1 1 2 3 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS' COURT 4 Special Session 5 Thursday, March 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 PRESENT: ROB KELLY, Kerr County Judge 23 HARLEY BELEW, Commissioner Precinct 1 TOM MOSER, Commissioner Precinct 2 24 JONATHAN LETZ, Commissioner Precinct 3 DON HARRIS, Commissioner Precinct 4 25 2 1 INDEX 2 NO. Page 3 1.1 Pay Bills. 3 4 1.2 Budget Amendment. 4 5 1.3 Late Bills. 5 6 1.5 Court Orders. 6 7 2.1 Reports regarding Commissioners/Liason Committee Assignments 7 8 2.2 Reports regarding Elected Officials/ 9 Department Heads a) Road and Bridge Biannual Report 9 10 b) Engineering Biannual Report 16 11 ****** 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 3 1 JUDGE KELLY: The Court will come to order. 2 It is Thursday, March the 14th, 2019. It's about a 3 minute or so after 9 o'clock, and the Court will be in 4 session. 5 This is our bill pay agenda. We have some 6 biannual reports afterwards. We, also, have an 7 information agenda. And believe it or not we, actually, 8 have a lot of information to discuss today. And I have 9 got, at least, one commissioner maybe two that need to 10 be out of here by 10 o'clock. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: 9:45. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Well, we're going to 13 race. 14 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Let me introduce Karen 16 Freeman, who is our court reporter filling in for us 17 today. I hope you like fast talk, because we are going 18 to talk fast today. 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: All at once. 20 JUDGE KELLY: So I am going to call the 21 first item on the agenda which is to pay the bills. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge, I move to pay 23 bills. 24 JUDGE KELLY: I'm going to let Joy talk 25 first. 4 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. It's going fast. 2 I'm doing what you said. 3 JUDGE KELLY: I know, I agree with you. 4 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Almost. 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: By the way, I will 6 second. 7 MRS. JOHNSON: Okay. In Kerr County we 8 have 1,374,722.91. For other funds for the Treasurer to 9 disburse, $2,928.86. That was for Adult Probation, 10 sorry. For Airport, $1,591.17; Juvenile Probation, 11 $16,157.22. For Fund Money 5, that's for the 198th DA 12 forfeiture account, that's $10,975. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. And just by point of 14 clarification, the reason Kerr County is so big this 15 time is because? 16 MRS. JOHNSON: Of construction grants for 17 Pesado. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Just wanted to make sure 19 everybody knew why it was that big. 20 Okay. I think we have a motion on the 21 floor that's already been seconded. Commissioner Letz 22 has moved and Commissioner Moser had seconded that we 23 pay these bills. Is there any further discussion? All 24 in favor raise your hand. Unanimous, 5-0. 25 1.2 on the agenda is budget amendments. 5 1 MRS. JOHNSON: Yes, we have one for Crime 2 Victim Services, from group insurance to basic life. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move for approval of 5 the budget amendment as requested. 6 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. 7 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. We got a motion by 9 Commissioner Letz and seconded by Commissioner Harris to 10 approve the budget amendment. Is there any further 11 discussion on that? Those in favor raise your hand. 12 Opposed? Unanimous 5-0. 13 1.3 late bills. 14 MRS. JOHNSON: Yes, we have one is for 15 Pesado Construction coming out of Fund 32 which is a TDA 16 grant for $56,520. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Is there any discussion on 18 that? 19 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Did it just arrive 20 late, Joy, the bill? 21 MRS. JOHNSON: It came in Monday evening 22 and I was out Tuesday and so I just missed that one. 23 There was two Draw 8s and -- 24 JUDGE KELLY: A technicality? 25 MRS. JOHNSON: Yeah. 6 1 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I figured that. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move for approval. 3 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Commissioner Letz has moved 5 and Commissioner Harris seconded approval of the late 6 bill. Those in favor raise your hand. Opposed? 7 Unanimous 5-0. 8 Approve payroll? 9 MRS. JOHNSON: There is none. 10 JUDGE KELLY: 1.5 court orders. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes, there was a court 12 order from Monday March 11th meeting and, um, I make a 13 motion to approve them and submit it. 14 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. It's been moved by 16 Commissioner Letz and seconded by Commissioner Harris to 17 approve the court orders as presented. Is there any 18 further discussion about that? Those in favor raise 19 your hand. Unanimous 5-0. 20 1.6 consider and discuss and take 21 appropriate action regarding pending litigation that was 22 in executive session. And we will talk about that after 23 we finish the regular agenda. 24 So we'll move on to the information agenda. 25 We have two biannual reports. I guess, I need to, first 7 1 of all, ask on 2.1 are there any reports from liaison 2 commissioners or any other committee assignments before 3 we move on to our biannual reports. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. A couple of 5 quick updates. Commissioner Harris and I are meeting 6 with Jake Williamson this afternoon after this meeting 7 to start working on Spectra negotiations, contract 8 proposal, all that stuff. 