1 1 2 3 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS' COURT 4 Regular Session 5 Monday, June 11, 2018 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 HARLEY BELEW, 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 *** Commissioners' Comments. 5 4 1.1 Presentation of Resolution to Tina Woods 8 honoring her service to the Dietert Center. 5 1.2 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 12 6 action for the Court to set a public hearing for 9 a.m. on Monday, July 23rd, 2018 for 7 the revision of plat for Lots 3 and 4 of Elm Pass Ranch in volume 3, page 82. 8 1.3 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 14 9 action to set a public hearing for 9:05 a.m. on Monday, July 23rd, 2018 to abandon, 10 vacate and discontinue a portion of Camp Verde Road. 11 1.4 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 15 12 action for the Court to authorize the Engineering Department to fill a budgeted 13 summer intern position. 14 1.5 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 17 action to reject late bid received by 15 County Clerk on May 29, 2018 for the Center Point River Road property, and 16 authorize the County Clerk to return that bid to the person that sent it. The bids 17 were due by 4 p.m. on Friday, May 25, 2018. 18 1.6 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 19 action regarding the Center Point River 19 Road property; bids were opened at the May 29, 2018 meeting. 20 1.7 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 21 21 action regarding General Architectural Services. Bids were opened at the May 29, 22 2018 meeting. 23 1.9 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 22 action regarding the liaison appointments 24 and responsibilities. 25 3 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 1.10 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 24 action to authorize repairs to the van 4 being used by the Maintenance Department. 5 1.8 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 25 action to appoint Greg Longenbaugh to the 6 Kerr Emergency 911 Board. 7 1.13 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 29 action to open Request for Qualifications 8 (RFQ's) received regarding procurement of an engineer for implementation of the 9 Kerr County Flood Warning System grant contingent upon award and refer to 10 appropriate personnel for review, recommendation and possible award. 11 1.14 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 31 12 action to address possibility of prohibiting the sale or use of restricted 13 fireworks known as "skyrockets with sticks" and "missiles with fins" in any portion of 14 the unincorporated area of Kerr County pursuant to the Local Government Code 15 section 352.051 for the Fourth of July fireworks season. 16 1.15 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 32 17 action on reorganization and revised job descriptions for the Maintenance Department. 18 1.13 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 37 19 action to open Request for Qualifications (RFQ's) received regarding procurement of 20 an engineer for implementation of the Kerr County Flood Warning System grant 21 contingent upon award and refer to appropriate personnel for review, 22 recommendation and possible award. 23 4.4 Approve and accept monthly reports. 38 24 4.6 Court Orders. 39 25 4 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 1.11 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 41 action on Resolution acknowledging the 4 need of an additional skilled nursing facility (nursing home) to be constructed 5 in Kerr County. 6 1.12 Consider and discuss Verity Election 54 systems from HART Intercivic, presentation 7 by Felice Liston. 8 5.2 Reports from Elected Officials/Department 72 Heads. 9 *** Adjournment. 74 10 *** Reporter's Certificate. 75 11 * * * * * * 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 5 1 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. All right, it is 2 Monday, June the 11th, 2018, it is now 9 a.m. and we'll 3 begin this session. Kerr County Commissioners Court's 4 in session and we'll begin with Pastor Frankie Enloe of 5 the Turtle Creek Community Church, as we are honored to 6 have him do the invocation today. Thank you, Sir. 7 MR. ENLOE: Thank you, and I'm honored. 8 (Prayer and Pledge of Allegiance.) 9 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay, we have a pretty short 10 agenda today, at least the number of them. That doesn't 11 mean it'll be a short session however. I predicted that 12 before, and was wrong before, too. 13 But anyway, this is a part of the agenda 14 where it's the public can come in and speak to the 15 Commissioners' Court, and to the public here, on any 16 item that is not on the agenda. Now, if you to want to 17 speak on an item on the agenda wait until I call that 18 item and you can step forward. Anyone wishing to speak 19 on an item not on the agenda step forward to the podium, 20 state your name and address, and try to limit your 21 comments to at least three minutes. Okay, anybody? 22 There being no one we go to the next part, 23 that is comments from the Commissioners and County Judge 24 to recognize achievements and etc. Go ahead. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I'm going to pass, 6 1 Judge. 2 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. I'm going to say I 3 just came from Dallas, spent the weekend up there, and 4 it's just green all over everywhere. They've had lots 5 of rain and I'm so jealous. Frankly everything from 6 Waco north everything is really green. So I wish we 7 could get some more rain. Mr. Letz. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think the only thing I 9 have is the Little League, All Stars are starting up, 10 and the Kerrville will be hosting the Major League, 11 which is the 11, 12 year old boys. We're going to 12 handle -- or hosted out at the D-BAT facility, or the 13 Kerrville Sports Complex, state the accurate name for 14 it. It'll be 7:00 the 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th, and 15 probably the 21st, so pretty much every evening starting 16 Saturday, and encourage people to come out and watch the 17 sport facility youth. I think Kerrville's playing their 18 first game Saturday evening at 7. 19 JUDGE POLLARD: Very good. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And Ingram is hosting, I 21 believe, it's sectional softball and also the district 22 softball. And district baseball minor league, I 23 believe. So anyway, a lot of youth baseball in this 24 area. 25 JUDGE POLLARD: Thank you. Mr. Reeves. 7 1 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Friday starting about 2 4 o'clock bring your appetite to Divide Fire 3 Department's annual steak dinner, and support the fire 4 fighters out on the west end of the County. 5 And then on a personal note, I've got a 6 brand new son-in-law as of Saturday night, so we're 7 we're excited. 8 JUDGE POLLARD: Congratulations. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: One thing, Judge, that 10 I should have brought up. But next week the Kerrville 11 area is hosting Wounded Warriors again, for I think the 12 5th -- 5th year we've done this. Five families come in, 13 all of them wounded warriors from combat in Iraq, 14 Afghanistan. We bring the whole family in from Tuesday 15 through Sunday. It's all expense paid, we put them up, 16 the kids are taken to day camps every single day. The 17 parents can go to wine tasting, canoeing, whatever, the 18 whole agenda laid out. Tony Arnold leads this every 19 year so hats off to him. And it oughta be another great 20 event. Some of these families said this is the first 21 vacation they've had in many many many years, so it's a 22 good thing. The entire community, Commissioner Belew 23 and myself -- Commissioner Reeves and myself are on that 24 committee, so anyway it's something the entire community 25 oughta be proud of. 8 1 JUDGE POLLARD: I think I've heard, too 2 that's the only one that has activity for the children. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Everyday. They're 4 picked up in the morning at about 8 o'clock and -- 5 JUDGE POLLARD: It's the only type of 6 organization that provides that service for the wounded 7 warriors. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. Okay. 9 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. We'll go to item 10 1.1 on the agenda presentation of a Resolution to Tina 11 Woods honoring her service to the Dietert Center. 12 Commissioner Moser. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thank you. Thank you, 14 Judge. For the record let me read this. Tina has been 15 very active in this community and had a big impact, 16 positive impact, for a long time, so Commissioners' 17 Court has adopted a Resolution for Kerr County 18 Commissioners honoring Tina Wood for her dedication to 19 the Dietert Center and congratulating her on her 20 retirement. 21 WHEREAS Tina Woods was the Dietert Center's 22 Executive Director for 16 years; and 23 WHEREAS Her dedication and passion for 24 older adults in the community has led to create and lead 25 such programs as Meals on Wheels, Public Dining, 9 1 Community Services, Dementia Care Advocates, including 2 the Take 5 Club, and Club Ed; and 3 WHEREAS Most recently she facilitated the 4 successful partnership with the Dietert Center and the 5 Dynamic Learning Institute; and 6 WHEREAS With all these programs the Dietert 7 Center is reaching people in our community of all ages; 8 and 9 WHEREAS She led a building campaign in 2002 10 to relocate the Center from 617 Jefferson to its present 11 location; and 12 WHEREAS Under her leadership the 451 13 Guadalupe location opened its doors in 2007 "debt free". 14 NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT 15 Commissioners' Court does hereby pay tribute to Tina 16 Woods for her years of unselfish service and dedicated 17 service to the Dietert Center, and wish her well in her 18 retirement, so -- 19 (Applause.) 20 MRS. WOODS: Thank you so much. 21 (Photographs taken.) 22 JUDGE POLLARD: Thanks, Pastor. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: One thing on there that 24 let me just amplify on just a second. The Dynamic 25 Learning Institute is something that took place this 10 1 last year. I think we had 26 sessions. There were an 2 average of 50 people per session. This is continued 3 learning, something that I adopted a long time ago. You 4 must reach to grow; if you do not grow, you die. So 5 this is a way to keep people active in learning, and 6 when we look at this it was set up a similar thing in 7 Fredericksburg through Texas Tech, and we thought well 8 if we bring it here -- we wanted to bring it here. And 9 so I thought oh, we're going to have a conflict with 10 Dietert Center and some of the programs out there. 11 Wrong. Tina stepped up along with Jeff Anderson and 12 made this thing happen. It's hugely successful, so Tina 13 was the key person in making that, so Tina, that is one 14 one of the things, but very very good. Thank you again. 15 MRS. WOODS: It's been a wonderful success 16 for us as well and -- 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Would you care to say 18 something? 