1 1 2 3 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS' COURT 4 Regular Session 5 Monday, August 26, 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 JONATHAN LETZ, Commissioner Precinct 3 24 DON HARRIS, Commissioner Precinct 4 25 2 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 *** Visitor's Input. 7 4 *** Commissioner's Comments. 14 5 1.1 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 15 action on request from Hill Country Crisis 6 Council to display purple lights at the Courthouse for a night, or numerous nights, 7 during the month of October for Domestic Violence Awareness Month. 8 1.2 Public Hearing on the proposed Kerr 21 9 County and Lateral Roads 2019 tax rate. 10 1.3 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 21 action to approve the central counting 11 station personnel pursuant to Chapter 127.005 TEC. 12 1.4 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 22 13 action to approve the Memorandum of Understanding between the American Red 14 Cross, and Kerr County Emergency Management Director for Mass Care Services in the 15 event of a disaster. 16 1.5 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 23 action to authorize the County to submit 17 a response letter to Texas Commission on Environmental Quality following notice 18 from Reichhamm, LLC for a scrap tire storage site located at 5445 State 19 Highway 27, Center Point, Texas. 20 1.6 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 34 action to accept donations from Martin 21 Marietta Materials for bedrock sand for Kerr County Parks. 22 1.7 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 35 23 action to accept donation to the Specialty Court. 24 1.8 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 36 25 action on approving the job description for the Veteran Service's Assistant. 3 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 1.9 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 36 action on approval of the revised dental 4 rates updated by the TAC HEBP. 5 1.19 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 37 action to approve the Memorandum of 6 Understanding (MOU) between Kerr County and the Hill Country Council of Alcohol 7 and Drug Abuse-Region 8, and allow County Judge to sign same. 8 1.21 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 39 9 action to approve the Interlocal Agreement for mental health and psychoactive 10 medications hearings at Kerrville State Hospital and Hill Country Crisis 11 Stabilization Unit, and authorize the County Attorney to send to Commissioners' 12 Courts of contracting counties. 13 1.23 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 40 action to approve General Provisions for 14 FY 2019-2020. 15 1.24 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 47 action to set Public Hearing on proposed 16 County Budget for FY 2019-2020 at 9:45 a.m. on September 23, 2019. 17 1.25 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 48 18 action to authorize County Clerk to publish notice of Public Hearing on 19 consideration and adoption of Kerr County budget for FY 2019-2020 at 9:45 a.m. on 20 September 23, 2019. 21 1.26 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 48 action to clarify and amend Court Order 22 #36326 dated September 11, 2017 related to elected officials longevity policy. 23 1.10 Conduct a Public Hearing for revision of 54 24 plat for Sunridge Subdivision No. 2, Block 5, Lots 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14 and 25 Block 6, Lots 8, 9, 10, 11, 11A, along with unused portion of Foot Hill Drive right of way. 4 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 1.11 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 54 action for the Court to approve a revision 4 of plat for Sunridge Subdivision No. 2, Block 5, Lots 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 5 and 14, and Block 6, Lots 8, 9, 10, 11, 11A, along with unused portion of Foot 6 Hill Drive right of way. 7 1.12 Conduct a Public Hearing for the revision 55 of plat for Westwood Oaks Section 2, 8 Block 3, Lots 18 and 19. 9 1.13 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 55 action for Court to approve revision of 10 plat for Westwood Oaks Section 2, Block 3, Lots 18 and 19. 11 1.14 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 56 12 action for the Court to approve an amending plat of Falling Water, Lot 15R, Block 1, 13 Volume 8, Page 67. 14 1.15 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 57 action for the Court to issue a Certificate 15 of Compliance regarding construction of the Santa Fe Manufactured Home Park in 16 Precinct 4. 17 1.16 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 59 action for the Court to authorize the 18 County Judge to execute a construction contract for the placement of reinforced 19 concrete pavement and drainage on Crossing Street and authorize the closure of Crossing 20 Street from Skyview Road to Center Point River Road beginning August 26, 2019 through 21 September 30, 2019. 22 1.17 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 62 action for the Court to set a Public 23 Hearing for 10 a.m. on October 15, 2019 for a revision of plat for Spicer Ranch 24 No. 3, Lots 143, 144 and 145. 25 5 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 1.27 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 63 action to approve the base salaries for 4 elected officials for FY 1920. 5 1.28 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 64 action to amend court order number 37642 6 with revised "Proposed salary increases for elected county and precinct officials 7 for Kerr County FY 1920". 8 1.29 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 66 action regarding the long-range construction 9 needs committee. Appointments to be done at the September 9, 2019 Commissioners' Court 10 meeting. 11 1.30 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 68 action to authorize the County Attorney 12 to hire outside counsel to assist with Kerr County subdivision rules and 13 regulations update. 14 1.22 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 74 action on request to enter into a 381 15 Economic Development Agreement with Thompson Drive Partners. 16 2.1 Pay Bills. 88 17 2.2 Budget Amendments. 88 18 2.4 Accept Monthly Reports. 89 19 2.6 Court Orders. 90 20 3.3 Status Reports from Liaison Commissioners. 90 21 1.31 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 92 22 action regarding personnel matter with Judge Harris. 23 1.32 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 92 24 action on salary and grade adjustments for staff in the Veterans Services Office. 25 6 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 1.33 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 95 action on appointing a permanent Information 4 Technology Director and setting salary, and salary effective date. 5 1.30 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 96 6 action to authorize the County Attorney to hire outside counsel to assist with 7 Kerr County subdivision rules and regulations update. 8 1.34 Consider, discuss and take appropriate 97 9 action to fill the vacancy in the IT Technology Department. 10 *** Adjournment. 98 11 *** Reporter's Certificate. 99 12 * * * * * * 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 7 1 JUDGE KELLY: It is Monday morning, August 2 the 26th, 2019, and the Kerr County Commissioners' Court 3 is now in session. It's 9 o'clock. If you would stand 4 for the pledge and prayer. 5 (Prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance.) 6 JUDGE KELLY: I know there a lot of cell 7 phones out there. I have a policy if they go off while 8 Court is in session, they are going to be seized by the 9 Sheriff. The Sheriff sits in the back of the room, he 10 shakes his head, then I'll just call on his deputy, 11 who's bigger than most of us here. But seriously turn 12 your phones off to the silent part of vibrate; not the 13 loud part of vibrate. 14 Okay, first part of the meeting is visitor's 15 input. I know we have a special presentation here with 16 David Danielson here. So if you would -- 17 MR. DANIELSON: Yeah. Usually I come to 18 talk to you guys for setting up National Day of Prayer. 19 This year's National Day of Prayer theme is "Love One 20 Another". And halfway through the year we have another 21 thing going on that's affecting our County, but also 22 maybe up to 12 counties around us, so I just wanted you 23 guys to be in the know about it. 24 Back in July I saw something on Fox News 25 about a church in Michigan that had taken care of 1.9 8 1 million dollars of medical debts for people in their 2 community. That was pretty remarkable. And if you read 3 the article they did it for 15 thousand dollars, and I 4 thought that's even more remarkable and we gotta figure 5 out how to do this. 6 We began checking into that, and there's a 7 company called RIP Medical Debt that's up in the 8 northeast, and we looked at them, vetted them. They've 9 been doing this all around the country now for the last 10 couple of years. And we got in touch with them and said 11 what can we do for Kerr County, how could we help in 12 Kerr County. 13 And what they do is they buy low-end debt 14 forgiveness for a specific group of people, individuals 15 making less than two times the poverty level, 16 individuals with financial hardship, which they define 17 as five percent or more of their annual income going out 18 of pocket medical, and individuals who are insolvent, 19 debts greater than assets. 20 So in order to do what they do, you have to 21 have a million and a half dollars minimum in order for 22 them to be involved in the process. So when we checked 23 into Kerr County, there was only $700,000.00 of this 24 type debt available to Kerr County. I think that's 25 probably -- 9 1 JUDGE KELLY: Only? 2 MR. DANIELSON: Only, yeah. But I think 3 that's a reflection of how how good our hospital is 4 here. And there wasn't much in Fredericksburg either. 5 An hundred thousand or something in Fredericksburg. 6 Because those hospitals, the foundations are amazing, 7 the way they work with people and try to make it more 8 affordable. 9 But we were not dissuaded, so we said well 10 what do we need to do to get to a million and a half. 11 And so they started looking at counties around us, and 12 they came up with plan for Kerr County and 8 counties 13 around us. We got to about two million dollars worth of 14 this debt, and so we said all right, we're in. But I 15 also said the Church of Michigan did about two million 16 dollars, and Texas would like to do things a little 17 bigger than that, so what else can you do, so they 18 started looking further around. 19 And so the original plan ended up being Kerr 20 County and 9 counties, including Medina County. Medina 21 County alone had three million dollars worth of this 22 kind of medical debt involved. So what that would 23 require is us raising $50,000.00 to eliminate and 24 abolish all that debt. 25 One of the really fun things about this 10 1 program is because RIP is a non-profit. When the debt 2 is forgiven, there's no tax penalty to the people whose 3 debts forgiven. So the phrase that I've been using 4 about this that I felt in my heart is "to the least of 5 these, Jubilee!" That's just what it is, the debts they 6 have just go away. 7 So I presented this to our church, my 8 church, the first of August, and just said over the 9 next -- starting the next couple weekends we're going to 10 take an offering for this, and let's just see what we 11 can do, and then I'm also going to talk to some of my 12 pastor friends in town and see if they'll join us, and 13 see what'll happen. 14 So the first weekend, the impact that I 15 mentioned, it just spontaneously $3,000.00 came in that 16 weekend, and during that week $3,000.00 more came in. 17 And the next weekend 15 thousand came in, and the next 18 week 15 thousand more than that came in. So we were at 19 36 before anybody even joined us. 20 The next weekend 12 more came in, so it 21 was -- 11 more came in. So we're at 47 thousand dollars 22 just to impact for some fellowship that we raised for 23 this so for. And then Trinity Baptist Church took an 24 offering a weekend ago, raised $20,000.00 worth. 25 Kerrville Church of Christ is contributing $2,000.00, 11 1 and St. Peter's Episcopal is contributing $10,000.00. 2 So as we came into this week we were already at 3 $79,000.00 for a $50,000.00 goal. 4 So I talked to Archie, and I said we need 5 some more counties. Because yesterday what happened, we 6 might have gotten some more impact, I don't know, but 7 First Methodist Church yesterday was taken offerings in 8 all their services. So I'll know by the middle of the 9 week exactly where we're at financially. 10 But I think instead of raising 50 now, I 11 think we're going to raise at least 90 to a hundred 12 thousand dollars for this. So in addition to the 9 13 counties that we're dealing with this -- the counties 14 that we had already were Kerr, Kendall, Bandera, Kimble, 15 Gillespie, Llano, Real, Blanco, Kinney, and Medina. But 16 now we're also taking Comal and Hays County. 17 $4,000,000.00 in Comal County alone, and $300,000.00 in 18 Hays. And anything we get over $90,000.00, we'll either 19 take a bite out of Bexar County where there's 20 $140,000,000.00 of this. Or if it really got crazy and 21 we got enough, we might take on Travis County. We'll 22 just have to see where we're at. 23 JUDGE KELLY: You know they're weird over 24 there. 25 MR. DANIELSON: I know. But they need love, 12 1 too. They need love, too. But anyway, for 90 thousand 2 to a hundred thousand dollars, we're going to be able to 3 eliminate 9 to 10 million dollars worth of medical debt 4 for the least of these. Not only in Kerr County, but 5 in, I think, up to 11 full counties around us, and a 6 little bit of a 12th county. And I just wanted you guys 7 to be in the mix and hear about that. 8 As it's planning right now, September 5th is 9 the day that the debts will be secured by RIP, but the 10 people that are having it done for them won't know about 11 it until the first of October. So it may be 6 weeks or 12 8 weeks before it becomes a story and it starts 13 happening or being talked about. 14 But I just -- because it's Kerr County, and 15 a bunch of counties around us, I came to tell Jody about 16 it. She said you should come on Monday and just let the 17 guys know what's happening and what's going on. 18 One amazing story that I just wanted to 19 finish with. We again overwhelmed it at my church and 20 the way they've jumped into this. But a couple weeks 21 ago one of our widow ladies who's just to look at her, 22 you wouldn't think she'd have money, but gave a check 23 for $5000.00 for this. And middle of the week she came 24 in and she said, I need to repent. And when I hear the 25 story I thought it was going to be I got a little 13 1 carried away and I made the check a little bigger than 2 it needed to be. But what she said was I need to repent 3 because God told me to give ten thousand and I only gave 4 five. Here's the check for the other five. 5 And just again, somebody that you would not 6 know -- I saw her this week and she said don't expect me 7 to give like this at the next giving. I wasn't 8 expecting you to give like this on this campaign. 