9 Another thing is I think everyone is aware, 10 I think I told them before that, at the Little League 11 fields we notice or I noticed some hail damage awhile 12 back. And I met with the adjuster from the 2000 -- the 13 two years ago hailstorm in June. I met with an 14 insurance adjuster yesterday and 25 of the 28 housings 15 were damaged on the older fields, but interestingly none 16 on the other side so... 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So the lights. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, so anyway, and we 19 will be talking with them again this morning. They are 20 coming up with a proposal on that cost. It looks like 21 there will be probably an insurance portion and then a 22 noninsurance portion, and we will discuss that part 23 later. 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Meaning a deductible 25 or are you talking about something else? 8 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Cover and uncovered. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Some of the things that 4 need to be done out there is not going to be covered by 5 insurance. 6 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We have money budgeted 8 in our general budget to --it's become a safety issue. 9 I was not aware how bad a lot of those houses, the light 10 fixtures are, they are clouded up so we're not getting 11 light so it's pretty dangerous in dark spots. So we are 12 looking -- and we'll get with Little League as well and 13 see how much their funding and our funding would work 14 that out, but that's working. 15 And then, also, there were two roofs at the 16 airport that were determined late to have possible hail 17 damage as well. And that adjuster is going to be here 18 at 10 o'clock. And if Charlie is out of here he might 19 be out there. I won't be able to get there, but we'll 20 probably get Bobby Gore or one of them to go out there 21 just to have a county representative along with Mary 22 from the airport. 23 That's it. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Good heads up. 25 Let's go to item 2.2 biannual reports. 9 1 We've got Road and Bridge, and Engineering. 2 MS. HOFFER: Good morning. 3 JUDGE KELLY: And I don't know if y'all 4 remember my little speech about this on these biannual 5 reports. If it's not broken we don't need to know about 6 it. If there's something that needs special recognition 7 because you have done a really, really good job or 8 someone has, we do need to know about it. We try to 9 keep these as brief as possible so that we can stay 10 focused on issues that we need to be aware of. 11 So Kelly Hoffer. 12 MS. HOFFER: Good morning. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Yes, ma'am. 14 MS. HOFFER: Just kind of wanted to add a 15 few items to go over. Some of them were a while back, 16 but with having a new commissioner in Precinct 4, just 17 kind of wanted to recognize some of the past projects 18 that were fairly recent. 19 Fall Branch Bridge that's part of the 20 off-system bridge program. We had some major erosion 21 underneath that bridge. That has been taken care of. 22 But through some of the rain from a few months ago we do 23 have a little bit of erosion that still needs to be 24 addressed on that, but overall what we did with the 25 concrete held very well. So we have got that. 10 1 Honey Creek low-water crossing. Bob was 2 involved a little bit in that and Don came in at the 3 tail end of that one. So Don is aware of that, but 4 that's a completed project. 5 Higbee Road turnaround that needs to be 6 constructed. We abandoned, vacated and discontinued a 7 portion behind the gate at Higbee so that is still 8 pending. We will be doing that. 9 Physical year 18/19 sealcoat. We are 10 proposing 51.65 miles. Generally our sealcoat program 11 starts in May. The ground temperature has to be 12 consistently at 72 degrees or higher for us to start, so 13 May 1st may still be too cold, but somewhere in May. 14 And then we like to shut it down the last day of 15 September. We did last year shoot in October because of 16 the rain, but it starts getting too cold. But that's -- 17 we're busy working on that right now getting everything 18 prepared. 19 Contracted roads, I think Charlie is also 20 going to address those. We are at Sutherland and 21 Peterson Farm Road involved in that with some 22 realignments of intersections to Highway 27. 23 Hermann Sons Road. 24 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Let me ask a question 25 on that one on Peterson Farm Road. I think we had that 11 1 in the budget -- and Charlie correct me if I am, or 2 Kelly -- that the county -- State's going to do that 3 work so it doesn't cost us. I think we had $70,000, 4 something like that in it? 5 MS. HOFFER: Yes, sir. 6 JUDGE KELLY: So we're waiting for their 7 environmental approval before the -- 8 MR. HASTINGS: Correct. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Okay, good. Thanks. 10 Keep going. 11 MS. HOFFER: Hermann Sons is going to be 12 2,020 linear feet. These are all pending with the 13 contractor. Upper Turtle Creek is going to be 4,155 14 linear feet. Elm Pass Road 2, 4,615 linear feet. And 15 then Peterson Farm, that's the one we just discussed. 16 Since our supervisors are under the DOT 17 regulations that Road and Bridge have to follow under 18 with the CDL driver's license, our supervisors have to 19 be trained in reasonable suspicion supervisor training 20 for drugs and alcohol with staff. It's been something 21 that has been pending that I knew that I needed to get 22 done. I finally completed it. So we are totally in 23 compliance with the federal regulation for our CDLs in 24 the DOT. That was a big one to get off of our lists. 25 New equipment. We still have not received 12 1 our new equipment yet for the capital purchases for this 2 current budget year, but they should be coming soon. We 3 ordered a dump truck and F450 Bucket Truck. So I would 4 imagine probably within the next two or three weeks we 5 should have those. 