19 MRS. WOODS: Sure. Thank you, Commissioner 20 Moser. It has been a wonderful success for the Dietert 21 Center, and Waverly Jones has really taken that ball and 22 run with it as well. Our whole philosophy is a rising 23 tide lifts all boats, so ^ there ^ their ^ they're was 24 no reason not to make it a partnership. So I think that 25 has been the key to the Dietert Center success for many 11 1 many years. We've certainly enjoyed a wonderful 2 partnership with the County Commissioners, Jody has been 3 a huge help, County Staff. I'm very uncomfortable being 4 the center of attention, but I'm certainly honored by 5 this. But part of the reason for my bit of anxiety is 6 the work that we do at the Dietert Center is so much 7 bigger than one person; it takes the community. I have 8 a wonderful staff, fabulous Board of Directors, an army 9 of the most dedicated volunteers that you could possibly 10 want, and then generous donors, and certainly the 11 support of the Court. So I'm proud of what we have all 12 done for the past 16 years. And it's been an honor and 13 a privilege to serve, and I thank you so much for this. 14 Y'all are wonderful. Thank you. 15 (Applause.) 16 JUDGE POLLARD: Is there a motion to approve 17 the Resolution? 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll make a motion to 19 approve the Resolution as read into the record. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I'll second it. Thank 21 you. 22 JUDGE POLLARD: Been moved by Commissioner 23 Precinct 3, seconded by Commissioner Precinct 2, to pass 24 a Resolution honoring Tina Woods for her service at the 25 Dietert Center. Any further discussion? 12 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll just make a comment 2 that -- I mean Commissioner Moser said a few words, but 3 the relationship that the County's had with the Dietert 4 Center's been really -- it's been as good as a 5 relationship that you could have with a non-profit type 6 organization. You know, I think Tina's one of the first 7 people when I became a Commissioner many years ago that 8 I really got to know and it's -- it's been a pleasurable 9 relationship the entire time, she always was truly 10 wanting to help the community, and partner with us with 11 that in mind, and I really appreciate what she's done, 12 so thank you. 13 JUDGE POLLARD: All right, if there's no 14 further discussion those in favor of the motion signify 15 by raising your right hands. It 5 zero, unanimous. It 16 passes. Thank you. Thank you, Ma'am. 17 All right, let's go to item 1.2 on the 18 agenda consider, discuss and take appropriate action for 19 the Court to set a public hearing for 9 a.m. on Monday, 20 July 23rd, 2018 for the revision of plat for Lots 3 and 21 4 of Elm Pass Ranch in volume 3, page 82 of the official 22 public records of Kerr County, I guess. That's situated 23 in Precinct 2. Mr. Hastings. 24 MR. HASTINGS: Thank you. The owners of 25 this property, it's a total of 21.18 acres. They 13 1 already have two lots, they want to revise the lot line 2 so that it fits what their needs better. Their smallest 3 lot would be 7.18 acres, they will remain on private 4 wells, and OSSF septic systems, they're outside the 5 floodplain, there's no proposed road. This is just 6 moving some lot lines, and both lots will still have 7 more than 150 foot of frontage on Elm Pass and Hefner 8 Road are the two roads that they have frontage on. And 9 County Engineer requests the Court set a public hearing 10 for 9 a.m. on July 23rd, 2018 for the revision of plat 11 of Lots 3 and 4 of Elm Pass Ranch, volume 3, page 82, 12 Precinct 2. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Move for approval as 14 recommended by the County Engineer. 15 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 16 JUDGE POLLARD: Second? 17 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Yes, Sir. 18 JUDGE POLLARD: Been moved by Commissioner 19 Precinct 2, seconded by Commissioner Precinct 1 to set a 20 public hearing at 9 a.m. on Monday, July 23rd, 2018 for 21 the revision of a plat for Lots 3 and 4 of -- the 22 old-timers in west -- East Kerr County call it 23 Ellem(phonetic) Pass; but most of us call it Elm Pass 24 Ranch, of record in volume 3, page 82 of the official 25 records of Kerr County, Texas, situated in Precinct 2. 14 1 Is there any further comment or discussion? There being 2 none, those in favor signify by raising your right 3 hands. Those opposed like sign. Four zero is the vote. 4 One abstention, myself. 5 Item 1.3 on the agenda, a timed item to be 6 at 9:10, consider, discuss and take appropriate action 7 to set a public hearing for 9:05 a.m. on Monday, July 8 23rd, 2018 to abandon, vacate and discontinue a portion 9 of Camp Verde Road, situated in Precinct 2. Mr. 10 Hastings. 11 MR. HASTINGS: Thank you. The Kerr County 12 Engineering Department is in receipt of a petition and 13 request for the Court to abandon, vacate and discontinue 14 a portion of Camp Verde Road, from the cattle guard that 15 is immediately west of the intersection of Camp Verde 16 Road and Saw Mill Road, for a distance of approximately 17 a half mile to the end of county maintenance. According 18 to a letter from Patillo Richards, P.C. copies of the 19 Petition have been posted at the courthouse, and the 20 beginning and ending parts of Camp Verde Road, which 21 I've confirmed the one posted at the courthouse right 22 out here in the hallway, well in advance of the 23 Transportation Code 20 day posting requirements. They 24 must have it posted by July third, it's already up. 25 County Engineer requests the Court set a 15 1 public hearing for 9:05 a.m. on July 23rd, 2018 to 2 abandon, vacate and discontinue a portion of Camp Verde 3 Road, Precinct 2. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Move for approval as 5 recommended by the County Engineer. 6 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Second. 7 JUDGE POLLARD: Been moved by Commissioner 8 Precinct 2,. Seconded by Commissioner Precinct 3(sic) to 9 -- this is pursuant to item 1.3 on the agenda, to set a 10 public hearing for 9:05 a.m. on Monday, July 23rd, 2018 11 for the purpose of abandoning, vacating and 12 discontinuing a portion of Camp Verde Road, situated in 13 Precinct 2 as submitted in the agenda package. Is there 14 any further comment or discussion? 15 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Judge, I was the one 16 that made the second; not Commissioner Letz. 17 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay, I'm sorry. That's my 18 bad ear over there, I apologize. All right, it was 19 seconded by Commissioner Precinct 4. All right, any 20 further comment or discussion? There being none, those 21 in favor signify by raising their right hand. It four 22 zero. One abstention, myself. 23 Item 1.4 consider, discuss and take 24 appropriate action for the Court to authorize the 25 Engineering Department to fill a budgeted summer intern 16 1 position. Mr. Hastings. 2 MR. HASTINGS: Thank you. I think this 3 might be the third or fourth year in a row now we have 4 budgeted for a summer intern, and we'd like to interview 5 some kids from Schreiner University that are in the 6 engineering program. I've already had some talks with 7 some of those students, and with their faculty, and it 8 looks like they're very promising and be able to come in 9 and help us out with some floodplain work, some mapping, 10 some data base entry, and to also be able to help out 11 the Road & Bridge Department. So the intern would 12 actually be funded -- we both have budgeted line items 13 for summer interns. And Kelly and I got together and 14 talked about it, and we did it this last year, we did it 15 the year before. It's been really good for our 16 departments, we'd like to do it again this summer. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So about the same kind 18 of work that you did last year? 19 MR. HASTINGS: Yes, Sir. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay, good. 21 JUDGE POLLARD: So it's just one intern or 22 two? 23 MR. HASTINGS: Just one. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move for approval. 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 17 1 JUDGE POLLARD: Been moved by Commissioner 2 Precinct 3, seconded by Commissioner Precinct 1 pursuant 3 to item 1.4 on the agenda, and that is to authorize the 4 Engineering Department to fill a budgeted summer intern 5 position. Any further comment or discussion? 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll make a quick 7 comment, that I think positions like this are a win-win. 8 The County gets some good work done, usually at a lower 9 cost, and it's good for the interns because they get 10 some experience of a work environment, it's good on the 11 resume. Last year's I think turned out great and I 12 think it's a good program. 13 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. Any further comment 14 or discussion? Those in favor of the motion signify by 15 raising your right hands. It's four zero, unanimous. 16 One abstention, myself. 17 Item 1.5 consider, discuss and take 18 appropriate action to reject a late bid received by 19 County Clerk on May 29, 2018 for the Center Point River 20 Road property, and authorize the County Clerk to return 21 that bid to the person that sent it. The bids were due 22 by 4 p.m. on Friday, May 25, 2018 and therefore received 23 about four days late, so -- 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Judge, at the 25 advice of the County Attorney the proper way to dispose 18 1 of this is to reject this bid since it was received late 2 on the date that you just cited for the record, so I 3 move that we reject that bid, and do not have -- I don't 4 have the name of the person who was on the bid. I think 5 if we need that for the record to -- 6 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Yeah. The bid was 7 sent UPS received May 29th. It was not marked a bid or 8 anything, it was just in a UPS. The Clerk's Office 9 opened it not knowing what it was. But it was from DFW 10 Investor Lending Tony Darwin, D-A-R-W-I-N. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So I move that we 12 reject that, and return that to Mr. Darwin. 13 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I'll second. 14 JUDGE POLLARD: All right, it's been moved 15 by Commissioner Precinct 2, seconded by Commissioner 16 Precinct 4, was it? 17 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Yes, Sir. 18 JUDGE POLLARD: To return that bid that was 19 received on May the 29, which was about four days late, 20 and this was for a bid on the property for the Center 21 Point River Road property, and this is for item 1.5 on 22 the agenda. So is there any further comment or 23 discussion? There being none those in favor of the 24 motion signify by raising their right hands. It's four 25 zero, unanimous. One abstention, myself. 19 1 Item 1.6 consider, discuss and take 2 appropriate action regarding the Center Point River Road 3 property; bids were opened at the May 29, 2018 meeting. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, I had some notes 5 on that, I don't have them, but I think it came from the 6 record and what -- Commissioner Reeves has got them 7 right there. The committee -- the committee met, which 8 was comprised of Commissioner Reeves, myself, the County 9 Auditor, and the County Attorney. We looked at these. 10 All of the bids met the requirements as required, and 11 the highest bid was $102,000.00, second bid as read into 12 the record -- 13 COMMISSIONER REEVES: They're right there if 14 you want to read them. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: $87,051.00. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. What was that, 17 Jonathan? 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: $87,051.00. I'm going 19 on memory. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. And with that 21 the recommendation and the motion is that we award this 22 sale of this property to Mr. Jeeder & Company, and that 23 would be -- read it exactly. It would be to Guadalupe 24 Lazy Days LLC, William Dingman, and Karl Jeeder, and we 25 authorize to proceed to close on this and authorize 20 1 Judge to sign any documents associated with that. 2 JUDGE POLLARD: Is there a second? 