1 1 2 3 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS' COURT 4 Regular Session 5 Monday, January 14, 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 *** Commissioners' Comments. 3 4 1.1 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 9 action for the Court to waive platting 5 oversight and approval for Amending the Plat of Greenwood Forest Section 8, 6 Lots 7 and 8, Block 22, Volume 5, Pages 118-119, Precinct 2. 7 1.2 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 11 8 action on request to authorize County Judge to prepare letters approving the 9 sale of alcohol at the Kerrville Renaissance Festival from January 25, 2019 to January 28, 10 2019 and February 1, 2019 through February 4, 2019. Letter to be sent to the Texas 11 Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC). 12 1.3 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 12 action regarding the use of Flat Rock Lake 13 Park for the annual Easter Festival Chili and BBQ Cook-Off. The date of the festival 14 falls on Saturday, April 20, 2019, and volunteers with Leadership Kerr County 15 Class 34 (LKC 34) will require two additional days to set up and clean up; 16 therefore, LKC 34 respectfully requests reserve and requests access to said park 17 on Friday, April 19, 2019 through Sunday April 21, 2019, totaling three days. 18 1.4 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 14 19 action to approve the Local Emergency Planning Committee Membership Update Form 20 for submission to the State Emergency Response Commission. 21 1.5 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 16 22 action on request to use courthouse grounds on Friday, March 22, 2019 from 6 p.m. to 23 8 p.m. for the Hill Country Rallye Car Show. 24 25 3 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 1.6 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 18 action on request from the City of Kerrville 4 for a Resolution in support of its legislative efforts to use the Hotel 5 Occupancy Tax for a convention center and hotel in Kerrville. 6 1.7 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 38 7 action to declare a small cart (Inventory Tag #0668) as surplus and dispose of 8 properly. 9 1.8 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 38 action regarding contract with Republic 10 Services for waste recycle services at the Kerr County Animal Services facility. 11 1.9 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 39 12 action to authorize the Environmental Health/Animal Services Director to reduce 13 the annual registration fee to $1.00 during the annual rabies vaccination clinic being 14 held February 2 through February 16, 2019 and allow signage regarding same to be 15 placed on the courthouse lawn. Current fees are $5.00 (neutered/spayed) and $10.00 16 (non-neutered/spayed). 17 1.10 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 44 action regarding a revised job description 18 for the County Veterans Service Officer. 19 1.12 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 49 action regarding Sanitary Control Easement 20 as required by TCEQ for the Veterans Administration Hospital well for all areas 21 within the 500 foot radius. 22 1.11 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 52 action to change Human Resources hours of 23 operation from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday thru Friday to 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday thru 24 Friday. 25 4 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 1.13 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 54 action to approve Kerr County TAC Healthy 4 County Member Designation Form as submitted and have the County Judge sign same. 5 1.14 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 54 6 action regarding Commissioners' Court Rules on Procedure, Conduct and Decorum. 7 1.15 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 64 8 action to award bid from Ken Stoepel Ford, Inc. 9 1.16 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 65 10 action regarding scheduling future workshops. 11 1.17 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 71 action regarding liaison positions for 2019, 12 and review liaison policies. 13 1.18 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 89 action to ratify and confirm the designation 14 of SAVNS, Statewide Automated Victim Notification Service, Grant Contract, 15 Authorized Official and Financial Contract form. Updated the grant contact person and 16 the County Judge information. 17 1.19 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 92 action to finalize the Interlocal Agreements 18 between Kerr County, Texas and the City of Kerrville, Texas for the provision of Animal 19 Control Services within the City of Kerrville, Texas, and services of the Butt-Holdsworth 20 Memorial Library for residents of Kerr County. 21 1.20 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 98 action to ratify and confirm the 22 Depository/Authorized Signatories Designation Form A202 for Texas Community Development 23 Block Grant Project 7215045. 24 1.21 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 99 action to approve contract with Big Brothers 25 and Sisters, and allow the County Judge to sign same. 5 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 1.22 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 99 action regarding a Resolution in opposition 4 to unfunded mandates. 5 1.23 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 103 action regarding a Resolution supporting a 6 "secure southern border of the U.S." 7 1.24 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 117 action to approve the Security Maintenance 8 Agreement for Electronic and Detention Services with CML Security LLC. 9 1.25 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 117 10 action to approve the maintenance contract between Kerr County and Johnson Controls 11 for maintenance and inspection of the fire alarm system. 12 1.26 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 124 13 action to approve a donation of $25.00 for the Sheriff's Equipment Fund. 14 1.27 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 124 15 action regarding a Public Information Officer for the County. 16 4.4 Approve and Accept Monthly Reports. 136 17 4.6 Court Orders. 137 18 5.1 Reports from Commissioners/Liaison 138 19 Committee Assignments as per attachment. 20 *** Adjournment. 143 21 *** Reporter's Certificate. 143 22 * * * * * * 23 24 25 6 1 JUDGE KELLY: We'll come to order. It is 2 Monday, January the 14th at 9 a.m., and the regular 3 Commissioners' Court of Kerr County is now in session. 4 If you would stand for the invocation and the Pledge of 5 Allegiance. It will be led by Commissioner Harris. 6 (Prayer and The Pledge of Allegiance.) 7 JUDGE KELLY: Good morning. This is the 8 point in our agenda where we invite the public to share 9 with us if there's anything you'd like to address. We 10 have one person who's signed up, Mr. McIlvain. Now this 11 is to comment on anything that is not on the agenda. If 12 it's on the agenda, we ask that you wait until that 13 agenda item is called. Is yours on the agenda? 14 MR. MCILVAIN: I'll speak along with Mark on 15 1.6. 16 JUDGE KELLY: 1.6, okay. So we'll wait and 17 take those comments then. Is there anybody else that 18 would like to address the Court? 19 If not, this is our opportunity for 20 Commissioners to share what's going on in your 21 precincts. We'll start with 1. 22 COMMISSIONER BELEW: My opportunity to gloat 23 as the fastest Commissioner on a bouncy horse. One of 24 the more undignified things I've ever done, and I've 25 done many. But it was for the good of the youth of Kerr 7 1 County, so yeah. We had a good cowboy breakfast 2 turnout, and it was inside in our beautiful facility, 3 and we didn't have to worry about the weather. I love 4 the Hill Country Youth Event Center, a great facility. 5 And anybody hadn't gone out and looked at it and seen 6 all improvements, this is a great week to do that. 7 That's all I got. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, in Precinct 2 we 9 talk all the time about the stuff that's going on with 10 the sewer system, that's the good news. Everything is 11 getting connected, or a lot of things getting connected, 12 but there's a lot of mud and water and people are 13 complaining about conditions of the streets and all, but 14 just going to have to put up with that for a bit, I 15 think, and then it'll be over. 16 The other thing is there was a TCEQ hearing 17 the other day in Center Point on Wheatcraft and the 18 diversion -- changing the diversion point in the river 19 for a lot of water, and -- but it went well. I thought 20 it was well attended, and people thought that they had 21 their questions answered, so -- and the other thing came 22 out of that was, I think that it's of interest to 23 Precinct 2 also is that Wheatcraft has entered into an 24 agreement or study looking at changing the reservoir 25 into a lake when it's finished. So it'll be a 8 1 recreational type of facility, and landscaping down to 2 the river, so that's another good thing about what to do 3 with gravel pits when that work is done, so -- and 4 that's it for me. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Good. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Oh, I have one other 7 thing. Welcome to your first session of presiding over 8 Commissioners' Court. 9 JUDGE KELLY: If I stumble you'll know it's 10 my first time. Thank you. Commissioner Letz. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The only thing I have is 12 just everyone come on out to the County show Thursday 13 and the District Show Friday, and the sale Saturday. 14 Busy busy week out there, and look forward to seeing 15 everybody. 16 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I agree with what he 17 just said. But also another event that y'all might be 18 interested in is a fun spectator support and doesn't 19 smell near as bad as the barn is the cutting torch 20 contest tomorrow, and the Ag Mech show out there. It's 21 really incredible to see what these kids build in our 22 shops. And the cutting torch contest is a lot of fun 23 because it's an elimination, you're out. And it's 24 strictly time, whoever cuts the piece of metal the 25 fastest moves on. And that's a fun event to watch, so 9 1 come on out. Starts about ten tomorrow. 2 JUDGE KELLY: I have a couple things to 3 share. One is that the County lost one of our World War 4 II veterans Doc McCubbin. Many of you may know him in 5 Precinct 4, lived out in Hunt. Had the only organic 6 pecan orchard certified in the state. He was 96 years 7 old, and he died just the way he lived full of spit and 8 vinegar, fought it to the end. Great American. Special 9 thanks to the people out in west Kerr County that took 10 care of Doc. He didn't have any family nearby, and so 11 they came together as a community, and Ruth Bauer, and 12 Willie Vlasek and Molly Adams took care of him and 13 provided all of his needs there toward the end, and it's 14 great to see a community come together like that. 15 That's all I have to share. Thank you. 16 Then the next item will be the first item on 17 the agenda, which will be item 1.1 to consider, discuss 18 and take appropriate action for the Court to waive 19 platting oversight and approval for Amending the Plat of 20 Greenwood Forest Section 8, Lots 7 and 8, Block 22. Mr. 21 Hastings. 22 MR. HASTINGS: Thank you. These lots, 7 and 23 8 are located the Kerrville extra territorial 24 jurisdiction and would typically be platted through both 25 the City of Kerrville and Kerr County simultaneously. 10 1 However, in an effort to be more efficient and to save 2 owner dollars, there is a request to only plat this 3 property through Kerrville and for the Court to waive 4 their right to oversight and approval of the plat. The 5 owner wishes to combine lots 7 and 8 into 7-R, 0.93 6 acres. And the County Engineer recommends that the 7 request be granted. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Move for approval. 9 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 10 JUDGE KELLY: It's been moved by 11 Commissioner Moser, and seconded by Commissioner Belew. 12 MR. LEE VOELKEL: Judge, excuse me, may I 13 make one comment please? 14 JUDGE KELLY: Yes, sir, please. 15 MR. LEE VOELKEL: I know that the Court is 16 aware of this, but in this process the Kerr County 17 Environmental Health Department is still involved in the 18 review process. When it goes to the City of Kerrville 19 they have what they call a DRC meeting. That 20 Department's involved in that so we will be satisfying 21 whatever recommendations they have also. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you for that. We have a 23 motion and second. Is there any discussion? Those in 24 favor raise your hand. Those opposed? Passes 25 unanimously five zero. 11 1 Item 1.2 consider, discuss and take 2 appropriate action on request to authorize County Judge 3 to prepare letters approving the sale of alcohol at the 4 Kerrville Renaissance Festival from January 25 to 5 January 28 of this year, and February 1 through February 6 4, with a letter to be sent to the Texas Alcoholic 7 Beverage Commission. 8 MS. MARTIN: Good morning. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Good morning. 10 MS. MARTIN: I'm Robin Martin, I work with 11 Jake at the at Youth Event Center, so we're requesting 12 this for the commission to sell beer at the Renaissance 13 Festival on your property. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And this is something 15 that we've done previously. It's part of the TABC rules 16 that are -- selling outside the actual facility. But I 17 make a motion that we approve the request. 18 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 19 JUDGE POLLARD: Been moved by Commissioner 20 Letz and seconded by Commissioner Harris. Is there any 21 further discussion? 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Question. It's for the 23 sale of alcohol, is that just beer? 24 MS. MARTIN: Just beer. We're in a 25 beer-only Precinct, Sir. 12 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: We oughta just say that 2 then, okay? 3 MS. MARTIN: Yes. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Fine. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Those in favor raise 6 your hand. Those opposed? Unanimous, five zero. 7 MS. MARTIN: Thank you. 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Thank you, Robin. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Hang around. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: She's gotta go to work. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Item 1.3 consider, discuss and 12 take appropriate action regarding the use of Flat Rock 13 Lake Park for the annual Easter Festival Chili and 14 Barbecue Cook-Off. The date of the festival falls on 15 Saturday, April the 20th, 2019, and volunteers with 16 Leadership Kerr County class 34 will require two 17 additional days to set up and clean up; therefore, LKC 18 34, Leadership Kerr County 34, respectfully requests to 19 reserve and have access to requests access to said park 20 on Friday, April 19th through Sunday April the 21st, 21 totaling three days. This is -- yes, Sir. 22 MR. SCHIEK: Good morning. I'm Trent 23 Schiek, I'm the Chairman of the Leadership of Kerr 24 County Class Number 34, and we're respectfully 25 requesting the use of the park on those three days. 13 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Question. Is it for 2 the entire park including the Dog Park? 3 MR. SCHIEK: I don't know that. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I think in the past 5 it's not been for the Dog Park, just for the main park. 6 MR. SCHIEK: Yes, Sir. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Just for that 8 clarification. It's not precluding the use of the Dog 9 Park? 10 MR. SCHIEK: No, Sir. I don't believe so. 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I move for approval. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Okay, we have a motion. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 14 JUDGE KELLY: And we have a motion by 15 Commissioner Belew and second by Commissioner Moser to 16 allow Leadership Kerr County Class 34 the use of Flat 17 Rock Lake Park, excluding the Dog Park, from April the 18 19th through the 21st, for a total of three days. Any 19 other discussion? 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And this is not the 21 exclusive use; this is just to be able to set up your 22 event? 23 MR. SCHIEK: Yes, Sir. We'll set up Friday, 24 and then the event's Saturday, and then we'll tear down 25 Sunday. 14 1 JUDGE KELLY: Any further discussion? Those 2 in favor raise your hand. Five zero, unanimous. 3 MR. SCHIEK: Thank you. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Item 1.4 consider, discuss and 5 take appropriate action to approve the Local Emergency 6 Planning Committee Membership Update Form for submission 7 to the State Emergency Response Commission. Dub Thomas. 8 MR. THOMAS: Good morning, Judge, 9 Commissioners. Y'all remember last year we reinstituted 10 our Local Emergency Planning Committee that comes out of 11 the Freedom for Information Act. We basically have to 12 have a Local Emergency Planning Committee for hazardous 13 material spills; however like most other departments or 14 agencies we kind of want it to morph into a real 15 emergency planning committee. And that list is made up 16 of about 20 different individuals from the County and 17 the City as well. And some of those positions have 18 changed, the County Judge has changed, the Mayor's 19 position has changed, the Emergency Management 20 Coordinator for the City has changed, so this is 21 basically a formality for the Judge to sign off on that. 22 And I like to have documents like that brought before 23 the Court and on the agenda so we'll have an official 24 record of it when he signs it. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Dub, question. You 15 1 have in there Denise Bell, and she is no longer at the 2 Daily Times. 3 MR. THOMAS: All right. I can change that. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Instead of putting -- 5 suggestion or a question. Instead of identifying a 6 person's name, could you just name the position for 7 things like Community Journal, Kerrville Daily Times. 8 Ranch Radio, etc.? 9 MR. THOMAS: Yeah. That's not a bad idea. 10 We can do that. I don't see a problem. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. That way -- 12 MR. THOMAS: I'll just have to make contact 13 with them over there so that they'll have somebody that 14 attends it on a regular basis. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. Right. 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Would that be the same 17 with your suggestion for the Mayor and various 18 positions? 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I don't -- not 20 necessarily, I don't think. 21 MR. THOMAS: No. It actually calls for 22 specific individuals for those positions. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Or what you might do is 24 say that person or -- you know, the acting publisher 25 editor of Kerrville Daily Times. 16 1 MR. THOMAS: Right. But like the Chairman 2 is the County Judge. The Vice Chairman is the Mayor, so 3 we're going to need those specific names in there. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right, okay. Move for 5 approval. 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Motion by Commissioner Moser, 8 seconded by Commissioner Belew. Any further discussion? 9 Those in favor raise your hand. Unanimous, five zero. 10 MR. THOMAS: Y'all have a good day. 11 JUDGE KELLY: We'll see you on the 16th? 12 MR. THOMAS: Yes, Sir. Maybe before then, 13 too. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Item 1.5 consider, discuss and 15 take appropriate action on request to use courthouse 16 grounds on Friday, March 22 from 6 to 8 p.m. for the 17 Hill Country Rallye Car Show. 18 MRS. GRINSTEAD: I'm not sure if he was 19 going to be here or not, he submitted all the paperwork 20 though. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Is there any discussion 22 about this? 23 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I didn't read the 24 background stuff. I didn't see it, so I don't know what 25 all they need and what they want. 17 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: It's in here. 2 MRS. GRINSTEAD: All they want really is the 3 courthouse parking lot. 4 COMMISSIONER BELEW: 6 to 8 p.m. 5 MRS. GRINSTEAD: 6 to 8 p.m. on Friday. 6 It's an annual event that they did at the YO Ranch, and 7 to please ask Charlie McIlvain about this event. 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Can you tell us 9 something about it, Charlie? 10 MR. MCILVAIN: Yes. Good morning, Judge and 11 Commissioners. This is an annual event that has been in 12 place for four or five years. It brings in a number of 13 vehicles. Some of them are here for the weekend, so 14 it's a nice event. They've taken good care of the 15 property and they clean it up when they leave, so there 16 have not been any problems in the past. 17 COMMISSIONER BELEW: No changes this year? 18 MR. MCILVAIN: Not that I'm aware of. 19 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approval. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll second. No 21 problem. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Been moved by Commissioner 23 Harris and seconded by Commissioner Letz. Those in 24 favor raise your right hand. Opposed? Unanimous, five 25 zero. 18 1 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Good job, Charlie. 2 (Laughter.) 3 JUDGE KELLY: We Sprinted to get to 1.6 so 4 here we are. Consider, discuss and take appropriate 5 action on request from the City of Kerrville for a 6 Resolution in support of its legislative efforts to use 7 the Hotel Occupancy Tax for a convention center and 8 hotel in Kerrville. Mr. Mark McDaniel. 9 MR. MCDANIEL: Good morning, Judge, 10 Commissioners. Got to be with you last week to talk 11 more about this subject and what it might do for Kerr 12 County and the City of Kerrville. Here really to take 13 questions after you've had a chance to think about all 14 the things that we discussed last week, but just to 15 reiterate this is a request for you all to provide local 16 support, moral support, community support for an effort 17 that the City is undertaking to amend Section 351 of the 18 Tax Code to allow for the City to take advantage of 19 state funding that would otherwise go to the State. So 20 the way this works is currently there's a 13 percent 21 hotel tax on every overnight stay less than 30 days. 22 And so the City gets seven percent of that, the State 23 gets six percent. And so what we're going to be doing 24 is filing a bill through Senator Buckingham and 25 Representative Murr to obtain that six percent that 19 1 would normally be collected by the State. Actually it 2 would still be collected, but they would rebate that to 3 us up to ten years to help pay for a conference 4 center/hotel. 