6 Pipeline response training. Whenever those 7 type of things come around, the 811 in that, I try to 8 send staff, especially the newer ones, to be aware of 9 utilities within the right-of-way. We sent six people, 10 this was on Tuesday. So we try to -- every time it 11 comes around we try to send people on that. 12 Ingram Dam/Lake. We will be installing the 13 cable and the buoys, usually in April, having them for 14 Memorial Day weekend and we keep them out through Labor 15 Day weekend. So that should be coming up. 16 Striping. All of the striping was 17 completed. If you haven't seen on the roads, Stoneleigh 18 was one, Hermann Sons, Rim Rock, Sheppard Rees and 19 Elm Pass. I saw Stoneleigh when I got back from 20 vacation and it looked great. It was about 22 miles of 21 striping. 22 We had fallen behind on the striping in the 23 last few years and you have been gracious enough to give 24 Road and Bridge a lot more money in our budget to start 25 getting our striping back up where it needs to be. 13 1 COMMISSIONER BELEW: There's a sign that 2 probably should be taken down at the -- at the lower end 3 of Rim Rock that says the road is not striped so... 4 MS. HOFFER: Okay, uh-huh. 5 On the Brinks Crossing, we did install the 6 edge markings, the reflectors, and the flood gauges, and 7 signs; and it is completed. I did bring some pictures 8 that you all can look through if you would like, they 9 are listed on the projects. I don't have them for all 10 the projects in here but the majority of them are in 11 there. And you guys are more than welcome to look at 12 those projects, but the -- the Brinks Crossing one we 13 have been working with Commissioner Moser on it and I 14 think it turned out very well. I think he was very 15 pleased. I haven't had a chance to drive it at night. 16 One of our guys was going to San Antonio and was going 17 to make sure he drove through that way at night to see 18 how it reflected, but I have not been able to do that 19 yet and I need to. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And it's something 21 unique too, it's a white area and then the reflector 22 area and if you can't see the white don't cross that 23 bridge, because that's a six-inch level from one end to 24 the other. 25 MS. HOFFER: Yes. 14 1 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yes. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: It looks great. 3 MS. HOFFER: Thank you. 4 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I will say a nice 5 thing about the Road and Bridge, too. Out on Upper 6 Turtle Creek where you guys made us a nice little bar 7 ditch on the side of the road and put the reflectors in. 8 It was completely full of water yesterday and no wash on 9 the road so it was a good job. 10 MS. HOFFER: I know exactly where you're 11 talking about, it does look good. 12 COMMISSIONER BELEW: You're welcome. 13 MS. HOFFER: But other than that, that's 14 pretty much the end of my report. We're busy. It's the 15 time of year we get really, really busy. I don't really 16 think we have a slow time, but this one is probably our 17 busiest time trying to get everything ready for May. 18 So we will see what we can get done out of 19 that 51 miles and then that does not include the 20 contracted roads. By the time you put the contracted 21 roads in I think my total would be 53.69 miles. So 22 hopefully our weather will hold for us. But we will get 23 done what we can get done. 24 JUDGE KELLY: As always very efficient, we 25 appreciate it. 15 1 MS. HOFFER: Thank you, appreciate it. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: There's one other 3 thing that you might want to mention for the record. 4 MS. HOFFER: Yes, sir? 5 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And, Charlie, help me 6 here, but where we vacated the road on the east end of 7 the dog park, the going through -- through the private 8 property there. Why don't you just state what that was 9 so... 10 MR. HASTINGS: Gosh, it's been a little 11 while. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah. 13 MR. HASTINGS: Jack, do you remember the 14 name of that road, I've already forgotten? 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yes. 16 JUDGE KELLY: It -- 17 MR. HASTINGS: But it goes back into the 18 dog park. 19 UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: On Redemption. 20 MR. HASTINGS: That's it. Redemption Road. 21 There was a portion that we vacated that was just going 22 through somebody's property, and it involved the dog 23 park. 24 JUDGE KELLY: The Rockwell property. 25 MR. HASTINGS: Yes, yes. 16 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We just adjusted it. 2 MS. HOFFER: Yes, we do -- if we ever 3 needed to for emergency we still are able to get to -- 4 JUDGE KELLY: Right. 5 MR. HASTINGS: We can still come through 6 those gates since we have locks on them. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: If we have a need we 8 can adjust it so it's not. 9 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Good, thank you. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Very good, thank you. 11 Charlie. 12 MR. HASTINGS: Thank you. I've got a 13 little report here to pass out. 14 I broke this up into the four main areas 15 that engineering takes care of floodplain, 16 right-of-ways/driveways, subdivisions, and projects. 17 In floodplain, of course, you know about 18 the Medina watershed floodplain map changes. And we 19 have a public hearing set for April 22nd. The technical 20 appeals will be due June 1st. We are totally on 21 schedule for that. I have got the maps. I had Bobby 22 make a special map that makes it very clear what has 23 changed and what hasn't. So this is for the public to 24 come to my office and look at and we will guide them 25 through that and make sure they know where their 17 1 property is at and how it affects them. 2 For floodplain so far this calendar year 3 we've got about seven permits that we have issued, those 4 are commercial, residential and erosion control permits. 