1 1 2 3 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS' COURT 4 Special Session 5 Monday, September 19, 2016 6 9:00 a.m. 7 Commissioners' Courtroom 8 Kerr County Courthouse 9 Kerrville, Texas 78028 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 PRESENT: TOM POLLARD, Kerr County Judge H. A. "BUSTER" BALDWIN, Commissioner Pct. 1 24 TOM MOSER, Commissioner Pct. 2 JONATHAN LETZ, Commissioner Pct. 3 25 BOB REEVES, Commissioner Pct. 4 2 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 1.1 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 3 action to approve contract with Hewitt 4 Engineering for an engineering study of the Kerr County Flood Warning System, and 5 authorize the County Judge to sign same. 6 1.2 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 16 action to authorize the County Judge to 7 execute a contract with Rojas Concrete in the amount not to exceed $3,830.00 for 8 concrete drainage work for Lazy Valley Road. 9 *** Adjournment. 20 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 3 1 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay, it's Monday, September 2 the 19th, 2016. It's 9 a.m., Kerr County Commissioners' 3 Court is in session, this is a special meeting for 4 consideration agenda. 5 1.1 consider, discuss and take appropriate 6 action to approve contract with Hewitt Engineering for 7 an engineering study of the Kerr County Flood Warning 8 System, and authorize the County Judge to sign same. 9 Commissioner Moser. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, thank you, Judge. 11 The Hewitt engineering was the only one that submitted a 12 qualification and we selected them. The only thing we 13 forgot to do, and we approved that in Court, the only 14 thing we forgot to do is authorize you to sign it. So 15 therefore I make a motion that we authorize you to sign 16 the contract with Hewitt Engineering to perform the 17 engineering study for the Kerr County Flood Warning 18 System. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 20 JUDGE POLLARD: Had been moved by 21 Commissioner Moser, seconded by Commissioner Letz to 22 authorize the County Judge to execute the proposal for 23 for Hewitt Engineering, Inc. for the Kerr County Flood 24 Warning System engineering study, and execute that 25 proposal. 4 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: The contract. 2 JUDGE POLLARD: The contract. Is there any 3 further discussion or comments? 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. I'd like you 5 to go down and explain to me what they are and what they 6 mean. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Absolutely. Let me 8 borrow your notes there. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: 1 through 4 is for 10 Phase I and 5 through 8 is for Phase II. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yes. What we have is 12 an agreement with Upper Guadalupe River Authority and 13 the City, and ourself for a 40-40-20 contribution for 14 the engineering study. The total engineering study is 15 to be complete by the end of this year, okay. We have a 16 Phase I, which the County -- the County is in charge of 17 the whole thing, okay. We'll be reimbursed from the 18 UGRA and from the City for their portion of the 19 contract. 20 The first phase of the contract is for data 21 collection with the local agencies, okay. That's 22 talking to all the County Commissioners, and preferably 23 Precinct 1, and UGRA, TxDOT, the City of Kerrville, City 24 of Ingram, and individuals throughout the County where 25 the -- where the most probable locations for flood 5 1 warning systems are needed. Okay. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Let's talk about 3 that. 4 JUDGE POLLARD: If they're needed. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: If they're needed, 6 exactly. Right. Precisely. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: See, did I 8 misunderstand then, and I thought I heard you say in the 9 beginning that the study was to find out what we have, 10 and I've heard you say that, and I've heard the two 11 gentlemen on the other end of the table agree and saying 12 those same words. I saw a letter to the editor the 13 other day from a former UGRA Board Member saying the 14 same thing, we need to know what we have. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Correct. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: But it seems like 17 you're going beyond that. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: No. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's what's 20 confusing me. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Let me make 22 it -- see if I can clarify that. What do we have is 23 step number 1. What's out there, what does the City 24 have, what does the County have, what's Road & Bridge 25 have, what does TxDOT have. What do we have, okay? 6 1 Billy Bob calling Jimmy James, all this historical 2 stuff -- 3 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I want to interrupt. 