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 4 JUDGE POLLARD: Was that you, Bob? 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: (Raising right hand.) 6 JUDGE POLLARD: Jonathan, all right. It's 7 been moved by Commissioner Precinct 2, seconded by 8 Commissioner Precinct 3, this is pursuant to item 1.6 on 9 the agenda, and to award the high bid on the Center 10 Point River Road property to a bunch of people that you 11 read into the record. Say it again. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Guadalupe Lazy Days 13 LLC, William Dingman, Susan Dingman, Karl Jeeder, and 14 Stephanie Jeeder. 15 JUDGE POLLARD: All right, is there any 16 further comment or discussion? 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, let me add one 18 other thing, too, Judge and with that motion I'll amend 19 that to return the check to Mr. John Day for his amount 20 of $87,051.00. 21 JUDGE POLLARD: All right, you're amending 22 the motion to include that. Does the second approve 23 that? 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. 25 JUDGE POLLARD: All right, any further 21 1 comment or discussion after that amendment? There being 2 none, those in favor of the motion signify by raising 3 their right hand. It's four zero, unanimous. One 4 abstention, myself. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Mr. Jeeder has smile on 6 his face I can see. 7 MR. JEEDER: This is Mr. Dingman, too. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Both smiling. It's a 9 beautiful, beautiful piece of property. 10 JUDGE POLLARD: All right, item 1.6 -- that 11 was 1.6. 12 1.7 consider, discuss and take appropriate 13 action regarding General Architectural Services. Bids 14 were opened at the May 29, 2018 meeting. Commissioners 15 Letz and Reeves. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: This is really just a 17 clarification that we received one bid from Peter Lewis, 18 but we didn't -- we accepted the bids, but we didn't go 19 beyond accepting them. So I make a motion now to 20 authorize the County to enter into Architectural Service 21 Agreement with Mr. Lewis, and we'll bring that to our 22 next court. 23 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 24 JUDGE POLLARD: Been moved by Commissioner 25 Precinct 3, seconded by Commissioner Precinct 1 -- heard 22 1 that clearly, you're on my right ear. 2 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I'm always on the right 3 of everything. 4 JUDGE POLLARD: You're always on the 5 right -- 6 (Laughter.) 7 JUDGE POLLARD: And to the extreme right. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: No. 9 JUDGE POLLARD: All right, pursuant to item 10 1.7 on the agenda to authorize the negotiations and 11 contract with Architect Peter Lewis for the purposes as 12 set forth in the agenda package on item 1.7. Is there 13 any further discussion or comment? There being none 14 those in favor of the motion signify by raising your 15 right hands. It's four zero, unanimous. One 16 abstention, myself. 17 Going to have to skip 1.8 for now until 18 9:30. Let's go to 1.9 consider, discuss and take 19 appropriate action regarding the liaison appointments 20 and responsibilities. Commissioner Letz. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: This was on the agenda 22 last time. There was two of the Commissioners were not 23 in Court at the time of the actual discussion, so we 24 just deferred on it. I know the Judge made some 25 comments based on some typo corrects mostly. 23 1 JUDGE POLLARD: Yes. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And, you know, if 3 there's no other -- I think you handed this to all the 4 Court, I believe, got these corrections you made? 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Uh-huh. 6 JUDGE POLLARD: Those are the corrections on 7 that document that you have in your hand. All right. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. And I can tell 9 you, I think most of them are just typos. Such as as, 10 spell check, darn it. I used a word; I just didn't use 11 the right word. 12 JUDGE POLLARD: The fingers don't follow the 13 mind sometimes. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: If there's no further 15 comments, you know, we can adopt it as a policy for the 16 Commissioners' Court and the Liaisons. 17 JUDGE POLLARD: All right, I'm going to mark 18 that has an exhibit, exhibit to Item 1.9. All right, 19 the motion has been made. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. Make a motion 21 that we approve the Liaison responsibilities as set 22 forth in Exhibit A. 23 JUDGE POLLARD: Exhibit -- 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What did you write? 25 JUDGE POLLARD: Exhibit to 1.9. All right. 24 1 Is there a second? 2 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Second. 3 JUDGE POLLARD: All right, it's been moved 4 by Commissioner Precinct 3, seconded by Commissioner 5 Precinct 1 -- 6 COMMISSIONER REEVES: 4. 7 JUDGE POLLARD: 4, I mean. I can't count 8 either these days. As to item 1.9 on the agenda to 9 approve the adoption of the corrected Liaison 10 responsibilities as set forth on the exhibit today to 11 item 1.9 on the agenda as corrected. Is there -- have 12 y'all had chance to look at it? 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, it was in 14 everybody's bins. 15 JUDGE POLLARD: Is there any further 16 discussion? 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Just to compliment 18 Commissioner Letz for putting it together. Well done. 19 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. Those in favor 20 of the motion signify by raising their right hand. It's 21 four zero, unanimous. One abstention. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Give that to the Clerk. 23 JUDGE POLLARD: All right, it's not quite 24 9:30 so we'll go to 1.10 consider, discuss and take 25 appropriate action to authorize repairs to the van being 25 1 used by the Maintenance Department. I think I commented 2 that the -- that maintenance van was -- the air 3 conditioner wasn't working in it and the lady was 4 hauling trash in it. And it doesn't have much of a way 5 of windows to have any venting in there going on except 6 right up at the front doors. She complained about it, 7 so I put it on the agenda, but I talked to her last 8 week, and it's already been repaired, they did it, and 9 it was just short one hose or something like that. So 10 the repair's been done. You want to validate that 11 repair after it was done? 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't think we even 13 need to. Normal repairs. 14 JUDGE POLLARD: All right, we'll pass that 15 then. 16 All right, close enough to 9:30? 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 18 JUDGE POLLARD: Item 1.8 consider, discuss 19 and take appropriate action to appoint Greg Longenbaugh 20 to the Kerr County 911 Board. Commissioner Belew. 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Yes, Sir. I'd like to 22 get Mark Del Toro, our Director of 911, to say a word if 23 you would. 24 MR. DEL TORO: Good morning, Judge. Good 25 morning, Commissioners. We've had a recent resignation 26 1 from the Kerr 911 Board, one of the Kerr County 2 representatives. And with that resignation, I 3 recommended to Commissioner Belew and Commissioner 4 Moser, and after discussion with other board members, 5 that Deputy Greg Longenbaugh be appointed as the next 6 representative for Kerr County on the Kerr 911 Board of 7 Managers. 8 JUDGE POLLARD: Is Mr. Longenbaugh present? 9 MR. LONGENBAUGH: Yes, Sir. 10 JUDGE POLLARD: You willing to serve? 11 MR. LONGENBAUGH: Absolutely. 12 JUDGE POLLARD: You haven't change your 13 mind? 14 MR. LONGENBAUGH: It would be my pleasure. 15 JUDGE POLLARD: You sure? 16 MR. LONGENBAUGH: Absolutely. 17 COMMISSIONER BELEW: You have anything you'd 18 like to say? 19 MR. LONGENBAUGH: No. I appreciate the 20 opportunity to do this. The last 25 years I have served 21 my country, my state, and my county, and this is just 22 one more way for me to serve and I'd just really like to 23 do it. 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Awesome. Thank you. 25 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: It would be awesome if 27 1 I could get some work out of him. 2 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Sheriff, go easy, this 3 is one of my neighbors. Where I live a neighbor, you 4 know, is a mile or two away. But we live on the same 5 street I guess is the way to put it. 6 MR. LONGENBAUGH: Well, out there where we 7 are that is a neighbor. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: What's that street, 9 Interstate 10? 10 COMMISSIONER REEVES: No. But it does have 11 some numbers in it. 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Anything else, Mark? 13 MR. DEL TORO: No, Sir. 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: This is sort of by 15 assent, right? He was everybody's choice. 16 MR. DEL TORO: Yes, Sir. 17 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So I'd like to add that 18 in the record. 19 MR. DEL TORO: Well, historically on our 20 Board Kerrville Police Department has always had a 21 representative, and I think that was due in part because 22 that's kind of where 911 began, with the equipment and 23 key staff. And as we've progressed and improved the 24 network and everything else, I want to keep that 25 representation of Kerrville PD, but since we have a 28 1 large presence at the Sheriff's office, we think it 2 would be fitting to have a representative from the 3 Sheriff's Department on the Board as well. 4 JUDGE POLLARD: I think it's great. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think it's a good 6 idea. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Greg, this 8 organization's done nothing but get better and better 9 and better every year, so your challenge is to make it 10 even better. 11 MR. LONGENBAUGH: I accept that challenge. 12 MR. DEL TORO: Judge, I'm doing the budget 13 now, so -- 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That was a hint. 15 JUDGE POLLARD: Is there a motion? 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Yes. I move that we 17 appoint Greg Longenbaugh to the Kerr Emergency 911 18 Board. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 20 JUDGE POLLARD: Been moved by Commissioner 21 Precinct 1, seconded by Commissioner Precinct 2 to 22 appoint Greg Longenbaugh to the Kerr County Emergency 23 911 Board. Is there any further discussion or comment? 24 There being none, those in favor of the motion signify 25 by raising their right hands. It's four zero, 29 1 unanimous. One abstention, myself. 2 Congratulations, or maybe condolences. 3 Anyway, you're in. 4 MR. LONGENBAUGH: Thank you. 5 JUDGE POLLARD: Thank you very much. 6 All right, item 1.11 -- nope, not ten 7 o'clock yet. Let's go to 1.13 consider, discuss and 8 take appropriate action to open Request for 9 Qualifications (RFQ's) received regarding procurement of 10 an engineer for implementation of the Kerr County Flood 11 Warning System grant contingent upon award and refer to 12 appropriate personnel for review, recommendation and 13 possible award. Commissioner Moser. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thank you, Judge. I 15 think Commissioner Letz is also named -- 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Looks like we 17 received -- 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Response to RFQ's are 19 in there? 