1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT 9 Budget Workshop 10 Tuesday, June 23, 2015 11 1:30 p.m. 12 Commissioners' Courtroom 13 Kerr County Courthouse 14 Kerrville, Texas 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 PRESENT: TOM POLLARD, Kerr County Judge 23 H. A. "BUSTER" BALDWIN, Commissioner Pct. 1 TOM MOSER, Commissioner Pct. 2 24 JONATHAN LETZ, Commissioner Pct. 3 25 ABSENT: BOB REEVES, Commissioner Pct. 4 2 1 I N D E X June 23, 2015 2 PAGE 3 --- Participate in Budget Workshops with county departments, including, but not limited to: 4 Crime Victims Coordinator 5 5 Indigent Services 7 198th D.A. 22 6 Maintenance -- Courthouse/related buildings 7 Jail Parks 8 Hill Country Youth Event Center Tax Assessor/Collector -- 9 Election Services 31 Information Technology 34 10 Veteran Services -- County Auditor 57 11 --- Adjourned 74 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 3 1 On Tuesday, June 23, 2015, at 1:30 p.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: All right. It's Tuesday, 8 June 23rd, 2015, and it's about 1:35 p.m., and the Kerr 9 County Commissioners Court is in session now for a workshop 10 session on the -- to participate in budget workshops with 11 county departments including, but not limited to, Crime 12 Victims Coordinator, Indigent Services, 198th District 13 Attorney, Maintenance (Courthouse and Related Buildings, 14 Jail, and Parks), Hill Country Youth Event Center, Tax 15 Assessor/Collector, Election Services, Information 16 Technology, Veteran Services, and County Auditor. All right. 17 I'm looking at my checklist on -- on this, and on the 18 previous one, I had -- did I just fail to mark off Road and 19 Bridge Fund 20, 22, and 71? Did we address those and I 20 failed to check them off? Or do we need to address those? 21 James, do you remember? 22 MS. DOSS: I think we addressed them. 23 MR. ROBLES: I don't have my notes with me. 24 JUDGE POLLARD: I didn't check them off, and I 25 don't know what the significance of that is. 6-23-15 bwk 4 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I didn't check them off on 2 that page. I checked them off -- why don't we find out? 3 JUDGE POLLARD: Funds 20, 22, and 71. 15 is 4 checked off. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 20 is Road Districts, so that's 6 pretty much just automatic. 7 MR. ROBLES: Yeah. 8 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay, so we'll check it off. What 9 about 22 and 71? 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 22 is Flood Control. 11 MS. DOSS: That was the crack seal. 12 JUDGE POLLARD: And Road Trust. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's 71. 14 JUDGE POLLARD: Yeah. Do we need to address those? 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 71, those are funds only for 16 Precincts 1 and 4 to use. I'm not sure about that one, but 17 there's not a lot to use in that fund. 18 JUDGE POLLARD: So, just skip them? 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Schreiner Trust, Flood Control. 20 JUDGE POLLARD: What about Flood Control? Do you 21 remember anything, Charlie? 22 MR. HASTINGS: No, sir. 23 MR. ROBLES: We usually budget the same amount 24 every year. 25 MS. DOSS: That was for the crack sealing for the 6-23-15 bwk 5 1 dam, and grout for the three dams. 2 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. So, we'll check it off 3 and don't have to address it. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is that -- we're going to do 5 more repairs this year, Charlie? 6 MR. HASTINGS: More -- 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: On the dams? 8 MR. HASTINGS: Yes, we're going to need to. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I think we talked about that. 11 MR. HASTINGS: We did. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 13 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. Then we'll go to the 14 next page, then, and it looks like Crime Victims/Indigent. 15 Fund 438 is next. Any questions or comments about that one? 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Question. In your notes, on 17 the local mileage, it says possible reimbursement with a 18 grant. And if so, then that would be reimbursed or put back 19 into the general account? Is that -- 20 MS. LAVENDER: Correct. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And that would be the same 22 thing for the state travel? 23 MS. LAVENDER: Actually, on the state travel, the 24 full amount of that budget item is in the grant request. And 25 a part of that was to attend the Texas Victims Services 6-23-15 bwk 6 1 Association Conference, and there is no Texas Victims 2 Services Association Conference, so there will be some 3 money -- that grant money available to move over into the 4 mileage stuff. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So what does that mean in the 6 budget request here? Is that travel -- 7 MS. LAVENDER: Nothing. Until we get the grant, we 8 can't do anything. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. So when would you 10 anticipate knowing about the grant? 11 MS. LAVENDER: After the 1st of September sometime. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. So, in the new year. 13 MS. LAVENDER: It has to be left in here -- should 14 be left in here, because we won't know until -- 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. 16 MS. LAVENDER: -- y'all have already adopted the 17 budget for sure. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. That's the only 19 question I had on that one. 20 MS. LAVENDER: Okay. 21 JUDGE POLLARD: Well, I thought I saw Mr. Baldwin. 22 MS. LAVENDER: He is -- he's standing right there. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Just keep going. 24 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. 25 (Commissioner Baldwin entered the courtroom.) 6-23-15 bwk 7 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Did they start without me? 2 MS. LAVENDER: They did. I would say that both 3 Bandera and Gillespie Counties have indicated that in their 4 budgets, they're going to put in money to help fund the grant 5 match for the government grants again this year. They did it 6 this last year -- actually, Bandera hasn't paid, but we're 7 working on that. Gillespie has, and so we base their amount 8 of percentage on how many victims -- felony victims they deal 9 with. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 11 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. If there are no questions -- 12 Mr. Baldwin, do you have any? 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I don't have any questions. 14 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you. 16 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. The next one is Crime 17 Victims Fund 50, Indigent Services. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I have some questions. 19 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And that's on 204, Lab/X-ray. 21 It's -- you know what I do. I go back and look at actuals. 22 In 2014, it was 700, and then it jumped to 2,000 in the 23 current budget, and 2,000 in the requested budget, so a 24 factor of three, or a 250 percent increase. What was that 25 for on Lab/X-ray? 6-23-15 bwk 8 1 MS. AYALA: Well, people are in the hospital. They 2 tend to have more X-rays if they're an inpatient. We can't 3 -- we can't figure out who's going to be in the hospital, how 4 many X-rays they're going to need, you know, if that's -- 5 MS. LAVENDER: There's really no way to predict 6 this program. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, but I look at what the 8 actuals have been, okay. You look back and then kind of 9 extrapolate forward, and from 300 to 1,600 to 700, and then 10 it jumps up to 2,000. And so far this year, you spent 200, 11 so -- and the idea in the budget is not just putting in there 12 what you might need. It's -- because if we budget too much 13 more than we have, then it means somebody else isn't going to 14 get the money that they may need, as opposed to putting -- 15 MS. LAVENDER: Let me answer that. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Let me finish -- putting 17 enough margin and fat in there. So, what we need to do is 18 just tighten down as much as we can. 19 MS. LAVENDER: Okay. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: If there's an emergency, we've 21 got emergency funds. 22 MS. AYALA: Yeah. If they're an inpatient, they're 23 going to need those X-rays. We don't have no -- 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Why not make it 10,000? 25 I'm -- what I'm saying, the trend doesn't look like 2,000. 6-23-15 bwk 9 1 MS. LAVENDER: Okay. The law says we have to set 2 aside 8 percent of our general tax revenue for Indigent 3 Health. We have no way to predict today how much we're going 4 to need next year, and we've already cut this budget. Last 5 year you gave us 50 percent of what we requested, and we 6 can't just keep cutting our budget in order to make your 7 budget look better, because we have no way to predict how 8 many people are going to come into our doors to -- to need 9 services. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: We don't know how many floods 11 we're going to have. We don't know how many people are going 12 to be in jail. 13 MS. LAVENDER: That's correct, sir. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: But we don't know how many -- 15 MS. LAVENDER: But this is a different funding 16 stream than everybody else's. This is Fund 50. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 18 MS. LAVENDER: And this is not -- 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So what does that mean to me? 20 MS. LAVENDER: Well, mine is Fund 10, and it's out 21 of general revenue. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: 10 and 50 doesn't mean 23 anything to me. Help -- somebody help me. What does Fund 10 24 and 50 mean? 25 MS. DOSS: 10 is the general fund, and Fund 50 is 6-23-15 bwk 10 1 Indigent Health, and it is funded by tax revenue. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: From -- so it's still coming 3 in. It's revenue that comes into the county. I don't care 4 what number you call it; it's still revenue that comes in out 5 of the money we get. 10, 20, 50, I don't care. So -- but 6 I'm just making -- I'm not just picking on this particular 7 thing. I'm just talking about in general, okay? We can't 8 put -- you know, we go out of the year with 500, 700, a 9 million dollars. 10 MS. LAVENDER: You can make it whatever you want to 11 make it. It doesn't matter to us. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's -- I'm not asking that. 13 I know we can make it whatever we want to make it. 14 MS. LAVENDER: Okay. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I'm trying to understand it, 16 okay? 17 MS. LAVENDER: Okay. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Trying to understand it and 19 see if there's anything we can take out of it now for areas 20 that we think we're going to need, rather than having too 21 much margin. 22 MS. LAVENDER: You can take out -- 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I'm looking at the trend. 24 MS. LAVENDER: Go ahead and take out whatever you 25 want to take out, but know that if we overspend, you're going 6-23-15 bwk 11 1 to have to move money back in. That's all we can do. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I understand that. Let me ask 3 you another question. You -- and in your notes, you say 4 8 percent, 8 percent, 8 percent. That's 8 percent for the 5 total? Indigent -- because you said 8 percent on each line 6 item. Is 8 -- 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 8 percent total. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Total? 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We're obligated -- the first 10 8 percent of our general -- of our budget, we're obligated to 11 spend on indigent health care, if its gets to that amount. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Is it 8 percent of the budget, 13 or it says 8 percent of the revenue. 14 MS. LAVENDER: 8 percent of the tax revenue. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Huh? 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Tax revenue. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Tax revenue from what source? 18 8 percent of what? From ad valorem taxes? From Road and 19 Bridge's -- 20 MS. BOLIN: Ad valorem taxes. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Just ad valorem taxes, okay. 22 Well, that's just one -- 23 MS. LAVENDER: And that's the state law. That's 24 not something we have any input into. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I'm just trying to understand 6-23-15 bwk 12 1 8 percent of what. And it's 8 percent of ad valorem, so what 2 does that amount to? 3 MS. BOLIN: I'd have to go get the reports from 4 last year. If you'd like, I'll do that. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: No. Okay. All right. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's a lot more than you're 7 budgeting. 8 MS. LAVENDER: Oh, yeah. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Probably in the neighborhood of 10 over a million dollars. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So we're obligated for that, 12 so if we had something, that's one of the reasons we have a 13 25 percent reserve. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Okay. Well, I just 16 think it's a big jump for lab X-rays. And I understand you 17 can't -- you don't know who's going to be needing X-rays, but 18 you can make it 4,000 or 6,000 or 1,000. So -- 19 MS. LAVENDER: Put whatever number you'd like in 20 there, and we're good with it. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay, put $1,000 in there. 23 That's -- it was 200, 1,500, and 700. I think -- 24 MS. LAVENDER: That's fine. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Good. Okay. Minus 1,000. 6-23-15 bwk 13 1 That's what I'd whittle it back to. Let's see, another 2 question. Prescription drugs. The actual is 1,800. Same 3 question there, and I think it's -- the answer's going to be 4 the same. It's up to 2,500, so it's -- or 3,500. You go 5 from 1,800 actual last year to 3,500 request. That's a 6 100 percent increase. I don't think drugs have increased 100 7 percent. 8 MS. LAVENDER: It's not an increase. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: 1,800 to 3,500 is an increase. 10 What do you mean? 11 MS. LAVENDER: Just put whatever number you want to 12 put in there. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: No, but you said it's not an 14 increase. It is an increase. 15 MS. LAVENDER: Okay. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: If we -- if we budgeted year 17 before last -- I'm sorry I'm being hard, but I'm going to 18 play hardball. 19 MS. LAVENDER: That's fine. Just pick a number and 20 put it in there. If we go over that -- 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's irresponsible for you 22 to say pick a number and put it in there. 23 MS. LAVENDER: Okay. We have no -- 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I want you to defend it. You 25 put it in here. Defend it, okay? 6-23-15 bwk 14 1 MS. LAVENDER: I have no defense. This is a 2 guessing game, and so we guessed that this might be how much 3 we need for next year. We don't know. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Guessing game, all 5 right. We'll put it back where it was, the actual, then. 6 I'd say take 1,500 out, make it 2,000. If it's just a 7 guessing game. 8 MS. LAVENDER: You took away half a million dollars 9 last year. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Hospital outpatient. Actual, 11 20,000 in '14. 58,000 requested this year. I'm listening. 12 Where did the 58,000 come from? 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The trend, looking at that, is 14 25, 50, 20. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: 58. 16 MS. LAVENDER: And we don't know how much we've 17 spent this year because I didn't get the current numbers from 18 James. Can you tell them how much we've spent so far this 19 year? 20 MR. ROBLES: It's right here, 13,397. 21 MS. LAVENDER: Actually, it's more, because we had 22 -- we've had bills the first part of June that -- 23 MS. AYALA: That were, like, 38,000 this year. 24 MS. LAVENDER: We've spent about 38,000 so far this 25 year. 6-23-15 bwk 15 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Wow. So you've spent 38,000 2 so far this year, so that's -- 3 MS. AYALA: This is the month of June. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Pardon me? 5 MS. AYALA: That was the month of June. 6 MS. LAVENDER: In the month of June, we spent 7 38,000. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So, help me understand how it 9 can double from the previous year. 10 MS. AYALA: Because the patient -- one client, he 11 was in there; he had a heart stint -- 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I can't hear you. I don't 13 think anybody can hear you. 14 MS. AYALA: One client, he was on the program. He 15 had a heart attack. He had stints in his heart. That bill 16 was $58,000. We paid out 23,000. Another client had a 17 $27,000 bill. We ended up paying 12,000 this month in June. 18 So, we can't predict who's going to be in the hospital, what 19 they're going to need done. It's just a guessing game. You 20 know, we -- you know, you can't predict -- 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 22 MS. AYALA: -- who's going to get sick and who's 23 not. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Ms. Auditor, see what I'm 25 trying to do? I'm just trying to get something so we're not 6-23-15 bwk 16 1 over-budgeting, but still being responsible. And knowing 2 that other people are going to need increases, like 3 maintenance of Ag Barns and things like that we know are 4 going to increase. So is it -- on the reserve that we have, 5 the 25 percent reserve -- the 25 percent reserve that we 6 keep, is that -- I'm going to wait for these people to quit 7 talking. 8 MS. LAVENDER: But Fund 50 funds can't be used for 9 the Ag Barn. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I'm trying to -- 11 MS. LAVENDER: It's a different -- 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Stand by. I'm asking a 13 question, if I may. If it's -- the 25 percent you have in 14 reserve, if somebody comes in, has a heart attack and they 15 need 100,000, okay, is that something we can take out of 16 reserve as an emergency? 17 MS. DOSS: As -- no, not as an emergency. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Huh? 19 MS. DOSS: Not as an emergency. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So we have to -- I mean, they 21 don't -- I mean, these ladies don't know what's going to come 22 down the pike. 23 MS. DOSS: Right. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So we have to budget for the 25 unknown unknowns? 6-23-15 bwk 17 1 MS. DOSS: We have to have enough in there in Fund 2 50, yes. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So you can't take money out of 4 reserves? 5 MS. DOSS: Not as an emergency, no. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: What constitutes an emergency? 7 MR. ROBLES: Grave public necessity. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Grave public necessity. 9 MR. ROBLES: That's what it says in the statute. 10 Like, if a dam breaks and floods a portion of the county. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. So, a bunch of people 12 come in and get some kind of medical issue as a group of 13 people. That's not -- that wouldn't be a -- 14 MR. ROBLES: That's not -- I'm not a lawyer. 15 That's not my -- 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Let me ask this question. If 17 we don't fund -- budget enough because it is an unknown in 18 this category, if we don't fund enough and say we're 19 budgeting for Indigent Health $300,000, and the cost comes in 20 at 400,000 for the year, where does that extra 100,000 come 21 from? Where -- how do we get -- 22 MS. DOSS: We would have to transfer it from the 23 general fund. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And the question is, how do we 25 do that without doing an emergency? 'Cause I think that was 6-23-15 bwk 18 1 Commissioner Moser's question. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, that's where I'm going. 3 Yeah, thank you. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We don't know what the amount's 5 going to be. 6 MS. DOSS: Right. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So you -- 8 JUDGE POLLARD: Just a budget transfer is what it 9 will be, right? From the general fund? 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But you can't -- see, if the 11 budget's only 300,000, and we have $100,000 in bills, -- 12 MS. DOSS: Right. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- where -- how do we declare 14 an emergency to get it out of reserves during the budget 15 year? 16 MS. DOSS: I don't know that. 17 MS. LAVENDER: That's not -- you just have to pay 18 it. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: You can't if you don't have 20 the money. 21 MS. STEBBINS: I don't know it necessarily would be 22 that you declare an emergency to get it, to make the change. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: What's that? 24 MS. STEBBINS: I don't know that you'd necessarily 25 declare an emergency to make the change; that there may be 6-23-15 bwk 19 1 another way to do it. 2 JUDGE POLLARD: Just be a budget amendment. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: But out of reserve. 4 MS. DOSS: It would be out of the reserves of the 5 general fund, yes. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. See, to me, that's -- 7 that's our -- a lot of these contingencies and things like 8 that, that's a lot of money to have setting aside. And I 9 know revenue doesn't come in at the same time as things 10 happen, but that's a lot of money to have there. And you 11 would hope in the budget process, you could use that as -- as 12 the margin -- the safety net. 13 MS. DOSS: Mm-hmm. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: As long as it's -- we can 15 legally do it. 16 MS. LAVENDER: Let me say one other thing. When we 17 brought the program over here in 2008, that previous year, 18 Kerr County had paid out almost or right at a million point 19 two, right at over a million dollars. And last year we paid 20 out 139,000. I -- you know, you just can't keep cutting this 21 budget and not play a gambling game, that next year it's 22 going to be less, because we have no control over medical 23 costs. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. 25 MS. LAVENDER: I don't know what the State's going 6-23-15 bwk 20 1 to do. I just gave you an article about what the federal 2 government's fixing to do, and that's cut back on the federal 3 funds coming in, to force the State to change their rules on 4 Medicaid. So, we really have no control -- 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I understand. 6 MS. LAVENDER: -- over who comes through our doors. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, I understand that, Rosa. 8 I understand. I'm just trying to understand the flexibility 9 that we have for the unknown, like you have. And I know you 10 can't predict all this stuff, and just -- I was just trying 11 to look at trends. And also, the trend you're talking about 12 medical costs are going up, you need to factor that in. I 13 clearly understand, but I'm just saying so we don't 14 overbudget, okay, what's our safety net? And I think 15 Jonathan's question has helped me understand what the safety 16 net could be. So -- 17 MR. ROBLES: Just so you know, there's 182,000 in 18 fund balance in Fund 50, so if we did go over, we could just 19 increase the budget, because they have money in reserves for 20 that. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. There's another place 22 for reserve. 