1 1 2 3 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS' COURT 4 Special Session 5 Thursday, April 11, 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 JONATHAN LETZ, Commissioner Precinct 3 DON HARRIS, Commissioner Precinct 4 25 2 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 *** APPROVAL AGENDA. 4 1.1 Pay Bills. 3 5 1.2 Budget Amendments. 4 6 1.5 Court Orders. 5 7 1.6 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 11 action regarding the vacancy of the Kerr 8 County 4-H position. 9 *** Reporter's Certificate. 14 10 * * * * * * 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 3 1 JUDGE KELLY: Okay, it is Thursday, April 2 the 11th, 2019 at 9 o'clock. The Commissioners' Court 3 of Kerr County is now in session. Oh, I didn't bang my 4 gavel. Everybody can hear me fine. We don't have a 5 crowd in here today. And we'll try to get through this 6 as expeditiously as possible. 7 We'll start with the Approval Agenda on pay 8 bills 1.1. 9 MRS. JOHNSON: Good morning. For Kerr 10 County we have $204,954.54. For other funds for 11 Treasurer to disburse, Adult Probation $4,215.94. Fund 12 75, which is the 216th D.A. forfeiture account, 13 $1,808.00. Fund 78 for the County Clerk fees $4.00. 14 And fund 95, the 198th DA forfeiture fund $1,807.05. 15 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I'm just curious what 16 we paid $4.00 for. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Fund 78. 18 MRS. JOHNSON: Restitution. I'm pretty sure 19 it is restitution, but I'll have to look at it. 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: There's that much in 21 the coffee jar in there just in case we need it. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It was an overpayment. 23 Refund of an overpayment. 24 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move that we approve 25 as read. 4 1 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Okay, Commissioner Harris has 3 moved, and Commissioner Belew has seconded payment of 4 the bills. Without further discussion, those in favor 5 raise your hand. Unanimous, four zero. We need the 6 record to reflect that Commissioner Moser's absent with 7 leave. 8 Item 1.2 budget amendments. 9 MRS. JOHNSON: We have two. County Court at 10 Law, and Courthouse Security. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Okay, any discussion about the 12 budget -- proposed budget amendments? 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move for approval for 14 both budget amendments as presented. 15 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Okay, Commissioner Letz has 17 moved, and Commissioner Harris has seconded for approval 18 of both budget amendments. Is there any further 19 discussion or any clarification for any of these items? 20 Just as a question, briefly, Joy, what really triggered 21 the 24 hundred dollars conferences in the County Court 22 at Law? Is this just another seminar that she needs to 23 go to? 24 MR. ROBLES: I'll answer that one. She does 25 not think her conference is going to cost as much as she 5 1 did, and so she just wanted to move $400.00 to her 2 office supplies, mostly to pay for the desk that was 3 recently built. 4 JUDGE KELLY: So it's moving 24 -- 400 out 5 of conferences over -- got it. Now I understand. 6 Okay, all those in favor raise your hand. 7 Unanimous, four zero. 8 Next item on the agenda is 1.3 late bills. 9 MRS. JOHNSON: There are none. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Item 1.4 approve payroll? 11 MRS. JOHNSON: There is none. 12 JUDGE KELLY: 1.5 court orders. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. And court orders 14 from Monday's meeting, I suggested a couple changes from 15 what was sent out on 1.2, the concept plan for Twin 16 Arrows Precinct 2 just a little bit cleaner. I added 17 the word "Subdivision" after "Arrows", so it's Twin 18 Arrows Subdivision, and that one change has already been 19 made. 20 Then on 1.5 it was a proclamation for the 21 Water Stewardship Week, and I changed the wording so it 22 just says "approve". We're planning the week of April 23 2nd, 2019 through May 5th, 2019 as Water Stewardship 24 Week and authorize the County Judge to sign the 25 Proclamation. The original word was approve and sign 6 1 the same, and same didn't seem to fit because it was a 2 Proclamation. 3 And then on item -- 4 JUDGE KELLY: Clear is always better. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- 1.20 was the one 6 about exemptions of subdivision rules and -- 7 JUDGE KELLY: I thought you said a public 8 meeting, right? 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No. This is the one 10 where we had executive session, but we did it in open 11 session before the end of the meeting. And it is one 12 where the exemptions, I think you actually abstained. 