1 1 2 3 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS' COURT 4 Special Session 5 Thursday, January 3 2019 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: ROB KELLY, Kerr County Judge HARLEY BELEW, Commissioner Precinct 1 24 TOM MOSER, Commissioner Precinct 2 JONATHAN LETZ, Commissioner Precinct 3 25 DON HARRIS, Commissioner Precinct 4 2 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 1.1 Pay Bills. 3 4 1.5 Discussion regarding the format for the 3 Commissioners' Court Agendas. 5 *** Adjournment. 22 6 *** Reporter's Certificate. 23 7 * * * * * * 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 3 1 JUDGE KELLY: It's Thursday, January the 2 3rd, 2019, a minute or two after 9 o'clock, and the Kerr 3 County Commissioners' Court is now in session for a 4 special meeting to pay bills. 5 Item number 1 on the agenda is to pay bills, 6 and Joy's with us. 7 MRS. JOHNSON: Good morning. To pay for 8 Kerr County $143,988.19, and to approve the Treasurer to 9 pay Adult Probation $168.54, airport is $2,466.39, 10 Juvenile Probation $1,996.86, and then Fund 95, $81.67. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Make a motion to approve 12 disbursements as presented. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 14 JUDGE KELLY: It's been moved and seconded 15 to pay the bills as presented. Is there any discussion 16 or comment? There being none, those in favor raise your 17 right hand. Those opposed? Unanimous, four zero. 18 Item Number 2 on the agenda are budget 19 amendments? 20 MRS. JOHNSON: There are none. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Item 3 are late bills. 22 MRS. JOHNSON: There's none. 23 JUDGE KELLY: Item 4 is approve payroll. 24 MRS. JOHNSON: No payroll. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Okay, and item 5 I put on the 4 1 agenda, and that's to discuss a discussion regarding the 2 format for the special court meetings. And I've talked 3 to -- I think I've talked to all of you, or some of you, 4 most of you, that one of my observations from sitting 5 out there for the last two years over in that corner is 6 that the only time that Commissioners really get to talk 7 with one another about things is in a public meeting. 8 And the Open Meetings Act, which I've completed my 9 training, I took my online course, and I went to the TAC 10 meeting, and of course the, you know, Gestapo drilled it 11 into you what you can and cannot do. And I've been in 12 public office before on the school board, so I'm 13 familiar with how this works. But it really can be 14 confining and constricting as to trying to discuss the 15 issues that we're going to have to decide. And one of 16 the thoughts that I had was on Thursday mornings when we 17 have this very brief bill pay session to put down that 18 information agenda item on there, similar to what we do 19 on the regular meetings. I got one here just -- you 20 know, I think everybody's familiar with them, something 21 on that order. We may tweak the wording of it a little 22 bit, but so that when we finish paying the bills if 23 there's anything going on in the department that you're 24 Liaison Commissioner, or anything going on in the County 25 that is worthy of discussion among us as a group in 5 1 public when we have a publicly posted meeting so that we 2 have the opportunity to do that. I was going to ask 3 what y'all's thoughts were if that's something that 4 would be helpful or not? 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think yes. And I 6 think that one -- I think it probably should be 7 expanded. I think that the -- at some schedule, which 8 should probably have elected officials an opportunity to 9 come in, tell us what's going on. As an example have 10 the Tax Assessor come in and maybe quarterly and say, 11 how's maintenance doing. Ask them, you know, how is HR 12 working, how is IT working, so we have feed back about 13 the departments that we control working with them, and 14 vice versa we can say, you know, how their departments 15 are working. I think if we had something like that it 16 would hopefully get rid of the some problems we have. 17 And I think something like that quarterly would work. I 18 don't think we need to meet with them all that much. 19 Maybe do it on some type of a rotating schedule that 20 every -- you know, maybe the second Thursday or fourth 21 Thursday, some Thursday. We're here maybe for an hour. 22 Plan on being here more or less for an hour and bring in 23 two or three of the department heads or elected 24 officials. 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, that's my 6 1 question, how many and how often? 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think probably once a 3 month from our standpoint, but they'd be rotating so 4 each one of them only has to do it quarterly. I mean we 5 don't have to meet with them all the time. 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, if everybody 7 knows that it's available then if something does come up 8 then they could get on that rotation. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: They could, but I think 10 that -- this is what I see, if there's not a scheduled 11 time people tend to put it off, because -- 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: What I mean if there's 13 something more urgent, it could end up in court, or it 14 could end up in one of these sessions, that's all I'm 15 saying. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right, yeah. Oh, yeah, 17 sure. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Is there anything to 19 keep them from doing it at a a regular court session 20 either under item 5. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No. I think most of 22 these are going to -- 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: They could do it then. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But I think most of 25 these, in my mind, will likely be executive session 7 1 because we're talking personnel. And I mean we can't -- 2 I can't get feedback as the Maintenance Liaison from the 3 Sheriff, and I don't -- I think this gets into a 4 liaison discussion also. 5 JUDGE KELLY: I want to go there, too. Go 6 ahead. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think that we're 8 too -- you know, I think Liaisons become -- I don't know 9 what the right word is even, too involved. I think that 10 the Court needs to be more aware of what's going on in 11 all these departments, like Animal Services. You know, 12 I think there needs to be a liaison, I'm glad to do it, 13 even though it's been a royal pain recently. Not 14 because of our Department -- 15 COMMISSIONER BELEW: No. We know why. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- but I think that some 17 of those details, you know, the whole Court needed to 18 understand. The Court needs to know that I responded to 19 a post and then my response, which was in an e-mail, was 20 then posted on Facebook last night, so that y'all are 21 aware of what's going on. It wasn't anything bad. It 22 wasn't anything bad that I said, I think it was very 23 accurate. But things like that, I think the Court needs 24 to be aware. I think the Court needs to be aware, you 25 know as -- you know what -- you know, in Maintenance, 8 1 some direction -- I don't want to get into too much 2 detail, but some direction I'd like that department to 3 go. I think the Court needs to be aware that that's 4 where I think they need to go, and I want to make sure 5 that y'all think we need to go there. 6 JUDGE KELLY: The whole purpose of my 7 suggestion that we visit this topic is to better 8 communicate among ourselves in a proper forum so that -- 9 and I'll use myself as an example. I went to that 10 meeting with Mark McDaniel and Bill Blackburn, and 11 knowing that I was still a private citizen and fully 12 aware that I was not yet an elected official, and bound 13 by the constraints of the Open Meetings Act, I sent an 14 e-mail to all of you on purpose. And of course that 15 drew a response from Heather right away, which I 16 expected. And I explained to her that I knew what I was 17 doing, but that it's the frustration that we can't talk. 18 And the truth of the matter is we need to talk more. 19 When we get into those regular meetings, you know, on 20 the second and fourth Mondays, by the time we get to the 21 information agenda it's usually 10:30, between 10:30 and 22 11:30 to get through. We're tired and we've already 23 been through whatever the drama of the day is. And I 24 apologize, but we seem to have some element of drama 25 almost weekly, bi-monthly. 9 1 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, we're putting 2 some of that behind us, I believe. 3 JUDGE KELLY: And I think we're doing a 4 great job. And I think for us to be able to sit here 5 and talk to one another and share information, whether 6 it's economic development information, Animal Services 7 information, you know, with this thing the City wants to 8 do with their hotel tax. Those are things that are 9 worthy of us sitting around and discussing before we get 10 in a setting where we're going to have to make a 11 decision. 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: How much of that can we 13 do within the confines of what you're proposing? 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: As long as it's on the 15 agenda. 16 JUDGE KELLY: As my father said as the 17 resident flannel mouth lawyer and wordsmith, I think if 18 we broaden the scope of some of this to allow free 19 discussions of what our general duties are as liaison 20 officers and elected officials, our boards, you know, 21 whatever you want to do, so that we're not confining it 22 to a -- we're giving a report from what we're discussing 23 about, a discussion about. We can figure out how to do 24 that, fine tune it. But that way -- and this is not 25 something -- I'm not looking to sit here for an hour on 10 1 Thursday mornings. I'm talking we have a quick meeting 2 like this morning. We could sit here and talk for 15 3 minutes about something and be out of here and be back 4 at our regular jobs. 5 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I like the idea. When 6 we're doing a regular meeting you're restricted to the 7 agenda items, sometimes things come to mind that are 8 only tangential to it and you can't really bring them up 9 and talk about them anyhow. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, as long as it's 11 posted you have to stick with what the agenda is. 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Right. 13 JUDGE KELLY: And so we post this to be 14 broad enough to allow us to discuss our business. 15 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I like it. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Some counties, I think, 17 and I'm not advocating this, but I think some counties 18 have a regular meeting where they conduct business, like 19 we do the second and fourth, and then they have a 20 meeting or two a month that's just a workshop; it's not 21 to take action, but it's for what you're talking about. 