumped to 15,000. 9 Is that the building you guys are -- 10 MR. ODOM: That was to pick up our -- I call it 11 carport. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, right. Okay. 13 MR. HASTINGS: Equipment shade structure that we 14 have, that we just built. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right, okay. That answered my 16 question there. And one other question on -- on the subject 17 of Lane Valley, $50,000. Is that for the right-of-way? 18 COMMISSIONER REEVES: That was for fencing. 19 MR. HASTINGS: Right-of-way and -- 20 MR. ODOM: Fence. 21 MR. HASTINGS: -- a fence in lieu of purchasing 22 right-of-way. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right, okay. 24 COMMISSIONER REEVES: To straighten out that curve 25 where the fatality was. 6-1-15 bwk 99 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay, got you. 2 MR. HASTINGS: Our five-year fiscal forecast shows 3 next year that 50,000 -- we just put in a line item and 4 called it special projects, so that as these special projects 5 come up, at the direction we've received from the Court, if 6 there's something in your precincts similar to Lane Valley, 7 that would be a line item. We only showed it for one year. 8 We didn't -- we didn't continue it; we just showed it for 9 next year. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's all the questions I 11 have. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: But there used to be a 13 special projects line. 14 MR. ODOM: And we named them. If you will look at 15 it, they'll bottom out, and the Auditor never takes it off. 16 It always floated out there with a name. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Seems like we automatically 18 earmarked that $10 license plate fee to go into that line at 19 one time. 20 MR. ODOM: Now, that I don't recall. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I've got another question, 22 though. Have we talked about -- once again, have we talked 23 about the possibility of adding onto our maintenance -- our 24 mechanic operation to take county -- all county vehicles and 25 maintain them? 6-1-15 bwk 100 1 MR. HASTINGS: That's a really good question. 2 MR. ODOM: We have discussed -- 3 MR. HASTINGS: We've been having some discussions. 4 MR. ODOM: -- trying to pick up some extra 5 property, particularly behind us, to build one. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I see. 7 MR. ODOM: And then we would like to build another 8 facility similar to what we've got to get the heavy equipment 9 back out of the way. And then, to me, then you would have 10 that open to all the other equipment maintenance for the 11 Sheriff's Department; it all would be in the building that we 12 have right now. Or -- you know, and I don't speak for Rusty 13 in that aspect of it, if it's there. Or fueling. That fuel 14 island would be there, and we'd put another fuel island for 15 the heavy equipment. That's the reason we wanted that 16 15 acres for some type of -- 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Most unit road systems of 18 our kind, unit road system 1947 -- I can't remember the name 19 of the thing, but most of them -- 20 JUDGE POLLARD: Have their own mechanic department. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: -- have their own -- like, 22 you go down 46 and get into -- before you get into New 23 Braunfels, Comal County, they take care of the city, county, 24 everything, every bit of it. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I think that's an excellent 6-1-15 bwk 101 1 idea. I know -- I think you and I discussed it. I've 2 discussed it with Len. And because, you know, I talked with 3 Tim one time about who maintains his tractors and all that 4 kind of stuff, and it's -- if somebody had the responsibility 5 of looking at the records, keeping the records and saying, 6 "Okay, that piece of equipment needs to be maintained this 7 month," you know, I think the County could save a lot of 8 money. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I do too. 10 MR. HASTINGS: Right. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: If it included other vehicles. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It's just taking that step 13 of building a stall or two and hiring a mechanic or two. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: To do it. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That kind of thing. We just 16 never have been able to -- 17 MR. HASTINGS: If you would like, we could -- we 18 could take this five-year fiscal forecast and build in there 19 the acquisition of land one year, facilities the next year 20 and so forth, and build something for you so you can see it 21 graphically. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Maybe look at what would be 23 saved in doing it, too. 24 MR. HASTINGS: Yes. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So it's kind of a business 6-1-15 bwk 102 1 plan. 2 MR. HASTINGS: Yes. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: "Here's the investment, here's 4 the potential." Now, Rusty has a lot of vehicles to 5 maintain, and there's other vehicles and equipment in the 6 county, so I know -- I think Tim just -- he hires somebody to 7 do that for him, so it could be something there that -- 8 JUDGE POLLARD: He farms it out everywhere. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, right. 10 JUDGE POLLARD: All over. 11 MR. ODOM: Yeah, all the vehicles. But Rusty -- 12 you know, we would want his input, as well as Tim's. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Sure. 14 MR. ODOM: And what his needs are and how it will 15 affect him, you know. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 17 MR. ODOM: We want to make sure we don't hinder 18 them. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Sure. 20 COMMISSIONER REEVES: And a lot of that money is 21 already being spent right now, so I'd be interested to see 22 just what the net to the budget is. 23 JUDGE POLLARD: Yeah. 24 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Sheriff, you -- who do you 25 use mainly? 