5 And per year we usually average about 50. So about 6 every week we are doing another floodplain permit. 7 We do have two notice of violations that 8 are outstanding right now. One of them is at 2181 Goat 9 Creek Road, the McGilvray property, that's in 10 Precinct 4. The issue was fill and construction of a 11 structure in the Zone 8 floodplain, and he has 12 completed, his engineer has completed a No-Rise 13 engineering certificate, but he hasn't filled out the 14 permit application and paid the fee. So he did a bunch 15 of work and we are going to get him there and we'll get 16 him in compliance, but I wanted y'all to be aware of 17 that. 18 At 350 Spur 100, this is the Smith 19 property, Precinct 2, there is fill from the creek where 20 it looked like they altered the bed of the creek and 21 they brought that up to the top. And when I do these 22 notice of violations I copy the judge and I copy the 23 commissioner of that precinct. So it's possible that, 24 Commissioner Harris, I don't know that you know about 25 the one on Goat Creek because that one has been 18 1 outstanding for a while. It started -- 2 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yes, those little 3 cabins. 4 MR. HASTINGS: Yes, that's the one. That's 5 the one. 6 The Third Creek flood study, that flood 7 study was completed by Dee Purkeypile, Purkeypile 8 Engineering, that's in Precinct 2. It's on Spur 100. 9 It's Third Creek from Spur 100 to Highway 27, that area 10 is a zone aid, it's never been studied. As we all know, 11 the City and Freese and Nichols studied the area 12 upstream of Spur 100 on Third Creek, and they had 13 initially come back with some studies that kind of made 14 the communities eyebrows raise or thought, wow, we 15 didn't know there was that much water in that area. Our 16 study did confirm that the Freese and Nichols study is 17 textbook; however, our engineer believes, and I believe 18 the same thing, that the volume of water that they 19 assumed initially was very conservative. 20 I don't believe there's that much rain that 21 is going to come out of the sky or that much that's 22 going to run off from the property that's in the area. 23 And I don't believe it will get that way in the future. 24 I don't think it's going to develop with that many 25 rooftops, especially, because the City, just like the 19 1 County, has detention requirements which should balance 2 things back out to preexisting. So they're really 3 conservative. And I need to visit with Commissioner of 4 Precinct 2, follow-up and show him some maps and get 5 some direction about how we want to move forward. 6 As far as the right-of-ways and driveways 7 go, and right-of-way would be utility permits for 8 utility company to install in our right-of-way. We've 9 got seven driveway permits issued this calendar year. 10 We have five utility installation permits issued this 11 calendar year. This is -- we go through these all year 12 long, it's not a big deal. A lot of times it's -- it's 13 either Hill Country Telephone Co-op installing 14 fiberoptics somewhere or KPUB putting a new pole in the 15 ground somewhere. Those are the typical ones for the 16 existing water systems. It's typically a main break. 17 They have had a main break, they did some emergency 18 repair, and then they need to follow up and get us a 19 permit just as quickly as possible so we have it 20 documented there was an emergency repair there and that 21 things got put back the way they are supposed to be. 22 Hill Country Telephone Co-op has been 23 proposing microtrenching. Microtrenching is where they 24 will install fiberoptic within the driving lanes of the 25 road, anywhere from 12 to 16 inches deep and the trench 20 1 is an inch-and-a-half to two inches wide. They backfill 2 it with concrete and then they seal the top with a 3 sealer. We are looking into that. There is a workshop 4 scheduled, I believe, for 9:00 a.m. on April 29th of 5 this year that Commissioner Moser has coordinated. So 6 we will get more into that in April. And at that time, 7 we should have had a chance to take pictures of other 8 places, talk to different communities and see what they 9 think and see if this is something that we would want in 10 our community. 11 Vlasek Pump Company, Precinct 4, Rockhouse 12 Road. They did an emergency water main repair recently, 13 and it took weeks to get them to repair the road to the 14 point where we could come in and do the final repair on 15 the surface. We were able to handle that. It just got 16 elevated to a point where Road and Bridge said, Hey, can 17 Engineering, can y'all help us with this, there's 18 something -- they're not communicating. We sent them a 19 letter. We got communication within 24 hours. They 20 apologized. It was more of an education process. 21 And that's how we have been handling the 22 utilities. We have got a handle on Aqua Texas, we've 23 got a handle on SouthWest Water Company. We feel like 24 we've got a handle on Vlasek Pump Company, but I wanted 25 you to be aware that those are the kind of things that 21 1 sometimes we deal with. And if it gets elevated to the 2 point that we need to start copying the judge and the 3 commissioners we will do that. But I don't think it's 4 to the point where we need to adopt any kind of special 5 regulations other than what we have been doing. 6 Subdivisions. Crooked Creek Estates was 7 adopted. The plat and everything was accepted in 8 December of 2018, so that starts the one-year 9 maintenance period for the developer and his contractor. 