1 1 2 3 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS' COURT 4 Special Session 5 Thursday, March 7, 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. 3 5 1.4 Approve Payroll. 4 6 1.5 Court Orders. 5 7 1.6 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 7 action to adopt the Kerr County elected 8 official and supervisor on-boarding procedures. 9 1.8 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 18 10 action to approve capital purchase for Hill Country Youth Event Center. 11 * * * * * * 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 3 1 JUDGE KELLY: Come to order. It is 9 2 o'clock on Thursday, March the 7th, 2019, and the 3 Commissioners' Court is now in session. This is our 4 bill pay agenda. We've got several other things on here 5 today so we're going to have to move fairly quickly. I 6 do have a ten o'clock probate docket. 7 Court would call item 1.1 pay bills. 8 MRS. JOHNSON: For Kerr County we have 9 $245,221.48. Other funds for the Treasurer to disburse 10 Adult Probation, $4,525.88. The airport, $727.19. 11 Juvenile Probation $1,255.52. Fund 95 for the 198th DA 12 forfeiture fund $132.05. And fund 32, which is the TDA 13 EDAP grant, $13,537.50. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move we pay the bills, 15 or approve the disbursements as presented. 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Okay, Commissioner Letz has 18 moved and Commissioner Belew has seconded payment of 19 bills as presented. Any further -- 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Disbursed. 21 JUDGE KELLY: As presented, disbursed. Is 22 there any other discussion? Those in favor raise your 23 hand. Unanimous, five zero. 24 1.2 budget amendments. 25 MRS. JOHNSON: Yes, Sir, there's two. The 4 1 County Attorney, and the County Court at Law. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move we approve the 4 two budget amendments as presented. 5 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Commissioner Letz has moved 7 and Commissioner Harris has seconded approval of the two 8 budget amendments presented for the County Attorney and 9 the County Court at Law. Is there any further 10 discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. Five zero, 11 unanimous. 12 1.3 late bills. 13 MRS. JOHNSON: There were none. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Okay, 1.4 approve payroll. 15 MRS. JOHNSON: The total is $776,319.87. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: This is like 50 percent 17 more than normal. Why is that? 18 MRS. SOLDAN: TCDRS payment once a month. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Move that we 20 approve payroll -- 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: -- disbursement. 23 JUDGE KELLY: Commissioner Moser has moved, 24 Commissioner Belew has seconded to approve the payroll. 25 Any further discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. 5 1 Five zero, unanimous. And we can put all these up here 2 for them to pick up. 3 1.5 court orders. 4 MRS. DOWDY: We have court orders 337333 5 through 337336 from the special session February 28th. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move we approve the 7 court orders. 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 9 JUDGE KELLY: It's been moved by 10 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Belew to 11 approve the court orders as presented by the County 12 Clerk. Any further discussion? Those in favor raise 13 your hand. Opposed? Five zero, unanimous. 14 Then we've got three action items here on 15 the agenda, and as we begin these -- normally we don't 16 do action items on the Thursday morning, but I take it 17 there's some reason we need to do them. So let's go 18 ahead and call 1.6. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's a good point. 20 We kind of wanted to do these for emergency or urgency, 21 or do we have -- 22 JUDGE KELLY: I was going to talk about 23 that. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay, good deal. 25 JUDGE KELLY: We can talk about it now. I 6 1 was going to talk about it on the information part. 2 Because this is expressly what we're trying to do on 3 Thursday mornings is to give the Commissioners a chance 4 to talk about what's going on, because we're trying to 5 follow the Open Meetings Act. And for those of you that 6 did not see the Open Meetings Act has a bill filed to 7 fill the gaps left by the Court of Criminal Appeals 8 filed by Senator Watson and Beth Mccoy yesterday, so the 9 seven to two decision looks like it's going to be -- 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: What you mean fill the 11 gaps? 12 JUDGE KELLY: They struck down the 13 Constitutionality of the criminal provisions within the 14 OPA on a seven to two vote of the Court of Criminal 15 Appeals. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: But, what will that 17 change? 