9 But the amazing thing the way this works 10 because the debt is bought at one percent, that one 11 widow lady in Kerr County is going to be responsible for 12 a million dollars worth of medical debt being eliminated 13 that we may never know, may never meet. The number of 14 families affected in Kerr County right now looks like 15 it's about 175 families here in Kerr County. It'll be 16 15 hundred families in the 9 counties, and I don't know 17 the numbers of families yet when we get to Hays and 18 Comal yet. But it's going to be probably close to 2,000 19 families, individuals and families, that are going to be 20 touched by this before it's all said and done. 21 But anyway, just wanted you guys to know it 22 in case somebody called you and says what is this thing 23 Kerr County's doing for all the counties around us for 24 you guys, and I don't know, we hadn't heard about it. 25 So Jody said come tell them about it, so that's what I 14 1 wanted to do. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Well, we thank you. And this 3 is one of the other reasons that we love living in the 4 Texas Hill Country. Wonderful uplifting story. We 5 thank for your bringing us into the loop and we ask that 6 you keep us in the loop as we go along. We certainly 7 want to be part of this and help out anyway we can. 8 MR. DANIELSON: We'll do it. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Thank you, and thank you 10 for all you do. 11 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: A great way to start 12 our Monday. Thank you. 13 (Applause.) 14 JUDGE KELLY: Now, for the less fun part of 15 the day. We've got two Commissioners absent today. I 16 think Commissioner Belew had a family emergency of some 17 sort, and I know Commissioner Moser's on vacation, so 18 it's just the three of us. So I'll start with Precinct 19 4, you have anything to report? 20 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Very thankful for the 21 rain. I've heard reports from anywhere from right at 22 three inches up to five inches. Labor Day weekend's 23 coming up, and it'll be the last weekend for Crider's 24 for the year, so keep that in mind. 25 I know a lot of people are also gearing up 15 1 for dove season starting next weekend. So that's all I 2 have. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, I'm very happy for 4 those that got rain, but in the eastern part of the 5 county, we had less than five hundredths at our place. 6 So I see Nadene kind of nodding her head, she must have 7 had about the same that we had, which was virtually just 8 a few drops. But anyway at least maybe the pattern is 9 changing and maybe some more rains will be coming soon. 10 JUDGE KELLY: Well, I live out in Precinct 11 4, and we had about five inches. And I've got part of 12 my fence washed out, I've got tree branches I spent all 13 weekend trying to clean up, but it was all good. I'm 14 still young enough to be able to do it. I think. 15 Anyway, kind of worn out. If you're ready 16 we'll go ahead and start on the agenda. I'm going to 17 call item with 1.1 consider, discuss and take 18 appropriate action on request from Hill Country Crisis 19 Council to display purple lights at the courthouse for a 20 night, or numerous nights, during the month of October 21 for Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Kim Olden. 22 MS. OLDEN: Hi, I'm Kim Olden from Hill 23 Country Crisis Council. And historically in Kerr County 24 during the month of October, we typically have some sort 25 of Proclamation signed by the Mayor declaring that 16 1 October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month in Kerr 2 County. It's a National Awareness Campaign. 3 But I'd like to do little bit more this 4 month. I'm new to my position. I've been in this 5 position with Hill Country Crisis Council going on two 6 years. I'm new to my position and I want to bring more 7 awareness. I think it's one thing to have a Mayor sign 8 a Proclamation, and it' another thing to get our 9 picture in the newspaper for one day. But lights, 10 lights are such a wonderful use of advertising and 11 bringing awareness, and lights are a nice metaphor for 12 domestic violence. 13 The way I view domestic violence, the way I 14 view it in my community, is it's a public health crisis, 15 it's something that affects everybody. In Kerr County 16 my agency has been serving victims of domestic violence 17 since 1982, and we just keep growing and building and 18 going strong. It's a problem in our County, it's a 19 problem everywhere that affects adults and children. 20 My request is that we display some sort of 21 purple lights. Purple is the color of the Domestic 22 Violence Awareness Campaign. Some kind of purple light 23 at the courthouse, either on the courthouse lawn or on 24 the courthouse building. And I don't know if you 25 received a copy of my e-mail, but basically what I 17 1 proposed was starting very small, one purple light bulb 2 in the courthouse gazebo. We would supply all the light 3 bulbs by the way. That would be very small. 4 My next choice would be purple light bulbs 5 in the exterior porch lights of the three entrances to 6 the courthouse, or purple light bulbs in the ten lamp 7 posts that are on the courthouse lawn. And then finally 8 there's something called sky panels, which is a brand of 9 acrylic purple that we could put over the two spot 10 lights that illuminate the courthouse. It's just a 11 piece of acrylic that the company makes that you custom 12 to fit over the light. 13 All of this would be funded by Hill Country 14 Crisis Council, but of course I would need the support 15 of the Commissioners' Court, and I guess lawn 16 maintenance to install the light bulbs. 17 But that's what we're requesting for either 18 one night during the month of October, a week, the whole 19 month, whatever the Commissioners would decide would be 20 appropriate to raise awareness to this problem. And not 21 just awareness to the problem, but awareness to the good 22 work that's being done in Kerr County. I'm seeing a 23 real shift in Kerr County with Protective Orders, and 24 with the victims being served, or I guess perpetrators 25 being served justice. So I'd like to just raise 18 1 awareness about that more than just an add in the 2 newspaper and more than just a Mayor's Proclamation. 3 JUDGE KELLY: And of course the County does 4 have the Crime Victim's Coordinator here, we have a 5 department. 6 MS. OLDEN: Yes. Well, Pam -- Pam and I 7 actually met and she is the one that got me in touch 8 with -- 9 MRS. GRINSTEAD: Jody. 10 MS. OLDEN: -- Jody. Thank you. I'm a 11 little nervous. And that's why I was able to write the 12 letter and be able to stand in front of the 13 Commissioners. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Well, we appreciate you coming 15 and we appreciate the work that you do. I would have to 16 ask Shane, what all of this is going to involve for 17 maintenance to help out with this? 18 MR. EVANS: Making sure the power's on. And 19 we'll change out any light bulbs that she wants to. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Negligible? 21 MR. EVANS: (Nodding head in affirmative 22 manner.) 23 MS. OLDEN: I don't want to cost y'all any 24 money. The purple light bulbs, we got that, and they're 25 about five or six dollars a piece depending on -- I'm 19 1 not sure of what type of light bulbs the courthouse -- I 2 would have to talk about that. But if I get approval, 3 I'm excited I want to do it. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think all of the items 5 is fine from my standpoint, to be able to do it. And 6 then for a week seems reasonable. 7 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I think so, too. 8 MS. OLDEN: You guys want to pick a week? 9 Because what I'd like to do is prior to the week, or the 10 beginning of the week get an add in the paper and say 11 why the courthouse has purple lights. 12 JUDGE KELLY: So we're going to go full 13 purple. 14 MS. OLDEN: Full purple. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Full purple for a week. And 16 which week in October would you like? 17 MS. OLDEN: We don't really have events. We 18 talked about Friday October 11th for sure, doing purple 19 ribbons and having purple out or something. I don't 20 have a specific -- I guess the only week that I would 21 not like would be the week of October 14th. I will be 22 out of town that week. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, why don't we just 24 authorize one week and let you work out a week with Pam 25 and Shane. 20 1 MS. OLDEN: Okay. 2 JUDGE KELLY: And sounds like to me to 3 include October the 11th. Is that the National Day? 4 MS. OLDEN: We just picked that kind of 5 randomly. It's not a National Day; it's the whole 6 month. But I mean, like I said, I want to pick a day 7 where we have newspaper coverage, and I'll get Bill 8 Blackburn to sign his Proclamation. 9 But y'all supporting us is wonderful because 10 people notice lights over a period of time way more than 11 they notice one article in the newspaper, or a purple 12 ribbon. This is wonderful. It's going to generate 13 conversation, and that's what we need. It needs to be 14 talked about. 15 JUDGE KELLY: And bring us a Proclamation. 16 We do those, too. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay, I'll make motion 18 that we authorize the Hill Country Crisis Council to 19 display purple lights at the courthouse for one week. 20 The date to be determined with conversation with Pam and 21 Shane. That's my motion. 22 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I second. 23 JUDGE KELLY: Okay, been a motion and 24 second. Any discussion about this? Okay, those in 25 favor raise your hand. Unanimous, three zero. 21 1 MS. OLDEN: You guys are awesome. That was 2 easy. Thank you so much. I appreciate your time. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Don't tell everybody. 4 MS. OLDEN: (Zipping her lips shut.) 5 JUDGE KELLY: Item 1.2 public hearing on the 6 proposed Kerr County and Lateral Roads 2019 tax rate. 7 We convene the public meeting. Is there 8 anyone that would like to speak with regards to the 9 proposed tax rate for Kerr County and the Lateral Roads 10 for 2019? There being no one, then I will adjourn the 11 meeting. 12 We'll move to item 1.3 consider, discuss and 13 take appropriate action to approve the Central Counting 14 Station Personnel pursuant to Chapter 127.005 TEC. 15 MRS. ALFORD: Yes, this is the Central Count 16 for election night. The Manager, and the Judge, and all 17 the -- the Alternate Judge, and Tabulating Supervisor 18 and Alternating Tabulating Supervisor, and Clerk, and 19 calls to the Secretary of State and the website. I 20 would like these people to be appointed. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll make a motion that 22 we appoint the Central Counting Station Personnel as 23 presented. 24 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Okay, that would be -- the 22 1 Judge will be Jane Trolinger, Alternate Judge Georgia 2 Roth. Tabulating Supervisor Eva Washburn, Assistant 3 Tabulating Supervisor Jamie McClintock. The Clerk would 4 be Mimi ValVerde, Mary Gomez, and Julie Lara. And the 5 calls to Secretary of State on the website would be 6 handled by Bruce Motheral. Is that correct? 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Okay, is there any other 9 discussion about that? Then those in favor raise your 10 hand. Three zero, unanimous. 11 MRS. ALFORD: Thank you. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Item 1.4 consider, discuss and 13 take appropriate action to approve the Memorandum of 14 Understanding between the American Red Cross, and Kerr 15 County Emergency Management Director for mass care 16 services in the event of a disaster. Dub Thomas. 17 MR. THOMAS: Good morning, Sir, 18 Commissioners. How are y'all? 19 JUDGE KELLY: Good. 20 MR. THOMAS: This is the annex that part of 21 a Mass Carrier, so it's an MOU for the Mass Carrier, and 22 it's the Emergency Management Plan. The MOU was set to 23 expire at five years and time is up, so the wording in 24 the MOU is almost exactly the same as the last one, and 25 the County Attorney's already looked at it and given her 23 1 blessing. So just need to get it approved, and have the 2 County Judge sign it, as well as the City of Kerrville 3 Mayor, and the Mayor of Ingram will sign it as well. 4 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move that we approve 5 the Memorandum of Understanding between the American Red 6 Cross and Kerr County Emergency Management Director for 7 Mass Care Services in the event of a disaster. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 9 JUDGE KELLY: It's been moved by 10 Commissioner Harris, seconded by Commissioner Letz to 11 approve the Memorandum of Understanding. Is there any 12 other discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. 13 Three zero, unanimous. 14 Item 1.5 consider, discuss and take 15 appropriate action to authorize the County to submit a 16 response letter to Texas Commission on Environmental 17 Quality following notice from Reichhamm, LLC for a scrap 18 tire storage site located at 5445 State Highway 27, 19 Center Point, Texas. I know Reagan's here. 20 MR. GIVENS: Good morning. As y'all know we 21 received the notification for this last month, I think 22 it was the 22nd, Heather, I believe? 23 MRS. STEBBINS: Yes. 24 MR. GIVENS: We got notification. We have 25 drafted a response letter, which I think might still 24 1 need a little bit of going through, but it would serve 2 as our official response to TCEQ which we have with 45 3 days from that time, so I have that here. I don't know 4 how y'all wanted to -- 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Can you summarize the 6 response? 7 MR. GIVENS: So there was a few concerns 8 that the County does have, which part of it came down to 9 what studies have actually been conducted, which I got 10 with Ray Buck of UGRA to find out a little more 11 information on that. He gave me some information that 12 was based off of an EPA Literature Review for water 13 quality in this type of situation, which in summary 14 basically says that there doesn't appear to be much -- 15 what's the word? 16 MR. BUCK: Leachate. It doesn't leach. 17 MR. GIVENS: Yeah, there doesn't appear to 18 be much that leaches into the ground from the tires, 19 because they're an inert material. One issue, these 20 studies are just limited. We don't know -- that's based 21 off of a limited study, so we don't have any major 22 long-term studies that are real in depth for a multitude 23 of places. 24 Another concern with that was that it's not 25 that far from the river. So it's also right next to an 25 1 RV park, which is pretty heavy traffic during quite a 2 bit of the year. So when you get into vector control, 3 that has to be something that's gotta be maintained or 4 we're going to have major issues with mosquitoes. 