5 Now, the City performed a study in 2018, and 6 in that study it indicated that the community could 7 support a full service hotel, and we looked at several 8 locations. At this point we really don't have any 9 location identified. We don't have a developer or a 10 partner identified. This is really just a step in the 11 process that if we aren't able to do this then the 12 project probably is not going to make. Just because to 13 date this is really the reason why we haven't been able 14 to do a conference center/hotel. It's a very expensive 15 project. It requires a lot of local financing in way of 16 a public-private partnership. And this piece, it's 17 projected to generate for the City about 4.4 million 18 dollars to help with that incentive to build a 19 conference center. The conference center would be City 20 owned, the hotel would be privately owned, and so we 21 would have some contribution to help build the 22 conference center. So we're asking for your support. 23 We're not asking for you to fund anything. It's really 24 just to demonstrate to the Legislature that we have 25 local support for this project. 20 1 With that, Judge, I'd be happy to answer any 2 questions. 3 JUDGE KELLY: And by way of explanation, I 4 was in Austin last week for the opening of the 5 Legislature and visited with Representative Murr and 6 Senator Buckingham and what they're asking is before 7 they introduce the legislation in the respective houses 8 that they know that the public is buying into this 9 request. So while this does not cost the County 10 anything, the request is to show unanimity among the 11 public agencies here in Kerrville that we are behind 12 this project, this effort. And if I understand it only 13 about ten counties in the state have successfully 14 implemented this program, so we would be pretty much on 15 the cutting edge of trying to get one of these in place. 16 I think maybe 30 or 40 have been approved, but only 17 actually ten implemented, something to that effect. 18 MR. MCDANIEL: Yes, Sir. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Which is a little bit less 20 than four percent, so just consider yourself being on 21 the cutting edge of the top four percent of the counties 22 in the state in moving forward with this, but that said 23 I open the floor for comment from the Commissioners. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Mark, three questions. 25 In the Resolution it talks about would create 103 jobs 21 1 succeeding 27 million dollars annually. Are those the 2 103 direct, or does that include indirect also? 3 MR. MCDANIEL: It's indirect as well, so 4 there's extrapolation based upon -- 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So the multiple factor 6 of X number here then multiply that by some factor. 7 MR. MCDANIEL: Yes, Sir. There's a number 8 for the construction phase, and there's a number for the 9 annual ongoing operations and maintenance. So that's 10 what the numbers represent. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay, another question, 12 and I asked you this the other day and I don't remember 13 the answer, sorry to say. Is the study available? Is 14 that public document or -- 15 MR. MCDANIEL: No, Sir it's not. Simply 16 because at some point we're going to be negotiating a 17 partner, we don't want to show our cards as to what they 18 might be willing to do, because that'll be a 19 negotiation. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Third question 21 is, and you and I have discussed this, but I think it's 22 good to just air it, and that is since it's to show 23 public support there could be an option, okay, that the 24 City could say, let's put this on a referendum since 25 there would be an election on May the 4th to see what 22 1 the public thinks about it, but then it would be delayed 2 for until the next legislative session, and I think that 3 that's not -- from my discussion with you, that's not a 4 favorable approach to delay that. 5 MR. MCDANIEL: Right. You know, as we all 6 know there's uncertainty with the Texas Legislature from 7 every two years, and what might happen. And so right 8 now the law exists, and the provision exists. We 9 haven't heard of any interest in trying to undo it, but 10 there is a carve-out that would not be going to the 11 general fund for the state, and so they would be looking 12 at that. As the Judge mentioned there's only 4 cities 13 that have actually taken advantage of it. I'm sorry, 8. 14 Some of those are now rolling off, are approaching the 15 ten year cap, so that does work to our advantage, but 16 there's uncertainty. And in addition to that, I would 17 say that I think there's been clear community support 18 for this project. When you look back over the years, 19 and then most recently with Kerrville 2050. Not just in 20 the town halls and the committees, but also in the 21 surveying that we had done through that process 22 indicating a strong interest, and really the questions 23 were about why haven't we done this yet, we keep talking 24 about it. And then with Fredericksburg's announcement 25 about their project. I think there's others that even 23 1 more of an eagerness to get something started. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And one other comment 3 and then I'll be quiet. This is only for introduction 4 of passage of -- endorsement and introduction and 5 passage of legislation for that six percent or seven 6 percent, whatever you said, of the State funds. It is 7 not -- it is just a step -- multi-step process to 8 determine whether or not the convention center and hotel 9 should be built. 10 MR. MCDANIEL: Right. So if the State were 11 to amend the Tax Code to allow for Kerrville to take 12 advantage of this that's just one piece of our public 13 financing. There will have to be others, because it's 14 to build a conference center alone that the City would 15 own, it would be more expensive than that. But this is 16 a piece of that puzzle as we stack the funding sources, 17 and we move forward and trying to do an RFP to have a 18 developer that we're working with, a partner. Determine 19 what's the appropriate location and so forth. So it's 20 really, as you said, just passage of legislation to 21 enable us to do it. We don't pull the trigger on it 22 until we get our certificate of occupancy, and then it 23 goes ten years beyond that. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay, gotcha. Thank 25 you. 24 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: A couple of comments or 2 questions. One, the hotel, while the City would own it, 3 would the plan be for the hotel to operate it? 4 MR. MCDANIEL: So the City would own the 5 conference center, and the developer would likely own 6 the hotel, the City would probably own the land, because 7 this particular funding source requires that the City 8 owns the land. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And the operation of the 10 convention center? 11 MR. MCDANIEL: I'm sorry. Typically what 12 cities do is they contract with whoever the flag or the 13 brand is for the hotel, the operator, and the management 14 arrangement, management contract for the catering and so 15 forth of the convention center. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And the other question 17 on use of eminent domain to get the project off the 18 ground, and my understanding is that state law prohibits 19 that use. 20 MR. MCDANIEL: That's absolutely correct. 21 Even if it's associated with the TERS and it ends up in 22 the downtown area, which is one of five different areas 23 that we've looked at. The City cannot use eminent 24 domain for economic development. 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay, I have a couple 25 1 things for your. The four million dollars you 2 mentioned, Mark, is that -- what happens? You mentioned 3 the possibility that the project doesn't launch, and so 4 then what happens to that money in that event? 5 MR. MCDANIEL: It's just never accessed. 6 And so right now the State does not put a sunset on that 7 so the City can take advantage of it. Some of these 8 cities have been authorized for a number of years could 9 still go ahead and try to do that. There's some talk in 10 this next legislative session that says hey, if you 11 haven't taken advantage of this in the last ten years 12 king's X, you don't have access any more. 13 COMMISSIONER BELEW: How many primary jobs 14 out of this? 15 MR. MCDANIEL: There are -- let me look at 16 the Resolution real quick. So there would be 17 approximately 126 jobs related to the construction and 18 103 related to the ongoing operation and maintenance. 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I know the City makes a 20 distinction about primary jobs, so that's why I'm 21 asking. How many primary jobs? 22 MR. MCDANIEL: Right. So these arguably are 23 not primary jobs, Commissioner. Primary jobs typically 24 in the industry are related to manufacturing, where 25 there's a service, or a good that's delivered, a 26 1 majority of them at least 50 miles away so that you're 2 generating new income; however, for us, you know, as we 3 all know tourism is a huge industry for us. And the 4 taxes and the monies that are typically paid by folks 5 that are staying in the hotels or attending the 6 convention center are from people from outside of 7 Kerrville. And so that would input new money into the 8 community and that's the way we look at it in terms of 9 generating new income for Kerrville. 10 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So this doesn't really 11 qualify as primary jobs. 12 MR. MCDANIEL: Not technically. 13 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Here's the other thing, 14 now you mentioned Fredericksburg, Boerne, and I'm 15 concerned about the Hill Country Youth Event Center. 16 You have competition in Fredericksburg and Boerne for 17 convention centers, and then we have things going on at 18 the Hill Country Youth Event Center. Obviously you 19 wouldn't have the stock show at the convention center, 20 but there are things where we might compete. What are 21 the studies showing you about how feasible this is given 22 that these other things are this close? 23 MR. MCDANIEL: Sure, I appreciate the 24 question. So with Fredericksburg and Boerne and other 25 places, the firm that we hired is a firm that I worked 27 1 previously with in Corpus Christi and then later in 2 Tyler, but TKF used to be the firm, and then it was 3 CBRE, and then now it's their own firm. But they do 4 this not just for cities and other entities, public 5 entities, but they also do it for developers and they 6 study the market, they look at market shares, growth and 7 average daily room rate, they will look at is it a 8 regional market, is it a drive-to market, or is it 9 someplace that people fly in to. They do a lot of 10 surveying, not just locally but also meeting planners 11 around the state. This would be a regional facility. 12 We wouldn't expect to say bring in national conventions. 13 It would be a drive-to venue. So they've done a lot of 14 homework in terms of what we could support. And I think 15 that they've been pretty conservative in the numbers. 16 So for example, if it would say that they would 17 generate, you know, a hundred jobs, they would come off 18 of that and say well, you know, some of those people 19 aren't going to live that close to the City of 20 Kerrville, so they discount that. So it's a very 21 conservative study. But also with regard to the Event 22 Center, it's a -- Commissioner Moser asked me the same 23 question. This facility would be successful because 24 it's got that combination of hotel and convention center 25 next to each other. So the type of demand that we're 28 1 not getting now when you look at the data, it shows a 2 significant growth in the group and convention center 3 market. 4 There's three layers, the leisure market, 5 there's a business traveler, and there's a convention 6 center market. Well, we are losing out on the 7 convention center market, it's a business that we're not 8 getting today. So the business that the event center is 9 getting today will likely keep, because it's well suited 10 for it. It's a wonderful facility for a lot of 11 different types of things. This new conference center 12 would be geared toward bringing in those new conferences 13 that we are not getting today. And so I don't see it as 14 a direct competition; in fact, I see it as a catalyst to 15 help the Event Center in terms of bringing in new 16 conventions -- or new events just because of the venue 17 and place to stay, meeting spaces and so forth. 18 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Combination, you know, 19 youth event, were to use both facilities. That stands 20 out to me. 21 MR. MCDANIEL: Sure. Yes, Sir. 22 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That's all I have. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'd say kind of a 24 general comment. One of the things that Kerrville 25 needs, in my opinion, is some new hotels. My 29 1 understanding, and I think Charlie -- Charlie probably 2 made a comment on this. But I don't think we've had a 3 new hotel built in Kerrville in 12 years. 4 MR. MCILVAIN: 14 years. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 14 years. And this is a 6 way to get a -- not an upper end but, you know, a nice 7 hotel into town, like Embassy Suites-type thing, I'm 8 guessing, or a Courtyard or something like that. I 9 don't think we're going to get a high end in Kerrville 10 but, you know, the Hilton chain, the Marriott chains, 11 one of those type chains, hotels. And I think it's 12 something that we do need in this community. Because we 13 just don't have hotels that kind of fit that bill. 14 There are two of them in town, and they're probably 30 15 years old. And you know, I think to keep competitive, 16 we need to keep -- you need to expand on that hotel 17 chain, that hotel size, and I think the convention 18 center helps them probably put one here as well. 19 And I say convention center to me is yes, 20 it's a convention center, but we're talking in my mind 21 more like something that is in San Marcos at there 22 Embassy Suites, hotel with a convention center attached 23 to it. You know, it's not like the Gonzalez Convention 24 Center in San Antonio; we're talking about a joint thing 25 similar probably a YO type thing built, but slightly 30 1 bigger than that. 2 COMMISSIONER BELEW: How much of a marketing 3 budget is this going to be? Do you anticipate, I should 4 ask. 5 MR. MCDANIEL: Sure. Part of the study 6 Austin included a pro forma for the facility, and how it 7 performs so that we could get to the ongoing 8 arrangement, so at some point we're going to be 9 negotiating with someone, and we'll decide how much it 10 wants to fund or not fund ongoing operation and 11 maintenance, and so that's all going to be a negotiation 12 down the road. But it would be eligible for hotel tax, 13 and -- 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, all of us have 15 gone to conventions, and continuing education, and 16 places we would have never gone otherwise. So with that 17 marketing available, even through like TAC, the Texas 18 Association of Counties, they could have meetings there, 19 but you gotta court them, you gotta let them know you're 20 here, so I'm just curious. 21 MR. MCDANIEL: You bet. That's going to be 22 the important factor when we determine our partner. Is 23 it going to be an independent, or is it going to be a 24 well-known flag like a Marriott, or very recognizable, 25 and they have their whole systems in place in terms of 31 1 how they market. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Mark, at the cowboy breakfast 3 probably the most common question asked to me was about 4 the effect on the Youth Event Center. And I'm just 5 trying to make sure that I understand so that I can 6 report back to people that asked me these questions. 7 Was there a study of economic impact of how this will 8 effect the Youth Event Center, or is that just something 9 that's been an assumption? 10 MR. MCDANIEL: Mostly focused on what a new 11 facility might be able to do, and then also how the 12 entire lodging market would perform, not necessarily 13 other meeting venues. So we don't want them to have a 14 negative impact on our occupancy rates locally. We have 15 seen some trending up in some of our limited service 16 hotels. Our full service hotels are still not doing 17 quite as well. But it was more of a focus on number of 18 rooms, and try not to detract from that. We didn't look 19 real closely at the number of events, but if you look at 20 the types of events that would be growing in a new 21 facility, they weren't the kind of events that y'all 22 typically have out at the Event Center. 23 JUDGE KELLY: And that's really the focus of 24 my question. The county's not in the lodging business, 25 but we are in the event center business. And we still 32 1 have a bond issue that we're paying off. And I guess my 2 first very specific question is, did anybody with your 3 consulting firm meet with Jake or Robin or anybody over 4 at the Youth Event Center? 5 MR. MCDANIEL: I'm not sure if they did or 6 not, but I could follow up on that. I know that when 7 they did their surveying they worked through The Chamber 8 and Charlie's group locally, and talked to a lot of 9 businesses. I'm pretty sure they talked to -- I mean I 10 could be wrong, but to the Event Center themselves. 11 JUDGE KELLY: And if so, is there a study of 12 the economic impact to the Event Center that we could 13 actually look at? 14 MR. MCDANIEL: We did not do an impact study 15 for the Event Center specifically; it was for the entire 16 market. 17 JUDGE KELLY: What would be involved in 18 doing an economic impact study for the Event Center? 19 MR. MCDANIEL: I'm not sure. 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, I'd be a lot more 21 comfortable to know that information, personally. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Forgive us, we're provincial. 23 We're trying to promote our event center. We've got a 24 lot of money invested in it, and we want to partner with 25 everybody in the community for the common good, but at 33 1 the same time, we'd like to know how it's going to 2 impact our facility. 3 MR. MCDANIEL: Well, again -- well, I'd be 4 glad to show you the data that I can on this, but the 5 facility itself when you look at the types of events 6 that it's bringing in, again it's not the same types of 7 event that you'd want to see at the Youth Event Center. 8 And so -- in fact, as this thing if it were to happen 9 and it would be successful, you would see more interest 10 in Kerrville as a whole, as a market to do events in and 11 conceivably the Event Center could have more business as 12 a result of that facility. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Which gets back to my theory 14 of a raising tide floats all ships. I understand that. 15 We've got some time to go. This is an incremental 16 process as Commissioner Moser's pointed out. I did 17 visit with our legislators in Austin about this, and 18 they're eager to get a bill filed. I understand that we 19 have some time to follow up on the economic impact to 20 our event center, and the urgency to have a buy-in from 21 the rest of the community to get this bill introduced, 22 so I would like to follow up on the economic impact, but 23 at the same time I understand that this is something 24 that we probably need to move forward with now, and so 25 in that regard, I would support your Resolution. 34 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I basically say the 2 same thing. But will the City, you know, commit to 3 going back to their consulting and have them look at 4 that specific? 5 MR. MCDANIEL: Yeah, absolutely. I'll do 6 that. 7 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Thank you. 8 JUDGE KELLY: We're all in this together. 9 MR. MCDANIEL: Amen. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll make a motion that 11 we approve the Resolution as presented. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 13 JUDGE KELLY: There's been a motion by 14 Commissioner Letz and seconded by Commissioner Moser to 15 approve the Resolution requested by the City. Is there 16 any further comment or question? Mr. McIlvain, come 17 talk to us. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: When it passes you need 19 to learn how to be quiet. 20 (Laughter.) 21 MR. MCILVAIN: My name is Charlie McIlvain, 22 I'm President and CEO of Kerrville Convention and 23 Visitors Bureau. And the Convention Visitors Bureau 24 does endorse this Resolution. I came here from another 25 community that had a very similar model where the City 35 1 owned the conference center, and the hotel owned the -- 2 the hotel on city property, and it worked very well. 3 Let me see if I can give you some 4 clarification on the two types of facilities though. 5 Basically, the Youth Event Center industry is called a 6 blue-collar facility, and it works extremely well. 7 We're proud of that facility and this week is a prime 8 example of it's capabilities and what can be done. And 9 there other events, new events coming, that will be 10 using that facility. The conference facility that we're 11 discussing would be a white-collar facility. And the 12 difference is, for instance, we're missing an entire 13 segment of the market, as Mark mentioned. We're not 14 able to attract the North Texas Auto Dealers 15 Association, or the Hill Country Dental Association into 16 the Youth Event Center, it's not the type of facility 17 that they utilize. What those groups look for are 18 conference centers and adjoining hotels, and 19 Commissioner Letz mentioned San Marcos, and that's 20 exactly the type of facility that we'd be looking at on 21 this type of project, and that does attract the white 22 color market that we're missing currently. 23 The other advantage to that market is when 24 you bring that market in, it also has a potential to 25 impact economic development activities, and the -- you 36 1 bring these -- these are decision makers that business 2 owners and what have you that would be coming into that 3 facility. They may be considering an expansion or a 4 relocation, hadn't thought about Kerrville, but when 5 they're here for a conference they get to look around, 6 they say gosh, a great quality of life, this looks like 7 it could be potential for our new business venture, so 8 this opens up a door that we are not currently 9 experiencing now with that particular facility. 10 The other thing, and not related to this 11 venture, but again I want to thank the Commissioners and 12 the Judge for participating in the stock show, or cowboy 13 breakfast, last Friday morning. It was a very 14 successful event. We introduced several new activities, 15 including moving the event indoors, and again it worked 16 extremely well. Congratulations to Commissioner Belew 17 for his win, and Council Member Voelkel for the overall 18 win, and the traveling trophy this year will go to the 19 City, but I'm sure they'll be some other opportunities 20 to recapture that in the future. Thanks for the 21 opportunity to talk to you today. Are there any 22 questions that I might address on this? 23 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, this is, Charlie, 24 why I was so asking Mark, I'm so interested in the 25 marketing of it, because if it's marketed the right way 37 1 it brings exactly who you want, and nobody -- and then 2 you get the ancillary. 