1 1 2 3 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS' COURT 4 Special Session 5 Thursday, February 28, 2019 6 9:00 a.m. 7 Commissioners' Courtroom 8 Kerr County Courthouse 9 Kerrville, Texas 78028 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 PRESENT: ROB KELLY, Kerr County Judge HARLEY BELEW, Commissioner Precinct 1 24 TOM MOSER, Commissioner Precinct 2 JONATHAN LETZ, Commissioner Precinct 3 25 DON HARRIS, Commissioner Precinct 4 2 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 1.1 Pay Bills. 3 4 1.2 Budget Amendments. 5 5 1.5 Court Orders. 5 6 1.7 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 7 action on affirming support for Resolution 7 supporting legislation proposed by Representative Murr to "Create Magistrates 8 in Kerr County", Court Order #37307. 9 2.1 Reports regarding Commissioners/Liaison 24 Committee Assignments as per attachment. 10 * * * * * * 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 3 1 JUDGE KELLY: Okay, we'll come to order. It 2 is Thursday, February 28, 2019, and it's the last day of 3 the month, and it is a couple minutes after 9 o'clock, 4 and the Court is now in session. 5 The first order on the agenda is 1.1 pay 6 bills. 7 MRS. JOHNSON: Good morning. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Good morning. 9 MRS. JOHNSON: For Kerr County we have 10 $225,015.45. Other funds to be disbursed by the 11 Treasurer is Adult Probation $2,432.07. The Airport 12 $4,356.95. Juvenile Probation $5,763.62. Fund 78 which 13 is the County Clerk fees, $502.74. And fund 75 for 14 216th D.A. Forfeiture is $956.00. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Is there any 16 discussion? 17 COMMISSIONER BELEW: What is the airport 18 money for, Joy? 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Mostly salary, I 20 believe. 21 MRS. JOHNSON: On this one there's some 22 utilities that are in there. And just a moment, I'll 23 have to -- 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, while you're 25 looking it up let me tell Harley that the County 4 1 administers all that kind of stuff for the Airport, so 2 any disbursement from the airport goes through the 3 Auditor's Office. 4 COMMISSIONER BELEW: It doesn't mean I ought 5 not know what it is. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: No. I didn't know if 7 you remembered that. 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: No. I remembered it. 9 Thank you. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: He's getting old, but 11 not that old. 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I'm not that old yet. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Not that old yet. 14 MRS. JOHNSON: We have quite a few of the 15 utilities for KPUB and City of Kerrville. We have items 16 from Gibsons, UniFirst, Xerox, their legal services for 17 Patrick O'Fiel, and JP Morgan Chase credit card. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I was wrong, no 19 salaries. I didn't notice on the last disbursement 20 amount there wasn't salaries either, which surprised me. 21 MRS. JOHNSON: Those usually go through 22 payroll. 23 MRS. SOLDAN: They go through payroll. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Oh, that's why. Thank 25 you. Thank you. 5 1 JUDGE KELLY: Okay, any further discussion? 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Move we pay the bills 3 and disbursements as presented. 4 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Third. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Okay, been motioned by 7 Commissioner Moser, seconded by Commissioner Belew to 8 approve payment of the bills. Any further discussion? 9 Those in favor raise your hand. Opposed? Five zero. 10 1.2 on the agenda, budget amendments. 11 MRS. JOHNSON: We have three with Animal 12 Control, Courthouse Security, and reallocating funds 13 from the Sheriff's Department for capital lease payment. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Any discussion? 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move for approval. 16 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Commissioner Letz has moved, 18 and Commissioner Harris has seconded for approval of the 19 budget amendments. Those in favor raise your hand. 20 Five zero. 21 1.3 late bills. 22 MRS. JOHNSON: There are none. 23 1.4 approve payroll? 24 MRS. JOHNSON: There is none. 25 JUDGE KELLY: 1.5 court orders. 6 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. I have court 2 orders from the February 25th meeting, court orders 3 37321 through 37332, and there was one change that I 4 mentioned to the County Clerk on 37332 started out 5 reading approved to defer to the Texas Local Government 6 Code, and it should read approved per the Texas Local 7 Government Code. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I'll make a motion 10 with that modification that I've given to the County 11 Clerk. 12 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Commissioner Letz has moved 14 and Commissioner Harris has seconded in the revision of 15 the court order to say "per the Local Government Code". 16 Those in favor raise your hand. Opposed? Five zero, 17 unanimous. 18 1.6 consider, discuss and take appropriate 19 action regarding Court Order number 36092, agreement for 20 Information Technology products and services. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's an executive 22 session one so maybe we can pass on that one. 23 JUDGE KELLY: We'll pass on that one until 24 afterwards. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And go to the exciting 7 1 one. 2 JUDGE KELLY: 1.7 on the agenda is to 3 consider, discuss and take appropriate action on 4 affirming support for Resolution supporting legislation 5 proposed by Representative Murr to "Create Magistrates 6 in Kerr County", Court Order #37307. 7 Any discussion? 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, I guess since I've 9 been the biggest thorn on the Sheriff's side on this, I 10 will say that I've read through the other counties. 11 Ours is better than the rest of them, or similar to a 12 couple of them. I find it interesting when I read 13 through the counties that are doing it, and there this 14 must be some kind of -- I figure the local -- the Hill 15 Country Sheriffs must be getting together because it's 16 basically -- it's Harris County, Tarrant County, Dallas 17 County, El Paso County, Webb County, which are all very 18 large counties, and there's one for counties over 1.75 19 million, which I'm not sure who that targeted and picked 20 up. In fact when I read through it, it made it seem 21 like it was contradictory because some of the other ones 22 were over that population, too, so they had maybe two 23 ways they could do it. And Lubbock County's in there. 24 And then it's Guadalupe County, Comal 25 County, Burnet County, which all happen to be smaller 8 1 counties right in the Hill Country, so I figure they all 2 must talk around here. 3 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Nope. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I still am not in favor 5 of it. I'll go along with the Resolution, because I 6 don't -- you know, I think it's -- because we're not 7 creating the position; we're allowing ourselves to 8 create the position. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Authorizing it. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But one of my biggest 11 concerns goes back to a lot of the -- I think there's an 12 article in the American Statesman that was all forwarded 13 to us, and that almost turned me more against it because 14 that is an unfunded mandate coming down from Austin. 15 And, you know, it's an unfunded mandate, they should pay 16 for this. We shouldn't have to do anything for it. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: We don't have to do 18 anything. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I know. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: But we passed the 21 Resolution. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Which part of it are you 23 saying is an unfunded mandate? 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: If it's the legislation 25 about changing on the verbiage in that article and 9 1 hoping about trying to go with changing the system that 2 bail bonds are set and how the judges determine that, 3 that is an unfunded mandate, because their requirement 4 has to look into additional information than they're 5 currently looking into. I don't disagree with the law 6 to do it, and I think the judges should look at all that 7 background information, and there's a program that's 8 very good at predicting according to that article. But 9 you know, it's still Austin passes legislation that's 10 going to potentially cost us more money. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: But this legislation 12 would not. 13 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Not now. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Not now, no. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But it's fixing a state 16 -- it's fixing a problem that's a statewide problem, and 17 the legislature is, you know, would be the State should 18 be paying for it. But again, you know -- 19 JUDGE KELLY: Well, let me report on some 20 indirect information I received visiting with the 21 district judges over the loss of our Auditor. Judge 22 Emerson is in -- I believe is in Georgetown at a 23 conference. And apparently what they're teaching the 24 judges is -- this is coming whether we like it or not, 25 and we are going to have to do these pretrial 10 1 assessments, and that part of it is unfunded. If we 2 don't get out in front of this then were we are likely 3 to be is if the legislature passes these pretrial risk 4 assessment requirements, which it looks like it's almost 5 inevitable at this point, then we're going to have an 6 unfunded mandate to do that, and we're not going to have 7 the magistrate availability to do this on the timelines 8 that they're giving us to do, we're going to be short. 9 At least if we have this and we're authorized to hire a 10 magistrate then we can comply; otherwise, what we're 11 going to do is we're going to dump on the JPs, and 12 Municipal Judges to come in and do all this extra 13 magistrating, and we have to go out and probably hire 14 somebody to do the pretrial risk assessments. So I 15 don't want to do it, but guys -- 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: What is extra? Can you 17 give me a description of how that is an extra part of 18 their duty? 19 JUDGE KELLY: We're not doing pretrial risk 20 assessments right now. That's something that we've 21 talked about, we've had committees. I went over to 22 Medina County and looked at what they're doing over 23 there, they got a really good system that they're doing. 24 And it's helping to get people -- this all goes back to 25 the overcrowded jail issue, and we're complaining about 11 1 what we're paying for that, and it is what it is. And 2 that is a requirement that I'm almost positive the Texas 3 Legislature is going to put on us, and it's going to be 4 new, and we're going to have to have somebody to do 5 that, and -- 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, it basically adds 7 to the duties of the existing magistrates; it doesn't 8 have to be a new job description. 