5 Commissioner Moser, who's not here today, did meet with 6 the fire department for that jurisdiction who did tell 7 him they're not equipped to handle a fire situation if 8 one was to come out with that. 9 And then financial ability. I've talked to 10 several other entities from other counties, and the City 11 of San Antonio, that's had situations where people have 12 come in for mass storage type situations, be it tires, 13 or shingles, or whatever it may be, store the materials 14 and then have that kind of get out of control, not take 15 off. And then whatever County or City that's in has 16 been left with the clean up responsibility. 17 That's been the number one point of concern 18 for other places, which was something that came about at 19 a meeting that I went to at AACOG where they -- it's 20 Reichhamm LLC, I guess, had gone there to talk with to 21 AACOG, the Alamo Area Council of Government. 22 Would you like me to go in to the other 23 point of concern that I have on this? 24 JUDGE KELLY: Well, I know Mr. Buck wants to 25 speak, so I think we're going to be talking about this 26 1 for a little while. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. Those are the 3 main ones. I have a letter, or the draft of the letter. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Ray. 5 MR. BUCK: I just wanted to elaborate what 6 Reagan was saying. He visited with me the other day, 7 and this is a little bit off my radar. So we did some 8 research, and I think he referenced the compilation that 9 the EPA put together of field trials. 10 And the issues -- and for the most part 11 their conclusion was that tire derived aggregate, TDA, 12 is inert, but there are some exceptions, and I'm going 13 to read to you from page 30 of this document, and I'm 14 going to say this up front, that we're not against 15 private business, we're not against -- but we are 16 stewards of the river the and we have to look at all the 17 issues involved with water quality. And this is a water 18 quality issue. 19 It says immediately downgrading it from a 20 TDA fill, there could be some secondary effects on 21 drinking water quality, and there could be some aquatic 22 toxicity effects. Thus for TDA fill and submerged below 23 the ground water table for most of the year, a 24 reasonable separation should be maintained between the 25 TDA fill and shallow drinking water wells, or surface 27 1 water bodies with sensitive aquatic species. 2 The aquatic species they use in all these 3 tests is water flea. It's a small crustacean, and it's 4 basically the base of a food chain. And it's sort of 5 like the canary they use in mines for water toxicity. 6 And they found that there is leachate from tires. It's 7 some metals, there's volatile organic compounds, and 8 some other issues. And the concern is -- and I think 9 Reagan expressed it very articulately, is there's just 10 not evidence to know the long-term effects with this. 11 And I maybe -- I don't have all information, 12 so I'm going to tell you the location where I understand 13 where it's going to be. I know that there's an alluvial 14 aquifer there, so it may be wise to look at potentially 15 doing a hydrological study there to see if that water 16 table -- the water tables, those alluvial tables will 17 rise with all the rainfall. So today it may look like 18 it's dry, but you put that fill in there and we get a 19 lot of rain and it fills it up, now it's submerged. 20 And so that's an issue that I just read from 21 this document, that it could affect sensitive aquatic 22 species. And as you know UGRA is currently working with 23 some of our other partners, including Kerr County, on a 24 mussel conservation plan for the soon to be listed fresh 25 water mussels in the Guadalupe River. 28 1 And let me read on page 31, it says that in 2 the second case the TDA will be subjected to 3 infiltration from rainwater more over the water that has 4 passed through the TDA but will not be collected by 5 landfill leachate collection and removal system. This 6 is what I understand this project is. It's not a 7 traditional landfill where you have a lined bottom and a 8 sealed top; it's just fill. 9 It says this case results from the TDA fills 10 placed above the water table are directly -- will not be 11 repeated here. It should be noted that wells for 12 drinking water will never be located in close proximity 13 to this landfill, and landfill will have a surface water 14 control plan. 15 So again, I think it needs to look at how 16 are they going to handle the surface water flow across 17 there, and is that going to be directly impacting the 18 river. 19 So with that said, I would say that there's 20 some other concerns, before you move forward on this is 21 that noting that potentially there should be a 22 hydrogeological study to see where the alluvial aquifer 23 is, if it's going to be an impact to this project. 24 Potentially putting in some monitor wells. Because once 25 this project's in place, the mediation is going to be 29 1 very difficult. Monitoring wells are potentially a 2 surface water sampling downstream from the site. 3 And I leave it at that. Those are concerns 4 that I think that came from the study. Again, 5 traditionally study's mostly focused on -- and this is 6 where we have to be careful, mostly focused on roadways, 7 the small layer on roadways, and that when the leachate 8 washed off the road, it bound to the soil or was diluted 9 in the runoff. 10 This is a little different story. This is a 11 concentrated amount of TDA that could impact water 12 quality. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Remind everybody what TDA 14 means. 15 MR. BUCK: Tire derived aggregate. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Okay, thanks. Anyone else who 17 wants to speak? Is Mr. Page here? Robert Page? 18 MR. GIVENS: Richard. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Richard Page, is he here? 20 Okay. 21 MR. HEWITT: I'm John Hewitt. I'm the 22 engineer working with Mr. Hammit on this. And what I 23 would say is Mr. Hammit's willing to do whatever he has 24 to do to work cooperative with the County. So you know, 25 this is the first I've heard of it. But I'm speaking on 30 1 his behalf. I think he would be more than willing to 2 work with UGRA, if they'd like to have monitored wells 3 or studies. They just want to cooperate and do what's 4 best for everybody. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Is Mr. Hammit here? 6 MR. HAMMIT: Yeah, right here. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 8 MR. HEWITT: Mr. Givens mentioned vector 9 control and heat, and Mr. Hammit is aware of that, and 10 he will be contracted with a pest control to take care 11 of that. Mr. Hammit's worked with -- or is coordinating 12 with the RV park next door, so he's making sure that 13 they're happy about everything. 14 Otherwise, I would just say that he is 15 willing to work with UGRA, or whoever, the County, to 16 make sure that everything is satisfied. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Anyone else like to speak? 18 Mr. Hammit, would you like to address us? 19 MR. HAMMIT: No, Sir, not at this time. 20 JUDGE KELLY: I didn't think so. And 21 Richard Page did not show up today, right? 22 MR. HAMMIT: No, Sir. 23 JUDGE KELLY: And he's the principal in your 24 group? 25 MR. HAMMIT: Yes, Sir. 31 1 JUDGE KELLY: He was your spokesperson at 2 the AACOG meeting that we did not know about, right? 3 MR. HAMMIT: Yes, Sir. 4 JUDGE KELLY: And he's the one that 5 misrepresented that we approved of this plan? 6 MR. HAMMIT: Yes, Sir. 7 JUDGE KELLY: I take exception to that 8 deception. That was not true. 9 MR. HAMMIT: Yes, Sir. 10 JUDGE KELLY: And Georgia Zannaras called me 11 about that and wanted to know -- wanted to confirm that 12 we had in fact approved your project. And she was 13 stunned when I told her that we didn't even know that 14 y'all were having a meeting. 15 MR. HAMMIT: That's why he's not here, Sir. 16 JUDGE KELLY: And that's why we're objecting 17 to this project. Because he got the failed project out 18 off Highway 173 from a couple years ago -- 19 MR. HAMMIT: Yes, Sir. 20 JUDGE KELLY: -- that TCEQ is not monitoring 21 by the way, and that is why the County is paying such 22 attention to this, is because we have to monitor this 23 for our citizens. 24 MR. HAMMIT: Yes, Sir. 25 JUDGE KELLY: I just want you to know we did 32 1 not appreciate the dishonesty and the deception. 2 MR. HAMMIT: Yes, Sir. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: You summed it up pretty 4 good for me, Judge. But my question was when reading 5 through the letter, and I was not at the meeting, but 6 you answered it that the principals in this were the 7 same that were on the 173 project, which has not gone 8 forward and has a bunch of tires piled up. 9 JUDGE KELLY: We'll work with anybody that 10 works with us, but when you go around misrepresenting 11 that we approved something, that is forbidden. 12 So I make a motion that we send a letter to 13 TCEQ voicing our objection to this project until a 14 further study has been conducted. 15 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Motion been made by me, second 17 by Commissioner Harris. Is there any other discussion? 18 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Well, I think we 19 needed to point out that our river is one of our best 20 assets we have in this County, and we're going to do 21 everything we can to protect it. Especially in light of 22 what you just brought to my attention. 23 JUDGE KELLY: And he didn't know about it 24 because the Open Meetings Act doesn't allow us to talk 25 about it until we're in public session. Commissioner 33 1 Moser and I have been working on this, so they're 2 getting to hear it today for the first time, just like 3 you are. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge, my only comment 5 would be on the letter -- 6 JUDGE KELLY: Oh, we're going to tweak the 7 letter. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. Make it a little 9 bit stronger? 10 MRS. STEBBINS: I have some suggestions on 11 it, for the letter. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Well, the main thrust of the 13 letter is we're disappointed that TCEQ is not monitoring 14 the other project, Mr. Page's project. And that gives 15 us very little confidence that they're going to monitor 16 this project. But anything that potentially pollutes 17 that river is a vital concern to all citizens of Kerr 18 County. And we want to do it with the upmost care and 19 caution. 20 And we -- again, I don't want to criticize 21 TCEQ, but I do want to voice our objections, and urge 22 them to actively be involved in enforcing these 23 regulations. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge, in your motion 25 includes you writing this letter? 34 1 JUDGE KELLY: Yes. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay, I support that. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Yes. I've been working with 4 Reagan on it. We've got a draft, and we just need to 5 bring it to the Court's attention and get authority to 6 do it because we have to respond by Thursday. 7 Okay, no other discussion. Those in favor 8 raise your hand. Unanimous, three zero. 9 Item 1.6 consider, discuss and take 10 appropriate action to accept donations from Martin 11 Marietta Materials for bedrock sand for Kerr County 12 Parks. Commissioner Moser is not here, but he has 13 secured the donation of sand from Martin Marietta for 14 the parks that we've got new playground equipment for, 15 and he wanted to recognize them and thank them for being 16 a good citizen. So I share that with you. 17 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Okay. I move to 18 accept the donation from Martin Marietta Material for 19 bedrock sand for Kerr County Parks. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 21 JUDGE KELLY: It's been moved by 22 Commissioner Harris, seconded by Commissioner Letz to 23 accept the gift, the sand, from Martin Marietta. Is 24 there any other discussion? 25 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: We appreciate them 35 1 very much. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Yes, we do. Okay, those in 3 favor raise your hand. Unanimous, three zero. 4 Item 1.7 consider, discuss and take 5 appropriate action to accept the donation to the 6 specialty Court. And I know Judge Emerson isn't here. 7 MR. ROBLES: I did speak with him. He 8 requested that we accept the donation of a thousand 9 dollars for the counseling that goes to help our Adult 10 Probation program. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I make a motion that we 12 accept the donation, a thousand dollar donation, to the 13 Kerr County Specialty Court. 14 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Motion's been made by 16 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Harris to 17 accept the gift of a thousand dollars to the Specialty 18 Court. Any further discussion? 19 MR. ROBLES: Just a point I want to mention. 20 I know we have our Specialty Court in the general fund. 21 This will actually be going into one of the Adult 22 Probation funds. They're not sure they can spend it 23 within the fiscal year, and they didn't want to roll it 24 into the fund balance for next year. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. So the motion is 36 1 amended to do reflect that? 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. 3 MR. ROBLES: Fund 85. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Fund 85. Those in favor raise 5 your hand. Unanimous, three zero. 6 1.8 consider, discuss and take appropriate 7 action on approving the job description for the Veteran 8 Service's Assistant. 9 MRS. DOSS: Good morning, Gentlemen. I just 10 request that the job description previously submitted to 11 you is approved for the Veteran Service Assistant 12 position. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move for approval. 14 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Been moved by Commissioner 16 Letz, and seconded by Commissioner Harris to approve the 17 job description previously provided for the Veteran 18 Services Assistant. Any further discussion? Those in 19 favor raise your hand. Unanimous, three zero. 20 Item 1.9 consider, discuss and take 21 appropriate action on approval of the revised dental 22 rates updated by the TAC HEBP. Miss Doss. 23 MRS. DOSS: Yes. TAC e-mailed us a few 24 weeks ago saying the original premiums were overstated 25 by a tiny little bit, so the savings would be to the 37 1 County. So based on current enrollment, it would be 2 about a savings of about 16 hundred and 40 dollars per 3 year, so I'm just asking that you approve a new dental 4 rate as submitted. 5 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: We'll take that. I 6 move for approval. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 8 JUDGE KELLY: Been moved by Commissioner 9 Harris, and seconded by Commissioner Harris to approve 10 the revised dental rates. Any further discussion? 