23 MR. ROBLES: Right. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Let me see if I have 25 another question on this line. 6-23-15 bwk 21 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Can I say something? 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's all my questions. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yesterday in the regular 4 bills, I noticed that you had a huge, huge month. I guess 5 that was the month of -- 6 MS. LAVENDER: The month of May that we're paying 7 in June. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Is that those two things 9 that you were just talking about? 10 MS. LAVENDER: Right. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And I just didn't have the 12 heart or the guts to bring that up yesterday. 13 MS. LAVENDER: Yeah. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: But -- so I agree with you 15 on that part; you don't really -- you don't know what the 16 numbers are. But I agree with him on his part; we don't know 17 what numbers are going -- anything's going to do. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Sure. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: To be honest. 20 MS. LAVENDER: That's really -- 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: You just do the best you 22 can. So, you're going to fire her or what? 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: No, that's all the questions I 24 have. And thank you for -- thank you for just -- okay. 25 That's all the questions I had. 6-23-15 bwk 22 1 JUDGE POLLARD: Anybody else have any questions 2 about Fund 50? Jonathan, do you have any? 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No, sir. 4 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. Let's go on to 198th 5 District Attorney, account -- Fund 445. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Oh, boy. 7 MR. MONROE: Glad Rosa ran interference for me. 8 (Laughter.) I stand before you humble, ready to field any 9 questions. 10 JUDGE POLLARD: That's not how I remember you. 11 MR. MONROE: I've changed a lot, Tom. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Out of order with that 13 comment. 14 MR. MONROE: Yeah. I don't know how you've got 15 that broken up there. We -- internally, our format's a 16 little bit different. The majority of the increases that we 17 have put on here are directly related to Stephen Harpold. We 18 -- I'm paying him $100,000 a year. I'm making up -- 84 is 19 what Donnie was making, and I'm making up the difference 20 there. That was what Stephen required to come to work for 21 us. We made up the difference last year with forfeiture 22 money, which is just something I've -- I don't have the 23 liberty of being able to predict that I can continue to do. 24 So, I've got the increase in there, so the increase in FICA, 25 group health and retirement is all related to Stephen. The 6-23-15 bwk 23 1 only other thing, you'll see some slight increases and 2 decreases. Our total non-salary ticket is 33 grand. Our 3 office runs pretty efficiently, I think. 4 The other thing I've got in there that's new is 5 professional services. And we've kind of rolled the dice on 6 this in the past of not having to hire our own experts. This 7 year we did. I'm paying for it out of forfeiture. We're 8 having to hire our own psychologist to defeat an incompetency 9 request, and we just haven't had to do that before. We did 10 it this year, so putting it in there. If I can't do it with 11 you guys, I do have the ability to go somewhere else, but I 12 think it's -- you know, I don't think it's an inappropriate 13 request to start putting that in the budget. But, anyway, 14 it's -- it is a little bit different than last year, but not 15 exponentially. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What is your balance in 17 forfeiture money? 18 MR. MONROE: I think it's 440-some-odd thousand. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Let me ask you a question, 20 just -- 21 MR. MONROE: You're going to be nice to me, aren't 22 you? 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: This is an easy question. 24 Trend. May be a hard answer, but easy question. The -- I'm 25 just looking at the bottom line, what the actuals have been, 6-23-15 bwk 24 1 and the -- and what the budget request is. So, it's gone 2 from a total of 205,000 in 2013 to 265,000 in 2014, so that's 3 almost a 30 percent increase. And then the request is a 4 37 percent increase over the actual in 2014. 5 MR. MONROE: I can't answer any of those numbers. 6 My format that we use internally, that's what I'm looking at. 7 I'm looking at this. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I'm not looking at that. 9 MR. MONROE: We're not speaking the same language. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I'm looking at the budget. 11 MR. ROBLES: There you go. 12 MR. MONROE: You're going to have to stand up here 13 with me and point it all out to me, 'cause I can't answer. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Go down to the total -- 15 MR. MONROE: See, we don't even have that number on 16 here, James. I don't have a $205,000 number on my breakdown, 17 so I can't answer the question. I can tell you that the 18 budget we submit and how y'all break it down is y'all's deal. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, it's just a single line 20 item, so -- 21 MR. MONROE: And I can't answer your question. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, I think part of it, 23 Commissioner, I believe is -- 24 JUDGE POLLARD: Has to be our part. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, that's our part. But the 6-23-15 bwk 25 1 reason it's up from the 2012, wasn't -- in 2011, wasn't that 2 the 198th reshuffling? 3 MR. MONROE: Actually, that was 2012. But what has 4 happened -- 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But that's why these numbers 6 are a little bit off, because in 2012 they realigned the 7 198th, which changed -- there was more counties in it, so our 8 portion went up. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. That's -- okay. 10 MR. MONROE: And I can -- and that may well be, 11 Tom, the exact answer. Let me state again, too, when I took 12 over as the District Attorney, historically -- and, 13 unfortunately, I disagree with it, but historically, 14 Mr. Sutton had funded his office with forfeiture money. He 15 didn't go to Commissioners in the old 198th for years. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I see. 17 MR. MONROE: He just paid forfeiture money. So 18 when I took over -- and Amos wasn't quite as bad as -- as Ron 19 had been, but he did inherit that. The bed was kind of on 20 fire for Amos, too. So, the first thing I started trying to 21 do, half my staff was paid for with forfeiture money. I've 22 been trying since then to get my staff off forfeiture, 23 because the days are running out. We don't have Kendall -- 24 Kimble County, which is where the vast majority of that 25 forfeiture money came from. Mike Chapman in Kimble County's 6-23-15 bwk 26 1 not even in our district any more, so we're just not going to 2 have forfeiture income like we had. So, I've been trying to 3 get everybody moved off of the forfeiture budget over to the 4 county budget. It's unfortunate. That should have been done 5 incrementally over the last 10 or 12 years, and it was not 6 done. Why Ron did it that way, I can guess, but I don't 7 know. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Well, with that and the 9 thing that Commissioner Letz -- 10 MR. MONROE: That's what -- kind of what it is. 11 I've been trying to shift it out and to get it so you see 12 what the increases have been over the years, are primarily 13 going to be. I think last year, Kyle, we finally got -- it 14 was you, wasn't it? You were the employee? Actually -- 15 MR. DEAN: Yeah. 16 MR. MONROE: -- got Kyle moved off of forfeiture 17 funds into budgeted funds. So, I do have my staff now, 18 although we have a little bit for Stephen Harpold that I'm 19 still paying out of forfeiture, which I am asking that y'all 20 cover this year. I can make it off the forfeiture again next 21 year -- not trying to commit Mr. Letz, who's on our 22 committee, but I can do that. But I'm still -- I'm not -- 23 same M.O.; I'm trying to get my staff covered out of budgeted 24 funds. I just don't have any reason to think that we're 25 going to continue to get forfeiture money. 6-23-15 bwk 27 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, that plus the 2 realignment answered my question. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Didn't you get rid of that 4 committee? 5 MR. MONROE: No. And maybe -- let me tell you 6 what, it's really not a bad thing, especially -- I don't want 7 to predict why Mr. Hilburn did that to my predecessor. I 8 have some ideas about that too, but I'll leave those alone. 9 But before, with six counties, in theory, we would have had 10 to go to six different commissioners courts to get that 11 approved, assuming we could have done that. And by creating 12 the committee, it became logistically 100 times easier for -- 13 so, actually, we look back on that now, and that was a good 14 thing. Real interesting; the new 452nd that they just 15 created, they don't have that rule. They got five counties, 16 and Tonya does not have to -- she doesn't have a committee 17 that she answers to. Amos got that, but that's all right, 18 because it's working out fine for us. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: My only request would be 20 that -- to take the professional services off. I understand 21 you may have it. Take it out, and if you do have it, you 22 could try to use forfeiture funds this year, and then see 23 what happens next year. 24 MR. MONROE: We'll do whatever you guys tell us to 25 do. 6-23-15 bwk 28 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But I agree with keeping the 2 salaries being paid for out of budget. They should be. 3 JUDGE POLLARD: So that means part -- you're making 4 up Harpold's salary with some -- 5 MR. MONROE: We were; 16,000 of it last year out of 6 forfeiture money. We would like to -- 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 16,000? 8 MR. DEAN: 16,000 plus the FICA, retirement -- 9 MR. MONROE: Yeah, FICA, all that. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Probably 20,000 there, so if we 11 could just reduce the -- delete the professional services to 12 zero, and then try to bring that in next year. 13 MR. MONROE: Okay, and that's fine. I'll tell you, 14 Stephen Harpold has been an act of God for us. He is -- he 15 is that good. He's a talented trial lawyer. He's an 16 experienced prosecutor, and he's just a great guy. And 17 everything -- I think across the board in my office, it 18 wasn't bad to begin with, but morale is better. The bar has 19 been raised. Our perception, I think, with the law 20 enforcement agencies that we work with has increased. 21 Stephen's just -- he's a go-getter, and it has been a 22 blessing to have him. We're thrilled, and we want to keep 23 him. And it was just quite by accident that we happened to 24 cross him at a time in his life when he didn't want do what 25 he was doing any more, and -- and we came up and said, "Would 6-23-15 bwk 29 1 you consider this?" And he said yes. And, I mean, he hit 2 the ground running. He's been a blessing. We're glad to 3 have him. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Good. 5 MR. MONROE: I think he's very helpful. So, 6 anyway, any other questions of me? 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's it for me. 8 MR. MONROE: All right. 9 JUDGE POLLARD: Thank you, sir. 10 MR. MONROE: May Kyle and I be excused? I've 11 actually got an interview this afternoon. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I think Menard County is 13 making the money now. 14 MR. DEAN: They've done well. But he's moved on. 15 MR. MONROE: He's not there any more. 16 MR. DEAN: He's gone to the 100th Judicial District 17 in the panhandle. Jumped ship again. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: He's making somebody some 19 money up there. Son of a gun. 20 MR. MONROE: Yeah. We miss him because of lots of 21 interesting conversation regarding Mr. Chapman over the 22 years. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No kidding. Thank you, 24 guys. 25 MR. DEAN: Thank y'all. 6-23-15 bwk 30 1 MR. MONROE: Appreciate it. 2 JUDGE POLLARD: Thank you. 3 MR. MONROE: I had Rosa all prepared to say Stephen 4 was worth every dime. 5 MS. LAVENDER: I got back in time to do it. 6 MR. MONROE: See y'all later. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Good lord. What do we have 8 here? 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I think -- 10 JUDGE POLLARD: We've got Maintenance Department 11 now, Fund 510. Courthouse and related buildings. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge, because Maintenance is 13 so interrelated with the Ag Barn, to me it would make sense 14 to defer this budget until after we know what we're doing 15 there, because what we do there is going to have a huge 16 impact on -- 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I agree 100 percent. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- how we do his whole budget. 19 JUDGE POLLARD: I do too. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I agree. 'Cause I was going 21 to ask that question. 22 MR. BOLLIER: I waited all day for this. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Go back to work. 24 MR. BOLLIER: Yes, sir. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's a good suggestion. 6-23-15 bwk 31 1 JUDGE POLLARD: Want to do all the maintenance 2 departments then? 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think so, 'cause they're 4 inter-related. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 6 JUDGE POLLARD: All right, pass it. I'm going to 7 write a little note so I know what I did, since I can't 8 remember. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's -- 10 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. Let's jump to Tax 11 Assessor/Elections, Account 499. Tax Assessor/Collector. 12 Anybody have any questions? 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I do. 14 JUDGE POLLARD: Go ahead. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Line 485, Conferences. 16 MS. BOLIN: Yes, sir? 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Historically, 2,900, 3,200, 18 5,400, 6,400. Those are big increases every year. 19 MS. BOLIN: Exactly the same conferences I go to 20 every year. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So the conferences are 22 increasing by that percentage? 23 MS. BOLIN: The registration and the hotels, yes. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: How many conference -- how 25 many hours are you required by law? 6-23-15 bwk 32 1 MS. BOLIN: They changed it last year. We're 2 required for 20. Each one of the conferences can go up to 3 20. Generally, it's not that many, but each of the 4 conferences that I do go to do something different for all 5 the different aspects of the office, so that's why I 6 attend -- generally, I attend four. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Things like state license 8 plates, those state issues, they pick up the tab, don't they, 9 on those? 10 MS. BOLIN: On some of them, yeah. We do a lot of 11 webinars when we can, but there are some things that we can't 12 do webinars on, and we have to be present for it. And 13 because of the restructuring of my certification, there are 14 courses that, if I don't go to the conferences, I don't 15 get -- they're not -- I asked if we could do it at our 16 regional meetings, and they said no, they're only going to be 17 available at certain conferences. And I've already missed 18 two this year. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Well, I was just 20 looking at the percentage increase year to year to year. 21 MS. BOLIN: Yeah. I really do try not to increase 22 that if at all possible, but I can't help what -- 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. 24 MS. BOLIN: -- what they cost. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: They've been big increases. 6-23-15 bwk 33 1 MS. BOLIN: But we had a webinar this morning, and 2 we had 15 minutes notice on it. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And conferences, that 4 includes -- you have staff that goes and does some particular 5 training? 6 MS. BOLIN: Employee training -- I try to split it 7 between employee training and the conferences. If I don't go 8 to a conference, then I use mine to send somebody else that 9 needs the training, like Annetta went to our T.A.C.A., 10 because she is in training for the new property tax laws. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, the training. 12 MS. BOLIN: She got all of her credits all at one 13 time last week. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Training is pretty constant. 15 MS. BOLIN: Yes. Yeah, and I have four that are 16 working towards their certification right now, so -- 17 JUDGE POLLARD: We have to keep in mind, too, the 18 Legislature just finished, and there are lots of laws 19 changed. 20 MS. BOLIN: Yes. 21 JUDGE POLLARD: You're going to have to go to more 22 conferences right after a legislative session, find out what 23 the changes are. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Diane, on notices, why was 25 it -- I mean, most years it's real constant. What are the 6-23-15 bwk 34 1 notices for at your office? 2 MS. BOLIN: Those are the notices that I have to 3 put in for all the tax rates. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Oh, okay. That's why they 5 didn't come in yet. 6 MS. BOLIN: That's why nothing's come in yet. And 7 on my postage, I wanted y'all to know -- I know I made a note 8 on it, but my tax statements last year, when I printed them 9 and we mailed them the middle of October, Jeannie took them 10 out of last year's budget, and not this year's budget. 11 That's why it looks like I haven't used any of my postage. I 12 actually have, but she took it out of there because she said 13 we needed this year's. So, don't ask, 'cause I don't know. 14 I just know that's what she did, 'cause I was like, "Where is 15 my postage? I need to know how much I spent so that I can 16 look at all this." But -- 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I don't have any questions. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I have nothing. 19 JUDGE POLLARD: None? No more? Okay. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Election Services. 21 JUDGE POLLARD: Yep, Election Services, Account 22 402. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Question on that. And it 24 could be the machines, but on Line 457, the maintenance 25 expense, -- 6-23-15 bwk 35 1 MS. BOLIN: That's actual. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: -- it's going up -- going up 3 pretty quick. It's gone 400, 1,000, 1,200, now 6,100. 4 MS. BOLIN: Actually, it went down. I don't 5 understand how this is all worked out here, because that's -- 6 that one actually went down from last year, but it's not 7 reflected on here correctly. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, 'cause that's like a 9 500 percent increase. 10 MS. BOLIN: Yeah, but it's not an actual increase. 11 We actually went down. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I'm talking about the budget 13 request. 14 MS. BOLIN: Yes. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 16 MS. BOLIN: I actually had James change that not 17 too long ago. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 19 MS. BOLIN: Because we got actual costs from Hart. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So what should be that, James? 21 MS. BOLIN: Should be the 6,150. That's what we 22 got from Hart. 23 MR. ROBLES: I can find out. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I'm sorry? 25 MS. BOLIN: Want me to go get the e-mail? 6-23-15 bwk 36 1 MR. ROBLES: What is it? 2 MS. BOLIN: The -- you have the right amount in 3 there, but we -- I think we had 7,500 or something in there 4 previously. 5 MS. ALFORD: Right. 6 MS. BOLIN: And it actually went down. 7 MS. DOSS: So the requested budget at 6,150 is 8 correct? 9 MS. BOLIN: Yes. That's actual, yes. 10 MS. DOSS: Okay. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So what are y'all saying? 12 MS. BOLIN: The 6,150 is actually what we're going 13 to be charged by Hart next year for maintenance on our 14 election machines. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So, has there been a change in 16 the election machines to cause such a big increase? 17 MS. ALFORD: Every third year we have -- we have a 18 preventive maintenance. Last time we did it, we did it in 19 '13, so '16 -- 2016 is the next time we do it. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Well, Nadene, what I'm 21 looking at is actuals. 460, 1,000, 1,300. 22 MS. ALFORD: Right. That's -- we put the 23 preventive maintenance of 4,150 in that line item. I think 24 the -- probably in '13, it might have been in the software 25 maintenance. But since it's actually a machine equipment 6-23-15 bwk 37 1 expense, we put it in the maintenance expense. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: But software maintenance has 3 stayed pretty constant around 20,000. 4 MS. ALFORD: Yes, sir, but the last time this was 5 done would have been in 2013. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Help me, though. 7 MS. ALFORD: It should have been probably in 8 software maintenance at that time. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Nadene, simple question. 460 10 in 2012, 1,000 actual in 2013, 1,300 actual in 2014. Those 11 are actuals. And last year's budget request was 2,000, and 12 this year's budget request is 6,000. 13 MS. ALFORD: Yes, sir. The $4,150, which is the 14 actual increase in that line item, 'cause this is -- 2016 is 15 the third -- we do it every three years. I do preventive 16 maintenance on the election equipment, so '16 is the year I 17 do it in. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: But you're still not answering 19 my question. Help me with the trend. 400, 1,000, 1,300, 20 6,000. 21 MS. ALFORD: That's what I'm saying. The 4,000 -- 22 we would normally have 2,000 in that line item. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: But you say you do it every 24 other year; I'm looking back multiple years back. 25 MS. ALFORD: Yes, sir. I believe in 2013, it was 6-23-15 bwk 38 1 in the software maintenance line item. I believe it was in 2 the wrong line item at that time. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: But that line item has stayed 4 pretty flat. So -- 5 MS. ALFORD: Well, we have other -- since that 6 time, we have added a software license for the mail ballots 7 that we just got probably in '14. We didn't have it in '13, 8 so -- and that's $3,000, so that would have been the 9 difference there. We got more tablets, and so that -- for 10 the software. That's in that line item of software 11 maintenance, and it wasn't in the '13 budget at that time, 12 'cause we did not have the tablets at that time. 13 MR. ROBLES: They just paid for it out of a 14 different line item two years ago. 15 MS. BOLIN: Right. 16 MR. ROBLES: I'm looking at the account. They paid 17 almost 6,000 for preventive maintenance in 2012 and '13. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I see. 19 MR. ROBLES: They just didn't pay for it out of 20 that line, so they're -- 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So you take all those things, 22 and it's about -- 23 MR. ROBLES: Yeah. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Put them in apples and apples. 25 Apples and apples, there's not that big a jump. See, I 6-23-15 bwk 39 1 thought maybe there was some new equipment or new machines or 2 something. 