1 1 2 3 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS' COURT 4 Special Session 5 Thursday, June 13, 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 the Bills. 3 4 1.2 Budget Amendments. 3 5 1.5 Court Orders. 4 6 1.6 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 5 action regarding setting up joint meetings 7 with the City of Kerrville and topics to be discussed. 8 *** Reporter's Certificate. 17 9 * * * * * * 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 3 1 JUDGE KELLY: Okay, well, it is 9 o'clock. 2 (Gavel bang bang). The Commissioners Court of Kerr 3 County will come to session -- come to order. It is 4 Thursday, June the 13th, 2019 at 9 o'clock a.m. And I 5 got here with the addendum, but not the main agenda. 6 So let's do the bills. I always know 1.1 is 7 pay the bills. 8 MRS. JOHNSON: Good morning. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Yes, Ma'am. 10 MRS. JOHNSON: For Kerr, I have $595,426.58. 11 For other funds for the Treasurer to disburse, Adult 12 Probation $8,263.04. Airport $887.17. Juvenile 13 Probation $8,831.35. Fund 78, which is the County Clerk 14 fees, $2.62. Fund 88, the County Attorney Hot Check 15 Fund $585.00. And Fund 95, 198th DA Forfeiture $73.90. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. I move that we pay the 17 bills. 18 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 19 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Second. Go ahead. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. I moved, and 21 Commissioner Moser has seconded to paying the bills. 22 Any other discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. 23 Unanimous, five zero. 24 1.2 budget amendments. 25 MRS. JOHNSON: We have one for Road & 4 1 Bridge. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move for approval of 3 the budget amendment? 4 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Commissioner Letz has moved, 6 Commissioner Belew has seconded to approve budget 7 amendment for Road & Bridge. Is there any other 8 discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. Five zero, 9 unanimous. 10 1.3 late bills. 11 MRS. JOHNSON: There are none. 12 JUDGE KELLY: 1.4 payroll. 13 MRS. JOHNSON: There are none. 14 JUDGE KELLY: 1.5 court orders. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: There are court orders 16 from the June 10th meeting, and there were two minor 17 changes I suggested on the 37527. The last part of that 18 sentence says, "and County Attorney can draft liability 19 waivers for volunteers as needed". This is related to 20 the playground equipment. I didn't think that was 21 really part of the motion. That was just a comment, as 22 I recall that the County Attorney made, afterwards we 23 deleted that portion. 24 And then on disbursement of 37520, which is 25 disbursement of salaries and routine expenses, which was 5 1 the Court Order that basically pursuant to the new 2 legislation. It's recommended that we added the 3 language pursuant to SB-534, so people could reference 4 why we did that. 5 With those two modification I make a motion 6 to approve the -- 7 JUDGE KELLY: Any discussion? Okay, those 8 in favor raise your hand. Five zero, unanimous. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Who seconded it? 10 COMMISSIONER BELEW: I'll second it. 11 JUDGE KELLY: I'm sorry. I'm in a hurry 12 today. 13 1.6 on the addendum consider, discuss and 14 take appropriate action regarding setting up joint 15 meetings with the City of Kerrville, and topics to be 16 discussed. 17 I think we pretty much exhausted the 18 possible subjects with the list that Jody sent out. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I have some new ones. 20 JUDGE KELLY: You have some new ones. Well, 21 we need to keep adding. Then we'll start get going to 22 prioritize. And my thought was, this is just a thought, 23 that once we get our complete list, each one of us go 24 through and prioritize from 1 to 10 or 15, whatever it 25 is, and we add them up, and the ones with the lowest 6 1 scores oughta be the ones that we're going to have to 2 come back together and talk about it. But those will 3 probably be the -- 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: And put them in that 5 order and see. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Because we're talking about a 7 series of joint meetings. Right now it's -- we're 8 looking at one joint meeting is kind of unusual, but to 9 do two or three or four, or whatever, then we can just 10 keep moving down our priority list add more topics and 11 if need be reprioritize down the road. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Good way to do it. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The ones that I have, 14 I'll give to Jody. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Well, the next two weeks 16 you're going to have to give them to Cheryl. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, Cheryl. 18 Subdivision rules of ETJ, that's a very important one 19 from the standpoint of meeting compliance with State 20 Law. 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Is that on this list? 22 COMMISSIONER MOSER: No, he's going to add 23 it. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'm going to add it. 25 And as a subcategory or a separate category are model 7 1 old subdivision rules. From my discussion with the 2 City, they disagree with our and the state's 3 interpretation of those rules. And that says that our 4 rules, the model subdivision rules, which we have 5 adopted, are enforced in the ETJ, period, and their 6 rules are secondary. They do not agree with that, so 7 that is a bit of an issue, and -- 8 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Now, will this include 9 repairs of streets and that sort of thing in existing -- 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No. 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: -- subdivisions, 12 because that's one of the bigger questions. I mean we 13 have OSSF that deals with septic and that sort of stuff 14 in the ETJ, but we -- 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We do that in the City. 16 COMMISSIONER BELEW: And the City, but the 17 roads are always kind of a question mark. 18 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Add it to the list. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: If it's a County 20 maintained road in the ETJ, we do it. 21 COMMISSIONER BELEW: So there's the issue. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, but we do it. I 23 believe we're responsible for it in the ETJ, but -- 24 COMMISSIONER BELEW: It should be, and it 25 should be clearly delineated. 8 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. And the other 2 items that we need to add is the new City Animal Control 3 Ordinance, or whatever they're calling it, County Rules 4 and State Law. We need to just make sure that we're all 5 on the same page exactly what's going on, and this will 6 lead into some other discussions related to the 7 Interlocal Agreement possibly. 8 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Good. All good. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And on that topic, is 10 now a good time to ask Heather the question that you and 11 I just discussed? 12 JUDGE KELLY: Sure. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Some of these issues 14 like that one may impact and probably will impact the 15 Interlocal Agreement we have with the City as well. The 16 subdivision one as well, too. My opinion would be it 17 would be far better for us to discuss the details of 18 those, of our position and where we are in executive 19 session, because it's going to directly impact 20 negotiations with the City on a number of Interlocal 21 Agreements, short term and long term. 22 JUDGE KELLY: We need your input on what we 23 can legitimately discuss in executive session on some of 24 these sensitive topics, because we're getting ready to 25 sit down and talk to the City about it, and we need to 9 1 know where we are before we sit down and talk with them. 2 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Why don't we fly with 3 what we think in executive session and let Heather look 4 at it. 5 MRS. STEBBINS: That would be helpful 6 because it really does have something that -- 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And the ones -- 8 MRS. STEBBINS: -- would definitely 9 affect -- 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- I'm thinking of -- 11 MRS. STEBBINS: -- contract negotiations. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- are specifically 13 related to -- 14 MRS. STEBBINS: Thank you. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- current Interlocal 16 Agreements with the City, and the Airport could come 17 under of that. And I think that the review of all of 18 the Interlocal Agreements would be the issue, and then 19 maybe list them as an agenda item for us prior to -- I 20 mean we just need to figure out where we need to go on 21 everything. And I think that we need to do that in 22 closed session. 23 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, is that a matter 24 of looking at the Agreement, determining whether or not 25 it's a good and sustainable Agreement at the time. Is 10 1 that -- 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: -- what you're talking 4 about? 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's not all I'm 6 talking about; but that is part of what I'm talking 7 about. Part of what I'm talking about as an example 8 County's Rabies Control Entity for the entire county. 9 City, County, everyone. Where you draw the line between 10 rabies control and additional services is gray. That's 11 the discussion we need to have, where is that line, what 12 do we want to do as the County. If it lines up with the 13 City, great. 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Can you give me an 15 example? 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Adoptions. There's 17 nothing -- I mean, I can argue that adoptions improve 18 rabies control, and I can argue that has nothing to do 19 with rabies control. 20 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Okay. 21 JUDGE KELLY: But what we're really doing is 22 we want to be able to talk to one another and comply 23 with the Open Meetings Act, but we don't want to tell 24 the other side what we're thinking about unless we tell 25 them what we're thinking about. And that's simply put. 11 1 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Well, on the meeting 2 that we have, what do we envision the length of time for 3 that, because that will determine how many issues we 4 discuss. A couple hours or -- 5 JUDGE KELLY: I can just tell you, and from 6 the conversations I've had with multiple people here and 7 there, the first meeting is -- you hate to call it a 8 meet and greet, but it's a chance to get together and 9 get to know one another better, and have some issues 10 that we discuss. And so I call them softball issues. 11 We're not going play hardball the first meeting. It's 12 going to be soft pitch, slow pitch. 13 COMMISSIONER MOSER: What do you think 14 time-wise? 15 JUDGE KELLY: And my understanding is that 16 the County never provides lunch or meals, that's a 17 tradition. Don't want to spend the public tax dollars 18 with that, and I'm good with that. Which means if we 19 have a morning meeting we're going to have to break 20 about noon, no later than one o'clock. If we have an 21 afternoon meeting we'll have to break about five, six 22 o'clock. I can't see a meeting that's going to last 23 more than two, three hours maximum. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I agree. Two hours 25 is -- 12 1 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yeah, I think two. 2 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, you can just set 3 it from 2 to 4, or from 9 to 11. 4 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So maybe as we go 5 through this list, whoever put the item on there maybe 6 oughta say maybe 20 minutes or 30 minutes or something 7 like that, and that would give us an idea, too. After 8 we prioritize how many we can fit into that bucket. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Well, I think everyone of 10 these issues can easily take an hour. 11 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Without a doubt. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: So we might want to 13 limit it to three items first meeting. 14 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Right. 15 JUDGE KELLY: And even if we have an 16 incomplete discussion, we need to initiate a dialogue. 17 So if we have three topics, and we've got two hours, we 18 divide it up and each one's going to take maybe 30 19 minutes or -- 20 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Yeah, three items or 21 something like that. 22 COMMISSIONER BELEW: This is everybody 23 handshaking and get to know each other, and the easy one 24 is talking about the Airport -- 25 JUDGE KELLY: Soft pitch issues. 13 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I think part of the 2 scheduling needs to be like -- I don't think it would be 3 productive at all to put subdivision rules, ETJ as a 4 topic really to discuss amongst full Council and full 5 Court, because they're not going to have a clue what 6 we're talking about, that's not their jobs over there. 7 JUDGE KELLY: It might be an action item 8 from one of these topics would be that we're going to 9 send our Liaison Commissioners and meet with their City 10 Staff and City Councilman, or something like that. 11 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Well, if there's a 12 problem, if there's something that you think is a 13 specific upcoming issue or something that's been a 14 problem historically, why can't we just take those out 15 to discuss those, and not brief everybody on all the 16 subdivision rules? Just lift them out and highlight 17 them. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: To me say on the 19 subdivision rules, kind of a good example, say here the 20 County has a set of rules, the City has a set of rules, 21 we overlap them to the ETJ. State Law says we have to 22 work together here. How do we come up with a plan to do 23 that, and that's it, and we don't go into the rules. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Well, for example, I got a 25 call yesterday from somebody out in west Kerr County 14 1 asking me about the ETJ issues, and who to talk to at 2 the City and who to talk to over here. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think a good review 4 would be -- and this probably come more from the City 5 is, what authority does the City have in the ETJ, and 6 that kind of gets to some of your thing. It's a weird 7 law to me. They can enforce bill boards in the ETJ, you 8 know, which that's an odd thing. 9 But we get calls about that sometimes, 10 people wanting us -- you know, upset about the bill 11 boards and cell towers and all that. They may have some 12 authority on cell towers, I don't know. But I think 13 it's the kind of thing that would be good for Council 14 and us to understand. 15 JUDGE KELLY: You know, as you're talking 16 about this, it would probably be good just to have a 17 checklist from each side of here are the rules as we 18 understand them, here are the rules as you understand 19 them, and let's talk about what the differences are so 20 we know what we're going to need to work out. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And try to figure out 22 who's going to work them out and bring them back. 23 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Their subdivision rules 24 are more like you can't burn in your backyard and stuff 25 like that; not nearly the things that we have. It's a 15 1 City Ordinance though. Do they have any separate ones? 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Oh, yeah. 3 COMMISSIONER BELEW: What are they? We 4 don't know? 5 JUDGE KELLY: We need to -- we'll show you 6 ours; you show us yours. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We have tried -- the 8 City has had a pretty high turnover in that department 9 in the last several years, so we have restarted working 10 their rules, subdivision rules, three or four times. 11 I've met with them three or four times, and Charlie 12 Hastings has, but I don't know where they are now. 13 But some of these issues we need to resolve 14 them. And Reagan and I discussed briefly this morning, 15 they're redoing their Animal Control ordinance. I asked 16 Reagan, I said Reagan, make sure you go through that and 17 State Law to make sure. I don't want them to hopefully 18 pass an ordinance. We've had input into it, but they've 19 had a lot of changes based on who we've added to our 20 Animal Services Committee. They're moving quicker than 21 I wish they would on that. They're probably going to do 22 the first reading on it in the next week, or two weeks. 23 MRS. STEBBINS: If you're -- 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The current City 25 Ordinance related to Animal Control type services was 16 1 written in 1993, and it's way way out of date, and 2 that's caused a lot of the problems we've had. So 3 they're trying to update them right now. 4 MRS. STEBBINS: Legal evaluation of the 5 proposed ordinance is going to take some time. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Okay, so we've got a good 7 starting list. I'll get Cheryl to update it and get it 8 out to us, and we'll rank them and get them in and 9 tabulated, and follow up. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: To me they can be 11 grouped a little bit. 12 COMMISSIONER MOSER: That's a good idea. 13 Put them under subject matter, and then that could 14 otherwise be -- or likewise, that could be one meeting. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: One meeting. And 16 Economic development could very well be one meeting. 17 COMMISSIONER MOSER: Good point. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Good discussion. 19 * * * * * * 20 21 22 23 24 25 17 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 26th day of June, 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