11 Those in favor raise your hand. Unanimous, three zero. 12 Okay, it's not time for the break. There's 13 a ten o'clock docket, so let's skip over to item 1.18 14 consider, discuss and take appropriate action to approve 15 the contract with Castle Lake Volunteer Fire Department, 16 and allow the County Judge to sign same. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge, can we postpone 18 that until maybe after 1.36? 19 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. 1.19 consider, discuss 20 and take appropriate action to approve the Memorandum of 21 Understanding between Kerr County and the Hill Country 22 Council of Alcohol and Drug Abuse. Region 8. That's 23 just renewing the contract. Any other discussion? I 24 move that we approve it. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 38 1 JUDGE KELLY: It's been seconded by 2 Commissioner Letz. Any further discussion? Those in 3 favor raise your hand. Three zero, unanimous. 4 Item 1.20 consider, discuss and take 5 appropriate action to nominate up to five persons to the 6 Kerr Central Appraisal District Board of Directors for 7 2020-2021. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge, when are these 9 nominations due? 10 JUDGE KELLY: I don't know. 11 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I think on the next 12 page, before October 15th. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I recommend we pass on 14 this. I think we need to get input from the other two 15 Commissioners on that. 16 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Without a doubt. I 17 agree. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean I have some 19 names, but I know that Commissioner Moser has some names 20 as well. 21 JUDGE KELLY: All right. 22 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: He submitted one. I 23 think it's in our -- 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think that there's 25 a -- I'd rather wait until we can get all of them here 39 1 so we can talk about it. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Okay, we've got it on the 3 radar screen. We'll pass that. 4 Item 1.21 consider, discuss and take 5 appropriate action to approve the Interlocal Agreement 6 for mental health and psychoactive medications hearings 7 at Kerrville State Hospital and Hill Country Crisis 8 Stabilization Unit, and authorize the County Attorney to 9 send to Commissioners Courts of contracting counties. 10 MRS. STEBBINS: This contract has not been 11 updated, the best we can tell is 2009. So some of the 12 language in the contract that exist with other counties 13 now is no longer being used. We updated some of the 14 statutory citations in it and have provided a copy of a 15 letter that we proposed to send out to other counties, 16 and a list of those counties, I believe we've included 17 in there as well, where we can keep tabs on when we send 18 it and when we get it back so that we know that we're 19 current with everybody from here forward. 20 JUDGE KELLY: And for those that don't know 21 Kerr County handles the -- we handle the mental health 22 hearings. We're a 19 county catchment area, it goes all 23 the way to Del Rio and San Marcos. It's a huge area. 24 And so this is just updating those contracts for these 25 neighboring counties? 40 1 MRS. STEBBINS: Yes, Sir. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, I move we approve 3 the Interlocal Agreement for mental health and 4 psychoactive medication at Kerrville State Hospital and 5 the Crisis Stabilization Unit. That's a mouthful. 6 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Been moved by Commissioner 8 Letz and seconded by Commissioner Harris to approve the 9 updated contract with the Kerrville State Hospital and 10 the CSU. Is there any other further discussion? 11 MRS. STEBBINS: To also authorize me to send 12 it out to the counties that we serve here locally. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Yes. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. 15 MRS. STEBBINS: Thank you. 16 JUDGE KELLY: All those in favor raise your 17 hand. Unanimous three, zero. 18 MRS. STEBBINS: Thank you. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge, we're moving fast 20 today. Maybe we oughta ask if the other two 21 commissioners don't come more often. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Don't suggest that. 23 (Laughter.) 24 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second that. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Skip down to item 1.23 41 1 consider, discuss and take appropriate action to approve 2 General Provisions for FY 2019-2020. Since this is my 3 first year to sit up here and do this budget, I had to 4 learn that there's a whole list of general provisions 5 that goes in at the beginning of the budget. We need to 6 get those approved in this budget. And so these are 7 just tweaks of the prior year's General Provisions. 8 There's my boss. We're talking about 9 General Provisions. 10 MRS. GRINSTEAD: I missed the beginning of 11 the conversation. We do this every year. I think I 12 circled on Page 2 about the workers comp -- not workers 13 comp, excuse me. Comp time. So that was the main 14 issue. Everything else stayed the same. We have a new 15 holiday schedule that we'll attach, but it's mainly -- 16 you should have in your backup copies of the current one 17 and then what we're suggesting that it be changed to 18 read. By we, I mean HR and the Auditor; not me. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Since I'm the one responsible 20 for this, I'll move that we go ahead and adopt the 21 revised General Provisions for the budget. 22 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I second. But I think 23 we need to probably -- 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think we need comp 25 time. I think comp time right now is going to be 42 1 carried forward 30 days, or two pay periods. We're not 2 following that, I don't believe. And I don't think we 3 can. We need to really -- we need to look at that. But 4 I do think also it's a -- several departments that I'm 5 aware of have accumulated, and I see the Sheriff 6 standing up, and he's one of them, a lot of comp time. 7 We got in a position that a number of years 8 ago where we had a huge amount, and we had to -- we 9 wrote a check and it was a huge budget impact to us. 10 And we need to be careful we don't get in a situation 11 again. But the current policy we're not following it, 12 so which bothers me whenever we have a policy we don't 13 follow. 14 But I don't think we can follow it. We 15 either need to extend it, or go by it and start paying 16 these employees that are working over the 40 hour work 17 week on a more regular base, and that will have a pretty 18 big budget impact. 19 MRS. GRINSTEAD: The newest one has 20 different wording. That one about the getting two pay 21 periods, that's the he old one. The new one has, I 22 think, at the discretion of the elected officials. 23 JUDGE KELLY: That was the purpose of the 24 change is to get us in compliance with our own policy. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I was reading the old 43 1 one. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Right, Sheriff? 3 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I hope so. You know 4 but that is the issue, and I brought this out at the 5 last meeting where we gave the reports, because I have 6 in my department -- of course we got a 116 member 7 department. And I've got thousands of hours of comp 8 time right now on the books. I forget what it was. But 9 it what over four thousand hours. 10 JUDGE KELLY: And general provisions in the 11 budget require that that be paid out over two pay 12 periods. 13 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: And there's -- you 14 know, you can't do it. 15 JUDGE KELLY: And so we changed the 16 definition of how we're going to handle comp time in 17 these general provisions, the proposed one that we're 18 going to vote on right now, to be discretionary with the 19 department head or elected official. 20 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Gives you authority to 21 manage it basically. You, and Kelly and others. 22 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Okay. One thing we did 23 talk about it and in trying to keep it on track with the 24 line item that you are talking about, is the capability 25 toward the end of the budget year -- you know, I'm 44 1 normally one of those that if there's funds left over in 2 a line item, give them back. We don't try and spend up 3 funds. But comp time can be extremely expensive because 4 it's earned at whatever their rate of pay is today, and 5 then when employment a year from now and they still have 6 that comp time on the books, it's paid at the rate of 7 pay on the day they left. So it can add up a whole lot 8 faster than what they actually earned. I'd like 9 somewhere to have authority that at the end of the year 10 if we still have funds in our overtime budget to be able 11 to divide those funds up, and those two line items. 12 Mine being the Jail and the Sheriff's Office, and pay as 13 much comp time as we can at that time through those 14 budgeted overtime funds toward the end of the year. 15 JUDGE KELLY: But the change that we put in 16 the General Provisions, the proposed General Provisions, 17 is to give you the discretion on how to do that. 18 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: And I haven't seen the 19 change. But will the change give me the discretion to 20 spend that money at the end of the year? 21 JUDGE KELLY: Here's what it states. 22 Compensatory time balances will be available to use or 23 to be paid out at the discretion of their department 24 head or elected official. An employee's request to use 25 compensatory time is subject to the elected official or 45 1 department head's approval, and must not unduly disrupt 2 the operation of the Department. 3 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Okay. The only thing I 4 would add in there because that could be a large sum of 5 money, is that it is has to be worked out with the 6 Auditor's Office. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I see this being too 8 broad. I think this is just going to get us in the same 9 boat awhile back and we're going to roll it over, roll 10 it over, roll it over, and end up with a huge amount, 11 and it'll start hitting us pretty hard on our annual 12 audit. 13 I think that we need to require they either 14 take it or we pay them. The people -- the employees are 15 owed the money, and we just need to -- I mean at the end 16 of budget year all of their employees have to get paid 17 their comp time. 18 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: It'll be a very large 19 hit. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I know. But it's a 21 liability that we're carrying on our books. 22 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I agree. I agree it 23 should be. It's the cheapest way out of it. You know, 24 nobody gets -- milks comp time and lets them have all 25 the comp time they get. You are scheduled to be 46 1 approved by the immediate supervisor and the next line 2 supervisor unless, I guess, it's an emergency situation. 3 So I agree it wouldn't be accrued, and be less expensive 4 to pay it as soon as you can rather than wait several 5 years down the line, but it is a large amount of money. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I think because 7 we've built up a balance again, and you're not the only 8 department. I think that you maybe do it over the next 9 budget year. Any funds that we can use this year and 10 next year, but we have got to get to a policy where we 11 don't accumulate those large amounts of comp time. 12 Because every time we give a -- you know, all that comp 13 time's going to be subject to two percent October 1. We 14 go to raise it all two percent. And then, you know, and 15 we to have bite the bullet on that. 16 JUDGE KELLY: James, what's going to be the 17 impact to the budget? 18 MR. ROBLES: I was just going to say, allow 19 me some time to look at our leave balances and see what 20 the impact would be, and what we can handle in our 21 current budget, and if we need to address adding a 22 budget to it for next year. 23 JUDGE KELLY: And I don't think there's a 24 need for us to adopt the General Provisions yet because 25 we don't approve the final budget until what, September 47 1 23. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 3 JUDGE KELLY: So we want to pass this for 4 the time being and keep working on it? 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: This is one provision 6 that my concern is, and we may not be able to do it like 7 I'd like to do it this year. But I think we need to 8 have more teeth in it. 9 JUDGE KELLY: It never hurts to continue to 10 study it. 11 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yeah. Get with Rusty 12 and Kelly, maybe both help us. 13 JUDGE KELLY: Okay, so item 1.23 is going to 14 pass at this time. 15 Item 1.24 consider, discuss and take 16 appropriate action to set a Public Hearing on the 17 proposed county budget for FY 2019-2020 at 9:45 a.m. on 18 September 23, 2019. We have to set it to be a public 19 meeting. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move for approval. 21 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Moved by Commissioner Letz, 23 seconded by Commissioner Harris to approve the Public 24 Hearing on the proposed budget for this coming year on 25 September 23 at 9:45 a.m. Any further discussion? 48 1 Those in favor raise your hand. Unanimous, three zero. 2 1.25 consider, discuss and take appropriate 3 action to authorize County Clerk to publish notice of 4 Public Hearing on consideration and adoption of Kerr 5 County budget for FY 2019-2020 at 9:45 a.m. on September 6 23. It's just a sister motion. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move for approval. 8 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Been moved by Commissioner 10 Letz, seconded by commissioner Harris to approve the 11 Public Hearing. Those in favor raise your hand. Three 12 zero, unanimous. 13 1.26 consider, discuss and take appropriate 14 action to clarify and amend Court Order #36326 dated 15 September 11, 2017 related to elected officials 16 longevity policy. Miss Doss. 17 MRS. JENNIFER DOSS: Good morning again. So 18 this is kind of complicated. We took it from the 19 minutes from September 11th, 2017, but there is no court 20 order. So we would just like to put it into a court 21 order that says that newly elected officials will 22 receive a longevity increase of 2.5 percent after 23 completion of one year from the first date in office. 24 And an additional 2.5 longevity increase every three 25 years after. And elected officials with less than 16 49 1 years as of 9-11-17, when we read this in the minutes, 2 shall receive a 2.5 percent longevity increase based on 3 the effective date of fiscal year 2020 and 2021, and 4 receive an additional 2.5 percent longevity increase 5 every three years thereafter. 