18 JUDGE KELLY: Well, we talked about it 19 briefly at the last Commissioners' Court meeting. We 20 don't think it changes anything as far as our civil 21 operational procedures, but the concern is that any 22 criminal prosecutions under the statute are in jeopardy 23 because of that decision, so the legislature is trying 24 to plug that hole. 25 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay, gotcha. 7 1 MRS. STEBBINS: They said it's to simplify 2 it greatly. It's not clear enough, and so that the 3 criminal provisions of it are unconstitutional. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay, I see. Okay, 5 thank you. 6 JUDGE KELLY: For the nonlawyers in order to 7 convict somebody of a crime, there are specific elements 8 that have to be proved, and it has to be fair notice to 9 the public as to what those elements are so that we know 10 not to violate them. And the Court said it was 11 unconstitutionally vague, that we kind of know what 12 we're supposed to do and not do with regard to the Open 13 Meetings Act, but for criminal prosecution the elements 14 are not clearly spelled out so that people can know not 15 to do that. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay, thank you. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Okay, 1.6 consider, discuss 18 and take appropriate action to adopt the Kerr County 19 elected official and supervisor on-boarding procedures. 20 MRS. STEBBINS: Back in November, I think, 21 the Court authorized a committee to create a new -- 22 well, a new supervisor and elected official for 23 on-boarding or training program, and you have been 24 provided with the first draft of -- well, it's many 25 drafts, and the first draft that you've all been given 8 1 of what we've created. And on that committee was 2 Commissioner Letz, me, Rusty, and Dawn, and since the 3 new year Jennifer has been included in all of those 4 meetings, and this is what we've come up with to start. 5 And it's just a sort of here you've now entered the 6 realm of County government and Kerr County government, 7 here's how we function. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Question, was 9 that -- and I look at what you have, it's very good, 10 very thorough, appreciate that and the committee. Now, 11 when that draft was prepared, was that given back to the 12 department heads, etc., for them to -- 13 MRS. STEBBINS: No, we did not include the 14 department heads. 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So they haven't seen 16 it? 17 MRS. STEBBINS: Specifically, no, Sir. In 18 commentaries that we have, I think that we've been real 19 thorough in addressing all of the department heads needs 20 and elected officials needs just as a brief introduction 21 to what Kerr County -- 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I'll let you go, and 23 then I'll ask you another question. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The department heads 25 were involved, various ones; not necessarily like say 9 1 everyone was involved, but a lot of them were involved 2 in developing this. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, as we go forward 4 with that, don't you think it would be good to have that 5 given to the department heads to let them look at? 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, that's what we're 7 doing today. This is making it public for the first 8 time. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay, perfect. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And we're not taking any 11 action today. Here it is, look at it. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Sort of a draft. 13 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Time for them to get 14 out their red pens and they look at it. 15 MRS. STEBBINS: We approached, you know, 16 like IT has specific goals for each new employee, new 17 elected, new director, and this is telling them this is 18 how IT can help you as a new employee, and this is what 19 they do, and this is where you can find their policies, 20 but this is how they can help. You know, for example we 21 had a newly elected a couple of years ago came in and 22 said I don't know what to do. I don't know who to go 23 to, I don't know who to ask. And there was nothing. 24 JUDGE KELLY: You promised you weren't going 25 to tell. 10 1 MRS. STEBBINS: I promised you what? 2 JUDGE KELLY: I thought you weren't going to 3 tell on me. 4 MRS. STEBBINS: No, it wasn't you. It was a 5 couple years ago. So we needed something that -- 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I think it's great. 7 MRS. STEBBINS: -- will provide training 8 that accompanies this, and we can start scheduling that 9 as soon as the Court approves this. And there's another 10 example in here, Abby went around to each department, 11 each elected office, and said what records do you have, 12 so this gives a good instruction to anyone new coming in 13 that -- if they're looking for a contract, or a deed, or 14 they're looking for something that has to do with septic 15 systems, so this is where they go. So, also -- 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It covers a lot of 17 things, it's like HIPAA. I mean we know about it 18 because we deal about it, but the average employee 19 probably doesn't know they can't even talk about a 20 broken leg. They can't talk about anything related to 21 health with anybody else. You can't do it. And so 22 there's stuff like that, that the idea is to try to let 23 all of the employees -- parts of this will go to 24 supervisors, parts of this will go to all employees when 25 they get hired by the County. 