1 1 2 3 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS' COURT 4 Special Session 5 Tuesday, July 31, 2018 6 3:00 p.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 1.2 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 3 action regarding the Interlocal Agreement 4 between Kerr County, Texas and the City of Kerrville, Texas for the provision of 5 Animal Control services within the City of Kerrville, Texas and library services of 6 the Butt-Holdsworth Memorial Library for residents of Kerr County. 7 1.1 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 14 8 action on personnel matter. 9 *** Adjournment. 16 10 *** Reporter's Certificate. 17 11 * * * * * * 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 3 1 JUDGE POLLARD: This one is a special 2 Commissioners' Court agenda, session. It's Tuesday, 3 July the 31st, 2018. It's now about 3:21 p.m. and I'm 4 declaring the Commissioners' Court open on this. 5 We'll go to the second item on the agenda 1.2 and 6 consider it first, and that is consider, discuss and 7 take appropriate action regarding the interlocal 8 agreement between Kerr County, Texas and the City of 9 Kerrville, Texas for the provision of Animal Control 10 services within the City of Kerrville, Texas and library 11 services of the Butt-Holdsworth Memorial Library for 12 residents of Kerr County, executive session. And you 13 put me down as the one sponsoring it, but it was you. 14 MRS. STEBBINS: That was my fault. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I don't think we 16 need executive session on it based on the response that 17 we got from the City Manager a couple weeks ago, which 18 was a response to me, and I think Commissioner Moser and 19 Pollard from the City Manager -- or Commissioner Moser 20 and Judge Pollard, I didn't demote you. His response 21 was basically implied that we can change the 22 operation -- that he feels anyway that we can change the 23 operational procedures of that facility without changing 24 the agreement. So that being said it's not me to 25 question the City Attorney -- or I mean the City Manager 4 1 or the City Attorney for that matter. But that being 2 said it made no sense to me to have a lot of language in 3 our agreement relating to the operations of that 4 facility. Like there was very little in the agreement 5 related to the operations of the library, so I took the 6 original agreement and I deleted what I thought on the 7 Animal Services side, the paragraphs that related to 8 operations. And it simplified it, I think, seven or 9 eight paragraphs, and tried to make it very closely 10 mirror the way the library portion is. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So does this basically 12 then reflect what was sent over to the City and Animal 13 Control operations? 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No. It doesn't specify 15 any hours; it just says we're going to operate the way 16 we want to operate it. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. And I think 18 we've had -- I discussed with the City Manager, said it 19 would be really nice is if the City could operate the 20 way that you want to, and the County can operate Animal 21 Control Services the way we want to. And we'll have an 22 agreement on that. And we're both going to do what's 23 the best thing to do for the value for -- to the 24 community for those things. So is that kind of where 25 you are? 5 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's exactly what I 2 did. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Perfect. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I left every 5 provision that related to what the -- what may be above 6 and beyond the State Law that the City wanted us to do, 7 every provision of that's still in here. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: (Slams hand.) Good. 9 And I've had some discussion with other people who want 10 to do more things, and a lot of the people that are here 11 to do more things, and I think that's something that we 12 should consider, okay? So we need to -- we need to 13 identify what those things are and what it costs, you 14 know, and then we can look at that. 15 So if we can separate what Commissioner Letz 16 has done here, here's what the City says is good, looks 17 good for library, looks good for animal control. 18 JUDGE POLLARD: So we going to propose this 19 back to the City? 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And we said that, and 21 that's fine. But at the same time we look to the future 22 improving things and look at that independent of this. 23 Okay. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. And as an 25 example in the agreement -- the original agreement says 6 1 we may do an advisory board. It still says we may do 2 it, but just trying to keep the agreement as close as 3 possible. But I plan to put on the agenda probably our 4 second meeting in August to move forward on how we 5 create that, the advisory board. So I think we need to 6 go forward on some of that. 7 And once -- and I look at the County 8 Attorney, based on the email we got from the City 9 Manager, can we change our hours or start changing our 10 operations now, or do we have to wait until we get this 11 back from the City? He said we can change it. 12 MRS. STEBBINS: If you interpret it the way 13 that he has, and he's telling the County that you have 14 permission to change the hours, but in that email he 15 says that he's accepting your proposal of changing it 16 from 24 hours a day to 8 to 8, for example. But that's 17 not what you want to do? 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It wouldn't matter. I'm 19 going to defer to Reagan on how he wants to set up his 20 staffing. I mean that's not our job to dictate that, 21 but I would like the flexibility. I mean 8 to 8 is 22 certainly better than 24/7, so I think Reagan and I say 23 yes if we can go to that point now. But this agreement 24 says we may go back to 8 to 5, and then do on-call. 25 MR. GIVENS: If we can change 8 to 8 right 7 1 now would be perfect, and we can talk later about it. 2 But I just need to get these guys off 24 hours. 