10 If there's anything wrong we will be monitoring that 11 over the next -- we've got seven or eight more months 12 left in that year. And we will be bringing that back to 13 Commissioners Court December the 9th for final 14 acceptance of the road. 15 Hidden Springs Phase 1 is Precinct 3, 16 that's off of US 87, it's a 128-acre subdivision. It's 17 got 17, 5-plus acre lots, and there is a 29-acre green 18 space. So it is kind of unique in that green space, 19 they are calling it agrihood. And they are going to 20 grow things in that space, and when you come home from 21 work you can go through that garden and get your 22 vegetables, I guess, is kind of what the concept and the 23 idea that was presented to us. And the construction 24 began over the summer of 2018. They have got all of the 25 roads completed in there, but not paved. So the base is 22 1 in place, the drainage is in place. 2 They are moving on, y'all just approved 3 Phase 2 the other day. We had a pre-construction 4 meeting on that, that's 419 acres of this, this will 5 complete Hidden Springs. It's 71, 5-plus acre lots. 6 And then there is a 5-acre lot there for amenities. I 7 don't know if they are going to put a swimming pool or a 8 club house or what they are going to do on that 5 acres, 9 it's still kind of up in the air. Their road and 10 drainage construction has begun this month here in 11 March. And they are going to -- they are going -- when 12 they get everything done then are going to pave it all 13 so it's all continuous. One paving operation from 14 Phrase 1 to Phase 2, no seams. That's what they are 15 holding off for on Phase 1. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Jonathan, what's the 17 projected value of those homes there in that 18 subdivision; do you know? 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I would imagine they 20 will be anywhere from 750,000 to 1.5 million. 21 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The lots are 250,000. 23 MR. HASTINGS: Mision En Las Conlinas, 24 Precinct 1, 207 acres, eight, 20-plus acre lots. We are 25 very familiar with this because it was just at a 23 1 Commissioners' Court meeting. We do have a concept plan 2 that was approved by Commissioners' Court on 3 February 2019 subject to them complying with the rest of 4 our regulations. So their engineer is now on board. 5 He's putting together legitimate road and bridge, and 6 drainage construction plans. There's not any bridges, 7 but there's some culverts so there's drainage involved. 8 And he's working through that process with us. 9 Santa Fe Manufactured Home Park, this has 10 been on the books for several years. Victor Garcia is 11 the developer of this. He does things right, he really 12 does, but it is taking him a little while to get it 13 done. He got his road constructed. This is off of 14 Lafayette and it's just an eight mobile home site. His 15 road is constructed. He was having issues with finding 16 a good paving contractor locally who could get it done. 17 And they just weren't getting it done to his liking so 18 he decided to just pave it himself with concrete. So 19 he, actually, has a really awesome concrete road out 20 there with a really nice cul-de-sac. 21 He only lacks putting his drainage in. So 22 if you get a call from someone in the community about 23 what's taking that so long; all the rain in October, 24 November, December, January, he can't go out there and 25 dig a drainage detention pond in that mud so he's been 24 1 holding off. But I anticipate that he will finish that 2 project this year, probably here this spring in the 3 early summer. 4 As far as Projects go, we have talked 5 floodplain, we have talked right-of-way/driveways, we 6 have talked subdivisions, and the fourth big area that 7 engineering takes care of is projects. The East Kerr 8 County Wastewater Project Phase 1 started in September 9 of 2017. It's scheduled to be completed in January 10 of 2020. As far as payment goes it's 67 percent 11 complete, as far as the budget goes. As far as sewer 12 mains that have been installed, we've got 80 percent of 13 our sewer mains installed on that. The wastewater 14 treatment plant upgrades are just nearly complete. They 15 have still got several lift stations that are 16 outstanding. And, of course, the very daunting task of 17 abandoning all the different septic tanks and getting 18 those yard lines installed and people connected, that 19 takes the longest. So that will be the last thing that 20 they are doing, obviously, on that project. But they 21 are scheduled to be complete in January 2020. And I see 22 the light at the end of tunnel, finally, just this past 23 month. 24 We took and had a meeting the other day and 25 took a highlighter and highlighted all the different 25 1 sheets. I don't know if you can see that highlighter 2 from back here but I have got about five sheets here. 3 Every sheet is completely highlighted meaning the sewer 4 line has been installed from Comfort down past Westwood; 5 from Westwood down past Nicks Road; from Nicks Road down 6 to 1350, where it turns off into 1350; and they are in 7 the final stretches of finishing up in Center Point. 8 There's only a hand full of streets on there that need 9 to be done. So as far as our roads being disturbed and 10 the sewer mains being installed, that's coming to an 11 end. 12 Next week the contractor will be here to 13 begin paving. They are using Hayden Paving as a 14 subcontractor. And they wanted to come this week, they 15 wanted to come last week, but they have been finishing 16 up jobs elsewhere. They anticipate they will be here 17 Monday and they will be working in Center Point on Mosty 18 Lane, First, Second, Third, Fourth, Avenue C, Avenue D, 19 that area. So that's kind of the first one-fifth of 20 Center Point that has been disturbed that they are going 21 to start on their paving to patch those roads back the 22 way they should be and in as good or better condition. 