6-1-15 bwk 103 1 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: We use over at Krauss' right 2 now for vehicle maintenance, or for oil and that and change 3 of any -- 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And have for 50 years. 5 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yeah. Vehicle repair and 6 maintenance right now is 50,000 a year. That does not 7 include oil changes, though; that comes out of vehicle gas 8 and oil, so that's in addition. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: But the neat thing, what I 10 like about it is the point that you just made. 11 JUDGE POLLARD: Scheduled maintenance. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You get everything 13 computerized, and the mechanics and you are going to know 14 when that vehicle needs to come up. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: See, that's the big -- 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That is a big deal. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: 'Cause, you know, if a timing 18 belt breaks on some vehicle, the engine's gone, you know. 19 JUDGE POLLARD: Preventive maintenance is what 20 that's called. 21 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: See, we have that with Krauss. 22 We can print out the entire history of every car and what 23 they have. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Not just the history. It's 25 when it needs to be done. 6-1-15 bwk 104 1 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Right. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, okay. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Rusty, do you mind if we 4 take a look at it? 5 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I have no problem. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay, then. You don't have 7 to yell; I'm sitting right here. (Laughter.) 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Good idea. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I just think it's a good 10 idea. And I know we've talked about it 10 or 12 years now. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Maybe we can pull the 13 trigger on this thing. 14 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I think last time we talked, 15 it was actually going in with the City on oil changes and 16 that, and at that time they could not -- they said they 17 couldn't do in-house oil changes for what we were paying for 18 them where we were. They wouldn't do it, and talks kind of 19 ended. But if it's all done totally in-house in the county, 20 at Road and Bridge or whatever, I think it's very feasible. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, I do too. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Good thing to look at. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: City provides a pretty nice 24 little fleet of vehicles. 25 MR. ODOM: Just so the Court understands, we need 6-1-15 bwk 105 1 the facilities. We need some room. I can't -- 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: But it's like Commissioner 3 Reeves said; it's -- you know, what's the net? You know, we 4 need to look at facilities, people, and all that kind of 5 stuff is expense, but then how much can you potentially save? 6 Also -- and like Buster's saying, it's preventive maintenance 7 too. It's not just -- 8 MR. ODOM: That's right. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: -- a change in how we're doing 10 it, but can you make a vehicle last longer if you do -- 11 MR. ODOM: You would. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: -- preventive maintenance? 13 JUDGE POLLARD: I would not be in favor of 14 combining city and county together. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Let's do county together. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Why is that? Nevermind, I'm 17 kidding. 18 JUDGE POLLARD: We just got enough problems. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I don't have any other 20 questions on -- 21 JUDGE POLLARD: Do you have any more for -- 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: -- Road and Bridge. 23 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I just compliment Road and 24 Bridge for the way they've presented this to us, and not just 25 this year, but we're looking to the future, just like we're 6-1-15 bwk 106 1 looking to the future in the Sheriff's Department. This 2 helps immensely in our high-expense departments that we have, 3 so we -- we can track it, and I compliment you all for it. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's true. 5 JUDGE POLLARD: I think the guy that instituted 6 that forecasting program is sitting right back there, 7 Mr. Odom. Appreciate you, Mr. Odom. 8 MR. ODOM: Yes, sir. 9 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I think somebody back 10 there -- probably the two ladies back there are grinning. 11 JUDGE POLLARD: They're grinning and carrying it 12 out. 13 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Isn't that normally what they 14 come up with from the -- from Texas Longhorns, though? 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Do you want to tackle him on 16 that? 17 JUDGE POLLARD: No, no comment. I'm not going to 18 dignify that. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Uh-oh. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I do have one question. It's 22 further back under 22 -- it's dam repairs. Is that yours? I 23 think that's yours, isn't it? $10,000 on dam repairs? 24 MR. HASTINGS: That's crack sealing and -- sealing 25 cracks and putting grout, doing little minor touch-up 6-1-15 bwk 107 1 maintenance of our dams. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So this is -- that's -- that's 3 last year and this year both. So before it was zero, so dams 4 are getting old enough now we need to do that? 5 MR. HASTINGS: Now, we have -- we have a report 6 from our last inspection of the Ingram Dam. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Mm-hmm. 8 MR. HASTINGS: And we did quite a bit of work at 9 the end of the year last year where we removed a bunch of 10 vegetation from the cracks. The vegetation gets in there and 11 grows. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 13 MR. HASTINGS: The roots expand and it causes 14 issues, and we've got to maintain that dam without any 15 vegetation on it. I think we're due for another inspection, 16 but I wanted $10,000 in the budget to make sure I had enough 17 money to cover using some of the specialized -- crack 18 sealants are expensive. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, okay. 20 MR. HASTINGS: And we're probably going to end up 21 using what we normally use on our roads, which is a hot seal. 22 But I wanted to explore -- I don't know enough about it yet. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 24 MR. HASTINGS: There was some other stuff that 25 C & M Precast had recommended to me that was very 6-1-15 bwk 108 1 high-dollar. We're probably going to end up going with our 2 own traditional methods, but I wanted to make sure there was 3 enough money to do that. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 5 COMMISSIONER REEVES: This is what you and I went 6 out on the dam and looked at? 7 MR. HASTINGS: Yes, sir. 8 COMMISSIONER REEVES: That's correct? 9 MR. HASTINGS: Yes, sir. 10 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Where you could start seeing 11 some seepage and stuff. They're trying to stop it before it 12 gets too far. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: How many dams does the county 14 own? 15 MR. HASTINGS: Three. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Three. So -- 17 MR. HASTINGS: That I know of. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: -- Ingram, -- 19 JUDGE POLLARD: Flat Rock. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: -- Flat Rock. 21 MR. HASTINGS: Flat Rock. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And then Center Point. 23 MR. HASTINGS: Center Point, Lions Park. 24 MR. ODOM: If we don't spend all of the 10,000, 25 it's still available. 6-1-15 bwk 109 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. Yeah. No, I was just 2 -- yeah, I don't have any issue with the line item there. I 3 was just curious. It's three dams that -- 4 MR. HASTINGS: Yes, sir. And then that would also 5 give us the ability on occasion to -- to hire some type of a 6 geotechnical firm for inspections, that's right. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. All right. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's what I was going to 9 ask. What -- is there money in the budget, like if you 10 needed to X-ray the dam? 11 MR. HASTINGS: That's how I would use it. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. 13 MR. HASTINGS: Yes. It wouldn't be expensive. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Schlumberger used to come in 15 and do that for us. 16 MR. HASTINGS: That's right. 17 JUDGE POLLARD: See, this kind of memory is 18 invaluable to the Court. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. 20 JUDGE POLLARD: We're going to miss that. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's all the questions I 22 have on Road and Bridge. 23 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. Do you have any 24 further, Mr. Baldwin? 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No, sir. 6-1-15 bwk 110 1 JUDGE POLLARD: Mr. Reeves, anything further on 2 Road and Bridge? 3 COMMISSIONER REEVES: No, nothing. 4 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I sure like to hear people 6 looking years ahead, though. I love that. I love the 7 conversation. 8 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. What's next? 9 MR. ROBLES: 595, I think, is our last one. 10 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What might that be? Does 12 have it a name? 13 MR. ROBLES: City/County operations. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: What's that under? 15 MR. ROBLES: Miscellaneous. 16 JUDGE POLLARD: City/County. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Oh, City/County. I'm sorry. 18 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Under the miscellaneous tab. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Oh. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: 595? 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: City/County, right after 22 D.P.S. 23 JUDGE POLLARD: Yeah, there it is. 24 MR. ROBLES: Y'all already passed the airport 25 budget for the 35,000, and then the other 25 is for the RAMP 6-1-15 bwk 111 1 grant. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Miscellaneous. I'm sorry I'm 3 slow. 595? 4 JUDGE POLLARD: Mm-hmm. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 6 JUDGE POLLARD: Any questions, Mr. Baldwin? 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No, sir. 8 JUDGE POLLARD: Mr. Moser? 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: No, no questions. 10 JUDGE POLLARD: I have none. Do you have any? 11 COMMISSIONER REEVES: None. 12 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. I would like to -- the 13 County Attorney has left. I would like for the County 14 Attorney, since the subject matter of things that have come 15 up in the Legislature passed, I'm concerned about this cap -- 16 rollback cap thing. I think we need the County Attorney to 17 look at it. 18 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I think the Auditor probably 19 would be as much -- the Auditor and Tax Collector to just 20 kind of make sure this doesn't affect our rollback rate. The 21 last I heard, it was arguing in between the House and the 22 Senate over when it would take effect. One would be a 23 special election in September. The other one was going to be 24 in November, because they were arguing how to get it in time 25 for the -- it was going to mess up the budgets. So, I do 6-1-15 bwk 112 1 believe it will take an election. 