4 That's about the second time I've heard that. And I'm 5 all for the study, but I think that is a bad way to put 6 the individuals out there on the -- on the front lines 7 who are making these calls sounding like they're a bunch 8 of hillbillies, so please refrain from that, or I won't 9 vote for this. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Citizen one calling 11 citizen two. Citizen one calling citizen two. Thank 12 you for that. 13 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Thank you. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Identifying we're 15 getting a lot of rain up in the Divide, you guys down in 16 the Center Point area be careful, okay. So what do we 17 have, and how has it worked in the past, that's the 18 first thing. 19 Second thing is, what's changed since we put 20 these sensors in? We have got a lot more RV parks, we 21 have a lot of additional crossings. We have an 22 experience like that happened down in Comfort the other 23 day. The primary amount, a portion of the rain was in 24 the Elm Pass area, Verde Creek and the confluence with 25 the Verde Creek and Guadalupe River cause flooding south 7 1 of there and east of there. So what do we know and 2 relative to what we have, and what might we do to 3 improve it. Not to do it, but what might we do, okay. 4 What are the highest potential areas. Once we identify 5 the highest potential areas, what we might do then the 6 next thing is okay, what are the options by with which 7 to improve that. And can we -- can we bite those off a 8 piece at a time. We see something and say my God, you 9 know, when we put these out we didn't realize there was 10 six new RV parks, do we need to do anything to warn 11 those people and -- for instance, Brink's Crossing a lot 12 of low water, a lot of traffic back and forth across 13 there, and there's a new RV park being built there. Is 14 there anything we need to do there? If so, what might 15 we do or the options and what does it cost. And then 16 this is not a commitment for anything, it's just a bring 17 the engineering study forward and present it to the 18 entities. 19 Now then the reason that it's in there for 20 to be completed by the end of the year, if this -- this 21 steering committee, this consortium, let's call that, of 22 entities around here decide we want to get -- apply for 23 funding, okay, it has to be applied for by -- let me 24 just keep it simple, by the end of the year. It's 25 really the first week in the next year, I believe. And 8 1 the reason that that limitation is on there 2 schedule-wise, is because there's a disaster declaration 3 by the President on some event that happened, I think, 4 last April, okay, that says here are funds available for 5 this type of thing, if you want to apply for it you have 6 to do so by the end of the year. We're not saying we 7 want to do that, okay. I'm not saying we want to do 8 that at all. But we want to get the study of what we 9 have, what we might need, to see if we want to pursue 10 for that type of grant. And if we pursue that type of 11 grant it says 75/25 grant, I think. So -- 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, like as an 13 example what I thought, and what I thought I heard you 14 say was when we find out what we have, to me that means 15 that there are six sensors between Ingram and Hunt, and 16 they're owned by UGRA, and some of them work and some of 17 them don't, or you know we've heard those stories for a 18 hundred years. To me that's what that means is what we 19 have, and to me -- and then the conversation that you 20 just had, your presentation takes it steps beyond that. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: It's multi-step. What 22 do we have, what might we -- what do we need to improve 23 that. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's in your mind. 25 In my mind it said when you say what do we have, I just 9 1 described it, there's six of them, and they do this and 2 do that. But you're going beyond that. And I -- I'm a 3 little bit confused by all of that. How far are you 4 going? 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, we're going to go 6 all the way do we want to implement something, that's 7 where we're going to go. Do we want to implement an 8 improvement. Maybe we don't. When the -- Mike 9 Cower(phonetic) and Mike Boyd were there the other day, 10 they said that their system number one doesn't work, the 11 computers and all that they have are totally not 12 operable. So some of the systems that they have I don't 13 know what they are, okay. I'm going to ask John Hewitt 14 help us define what it is. They said that their systems 15 are absolutely not functional. So if they're 16 nonfunctional, what does that mean to the safety of the 17 public and what might we do to improve that? Maybe we 18 need that new computer, maybe a new laptop, I don't 19 know, okay. I'm not there to even think about it. 20 So -- so if this process is just -- it's a standard -- 21 I mean it's not a standard; it's kind of a normal 22 process you look at any system that you have. You know 23 your automobile, okay, you got an automobile, does it 24 work good enough? If it does that's the end of 25 discussion. If it doesn't, if the damn -- excuse me. 10 1 If part of the systems are not working, do you have an 2 option to fix it, or buy a new one. That's kind of that 3 analogy, the same type of thing. So does that answer 4 your question? 