6 Elected officials with more than 16 years as 7 of 9-11-17 shall receive the 2.5 percent longevity 8 increase based on the effective date of of FY 1920, and 9 receive an additional 2.5 percent longevity increase 10 every three years thereafter. Not complicated at all. 11 JUDGE KELLY: This is just a clarification 12 of what the policies been. 13 MRS. DOSS: Yes, Sir. 14 JUDGE KELLY: And to get it clearly spelled 15 out in the County so the future courts will know what 16 the rules are? 17 MRS. DOSS: Yes, Sir. 18 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I don't like it at 19 all, longevity. I mean I've always had a pet peeve if 20 you take a job, and people that complain about what 21 they're getting paid shortly after that, I don't like 22 it. Same way with elected officials, if you run for a 23 position, I feel like you shouldn't have run if you 24 don't like what you're getting paid. And that's my two 25 cents worth. And I think the taxpayers of Kerr County 50 1 would agree with me. I'm very confident in that. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Well, I'm not defending 3 anything, but this is when you and I sat in the blue 4 seats instead of here that all this was done. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The reason it was 6 brought up is because what was happening was chief 7 deputies primarily with their salaries kept on bumping 8 up and passed the elected official's salaries that they 9 were supervising. It happened with the Sheriff, it 10 happened with the J.P.'s, and a policy was developed to 11 prevent that from happening, and to be uniform was to 12 apply to all elected officials. 13 Now that doesn't say we can't change it 14 again. But that's why it was done because there are 15 more and more departments where that was happening. 16 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Well, I don't have a 17 problem with getting the COLA like the rest of the 18 employees and stuff, but then get another two and a half 19 on top of that, I just can't see it. I think we owe our 20 taxpayers more. I guarantee that they'd say what the 21 heck are you doing. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, I think what it 23 brings up to me is that -- and this is something that 24 the -- former Auditor brought up, and is why we have 25 made some tweaks and changes, is that our longevity 51 1 policy is probably one of the most generous of local 2 counties around us. Generous from the standpoint of -- 3 and it has long-term impact on salaries. And it gets to 4 a point that it was questionable how we can afford it 5 going forward. 6 It was a policy and has been very successful 7 from the standpoint that it really cut back on turnover, 8 and that saves us a lot of money, saves the taxpayers a 9 lot of money. Jennifer has looked at other counties 10 around and -- well, why don't you explain Jennifer, a 11 lot of what the other counties do. 12 MRS. DOSS: Well, the other counties do not 13 tack it on to the salary. Because when you get your 14 longevity every year, you're getting COLA on top of your 15 longevity. So other counties pay a flat amount per year 16 and they pay it out either in December or in January, 17 and those amounts vary. 18 I talk to one County, it's a hundred dollars 19 per year of service. Another County that was 20 dollars 20 per year of service. So, yes, ours is much more 21 generous than that. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So to me, we either have 23 to change our total longevity policy, or we need to do 24 something to keep, -- like the Sheriff. I think the 25 Sheriff should be paid more that the Chief Deputy. He's 52 1 standing up back there because I know he thinks the same 2 thing. 3 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Well, there's some 4 other issues that I think needed to be brought up. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But I think that this 6 was a solution that was brought up three years ago. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Well, I'm going to raise a 8 point of order, and being the only recovering lawyer on 9 the bench here. I think we're getting far afield from 10 what our posted agenda item is. This is an order to 11 clarify and amend an existing policy that has already 12 been previously passed by a predecessor. 13 I don't believe the agenda item is broad 14 enough for us to be able to completely revisit the issue 15 of longevity pay applicability to elected officials. I 16 don't think that's properly before the Court today. I'm 17 looking at my County Attorney. 18 MRS. STEBBINS: You're right. 19 JUDGE KELLY: I'm learning. 20 MRS. STEBBINS: Thank you. 21 JUDGE KELLY: And so what we're really 22 talking about here is there is a policy that's on the 23 books and we're bound to follow that at this point 24 unless we change it. I think all Jennifer's asking for 25 is to clarify how she's going to implement an existing 53 1 policy, and so that she has something that she can 2 clearly take to each person as she works with them on 3 when and how they get their longevity raise. 4 To revisit the issue may very well be 5 appropriate, but I don't believe that's what's properly 6 before the Court today. 7 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: You're right. 8 MRS. DOSS: Thank you, Sir. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Right, Sheriff? 10 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I think that covers it. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Now, I'm not saying that we 12 shouldn't talk about it. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think we need to talk 14 about it, for every one. 15 JUDGE KELLY: So just for clarification 16 purposes because that's what the subject of this agenda 17 item is, I would move that we go ahead and approve the 18 clarified order as drafted. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Any further discussion? Those 21 in favor raise your hand. Those opposed? Those 22 abstain? 23 JUDGE KELLY: 2-0-1. And I think we all 24 understand the basis of it, and welcome the opportunity 25 to revisit that issue when it's on the agenda properly. 54 1 With that, let's take our morning break. 2 Let's come back at about five minutes after ten and 3 we'll take it up from there. Stand adjourned -- stand 4 in recess. 5 (Break.) 6 JUDGE KELLY: Come back to session. We're 7 going to start back on our docket for the 10 a.m. 8 docket. Going to call 1.10 conduct a public hearing for 9 revision of plat for Sunridge Subdivision No. 2, Block 10 5, Lots 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14 and Block 6, 11 Lots 8, 9, 10, 11, 11A, along with unused portion of 12 Foot Hill Drive right of way. 13 This is a Public Hearing. The Public 14 Hearing is now in session. Anyone want to speak on 15 behalf of approving those revisions, or disapproving the 16 revisions. To announce. Hold your peace. Okay, no one 17 appeared so the meeting is now adjourned. 18 Next item on the agenda is 1.11 consider, 19 discuss and take appropriate action for the Court to 20 approve a revision of the plat that I just read. 21 Charlie Hastings. 22 MR. HASTINGS: Thank you. The owner owns 23 these 14 lots on both sides of the right of way for a 24 portion of Foot Hill Drive that was never rebuilt. This 25 revision removes the unused portion of right of way and 55 1 combines it with his 14 small lots into one lot. 2 A concept plan was proposed. That proposed 3 revision was approved by the Court on June 10, 2019 by 4 Court Order on 37525. And we just had the public 5 hearing. 6 The County Engineer that the Court approve 7 the revision of plat for Sunridge Subdivision Number 2, 8 Block 5, Lots 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14 and 9 Block 6, Lots 8, 9, 10, 11, 11A, along with unused 10 portion of Foot Hill Drive right of way, Volume 2, Page 11 4, Precinct 4. 12 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Move to approve as 13 read. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 15 JUDGE KELLY: Been moved by Commissioner 16 Harris and seconded by Commissioner Letz to approve the 17 revision of the plat as read. Any further discussion? 18 Those in favor raise your hand. Unanimous, three zero. 19 1.12 conduct a Public Hearing for the 20 revision of plat for Westwood Oaks Section II, Block 3, 21 Lots 18 and 19. Is there anyone that would like to 22 appear on that meeting? The public meeting is now in 23 session. There being no one, then the meeting will be 24 adjourned. 25 And we'll move down to item 1.13 consider, 56 1 discuss and take appropriate action for Court to approve 2 the revision of plat for Westwood Oaks Section 2, Block 3 3, Lots 18 and 19. Charlie Hastings. 4 MR. HASTINGS: Thank you. This proposed 5 revision of plat moved the lot line between lot 18 and 6 19 by approximately 18 feet. Lot 18 is currently 0.37 7 acres and will be revised into Lot 18R, proposed 0.31 8 acres, and Lot 19 currently is 0.34 acres and will be 9 revised into Lot 19R, proposed 0.40 acres. Both 10 existing lots are less than one acre. They're both less 11 that half an acre. We're just squeezing the balloon, if 12 you will, from one side to the other. 13 The County Engineer requests that the Court 14 approve revision of plat for Westwood Oaks Section 2, 15 Block 3, Lots 18 and 19, Volume 5, Page 73, Precinct 4. 16 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approval. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Been moved by Commissioner 19 Harris and seconded by Commissioner Letz to approve 20 revision of plat for Westwood Oaks Section 2. Any 21 further discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. 22 Unanimous, three zero. 23 1.14 consider, discuss and take appropriate 24 action for the Court to approve an amending plat of 25 Falling Water, Lot 15R, Block 1. 57 1 MR. HASTINGS: This amending plat corrects 2 errors to courses and distances as shown on the previous 3 plat. 4 County Engineer request that the Court 5 approve an amending plat of Falling Water, Lot 15R, 6 Block 1, Volume 8, Page 67, Precinct 3. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll move for approval. 8 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 9 JUDGE KELLY: Been moved by Commissioner 10 Letz and seconded by Commissioner Harris to approve the 11 amending plat of Falling Water, lot 15R. Any further 12 discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. Unanimous, 13 three zero. 14 1.15 consider, discuss and take appropriate 15 action for the Court to issue a Certificate of 16 Compliance regarding construction of the Santa Fe 17 Manufactured Home Park in Precinct 4. Charlie Hastings. 18 MR. HASTINGS: On February 8th, 2006 the 19 Court approved the Santa Fe Manufactured Home Park 20 development plan located at 145 Lafayette Drive in 21 Precinct 4. 22 The plan includes the addition of 8 23 manufactured homes to an existing 2.07 acre residential 24 lot. In the existing single family home has remained a 25 part of the plan. The privately maintained road is 58 1 approximately 400 feet long with a cul-de-sac and was 2 originally planned to have a two course chipseal 3 surface; however, the developer elected to use six 4 inches of reinforced concrete. 5 Drainage is being handled with a privately 6 maintained detention pond adjacent to the road at the 7 low end of the lot. My understanding that it was 8 observed over the weekend to be operating properly 9 taking on water. This lot will be served by a community 10 water system, Aqua Texas, and on-site septic systems. 11 Record drawings were submitted by Hewitt 12 Engineering on August the 15th, 2019. That was just a 13 few days ago. Followed by submittal of an owner's 14 affidavit on August the 19th, 2019, which is a week ago 15 stating that construction of the manufactured home 16 rental community was completed in accordance with the 17 approved development plan. In accordance with Section 18 1.03.C of the Manufactured Home Rental Community 19 Regulations, the County Engineer completed a final 20 inspection on August the 20th, 2019. This was the next 21 day after receiving the affidavit, and found the 22 construction to be in conformance with the approved 23 development plan. Per said Section 1.03.C, the 24 Commissioners' Court shall issue a Certificate of 25 Compliance not later than the 5th business day after the 59 1 date the final inspection is completed, no later than 2 August the 27th, which is tomorrow, 2019. 3 The County Engineer recommends that the 4 Court issue a Certificate of Compliance regarding 5 construction of the Santa Fe Manufactured Home Park, 6 Precinct 4. 7 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: It looks very good out 8 there. I drove around on it and the concrete looks 9 good, and I move for approval. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 11 JUDGE KELLY: Been moved by Commissioner 12 Harris, seconded by Commissioner Letz to approve the 13 issuance of a Certificate of Compliance with Santa Fe 14 Manufactured Home Park. Any further discussion? Those 15 in favor raise your hand. Unanimous, three zero. 16 1.16 consider, discuss and take appropriate 17 action for the Court to authorize the County Judge to 18 execute a construction contract for the placement of 19 reinforced concrete pavement and drainage on Crossing 20 Street and authorize the closure of Crossing Street from 21 Skyview Road to Center Point River Road beginning August 22 26, 2019 through September 30, 2019. Precinct 2. 23 Charlie Hastings. 24 MR. HASTINGS: Thank you. Over the years 25 heavy rainfall, flood waters and the associated 60 1 groundwater has caused severe damage to the south side 2 of Crossing Street in Center Point just below Lions Park 3 Dam. Quotes and estimates were received from two 4 contractors for the labor, forms, steel reinforcement, 5 placement and finishing of reinforced concrete pavement 6 and subsurface drainage system. 7 The low quote was $11,200.00 from Rojas 8 Concrete Company. Road & Bridge line item 22-670-500 9 rip rap repair and maintenance would be used to pay for 10 that. Road & Bridge will supply concrete and drainage 11 pipe for the contractor, approximately 50 yards of 12 concrete, about six thousand dollars. Road & Bridge 13 line item 22-670-500 rip rap repair and maintenance will 14 also be used for that. 15 Closing of Crossing Street will be necessary 16 to allow for the construction and curing of concrete and 17 weather delays. At the conclusion of the construction 18 and after the concrete has cured, Crossing Street would 19 be reopened. 20 The County Engineer requests the Court 21 approve the contract with Rojas Concrete company in the 22 amount of $11,200.00 for the labor, forms, steel 23 reinforcement, placement and finishing of concrete 24 pavement and drainage on Crossing Street and authorize 25 the closure of Crossing Street from Skyview Road to 61 1 Center Point River Road beginning August 26, 2019, 2 that's today, through September the 30th, 2019. This is 3 in Precinct 2. 4 And I've talked with the contractor. He 5 would like to start this work next Monday. So I've 6 worked with Road & Bridge. They would put some signs 7 out notifying the public that the road would be closed 8 through September the 30th. Are there any questions? 