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We received one, and 21 it's from Hewitt Engineering in association with Kimley 22 Horn, SWCA Environmental Consultants. 23 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Who was it? 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Hewitt Engineering in 25 association with Kimley Horn and Associates, and SWCA 30 1 Environment Consultants. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Move that be referred 3 to a committee of Commissioner Letz, and myself, and 4 County Engineer, and we'll come back with 5 recommendation. 6 JUDGE POLLARD: And the County Attorney. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And the County 8 Attorney. Come back with a recommendation -- we'll 9 probably have a break here in a minute, and come back 10 here with a recommendation then. 11 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay, is there a second? 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 13 JUDGE POLLARD: All right, it's been moved 14 by Commissioner Precinct 2, seconded by Commissioner 15 Precinct 3 to defer the one bid that has been received 16 from Hewitt Engineering in association with Kimley Horn 17 and Associates, and SWCA Environmental Consultants to a 18 committee, the County Attorney, Commissioner Moser, and 19 Commissioner Letz -- 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Letz, and County 21 Engineer. 22 JUDGE POLLARD: To come back -- to study it 23 and come back with a recommendation. And County 24 Engineer also is on the Board. All right, any further 25 comment or discussion? There being none, those in favor 31 1 of the motion signify by raising your right hands. It's 2 four zero, it passes. One abstention, myself. 3 Item 1.14 consider, discuss and take 4 appropriate action to address possibility of prohibiting 5 the sale or use of restricted fireworks known as 6 "skyrockets with sticks" and "missiles with fins" in any 7 portion of the unincorporated area of Kerr County 8 pursuant to the Local Government Code section 352.051 9 for the Fourth of July holiday, fireworks season it's 10 called. 11 In the agenda package you'll see something 12 from TAC that indicates if we want to prohibit it we 13 have to do it by a certain deadline. Let's see, we 14 gotta do it by the 15th, I think is my memory. And all 15 right, do we want to prohibit that? 16 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I feel with the 17 current dry conditions it's in the best interest to do 18 this. 19 JUDGE POLLARD: I do, too. 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And this only prohibits 21 those two? 22 COMMISSIONER REEVES: They'll still sell 23 fireworks; just those two. 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Right, I agree. 25 JUDGE POLLARD: All right, any further 32 1 comment or discussion? 2 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I make a motion. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And I make a second. 4 JUDGE POLLARD: Motion is made by 5 Commissioner Reeves of Precinct 4, seconded by 6 Commissioner Precinct 1, Mr. Belew. If there's no 7 further discussion then those in favor of the motion 8 signify by raising their right hands. It's four zero, 9 unanimous. One abstention, myself. 10 Let's go to item 1.15 -- 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think we can probably 12 do that in open session. 13 JUDGE POLLARD: Pardon. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think we can do 15 in 15 open session. 16 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. Consider, 17 discuss and take appropriate action on reorganization 18 and revised job descriptions for the Maintenance 19 Department. Commissioner Letz. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We can do it in open 21 session as long as we don't talk about the names. I 22 don't know that that's -- 23 JUDGE POLLARD: Don't know the names anyway. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's not relevant. So 25 anyway, Shane and I have met and he's met with HR 33 1 Director as well. 2 MR. EVANS: Good morning, Gentlemen, Judge, 3 Commissioners. The way I planned it I would have 4 directly a second in charge at a 19, and then we would 5 have a Custodial Maintenance, which the Number 2 would 6 be over Custodial Maintenance as well. And Custodial 7 would be a 17. I think that would be appropriate. That 8 way we'd have a chain of command so someone in charge at 9 all times, and somebody, you know, if when I'm gone. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The way it worked 11 before, and before being last year probably, we had an 12 18 -- two 18's, and he's going to a 19 and a 17, and 13 putting -- the custodian position reported straight to 14 the former Maintenance Director, and Shane would rather 15 have a Number 2 person, custodian person reports to that 16 person, and then the custodian's staff under that 17 supervisor, and then there's -- everybody else under 18 maintenance is on the other side that goes to the main 19 supervisor to Shane. And it makes more sense and it has 20 a -- I like it because there's a Number 2 designated so 21 if Shane's not available there's always someone to go 22 to. In the past there wasn't a Number 2. 23 JUDGE POLLARD: With authority. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: With authority. That 25 would be the second person. And Dawn has redone the job 34 1 descriptions to reflect this modification and position. 2 And then Shane I think decided who -- how he wants to, 3 at least part of these positions, fill them. But that's 4 up to him how he wants to organize. 5 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay, I got a question. 6 For future reference will it always go to the person 7 with the greatest seniority? 8 MR. EVANS: What, the -- 9 COMMISSIONER BELEW: In your absence for 10 example. If you have -- you said 18, 19 whatever a 11 year, you're just going to designate somebody. It's not 12 an automatic decision. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's not seniority. 14 It's not based on seniority. It could be, but it is 15 not. 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Not necessarily. 17 JUDGE POLLARD: And have you seen the job 18 description that HR worked up? 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes, I've had them. And 20 Dawn, do you have copies you can hand out? 21 MRS. LANTZ: I have a set I can make copies 22 of real quick. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Everything's okay with 24 you, Dawn? 25 MRS. LANTZ: Yes, Sir. 35 1 JUDGE POLLARD: County Attorney? You looked 2 at that job description? 3 MRS. STEBBINS: No. But I generally don't 4 look at job descriptions adopted by the Court. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: This has no -- it has a 6 budget impact from changing line items, but it doesn't 7 change the budget. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: The total. 9 MR. EVANS: Yes. And also HR recommended 10 that I at least post it in-house to make it fair, so 11 we'll probably post it in-house. So you know somebody 12 else that, you know, outside of the Department probably 13 could apply for it, the Number 2 spot for the custodial 14 supervisor as well, so we will do that if this passes. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll make a motion to 16 reorganize the Maintenance Department, the job 17 classifications as recommended by the Maintenance 18 Director. 19 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Second. 20 JUDGE POLLARD: Been moved by Commissioner 21 Precinct 3, seconded by Commissioner Precinct 4 to 22 approve the changes in the Maintenance Department as 23 recommended by the Maintenance Director, and -- 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And for the record that 25 will be creating a level 19 position as a Maintenance 36 1 Department Supervisor, I think. 2 MR. EVANS: Yes, Sir. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And then there's a level 4 17 will be the Custodial Supervisor. 5 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. Is there any 6 further comment or discussion? Those in favor of the 7 motion signify by raising their right hand. It's four 8 zero, unanimous. One abstention, myself. 9 Oh, it's still not time. How about a ten 10 minute break. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And we'll go into this 12 other item. 13 MR. EVANS: Thank you, gentlemen. I 14 appreciate it. 15 JUDGE POLLARD: Come back in 15 minutes. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: 15-minute break. 17 (15-minute break.) 18 JUDGE POLLARD: We're going back to item 19 1.13 for a recommendation from the committee. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think we reviewed in 21 the -- well, I'll make a motion that we enter into 22 contract negotiations with the group that was headed up 23 by Hewitt Engineering for the Flood Warning System. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I second that. 25 JUDGE POLLARD: All right, it's been moved 37 1 by Commissioner Precinct 3, seconded by Commissioner 2 Precinct 2 -- by the way, what happened to Commissioner 3 Precinct 1? He's absent. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: He wasn't part of the 5 committee. 6 JUDGE POLLARD: He's absent for this vote. 7 All right, any further comment or discussion? The 8 motion was made to employ the group, the one bid that 9 was submitted by Hewitt Engineering heading up that 10 group. Any further comment or discussion? Being none, 11 those in favor of the motion signify by raising their 12 right hand. It's three zero, unanimous. One 13 abstention, myself. 14 Lets go back -- it's not quite ten o'clock, 15 is it? 16 COMMISSIONER REEVES: You want the reports? 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We can do the reports. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, there you go. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Court Orders. 20 (Commissioner Belew is present.) 21 JUDGE POLLARD: Going to item 4.1. You got 22 any to pay today? 23 MRS. DOSS: No bills. 24 JUDGE POLLARD: 4.2 budget amendments? 25 MRS. DOSS: No budget amendments. 38 1 JUDGE POLLARD: 4.3 late bills? 2 MRS. DOSS: No late bills. 3 JUDGE POLLARD: 4.4 approve and accept 4 monthly reports. 5 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Yes, Sir. All of the 6 reports that I'll read into the record are from May, 7 2018. They include the Indigent Services report, 8 Constable Precinct 1, Constable Precinct 2, Justice of 9 the Peace Precinct 1, Justice of the Peace Precinct 2. 10 Move to accept the reports as submitted, and sign if 11 needed. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 13 JUDGE POLLARD: Been moved by Commissioner 14 Precinct 4, seconded by Commissioner Precinct 3 to 15 accept the monthly reports that were read into the 16 record by Commissioner Reeves, and to sign or approve 17 them as needed. Is there any further comment or 18 discussion? There being none, those in favor of the 19 motion signify by raising their right hand. It's four 20 zero -- Commissioner Belew is back. And one abstention 21 myself. It passed. 22 Let's go to 4.5 Auditor's reports? 23 MRS. DOSS: None. 24 JUDGE POLLARD: 4.6 Court Orders? 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes, Judge. On Court 39 1 Orders from our May 29th meeting Court Order 36785 for 2 the Sheriff's Equipment Fund donation. It currently 3 reads approve to accept the $25.00 donation and place it 4 in the Kerr County equipment fund. I think that should 5 be the Kerr County Sheriff's equipment fund. 6 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. So that's your 7 motion? 