22 It's for, you know, having discussion on issues or 23 whatever, but not -- 24 JUDGE KELLY: And if you'd rather do 25 workshops, we can do workshops. Because we've got this 11 1 weekly whether we like it or not. It's only 15 minutes 2 and it could be, is anything going on, and you say no, 3 no, no, and we're fine and we're out of here. And if we 4 say we really need to talk about this, something's 5 brewing -- 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And I think Jonathan's 7 saying instead of just bringing it up ad hoc, or just 8 off the cuff, have it scheduled, you know, once a 9 quarter, or Maintenance once a quarter, or IT once a 10 quarter, or this, this, this. 11 JUDGE KELLY: But on a rotating basis one 12 this month, one next month, so that we're getting input 13 from the County Officials. If they have any problems 14 they're free to come let us know. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Or from members of the 16 Court, right. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Either way, I think it's 18 a good idea to try it. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Sure. 20 JUDGE KELLY: The last aspect of that that I 21 want y'all to give me your input on is liaison 22 appointments. And one of the things that I observed 23 back over here in the corner is sometimes when you get 24 the two Liaison Commissioners involved in an issue, and 25 we're talking about Animal Services, Economic 12 1 Development, what have you, the rest of the Court is out 2 of the know until we have a public meeting because we're 3 locked up. We got our two, we can't have a walking 4 meeting. And so what I was thinking we do with this 5 format is be able to talk about it in between periods so 6 that we don't have to wait until the second and fourth. 7 And in talking with Jonathan, which we talked about how 8 many Liaison Commissioners we oughta have. Should we 9 try to narrow these down to more one, some may require 10 two. Some are more internally involved in the 11 operations of these departments, others are more 12 externally overseeing the departments. We can keep 13 doing it the same way we've been doing it, I have no 14 problem doing that. I just wanted to open the floor for 15 discussion about what do you think the best way to do 16 this. You know, when you're appointed to six or seven 17 or eight of these things you get spread pretty thin. 18 When you get three or four you're a lot more focused on 19 knowing who you're going to be talking to and what you 20 need to be paying attention to, and which ones require 21 more than one of us. I'm willing to be an ex officio, 22 if you will, liaison to whatever is needed so that if 23 you're handling veterans affairs, say, and an issue 24 comes up and you think I want to go talk to the Judge, 25 or I want to go talk to Jonathan, or I want to talk to 13 1 Harley or Don, whatever, you have some leeway to decide 2 who's going to be the second person in the loop on that 3 before we get to this table. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, right. Well, of 5 course I could do -- in two minutes, I'm going to go 6 meet with the Veteran Service Officer. But if I wanted 7 Jonathan, or Harley, or you to go with me, I could do 8 that. But it's more of a help her get her feet on the 9 ground, you know. 10 JUDGE KELLY: And I commend you for that. 11 And Jonathan was here yesterday, and I know he talked to 12 several of the fellow newbies like me, which was nice to 13 have somebody here. But if you're the liaison for a 14 department and like when they're their first day, and 15 what have you, help get them settled, meet with them, 16 make sure everything's -- she's got an advisory 17 committee. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's who we're 19 meeting with, the advisory committee. 20 JUDGE KELLY: And she was a little anxious 21 about it yesterday afternoon when I went by there. 22 She's holding up well. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: She and I talked on 24 Sunday -- 25 JUDGE KELLY: Well, I mean she's a trooper. 14 1 We've got a trooper. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think we need to look 3 at each one, I think, maybe on the next agenda, or one 4 of the January regular meetings to go through 'em, or we 5 can do them on a Thursday, either way, and discuss each 6 one. There's some of them like economic development, we 7 fought really hard to get two people -- 8 JUDGE KELLY: I'm not messing with that. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So there there's two. 10 Airport makes sense to have two. Ag barn to me makes 11 sense to have two. Animal Services, probably one 12 because that seems to be a lot of e-mails, at least 13 right now. One there. You know, and the other part of 14 that is if there is just one, I think it's a 15 responsibility of all of us to visit with all of them 16 all the time. And I think -- you know, I think it's 17 important for everybody to go out and visit with Reagan. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Absolutely. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And everyone to visit 20 with Shane. So I think that, you know, a lot of 21 these -- 22 COMMISSIONER BELEW: We forget the ones that 23 operate really well like 911. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: But on the other hand 25 if the department head is doing their job, you know, 15 1 that's what they're supposed to do. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Absolutely. And so if we're 3 sitting around here on a Thursday morning and I say, you 4 know, how's Veteran Service doing? All good. That's 5 all we need to know. 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That's what you want to 7 hear. 8 JUDGE KELLY: I don't want to hear the bad 9 stuff unless we need to know the bad stuff. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But we have right now of 11 the main departments that report to us, which are IT, 12 Maintenance, Animal Control, and HR, we have three new 13 supervisors out of those four, and the other one we 14 already know, so I think that there's -- and that's 15 where I think the Liaisons are really important in 16 working with the new people on the training, and holding 17 their hand. You know, hopefully in a year from now I 18 won't have to spend as much time with Animal Services. 19 I think we'll have a plan. Reagan's getting much more 20 involved in doing his -- just learning. And I think -- 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Political savage. 22 JUDGE KELLY: For example, and I'll use 23 Jennifer Doss as my example here, I went by to check on 24 how everybody was doing yesterday afternoon, and we had 25 a busy afternoon by the way as it turned out, we finally 16 1 got -- IT got everybody up and running. But I went to 2 visit with her, she was doing great, everything was 3 fine, had a nice visit. And then she told me that 4 Commissioner Letz had called her and wanted to meet with 5 her at 8:30. And of course she didn't understand the 6 liaison relationships we have, and she said did I do 7 something wrong. I said no, no, that's what he's 8 supposed to be doing is just check on you and see what 9 you need. I find that the liaison position sometimes is 10 more for the department head than for us, because if 11 they have issues that they need, they know who to come 12 to first. And from the Commissioners' Court point of 13 view, all five of us, I think it's better that not 14 everybody come running to the County Judge, or not 15 everybody come running to Jonathan because he's been 16 here the longest, or whatever, that they have somebody 17 that they go to, and -- 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's what the liaison 19 is. 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: They should feel like 21 we're advocates rather than, you know, they only hear 22 from us when there's something wrong. 23 JUDGE KELLY: And they need to know at the 24 end of the year you're going to write the evaluation for 25 them. I'd like to improve that culture that they know 17 1 there's going to be an evaluation written, and they need 2 to be aware of that. So it's just -- it's just a way to 3 try to -- I'm trying to improve communication and team 4 work, that we're all pulling in the same direction. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, for instance, 6 take the meeting you had with the City Manager and 7 Mayor. I got a call from the City Manager, said would 8 you like -- I'd like to talk to you about -- so I went 9 over and spent an hour with him, okay. And I'd already 10 talked to Harley about it. You know, hey Harley, here's 11 some real concerns that I have about the convention 12 center. So Harley knows what my concerns are, I got all 13 my questions answered, and I can't share that unless we 14 do it in something like this. If we do it in something 15 like this then we don't have to wait for the City 16 Manager to come over and do it in open forum with, you 17 know, the press and everybody else here. And the press 18 could be here if they wanted to. 19 JUDGE KELLY: If the press wants to show up, 20 they've got the right to show up and we need to welcome 21 them. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Precisely. But still, 23 you know, that would be a good thing to have on here. 24 Here's my thought, here's what I learned from the City 25 Manager, here's what you learned, and here's some real 18 1 issues that I still have, okay, that I'm going to ask in 2 the public forum, okay. But there's no reason we can't 3 discuss it before then. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's all informational 5 and it's helpful. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Not an action agenda; just for 7 information. 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And that would be good 9 if the press gets some of that, because the taxpayers 10 stay informed ahead of that. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, they'll sure get 12 it on the 8th, you know, and -- 13 JUDGE KELLY: When we get our PIO, Public 14 Information Officer, then that would be a good place for 15 him to come, she to come, and listen to us and we 16 finally sign off on what we want that statement to be. 17 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And that's something we 18 need to address again because that looks like it's going 19 to be something a little trickier than I thought, so -- 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Last thing -- I think we 21 can discuss it on this agenda. At the end of last year 22 we were in executive session, we bounced back and forth 23 between having a record taken, or do a certified agenda. 