13 JUDGE KELLY: That's where I got confused? 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. And so I tried to 15 clean up what we were trying to do because this is 16 really an important one. And what the intent was, I 17 think we said it more or less, but to change the wording 18 from what was written to approve that the exemptions in 19 Section 1.03 of Kerr County Subdivision Rules and 20 Regulations do not apply for a new subdivision of 21 property which creates two or more lots of five acres or 22 less, intended for residential purposes. I put the 23 language straight out of our subdivision rules as to 24 what we were getting rid of so it was clear. It was not 25 as clear with the motion that was there, and Jackie went 7 1 through the minutes. And this is the intent, but it was 2 not -- it was oddly phrased. 3 JUDGE KELLY: And let me explain my 4 confusion. And this is all on me, nobody else. My 5 confusion, nobody else. My understanding was that there 6 were two state sets of guidelines that we had adopted, 7 rules, right, and we were trying to make decision of 8 which one was going to preempt the other. That's where 9 I got confused as to which one are we going with, and 10 which one are we overruling. But more importantly in 11 the big picture, and I know we've got a workshop coming 12 up on subdivision rules. And right now it sounds like 13 to me one of the things we're considering is having Lots 14 as small as a third of an acre, .33 or -- 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: .33 or 35. 16 JUDGE KELLY: A third of an acre. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: A third of an acre. 18 JUDGE KELLY: We can make them that small, 19 and my understanding is because that that's as small as 20 the State Rules allows to do them under any 21 circumstances. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Not exactly. We can -- 23 JUDGE KELLY: And that's where I'm at, I'm 24 getting confused. And we don't need to solve that 25 problem today. I'm just saying that you want to know 8 1 where my brain hiccuped, and big picture as we adopt 2 these subdivision rules, and I may be putting the cart 3 before the horse, but I want to be careful as to what 4 orders I vote for and vote against, because at the end 5 of the day, I'm probably going to lean for us having a 6 little bit better rules than the State. I still believe 7 that is the premiere county in the state, this is the 8 number 1 place in the state to live. Our rules should 9 be better than what the rest of the state's doing. And 10 I'm just -- I'm just -- I'm arrogant, I'm sorry. I'm 11 proud of where I live. And if that means that we're 12 going to make our minimum a half acre, then maybe we 13 should consider that. I don't want to preclude anything 14 like that. That was the reason I got confused and said 15 I'm not sure I know what to vote on. My brain was a 16 little brain dead by then, and so as far as this goes, 17 as long as this order doesn't affect that, I've got no 18 problem with it. I just wanted to be able to talk about 19 it and make a knowledgeable decision, an informed 20 decision as to what we want, because we're going to be 21 looking right down the barrel of that Highway 27 22 corridor. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I think when we go 24 through the rules that we are stricter than most in the 25 state. 9 1 JUDGE KELLY: And I'm proud of that. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And one of the reasons 3 we're doing this subdivision rewrite -- when I say 4 rewrite, we're looking at it and it's been going for 5 quite awhile, is that we adopted rules in 2003, then we 6 applied for these grants in 2006 or 7, whatever it was, 7 we adopted another set of rules that applied to some of 8 our lots, and it's in that section this conflict 9 developed. And we noticed this October, and Heather 10 then went to the Elected Forum, the Texas Water 11 Development Board, and said we're confused. Which 12 one -- 13 JUDGE KELLY: You're making me feel better. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We're confused, which 15 one do we follow? And that came back last week, I 16 guess, or the week before last, you follow Model Rules; 17 not your other rules. 18 JUDGE KELLY: And, and again, my comment is 19 I'm good with that as long as what we're doing in this 20 order does not preclude us being able to discuss and 21 adopt whatever rules we think are appropriate after we 22 have our workshop, because I want to protect that, 23 that -- 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The Model Rules are 25 stricter than State Rules. 10 1 JUDGE KELLY: I know that. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So the State -- the 3 Water Development Board is saying that you are going to 4 use our stricter rules; you can't use your other State 5 Rules. 