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's one of them. And 9 then the other -- let me see. It says Court Order from 10 same meeting May 29, Court Order 36792, Court Order 11 reads approve to cancel the Memorandum of Understanding 12 between Kerr Central Appraisal District and Kerr County 13 pertaining to shared servers. My question really is 14 more to the those that understand that. Does that 15 clearly identify what we did at that? 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I think so. They just 17 want -- they want to -- read it again. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Approve to cancel the 19 Memorandum of Understanding between Kerr County 20 Appraisal District and Kerr County pertaining to shared 21 servers. 22 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Yes. That's all there 23 was to it. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yes. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Then I make a motion 40 1 that we make that one modification related to the 2 Sheriff, Kerr County Sheriff equipment fund. 3 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. The motion's 4 made by Commissioner Precinct 3, seconded by 5 Commissioner Precinct 1 -- 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Yes, Sir. 7 JUDGE POLLARD: -- to amend those two orders 8 as dictated by -- 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: One. We're changing 10 this one. 11 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. As dictated by 12 Commissioner Letz into the record. Is there any further 13 comment or discussion? If not those in favor of the 14 motion signify by raising your right hands. It's four 15 zero, unanimous. One abstention, myself. 16 I declare it's ten o'clock. I'm tired of 17 waiting. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: It is ten o'clock. 19 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. That's just in case 20 there was any doubt. All right, item 1.11 consider, 21 discuss and take appropriate action on Resolution 22 acknowledging the need of an additional nursing skilled 23 facility to be constructed in Kerr County. That's a 24 nursing home. Walt Koenig, please step forward. Even 25 bring along your Louisiana cohort if you like. 41 1 MR. KOENIG: I'll call him up in a minute. 2 He drove all the way over here, so I'm happy to do that. 3 Good morning, Judge Pollard, County 4 Commissioners. A couple months ago I met Jeff Rhodes 5 who will be speaking to you in a moment. He's seeking 6 to undertake a licensing process to open a nursing home 7 here in Kerr County or Kerrville area. A hundred beds 8 in size. The process right now requires some support 9 letters that are -- and it requested also a Resolution 10 on the part of the County Commissioner acknowledging the 11 effort, and offering no objection to the effort. I'll 12 let him explain to you specifically what's being sought 13 here, but I will say in closing that the Chamber of 14 Commerce has already provided a support letter, as has 15 the EDC, the Kerr EDC. We view this as an important 16 project. The statistics show that our needs for nursing 17 home beds in this community is increasing. This will be 18 a job creator for the area. We have revenue generator 19 from a tax-base standpoint, and as such it's a good 20 opportunity from a business standpoint. So I'm going to 21 hand it off to Jeff Rhodes. Jeff Rhodes is with the 22 Rhoman Group, again visiting us here from Louisiana and 23 I'll let him give you a brief and take any questions on 24 what he's asking for. Thank you very much. 25 MR. RHODES: I appreciate you guys giving me 42 1 a moment this morning. I've got some handouts I'm going 2 to give you. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Just hand them to him, 4 he'll pass them. 5 MR. RHODES: This should be all of them, 6 you'll probably have some extras. 7 I never know how formal I need to be. Some 8 people like a nice fancy presentation. I was told you 9 guys don't care about that, so that's good. 10 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Shuck the corn, man. 11 MR. RHODES: Shuck the corn. I'm from 12 northern Louisiana, I like that. I did want to let you 13 know kind of who I am, who we are. When I say we, 14 because I'm going to say "we" a lot, I am the President 15 of the Rhoman Group. We are a boutique consultancy 16 service out of north Louisiana, Arkansas. We help 17 developers, providers, investors, sometimes communities 18 will come to us. It's been a while since a community 19 came to us. We help them develop nursing homes, we put 20 financing in place, we put builders in place, we put 21 providers in place. Every component. And one of the 22 biggest things we do is we get the licensing. Every 23 state has its own version of what that is. And every 24 state has its own complications. In Texas, the CON 25 process, which is the Certificate of Need was eradicated 43 1 in 1985, a moratorium was put on CON's. As a result 2 because it's a growing dynamic state something had to be 3 implemented to get new Medicaid certified beds in place 4 for nursing homes to be constructed, built. So they 5 developed what's called the waiver process to waive the 6 moratorium. So when we ask for a community needs 7 waiver, which is what we're seeking in your County, 8 we're trying to waive that 1985 moratorium for the state 9 to grant us a hundred new beds. Okay. So I hope that 10 kind of maybe clarified that, that's always a question. 11 A part of that process, for whatever reason, 12 the State wanted to see to make sure that the community 13 supported it, and I've been doing this for 15 years. My 14 business partners been doing it for about 20, 25. And 15 we've been a part of work groups that have helped change 16 these rules and laws, and this is one part that's always 17 stayed in place. And what the State has communicated to 18 us over and over is they really want to make sure that 19 you guys don't oppose it, okay, make sure it doesn't 20 conflict with your goals and plans and economic 21 development needs. I've never seen cases where it does. 22 But the State just wants to make sure that it doesn't, 23 okay. They don't want to basically assert your local 24 authority and say hey you're getting a new nursing home 25 whether you want it or not. So they give you an 44 1 opportunity in a local community. 2 The way we do that is we meet with the 3 County officials, or City officials if need be, 4 whatever, EDC and Chambers of Commerce, that represent 5 the entire community. We can't go door to door and ask 6 everybody if they want a new nursing home, so that's why 7 we're here and that's what we're looking for, okay? So 8 I hope that makes sense. 9 As far as need goes there's a little bit of 10 information in this presentation about as far as the 11 need. The State doesn't clarify to the world what they 12 deem a community is in need of. When a nursing home is 13 needed they don't give you a list of criteria and say it 14 needs these data points that it needs. It's very 15 ambiguous, it's kind of broad in general. So it's up to 16 the developers to look at the community, look at a 17 market, and say hey this is needed. 18 So we have -- I don't even know how many 19 data points, we have a lot of data points. The main one 20 we look at is the existing facilities. And you have 21 five nursing homes, what is their occupancy, what is the 22 growth rate and the demand of those facilities, and 23 continues with that what's the growth rate of the 24 County, what's the growth rate of the Community. 25 As you guys probably know one in three 45 1 citizens within the County are going to be over the age 2 of 65 real soon. One of the largest concentrations of 3 65 and over, and I get -- one of the big questions I get 4 is why are you talking about 65 and over nursing homes, 5 because I'm over 65, and I'm not even close to a nursing 6 home. In health care planning in the State of Texas 7 that's where it starts for nursing homes, okay, that's 8 kind of a benchmark. Not everybody's going to need a 9 nursing home, obviously not everybody over 65. The 10 average age of a nursing home resident in the State of 11 Texas is 84. And somewhere around 85 to 86 percent of 12 nursing homes residents are over 65, and the rest of 13 them are under 65. So you know there can be very young 14 people in nursing homes, but the benchmark on your 15 healthcare plan is 65 and over. So I just wanted to 16 clarify that, because my business partner always, you 17 know, complains about that because he's almost 70. And 18 I don't know why we have to talk about this. 19 So anyway I did want to point out a couple 20 of these things on page 5. You see the growth rate. I 21 mean you guys are probably well aware of this. These 22 are some of the things that we're looking at to 23 determine that there's a need. At the end of the day it 24 doesn't matter what we say, it doesn't matter what, you 25 know, anybody says. What matters is if the State sees 46 1 that there's a need. They plug all the data in, they 2 have their own data, they use our data, there's an 3 entire system they go through. It's about a year long 4 process, and they will determine whether or not it's 5 needed. They just want to make sure from a County 6 perspective or from a community perspective that you 7 guys don't oppose it, are in favor have it, so that's 8 why we're here. 9 As far as the rest of our company, we are 10 responsible in the last 15 years for almost a half a 11 billion dollars in nursing home development. We've 12 created thousands of jobs, and that's working with 13 different developers, different builders, different 14 multi-national funding agencies. I mean we do a lot of 15 this a cross the south, so we're very -- 16 JUDGE POLLARD: What state do you do the 17 most in? 18 MR. RHODES: Most of it in Texas. We've 19 worked in Arkansas, we've worked in Mississippi, 20 Tennessee, Missouri and South Carolina. Some states are 21 completely closed off. Louisiana you can't build a 22 nursing home unless you're replacing one. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Unless you're what? 24 MR. RHODES: You can replace. The only way 25 you can build a new one is if you replace an old one. 47 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Golly. 2 MR. RHODES: So yeah, it's pretty tough. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What is it -- kind of 4 related to that. Why is there such state control on 5 building nursing homes? It makes no sense to me. 6 MR. RHODES: It Texas in doesn't make any 7 sense, and I'll tell you why, because most states have a 8 CON process which means your reimbursement for Medicaid 9 is based on your cost. So if you spend 20 million 10 dollars to build a building, the State has to reimburse 11 you based on that cost versus if you spent ten million, 12 okay. So in Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, Arkansas 13 they're all cost base reimbursements. Texas is one of 14 the few states that has fee based reimbursement, so it's 15 set -- there's a RUG system so there's 12 different 16 levels based on patience acuity, it's more detailed than 17 I even understand. But basically its set fees, so if it 18 cost you 20 thousand dollars a day to take care of that 19 resident you're still only going to get paid $174.00, so 20 it's cost containment is the main reason. 21 In Texas to go through this process it 22 really doesn't make sense, and we've been a part of it 23 for years, and it's the gate. If it was easy everybody 24 would be doing it. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So it's Medicaid driven. 