3 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Very good. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: But you're on call. 5 MR. GIVENS: Yeah. We're still covering 6 everything we're covering right now and which is 7 probably almost as fast. And actually having people 8 work much more efficiently, and not being spread so thin 9 during the day. It works for everyone. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Just for the audience 11 and whomever else, the basic thing that the City needed 12 they would like when we started this negotiation a year 13 ago was so that their officers didn't have to pick up 14 animals and put them in their car and take them out to 15 Animal Control and put them in the facility. So that 16 does it. That was the real objective. The other 17 objective was to have everybody else have access to the 18 library, and it does that. 19 COMMISSIONER REEVES: And Reagan, correct me 20 if I'm wrong, the average calls after 8 p.m., from what 21 you and I have referred to the nighttime, the dark 22 hours, has been between one and two calls -- 23 MR. GIVENS: Yes, Sir. 24 COMMISSIONER REEVES: -- a night, if that 25 many? 8 1 MR. GIVENS: We might have a night where we 2 have four, and then we might have 60 hours where they're 3 just patrol -- 4 COMMISSIONER REEVES: And nothing. 5 MR. GIVENS: -- and there's not any calls. 6 So meanwhile our day crew is getting -- if I have 7 anybody sick -- I have two animal control officers on 8 during the day Monday through Friday. So if one of them 9 gets sick, or if I have a -- and I got into the 10 situation a few days ago where I had both of them out. 11 It's really -- it gets pretty tough and then you don't 12 have anybody. I mean me and Deputy Lang, it so it gets 13 really difficult. 14 COMMISSIONER REEVES: So you see services 15 will improve? 16 MR. GIVENS: They'll improve tremendously. 17 They'll improve tremendously. And that would be a seven 18 day week 8 to 8, but that will give me three -- my 19 schedule that I have it'll give three Animal Control 20 Officers Monday through Friday, which is our busiest 21 time, and two on Saturday from 8 to 8, which is better 22 than running into the state issues on Saturdays and 23 Sundays, and we get into issues where we have aggressive 24 dogs and I got one Animal Control Officer out there and 25 the Police Department can't even respond because they're 9 1 too busy. So that's a bad situation. I've had to get 2 people that are off work at the time and have to go, 3 so -- 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So we can go to that 5 point right now? 6 MRS. STEBBINS: I would go to that point 7 right now, and then I would turn around and send an 8 offer for a new Interlocal Agreement that does not 9 include specific hours of operation like the one that we 10 have now. It specifies when we'll be open, and doesn't 11 give, in my opinion, the ability to adjust. 12 MR. GIVENS: And then service to the City -- 13 if we change those hours service to the City and the 14 County is going to improve quite significantly. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The only thing that I 16 think may need to be modified slightly is the term 17 section. We added in the what sent to the City a couple 18 weeks ago, whatever it was, there was a the change the 19 dates around a little bit to add another year of review 20 of it, and we probably oughta reinsert that one under 21 the term only. See, I didn't change the term and what 22 we had in Court. 23 MRS. STEBBINS: Is that the -- 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: You talking about 25 starting over again now, is that what you mean? 10 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: No. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Pretty much. I mean I 3 changed the effective date of it, that's August first. 4 MRS. STEBBINS: The term in the proposed 5 agreement that y'all sent over a couple weeks ago is 6 here included. Is that how you want it to read? 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes, I would think so. 8 MRS. STEBBINS: Okay. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: How about I make a 10 motion we approve this new draft of the agreement, 11 Interlocal Agreement with the City of Kerrville between 12 the Library and Animal Services, and have the County 13 Judge to send it over, and I will work with the County 14 Attorney on the term of the agreement to make it fit 15 under the new agreement. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I'll second that. 17 MRS. STEBBINS: Will you send this to me in 18 Word, the modification? 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 20 JUDGE POLLARD: Okay. It's been moved by 21 Commissioner Precinct 3, seconded by Commissioner 22 Precinct 2 to submit the new worded document over to the 23 City as a proposal for a new agreement. Is there any 24 further comment or discussion? And it's in the record, 25 here it is. 11 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Here it is. 2 JUDGE POLLARD: Make sure the Reporter's got 3 a copy of it in the record. All right, any further 4 comment or discussion? If not, those in favor of the 5 motion signify by raising their right hand. It's five 6 zero, unanimous. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And Reagan, you can make 8 adjustments today. 9 JUDGE POLLARD: Let me see if I can 10 understand something, recount something. As I 11 understand it these ladies we're providing at least the 12 minimum of what the State Statutes require us to do. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. 14 JUDGE POLLARD: But what these ladies mainly 15 are proposing to ask for is a good deal more than that, 16 okay? I'm not opposed to that; I'm just saying that if 17 we need to put a price on that, and whatever the price 18 is then we gotta submit it to the voters or something 19 somehow to find out if they want to pay for it. That's 20 the way I feel about it. So what are y'all's comments 21 about that? 