3 MS. ALFORD: And, actually, they went down. Like, 4 the E-scans are $100 a piece, and there's 29. They were 125 5 or 150, something like that, and they went down -- 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 7 MS. ALFORD: -- on the maintenance. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I think James answered it for 9 me. Just -- it was when you take the two and put two line 10 items together, they look pretty -- pretty -- okay. All 11 right, that answers that question for me. On election 12 expense -- and maybe this is the same thing here, because it 13 was -- a couple years ago, it was 10,500. Then it was 14 11,000, and now it's 26,000. So, what -- what is election 15 expense and the big increase there? 16 MS. ALFORD: That's adding 12 more tablets for 17 the -- for election -- the tablets that they sign in the 18 voters when you vote and that. I have 30 right now for both 19 parties to use it, each have a tablet in their primary. I 20 need 40, and then with some extras in case something goes 21 haywire on election day. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Are those -- 23 JUDGE POLLARD: Are the increases because of 24 run-offs? 25 MS. ALFORD: Yes. Yes. 6-23-15 bwk 40 1 MS. BOLIN: Yes. Plus we have our mail -- mass 2 mailout this year, so -- 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So you're saying it's 4 primarily tablets? 5 MS. ALFORD: Yes, sir. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Yeah, I do see 7 everybody's got tablets, and seems like new tablets, every 8 time we get an election. Do we just -- do we pick those up 9 and collect them and take care of them, and -- 10 MS. ALFORD: Yes, sir. 11 MS. BOLIN: Oh, yeah. Yeah, they're kept under 12 lock and key when they're not in use. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Are those -- can those 14 be capital, James, or are they -- can they not be? For that 15 small amount. Okay. All right, thank you. 16 JUDGE POLLARD: Anything else? All right, let's go 17 to Tax Assessor/Elections, Fund 12, Election Services. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: No questions there. 19 JUDGE POLLARD: Mr. Baldwin? 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No, sir. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No. 22 JUDGE POLLARD: No? All right, I'll check it off. 23 Thank you, ma'am. 24 MS. BOLIN: You're welcome, sir. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thank you. 6-23-15 bwk 41 1 JUDGE POLLARD: Information Technology, Account 2 408. 3 MR. ROBLES: Do you want me to pull up your web 4 page? 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Big increase in telephone. 6 MR. TROLINGER: Yes, sir. This year I added some 7 fiberoptic connections from Hill Country Telephone to overlap 8 with a project that is capital that's undergoing right now 9 with some microwave network equipment upgrades. So, I cut 10 off one account completely on telephone this month, and 11 another is getting ready to be turned off to basically make 12 up that increase, so it'll be back to $80,000. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: But you're cutting off and 14 things are going up; I'm not understanding. 15 MR. TROLINGER: I had to overlap the services; I 16 had to have both while we were putting in the new equipment. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Oh. So -- but -- so why do 18 you have a 10 percent increase from last year to this year? 19 MR. TROLINGER: Requested right now? 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yes. 21 MR. TROLINGER: James, would you look at that? I 22 thought it went to 80,000 on that. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: It's 88, what it's showing. 24 MR. ROBLES: It's at 88 right now. 25 MR. TROLINGER: I looked at it earlier on Incode, 6-23-15 bwk 42 1 and I thought it was at 80,000, but actual request is 88. 2 And I've got that overlap that does exist, but I anticipate 3 that it'll be under budget at some point. It's -- it's going 4 to overlap in September. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So, is 80 a good number, or is 6 88? 7 MR. TROLINGER: 88 -- 80 is a good number. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. So -- 9 MR. TROLINGER: And I think it will overlap in 10 September. 80 is what it should be. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 12 MR. TROLINGER: I apologize. A.R. and D.R. were 13 different from -- 14 JUDGE POLLARD: So, 80 instead of 88? 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 16 MR. ROBLES: Yeah. 17 JUDGE POLLARD: Anything else? Mr. Baldwin? 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No, sir, thank you. 19 JUDGE POLLARD: Anything else? 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: No. 21 JUDGE POLLARD: Anything else? 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No, sir. 23 MR. TROLINGER: Judge, can I look at a couple items 24 on this, please? 25 JUDGE POLLARD: Yes. 6-23-15 bwk 43 1 MR. TROLINGER: The -- I wanted to present the 2 Information Technology website with the project status, make 3 sure everybody knows about it. There's a link on the I.T. 4 page that shows the current status of the projects, the old 5 projects all the way back to 2005, and some projections I 6 have through 2020, just an outline. At the top of the page, 7 it's pretty easy. If you want to go down through details, 8 every major project from 2005 to present's on there. I put 9 it in y'all's inboxes if you want to have a look at it later. 10 I also put the past five years capital items; it's in y'all's 11 inbox. I just wanted -- 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What are you talking about? 13 MR. TROLINGER: Capital items for I.T. projects. I 14 know we're not talking about capital today, but I wanted to 15 make sure I brought it up so that we anticipate the 16 conversation. So, that's historical information. That's 17 background, and a little bit of projects that I've done 18 through 2020. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I think that I.T. is one 20 department that -- I don't care whether it's government or 21 industry or anything; it just keeps -- the need and the use 22 of it just keeps increasing, and so -- and that's -- but it's 23 more productivity, better productivity. 24 MR. TROLINGER: Thank you for saying that. And 25 I'll tell you what, the Elections Department, they talk about 6-23-15 bwk 44 1 these computers they're using. They used to print stacks of 2 paper and distribute this stuff all over the place, and it 3 wasn't current and it wasn't up-to-date. And today when you 4 go and vote, if you made a change, it's reflected and it's 5 available right there on the spot. They've done really well 6 using the technology. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Good point. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: John, I think probably the 9 one single item that I hear more on the street these days -- 10 it used to be septic tanks, by the way, but what I hear more 11 than anything is our website. How can we get more of what 12 we're doing -- not just us doing, but including us, but our 13 whole system. You know, how can we get Sally Sue's having a 14 car wash out here? Or -- or the blood drive or whatever that 15 thing is we're fixing to do? 16 MR. TROLINGER: Let me give you a good example of 17 something that's being done. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: All right. 19 MR. TROLINGER: Commissioner Moser has a project 20 for parks, and he's got a park rules and regulations draft. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Right, I figured that out. 22 I saw it somewhere. 23 MR. TROLINGER: He sent me the whole kit and 24 caboodle; he sent some pictures, some photography, some 25 things that Road and Bridge had marked up, along with a 6-23-15 bwk 45 1 proposal. And if you click on that, James, the draft of the 2 parks rules and regulations, I made it into a web page that 3 outlines the whole thing. So, if you send it to I.T., then 4 we'll build it. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Let me ask you this. We do 6 -- and this is just -- I'm thinking out loud, Letz. The -- 7 we pay a person to write an article for the newspaper, and 8 that's a good thing. I'm not knocking it, but it's not 9 exactly what I had envisioned when we did that thing. Would 10 it be -- would your system be more conducive to the community 11 than a newspaper article that nobody reads? 12 MR. TROLINGER: I think both are needed. I think 13 the newspaper's still needed. I think people go to the 14 newspaper more than they do the website. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Do you? You don't think the 16 website's up-and-coming, though? 17 MR. TROLINGER: It is. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: More people are going to be 19 doing that in the future. 20 MR. TROLINGER: I appreciate when the newspaper 21 links to it or somebody links to it to pass the word on, like 22 Commissioner Moser's parks project. They can go there and 23 click on it and see everything about it. And the City did 24 the same thing. They opened up the new park and expansion, 25 and they did some promotion and went to the newspaper 6-23-15 bwk 46 1 article, and I clicked on the link, and there was the video 2 that had the -- the hovering video drone. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That was great, too, by the 4 way. 5 MR. TROLINGER: Showing the whole -- you know, the 6 whole thing. You could see right -- they went down the path, 7 and boy, it was amazing. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, great. 9 MR. TROLINGER: And when the newspaper links into 10 our website and we can give them that extra information, 11 that's what I'd like to promote, is being able to give those 12 details. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So if one of -- one of us or 14 Jody -- or we ask Jody to contact you and we want to put 15 something on there to let the community know about, are we 16 going to have to pull a gun on you, or how receptive are you 17 going to be to us? 18 MR. TROLINGER: To post something similar to -- 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Correct. 20 MR. TROLINGER: -- the example I gave you? 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Correct. 22 MR. TROLINGER: Well, it didn't take long. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: He had the thing on the parks 24 up in about three hours. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Let me question him the way 6-23-15 bwk 47 1 I want to. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Oh, sorry. 3 MR. TROLINGER: Well, normally you submit a request 4 to the help desk, the Kerr County I.T. help desk. And the 5 associated materials can come on e-mail, or just on a piece 6 of paper. We've taken them on paper before. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay, thank you. 8 MR. TROLINGER: That's actually what I prefer, is 9 that if you have modifications to the existing web pages, 10 that you use paper for that. If it's something new, the 11 electronic media that Commissioners Moser used was ideal. 12 The whole package was electronic, and just send the thing to 13 the help desk, and we'll make it happen. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Every once in a while we 15 talk about something, and for some reason, it doesn't land on 16 there, and I don't know why. Because we don't request you to 17 do it, I guess. 18 MR. TROLINGER: Sometimes I'll take the initiative 19 if I hear about it, and I say, "Oh, that needs to be on the 20 website." It's obvious. But I'm just not everywhere. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I think that somehow we need 22 to -- we need to focus on that a little bit more, and -- and 23 work with him however he wants to receive it from us. But we 24 need to do that, I think, more often. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I saw that -- 6-23-15 bwk 48 1 JUDGE POLLARD: Promotion. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I saw that thing with the -- 3 what's the word I'm trying to say? 4 MR. TROLINGER: U.A.V.? 