23 The 2019 road reconstruction project has 24 been bid. We awarded it to Allen Keller. We had a 25 pre-construction meeting with them. We are going to 26 1 issue a notice to proceed beginning April the 15th. 2 That is a 90-day project, should take about three 3 months. It includes Peterson Farm Road; however, that 4 didn't get awarded to Allen Keller. As 5 Commissioner Moser mentioned TxDOT is going to do that 6 for us, and that is a huge value for the project. 7 Sutherland Lane intersection is included in their work. 8 Hermann Sons is four-tenths of a mile, Elm Pass Road 2 9 is nine-tenths of a mile, and Upper Turtle Creek Road is 10 eight-tenths of a mile, those are the roads that we are 11 working on. 12 The East Kerr County Wastewater Project 13 Phases 2 and 3 construction bidding, we're at the point 14 where we are real close and ready to bid the project. 15 They are both pending final easement acquisition. We 16 have a couple of two or three easements that are 17 outstanding that we have got to close the door on. 18 And then Lane Valley right-of-way. This is 19 an ongoing Precinct 3 project that the engineering 20 department, we just provided the technical support is 21 being provide by Engineering Department. Commissioner 22 of Precinct 3, Commissioner Letz, has been really 23 running that project and it's on the books. 24 Do you have any questions about anything 25 that I have mentioned? 27 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: A comment. Great 2 report. I like the way you did it with the four 3 different categories. 4 What percentage, just off the top of your 5 head, of your time is spent on projects as opposed -- 6 because I know you spend a lot of time on that, compared 7 or added to the other three. 8 MR. HASTINGS: 60 to 75 percent of our time 9 is on those projects. 10 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yes, sir. Charlie has 11 saved us a ton of money. So good job. 12 MR. HASTINGS: And then at the very bottom 13 of my report I've got several departments that we work 14 with pretty closely on a regular basis. And you 15 mentioned, Hey, this is an opportunity to let us know 16 about employees that shine. These employees don't work 17 for us, but we work with them. And I have to tell you, 18 I can go down this list, everyone of them, Environmental 19 Health; the County Clerk's Office; the County Attorney; 20 Information Technology; Commissioners' Court; Jody; 21 Maintenance; County Auditor, County Surveyor. And the 22 County Surveyor is not really a department, as you know 23 it's an elected position, but we work closely with 24 everyone of these individuals or departments. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Good point. 28 1 MR. HASTINGS: And you have outstanding 2 department heads. They are a joy to work with. It 3 makes coming to work so much fun. These are the folks 4 that we work with primarily. We just don't have issues. 5 We have no issues to report, but wanted you to know 6 you've got some really, really outstanding people. 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: On the lighter side, 8 you might, you and Bobby might do what the sheriff did 9 is y'all take a picture of you holding hands. Get it in 10 the paper, you know. 11 MR. HASTINGS: We are not going to do that. 12 (Laughter) 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Show the close 14 cooperation. 15 Did you get that? 16 THE REPORTER: (Nods head.) 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Just making sure 18 that's on the record, that's an important one. 19 JUDGE KELLY: He's been waiting all morning 20 to gig the sheriff. 21 MR. HASTINGS: I do want to mention we do 22 have an extremely outstanding employee in Bobby Gore. 23 He's my right hand man. I think every one of us has had 24 a chance to work with him at -- in some form or fashion, 25 but he just fits the job perfect. It's just a perfect 29 1 fit. He's outstanding. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Good job. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Excellent, Charlie. 4 UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Hierholzer may need a 5 raise because he's going to have a hard time signing all 6 those citations. 7 (Laughter) 8 JUDGE KELLY: Strike that from the record, 9 too. 10 MR. HASTINGS: I will also say, Kelly and I 11 work extremely close together, you all know that, 12 engineering is a subsidiary to Road and Bridge. Road 13 and Bridge comes first, we are the consultant and they 14 are our primary client. But Kelly and I talked about 15 all these departments, too. She echos what I said. 16 THE COURT: Well, y'all are really a model 17 of what the county is looking for in the way that we 18 work together as a team. So thank you very much to both 19 of you, excellent reports. 20 Kelly. 