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I make a motion that we 10 approve, and ask the County Judge to sign same, the 11 contract with Rojas Construction for the repairs of 12 Crossing Street, and authorize Road & Bridge to close 13 Crossing Street from Skyview Road to Center Point River 14 Road beginning August 26 as necessary. 15 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I second. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Been moved by Commissioner 17 Letz and seconded by Commissioner Harris to approve the 18 motion. Any further discussion? 19 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: That would be starting 20 next Monday. 21 MR. HASTINGS: Yes, Sir. 22 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: So not the 26th. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, I say the 26th as 24 necessary, so they can do it. 25 MR. HASTINGS: We'll need to put signs out 62 1 before then and close it before the weekend because we 2 won't be in operation, we won't be open on Labor Day. 3 JUDGE KELLY: Okay, those in favor raise 4 your hand. Unanimous, three zero. 5 Item 1.17 consider, discuss and take 6 appropriate action for the Court to set a Public Hearing 7 for 10 a.m. on October 15, 2019 for a revision of plat 8 for Spicer Ranch No. 3, Lots 143, 144 and 145. Charlie 9 Hastings. 10 MR. HASTINGS: This proposal revises three 11 lots, lots 143, 144 and 145 into four lots. 143A, 144A, 12 145A, and 145B. The smallest proposed lot size is 5.24 13 acres. They're on a water system -- I'm sorry. They 14 have private wells and OSSF, so they have their own 15 septic systems and private wells. Not in a floodplain. 16 There's no proposed roads. The lots will front on 17 Adkins Road and Agave Trail, which was formerly known as 18 Mary Drive. 19 The County Engineer requests that the Court 20 set a Public Hearing for 10 a.m. on October 15th, 2019 21 for a revision of plat for Spicer Ranch No. 3, Lots 143, 22 144, 145, Volume 3, Page 85, Precinct 1. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move for approval. 24 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Been moved by Commissioner 63 1 Letz and seconded by Commissioner Harris to approve the 2 public hearing for October 15 for Spicer Ranch No. 3. 3 Any further discussion? Those in favor raise your 4 happened. Unanimous, three zero. 5 MR. HASTINGS: I'll note that October 15th 6 is a Tuesday. I believe we have a holiday the day 7 before that. 8 JUDGE KELLY: We've gotten a little ahead of 9 ourself, it's still not quite 10:30. Let's move on down 10 to item 1.27 consider, discuss and take appropriate 11 action to approve the base salaries for elected 12 officials for FY 1920. Miss Doss. 13 MRS. JENNIFER DOSS: I believe that you are 14 supplied these updated proposed base salaries. So I'm 15 just asking that you approve them as submitted for FY 16 1920. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move that we approve 18 the base salaries as presented. 19 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 20 JUDGE KELLY: It's been moved by 21 Commissioner Letz and seconded by Commissioner Harris to 22 approve the base salaries of elected officials as 23 submitted for FY 1920. Any further discussion? Those 24 in favor raise your hand. Three zero, unanimous. 25 MRS. DOSS: Thank you. 64 1 JUDGE KELLY: Yes, Ma'am. Thank you, Miss 2 Doss. 3 Item 1.28 consider, discuss and take 4 appropriate action to amend court order number 37642 5 with revised "Proposed salary increases for elected 6 county and precinct officials for Kerr County FY 1920". 7 James Robles. 8 MR. ROBLES: Good morning. This item is 9 related to 1.26 and 1.27. As we looked through the 10 minutes and discovered there wasn't a court order, we 11 had to revise a couple of the salaries for our proposed 12 increase for elected officials for FY 1920. 13 We've provided a copies, and this is 14 something that we have to publish in the paper ten days 15 prior to our adopting of the budget. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Are we amending court 17 order, or are we cancelling the previous Court order and 18 adopting a new schedule that we did? 19 MRS. GRINSTEAD: Well, what it is is the 20 court order reference is allowing the County Clerk's 21 Office to publish the proposed salaries. We had to 22 change what is being published. So we figured just 23 amend it because the court order basically is allowing 24 them to publish, but we have to change the attachment. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And the items that were 65 1 on 1.27 are correct? 2 MR. ROBLES: Yes. 3 MRS. GRINSTEAD: Yeah. The items on 1.27 4 are not being published because those are the base 5 salaries for any brand new elected official. This item 6 1.28 deals with current salaries for current elected 7 officials that has to be published ten days prior to 8 September 9th, so -- 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean I understand what 10 we're doing, but also do we have the list of the 11 proposed -- of the amended? 12 MRS. GRINSTEAD: It's in the backup, or it 13 should have been put in there. 14 MR. ROBLES: I believe the County Clerk, 15 District Clerk, Tax Assessor, mostly for newly elected 16 officials who were probably calculated off of the old 17 longevity schedule instead of resetting their longevity 18 schedule at the point or the time they took office. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay, I make a motion 20 that we amend Court Order 37642, and include or revise 21 the proposed salary increases for elected County and 22 Precinct Officials for Kerr County with the new list 23 that was attached to this agenda item. Is that right? 24 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: And what is this 25 increase, James? Is it two percent? 66 1 MR. ROBLES: No. It was actually slightly 2 different. So we were working off the longevity 3 schedule of an employee who has been here. And the 4 court order says back in 2017 that once they take 5 office, from one year on their completion they receive 6 longevity. So we were working off the old longevity 7 schedule because a lot of these people were former 8 employees in other offices, and we had to reset and 9 recalculate off of a different longevity schedule to 10 comply with the court order. 11 Two very minor changes. I think the 12 District Clerks was about $251.00. And I can't remember 13 what the other ones were without -- 14 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 15 COMMISSIONER BELEW: Second. 16 JUDGE KELLY: It's been moved by 17 Commissioner Letz and seconded by Commissioner Harris to 18 approve amending court order 37642 as presented. Any 19 further discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. 20 Three zero, unanimous. 21 Item 1.29 consider, discuss and take 22 appropriate action regarding the long-range construction 23 needs committee. Appointments to be done at the 24 September 9, 2019 Commissioners' Court meeting. 25 Y'all remember before we started the budget 67 1 procedure we considered a number of possible capital 2 projects to include the indoor arena at the Youth Event 3 Center, Animal Services, courthouse landscaping, 4 possible courthouse annex. What else did we have on the 5 list? Is that it? 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Animal Control. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Animal Control. And we 8 invited -- what we decided to do was to put together a 9 citizens committee to help us asses and make 10 recommendations as to what we oughta do on capital 11 improvements. 12 And we did this at least two months ago, and 13 we gave a deadline of getting your applications in by 14 the end of August. Well it's late August and it's time 15 to do that. And I believe the structure that we were 16 going to have is each Commissioner was going to appoint 17 a member of the committee? 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. 19 JUDGE KELLY: So we'd have a five-member lay 20 committee to help us with this process. So this is just 21 to get it back out in the public, get us talking about 22 it. We'll need to get our -- you still have time to get 23 your application in if you'd like to serve on that 24 committee. I would like for the papers to be sure and 25 notify people that there's still an opportunity to 68 1 apply. And then the Commissioners -- the Court will 2 make their appointments at the September 9 meeting so 3 everybody will know when that's going to take place. 4 I don't think any action needs to be taken 5 today. It's just a matter of reviving this and getting 6 it back on the public radar screen. 7 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: We're going to have -- 8 each of us will have a nominee, and then you and 9 Commissioner Letz will both be on it? 10 JUDGE KELLY: Yes. Seven of us vote. When 11 this comes back to the Commissioners' Court for approval 12 these are just recommendations. 13 Okay, so Lisa, you have that? 14 MRS. WALTER: Yes, Sir. 15 JUDGE KELLY: So that was just for 16 information only. We're getting close. 17 1.30 consider, discuss and take appropriate 18 action to authorize the County Attorney to hire outside 19 counsel to assist with Kerr County subdivision rules and 20 regulations update. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll start it. I 22 visited with Heather a little bit about this, and I 23 started thinking about some of our rule changes that 24 we're looking at varying a little bit from potentially, 25 there have been some requests to vary from the exact 69 1 language in Section 232. Mr. Voelkel, Don Voelkel came 2 in with amending plat things, and talked a little bit 3 about how we -- I think one of the ones we looked at 4 today, which is a good example, changing a lot line a 5 minor amount, and we're having to do a public hearing. 6 Anyway it seems that there's an attorney 7 with -- my mind's blank. 8 MRS. STEBBINS: Kimbrough 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Kimbrough. Chuck 10 Kimbrough, Charles Kimbrough. I think he's still with 11 that law firm. There are others. But I think that it 12 would make sense and if we're really looking at -- that 13 we have somebody look at our subdivision rules and make 14 sure we're not straying too far astray. I think 15 whenever we don't follow the exact letter of State Law, 16 we get into a real gray area. That makes us a little 17 bit more subject to challenge. 18 Anyway, County Attorney doesn't have any 19 money as I understand it in any of her accounts to pay 20 for this, so I put it on the agenda to discuss and see 21 if there was some funds we could take out of our 22 professional services line item. 23 MRS. STEBBINS: And we can limit the scope 24 of that representation to specific parts of the proposed 25 rules, so that it's not reviewing the entire proposed 70 1 rules. Just some of the topics that have recently been 2 discussed like that Mr. Voelkel and Eric Ashley came and 3 spoke to the Court about. I reached out to TAC last 4 week to help come up with some language that would meet 5 the needs that they're requesting, and that it seems 6 like the citizens want, and maybe even the Court. Just 7 so that that can -- y'all can consider that. And that's 8 when Commissioner Letz and I am started talking about 9 maybe there are a couple other parts of that, of the 10 proposed rules that if we got a specialist to review 11 them it would be very helpful for the County going 12 forward. 13 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: You have any idea 14 would what kind of money it would take to do this? 15 MRS. STEBBINS: No, Sir. However, y'all can 16 limit it to whatever it is that you are willing to 17 spend. 18 JUDGE KELLY: And once you do that, that's 19 what you are going to get charged. 20 MRS. STEBBINS: It doesn't mean I have to 21 have a conversation with the attorney and say I have 22 this much money and that's what I'm willing to do. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think it's a good 24 idea. 25 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Well I do, too. 71 1 JUDGE KELLY: I think we need to keep 2 discussions of what we're going to pay. I think we just 3 need to approve this and then we can talk with the 4 County Attorney and ride herd on these expenses. 5 MRS. STEBBINS: Yes, Sir. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What is the -- there's 7 no money in special services? 8 MR. ROBLES: No, Sir. In fact we'll have to 9 set up a budget adjustment to move money to pay for what 10 some of the expenses we already have. There may be 11 other accounts such as contingency we can pull from. I 12 know it's not related to item, but this is for many 13 other things that are unexpected, which could affect our 14 fund balance projection for next year. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What do you think the 16 maximum is, or that we would want to spend on this, or I 17 mean -- 18 MRS. STEBBINS: So we -- from the County 19 Attorney budget, we hired -- we, the Court and my 20 office, hired John Carlson to do a particular project, 21 and limited that to $3,000.00. He kept it under that. 22 JUDGE KELLY: That's John Carlson and 23 Kerrville rates. 24 MRS. STEBBINS: I know. And that's why I 25 say we need to limit the scope of the questions to Mr. 72 1 Kimbrough to the things that we really have concerns 2 that enforcement of the drafting the rules in a way that 3 they can be enforced later, and protect Kerr County's 4 interest all along. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: How about if you contact 6 Mr. Kimbrough and go over a scope, and maybe either 7 Charlie Hastings, myself and you get together and see if 8 we can get a number from him. 9 MRS. STEBBINS: And we can come back to the 10 Court maybe next week? 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Actually, I'm going to be in 13 Austin next week with TAC on the legislative updates. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll be there, too. 15 I'll bet Chuck will be at that conference. 16 JUDGE KELLY: And I think it would be a good 17 opportunity to visit with him, and his senior partner I 18 grew up with and was an attorney with. So I might just 19 give him a call to make sure we get treated fairly. 20 MRS. STEBBINS: Thank you. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Usually it's a good time 22 to visit with them, because there's a very large 23 contract getting ready to get -- related to 24 redistricting, which they have done in the past. 25 JUDGE KELLY: That's probably a good time 73 1 for me to talk to Mickey. 2 MRS. STEBBINS: So should I just stand down 3 until further notice that I'm authorized to engage? 4 JUDGE KELLY: No. I would like you to go 5 forward and contact Chuck Kimbrough, let him know that 6 we're going to be in town, and whether it's by 7 conference call or in person, we want to get together 8 and talk about this. This is the apropos time for us to 9 do this. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. And he has done 11 this pro bono in the past for us. He's done some work 12 for us. 13 JUDGE KELLY: So let's build some synergy 14 here. 15 MRS. STEBBINS: Yes, Sir. 16 JUDGE KELLY: But I want you authorized to 17 contact him and let him know that we're ready to sit 18 down and talk about it. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think that's all we 20 need. 21 JUDGE KELLY: So if you'll follow up with 22 that, we'll take it from there. 23 MRS. STEBBINS: Yes. Thank you. 24 JUDGE KELLY: Okay, it is 10:30. Item 1.31 25 consider, discuss and take appropriate action -- no, no 74 1 wrong one. 2 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: 1.22. 3 JUDGE KELLY: 1.22 consider, discuss and 4 take appropriate action on request to enter into a 381 5 Economic Development Agreement with Thompson Drive 6 Partners. Steve Schulte. 7 MR. SCHULTE: Your Honor, Commissioners, I'm 8 Steve Schulte. I'm here on behalf of Thompson Drive 9 Partners. We own 60 acres on Thompson Drive. If y'all 10 haven't driven down Thompson Drive in the last month or 11 so, I encourage you to do so. 12 JUDGE KELLY: I do so twice a day. 13 MR. SCHULTE: There is a lot of activity, 14 and that's all generated by us. We're putting in water 15 and wastewater service, and there's a lot of activity on 16 our property putting in streets, getting ready for 17 construction to begin. 18 So we're here today asking for an economic 19 incentive agreement with the County under Chapter 381 of 20 the Local Government Code. And I know that there are 21 several new members of the Court, and y'all may not have 22 looked at these before, but chapter 381 in part it says 23 to stimulate business and commercial activity in a 24 County, the Commissioners' Court may develop and 25 administer a program for state or local economic 75 1 development and to stimulate, encourage and develop 2 business location and commercial activity in the County. 3 And then it goes on to say that the Court 4 may develop and administer a program authorized by 5 Subsection B for entering into a tax abatement agreement 6 with an owner of property. So we're asking for a tax 7 abatement agreement with the County. I want to be 8 clear, we're not asking for the County to give us any 9 money; we're asking for the County to collect the taxes 10 assessed, and taxed -- and assessed and collect the 11 taxes, and then rebate a portion of those taxes for a 12 period of five years. 13 So I was looking at our packet, and I know 14 y'all have all read the packet, so I don't want to 15 rehash the content. But I was looking at it last week 16 and I decided that we didn't do a very good job of 17 telling you exactly what we wanted, and what the 18 economic effect of these are. So I prepared a handout 19 for you that kind of explains what we're doing. 20 And so there's a brief overview on here. 21 And in that first table is the projected tax revenue. 22 So we've broken it down for five years, and you saw your 23 packet that we hired an consulting firm out of Austin, a 24 third party, to do our projections for us. These were 25 not done in-house. 76 1 So the first table you see breaks it down 2 between the land and the improvements, the total taxable 3 value for the next five years. And what we've done, 4 assumed on there that the land would go up in value 5 three percent a year. And these 60 acres do not have ag 6 exemptions or any other sort of exemptions, so you are 7 getting -- we're being taxed full value on this land. 8 So we've assumed that for the next five 9 years, the land will go up three percent in value, and 10 then we have taken the next line, which is improvements, 11 and that's based on our current plan, a conservative 12 projection on what the value of the improvements will be 13 over the next five years. 14 So the part of this agreement, the key part 15 of this agreement, is the County will tax -- will assess 16 and collect the value for both the land and the 17 improvements for the next five years. But after that 18 tax is collected the County will rebate back to us the 19 the taxes that are attributable to the improvements. 20 So in theory we're acting as though there 21 are no improvements for five years. You continue to 22 collect and retain the value of the land, so what does 23 that do? So again, the next part of that table, we're 24 showing what the revenue would be on the land for five 25 years, and what the revenue is for those improvements. 77 1 And so what this -- the end result on this 2 is you're basically rebating over five years the tax 3 collected on the improvement, which is about 4 $590,000.00. And so you might ask yourself why would we 5 do this? Why would we forego that tax? Well, every 6 dollar that we get rebated will be built back into the 7 project, and will go into making those improvements. 8 It'll be passed on to the consumer either as people that 9 are purchasing the land for their businesses, or tenants 10 that will be living in the apartments. All of that 11 money goes right back into the project so that we can 12 get up to speed and full occupancy sooner, and the 13 sooner we get up to full speed that's when we go down to 14 the final table, and that shows you what can be 15 expected. 16 And this is our projected tax revenue for 17 the County, both ad valorem and sales tax over the next 18 30 years. And you see that projection is that the 19 County will receive almost a little over 14 million 20 dollars in sales and valorem tax once we get this 21 project up and running. 22 So again, this is just a five year deal 23 starting 2021. The county collects the tax, assesses 24 the tax and retains the tax on the land. The County 25 assesses and collects the taxes on the improvements, but 78 1 then it rebates that back to the developer for five 2 years. 3 And so I want to save a lot of time for 4 questions, so I'm ready to entertain those. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I presume you've gone to 6 the City -- 7 MR. SCHULTE: Yes. We have an agreement 8 with the City under chapter 380, which allows a 9 municipality to do it, and that is valued at about a 10 little other a million dollars that we're going to 11 receive back from the City. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What is that deal with 13 the City? What's the 380 agreement, cover the same 14 thing? 15 MR. SCHULTE: Same thing, although it's not 16 a time period; it's a set amount. We will receive 17 rebates up to a million, a little over a million dollars 18 and then it just stops. If it's a total of five years, 19 it may be over 8 years. It's a set amount. 20 And we we would be willing to entertain a 21 similar agreement like that, but we figured this would 22 be easier just on the time frame. And again, if we 23 don't get this done there's no risk to the County 24 because if we don't get anything done, you won't have 25 any improvement to asses on anyway. You still get the 79 1 land. 2 JUDGE KELLY: All the improvement so far are 3 to the land? 4 MR. SCHULTE: Yes. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Now, as I understand it, 6 Steve, this is an economic development tool that the 7 County has? 8 MR. SCHULTE: Yes. 9 JUDGE KELLY: One method that we can 10 encourage economic development is to attract people to 11 us and offer them some sort of tax incentive to come and 12 invest in our community? That would be a prospective 13 economic benefit? 14 MR. SCHULTE: Yes. 15 JUDGE KELLY: In this case we're dealing 16 with local folks. We didn't have to attract the 17 MacDonald's, they were here. And this is an investment 18 that they're doing, and this is an opportunity for them 19 to be able to have the benefit of the same economic 20 tools, but just to be applied with regard to the 21 improvement only for a period of five years? 22 MR. SCHULTE: That's correct. 23 JUDGE KELLY: And it incentivizes them to 24 develop their land and give them the cash flow to be 25 able to develop it and complete it to maximize our tax 80 1 base. And if you saw the paper today, the State 2 Hospital is adding 260 jobs. There is no place for 3 those people to live. And when we finish up -- how many 4 housing units do we have? 5 MR. MACDONALD: 120 will be the first phase. 6 And then we're looking at another probably 80 to 120 in 7 the second phase. 8 MR. SCHULTE: So we'll be adding a little 9 over 200 units of housing when it's all said and done. 10 JUDGE KELLY: And then they'll have their 11 salaries and their spending here, and the sales tax. 12 This is an investment in the future of Kerr County. 13 MR. SCHULTE: Exactly. 14 JUDGE KELLY: Well, I certainly understand 15 it, and I appreciate the economic development, and I'm 16 certainly in favor of this. 17 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Heather, have you 18 looked it over? 19 MRS. STEBBINS: Yes, Sir, I have. And this 20 is consistent with one that was recently done with 21 another local company making improvements, in the 22 County. 23 MR. SCHULTE: And I modelled this proposal 24 after the one with Avery. So what we're asking for the 25 Court -- 81 1 JUDGE KELLY: It would benefit the County 2 and we're hopeful that this will be, too. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Is James Avery the five 4 year for total improvement, or was it a sliding scale? 5 I thought it was -- 6 MR. SCHULTE: I don't think it's a sliding 7 scale. I think it's five years. 8 MRS. STEBBINS: I don't think either. I 9 think that the Bending Branch may have been a sliding 10 scale. 11 JUDGE KELLY: You remember, Bob? 12 MR. REEVES: I believe Bending Branch was a 13 sliding scale on it. I don't -- I can't comment on 14 James Avery. I slept since I was up there. But I 15 believe there was another one prior to my time on the 16 Court wasn't there, Commissioner Letz, with a automotive 17 service, and that was a sliding scale, too. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean -- I think, you 19 know, that my overall view is I support the concept and 20 the agreement, but I -- you know, I like them better 21 when there's, you know, give them the bigger impact up 22 front on their early years, the full amount, and then it 23 reduces to only a percentage of the ad valorem tax being 24 rebated in like the 5th year. And start at a hundred 25 percent, and down to 50 percent that final year. 82 1 MR. SCHULTE: Well, the reason we loaded it 2 all up front is so that we can -- we're not building 3 everything all at once, and we can continue to build it 4 back into the project as we go. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think this is another 6 one because we are short staffed. Is there a time 7 sensitivity to this one, for this proposal? 8 MR. SCHULTE: Well -- 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Two Commissioners aren't 10 here today. That's why I was just asking that question. 11 MR. SCHULTE: No, there's not a time 12 sensitivity. 13 MRS. STEBBINS: If you want to direct me to 14 draft an agreement so that the whole Court can review 15 it, and then we can all come back and you can ask 16 whatever questions you have. 17 MR. SCHULTE: And that's all we're really 18 asking for is for you to authorize Miss Stebbins and for 19 us to negotiate an agreement, put it form consistent 20 with our application for the Court to come back and 21 review later. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay, I'm in favor of 23 doing something. 24 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I agree. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Then I'll move that we 83 1 authorize the County Attorney to sit down with Mr. 2 Schulte and his principals, and draft something and get 3 it back to us so that we can consider it. 4 MRS. STEBBINS: Yes, Sir. 5 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I second that. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. I think Mr. 7 Baroody wants to make a comment. 8 MR. BAROODY: Can I? 9 JUDGE KELLY: Sure. 10 MR. BAROODY: George Baroody, 1616 Glen 11 Road. I just wanted to -- I guess it's more ask 12 questions than it is to make comment. We're all aware, 13 I guess, that the project has already begun. And so the 14 question is sort of a two-fold thing. You know 381 15 agreement is essentially an economic incentive. 16 And I don't know if y'all are aware, but the 17 EIC itself has laws that say you can't -- you can't 18 actually give their money if the project's already 19 begun. And essentially because it's not incentivizing 20 anybody. It's more like saying, I own a restaurant and 21 you come into eat, you sit down and you order your food, 22 and then I walk over to you and say hu, I'm just going 23 to give you some money and give you a discount on that. 24 And that's kind of what we're doing here. 25 And I get what their project is, sort of phasing up, and 84 1 this is, I guess -- I'm gathering it's a sort of a need 2 base thing that they've decided they need to build it 3 out quicker. 4 But the City got their incentive agreement 5 set up awhile back. And in light of the fact that it's 6 less of an incentive, and it's more of a bottom line 7 thing, and coupled with you guys are passing -- or 8 proposing to pass a budget with a pretty big shortfall, 9 you might want to answer to us, the taxpayers, how 10 you're going to reconcile those two things. 11 I understand it's money that you haven't 12 spent, or you're not going to get if they don't build 13 it, but presumably with their agreement with the City 14 they're going to build it whether you incentivize it or 15 not. So anyways, that's really it. 16 JUDGE KELLY: Mr. MacDonald? 17 MR. MACDONALD: Granger MacDonald, 2951 Fall 18 Creek Road. In response to Mr. Baroody's discussion, he 19 would be right except that he doesn't understand the 20 timeline of the project. 21 What the City has agreed to through the EIC 22 and the 380 agreement, was to bring the water line and 23 sewer line down Thompson Drive to the property. What 24 we're talking about is the improvements that are going 25 to be done on the property itself. That construction 85 1 has not begun. We have a building permit that we've 2 applied for for the first 120 units, but we're waiting 3 to see what occurs here. 4 So what Mr. Baroody is talking about is the 5 service that goes to our property, which also would 6 serve Saddlewood, or any of the other neighbors, we were 7 required by the City to add so that over 350 acres of 8 watershed could be served by this same sewer line and 9 water line that comes to us. 10 We are additionally spending -- and that was 11 slightly over two and a half million dollars for that 12 line. In addition to that, we're spending over three 13 and a half million dollars on on-site improvements 14 dedicated public streets, dedicated public park, etc., 15 and that's what we're here today for. So he's right, 16 but wrong. Any questions? Thank you. 17 JUDGE KELLY: Thank you. Any other 18 discussion? I think we've got a motion and a second to 19 approve the County Attorney to negotiate and draft a 20 contract with Mr. Schulte, and bring it back to the 21 Court for approval. 22 MRS. STEBBINS: When would like to have it 23 back? 24 JUDGE KELLY: What schedule works best for 25 y'all? 86 1 MR. SCHULTE: Two weeks. 2 JUDGE KELLY: A couple weeks? Next 3 Commissioners' Court meeting, regular meeting. 