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Not really, but 6 that's fine. I enjoyed hearing your beautiful voice. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Good luck. Tell me 9 about things like -- and I'm assuming that what we have 10 are at crossings that we've upgraded in the last few 11 years, is that correct? Is that where the little -- 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: John Hewitt's here, let 13 John speak to that. 14 MR. HEWITT: Right now we have 9 TxDOT 15 crossings. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Right. 17 MR. HEWITT: And if you were to go on their 18 website right now, which you could, four of them will 19 say they're not currently working. Those 9 crossings 20 that they have are by two different manufactures. They 21 would like that to be standardized with a manufacturer 22 that we might come up with. GBRA has 16 crossings right 23 now. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: In Kerr County? 25 MR. HEWITT: In Kerr County. There are no 11 1 Road & Bridge crossings that are monitored, there's no 2 UGRA, and there's no City of Kerrville, so that's it. 3 16 by GBRA, and 9 by the State. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. That's what I 5 was looking for. And then when you start -- when you 6 start doing whatever it is that you're going to do with 7 them, do we need some kind of an agreement with GBRA 8 to -- 9 MR. HEWITT: That's what we'll look into, I 10 don't know that answer yet. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I see, okay. Well, 12 it's just some things, you know, that I was reading here 13 and I remember GBRA being around here for a long time, 14 and that was a second set of sensors, I think. And I 15 was just wondering how that worked, you know, dealing 16 with the other entity's machinery. 17 MR. HEWITT: Excuse me. The GBRA data goes 18 mostly -- it's mostly used by the City of Kerrville and 19 their swift water response team. So TxDOT doesn't -- I 20 don't think anybody uses it other than the City of 21 Kerrville and their emergency responders. And maybe the 22 Sheriff's Office looks at it. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. All right, 24 thank you. 25 JUDGE POLLARD: Any further discussion or 12 1 comment? 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think -- I mean on 3 that, the part of your analysis will look at the GBRA 4 agreement, and see. I mean I don't know if they have 5 any responsibility if there's a one time -- I mean if 6 there's legal interpretation of the agreement, but a 7 cursory, and same with the State agreement and systems 8 they have, that's part of what you are going to look at, 9 right? 10 MR. HEWITT: Yeah, that's right, exactly. 11 Because nobody's talked to GBRA about any of that stuff 12 in a long time, so they can't -- and I don't think GBRA 13 is really communicating on a very frequent basis with 14 Kerr County on what they're doing. They could have a 15 lot of rain gauges that they talk to people about. But 16 the monitoring system hasn't had a lot of coordination. 17 The other thing I'd point out in the study, 18 you know, I've had some of these meetings already, and 19 the common theme that I'm getting from a lot of people 20 is public awareness and notification is extremely 21 important as that comes out of this thing. So I'm 22 getting some comments that they don't want to spend a 23 lot of money on physical structures; they want to make 24 the public more aware of when there's an event or 25 there's a problem, so -- 13 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And I think the Sheriff 2 made that point very clear, too, in our joint meeting we 3 had with all the entities, and part of the steering 4 committee. He said that's the real challenge no matter 5 what we do, if we do anything, what do we do to inform 6 the public, especially where there's changes in 7 population, density and so forth. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: If you're going to do 9 that you're not doing anything. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, the ultimate 11 thing is to tell the public, that's what it's all about. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: GBRA has had a 13 changing of the guard, you know you may want to check 14 with them pretty quick -- 15 MR. HEWITT: Yeah, I will. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: -- before they kick 17 the bucket down there. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: You know, Buster, we 19 talked about this being bigger than Kerr County, did we 20 want to go to Kendall County and some of the others, and 21 we said no, right now let's don't do that, we have 22 enough complexity within the County. But we certainly 23 want to communicate with them, but to make them part of 24 the study, then all of a sudden it got to be a lot more 25 complicated, and other people want us to have all these 14 1 kind of fancy engineering models where we're measuring 2 rain gauge and where, you know, we're putting in the 3 topography and the flow rate and the la, la, la, la, la, 4 all that stuff, and we said we're not going to do that, 5 so that was really expensive. Okay. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Can I remove your 7 engineering hat for a moment and tell you how to do this 8 thing? If it rains four or five inches in one hour get 9 the hell out of the way. It's that simple. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Did you make a note of 11 that, John? 12 MR. HEWITT: Yeah. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, you know, 14 you're getting into here like number 7 here, estimate 15 costs and funding options. You're already -- already 16 making a leap over there of things that you want to do. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Just -- 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And I say you, I mean 19 your group. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, I understand. 21 We're not -- it's presenting data. Let me go back to 22 the automobile analogy. You decide you don't want to 23 put a new front end in your car and you decide you to 24 want get a new vehicle. Well, you want that new used 25 vehicle or a new vehicle and how you going to pay for 15 1 it. Those are all the things you consider to make your 2 decision about what you do for your transportation. 3 It's -- that's about as, you know, as good as analogy as 4 I can think of off the top of my head. 5 JUDGE POLLARD: Any other discussion or 6 comments? 7 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I'm anxious to see 8 what comes out of this study. I met with Mr. Hewitt, I 9 guess last Friday, and just some preliminary talks and 10 we realized real quick that there's a lot more research 11 we need to do just on the west end of the County. So 12 I'm anxious to see what comes out of the study, anxious 13 to see for him to at least get the first Phase I done. 14 I'm not saying I'm anxious to spend money, or that maybe 15 what we got just needs to be repaired. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: There you go. 17 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Maybe it does, but I'm 18 anxious to see what we have. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Charlie, did you see my 20 response to the spread sheet? 21 MR. HASTINGS: Yes. Multiple drainage areas 22 for the same road, yes. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, my comment was 24 there's a spread sheet, I guess everyone got, about low 25 water crossings, and it had one on Lane Valley, and that 16 1 was it. Well, there's I think six crossings on Lane 2 Valley, and they don't all come from the same areas. So 3 if you get into like Lower Turtle Creek is even -- or on 4 some of those roads and a lot of your's, I think it's 5 important to know at least -- do a per crossing or do 6 the number of crossings on a road so you get some scale 7 as to what, you know, is going on in some of these 8 roads. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: We're going to have a 10 map, right? 11 MR. HEWITT: Yes. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: It's going to be a map 13 with these locations on it. And then it's okay, you 14 know, there's X number, how many of them, and then we 15 need to prioritize them, so we figure out what to do if 16 we do anything. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 18 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. If there's no 19 further discussion or comment, those in favor of the 20 motion signify by raising your right hands; those 21 opposed like sign. It's three to one, the motion 22 passes. 23 For the next item on the agenda is 1.2 24 consider, discuss and take appropriate action to 25 authorize the County Judge to execute a contract with 17 1 Rojas Concrete in the amount not to exceed $3,830.00 for 2 concrete drainage work for Lazy Valley Road. 3 Mr. Hastings. 