3 MR. MCILVAIN: That's exactly right. In 4 fact, we have two very distinct markets that will be 5 coming into Kerrville. We're getting one now. We're 6 somewhat limited on the convention market right now with 7 our facilities. As I mentioned a minute ago, our newest 8 hotel is 13 or 14 years old. We're bidding against 9 cities already that have two or three new hotels in the 10 last three to five years. When we get up and make a 11 presentation and let the meeting planners and decision 12 makers know that our newest hotel is 13 or 14 years old, 13 even though some of the hotels have done a great job of 14 keeping those hotels up, you have the connotation that 15 you've got tired old tired hotels, and that has an 16 impact on our success and bringing those conferences in. 17 Any other questions? Thanks for the opportunity to 18 visit with you. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge, before we vote 20 just one comment to the City Manager. If he would 21 hopefully relay this information about the study related 22 to the impact on the Hill Country Youth Event Center, 23 and make a comment about the eminent domain back to City 24 Council, or Councilman Voelkel in the audience, just 25 make sure the rest of the Council understands. It's not 38 1 contingent on those things, but it's kind of sort of 2 contingent. I mean we're going to pass it regardless, 3 but those things are important to us. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Any other comment or 5 questions? Okay, those in favor raise your hand. Those 6 opposed? Unanimous, five zero. 7 MR. MCDANIEL: Thank you very much. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Item number 1.7 consider, 9 discuss and take appropriate action to declare a small 10 cart (Inventory Tag #0668) as surplus and dispose of 11 properly. This is by our new Veterans Service Officer. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And she's not here. I 13 know she's been cleaning that office out and getting rid 14 of excess equipment that's in there. So I move for 15 approval of declaring the cart inventory as surplus and 16 dispose of it properly. 17 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 18 JUDGE KELLY: A motion by Commissioner 19 Moser, seconded by Commissioner Harris to dispose of 20 this cart. Is there any other comment or question? For 21 those of you that did not see the old office go down and 22 see the new office. It is remarkable. And if she says 23 this is surplus, it is. Trust me. Those in favor 24 please raise your hand. Opposed? Unanimous, five zero. 25 Next will be item 1.8 consider, discuss and 39 1 take appropriate action regarding contract with Republic 2 Services for waste recycle services at Kerr County 3 Animal Services facility. Shane. 4 MR. EVANS: Good morning, gentlemen. During 5 our last meeting we discovered that the Animal Services, 6 the dumpster for that, was not on the contract. This is 7 just basically having it resubmitted, or getting it on 8 the contract for y'all's approval. And the base price 9 for this does not change whatsoever at this point. It 10 was -- 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So is it a new contract 12 or we just adding -- 13 MR. EVANS: It's just adding the Animal 14 Services on there. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I make a motion that we 16 add to Republic Services a dumpster at Kerr County 17 Animal Services facility. 18 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 19 JUDGE KELLY: It's been moved by 20 Commissioner Letz and seconded by Commissioner Harris to 21 make sure that we have that dumpster on our contract 22 with Republic Services. Those in favor please raise 23 your hand. Opposed? Unanimous, five zero. 24 Item 1.9 consider, discuss and take 25 appropriate action to authorize the Environmental 40 1 Health/Animal Services Director to reduce the annual 2 registration fee to one dollar during the annual rabies 3 vaccination clinic being held February 2 through 4 February 16 this year, and allow signage regarding same 5 to be placed at the courthouse lawn. Current fees are 6 $5.00 for -- to be neutered or spayed and $10.00 for 7 non-neutered or spayed. Reagan. 8 MR. GIVENS: Good morning. Yeah, so this is 9 a yearly thing that some of the local vets participate 10 in with vaccinations. The vets reduce their vaccination 11 cost, and we historically have reduced ours to one 12 dollar from February 2nd to February 16th, 2019. Right 13 now our fees are $5.00 for a neutered and spayed cat or 14 dog, and $10.00 for non-neutered or spayed. So that 15 would be reduced to $1.00 for that time period. It's a 16 little incentive for them to come get their pet 17 registered as well. 18 As far as the sign goes it's my 19 understanding that we used to put a sign on the 20 courthouse lawn somewhere. It looks like the last time 21 we did that was 2015. I don't know why it was stopped. 22 There may have been some reason I'm not aware of. But I 23 still have the signage. I just need some minor 24 modifications to show the proper dates of when this is 25 happening. Apparently we did used to put one out here, 41 1 and we didn't for some reason for the past year. I was 2 not aware of it last year, so I was made aware of it 3 this year. 4 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Reagan, I know the 5 whole deal was to push to get more cats and dogs rabies 6 shots and what have you. Has it ever been considered 7 just saying it's free, and then have a tip jar out 8 there? What I found in the past you usually get -- free 9 just draws more in, and then you probably collect more 10 than you would have with a dollar fee. 11 MR. GIVENS: That's a good question. We 12 have had real good turnout. I don't know the numbers 13 right offhand, but we have always had a good turnout 14 during this time period for people, they take advantage 15 of the less. As far as what the vets do and stuff, I 16 don't know that as far as their end. I don't even know 17 what their charges are. I just know they're reduced. 18 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Sure. Either way. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Either way. But I kind 20 of like going to free. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I do, too. I bet you 22 collect more money. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'm leery of putting out 24 a donation jar because the Commissioners' Court has to 25 accept donations, and we can't track them. 42 1 MRS. STEBBINS: I'd be cautious about that. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: What'd you say? 3 MRS. STEBBINS: I would be cautious about 4 that voluntary donations. Reagan would be here every 5 week saying I need to donate a dollar from -- 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It doesn't make any 7 difference to me. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Reagan, do the animals 9 have to be -- dogs in particular, have to be tagged by 10 the County or have a -- registered by the County to get 11 this fee up to get this vaccination? 12 MR. GIVENS: No. Actually, if they'll bring 13 in their vaccination proof and wen they got it, and the 14 time period, then we do the one dollar. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So they have to bring 16 in something that said they've been vaccinated in the 17 past? 18 MR. GIVENS: Yeah. And I feel like we were 19 actually doing these even if they -- most people take 20 advantage of the lower cost. I don't know if all the 21 vets in town are participating, but I think we have done 22 the dollar as well for people just if they register 23 their pet. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: But can somebody just 25 walk in with a dog and say here vaccinate my dog, here's 43 1 a dollar? 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No, this isn't for 3 vaccinations. It's for registration; not vaccination. 4 MR. GIVENS: The vets are taking care of 5 the -- 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I apologize. 7 MR. GIVENS: The vets are taking care of 8 the -- their fees are separate. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay, ignore my 10 question. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Anyway, it's a good 12 event and does get things done, and also gives awareness 13 that you're required to have your pet registered in Kerr 14 County. 15 MR. GIVENS: And then the sign is -- it's 16 pretty large, it's seven or eight feet. I think what it 17 must have been, because we do have it over at the 18 shelter. I think it must have been three t-posts in the 19 ground is what kept it upright. Just says Kerr County 20 annual rabies shots. It's got the location, which I'll 21 have to make sure all that's still good. I've got to 22 make a few modifications if it's okay to use it. Just 23 gotta show the right dates. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think it's a good idea 25 to put the sign up. Just get with Shane to get a good 44 1 location. And I make motion to approve the agenda item. 2 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Motion been made by 4 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Harris to 5 approve the request in item 1.9. Is there any other 6 discussion or questions? Those in favor raise your 7 hand. Opposed? It passes is unanimously, five zero. 8 Item 1.10 consider, discuss and take 9 appropriate action regarding a revised job description 10 for the County Veterans Service Officer. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thank you, Judge. We 12 looked at the -- say we, myself and the advisory 13 committee for the County Veterans Service Officer job 14 description, and you have a copy in your packet there of 15 all the proposed changes to that job description, which 16 primarily says whoever's filling that office needs to 17 get -- be accredited by Veterans Association, and do so 18 within two years, so that's the primary thing. Then 19 there's some other wordsmithing things in there that 20 I've changed. 21 And so with that, I would move for approval 22 for the proposed job description modifications 23 contingent on approval by Human Resources. And the 24 reason I say approval by Human Resources, there's some 25 other things in there about, you know, that's required 45 1 for that position physically that I don't think a 2 disabled person would be able to meet those 3 requirements, so I wanted Human Resources to look at 4 that and see if that was mandatory that we have those 5 restrictive conditions in there. And I don't know if 6 the advisory committee has any comments on this or not? 7 JUDGE KELLY: Yes, Sir. 8 MR. NOLLER: Gary Noller, 140 Ray Drive in 9 Center Point, and on the Veterans Advisory Committee 10 also are here are Becky Marsh and Bill Cantrell. And 11 Commissioner Moser, I don't know if we both got the same 12 thing or not because the sheet that I found on the 13 County website that shows the job description doesn't 14 mention for example what you just said, which is -- 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: You got the old one. 16 MR. NOLLER: Okay. But that was what was on 17 the County website. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, I know, but we 19 can't put the new one on until it's approved by 20 Commissioners' Court. So the new one with the proposed 21 changes has got the accreditation requirement. 22 MR. NOLLER: Oh, okay. Well, then that 23 probably answers us. But that was one of the primary 24 things. If I might just take two minutes here, because 25 we have a new County Judge. When those of us that came 46 1 six years ago or so and requested the Commissioners 2 appoint a Veteran Service Officer and you did so, there 3 was some things that we specifically asked for that we 4 didn't feel were being covered here in Kerr County 5 though there are other service officers here, and we 6 wanted to have a fully accredited, accredited by the 7 Veterans Administration. Because you can get accredited 8 by other people, but the one that counts is the Veterans 9 Administration, so that was a key request. 10 The other one that we want to develop or 11 more fully is that the service officer that's hired by 12 the County can do some outreach. In other words go help 13 veterans or veterans dependents or veterans survivors 14 that are not able to come here to the courthouse. We 15 assume that everybody can walk in and do business at the 16 courthouse. Some people are very much in need but they 17 can't do that. So those are a couple of things that 18 we're going to particularly take and be watching for in 19 the future is this being done, because if it's not being 20 done, we're going to come back and ask for it all over 21 again. So appreciate the changes. And we'll take a 22 look at the job description when it comes out. Thank 23 you. 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I have a question, 25 Gary. Would you see anybody on the board or any 47 1 volunteers as being able to facilitate what you're 2 talking about about going to someone's home with a 3 standard questionnaire to kick start that for the 4 Veterans Service Officer? 5 MR. NOLLER: Do it in place of the Veterans 6 Service Officer? 7 COMMISSIONER BELEW: No. Just somebody that 8 would, on a volunteer basis, go out and determine who 9 those people are. Identify them and then take a basic 10 questionnaire and then bring it in, or just call and 11 make sure that they're aware. 12 MR. NOLLER: I would be happy to do that if 13 that would be of help to the service officer. 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I figured you'd say 15 that. 16 MR. NOLLER: Okay. Yes, Sir. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Gary, let your colleagues know 18 that you have been heard. 19 MR. NOLLER: All right. Thank you very 20 much. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Question. Where is the 22 change that it has to be done within two years? 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: It's on the second 24 page. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I see the sentence, but 48 1 it's -- unless is that Article 5786? 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Jody, the second page 3 is not -- 4 If you take a look under education and 5 experience, the very last line. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. But what I'm 7 saying, it doesn't say within two years, but is that 8 within the statute that it has to be within two years. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: It says must become 10 accredited by the Department of Veterans Administration 11 within two years of the date of hire. If you have -- 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Mine doesn't say that. 13 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Mine doesn't say that 14 either. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, that's the old 16 one you're looking at. That's the one that Jody passed 17 down this morning. Here, pass that down to Don. 18 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Thank you, Sir. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: If there's not a rush, 20 can we wait and get HR to approve it before we approve 21 it? 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Sure. Because there's 23 some things that HR -- I don't have any problem with 24 that, but I'd like to do it contingent on approval by 25 HR. 49 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'd rather have it come 2 back. It's just I'd like to read through it. The other 3 thing that I want to look at is the old one. I think it 4 should be something here about the Veterans Advisory 5 Committee and working with them, either quarterly or 6 something. You know, I just want to make sure that we 7 don't end up with a problem. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I don't have any 9 problem with that. Put it on the agenda for next time. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And approve it then 11 after HR's looked at it. Okay. I mean I totally 12 support your main change. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. That's the big 14 thing that's in there. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Don, you good? 16 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yeah, postpone it. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Okay, we'll table item 1.10 18 for the next Commissioners' Court meeting. 19 Let's go to item 1.12, which was scheduled 20 for 9:30. We're running a little bit behind, I 21 apologize to everyone. Consider, discuss and take 22 appropriate action regarding Sanitary Control Easement 23 as required by TCEQ for the Veterans Administration 24 Hospital well for all areas within the 500 foot radius. 25 Mr. Torres. 50 1 MR. TORRES: Good morning, Judge. Good 2 morning, Commissioners. This is a requirement from TCEQ 3 regarding 150 foot radius of our well at the VA, and we 4 have to show that there aren't any contaminants in that 5 area, and because of .33 acres of that falls under your 6 your property, we're requesting this easement be 7 granted. I've got -- we have gotten with Commissioner 8 Moser, and Mr. Hastings to go over the plans and 9 everything to make sure that there was nothing currently 10 there, and there isn't, and as far as I know there's no 11 plans to put anything there, so -- 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Just for that one we'll 13 get Charlie just to verify it, and I think Shane's not 14 here, that there's no utilities in that and there will 15 be no adverse impact to the County. 16 MR. HASTINGS: That's correct. This is 17 property adjacent to the VA, so it's where the Juvenile 18 Detention Facility backs up to the VA. 19 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Just out of curiosity, 20 you know, no sewer lines within 150 feet, but what are 21 the closest ones, anybody know? 22 MR. HASTINGS: The sewer goes to the front 23 out towards Legion Drive, so it would be several hundred 24 feet. 25 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Okay. Well beyond. 51 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So it just says we're 2 not going to put anything there. And so I move for 3 approval for the granting, or establishing the easement 4 that consistent with request by Veterans Administration 5 of the 500 foot radius from their current well. 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Okay, there's been a motion by 8 Commissioner Moser, seconded by Commissioner Belew to 9 approve the requested easement to the Veterans 10 Administration Hospital. Is there any additional 11 comment or any questions? 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I want to ask, is this 13 your support staff, these guys? 14 MR. TORRES: Yes, Sir. I'm sorry. Yes, 15 these are -- 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Just wanted to 17 recognize them. 18 MR. TORRES: -- Engineering Manager, Mr. 19 Kenneth Dillard, and Billy Steal, Assistant Manager. 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Thank you, guys, for 21 coming. 22 MR. TORRES: Thank you. 23 JUDGE KELLY: Okay, those in favor raise 24 your hand. Opposed? It passes five zero. Thank you 25 very much. 52 1 Okay, let's go back to item 1.11 consider, 2 discuss and take appropriate action to change Human 3 Resources hours of operation from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. 4 Monday thru Friday to 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through 5 Friday. Jennifer Doss. Welcome. 6 MS. JENNIFER DOSS: Good morning. At this 7 time we just don't really see a need justified daily. 8 Should the need arise we'd be more than happy to 9 accommodate, come in early and stay late. And I'd just 10 like to more closely mirror the office hours of the 11 other offices in the courthouse. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't have any problem 13 with this. I'm not sure it even needs to come to us. 14 Elected officials can change their office hours as they 15 want. 16 JUDGE KELLY: She's not elected. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: She's not elected. And 18 it is a change, but I don't see any problem with it as 19 long as you're willing to meet employees if needed. 20 MS. JENNIFER DOSS: Absolutely. 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Why was it established 22 in the first place, do you know? 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The reason it was done 24 was to try to allow -- make it more flexible for other 25 departments to get there before they go to work. 53 1 COMMISSIONER BELEW: It make sense. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That was the reason for 3 it and, you know, we can go back to this way as long as 4 there's flexibility to meet with employees. I'll move 5 for approval of the agenda item. 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 7 JUDGE KELLY: It's been moved by 8 Commissioner Letz and seconded by Commissioner Belew to 9 approve the changing the hours of operation for the 10 Human Resources to 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Those in favor 11 raise your hand. Opposed? Unanimous, five zero. 12 MS. JENNIFER DOSS: Thank you. Appreciate 13 it. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Go down to item 1.13 consider, 15 discuss and take appropriate action to approve Kerr 16 County TAC Healthy County Member Designation Form as 17 submitted and have the County Judge sign same. 18 MRS. LANTZ: Good morning. This form is 19 part of our Healthy County Program. I was just notified 20 this morning that one name will be taken off of the 21 backup. Mary Lou Ayala is going to be replaced by 22 Jennifer Doss for that designation. There's two 23 coordinators will be Tracy Soldan, and Jennifer Doss, 24 and then as the elected official, I'm going to be the 25 sponsor of the program. 54 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move for approval. 2 Good program. 3 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 4 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Okay, been moved by 6 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioners Harris and 7 Commissioner Belew. It seems like a tie. 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Let's do rock, paper 9 and scissors. 10 JUDGE KELLY: To approve the TAC Healthy 11 County Member Designation Form change. Those in favor 12 raise your hand. Opposed? Unanimous, five zero. Thank 13 you, Dawn. 14 MRS. LANTZ: Thank you. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Item 1.14 consider, discuss 16 and take appropriate action regarding Commissioners' 17 Court rules on Procedure, Conduct and Decorum. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thank you, Judge. I 19 think there were two or three of the commissioners that 20 were at the recent conference held by TAC, and we're 21 pouring out by the legal advisors to TAC that it would 22 be good for counties to have rules on procedures on 23 conduct and decorum of their meetings. It gives better 24 explanation to the public about how the court sessions 25 are handled, and as the attorney pointed out it's a 55 1 better way to have control of the courtroom, especially 2 in light of some person that is misbehaving in there can 3 be in contempt of court if that's the case. So I think 4 the County Attorney has looked at this, just drafted 5 this, I believe. 6 MRS. STEBBINS: Yes, Sir. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And so I move for 8 approval of the package included for the rules on 9 procedures on conduct and decorum of the meeting of Kerr 10 County Commissioners' Court that's in your package. 11 MRS. STEBBINS: May I make a comment? 12 JUDGE KELLY: Yes. 13 MRS. STEBBINS: There are a couple things on 14 there that I think we brought over just from other model 15 policies on this, and because our courtroom's so small 16 there is a -- under 7A, there's a 5-foot away from the 17 bench requirement for media, and that may not work in 18 this courtroom. We can modify that or take that out 19 entirely. But if the courtroom's full, and Irene's 20 sitting up here in this bench then we would run into a 21 violation of the rules, and we don't want to do that, 22 because we like Irene. But she's not sitting there, 23 it's just an example. So we may want to take that out 24 or modify it to provide a little bit of more space away 25 from the bench. 56 1 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Heather, what is the 2 point of that? 3 MRS. STEBBINS: So that there aren't a bunch 4 of cameras and, you know, everybody up here right by the 5 bench if there's -- and we don't often run into that, 6 but there might be a time where they're are TV crews in 7 here, and it might be problematic. 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Only for Don and me. 9 Everybody else is at least five feet away. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Make it a longer table. 11 JUDGE KELLY: I think we're pretty safe with 12 five feet. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I like it. 14 MRS. STEBBINS: There was a five minute -- 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I want to go back to 16 that one. I mean I don't mind the personnel five feet 17 is fine, and microphone's fine, but I don't want lights 18 and cameras five feet from us. If they want lights and 19 cameras they need to be at the back of the courtroom. 20 Can't we say at a designated place in the courtroom? 21 Which we can then say -- I mean to me it should be in 22 the back. I don't see any reason -- I just don't want a 23 bunch of lights right here glaring in our eyes. It 24 would happen rare, but we have had times when a number 25 of San Antonio stations have come here for various 57 1 reasons. 2 MRS. STEBBINS: So that -- you can do that. 3 You can designate the back of the courtroom for that, 4 but there may be a time where there are so many people 5 in the room that we have to move to another part of the 6 building, which has happened in the past, too. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Can we solve this concern by 8 just saying, or as designated by the Court? 9 MRS. STEBBINS: Absolutely. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That would be good. 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So the example would be 12 if there was a big bunch of media, we can say we 13 designated that area for you -- 14 JUDGE KELLY: Or we move upstairs or 15 whatever. 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: -- or we move it. It 17 would be up to our discretion. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Or designated by us. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: We change that no media 20 personnel or equipment, including lights, cameras, 21 microphones will be located in the Commissioners' Court 22 to the bench no closer than five feet in front of the 23 Commissioners' Court bench or other areas as designated 24 by the Court. 25 MRS. STEBBINS: Yes, Sir. 58 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So with that I move for 2 approval. 3 MRS. STEBBINS: I have one more comment, I'm 4 sorry. Actually, I have two more comments. One is that 5 I have a five minute maximum for comment periods 6 included in here under IV. A., and in the past we've had 7 three minutes, so I went in later and changed that to 8 three minutes, but I don't know if that's the copy that 9 you have. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, it says three. 11 MRS. STEBBINS: It says three, okay good. 12 In Section VIII then -- Rusty may have something to say 13 about this. 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: He does. 15 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I haven't seen it, 16 that's what I'm going to say. Courthouse security 17 hasn't seen anything about what y'all are talking about. 18 And if it conflicts with what we already have set, if 19 you're moved upstairs, then what we already have posted 20 out there as far as cameras and things. I'd just like 21 to be able to review this thing. I don't have any idea 22 what you're looking at. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: How about make a motion 24 contingent upon approval by the County Sheriff? 25 MRS. STEBBINS: Okay. 59 1 JUDGE KELLY: And courthouse security 2 committee. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And courthouse security 4 committee. And one other thing that I would add is that 5 we should post this somewhere so the public can know it. 6 I don't know if it's on the website, or where the proper 7 posting for that would be. 8 MRS. STEBBINS: I think that would be 9 proper. 10 MRS. GRINSTEAD: I don't know if this is the 11 proper place to talk about it, but we're now doing the 12 certified agendas, how we're going to handle those. 13 JUDGE KELLY: For executive session. 14 MRS. STEBBINS: For executive session yes, 15 Sir. 16 MRS. GRINSTEAD: Does that need to be on 17 here? 18 MRS. STEBBINS: I don't know that it 19 necessarily needs to be here since the Court has -- 20 JUDGE KELLY: It's a Local Government Code 21 requirement. It's an extra requirement. 22 MRS. STEBBINS: It is. And so the Court's 23 able to do it, so I don't know if they need to adopt it 24 into this. 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Wouldn't that make 60 1 everything all cohesive in one place? I think it would 2 be a good idea to include that. 3 MRS. STEBBINS: To include a paragraph 4 related to executive session. 5 COMMISSIONER BELEW: It wouldn't hurt 6 anything. 7 JUDGE KELLY: For those of you that might 8 not know what we're talking about, for executive session 9 rather than having the Court Reporter take down what is 10 said in executive session, which is privileged, we use a 11 certified agenda, and then after the executive session 12 we file that certified agenda so that the public has a 13 right to know what we talked about, but not all the 14 details. Subject matter of what we talked about. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Why don't we add that. 16 I think that should be included on here, and get the 17 Sheriff to look at it and bring it back at our next 18 meeting, and the other thing we need to put in this 19 order, we currently have rules and procedures. We need 20 to rescind whatever that old court order is, because 21 otherwise we're going to have two conflicting sets of 22 rules and procedures. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Good enough. 24 JUDGE KELLY: I have a question. And it's 25 really more for the County Attorney. 61 1 MRS. STEBBINS: Yes, Sir. 2 JUDGE KELLY: And I apologize for my legal 3 perspective of things, but I have a misfortune of being 4 a lawyer. With regard to Rules of Procedure -- I'm not 5 talking about the decorum and conduct aspect of it, but 6 just Rules of Procedure. These rules are an 7 abbreviation of Robert's Rules of Order. 8 MRS. STEBBINS: Yes, Sir. 9 JUDGE KELLY: If we have a conflict or it's 10 determined that we do not have sufficient rules as to 11 how to proceed at a given point in time, should we adopt 12 Robert's Rules as a default in the event that we have 13 such a situation? 14 MRS. STEBBINS: You can. And maybe the 15 Court talked about that before. Commissioner Letz might 16 be able to provide some insight into that and why that 17 hasn't happened in the past, but you certainly could do 18 that. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The reason we didn't is 20 because we felt this was sufficient, or the previous 21 one. This is fairly close to what we currently have on 22 record. And if you look at Robert's, you have to be 23 very specific as to which version because Robert's can 24 be incredibly cumbersome to use, and we felt that it was 25 unnecessary if you get into some of the details of it, 62 1 you need to have a -- one, a very specific version 2 exactly of what you're going to try to follow, because 3 if you get into the Robert's rules, we don't operate 4 under Robert's Rules really. I mean we just flat don't 5 do it. 6 JUDGE KELLY: No. I understand we don't. 7 But if somebody wants to do a hyper technical procedural 8 challenge, and our rules don't provide for a way to deal 9 with it, what do we do? Are we just gridlocked at that 10 point? 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think that the Court 12 with the five people up here, we can make a decision on 13 anything during the Court, whether we're going to table 14 it, or continue, or vote or whatever, and there's just 15 only four of us here, and if we don't get a majority, if 16 it's a tie, it fails. So I mean I think that we can -- 17 I can't think of, you know, an instance when it would be 18 necessary to do something different. And if you have a 19 conflict in Robert's Rules it's just cumbersome in my 20 mind. And that was with the court previously. 21 JUDGE KELLY: But it always has an answer. 22 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So do we. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So do we. 24 JUDGE KELLY: I was thinking about something 25 a little less arbitrary, but whatever pleases the Court. 63 1 MRS. STEBBINS: I will put in -- of course, 2 I'll draft what y'all advise me to do. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I would like to look at 4 the version if we -- 5 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Here would be my 6 concern -- I'm sorry, Jonathan. But my concern is 7 somebody go paging back through old past stuff, and 8 decide that we've done all kind of things wrong and 9 everything, I think that we should proceed as we are and 10 we can sort it out not as we go arbitrarily but, you 11 know, common sense. And all of us are fairly 12 familiar -- I guess everybody here has used Robert's 13 Rules. I have in various occasions. I bought another 14 copy when I came on to the Court, which has stayed in my 15 office the whole time. I hadn't had to really renew it 16 or refresh myself, but I don't at least at this juncture 17 seem it would be an issue. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I think that if you 19 have this, and you have the ability and authority to do 20 as Commissioner Letz said, I think it's an 21 overdeterminate set to have conflicting -- where you 22 might have conflicting things. So I would not be in 23 favor of putting Robert's Rules in there. 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: The City doesn't use 25 Robert's Rules, do you? 64 1 MR. MCDANIEL: No, Sir. 2 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Same issues? 3 MR. MCDANIEL: Same issues. 4 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I think we're good. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Okay, any further comment, 6 discussion? 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: No. So we'll bring 8 this back at the next version of Commissioners' Court 9 after the Judge has a chance to look at it, and the 10 County Attorney's making changes that we talked about. 11 MRS. STEBBINS: And I'll meet with Rusty 12 about the provision that applies to him and address any 13 of his concerns in the next proposed draft. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thank you. 15 MRS. STEBBINS: You're welcome. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Okay, the next item on the 17 agenda is 1.15 consider, discuss and take appropriate 18 action to award bid from Ken Stoepel Ford, Inc.. James 19 Robles. 20 MR. ROBLES: Good morning. During the 21 November meeting y'all accepted the bids -- or the one 22 bid we got from Ken Stoepel Ford, and now we're here to 23 award that bid today. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And you checked them 25 that their bids are still good? 65 1 MR. ROBLES: I spoke with them on Friday, 2 they said the bids they provided in November are still 3 valid. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I make a motion that we 5 award the bid for the vehicles outlined in the agenda 6 backup to Ken Stoepel Ford, the low bidder. 7 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Been a motion by Commissioner 9 Letz and seconded by Commissioner Belew, to award the 10 bids that were previously accepted from Ken Stoepel 11 Ford. Any further discussion or question? Those in 12 favor raise your hand. Those opposed? Five zero, 13 unanimous. 14 At this time why don't we take a five-minute 15 break, and we'll be back here at 10:15. 16 (Five-minute break.) 17 JUDGE KELLY: Court is back in session. 18 Going to call item 1.16 consider, discuss and take 19 appropriate action regarding scheduling future 20 workshops. Commissioner Letz. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I put this on the agenda 22 really just to get some feedback. We have -- I put it 23 in the backup several items that we have deferred on for 24 a couple reasons to have workshops. Number one is the 25 East Kerr County/Center Point Wastewater Project. One 66 1 is subdivisions, one's on the Hill Country Youth Event 2 Center and our contract with Spectra, Peter Lewis 3 working on four different projects for the County, the 4 concepts, and then another one is GrantWorks, and this 5 probably could really go up to East Kerr County, but 6 GrantWorks is a company that we use a great deal and 7 really, you know, it probably would be good to get one 8 of their Principals, Eric -- 9 MRS. GRINSTEAD: It is. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Eric who's our original 11 contact and just kind of let the Court understand what 12 we're doing with some of these and now we ended up with 13 them. We're not -- no long-term arrangement with 14 GrantWorks, but they've done a really good job for Kerr 15 County. So I just put these. I'm sure there's other 16 things we need to include, but the idea is that we have 17 a number of workshops that we need to do really in the 18 first quarter of the year before budget comes. It is 19 kind of how the Court wants to proceed. We'll try to 20 pick the Mondays or -- you know, so we can start getting 21 them scheduled. Some of them like if we want to do one 22 with Spectra and took it at the Event Center. That'll 23 take a little bit of planning because we're probably 24 going to have Peter Zingoni who negotiated our original 25 deal. Kind of the sale person who's real familiar with 67 1 it, come down and kind of explain Spectra to the Court, 2 who they are, what they do. And also have Jake and 3 others. 4 So anyway, these are just some things I 5 think we need to kinda get on the schedule and figure 6 out when we want to start organizing and having these. 7 East Kerr County one, Commissioner Moser and I have 8 talked about that, and Charlie. We probably have Don 9 Burger with Tetra Tech would be the main lead on that 10 workshop to explain things. But they're not long. I 11 think most of them are probably, you know, hour or so, 12 maybe a half hour so we could probably put them 13 together. Just want to kind of figure out how we want 14 to move foward on these. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I agree. 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, I think the 17 Judge's suggestion that we do these kind of things on 18 Thursdays, and so it's a short meeting. If we can do 19 them, do them then. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The problem on Thursday 21 is going to be, don't you have -- 22 JUDGE KELLY: I have a probate docket that 23 was at 9:30 that I'm trying to push back to ten o'clock 24 because we need more time to spend here. 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: But then I wouldn't -- 68 1 my further suggestion would be that we keep them on 2 Mondays and Thursdays since we're kind of -- everybody 3 clears their schedule anyways. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Every other Monday? 5 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Yeah. 6 JUDGE KELLY: The mornings. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That would be my 8 preference, do them then. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's fine with me. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And maybe try to do one 11 a month. 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: But if we have 13 scheduling issues like you're talking about somebody 14 can't come and -- 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Try to do one of those 16 Mondays, and Jody can send out which ones, and how to 17 get a schedule, or I'll work with Jody to get a 18 schedule. And we don't need court action to set 19 workshops. So we'll just work on it and kind of figure 20 when we can get people in. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And target one a month 22 would be good. Because that one on the wastewater 23 system, I think that you know if we go back through how 24 all these funds came about, what the county's committed 25 to, in addition to what the -- you know, what the design 69 1 is and what it means to residents and all, that's an 2 easy hour, I think. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Any other topics that we want 4 to put on the list? I thought of a few that I'm 5 interested in talking about. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, this is not 7 exclusive. 8 JUDGE KELLY: I know. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Like always just 10 coordinate it with Jody. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Well, being new to the inner 12 workings of County Government, I've learned that we have 13 a great weight of keys to the courthouse. And one of 14 the things I'd like to talk about is courthouse 15 security, look at some alternative, fob systems or 16 whatever. I just throw it out that's something I'd like 17 to talk about at some point. 18 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I think it needs to be. 19 JUDGE KELLY: You know, we're in the 19th 20 century, we can try to get at least in the 20th or 21st, 21 don't you think. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: 17th century building, 23 I'm not too sure. 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: It's not going to be 25 cheap. 70 1 JUDGE KELLY: I understand. But it's time 2 to take a look at it, because right now we don't know 3 who's been where, when, and what for. I mean we don't 4 have good control of the courthouse. We don't have the 5 kind of control that most counties have and that we 6 could have if we worked it into our budget. That's what 7 I'm looking at. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And that's what a lot of 9 these things are. Some of these are budget driven; some 10 of them aren't. And some of them are pretty expensive. 11 There's two that Peter Lewis is working on, and one's 12 real expensive, an animal control facility, which is 13 going to -- what's going to happen with that facility. 14 And the courthouse square is pretty expensive it looks 15 like. Their preliminary concepts really look good. I 16 think they're really necessary. But we can't afford to 17 do it in one year unless it's -- you know, may have some 18 sort of a bond issue coming up in a couple years, and I 19 think some of these things are probably good for a bond 20 issue because they're not absolutely necessary, in my 21 opinion, a lot of them. And get some feedback or we can 22 figure out how we're going to do them, but anyway -- 23 JUDGE KELLY: But the sooner we start 24 looking at it, the better we can plan on what we can and 25 can't do. One other topic that I'm interested in that 71 1 was kind of a shocker for me was IT. I went to 2 interview the head of the IT Department and found out 3 that I was supposed to supervise him. And I don't know 4 near enough to supervise him. And so, that's why I 5 mentioned it to Commissioner Belew, but it's something 6 that I would like for us to have a workshop to talk 7 about how we can perform our responsibilities in the 8 supervision of the security systems here at the 9 courthouse. 10 So with that, we'll move on to the next 11 agenda item which is 1.17 consider, discuss and take 12 appropriate action regarding liaison positions for 2019, 13 and review liaison policies. Commissioner Letz. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: As it turns out sometime 15 last year we revised this but we never formally -- we 16 talked about it but never got it really implemented, and 17 put it into the backup. So what is in the backup is 18 kind of where people are right now, a little bit 19 different format than we used to have. I moved a few 20 things around to make it kind of fit, but did not change 21 any names. But like we do every year in January go 22 through it and see if there's any changes we want to 23 make. We did run into, I think everyone's aware, a bit 24 of the problem on open meetings when it came to 25 primarily was Animal Services. But that issue can come 72 1 up with other areas as well. Part of me, I initially 2 thought we should probably go to one liaison for some of 3 these departments, but as things have calmed down and we 4 haven't had quite as many -- you know, lots of e-mails 5 from Animal Services, I'm not so sure if it's that's 6 necessary, if we're real careful. I think we can keep 7 two, that's just my opinion. I put it on the agenda to 8 have a discussion. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. We're open for 10 discussion. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I don't see any reason 12 to go to one unless -- we can always work around it. 13 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Now the idea was that 14 we would already have two people in and we could only 15 talk to one more on it, right? 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 17 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That was the driving 18 force behind it. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, you can't talk to 20 anybody. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We can't talk amongst -- 22 other than the other liaison. And that has been a 23 problem. 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Yeah. It was with the 25 issue you're talking about. 