9 JUDGE KELLY: That could be true; I'm not 10 sure. 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: You know, you put an 12 extra hour in a day or whatever it is, but it doesn't 13 mean we have to have a new salary, and new benefits and 14 new people, necessarily. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Well, that's right. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But Commissioner, what 17 it will do though, somebody has to do that. 18 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I know. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And it will, it's going 20 to cost more. It's going to be -- it's an unfunded 21 mandate, there's no question about it, and -- 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I still object to it. 23 It's not an unfunded mandate. 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: It will be. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: No, it's not; it's our 12 1 choice. This is only to authorize us to hire -- have a 2 magistrate or more, period. 3 JUDGE KELLY: If we need to do it, down the 4 road. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: If we need to do it, 6 so it's not an unfunded mandate. And I want to remind 7 everybody that this action item is affirming the 8 support. Well, we've already passed the Resolution. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Oh, I'm in favor of the 10 Resolution. Don't get me wrong. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So what is the 12 discussion here? Commissioner Letz wanted to go back, 13 which I think was good and look at the other things. 14 He's done it, okay? But the Resolution stands, okay? 15 Period. 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: If what the Judge just 17 said is true, and I believe it is, then there's going to 18 be an extra workload, and if we have to take care of 19 that there is your unfunded mandate. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: It's not an unfunded 21 mandate. 22 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Of course it is. You 23 gotta pay somebody for it. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: But if we choose to to 25 it; it's not somebody telling us we have to. 13 1 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Then we're going to 2 have to tell the people that are already in the job you 3 will have these extra duties, which is fine because 4 when -- 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: They don't have extra 6 duties. 7 COMMISSIONER BELEW: -- the legislature -- 8 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. The Court Reporter -- 9 the Court Reporter. We have to put on the red flag 10 here. She can only take one of us at a time. 11 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: If I can say something 12 real quick? 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Wait, the word is 14 quick. 15 MRS. STEBBINS: He always says real quick. 16 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: No. This is quick. 17 Number one, I don't look at it as an unfunded mandate. 18 If you look at the Code of Criminal Procedure right now 19 it sets out how we're supposed to do bonds, okay? None 20 of this is illegal how it sets it out, all right? What 21 happened is a Federal Court ruled that the practice that 22 all counties have been using in the State of Texas is 23 unconstitutional because it puts more of it on financial 24 and not on anything else. That's not a single thing the 25 legislature had to look at. That's on us. What this 14 1 County is doing according to the Federal Court system is 2 unconstitutional, and we have to correct it. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Does everybody understand why 4 they did that, what the basis of that was? 5 JUDGE KELLY: We're keeping poor people in 6 jail because they can't afford the bond, and we're not 7 paying attention to how big a risk are they to the 8 community. And so the risk assessment is now a new 9 element that the Federal Courts have injected into our 10 bail consideration. 11 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: You know, one is 12 officers killed, that's what Andy filed this under, 13 Damon Allen. But the only way you can fix that 14 unconstitutionality that all counties are doing, okay, 15 is for each County to come up with some way to do bonds 16 without being financial. And so what your State's doing 17 right now is trying to come up with an equal way for all 18 counties to be able to do that, so it's not an unfunded 19 mandate, no matter what you look at. No matter what. 20 Because see the other thing is they're 21 trying to standardize it. The other thing is there is 22 in the Code of Criminal Procedure right now, and has 23 been for years and years, the capability and the 24 authority for all counties to create a personal bond 25 office, which a lot of counties have. And then you're 15 1 talking a lot of expense, because you're talking people 2 that would do all this. To those counties this isn't 3 going to make a difference that created a personal bond 4 office years ago, because it's just adding that one pool 5 in with that personal bond office, okay? But the 6 counties like ours that have chosen over all these years 7 not to create what we already have the authority to 8 create, which is a personal bond office, okay, it's 9 adding more to it. And what we're trying to do is add 10 that more to us by maybe being able to do it with one 11 person instead of a whole division of personal bond 12 office, and still using our JPs. That's the way I look 13 at this, okay? 14 The problem is, is what we're doing is 15 federally unconstitutional, and it's just a miracle that 16 the feds chose, and the lawsuit chose, to be in a large 17 county like Harris, they've already spent millions and 18 millions on that lawsuit, okay, and they lost it, than 19 filing it on a small county like ours. That's what you 20 gotta look at. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: This is a unique piece 22 of legislation for Kerr County only. So Andy Murr can't 23 introduce the bill unless there's a Resolution from this 24 Court to authorize the -- not to authorize him; to 25 endorse the action. 16 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Going back to the 2 action, I agree with Commissioner Moser. I mean the 3 discussion now is not -- what we are discussing isn't an 4 unfunded mandate; it may be a result of an unfunded 5 mandate. But here is one problem I actually have with 6 the legislation is that under compensation. Full time 7 Magistrate's salary may not be less than that of a 8 Justice of the Peace. Justice of the Peace have a lot 9 more responsibilities than just magistrating. The 10 magistrate on here has some more responsibilities than 11 JPs. You know, that's probably better than a lot of 12 counties that say they have to be lawyers, at least from 13 a financial standpoint; I'm not sure from a practice 14 standpoint. 15 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, it also keeps you 16 in compliance with the law, so you have to -- you have 17 to pay for that what you have to pay for it. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The JPs -- you know, the 19 judges are the ones that -- but we're setting -- we 20 don't have any wiggle room on our minimum salary if we 21 decide to do this. 22 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: But depending on the 23 job description you choose for it, okay, this person 24 will end up right now with more job duties than a JP, 25 because one thing this does allow this person to do is 17 1 the blood search warrants that are all the time at night 2 for DWI; a JP cannot do those, okay? Now, there is a 3 bill I saw the other day that's been proposed in this 4 legislation to allow JPs to do those, plus upping their 5 limits of jurisdiction from 10 to 20 thousand, and 6 putting a whole lot more on JPs. But as this bill is 7 written, okay, depending on what job description you 8 choose, it will put more duties on this person even than 9 a JP. And that's when we get to that -- 10 JUDGE KELLY: Let me just address that so we 11 can finish the information part of this and get to a 12 vote. I'm ready to vote. What's happening with the JPs 13 is going to happen, they're going to increase their 14 jurisdiction up to $20,000.00. What's this is going to 15 do is kick out a certain percentage of misdemeanor cases 16 that are in the County Court at Law and dump those back 17 down on them. That's going to stretch their resources 18 and their availability to do the magistrating, the 19 magistration. And so one of the things that you are 20 seeing the trend statewide is to have a full-time 21 magistrate that's over at the jail and is able to 22 magistrate and take the burden off the JPs, because 23 they're going to have to do other things. And what's 24 happening it's not an unfunded mandate; it's a shifted 25 mandate, shifting from the the County Courts at Law to 18 1 the -- well, in the rural counties it's even shifting it 2 from the County Judge. I don't know if most of y'all 3 realize it most rural counties don't have a County Court 4 at Law, and the County Judge has to do that misdemeanor 5 docket, which is a -- I mean it's huge. 6 So that's what's going on with the JPs. 7 What's this doing is giving us the flexibility, it's 8 giving us the tools for our toolbox, giving us the 9 safety net to be able to do this if and when times 10 change. And we see it coming, so my vote is let's get 11 ready and be prepared to handle it the best way we can. 12 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I agree. And it's, -- 13 you know, I hate adding positions or building 14 government, but I think that's something down the road 15 we may have to look at. But on the other hand, Sheriff, 16 correct me if I'm wrong, this will cut down on people in 17 your jail. 18 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yeah, it has a very 19 good possibility of at least getting one or two more out 20 on bond, and that can save you depending on what 21 happens, you know. Sandra Bland deal was only a few 22 hundred dollars bond instead of a PR. She hung herself, 23 and looks what happened in that. That County, by the 24 way, had exactly the same thing happen again just a few 25 months ago. And so there's no telling what -- but that 19 1 kind of stuff is where do research, get them out if 2 they're not a danger to anything else, get them out and 3 you're going to save on medical, you're going to save 4 on -- 5 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Everything. Meals, 6 personnel -- 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: This issue, or proposal 8 was under the umbrella of what can we do to reduce the 9 number of people in jail. And let me go back to what 10 Commissioner Letz said. And this could be -- this is a 11 Resolution we said do it, and we referenced this draft, 12 we referenced this draft bill, and I think Jonathan's 13 got a good point. We talked about salary being no less 14 than a Justice