2 JUDGE POLLARD: Well, any other legislation that 3 has passed, though, that is going to affect the county. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: How about the 198th -- I mean, 5 not the 198th; the Kendall County? 6 JUDGE POLLARD: As far as we know, it did not pass. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I heard it did pass. 8 JUDGE POLLARD: Did you? 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's what I heard. I heard 10 that from somebody -- Judge Ables said that. 11 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Last I heard, it had been 12 killed by Representative Murr, but it may have come back. 13 JUDGE POLLARD: Well, it was possible that -- 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Possible it was. 15 JUDGE POLLARD: -- committee could add it back 16 right towards the end. And I understand -- 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: He said if that happened, he 18 couldn't do anything else. 19 JUDGE POLLARD: Yeah. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, I heard Sunday that it 21 had passed, so -- 22 JUDGE POLLARD: Well, I'd like for some kind of a 23 -- if the County Attorney could look at whatever passed that 24 affects us. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 6-1-15 bwk 113 1 JUDGE POLLARD: Give us some kind of report on it, 2 that would be nice. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Let's see if I can get 5 somebody right quick. 6 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Don't be calling the governor 8 right now; he's busy. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: (On his cell phone.) Hey, 10 George. What do you mean, we have a new governor? 11 (Laughter.) 12 JUDGE POLLARD: Just so he doesn't jump back to 13 Ronald. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Hey, I'm sitting here in 15 Commissioners Court. It's a big room with a lot of windows 16 and people and things, and everyone's listening. So what 17 happened with the -- with the Kendall County deal? ... And 18 it passed? ... All right, go back to sleep. ... Is that who 19 you'd talk to, is Andy? ... Probably, yeah. Let us know. 20 ... See you, bye. (End of phone call.) He said his 21 understanding, it passed. 22 JUDGE POLLARD: Who was it you talked to? 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Judge Emerson. 24 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That was very unlikely that 6-1-15 bwk 114 1 that thing would change over there. I mean, that had to be 2 a -- 3 JUDGE POLLARD: We're going to have to address it 4 in the budget, then. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's the reason I brought it 6 up. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: -- serious conversation if 8 it changed. 9 JUDGE POLLARD: Let me say that I've had a 10 conversation with Bruce Curry, and I think I told most of the 11 Commissioners -- I haven't told them all; I apologize. He 12 said that, just looking -- forecast in the future, that he's 13 probably not going to run for re-election. And if he 14 doesn't, then he anticipates that Lucy will run for the 15 D.A.'s position, and if she's elected, she would then move 16 into his salary, and her salary at $130,000 will be 17 eliminated. And that the three -- that she would then be the 18 D.A., and then there would be only two assistants, because 19 the gal that was on the City Council has resigned. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Stacy? 21 JUDGE POLLARD: Stacy has resigned, so we don't -- 22 we'd only have two assistants. And that would free up, when 23 Stacy quit, that $24,000. They were only paying for her 24 insurance, no salary. And then $130,000 on -- on Lucy's 25 salary would be eliminated, so that would be $174,000. But 6-1-15 bwk 115 1 of that, we'd only get our percentage between us and 2 Gillespie County. But that does reduce it some, so -- the 3 impact of it. But the next question is when it's going to go 4 into effect. I heard '17. 5 MS. DOSS: That's what I heard also, was '17. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Mid-January or something 7 like that. Same time everything else -- 8 COMMISSIONER REEVES: It would run in '16. Instead 9 of being appointed by the governor, I guess they'd run next 10 year, take office 1/1 of '17. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, one -- 1/15 or 12 something that -- that there's a time frame. 13 JUDGE POLLARD: So, actually, we won't need to 14 address it in this current budget process. 15 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Probably not this budget, but 16 in future budgets we'll have to look at it. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Let's find out the details. 18 JUDGE POLLARD: Yeah. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 20 COMMISSIONER REEVES: All right. 21 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. I'll entertain a motion to 22 adjourn. 23 COMMISSIONER REEVES: So moved. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 6-1-15 bwk 116 1 JUDGE POLLARD: Been moved and seconded. Those in 2 favor, raise your right hand. It's unanimous, 3-0. 3 (Budget workshop was adjourned at 11:20 a.m.) 4 - - - - - - - - - - 5 6 7 STATE OF TEXAS | 8 COUNTY OF KERR | 9 The above and foregoing is a true and complete 10 transcription of my stenotype notes taken in my capacity as 11 official reporter for the Commissioners Court of Kerr County, 12 Texas, at the time and place heretofore set forth. 13 DATED at Kerrville, Texas, this 5th day of June, 2015. 14 15 REBECCA BOLIN, Kerr County Clerk 16 BY: _________________________________ Kathy Banik, Deputy County Clerk 17 Certified Shorthand Reporter 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 6-1-15 bwk