73 1 JUDGE KELLY: Let me set the stage for those 2 out there that I see some furrowed brows to understand 3 what we're talking about. The Open Meetings Act 4 requires that no more than two Commissioners visit with 5 each other about any topic before we're in a public 6 meeting. And when Commissioner Letz talks about having 7 open meetings considerations, it's when we start to get 8 more than two people in the loop, and we can have what 9 they call a walking forum. And that's something that we 10 have to guard against because there are both civil and 11 criminal liabilities for that, and we don't want to run 12 afoul. When we start talking about the Liaison 13 Commissioners historically we have had -- I think 14 traditionally we have had two commissioners per 15 department. These are county departments; not for the 16 public offices, but for the county departments. And 17 what that does is when the two liaison commissioners 18 confer about an issue in a department, then there can be 19 no further discussion about that among the rest of us 20 until it is on a publicly posted meeting agenda. And we 21 come to court, come into open court like this and have a 22 discussion. And so one of my suggestions on the meeting 23 we had on January the 3rd is to use our Thursday morning 24 bill pay meeting as an opportunity for us to be able to 25 discuss things to be able to learn what's going on with 74 1 the various departments in a public meeting, and give us 2 some time to try to figure out how we want to address 3 those issues, or if we want to address the issues. And 4 so to that end, my original suggestion was that we 5 consider possibly going to single Commissioner Liaisons, 6 so that whoever the Commissioner is that is in effect 7 supervising that department, or that department's 8 reporting to as the voice back to Commissioners' Court 9 has a choice of who they want to talk to in terms of 10 addressing whatever the issue may be. Because when we 11 put the two on there then we're gridlocked and we're 12 stuck until we get back into a public meeting without 13 any other input from anybody on the Court who may have 14 some expertise in the area of concern, so that was the 15 only reason that I suggested that. There's nothing cast 16 in concrete to do that, but that's what we're talking 17 about. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And the other -- the 19 issue really comes up because of e-mail. And what 20 happens is, you know, everyone -- you get an e-mail and 21 a whole bunch of people are listed, and sometime you 22 reply only, and sometime you reply to all, and then all 23 of a sudden if you look back through the chain, I may 24 see and I have seen, you know, that Commissioner Belew 25 and I got the e-mail but further down the chain 75 1 Commissioner Moser was involved with that, and as soon 2 as that happens, that's illegal. So you know -- 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Even if it's just an 4 accident. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. The fact that 6 it's not necessarily a liaison issue; it's just an issue 7 when members of the public or anybody, it doesn't have 8 to be the public, anybody sends an e-mail to more than 9 one Commissioner at a time. That's why mostly we 10 adopted a policy that pretty much correspondence that 11 any of us want to get elsewhere, either the County 12 Attorney or Jody does it. We don't, you know. I don't 13 ever e-mail all of y'all on stuff. I don't because I 14 try not to. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Well, I did. I did one before 16 I took office as an experiment. And I immediately drew 17 fire from the County Attorney, reminding me that this is 18 what we can't do. And I did it as an example of what we 19 can't do. Because in the private sector we're 20 accustomed to copying everybody on those e-mails, and we 21 cannot do that in this office. And especially when 22 we've got the two liaison commissioners working back and 23 forth with a Department, until we get back in here in a 24 public meeting nobody else can be involved in that loop. 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Now, there's an upside 76 1 to that where, you know, iron sharpening an iron, one 2 guy says here's what I heard, and the other one says 3 here's what I heard, and you decide whether it can be 4 fixed without bringing it to the Court. That's the 5 upside. Now, the downside is if you do need something 6 else you do need to wait until a Commissioners' meeting. 7 JUDGE KELLY: And what my thought was to do 8 exactly to that but allow you to pick who you want to 9 sharpen your iron. Because if we go ahead and put them 10 in place then we're stuck until we can get back here. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, we're stuck, 12 except there's nothing -- I'm just looking at -- 13 Reagan's in here. If Reagan has an issue there's 14 nothing that prevents him to talk to anybody on the 15 Court. It doesn't have to be the Liaison. 16 JUDGE KELLY: He can. We can't. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. Precisely. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Anyway, I don't know. 19 It can be one or two. It doesn't make that much 20 difference. I think the Liaisons overall work very, 21 very well in that concept. So I think to keep it 22 whether it's one or two. And I'll just mention on the 23 list, I did make two changes that I arbitrarily made 24 them when I revised it. One, I took the Sheriff and the 25 Jail off. To me, all of us work with the Sheriff, the 77 1 Sheriff and jail. And he'll visit with whoever he wants 2 to visit with. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: It's like Road and 4 Bridge. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Kinda like Road and 6 Bridge. And the other one I took off is parks, because 7 Ingram park they're going to talk to Harris, or if it's 8 Center Point park they'll talk to Moser, and we don't -- 9 you know, that's unnecessary one, so I kind of limited 10 it a little bit. The external boards and things that we 11 were on, some of those we can move around, of course, 12 whenever we want. And then the other ones are much more 13 the departments that we were involved with. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And Water Resources, we 15 oughta take one off. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, we took it off. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Took Subdivisions off. One 18 that we did not add is -- I know we're going to talk 19 about it later, but is Public Information Officer. We 20 will need a Liaison on that, and of course I have my eye 21 on someone who would be a perfect Liaison. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: You have your eye on, 23 or your ear, too? 24 JUDGE KELLY: Both. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So anyway, changes leave 78 1 it all the same as it is? 2 JUDGE KELLY: Well, one of the things that I 3 would comment on is I did invite Commissioners to let me 4 know preferences that they had, and a couple did, and 5 some others haven't. And so on some of these I would 6 probably take into consideration a personal preference 7 as to have any suppressed. 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I don't have a lot. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What are there 10 preferences. 11 JUDGE KELLY: I think I'd take Commissioner 12 Harris off of Animal Control. We discussed that, just a 13 personal matter. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And just leave one 15 person? 16 JUDGE KELLY: Well, or fill -- whatever the 17 Court's pleasure. I'm just saying I did talk to him 18 about that. I wanted to honor his request. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Oh, he wants to be off? 20 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: (Moving head in 21 affirmative manner.) 22 JUDGE KELLY: He thought he had better fits 23 on things he could do for the County other than Animal 24 Services. 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I'd like to ask a 79 1 question of Reagan and anybody else in here that has a 2 liaison. From your point of view, Reagan, what is 3 the -- how is a Liaison helpful to you? 4 MR. GIVENS: It's very helpful as far as 5 whenever I get into a situation where I'm not sure what 6 would be best to proceed between the County Attorney and 7 the Liaison. It's always beneficial for me to be able 8 to go to somebody to talk about with any given 9 situation. 10 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Or lets say you 11 couldn't reach Commissioner Letz, would you still want 12 to confer with a Commissioner -- 13 MR. GIVENS: Yes. 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: -- as a backup? 15 MR. GIVENS: Yes. 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: You could have this, 17 you could have your lead man, and then your secondary, 18 if that one was unavailable for whatever reason. 19 JUDGE KELLY: He can talk to any of us. 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I know he can, yeah. 21 And so he's already got that in his mind who he would 22 call, but it could be set up that way if one of us is 23 indisposed. 24 JUDGE KELLY: But we're telling him the 25 second person to contact then should be. 80 1 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Would that be a thing 2 you'd like to choose yourself? 3 MR. GIVENS: As far as who to call? 4 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Yes, let's say your 5 Liaison is Commissioner Letz. Let's say you have a 6 situation, he's on vacation or something, can't be 7 reached, you just decide who you want to talk to. The 8 Judge or anybody else. 9 MR. GIVENS: Yeah. I mean that would be 10 nice. 11 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: The only thing I see 12 with that, he can't get a hold of Commissioner Letz and 13 he's got something he needs an answer, and then the 14 second one is me or you or whoever, can't get a hold of 15 us. I think it just needs to open up where that he can 16 call anybody. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, let me take the 18 other side of that. There's a lot of -- a lot of 19 history, and there's a lot of interaction with the 20 public, and there's a lot of history with animal 21 control. And I think that -- I think for Reagan to have 22 somebody that's knowledgeable of all those conditions 23 and all is of value to him as opposed to just coming 24 to me or Harley or somebody else. You know, I'd just 25 soon not get in that situation. I don't think it's the 81 1 best way to help you. 2 MR. GIVENS: Having two Commissioners that 3 are more well versed in what's going on either day to 4 day or week to week would probably be more beneficial in 5 my position as opposed to calling you per se, because 6 you have no idea what's been happening for two weeks or 7 something like that. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's exactly what I'm 9 saying. 10 MR. GIVENS: So that would be beneficial, 11 yes. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And you could have a 13 primary and secondary. I'll just go back on Animal 14 Control, Commissioner Reeves and I did that together, 15 and we didn't always deal with everything together. 16 There's a lot of times he would deal with it and 17 sometimes I would deal with it. And we would 18 communicate a little about it, but not a whole lot. I 19 mean a lot of them are kind of just -- I mean he 20 wouldn't tell me when he was going out there, and I 21 wouldn't tell him, you know. But we both were pretty 22 well versed in the facility operations. 23 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That's the way 24 Commissioner Moser and I have dealt with IT. I don't 25 always know what he's dealt with or -- we talk about it 82 1 eventually, but -- 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And we copy each other 3 on e-mails, very carefully. 4 MRS. STEBBINS: I do have a comment about 5 the e-mails, because you should be able to talk to your 6 constituents. A reply all, it's just safe not to do 7 that so that you're not replying to all the 8 commissioners. If they're all in that e-mail chain, 9 just reply to your constituent, and then that way you're 10 avoiding having a conversation with everybody and you're 11 safe. 12 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: To follow up on that 13 if we reply to the individual rather than all, but then 14 that reply gets forwarded to somebody else -- 15 MRS. STEBBINS: That's the danger that 16 follows, yeah. 17 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: As far as the jail and 18 Sheriff's Office, I hope that y'all are still in 19 agreement just to take it off, because I think if it 20 happens in one precinct that's who I want to go to, you 21 know; otherwise, it may be the County Judge I need to go 22 to, or County Attorney. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I think the jail 24 issue was important when the construction was going on. 25 And there was a construction meeting, but that's passed. 83 1 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I agree. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So Commissioner Harris 3 is off on the first one, and any other changes as to who 4 else -- does anyone want to add their name to Animal 5 Services, OSSF and Environmental Health? 6 JUDGE KELLY: Well, I would personally 7 request that we put Commissioner Harris on the 8 maintenance and courthouse instead of myself. 9 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: No problem with that. 10 JUDGE KELLY: And if we do the public 11 information officer, I would like -- my preference would 12 be to have Commissioner Belew head that for us. 13 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. 14 JUDGE KELLY: I look at the Veterans Service 15 Officer -- am I the only veteran on the court now? 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I think so. 17 JUDGE KELLY: I never thought I'd see that. 18 I'm happy to do that, but quite frankly Commissioner 19 Moser's been doing a very able job with it, and I'm 20 perfectly satisfied with him doing that. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I'd like to do that 22 just to help, you know, help her and to help the 23 advisory committee, or for me to -- I think we're 24 working well together, so I'd just like to stay on that. 25 JUDGE KELLY: And the Investment 84 1 Committee -- I'm just giving my input. On the 2 Investment Committee Commissioner Reeves was on the 3 Investment Committee, and Commissioner Harris took 4 office he stepped into Reeves's liaison positions. I 5 have talked with Commissioner Harris about this. I'm 6 going to be active on the Investment Committee, and Bob 7 Reeves as the Tax Assessor-Collector has asked to be 8 continued on the Investment Committee, which I think 9 would be prudent, so I don't think we need Commissioner 10 Harris there. No offense intended. 11 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: None taken. 12 JUDGE KELLY: One less meeting to attend. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It does require certain 14 certifications to be on that committee. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Right, it does, and I'm 16 working on that. Miss Soldan's stepped out, but I'm 17 trying to get there, but Mr. Reeves is already there so 18 that helps with that. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And my God, a tenth of 20 one percent return on investment, I think that's 21 critically important. 22 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Juvenile Detention, not 23 much happening. 24 JUDGE KELLY: We don't have any juvenile 25 detention, that should be off the list. 85 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That is off. 2 COMMISSIONER BELEW: It's still on my list. 3 JUDGE KELLY: And then again, I'm trying to 4 -- I'm focused on trying to get Commissioner Harris more 5 invested in some County functions. I don't want to 6 overload him, but I'm trying to get him at least 7 integrated into County operations. 8 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Use me like a borrowed 9 mule, no problem. 10 JUDGE KELLY: And one of the areas that I 11 felt that Commissioner Harris might be able to assist us 12 is in the Fire and EMS, because Precinct 4 has the vast 13 majority of all the volunteer fire departments, and any 14 coordination is going to be pretty much -- except for 15 couple of exceptions, a West Kerr County function. 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And ESD. We share 17 that. 18 JUDGE KELLY: That's all the input I have on 19 it. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: A comment, the Hill 21 Country Youth Event Center, I mean I'd like to say, and 22 whether it's Commissioner Harris or Commissioner Belew, 23 I think both of y'all bring different -- a different set 24 of skills that were good out there from the AG 25 standpoint, Mr. Harris has a lot. From the PR marketing 86 1 Commissioner Belew has a lot. So I think those are 2 the -- 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: You're wanting to step 4 off of it? 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'd like to stay on. 6 But I'm just wondering who's the -- between the two is a 7 better -- 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, we never did 9 rock, paper, scissors before. 10 JUDGE KELLY: And I think the PIO also has 11 the public information aspect. 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So the thing is 13 regardless of what it is, whether it's stock show, or 14 the renaissance fair, or rodeo, or tractor pull or 15 whatever, all of it needs PR, marketing. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. And I think on a 17 lot of these, I mean, this one included, that -- and 18 we're not making a whole lot of changes this year. I 19 don't think we should. We've had enough change in the 20 County, and that we don't need to reshuffle a whole lot 21 of these. But I think in two years there should be a 22 reshuffling. I think it should be spread out over time 23 so people get spread around, but I don't think this 24 year's a good time to do it. 25 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Did you change anything 87 1 with the Victim Services? 2 JUDGE KELLY: Just me. 3 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Okay. Because it 4 doesn't show a current one. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's in the backup. 6 JUDGE KELLY: It should be in the backup. 7 He had them listed as internal and external Liaisons. 8 And those that are not familiar with the Victim Services 9 Coordinator, at a Commissioners' Court meeting shortly 10 before the end of the year, we formed a committee to 11 hire our new coordinator, and assistant coordinator, 12 which included our two District Attorneys, our County 13 Attorney, and the Sheriff, and as the tie breaker, I was 14 put on that committee to be the supervisor for the 15 Victim Services Coordinator. So for those of you that 16 don't know that, that's what we're talking about. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, why don't we go 18 ahead, and we went through the list. And Jody, why 19 don't you make a new list, and some of them are looking 20 at the old list, and at our next meeting we'll put it on 21 here to affirm and make sure everything's right. 22 COMMISSIONER BELEW: We didn't cover 23 everything. 911 is Commissioner Moser and myself. Does 24 anybody have anything to say about that? 25 JUDGE KELLY: How much liaison do they 88 1 require? 2 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Not hardly anything. 3 But they're not elected officials, and so they need a 4 liaison. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Correct. I agree. So did you 6 think you need two, or just one of you? That's up to 7 you, I'll defer to y'all. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: It's working well, why 9 screw with it? 10 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Yeah. Really they 11 don't require much attention. If we need to hear from 12 them they can call either one of us. And then AACOG, is 13 Commissioner Harris on it? 14 JUDGE KELLY: He's the alternate. We 15 designated him last fall. 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Airport Board is still 17 Letz and Moser. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Uh-huh. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Economic Development, they 20 share those. 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Fire and EMS? That's 22 Commissioner Moser right now. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: It's like 911. It's in 24 there. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Fire and EMS. Mark, you 89 1 recall how long our ten-year agreement is? I think we 2 have about three more years? 3 MR. DEL TORRO: I think that's about right, 4 yes. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean at some point, 6 you know, that that'll be a very important thing to get 7 going on that and review that contract, it's ten-year 8 contract. But it's not expiring next year, or the next 9 two years, I don't think. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Okay, we in agreement to table 11 this and work on it informally so the next 12 Commissioner's meeting we'll formally adopt them? 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Sound good. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 15 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Let's move on to item 1.18 17 consider, discuss and take appropriate action to ratify 18 and confirm the designation of SAVNS, Statewide 19 Automated Victim Notification Service, Grant Contract, 20 Authorized Official and Financial Contract form. 21 Updated the grant contact person and the County Judge 22 information. It's got my name on there, but I don't 23 know a lot about it. 24 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I can kind of explain a 25 lot of it. This is the victim notification system. The 90 1 VINE Grant or SAVNS Grant as we've always it. It 2 doesn't cost the county, it's a total reimbursement 3 through the Attorney General's Office. The County does 4 have to have a person on it. When it's the County 5 Judge, it was Judge Pollard, and so that officially 6 needs to be changed so that he can sign all the correct 7 documents each year with it. 8 The only other part to that, which is what 9 we're also proposing to change is, is what that does is 10 it's more a victim service than it is anything else. 11 It's where a victim of a crime can actually log into 12 that system statewide, call a number and get on a 13 notification system, whether the guy's in our jail, or 14 in the penitentiary, or in a jail somewhere else, or 15 anything's going on, court dates coming up or whatever, 16 this victim can sign up for that system, and it will 17 automatically notify the victim of any changes in that. 18 So it helps protect them. And this really, in my 19 opinion, it's been being done by my Chief Deputy for 20 these number of years, because there is auditing. There 21 has to be so many done a month that we have to do, and 22 call and sign up, and just make sure that -- 23 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Is that every case? 24 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: They can. You know, we 25 don't do it to every case, but I mean we have to audit 91 1 it and make sure it's working appropriately, and it does 2 get audited, and then the State audits us. To me this 3 has always been a victim services deal, and not out of 4 my office. And my Chief has said that he would really 5 like to see this put under Victim Services where it 6 should be. He'll be more than happy to help train them 7 and show them exactly how to do it. But that's what 8 we're also recommending in this is that name be changed 9 from my Chief Deputy to the Victim Service Coordinator. 