4 MR. HASTINGS: Thank you. The storms that 5 that we had this summer we ended up with some drainage 6 damage out there on Lazy Valley Road. We have had 7 damage throughout the County, but this one in 8 particular. Road & Bridge employees asked me if I would 9 get something put together, in terms of engineering, 10 where we could hire that contractor to come in and do 11 some concrete work, and we would supply the concrete and 12 that would be at our cost, our normal cost, and we would 13 call the concrete trucks, that way there's not a 14 pass-through cost to us. This contractor after I met 15 with a couple of them, and this one had the lowest quote 16 and he also had insurance. And what he would do is -- 17 Rojas Concrete would be for labor, equipment and steel 18 reenforcement, he'd do all the forms, do all the dirt 19 work, get everything ready and then we'd call the 20 concrete trucks out there and he'd get that concrete 21 placed and just put in. And his cost would not exceed 22 $3,830.00, and Road & Bridge we're estimating 35 yards 23 of concrete at a hundred and ten dollars a yard, about 24 3850 for the concrete. So the total cost of the project 25 7,680. The cost would be charged to our line item 18 1 15-611-556, which is concrete. And we currently have a 2 little over 8 thousand dollars in that line item 3 unencumbered funds. We have called Texas 811 for line 4 locates and the contractor can start tomorrow. 5 County Engineer requests the Court authorize 6 the County Judge to execute a contract with Rojas 7 Concrete in the amount not to exceed $3,830.00 for 8 concrete drainage work on Lazy Valley Road. This is 9 Precinct 3, and the contract you have was put together 10 by Heather, our County Attorney. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move for approval. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 13 JUDGE POLLARD: Been moved by Commissioner 14 Letz, seconded by Commissioner Moser to authorize the 15 County Judge to execute a contract with Rojas Concrete 16 in the amount not to exceed $3,830.00 for concrete 17 drainage work on Lazy Valley Road. Is there any further 18 discussion or comment? 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, question just for 20 clarification. So what's unique about this as opposed 21 to just standard operational procedure for having to do 22 anything? 23 MR. HASTINGS: We wanted to have concrete 24 around the -- concrete riprap placed around the culverts 25 both upstream and downstream, and it didn't previously 19 1 have concrete around it. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So any time you need 3 this you have to come to the Court? 4 MR. HASTINGS: No, Sir. We have done lots 5 of work in house in the past. And normally one of the 6 things we've done in the past is place rock riprap, big 7 chunks of concrete left over from foundations, maybe 8 from the Hill Country Youth Exhibit Center, and then we 9 would go in there and place concrete around to hold that 10 rock in place. This is one because the guys were so far 11 behind, and seal coat is number one priority, they said 12 can we -- let's see if we can get a contractor in and 13 maybe they can help us out in this kind of need. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: My question is though. 15 Charlie, any time you need to bring a contractor in -- 16 MR. HASTINGS: Then, yes. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: -- then you have to 18 come to Court? 19 MR. HASTINGS: Correct. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay, you answered my 21 question, thank you. 22 JUDGE POLLARD: Anything further? If not, 23 those in favor of the motion signify by raising your 24 right hands. It's four zero, unanimous, it passes. 25 Item 1.3 consider, discuss and take 20 1 appropriate action regarding an update on pending 2 litigation. That'll be in executive session. All 3 right, is there anything further for the open session? 4 If not, we'll recess it and go into executive or closed 5 session at this time and we will come back to open 6 session later on in the event any action is needed. If 7 there's not then we'll just open and close. All right, 8 thank you. 9 (Executive session.) 10 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. We're back in 11 open session again after a closed session, and I 12 understand there's no business, is that correct? If 13 there's no action to be taken then I declare this 14 session adjourned. Thank you. 15 * * * * * * 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 21 1 STATE OF TEXAS * 2 COUNTY OF KERR * 3 I, DEBRA ELLEN GIFFORD, Certified Shorthand 4 Reporter in and for the State of Texas and Official 5 Reporter for Kerr County Commissioners' Court, do hereby 6 certify that the above and foregoing pages contain and 7 comprise a true and correct transcription of the 8 proceedings had in the above-entitled Commissioners' 9 Court Special Meeting. 10 Dated this the 23rd day of September, A.D. 11 2016. 12 13 /s/DEBRA ELLEN GIFFORD Certified Shorthand Reporter 14 No. 953 Expiration Date 12/31/2016 15 * * * * * * 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25