of the Peace of Kerr County. Could we or 15 should we add in there and/or as determined by 16 Commissioners' Court, and then if we want to -- based on 17 what the Sheriff's says, based on the duties, we may 18 want it to be less than a Justice of the Peace. If it 19 increases, we may want to keep it as the same or more. 20 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: The only thing I would 21 say to you on that is number one it took weeks for 22 Andy's office and the legislative people to get the bill 23 ready to be filed and get it all -- jump through all the 24 hoops he has to jump through with a bill to get it done. 25 If it's not totally been filed by the 8th it's too late 20 1 to get it done. If it's not been filed -- 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I think a change like 3 that is doable. And what he did is took Guadalupe 4 County and he changed Guadalupe County to Kerr County, 5 basically. 6 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: But there's more to 7 it, it took them weeks to get them, more than that to -- 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I've been there and 9 done that. 10 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: The other thing is you 11 may, you know, look at it. I just heard yesterday that 12 there is a bunch of stuff in there to change the minimum 13 wage requirement in Texas. If they do that it's going 14 to set your salary at that -- 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So if we set something 16 like Commissioner Letz is suggesting, which I agree 17 with, or as determined by Commissioners' Court. Well 18 that doesn't do anything but just give us more 19 flexibility. Gives us the authority to hire one or 20 some, and the authority to set the salary. So with 21 that, how do we do that? We passed a Resolution. I 22 think the Resolution said specifically referenced this 23 bill, okay, this draft bill. I think the Resolution 24 said that. 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Where is the 21 1 Resolution? 2 JUDGE KELLY: Right here. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: We have that. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah. Second page is the 5 amendment. The order says came on to be heard on the 6 11th day of February 2019 with a motion made by 7 Commissioner Moser, seconded by Commissioner Harris. 8 The Court unanimously approved by a vote of 5-0-0 to 9 adopt a Resolution in support of legislation proposed 10 Representative Andy Murr to "Create Magistrates in Kerr 11 County". That's all it says. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, since he hasn't 13 submitted that, we can just simply communicate with Andy 14 Murr's office the desires as mentioned by Commissioner 15 Letz, salary be that of Justice of the Peace, or that is 16 established by Commissioners' Court. And we can just 17 very simply let that be known to Andy Murr, so we can 18 just let everything else stand. So I don't think we 19 need to -- the Resolution is there, there isn't anything 20 to -- 21 JUDGE KELLY: I'm struggling with our rules. 22 We have -- we have our -- the rules that we adopted, I 23 don't -- there's no question to call, so this is on 24 there as an -- it says action to be taken. So the 25 action would be to either rescind it, or if we're not 22 1 going to rescind it, we don't need to take any action at 2 all. So I need some input from -- 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I was looking at the 4 same thing, Judge. Sometimes I don't think about these 5 things. It says action, but the action would be to 6 affirm. It says consider and take appropriate action on 7 affirming support. So there could be a motion coming 8 out of the way it was worded. 9 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And if left alone it 10 just goes. 11 JUDGE KELLY: If you want to affirm it then 12 we need a motion. If we're done talking about it, we 13 need to move on to the next item. 14 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: One thing I can do is 15 if you want to just to affirm it, when I call Andy's 16 office to tell him to go ahead and file it, I can 17 mention the caveat, or what y'all are saying, just 18 mention that to him as the one thing that y'all would 19 like to see in it, if possible. 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: What would you say? 21 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Just that. As salary 22 as set by the -- or comparable, whatever it says, with 23 the JPs, or as set by Commissioners' Court. Just add 24 that or as set by Commissioners' Court. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Well, let me -- I'm the 23 1 wordsmith here. We would like for you to inform 2 Commissioner Murr that the Court unanimously would like 3 some flexibility in setting the salary. And we 4 understand what he's got in there, but we need some 5 flexibility. 6 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Judge, you feel like 7 it needs mentioned to the JPs at all, just -- 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: It's in there. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Well, they're going to have to 10 put in a compensation provision and he just tied it to 11 the traditional one. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, that's actually 13 not true; most of them are worse. 14 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yeah. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: There's nothing wrong 16 with just saying, Don, just put and/or, okay? 17 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: And/or as set by 18 Commissioners' Court. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Just alert him to the issue 20 that we don't want to be locked in to the JPs' salary. 21 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: If that's what y'all 22 want, I'll alert him to that issue when I call and tell 23 him to file it. 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I like that. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Is there any further action 24 1 1.7 item on the agenda? Okay, we'll move on. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Good deal. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Rather than go into the full 4 informational agenda, I believe we have our semi-annual 5 reports. I have a probate docket at 10 o'clock, so I 6 don't want to go too fast, but I do want to encourage -- 7 MRS. JENNIFER DOSS: Three minutes. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Brevity is of ultimate value 9 today. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Before we get into 11 those, have you done our reports? I have one quick 12 report, real quick. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Yeah, please do. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Received word from 15 Phyllis Allen that she will accept the spot on the 16 advisory committee. 17 COMMISSIONER BELEW: After she read her name 18 in the paper. 19 (Laughter.) 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Anyway, I didn't know 21 that part of it. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Power of suggestion. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And the other thing is 24 an informational item. Several meetings ago we'd 25 authorized Reagan to post some a ACO positions, he 25 1 filled them. One of those slots resigned three days 2 into the job, and just wasn't up to them. He asked if 3 he had to come back to us for permission to hire another 4 one. I said I don't think so, you know, but I'll bring 5 it up, so anyway -- 6 JUDGE KELLY: I'm looking at our lawyer on 7 that. Do we have to repost it? 8 MRS. STEBBINS: No. 9 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Just go back to the 10 other applicants, right? 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, he's probably 12 going to repost. But we authorized him to fill it. He 13 filled it, but didn't really fill it. 14 MRS. STEBBINS: Judge Kelly, that's what 15 usually department heads will come to the Court and ask 16 for permission to fill the positions, but if it's for 17 example we hire someone within the building, or in the 18 county, we don't usually post it if we already made our 19 choice, so they don't have to go and post it again. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And quick background of 21 that. The Court put that in a long time ago when we 22 were really low on money in the recession and it was to 23 keep control of our budget more. I'm not sure it's even 24 with elected officials, I don't believe it's legal. I 25 think they can go and hire what's within their budget, 26 1 and with departments we probably can. But it's a good 2 courtesy, and I appreciate as a Commissioner getting 3 that feedback so we know what's going on. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Well, it's a policy. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, it's a policy. 6 MRS. STEBBINS: Well, for the elected's 7 when I came in how it was explained to me, because I had 8 to fill a position pretty soon after I came in was that 9 it was -- for the elected officials, it was a courtesy 10 to come to the Court and advise them if they were 11 filling a budgeted position. 12 JUDGE KELLY: That's a good procedure. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Rusty doesn't do it. 14 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Nope, I don't. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: You got too many 16 people. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's all I have, 18 Judge. Thank you. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Do the other Commissioners 20 want to present any reports from your Liaison positions 21 or anything, or just move straight on into it? 22 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Executive, one item. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No. We can do the other 24 reports. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Hu? 27 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, he's saying 1.6 2 is executive session. 3 MRS. GRINSTEAD: We have reports from HR and 4 IT today for the biannual reports. 5 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Can we do those? 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Jennifer says she only 7 needs three minutes. 8 MRS. JENNIFER DOSS: For the sake of 9 brevity. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Or can we hear the 11 reports, and then do the executive session? 12 JUDGE KELLY: That's what I'm thinking. 13 (Bi-annual reports.) 14 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you. I'm going to have 15 to excuse myself. You want to take over and go into 16 executive session? 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Do we have any other 18 reports or -- 19 (The Judge and Court Reporter excused 20 themselves to attend Probate Court.) 21 * * * * * * 22 23 24 25 28 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 29th day of March, A.D. 2019. 10 11 /s/DEBRA ELLEN GIFFORD Certified Shorthand Reporter 12 No. 953 Expiration Date 04/31/2020 13 * * * * * * 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25