48 1 MR. RHODES: Absolutely. And you can build 2 a nursing home in the state that's not Medicaid 3 certified. I mean I can go down here and buy seven 4 acres of property, I can build a 120 bed nursing home, 5 get it licensed, but not certified for Medicaid, but a 6 bank would never loan money on that. 7 Now, I have development partners that do 8 that in Collin County and certain parts of Bexar County. 9 I mean there's places in the state that you can do that 10 and succeed; I don't. It's -- that's a scarey world. 11 So kind of the bread and butter so to speak, the base of 12 operation, your Medicaid census is what keeps the 13 building open. 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: My question is are you 15 fulfilling a niche, something that you found that's not 16 here, or you just doing the numbers? 17 MR. RHODES: It's just the numbers. As far 18 as a niche, I mean your community has a niche in that 33 19 percent of your population is over the age of 65, and is 20 likely a lot, a high percentage of that, is going to 21 need access at some point of care. And I also want to 22 say just to kind of go along with that, when I started 23 15 years ago the average stay in the nursing home was 24 600 days; today it's 180. Nursing home care has 25 radically changed. The innovation and the health care, 49 1 Hospice, assisted living facilities, home health care 2 have all innovated in the industry and become 3 competition with the nursing home, which is good. My 4 grandfather was in all forms of those care. So it's 5 good and Texas really promotes patient choice, you know, 6 you need to have a choice, and that's why they want you 7 to have new buildings. 8 The reason we like to build new buildings as 9 opposed to buying existing business is that the old -- 10 you got some old buildings in this community and they 11 were built on standards that are outdated, but they're 12 grandfathered in to the healthcare system. So when 13 we're building new buildings our rooms are 300 square 14 foot as opposed to 160 square foot, you know. I mean 15 they're semi-private rooms, they've got all the latest 16 bells and whistles for occupational therapy and physical 17 therapy. They've got designated areas instead of 18 patient rooms converted to that. So the facility -- and 19 you see some pictures these are actual pictures that 20 we've built around the State. I have personally been a 21 part of 18, and then my business partner's been a part 22 of about 20 of those, and we actually own and position 23 about 18. This is what we do for a living. And we 24 bring, in my opinion, I think we've built some of the 25 nicest buildings in the State of Texas. That's my 50 1 opinion. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: How did you identify 3 Kerrville as a potential? 4 MR. RHODES: I was asked by the developer. 5 A developer came to me. 6 JUDGE POLLARD: By who? 7 MR. RHODES: The developer, the actual 8 developer of this property, so I'm being hired as a 9 consultant. I will not own a part of this one, which is 10 unfortunate. But a developer came to me and said hey, 11 what about Kerrville, and I said I hadn't looked at 12 Kerrville. I mean I know the area. And so my team 13 started looking at it. My lead analyst came to me and 14 said wow, why haven't we -- why haven't we found this 15 one? And so I went back to him, and I just told Walt 16 within a couple weeks, and this just seemed to happen, I 17 was contacted by 5 providers, health care providers, 18 about this market as well. So of course I can't, you 19 know, I couldn't disclose that to them. But this 20 developer is very fortunate to find this community, and 21 it's needed. Based on every data point that we have 22 it's very needed. 23 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Which part of the 24 County you going to -- 25 MR. RHODES: Our target is Kerrville. We 51 1 want to -- we always want to be close to the hospital. 2 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Close to the hospital. 3 MR. RHODES: Right. As close as possible. 4 And we have not even looked at land. We don't start 5 that process. This process to get approved with the 6 state is a year minimum. I've had it take three years. 7 We're about to break ground in three months in Elgin. 8 I've been working on that project for about three and a 9 half years. It's long. I tell people you going to work 10 in the nursing home business you better be patient. 11 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I see that you're 12 proposing -- and for the record we have talked on the 13 phone, we have never met, but we have talked. 9 to 10 14 million dollars in cost. I saw where you're pledging to 15 the best of your ability to use local contractors, local 16 labor force, 90 to 120 full-time equivalent jobs and 17 three million dollars payroll. 18 MR. RHODES: Right. 19 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I think it's -- and 20 finally you're not asking for any abatement, any 21 incentives or anything, you're just wanting this Court's 22 support in doing something like this? 23 MR. RHODES: Yes, Sir. 24 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I think it's an 25 excellent project. 52 1 JUDGE POLLARD: It sure is. 2 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Compliment the EDC on 3 their work, and Walt, and everybody else. 4 MR. RHODES: Very good work. I will say 5 rolled out the red carpet for us. I've done this a lot 6 across the State, and I'm always surprised when I find a 7 hostile environment, it shocks me, and I can't -- I 8 don't understand it. But this was not a hostile 9 environment. You guys have a great community, and we 10 look forward to being a part of it. 11 JUDGE POLLARD: Well, there's a great need 12 for it here, sure is. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Walt, anything else? 14 MR. KOENIG: No. I'll just say to kind of 15 tie it up and tie it into the comprehensive planning 16 process. One of the guiding principles of the 17 comprehensive plan is to continue to service and be part 18 of the retirement community here as a priority as a 19 City, and I think this fits very well into that set of 20 activities and that, and support of that particular 21 guiding principle. Obviously for all the metrics that 22 Bob -- Commissioner Reeves indicated that the Chamber's 23 fully behind this. EDC's fully behind this and we 24 really appreciate your support as well. 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Any action needed? 53 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. I move for 2 approval of a Resolution of Commissioners' Court 3 acknowledging the need of an additional skilled nursing 4 facility(nursing home) to be constructed in Kerr County, 5 Texas. I'm just going to submit the Resolution for the 6 record instead of reading it all. 7 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I'll second that 8 motion. 9 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. 10 JUDGE POLLARD: All right, this is pursuant 11 to item 1.11 of the agenda, and that it was moved by 12 Commissioner Moser to approve the execution of the 13 Resolution acknowledging a need for and supporting an 14 additional skilled nursing facility, nursing home, in 15 Kerr County, Texas. Pursuant to item 1.11 of the 16 agenda. Is there any further discussion or comment? If 17 not, those in favor of the motion signify by raising 18 your right hand. Four zero, unanimous. One abstention, 19 myself. 20 Item 1.12 consider and discuss Verity 21 Election systems from HART Intercivic, presentation by 22 Felice Liston. Nadene Alford and Diane Bolin. How are 23 you, ma'am? 24 MS. LISTON: Good morning, Judge, 25 Commissioners. I'm fine; how are you? 54 1 JUDGE POLLARD: Good. You must Felice? 2 MS. LISTON: I am Felice Liston with HART, 3 yes. And you have done business, the County does 4 business with HART, we provide your current voting 5 system that y'all are used to, and accustomed to for 6 many many years. 7 Before I get started with my presentation 8 though I'm going to just give you a couple handouts to 9 give you to keep for your reference. 10 MS. ALFORD: We are having this presentation 11 for the Court since the budget's coming up, and if we're 12 going to request new equipment and money, this is to 13 show you what the money would be spent on in that. 14 MS. LISTON: I've handed out some 15 information on the product that you see in front of you, 16 but before I get started on the product I'll talk a tiny 17 bit about HART for those of you who may not be familiar 18 with us. 19 We're a Texas based company. We are 20 actually right on the Williamson-Travis County line so 21 not too far away from you, which is nice. We design and 22 develop the system that you see before you, as well as 23 the system that you are currently using in our facility 24 here in Texas, and most importantly we manufacture our 25 voting system here in Texas, and we are very proud of 55 1 that fact. We're the only voting system provider who 2 manufactures their equipment in the United States, and 3 much less is in Texas. 4 So I have been with the company for many 5 years. My son was actually not even in grade school 6 when I started with HART, and he is now going to be a 7 Junior in college, so a long time, but of course my mind 8 still thinks he's young as we all think, right? 9 So we not only design, manufacture, develop 10 our system in Texas, all of our employees are located in 11 Texas as well, except we do have a few extraneous sales 12 folks that are in other regions of the country. But we 13 are very proud of our Texas heritage. We have been in 14 the elections industry servicing counties in Texas, as 15 well as the United States, for over a hundred years. So 16 we're very well acknowledged in elections, and 17 especially in the State of Texas, since that is where we 18 first began. 19 To give you a little bit of information 20 about the election landscape, and why it is that I'm 21 here today showing you the new equipment, why Nadene and 22 Diane are thinking about considering purchasing new 23 voting equipment. We all remember the Bush Gore day 24 back in 2000 with the hanging chad. What came out of 25 that particular election was the help America Vote Act. 56 1 That was in 2002. That is also known as HAVA. In the 2 HAVA days the Federal Government provided every single 3 county in the United States, and Kerr County was one of 4 those counties with money to purchase a new voting 5 system. They wanted to get rid of the hanging chad. 6 The Federal Government outlawed those machines that 7 caused those hanging chads. And they moved to a new 8 voting system, and they said by the first election in 9 2006 every county has to have new voting equipment. So 10 it was probably about 2005 Kerr County purchased the 11 equipment that you currently have today. It's worked 12 for you well. It still works today. We will continue 13 to support that product. The challenge is that it's 14 technology and just like any technology it gets old 15 regardless of whether it's our voting system or any 16 other voting system that's out there. It's just 17 beginning to show its age. 18 Now, we will continue to support, as a 19 company, the voting system that you currently have today 20 until the very last county in the United States is using 21 that particular voting system. Where the challenge 22 becomes a little tricky is in the component that make up 23 that voting system. A lot of those components are no 24 longer being made. For example, the card that holds the 25 cast vote record that Nadene and her office use at the 57 1 end of the election to tabulate the votes, those cards 2 are no longer being made. So what's going to happen is 3 one day -- if you choose to stay on the current system 4 that you have, one day Nadene's going to call me and 5 she's going to say Felice, I need X, Y, Z components to 6 keep going to make sure that my system is still 7 available for use, and I'm going to say, Nadene, we 8 don't have any more of that anymore. We'll support you, 9 but we don't have that particular portion of the 10 equipment that you need to keep your election running. 