10 JUDGE KELLY: To Pam Peter? 11 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: To Pam, yeah. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Very good. Any discussion? 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I make a motion to 14 approve the agenda item -- 15 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- and authorize the 17 County Judge as the authorized official for Kerr County. 18 JUDGE KELLY: We've got a motion made my 19 Commissioner Letz and seconded by Commissioner Harris to 20 approve the changes for the victim notification service. 21 Now, the floor is open for discussion. 22 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay now, and that 23 would include the new Victim Services Coordinator as the 24 contact? 25 JUDGE KELLY: Yes. 92 1 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I just wanted to 2 clarify that. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Any further discussion? Those 4 in favor raise your hand. Opposed? Five zero, 5 unanimous. 6 Next is item 1.19 consider, discuss and take 7 appropriate action to finalize the Interlocal Agreements 8 between Kerr County, Texas and the City of Kerrville, 9 Texas for the provision of Animal Control Services 10 within the City of Kerrville, Texas, and services of the 11 Butt-Holdsworth Memorial Library for residents of Kerr 12 County. Commissioner Letz. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Y'all probably saw this 14 a while back, but we sent over a draft to the City, and 15 Mark looked at it and said basically this doesn't make 16 sense in a couple paragraphs. We went back, and Jody 17 and I spent a better part of a morning, and we never 18 approved the contract, the best we can figure. So 19 nothing's changed. The City has now signed it, the 20 Mayor signed it. So I just make a motion that we 21 approve the agreement that was previously presented to 22 the Commissioners' Court. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So nothing's changed. 24 So you make that motion? 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. 93 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I'll second that. 2 JUDGE KELLY: A motion made by Commissioner 3 Letz, seconded by Commissioner Moser to approve the 4 Interlocal Agreement with the City regarding the Animal 5 Control Services and the library service. 6 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I have something. I 7 have never really been comfortable with this, but it was 8 laid out before I got here and everything. But I've 9 always felt like it's been, undo strain on our facility, 10 the personnel, and vehicles and everything else. So I 11 just feel like we're getting the short end of the stick, 12 and that's just my personal view. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, there have been a 14 lot of -- a lot of -- allota, allota, allota discussions 15 pros and cons, and many many meetings. Maybe we oughta 16 just sit down with ya and review the history. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think the -- and I 18 don't disagree. Especially this past year we really got 19 the short end of the stick, the amount of time it's 20 taken. But the reality is that the rules are consistent 21 now in the City and the County. There's a little bit 22 more work that needs to be done there. And the City, I 23 think, is committed to doing it, and we're committed to 24 look at ours to make it actually the best we can anyway 25 be the same. All the residents that -- the service that 94 1 we're providing in the City is the same as provided in 2 the County. That was changed into this agreement. All 3 City residents are County taxpayers. And I think 4 getting everything to be the same. In fact the County 5 taxpayers is a reason why it's a good thing to do. And 6 the other option -- I mean we -- definitely, it's an 7 inefficiency to go to two different facilities. So 8 anyway, a lot of things changed to get to where we are 9 today. 10 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Well you know, and 11 don't get me wrong, I think we need to work with the 12 City, and I'm glad that our whole County has access to 13 the library and everything else, but it'S just my view 14 for right now. 15 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Yeah, and that's a good 16 point that Commissioner Letz made that it not about us; 17 it's about the taxpayer-connected services. I wanted to 18 ask Mr. McDanel about the Police Department. You have 19 spoken with the Police Chief, and I know part of the 20 issue was that they were being called about animals in 21 the middle of the night? 22 MR. MCDANIEL: Yes, Sir. You know, I gotta 23 tell you, we're thrilled with the agreement, and not 24 just because we feel like it's one sided; we think it's 25 definitely a fair agreement. A lot of hard work. And 95 1 you guys have done amazing things with your animal 2 services in a very short period of time. And I'm very 3 encouraged about the direction that your headed with 4 your advisory committee. But it has taken a huge load 5 off of our officers who would be responding to calls, 6 because it was too hard to get somebody out in off hours 7 and they'd be putting dogs in their patrol cars and so 8 forth. So it just really alleviated that. And at the 9 same time, I think that we're serving a lot of County 10 residents at the library. As you said, they're 11 taxpayers whether they're in the County or in the City, 12 so we've been pleased with the way it has been going, 13 especially now with the direction it's been heading. So 14 thank you all for that partnership. 15 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Thank you. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. Don, this was a 17 more than a year discussion getting there, and -- 18 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Oh, I know. I watched 19 through the paper and being out here. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: There was a lot behind 21 the scenes, too, and it was -- within this body. And I 22 want to publicly thank Mark again for taking the lead in 23 saying we're going to try -- let's try it for year and 24 see how it goes, because it's not able -- you can't 25 quantify the impact to the animal services, or -- nor 96 1 the library. There's been a big impact to the library 2 in doing this. But both budgets are about the same, 3 similar, a thousand dollars a year, so on the surface it 4 looked like something was doable, and so far it's /*P 5 working well. I know it's working well from the library 6 standpoint, so -- 7 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And police officers 8 don't need to be chasing dogs; they need to be -- 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Or have them in the 10 back of their car, right. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Well, as the second newbie on 12 the Court let me weigh in. I sat over in that corner 13 for the better part of two years listening to this. And 14 of course as a member of the public, I barely scratched 15 the surface on the depth of understanding that the three 16 of you have. And we received our library report last 17 week. Thank you, Mark, for getting that over to us. 18 I've haven't had an opportunity to really drill down on 19 these issues. And quite frankly, without the extensive 20 background that the three of you have, I'm not sure I'm 21 comfortable voting one way or the other. I'm more of in 22 an abstention mode at this point in time until I can get 23 better familiar with this topic. And I appreciate that 24 the City is pleased with this, and that apparently that 25 Commissioners' Court is, too. I just don't know enough 97 1 to know if this really is something that I can support, 2 so I'm going to keep my powder dry and drill down and 3 see what we look like. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think two things. 5 One, the only reason it's on the agenda is because we 6 failed to act, or actually -- I thought we voted on it 7 to be honest. 8 JUDGE KELLY: I thought you did, too, 9 frankly. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I think we very well 11 may of. And it may just be an issue of getting the 12 court orders written correctly and all that. I think 13 it's more a ratification than a vote in my mind. 14 The other thing is, and this is common 15 knowledge, but you continue to talk to the City, and to 16 Mark McDaniel about a new potential facility. And the 17 City wants to work with us on that, so I think that, you 18 know, the cooperation is continuing. And so I think -- 19 JUDGE KELLY: And I want to work with them, 20 surely. I thought this was a done teal. I was kind of 21 relieved that I wasn't going to get to vote on this. It 22 turns out that technically I'm supposed to have to vote 23 on it, and I'm not ready to make that, but I'm all in 24 favor of cooperation and making things work the best we 25 can for the people. 98 1 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, this kind of 2 stuff is always give and take. Sometimes a little more 3 than one, sometimes there's something else down the 4 line, and -- 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Anyway -- 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: -- maybe Mr. Harris 7 will feel like we came out really good. 8 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: You bet. You bet. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Anyway, a motion and a 10 second. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: A motion and a second. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Those in favor raise 13 your hand. Those opposed? Those abstained. It's 3-1-1 14 vote. 15 MR. MCDANIEL: Thank you, gentlemen. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thank you, Mark. And 17 for the 10th time no issues between the City and the 18 County -- 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Today. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Exists. Exists today. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Item 1.20 consider, discuss 22 and take appropriate action to ratify and confirm the 23 Depository/Authorized Signatories Designation Form A202 24 for Texas Community Development Block Grant Project 25 7215045. This is Precincts 2 and 3. And I think this 99 1 is just a formality to update it for my signature, isn't 2 it? 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes, it is just a 4 formality. I make a motion to ratify the agenda item. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Motion by Commissioner Letz, 7 seconded by Commissioner Moser to amend the Depository 8 Signatories Designation Form. Those in favor raise your 9 hand. Opposed? Five zero, unanimous. 10 1.21 consider, discuss and take appropriate 11 action to approve contract with Big Brothers and 12 Sisters, and allow the County Judge to sign same. I 13 think this is just another formality for my signature. 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I move for approval. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 16 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Commissioner Belew 18 moved, and Commissioners Letz and Harris tied for the 19 second on that. Is there any further discussion on it? 20 Those in favor raise your hand. Five zero, unanimous. 21 1.22 consider, discuss and take appropriate 22 action regarding a Resolution in opposition to unfunded 23 mandates. 24 I mentioned earlier when I put this on the 25 agenda -- I mentioned earlier that I was in Austin last 100 1 week for the opening of the Legislature. And our local 2 senator, Senator Dawn Buckingham has introduced SJR10, 3 which is the bill in the Senate to prohibit unfunded 4 mandates. Any further mandates must be funded by the 5 State. It would be statutory. At the TAC meeting they 6 passed out the form Resolution you see there and asked 7 all the county judges to go home and present it to their 8 courts and send Austin a message that we want to stop 9 these unfunded mandates. So you'll notice that we 10 filled in figures, some of which is still to be 11 determined. We don't have the full data at this point. 12 But you can see we're well over two million dollars of 13 unfunded mandates that the State's required us to do 14 that they do not provide the funding for us to do, so it 15 comes out of our taxpayers' pockets. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And just in the way of 17 background, I think we talked about this before, I think 18 this bill has passed the House in last session, did not 19 pass the Senate. I believe so now it's being introduced 20 in the Senate. And I think there are 37 or 39 states, I 21 forget how many there are, that have unfunded mandates 22 in their state constitution, so I think this is a really 23 good idea. 24 JUDGE KELLY: But to further clarify, drill 25 down on a little detail on that, in the Senate the bill 101 1 was never even allowed a hearing. 2 COMMISSIONER BELEW: We have a new speaker 3 this time. 4 JUDGE KELLY: No. It was in the Senate. 5 Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick did not even allow it to 6 be heard. And so what we're trying to do is get his 7 attention and let him know that the counties want the 8 bill heard. 9 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: If I can say, there's 10 one portion -- I know that I filled in some of those 11 blanks. But there's one portion that's not in that 12 Resolution that I wish the County would look at. And I 13 think it's one of the most expensive unfunded mandates 14 we have, and that's our mental health in our County 15 facility. Because the mental health, that affects our 16 County jails because the State's not funding mental 17 health appropriately. It's a humongous amount of 18 taxpayer dollars that we're paying on mental health in 19 jails. In a lot of cases if you look at the Code of 20 Criminal Procedure. It even says they aren't supposed 21 to be in jail. But because there is no other place for 22 them in the State of Texas, they're ending up in our 23 County Jail, and that's an unfunded portion that's -- 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: It's a mandate by just 25 not accommodating other ways. 102 1 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: By omission you might 2 say. They're forcing them to be put in county jails 3 instead of state facilities, because they will not fund 4 the state facilities. 5 JUDGE KELLY: It's all true. Any other 6 discussion? 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I agree with you, Rusty. 8 I think we may have to do almost another Resolution on 9 that one point, because it is a huge point. 10 COMMISSIONER BELEW: It's getting bigger all 11 the time. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Adopt this one and do 13 another one, another Resolution. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. To me that goes 15 even beyond the unfunded mandate. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. I think these 17 are specific unfunded mandates that's by omission. 18 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yeah. Because we're 19 having to haul mental health subjects all over the State 20 just because there's not a place for them. And this is 21 on a day-to-day situation, so it's not just counting 22 cost of the jail. I mean I had one this weekend in 23 jail, and we're still waiting for competency hearings, 24 and I don't know if we'll ever get him to that point. 25 But this weekend I had three jailers spit in their face, 103 1 now they're having to go through treatment for possible 2 infectious diseases, and the cost of that for this 3 County and medical and that when this person should be 4 in a mental health facility somewhere. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So do we have a motion? 6 JUDGE KELLY: I'm going to make motion. If 7 y'all haven't noticed I'm a County Judge that's going to 8 participate. So I move that we pass the Resolution on 9 unfunded mandates specific to the Texas Legislature. 10 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. I just had a 12 comment. I think this last year during the budget 13 sessions, I think there was like about three hundred 14 thousand dollars this year in unfunded mandates, as I 15 recall. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Any further discussion? 17 Those in favor raise your hand. Opposed? Five zero, 18 unanimous. 19 Item 1.23 consider, discuss and take 20 appropriate action regarding a Resolution supporting a 21 "Secure Southern Border of the U.S." Commissioner 22 Moser. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thank you, Judge. This 24 subject has been on the news and the forefront of, I 25 think, everybody in the nation recently. And this 104 1 county's a very small part of a sovereign country. And 2 I think the reason for bringing a Resolution -- 3 proposing a Resolution is that this small portion, this 4 County, take a position and endorse the fact that secure 5 borders are needed, and to be more specific that 6 barriers, fences, walls are needed. So if I may, I'm 7 going to read the Resolution proposed. 8 Resolution for reliable and effective 9 security along the southern border of the United States. 10 Whereas, Kerr County is in close proximity 11 to the southern border of the United States, and is 12 easily accessed by illegal immigrants crossing the 13 border; and 14 Whereas, Kerr County is negatively impacted 15 by illegal immigrants as demonstrated by the fact that 16 incarcerating illegal immigrants costs Kerr County's 17 taxpayers on the average approximately $120,000.00 per 18 year; and 19 Whereas, properly designated constructive 20 wall/fences have been shown to be highly effective in 21 preventing illegal crossings; and 22 Whereas, properly designated and 23 constructing walls/fences do not require annual debate 24 and appropriated funds by the U.S. Congress to provide 25 effective border security. 105 1 That point's not very well -- it's not 2 brought out a lot. But once you have a passive wall 3 then it's there, you don't have to debate it every year 4 by the Congress for authorization appropriation. 5 Whereas, the United States is a sovereign 6 country in which the rule of law applies; and 7 Whereas, elected officials of all levels of 8 government swear to uphold the laws of the State of 9 Texas and the U.S. Constitution. 10 Therefore, be it resolved by Kerr County 11 Commissioners' Court this day of January 14, 2019 that 12 the United States President, members of the United 13 States Congress, and elected officials of the State of 14 Texas to secure the southern border of the United States 15 using to the extent possible and practical, properly 16 design and construct the walls and fences, and other 17 methods where necessary. 18 So that's my motion. 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, second. 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I second. 22 JUDGE KELLY: We got a motion by 23 Commissioner Moser and seconds by Commissioners Letz and 24 Belew. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I went brain dead. 106 1 JUDGE KELLY: I listen carefully, you did. 2 So we have a motion on the floor, is there any 3 discussion, 4 MS. BOND: If someone from the audience 5 wants to speak, is this the time? 6 JUDGE KELLY: Sure, go ahead. If you would 7 just please state your name and your address. 8 A. Yes. My name on my voter registration 9 certificate is Michael Louise Bond, but everybody calls 10 me Bunny. I live at 213 Stephanie. I live in 11 Commissioner Harris's Precinct. So I have a statement 12 that I would like to read to you. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Please. 14 MS. BOND: And I do appreciate Commissioner 15 Moser sending me a copy of the Resolution by e-mail and 16 when I requested one. Thank you, Sir. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Uh-huh. 18 MS. BOND: Judge Kelly and Commissioners, 19 when I saw this item on the agenda, I was compelled to 20 research some information about our border with Mexico, 21 and I appreciate the motivation to increase my 22 knowledge. Texas has 1,254 miles of border with Mexico 23 and 14 Texas counties line the border with Mexico. Of 24 those 14 counties, some of among the most populous in 25 the state, and some are among the least populous of any 107 1 of the counties in the state. The history of many 2 places in these counties is thousands of years old, and 3 the environment is some of the most beautiful and rugged 4 in the state. To inflict more wall, more than is there 5 at present, is a mistake in my opinion. 6 The current facts that I have researched 7 seem to reveal that the biggest "invasion" problem in 8 our country is that people have overstayed their visas. 9 The drugs often smuggled in the U.S. -- this is through 10 some government facts, come through numerous ports of 11 entry, and often come in with legitimate goods, among 12 legitimate goods in trucks. The suspected terrorists, 13 most of whom, are intercepted at airports and the 14 Canadian border; not the southern border. 15 The other information I found is that the 16 elected officials in some counties, cities and towns 17 along the border have actually passed Resolutions 18 stating that they do not want a border wall. As for 19 Kerr County, I do remember one murder in the three 20 decades that I've lived here that was committed by a man 21 who was here illegally, sadly enough. That was in, I 22 think, 1997. But I also remember that many men who were 23 here illegally has helped this county prosper for one 24 and a half centuries by working on the land. I'm not 25 defending people entering out country illegally, but 108 1 simply pointing to the history of Kerr County. 2 I question the value of the Kerr County 3 Commissioners passing a Resolution in support of a 4 border wall at this time. The environment and the 5 people who live along the border deserve our respect and 6 our support, but not by a Resolution in support of 7 additional border wall. Thank you. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you, Miss Bond. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thank you. I want to 10 comment on one thing you said. About the last thing you 11 said about showing respect. I think if people showed 12 respect of our borders, okay, a wall wouldn't be 13 necessary, okay, if they showed respect, but they don't. 14 And as I think it's been demonstrated to the public 15 very, very clearly by tearing down walls, they came in 16 through the -- well, let me just say that. By throwing 17 stones and other things, but they do not show respect. 