24 You know we don't have to decide right now -- well, we 25 can't decide right now. But we need to decide how we're 19 1 going to do that, so we don't have -- 2 JUDGE KELLY: I have strong feelings about 3 that. And as the newbie on the Court, executive session 4 oughta be a certified agenda. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I agree. 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: It's made life a lot 7 easier. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Wow, that's good. Then 9 it doesn't have to be -- anyway, I'm for a certified 10 agenda as opposed to trans -- 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: To me it makes sense. 12 And I don't know the process that -- and I can show you 13 what we did. 14 JUDGE KELLY: I'm familiar with them. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But I mean with what -- 16 I don't know what to do with the three certified agendas 17 that I have on my desk, you know, and where we put them. 18 They're in envelopes and they're sealed. 19 JUDGE KELLY: We'll get together with the 20 boss and we'll get that fixed. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I think what Jim 22 Allison said is you have it on the record, and the 23 County Clerk keeps that, just like they do some of the 24 other stuff. Here was the agenda that was discussed, 25 period. 20 1 JUDGE KELLY: The way I would like to do it 2 is leave it with Jody, and Jody coordinate it with 3 Jackie or whatever, but that's the legal beagle stuff. 4 But we do our certified agenda, we coordinate it with 5 Jody, and then Jody makes sure that we legally store it 6 where it's supposed to be stored. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And my part where it is, 8 and I kind of had a template that I created for the last 9 three. But I think we need to make sure that that 10 template is a correct form to do it, that we're putting 11 enough information in it. And that's why I need some 12 help from TAC, or somebody as to, you know, how much 13 information we need to have on there, then we can just 14 have a template ready to go, and I can type it in. 15 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Does that stay sealed 16 up? Does it upon request by a citizen who has 17 a definite interest, or -- 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: A citizen has no right 19 to it. 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: It's always sealed. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The way I've done it, 22 the three that I have done, they're in an envelope, 23 they're sealed, and there's a -- I think I signed, or 24 Jody signed, someone signed across the back so you can 25 tell it's not opened. 21 1 JUDGE KELLY: For the record Commissioner 2 Harris has joined us. 3 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I apologize to 4 everybody. It's been a morning from Hell. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Well, it's not over. 6 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Okay, good. 7 JUDGE KELLY: I just read in the TAC 8 pamphlet they put out on that, it's pretty easy to do to 9 work with a certified agenda. But it's just so much 10 easier to not have to shuttle the Court Reporter back 11 and forth. We can certify it, we talked about it, we 12 put it away. If we need it, we can get it. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Is there any other business 15 for today? 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: You got here just in 17 time, Don. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Is there a motion to adjourn? 19 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Judge -- 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Motion to adjourn. 21 JUDGE KELLY: We're adjourned. 22 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Judge, real quick about 23 Jonathan's deal about maybe quarterly having the elected 24 officials come in, I think that would be extremely wise. 25 I know y'all get tired of hearing from me, but having 22 1 the largest department there's a lot of things that go 2 on that y'all never know about, and that I think could 3 really help especially during budget times such as -- 4 you know like right now, I got 28 vehicles with over a 5 hundred thousand miles on them, or just whatever it is 6 in the department, and especially from elected officials 7 because the elected officials don't see the liaisons 8 that much. We don't come to y'all, y'all don't normally 9 come to us unless there's a problem. But just to sit 10 down and discuss it I think quarterly would be a good 11 time to be able to do that with each elected official 12 just to see how their department, and how the equipment, 13 whatever it is, is going on. There's a lot out there. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Good. Good input. Okay, 15 we're adjourned. 16 * * * * * * 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 23 1 STATE OF TEXAS * 2 COUNTY OF KERR * 3 I, DEBRA ELLEN GIFFORD, Certified Shorthand 4 Reporter in and for the State of Texas, and Official 5 Reporter in and for Kerr County, do hereby certify that 6 the above and foregoing pages contain and comprise a 7 true and correct transcription of the proceedings had in 8 the above-entitled Commissioners' Court? 9 Dated this the 22nd day of January, A.D. 10 2019. 11 12 /s/DEBRA ELLEN GIFFORD Certified Shorthand Reporter 13 No. 953 Expiration Date 04/31/2020 14 * * * * * * 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25