11 So Diane and Nadene are doing the forward thinking thing 12 and bringing forward to the Court the next voting system 13 that we have developed. This system was developed and 14 certified by the Federal Government and by the State of 15 Texas in 2015. Since then over two dozen counties in 16 Texas have purchased this system for use. The latest 17 County that approved the purchase of this system was 18 Palo Pinto County just the Tuesday after Memorial Day 19 they approved it, so they will be using it for the first 20 time in November of this year. We also see a variety of 21 other counties across Texas and throughout the United 22 States purchase this system as they move into the 23 November election. 24 So we had that HAVA law that I talked about, 25 purchase of this system that you have today back in 58 1 2005-2006 range. In 2013 Nadene and all the other 2 elections folks in Texas at their annual conference 3 started hearing from the Texas Secretary of State. You 4 need to start thinking about a new voting system, and 5 you need to plan for it, because the Federal 6 Government's not going to give you money this time 7 around. The County's going to have to come up with the 8 funds, so you need to start talking to your Court now so 9 that they can plan accordingly. 10 At the judges and commissioners conferences 11 which I know you frequent, and we also exhibit at, you 12 started hearing that message in about the 2014 time 13 frame. So that message has been percolating for quite 14 sometime, and you're starting to see numerous counties 15 move forward with that message and purchase that voting 16 system. 17 So what we're bringing to you today is 18 called Verity. Now Verity is the platform, so when I 19 say Verity to you it can mean any of those devices that 20 you see here before you. What we're bringing is very 21 similar from a voter experience to what your voters have 22 today. 23 On your far right is the paper scan unit. 24 So just like the voters do today, they'll be give their 25 ballot, once they go through the qualification process 59 1 that they are a registered voter, they'll hand-mark that 2 ballot according to the selects that they choose, and 3 then they will walk over to that unit and they'll feed 4 in the ballot. There are many efficiencies that this 5 particular system provides to Nadene and her office, but 6 I'm only going to talk about from a voter perspective 7 for you and the rest of the audience today. The 8 system -- the device that you see there in front of you 9 is actually what a poll worker would use, so if any of 10 you are accustomed to electronic voting and you choose 11 to do that instead of the paper ballot, then you're used 12 to the poll worker working on a similar system that 13 provides you a four digit access code. We've increased 14 that access code, it now is a 5 digit access code, so 15 this is the device that the poll worker will use to 16 provide the right ballot style, the right format. 17 Because we all know we can live across the street from 18 each other and have a different ballot style. The 19 appropriate ballot style, that access code, that 5 digit 20 access code will be given to the voter just like it is 21 today, and they will walk over to this voting device 22 that you see with the privacy panels on it, and they 23 will enter in their selections on that particular voting 24 device. 25 From a voter perspective, the biggest change 60 1 that they'll see here is that this is now touch screen. 2 So no longer that wheel, unless they choose to use the 3 wheel, this particular device can be used by an able 4 bodied voter as well as an ADA voter. So an ADA voter 5 for mobility issues, for example, may want to go ahead 6 and use that wheel, but you can also use the touch 7 screen. 8 Another great benefit for the voter for this 9 particular device is that if I've forgotten my glasses 10 I, the voter, can make that font really big. If I have 11 excellent vision I can make that font really small as 12 well. I can also change the language at any time during 13 the voting process. That is a big difference that the 14 poll workers in the elections office will see. Right 15 now if someone chooses English and they want Spanish 16 that ballot has to be spoiled, and the whole process has 17 to start over again. The voter now can make that 18 distinction in the voting device they feel at any time 19 during the voting process. So if I'm a native Spanish 20 speaker and I've gone through the candidate selection 21 in English and I get to a proposition and I'm more 22 comfortable reading that proposition in Spanish, I can 23 change that particular proposition to Spanish. So I can 24 read that and make my selection. And any changes that 25 the voter has made like that from a convenience 61 1 perspective, as soon as they hit that cast ballot button 2 and they see that flag, just like y'all do today, all of 3 those settings default back to the original settings so 4 the poll workers don't have to go and make those 5 changes. 6 Also from a security perspective we've done 7 numerous different security things and upgraded the 8 system from what you have today. And that is one 9 distinction also where we are a differentiator with 10 other system voter manufacturers. We're the only system 11 voting manufacturer who basically throughout the system 12 that y'all have today, and let's start from the ground 13 up in our design. We specifically and intentionally did 14 not want to just simply upgrade the system that you have 15 today and tack on something to the side, because we 16 wanted to provide the counties with the latest security 17 features. And I had an opportunity to talk to, I 18 believe his name is Mr. Trolinger. And I had an 19 opportunity to visit with Mr. Trolinger before the 20 presentation and answer some of his questions and 21 provide him with security information about our system 22 as well. 23 So I think from a presentation perspective 24 that is about all I wanted to say. Do you want to see 25 the process at all? Certainly we can do that after 62 1 you -- after you adjourn, or are there any questions or 2 concerns? 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Let me ask you a 4 question. How many counties in the last three or four 5 years have changed their voting system? 6 MS. LISTON: That's a great question. So if 7 you recall I mentioned that Nadene and her counterparts 8 have begun hearing you need to get a new voting system 9 starting in 2013. We actually had the first county move 10 to a new voting system in 2012. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Out of a total of 254 12 counties -- 13 MS. LISTON: Yes, so -- 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: -- how many have -- 15 MS. LISTON: -- just from HART perspective 16 we have had about 50 counties move to -- 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: No. Including HART and 18 everybody else, how many have -- 19 MS. LISTON: So there's only -- right now 20 there's only two companies that are certified in Texas 21 with voting systems, us and one other, and that one 22 other has only about two dozen, I believe. So that's -- 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So very few counties 24 out of 254 have upgraded? 25 MS. LISTON: At this point in time, yes. 63 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. And who is your 2 competition? 3 MS. LISTON: A company by the name of ES&S, 4 they're based out of Nebraska. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And how many have you 6 added in the State of Texas? You said, but I don't 7 remember. 8 MS. LISTON: About 50 or so. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: About 50 out of -- 10 okay. 11 MS. LISTON: Yes. And Palo Pinto County who 12 I mentioned earlier, who is the latest County to approve 13 the Verity purchase actually moved from ES&S to HART for 14 their next voting system. We have had about seven or so 15 counties who have selected HART. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Question for Nadene, 17 is there a cost benefit in changing our system? 18 MS. ALFORD: Well, the cost system is -- the 19 the system is getting older. We have had it since 2006. 20 There's components on what we call the JBC, that's like 21 this that we press in a code. The buttons are starting 22 to get harder to push in that I'll have to send out for 23 maintenance and at some point that machine won't be able 24 to get fixed. And the cards we put into -- we put three 25 cards in. One into the JBC, one into the eSlate, and 64 1 one into eScan that record the cast votes. And those 2 cards at some point aren't going to be made anymore, so 3 I have an X number of them but if they get corrupt or 4 something happens that they eventually get bad then I 5 won't be able to replace them. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: The cost benefit is 7 just the repair and maintenance on the system -- 8 MS. ALFORD: That, and the system will be 9 easier to use, easier to handle for the voters, like the 10 tub the eScan sits on there, it's a big big tub that 11 maintenance delivers for me on election day, and then 12 they have to go pick it up. This collapses down into a 13 small unit to be able to handle better than that. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So that you don't 15 really have a cost benefit? 16 MS. ALFORD: Not really. It just easier for 17 the election workers, and for the voters. 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: But you did mention 19 obsolescence and so we're heading towards that, so we 20 have flip phone voting machines right now? 21 MS. ALFORD: That is correct yes, Sir. 22 MS. LISTON: That's a perfect way to think 23 about it. The flip phone it will still work, but it's 24 just getting old. 25 MS. DIANE BOLIN: And just so you know I 65 1 talk to Gwenda Tschirhart from Bandera County. She's 2 their Tax Assessor and Election Administrator. They 3 will be going to this this year during her budget. 4 She's already got approval from all of them and she'll 5 use it in the November election. 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Who did you say, Diane? 7 MS. DIANE BOLIN: Bandera County. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What is the, I guess, 9 the purchasing financial side of this? 10 MS. DIANE BOLIN: We sent everything to 11 Brenda and she saw the demonstration last year and 12 visited with Felice extensively, and we sent her the 13 updated information, so I left all that for her. 14 JUDGE POLLARD: So we going to be able to 15 roll that into the budget process? 16 MRS. DOSS: Well, we could purchase it doing 17 a capital lease. And this is what I was provided with 18 potential 7-year payout, 5-year payout or 3-year payout. 19 I didn't know -- I thought y'all received that. 20 MS. LISTON: We provide leasing -- I'm 21 sorry, not leasing; financing through Government 22 Capital, which is based in Dallas. You may be familiar 23 with them -- 24 MRS. DOSS: We already use them. 25 MS. LISTON: We certainly -- if you do 66 1 decide to finance it, it certainly doesn't have to be 2 through Government Capital. If you have a local bank 3 that you prefer to run the business through that it's 4 certainly more than workable with HART, absolutely. 