18 So one way to do it is to have something that makes them 19 respect, okay, or else they are not going to come in. 20 And that's the whole purpose of saying for a sovereign 21 country. And I said very carefully to the extent 22 possible and practical. And I think there are places 23 where it's clearly not practical to put a wall or a 24 fence. And I mean there are natural barriers. But 25 thank you for that, and I was happy to send you that 109 1 draft, and I'm glad you asked for it. Thank you. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Sheriff. 3 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: If I may kind of have a 4 little bit of rebuttal, respectfully, to the lady. I 5 will tell you that we've had a number of murders, okay, 6 in this County since my tenure at least that were 7 committed by -- and I'll say it, illegal alien. I have 8 no problem saying it. It's a whole different group of 9 people coming across the border now. One of the last 10 ones was a double rape murder where they raped and 11 killed both the women, and then went back to Mexico and 12 we haven't gotten him out of Mexico yet because he went 13 back. He was an illegal alien. I've had at least four 14 other ones that I can think of off the top of my head, 15 okay, where it was committed by an illegal alien. Some 16 of them illegal alien on illegal alien. One was an 17 argument over who was was drinking a better beer, okay, 18 and then they shot each other over it. 19 But one of the biggest problems, not 20 counting the figures I gave you on the cost, which is 21 what is sent in and figured each month by the jail, 22 we're required to. But one of the biggest problems 23 we're seeing right now is the drugs, and it's not coming 24 through the port; it's coming across the river. It's 25 being carried across that river in backpacks, then being 110 1 loaded into vehicles and coming across. Years ago this 2 state did what they called cross-designation, which they 3 certified a certain number of officers as U.S. Custom 4 Officers so that we could try and stop it if we were, as 5 a crow flies, within a hundred miles of the border, 6 which is what Kerr County is. And I was one of those 7 that went through that cross-certification as a U.S. 8 Custom Officer. They did away with that program. But 9 it was so that we could to those searches and that, and 10 find those. You can go out on the west end of this 11 county and I can show you right now where there are 12 camps out there where illegal aliens have camped by the 13 fifty or a hundred of them at a time just waiting for 14 their coyotes and their trucks to come pick them up, 15 okay? We have had other ones and I've had three in the 16 last year that I know of where we've had illegal aliens 17 fall off the top of 18 wheelers going down the 18 interstate and die. It's as much of a jeopardy on them 19 as it is on us. And it's as much of a hazard for them. 20 We have to do something. 21 Most of our drugs -- and I know there's a 22 lot of them getting caught coming through the ports, and 23 that's what you see, because we have good dogs and 24 X-rays and people down there, the Border Patrol and them 25 doing those searches. But that's not where we're 111 1 getting most it coming across. It's coming across the 2 river by individuals and then it's being loaded up and 3 come look at what's happening in the desert across from 4 Arizona and that, and New Mexico area. But it's even 5 worse through us, and it does affect this County. Once 6 a lot of the states in U.S. starting legalizing 7 marijuana the cartel started changing their drug of 8 choice, okay? Instead of growing marijuana and having 9 as much marijuana coming across that border now, now 10 what we're having is methamphetamine, because it's 11 cheaper to make. It can be made 24/7 by the cartels, 12 and it's easier to smuggle in, and it's a lot more 13 profitable. And it's coming across the river, okay? 14 And that's where we have a problem. Walls do work. If 15 walls and barriers didn't work, I wouldn't have anything 16 around that jail, why would I need it, okay? It works, 17 and it works very well. It won't be the total 18 resolution, but if we're ever going to get control of 19 this border and control of the illegal aliens and 20 immigration, okay? And my family immigrated, too, from 21 Germany, all right, not that long ago either. And so 22 I'm very pro immigration, but it has to be done legally. 23 What our President's asking for on funding isn't 24 anything compared to what just Texas is paying a year on 25 illegal aliens. 112 1 And so I respect her opinion, but I totally 2 disagree with where the drugs are coming from. And I'm 3 saying this as an officer in this County for the last 40 4 years, 38 years in seeing it on Highway 41, on Highway 5 83, on Interstate 10. It's coming through the river. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thank you, Sheriff. 7 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Let me say one thing, 8 and that is the Sheriff's talking about the respect for 9 law. I have family that came from both Mexico and 10 Germany, and they came respecting the law and did it 11 legally. And so we forget that these people are 12 breaking the law the minute they step onto our nation, 13 our soil. You don't have to wait until they're packing 14 drugs. They're disrespecting our sovereign nation, our 15 boundaries, and it's not for them to decide that; it's 16 for us to decide that. 17 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: And you know one -- and 18 I didn't even touch on the human trafficking, or the 19 sexual assaults. Those we do work a lot, okay? But you 20 know, and it's weird, there are so many loopholes in the 21 law, I get letters just about weekly from attorneys 22 trying to get somebody legal status, because if they 23 were a victim of a crime in Texas, okay, or in our 24 County, then as long as they cooperated with the 25 investigation of that offense they can apply for legal 113 1 status. And most all of them I'm getting is a victim of 2 a crime that was never prosecuted. But they said since 3 they cooperated they want legal status, and I have a 4 problem with that. But there's just -- I don't know, to 5 me -- and believe me Trump and I don't agree on a lot of 6 things. I don't agree with the way he does a lot, but I 7 am a Republican. But I do agree that this is totally 8 common sense, and it used to be well-known common sense 9 that we needed better security at our borders. You 10 know, and what really gets me about all of it is look at 11 the oath of office you and I took. Texas is very unique 12 in our oath of office, because what you raised your 13 right hand and swore to do, as I did, okay, was you 14 swore to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution 15 and laws of the United States and of this State so help 16 you God. Now, what part of that oath is different than 17 every other state in the Union. Every other state in 18 the unanimous you agree to preserve, protect and defend 19 the Constitution of the United States, and the 20 Constitution and laws of this State -- of that State. 21 Texas is the only one where every officer is sworn to 22 uphold the U.S. laws, too. And I just always wondered 23 why that is, but yet we cannot enforce U.S. laws, but 24 yet we're swearing to uphold them. 25 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I gotta say something. 114 1 Having spent a lot of time in South Texas, my 2 grandfather had a dairy when I was a kid, and illegals 3 came and worked for him, and he probably couldn't have 4 been in business without them. I spent a lot of time 5 with them, never a problem. People would show up on the 6 ranch, the dairy farm, didn't worry about them. But 7 they wanted food and stuff, and lodging. We'd feed 8 them, give them a place to stay, they'd work a little 9 bit around the farm, and go on to wherever they were 10 headed. Good, honest, hard working people, just wanted 11 to try to do better. Now, out on the ranch you come 12 across somebody, you better be armed. You don't know 13 what they're going to do. You definitely wouldn't want 14 your children, your wife, daughter's anyone out there 15 around these people now. You just don't know. You 16 don't see the people that I grew up with working with 17 side by side, you know, doing chores anymore. It's a 18 different clientele. And I've witnessed it, I've 19 witnessed it. I've got friends that have property down 20 there that their land devalued because nobody wants to 21 buy it because of all the people coming across. That 22 it's dangerous. It is absolutely dangerous. 23 So I respect your opinions and everything, 24 but I have witnessed this, you know. I have 25 testimonials from friends that live down there, so it 115 1 means a lot, and so -- 2 MS. BOND: May I address the Court again? 3 JUDGE KELLY: Sure. 4 MRS. BOND: Certainly sympathize with what 5 the Sheriff has said. I've worked in mental health at 6 the State Hospital for almost 20 years, so I am familiar 7 with many people who are in the country illegally and 8 wound up in the mental health system back in the days 9 when we were allowed to take civil commitments out 10 there. So and I also understand what he's saying about 11 the need for a separate Resolution for unfunded 12 mandates, but that's another topic. 13 Let me say one other thing that I didn't 14 include in my remarks. I am very concerned that we also 15 get the Federal Government to spend more money on 16 immigration judges, and immigration courts, and process 17 these people much more quickly out of our system, 18 because it's costing the taxpayers so much money. I 19 also think we need to encourage the Federal Government 20 to give more money to those 14 counties. They need more 21 money for more manpower and better surveillance, and 22 better technology, so I am just not here -- I mean I 23 recognize the depth of the problem, and I appreciate 24 what you say, because among my acquaintances in this 25 County for more than three decades are a number of 116 1 ranchers who used to have what they called exchange 2 students who lived on there property and contributed to 3 the prosperity of their operation. But I'm aware that 4 there's been a big change in the quality of people who 5 come walking across your property these days. 6 Thank you, gentlemen. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I've got a comment on 8 one other thing that you said. There's a lot of free 9 things given in this country and it's increasing all the 10 time. That's an magnet for people that need free 11 things. And you've seen people come from south of the 12 border by thousands, okay, they wouldn't come if they 13 knew they couldn't get through. To have more judges and 14 to have more things which are "active", which require 15 appropriations and debate every single year, is 16 ineffective, okay, it's not the right way to do. If you 17 can put up -- if you can invest in something today and 18 it's there for 20 years, 50 years, a hundred years, then 19 you don't have to do that. And you're doing it at 20 today's dollar as opposed to next year's dollars. So 21 it's a more cost-effective way, where practical, to put 22 up a barrier that people cannot get through. And as an 23 engineer -- he spoke as a lawyer a while ago, I'll speak 24 as an engineer. It can be done with 99.9 percent 25 effective. Nobody's going to get through it. And it's 117 1 equivalent to, you know, five billion dollars is five 2 days interest on the debt. It is nothing, it's nothing. 3 So anyway, that's all I've got to say. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Any further discussion? 5 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I hope not. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Those in favor of passing the 7 Resolution raise your hand. Opposed? Five zero, 8 unanimous. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Very good. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you Miss Bond. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Thank you very much. 12 JUDGE KELLY: 1.24 consider, discuss and 13 take appropriate action to approve the Security 14 Maintenance Agreement for Electronic and Detention 15 Services with CML Security LLC. 16 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: For discussion purposes 17 I'd like to kinda discuss 24 and 25 at the same time, 18 and then you'll have to vote on it -- 19 JUDGE KELLY: Okay, let me go ahead and call 20 25. 1.25 consider, discuss and take appropriate action 21 to approve the maintenance contract between Kerr County 22 and Johnson Controls for maintenance and inspection of 23 the fire alarm system. So we'll call both of those at 24 the same time. 25 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Okay. What these are 118 1 is after the warrantied portion of the jail went through 2 and all that and we had to go into a maintenance 3 contract to maintain all the equipment. These are two 4 different things. One was installed by a company called 5 Argyle, that was all our electronic stuff, all our 6 cameras, all the playback stuff, recording equipment, 7 door locks, all that kind of stuff, was done by Argyle. 8 And during the construction we got into this maintenance 9 contract, and this County -- the Commissioners' Court 10 actually approved it, okay, back then under Argyle. And 11 I don't have it with me, but there is a Commissioners' 12 Court Order number, but I got to looking for it, and we 13 approved it but I don't -- Joy could not find where it 14 was ever paid, which in hindsight may be the best thing 15 that happened, okay, because Argyle went bankrupt, 16 totally. And so now -- 17 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So who else can service 18 that stuff? 19 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: That's CML. That's 20 your first -- CML Security has taken over that portion 21 of it. We've already had to have them out there on a 22 couple of things, and they have offered us the same deal 23 that Argyle was. The problem that I have with it is I 24 did not budget for it, because it had been paid for out 25 of the bond and the previous, okay? 119 1 And on the second one -- the second one is 2 Johnson Controls, that is our fire alarm system. And 3 that, too, there were so many issues going on back then, 4 and if you'll remember during the inspection, I also did 5 not have that in the budget, okay? I did have a little 6 bit extra in the budget. But what these two amount to, 7 and there's -- Johnson Controls there's -- I can show 8 her -- there's not really a contract. What it is, is we 9 had to replace all the smoke detectors, and things like 10 that. And they're kind of got an extended warranty-type 11 deal on it. There's not a really contract for the 12 County Attorney to review and look at in it. 13 MRS. STEBBINS: It's just the one provided 14 by the company when they did the installation? 15 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: And that's what it is, 16 if you look at it, this is their contract just that 17 those are the things they're extending their warranty or 18 service agreement on on the fire alarm system, so it's 19 not really a negotiable-type contract. But because of 20 the issues with this, and I originally had left in the 21 budget only about 57 hundred dollars. These two 22 together come to about $14,772.76, leaving me short in 23 that maintenance column portion of my budget maintenance 24 line item $9,028.76 to cover both these contracts to get 25 us through to October. 120 1 What I would suggest is -- I need these 2 contracts. These are maintenance agreements that are 3 very important to the jail, okay? And if we can, and 4 I'll get with our Auditor as we well know that's been in 5 and out right now, to see if we can go back and pay them 6 out of that bond issue because I still have -- you know, 7 we still have quite a bit in that. And if we can, 8 that's great. If we can't, I would suggest that, of 9 course, the 5000 of it can come, you know, out of my 10 maintenance line item, but the rest would either have to 11 come from my jailer salary's openings because I haven't 12 had all those positions filled, or even that we are 13 currently billing the other counties for housing their 14 inmates. I'm billing that out at a little over a 15 hundred thousand a month that we're billing those other 16 counties that is coming into the county's revenue in 17 this issue. So I know we -- I can't tell you what line 18 item it would come out of, but these are two contracts 19 that I need approved. 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: A hundred thousand 21 you're talking about goes in the general fund, right -- 22 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Goes in the general 23 fund, that's true. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Rusty, a question on 25 the fire alarm. That's like $650.00 a month for that. 121 1 Is that system that complicated? 2 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Oh yeah, it is. There 3 are detectors all over, okay, everything and even in the 4 air-conditioning system and everything else, and it all 5 has to work within so many minutes. It's tied into the 6 generator system, that if it goes out -- 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And that's all part of 8 the inspection and -- 9 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yes. It's a very 10 complicated system. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay, you answered my 12 question. Okay, good. Good enough. 13 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And has different specs 14 than a lot of places? 15 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Oh, then other place, 16 because we're occupied 24 hours a day. 17 JUDGE KELLY: We have a motion? 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We need two. They're 19 two different agenda items. 20 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yes. The two motions, 21 but I wanted to discuss that same issue. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I make a motion that we 23 approve the maintenance contract with CML Security LLC, 24 and authorize the County Judge to sign same, subject to 25 the County Attorney's review. 122 1 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 2 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: That one she has seen. 3 MRS. STEBBINS: I have reviewed that one, 4 yes, Sir. 5 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I hate to ask a 6 question though, but you inherited this CML? Those are 7 people that bought out the -- 8 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: No. Nobody's bought 9 them out. 10 COMMISSIONER BELEW: No. I mean they took 11 over the service contract part from Argyle? 12 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Well, not for all of 13 Argyle. We contacted them. They do the same type of 14 stuff. We had some issues they had to come in and work 15 on some things. We explained what the problem was and 16 they agreed to give us for the same price, but they 17 can't do it under Argyle. 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: You didn't shop prices? 19 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: No, not on that. 20 That's a very specified complex system. Very few that 21 do it. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. As to CML Security LLC, 23 that particular maintenance contract we have a motion 24 made by Commissioner Letz and seconded by Commissioner 25 Harris. Is there any further discussion on that? Those 123 1 in favor raise your hand. Five zero, unanimous. 2 Do we have another motion on the Johnson 3 Controls maintenance contract? 4 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I'll make the motion. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Commissioner Belew has moved 7 and Commissioner Moser has seconded to approve the 8 maintenance contract with Johnson Controls for the 9 Sheriff's Department. Is there any further discussion 10 on that? 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The discussion I have is 12 really goes back to both of them, and to James from the 13 Auditor's Office, is to get with the Auditor and find 14 out of -- if we can, take those funds should come out of 15 the bond, and if we can't a recommendation as to where 16 they should come from, from the jailers salaries or 17 contingency or whatever she thinks is appropriate. 18 MR. ROBLES: Probably avoid payroll line 19 item, if we can. But we'll find out a determination on 20 that. 21 JUDGE KELLY: I think everyone's in 22 agreement with that? 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yes. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Those in favor raise your 25 hand. Five zero, unanimous. 124 1 The next item on the agenda is 1.26 2 consider, discuss and take appropriate action to approve 3 a donation of $25.00 for the Sheriff's Equipment Fund. 4 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: This is just a lady 5 that every year she likes to send us a $25.00 check, so 6 I put it on the agenda to go into our equipment fund. 7 JUDGE KELLY: This is the third year I've 8 heard it. 9 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yes, always 25. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move that we accept the 11 donation of $25.00, and ask the Auditor's Office to put 12 that $25.00 into the Sheriff's Equipment Fund. 13 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Motion made by Commissioner 15 Letz and seconded by Commissioner Harris to accept the 16 $25.00 gift to the Sheriff's Department equipment fund. 17 Those in favor raise your hand. Five zero, unanimous. 18 1.27 consider, discuss and take appropriate 19 action regarding a Public Information Officer for the 20 County. Commissioner Belew. 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay, we've talked 22 about this, and I'd like to -- nobody's made any 23 suggestions to me about which all should be included, 24 and I've left that open for discussion and asked if you 25 have any idea. That public information officer is there 125 1 to disseminate information, prepare materials that will 2 go out as press releases, brochures. It could be 3 specific information, it could be general information 4 about the County, and it could be about personnel. They 5 deliver the information to the media and to the public 6 via website, social media, press releases as I 7 mentioned, and they develop procedures for crisis 8 dissemination also, which at that point, we would have 9 oversight and have some input. As we talked about 10 before with the Public Information Officer, we can't 11 farm that out, we can't hire with a service, which is 12 what I'd originally hoped we could do and make it 13 simple, but they're going to get direct supervision by 14 the Court they have to be employees. So I suggest that 15 we go ahead and post as a part-time job the need for a 16 Public Information Officer and see what we get. 17 MRS. STEBBINS: May I make a suggestion 18 about the title of it? I suggest a Public Relations 19 Officer. In Government Land, a Public Information 20 Officer often suggests this person's going to be dealing 21 with public information requests under the Public 22 Information Act. So what you have described and what 23 y'all have contemplated has never made that part of 24 this. This is stuff, you know -- Rusty's department 25 gets these more often than anyone, and Clay deals with 126 1 those through our office to the Auditor's Office for 2 some strange reason, I've never understood, gets all of 3 the faxes for public information requests, and then they 4 send them to us, or the appropriate department. I just 5 think that if you were making this person a Public 6 Information Officer people may be confused by that when 7 they're making requests for records from this entity. 