21 MS. HOFFER: I just wanted to add and kind 22 of mirror on what Charlie said. Having an Engineering 23 Department, a real engineering department, here at the 24 level that Kerr County is getting and, I think, we'll 25 only increase in population, I think was a smart move to 30 1 bring on an Engineering Department when you did. I know 2 a lot of it was for the Kerr County sewer project, but 3 there are a lot of things that Charlie and Bobby get 4 involved with that is a tremendous benefit and help to 5 our department. And it enables us to do that 50 miles, 6 little over 50 miles, by having them, you know, doing 7 the things a lot of people don't realize that they are 8 involved with and doing. So, I thank you for bringing 9 on an Engineering Department, it's a great help. 10 JUDGE KELLY: And despite some local 11 misperceptions Kerr County is slowly entering the 21st 12 century, so, we are getting there. Thank you very much. 13 MS. HOFFER: Thank you. 14 JUDGE KELLY: This is the time for us to 15 share before we have to get out of here things that are 16 going on. And I wanted to at least put some topics out 17 there before I have to leave. We are going to be 18 talking about the audit that we talked about earlier in 19 the week for the Emergency Service District. We have 20 got a technical problem with that. We've got James here 21 to talk about it. I know some of the ESD 22 representatives are going to try and be here, they are 23 not here yet. But you need to know that the big issue 24 there is we're going to need a CPA to conduct those 25 audits and we don't have a CPA working for the county 31 1 right now. So that will be something that we will be 2 discussing ongoing. 3 Another thing that I talked with Bob Reeves 4 about just this week, John Miller from across the street 5 has approached us about possibly leasing or buying the 6 building suite, that back lot back there on Jefferson 7 Street. I have a drawing of that, it's the only one I 8 have got but I will pass it around so you can see, at 9 least, what they approached us about discussing. So 10 that's going to be an opportunity that we will be 11 following up on weeks to come. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Is it a purchase or a 13 lease, because I know he's leased everything else? 14 JUDGE KELLY: Well -- 15 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I mean, the other 16 stuff he's willing to serve a 99-year lease. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Right now everything has 18 fallen through, as I understand it, and he's kind of 19 going back to square one. 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. Okay. 21 JUDGE KELLY: We can get you clarification 22 on that, but -- 23 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Okay. 24 JUDGE KELLY: -- there is opportunity afoot 25 and for us to keep our eyes open. 32 1 Another little thing that I would like to 2 share. I am going to meet tomorrow morning with Jason 3 Davis and our juvenile -- the chief of our Juvenile 4 Probation Department. We have a perspective 5 purchaser/lessor taking their third look at the Juvenile 6 Detention Center. So that's something that we are going 7 to be back discussing. I suspect -- he wants me to be 8 there, it's at 7 o'clock in the morning, anybody that 9 wants to come with me is welcome, but at 7 o'clock in 10 the morning that's a good drive for me. 11 COMMISSIONER MOSER: I did that one time to 12 go duck hunting and that's enough. 13 JUDGE KELLY: But in any event we are 14 optimistic because this is their third visit and they 15 are bringing in, they are flying in one of their 16 executives to take a look at it. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Super. 18 JUDGE KELLY: So I should be coming back 19 with discussions about what they are interested in and 20 we can start talking about what we are interested in. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What are we looking at 22 the new facility or the old facility or both? 23 JUDGE KELLY: The new facility. It sounds 24 like they want to run a juvenile detention operation. 25 That's what it sounds like. 33 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Perfect for that. 2 JUDGE KELLY: It is, that's what it was 3 built for. So that's good news, we'll be talking about 4 that in weeks to come. 5 Also, maybe not so much on your radar 6 screen as mine with the juvenile docket, and I know my 7 county attorney is very well aware of this, we have an 8 issue because we cannot get mental health treatment. 9 MHDD does not provide mental health treatment for our 10 juveniles when they are in detention. And, of course, 11 we've got them in Seguin right now, that's where we are 12 housing them, but that presents an issue. We had, 13 believe it or not, a -- of all things sitting in 14 juvenile court I had a United States constitutional 15 issue with regard to a juvenile that has been detained 16 for 54 days, that needs mental health treatment, but we 17 can't give it to him while he's in detention. And so we 18 can't release him because he's a danger to the public. 19 I won't go into what the offenses were, but it was 20 really a dilemma. 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I thought we could do 22 that via the internet, at this point. 23 THE COURT: Well, we are talking about 24 trying to open that up in the juvenile detention 25 facility. I am meeting with Ross Robinson and 34 1 Sheree Hess, they are in-house counsel, tomorrow morning 2 at 10:00. So we go from juvenile detention to MHDD. 3 Hopefully progress there is afoot also. So those are 4 some of the couple of things that I am working on. 5 Yesterday I met with Jennifer Shumake who 6 was from the Texas Jail Commission, inspector for our 7 jail, and everybody needs to know that we passed with 8 flying colors. We are the exemplar, at this point. We 9 have two technical assistant comments. One of which is 10 a 23-year-old design defect that we have been living 11 with all this time that nobody ever dinged us on, but we 12 will deal with it. And another one, I say a design 13 defect, this was a shower and a shower shield. It's 14 been the same design for 23 years and nobody ever 15 thought there was a problem with it, but now we have to 16 deal with it. 17 And then the other one had to do with our 18 ERC, our emergency -- 19 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Restraint chair. 