5 Whoever you can get the best rate with is what we 6 recommend. And we do offer the 3, 5, or 7 year term. 7 Because we do realize since the Federal Government isn't 8 providing monies this time around that some counties are 9 having to finance, and there are some of those counties 10 that I mentioned earlier that have chosen to finance 11 through Government Capital, some of them an outright 12 purchase, and others have worked with their local bank. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is there a requirement 14 that we have to have, I guess, the touch-tone type as 15 well, or can we just have the paper ballot only? 16 MS. LISTON: There's not a requirement, you 17 can have either/or. From a voter perspective for least 18 confusion, it usually seems to in my experience over 19 years, when you are able to bring them the same type of 20 system that they are currently accustomed to using, and 21 you provide choice in this County, which is nice, 22 because those folks who want paper have paper, and those 23 folks who don't mind the electronics obviously can use 24 the electronics. Now, you're required to have at least 25 one ADA unit in each polling location, that is by law. 67 1 So you would have to have at least one ADA device. 2 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That's the touch 3 screen? 4 MS. LISTON: That's the touch screen. 5 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That's the ADA 6 compliant? 7 MS. LISTON: ADA compliant yes, Sir. 8 COMMISSIONER REEVES: And you said in each 9 Precinct? 10 MS. LISTON: In each polling location, 11 uh-huh. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So what -- on the costs, 13 what's it cost between the two, between the touch screen 14 versus the paper unit? 15 MS. LISTON: Do you happen to remember that 16 from looking at the -- 17 MS. DIANE BOLIN: I think the paper was 18 359,000. 19 MS. LISTON: Yeah, 359, I believe, versus 20 419 is what you're looking at now. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: You say 419? 22 MS. LISTON: 419, I believe, is what you're 23 looking at now. 24 MS. DIANE BOLIN: Felice, explain the 25 difference in the ADA, between the two. 68 1 MS. LISTON: Between the two so for the 2 paper based ADA unit it's -- all the devices look the 3 same, and you can see that here. And we did that 4 intentionally because if the legislature, the Federal 5 Government, ever comes out with a law that requires you 6 to have only one type of voting, you can convert these 7 systems. So for example you can convert the electronic 8 devices to paper, or you can convert the paper devices 9 to electronic. So ultimately that saves you some money. 10 COMMISSIONER BELEW: The trend in the news 11 stories lately is that we are headed back towards paper. 12 MS. LISTON: So that is what you read in the 13 news; however, of those counties who have purchased in 14 Texas to date the majority of them have been fully 15 electronic, not even providing the option to go to paper 16 like you have here. 17 COMMISSIONER BELEW: But you just mentioned 18 mandates. 19 MS. LISTON: Right, if there are mandates. 20 But there aren't any right now. 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So if we have a touch 22 screen unit that can still print you could still scan a 23 paper ballot or not? 24 MS. LISTON: If you have a touch screen unit 25 as I've set it up here today it would have to be 69 1 modified to go to a touch screen with a paper -- 2 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Are they designed to do 3 that? 4 MS. LISTON: They are designed to do that. 5 And that's what Diane asked me to explain the difference 6 from the poll worker perspective between the two. So if 7 you had an ADA unit with a paper trail to it what that 8 requires is that the poll worker to escort the voter to 9 their booth, and they will have to pull up the 10 appropriate ballot style, the poll worker at that 11 particular booth for the voter, and then the poll worker 12 would leave, and the voter would make their selection, a 13 marked paper ballot would print out, and then that 14 marked paper ballot would be taken over to the scan 15 device that you see on that far right. So it's going to 16 end up being two things, perception from a voter 17 perspective that my vote may not be completely private 18 because they're having to now be escorted, again 19 perception, and a second thing is that there will be a 20 need for more poll workers in each polling location, 21 which also means expense, more expense, because you're 22 going to have to be escorting those voters to their 23 booth to pull up the appropriate ballot. 24 MS. DIANE BOLIN: Plus you'll have to have a 25 printer at each one of those with a little table so you 70 1 are looking at ink, paper, the printer, making sure that 2 the poll workers know how to hook everything up. That's 3 why we wanted this one. 4 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Yeah, but we're talking 5 about in the event that something is mandated we're 6 required to have paper so we wouldn't have any choice in 7 that one way or the other. 8 MS. DIANE BOLIN: But this can be converted. 9 MS. LISTON: And those -- we're of course 10 very in tune with the Texas Secretary of State's Office, 11 we meet with them frequently. That is the agency as you 12 know that oversees elections in the State of Texas. And 13 there is quite a bit of talk right now about paper as 14 you pointed out. But because of the counties who have 15 already purchased their new system and have selected the 16 fully electronic system, and there are some large 17 counties who have done that. Hidalgo County is one, 18 Lubbock County is another, Nueces County, Brazoria 19 County. From what we're hearing -- now we never know 20 what the legislature might do, but from what we're 21 hearing, we do not anticipate that a paper trail will be 22 mandated, that they will leave it up to each individual 23 county to choose what is best for their constituents. 24 JUDGE POLLARD: Any other questions? 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: More budget discussions 71 1 coming up looks like. 2 COMMISSIONER REEVES: We appreciate what you 3 have brought here today. 4 JUDGE POLLARD: Thank you very much. 5 MS. LISTON: Absolutely. Thank you for 6 having me. And if any questions arise please let any of 7 the ladies know and I'll be happy to answer those for 8 you. 9 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. 10 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I have one question for 11 Nadene. How many people in percentages are using 12 electronic versus paper right now? 13 MS. ALFORD: Well, about more than half use 14 paper, and some like the electronic in that they will 15 just use the electronic. But probably half of the 16 people use paper, maybe a little bit more. But at least 17 half do use paper, they like their paper ballot. 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. Thank you. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thank you very much for 20 coming over. 21 JUDGE POLLARD: We appreciate it. Thank 22 you. 23 Is there any further business for the 24 Commissioners' Court at this time? Yes, Sir. 25 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Just on reports from 72 1 elected officials, we hadn't done that. I just wanted 2 y'all to know about my secretary's husband past away 3 Friday evening. The service is this evening. 4 And then, unfortunately, Saturday night one 5 of my officers got arrested in Gillespie County for a 6 DWI. He was terminated at 7:30 this morning. 7 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. Anything else? 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, I was going to 9 mention one other thing. That I went to Comal County 10 last week. They had a public forum and a discussion on 11 what -- trying to get the legislature to increase the 12 capability of counties to have increased local control. 13 So they've got an effort going there. It looks like 14 it's an isolated thing for them, but they're going to 15 make a run for the legislature again in the next 16 session. That's been, I think, this will be the 4th or 17 5th time, and I don't think it's ever gotten out of 18 committee yet. So anyway, that's just to give counties 19 a greater say in local control like gravel pits, etc. 20 So that's all. 21 JUDGE POLLARD: You want to explain why 22 there's been so much resistance to it. You mentioned 23 something about a county gets started with that -- 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, I think Jonathan 25 mentioned that. 73 1 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay, you want to talk about 2 that? 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Probably six or seven 4 years ago Kerr County, and I was involved in some 5 additional authority, very very limited with the 6 counties related to lot size more than anything else, 7 and water availability. But when it got to the 8 committee hearing, the one -- there's two lobby groups 9 that are very much against county getting any authority, 10 Texas Home Builders Association and Texas Realtors 11 Association are the two main ones, but there's others. 12 And their logic is not that they're specifically opposed 13 to the limited request that we had, or probably Comal 14 county is going to have coming up, but their concern is 15 that as soon as they give any county additional 16 authority everyone's going to want it, and it'll start a 17 a bad precedent, you know, in their point of view. 18 JUDGE POLLARD: And I just wish we could 19 apply to that to the state legislature, too. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So I think it would be 21 very difficult to get something through. And it's -- 22 when the changes that have come through with the Texas 23 232, that county's subdivision rules. That the changes 24 have tended to be slipped in as a rider under another 25 bill and a very specific changing. A, you know, 74 1 something that's already there. Changing it to apply to 2 different counties or more counties, things like that. 3 There's quite a few things that Chapter 232 apply to 4 that, or counties with a population of over 2.5 million. 5 So they go in there and they kind of delete that one 6 sentence, you know, and maybe lower it to over a hundred 7 thousand or something like that, and that's how they 8 change it, how most changes have come to pass so far. 9 So that's about. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: In the last session 11 Representative Murr submitted a bill to the subcommittee 12 on having gravel mining operators be required to reclaim 13 the land once they finish reclaiming could be any type 14 of application rather than just maybe look like a bomb 15 hit it. And there was opposition from the construction 16 industry there and the bill never got out of committee, 17 but Representative Murr said that he would submit the 18 bill again this next session, so there you go. Anyway, 19 that's all I have. 20 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. Anybody have 21 else? All right, that's it. And there being no further 22 business, we're adjourned. Thank you very much. 23 * * * * * * 24 25 75 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 Court Reporter in and for Kerr County, do hereby certify 6 that the above and foregoing pages contain and comprise 7 a true and correct transcription of the proceedings had 8 in the above-entitled Commissioners' Court. 9 Dated this the 25th day of June, A.D. 2018. 10 11 /s/DEBRA ELLEN GIFFORD Certified Shorthand Reporter 12 No. 953 Expiration Date 12/31/2018 13 * * * * * * 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25