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, right, the drone. The 6 camera on the -- going down the path. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I saw it too. Fantastic. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: When I saw that, I thought 9 that would really be neat if we had something like that, 10 maybe not from a drone, but showing images around the county. 11 I mean, the County's absolutely beautiful. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: The new Ag Barn. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Absolutely. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: The property out there. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: The new ag facility -- the 16 whole thing; the parks, the Ag Barn, the Little League 17 fields. And that would be great. 18 MR. TROLINGER: And we have a facilities page just 19 for that, and I've personally taken some footage or had 20 somebody, while I was flying, take some footage and get some 21 pictures of the county facilities. If you go to county 22 facilities, it's about halfway down the drop-down list -- 23 yep. So, I've got a little video there which this player 24 won't run, but you can watch me take off and land. I took 25 some still pictures of the facility, including the fields, 6-23-15 bwk 49 1 which I think are great. You know, that whole area with the 2 Flat Rock Park right in the middle, the Ag Barn facility and 3 the fields to the right. I tried to get all that in there, 4 show all that county property. And then the Historical 5 Commission has given us a couple of pictures, and we've 6 updated that recently. Courthouse picture, I think John 7 Lavender had taken the picture and provided it for us, and 8 something that I'd gotten from some press material for the 9 law enforcement. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: John has some great pictures, 11 and you do. But, I mean, just out at the Ag Barn, outdoor 12 arena and things like that, that show people what's here, 13 that would be great. 14 MR. TROLINGER: The audio-video, the production, 15 that kind of -- that kind of work that the City's doing, 16 they're putting a lot of effort into that. Somebody's doing 17 a lot of -- 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Effort and money. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 20 JUDGE POLLARD: Any photos of the war memorial up 21 anywhere on there? 22 MR. TROLINGER: No, I can't think of any place on 23 the website that has the war memorial. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's a great example, to 25 have the war memorial up there. And July the 4th, we're 6-23-15 bwk 50 1 going to have a big function out there. 2 MR. TROLINGER: But, certainly -- 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's a great example. 4 MR. TROLINGER: The Lavenders each year, for 5 example, provide us with Christmas pictures of the courthouse 6 and the grounds, and we post those. I created an entire web 7 page just for those pictures the past couple of seasons. 8 JUDGE POLLARD: Maggie Baker has sent us a notice 9 that's in my in-box about this July 4th celebration at 10 11 a.m., and I invite you to come get that on and advertise 11 it on the web page. And I'd like to get somebody to take 12 some photos of the war memorial to put up there somewhere. 13 MR. TROLINGER: Okay, can do. Let me focus back 14 over on the budget, please. 15 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. 16 MR. TROLINGER: And the largest line item that I 17 have is software line item, 500 line item. This year it's 18 again at $220,000. And each year, our vendors rubber-stamp 19 10 percent increases on us, and over the years I ask why and 20 fight those things, and want to reduce that line item very 21 badly. It's probably a wash this year again. I'm 22 anticipating, though, once I do get the numbers in, which I 23 don't have all the numbers yet from the major vendors, that 24 it'll be less this year than last year. Some of it is 25 because I've moved -- J.P. Technology Fund is going to fund 6-23-15 bwk 51 1 some of that. We're still paying, but the J.P. Technology 2 Fund's going to take a big chunk of it this year, where we've 3 done some capital things with the J.P. Tech Fund in years 4 past. So, I'm hoping to reduce it, and that this year's 5 software line item will be lower. I don't have the exact 6 number, but right now I'm anticipating, without the 7 increases, that it's at $192,000. 8 The -- the big point that I want to make on 9 software is that each office, if you could, please, when we 10 receive these increases from the vendors, they want 11 10 percent more, and we have to question that and ask what 12 are we getting. You know, what are we getting for that 13 10 percent? In the past, the previous County Clerk, we asked 14 that question, and the vendor said, Well, we're really not 15 doing anything -- we're not actively developing. There's not 16 new legislation or changes, so yeah, we're going to reduce it 17 $2,000. Just because we asked the question. So, just asking 18 the question of the vendors is very important. And as we go 19 through these -- these things in the budget process, I make a 20 spreadsheet up, and it's a very large amount of money, and 21 it's the largest single line item I've got in I.T. And I 22 struggle with each of the items, trying to find a way, even 23 on the -- the $200 or $300 annual cost for software, to 24 reduce that. And, unfortunately, it's just going up. This 25 year I hope to hold status-quo on that at $220,000, and I 6-23-15 bwk 52 1 hope that it's much less than that this year, the actual. 2 We're at about 70,000 remaining. We just encumbered some 3 more this month. 4 The other line item I wanted to bring to your 5 attention is operating equipment. I have $600 remaining. 6 I've had the new offices -- the new office holders, they want 7 to do a lot of things with technology. The County Court at 8 Law, every bit of everything they use is on the computer. If 9 the computer's not working, they can't have court. We've 10 spent every bit of that. I'm behind the curve. Last year I 11 asked for 9,700; I really should have asked for closer to 12 12,000, and I'm probably going to have to ask for a budget 13 amendment this year to get close to what I need finish out 14 the year. And the last item -- I know we're not talking 15 about salaries yet; is that correct? 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Correct. 17 MR. TROLINGER: No salaries, but I am going to, 18 later, when we go to part-time, I want to see if I can fully 19 fund my part-time, because that help is invaluable that we're 20 getting. The County Attorney recently complimented him on 21 some fast response with some humor. 22 MS. STEBBINS: Yes, he always provides a quick 23 response with lots of humor. 24 MR. TROLINGER: I got a couple of really nice 25 compliments from other departments saying really nice things 6-23-15 bwk 53 1 about I.T. this past month, and I appreciate all of that, and 2 I want to keep it going. I have the support so that when you 3 do have problems, we can respond quickly and keep everybody 4 working, especially courtrooms. We've got 86 people on the 5 docket, and I don't know how many hundreds of dollars per 6 hour of people sitting there twiddling their thumbs if the 7 technology's not right. 8 MS. STEBBINS: They take good care of us in the 9 courtrooms. 10 MR. TROLINGER: Last item, I talked to the Auditor 11 today, and there's a -- not an issue, but some new initiative 12 that I'd like to take on purchasing. We've used -- for 13 auctions, we've used Pay Pal and eBay to auction our -- in 14 place of a sheriff's auction to auction our old I.T. 15 equipment, the elections equipment, a bunch of old computers, 16 big stack of them. Somebody bought them. We've got $400 now 17 we can spend on hard drives, and not have to -- or other 18 things. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So you do it on -- on eBay? 20 Is that what you said? 21 MR. TROLINGER: Yes, we do, and it's a 22 Commissioners Court order from years back. I just wanted to 23 remind y'all that it existed. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Good. 25 MR. TROLINGER: Amazon is the -- is the current 6-23-15 bwk 54 1 place to go to find old hard drives and parts and pieces. 2 The City, the I.S.D. spends a lot of money on Amazon 3 purchasing equipment, and I thought that I could save some 4 money by looking at not only eBay, but Amazon for parts, and 5 even maybe commodity I.T. equipment to save a few dollars. 6 The Auditor says we can use her credit card -- 7 MS. DOSS: Mm-hmm. 8 MR. TROLINGER: -- to make those individual 9 purchases, and I'd like to establish the account and at least 10 see how it looks. But I wanted to make y'all aware -- 11 Commissioners Court aware, since it's a financial issue, that 12 once you start seeing something to do with Amazon purchases, 13 there are all these vendors that are available. Basically, a 14 local electronics shop can have a store on Amazon and we can 15 purchase from them, for instance, and there's just so many 16 options available on that, so that eBay has just not got 17 everything that we need any more. 18 JUDGE POLLARD: John, was there anything in your 19 budget to address the copy situation down in juvenile court? 20 MR. TROLINGER: There's not. And typically, the 21 lease copiers are each department's line items, and that's 22 how we've addressed it in the past. So the County Clerk's 23 asking for that additional copy capability, and the J.P.'s 24 tech fund had funded it initially, so I'm not sure which of 25 the two, but we will have to do something with that. 6-23-15 bwk 55 1 Apparently, the -- 2 JUDGE POLLARD: Well, the clerk's office is adding 3 that, then? 4 MR. TROLINGER: Well, I haven't yet. I'm not sure 5 which way to go, but I think that's what it's going to end up 6 being, is the County Clerk's line item. 7 JUDGE POLLARD: When we finish a juvenile hearing 8 down there and there's a judgment entered, Nuvia, the 9 clerk -- we have a copy machine that John's looked at in the 10 closet right behind the bench there, but it's -- it's real 11 slow; you can't do anything with it or whatever. What is it, 12 one minute -- what, six minutes for a copy or something 13 ridiculous like that? 14 MR. TROLINGER: Well, you've got 65 pages of stuff 15 to print, and it's more efficient to send it to a large lease 16 copier. Well, the dilemma is -- 17 JUDGE POLLARD: So she gets up and leaves, and we 18 have down time in court because of that. But ad litem 19 lawyers are charging by the hour and that kind of stuff, and 20 so it would be better if we had some more efficient way to do 21 that. 22 MR. TROLINGER: I've made the thing run as fast as 23 I can with the equipment that's there, and it's still not 24 fast enough, and they're still wanting to use one of the 25 large machines. 6-23-15 bwk 56 1 JUDGE POLLARD: Well, anyway, all right. 2 MR. TROLINGER: So that's -- Judge, to answer that, 3 normally the lease copier line item in one of those two 4 departments is going to -- is going to cover that. I'm not 5 sure which yet. 6 MS. LANTZ: Judge Pollard, Jason Davis, I think, 7 was going to rectify that out of His Probation budget. And 8 he came into my office looking at the printer that they're 9 using in my office, and he made a comment to me he was going 10 to take care of that. 11 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. I don't want to delay the -- 12 MR. TROLINGER: I've got that on our help desk, and 13 I'm working on that. That's a project we've got on help desk 14 now, Judge. And that's it for I.T. The standard -- the 15 year-over-year budget is increasing, but we have lots and 16 lots more things that we're doing with technology. And if I 17 could give you a slide -- I had the time to make an 18 audio-video slide show and presentation. I'd be proud to 19 show you all the -- all the things that the guys have built, 20 all the little I.T. closets and the wiring and the equipment 21 installations that they've done behind the scenes. 