20 JUDGE KELLY: -- restraint chair. And I 21 had the awesome opportunity to watch it in use while 22 there. I was glad I was in the glass classroom to watch 23 it. But the problem is we do have a log from the last 24 inspection, but we had a couple of dings because we 25 hadn't completely filled out our log. So we are going 35 1 to write a recommendation on that and get that one taken 2 care of. 3 Hats off particularly to our jail 4 administrator, Sylvia Foraker and her assistant, Andrew 5 Blizzard. And, of course, the assistant administrator, 6 Oliva Montanez, excellent job. I am very proud to be 7 able to hear the State compliment the way we are running 8 our jail. So you take a lot of flak, but you get kudos 9 this time. We appreciate what you're doing for us. 10 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Appreciate that. 11 JUDGE KELLY: And I am just trying to get 12 my stuff out of the way so y'all can talk about what you 13 want to. 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: We have an executive 15 thing still, don't we? 16 JUDGE KELLY: We do. We do. But one of 17 the things that I have been following closely is the 18 revenue caps of the Legislature. And it's looking like 19 the two-and-a-half percent cap may actually go into 20 effect. That will directly impact us. And you will 21 remember in years past as we did the budget process with 22 Brenda she could give us an almost instantaneous off the 23 top of her head analysis as to budget decisions that we 24 would make and the impact to the rollback tax effect. 25 And I visited with James about this and James is on top 36 1 of this as we start the budget process. And we worked 2 on the calendar a little bit, we haven't fine tuned that 3 yet, but we've begun the process. 4 I have asked our Tax Assessor Collector 5 Bob Reeves, in the back of the room, to kind of be point 6 person to get on top of this, the revenue cap. And be 7 able to give us kind of a blow-by-blow as we go through 8 the budget process as to how our decisions may impact 9 whether or not we're going to have to have the rollback. 10 Because it's going to be very pertinent for us. And 11 this will be the last year that we get to budget without 12 the rollback. And I know Commissioner Letz has talked 13 to me about if we have a bond election we want to make 14 sure that that's not going to be included in the 15 rollback so we've got some other issues that we want to 16 pay attention to. But I just wanted to let you know 17 that we do have a mechanism in place where we are trying 18 to monitor this and be prepared for it and be able to 19 give the Court accurate information as we go through 20 that budget process. 21 And then I would conclude with, if you 22 haven't looked at the job description for the auditor 23 it's not up to date. We have got in there an 24 Associate's Degree rather than a Bachelor's Degree. 25 We've got in there -- of course, that can be substituted 37 1 with experience. I know we've got the job posted and 2 that's the job description that we have posted and we 3 are going to have to live with it. But we need to pay 4 attention to what is it that we really want in terms of 5 those qualifications with regard to the auditor. At 6 some part -- at some point in this process of having the 7 district judges retain, hire an auditor for the county. 8 We are going to need to take a look at what do we want 9 them -- what are the qualifications and job duties that 10 we want them to pay attention to in that process. 11 I did that quickly, I apologize. I am 12 almost running out of time. I certainly don't want to 13 cut anybody off, but I just felt duty bound to make sure 14 that y'all knew issues that I am working on as your 15 judge. 16 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Two things. And I've 17 got to go here in just of a couple of minutes, too. But 18 real quickly, Starlite Recovery Center is now 19 considering the option of tying into the Center 20 Point/East Kerr County Wastewater System, which is good. 21 So they are working with Charlie on what it would take 22 to do that, and that's extremely positive. 23 The other one is, I was telling the Judge 24 this morning, Martin Marietta looks like they may have a 25 way to eliminate 16,000 truckloads per year going 38 1 between their two sites on Highway 27. So, that's under 2 discussion and that would be really good. So, with 3 that, I am going to follow you out. 4 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Tom, yesterday we 5 were talking about Starlite, what is that about 1,000 6 feet or what is that -- 7 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Something in that 8 neighborhood, yeah. It depends on the path and that 9 data. That's a civil engineering issue, right. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. So at this time, what 11 I am going to do is I'm going to declare a short break, 12 a recess, and let us take up what needs to be taken up 13 in executive session and then conclude any information 14 we have. 15 I need the court reporter to be able to 16 load up and setup back down in the probate court. So 17 let's take a break and let her move. And then we'll 18 handle the executive sessions by a certified agenda 19 anyway. So that will give us a transition to be able to 20 move on to other activities of the day. 21 All right. So let's stand in recess for 22 about five minutes. 23 ****** 24 25 39 1 STATE OF TEXAS ) 2 COUNTY OF KERR ) 3 I, KAREN FREEMAN, Certified Shorthand Reporter 4 in and for the State of Texas and Deputy Reporter in and 5 for Kerr County, do hereby certify that the above and 6 foregoing pages contain and comprise a true and correct 7 transcription of the proceedings had in the 8 above-entitled Commissioners' Court. 9 Dated this the 27th day of March, A.D. 2019. 10 11 /s/KAREN FREEMAN Certified Shorthand Reporter 12 NO. 4254 ` Expiration Date 12/31/19 13 ****** 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25