6 JUDGE KELLY: And I just want to keep the 7 door open that maybe we want to be a little more 8 stricter than the Model Rules. 9 MRS. STEBBINS: And the point of these rules 10 is that these are the minimum rules that we have to 11 comply with in order to continue to get the grant 12 funding and the loans for the project, and so these are 13 the minimum rules. 14 JUDGE KELLY: And I understood that. That 15 part I understood. 16 MRS. STEBBINS: Good. 17 JUDGE KELLY: I just didn't understand what 18 we were preempting and not preempting, and what doors we 19 are closing and what doors we are leaving open. As long 20 as we have all our doors open, and we've done what is 21 the absolute minimum that the State requires of us for 22 the time being, I'm good with that. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Anyway, that being said, 24 I make a motion that we approve the court orders from 25 our April 4th meeting, court orders 37399 through 37403. 11 1 And our court orders from our April 8th meeting, 37404 2 through 37422, as amended today. 3 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Commissioner Letz has moved, 5 and Commissioner Harris has seconded the approval of the 6 court orders as revised, which was read in court today. 7 Is there any further discussion about that? Those in 8 favor raise your hand. Unanimous, four zero. 9 Next item on the docket, we discussed this a 10 little bit with Roy Walston before everybody got here. 11 But just so that everybody's clear. The Court is 12 working on trying to clean up our agenda's processes. 13 And the County Attorney has advised us that we need to 14 do a little homework. And, and, and all of that is 15 good, but I'm just saying, one of the things that there 16 was some confusion about that I wanted to clarify on the 17 record, is this is an action item on a Thursday agenda, 18 and that's one of the things that we're discussing to 19 have action items on the Thursday agenda unless 20 absolutely necessary. So in spite of everything you've 21 read out here, this is legitimately on the agenda, we're 22 considering it today. But it is one of the things that 23 we're talking about it the future. 24 So with that, I'm going to call 1.6. And 25 Roy, you talk to us. 12 1 MR. WALSTON: Thank you, Judge and 2 Commissioners. I appreciate y'all seeing this today, 3 and taking the time. We would like to ask that y'all 4 open our position for our 4-H Agent in our Extension 5 Office, and we'd like to get that posted just as soon as 6 possible so we can get those -- get that announcement 7 out. 8 I have met with our HR Department and gone 9 over our job description and updated that, and got that 10 in our announcement out, ready to go. So that's -- 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Has that changed, Roy? 12 MR. WALSTON: No. Not since the last one, 13 no. We updated it and changed the -- actually changed 14 the title last time to 4-H Youth Educator. And so 15 that's what it is now. 16 JUDGE KELLY: And just for clarification 17 purposes, you referred to opening the position. Can you 18 will just refresh our recollection of a little bit of 19 history of why we need to open that position? 20 MR. WALSTON: As far as announcing wise, so 21 we can publicly offer that position now. We can 22 publicize it, put it in newspapers and put it on our 23 website, and start taking applications. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Well, I understand the affect 25 of them, but you're saying opening. I didn't recall 13 1 there being a closing in that position. 2 MR. WALSTON: Well, we had a vacancy in that 3 position and -- 4 JUDGE KELLY: And we didn't fill it? 5 MR. WALSTON: Yes, we need to fill it. 6 JUDGE KELLY: I know. But we had not filled 7 it, so when you say open, we're just getting that 8 position filled. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The person resigned that 10 was there, so there's a vacancy in that position. 11 MR. WALSTON: I guess that's what I meant, 12 yeah, as far as closing. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Any further discussion? Those 14 in favor raise your hand. Unanimous, four zero. 15 Okay, thank you for coming in. 16 MR. WALSTON: Appreciate it. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Let's back up. I make a 18 motion that we -- as Roy said open the position to fill 19 for the 4-H Coordinator with Texas AgriLife. 20 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 22 JUDGE KELLY: So there's been a motion made 23 by me, and seconded by Commissioner Belew. All those in 24 favor raise your hand. Still unanimous. Thanks. 25 * * * * * * 14 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 Approval Agenda. 9 Dated this the 27th day of April, 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