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, in that event 9 this person just directs -- she or he, or whoever is a 10 traffic director that directs it to the proper office, 11 and we still know what's going on through that office. 12 MRS. STEBBINS: That would be very helpful 13 and maybe the Auditor's Office has a comment about it, 14 or not. It's strange that it goes straight to the 15 Auditor's Office. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I can answer the reason 17 for that. Mainly because I asked the Auditor's Office 18 that last week. All correspondence that comes into the 19 County are just addressed 700 Main goes to the Auditor's 20 Office, everything. And the reason is that the majority 21 of those are invoices or bills of some sort, and to get 22 them into that office, and then there -- there's a bunch 23 of boxes out there for the Sheriff, or you know various 24 people, and then it goes into those things. So it's a 25 way to get information out quickly because a lot people 127 1 don't know really where to send it. 2 MRS. STEBBINS: Okay. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's been a matter -- 4 it's been that way for a long time, and that's kind of 5 the reason. 6 MRS. STEBBINS: So if this office would take 7 on that piece of that, that being the one to disseminate 8 the information to the appropriate offices, that would 9 be great. And that would better describe that person. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Is this -- question for 11 Harley. I didn't want to stop you. 12 MRS. STEBBINS: No, I'm finished. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: This wouldn't preclude 14 any Commissioner or Judge or anybody else from talking 15 to the press or releasing something? 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: No. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. I think that 18 what I'd like to see is I'd like to see a position or 19 job description. 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, I just read it to 21 you. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I want to see it in 23 writing. 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: You want to see it in 25 writing. 128 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, like we did on 2 Veteran Service Officer, or whatever, we need to have a 3 job description. 4 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, that's where we 5 left it last time, so I'd be happy to do that. But I 6 want to be able to post the job. You want to see that 7 first? 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I would get what you 9 have to HR, and then they can put in all the other stuff 10 that we need to put in job description, and get into our 11 official thing, and -- 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. Something 13 somebody responds to. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- then you can post the 15 actual job description. 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I anticipated this. 17 Once we all see -- if we get a good person and they do 18 it right, we'll see how helpful it is, and then it'll be 19 a full-time position maybe in the next budget year. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So what are we talking 21 about, the part-time being -- I can't see it being 22 needing very much time. 23 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Not right now. But 24 when there's flooding and stuff like that, and 25 coordinating that with the Sheriff's Department and 129 1 getting the information out in a timely manner. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, that would be 3 part of the thine that we approved this morning about 4 having for the Emergency Management Coordinator getting 5 that information out, and that'll be coming through 6 that, which the Judge is chairman of that committee or 7 whatever. 8 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: No. That's the 9 committee to declare the emergency, but under that we 10 have to be real careful. I didn't hear exactly what you 11 were saying about the crisis part, because under the 12 Emergency Management Annexes -- there is an annex, and 13 there is a Public Information Officer already that does 14 that for any major disaster, so you don't want to have 15 too many people. 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: No. What happens in 17 that event is that just like if there's a crisis in this 18 County, you're the top dog, Rusty -- 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Not if it's a fire 20 or -- 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: No. The Sheriff is the 22 main law enforcement officer in the County. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: If we have an Emergency 24 Management plan -- 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: If there was a -- it 130 1 depends on what it is. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: It depends on what it 4 is. But they're going to go straight to the Sheriff's 5 Office. The nine out of ten people don't know how to 6 contact the Emergency Management Office. And I just 7 want to disseminate information, that's all. So there's 8 a pecking order, there's a protocol, who does what when. 9 It's all part of the -- their direction from us; not 10 necessarily the job description per se. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: If there is a declared 12 emergency, there's an emergency management plan, and as 13 the Sheriff says there's an annex in there of 14 communicating to the public. It is very clear. I mean 15 it's a multi-page plan for communicating to the public 16 to do that, so emergencies are taken care of that way. 17 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, not really, and 18 here's why. When the Emergency Management Office send 19 out their information, our person, our Public 20 Information Officer gets it and disseminates it on every 21 social media, every press release. It's redundancy, and 22 there's nothing wrong with redundancy. We want to make 23 sure everybody gets it. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The way I look at it the 25 person that Harley's talking about isn't going to be the 131 1 contact on FEMA, and the Judge, and all that; not 2 internal. It's to get the information out after the 3 fact, or explain what happened and to the public. It's 4 a different thing, you know. But I think -- to me, this 5 person day-to-day is much more putting in information of 6 what we're doing. I mean advising the public of what's 7 going on at the Hill Country Youth Event Center, you 8 know. 9 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Why this road is 10 closed, why that low water crossing is now open again, 11 and stuff like that, simple things. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Why Center Point's 13 muddy. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think it also needs to 15 be like Commissioner Moser brought up, the TCEQ hearing. 16 Rather than Commissioner Moser and I having to be 17 involved with all of that, and if he wants to he can, 18 but he can say hey, publicize this. 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, and he's had 20 probably more -- Commissioner Moser's had more town hall 21 meetings than any of us, and that could also be going 22 out, information like that. If the Judge is going to be 23 speaking at the Rotary Club, that should go out. I'm 24 not talking about taking over Emergency Management; I'm 25 talking about disseminating that in a press release and 132 1 a post on Facebook, Instagram, whatever we have, and on 2 our website, so that every taxpayer, regardless of 3 whether their homebound, or whether they take the paper 4 or don't, or listen to the radio or don't, they'll get 5 that information if they want it. And it'll all be a 6 consistent message. 7 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I think what you do, if 8 I can say this, is there's limitations, okay? Such as 9 most the flooding we had this last summer and that never 10 reached the point that Emergency Management was -- you 11 know, Emergency Management system was stood up, okay, so 12 it doesn't reach that point. And in this person, all 13 right, they could definitely help do what we did in 14 trying to get out what roads are closed. You know, what 15 do we have, and how's all that working, are the schools 16 opening late or all that, I think that would be perfect 17 to be able to help, and at the point that there is a 18 declared emergency management under that definition, 19 okay, I mean sure that flooding is an emergency, it is 20 to me and everything else, but it wasn't under our 21 Emergency Management System, okay? Once it becomes a 22 declared emergency under Emergency Management System, 23 then at that point it totally operates under the annexes 24 and the PIO, just like Commissioner Moser was saying, 25 that's through that. Because some of those even if it 133 1 gets into a large fire, and if it gets big enough, okay, 2 even though Emergency Management may not be stood up, 3 but the Forestry Service has come in. Normally at that 4 point when they come in they bring their own PIO person, 5 and then we just turn everything over to them to deal 6 with it, and I would want that same type of, you know, 7 deal. 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So in that event, 9 Rusty, it would work like this. The Public Information 10 Officer says okay, it's reached a point of being an 11 emergency, an official emergency. Now that person on 12 social media posts a link to their site for the update. 13 Now, that person sends out a press release says it's now 14 an official emergency, for further information contact, 15 and that's all it is. They're directing traffic most 16 the time, and doing puff pieces the rest of the time. 17 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I agree; otherwise 18 they'll think that -- and I think you'll be surprised 19 though because to me and what I've seen that this county 20 goes through, and just look at what the city goes 21 through, there is no doubt in my mind that this should 22 be a full-time position. You talk to of any the media 23 people, they call us everyday, okay, and a lot of 24 this -- it's a day-to-day deal, and it takes a lot to do 25 it, and to get the training to know what you can and 134 1 can't release and everything else, and what you should, 2 because there are criteria in that. But I think you're 3 going to find real quick it's a full-time position. 4 COMMISSIONER BELEW: James. 5 MR. ROBLES: Speaking of that, I assume this 6 is going to be done in this fiscal year, and where is 7 this budgeted? 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: It wasn't. Well, we -- 9 what did we do? 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't believe money 11 was put in the line item, but the line item was created. 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: But there's a line 13 there? It doesn't have any money in it. 14 (Laughter.) 15 COMMISSIONER BELEW: There is a line there. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: There's a job 17 description, you don't get paid. 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: That's why it's a 19 part-time job mostly. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I think the Auditor 21 put it in the contingency line item, I believe. 22 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I think that's right. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Or talked about going 24 into it. But first step is to get the job description 25 written and approved, and then that can be posted. 135 1 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: And what are we going 2 to call it? 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: PR, I think. 4 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: PR. 5 COMMISSIONER BELEW: PR, yeah, it's really a 6 more fitting description. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Okay, so we'll tackle that 8 after we get a job description. 9 Commissioner Moser, you've got an executive 10 session -- 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, I think I want to 12 work that outside. If we need to bring that back, we 13 will. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Well, let's skip over 15 executive session right now, we're running a little 16 late. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So we're not going to 18 have an executive session. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Do we need one? 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: No. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Then let's go to the approval 22 agenda 4.1. James. Do we have have any bills to pay? 23 MR. ROBLES: No, Sir, not today. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Do we have any budget 25 amendments? 136 1 MR. ROBLES: No, Sir. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Late bills? 3 MR. ROBLES: No. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Commissioner Harris, do we 5 have any monthly reports? 6 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yes, we do. County 7 Clerk's report for December, 2018, Jackie Dowdy. 8 District Clerk's Office report for. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Excuse me, I'd like to 10 comment. I believe that's Jackie "J.D." Dowdy? 11 MRS. DOWDY: Yes. 12 JUDGE KELLY: For the record. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Jackie J.D.? 14 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: District Clerk's 15 report for December 2018, Dawn Lantz. J.P. Precinct 1 16 report for December 2018, Mitzi French. J.P. Precinct 2 17 report for December 2018, J. R. Hoyne. J.P. Precinct 3 18 report for December 2018, Kathy Mitchell. J.P. Precinct 19 4 report for December 2018, William "Bill" Ragsdale. 20 Precinct 1 Constable report for December 2018, Tommy 21 Rodriguez. Precinct 2 Constable report for December 22 2018 Kyle Schneider, Precinct 3. Constable report for 23 December 2018, Ken Wilke, Precinct 4. Constable report 24 for December 2018, Gene Huffaker. And Animal Services 25 Environmental Health Director, Reagan Givens. 137 1 Environmental Health OSSF Supervisor Ashli Badders, and 2 Treasurer's report for December, Tracy Soldan. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Well, I believe that is a 4 plethora of reports. 5 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: That's a bunch. 6 JUDGE KELLY: We don't get that many 7 usually. That's an four bit word by the way, plethora. 8 You recommend all these be approved? 9 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I do. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 11 JUDGE KELLY: So we got a motion by 12 Commissioner Harris, second by Commissioner Letz to 13 approve the monthly reports. All those in favor raise 14 your hand. Opposed? Unanimous, five zero. 15 Auditor reports. 16 MR. ROBLES: None. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Good. Court orders. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I believe we have court 19 orders from January 1st and January 10th is the only 20 ones, correct? 21 MRS. DOWDY: Yes. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I've looked over 23 them and they all looked fine to me, so I make a motion 24 we approve court orders from January 1st and January 25 10th. 138 1 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Commissioner Letz has moved, 3 and Commissioner Harris has seconded to approved the 4 court orders as submitted. All those in favor raise 5 their hand. Opposed? Five zero, unanimous. 6 Move on to the Information Agenda. I know 7 we've got an announcement from Commissioner Belew, the 8 Liaison Commissioner for the Historical Commission, 9 that's 5.1. 10 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And I thank you for 11 bringing this to my attention because I scoured my 12 e-mails and although I'm on the list, I didn't see it. 13 The public is invited to view a new power point 14 presentation on Kerr County's role in the legendary 15 cattle drives of the old west. It was created and 16 compiled by the Kerr County Historical Commission, "Head 17 'Em Up, Move 'Em Out". It has photographs, it has some 18 that have never been seen, and some colorful art work 19 interesting there to briefly tracking the county's 20 contribution to the cattle drive industry. And the 21 presentation is going to take place Monday the 21st of 22 January at noon at the unanimous Church, so you are 23 invited. It'll be very informative. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Do we have any other? 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, a couple things. 139 1 Just activity that's ongoing. I think everybody saw the 2 quarterly report from the library. But the patrons from 3 the County in the library has increased by ten percent 4 over the last quarter and it continues to increase, 5 so -- at one point we were about 47 percent, we're still 6 significantly less than 47 percent, but it's moving in 7 the right direction, so that's good. 8 And the other thing is, I know the Judge and 9 myself participated in a workshop by the Airport Board 10 on establishing a strategic plan. And it is really 11 thorough and intense. And it's about a five-step 12 process, so it's going to be a really, really good 13 strategic plan for a big asset to the City and the 14 County. 15 JUDGE KELLY: I participated in many such 16 programs like that through the years, and this is by far 17 the best. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. I think I've 19 been involved in five other strategic plans, private 20 sector, academia and all, this is the best process I've 21 ever seen. So it's really good. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Any other liaison reports? 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. One on that one, 24 and Mary's aware that of the four strategic planning 25 workshops, I have a conflict with three of them. I'm on 140 1 other boards that I really have to be at, but I'll visit 2 with her and I will be at one of them unless I'm I'll or 3 something. Hopefully that won't be. 4 And Animal Services, I think everyone's 5 aware that the City appointed an Animal Advisory 6 Committee. Karen Guerrero who's appointed by the City 7 to take that spot, their spot. I have visited with both 8 -- we have two spots to appoint. One is a -- has to be 9 a manager of an animal shelter, which for us is a pretty 10 limited pool to two. Freeman Fritz, I visited with 11 Phyllis Davis there, and Cailloux Animal Shelter, or 12 Humane Society, Jennifer -- or Jenny Woodward. Both are 13 willing, but neither are really anxious only because of 14 the time commitment part of it, so but one of them will 15 participate. They're not sure, or we're not sure yet. 16 But both of them had a lot of input, and I feel either 17 one of them will be really good. 18 And the other spot we have is a 19 veterinarian. I've talked to Dr. Bob Dittmar. Because 20 of his schedule he would like to do it, but his 21 schedule -- he's just concerned for the same reason, the 22 time restraints that he has. He is talking to another 23 vet, I don't want to say the name because I may have it 24 wrong, but it's a vet that will do real well at a former 25 practice that he used to own. Anyway, so they're going 141 1 to -- we will have a person at our next meeting, and 2 we'll make those two appointments. If the other vet 3 doesn't work out, Dr. Dittmar said he would do it. 4 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I've got a couple 5 former students who are vets here in town, if we run 6 into a problem I'm sure I could talk to them. 7 One other thing I'll ask is Animal Services, 8 talking to Reagan Givens, he's been interviewing some 9 people and he's really enthused on some of the people he 10 interviewed for positions out there. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: On that -- going back, I 12 guess everyone knows that the adoption coordinator 13 position, Reagan put Nicole Golden into that spot, who 14 was previously an Animal Control Officer, and still is 15 an Animal Control Officer. And the feedback I've 16 received from the shelters, local shelters, and from 17 Karen Guerrero and others, very positive. A lot people 18 think that was an excellent choice, so that's good. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Anything from elected 20 officials? 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I have one 22 announcement. At the YO Hotel this Saturday, 6:30 is 23 the MLK Gala and dinner, and everybody's invited. And 24 if you want to buy tickets, I have them. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Jonathan and I have a table. 142 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We have a table there. 2 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Oh, you have a table, 3 good. Well, I'll see you there. 4 JUDGE KELLY: As long as LaResa does not 5 make me get out and dance. 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: May make you speak. 7 Okay, that's all I had. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Anything else? There being 9 nothing -- yes, James. 10 MR. ROBLES: Yes, actually. I apologize. 11 May I get some clarification on item 1.15. Ken Stoepel 12 in fact give us a second option for the Constable 2 13 vehicle. Option one is a 2019, option two is a 2018 14 model Ford F-150's. They're both Ford F-150's and come 15 with grill guards. There is a slight difference in 16 price, about 12 hundred dollars. I don't know if you 17 guys approved option one or two for Mr. Schneider's 18 vehicle. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: For 12 hundred dollars, 20 I'd probably go with the 19. 21 MR. ROBLES: Yeah. The other vehicles are 22 2019. I just wanted to make sure. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'd go with the 2019. 24 MR. ROBLES: Make sure we were on the same 25 page there. 143 1 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I would. 2 JUDGE KELLY: I'll go for the 2019. We'll 3 do that. 4 There being no further business before the 5 Court today, we're adjourned. 6 * * * * * * 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 144 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 2nd day of February, 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