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, I think it 23 depends. There's a -- there's a rabies control how you 24 define it can be a very broad or very narrow. But one 25 of the biggest problems this community has is 12 1 irresponsible pet owners, and educating pet owners 2 and -- 3 JUDGE POLLARD: Amen. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- adoptions into that, 5 and to go along with that, is a big part of reducing 6 rabies, so I think it's worthwhile to go that direction. 7 You know, but I think there's -- and I think it's a good 8 goal to try to become a no-kill facility. I don't think 9 you could ever be there totally. I think, you know, 10 just because of the nature of what we have to do. We 11 get and are required to take dogs that are turned in, 12 and it's close to 50 percent of the dogs we get, Reagan, 13 are dropped off at our office and we have no choice. 14 Everybody else, Freeman Fritz, and Cailloux place -- I 15 mean all of them they can say no; we can't, and that is 16 the problem. And if you look at our -- you know, where 17 we are on the euthanatizing and that, which I think 18 nobody wants to do it. Our staff hates that, that's the 19 worst part of their job. But I think it's 20 something that we don't have -- our facility is 21 relatively small. So I think, you know, increasing pet 22 adoptions and public education, and education to me is 23 really critical, is a way to help rabies control, but we 24 have to -- and we, you know, through no one's fault just 25 the agreement that the way it ended up working has some 13 1 unintended consequences, and I think we fixed those now. 2 So I think we need to go for a year and see where we 3 are, and I think we'll be able accommodate a lot of what 4 the public is requesting and do our state mandate. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And I agree with that. 6 I think there's been a lot of really good suggestions on 7 adoption web page, all those kind of things, which would 8 really help improve. I think we need a new facility, 9 both for just standard operations, and for enhanced 10 operations, and I think we -- as the Judge said, I think 11 we clearly need to say here's the things that we could 12 do, here's what it costs, and decide how to do it. And 13 I know there are people want to volunteer. I think that 14 that's good. I think that needs to be incorporated. So 15 I think there's -- there's a chance for really good 16 improvements, so I think with an agreement between city 17 and County that gives us a good foundation, and then we 18 can go from there of looking of ways to improve. And if 19 it's big we may have to take it to the public to vote on 20 it. And I think we probably could be and probably 21 should be pretty big, so -- 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Oh, I think that 23 definitely is one of the things, will be also on our 24 agenda is to get Peter Lewis, he's under contract, to 25 directly look at that. 14 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. Okay. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Next item. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thank you. 4 JUDGE POLLARD: Item 1.2, we don't need to 5 go into executive session then. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I'll say ladies and 8 there's gentlemen, too, that really have your heart in 9 it, and we appreciate it. And we'll just figure out how 10 to make it better and improve. So thank you for your 11 input. 12 JUDGE POLLARD: Thank you very much. We're 13 going to go into closed section now pursuant to Chapter 14 551 of the Texas Government Code. 15 (Executive Session.) 16 JUDGE POLLARD: All right, we're back in 17 open session now. Is there any -- is there a motion? 18 COMMISSIONER REEVES: I make a motion to 19 terminate the employment of the Victim's Service 20 Coordinator for Kerr County effective August first, 21 2018. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: August first is what 23 day? 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Tomorrow. 25 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Tomorrow. 15 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: How about making it -- 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Can we just second it? 3 COMMISSIONER REEVES: Right. If nobody 4 seconds it -- 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll second it. 6 JUDGE POLLARD: All right, make another 7 motion. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, I second it, 9 but -- 10 JUDGE POLLARD: Oh, you did second it. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. But I think the 12 date should be effective this Friday. Will you accept 13 that as an amendment? 14 JUDGE POLLARD: If you amend the motion to 15 that effect -- 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. 17 JUDGE POLLARD: -- will you agree? 18 COMMISSIONER REEVES: All right. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 20 COMMISSIONER REEVES: August third. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: August third. 22 JUDGE POLLARD: All right. It's been moved 23 by Commissioner Precinct 3 -- by Commissioner 4 to 24 terminate the Victims Coordinator effective this next 25 Friday, which is August the what? 16 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Third. 2 JUDGE POLLARD: August 3rd, 2018. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I think the record 4 needs to state the Victims Coordinator is Amanda 5 Calderon. 6 JUDGE POLLARD: And I ask that the County 7 Attorney coordinate this matter with Jody in order to 8 give me a letter to be signed tomorrow going out to her 9 telling her about all this -- 10 COMMISSIONER REEVES: And HR. 11 JUDGE POLLARD: -- okay? To be approved by 12 the County Attorney at to the form and whatever. And 13 I'll get here tomorrow to sign it. 14 All right, anybody in favor of that motion 15 raise your right hand. Five zero. 16 All right, there being no further business 17 for the Commissioners' Court, we are adjourned. 18 * * * * * * 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 17 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 7th day of July, 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