4 MRS. STEBBINS: Yes, Sir. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Those in favor raise your 6 hand. Unanimous, three zero. 7 Thank you very much. We look forward to the 8 project. 9 Well, let's go to item 1.36. That's listed 10 for executive session, but we also included with that 11 1.18. We want to reserve all that for executive 12 session? 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think we need to go 14 into 36 in executive session. And then after that, we 15 can act on the Castle Lake Fire Department. 16 MRS. STEBBINS: And for the 136, because 17 it's related to contract negotiations, the 18 Commissioners' Court has to vote before we go into 19 executive session that you believe that holding the 20 discussions in an open meeting will have a detrimental 21 effect on the position of the Commissioners' Court and 22 negotiations. And here also part of that rule says I 23 have to give y'all a written termination that that would 24 be so, and so there is that. 25 JUDGE KELLY: And this is on 136? 87 1 MRS. STEBBINS: Yes, Sir. 2 JUDGE KELLY: And that's the contracts with 3 the volunteer fire departments? 4 MRS. STEBBINS: Yes. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll make a motion that 6 we go into executive session on this item per the County 7 Attorney's memorandum that she provided. 8 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. . 9 MRS. STEBBINS: There is that -- 10 JUDGE KELLY: Moved by Commissioner Letz, 11 seconded by Commissioner Harris -- 12 MRS. STEBBINS: Does part of that motion 13 also include the determination by the Court that it 14 would have a negative effect. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. To include the 16 determination that the discussions of the Court would 17 have a negative impact. 18 JUDGE KELLY: On contract negotiations? 19 MRS. STEBBINS: Yes. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. All in favor raise your 21 hand. Okay, then at this time we will take a break and 22 recess and we're going to go into executive session. I 23 don't think we're going to be there too long, but if 24 anybody wants to wait outside. James? 25 MRS. GRINSTEAD: Can we pay bills real 88 1 quick? 2 JUDGE KELLY: Okay, yeah. Move to the 3 approval agenda 2.1 pay the bills. 4 MR. ROBLES: Yes. For the Treasurer's 5 disbursement we have Kerr County, we have $314,941.59. 6 Airport $2,993.17. Adult Probation $530.91. Juvenile 7 Probation $3,265.15. Fund 75 $40.00. And Fund 95 8 $570.64. 9 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: I move for approval. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 11 JUDGE KELLY: It's been moved and seconded 12 by Commissioner Letz and Commissioner Harris 13 respectively to pay the bills. Any other discussion? 14 Those in favor raise your hand. Three zero unanimous. 15 Budget amendments. 16 MR. ROBLES: Yes. We have three today. One 17 is for group insurance for plans that have changed, new 18 people that come in with existing plans. We'll move 19 money from payroll contingency to three different 20 departments to cover the rest of the group insurance. 21 We also have one for IT. This is moving 22 money from the open manager position salary to cover the 23 part-time salary, as well as one for the County 24 Attorney's Office. And I still need your signature on 25 that. 89 1 MRS. STEBBINS: I can do that. 2 MR. ROBLES: This is for office supplies and 3 books. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Move to approve the 5 budget amendments as presented. 6 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Been moved and seconded by 8 Commissioner Letz and Harris respectively to approve the 9 budget amendments. Any further discussion? Those in 10 favor raise your hand. Three zero, unanimous. 11 2.3 late bills? 12 MR. ROBLES: There are none today. 13 JUDGE KELLY: 2.4 monthly reports. 14 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Yes. We have fines 15 judgments and jury fees collected by -- collected in 16 Justice Court Precinct 4, William Ragsdale. I move for 17 approval. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 19 JUDGE KELLY: Been moved and seconded by 20 Commissioner Harris and Letz respectively to approve the 21 monthly reports. 22 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: These are for July, 23 2019. 24 JUDGE KELLY: For July. Any further 25 discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. Three 90 1 zero, unanimous. 2 Auditor reports. 3 MR. ROBLES: There are none. 4 JUDGE KELLY: And court orders? 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. We have court 6 orders from our August 12th meeting. 37614 through 7 37636. And I did recommend we made one change on 37627, 8 and it's related we approved an order of constitutional 9 amendment election. Asked the County Clerk to be more 10 specific about that and she has done that, and put in 11 the date and such on that court order. 12 And we also of the Court orders of our 13 August 14th special session, 37637 through 37641. And 14 court orders from our August 19th session, 37367 through 15 37640. And I make that motion that we approve all of 16 those. 17 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 18 JUDGE KELLY: Been moved by Commissioner 19 Letz, seconded by Commissioner Harris to approve court 20 orders as presented and revised. Any further 21 discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. Three 22 zero, unanimous. 23 3.1 status reports from department heads. 24 3.2 status report from elected officials. 25 3.3 status reports from Liaison 91 1 Commissioners. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: There was a lot of 3 Facebook activity about us closing the Animal Control 4 Facility last week -- or for two days on Saturday. 5 JUDGE KELLY: Two hours. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Two hours. And I was 7 aware of it. Reagan and I talked about it, and it was 8 very good reasons that it needed to be closed. The day 9 prior to that I had a meeting with several of the 10 members of the Hill Country Animal Advocates. 11 They taped the meeting, which I knew about. 12 They asked if they could tape our conversation, and I 13 said fine. Anyway, they had a lot of quotes from me on 14 Facebook, for whatever reason, and I didn't ever respond 15 to any of them. I think Reagan posted a few of them. 16 But what we did was for a very good reason. It was two 17 hours, the animals were cared for. There was no 18 conspiracy, and everything's operating well. Reagan did 19 a, you know, exactly what needed to be done with the 20 circumstances, so -- 21 JUDGE KELLY: And just for the record, I 22 knew about it, too. I didn't think it was a problem. 23 Still don't think it's a problem. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. But anyway, I 25 just wanted to -- in case people did see a lot of 92 1 activity on Facebook about that, it was all -- I mean a 2 bunch about nothing, but anyway -- 3 JUDGE KELLY: Okay, any further reports? 4 Okay then, we will recess and go into executive session. 5 (Executive Session.) 6 JUDGE KELLY: Okay, it is 12:28, and 7 Commissioners' Court is back in session after our 8 executive session. And the first item on the executive 9 session agenda is item 1.18, is which was to approve the 10 Castle Lake Volunteer Fire Department contract. We're 11 going to pass that at this time, and along those same 12 lines is 1.36, which was regarding the contracts for 13 volunteer fire departments. We're going to pass that at 14 this time. 15 And then going back to item 1.31 consider, 16 discuss and take appropriate action regarding personnel 17 matter with Judge Harris. I move that we authorize four 18 days training time for Alicia, the existing Court 19 Coordinator for County Court at Law to train her 20 replacement. 21 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 22 JUDGE KELLY: So I made the motion, seconded 23 by Commissioner Harris. Is there any discussion? Those 24 in favor raise your hand. Three zero, unanimous. 25 Item 1.32 consider, discuss and take 93 1 appropriate action on salary and grade adjustments for 2 staff in the Veterans Services Office. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I make a motion on that 4 one that we authorize the COLA be added to the 5 assistant's salary, which is a 16-1 with the COLA. That 6 salary will be eligible for a COLA, two percent, on 7 October 1. 8 JUDGE KELLY: I'll second that. So we've 9 got a motion that Commissioner Letz made, I seconded to 10 include a COLA in the compensation package for the 11 Assistant Veterans Service Officer, who is presently at 12 a 16.1 grade and step. Any discussion? Those in favor 13 raise your hand. Three zero. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And then I'll make a 15 motion that we make the Director -- what's her title? 16 The head of -- 17 MRS. DOSS: Veterans Services Officer. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The Veterans Service 19 Officer, and set her step and grade at 17.5. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Second that. Been a motion 21 made by Commissioner Letz, I seconded, to make the 22 Veterans Service Officer a step and grade of a 17.5. 23 Any other discussion? 24 MRS. DOSS: Yes. It's two hundred dollars 25 some odd below what the 5000, so are we going to go with 94 1 the salary -- that salary for the 17.5, or are we going 2 to go to -- 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The salary will be 4 subject to a COLA -- or the two percent increase October 5 1, which would get us above that 5000 mark, I believe. 6 JUDGE KELLY: Does that do it? 7 MRS. DOSS: I'm thinking the grade-step I 8 was using was including the COLA. Sorry about that. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Our problem is we have 10 to get it in our step and grade, and that's the closest 11 we can be is a 17.5. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Then technically should we 13 rescind the order with regard to the compensation for 14 the Veterans Service Officer from a $5,000.00 raise to 15 an increase in step and grade to a 17.5? 16 MRS. DOSS: Yes. 17 JUDGE KELLY: That is the way we should do 18 it? 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. 20 JUDGE KELLY: You revise your motion? 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Amend it? 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Amend it. 24 JUDGE KELLY: I accept it. So let me 25 restate it. The amended motion is that we're going to 95 1 rescind the existing court order establishing a 2 $5,000.00 increase in salary to the Veterans Service 3 Officer, and revise it to a step and grade increase to a 4 17.5, which is as close as we could get to that within 5 the step and grade system. And we'll just apologize to 6 Marty for the difference. 7 MRS. DOWDY: Do we have a court order number 8 that we're referring to? 9 JUDGE KELLY: I'm sure there is, but -- 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We don't have it here. 11 JUDGE KELLY: It's the one that we did all 12 the raises. Any further discussion? Those in favor 13 raise your hand. Three zero, unanimous. 14 Next item on the agenda is consider, discuss 15 and take appropriate action on appointing a permanent 16 Information Technology Director and setting salary and 17 salary effective date. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I make a motion that we 19 set the Information Technology Director salary at 20 68,000, effective the first day of next pay period. 21 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 22 JUDGE KELLY: Been moved by Commissioner 23 Letz, and seconded by Commissioner Harris to make the IT 24 Director's salary, no longer step and grade, it's an 25 exemption salary, at 68,000 effective the first day of 96 1 the next pay period. Any other discussion? Those in 2 favor raise your hand. Three zero, unanimous. 3 MRS. GRINSTEAD: Just out of curiosity, have 4 you ever -- I'm assuming Bruce is the new IT Director, 5 but I don't know that that's ever been made official. 6 JUDGE KELLY: I thought we did, but we just 7 didn't act on the salary. 8 MRS. GRINSTEAD: I could be wrong, but I 9 don't know that -- 10 JUDGE KELLY: As a corollary motion to that, 11 because it is within the agenda item, we're going to 12 confirm that Bruce Motheral will be the IT Director, and 13 be promoted from his interim position to a permanent 14 position. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And I'll second that. 16 JUDGE KELLY: I move, Commissioner Letz 17 seconded. Any other discussion? Those in favor raise 18 your hand. Three zero. Good. 19 MRS. DOWDY: Do we vote on the salary then? 20 JUDGE KELLY: I thought we did, but let's 21 take another vote. All those in favor of establishing a 22 salary of 68,000 for the IT Director raise your hand. 23 Three zero. 24 And while we are at it, let's go back up to 25 item 1.30, I thought we voted on that, and I think the 97 1 record will reflect whatever it reflects. We're going 2 to do it again. This is consider, discuss and take 3 appropriate action to authorize the County Attorney to 4 hire outside counsel to assist with Kerr County 5 Subdivision Rules and Regulations update. 6 And my understanding is that we were going 7 to authorize her to contact them, and we would negotiate 8 some sort of arrangement with outside counsel. 9 MRS. STEBBINS: Yes, Sir. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's a motion? 11 JUDGE KELLY: That's a motion. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll second it. 13 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Third. 15 JUDGE KELLY: So I've moved, Commissioner 16 Letz seconded, Commissioners Harris thirded it, so 17 whatever we are at this point, kind of punch drunk. All 18 those in favor raise your hand. Three zero. 19 Then we need to do our Assistant IT 20 Director, item 1.34 consider, discuss and take 21 appropriate action to fill the vacancy in the IT 22 Technology Department. 23 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Set the salary. 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I make a motion that we 25 set that position at a 23.1. Grade 23 and step 1 as an 98 1 initial hire. 2 COMMISSIONER HARRIS: Second. 3 JUDGE KELLY: It's been moved by 4 Commissioner Letz, seconded by Commissioner Harris to 5 establish the step and grade position for the vacancy in 6 the IT technology department at a 23.1. Any other 7 discussion? Those in favor raise your hand. Three 8 zero, unanimous. 9 And I think that's all we have. We don't 10 take any action on 1.35? 11 MRS. STEBBINS: Which one was that? 12 JUDGE KELLY: Your issue. 13 MRS. STEBBINS: No, Sir, we don't need any 14 action. 15 JUDGE KELLY: So is there any other business 16 for the good and welfare of the County? If not, please 17 stand adjourned. 18 * * * * * * 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 99 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 October, A.D. 10 2019. 11 12 /s/DEBRA ELLEN GIFFORD Certified Shorthand Reporter 13 No. 953 Expiration Date 04/31/2020 14 * * * * * * 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25