11 1 MRS. STEBBINS: And included in it is a 2 really good instruction about emergency planning within 3 the courthouse or county facilities that Rusty has 4 provided as well. 5 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Looks good. 6 JUDGE KELLY: And I want to commend you for 7 it because this is part of our transparency movement 8 here at the courthouse for them to get this done and get 9 it back out to the departments and the elected 10 officials, and get the feedback so that everybody's on 11 the same page, okay, so I comment you for what you've 12 done. 13 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So my question is what 14 is the process for anybody that wants input with this, 15 any department heads? 16 MRS. STEBBINS: It's my understanding, we've 17 really gotten pretty good input from everyone who will 18 be -- who has needed to provide information, and in 19 regard to the things that we've touched to in here. We 20 even got TAC to weigh. Rami(phonetic) who came over to 21 some of our meetings. He took our procedures to a most 22 recent meeting that he's given to other elected 23 officials, and said this is the on-boarding procedure 24 that Kerr County's doing, we like. And so I think that 25 we've touched on everything that is sort of a brief 12 1 window into how these things work. If you need more 2 information go to your -- 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: The language that what 4 you were saying a minute ago said this is up for review. 5 MRS. STEBBINS: By y'all. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: By us. Any by others as 7 well. 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So they have all the 9 input they're getting? 10 MRS. STEBBINS: We haven't provided this to 11 every department head or elected official, and it was 12 never my intention to do that. If y'all tell me we need 13 to do that, I'll do that. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I think we need to do 15 that. I think we need to give it to all department 16 heads, 'cuz they need to look at it. 17 MRS. STEBBINS: Well, I think y'all 18 supervise the department heads, so if you want me to -- 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Is there any objection 20 to all department heads looking at it before we approve 21 it? 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think that it's fine 23 to send it out. A lot of them have input, but we don't 24 want to rewrite it. we're not going to recreate it. 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Somebody might have a 13 1 valid concern. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: An error or something 3 like that, yeah we can look at it, but we're not trying 4 to -- 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: But otherwise, it's -- 6 and believe me, I know you talked to everybody. But we 7 don't want it to be topped down; we want the department 8 heads to say yeah verily, or you forgot this, or we 9 don't do that anymore, or whatever. I think it's the 10 only way to do it. 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And they also become 12 familiarized with it, so they're in the loop. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But I think the process 14 could be if we could send it out electronically to the 15 department heads, and either by say the 25th meeting, we 16 could hopefully approve it. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, that'd be fine. 18 That'd be fine. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The 25th meeting approve 20 it. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. But send it to 22 all department heads, right. 23 COMMISSIONER BELEW: If everybody gets this, 24 all department heads get it electronically, have time to 25 review it and then we finalize on the 25th. 14 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 2 MRS. STEBBINS: Okay. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So we got a week to get 4 the information back and we can edit it back. And 5 that's a goal, it may be the first meeting in April. 6 MRS. STEBBINS: Yeah. If all of the 7 department heads weigh in and want to modify it, I can't 8 promise that we've got -- 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I doubt there will be a 10 lot. 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, there should be a 12 suggestion box; not a modification rewrite, in a PDF and 13 then you write a line at the bottom of it saying I would 14 also add this. 15 MRS. STEBBINS: Okay. I think that when we 16 created the committee, we included a good mix of folks 17 who could weigh in on most things that should be 18 addressed in it. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think it's like 20 courthouse security part, that's not up for debate. But 21 other parts of it, you know, yes that doesn't make -- 22 the way you worded that. I'm confused. 23 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Yeah, that would be 24 helpful. And also what Tom said that people feel like 25 they're in the loop, you know, we're taking into 15 1 consideration their concerns, and they're going to know 2 stuff we don't about their department. 3 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Sure. 4 JUDGE KELLY: And I agree. This is a good 5 start, and hopefully the final product, but we certainly 6 want the input from everybody. We want to be as 7 transparent as possible and give everybody an 8 opportunity to sign off on this. This is the playbook, 9 the teamwork of the County. This is how to get people 10 started working on the team as a team member. 11 MRS. LANTZ: And may I make a comment? I 12 think this whole process was started basically to help 13 elected officials coming into office, and then it kind 14 of got broad, because I think that's where the area was 15 that we were lacking. New elected officials coming into 16 office not knowing where to go. So this was just a 17 basic -- 18 MRS. STEBBINS: And new supervisors. 19 MRS. LANTZ: -- plan. Yes. 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: It's called mission 21 creep. 22 MRS. LANTZ: Well, I mean it's just -- it 23 is. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't think it's going 25 to be that much input. I mean I don't think we're going 16 1 to see any major changes, because I think we've already 2 gone out to the large majority of them. 3 COMMISSIONER MOSER: All we're saying is go 4 to all of them. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: They go to elected 6 officials and department heads. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. 8 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: If I can say, the only 9 addition I'd like on the emergency action plan, kind of 10 the same we developed at the same time with this, is 11 once you get ready to adopt it, I'd like it adopted 12 separately, because it's going to end up in what my hope 13 is, is that we actually have it printed up in little 14 booklets, okay, where every employee at the courthouse 15 ends up getting a copy of that that shows them how it 16 works and that. But I would like for it to be adopted 17 by the Court first, and then we just have to get a whole 18 bunch printed up so every time we get a new employee 19 they get that, and they know what emergency procedures 20 they should do in case of an active shooter, or things 21 like that, where they can get some training, I just 22 think that would help. So it was all part of this, but 23 yet it needs to be separate, too, okay? 24 MRS. STEBBINS: That's what we found in this 25 -- during this process was there will be pieces of it 17 1 which really is the emergency action plan that will go 2 to all employees; the other piece of it will go to 3 directors, elected officials, and supervisors under 4 those elected officials. 5 JUDGE KELLY: I want to make sure I 6 understand. You want us to adopt the proposed on-board 7 supervisor training manual today, and get a little bit 8 more input. We have the final approval down the road at 9 Commissioners' Court meeting, right? 10 MRS. STEBBINS: You don't have to adopt it 11 today. You can just give us instruction what you've 12 done to get out to everybody for comment. 13 JUDGE KELLY: And then this is going to be 14 finalized probably at the same time. 15 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: The same exact thing 16 with this. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Good. Everybody see the 18 transparency here? It's good. It's a good thing. 19 MRS. STEBBINS: It gives some good structure 20 for folks coming in. 21 MRS. GRINSTEAD: Just for clarification 22 who's going to -- will you be able to send that out to 23 all the department heads and elected officials? 24 Jennifer, me, who? Just some direction. 25 COMMISSIONER BELEW: HR should do it, I 18 1 think. 2 MRS. JENNIFER DOSS: I'll do it. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Speaking of which, let's call 4 1.7 on the agenda consider, discuss and take appropriate 5 action to amend the Kerr County Personnel Policy Manual. 6 MRS. JENNIFER DOSS: That was proposed 7 included in the personnel policy, so we'll postpone that 8 until it's officially approved. 9 JUDGE KELLY: So if what I'm hearing now we 10 got our HR Department, the County Attorney's Office, and 11 the Sheriff's Office coordinating the update on all of 12 our policy manuals. Thank you. Thank you so much. 13 This is a good step. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Very good. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Okay, 1.8 consider, discuss 16 and take appropriate action to approve capital purchase 17 for Hill Country Youth Event Center. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And to answer your 19 question why it's on the agenda is because it's on hold. 20 It's on hold until we get it. 21 JUDGE KELLY: I understood this one 22 completely. 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Anyway, just a little 25 background. There is $18,684.00 left in the bond issue 19 1 when we did the renovations out there and some of the 2 upgrades out there, which is earmarked for that facility 3 for capital items. That amount needs to be spent; 4 otherwise, we get into arbitrage issues. We've been 5 looking into that. Jake has looked into it, and this is 6 what he thinks is the best use of those funds to 7 purchase a forklift. 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Oh, yeah. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And Jake's here if you 10 have any questions. It's something that he thinks will 11 save man hours by being able to set things up, 12 especially the pens, quickly. Really the question today 13 is the total amount is $20,285.33, if we get a couple of 14 the additional items. I talked to Jake earlier. The 15 tires are probably the best -- the number one priority, 16 because we don't want to -- we got 18684 in the funds. 17 We would have to get the other funds if we went all full 18 amount from somewhere else in the budget, probably from 19 out of maintenance budget. Or we can cut back a little 20 bit. The tires are probably a must, then probably the 21 service contract, and the last thing will probably be 22 the seat. So it's depends on if we want to exhaust the 23 18,684 only, or if we want to do all of the things. 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, here's my 25 question on that. Is there additional insurance, or is 20 1 it an umbrella policy that's covering any calamity with 2 this forklift? 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's under our general 4 policy. But we'll add it into TAC into our inventory 5 list, so -- 6 JUDGE KELLY: So we're exhausting the funds 7 left from the bond issue? 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. 9 JUDGE KELLY: That Certificate of 10 Obligation, I mean. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And so what if we just 13 kept it at the 18 thousand, what would we not do? 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Probably the seat. 15 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: That would get it 16 pretty close. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That would expend the 18 full amount, they'll be a little money left, you know. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. Pittance. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. A hundred dollars 21 that will have to come out of the maintenance budget. 22 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Has this thing got like 23 a cage on it and everything? 24 MR. WILLIAMSON: It's a 5000-pound forklift 25 full cage, gas and/or propane. So it's dual fuel. 21 1 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So what is the seat? 2 Is it an extra special seat or -- 3 MR. WILLIAMSON: It's a used forklift, 4 that's why these things are included, just to exhaust 5 the funds there. But the seat has some wear and tear. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: On a scale of one to 7 ten if ten is perfect, what's the seat? 8 MR. WILLIAMSON: Eight. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Oh, so it's pretty 10 good. 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Take that off the list 12 and we're within budget. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Right. Then we're 14 within budget. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Is there a motion? 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I make a motion that he 17 gets enough money to buy a seat cover for it. 18 (Laughter.) 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I'll make the motion 20 that we approve this expenditure. 21 JUDGE KELLY: Can we go ahead and deplete 22 our remaining Certificate of Obligation funds? 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: With the exclusion of 24 the seat as presented, and any additional funds to come 25 out of our maintenance line item as determined by the 22 1 Auditor. 2 JUDGE KELLY: So it's been moved by 3 Commissioner Belew, seconded by Commissioner Harris. 4 Those in favor raise your hand. Opposed? Unanimous, 5 five zero. Good. Very good. Thank you, Jake. 6 MR. WILLIAMSON: Thank you. 7 * * * * * * 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 23 1 STATE OF TEXAS * 2 COUNTY OF KERR * 3 I, DEBRA ELLEN GIFFORD, Certified Shorthand 4 Reporter in and for the State of Texas, and Official 5 Reporter in and for Kerr County, do hereby certify that 6 the above and foregoing pages contain and comprise a 7 true and correct transcription of the proceedings had in 8 the above-entitled Commissioners' Court. 9 Dated this the 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