22 Behind-the-curtain stuff you don't see that makes it all 23 work. Thanks. 24 MS. BOLIN: Not to mention building their own -- 25 expanding their office in the back of my office. 6-23-15 bwk 57 1 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. Let's go to Veteran's 2 Services. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: She's not here, is she? 4 JUDGE POLLARD: Account 439. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: She's not here. 6 MS. GRINSTEAD: She sent an e-mail earlier. I 7 guess she had a meeting to attend, but I don't -- 8 JUDGE POLLARD: We'll pass it for now. 9 MR. ROBLES: I kind of helped her with her budget, 10 just F.Y.I. 11 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. Let's go to Auditor, 12 Account 495. County Auditor. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Have you hired anybody? 14 MS. DOSS: No, sir. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Why not? 16 MS. DOSS: I haven't found anyone quite yet. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I can't tell if she's angry 18 with me or not. (Laughter.) 19 MS. BOLIN: Don't do anything to run her away. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I think she's saying, "Leave 21 me alone." I think that's what I just heard her say. 22 JUDGE POLLARD: It's not for lack of effort on her 23 part. Let me just tell you, she's really done -- she's 24 worked hard at it, advertised it and advertised it again and 25 interviewed a number of folks, and she just hasn't found 6-23-15 bwk 58 1 anybody satisfactory to meet her standards yet. And one of 2 our problems, it looks like, is that the people with the 3 expertise that she wants, even just bookkeepers -- not 4 accountants or auditors or anything. Bookkeepers are getting 5 jobs in our economy around here now for 50,000 and better. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Wow. 7 JUDGE POLLARD: And we're paying -- we're offering 8 about 40 -- mid-'40's for this job, and she'd like to have a 9 college education and somebody with a degree in business or 10 accounting or something like that, and, you know, we can't 11 meet the market. I've checked with -- yesterday with the 12 C.P.A. firm here, and they had a bookkeeper that had been 13 trained for a year and a half, no college, and she left there 14 and went off and got a job for 52,000. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Golly. 16 JUDGE POLLARD: And there are others that just 17 demand -- the economy is such that there's a shortage of 18 people in that field, and so that's why we're having a hard 19 time getting anybody. We may have to just bite the bullet 20 and come up with some more money somehow and get somebody. I 21 don't know; that's going to be up to her. All right. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I don't have any questions on 23 the budget. 24 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. Do you have any? 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No. 6-23-15 bwk 59 1 JUDGE POLLARD: Thank you very much, ma'am. 2 MS. DOSS: All right. I have another one, 409. 3 JUDGE POLLARD: Yes. 4 MS. DOSS: You'll have questions on that one. 5 JUDGE POLLARD: Any questions on that one? 6 MS. DOSS: I said you'll have questions on that 7 one. That's a hard one to do. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Oh, this is the first call 9 transport. 10 MS. DOSS: That's the new line item that we spoke 11 of yesterday. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Show me that. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: It's -- 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 403. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: -- 403. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: 409-403? 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, first call transport. 19 What is the -- 20 MR. ROBLES: It's going to be at the top, the COLA. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The salaries, the COLA up at 22 the top of 300,000. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Oh, okay. Oh, I see it up 24 there. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Draw a line where the -- all of 6-23-15 bwk 60 1 the insurance and all that stuff is. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: What's your -- I probably have 3 a note, but I haven't seen it yet, but what's your rationale 4 for the increase in contingency from 60 to 125? 5 MS. DOSS: Part of that is because we don't have 6 our health insurance numbers yet, so I'm leaving that larger 7 to maybe cover some of that. When we get our health 8 insurance numbers, then we'll know. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Is that true of all 10 departments? 11 MS. DOSS: Mm-hmm. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Where did we put in the budget 13 our -- the East Kerr Wastewater Project money? 14 MS. DOSS: For the -- the county match part? 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The match and some of that -- 16 some of the funds for that. Where -- is it on a separate 17 line item? Does it come under nondepartmental? 18 MS. DOSS: I have it right now on transfers out. 19 The county match part, we're going to get to that. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 21 MR. ROBLES: Yeah, that's -- 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: But we're not getting to that 23 today? 24 MR. ROBLES: That's the next department. 25 MS. DOSS: Next department. 6-23-15 bwk 61 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, right. So -- but my 2 question is, if you put into contingency for unknown for 3 insurance, we're not doing that in all the other departments, 4 are we, James? 5 MR. ROBLES: Well, once we get the numbers, we'll 6 fix all the other departments with their -- 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: But what I'm saying, it didn't 8 jump out like -- 9 MR. ROBLES: We usually start with 100,000 in 10 contingency, and if we need to scale it back, we do, but 11 that's just a good base to have. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: But it's just unique for the 13 Auditor's office? 14 MR. ROBLES: This isn't -- 15 MS. DOSS: This is nondepartmental. 16 MR. ROBLES: Yeah, this isn't necessarily our 17 budget. 18 MS. DOSS: This is nondepartmental. It has nothing 19 to do with the Auditor's office. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I'm sorry. Nondepartmental, I 21 got it. Okay. Sorry about that. That makes more sense. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Under water planning, current 23 budget has 18,000, and zeroed out. My recollection is, 24 though, that we've transferred money from that to a different 25 fund to pay. I think some of that's gone to the County 6-23-15 bwk 62 1 Attorney, and -- well, we definitely have funds that we're 2 going to -- we're working on with -- through the County 3 Attorney's office with -- what was his name? -- Ed McCarthy 4 we hired. I know we've had expenditures -- 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- out of that, and I think 7 maybe it was probably transferred to County Attorney, 'cause 8 it came out of legal, or came out of somewhere. I thought it 9 came out of water planning. 10 MR. ROBLES: We actually, to be honest, double 11 budgeted that last year. It was -- we also have it in the 12 Department 660, so I took it out of 409 and left it in 660. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What's 660? 14 MR. ROBLES: County-sponsored activity. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Which we haven't covered yet. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. County-sponsored 17 activity. 18 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. Do we want to go on now 19 to Auditor's Account 700? Unless -- any questions on the 20 last one? Any further questions? Okay, let's go on to 21 Auditor Account 700, transfer out. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: What -- help me understand 23 what that means. 24 MS. DOSS: Transfer out? 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. 6-23-15 bwk 63 1 MS. DOSS: It's moving money from the general fund 2 to another fund. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So, it's just the mechanism by 4 which you've got something in the budget to do that? 5 MS. DOSS: Yeah, right. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 7 MS. DOSS: You have to -- 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: We have to approve it anyway. 9 MS. DOSS: Right. Well, yes, and you have to make 10 an entry in one fund that balances to the entry in the other 11 fund. So, when you credit cash and debit transfer out, you 12 have to do the opposite in the other fund. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Okay. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: As an example, the first 15 call transport, is that a transfer out? 16 MS. DOSS: No, we have that budgeted in the one we 17 just looked at. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: She's on two pages back. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's $3,000. 20 MR. ROBLES: I actually changed that to 12. I gave 21 you an extra budget. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Oh. I've been working 23 through this up here, thank you. Don't add any more to me. 24 You -- you changed the 3 to 12? 25 MR. ROBLES: Yeah. I think they said there was 6-23-15 bwk 64 1 about three a month, or it could -- at about $350, so we put 2 12,000 in there. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: As opposed to the three? 4 MS. DOSS: Yes, sir. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. So, 12,000 will be 6 available October the 1st? 7 MS. DOSS: Yes, sir, in -- 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What about next week? 9 MS. DOSS: -- 10-409-403. We made a budget 10 adjustment and moved some money from -- where did we move it, 11 James? 12 MR. ROBLES: I don't have it with me. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Indigent or something like 14 that. 15 MR. ROBLES: Took it from -- yeah, I think 16 contingency, maybe, just to fund the rest of the year. 17 'Cause I think we're starting that on July 1st. 18 MS. DOSS: So we're not transferring -- 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Which is next week, I think. 20 Ma'am? 21 MS. DOSS: So we're not transferring any money to 22 another fund. We just did a budget adjustment from one line 23 item to another. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. 25 JUDGE POLLARD: Not over budget. And did you 6-23-15 bwk 65 1 answer the question you asked me about the funding on the 2 jail thing that you were going to call Jeannie about? 3 MS. DOSS: No. We'll talk about that one later. 4 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So, the -- on the transfer 6 out, that's just a mechanism by which you can -- that's the 7 enabling mechanism by which you can transfer and move from 8 one account and take it out of another account? 9 MS. DOSS: Yes. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And so it needs to be a 11 million dollars, so I can do that. 12 MR. ROBLES: Well, if you look at the note, we 13 break down what that million dollars comes out to. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. 15 MR. ROBLES: It's 25,000 for Fund 32, 50,000 -- 16 MS. DOSS: That's for basically the county match. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 18 MS. DOSS: I don't have any EDAP money here, 19 though, so that's another 64,000, which is county match. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We're going to probably need to 21 do that this year. 22 MS. DOSS: That was my question. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And how about -- 24 MS. DOSS: If we do it this year, then -- 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We'll discuss that tomorrow at 6-23-15 bwk 66 1 that meeting and figure -- we'll bring it back to the Court. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, 'cause we need to talk 3 about it. Acquisition of right-of-ways and so forth. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's part of the EDAP. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, right. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: EDAP will be used for that, I 7 think. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: We'll talk about that 9 tomorrow, though, right. Okay. 10 JUDGE POLLARD: Anything else? 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Say thank you. 12 MS. DOSS: Thank you. Am I done? 13 JUDGE POLLARD: You're done. I think we're done, 14 too. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I think we're through. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What -- what's the rest of our 17 schedule? 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: It's -- I have it. 19 MR. ROBLES: We have one on June 30th and July 1st, 20 which are next week, and then we also have one on July 6th to 21 cover employees and revisit departments. 22 MS. DOSS: So we'll have to put Maintenance in 23 somewhere. 24 MR. ROBLES: Yeah. And honestly, we may need 25 another budget hearing, 'cause now we got Maintenance to do, 6-23-15 bwk 67 1 which is going to be a long one. I don't know if we're going 2 to be able to fit all of that in on the 6th, unless y'all 3 want to be here for a while. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The 6th, isn't that -- that's a 5 Monday, right? 6 MR. ROBLES: 4th is a Saturday. 7 MS. GRINSTEAD: It is a Monday, which is when 8 you're scheduled to meet with the -- 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The Ag Barn folks. 10 MS. GRINSTEAD: -- Ag Barn people. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Bob and I are, anyway. 12 MS. GRINSTEAD: And when we're talking about that, 13 we have it for the 7th, and I just -- the meeting here is 14 supposed to be on the 7th. At 10:00, I think. You have a 15 mental health board meeting that day at 10:00, so I don't 16 know if you want to push that back till 1:30 or -- which you 17 didn't know about, but I got an e-mail. 18 JUDGE POLLARD: Monday, I have a mental health -- 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Tuesday. 20 MS. GRINSTEAD: Tuesday. But Monday, they're 21 trying to schedule a budget workshop. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: How long do they tend to last? 23 JUDGE POLLARD: Is this a mental health trial, 24 or -- at the C.S.U.? Or is it -- 25 MS. GRINSTEAD: It's a board meeting. 6-23-15 bwk 68 1 JUDGE POLLARD: It's a board meeting. 2 MS. GRINSTEAD: At the Y.O. 3 JUDGE POLLARD: How long is a piece of string? 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Twice as long as half of it. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: If it's lunch, we can all 6 go. 7 JUDGE POLLARD: It's -- you know, an hour is 8 average -- is an average. It may go an hour and a half. 9 Kind of depends what's going on, but there are no real hot 10 issues over there going on right now. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Why don't we -- I'd say we 12 schedule the interviews at 1 o'clock, and we'll do Global 13 Spectrum first so they can get to San Antonio and get flights 14 out of town. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What day are we talking 16 about? 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 7th of July. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And at 1 o'clock? 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, if that works for 20 everybody else. I mean -- 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Mm-hmm. 22 MS. GRINSTEAD: Do we want to pick a new date, 23 then, for that July 6th budget workshop? Since two of you 24 won't be here? 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What time's the workshop? 6-23-15 bwk 69 1 MS. GRINSTEAD: 9:30? 9:00 or 9:30. Probably 2 9:00. I mean, nothing's been posted, so we can make it 3 whenever you'd like. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What time do the Ag Barn 5 people show up? 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: At 1 o'clock on the 7th. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think that will probably be 8 all right to leave it. We'll just meet with them in the 9 afternoon. 10 MS. GRINSTEAD: So, 9 a.m. on the 6th? 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Is the budget -- 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The workshop. 13 MS. GRINSTEAD: Yes. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Let me ask one right quick. 15 I have here -- I've been trying to figure out, I have on 16 Friday, the 17th, at 9:00, "Court approve Judge's budget." 17 Am I the only person on earth that has that? 18 MS. GRINSTEAD: You probably have it on there from 19 when we originally kind of plugged in dates, which we knew we 20 were going to have to move. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Do I still need to leave 22 that on there? Or -- 23 JUDGE POLLARD: What was that in reference to? 24 MS. GRINSTEAD: I think that's being optimistic. 25 MR. ROBLES: Is that July 17th? 6-23-15 bwk 70 1 MS. GRINSTEAD: Mm-hmm. 2 MR. TROLINGER: You had that on the worksheet. 3 MR. ROBLES: That's on the original. That ideally 4 was the plan, to have it figured out. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, I'm going to erase it. 6 MR. ROBLES: Be nice if we could stay on schedule. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Then leave it. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's what I'm asking. I 10 think I'll leave it. I'm also leaving town that afternoon, 11 so we're going to get through. 12 MR. ROBLES: People wonder why we start budget in 13 April. 14 JUDGE POLLARD: We're putting off some of the 15 issues towards the end of the budget stuff that are going to 16 be more -- take more time and be more contentious. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's because we don't know. 18 At that point, we'll know. 19 JUDGE POLLARD: Not only the Ag Barn, but also the 20 salaries and stuff like that. 21 MR. ROBLES: I know we've already discussed the 22 Road and Bridge budget, but it is worth noting that in this 23 transfer out, we do have over $900,000 going to fund their 24 department. 25 JUDGE POLLARD: What's the date the certification's 6-23-15 bwk 71 1 coming from "Fourth" Coates? 2 MS. DOSS: They -- well, it's due the end of July, 3 right? 4 MS. BOLIN: Right. They will start the A.R.B. 5 hearings next week, and they don't have to certify until the 6 27th. He's been trying to certify around the -- between the 7 20th and 27th the last couple of years. It just will depend 8 on how the A.R.B. hearings go. You have to have 95 percent 9 certified by the A.R.B. before you can approve and send them 10 over to us. 11 JUDGE POLLARD: And that 95 percent is usually 12 around July 27th or something? 13 MS. BOLIN: Usually. 14 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. So that's when we'll know 15 what we're going to have on the revenue side. 16 MS. BOLIN: Right. 17 JUDGE POLLARD: As opposed to -- or a pretty good 18 guess, and which really may change everything. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Usually does. That's when all 20 the -- I mean, generally all the big-ticket items. 21 JUDGE POLLARD: Yes. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Salary increases, new 23 employees. 24 JUDGE POLLARD: Yes. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: James, what were you saying 6-23-15 bwk 72 1 about Road and Bridge? 2 MR. ROBLES: In our transfer out, we're giving them 3 422,000 in auto sales tax commission, which we've already 4 discussed that, but there's also a shortfall of over half a 5 million dollars that we're going to have to transfer out of 6 the general fund to fund their requested budget. So if you 7 look at the history of our transfer outs, it's -- 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But the question -- 9 MR. ROBLES: -- significant. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: If we look -- take a look at 11 their budget, that transfer out might not be as much. 12 MR. ROBLES: Exactly. We've already looked at 13 them, so I just wanted to -- 14 JUDGE POLLARD: So, around July 27th might change 15 everything, and the change might dictate a tax increase. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, I mean, we just have 17 to -- 18 JUDGE POLLARD: If it comes to that, yes. All 19 right. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What did you just say? 21 JUDGE POLLARD: If our revenues are not anywhere 22 close to what we need in our budget, then there may have to 23 be some -- it could. I'm just saying that we could at that 24 time say, "Hey, maybe we need to take a look at whether or 25 not to raise the tax rate." 6-23-15 bwk 73 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Or cut spending. 2 JUDGE POLLARD: Or cut, that's right. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Which -- 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I heard that. I didn't hear 5 him. 6 JUDGE POLLARD: Yeah, it's both. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Or we were just talking 8 about a transfer of $400,000 out of the general fund into 9 Road and Bridge to meet their requested budget. Did I not 10 hear that just now? 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes, you did. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: See, there's a major place 13 right there. I mean, I don't even like those words. Those 14 are horrible words. Shouldn't be talking like that in front 15 of ladies. 16 MS. BOLIN: The 422,000 was actually budgeted to 17 them. We just have to wait until we get the information from 18 the State Comptroller before we can write that check, and 19 it's supposed to go into the general fund now as opposed to 20 going to Road and Bridge, but dedicated for their sealcoat 21 and bridges and whatever they use it for. The -- that's what 22 the 422 is this year. The other half million that James 23 mentioned, I don't know what that is. 24 MS. DOSS: That's just a shortfall in their budget. 25 MR. ROBLES: Yeah. 6-23-15 bwk 74 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's a shortfall? 2 MS. DOSS: In their budget. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: In Road and Bridge budget? 4 MS. DOSS: Yes. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So, there's a $400,000 6 something, and then there's another $500,000 shortfall. 7 MS. DOSS: Yes, sir. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: See, that's got to be 9 addressed. We've got to talk about that. That's a million 10 dollars. 11 MS. DOSS: They were in here a couple weeks ago. 12 But, I mean, that's what the July 6th meeting is for, to 13 revisit departments. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We got to -- 15 JUDGE POLLARD: Right. That's got to be addressed, 16 that's right. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: We might lose sight of the 18 forest looking at these trees; I think that's what you're 19 saying. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Something like that. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Sorry. 22 MR. ROBLES: Are we done so she can stop typing? 23 JUDGE POLLARD: We're done. 24 (Budget workshop was adjourned at 2:56 p.m.) 25 - - - - - - - - - - 6-23-15 bwk 75 1 STATE OF TEXAS | 2 COUNTY OF KERR | 3 The above and foregoing is a true and complete 4 transcription of my stenotype notes taken in my capacity as 5 official reporter for the Commissioners Court of Kerr County, 6 Texas, at the time and place heretofore set forth. 7 DATED at Kerrville, Texas, this 29th day of June, 2015. 8 9 REBECCA BOLIN, Kerr County Clerk 10 BY: _________________________________ Kathy Banik, Deputy County Clerk 11 Certified Shorthand Reporter 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 6-23-15 bwk